#and they'd probably be considered more 'popular' but the people don't talk about it or make content they just perceive it

[makiswirl]

not to clutter your inbox but I wanted to chime in a fellow linged enjoyer, I think it's easy to forget how fma is still a mainstream series and most of the fans probably don't even realize edling is a thing because they don't perceive anything that isnt canon unless it's straight, and how the "dudebros" come and attack any type of ed and ling content, usually fanart, that could potentially be perceived as romantic. it's crazy too because it's still a rarepair, like it's not even that popular, yet every single edling artist I've seen has gotten at least several homophobic comments on their stuff. idk, not to say people who don't like the ship are usually homophobic obviously it's just a silly ship, but it's super unfortunate how so many mlm or wlw shippers get treated over just doing what they enjoy in a fandom of predominantly popular het ships anyways

YES! that's pretty much what i was getting at near the latter end of the post! (´ ∀ ` )

het ships are still more inherently popular just by the fact that fullmetal alchemist is popular to the general public, and saying that a certain straight ship that is at least implied to be canon is less popular doesn't consider the mass majority of people casually viewing and consuming content from my perspective as a content creator bc... those casual enjoyers Might have biases and shit all over stuff they have biases against and at the end of the day the m/f ships are always going to be more popular unless they're a smidge out there

it's just a matter of content output within the fellow creators in the fandom, even if i don't mind that at all or even perceive it personally :o) i'm friends /w popular artists (and myself included) who've gotten harassed by random dudebros just shitting on the art for existing because 'It's Just Gay to Be Gay' or 'They're Not Canon And This Ship Is' or whatever :")

and yeah i cldn't care less if people are into it because i'm just thriving enjoying these two barbie dolls i'm smashing together to kiss and i don't want to convince anyone to get into them, but only people who post content of wlw and mlm pairings getting confronted on the front that they're just mlm and wlw pairings and something i've only seen happen with gay-oriented pairing content creators is beyond me since you have your canon straight ships right there

tl;dr: i just like them because i like them but linged isnt even actually terrifically popular :'^) at least not anymore, and i think it's kind of hard to Remember That especially for people who aren't content creators especially when it's a gay ship in an already-dormant fandom

obviously i don't think it's harmful to ask and i don't want any bad attention coming onto the og anon because it was just a normal question and i respect and appreciate it! but it's just a matter of 'seeming' when it's really just what you personally consume or perceive

[etirabys]

Apologies if this is personal and you don't want to answer (or you don't want to answer for any other reason!); if that is the case no worries. But anyway by virtue of the fact that I am (sort of) a linguist I often get curious about people's language situation. You speak English obviously but spent your childhood in Korea, and often went to the English language book store while there? What is like, your personal linguistic history? Like, what language(s) did you grow up speaking, which ones did you learn later and when, etc? How fluent do you consider yourself in both English and Korean? If you don't mind my asking.

Haha, this is a dream scenario for me (someone asking about a situation I find fascinating about myself because I've never met anyone else with that background, but is probably boring to most people). Here's a longer story than you probably want:

My parents emigrated to the US before I was born, stayed for a decade, and moved back to Korea right after I was born. They're conversational in English, and my sister (12 years my elder) is fluent. Speaking English is valuable in Korea, so they raised me to be bilingual. They taught me the alphabet, bought me English language children's books, and sent me to an English language school run by Christian missionaries for preschool, kindergarten, and part of first grade.

My sister left the country when I was three to go to a boarding school in the US, but she came back every year for holidays, spoke exclusively in English to me, and refused to let the conversation move on if I mispronounced a word.

When I was six, my parents moved further away from the missionaries' school and switched me to a neighborhood public elementary school. At this point I was mildly more fluent in English than in Korean. Reading (English books) was a self-sustaining reaction I spent every free hour on. There were fewer interesting Korean books for children. Korea had industrialized ~30 years prior, and the hangeul writing system had only been in full use ~50 years at that point. As far as I knew, there was no CS Lewis of Korea, no Tolkien, no Diana Wynne Jones. In Korean bookstores, many of the prominent books on display were translated – The Little Prince was popular for children, and there was a children's fiction fad around another French author (who afaik never made a splash in the States) whose name I forget.

So I'm reading like 10 hours a day, at the dinner table, on the escalator when my mom takes me while she's shopping, sometimes under the desk at school flipping the pages with my toes, because the teachers don't care. (This is a huge W as far as I'm concerned for Korea – public school teaching is a somewhat competitive and standardized government job, it attracts people who lack great passion for either teaching or controlling children.) Meanwhile my peers don't like me much because my vibes are rancid: I have a compulsive laugh tic I haven't gotten under control, and I don't seem to understand their preferences very well or actively seek to understand them. Fair enough. I have one friend at any given time and she's usually on the fence about me.

When I'm old enough to take the train on my own, some weekends my mom gives me 5000 won for the train ticket + lunch, and I go into Seoul to visit one bookstore that has a 10-shelf English section. I pick a book, spend the day finishing it, and go home. Instead of my English language skills lapsing and being overtaken by the language I'm immersed in, I'm going deeper into English. Which increased the disconnect between me and my peers. I remember overhearing a conversation about an anime (The Black Cat) and eagerly asking if they'd also read the Edgar Allen Poe short story. I wanted to much to talk about shared interests, but it didn't occur to me to "invite myself into their interests" by picking up the manga they talked about.

...this all made my childhood weird in ways that have shaped me hugely but are difficult to describe. I was isolated and not, happy and not, stimulated and not, developing unevenly...

At eleven I discover fanfiction.net, probably one of the most impactful events of my life. I'm running out of physical books, I've read everything five or ten times, but then the computer! has made a deal with me! It contains INFINITE LITERATURE, although sometimes people seemed to misspell things on purpose and I didn't know why. (I had, approximately, never encountered misspellings in written material before.) In return the internet would take MY SOUL FOREVER although I didn't realize this at the time. I post a 100K Harry Potter epic over the next year where Harry is trained by a special assassin cult that lives under a mountain.

My parents have no idea what is on the internet. They're on a new temporal continent with no clue there's a parasite that can turn your daughter into a fujoshi. They do know that they have a worrying child. But! Her grades are really good, especially when she's testing in English. Good enough that although they originally intended not to send me to the US (my sister got depressed and burned out, and they attributed it to sending her to a different country for school), it made much more sense for me to go. I was on track to get a full ride at an Ivy, a carrot they were Not Immune to, and I obviously despised Korea and wanted to leave.

When I arrived in the States, I was terrified of speaking English to real native speakers. My language experience was "reading/writing: 95% English, speaking/listening: 90% Korean". I could perfectly pronounce any English sentence when I tried, but I'd occasionally and bizarrely mix up R and L, or the vowel sounds "ih" and "eeh" if I weren't paying attention. This went away after a year but I felt extra shy and didn't talk much. I'd guess 80% of my social cachet in freshman year came from writing funny Facebook posts.

