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positivelybeastly · 3 months ago

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If I may, what's your opinion on Hank from Earth-41001/X-Men: The End and GeNext: United?

So, I had to brush up on my X-Men history for this one, because Chris Claremont's post-2000 work often tends to slip my mind, especially his The End series, which has as many insane and weird choices as it does good ones.

The man really did lose a step after he got taken off the books in the 90s, and while I think that he's written some good stuff after that (his 2000s Excalibur runs are honestly better than I remembered them being), there's a reason he doesn't get asked back to do much more than the occasional story here and there, like the recent Uncanny #700 feature on Mystique, Nightcrawler, Destiny and Rogue.

Compare and contrast that to Louise Simonson, who got asked back to do a whole Jean Grey mini-series during Fall of X, and it's pretty clear that he's just not considered frontline talent anymore.

That being said, I think this Hank, and Claremont's work on GeNext, definitely skews more towards the good side of the scale.

This version of Hank is, of course, best known for his relationship with Cecilia Reyes, which, in this universe, blossomed into a fully fledged marriage with multiple kids - and that's a good choice, honestly! Of all his romantic partners, Cecilia has always struck me as the most level headed, the most stable, and the most likely to want to settle down, which Hank has, on some level, always wanted to do, and has perhaps the best ability to out of a lot of the X-Men.

Despite his physical mutation seeming like the biggest obstacle to him living a normal life, Hank's work with the Avengers and Defenders has resulted in a massive boost to his popularity in-universe, he's equivalent to a real life celebrity, and it's made it easy for him to settle down and stop doing superhero work if he so chooses.

It doesn't hurt that his public persona, of a well spoken, charming, and funny blue little guy, is an effective one, and one that's easy for him to maintain because, well, it's pretty damn close to what he's actually like.

But, back to The End and GeNext. It's a clear sequel to X-Treme X-Men in a lot of ways, something Claremont establishes pretty clearly by bringing up Hank's trauma regarding the death of Psylocke in Valencia, which I appreciate, because I feel like it really gives a lot of important emotional context to Hank's state of mind in New X-Men, and it weighs heavily on him. I don't think Hank is a person who takes death easily, and Claremont gets that.

I also have to include this, because it is hilarious.

I also really appreciate this moment, because . . . yeah, Hank is the guy you want to leave behind, because Hank is a fundamentally nurturing, bridge-building, educational force. There was a period of time, from roughly 2001-2005, where the X-Men became a lot more like the school focused book that people always kind of think of it as, where hundreds of mutants were running through the halls and the X-Men were teachers.

And, to be frank, a lot of those X-Men didn't really feel fit to be teachers? A lot of them have very good practical experience to teach certain applied subjects, but Hank, Emma, and a few select others have always felt like the most suited to actual higher education for the students, which is why Hank's recurring role in New X-Men vol. 2/Academy X always felt like such a natural fit.

Like, this man was born to be the cool teacher.

And born to be a dad, too.

I'll be real, I'm not . . . 100% on the clothing? I'm not an expert, but I don't know that a WASP man, even if he's blue, should be wearing this kind of clothing, even if he does rock it. Someone who's more of an expert on American cultures and African clothing would need to weigh in here, but it's not a choice I personally would have made? It feels a little bit 'older hippie accidentally strays onto the landmine that is cultural appreciation because he has a non-white girlfriend.' But, then again, this series was written in 2006, and Claremont is an older generation writer, so I can't judge it too harshly.

So, now we move on to GeNext, which, as the first issue states, deals with the premise that the X-Men's ages progressed in real time, rather than being stuck in the sliding timescale, which means that Hank is nearing 50. I've long since headcanoned that his healing factor, even if it isn't up to Wolverine or Sabretooth's levels, means that he should be just as agile and spry age 50 as if he were 20, and this series generally tends to hold to that?

I do appreciate that this series leverages the differences in Hank and Cecilia's outlook on the X-Men. Hank's always bought into Xavier's dream, always regarded the work the X-Men do as necessary, and while Cecilia holds to that, she reflects another aspect of Hank's take, which is that it's a worthy job, sure, but not everyone with an X-gene is suited to be an X-Man, and it's a worthwhile thing to consider.

