#but I’ve seen at least two other commenters in the tags with some variation of it? | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

drawnaghht · 2 years ago

Text

tag guide anyone? + differentiating between usagis (thinkpiece)

I'm really just curious now if something like a "tagging guide" would help? If you would like this, or know if anyone else has posted something like this, sound off in the comments or like/reblog to agree ^^

I posted a poll about this on twt and it looks like 13 so far really want one, so I’m putting a lil test post around here too. I also found while researching for this post that apparently on tumblr, the first 20 tags show up in search! so I guess they changed that from 5 to 20 at some point. huh. that’s a bit more helpful than just 5 tags!

I’ve noticed sometimes people have no idea what to tag with a show like Usagi Chronicles that is less than 2 years old and is based on existing IP, but also that ppl use a lot of tags in general, perhaps confused about what is the “main tag” or most used tag for a character in rottmnt for example. So I started writing a little tag guide, which I’ll post the draft of at the bottom this thinkpiece. The main issue around tumblr seems to be excessive mis-tagging or multi-tagging i.e when a character isn’t there. I think I’ve seen this in some other fandoms too (primarily bigger fandmos), but I’m not gonna get too deep into it. You can skip to “tagging guide” via CTRL+F to search it on the page. I’ve also included a little character “separator” part with graphics, cuz it seems some are having trouble seeing the characters differently from fanart alone. I thought it would help to post more of the “source” materials ^^

Also if you have problems differentiating between the two in general…aside from both being white long-eared rabbits they are almost as different as night and day, at least on the surface ^^;; Here is a helpful post by Freakova, about how to tell the difference between Miyamoto Usagi and Yuichi Usagi, ancestor and descendant respectively:

https://freakova.tumblr.com/post/707461151549702144/i-made-this-for-my-besties-to-help-explain-the

But I kinda get it! Especially if characters are intentionally obfuscated a bit (e.g. there are characters in the show who can’t tell between Miyamoto and Yuichi Usagi, but it is mostly used as plot hook/humor). But they have different names and characteristics and slightly differing fanbases on a site like tumblr, so separating them in tags is helpful. I think part of it also comes from the name confusion, but I already wrote a post about that. Imo, if you have your own design already and it looks like neither of the two characters, you can just use “Rise Usagi” or “rottmnt Usagi” or other variations as tags, those are popular and used enough already that you don’t need to use the main character tags ^^

Personally, I would only like to see Yuichi Usagi in his own tags when it applies (he’s in the pic/fic), but if he’s not, well, what are you doing tagging him there?

I also get that some newer/younger TMNT fans apparently didn’t know the Usagi characters are from their own franchise for a short while last year (but ppl probably learned, right? I’ve literally only seen posts/tweets asking what the series is abt and unrelated posts exasperated that ppl don’t know) but visually they’re quite distinct, even if they are all white rabbits. I’ll post these comparisons just so I can use the tags properly and not piss off anyone else.

We have the original Usagi and his 1000-years later descendant.

Stan Sakai based Miyamoto Usagi largely on his childhood inspiration of samurai films, mainly “Samurai Trilogy” starring Mifune Toshiro playing Miyamoto Musashi, a real-life samurai who inspired many other films and adaptations. You can hear more about how Stan created Usagi here in this Portland Art Museum video where he explains and draws his Usagi. The story usually goes that he drew a rabbit with a chonmage (the edo-period top-knot) and suddenly, Usagi was born.

In the show he has a slightly older-looking design? but in the comics his look varies slightly because the series has been going for 40 years and the character has developed over the pages. so he can look slightly different cover to cover, page to page, but mostly it’s all him, the same character, just different situations, life periods and emotions. So he can look different in official material depending which publication period you start reading from, but mostly the same.

Then we have both the Miyamoto Usagi’s in different animated mediums,

And Yuichi in different media (show itself in 3D and 2D and merch by Stan)

And then there’s also Jotaro (very important Usagi Yojimbo character introduced early on/vol 1) and Yamamoto Yukichi(introduced in later stories/vol 4), who I think people aren’t mixing up with any of the previous rabbits yet, but who knows, i don’t look through absolutely all the tags myself after all and tumblr seems to have a problem of not showing much older posts in the public tag search anymore, so I can’t find older posts I used to see anymore ^^;

More thoughts on tagging + being a fan under cut.

This … is not really a vent or analysis post, I can't get that upset about it myself. with real life worries etc - fandom is supposed to be a fun outlet for creativity, at least for me. So I try not to feel anything about it. But tagging has always seemed fairly straight-forward to me and it’s mostly to organize a blog/find other people with similar interests. Writing non-structured non-essays is basically how I interact with a piece of media when I feel like fanart is not enough. And because tumblr posts now apparently Do Not HAve Limits, this is a better alternative to tag rambles.

-------------------

So when I saw the post about the Miyamoto Usagi tag I remembered that this was why I didn’t use the “follow tag” feature + the “your tags” tab as much myself (aside from not having it before and not being used to it on tumblr). Because usually with bigger fandoms, people do mis-tag or tag their other shows/fandoms into it without including the main character, this happens on occasion because there are a lot of people using the tag. I also don’t follow the Leosagi tag anymore for the same reason, that people can’t seem to differentiate between the characters and it becomes hard to tell what they want to post or which character they are talking about/drawing ^^;

As pointed out by Tamalinvonpineapple's post about it, people mis-tag Yuichi Usagi and Miyamoto Usagi and that’s a problem for people who would like to see just one of those characters but not mis-tagged as the other. I’m not gonna assume these are made in bad faith e.g. intentionally to piss off other fans, cuz there can be so many different reasons for people doing this. This post is also not gonna get into ship tags much because that is a contentious topic and tbh, left for a separate thinkpiece (I also already wrote smth abt tags for myself).

I tried to find out more possible reasons for mistagging in general or what the general consensus on tumblr is about tagging but it seems (or we can assume) it is a “bad practice” from how social media sites have given a slightly different use for tags tiktok/instagram/twitter - “tag for reach” - so like those social media accounts for companies that spam other tags. I do see this in anime/manga fandoms occasionally. Not just for the different spellings of characters (e.g, when a dub would give the character a new name; japanese vs western way of writing names) but specifically when 1 character is the only one there and the tags then have 30 other characters listed as well so the post/media would show up in search. But I wonder where this habit is from? Aren’t people curious to see what other tags their character/show have? I remember that on sites like blogger, we only tagged so that we could find things later, so people often made their own custom tags, i.e. "my work on the show" or "midnight doodlies". if a show got tagged, for example TMNT or Usagi, it would probably get 1-word/1-phrase tag (i.e. “turtles” “turtlies” “mutant turtles”) or just the series title tag - either the abbreviation or full name of a series/comic/cartoon depending on content. When it comes to tumblr tags, I remember getting annoyed at NOTPs permeating the tags as well. Or just posts about other seriesM multi-crossovers where your blorbo is only there to die, but then is still tagged after that; edits that have no relation to the character but they share a name or tag for whatever reason and you keep seeing these unrelated posts in the tags. I’ve seen more than enough from almost any of the fandom tags I’ve visited on tumblr. So I get how annoying mistagging itself can be.

But basically in regards to tags on tumblr itself, it seems people misuse them mainly because they don't know or don't like the tags for the other shows. Folks also like to see their posts get to as many people as possible, which I understand, I do the same on instagram, cuz that’s what I’ve learned by other artists example. Seems to make sense that more tags = more views. On tumblr, this sort of doesn’t always work this way. I could post a drawing from a popular cartoon and get maybe 5 notes total in 12 years, while a scribble I deemed too ugly to tag properly might get 54 notes on it’s first day. It’s almost like a Murphy’s Law of Tumblr that what you expect to do well, doesn’t. It’s just how it is here and I’m so used to it, it feels weird to complain about it, even on other sites with actual algorhitms and working apps etc.

Well, as a fan of the Usagi Chronicles show, perhaps what makes me more sad is that this has had the adverse effect of older TMNT/Usagi Yojimbo fans being so angry that they can’t stand the show/character itself now, even if they already disliked it before seeing other fans post about it. Which is just plain sad because some people even make up stuff about it just to discredit it as a show that Stan Sakai worked on. I understand that people have different reasons to dislike the show, most probably valid, but they also assume many things about it, to the point of stating them as fact when the opposite is true. I have… a different post about it. In general, we can say that being online seems to be the common thread between fans annoyed at fans.

In some ways, what’s even sadder however is an empty or unactive tag. Imagine that the last post you saw in that tag is still the one from 2013 you made yourself. It’s a bit annoying seeing people mistag or post unrelated fanart in it but hey, maybe this means they also read the tag? A chance to educate or get more views on your own fandom? Just a chance for communication? I know that doesn’t seem very appealing when those same fans are the ones mis-using the tag, but it just seems better than something completely empty. Of course, this is not a problem for TMNT fandoms perhaps, but from my experience in smaller fandoms, or being a fan of smaller/less popular media. And with how much there is mainly ship-related posts in almost all the Usagi Chronicles tags, this seems to be a matching experience I’ve been having so far in the Usagi tags. The comic series tag itself is also often full of other things, or only ship things, or sometimes only TMNT things for a short bit, but overall, I guess at least people use it?? But I would still like it that Samurai Rabbit, SRTUC, etc stuff gets tagged with those tags so I can actually find it instead of combing through multiple tags at a time just to see something new. While the newer “Your tags” feature on tumblr makes this a bit easier, I can see the easy annoyance at when people tag a character but then don’t include the character. and to add insult to injury, they tag a different character, but without acknowleding the first character at all.

But this is now like a joint fandom for a crossover for two franchises which have had crossovers before and now… there’s sort of a joint fandom? Sort of? So because it’s a bit bigger, it feels nice when other fans are considerate of small things like tagging. Now, on the whole, while many do still mistag and the leosagi tag is still mainly yuichi x leo for many, I’ve also seen in my own tagscrambles that not as many do this as much anymore, or going through a tag in time, the newer stuff seems to do this less. So like I’ve written in previous posts, my honest hope is just that fandom will adapt and grow into healthier online habits. Still, there are a few other things in the tags that I just can’t help but notice each time. it’s also why I don’t bother too much with repeat-viewing tags unless I’m looking for something specific.

It often feels like people just make up their own versions of any Usagi and/or write off the show as “too bad to watch”. And. idk, this just makes me feel sad about it because as mentioned above, I’ve seen it before in other smaller fandoms I’m in. In transformative works, it’s fairly normal that people make their own versions of a show or it’s characters, because that’s something fun to do with fanart and fic. But to openly hate a character? idk man, just feels weird to me personally. Like I don’t have the energy for hatedom. I know my little sibling really gets into hating one series that really disappointed her as a viewer, but even she now says that it’s an odd way to spend time, when she could be making fanart of something she likes instead. And I get that. I also spent my earlier non-internet days being more hateful of new media I disliked at the start, and while expressing that isn’t always bad (it’s just an iopinion), it became weirdly detrimental to me actually enjoying stuff in my tweens. Everything me and my friends and their friends ever talked about, was related to somehow being more above others or knowing better than others, being hateful of anything new or popular. And without quite realizing it right away, that was really tiring. Even if I spent time on things I did like, hobbies I enjoyed, that hate and childhood snobbishness sorta simmered there. I remember that for me it mainly came from “oh, I want to be a real animator one day, I should act like a real profesional adult and always be critical of the media I view, because that’s how I see adults treat real serious film.” Fast-forward 15 years, I’ve been through making comics as a tween, making fanart as a teen, I’ve been making a lot of different kinds of “cartoon art” in general as well as some actual art education, thinking, maybe I want to have some more general art schooling too. Later in my mid-twenties, I met someone with this similar mindset to my childhood self, who at first I got along with. We laughed at cartoons we didn’t like and made fun of the bad endings of those we did. At some point, I listened to them talking about getting to visit a big animation festival. And how they completely unironically expressed their hate directly at a leading crew member of a cartoon they didn’t like. And then I realized like. Wait a fucking minute. I don’t wanna act like this to other people! And this is why I don’t really “shoot the shit” about cartoons I don’t like as publicly anymore as I maybe once would have online on tumblr etc. Like I just don’t get it anymore. At most I’ll write down my thoughts somewhere private or to friends and try to understand why I don’t like the thing. And if it’s a very simple dislike, I just don’t spend time on it.

So like, I don’t get the hate the show (SRTUC) and character(Yuichi Usagi) get. Like I can understand sort of where people are coming from. but I don’t get why they gotta publicly tag it, announce it, or put it in the reblogged tags sometimes. the og poster sees that after all? so that’s like a bigger thought for me when it comes to tags.

I believe people can learn to be nice about a show they don’t like, but if they start to feel annoyed at fandom parts of the web they see online, they also start to feel hate toward a specific show, even if the show or thing itself might not be as bad. Example - I have this toward Star Wars for example, it’s a big fandom. I feel indifferent now, but in my youth, I found it annoying that everyone was talking about it as if it was the best thing ever, when it was spoiled for most of my childhood for me, and also felt like a generic movie series after all that. Something growing in popularity, or being really popular in a niche fandom can make ppl dislike it in general and that’s fairly ordinary as fandoms go. Often, people just don’t like a popular thing. Just think of series of like GoT/ASoIaF or HP. But then again those go down the cultural road so easily, I suppose in countries where western-media is really popular/common, it becomes like a cultural osmosis and fans can assume *everyone* likes it, even if not everyone does. I’m thinking about the fresh 30+ dads from 10 years ago I read about who only interacted with their kids through their own nerd interests. Pokemon is such a culturally permeated thing, it’s everywhere and everyone seems to assume everyone has played it or at least knows about it, even if at some point, some of us were big fans of Digimon instead, or some don’t like it at all. At some point, my dad gifted me a Harry Potter book, even though I (non-vocally) disliked it, but it was in the cultural osmosis here so strongly that it was everywhere and he just assumed I was into it (bless his heart, he genuinely didn’t know). HP was something that I initially disliked because it was so popular, but the idea of a “basic magic premise, but extended” seemed interesting, and it was required reading in my middle school, so at 11, I went to see the movie and thought, alright, maybe I’ll give it a chance. But reading the book I found things that didn’t make sense to me, that didn’t match what seemed like the themes of the book (the whole slave freedom plot for example) so I always sort of kept it at arms-length - not quite getting into it, but also not turning it away if I found anything, not saying anything upsetting to people who were fans of it. Everyone at my school read it though to varying degrees, or at least everyone knew things about it even if they weren’t fans or weren’t invested at all. (This was all before we knew JKR is a vocal TERF, so now I feel a bit validated in my dislike, even if I feel sad for the fans who got something positive out of the series).

So point being, fandom can have different types of people in it. A type of media will often accrue a specific type of fan and sometimes it won’t match what the show itself puts out. E.g. fans acting in ways that go squarely against what the media talks about (Steven Universe is a popular show with many fans that comes to mind), or a show having an unexpected viewership next to it’s intended demographic (us 90s kids still being cartoon fans in our late 20s/30s/early 40s). It’s slightly unpredictable in a general way.

Of course, TMNT fandom is a bit different from those bigger properties because it was an indie comic made in the 80s that was so different and off-the-wall indie for a comicbook, it sold out and gave its creators Eastman and Laird a hefty legacy, lasting careers and actual money. Good for them! Personally I think it’s thanks to how genuinely creative and collaborative their work was then. Like Usagi Yojimbo, it’s an old comicbook/franchise now, so the “fandom” as such differs from generation to generation, from childhood to childhood. I met the turtles for the first time with the 87 series in the early 90s, then the next time w the 2003 series, which i initially hated as that angry, cartoon-critical tween, but was surprised at how much it seemed to take from the comics. I think I was initially angry about it for different reasons, mainly, “why is it so serious? why are the jokes so lame?” and also because I had invested so much emotionally into the idea of seeing something as good as the 80s cartoon again... but then found that it grew on me and now 20 years later I can look at it with nostalgia. As a result, my reaction to the 2012 series was mostly “wow another TMNT cartoon?” and “huh it looks interesting” and “oh I’ve seen this person work on another cartoon before”. My little sibling on the other hand only saw the 2003 cartoon and their reaction the the 2012 adaptation was “Wow, THEY’RE FINALLY TEENS” because as kids, we thought the 2003 TMNT looked and sounded “too much like boring adults”. But from many online fanspaces back then a lot of the more vocal reactions was around “THE 3D IS SO UGLY” and “WHY ARE THEY SO YOUNG”. You’ve probably heard similar sentiments of various degrees if you’ve been a fan or viewer of any TMNT cartoon.

Usagi Yojimbo is unique in this sense because Stan Sakai has been the only one drawing and writing the comicbook for 40 years. Some of the visual style and writing tone change from book to book, but it’s gradual because Stan has changed as an artist and writer too. If you look at any comic series like this, it’s actually a natural part of many comics i.e. webcomics used to be a prominent example of this, as the creators were often complete novices at the beginning and graduated to a more consistent style. But even from a surface level view, lets say, reading other people’s reviews, you can see that people really enjoy Usagi Yojimbo for how consistent it is with it’s treatment of its characters, story and Edo-period culture. Stan Sakai really does his research and puts respect back into fiction inspired by samurai. Even though guides will often tell you that you can jump into the series from any point in the series, there’s just something really consistent about it as a whole. Sakai gets to do whatver he wants with his books and what he does seems to be thought-out usually. Even if the early animated adaptations were a bit incorrect, comic readers in general have a lot of respect for Stan and his work. My favourite part about this all is how Usagi Yojimbo is actually used to teach about japanese culture in a college course in the US.

Because both TMNT and UY are originally creator-owned comics (still so with UY regardless of publisher or adaptations but not so much TMNT as Viacom bought the rights in 2009), perhaps the general fan experience is more similar to original comics fandoms in Japan. Although whether a series is creator-owned varies from series to series, the manga and magazines culture in Japan seems wholly different from what US comicbooks were in the 80s and even what they still are now in that regard. Because a series will more often be written and illustrated by the same creator/artist/team, there are less variations and book-to-book differences both visually and tonally. In the US, a comicbook series can start with an artist-writer team, but then switch if the editorial decides some change is needed. This is something that often affects consistency and a story or character’s canon eventually and in a convoluted way, it’s the reason why we got “alternate earths” and “multiverse crossovers”. Which, while fun, make american comicbooks hard to read for some newer readers. Even with TMNT, once Eastman and Laird started having less time to make the comics and their other problems, it led into breaking off their creative partnership and never speaking again. But they had to continue the comic. If before the feud, they would just have fun passing the pages between each other, now they actually so they wrote it he series became different based on who was writing it. One more sci-fi leaning and one more martial-arts and mysticism leaning. You can see this difference in the TMNT animated adaptations as well. The 2003 series namely is more based on Laird’s storylines in the comics and he was also consultant on the series. After the 2009 sale of Mirage to Viacom, we get the 2012 series, where Eastman acts as consultant, so it’s more heavy on his ideas of what the TMNT are. In 2019, the documentary series “Toys that made us” brought them together for the first time in almost 2 decades. And then we fans got to have The Last Ronin, a collaboration between the two again.

(What I’ve paraphrased here is mostly based on this video overview of how the comic became a franchise “How did a violent indie comic become a $15,000,000,000 franchise?” by matttt if you’re interested in seeing and hearing a more picturesque summary of this)

So getting back to fandom, because it’s mostly been one comicbook series, both the more avid and casual UY comics fans might not be used to there being adaptations of Stan’s Usagi. Yes, even with the visual examples I brought up above, perhaps some simply haven’t seen the animated adaptations because these are still marketed “for kids”. This is like the only reason I can think of that people who are 30+ adults, go online to complain about the Chronicles series online, even though it’s obviously for kids, meaning they probably didn’t even watch it. Folks are “surprised” Stan “let Netflix ruin his series” etc - even if it’s explicitly in a new futuristic setting to avoid affecting the comics canon. It will be interesting to know how people react when or if Sakai puts out his “Kagemusha” anthology, where the idea is about different creators telling different Usagi stories.