I remember my time in Korea without feeling bothered by any single aspect, but overall I still have a big sense of "wow I didn't like that", have avoided non-Americanized Korean people since getting here (ten years ago), and now speak Korean haltingly. I'll try to teach it to my children so that they have the option of that cultural connection, but I don't think I can do a good job. It's feels 90% true thinking/speaking Korean is just a normal skill, a thing I do sometimes on the phone – and 10% true that the happier and more whole I become in the US, the more unsettling it feels to speak Korean at all.

[another-goblin]

2.1 Spoilers, Aventurine analysis

I regret to say that I enjoyed Aventurine's story much less than I should have. And not because it was bad, but because it was spoiled for me by people who don't tag their leaks, mostly fanartists. People call it one of the best stories in the game so far, and I usually love emotional stuff like that, but instead I was just going through the motions. 

Yeah, child Aventurine, Aventurine in shakles, whatever, I've been forcefed all this stuff a month ago, I already saw dozens of arts of it against my will, let's move on. To all these artists - I hope not adding one little "hsr leaks" to your tags was worth it.

(speaking of which - my current goal is to unhate that new cowboy guy before he actively enters the story. Currently, I can't stand the sight of him, and for exactly the same reason, untagged leaks. He seems like a potentially great character, and he's already quite popular. And hating a popular character isn't fun at all)

But not to be too negative, even though I weren't allowed to enjoy 2.1 story as much as it deserves, I still liked it quite a lot, and it's a testament to how well written Aventurine is. 

One of the worst things you can do to a character is to make them emotionally static. Aventurine doesn't suffer from this at all, it's shown very well in the different ways he talks to people, and that's what I wanted to talk about.

The first way is what I call "slimey creep." It's the way he mostly talks in 2.0 to TB and most other characters, and he's quite antogonistic and unlikeable, probably because it's his goal to seem antogonistic and unlikeable.

Second is the fear and desperation that's always under the surface, carefully hidden, what his future self talks about - we can see it when Sunday does his harmony thing on him.

And third, my favorite, is what I call "disarming sincerity." Not that he's neseccerily insincere in his other modes, but this is his dippest self, hidden under all the layers of pain, fear, and cynicism. He shows it when he talks to his younger self (btw I don't usually go there, but it made me think that he'd be great with children.)

We also see him using it for self-defense - when Ratio goes too far in 2.0, he retorts with this seemingly naive "I didn't go to school and my parents "left" me", and Ratio immediately apologizes.

But most interestingly, he uses it with Ratio, most of the time they spend together in 2.1 up until the "betrayal.". 

It might be a deliberate ploy to manipulate him, trying to seem more likeable, to assure his loyalty (Ratio's reaction to "I didn't go to school" showed that he's quite susceptible to it).

It might come from his realization that the end is near, and why not just be yourself and have some fun for a change.

Or, of course, it might be because he actually enjoys Ratio's company and feels safe enough to show this hidden vulnerable side of himself.

The truth is probably somewhere in between.

They both joke and bicker (with Ratio remembering from time to time that he's supposed to show his "hatred" of Aventurine), and they both seem to really enjoy it. They argue about birds, Aven gets excited about the sandpit, and so on.

Let's take the joke Sparkle made about Aventurine and Sunday (about undressing and kneeling down) - it's mean and maybe even cruel, considering certain things from Aventurine's past that weren't directly implied but can be assumed, probably. And let's compare it with the joke he himself makes about him and Sunday ("now that I'm tiny I can hide on Sunday's clothes and spy on the Family, hehe, uwu"). It's a joke you'd expect from a child. Or from an adult who feels comfortable enough in your presence that they aren't afraid to seem childish or silly.

So yeah I'd really like to see them interact in a less stressful situation after these events. tbh I think they'd talk in more or less the same way. Aventurine already feels as safe and open around Ratio as he can allow himself to. And Ratio is too rigid in the way he speaks, he won't change that easily. 

In defiance of a tired stereotype of an eccentric genius who is bad with people, Ratio seems quite good at understanding them. What he's bad at is expressing his feelings in a "convencional" way.

(he only sounds sincere and emotional when he talks about abstract matters he's passionate about, like his little speech to Screwllum at the end of his quest. He probably sounds like that when he talks about science too.)

But when it comes to his feelings towards people he becomes even more formal and strict (remember his messages from the valentine's day event on twitter)

I can imagine his thought process after he leaves Aventurine in 2.1.

"I verbally expressed my concern to him, which should reassure him of my loyalty and support. Furthermore, I provided him with an insightful and reassuring message in written form. So he should be fine."

btw speaking of that note, when I read it, I can imagine Ratio saying "Do stay alive" aloud. But I can't imagine how he'd say the next line, wishing him luck. I mean, he can't say it in his usual "I'm tired of idiots" way of speaking, right? Something to look forward to.

[transingthoseformers]

Okay, cause see, now I have QUESTIONS.

Does Cybertron have schools, or high schools? Do they have societal norms? Do they have popular kids, bigoted people? Does homophobia even exist there? Do they think there's Cybertron versions of traditional people that would probably call Mirage or Bumblebee their own version of slurs for having human partners??

And while we're on this topic, does anyone ever question if Cybertron has their own versions of mental health disorders we have on Earth? How do they treat them?? Do they even treat them????? Or is it just non-existent because they're robots? But they have the compacity to feel love and shit like that, but there's no such thing as Depression, Anxiety or BPD over there?

Like what are the societal norms over there? What are the class types over there? Because we all know Mirage was definitely some rich kid but what about Bumblebee?? And Optimus? And my girl Arcee?? Like what were their lives before all of this??

LIKE THESE ARE THE QUESTIONS THAT NEED TO BE ANSWERED.

You also have to account for the war and how badly that's fucked everything up

Because

From everything I've seen in various continuities:

There are academies and stuff

Bigoted people do seem to exist on Cybertron, though often in unfamiliar ways

Homophobia does not seem to exist in say IDW, (iicr), can't say much for other continuities but I personally like to think homophobia would be rare to nonexistent on Cybertron

(though, in IDW it seems to be rare to marry and considering idw Sentinel there might be a Thing against other bots having life partners in general. Or sentinel might just be the dick in the room and it's rare rare to hate on others having romantic relationships on Cybertron)

I don't think they'd have existing slurs for organic x mech relationships as it's just That Plain Old Unfamiliar, but I can see mecha getting nasty about it. Especially given how common anti organic sentiments are in various continuities

Cybertronians 200% have mental health conditions, we see it in a decent amount of continuities (whether it's meant to be a ✨character quirk✨ or they actually want to talk about mental health or if it's The Latest Haha Joke; Please Laugh™️ /s)

How they treat them seems to vary across continuity because I think they just... Don't in some continuities, and that never goes down well. At least in IDW we can tell there's a focus in psychology and these guys have at least one competent therapist. But in IDW there are Many Horrors and it's very willing to show us them.