Sometimes, people just want enough training that they can control their powers, and then they just want to bounce, and that's an outlook that should be respected, even if it doesn't always pan out.

This is a particularly interesting development, given where Scott would fall on the axis of letting kids be kids, versus making kids into X-Men, later on in the 616 continuity.

But it makes sense. In this universe, the Decimation never happened, and the arc of these two characters changed as a result - hell, Hank never turned feline, either, which I always regarded as a massive learning process and maturation for him, a furthering of his arc in New Defenders where he was learning what it meant to be a responsible adult.

It feels, in this universe at least, like he never quite lost the devil-may-care spirit that feline Hank's brushes with mortality beat into him. Maybe that's a good thing, maybe that's a bad thing, but it's hard not to see his point - if good kids have the power to effect change, then they're going to do it, with or without your say so. Denying that fact only leads to a New Mutants/Magneto situation, where they kind of end up resenting you for holding them back, even if your intentions are only to keep them safe.

His tune does change a little bit in United, though it's a very different situation here - rather than pushing the boundaries as an Xavier sanctioned X-team, seemingly with some training wheels on, as Hank seemed to be suggesting, here, Cooper is hinting at a more formal, more high stakes, more original flavour X-Men solution, which. Hank has thoughts about. Though, it wouldn't be Hank if he weren't capable of holding two contradictory viewpoints at the exact same time about the exact same thing.

It does always make me laugh when people say that Hank always turns evil in alternate futures. What about this one? He's like the coolest old guy ever. He's solid. He's reliable. He's flexible. He's understanding. There's not a goddamn evil bone in his body. He counts just as much as Dark Beast does, is all I'm saying . . .

Soft. Sweet. Gentle. This is Hank McCoy at his purest.

Hank McCoy. Everyone's friend.

That being said, I'm a sucker for moments like these.

Oh, shit, yeah, Hank IS strong enough to bench press ten tons, and he IS a raging beast with uncanny speed, reflexes, and brutality. Maybe fucking with him and removing the thing that tempers and controls and keeps him reasonable - his soul - isn't a good idea??? Oops.

There's not a ton more left to comment on, Hank is very much a supporting character in United, but it does remind me of something that I've always felt in my heart of hearts - that even though Chris Claremont didn't get to write Beast very much, he had a very strong appreciation for the character, and enjoyed writing him when he had a chance.

There's an alternate universe out there where Hank stayed with the X-Men rather than joining the Avengers and Defenders, and though I don't think I'd want to live in that universe - I enjoy New Defenders entirely too much to give it up for anything - I definitely think it'd make for an interesting What If, where Hank's present for much more of Claremont's defining 16 year run on the X-Men. I definitely think he would have done him justice.

#focuriosity25-blog #outofmuffins

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avpdvoidspace · 7 months ago

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Do you ever struggle with being demonized for your quietness? I have, pretty much my whole life. I think it's a huge problem in society, if I'm being honest. I'm tired of acting like my whole child-self was in the wrong for not being able to bring myself to talk in a lot of situations, especially since I didn't get diagnosed and treated for my disorders until I was an adult. To be honest, I think it's society's way of demonizing people with AvPD, non-verbal autism and selective mutism. Thinking people like us are "rude" or "suspicious" for only speaking when spoken to, or having a non-verbal episode where we can't speak at all. I was suspected of being violent or "hiding something". Also I was deemed "weird" and treated like some alien due to other neurodivergencies as well.

People on this website sometimes act like being quiet is also a weakness or result of privilege. My parents were encouraging me and trying to get me to speak all the time, though. No one was saying "you don't have to speak if you don't want to". My father used to get angry with me about it, calling me "weak" and my mother used to guilt-trip me for it, claiming I "never tried hard enough" for her because I couldn't get myself to be neurotypical.