Even TMNT fans, many of whom don’t know Usagi beyond the animated adaptations, might jump in with this similar mindset of “different = bad”. Maybe there’s a manga/anime adaptation out there with the fans having similar concerns about their adaptations. Sailor Moon comes to mind, but as always, people’s grievances with an adaptation may have good reasons underneath. But also I’ve personally never seen an avid Sailor Moon fans be as annoying as the casual Star Wars fan. It might also depend on the age and lifestyle of the fan. Someone who is a teacher or parent, maybe they’ve met more people, put more thought into it, might feel milder about new or different things vs someone who is used to going online to see people angry and enjoys getting into arguments.

If I start to think about it, I can get a similar reaction out of myself. It was hard to look at mid-00s fanart of Usagi because it always felt a bit “extreme” like fans changed things about Usagi to suit their own understanding or image of samurai, which was always more based on popular movies or anime rather than the comic. I think this is just a general thing about fanart over the times. I still balk at some fanart, either UY or SRTUC, if for example the sides of the clothes are opposite - right over left, for burials vs left over right, like the letter ‘y’ - because it just means the fanartist didn’t bother to look up even references. Most times people just don’t know about this sort of stuff, they might be anime fans or they might even be part of a different asian culture, but it it’s not something that’s taught, of course it won’t reflect in something like fanart. But then, it’ll just be something new to learn. To me it also speaks of a wider annoyance of people liking things only for the surface-level appeal.

Usagi Yojimbo I’ve noticed has much more of a fanbase than fandom. I know fanbase doesn’t get used much as a term these days as more and more media gets an active fandom rather than staying at a fanbasem but it’s a term I’d like to use in this case. “The Wilkes Beacon” in 2014 defines the difference so: “Not everything with a fanbase has a fandom, because a fandom is a group of committed fans who are always vocally interested in their “thing,” usually expressing that on a social website such as Tumblr. Just because you’re a fan doesn’t mean the fandom will accept you.” Indeed sometimes fandom feels almost like being in a separate part of the club, only for people in the know about it. The origin for fanbase is attributed to early 20th century baseball fans. The origin of fandom, most well-known as a portmanteau of fan + kingdom, is often attributed to the original Sherlock Holmes fans who actually gathered to mourn the character when Arthur Conan Doyle decided to kill him off (bless your hearts and souls, sometimes it feels like fandom has never changed) but also from early 20th century sports fans and 60s Trekkies, who saved their show. A lot of different sources give different origins and histories for these words and many will also equate them as synonymous.

My own experiences tell me that a fanbase is more general - any fans of a thing, whether they attend conventions, buy the media or no (i.e. Sherlock Holmes readers, sports fans) and will comprise the “base” of any activity - the larger number of fans that exist for a piece of media/sport/celebrity. A fandom will be the more “active” part, more interested in being connected with each other within that fanbase. Of course, to any other person outside of fans, both of these will be synonymous and a fan will look weird and fanatical regardless of how little they invest themselves into a media. But I’’m making this distinction to describe what I see as more casual and more active “fanbase as a whole”. Fanbase as a word feels more general, while Fandom sounds more specific. So as an example, the One Piece “fanbase” might feel large and more everywhere, like with pokemon or Sherlock Holmes the book, but the OP fandom can feel more active and particitative, like the .It’ll depend entirely on what way each person interacts with the media. Do you have friends who are also fans of the series? it’s like a fandom. You just watch it but don’t participate as much? You’re in the fanbase, but you might partake in fandom activities if you feel like it. You might be a more casual fan, but you might have more avid feelings about the series as well, but you’re not that interested in making fanworks or posts or reacting to other fans at all. A fandom might be big, but more ubiquitous, more silent and conversely, some fandoms may be small, but still very active and vocal. I’ve often theorized that this is because So UY online fandom sorta feels like the latter, but more under-the-radar. Small and active but also more silent and appreciative. With the previous “big fandoms” example, it’s also the juxtaposition between Old and New that comes into play. An old Spidey fan from the 70s might have become an official Spiderman fanartist, but they might not partake in all the fan stuff they used to anymore. Still a fan, but maybe the newer and younger “fandom” as such is just not appealing to them in the same way.

The larger or more advertised a TV series or book is, the larger and more annoying its fanbase in general. If a piece of media has less popularity, it will ergo have a smaller fanbase and sometimes no “active fandom” at all. So now with the Samurai Rabbit: the Usagi Chronicles TV show as an animated spinoff-adaptation, we have a similar problem that TMNT fans have been familiar with over the decades. Thanks to the show, there’s a more active, slightly younger fandom who want to connect over the series and maybe even read the comicbook, know more about the source and origins, they might want to even know how the show was made, make fanart or fic. So fans like any other, but just that the media they’re a fan of now, is still relatively new. Maybe these newer fans act or write differently online from how older fans are used to. Maybe they even treat the original source comic differently or just don’t know anything about it. In any case, new series and new fans will generally seem annoying because culturally that’s what we’ve started to associate some of fandom with. Otaku culture etc. So it and it’s fans might get the “new thing” treatment as mentioned above with the TMNT animated adaptations.

The difference here is that Stan Sakai has been wanting his own animated adaptation for a long time (just look at the Space Usagi pilot for proof) and while many suggested projects to him before, this one actually piqued his interest bc they did something new with the characters. You could say that what people don't like abt this series are some decisions resulting from this being a netflix cartoon for kids. the decision to set it in a near-future with a new younger for example, was made in the beginning by netflix and I haven’t found any articles yet that’s found a legit reason for why it stayed this way. My guess based on interviews with Stan and crew is that Stan found it interesting as a possible new way to get more readers to the comic. Something for the younger generation. Although many readers and even parents will attest that the comic is child-appropriate (and really, it is), the TV-Y7 ratings and so on exist for a reason. And while I would love for more western studios to get funding for more adult animation in general (I’m not from the US myself and animation such a large medium, the way that genres are explored or what gets made for adults vs kids feeks so different elsewhere), I think it’s good that the first full series based on UY is this “non-violent” (your mileage may vary). Because a lot of the more vocal adult fans of UY seem more focused on the violence vs what kids might get out of it. A popular quote from Sakai is “Once, a mother asked me, 'What is Usagi Yojimbo about?' and before I could answer, her son said, 'It’s about honor.'" (Komai for JANM, 2011). Sometimes it seems like the “older adults” or the “more casual” fans of UY sort of don’t get it.

Even the naming of the series and character has reasons, which I’ve seen some Rise Leosagi shippers make their own reasons for. So the various hate from “older fans” I see about it is strange because all evidence points to the show having Sakai’s approval and his full involvement. Of course, I could also be wrong, but watching the series, it doesn’t feel to me like an “empty cashgrab” as one angry TMNT fan put it. It feels more like something made by other UY fans, those more familiar than I was at the time, with both Usagi Yojimbo lore as well as the culture and lore behind it. In their quest to properly honor the comic series they loved, crew put a lot research hours into making sure both edo and post-edo periods got to be part of their show. Like “trips to japan during a pandemic” type of research. The show is an interesting fusion of old and modern in futuristic setting and feels wholly unique as an experiment.

Another aspect of course is also the shipping parts of fandom. I can never quite get my head behind this “arguing about ships” because it just reminds me of my Grandma and her older sister fighting over their soap operas and who should get together with who. And alright, maybe this was fun for them...? I’ve never been that invested in this myself but it can be fun to have a pairing you root for in a show, when it’s just a bunch of connected ideas over the story, there really seems like a real genuine connection between the characters or if there’s a chance to connect with other fans over it. That’s kind of what fandom is for me in general, but with crossover ships, it’s like a strange and interesting combination of “oooh what interesting similarities and differences” and “lets find out” with fanworks.

This is the main way I enjoy making crossovers in general work, even if I’ve never finished an actual fic (I’m more of an artist) and even if the works sometimes don’t go together (it’s like a fun challenge). I wonder sometimes if the SRTUC crew also imagined crossovers with TMNT? As in this fanart post on facebook by Samurai Rabbit character designer Andry R, I wonder what that could have been like. After all, if many of the crew are fans too, it just makes sense to think about that? it’s fun to think of crossovers after all! And since it’s fanwork, I personally don’t feel as obligated to make some of the quality as insanely good as I would have in my younger days. I want to enjoy the art making process too, so putting research and sketches into a piece is sometimes my own “enough”. So I don’t really care about views either because I know even now, tastes might still just be not geared toward something sketchier that I make.

Even so, despite the experience with online sites and social media people have in general, or other artists/fans encouraging to feel a bit less worried about socmedia algorhitms, it might be frustrating that posts are not as popular even if your idea feels great.

So connecting all of that fandom talk, I can only assume people mistag between a popular and non-popular series for similar reasons. As said earlier, fans might assume everyone prefers the popular thing and that it’s better to tag that popular/bigger/older thing. Because at least that So in our case, I’ve noticed more that ppl tag Yuichi Usagi with the Miyamoto Usagi tag. From the surface, it seems like people don’t know about the Yuichi tags/show or they just don’t like it for some other reason. Now Tumblr is more a “home of fandoms” than casual fans, as most of the user-generated content is entirely by people who get much more invested in a series than a casual fan. Similarly I’ll see people tag their TMNT 2012 inspired fandesigns as ROTTMNT as well, because that is simply seen as the popular fandom at the time ergo, more attention on your post.

Maybe a solution for the mis-tagging could be smth as simple as fandom outreach, something active to unite the different types of fans into using tags correctly, but of course, something more active and social might feel more unnatural, as most of us are more wall-flower than social butterfly - working off the assumption here that most fans are shy. I used to be pretty shy as a fan and now I’m more active and out-going in general in my adult years, but at the same time, doing something socially more active is still a scary thought in my brain so I can understand that it’s easier to just tag and hope it’s correct. Or easier to make ticked off posts vs something with a different kind of effort. But then again, as brought up in my examples of other fandoms, being a fan can make people very active in taking part in similar fan activities. As we all enjoy the same thing in different ways or different media in similar ways, we are all still fans at the end of the day. Whether casual or more involved, that’s a unique experience that should unite us. So I’ll have my peace with the older cartoon-hating fans who only view Usagi Chronicles as an empty children’s cartoon etc etc.

So, because I’m an adult, but also an artist and animation fan, this is how I’ve been approaching TV cartoons for the past 5-10 years. Against my first reaction of “oh, this is too slow for me” the way I chose to view the series once I saw more of it was “I’m an adult, and this is a cartoon made my other older adults, for kids - let me see what it’s about”. It’s more about curiosity and seeing what other creatives have done to put connective tissue between one idea to another.

Personally when it comes to tagging I try to keep to a general amount of “minimum amount of tags possible” bc I’m a bit lazy but also, I will never find anything on my own blog later if I used more than 20 tags about a simpler fanart post. So maybe like 1-2 tags for show/series, 1-2 tags for characters and my own art tags. I am lazy but I also like being considerate with other people. But also because of my previous experience with blogging, I like to keep tags I re-use as consistent as possible so I have the same experience. Of course, sometimes I forget what I’ve actually used if there are many tags i.e. many characters. so keeping the tags short is a boon for that end.

Here is the draft version for the UY and Usagi Chronicles tag guide, i'm gonna change this more but this is mostly how I've been tagging stuff (or have tried to so far) and I wrote a small guide back in march before all this, but have been coming back to it now with more general and character tags in mind.

== Tagging Guide ==

Hello Rise of the TMNT and Usagi Chronicles joint fandom! Here’s a guide on how to tag Usagi Chronicles/Samurai Rabbit stuff! Mostly it’s my own view on how to tag things based on how I interact w the fandom stuff posted here but also from my experience of using tumblr and older blogging platforms - how I see the most common/make-sensical ways to tag characters/shows. But maybe you will find this useful too, fellow fan!

Usagi Yojimbo - the name of the original comicbook series - I decidedly reserve this for posts and reblogs ONLY about the Usagi Yojimbo comic (pages covers,, screenshots, memes), or general fanart of the comic or its characters. This helps me keep it separate so I can find posts about it later.

Usagi Chronicles - personally I use this for all content for the show, but especially the crossover stuff and my own art posts. This seems to be the most commonly used unique tag about this show.

SRTUC - acronym, good for short posts, for quick tagging. but I also use this to tag general reblogged posts about the show

Samurai Rabbit - I only try to use this if it is about the official stuff, like interviews and GIF/screenshots in bulk (more than 2). This tag gets used a lot for both the series but before that it was also used for posting general UY comics content and alternate covers by other artists, as well as for original samurai rabbits unaffiliated by UY. It is too general for me to use it on my own posts outside of text posts maybe.

Samurai Rabbit the Usagi Chronicles - mostly I use this tag for more general posts, but also reblogs if someone else has made something directly related to the series.

SamuraiRabbitNetflix - lol I only use this one on twitter, bc I saw someone from the crew use it and it has stuck for most of my more finished posts I guess ^^ Literally nobody else on tumblr uses it which is fine, but I think it’s a good way to separate the series and the more general posts people make about the comic or guest art of it (or sometimes original art unrelated to UY)

Characters:

Miyamoto Usagi - I try to mainly use it for just comic Usagi and fanart, but occasionally I will use it for fanart depicting

Rise Miyamoto Usagi - Any Rise!versions of comics Usagi. Usually these are fandesigns, but sometimes fans will adapt it wholesale (usually adapting him from his younger years). Sometimes it is unclear which version it is based on or it is a completely original version so I simply tag these as Rise Usagi.

Yuichi Usagi - pretty self-explanatory! I only use this for posts/fanart including Yuichi Usagi (but not when he is only mentioned in passing). Sometimes it is hard to differentiate between these versions however,

Usagi fandesign/Yuichi Usagi fandesign/Miyamoto Usagi fandesign - I use all these tags to organize the fandesigns ppl make of all these characters, reserving “Usagi fandesign” when it’s really an original design based on various canon Usagi concepts or more of a “general” Usagi than a specific one i.e. meant for the Rise or 2012 TMNT crossover AUs. This counts for me in reblogs also when the OP hasn’t really decided what the character is and has tagged both characters. Lol there is a lot of different fanart of these characters and for my own sake, I tag these separately where possible so I can find the fanart easier later (especially if the posts themselves have text which doesn’t use these names, or if tumblr search is not working on blogs)

UY character - I use “UY” as the common acronym before characters from UY, but I also generally tag their names in reblogs. idk, this just makes it easier for me to find them later in my own blog and that’s all (Kenichi and Mariko for example are quite common Japanese names)

Tomoe Ame - This character just deserves her own tag, but also, I think the 03 version, while quite different, can fit in the same tag because people don’t post about them as much ^^;;

And now for the TMNT tags!

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - the official name! long, but good if you are tagging official stuff i.e. screenshots, gifs, concept art, tweets from crew etc

ROTTMNT - good short catch-all tag, lots of ppl use this to tag their reblogs quickly, but shorter posts can also go under here

Rise of the TMNT - Slightly longer tag than the full acronym, but more descriptive, if you wanna make sure people know it’s a TMNT show

Rise TMNT - I’ve seen a few ppl use this as a tag and it’s a valid way to tag (short and unique) but it’s not as popular as the others

2018 TMNT - again, general tag for the series. Common way to make a tag for a TMNT series - adding the year of airing before the TMNT acronym. Same with TMNT 2018. Same for the comics! I’ll use IDW TMNT as a tag for example, bc it seems widely used and understood.

TMNT18 - same as the previous one, but shorter! There are a lot of TMNT media besides the comics, (movies, animated series, etc) so it’s a general easier practice to tag via year. Ppl also sometimes use the variation 18TMNT. Anything is basically fair game with these general tags as long as the author of a blog finds stuff later.

Characters![I’m not sure about the characters yet bc I use the tags differently than other people apparently. my blog my rules i guess!]

rottmnt [character] - reserved for when i tag this character in crossovers, eg rottmnt April, rottmnt donnie. I generally use nicknames for the rottmnt boys cuz I am lazy.

Rise [character] e.g. Rise Leo, Rise April - I try and use this just for

April O Neil (full name) - for when I’m tagging them in general and just want to see them in this tag with the other versions

12 April or 12April - for the 2012 TMNT versions of the characters. I often write the tags together bc I am just lazy but in the case of numbers, I can also forget. On tumblr I try to remember to use spaces cuz that is allowed here lol.

----

And that’s it! I have more in the list, but that is the gist of the style of it. Basically hust explaining what I’ve seen and if/how I use it on my own blog. Let me know if you have more thoughts about this. I’m curious to know what other fans of both series think!

13 notes · View notes

puffpasstea · 2 years ago

Text

Satellite

Warnings: drugs, alcohol

---

Chapter 6

I spent the last two hours of the night, before the sun came up, in the bed in one of Harry’s guest rooms, scrolling on my phone between the seemingly infinite number of “news” articles publicizing the photos from earlier tonight. They were analyzing the handful of pictures that people had snapped. Some clearer than others. The stuff they published made me sick. Not only were they scrutinizing our body language, facial expressions, and my dress, but they had “insider sources” who “reported” that Harry and I were “spending time together.” Whatever that meant. I’m sure it was intentionally vague. Designed to get clicks and keep people talking without actually saying anything that would get them in legal trouble. The comment sections oscillated between two extremes. Some commenters left variations of heart and crown emojis, commending Harry for being “such a gentleman” for letting me hold onto his arm, and others called me a fame hungry whore, or a “beard” concealing whatever it is they think Harry has to hide. We aren’t even dating. A fact that hardly seemed relevant to those who were openly offering their very strongly worded opinions on our non-existent relationship. The dizzying speed at which these photos were being shared and written about made me nauseous. Just when I thought I’d seen it all, something new would pop up. My social media accounts exploded with notifications. I don’t know what made my skin crawl more, people I’d known my whole life and hardly ever spoke to who were now suddenly emerging from the midst of nowhere to “reach out” to me, or complete strangers tagging me, commenting on my past posts, and reviewing my every digital move. I instantly felt defensive though I wasn’t sure what I was defending or why. If a few moments of walking alongside Harry had resulted in this burst of articles and rumors, what would people say once they’ve had a few minutes to scroll through my accounts? For a moment, I had the urge to set all of my accounts to “private,” but that somehow felt weird and cowardly. Like I was afraid, or had something to hide.

I’d managed to work myself into another spiral. I needed a break. As the sun was rising in my window, I buried my phone underneath a mountain of pillows and got up to go check on Harry. I hoped the medication he’d been given, and the events of the night before, had knocked him into a deep slumber. When I got to the living room, the couch where I’d set him up, and where he’d drunkenly kissed me, was empty. Shit. Where l was he? How’d he even manage to get up on his own with one of his arms mysteriously immobilized? Why do I feel like I’m in charge of babysitting a toddler?

I walked around the house looking for him. He wasn’t in the kitchen, or in either of the massive dining areas. I went upstairs to his bedroom, but the room was empty and his bed looked untouched. Perfectly made with the throw-pillows symmetrically aligned. He hadn’t slept in it. He was nowhere to be found when I checked the bathroom, and the five guest bedrooms and bathrooms that he’d shown me in a tour of the house upon my arrival. The gardens on his property were enormous, but as far as I could make out from the front of the house, none of them had been lit during the night. No way was he out there on his own.

I dialed Harry’s phone but was sent straight to voicemail. Fuck. Could he have gone back to the hospital, or something? Was he in so much pain that he just had to leave in the middle of the night to go back to the emergency room? If so, why hadn’t he come to get me? Or at least leave a message? My mind had no trouble at all coming up with several violent scenarios for me to choose from. So. Many. horrible things could’ve happened.

Numerous attempts and three voicemails later, I called Christopher to see if he’d heard from Harry, or if he had any idea where Harry could be.

“I’m sorry, no. I’ve just been sleeping since we dropped him off.” Christopher’s sleepy-leaden voice grumbled from the other end of the line.

I sighed loudly. Unable to voice the spiral in my mind.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure he’s fine. Wherever he is.” Christopher offered, clearing his throat to sound more comprehensible.

“How? How could you be ‘sure he’s fine’ if you have no idea where he is? Hmm? What if he’s hurt? What if he needs help?”

“You’re spinning out, you realize that, right?”

“S-sorry. I just- he’s not well. He’s on pain pills and whatever else he imbibed at the afterparty, and-”

“Fine,” Christopher groaned. “ I’ll come over.”

***

In Harry’s kitchen, Christopher leaned against the counter as I poured us both some coffee from the touch-screen espresso machine that Harry had shown me how to use.