We know in Aligned there was a caste system before the war, which went not well. We see in IDW there's Functionism which dictates social class by altmode. In tfa there's Whatever The Fuck Is Going On with civilian frames v Warframes. The role of Prime is usually a big deal (though it's superseded by Magnus in tfa) (the matrix of leadership is often involved, but not always). Though everything usually goes to shit once the war starts

We don't know enough about Knightverse to fully place Optimus's origins (iicr), but he just seems a lot younger and less big of a deal than some other iterations of him so I have a few ideas what he Wasn't

I can definitely consult tfwiki for more specifics on Knightverse lore

[alice-after-dark]

Alive/Human RadioStatic Headcanons Requested by @hiemaldesirae

I realize I don't actually talk about them being alive/human very often. I should change that lol shippy but probably not in the way you would think lol

Mention of canon-typical triggers ahead.

-Alastor was born and raised in New Orleans and spent his entire life there.

-He is the product of an affair between a white man and a black woman and is white passing.

-His father was miserable in his marriage and loved Alastor and his mother very much, but knew them being together would only cause more problems. He sent each of them money and a letter every month, though they could not risk writing back (Alastor kept every single letter).

-Alastor is a momma's boy through and through.

-He was considered strange as a child and didn't have many friends and was often left to his own devices. Because of this, he spent a lot of time playing in the bayou and knew it like the back of his hand.

-His sadistic tendencies showed early in the way he would handle his bullies by leading them into the bayou and leaving them lost and stranded.

-Alastor's first kill was his uncle at age 16. After his father passed away, his uncle found out about Alastor and his mother and came to their home in a drunken rage. He attacked Alastor's mother and left her unconscious (permanently scarring her face). Alastor murdered the man and hid his body in the bayou after carving up his face.

-I definitely subscribe to Alastor being a cannibalistic serial killer who specifically targeted those who he viewed as a eyesore to society (Dexter-style; rapists, murderers, abusers, etc.).

-He would report on his own murders on his radio show.

-He was nicknamed the "Bayou Boogeyman" by the press, due to many of his victims being found in the bayou.

-The police never realized that he was a cannibal because the gators always got to the bodies first, destroying any evidence that they'd been snacked on prior to being dumped.

-In public, Alastor was exceedingly charming and had no shortage of suitors (both men and women), though he very rarely entertained any of them in that regard.

-Ironically enough, while he did not participate, he did attend many an...explicit event. He enjoyed people watching and observing.

-Alastor dies in 1933 at the age of 35.

-Vox was born and raised in New York City.

-His mother was a film star and he rarely ever saw her. His father would work all day and then go out and drink, leaving him alone most of the time.

-The few times his mother was home, she and his father fought.

-Because his mother was famous, he had a lot of fake friends who really only cared about the fact that he was rich and had a famous mother.

-He grew up listening to Alastor's radio show. He often found comfort in it when he was home alone.

-He had a major crush on Alastor growing up, even though he didn't entirely realize that's what it was (boy straight up had his picture pinned to his wall and didn't realize what was up).

-Vox's father, however, did recognize it and was not pleased and made that very known in his verbal and emotional abuse.

-Vox's father died when Vox was 18 after Vox pushed him down the stairs of their townhouse during an argument. The death was ruled an unfortunate accident.

-Vox lived in fear of being drafted during WW2. He was relieved when the war ended in 1945 (the draft age was 21 and Vox was 20 when the end of the war was officially declared over).

-Alastor is his inspiration for wanting to become a television star. His mother believed her to be his inspiration and he never corrected her but never confirmed it either.

-Vox's marriage is basically for publicity. She loves him but he doesn't love her. They're both young, attractive, popular, the public thinks they have chemistry, and they look good together.

-They have two kids (two daughters), but Vox struggles to bond with either of them due to having no proper role models.

-Vox has several affairs with both men and women over the course of his marriage. His wife is never the wiser.

-Vox dies in 1958 at the age of 33 after he is shot and killed by a jealous fan of his wife.

[sageistri]

They can scream "GLOBAL POP STAR" as much as they want, but Jungkook--so-far--has failed to capture the imagination of the public they way BTS did. He's not a household name--can people even pronounce his name? And the Taco Bell logo isn't going to help.

I think people severely underestimate what Seven did for him and his solo career and just how far not only this single but his album, reached. Jungkook right now is the biggest name in bts and probably kpop contrary to what people want to believe. Every media outlet was announcing his fan song as if it was this big highly anticipated cb single and people are very much tuned in so much so that i saw blinks fighting eachother because one side finally admitted to being jk solos and the other side calling it embarrassing because of how his fans (armys) treat BP.

No one cares about how he achieved those numbers except for akgaes. General consensus is he ended his own group and is the only non flop member I mean it's insane. Scooter has really done a number for jungkook and this is with just his solo debut and now with his own "brand"? Man oh man💀

Golden compared to face on paper only did better because golden is a full English album and with 2x more songs. They had to release additional us exclusive versions to get him to crack 200k+ units while face debuted with 160k+ without half the versions golden had, and with half the songs too and not even a quarter of the promo because every single jk released prior were English collabs with western acts. Considering after seven all jk's other songs fell back to being dependent on armys and with no significant increase in chart performance despite extensive promo and the songs still being in English shows that there was in fact no actual growth and The next time he has a song that performs as well as seven would be when they bring out "seven level" promo tactics once again. If seven did anything beyond giving him a billion streams, his streams from songs like 3d and snty wouldn't have gone back to being on par with the streams he got before seven.

Look at BTS and dynamite, the streams and chart performance of their Korean songs released after shows that they did in fact gain a ton of new listeners because despite those songs being ballads it still performed significantly better than their Korean songs before dynamite. Also you see how dynamite debuted with 7m streams and then butter with 11m? Snty and 3d had like a 60% decrease from seven, being on par with left and right, so no growth and still dependent on fandom streaming. Also when or if they do decide to release another seven, I wonder if he's going to debut with 30m streams on global Spotify lol.

Also people care about jk as a solo act just as much as other BTS members, meaning no one who isn't into kpop in one capacity or the other cares about him, saying otherwise would be like pretending 5050 suddenly became a household name after cupid. Akgaes love to act like these media outlets talk about their faves the most or that it means they are the most important, when the least popular member of BTS could announce any kind of music and they'd have just as much people talking about it. No one's talking about these songs because he's so important because they don't even do all that for big western acts especially when it's not a come back single, they make those posts because armys are going to give them engagement. Let's not even talk about the ones that were paid for by scooter because we know that's how he rolls and he lurks on social media too.

Also seven isn't the end of their solo careers Is what y'all don't understand. I am not arguing that jk's name has the most pull right now because... duh, but what I do know is that he's not going to have the biggest solo career in BTS, not even close. Doesn't matter what you think is the truth right now.

[taylortheanimerangerteen]

Hey folks

I guess today after listening to dead and gone like 8 times on loop

I had s2 teen thoughts!!