I also grew up in a world of domestic violence. My mother told me the abuse she faced from my father started getting particularly worse when she was pregnant with me. I was a little child born on-edge and having to walk on eggshells. My parents would get into violent fights with each other and my father would hit me, too. Both my parents worked and instead of spending time at home playing or bonding with family like other kids did, I was made to go to headstart when I was only like 2. I know it might seem like not a big deal, but thinking about it, I didn't have the same experiences that average kids do, and I still don't know if whether or not that contributed to my avoidant personality. I didn't even realize most kids don't even start school until they're 4 or 5 until I was much older. People have been getting me out there and encouraging me to socialize with others since the very beginning. It never worked.

I spent my whole life hating myself for it. I felt like I was never competent and that I was a burden on my mother. And there were many times I did try to make connections with others but they ended up either backstabbing me or shaming me for my interests. I regret a lot of the times I allowed myself to be known by others. There are many memories of me simply saying things to people that make me feel awful. Terrible disorder.

I did manage to make and keep some friends. But also I'm still not truly myself with most of them and still afraid they're going to end up demonizing me too if they knew more about me. Being queer and growing up with having kinks has left me with seeing so much family, strangers, and even other queer people say people like me are "freaks" and "degenerates" to my face without knowing they're talking someone who's exactly the kind of person they think should be killed.

I saw a post recently and honestly, it doesn't even apply to me. However, it still managed evoke a lot of negative emotions and memories I am experiencing right now...

So there's this post going around that goes something like "discourse about letting kids not say 'trick or treat' is concerning"(paraphrasing) which was weird to me at first because I've never seen anyone say they allow their kids not to say it. I've always said "trick or trick" during Halloween as a kid, even adding some "meows" because I liked being a cat. So it doesn't even apply to me.

But then there were people acting like not saying it comes from a place of privilege. Someone was like (paraphrasing again)"when I was giving out candy, all the black children were lively and sweet, and all the kids who didn't say it were white and probably middle class".

And that struck me a bit. I'm mixed race. People treated me like a potential violent threat because of my quiet nature, which was a result from trauma, not anyone "babying" me. I was always working class. My parents didn't even own a car. We used public transportation to get everywhere.

BIPOC kids who are quiet get treated as threats! Of course you fucking enjoy lively black kids. If one of them was quiet, you might demonize them...

Then there were people saying "you people just need to grow up."

It's so strange that traits that apply to non-verbal autism or CPTSD get deemed as "social anxiety", because tumblr thinks that is the lesser disorder.

I don't know. I got a lot of bad memories spring up from seeing that post, and I just wanted to vent about it here. So many people demonized me for being quiet growing up and it made me believe I was a monster for so long.

I'm not even saying I encourage the behavior of refusing to talk to people. I had a nice conversation with an old woman at Dunkin yesterday. I enjoy small talk and listening to others talk, even when I can't add much to the conversation. I just worry about other children who are like how I was growing up, being traumatized and quiet and being treated like shit for it... I don't trust anyone sees "quiet" as "rude"

I'm sorry about the length and I hope you're doing well.

anon, I'm sorry this took me so long to post. I just want to say that your ask really resonated with me and I've thought about it several times since receiving it. I get similarly frustrated when I see priveleged people praising marginalized for being more friendly, more whatever, for similar reasons. Or setting up an oppression competition between two groups they're not even a part of.

#avpd #avoidant personality disorder #again #sorry to take so long to post these #have been especially avoidant

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slavghoul · 1 year ago

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Phantomime is the band's third album of covers, after If You Have Ghosts and Popestar. Cover songs are usually the preserve of young, inexperienced bands. Is doing covers a way to maintain a link with your formative years and not forget where you come from?

Tobias Forge: Absolutely. I think it does that. It serves as a return to the roots, in the same way as for... I don't know, let's say someone who practices martial arts, who starts in a certain dojo and ends up changing it. If you want to become a good fighter, you have to move and train with different people. It's the same for a footballer: if you play with the same team all the time, your team might be very good, but you always have to play against others. I think the same logic applies with covers: it can help to go back. You don't necessarily have to release them. We chose to do a real album, but in parallel I worked on other songs - not only Impera music, but other covers. We selected the best ones, and said, "Let's put these out; this looks coherent and presentable".

How much did learning to play other artists' songs contribute to your formation as a musician? What were the most formative songs in your youth?