“Should- we call the police? Report him missing?” I asked as I handed Christopher his mug.

“And risk a public outcry? Are you insane?”

We’d spent the early hours of the morning unsuccessfully negotiating with his security guy. We begged him to let us see the security footage to check where Harry might have gone, or if he’d ordered a car or used his own, but the guy wouldn’t budge. Our names were not on Harry’s emergency list. Therefore he wasn’t going to share ANY information with us under any circumstances. Even though we were Harry’s guests.

“At least the police would be able to override the security guy…” I shrugged and took a much needed, enormous sip of my coffee and burned my tongue.

“You’re crazy. It’s Harry Styles. in LA. He’s safe. I’m sure. Don’t worry about it.”

“Are you prepared to deal with the public outcry that will definitely happen if it turns out that he isn’t safe?”

Christopher rolled his eyes.

“Cuz I’m not. Fans will crucify you. For the rest of your life, suspicion will haunt you. You’ll be THAT guy. The guy who could’ve called the police but didn’t. Wonder why? You wanna be that guy, Christopher?”

“Have you…been taking Harry’s pain pills?”

“I hate you.”

Chris laughed and pulled out his phone.

“What are you doing?” I walked over to stand over his shoulder.

“Like I said, it’s Harry Styles, this is LA. Chances are, if he’s somewhere public, someone out there must have seen him somewhere.”

Christopher opened his instagram app and searched for Harry’s name. His account information with its trusty blue checkmark appeared. Christopher swiped to Harry’s “tagged photos” and found the most recent picture he was tagged in. It was from two hours ago.

“Would you look at that?” Christopher handed me his phone and I immediately knew what he meant.

“Of course.” I was relieved he was okay.

“Already on it.” Christopher pulled up his contacts and made the call. “Hey, sorry to wake you. Could you put Harry on the phone, please?”

“Dude, speaker!” I whisper-yelled at Christopher.

He obliged, putting his phone down on the kitchen counter between us and hitting “speaker.”

“He’s not here, Chris. Not anymore, anyway.” Sienna’s voice replied. “He was. A couple of hours ago. Asked if he could borrow my dog and-”

“And you let him??” I interrupted, perhaps a bit too aggressive. Christopher shot me a corrective look.

“Forgive her. She’s really worried. Sienna, did he tell you where he and the dog were going?”

“I don’t know but I can send you the address. He seemed too loopy to drive so I called him an Uber.”

“Text me the address?”

“You got it, Chris.”

Ending the call, Chris gave me a fake sigh and smiled. “You and Harry better get married at the end of all this.”

“Oh, fuck off.”

****

I got into a car to the address that Sienna had sent us without thinking, but now that the driver had dropped me off, it occurred to me that I hadn’t thought far enough into the future to decide what I was going to do. I stood in front of the front door of this home. It must be a friend of Harry’s because the place was in a gated community. Weirdly, Harry’s driver’s car was recognized and allowed inside, so Harry must have been here before. I rang the doorbell without a clue who’d be on the other side, but as soon as the door swung open, everything made sense.

“H-how? How’d you find him?” asked the tall, dark haired man in the sweat suit as soon as he saw me.

“It’s Jeffrey…right? We met. At the Forum, remember?” I extended my hand out.

Remembering his manner, he shook my hand. “Please, call me Jeff.”

“Jeff, I just wanna talk to him. Make sure he’s okay.”

“He’s so gonna kill me for this,” Jeff mumbled under his breath as he stepped aside, letting me in.

“Don’t worry. I won’t let him.”

***

“He’s right through there” Jeff nodded as he walked me down the hallway of the second floor of his home. “Last door on the felt.”

I thanked him for his help and he retreated back to the lower floor to give us some privacy.

I knocked twice before opening the guest room door where Harry had spread out on the floor, Sienna’s beagle snoozing next to him, with a guitar on the floor, Harry struggling to hold it with his one functioning arm, beer bottles, empty cans, and an ashtray scattered in a semi-circle around his body.

“Seriously, Harry?” I exhaled in disbelief, walking in and shutting the door behind me.

Clearly startled, Harry looked up from his spot on the floor, his expression twisting into distant avoidance as he realized it was me. “Alice.” his eyes darted around the room, looking anywhere but in my direction. The height difference between us made him look small and scared. I wished I could understand what was going through his mind or comfort him. But it was more likely that I was the cause of it all.

I was taken aback by the pain that this caused me. He might as well have driven a knife through my chest. This was the first time Harry had ever called me by my real name. No “Matilda.” Not even “babe,” or “darlin.’” Just “Alice.”

“What- are you…how? How did you...”

Though he never finished any of his questions, I knew what he was trying to ask, so I pulled my phone out and showed him the instagram picture of him with Sienna’s dog that led me here.

“‘Course, internet.” he nodded, mumbling to himself.

“Harry, how drunk are you right now?”

“Not drunk.”

I squatted down and took a seat on the floor next to him, shoving the beer bottles to the side to make more room.

“You’re not supposed to drink with the meds you’re on.” I reminded him, glancing around the room for more evidence of his solitary activities. “...or smoke…or take other pills…gosh, Harry what’ve you ingested? Is there anything you HAVEN’T taken?”

“You know, a little bit of this, a little bit of that.”

I rolled my eyes. Fighting the urge to indulge in his self-pity. It was extremely difficult though. I kept my face harsh and steady, but it was killing me to see him like this.

“You wanna share? I bet I could scramble together a line at least?” He grabbed his credit card off the carpet and felt around his small clear baggies for leftovers.

“That’s not funny, Harry.”

“Wasn’t joking.”

“Stop, okay? You’ve had enough. Let’s get you home.”

“I’m not goin’ home…I’m- staying here.” His speech was slow and slurred. Sienna’s dog got up and walked in circles scratching at the floor to find a comfortable spot, then giving up, he jumped right into Harry’s lap.

Harry’s hand automatically began petting him.

“You need to go home and get some sleep. Flush all this…shit out of your system. Sober up.”

Looking me dead in the eyes, Harry grabbed a pill out of one of his plastic bags and swallowed it whole. “No.”

“Look, I get it. You’re in pain. You’re angry with me. You’re sad. We’ve all been there. Things suck right now, but you can’t run from your feelings. They’ll catch up to you eventually. And thing will be much worse when they do.”

“Like you even care? We’re not together, remember? We can’t be. You said that last night. So why are you here? Why are you trying to help me? I don’t need you to help me, I need you to love me. But you won’t do that, so why’d you come here? What, were you hoping to apologize and make it all go away? I can’t do that anymore, I can’t keep making allowances for your emotional shortcomings. It’s exhausting, I’m exhausted just leave me the fuck alone, Alice!!”

#satellite #harry's house #harry styles #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles fanfic #harry styles angst #harry styles writing #harry styles x oc

18 notes · View notes

goosedawn · 4 years ago

Note

linguistics pog????? :D :D :D i will admit I didn’t do as much thought into the aus/nz language changes as I really should’ve (mostly because my understanding of the regions is basic at best ^^’) and I am 👀👀👀 at your tags……….. if you have more thoughts I would be FASCINATED to hear what you say :D!!! -bio nerd anon

LINGUISTICS POG!!! YEAHHHH

my knowledge of linguistics is limited but its so cool and ur HELLA valid, australia and new zealand are pretty isolated so like. fair (relatedly, most of my thoughts are nz based, i cant really talk much abt australian linguistics) but basically i absolutely have more thoughts >:3c

also im assuming this is still in the context of how language could develop in @possiblyaperson03‘s strangers on the internet au, so im just gonna clarify this is all purely speculation based on what we know abt the au and my own knowledge + lived experience :D

... i also just keep on going about language development in this au in general so i put it all under the cut :’>

tl;dr: australian and new zealand accents are likely to converge, but also might have a mix of different languages mixed into the way they speak, with pockets of non-english speakers. humans in australia and new zealand might not have as nuanced terms relating to giants, and may not have the same level of understanding regarding the giants language.

....... tl;dr TWO: wild humans might develop “alarm calls” that are shared with other human groups even if they cannot understand each other otherwise, and might even mimic giants. sign and written language could also become more prevalent in giant inhabited areas.

SO, in new zealand theres already quite a mix of cultures, although. yknow. colonialization ended up in a largely westernised culture/language, with english being the ‘main’ language, however nz sign language and Māori are also considered to be national languages.

nz accents specifically tend to be quicker and kinda. slur some words together, but that also depends on the location around new zealand. people who are surrounded by more Māori influences tend to draw out some vowels a bit longer, which ends up with a slightly different cadence.

im not really sure how to describe the aussie accent kshdfksjd but i think generally its a lot sharper than nz accents but also has more of a drawl, and some vowels are more drawn out/accentuated

i think it would be likely that australians and new zealanders would probably keep these aspects but depending on how much people cross between the two (in lieu of traversing elsewhere, and interacting with other countries) its more likely for the accents to converge.

however!! differing languages would also kind of. stick to how they sounded when they split, with the language spoken by immigrants not only sounding more accurate to the original due to shifts in language in their original location (due to simplification and dangerous situations) but also because of people wanting to preserve their culture.

in new zealand currently (especially in places with a lot of mixed cultures/immigration, in big cities compared to more rural areas) there is already a lot of mixing in terms of accent and language, and even more so with outside influences due to media and such

people do whats referred to as “accent matching“ which is basically changing the way you speak to match other people around you (psychologically, its kinda like mimicking other people so they are more likely to like you/become attached to you because you are similar to them) and so people mimic accents around them and thats part of how you pick up accents when you move to a new place.

so in an isolated space, with a variation of accents, how does that work? honestly i think it would be similar to how things are in big nz cities currently, and because its even more packed together with a whole variation of people who may not necessarily be english speaking is that something that may happen is a mix of language, with people dipping in and out of other languages based off of what specific cultural influences an individual is surrounded by.

this is something that can be seen in places like malaysia, where there is often a mashup of languages and cultures, resulting in a variance of dialects depending on geographical location, picking up some words from other languages depending on who your neighbours are (or at least. thats what i’ve been told by relatives from there, and have seen reflected in the way they speak- they tend to mix english with at least 3 different dialects of chinese as well as malay and indian words)

like i mentioned in my tags on the other post, nz already has quite a few pockets of areas where there are immigrants who either have trouble speaking english or rely on relatives/friends to interact with english speakers, and this is something that is likely to develop in this au as well i reckon. i cant comment on how this might work in australia though.

also, if isolated with little contact from giants, it would be unlikely for australians/new zealanders to develop terms relating to giants, or at least not terms similar to other countries. they might be more abstract or scientific, with less nuance due to less interaction.

its unlikely humans in australia and new zealand would pick up much accenting from giants and perhaps depending on how long it would be after The Event, may even not be able to say certain words/hear certain differences in giants accents as well!

However, it should be noted that young babies (like a few months old) are able to identify variance in human accents that children and adults cannot, because we learn what sounds to listen out for based on what languages and cultures we are exposed to, so technically we are biologically built to understand a variation of languages, but quickly learn specificity and thus lose that ability.

(RELATEDLY: if this was also true for giants, unless they were brought up around humans when they were very young it would be unlikely that they would be able to tell some subtle differences in human speech, FURTHER solidifying what you said about giants just. not being able to hear human intonation).

in terms of language in countries inhabited by giants, you mentioned that humans might have more simplified language and such, which could result in varying “alarm calls”, much like modern animals have now, which vary depending on where a threat is coming from (e.g. different calls for birds compared to land based predators) these might transcend other language like words, if there was a larger difference between geographical areas.

on top of that, some groups of animals also reciprocally respond to other groups of animals alarm calls due to both being pressured by biological and environmental threats, and i wouldnt be surprised if something similar developed between wild human colonies. humans are great at mimicking, so it could be possible that a series of animal-esque calls, or heck even calls mimicking giants could be something that is used.

furthermore, it might also be likely for some groups of humans to rely more on visual (signed or written) languages to symbolise things, especially if they dont get to interact with other groups, perhaps out of fear of being caught in large numbers. on top of this, having visual signals would be useful for not notifying giants of your presence if you need to be quiet.

warning signs and such would probably be developed pretty quickly, with certain groups maybe having defining features depending on what materials they have (maybe some groups burn warnings into things, vs others who carve the symbols in)

there might also be varying ways of referring to directions that are easier to identify quickly. OH in the alternate universe with wilbur having a guitar, maybe music could be used for communicating certain things also?? idk ive gone on long enough jkfhsdfjhsdf

thanks for reading all the way to the end! if you got here i appreciate you!! 💛

#goosegoes #gooseanswers #bio nerd anon #linguistics POG #i have. way too much material on hand ksjdfhksjdfh i was lookin up stuff abt new zealand accents/language the other day already #also i was literally learning abt language in my lectures recently cos my classes this sem were on development and cognition ksjdfhsdjfk #im legit sittin here like #'wait i learnt abt that the other day what??? this is useful now????? POG'#AND also an anthropology paper focusing on primates and conservation which is surprisingly useful #wait would there be conservation efforts for humans #BRUH #i had to take a break and go eat skjfhsdfnsjkdfksjdfh #ANYWAY THIS IS DONE AND ITS LONG IM SO SORRY #this was. 1300 words. help

20 notes · View notes

lucky-sevens · 4 years ago

Text

mechanisms fanfiction recommendations

this began as a compilation of my own works for my about, but i decided to recommend some others as well!

i have kept this list to 20 of other people’s + all of my own, because i have a lot of mechanisms fanfiction saved and didn’t want to go overboard! in addition, i’ve made sure that everyone i draw from is a different author, vs. several by the same person, for the sake of variation and giving more people a spotlight! i’ve also made sure everything is complete, which sadly means i’ve left out a few of my favorite longfics. i’ve also tried to have a decent balance of album-focused things vs crew-focused things.

a note; i’ve tried to have a variety (of both genre and length), but my tastes skew towards angst and longer oneshots, so that’ll be a lot of that sort of thing. (please mind the tags on some of these fics!) this is also all sfw, as i’m a minor, but it’s not all gen.

edit: i copy-pasted the summary from each of these works over to this post!

no matter what you do it won’t go away by AssyEr

Brian coming to terms with being made of metal.

Hatter and Hare Top 5 Gay Moments!! [NOT CLICKBAIT!!!] by shella688

Majors Hatter and Hare grinned at each other as they shook hands.

Then, all of a sudden, the grins faltered slightly as a realisation went through both their heads.

Oh no, the realisation went. He's cute.

Date Night: New Midgardian Prison Edition by OnceAndFloral

The Mechs cordially invite Lyfrassir to date night in their prison cell. And by "cordially invite" I mean "orchestrate an elaborate scheme".

eternity will see her dead by Garecc

Rose Reds are made to die, and eternity will see them dead, sent off to another bitter end.

cold as numbers by alderations

Ivy starts at the beginning.

Every morning, Ivy starts at the beginning. Rubbing alcohol, scalpel blades, sensations that should be twisting and cutting and crushing, if the words could coalesce into feelings. A subdued voice, a cool hand on her forehead. She is Ivy Alexandria. She starts at the beginning.

beat inside your heart by zinabug

Jonny and Nastya sibling oneshots part two. (Note from @lucky-sevens- they all function on their own.)

And Sew by fracnkie

The benefits of teaching your Toy Soldier to do the following: sew, do makeup, how to cure a sore throat, and how to shoot a plasma blaster.

Ashes To Ashes, Dust To Dust by CloudDreamer

It was the two of them against the world. But then the two of them against each other, and that seemed so much harder than fighting all the worlds combined.

Wayfarers by Oblivion_Wanderer

Nastya and Lyf meet in the cold of space; Nastya adrift after leaving the Mechanisms and Lyf fleeing from the destruction of the Yggdrasil system. Each feeling lost in their own way, they decide to travel together.

No Heart To Break by meteornight

The Toy Soldier was not real. It could never be real, not if it had any say in the matter. The widow had said that the toy was real, that it had once been a real man with a real heart. The toy knew that was a lie, for if it was a man, why would she treat it like a toy?

is it piety is it purity is it virtue by consumptive_sphinx

“Percy’s blunt, not stupid,“ Mordred says when Kay asks why they’re even friends, “and anyway she’s great, she never calculates anything, she just says stuff and makes everyone else deal with it. I could never be brave enough.”

This is because Mordred absolutely does calculate every word that comes out of his mouth, except sometimes when it’s two in the morning and everyone except him and Galahad and Percival has gone to sleep and he can argue as passionately in favor of peace as he wants with the only two people who won’t call him a traitor for it, and while he doesn’t not appreciate this trait of Percival’s, like hell is he going to admit to his real reason.

orpheus, the soldier, and the short-billed dowitchers by alexsandr

orpheus finds rest with an unexpected friend.

No Violins Allowed by Alienea

Lyf had been having a very peaceful and fulfilling few decades, at least in terms of work fulfillment and being able to afford to bail out of the system at the very first moment anything happened.

So of course that was when the Mechanisms appeared over the horizon.

Labyrinthine by DuskDragon39

Your story is a labyrinth.

Your story is built along wandering lines and windings so vague that you, its architect, cannot trace your way out. It is your scream at its center, your pain that fuels it.

(Or: Daedalus and the stories they tell about him.)

Baking With Goggles (Safety First!) by eminorseven

Marius tries to justify bringing Jonny and Tim to the kitchen. Brian daydreams. Jonny stabs many walnuts. Tim gets locked out and explodes things.

Typical baking stuff.

Surprising Salvage by OddmentsAndTweaks

A normal boring morning is made infinitely more exciting by the prospect of a ship boarding. The Mechanisms prepare for chaos and murder and some really good violence. What they get is one very defiantly defended ruined vessel and a morning no one expected at all.

I wanna stay here with you by SnailArmy

Loki and Sigyn get to be wives, in stolen moments.

As It Was by i_am_made_of_memoriies

Jonny walked down the corridor, his steps burdened by an invisible force. His face was passive, and where there was usually manic glee, there was only a hint of curiosity–someone was trying to enter through the airlocks, and he was going to kill them.

Nastya returns to the ship formerly known as the Aurora to find the mechanisms at the end of their time.

burned out from a joyride by spiralingcosmos

ashes has a nightmare; as a result, they make a new friend.

In Which Nastya Is The Narrator Of The Deaths by nonbinary_frog

(Note from @lucky-sevens: There is no summary included, but I feel like the title works well enough.)

---

my heart in your hands

How Jonny d'Ville's mechanization came about.

i’ve got a map of your eyes (but i’ve never seen your face)

That’s not the real Rose. All the memories and feelings were merely planted in her head.”

“Very true.”

“And given the effective age difference, it’s unlikely they’ll have much of a life together, not to mention the massive amount of trauma they’ve both endured.”

“Absolutely.”

“Not only that, but everyone else they’ve ever known or loved is dead and they’re trapped on a planet full of corpses in a vast interstellar empire that is going to suffer the most horrendous power vacuum and associated bloodshed the galaxy has ever seen. Oh, and they’re both known war criminals and will likely be on the run for the rest of their lives.”

“Like I said. I love a happy ending.”

-Ever After

the death of a phoenix

You are Ashes O'Reilly, and you are twenty-three, and you are dying.

an exercise in futility

Post-Lashings.

ballast

The Aurora doesn't have a daemon, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have a soul.

marching ever through the black

Whoever’s uniform you wear No loyalties to hold or share No burning hate, no bitter fear No heart to break, so shed no tear

TMA Is The Mechanisms’ Podcast (series)

The Magnus Archives is a podcast distributed by the Mechanisms, a crew of immortal space pirates roaming through the galaxy having fun, violence, violence, and violence. They have an inane distaste for laws, and so refuse to put their podcast under any kind of copyright law whatsoever. Today's episode was cowritten by Ivy Alexandria and Nastya Rasputina and performed by Jonny d'Ville. It was produced by the SS Aurora and directed by Jonny d'Ville- well, no, but sometimes he wants to be in charge of things and the other Mechanisms don't find it worth arguing about. To comment on episodes, make donations, and view links, images, and show notes, simply throw yourself into space and the Mechanisms may or may not find you. Probably best if they don't. Thank you for listening, though why you choose to spend your time like this is beyond the Blogbot's understanding.

thank you for reading! i’d highly suggest trying these!