They're all outcasts in their own ways, I will explain my reasoning for saying this

Starting with Taylor bc like he is kinda the hardest to explain? Especially since he's considered "popular"

However, I don't believe Taylor is actually popular. For mutiple reasons. As somebody who has never been considered popular in any of my schooling years (I don't care tho so 🤷), how Erica acts around him feels ever so slightly familiar to how popular kids would treat me. They'd either be overly nice but not include me in anything or were straight-up assholes to me. I think Erica heavily follows into the first category, where she's overly nice but doesn't actually really include Taylor. There are secret popular kid passages through the school (which like, first of all??? Insanity but not the point of this post) that even Taylor didn't know about (pretty strange if he's actually popular, and I know Erica gave a reason but like... mlpeh)

That's really all I got for explaining Taylor... he just feels like the kid the popular kids are nice to but don't actually care about.

Next up, Scary... bc she kinda started the thoughts of this post anyways.

So!! She's alternative. I think saying that gets most of why she'd be an outcast explained but. I'd like to draw our attention to dead and gone (as it's the first song in the album and it gets me enough and it's also in one episode at the end of it so technically it's accessible to everybody!)

So!! I don't remember if it's ever stated by Beth or the cast like anywhere if Holly Smith was a real teen and teen high but also like... even if she isn't, Scary is probably still being bullied in a somewhat similar way as described in the song. As it's not really stated too too much. But she's called a clown by Holly as Holly points at her, and everybody laughs at her. It sounds like she's at least been picked on, so it wouldn't be shocking if she was also bullied/was considered an outcast.

Next is Lincoln.

This is really easy.

He was homeschooled... he has only gotten to know his school peers for like... a tiny bit? Or so?? Since the teens spent at the most like 3-4 months actually at school???

So like. He's just an outcast for being new and also homeschooled

And now Normal... where do I start with the poor boy.

Let's start with the fact he is the mascot kid of the school. He is Teeny the Teen! People don't like teeny the teen. So ofc he's an outcast.

He also can't wash his clothes and so he stinks... so like... yeah. Outcast.

And now Hermie. (Imagine a vine boom after each point.)

Theater kid.

Not actually a student at teen high.

Not even human.

Need I say more???

And the fact that Dood, who represents being a teenager really? Is like these 5 teens

Dood feels really like the representation of not just being a teenager but one that's been outcasted by others

Which like. Is fitting for their story and arc...

This was really just me talking a bunch tbh... idk why I decided to make this post.

Anyways, have a good day if you've read all the way here :D

And even if you skipped all my talking, have a good day too :D

[lalalian]

futuristic dr ideas pt.2

date: march 29, 2024

trends in a futuristic world

includes beauty trends and augmented reality stuff

Glass Hair

Glass hair would probably be more popular for runway models rather than the average person. I think iridescent or glow-in-the-dark hair would be more of trend because it's more flashy. Fashion styles would arise from this trend such as celestialcore, mirrorpunk, and glowstreet.

Celestialcore fashion

People who wear celestialcore would likely have iridescent hair and would wear flowy silk clothing that shimmer in the light. Add ons to micro skin repairing bots in your bloodstream would make your skin automatically look incredibly dewy. Holograms that make small pixies circle around you or animate angel wings on your back. Hologram software is less expensive and more convenient (because the wings can phase through objects, physical wings cannot). Physical wings would require the person to get wing attachments to their back, but it'd allow you to fly. Stylized eye contacts that make the irises seem as if they're jelly or glowing would also be a common styling choice. Voice box adjustments (to use these adjustments, you'd download software to the tiny medical bots in your bloodstream) that make your voice sound slightly echoy would also be relevant to this style. Something that'd be a must have when it comes to celestialcore fashion would either be no legs, cybernetic legs, or levitating heels/shoes. Outfits would consist of white and pastel colors.

here's a few images that resonate with this style:

pic1

pic2

pic3

Mirrorpunk

Imagine aespa's savage photoshoot, black sleek clothing but with the sharp and almost melty looking silver jewelry. Aespa's drama photoshoot would also kinda fit, but it'd need more silver jewelry. Outfits would often consist of crimson, black, white, and silver. Some people that wear this style incorporate more silver elements, these people eventually coined the term 'Mirrormelt', which officially became a substyle of mirrorpunk. Many people who wear mirrorpunk swap out one or more of their limbs with a cybernetic limb that has the same aesthetic as the sharp silver jewelry (idk how to word it, i hope you know what I'm talking abt T-T)

here's a few images that resonate with this style:

pic1

pic2

pic3

GlowStreet

Essentially street fashion but with glow-in-the-dark elements. Loose or baggy clothing that is considered casual with glow-in-the-dark streaks of color usually in the hair and other parts of the outfit. I don't think images are necessary for this one.

Animated Tattoos

A flower blooming from a bud would probably be one of the most popular design choices. Flower petals falling down arms or legs would also be another popular choice. Animated tattoo sleeves would look like a full on moving painting, but they'd probably be pretty expensive. I think I mentioned this before on tiktok, so if you think you've seen this idea already, it may have been from me.

I think people who like to dress in darker styles would have animated eye tattoos on their bodies that would open and close.

Another cool idea would be color changing tattoos!

AR and Books

Okay so obviously physical books aren't going to be a thing in a high-tech cyberprep world-- but do you know what would be a thing? Augmented reality story games. AR is essentially VR except you can feel, smell, and taste everything as you would in real life. Shifting but with technology. Imagine games like Detroit Become Human and FNAF but in this format-- wouldn't it be a hit? I think it would.

I still think that e-books would be a thing, but I could definitely imagine that some of the most popular chapters would get AR adaptations.

To access an AR game or chapter, you must go to an AR Arena to rent a suit and the appropriate equipment.

oki i think this is good enough for one post. I think I'll talk about entertainment places like unique cafes and cyber parkour arenas in the next futuristic post

[spanishskulduggery]

This isn't really a question about a word per say. So I tell people I listen to "Spanish music" when I listen to reggaeton cause the words are in Spanish so I just equate spanish words= spanish music. But now I'm wondering if "Spanish music" is correct term to use cause alot of the people who sing the music I listen to aren't from Spain. So can I still say I'm listening to Spanish music even if the songs are by a Puerto Rican or Colombian singer? or should I just say latin music or something.

Okay so in general, don't stress because I think they'd both make sense in context; I'd say "I listen to music in Spanish" if I wanted to avoid confusion

Your question is a bit complicated just by the nature of the terminology here

...