The answer to the first question is yes. Listening and playing at the same time is very formative. I've never really been... A lot of guitarists, especially, take the time to read tablature and learn how to play something very precisely, and in my opinion, theorise the music too much. I can't say that I'm not theoretical; I just don't follow the rules or the classic terminology. I try to categorise and understand the logic, but I do it in my own way, based on what I have learned over time. I never spent much time with tablature; I just played to the music. I would put the music on and play. I wasn't trying to learn how to play the song in the same way as the band. I would play as if I were invited to play with them. So my style is very free, because I played The Doors as well as Kiss, Slayer and DJ Bobo! It could be anything. Whatever I heard, whatever I listened to, whatever song I could get my hands on, I would play it. I think the chaos of it all made it... When you understand that, you understand the way I write, the way I do things, and why I sometimes seem to be a bit scattered.

That's what may surprise you when you listen to the EP: you can find Iron Maiden as well as Tina Turner...

Yes, I grew up with both, so it's not strange to me. But of course, in order to go from just wanting to do something to a homogeneous work that is supposed to have some commercial appeal, you have to make decisions. One of those decisions was, "If we're going to do this Tina Turner song, it really needs to be punchy." It's supposed to be a rock EP, it's got to be set to 10. I think that's what sets this cover apart from the moose. By the way, thematically, I didn't think of it as 'a Tina Turner cover', but as 'the Mad Max song'. It fits with the times we're living in.

Phantomime features a cover of Iron Maiden's "Phantom Of The Opera". Two years ago, you also recorded a version of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" for the Blacklist compilation. In rock, people like to pit the Rolling Stones against the Beatles, and I think the metal world tends to do the same thing with Metallica and Iron Maiden. Do you feel more affinity with Metallica or with Maiden?

[He thinks] Good question. I'm trying to formulate a coherent answer. I think... It's so fifty-fifty. Both. Not just in terms of inspiration, but in terms of their whole careers, especially when I was a kid. In many ways, like many fans of both bands, there's a cut-off date where my interest in new music started to wane. But I have such a love for everything they did before that it doesn't really matter. The limit is basically the Black Album and Fear Of The Dark. I mean, I like The X Factor, and Brave New World was an absolutely great comeback album. But as a kid and a teenager, settling down with Live After Death was such an inspiration - not just for what I was hearing, but for the tour dates and everything to do with that. Same with Metallica and the Black Album. That was the first time I saw them, and it was the first time I was confronted with commercial greatness in metal, when a band is on top. It's happening now, they're the biggest band of all time. They're playing in such and such an arena, but when they come back next year, they'll be doing such and such a stadium. Even back then, I had a hunch that not only were they great, but they were doing well in life. These guys are getting richer by the hour [laughs]. That's the kind of thing that matters when you're twelve. "And imagine all the girls they get!" That kind of nonsense.

And of course, these bands inspired me musically and professionally and brought me a lot of joy, but they also became mentors in my professional life. I have so much gratitude and respect for those two bands. If I were to be super picky and specific, I would say that since we are a more melodic band, we are probably closer to Maiden. Metallica is more of a "speed" band, I think. To be honest, what I've always liked most about Metallica, and especially on my favourite albums, which are a lot of people's favourites, is not the speed. The speed and the violence on those albums are just added value. The reason their music was so great in the 80s was because it was so melodic. It's the melodies. What changed in the 90s was that they stopped the melodies. They became a blues band, and all of a sudden all the movements were different. It wasn't neoclassical like in the 80s or on the Black Album. I'm very neoclassical myself, that's why I feel so close to the melodic side of Metallica. On the other hand, I spent my teenage years listening to death and black metal, so I love big riffs and speed and stuff like that, but that's not what we do with Ghost.

For a long time, fans have been asking who could be the Maiden or Metallica of tomorrow. Considering the impressive success of Ghost, do you think you have an answer to that question?