#the mechanisms #the mechs #my posts #compiliation post

179 notes · View notes

keep-it-i-resign · 3 years ago

Text

Fic Writer Asks

tagged by the lovely @vampcoffeegyrl23 I am soooo sorry this has taken over a week! I promise I was just busy away from my computer and using mobile is not the way to go about answering these! 😅

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

6 on AO3 and 6 on ffn.net. I haven't used the ffn.net account in years, i.e 2013 (and therefore my user name isn't even the same) so those 6 stories are different from my AO3 ones. I don't post most of what I write and now that I'm in my mid-20s with a few published papers behind me - I'm much more confident in my ability to write a cohesive and interesting story so expect more posted!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

17,425 words which isn't bad for only 6 fics with two of those stories having additional chapters coming soon.

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

On AO3? Just 1, which is The Flash and by extension Stargate SG-1 for the crossover I did for Snowells Week this year. Counting ffn.net that's 3 more with Castle, Doctor Who, and Firefly. Over my lifetime of writing fic for myself? I think only 7 more. Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Sanctuary, Harry Potter, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: TNG, and Left 4 Dead. Left 4 Dead isn't much of a fanfic but I did use the zombie types as place holders in an original story until I developed my own.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I'll Be Waiting (The Flash - Caitlin/Harry)

Well... This is Awkward (The Flash - Caitlin/Harry, Frost/Nash, Caitlin/Nash, and Frost/Harry)

Rewind Time (The Flash - Caitlin/Harry)

Through the Gate (The Flash/Stargate SG-1 - Caitlin/Eowells)

Harvest Season (The Flash - Caitlin/Harry)

5. What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I don't write angst much and I haven't posted many stories yet but of the ones posted I guess "I'll Be Waiting" is the angstiest.

6. What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

"Well...This is Awkward" has a pretty happy ending with everyone alive and together. Or maybe "Twilight of the Gods" because ReverseSnow/ReverseFrost happens and there is hope of bringing everything lost back and balance the universe again. I guess it depends on your definition of what constitutes as a happy ending. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you've written?

I've only written one - The Flash/Stargate SG-1 crossover. I don't normally think about crossovers just because the shows I watch are so vastly different they can't really work or they are already in the same universe with the canon crossovers. I'm also not always a fan of reading them because they can get chaotic quick and characterization takes a dive in order to fit characters into other universes/situations. I admire anyone who can write it well though!

As a side note: I did have a thought about a Snowells into the Arkham universe fic just because I have been replaying the Batman Arkham video games which I might give a shot at.

8. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

👀I wrote one smutty story years ago and it's terrible because I was young and naïve. I haven't tried recently but I'm not opposed to giving it a shot now. I have a few ideas on a prompt list I have for Snowells already so it's really a matter of when will I get to it!

9. Do you respond to comments. why or why not?

I do when I can! I like to get feedback from my readers and having an open dialogue of what they liked or disliked is important for me! I want to know what my audience enjoyed and what to improve on! Responding to them also shows them I saw that they said and appreciate what they had to say! 🥰

10. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Surprisingly - no, even on my old and terribly written stuff. I'm perfectly open to criticism but hate? If you don't like it, you don't like it but others might. Why spend the time spreading negativity when the world has enough of it?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

As far as I know - no.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No but given enough time I could probably translate mine. It would be grammatically atrocious because I rarely translate from English into any of the languages I know. It's normally the other way around! I'd definitely need a Beta who is fluent to correct my mistakes.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No but it's definitely something I'd try! I co-wrote an original story with a few friends of mine years ago in high school and enjoyed it. I like the idea of getting to talk and bounce ideas off of someone who enjoys the same fandoms and character as me! I haven't really done that since I grew apart from one of my friends from high school who I did that with.

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

What kind of question is this? Do people actually have an ultimate ship? Is that even possible? I have ships from several fandoms and sometimes multiple ships within a fandom. Most of the time I have a main ship from a fandom but that doesn't mean I discount any of the other ones that I or others enjoy as well. I'll throw out a few that I still got out and read for in order of what I read most often (either new stuff or re-reads) to what I read occasionally, at least according to my AO3 favorite tags.

Snowells (all variations) - The Flash

Jack O'Neill/Sam Carter - Stargate SG-1

Helen Magnus/Nikola Tesla - Sanctuary

Harry/Hermione - Harry Potter

William Murdoch/Julia Ogden - Murdoch Mysteries

Phil/ Melinda - Agents of SHIELD

Kathryn Janeway/Tom Paris - Star Trek: Voyager

Kate Fleming/Steve Arnott - Line of Duty

I will occasionally go check what kind of fics the fandom writes when I start a show just out of curiosity. Sometimes you can tell if there is fandom hate between ships by doing so and I know to steer clear, especially if I ship a lesser ship/non-canon ship. Also - the number of canon-divergence or rewrites will tell you if the shows writers start being ridiculous *cough* The Flash *cough* and whether it's worth getting attached at all.

15. What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

Hoo boy. I have a drive full of them. Most of which aren't even close to being posted. My biggest one right now is a complete re-write of The Flash dealing with a what if scenario of Earth-1 Tess Morgan being pregnant the night that Thawne kills them both and he chooses to birth the kid rather than let it die with her. It's set a few years earlier (so 18/19 years stuck in the past rather than the original 15 that the show has it) so the kid isn't Jesse but it changes how season 1 plays out and definitely how season 2 plays out when Harry finds out about the kid while dealing with the Jesse/Zoom issue. Plus it's Snowells too and I want to deal with Barry's mistakes and the consequences of them better than the show did since the show just kind of brushes them off? For some reason? I wanted things to have a little more consequence because some of the mistakes made are egregious and then they acted like it never happened which bothers me. It's a beast of a project and I'm - unfortunately- a perfectionist and a completionist. I'm thinking an episode per chapter rewrite but right now it's in bits and pieces and a lot of notes on how episodes would play out differently with an added character and dynamic.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and scene positioning. I can write out the dialogue for a story quickly with the bare bones of the scene and movements playing out. After that, it takes me ages to expand the scene and fill in the bits between speaking lines because I can see the piece play out in my head and putting that to paper accurately and engagingly without being overwhelming is a multi-layered process.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Some of this is normal, you know, like grammar and spelling. My brain moves faster than I type so words or bit of phrases end up missing and I later have to fix it. I'm also a Southerner who grew up watching a ton of British shows so a lot of the way I phrase things isn't commonly used anywhere. I have to spend a lot of time double checking things like that. I think my biggest one is not knowing how to end stories satisfactorily. I haven't posted many fics because it's hard to post them when you don't know how to wrap everything up.

18. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

It depends on whether it's an established part of a character or story and whether or not I'm comfortable with the language. Like with Sherloque - it's established he'll say something in French and then repeat it in English. I took 3 years of French so I'm comfortable writing it and it fits the character and situation. But take Cisco, we know he speaks Spanish, but it's never really shown in the show. So fics that I've read where he breaks into Spanish can be distracting as we've never seen him do it - even in dire circumstances. I also never took Spanish in school and I only know rudimentary pieces (I took Mandarin and Latin instead), so I'm unlikely to use it in any fic I write unless the circumstances warrant it (say - Cisco is talking to a grandparent or a meta struggling with English).

But again, it depends on the situation, what we know of the character, and how comfortable I am with the language enough to get it correct and in character. Any fic writer who can get the situation and character down while using a secondary language, and not make it distracting deserves applause!

19. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Hit me with a hard one why don't you? 🤣 I think it was Stargate SG-1 or maybe it was Stargate Atlantis. You're asking me to think back over a decade and a half ago to when I started reading and writing fic at the tender age of 7 or 8. I'm fairly certain it was one of those two fandoms and it might've been a crossover. I do remember writing part of it on an old Gateway computer running Windows '98 with a glass monitor that was mine and my sisters. The other half was written on an electric type-writer that I owned because this was before laptops were widely available and affordable.

20. What's your favorite fic you've written?

It's a tie between "Twilight of the Gods" and "I'll Be Waiting". "Twilight of the Gods" because I got to show off a few of my degrees (History and Classics, I couldn't shoehorn in my others but they are science related and that doesn't quite fit that story). "I'll Be Waiting" is a favorite because it's a big middle finger to whoever / collective group wrote The Flash season 7. I'm still pissed off at how the Wells plotline was dealt with and let's not get started on the whole Chillblaine/Kramer/Forces as kids of WA plots (ewwwwwww 🤢). I'd need a whole new post to talk about how tired I am of the WA kids showing up (because screw how that'll effect the timeline, right?) and the reliance on the future to drive what decisions are made (because, again, screw how bad that would be for the timeline - it's not like we have seen how much that effects things before right?) 😒

Phew.....That was longer than I expected, honestly, but a lot of fun!

Tagging whoever wants to talk about their works because you are all wonderful people who should get a chance to share!

#20 questions #writer asks #fandom things #fanfic #Snowells

4 notes · View notes

intheoryowl · 4 years ago

Text

Diversity in KOTLC

[While commenting on this post please don't post spoilers for Unlocked just yet. Thanks. This post may contain legacy spoilers. This post is a repost of my Wattpad post that I made in Sunflower Crown called Diversity in KOTLC, so if you’ve seen this already please feel free to skip it. This post lines up with MLK day, but it was originally posted in reaction to Shannon Messenger announcing the live action movies.]

[Edit: Okay, after typing this post up I realize that there are a few more characters that are POC, but they’re not prominent at all, so the representation is still miniscule. They were mentioned, like, twice throughout the entire series. So, my point still stands.]

What's one thing you notice about the photo above?

Oh, yeah. All the characters are white, expect for the last three in the photo, which are all conveniently tacked onto the end.

Let's address the elephant in the room for everyone in the Keeper of the Lost Cities fandom. Recently, I've been thinking a lot about how little diversity there is within the cast, especially within the main group. I've been meaning to make a post about this since the #BLM movement started up, but I never got around to it.

I've found that a lot of the people in the fandom have been incredibly shy about having this conversation, but I think it's really time we have it. The cast contains very little diversity.

Disclaimer: Before anyone comes at me for this post, I'd like to first say that I've been a huge KOTLC fan and a big fan of Shannon Messenger's work for a long time. This isn't meant to be any sort of hate post, but instead a conversation I think we all need to have.

Let's start with the format of the art up above^.

First of all, out of eight characters 3 of them are POCs (or not white). Wylie isn't even in the main group/doesn't really enter the story until much later in the series. The same goes for Linh and Tam. They're all tacked onto the end of the photo, like they're just add-ons.

These three characters are the only characters I know the race of that are POC characters. Out of the entire series. Yes, the entire series. [And I would say that's the case for most people that aren't superfans or recently phased out of the series before art was starting to be released.] I wouldn't say I'm the biggest fan out there, but there aren't that many prominent characters in KOTLC, and just about every single one of them is white.

It feels like a last-ditch throw in when Shannon Messenger went *oops I forgot about diversity entirely!!*. I mean, think about it. Tam, Linh, and Wylie entered the series later on than everyone else.

The lack of diversity, quite frankly, I find ridiculous. And not even just because there are three characters out of eight in that photo (one of which that is POC isn't even in the main group, nevermind the original main group) are POC, and prominent characters. Not only is there a lack of diversity when it comes to race/features that aren't white, but Shannon Messenger also includes exactly zero LGBTQ+ representation throughout the entire series. There is nothing hinted, nothing said. Gender norms are never addressed in the story, and that's fine. But for there to be no gay/pan/aro/ace/freaking anything on the spectrum representation?? No trans representation? Non-binary? Hello??? I get that when she started the series LGBTQ+ characters might not have been something you saw in every single book, but even as new characters are added in we see absolutely no LGBTQ+ representation still. There's not even anyone questioning their sexuality or their gender identity. Nowadays, that's not only a huge part of being a teenager (I would know, I'm one), but also just something you would think is key in the identity of a character.

As a writer, when I start writing a book, one of the first things I do is make sure I know who I want my characters to be. Gender identity, race, sexuality, all of this - these are such fundamental parts to a character. Truthfully, i don't understand how you could just overlook them whatsoever. It's a choice you have to make, not a default setting that's already been turned on for you. I think - even to someone incredibly racist - that as an author writing a book, one would be aware of the outward appearance of their characters? Or the fact that all of the characters had one very certain thing in common? It's hard to miss, frankly, and it looks really bad.

There's really no excuse for it at the end of the day. You can't explain away the facts, and the facts are that the lack of diversity within KOTLC is concerning.

With KOTLC as well, the book doesn't even center around identity for the most part. It's fantasy, and that's what runs the plot, not someone's struggles with race. It really would've been just that easy for Shannon Messenger to throw in a few POC characters or people that weren't straight, maybe mention it in passing, and be done with it and we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

Another thing I'd like to bring up is the microaggressive character arcs of Linh and Tam song, the only two out of the entire central friend group that are diverse characters. (they appear to have some sort of asian heritage, in case you never caught that. But I bet you did with their very distinctly Chinese last names.) When Tam and Linh first appear in the book, they're suspected delinquents and exiled for crimes to a school of people that have been outcasted from society. They're seen as outsiders. During the story, we see the both of them climbing their way up in the ranks through hard work & connections. unlike everyone else who is going to Foxfire from the start, and we don't see them as nobility at first at all. Not only do the twins come into the story late, but they start out being pinned as supposed criminals (for going to their school which they were wrongly exiled to) and being the underdogs.

Twins are also scorned and families in the Lost Cities with twins are highly stigmatized. Same thing, the only two Asian characters in the entire series and they're the ones who have to be scorned instead of the white ones.

I'm sorry, but that rubs me the wrong way. it seems incredibly microaggressive to me. You're telling me that the only two characters of color [in the main group] are portrayed this way by accident? You couldn't have chosen any one of your fourteen white characters to play the role? Please.

Also, this might be a reach, but is there colorism also present in the KOTLC cast? The type of Asian that Linh and Tam seem to be (Eastern - Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc) have a very light skin tone. Throughout all of KOTLC, the only skin tone darker than white is Wylie's character, who is obviously African-American. There is no one that looks Latina [okay, there is, it's Jensi who was mentioned twice in the first two books and never again], a different kind of Asian, Romanian, Indian, Middle Eastern, nothing. Actually, you know what, it's not a reach. You're telling me that objectively based on facts, there is only one character out of the entire KOTLC universe that's skin tone is darker than paper? That's the standard?

To that I say: get outta here.

I'm not convinced that Shannon Messenger - as much as I love and adore her writing and her book series - ever truly cared about diversity and inclusivity among her characters. There's no representation other than straight, white, male, female, two Asians, and a single African American character (out of anyone who actually matters). That's it. Statistically speaking.

That's ridiculous.

[This is a later edit: someone in the comments also pointed out that the Lost Cities are located all over the world, meaning that having a mainly white cast also is whitewashing? This only gets worse the more you think about it, ugh.]

I understand that the majority of the KOTLC fanbase is very young. Believe me, I do. I'm probably one of the older fans that has been here for a while/still is here. Most people my age have moved on to fangirling over the Umbrella Academy or something. I get it. But I do believe that even twelve year olds can understand what I'm saying, stay informed, spread awareness, and think critically.

One of the reasons I think Shannon hasn't been called out nearly as much for the lack of diversity and representation in her stories is because she has such a young readerbase. That's fine. I don't expect people that are ten and twelve to be thinking about any of this. It never occurred to me at the age, so why would it occur to you unless someone else brought it up first?

That said, now that I have brought it up, I think that the least you can do is have conversations with your friends, tag a few people, and think critically about the casts of your favorite books/people you stan. If you're not speaking up, it makes you look like you don't care that there's absolutely zero representation and diversity in the KOTLC series. And you should care.

Keeper of the Lost Cities is a very white, straight series. What does this mean? It means that it's inherently racist, likely colorist, and not currently supportive of any LGBTQ+ people on any LGBTQ+ spectrum. People out there just like you (if you're white) aren't seeing themselves in stories or media. Instead, they're being told that only if you have European heritage or a lighter skin tone can you be a hero. It's harmful. And we need to speak out against it.

[Not to mention that there are no different body types. This post was just on core character identity, and nothing else. As my friend StickyCarpet put in a conversation, what about religions? Do all elves believe the same things? There's very little identity variation between characters beyond their personalities.]

The reason I want to speak out so strongly now, is because as you may know, KOTLC is being made into a live-action series of movies. On screen, it's going to be even more visible and in-your-face that there's no representation. You know what that says to everyone who wasn't represented at least a little bit (or well)? It says we don't see you because we don't approve of who you are, which is just such an awful message to send. In the movies, it's going to be super important for especially younger readers to see themselves on screen. I don't want these movies to just be another movie chock-full of straight white people. It's time for change. This was never something that should've been the standard, so we need to try extremely hard to change it.

By no means will that magically fix or amend the fact that Shannon Messenger chose to put just about zero diversity into the story in the first place, but it will at least show that she's trying beyond throwing a few new characters with different skin tones in after people start calling her out for it.

Keeper of the Lost Cities is my favorite or second favorite series, and it was (and always will be) a huge part of my childhood. I'm a huge fan of the series myself, but I want to make my opinion on this subject very clear and encourage you to form your own opinion on it. I don't have instagram or socials, but I do have a large platform on Wattpad to spread awareness with. Please spread the message.

Please, if you can, tag people from the fandom in the comments. Share this post. Reblog it on tumblr or post it on instagram. We need to get the conversation started. It's not enough to just sit here and pretend like we're all okay with the fact that the series we all love is grossly unrepresentative/not diverse.

In the external link, you will find a carrd leading to Ways to Help & be a part of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, including ways that don't involve money. In my bio, there's a link that goes to all crisis resources around the globe with links to causes. Please feel free to share and utilize both links.

Thank you very much for reading & (hopefully) spreading the message/awareness with me! Your favorite series and author(?) possibly being racist is something that's harder to come to terms with, even for me at my age, so please don't blame yourself for everything and just try to help as much as you can ♡

[Please feel free to reblog and repost on any platform anywhere as necessary. Spreading the message regardless is much appreciated!]

#diversity #KOTLC #movies #inclusivity #representation #LGBTQ+#racism #bookseries #fantasy

4 notes · View notes

misha-moose-dean-burger-lover · 5 years ago

Text

POSITIVE 20 QUESTIONS TAG GAME

I was tagged by @peanutbutterandgrapejelly. Thank you for the tag, Peanut, this seems pretty loaded, but in a good way, so here goes!!

1. Name 4 fictional characters who showcase your personality the best, with explanations if you want.

Sue Heck! I don't think I let all of it out, but on the inside, I constantly feel like I'm extremely Sue Heck-y, :')

Amy Santiago, in a lot of regards, I'll say. Uh, cares a lot about her friends, ambitious, and would basically die/murder for organization, but also socially awkward and, uh, mostly percepted as a goody-two-shoes. Also, true nerd™.

Mindy Lahiri! (I mean, again, this seems more of a who I feel like I am, and not who I come across as, cause those two things tend to differ on a variety of levels?)

Sam Winchester (you know I had to) Basically, we're both INFJs. I'm not even close to his level, but my brain officially ran out of characters so uh, empathetic, constantly interpreted as "boring" and the "brains", patient, *yearns to settle down with someone they love*, believes in second chances. The whole nine, but toned down XD

2. Aesthetic:

I'd usually have a hard time with this one, but I recently did a long thing about my aesthetic, so! I'm going to say, soft pastel, beige, and shades of white!! A tinge of light academia, but mostly unassumingly modern, and faded rainbows as watermarks.

3. Favorite musical/play? If you've never seen a musical or play, one you'd be interested in seeing?

You got me ~ never seen any. (I mean, school plays don't count, right?) I honestly have a bunch of musicals I want to see, recommendations from friends online, but somehow it always slips my mind. But, off the top of my head, @spot-the-brooklyn-pirate wanted me to check this one out, and I am looking forward to actually doing it sometime: Book of Mormon.

4. What's the best compliment you've ever received?

Mostly, anyone who says I, in any way, made them happy, literally gives me the best compliment ever. And uh, my sister called me inspiring once, and it stuck. When I nagged her into elaborating, she said she thought I was functional in spite of all my flailings, and self-analytic, and it didn't make sense to me, but I still think about that.

And a few people, over the course of time, have named some of my fics as their favorites, and those stay with me for a very long time.