The main issue here is that "Spanish music" and also "Latin music" are umbrella terms, and they encompass other genres and subgenres from folklore and traditional ones to things like rock or R&B that were popularized (or made into more clearly defined genres) in other countries, and it's probably easier to speak in terms of genres... but people recognize the limitations of the words for music ie saying "Spanish" instead of "Latin" music

You'll see sometimes people will say things like rock en español or rock argentino if they want to specify, but they recognize there are limitations to saying Latin music or even "Spanish" [en español "in Spanish", not necessarily just español like from Spain]

Me personally because I trip over this a lot, I tend to say things are de España if I mean "Spanish" as in from Spain

I've also seen the term ibérico/a "Iberian" used for Spain just because it's the same limitation you get with saying "English music" like from England or in English we don't know, and then people will say British rock to differentiate it sometimes

(It's a unique linguistic issue when the country of origin is also attached to the name of the language)

-

The main source of ambiguity to the terms is because Latin music also includes Spain; it's a thing, you'll see - but like Alejandro Sanz has won Latin Grammys and awards for "Latin pop" but is from Madrid and his parents were Andalusian and he's known for incorporating Andalusian elements into his music]

...In other words, the music definition of "Latin" and "Spanish" is a bit different from the geographical definitions

-

In music it's not usually a PC thing as far as what is more correct, it's that the terms are so vague that usually Spanish-speakers when talking about music in Spanish talk about genres [because something like Latin R&B is very different from something like Spain's flamenco]

There's a lot of ambiguity in the words

For example, and this is the main confusing thing - What really complicates your question is that "Latin music" also encompasses Spain... and also Portugal/Brazil because it's still "Latin" just not Spanish specifically; again geographical and musical definitions, very different

For all intents and purposes, "Latin music" tends to refer to Ibero-American music, for Spanish-speakers and Portuguese-speakers, and also the Spanish/Portuguese-speaking diaspora [as opposed to French/Italian etc Romance Languages which are considered separate from "Latin" in music terms, but not geophaphical terms]

...so even "Latin music" is a very broad category

Brazil in particular has many genres in common with Latin America just based on proximity and culture, often sharing bits and pieces of genres one usually associates with Spanish-speaking South America, and sometimes the Caribbean [like bossa nova, samba, and some music that people would classify as "folklore" like cumbia which is very regional but usually involves more traditional music and dance]

...

In short, I'd say "I like reggaeton" or mention genres or artists you like

It may be easier to say "I listen to music in Spanish"

Just know even Spanish-speakers don't always like or agree with the umbrella terms haha

[utilitycaster]

not to be all “only i like my blorbo correctly”, but i’m fully convinced that certain people would hate Imogen as a character if they actually engaged with her outside of “conventionally attractive sadgirl that’s one half of an aesthetically pleasing queer ship”. fully believe that if she looked like Chetney or Ashton or even Fearne, and didn’t come with a prepackaged ship, people would be forced to look at her as the complex, unique loose cannon that she is

Hey anon, I agree with much of this and I hope you don't mind if I go on what might be one of my weirder tangents/theories but this has been percolating for a few weeks and I think I've cracked the secret to one of the more toxic segments of the fandom.

I definitely think that if Imogen were not a woman, a lot of people would hate her (granted, a different group of people who hate her now would probably like her more if she were a man, because misogyny is extremely extant outside of the bubble, and even a little bit within the bubble, that is Tumblr). However, they'd be fine if she looked like Fearne...but many wouldn't be fine if she were also played by Ashley. Or yeah, if she weren't easily shipped with Marisha's character.

Here's the deal. When I and a number of other people were like "oh hey! Imogen is not really taking other people's feelings into consideration and is being rather insensitive about the Ruby Vanguard, given that they've killed half the party, particularly since she's literally known Laudna like 10 times longer than she's know her mother was alive" the attitude was "wow, you hate Imogen, you hate women, you're so unfair" and yet now, at a table that is half women (and a group of characters that literally has only one man) everyone who thought I hate Imogen and how if she were a man everyone would care is now literally just mostly ignoring her (and honestly like, everything) and instead constantly whining about how they miss Laudna. Which is frankly weak as hell, like, anyone who's loved Pike or Yasha is like "oh you must be new here", and at least people talking about Travis being missing during the gap between Bertrand's death and Chetney's arrival were making good memes. But I digress.

My theory, which I do admit is the most tin-foil hat I think I've gone, comes from some polls I've seen circulating complaining about queerbaiting in past shows, and also my recent interest in Glee as ground zero of really horrible fandom behaviors (thanks to people who have provided insight into that!) Anyway. I recently learned that apparently Quinn and Rachel was a really popular ship, for reasons I cannot, for the sake of what little decorum and kindness I am maintaining here, speculate on. Setting aside that this is not queerbaiting and it's wildly inappropriate and damaging to say it was, given that this show was full of queer characters and Quinn was shown hooking up with a woman, this has in fact clicked into place for me why people constantly ship Marisha and Laura's characters despite chemistry that is inconsistent at best and tepid on average. It's not terribly hard to draw lines from Quinn to Vex and Rachel to Keyleth, especially if you consider how fanon tends to handle these archetypes. Then they transferred this to just Laura and Marisha's characters in general, and here we are, and man if it hasn't gotten even more flavorless with every transfer.

So anyway yeah a lot of people really don't like Imogen much as a character unless they can project onto her, but because she's half of The Ship, they also will not tolerate any exploration of her flaws that could threaten The Ship and so they need to remove her agency and blame it on various rocks instead of Imogen being cranky and impatient as a person (like, again, if you want to interpret her powers as chronic pain, why are you not allowed to grant her the same complexity as Ashton, who is also cranky and impulsive?) But really the kicker is that if Marisha isn't physically onscreen, they start acting like a cat you locked out of the bathroom and simultaneously forget they're supposed to care about or enjoy Imogen as an individual.

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

I don't think Layover did great tbh. Terrible on YouTube (including all his MVs, Tiny Desk, and music show performances), underperformed in the biggest music markets, did poorly on k-charts (that debut was abysmal compared to the other members), predicted for less first week albums in the US than D-Day despite an extra version (but waiting on chart). Here’s a chart I’ve seen floating around Twitter that gives a good idea. Probably need to verify some of it, but I think it’s mostly accurate...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6LDbz4bYAADB7M?format=jpg&name=medium

His fanbases started working really hard on his first week Spotify streams when they realized he wasn’t doing great anywhere else, so he ended up with higher first week streams than FACE and LC, but barely, and most of his streams came from SEA (which isn’t a big deal or anything, but a lot of it was definitely from mass streaming farms). He also had a massive day 8 drop and allegedly way lower than day 8 for FACE. And let’s note that Layover has one extra song instead of an interlude too. He’s also higher on some official album charts, but that’s only because FACE wasn’t eligible because it’s an EP. He had much bigger overall album sales, but we were expecting that with vbar. I think they bought like 840k? So over 1/3 of his sales.

Unless I’m missing some achievements or got something wrong (I haven’t kept up with everything), I think it was a pretty meh debut considering all the promo he did and the fact that he’s “the most popular member”. They only have those first week streams, pretty sure. LMA has had good longevity though, so I guess we'll see. And BTW, they’re saying his hot100 performance was hurt because of DC2 sales being gone, which, sure, but he had 50k Slow Dancing CDs to compensate, way more than LC, and they couldn't even completely sell them out. I think his stans were using VPN to buy on iTunes in the US too because a few days in he went from 1 to 44 on iTunes chart with no explanation and never recovered. Curious what his final sales end up being. I'm not saying he did bad, but I don't think it's really anything to brag about either... I haven't seen a ton of objective people talking about it though so idk for sure.