Obviously, I know that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg will die one day, but I don't think Wes Anderson or Quentin Tarantino can be considered as a replacement. These directors don't have that much in common, but you know what I mean, I hope. I don't see us as taking their place. You know, I try to be as transparent as possible. What I do is very much inspired by those two bands. I try to do it in a different way, and with respect. But of course, from a practical point of view, when the day comes when there's no more Iron Maiden and you want to see a rock concert with staging and solos, you can come and see us. It's a very curious concept, but it's obviously relevant, because we live in a time when the previous generation is disappearing one after the other. I think Lars [Ulrich] and James [Hetfield] have spoken about how the physicality of their music is not the same as the Rolling Stones. Charlie [Watts] playing the way he played when he was seventy-nine or eighty, it's nothing like what's expected of Lars. And what is expected of James is also very different from what is expected of Keith Richards, with his very open chord style. The meticulousness of James' riffs and Kirk's solos can be difficult to achieve at eighty - and they're approaching sixty. Kirk already has them, by the way. So, as much as I don't want to think about it or remind people, nothing lasts forever. Sooner or later, fans are going to have to decide which bands they want to go see, because a lot of the people they grew up with won't be around anymore.

Your cover of "Enter Sandman" was very "ghostified", while "Phantom Of The Opera" is more faithful to the original in comparison. How do you decide how to approach a cover? Are there songs that offer more latitude in terms of arrangement and appropriation, and others less?

There are several factors, which differ from song to song, and the result can therefore be different. If you go back in time and take "Waiting For The Night", for example, I always thought that song in its original form... Obviously it's cool, but I thought there was a bigger song underneath. In the original, it's diffuse, vague, underlying. The chords are just hinted at, and the vocals suggest that you can build something bigger around it. When I did the cover with Dave Grohl, he asked me, "Can we do a really slow version of it like Trouble?" I said, "Yeah, that sounds cool." And of course, working with Dave Grohl, it seemed like a good idea at the time. In the end, we thought it was too slow, too heavy and too long. It was a good idea, but the result was not very convincing.

Enter Sandman' and 'Phantom Of The Opera' were conceived in two different ways. If someone had asked me to do a Metallica tribute, I would have accepted, but I would never have chosen 'Enter Sandman', in the same way that few people would choose 'Paranoid' or 'Smoke On The Water'. You automatically try not to pick the biggest hit. But in this case, it was Swedish television that asked me to play. It was for a music award, and they said: "Since Ghost and Metallica are close, you are seen as friends, so you should open the show. And we want you to play their biggest song, 'Enter Sandman'." I asked, "Do I have a choice?" And they said, "Not really! We want you to do it, otherwise we have to rethink the whole show. Could you think about it?" OK, I'll think about it and see what I can do. So I started to play the song and see what I could get out of it. The original structure of the song is very simple, and the melody, like "Waiting For The Night", suggests chords that they don't play. All I had to do was see which chord suggested the melody and fill in the gaps. I ended up with a five-minute arrangement. If I sing the melody with a guitar, this is what chords it suggests. That's the somewhat academic version of the song. I was at the stage where I had a completely different version of the song, and I recorded it and thought, "Fuck, I hope James doesn't hate it..." Because I don't want to disappoint anyone. It's supposed to be a tribute. My version was like, "You guys have all my love, but I was forced to do this! And in the end, the result was great.

"Phantom Of The Opera' was a bit different. I knew I wanted to cover a Maiden song, but not just anything, of course. I wasn't going to do 'The Number Of The Beast'. I've had fun with 'Phantom' in the past, because it's a long song and quite complicated. As a musician, it's quite common to sit on the couch and try to figure out a riff. What are they doing there? [What's the rhythm? How are they counting? Because I couldn't hear the beat. And suddenly, once I understood how the beat works in this song [he sings the riff while snapping his fingers], I thought: "Wow, you can't hear that at all on the record. You can't hear anything, it's just a controlled mess." I managed to figure out how to play other elements of the song, and I was like, "Now I have a reason to record it. Not because I want to improve it, but to come up with a different version where you can clearly hear the different parts." First of all, it was a personal experiment in the studio. I wanted to record it to see what it sounded like, and suddenly, after working on it for a few hours, doubling the guitars, adding the drums and playing everything perfectly with metronomic precision, the track was different and a bit updated, so to speak. So I said to myself, "I'm going to take the gamble of covering this song, and see what happens. It seemed like a good reason. I'm not saying my version is better, I'm just saying it's different. There's a bit more contrast and fluidity, you can hear the different elements better. It underlines how good the song is.