5. How many times have you been in love?

Hardly once. She's still one of the most important people in the world to me, but as somebody great once said, if you don't fight for it, it doesn't count. And we didn't.

6. Embarrassing story or fact about yourself which now makes you laugh?

By far the most embarrassing thing I've ever done, is written a fic on wattpad which revolved around my own life, except for the fact that it really, really didn't. Long story shortened, I was in sixth grade, and had a surface-level-y crush on this guy, and it seemed like a brilliant idea at the time. In the story, we're all in senior year, though the authoress forgot pretty much all the real things about school XD it's not just cringy, but also extremely sixth-grade-y written, and it astounds me to this day that it went on to have like 18,000 views? (I managed to block the entire shtick out, until a few months back, when I randomly remembered and rushed to unpublish the work. *facepalm* it even had all our real names)

7. Favorite Disney/Pixar movie?

This one's so hard. Uh. Ratatouille, maybe?

8. Favorite flower/plant?

I regret having to confess that I probably don't have one :( but hey, my go-to answer for these ones is daisies, because they remind me of the lovely @daisy-jeon <3

9. What's your favorite holiday?

Holi :')

(I miss it being like the older times, though? Somehow it always clashes with my final exams these last few years, and Shelley is often not home, but it still really makes me happy, so just imagine how perfect it used to be, when I was a kid!!)

10. Name three things that made you smile/laugh this past week.

Rewatching The French Mistake!! A really great decision, haha!

The lovely comments an older fic of mine received, (about old Destiel, uwu) since a couple of big blogs happened to reblog it 🙈🙈🙈 and my activity started blowing up!!

A full-blown coffee high, which resulted in me being hilarious through a 98-message monologue to dish, eeeeee!!

11. What song would you play to introduce yourself to someone?

I'd been dreading this question the most, because I'm horrible at remembering good songs when I - need to be. Oofsies.

But I guess I could wing it with 'What About Us' by P!nk.

12. Name something that truly makes you peaceful even at your most stressful moments.

Writing about Character A of a ship going through said stressful moment, and Character B being the best possible responder to all of it. Projection's the key to functionality, kids.

13. What do you, did you, or would you study at college?

Would you, and will you, sound unfortunately like different questions to me, so I'm going to answer the one which is asked. I'd like to major in History, with a minor in English. (And to be crude for a bit, as my sister calls it, thus successfully be left solely employable as a teacher.)

14. This is kind of a weird one, but which outfit of yours makes you feel most like yourself?

My black Avenger's logo t-shirt, with this pink hooded, kinda-down-past-my-hips, not-warm-at-all jacket and any one of my numerous, mwuahaha, grey shorts.

I never said I'd go out of the house in that outfit, did I?

15. What is a quote you live by?

I don't think there aren't any. I'm just here, faking it till I make it. Still, if I had to choose? Misha's "Be Kind to Yourself so You can be Happy enough to Be Kind to Others" is something I aspire to live by.

16. Name the funniest playlist name you have.

I'm sad that I don't have any funnily named ones now. Sorry to disappoint, but I'm hoping that it counts a teensy bit that I have like seven playlists just for background shtuff when I'm working, and they're all named *extremely* similarly, with variations of the word "study" basically, but all have exceptionally different vibes.

But I really am sorry, and I'm going to try and up my playlist-humor-game.

17. Make a reference to an inside joke you have with someone you love with zero context.

'Time for tapwater'.

18. What is a message you'd give your younger self if given a chance?

Don't build your sense of self-worth over the people whose opinions you think matter. You don't have to get everybody to like you. (Oh, and probably don't switch between multiple first-person-pov's, even though you're just writing the most unrealistic self-indulgent fiction EVER.)

19. Who is your favorite family member? (If you have no good blood family members, feel free to mention someone in your found family)

Hands down, my sister. Shelley, didi, @iamcharliebradburylevelperfect, you're like the best part of my life, and you're probably going to be the longest part of it, too. Cause we might not have the best record for funny titles to call each other by, but we still nail the cheesy till the end of the line moments, ;)

20. What's a secret dream of yours?

I, uh. Want to run a completely-revolutionalizing-the-concept-of-education-style school ~ a boarding school actually, with my best friend dish. And as a means to acquire funds for it? We're going to do a whole lotta stand-up. :D

(Oh, and since i've already rambled for at least a thousand words, so what's the harm in a few more? At some point, probably on my birthday, I want to do a YouTube livestream, a pre-planned one of course, and everybody I've ever been frens with, on this dumb, wholesome hellsite???? They're all sent an invitation to join!! And there's nothing to do, really, we just talk and everyone's enjoying themselves, and I dunno, I had a dream about this once, and I've been so ridiculously smitten with the idea since!

Huh, maybe I could rally forces starting now, to make this possible by my eighteenth!!)

If anyone would like to play, these are really awesome questions! @3dg310rdsupreme @mystybloo @thotfordean @bcozwhythefuknot @theninthdutchessofhell @awkward-penguin-in-a-trenchcoat @quicksilver-ships @all-or-nothing-baby @screamatthescreen @telefunkies @elvenlicht @facepalmmylifeu @specialagentrin @noemithenephilim @but-for-the-gods-three-days

#l o n g #long post #about me #i finally did it #stuff about me

17 notes · View notes

epicstuckyficrecs · 6 years ago

Text

How To Tag Stucky Fics Part 2: Rating, Warnings, Fandoms, Relationships & Characters

Preliminary comments

First thing you can do to understand the tagging system better is read the Tag FAQ on ao3! And while you’re at it, I would suggest you also read the Wrangling Guidelines. Understanding the work of tag wranglers might help you to tag your fics better!

My aim with this is to encourage you to better use AO3’s tagging system, which means using canonical tags (especially for Fandom, Relationship and Character tags), VS unfilterable tags, which is everything else that’s not “canonical”. But any tag is better than no tags! Long, rambly tags are better than no tags! That’s what we have tag wranglers for! But my opinion is: if there’s a canonical tag for something, why not use it?

Tagging is an art, not a science. There are pretty much no absolute rules, which means that ao3′s tagging system’s biggest advantage is also its biggest disadvantage: you can do whatever you want with it! You can tag as much or as little as you want.

Every fandom has its quirks and odds about tagging. I’m obviously focused on Stucky, and incidentally on the MCU, so what I say here might not necessarily apply to all ships/fandoms.

As such, my opinion is as good as anyone else’s. I’m not pretending to be the utmost authority on how to tag: I’m just trying make good use of my experience to give writers some recommendations! These are my personal recommendations and in no way are you forced to follow them.

Tagging 101

Tagging has two main purposes, so you should keep them in mind while filling out the New Work form:

Content: tagging the content of your fics, so that readers who want to read said content can find your fic!

Trigger warnings: tagging content in your fics that people might want to avoid.

Basic rules of tagging (to help facilitate the job of our amazing tag wranglers):

Separate your Fandom, Relationship and Character tags by commas! There should be only one item per tag.

Always Use The Characters’ Last Name. Here’s why. Basically, when you tag with “Cute Peter”, wranglers have no idea if you’re talking about Peter Parker or Peter Quill or any of the hundreds of Peter characters in the Archive!

Personally, I would avoid using emojis in tags.

Some of these recommendations (and more) can be found in this AO3 News post under the How To Make Tags Work For You header.

Just read this post if you have no idea how tag wranglers actually wrangle tags. It’s really informative. The TLDR is: your tags are seen with no context, mixed in with all the other tags of other works in the wrangling interface, which are sorted by alphabetical order. Wranglers don’t know which tags in their workload belong to the same fic. Rambly Tumblr-style tags are fine, but just remember: “each tag stands on its own in the filters. Think about the idea you’re expressing in each tag, not just in your tags as a whole conversation. (...) Don’t assume that sarcasm, hyperbole, etc. will come through during sorting.”

Without further ado, let’s get into the actual tagging! I’m gonna be following the same order as if you were posting a new fic on AO3 :)

RATING & ARCHIVE WARNINGS

You can click on the little interrogation point in the form if you don’t know exactly how to tag for rating and warnings or check out the Ratings and Warnings section of AO3’s Terms of Service and FAQ. The only thing I would advise you here is to be as truthful as possible.

One important thing to know would be the difference between “No archive warnings apply” and “Choose not to use archive warnings”. From ao3commentoftheday:

“No Archive Warnings Apply means that the fic has nothing in it that people need to be warned about.

Choose Not to Use Archive Warnings means that the fic very well might include things that people would like to be warned about, but the author has decided not to warn because that warning might spoil the story (or for some other reason)”.

If you decide to use Choose Not to Use Archive Warnings, here’s a few options so your readers can still make an informed decision about reading your fic:

Additional Tags: You could use the Additional Tags field to list any details about what might be triggering in your work. For example, if there is a Character Death, but you don’t want to tag with MCD because it’s not a Major character, or it’s only temporary… There are tags for that! There was a great discussion on this post re: warnings vs spoilers on ao3commentoftheday, if you wanna go have a look!

Tag + Author’s note: Another thing you could do is use the “Additional Warnings In Author’s Note” tag and, as the tag says, give more details to your readers about triggers or warnings in your author’s note.

Author’s note (at the beginning) + End note (at the end): You could also write down a small summary of the triggering parts of your chapter in the end notes, and direct your readers to it in an Author’s Note at the beginning of the chapter.

FANDOMS

As I said above, please use the canonical Fandom tags!

MCU

I would really recommend you read this post on how to tag in the MCU! But basically, you should mainly be tagging your fic with Captain America (Movies) (or whatever movie is the focus of your story!). No need to use more general tags like Marvel (Movies) or Marvel Cinematic Universe ON TOP of your movie tag, it’ll show up there anyway! (If you’re writing RPF, use the Marvel Cinematic Universe RPF tag)

Always remember that if you’re tagging more than one fandom, you need to separate them with a comma! Don’t use a slash / or “and” (like “Captain America/Game of Thrones” or “Captain America and Game of Thrones”), or else it will create a single new tag that will be impossible to wrangle.

If your fic prominently features events or characters from other MCU movies (like The Avengers, Black Panther, etc.) or TV shows (like Agents of SHIELD or the Defenders), you could even add those fandom tags! But I wouldn’t if it’s not a major part of the plot though. For example: if Scott Lang is Bucky’s roommate, I would probably not tag with the “Ant-Man (Movies)” fandom tag. Ask yourself: would someone looking for Ant-Man fic want to find mine?

In fact, you can mostly apply this strategy to the whole tagging process. Ask yourself: would someone looking for xyz want to find my fic?

Also note that tagging multiple fandoms in the MCU will not make your work a Crossover according to AO3’s search engine, since they are under the same Metatag (aka Marvel Cinematic Universe). But if you tag another fandom in the bigger Marvel Metatag (for example, “Winter Soldier (Comics)”), then it will be considered a Crossover. (according to AO3: “Crossovers are defined here as works with at least two unrelated fandom tags, as determined by how tags are wrangled.”).

Alternate Universe

If your fic is an AU taking place in a non-MCU fandom (for example, Harry Potter), it’s up to you to decide how you want to tag.

Fandoms: You could add the Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling tag to the Fandoms field. Be aware that your fic will be considered a Crossover according to AO3’s search engine.

Additional Tags: there’s a few different ways to tag for AUs.

Alternate Universe - “...” : for example Alternate Universe - Hogwarts

Alternate Universe - “...” Setting: for example Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting

Alternate Universe - “...” Fusion (or just Alternate Universe - Fusion): for example Alternate Universe -The Little Mermaid Fusion, because there wasn’t a HP fusion tag in this case lol (according to Fanlore: “A fusion is a type of fanwork which merges two or more fandoms by incorporating characters from one fandom into the setting of another as if they had always been there.”) (emphasis mine)

In any case, you could also add the Crossover tag to the Additional Tags field (according to Fanlore: “A crossover is a fanfic in which two or more fandoms are combined in some way.”)

You could do all or neither of those things! As always, there are pretty much no absolute rules when it comes to tagging. But again, the more accurate you are, the better it is for your readers! :)

Now, I’ve used Harry Potter as an example, but there are a ton of Alternate Universe tags (under the Sub Tags section) for a great number of fandoms!

RELATIONSHIPS

From AO3’s FAQ: “The significant character interactions in the work, including romantic and/or sexual relationships and pairings (indicated in the Archive's canonical tags by a '/', e.g., James “Bucky” Barnes/Steve Rogers) and platonic relationships such as friendship, family, teammates, etc. (indicated in canonical tags by a '&', e.g., Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanoff). You can use whatever notation you like. Separate different relationships with commas.” (emphasis mine, and I changed the pairings for MCU ones)

So basically:

romantic or sexual = use the slash /

platonic = use the ampersand &

I would recommend:

To only tag the one (1) main relationship in your fic (whether romantic or platonic), unless your story really focuses on more than one sexual/platonic relationship or contains a graphic scene depicting the second couple.

Any side pairings/friendships can go in the Additional Tags field (for example: Minor Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov or Steve Rogers & Bucky Barnes Friendship).

Ask yourself: would someone looking for xyz want to find my fic? Or as ao3commentoftheday put it: “Only tag the ship if someone who ships it would be satisfied with the amount of content (or ‘screen time’) that ship gets.”

Here’s a good post on what not to do when tagging Relationships. Namely:

Using portmanteau ship names like “Stucky”, or

Tagging multiple variations of the way you can refer to one ship, like: “Steve/Bucky”, “Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes”, “Steven Grant Rogers/James Buchanan Barnes”.

It’s not a huuuuge deal since they’ll just get synned to the James “Bucky” Barnes/Steve Rogers tag, but there’s no need to use all of those when you have a perfectly good canon tag!

Again, there are no rules on how you need to tag your works. I would only recommend that you use canon tags as much as possible and that you choose the tag(s) that accurately represent your story.

CHARACTERS

Use canonical tags! I was incredibly surprised when I searched for the character “Steve Roger” in the Tag Search and ended up with almost 600 tags. The Characters field is not the place for “Mention of Steve Rogers”, “Pre-Serum Steve Rogers”, “Alpha Steve Rogers”, etc. Those should go in the Additional Tags, or else any modifier you’ve put before “Steve Rogers” will be useless, since it’ll just get synned to the Steve Rogers character tag.

Also sounds obvious but… don’t tag Relationships in the Characters field. And vice-versa.

Only tag the main characters! Try to keep it to a minimum. Don’t tag every single character that appears in your fic! (especially if there are a lot of them and most only make a short appearance)

If you’re not sure who to tag, ask yourself: if someone reads my fic, in a year’s time, who would they remember being in there?

In any case, if you want to mention a character without putting it in the Characters field, you can use the Additional Tags!

Stay tuned for Part 3 where I’ll be tackling the Additional Tags! :D

See Part 1: A Comprehensive List of Stucky Tags here.

See Part 3: Additional Tags here!

You can also access a handy bullet-point checklist that summarizes these posts on Google Docs here!

#ao3 #ao3 tags #ao3 tagging #fanfiction #tagging #stucky #stucky fic #stucky fanfic #stucky fanfiction

121 notes · View notes

mia-cooper · 5 years ago

Text

Fanfiction Questions

from here

Fandom Questions

1. What was the first fandom you got involved in?

Involved as in ‘frantically read every book I could get my hands on, daydreamed about being part of that universe and wrote stories/made art inspired by the books, if not actual fanfiction’? Mm, probably The Chronicles of Narnia when I was six or seven. The next great obsession was The Silver Brumby when I went through my horse stage around age 12, and then Sweet Valley High when I was 15. Hahaha.

2. What is your latest fandom?

Marvel! I’m not into comics and I’m definitely not interested in consuming every last bit of canon material or memorising the variations of every universe, but I love (most of) the movies and Agents of SHIELD is pretty cool.

3. What is the best fandom you’ve ever been involved in?

Star Trek Voyager. No contest. I venture to suggest that the older fandoms, the ones that are all about defunct shows, are a hell of a lot more chilled. Maybe because we’ve come to terms with our shitty canon endings and learned that liking the ship you hate doesn’t make someone problematic, unlike some newer fandoms I could name (Yes I’m talking about you, Game of Thrones fans. What the fuck.)

4. Do you regret getting involved in any fandoms?

I’ve dipped a toe into one or two fandoms for shows or books I’ve really enjoyed and backed the fuck out when the vibe gets weird (oh hey, it’s GoT again), but nope. No regrets.

5. Which fandoms have you written fanfiction for?

All the Star Treks except TOS, and a Trek/MCU crossover. I’d like to write more for MCU someday. Plus I’ve written longhand entire notebooks full of teen romance shit that bore an uncanny similarity to SVH, and my first short story was a fantasy fic that featured a girl whose guardian was a wise talking lion who led her into mystical secret worlds, which is kind of familiar.

6. List your OTP from each fandom you’ve been involved in.

Wow. I’m going to define ‘involved in’ as ‘cared enough about to have an OTP’, but I’m guaranteed to forget a ton. In no particular order:

Voyager: Janeway x anyone who can get her off

Discovery: Lorca x Cornwell or Pike x Tyler x Burnham (or any combination of)

DS9: Kira x Jadzia Dax

TNG: Picard x Vash, I guess? I don’t really have any TNG ships

ENT: T’Pol x Trip x Hoshi (or any variation therein)

MCU: Cap x Widow

AoS: Coulson x Skye... no May... no Skye... I don’t know

CAOS: Madam Satan x Zelda

Timeless: Garcy

The Good Place: Eleanor x Tahani

The 100 (shut up): toss up between Clarke x Bellamy and Kane x Abby

Veronica Mars: Veronica x Leo (first run), Veronica x Logan (s4)

Orphan Black: Cosima x Delphine

BSG: Apollo x Starbuck

SG1: Sam x Jack

Arrow: Olicity (so over the show now though)

This Life: Milly x Egg

Yeah you know what... I’m drawing a blank. I can’t think of any other shows where I’ve been invested in The Romance that much.

7. List your NoTPs from each fandom you’ve been in.

I’m too tired to do every fandom, and besides, I can come around to almost any ship if the headcanons (or fics) are convincing enough. I do have a few hard no-gos, but they might be someone else’s OTP so I’ll shut up about them.

8. How did you get involved in your latest fandom?

Reluctantly. The MCU movies are not something I ever thought I’d enjoy beyond a dull evening’s entertainment. I never expected to get attached to the characters. And yet.

9. What are the best things about your current fandom?

Voyager is my forever fandom and the only one where I’ve really interacted with other fans. The best things about it? In general, everyone is just cool, accepting, open and basically awesome. And talented. I love my Party Bus people.

10. Is there a fandom you read fic from but don’t write in?

Sure. The 100, Veronica Mars and Agents of SHIELD are the ones I’d dip into more frequently. I really enjoy crossovers between Trek and BSG or the Stargate variants, too.

Ship Questions for your Current Fandom

11. Who is your current OTP?

Janeway x Chakotay.

12. Who is your current OT3?

Janeway x Chakotay x Paris.

13. Any NoTPs?

A few.

14. Go on, who are your BroTPs?

Janeway & Tuvok! Also Torres & Chakotay, and I’d have killed for more Janeway & Torres in canon. (If they kissed sometimes that would be okay too)

15. Is there an obscure ship which you love?

Yeah. Paris x Seven. There are like two fics in existence, and yet ... the potential! (Sorry, B’Elanna)

16. Are there any popular ships in your fandom which you dislike?

Nope.

17. Who was your first OTP and are they still your favourite?

Janeway x Paris. And they’re still way up there, but not quite at the top.

18. What ship have you written the most about?

84% of my fics feature Janeway x Chakotay as either the primary or secondary pairing... holy shit.

19. Is there a ship which you wished you could get behind, but you just don’t feel them?

Paris x Torres. I mean, I feel them. I just don’t generally feel the need to write about them.

20. Any ships which you surprised yourself by liking?

Chakotay x Seven. In another universe, it could’ve been beautiful.

Author Questions

21. What was the first fanfic you ever wrote?

Actual story that was clearly fanfic? A farcical drunken romp told in the 24th century equivalent of email format called PADDemonium (see what I did there?)

22. Is there anything you regret writing?

Lol, a few things that should probably have never seen the light of day for various reasons, some of them leola related. But I’ve only deleted two fics that I can recall.