The spreadsheet is killing me hahahs #dedication. I would like to know the missing numbers and positions, tho! Still, thank you.

I knew about kcharts, youtube, albums, and first week on spotify for the album. I saw some number that I assume included his prereleases, and it really is nothing major considering the first tracks released, and the fact that it had one more song than face. Just five minutes ago I saw that on their 8th day, like crazy (combined) had the same number of streams as Taehyung's entire album??

Sidenote: if there's one thing I was forced to learn this year, is how much difference combined versions of a song can make.

I don't think he had that much of international promo, or at least I didn't see it. I know he's been to A LOTTT of korean shows, and also his promo for pre-releases was already longer than Jimin's, but I think he just comes across as a really uninteresting person so I don't know if people would actually tune in to his music, no matter how many times they see him on TV. He definitely got more than Jimin, that's 1000% for sure, even if we consider the MVs alone; he got the same thing Jimin was denied.

I knew he'd get more albums sales, because past experience. And I knew they'd try hard to stream to break some "records", even if it won't hold up for too long. I also knew he doesn't really have many fans in the US, (I still think Jimin's the most popular member there). I've also been saying since the day I opened this blog that his "popularity" is overrated and he's never really been in the same league as Jimin when it comes to music. I blew off so many people here who would come up to me and try to convince me he was competition to Jimin or better than him in some way.

I guess the only thing I'm surprised with is youtube. I got his tiny desk video on my homepage today (saved it to watch later) and it has less than 300k views.......... It's kinda crazy. I wonder if part of the reason he got his visual album was because his youtube numbers were usually better than everyone else's combined and they believed he'd do good.

Oh, and the songs credits. It's unbelievable to me that he did NOTHING on it. People who work on songs get credits even for writing two words, so I just can't wrap my mind around the fact that he didn't do anything at all.

I'm also curious if they would've restocked the digital CD had it been sold out, but my gut tells me they wouldn't have, or it would've been just one more, and a smaller batch.

[leesalchemybook]

sometimes I remember how some individuals in the bts fanart community bullied me pretty intensely back on my bts twitter days.

(its been at least a few years now. I forget how long it's been) sometimes I still consider posting my screeenshot proofs of it and exposing them. but that was so long ago now, it's probably pointless. if they didn't stop, I was prepared to. but a friend I had at the time confronted them (after I told her not to) but it seemed to have helped and they and they didn't bother me after that. but I never got answers for why they were doing it

but it still pisses me off that they were "popular" and had a few thousand followers and everyone loved them and many other artists kissed their asses and tried to be part of their little popular clique (probably to feed off their popularity)

but for some reason when I was being genuine and wanted to be real friends and work on a collab for fun and was nothing but nice to everyone, I got bullied so bad that even other people in the collab pointed it out at first. i was blamed for it all even though it was obvious i did nothing wrong and they were the wrong ones. I even have screenshots to prove it. (I am missing some stuff, though, which is one reason I didn't post. I could have made them look so much worse if I managed to get everything haha but i didn't realize what was happening soon enough)

I was so confused. i'm STILL confused. was there a reason for the sudden bullying? or are they just nasty people that like to pick on small artists and get away with it because no one cares about me or will ever believe me? either way, I hope their art dreams never come true and they hurt their drawing hand many times.

some of the bts fanartists had such nasty attitudes and interacting with them made me wonder why people loved them so much. some artists acted so snobby, arrogant, and unfriendly.

some would whine and complain about wanting attention/friends/interactions but ignore me, act annoyed, not reciprocate. or tell me they don't want to talk, but then go right back to complaining they want friends and people to talk to a minute later. most wouldn't follow back if you weren't a big popular account or tell me they have ridiculous requirements I had to meet or they'd unfollow. but would always be begging for more mutuals.

some would post they're open to helping be a second pair of eyes to review your art, but only gave me destructive criticism and told me to "practice more so you can be as good as me" but they always ended up only being artists for 3-5 years vs my 20+ so they have nothing on me. I have practiced art longer than they've been alive!!!! but they still think they're superior and male it a competitive instead of actually being helpful like they claimed they wanted to be. I never got any real advice and they thought they had an attitude of being too good and perfect for me. sometimes I even got unsolicited destructive advice on art I was proud of and liked.

one annoying thing was many would whine about only getting a few thousand likes on their art and ask for more, or require me to interact with all their posts in order to be mutuals (I literally had one tell me they will be mutuals but if i dont interact with all their tweets daily they will unfollow) BUT THEY NEVER INTERACTED WITH A SINGLE ONE OF MY TWEETS. I had to give them all the attention, but they didn't give anything back in return at all. people like that are so gross and nasty, but they somehow tricked everyone into thinking they were so perfect and sweet and friendly.

and all these people didn't even have art that was that great. like it was kind of average imo, compared to other stuff i see. they started as smaller accounts that didn't have impressive art so I wanted to support them as they grew and got better. small artist solidarity. supporting newer artists who have 10-15 years less experience than me. but they all acted like such elitist snobs towards me.

and no matter how many times I post about it, no one ever confesses to experiencing the same treatment in the bts fanartist community!!!!! (or online art communities in general. i've never had any solidarity) makes me feel so shitty because I seem to be the only one that was treated horribly by other artists and bullied and unable to make many art friends/mutuals compared to the snobby shitheads that bullied me who somehow tricked everyone into loving them!! and all the people who supported them "the correct way" so they didn't get bullied and got to be added to the snobby elitist cliques.

still waiting for the day someone comes to me with stories of their own so I don't feel so alone 😅

to end this here's a reminder: art isnt a competition. we should all support each other and encourage each other and see each other as equals. share each other's art. boost each other up. work together. be friends. give constructive criticism only when asked, never destructive. don't act better than others. don't beg for attention and then refuse to give in return. a reblog/retweet/etc is very valuable even if you don't know how to share words. be kind and have fun!

[giantchasm]

Character Ask Game:

Susie 1, 7, 8, 23, and 26 (free question is, who would she hate the most out of the other dream friends?)

Taranza 2, 5, 7, 8, and 23

Marx 22, 26 (free question is, who would be his favorite prank target?)

Apologies if this is too many in one ask.

SUSIE:

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

Why WOULDN'T I like Susie? She's my special girl. Honestly, the story of how I really fell for her is kind of funny TBH. When I first got into the fandom, even after playing Robobot, I didn't pay her TOO much mind. I gave her some thought, especially in the context of my Underworld Friends AU and her father's history with her, but it was nowhere near the levels of brainrot I have now.

But then one day something just kind of... clicked for me. I was like "Hey! Taranza (Who I was also not that invested in at the time) and Susie have pretty similar stories. I bet they'd make really good friends. I should write something about that!"

And so I did. (Although I never technically finished it). And I got super invested in those two, both as individuals and as a duo. It's interesting just how intertwined my love for them is. They're characters I got invested in simultaneously. I was a Taranza & Susie fan before I was a Taranza or Susie fan, and I think that's fun.