Phantomime's covers also include Genesis' 'Jesus He Knows Me'. Genesis is a rather peculiar band, which started out in progressive rock and ended up with huge radio hits. Do you find yourself in this ambiguity, in this duality?

Yes, I do. The other band on that level that did something similar is Pink Floyd. In the beginning, their music was really strange, really eccentric, and then they became more and more pop as the albums went on. People still mistakenly think they're a prog band, whereas 'Wish You Were Here' is really just a series of four pop songs stretched to the max. Not only am I very inspired by that, but I also feel an affinity with that kind of thing. You try to come up with variations of the traditional, if you like. You try to change the form, to present elements that people know in a different way. It's a bit like running a fusion restaurant and offering an Asian-inspired onion soup and adding coriander to the dish. It's still recognisable, but you try to make the recipe different. Another analogy is Stanley Kubrick, who told stories that weren't very complicated, but presented them in an epic way because of their façade - literally. It was the choice of set and costume and the attention to detail that made the difference. That's why, as a composer, I always try to go back to the simplicity of the writing; the simplicity of 'Another Brick In The Wall'; the simplicity of 'Comfortably Numb'. It sounds like a huge, epic song, but it's not complicated at all. They have a lot of songs like that. For a lot of songs in the Genesis catalogue, especially in the later part of their career, the only thing that makes it a bit weird is the middle part. In "Jesus He Knows Me", that's one of the things that made me want to... Not only have I always loved that song, but there are three factors that made me want to do my own thing with it. One: it's a very upbeat rhythm. The way they play it is so quiet that it literally sounds like they're playing on the table [he beats the rhythm on the table] with an acoustic guitar. There's a real metal track in there.

Do something with those guitars! [Laughs]

Yeah, but I'm glad they didn't, because that means we can! I'm really surprised that a band like Metallica never covered this song, because it sounds like a song from Garage Days. It has the same atmosphere. So I thought, "I'm gonna make it sound like a Garage Days song by Metallica. And I fucking hate the bridge of the original, when they go into white boy raggae. I like reggae, but this is the whitest reggae in the world! And it totally destroys the song. As much as I've always loved the song as a whole, I've always hated that part. So getting rid of that section and making it very heavy was also on the to-do list. I had to go into Trouble mode on this. And of course, that goes without saying, but the lyrics were also perfect. It's meant as a tribute, even though I spit on that bridge a lot. But they've done a lot of these kind of prog bridges, like "Let's do anything here", and they'll throw in a rumba or something like that. Some people might find that really interesting, but in most of their songs, I don't think it adds anything. But yes, Genesis has a lot of... I like a lot of their older prog music, with Peter Gabriel, although I think they almost became even better after they split up. Peter Gabriel did his own music, and he did it very well - very epic music. And Phil [Collins] came in on vocals and they did their own thing. To me, it was the best of both worlds, even if it sounds sacrilegious to say that. I'd love to see Peter Gabriel come back and sing with them, that would be cool, but their separation brought so much to the music, between Peter Gabriel's career, Genesis' career and Phil's career. That amount of work, man!

It's one of the few cases where the split was a real success for everyone, and the result is as good as the original band.

Absolutely, I think so. The most amazing thing they could do now, especially now that Phil is not in good shape... What I wish they had done, or could have done, or would do one day, is a triple tour. For example, Phil and [Peter] could do a solo show each to start with, maybe just five or ten songs, and then get together with Genesis. That way we could have 'Here Come The Flood', 'Another Day In Paradise' and 'In The Air Tonight', and then a bunch of Genesis. I think everyone would love to see that. It would be the perfect concert. For me, it would be one of the best experiences possible.

You see, that's the kind of idea that made Ghost into Ghost. If you can come up with a plan like that for other bands...

[Laughs] You can always call me before it's too late, guys!

Another band that has come up with sophisticated yet super catchy music is Def Leppard, especially on their multi-platinum album Hysteria. Speaking of which, this year you released a new version of "Spillways" with Joe Elliott on vocals. When you hear him on this track, the link is obvious, especially with the very elaborate backing vocals. Would you draw a parallel between your approach to songwriting and arranging and that of Def Leppard?