23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it.

Relieved. It’s a 30k AU Chakotay moral dilemma backstory that brings in DS9 characters, Section 31 and his longstanding history with AU Janeway. I did so much research for it (way back in the days before memory alpha and chakoteya.net) and I’m really proud of how I wound in canon stuff across series but changed a few key bits and pieces. Only problem is, it’s a sequel to ...

24. What fic do you desperately need to rewrite or edit?

... Pressure, which I can’t even read without cringing. My characterisation of Janeway, even Angry Maquis AU Janeway, is way over the top and there are moments that verge on Mills and Boon and give me first, second and third hand embarrassment. God, I’d love to rewrite it. Actually, that’s a lie. I want someone else to rewrite it so I can read it without covering my eyes and moaning.

25. What’s your most popular fanfic?

Desperate Measures, by about 70,000 light years, lol. Although Fragile Things beats it on bookmarks.

26. How do you come up with your fanfic titles?

You know what? A fair percentage of the time, I think of the title first and come up with a plot second. Aside from that, I prefer shorter, punchier titles that clearly tie into the story (Flight Risk, Speechless), though sometimes it’s song lyrics (Burn Our Horizons, your body like a searchlight) or a literary quote (Required to Bear, All the Devils are Here) or a turn of phrase from the story itself (The Prisons You Inhabit). Hey that was fun. Thanks for letting me pimp the shit out of my stories.

27. What do you hate more: Coming up with titles or writing summaries?

Ugh, it depends on the day. Summaries are harder, I think. I never want to give away too much of the plot, but there has to be enough there for people to know whether they’ll bother clicking. Funny story: I actually ran the stats on this a few months back. Here they are for your edification:

Fics with a one line plot summary = 54%

With two or three line plot summary = 18%

With a short snippet directly from the fic = 16%

With a snippet + a one line explanation = 3%

With a one line plot summary plus a line to date the fic (eg "set in season 3", “episode tag to Worst Case Scenario") or the fic prompt = 7%

And finally, a quote from something other than the fic = 2% (that's only 3 fics).

28. If someone were to draw a piece of fanart for your story, which story would it be and what would the picture be of?

Ooh. I’ll say the final scene in Explosive.

29. Do you have a beta reader? Why/Why not?

I used to regularly ask @jhelenoftrek and @littleobsessions90 to beta for me, and both of them are brilliant at it. Lately I’ve been posting without sending my stuff off for editing. This is partly because I’m impatient to get stuff out there, partly because I don’t have as much time to write/edit, and partly because I’m a little less focused on improving my writing and more on enjoying it for its own sake.

30. What inspires you to write?

Little bits of episode dialogue I haven’t noticed before, other people’s fanfiction, stray conversations, fic prompts, song lyrics, random headcanons, fever dreams, dares ...

31. What’s the nicest thing someone has ever said about your writing?

I’ve been really lucky with comments on my fic. The least helpful comment I’ve ever received was on one of my early 30k fics and all it said was “Did you have to take the name of the lord in vain?” Which is kind of funny. The nicest thing anyone’s ever said? I’m very partial to the feedback that starts “I don’t even like this pairing/genre/trope/show but you made me love it”, and particularly “I’ll read anything you write, I don’t care what it’s about.” But all comments are gold. The little heart button is cool too.

32. Do you listen to music when you write or does music inspire you? If so, which band or genre of music does it for you?

I’m not someone who can tune out music I love, or leave it in the background to inspire me. If it’s on, I’m fully invested in it. I’m that annoying person in the car who flips radio stations every three seconds until I find something I like and then it’s on 11 and I’m singing along to it. I’m also really picky but extremely eclectic, although there are genres I can’t stand (anything with autotune makes me stabby). That said, sometimes I find a song that I can’t stop listening to for weeks and often that perfect combination of music and lyrics will inspire me to write a fic. For example, I just plotted out an entire J/C story because of this song.

33. Do you write oneshots, multi-chapter fics or huuuuuge epics?

All of the above. Although I’m not sure if my longest epic is huuuuuge or just huuuge.

34. What’s the word count on your longest fic?

101,467.

35. Do you write drabbles? If so, what do you normally write them about?

I have two drabble collections. One is all J/C, full of responses to random prompts and I add to it sporadically. The other is episode additions set on Kathryn Janeway’s birthday (May 20) and added to annually.

36. What’s your favourite genre to write?

Angst, definitely. Sometimes it’s smutty angst or fluffy angst or hurt/comfort angst, but often it’s just fucking unrelenting angst. And I’m okay with that.

37. First person or third person - what do you write in and why?

I did the stats on this once, too, haha. Pretty sure I came out fairly even on first and third person with a smattering of second person in there. I’m probably even-ish on present vs past tense, too. I make it a point to mix it up to avoid my writing getting stale or same-y. And sometimes a fic doesn’t really click for me until I try it in a different POV or tense or from a different character’s perspective.

38. Do you use established canon characters or do you create OCs?

I mostly write for canon characters - the fun is in all the different ways you can interpret and imagine them - but I’ve been known to throw in the odd OC, or focus on a character who only got a brief cameo appearance, or write about someone who only appears in beta canon, or who only rates a mention on screen.

39. What is your greatest strength as a writer?

Oh, wow. I’m not sure. I guess the thing I value most about my own writing is my willingness to try different styles, characters, pairings and so on. The thing I strive for most is characterisation that feels true, and I really love it when I get comments on that. Exploring a character in a way that rings true with a reader is the best thing ever.

40. What do you struggle the most with in your writing?

Overly long sentences and adverb abuse, haha. No, truthfully, there comes a point in most of my fics, particularly the longer ones, when I really just want to scrap it because in my heart I know it’s dreadful. Usually that passes once I slog through the ‘I don’t wanna’ stage because I’m a bloody-minded bitch, but sometimes fics do get left in the dust half-written. Honestly, though, they’re the ones that probably should stay there.

Fanfiction Questions

41. List and link to 5 fanfics you are currently reading:

This is hilarious because I was just talking on discord about my problematic ‘to read’ pile. My unread AO3 subscription emails currently number 29 and my phone browser has 71 tabs open. So here are 5 random picks from that list of exactly 100 fics I should be reading:

Sex on the Beach (E, Janeway/Chakotay) by @traccigaryn

The Ruby Ring (T, Janeway/Chakotay, Janeway/Tighe) by @trinfinity2001

Earth is But an Idea (T, Janeway/Chakotay, Carter/O’Neill) by @caladeniablue

Home (E, Janeway/Chakotay) by Cassatt

Wise Up (E, Janeway/Chakotay) by KimJ

42. List and link to 5 fanfiction authors who are amazing:

Only five? Shit. Okay. In no particular order, these are five of the writers I keep coming back to:

quantumsilver (also here)

northernexposure

LittleObsessions

Helen8462

Cheshire

But there are so many others. My chosen fandom is chock full of amazing talent.

43. Is there anyone in your fandom who really inspires you?

All of the authors above for various reasons, but also august because her writing is so spare and delicate and devastating, and runawaymetaphor because she writes the most delicious Janeway/Paris, and @seperis because I read In the Space of Seven Days literally 20 years ago and I still haven’t recovered, and I could be here all night raving on this topic but there are still many questions to get through.

44. What ship do you feel needs more attention?

Janeway x Paris. I’m so happy there’s been a little bit of a resurgence in J/P fics lately. Thanks, @curator-on-ao3, you’re doing the lord’s work.

I’ll also take Janeway x Johnson content any day of the week.

45. What is your all time favourite fanfic?

What the hell? I can’t pick just one! Ugh!

... but okay, here’s the first one that came to mind when I tried to think about this: if you came this way by tree. I’m not sure I’d call it my favourite, but it’s one I revisit often. Ugh, there are so many other fics I’m thinking of now that I really want to list.

46. If someone was to read one of your fanfics, which fic would you recommend to them and why?

Oh, that’s hard. I should probably pick an angsty smutty J/C because that’s a fair proportion of what I write and it’s good to let a new reader know what they can expect. But honestly, I think the best fic I’ve written is The Uncharted Sea. (It’s safe for work. Maybe not for makeup.)

47. Archive Of Our Own, Fanfiction.net or Tumblr - where do you prefer to post and why?

The Archive, of course. Where else can I find ad-free hosting on a stunningly user-friendly interface with absolutely no moralising content restrictions and the world’s best tagging system? That Hugo award is well deserved.

Tumblr is good for headcanons and meta and gifsets and a few other formats that I’m less likely to post on AO3 because I’d feel like I was pissing off people who subscribe to me by giving them some random garbage.

I also have my own website, but I’m not really sure why. Sometimes I post fic there that doesn’t make it to tumblr or AO3.

48. Do you leave reviews when you read fanfiction? Why/Why not?

I try to. Honestly I do. I love it when I get reviews, so I figure paying it forward is the least I can do. I’m less scrupulous about leaving comments when I’m busy or reading on my phone.

49. Do you care if people comment/reblog your writing? Why/why not?

I mean, I love it when people reblog, but I certainly don’t expect it. @arcadia1995 is amazing for reblogging stuff *blows kisses*

Nobody owes fanfic writers shit, but I feel like there’s a tacit agreement that if you like what you just read for free and you’re on a platform that makes it easy to do so, you leave a review or at least a kudos, because I’m not gonna lie, posting a fic you’ve worked super hard on and seeing it get very few kudos or comments is a bit deflating. I’m sure a lot of us have been there.

50. How did you get into reading and/or writing fanfiction?

During Voyager’s original run I was trawling the internet for Endgame spoilers (I don’t know why; I usually love surprises) and I guess I googled (or whatever the 2001 equivalent of googling was) something like “how does voyager get home” and somehow I stumbled across Revisionist History. At first I had no idea what I was reading - was this a lost story pitch that somehow got leaked? A professional novella commissioned by the showrunners?

Then I started following links and discovered yahoo groups and webrings and Trekiverse and fanfiction.net and all sorts of incredible things I’d never guessed at, including the now defunct ‘archipelago of angst’, a collection of Voyager writers who focused mainly on a darker Janeway than most of the other fic writers I was encountering, and I was hooked. So I wrote a few of my own pieces, and then I lost interest for 15 years. I’m still not sure how I got dragged back in.

51. Rant or Gush about one thing you love or hate in the world of fanfiction! Go!

Honestly, in what other way can I indulge my obsessions, hone my skills and talk about it endlessly with like-minded people? Where else can I instantly find a plethora of fiction about the exact topic I feel like reading about on my mobile device and for free? Fanfiction is fucking amazing and I’m so glad it exists in my life.

#miamemes #fanfiction #fanfic asks

18 notes · View notes

ciathyzareposts · 5 years ago

Text

Gobliins 2 – Final Rating

By Ilmari

I am a bit torn about Gobliins 2. I began playing it with great expectations. The second game in the Gobliins-series showed clear improvements over its predecessor, being easier to play and fairer, while still retaining the wackiness of the first game. The more I played, the more irritated I became, when the game wouldn’t just stop. I felt that the producers had tried to cram a bit too much into the game, that there was too much of a repetition of similar themes and puzzles and that the whole would have just improved from cutting away some of the material. I feel the need to balance my rating carefully in order to accommodate both of these aspects.

Giant’s face says it all

Puzzles and Solvability

Puzzlewise, Gobliins 2 has quite a different feel from Gobliiins. The main reason for this is the move to a more traditional adventure game style, where the player has access to many different screens, instead of being forced to go through a series of discrete levels. Mind you, the game still consists of a linear series of areas, which could even be called levels, but at least these usually contain more than just one screen. This does get rid of the crudest problems of motivation in the first game, where the goal of one screen was not yet clear and became apparent only in light of a later screen.

I have to admit that especially with later parts of Gobliins 2, the goal was often a bit hazy; for instance, here I had no indication I should be creating this portal.

Another big difference lies in the way the goblins are used in the puzzle solving. In the first game, the goblins had clearly distinct roles, for instance, only one of them could pick up and use items. Here, the roles of the goblins are more similar, neither of them having any particular skills the other wouldn’t have. They still do interact with the environment in different manners, but these different manners seem often to be based just on the whim of the producers. They do try to justify these different actions by the different attitudes of the goblins, Winkle being more whimsical than Fingus, but this difference is not very strict – we do see, e.g. Fingus playing a trick on the cook of the castle.

Or trying to draw something on a picture

It’s difficult to say whether the essentially similar skill set of the two goblins is a positive or a negative thing. On the one hand, in the first game it was usually the inventory person who had the most interesting things to do, the actions of the wizard being way too random and the actions of the strong guy too simplistic and often just pushing switches. In the second game, none of the goblins had a more important role than the other. Indeed, even more so than in the first game, the puzzles often relied on cooperation, when one of the goblin did something and the other had to do something else in the small window of time when the first one was doing it.This was at times even frustrating, especially if the action of the second goblin required precise pixel hunting and/or missing the window meant beginning a long puzzle sequence from the very beginning.

I’ve already spoken of the repetition that hindered my enjoyment of the later parts of the game, and this repetition can be seen especially with puzzles. Many of the puzzles seem like Rube Goldberg machines with an Escherian twist, in that a series of complex and sometimes even geometrically absurd steps (e.g.put goblin’s hand here and see it come out in a completely different place) are required for some seemingly easy task, like getting a goblin on top of a shelf. The problem is that many of the steps used – like the just mentioned hand trick, or the one where a goblin is placed on something that is used to slingshot him – are introduced quite early in the game and then used over and over again.

Looking back at what I’ve written I might sound overtly negative in my opinion on the puzzles. Even with all their flaws, I do still prefer the idea of freer puzzle combinations in Gobliins 2 to the level-based style of Gobliiins. If only the puzzles would have been more varied and less in need of precise timing and positioning.

Score: 3.

Interface and Inventory

The producers have improved upon the first game and got rid of the ridiculous health bar that was nothing but painful. They even added hotspots, thus avoiding most of the pixel hunting (it still is a bit of a trouble in the timed sequences, where the hotspot exists for a fraction of a second).

Hotspots even tell you the name of the characters

If I do have to say something critical, the game mechanism of changing inventory objects between two goblins seems somewhat superfluous, since most of the time the two goblins have an identical inventory. And speaking of inventory, it is still very bland.

Score: 5

Story and Setting

The story of the game is less complex than in the first Gobliiins. For the most part, there’s basically only one motivation for PCs: rescue Prince and get him home. The final twist of the game, with the Prince being possessed by a demon, comes out of nowhere and feels like it was made just to lengthen the game. Setting, on the other hand, is rich and colourful. Sometimes many of the elements don’t make any sense – why is there a basketball player on a tree village? – but this just goes with the general silly tone of the game.

The dream sequences were especially delightful

Score: 5.

Sounds and Graphics

I am pretty sure the producers took the easy route and merely used all the same music as in the previous game – it still sounds good, but this is a bit lazy. Graphically the game is on par with its predecessor with images reflecting the wacky tone. All in all,since the game looks and sounds like the first one, a similar score is definitely in order.

Score: 6.

Environment and Atmosphere

I applauded the first game for its wealth of silly animated gags. The sequel also delivers on this front. Lot of the charm of the game is trying different variations in interacting with different objects and seeing if the outcome changes. Since the threat of death has been lifted, the players are free to tinker.

Score: 8.

It was not at first apparent that goblins could be used like bowling pins.

No, let’s think about this again! The final stages of the game lost the momentum, and all the wackiness just couldn’t help with my growing irritation. Thus, I’ll deduct a few points from this category – but not too much, since I still adore the beginning.

Score: 6.

Dialogue and Acting

Based on the two games I’ve played, Goblins-series is so heavily focused on clever animations that the producers have mostly ignored text and dialogue. The second game was perhaps a bit more literate than the first, but this isn’t saying much.

The voices speaking the various lines sound more like overeager theater enthusiasts than true professionals. The actor in the role of Fingus is particularly lacking in talent, sounding like a second-rate imitation of Walt Disney voicing Mickey Mouse.

Score: 2.

(3 + 5 + 5 + 6 + 6 + 2)/0.6 = 27/0.6 = 45. If the game would have ended a lot earlier, this would have been a fine score, but since it now continued longer than was necessary and became more than a bit of a chore in its last moments, I’ll deduct one more point. 44 it is then, making the second game a bit less to my liking than the first game. Will Moczarski wins this round!

CAP Distribution

100 CAPs for Ilmari

Blogger Award – 100 CAPs – For moving from great enthusiasm to utter boredom in the process of playing and blogging through this game for our enjoyment

38 CAPs for MorpheusKitami

True Companion Award – 30 CAPs – For playing along Gobliins 2 almost to the end and proving ample commentary

The Cult of Teeth Award – 5 CAPs – For taking part in the teeth appreciation comments

Colonel Mustard – 3 CAPs – For research on the linguistics of mayonnaise

15 CAPs for Demon Throne

Teeth Award – 15 CAPs – For the best set of teeth in the game

10 CAPs for Will Moczarski

Psychic Prediction Award – 10 CAPs – For guessing the exact score of Gobliins 2

9 CAPs for ShaddamIVth

The Cult of Teeth Award – 5 CAPs – For taking part in the teeth appreciation comments

Where No Adventure Game Has Gone Before Award – 4 CAPs – For finding out the secret of the cosmic whereabouts of TAG headquarters

8 CAPs for MisterKerr

It’s a Good Game Award -8 CAPs – For sharing interesting analysis and memories on Gobliins 2

5 CAPs for Mayhaym

The Cult of Teeth Award – 5 CAPs – For taking part in the teeth appreciation comments

3 CAPs for Agrivar

Mythology 101 Award – 3 CAPs – For a creative explanation of mermaid queen’s missing eyes

3 CAPs for Lisa H.

Cooking 101 Award – 3 CAPs – For explaining how to make mayonnaise

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/gobliins-2-final-rating/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

1 note · View note

snaurus · 6 years ago

Text

PROMPTS: gladnoctweek - kitty!noct (nyactis)

Pairings: Gladiolus Amicitia/Noctis Lucis Caelum Ratings: K+ Categories: Humor Warnings: Violence

Gladiolus isn’t feline well after the team’s latest scuffle with a Naga transforms Noctis into something nobody expects.

*Tap dances my way to doing this prompt all wrong for Day Five of @gladnoctweek* I also ended up doing the secondary prompt, but that response is queued for later today to keep from flooding the tags.

Just some quick inspiration for this story: I think it’s kind of a popular opinion in fandom now, but credit to @demishock for sharing their headcanon with me about all of Gladio’s sneezing in-game being due to the big, beefy outdoorsman having (at least seasonal) allergies! They shared the observation with me first and I’ve since accepted it as truth, so I wanted to explore it here.

My greatest heartfelt thanks also goes out to @glyphenthusiast for sharing all the laughter and comments on this story while editing it to the purrfection ya’ll see here today. <3

In her death throes the air was clouded by the Naga’s vestiges of magic. To Gladiolus' right, Prompto coughed and swatted the space in front of his nose. He only managed to spread the noxious-purple smoke around rather than disperse it.

Grabbing him by the arm, Gladiolus used the crook of his other limb to cover his mouth as he dragged Prompto to the edge of the Naga's circle of influence. Gladiolus didn't release him until they were safe from being cursed. Past his own hacking fit, Gladiolus managed to ask, "You okay?"

"Hnnng," Prompto said in response, bending at the waist. He sounded ready to hack up a lung or the contents of his stomach. Gladiolus patted him on the back. When Prompto didn't immediately drop dead he sought out their other companions.

"Roll call!" Gladiolus rasped.

Somewhere north of them, Ignis reported in. As the smoke finally cleared, Gladiolus saw him stumbling around, seemingly half-drunk. The lack of a certain prince's response had Gladiolus on alert. Ignoring his sore throat, he yelled, "Noct?"

Everyone sorted themselves out when they picked up on Noctis' absence, too. Shaking his head to re-orientate himself, Ignis turned in every direction; he checked high and low for any sign of their friend. Prompto cupped both hands around his mouth and called, "Croak if you can hear us, buddy!"

There came a reply, although it didn't originate from a human or an amphibian. A soft mewling echoed their frantic shouts. Gladiolus tore through the area as he tracked the origin of the noise, uncertain exactly where it was coming from. The Naga's body had yet to completely dissolve after its demise, so Gladiolus hefted her tail to permit Ignis and Prompto to search underneath.