But of course, with time, I've come to actually love both characters more in an individualized context. That was just the thing that initially instigated the madness for me.

I love the tragedy to Susie's story. I love her complicated backstory and her even more complicated relationship with her father. I love all of the weird body horror cybernetics stuff I can explore with her and just how easy it is to depict her brain as like... exceptionally weird. I love the fact that she retains some whimsy even despite the horrors. I love the fact that she's one of the only Kirby characters with a gun.

I tend to have a soft spot for morally gray female characters who a lot of people have a weird distaste for, so I was always probably going to love her TBH. It's just in my nature.

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

I answered this one in another ask, so have this GIF of Susie posing cutely over the word "Fatherless" instead of an actual answer.

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

I could give the obvious answer of "people are way too hard on her and while I understand some discomfort considering the themes of Robobot people definitely interpret her as way more evil and irredeemable than the relatively lighthearted, ultimately hopeful children's' game series ever intended," but that feels like too much of a copout, so let me talk about something else people to.

Or... don't do, I guess?

I hate hate hate when people like... make Wave 3 friend group content and leave her out then slot like... Marx or whoever in instead. Like I know there's no technical canonical friendship between pretty much any Kirby characters, and therefore there's not an actual dynamic between her, Magolor and Taranza people are Ignoring, but all the same it feels like there can be a deliberate attempt from people to avoid wanting to include Susie in their content.

And I think I'd feel differently if these people were portraying the Super Popular Male Characters as hanging out with other girls like the Mage Sisters or whoever instead (They're also technically a part of Wave 3, you know!), but they don't. It's not overwhelmingly common, to be clear, but there's definitely still a Thing where people will exclusively focus on male characters and making them interact with each other instead of bothering to incorporate female characters into any of their group dynamics. And I guess that's more of a complaint about wider fandom sexism as a whole than just Susie herself, but... idk, man.

I guess I'm just saying that if the only Kirby characters you're invested in and make content of interacting is the guys because the girls are either all "too evil" like Susie (Is she that evil compared to her peers?) or "too underwritten" like the Mage Sisters and pretty much the rest of the female cast (It's Kirby. Everyone is underwritten), then you probably have some unconscious biases to address and maybe try to rectify. Because I don't like it and it annoys me.

Putting the rest of this under a cut because it became a long post. I am a wordy person.

23. Favorite picture of this character?

I have quite a few, but here are some of my favorites

The BESTIES

#Women

What remains the funniest image on the planet (Susie & Taranza grieving feat. Kirby and the cake a rat stole from him once)

26. Who would she hate the most out of the other Dream Friends?

Mark. His obnoxious whimsy drives her mad.

(Obvious answer aside, I think she also doesn't get along with DMK. And I think she has a very contentious relationship with both the Mage Sisters and Elfilin at first, although she eventually gets over both. (I know Elfilin isn't technically a Dream Friend, but to me he is. He's like... a part of the group, y'know? The only reason why he's not a Dream Friend is Forgotten Land didn't exist at the time Star Allies came out. He's a Dream Friend in all but name.))

TARANZA:

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

Taranza has approximately two traits in canon, however, I love them both. This guy is INSUFFERABLY pompous, dramatic and prideful, and this guy LOVES HIS EVIL WIFE. He even has a tragic backstory. What more could one possibly ask for?

Also he's just... like, really cute. He has maybe my favorite design in Kirby. That helps too.

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

As much as I bitched about how some people don't do it earlier in this post, there are just as many people who do utilize the Wave 3 group dynamic to its full potential and it's always some of my absolute favorite Taranza content. Buddy's at his best when he's with his pals.

Also, call me a basic bitch, but I still think the divorce/dead wife jokes are funny. Like... not if overdone/made into all that he is, but in a vacuum? Yeah, that shit's hilarious, sorry.

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

Sanding him down to make him a palpable softboy. I think Taranza is ultimately a good person, but I think he can have an ego sometimes (Yes, even despite his trauma and any insecurities said trauma may have left him with) and can get caught up in things. He's willing to do anything for the people he loves to a dangerous degree, regardless of the harm it causes anyone else. If I see one more person portray him as an innocent victim in Triple Deluxe as opposed to a nuanced, morally gray character I'm going to go outside with a hammer and start smashing tomatoes with a rock. He DESERVES to have flaws.

Also I hate how many people either make his entire personality Sectonia or neglect her importance to him entirely. The latter annoys me more thought because I am famously a #womanhead. It makes me so fucking angry when I see people like... completely ignore his history with her and one-dimensionally reduce her to either his evil abuser or a perfect angel of a love interest he needs to Get Over so he can mash faces with another character they like more. I'm not saying I hate the idea of Taranza moving on, because I don't, but the sheer disrespect most people show Sectonia with the way they write it is like. Staggering. Do better.

23. Favorite picture of this character?

All Taranza images are good Taranza images, but here are some particularly charming ones

This one, which really highlights whatever the hell is wrong with him

World's most precious Muppet creature

And capable of so much unrestrained joy

MARX:

22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to this character? Something you don't like?

I don't actually really read fanfic (I'm more of just a writer), but when it comes to Marx depictions in general, I don't like how most people tend to take him too far in one direction or the other. I feel like people either make him some kind of #lolrandom complete sociopath who only lives to like... exist as a plot device to torture other characters in a way that's exceptionally unfunny or as a sweet, just kind of goofy guy who's not actually that bad, both of which are boring. My favorite Marx depictions portray him as someone who presents himself as a deliberately provocative edgelord but cares deep down and really just wants attention.

26. Who would be his favorite prank target?

Dedede, Bandee, Coo, Susie, Elfilin, and, of course, Kirby, all make excellent targets depending on what exactly he's planning to do.

[liesmyth]

Idk I think we should also consider how the name feels on them? Like Mia is a beautiful name, it’s so unbelievably light though….. Matilda or Miriam though. Matilda is very popular now. Mercymorn is not a real name I think so he straight up made it up for her specifically. I bet it was something like Marceline and they called her Marcy. Also probably means that she was somehow special to John. Hmmm.

Also, I kinda think that Augustine’s real name would be something short and boring, like Alan. But that’s because I have this horrible suspicion that when John tampered with his friends memories after he resurrected them he accidentally (not) made them into sort of caricatures of their original selves. 1) they act very differently in his memories, waaay less theatrical and less refined and it cannot be just the 10000 years, 2) that’s just how memory and personhood works, 3) this one is very hard to explain but Mercy, Augustine and Gideon just feel to me like people who have very limited ways of expressing themselves. Like Mercy and her “yuck ugh”? I’m sure M- used to say that, yeah. I’m sure that’s what John remembered about her. But I don’t think she speaks like that in his memories. Same goes for Augustine. I don’t know how to explain it. The og Lyctors are supposed to feel like people burdened by their own selves, yeah, but when I realized that John picked and chose their memories I was like. Oh! So that’s like if you only had to express yourself the way your friend sees and remembers you. Because then all three of them make sense. Like imagine that you have real feelings but you have very very limited actions to express yourself because you are designed to reflect Johns memory about your own dead self. Like. That sucks!!! Gideon Prime especially has this thing about him. And even Pyrrha although to a lesser extent and she def has some of her og memories.