On this album, yes, because I tried to emulate elements of... It's something that's been done throughout their career, but especially on their two biggest albums, Pyromania and Hysteria, the length of the songs is remarkable. It's very common these days, especially in pop, to be very fussy about the three-minute limit. In the pop world, there's this need to always get to the chorus very quickly. You have to start with the chorus, go straight to the point all the time. In the 80s, there was more courage in songwriting - a more adventurous side. Songs like 'The Riddle', for example, were very strange, very proggy. There were weird chord progressions and stuff that nobody does anymore. The pop world has been so chicken for so long. Of course, I've always had an ear for pop; I'm not exactly impressed with what I hear today, but in my life I've always listened to the radio and liked a lot of what I heard, especially the 80s super hits. That's totally my thing. And I love Eurodisco from the early 90s. There are a lot of great composers in that scene. Max Martin started in Eurodisco, at least professionally, but before that he was in metal. What makes him such a great composer is his metal ear. He was writing Eurodisco songs, and then all of a sudden he started writing huge pop songs for the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. This whole school of Swedish songwriters is made up of former metalheads, former rockers, former guitarists.

So I wanted to challenge myself in my own songwriting, because sometimes I keep it too short. Even though "Square Hammer" is a good example of a well-written song, it was almost frustrating, because I thought, "OK, that's one more song like that. Now I have to stop doing that, because it was almost too simple." It was a very intuitive song; I literally wrote it in ten minutes. I had the melody, I played it, and the song wrote itself very quickly. There's almost no finesse in that song, and I thought I should avoid doing the same thing again, because it would be too easy. I wanted to see if I could write in a Def Leppard way. On Hysteria, there are six, seven, eight singles, a good half of which were huge hits. In 1987 or 1988, they were on a par with Coldplay at the height of their career, that's for sure. How could they write five-minute songs, with like five distinct parts? It wasn't conventional, verse-chorus-verse-chorus writing. It was verse, another verse, pre-chorus, bridge, and then finally, after two minutes, you'd get to the chorus. And it was so rewarding, because it was such a long way to get there. I thought, "This is what I have to work towards. I want to dare to add another part, dare not to follow the path. That was a mental exercise I did on Impera, and I'll try to do better in the future. It's an interesting way to challenge yourself.

When people talk about the length of songs on the radio, I always think of the story of "Bohemian Rhapsody": "This is going to be a disaster, it's never going to be played on the radio!" That's it, yes...

For a long time they called that song "Freddie's thing". It's such an anomaly in the middle of what we've just been talking about. Of course, I don't recommend... For a young band that's just got a contract, it's best to avoid the six-minute "Rhapsody". But if you can find a compromise between 'The Passenger' and 'Bohemian Rhapsody', I think you've got something.

On that subject, how did Joe Elliott end up on "Spillways"?

The story is very simple. I talked about Def Leppard a lot before Impera came out because of the mental exercise I mentioned, and both Phil and Joe had been talking about Ghost for a few years. It got to the point where our respective managements wanted us to do something together. In the modern world, that often means collaborating, as hip-hop artists do. I explained that I was willing to explore the idea, but that for me, a collaboration is a trendy but outdated concept. We do it all the time. In hip-hop, it's almost ridiculous to see... If an artist is hot this week and you go look at the American top 40, it's just "this artist feat. this other artist". I totally understand that one plus one can sometimes be three, but it gets very cynical. I don't want to do things cynically. I sing cynical things, I'm a cynical person, but I don't want to be cynical about my fans or my career. So I said yes, I would discuss it with Joe, but we'd have to see if we could agree on something, if there was romance in the air.

Joe and I sent a lot of messages to each other to try and arrange a meeting. He lives in Ireland, but also in LA. I live in Sweden, but I also spend a lot of time in LA, so we tried to find time to see each other. He was getting ready for his tour, I was getting ready for my tour, and we were just hanging out. And then out of the blue, he wanted to experiment; he went into the studio, recorded some vocal lines and sent them to me. I thought it sounded really cool and I said, "Look, I have nothing but good things to say about what you did. It sounds great. I'm not surprised by your voice, but by the fact that we sound so good together. I like that very drawling vocal, you really added something. But I have no desire to throw this on Spotify and say to people, 'Here's another thing you can buy.'" I asked him, "You know we do little skits to communicate with our fans in a funny way? Instead of posting on Instagram saying we'll be in such and such a city, we come up with little episodes." He had seen a few and said, "Yeah, that's funny. Let's do something funny with that." The gag is the important part, and the end result is a bonus.