"Gentle, gentle!" Ignis chided as Prompto coaxed a small, black bundle free of the wreckage. Gladiolus assumed it was a wad of gunk that had secreted from the daemon's remains, but no, when he dropped the Naga's body he saw how it took shape, even after Prompto wiped down the mound with the corner of his vest.

"Oh. Em. Gee!" Prompto swooned, cradling what turned out to be a fluffy and blue-eyed cat. "You've got to be kitten me, Noct! It is you, right?"

The cat yawned, evidence enough of who it was. During Prompto's cooing and awing, Ignis seemed perplexed while Gladiolus became apprehensive. The advisor leaned in, adjusting his glasses by the earpiece as he examined their miniaturized friend. "How curious. I'd noticed the variation in this particular foe, but who would have surmised that its repertoire would also be unique?"

"Right? But I'd rather a cat than a frog any day," Prompto said. Redirecting his attention to Gladiolus, who'd remained distanced from the group, he held Noctis toward the other man’s face. "What do you think, Gladio?"

Gladiolus balked at the sudden closeness. He opened his mouth to say something to the effect that he'd rather have Noctis sans sticky tongues, long tails, or any variations thereof. Except all that came out was a tremendous sneeze. At the onslaught Prompto clamped his eyes shut and stepped back, whereas Noctis had been in the direct line of the assault. Ears pressed flat against his skull, Noctis hissed and swatted a paw. He hit Gladiolus across the tip of his nose.

"Hey now!" Gladiolus said, clutching his face. His voice was muffled, although it became clear that it had nothing to do with the gesture, but how stuffed up his sinuses had become. "It's not my fault I'm allergic to His Royal Furriness!"

"Oh," Prompto said in acknowledgement. Then he did it again in realization. "Oh. Sorry, dude. I should have figured, what with your allergies and all…"

Prompto drew the cat back against his chest. Noctis must have felt constricted at the increased contact since he squirmed and yowled in protest, not so dissimilar to a motorcycle engine. To appease him, Prompto stroked under his chin. It wasn't clear if Noctis enjoyed the treatment; he might have been undecided himself because while he stopped his attempt at escape, Noctis kept making the noise deep in his throat.

Not that it was just Noctis' growls permuting the area. Gladiolus picked up on the disturbance, then Ignis. They inspected their surroundings, although it quickly became unnecessary. The daemons materialized smack dab in the middle of their group. One glowing, floating Bomb appeared, and another, and finally two more burst into existence at once.

Before Gladiolus could decide to summon his sword or his shield, an armful of pissed off fuzz and sharp fangs was shoved at him. He fumbled a moment, gathering Noctis by the scruff of his neck and holding him at arm's length. "Prompto, what— What am I supposed to do with him?"

"Come on, just for a sec? I need both hands free," he said, recalling his firearm and demonstrating his point by clutching the large gun. One hand was on the trigger and the other steadied the weapon. Gladiolus regarded Ignis for assistance, but the advisor was already fighting off some monsters with a dagger in each hand.

Cursing, Gladiolus transferred Noctis to his shoulder with gritted instructions to, “Hang on tight – no, not that tight, watch your claws!”

He settled on his shield, it flashing into place on his left arm. Gladiolus kept the other hand cupped over Noctis to keep him secured as he skirted the fight. It felt off not rushing in and designating himself as a threat, but Gladiolus refused to risk losing Noctis in the scuffle a second time. The potential for singed whiskers would be the least of their worries if that happened.

Fortunately, the others managed to distract the daemons well enough on their own. Once Prompto agitated a Bomb with an entire clip of ammo, Ignis unleashed an ice spell. What monsters he'd been chipping away at were disposed of in the same blizzard he generated to finish off Prompto's target. The last Bomb, sensing its impending demise, charged for the nearest victim to destroy with its deadly explosion.

Gladiolus was wide open. He tensed in anticipation. Instead of bracing to stop the monster, he side-stepped at the last possible moment. The daemon whizzed past him. Swinging around in the direction he'd turned, Gladiolus used his shield like a paddle to pummel the Bomb back the way it'd originated. It impaled itself on Ignis' spear, as he'd switched out his blades for distance, and ended the confrontation.

While Prompto cheered in victory, Gladiolus was busy trying to get Noctis to release his hold on him. The prince had slipped past his collar where Gladiolus couldn't reach him anymore; Noctis clung to the inside of his clothes. The back of Gladiolus' neck already itched something terrible and flushed with irritation.

Finally taking notice of Gladiolus' discomfort, Prompto asked, "Um, you all right there? Do you need some help—"

"Yes," he snapped, scrabbling at his back. "Get him off of me!"

"Okay, okay!" Prompto said, and approached him. He ducked as Gladiolus' flailing almost earned him an elbow to the eye. "Whoa, hold on!"

It took several attempts, but Prompto circled Gladiolus to nab him by the jacket. He shucked it up to reveal Noctis clinging to the underside of his shirt. For his trouble, Prompto earned a slash from Noctis’ claws when he went to retrieve him. He retracted his hand in time to keep from losing his fingers.

"Me-ouch! Noct, what's gotten into you?" Prompto asked.

"Leave him!" Ignis said, looking worriedly behind them. The sounds of more daemons spawning alerted them that another bout was imminent. "We have to find our camp or we'll never be rid of these fiends. Now hurry!"

"You're joking," Gladiolus seethed through his teeth (and maybe his watering eyes).

Ignis’ point became clear as an unnaturally large fist erupted out of the ground, signalling the arrival of an Iron Giant. Prompto tugged Gladiolus' shirt and jacket back down to secure Noctis in place. He pushed Gladiolus in the small of his back to urge him in the last direction they'd seen campfire smoke. "Come on, you heard him! Hup-two, hup-two, double time!"

They ran, Gladiolus resigned enough not to be told twice. The sooner they returned to camp, the sooner he could breathe easier. Literally.

Their group had been close to camp when they left the car at an abandoned parking lot. The desire for fresh red meat at dinner time had delayed them until nightfall. Their hunting had quickly turned them into the hunted as a Naga took advantage of them being outside the wards of their campsite.

Gladiolus covered that remaining distance in minutes.

He was the first one to see their refuge atop a small hill nestled by pine trees. As soon as he breached the glowing sigils, Gladiolus stripped. He ripped his jacket off completely and let it drop to his feet. His shirt came off next. Noctis still clung to the fabric, so Gladiolus wrapped him up in it like a burrito. The little shit had the audacity to purr at him for the gesture.

The other two of their group had lagged behind him during his mad dash to safety, but they caught up to him now. Prompto stumbled the last couple of steps, but whatever complaint he was going to voice morphed into laughter. Pointing, he said, "Oh man, look at your back!"

"What?" Gladiolus twisted around, trying to get a good look, but could only spot the etchings of his tattoo. "What is it? Better not be hives."

"No way, more like Noct used you as a scratching post. I can't believe this! The King's Shield, felled by a ten pound menace." Prompto gave him a hearty slap on the back, igniting the skin as he touched some of the aforementioned scratches. Gladiolus grunted, more out of annoyance than pain, as he barely registered the scrapes even after Prompto brought attention to the marks.

Ignis chuckled. "Noct certainly put you in your place, hm?"

"Yeah, yeah. Yuck it up you two." Sobering somewhat, Gladiolus offered Noctis to Ignis as he asked, "How long do you, uh, think he is going to be like this?"

"He should have reverted back by now," Ignis said, accepting the bundle. He examined Noctis, but no answers were forthcoming. "If Noct remains this way until morning, perhaps we should reach out to Dave. He or one of his hunters may have experienced something of this nature and can offer us insight."

"Right," Prompto agreed for all of them, then tiredly, "Bedtime? Not much else we can do."

Considering they'd been forced to abandon their food for the evening and their stores were depleted, dinner remained out of the question. There was a collective sigh as everyone came to the same conclusion. Sleeping was about all they could do.

"I'll keep watch tonight. No use for me being cooped up with the fur ball," Gladiolus volunteered, somewhat reluctantly. He didn’t mind the outdoors, but if given the choice he’d rather be within reach if Noctis needed him. In this form Noctis was next to defenseless. The prince wouldn’t be alone, however, so Gladiolus would have to settle for one evening.

He took a seat at the campfire while the others bid him goodnight and entered the tent. Hopefully the fresh air and some distance would alleviate his allergy symptoms. Gladiolus tilted his head back and massaged his temples, trying to ease the pressure.

It might have worked, too, if a couple hours later there wasn't something circling his legs. Gladiolus startled out of his doze and looked down to behold Noctis brushing against his ankles. Glancing in the direction of the tent, there didn't appear to be any activity coming from inside. Noctis must have snuck out from under Prompto's and Ignis' care without their noticing.

"Just gotta be contrary, don't you?" Gladiolus rumbled, still a little sleep addled. It'd figure that the one time Noctis was allowed a catnap, he wouldn't, just so he could annoy the one person most susceptible to him. He waggled his foot when Noctis sniffed and pawed at his bootlaces. The playing was a precursor to Noctis latching onto his leg and climbing into his lap like he owned the spot.

Despite his condition, Gladiolus gave Noctis a couple scritches along his back because damned if he wasn't a little cute like this. For Gladiolus' sacrifice, he earned a gentle headbutt to his chin. Noctis then used Gladiolus’ chest and shoulder like a springboard to continue upwards. Noctis attached himself to a tree at Gladiolus' back, clambering up to a branch that overhung their campsite.

"Don't think I'm coming up to get you if you get stuck," Gladiolus warned. He didn't know why he felt compelled to talk to Noctis in this form, but around his sniffling he did, anyway. It was unclear if the prince understood speech or that he was actually a person under all that black fur. The one time Gladiolus had been transformed by a Naga he didn't remember his time as a frog, but considering the alteration in forms maybe this was different, too.

Noctis peered down at him and gave a long, blank stare that ended in a slow blink. It struck Gladiolus as the same attention Noctis would have bestowed upon him regardless of being a feline or not. He wasn’t a talkative cat, either – same as his old human self. Maybe the prince did understand him like this.

"Heh. Suit yourself," Gladiolus said, managing to relax with Noctis in his sights, and let him be until the following day.

At the first signs of daylight, a surprised cry arose from inside the tent. There was a lot of shuffling, the material on the sides protruding as someone moved around. Ignis burst out the front, looking frenzied and unkempt as he looked around. Spotting Gladiolus standing nearby, holding a steaming cup of coffee, Ignis zeroed in on him.

"Gladio! I can't find Noct. Did you see him come this way?"

Wordlessly, Gladiolus motioned with his mug toward the spot Noctis had climbed earlier. Following his silent instruction, Ignis glanced up and found Noctis splayed across the tree branch. His face was squished into the bark and each limb splayed on either side, leaving the length of his body parallel to the wood.

Noctis was also distinctly human while lazing up there.

"How did he…how is he…? Hm." Ignis settled on covering the bottom portion of his face with a hand, pondering the sight.

"He changed back halfway through the night," Gladiolus explained, taking a sip from his coffee.

Somewhat delayed, Prompto exited the tent, having been woken up by Ignis' antics. His hair was in disarray and so were his clothes, but he stopped trying to correct his appearance as he spotted Gladiolus and Ignis staring at something. Flitting his gaze upwards, he watched Noctis for a drawn out beat. Prompto didn't even say anything as he tucked his hand into his pocket and gradually started to pull out his camera.

Ignis pushed the device away and said, "Don't you dare! We should be figuring out how to get him down from there, not taking pictures."

"Aw, come on…" Prompto whined, acting pained at being denied 'the shot of a lifetime'. Or so he claimed.

"Pft. I got this," Gladiolus said, handing Ignis his coffee to hold. Bewildered, Ignis couldn't do more than accept the drink and watch as Gladiolus did a couple stretches. He brought his right arm across his chest, holding it in place, and did the same to the opposite arm.

Then Gladiolus high-kicked the tree.

Hard.

Noctis listed to one side before tumbling off the tree branch and into Gladiolus' waiting arms. That wasn't enough to wake the prince, so Gladiolus gave him a light squeeze. Grumbling, Noctis peeked open an eye. The other opened up as both eyes went wide as he realized where, exactly, he was. "Huh…?"

"Good meow-ning, Noct," Prompto greeted.

"How are you faring?" Ignis asked straight-faced, for all appearances sincere until he added, "Perhaps you’re feeling a bit catty? Any lingering hissy fits?"

Bewildered, Noctis looked between the three of them, settling on Gladiolus as he mouthed 'what the fuck?' But oh, Gladiolus had his own form of payback planned. He’d had all night to contemplate the puns he was going to unleash on him, after all.

#gladnoctweek #gladnoct week #gladnoct #gladiolus amicitia #noctis lucis caelum #ignis stupeo scientia #prompto argentum #final fantasy 15 #final fantasy xv #final fantasy #ff15 #ffx #video games #my writing #snarechan's writing #writing challenge #PROMPTS #prompt: kitty!noct (nyactis)#supurrstition

31 notes · View notes

rageprayer · 7 years ago

Text

get to know your followers 💕

i got tagged by @plutosmoons, thank you so much! ^___^

Rules: Answer the questions (which you can change if you don’t feel like answering certain questions) then tag 20 followers you want to get to know better!

1. Nickname? i've never had a cool nickname but people in school used to call me gluten (or any variation of rye/wheat/oat boy) because my surname in my language literally means 'an ear of wheat' :') i actually liked it just because it was a running joke between all of us

2. Gender? male. i'm trans too

3. Star sign? taurus sun scorpio moon leo rising

4. Height? i'm 164cm which is like, almost 5'4 i think? i'm a smol boy

5. Favorite feature? i'm just gonna list some things i like about my body ok are you ready - my pupils are always slightly asymmetrical, and noone knows why. it happened around the time i started getting migraines and my right one is constantly slightly more dilated than my left. it's just a neat random thing that looks cool - my nose. i have hands down the best nose from my entire family and i'm damn proud of it, it's cute - my hands and lower arms in general, i've always liked them but i have like. visible veins on there now which is.. my kink tbh. i have really small wrists and my forearms are covered in scars which i used to hide but i love them now and i'd never get rid of them, even if i could. i also really like the shape of my nails. - i've been on t for so long that my midsection/hip area and neck/shoulders/arms actually have some definition to them now and ngl, it's kinda hot. i constantly stare at myself in mirrors @__@

6. Favorite plant? i fucking love plants, all of them. BUT my favourite ones are any that have purple leaves instead of green, they're like the goths of the plant world and i want some in the epic garden i'm gonna have someday. in terms of flowers i am obviously in love with roses and anything that blooms dark purple or black, but also dandelions! they are rays of sunshine and the fact that they're so common just adds to the magic. joy really is everywhere my favourite trees are pine trees - they smell amazing, and poland is covered in pine forests so they just really remind me of home and i feel connected to them. my favourite plant of mine that i'm growing (i love them all equally though, they're my children) is currently my tomato bush because like, it's turned into an actual bush. it's only in a box on the balcony but i had to put a stick in there to support it because of how big it is. and i grew it from seed too :o

7. Favorite animal? dogs! i will always have at least one dog, i love dogs with my whole heart and i want several when i have my own place and space for them all :D some other animals i really like are rats, bats, spiders and ants

8. Favorite Bands? What have you been listening to lately? i'm changing this because i suck at picking favourites. i actually haven't been discovering much new music lately; in terms of albums, it's been type o negative's october rust and bloody kisses, and this fabulous remaster of depeche mode's violator (i am IN LOVE with what they did to personal jesus at the end, seriously. so good. if you scroll down the comments far enough there's some people hating on it but honestly? i don't know music and it all sounds gr8 to me so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) i'm not religious at all, but i discovered this collection of russian hymns and it's one of the most haunting and beautiful things i've heard in a while. the fact that i can kind of half understand the words just adds to the mysterious magical feel it has. i really like the first one on there, and it kind of makes me wish i could sing in any way because like, it's SO beautiful, i actually had a dream about it. also lots of adam lambert, placebo, some random fifth harmony songs from the reflection album and helena by mcr because it was stuck in my head all day yesterday >__< (yes, i am perfectly aware that there is no coherency here. i thrive on chaos)

9. Dogs or cats? dogs all the way, but i can apprecieate a good cat. i'm not one of those weird cat haters

10. Number of blankets you sleep with? two, and i hug pillows because i'm l o n e l y

11. What’s your dream trip? somewhere warm because i am so. tired. of whatever the heck this is and i need the sun. i'm thinking warm but not too tourist-y? if i do go somewhere, i want to see interesting things but also be surrounded by nature. honestly take me anywhere though. surprise me. i love going places and i have no expectations show me a big rock or something and i'll be like !! WOW

12. What’s your dream job? i have no idea .___. i know i want to be self-employed eventually because the perspective of having to arrange my entire life around strict work hours is depressing at best, but i don't know what i actually want to do

13. When did you make this account? i don't remember precisely, i know it was a few months before i started using it so i'm guessing sometime in summer 2017

14. How many followers do you have? i'm choosing to keep that a mystery, but my follower count is actually quite close to the number of people i follow so that's cool

15. How many pets do you have? I HAVE A DOG i love him so much he's an angel <3

16. Best places to visit in your town or country? my town isn't the biggest or most exciting place to be, but we do have a very nice central area with some impressive views over the river, a very old cathedral, some good cafes poland is mostly fields and forests, we have the sea up north and mountains at the bottom, and a cool lake region too

17. Favorite ice cream flavor? mint chocolate chip, pistachio, coconut and lemon sorbet. anything fruity is good too

18. How often do you read? not nearly as often as i used to. i read things on the internet all the time but i haven't touched a book in a few months, and i don't really have the attention span for it anymore. which is sad because i used to regularly take things out from my school's library and i loved reading so much, my brain just doesn't work like that nowadays. it's also really hard to find interesting books without some hetero bullshit in them, but maybe i'm just looking in the wrong places

19. Favorite study locations? this is irrelevant because i'm not in school anymore lmao

20. Favorite book series? Favourite movie? yes, i’m that bitch that chooses films over books. fight me about it. i’m sure you’ve all seen me post about it, but my current obsession is the lost boys. i actually wasn’t that impressed by it the first time i saw it, but it really grew on me when i realised just how gay it was. gay vampires are like. My Thing and the tension between david and michael is SO there i just can’t unsee it. it was filmed in the 80s too so it has that sligthly odd vibe to it and i love the idea of a group of vampires on motorbikes so much, it’s so cool

Now tag 20 of your followers! i'm tagging 13 of you because i do what i want (no pressure though, you absolutely do not have to do this if you don't feel like it)

@sinistergouache @bugzrule @cerise-cutie @gendermenace @bitchinpoison @softvamps @necrocomicon @garbage---rat @sableyesmaw @queer--cryptid @gutlessghostboy @killrot @that-spooky-boy

i'm also officially tagging any of my followers who aren't mutuals but see this and want to do it anyway, go for it!

#long post #this is so fucking long oh my god #got a little carried away lmao #get to know your followers

6 notes · View notes

bluethepaladin · 7 years ago

Note

What do you have against Bex? (Can u also provide evidence thanks 💜)

When I first got this ask, I was tempted to play it off as a joke and say “the fact she exists,” and leave it at that. But I feel like it’s important to stay informed. And if you genuinely don’t know, I’ll give you the complete rundown. It’s long, it’s messy, and it’s nasty, so bear with me.

First, and introduction. When I talk about Bex, I’m referring to the actress Bex Taylor-Klaus, who is the voice actor (or VA) of the character Pidge in the show Voltron Legendary Defender on Netflix.

It all began a while ago when Bex liked a comment of a picture. The picture involved a ship called Shei//th. I censored the name so it doesn’t show up in the tags of that on tumblr. But essentially it’s a ship between two characters, Takashi Shirogane, a 25 year old pilot who is the leader of the team, and Keith Kogane, one of the other “paladins” or fighters on the team. People like me find this ship to be distasteful, since Shiro is an adult, and the others are teens (it’s actually a bit messier than that, since an official Voltron source listed Keith as 18, but the producers of the show, Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos, said they were not consulted on the book so there’s some question as to whether it’s canon or not). Either way, the consensus by most reasonable people is that it’s probably not a healthy thing to depict in children’s media, when you consider the considerable age difference, the power imbalance (leader, senior officer with someone they are in charge of), and finally, the iconic line by the character of Keith himself when he defines their relationship as a familial one.