I kind of have a headcanon that BOE might know their real names but only because they were remembered as heroic scientists that helped them save humanity but Sadly Couldn’t Be On The Ship or something. I think it would be very funny.

I love how everyone in the fandom has their original name headcanons but we all agree that they were boring (except Pyrrha)

Also I LOVE all the thoughts on the relativity of memory and how someone appears to another's eyes is never who they really are, and how that translated to the backstory mindwipe. I don't believe John picked and chose their memories with any finesse, just because 1) he does things very intuitively; 2) picking and choosing which memories to keep for an entire group of people who all knew each other AND knew you too is logistically complicated? what if there are inconsistencies etc; and 3) I doubt he wanted to risk accidentally messing it up.

I think their personality was informed by their souls—that are definitely a thing in TLT!—and they definitely didn't feel "caricatures" in HtN (to me!), just very tired very bitter people. But I can absolutely seeing John consciously or unconsciously shaping their personalities just bc he expected them to behave in a certain way that mapped with what he remembered, even if it wasn't necessarily how they'd have behaved if he hadn't been there.

Personally, I doubt BoE know much of anything about the end of earth. This is a whole different topic but tldr: it's been 10k years; they know the names that have been passed down the generations, but they don't have any context for where they came from. Language has evolved, and IMO what Wake said to John in HtN is more speculation and guesses than based on facts (she repeatedly talked about only one bomb; I think that was deliberate on Muir's part)

I think often about John becoming the flood myth for generations of human refugees fleeing earth — a wrathful deity, a vengeful enemy etc! — and IMO what little BoE know (or think they know) survived as hazy mythology and there's a lot of debate around it and probably no actual documentation.

(I AM ONCE AGAIN THINKING ABOUT THE CULTURAL PECULIARITIES OF THE BOE PLANETS... what if I did a Nona reread and went on a long post spree)

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

💝🤍 please!!

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

glaze defects will always being the fic that i didn't really anticipate the response to, and the author's note is there to memorialize as much. i thought no one would read it.

and i really don't mean it in like, a pretentious way of oh nO oNe will care about the sUpReMe cOuRt it's too ~academic~ for fandom. it was just like, math, at the time? it was a character study of like, a version of matt that existed purely in an unfinished first work that you would need to read first to fully have the context for it. it was third in a series, so it was clear from its face that it you'd probably have to read other works first. that kind of cuts it off from readers who are just looking for a daredevil fic and don't want to invest in an entire peter&frank bonding fic first. so I figured that the only people who read it would be the people who already read kintsugi. that's just a smaller pool of readers i'm drawing from straight from the get-out.

usually, not everyone who reads the first work will read the entire series, so it would probably have less readers than kintsugi. back then, not as many people were reading kintsugi, so that probably wouldn't be a lot of people?

and you didn't really need it to understand the plot of kintsugi, it was just a character study, and it didn't really advance the plot so much as give a window into matt's motivations? but you never got any kintsugi-relevant scenes that you wouldn't have already gotten in the main fic. so there was probably a decent number of kintsugi readers who wouldn't bother with glaze defects.

and yeah--i just wasn't really focusing on what I considered the usual fare of matt murdock character studies. Stick got literally a sentence of actual front-line appearance and then i spent the rest of the time talking about the supreme court and biblical passover and propaganda captain america, because a lot of them were relevant to what i wanted to talk about in kintsugi. like, i wasn't really hitting on the notes of what i thought people wanted to talk about when they were talking about matt murdock's past, so if people did consider reading it just for a matt murdock character study, they'd probably decide to go look at one of the other amazing fics that talk about literally anything that actually happened in his show/comics backstory. i figured i was just whittling down the pool of people who would be interested in like, clicking on it in the first place. so i put in the author's note that i thought like four people would read it.

and then it turned out to be one of my more popular fics, and the author's note is there to commemorate the egg on my face. sometimes you fuck up the math.

🤍what's one fic of yours you think people didn't "get"?

hmmm. I wouldn't say that there's a fic that y'all didn't get, but more that there's like, scenes or specific details of fics that I see the comments and think, "oh i had a completely different take away from that then a lot of my readers." which can be a lot of fun! like, it's always cool to see how works resonate differently with people. it still catches me off guard sometimes.

like, a lot of y'all hated gertrude in the last chapter of nhthcth, and i wrote that scene like "I physically cannot imagine her being nicer about it than this. did i make her TOO nice, actually." And then i got to the comments and was like "oh good news they do not think i made her too nice."

i think probably the closest thing that i've seen to people not getting like, the fic itself is that I do see a lot of people taking sides in kintsugi--like, Matt or Frank's argument as to peter (as well as one VERY angry person who was taking tony's side but like. not on anything to do with peter)--when i personally think that everyone's a little wrong and the fact that there are sides to begin with is a big mistake but i have the context of the full plot and y'all do not

[frostcorpsclub]

What traditional slasher do you think Jack would get along with best? (traditional meaning the main popular ones, freddy, michael, chucky, etc)

OOU this is interesting! I'm gonna answer this purely in terms of canon so when I call Jack a father I'm referring to the snowballs.

Freddy Kruger of fucking course. As long as Freddy doesn't talk about the...elephant in the room of his own canon criminal record they'd be like two peas in a pod. Obviously they have similar senses of humor and I think they'd admire the others vast reach (Freddys victims being unable to escape him since humans will die without sleep and Jack's constant mutations combined with seemingly overriding climate on huge areas of land.) I can see them clashing at one point or another because of their egos and Freddy especially probably wouldn't be able to look past "competition" to see a strong ally and compatible friend. We don't get to know if Jack NEEDS to sleep so assuming they did have a falling out he'd be safe at least but that brings about the question of how they might meet in the first place.

2. I think that Jack's relationship with Chucky would be a lot more harmonious considering the turn the series took with bride and seed in addition with the recent show. Chucky still has many of the qualities of...a random middle aged man from new jersey, I think him and Jack could be friends totally outside of the realm of killing people not just in addition to it. They love to complain, they're both perverts, probably feeding into eachother with those things as neither could see "what was so wrong" about what the other said. You ever meet a person who was like "I'm not rude I'm brutally honest," yeah they'd make eachother worse.

Jack doesn't have as much experience with the domestic lifestyle as Chucky but I'm sure he'd appreciate having another slasher dad friend either way, it'd probably make him feel less...how he felt at the end of seed if you get what I'm talking about. There could even be an interesting moment depending on how quickly Jack tells Chucky that his boys are dead, if he does so at all. Who knows, maybe the whole thing would send Jack into delusional hysteria and he'd make up excuses as to why his new friend would never meet his kids, pretending they're still alive.