Nonetheless, the ship persists, as nasty things on tumblr are wont to do. There’s a lot of shipping discourse on tumblr between two distinct groups which can be labelled as “antis”–people who are not in favor of any Shiro/paladin ships, or what has become to be known as “shaladins”–people who ship any variation of Shiro with the paladins.

Here is where Bex got involved. On Instagram there was a picture of a black shoe and a red shoe together and the joke was about the shoes being a prophecy that Shei//th would be canon. A joke, mostly, considering all the evidence above. But here’s where Bex got herself in trouble. She liked a comment on the picture where someone said “Keith is a power bottom confirmed.”

Obviously, this caused a bit of an uproar within the fanbase, especially between the discourse between antis and shaladins. Shaladins were celebrating that an Official Voltron Source liked their ship, and antis were angry about that acknowledgement of the ship at all by official sources, and the sexualization of a kid’s show (more on this later.)

So of course this sparked the discourse on tumblr. One user, @lancehunks, who was receiving asks about Bex, tagged her in the replies.They were definitely unfavorable.

and

and a few more.

Bex, being the big strong, adult, woman she is, decided that she could not take this obviously grievous insult to her name [sarcasm], and decided to reblog them all and respond to them. Keep in mind, that @lancehunks was just 13 years old. And Bex (22) decided that these were appropriate responses:

Yep, you read that right. Not only an adult but employed on a kid’s show! To a 13 year old! The target audience of the very show she’s a part of! (Oh, the hypocrisy). But wait, there’s more:

Just in case you’re confused, let me tell you the many, many reasons why this is unacceptable.

Bex is an adult. You’d think she’d be a little more mature by now just in general. It’s the internet and there are trolls.

The person she was addressing was 13!!!! Do I think it was mature to tag Bex in all those posts? No. But it’s… behavior that you can expect from 13 year old’s on the internet. If we swore at and tore down every single one of them every time they did something dumb, we would need a lot more therapists for teens in the world. Plus it’s really disingenuous to pretend that we wouldn’t have done something similar when we were younger if we were in that position.

Bex is famous. While she’s certainly not on the caliber of massive A-List stars like Tom Holland or Zendaya, she has a fanbase that exceeds the normal person’s friend group. Just because she’s been on TV before, she has groupies that will support her no matter what, who will troll for her, who uncritically and unconditionally worship her. I’m not a Bex fan, nor do I really care to know her well enough to know just exactly how many fans she has, to be certain she does have them. When she publicly reblogged those words, that “motherfucker,” those fighting words, she weaponized her fanbase. What I mean when I say that is her behavior gave her groupies permission to behave the same way. By targeting someone who didn’t like her (a thirteen year old!!!!!), she opened the gates to her fans and groupies doing the same thing, to a kid.

This lead to some terrible things happening. The 13 year old was getting death threats, sexual violence threats, and nsfw content, all because Bex just couldn’t let it go.

What does this mean? Finish it? Finish the kid? If you’re so sick of the fighting, then why did you even respond in the first place? Bex is the one who escalated the situation. Bex is the one who caused the fighting in the first place (by that I mean the fighting between the two that night, the fighting between antis and shaladins has been going on for as long as the show).

There we go. Now he have something resembling dignity. But unfortunately the damage was done, and user @lancehunks deleted their blog. As a direct response to Bex’s actions. Bex caused a 13 year old to leave tumblr.

When hearing this news, Bex offered a half-assed apology:

This is the most insincere apology I have ever seen. “The internet has Bad things on it and it’s YOUR fault for seeing them” is not an apology. The best part is that she’s a big fat hypocrite. “Sometimes, when it’s harmless, the best thing I can do is shake my head and keep scrolling.” So why didn’t you Bex? Why didn’t you keep scrolling instead of targeting a 13 year old?

In light of recent political events, though there’s one thing that stands out to me:

Sound like anybody you know? The esteemed President, perhaps?

*disclaimer* I am in no way claiming that Bex is a Trump supporter. I don’t know enough about her–and I don’t want to know enough about her–to know where she leans politically. I’m just drawing the attention to the similarities in moral equivalency going on, here.*

Sure you targeted a 13 year old and weaponized your fanbase, but someone tagging you in a snarky post is just as bad, right? (Wrong.)

You’d think that would be the end. You’d think that Bex would be capable of living and learning, or maybe even just taking her own advice, and keep scrolling. But here we go again.

The next bit of drama started when the possibly canon guide book was released, stating Keith’s age as 18. There was a big celebration on the shaladin side because technically, that would make it “legal” for Keith and Shiro to have sex. Besides the fact that legal ≠ moral, again, Voltron is a kid’s show. But on tumblr this time, Bex posted this.

This time, the discourse surrounding Bex was a little different., This time, the discourse mostly focused on the fact that even if Shiro and Keith disregarded canon and morals and the fact that it’s a kid’s show ever did get in a relationship, the only thing that matters is how they like to have sex.

This is a problem for a lot of reasons. There’s a culture, pretty prominent on tumblr of women, mostly white, who are obsessed with gay sex. They write fanfiction and p*rn solely for their own personal gratification. This, of course, is a gross misinterpretation to wanting LGBT+ representation. If you aren’t a mlm (an acronym for men-loving-man, that includes many sexualities) then writing p*rn about is sexualizing them, using them as a tool to get yourself off, and not like complex human people. Mlm are more than how they like to have sex. In fact, that shouldn’t be a part of a discussion for anybody except between willing partners. This also feeds into the popular and damaging stereotype that gay men are predatory by nature.

So, as a whole, not good.

And again, we have a whole situation escalated by Bex. The worst part is, to people who tried to explain this to her, the only response they were given was a gif:

So once again, a minor dared to express their distaste for Bex on tumblr. But this time, they didn’t tag her. This time, they censored her name. But Bex found it anyway. And she decided to do the exact same thing that led to a minor leaving the website, and to stop watching the show.

Have no fear, this time though. This time, Bex is going after a 14 year old, at least she’s not going after kids anymore, right? [sarcasm]

Some final notes.

Bex claims to be an LGBT+ rights activist. I’m also pretty sure she’s a lesbian herself (again, I already know too much about her, I’m not looking to get to know her better.) So, you’d think, as someone who wants equality for LGBT+ people and communities, she’d have the wherewithal to listen to specific subsets of that group when they say something about themselves, like, for example, young mlm who don’t appreciate being sexualized by a white woman. So I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when I saw this on her blog:

Now, I happen to agree with the above statement, but it’s so ironic, so hypocritical that Bex is talking about the sexualization of anything. Because kid’s shows aren’t safe from her sexualization and mlm certainly aren’t. How can one person be so incredibly oblivious? A mystery that I don’t have any interest in solving.

I also want to address something a little more devious and a little more dark. I personally know of at least 12 different people who sent Bex asks, politely explaining some of the things I’ve talked about here, or relaying how her words hurt them personally. Bex never answered any of them. But she did answer this:

Just to be perfectly clear, I do not condone or encourage hatemail. Do not send people anything wishing them death or harm in any way. I have never sent nor do plan on sending hatemail, and you should be ashamed of yourself if you do.

However, this is incredibly nefarious. Bex doesn’t answer any of the many asks she got that were polite, but proved her wrong. She didn’t answer any of the young mlm who gave her their personal stories and who weren’t anonymous. Instead, she publishes this. And she did this on purpose, to make her look innocent, to make her look like she’s the one being attacked. I get hatemail every single day too. Things along similar lines to this. I block the user. Delete them, One, because I don’t want to expose my followers to that kind of negativity on a daily basis, two, a mature person knows that deleting them is the best kind of revenge because the user will be constantly looking for a response and they will know they had no effect on me and three, because if you do that, eventually they stop. This is intentional on Bex’s part to make the people who don’t like her look bad. I don’t like Bex at all, and I certainly do not support that message. Any reasonable person wouldn’t. Also the fact that it’s an anonymous message adds a certain air of doubt as to who sent it.

The point is, Bex is purposely ignoring polite and well-meaning people and posted this to “prove” she’s the one on the “good” side because no good person would send that message.

This is also worth noting:

This was posted after the lancehunks debate but before the power bottom comment she made. In this post, Bex admits that a relationship between Shiro and any of the paladins is predatory in nature. She said that. Her words. And then after that she said that Keith was a power bottom.

The last thing I want to say, is that Voltron is a kid’s show. It’s rated US-TV-Y7. Which means for years 7 and older. Regardless of the ship, there should be no sexual content, be it fanart, of fanfiction of Voltron characters at all. We are all collectively responsible for keeping content age-appropriate for the target audience. So, stop it. All and any ships.

For minors, this is my advice to you:Bex is a predator, a hypocrite, and a liar. Do not engage with her. Block her. Do not tag her in any of your posts. She has a history of targeting minors. Protect yourself. Do not engage.

#Unlike Bex I take my own advice and I have blocked her so she can't target me #but you never know with these ones #she can find a way #bex taylor klaus #anti bex #anti bex taylor klaus #voltron legendary defender #long post #anti shaladin #bexcourse

3K notes · View notes

trbl-will-find-me · 7 years ago

Text

Every Exit, An Entrance (30/?)

She commands, and commands, and commands and then she sleeps, but even then, the cycle repeats. The Avenger or the Anthill, the Fog pods or the Chosen, the Council or ADVENT: binary pairs, variations on a theme she can’t escape.

It’s the brief adjustment period that still startles her, a disquieting confusion about where and when she is, memories of a life unlived still fresh in her mind.

It’s better when John is there, when she can ground herself in the steady rise and fall of his chest, the feeling of his fingers on her skin, the smell of his soap in her nose. It is gentler, then.

The mornings alone are the worst. No matter where she wakes, there is a profound feeling that it is wrong, even as her surroundings buoy her towards a sense of place, visual landmarks steeped in familiarity.

The ship or the subterrain, she takes comfort, at least, in the small simple fact that the face that meets her gaze in the mirror is always the same. Small mercies.

It’s not the disorientation so much that bothers her –not anymore– but the lingering notion that something is off. She considers herself to be well-grounded in reality; the daily reminder that she may not be, that stress, or the tank, or something has left that sense forever impaired is what truly bothers her about the process. Most days, it fades without fanfare, like coming to from a dream.

Most, but not all.

Of the possibilities she had not properly accounted for, her soldiers reading her work ranks near the top,

“So, this is why they picked you,” Molchetti gestures towards her screen. “I always wondered.”

“I can’t believe you guys are actually reading my papers.”

“Why wouldn’t we?’

“Because you lived them?”

“We did not live your theories on agricultural security in bioterror events.”

She wrinkles her nose. “Oh god, that’s an early one. Why would you read that?”

“Everyone else is.”

It is, unfortunately, a true statement. Her life before XCOM has become a topic of scrutiny for the press, barring any concrete details on her existence since March 1, 2015. She is torn between a vague sort of pride in her work receiving so much attention, and a strong desire to direct that attention towards almost anything else. She feels as if she’s been subjected to a second defense, one at which she is unable to speak, and must only watch as her work is judged by those not truly qualified to evaluate it.

“I know this is what we wanted,” she admits to John over dinner. “But it’s more than a little uncomfortable.”

“It’s been generally good press.”

“Generally?”

“You weren’t really expecting friends at Fox News, were you?”

She laughs. “Not with my publication history.”

“Your publication history, your conference presentations, your commentary. None of it.”

“Tell me someone called me a coastal elite.”

“You’re not getting that kind of attention from them. Who knows, though? Maybe they’ll dig something else up.”

The whole mission has spiraled out of control. An abandoned ADVENT facility in the middle of the tropics under the control of a sentient AI initially designed by Raymond Shen would be bad enough, but the addition of Lily’s presence on the field adds another level of unneeded difficulty. A seemingly endless supply of mechs, however rusted, and a forced reliance upon single passenger freight lifts hardly help the situation.

But, of all things, the AI seems to know them, and it seems to be doing its damnedest to find a way under Central’s skin.

“Are you still there, Bradford? I was beginning to wonder if you’d finally drowned yourself in the liquor.”

She watches his hands tighten into fists.

“Menace,” she instructs. “Keep pushing.”

The team has done well, all things considered. They have taken a few wounds, mostly minor, and they’ve kept Lily safe. They just need to find an escape route and, with any luck, disable this Julian character for good.

“Getting tired yet, Central? You’re an old man with one foot in the grave. I wonder why these people put up with you.”

Sally freezes for a moment, her hands hovering over her console.

“Fuck off, you glorified toaster!” Kelly yells.

“Look at them, so willing to defend you,” Julian purrs. “Do they know the blood on your hands? I’ve seen the world you’ve built, and frankly, it’s below even my expectations.”

She watches him reach for his flask, then think better of it, hands coming to grip the Hologlobe’s rails.

Menace advances, making their way towards a chamber at the far end of the room.

“And here I thought you would have run after her, Central. Or are some lives just more valuable than others? You’ve always played fast and loose, haven’t you?”

“Ignore him,” she orders, though she’s not sure if the edict is meant for those onboard the Avenger or off.

“It really would have been better to have just turned yourself in. Think of the lives you would have spared in the two decades it took you to find your precious Commander. And for what? You have to know you can’t win this.”

The ground team makes their way up a flight of stairs towards the smaller chamber.

“Oh, yes, ADVENT may fall. But have you considered that there is worse to come? Or hasn’t she told you?”

Her heart stutters in her chest. She has no idea what Julian is on about, but the last thing she needs is for Bradford to believe she’s keeping secrets. They have both worked so hard to mend things. She can’t have them shattered again.

“I really must thank Father,” Julian drawls. “It seems he really was the only competent one at XCOM.”

“Will somebody shut him up?” Central growls.

On screen, Lily makes her way towards an enormous robotic chassis. It springs to life at her touch, diverting Julian’s attention.

She uses the brief respite to take stock of the bridge crew. They are universally uncomfortable, uncertain of how to respond to Julian’s taunts. While she has no idea what the mad AI could be on about in terms of something worse still to come, even she’s forced to concede its comments to Central have all carried a grain of truth; it’s what allows them to cut so deeply, after all.

Sally watched her guardian with a kind of deep concern on her face, as if she were waiting for something to break. His avoidance of his flask does not seem to reassure.

Her attention snaps back to the screen at the sound of Raymond Shen’s voice, thread and tired. Something in her chest clenches and she’s seized by her own upswell of grief.

But it will have to wait until later as the outer chamber around them floods with a deadly gas.

In general, she tries to avoid being overly punitive. The men and women under her command work long hours under intense pressure and without sufficient outlet. She’s watched enough MASH to know what those circumstances breed.

Really, she’s been spared any serious antics. Yes, there had been a brief issue with trophy keeping, and yes, there had been more than a few off-color jokes, but by and large, they have all behaved as professionals.

They still do.

She would just prefer they find other reading material than her publication history.

John sits across from her after dinner, the door to her office securely locked.

“Saudi Arabia.” He says.

She squirms in her chair. “How much?

“Almost a quarter of our operating budget.”

Her eyes goes wide. “And what’s the price tag on that?”

“They want a Firestorm base.”

“It’s our people who operate them.”

“They seem to understand that.”

She rests her elbows on her desk, and buries her head in her hands.

“Lizzie,” he says. “You can’t turn them down. Not if we want this to work.”

“I know, but---”

“No but. They have money and influence. We need both.”

“Their human rights record---”

“China, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, and the US: we’re not free from moral failings on that front as it is.”

He’s right, of course. She can admit that much.

The offer is good – better than good, even – and a Firestorm base in that part of the world would only help them should the worst come to pass. Better coverage would mean a better air game; a better air game might spare cities.

She really can’t find a downside, and her own moral qualms seem small by comparison.

“There’s something else,” he says.

“Good or bad?”

“It puts us over the operating budget we’d need --- over what we had at the peak of hostilities. And they’d likely bring another bloc of support along with them.”

“We’d be free to create a separate charter and decloak.”

He nods. “We’ll keep leaking files, get the documents drawn up, and drop cover.”

“And either succeed brilliantly, or find ourselves arrested.”

“Not the worst stakes we’ve ever lived with.”

“And there’s really no backing down now.”

“Not if you want to keep that research contained.”

She presses her lips together for a moment. “How do we get documents? We don’t have any lawyers in-house.”

“We have ways.”

The SPARK had been a surprise, yes, but it had been a pleasant one. The prototype Sectopod, however, had been an entirely different matter.

Even so, they are still here. Yes, the SPARK needs repairs and, yes, Moon will be in the infirmary a few days longer, but their gains far outpace their losses.

It doesn’t hurt that ADVENT remains seemingly none the wiser to their whereabouts.

In the three days since Menace team’s return from the tower, she has seen little of her Central Officer, but their scant interactions have been free of any tension. She suspects that something is amiss, but she refuses to push the matter.

“Commander?” Sally’s voice cuts over the comm. “I think you should see this.”

She can’t be certain, but she’d swear there’s a note of panic.

“Contact? Transmission from one of the Havens?”

“It’s Central, ma’am.”

She feels her skin prickle. “Where are you?”

“Aft-storage, sub-level C.”

“I’ll be right there.”

The sight that greets her is by far the worst surprise she has received as of late. Bradford, curled on the ground, Sally’s fingers hooked over his wrist.

“It’s withdrawal,” she says. “He must have fucked up the taper.”

“How do you know?” She says, kneeling down next to her.

She shakes her head. “It was like this the first time. It’s like this every time. He gets impatient and it all goes to hell. Last time almost killed him. And we had help then.”

“You have help now.”

“Tygan?”

“I know it’s not the best, but the man’s got a degree in pharmacology. He can calculate a dosage, if nothing else.”

Sally wrings her hands. “I don’t think I can do this again.”

The Commander shakes her head. “You’re not going to. Go get Tygan. We’ll handle it.”

The girl makes no effort to move.

“Go,” she says, voice gentle. “I’ll stay with him.”

She nods after a moment and sets off, returning shortly with the Chief Scientist in tow. Between them, they haul Bradford to his feet. They send Sally on ahead, scouting to make sure the halls are clear. The bridge is mostly empty, save for a skeleton crew on monitoring duty, and they’re able to maneuver him into her quarters without attracting much attention.

She starts an IV line, now grateful that her last medic re-certification had been only three months prior to the invasion. Tygan leaves, then returns with something in a syringe.

“Lorazepam.”

“You think he’s gonna seize?”

“Sally had indicated there was a history.”

She draws in a breath and lets it out. “Well. This could get interesting.”

“In my time with XCOM, Commander, I’ve come to accept that as the norm.”

She knows she shouldn’t find that quite as funny as she does.

It’s a quiet few hours. Central spends the bulk of it asleep or otherwise unconscious. She spends the bulk of it perched on the edge of the bed, reaching out every now and then to brush sweat-soaked hair off of his forehead.

“Lizzie? You really here?” He groans when he finally wakes.

I don’t know, she wants to tell him. I don’t know if this is real, or a dream, or some other simulation. I go to sleep here, and I wake up somewhere else. I go to sleep there, and I wake up here. This feels real, sure, but it also feels wrong. Like I’m not supposed to be here. Like I ended up here by mistake. I don’t know. I wish I did. All I know is that you are here and I am here and, for now, that will have to be enough.

“Yeah,” she says. “Yeah, sweetheart. I’m here. You came for me. I’m with you.”

“Don’t know if I believe you.”

“Think that’s the fever talking.”

“You only ever called me that once. And it wasn’t real.”

“What?”

“You know.”

Sweetheart, her brain helpfully supplies. You haven’t called anyone that since. Well.

“It was real,” she says, softly.

“It was a fairytale. You said it yourself. Real you would know that.”

“We both know what happened.”

He reaches out with his free hand, tracing a finger gently down her cheek. “Always meant to tell you,” he says. “Thought I’d have more time.”

“You can tell me after you get some sleep.

“You’ll be gone.”

“Man, are you in for a surprise.”

“Don’t go.”

“I’m not going anywhere. I’m here. I’m with you.”

“You knew, right?”

The question catches her off guard. “Yeah. I knew.”

#every exit an entrance

5 notes · View notes