It's like what we did with 'Kiss The Go-Goat' and 'Mary On A Cross'. The idea for the episode came first, and then we said, "OK, but we need a song. So I came up with the idea for this 60s-style sketch that was "Kiss The Go-Goat". Then, as I was writing and recording 'Kiss The Go-Goat', 'Mary On A Cross' came up in the process, and I thought, "Great, now we have a B-side! It'll be a physical single." So I put that in the script: "Let's start showing the single, now that it's official." Things work in tandem. Looking back, we now know that the end result was different. It was meant as a joke. There was 'Kiss The Go-Goat', which was the joke itself and was very successful. And then it turned out that "Mary On A Cross" was completely different. That's also what I told Joe: we do this to mess around with the band. My job is to write records and entertain people, but apparently I also have to communicate with my fans, and do all this promotion that I'm not really interested in. I have no problem doing this interview, but I don't want a fucking Instagram account where I post pictures of myself. I don't want to be that person. So, I'm doing this so that people... They're diversions, and sometimes those diversions become cool. "What do you say, Joe?" In the end, we found this way to spend time together and do something fun. Instead of turning our creativity into songs, we turned our creativity into episodes. It became something fruitful and fun, and I think it was a great success.

The title of the EP is clever, as it mixes the terms 'ghost' and 'pantomime'. The latter term is defined as "a type of musical for the entertainment of the whole family". Is this your goal with Ghost? Do you see the band as "a musical for the whole family's entertainment"?

Broadly speaking, yes. Of course, that suggests that the more adult elements and innuendos in our show are suitable for children, which I don't claim. But I would also like to stress that I have never asked people to bring children to our shows. So if the children in question are exposed to jokes involving penises, farts and copulation, that's their problem. I grew up in a very liberal family, where there were very few barriers and no censorship. I think it's possible to have a conversation, if others are open to it. I have no problem with whole families coming to us, as long as no one suffers. So, for me, it is indeed entertainment for the whole family. But I wouldn't sell it as such to most people, because there are still elements that are not suitable for all children.

I remember a Rammstein concert where I noticed children in the audience. I thought it wasn't really a good idea... Ghost seemed a bit more appropriate, but for young children, some things can still be a bit biased.

It's hard for me to have a clear line on this, because I'm not just speaking as a musician, but also as a parent. There's a constant debate about the right age to talk about certain things. Now, with two teenagers, things are more open. But that's one of the weird things about being a semi-public figure, talking openly and publicly about your life and what you do and sharing your opinions. My kids read that, too. They are aware of it. As soon as I say something, especially nowadays, where everything becomes a meme or a clip... People may think what I say is funny, which I don't mind, but my son and daughter, now fourteen, heard it when they were eight or ten. It's hard for me to be a parent and say, 'Go to school! Don't do that", when they know perfectly well that I didn't follow any of these precepts. I'm not trying to lie to them at all. I tell them: "I did this, I don't recommend it. I did this; I totally neglected this other thing. But I was lucky and I got there. My career isn't over, so I don't know if I've really "arrived", but for now, I'm here. It was a bit silly of me to be so confident, to think I could burn all the bridges, burn all the ships and throw the oars. I was lucky enough to make it to land, but I don't recommend this technique. Don't do the same thing! [Laughs]

#the band ghost #Tobias Forge #interview

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shining-gem34 · 2 months ago

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SHIPPING INFO. Answer the following for your muse(s) so people know how shipping works on your blog.

What’s your OTP for your Muse(s)?

Hm! I won't say it here, because I don't want to give the wrong impression. I will say I do have a few OTPs! My close friends/besties already know my bias!

What are you willing to RP when it comes to shipping?

Excluding the big NO-NO (r*pe, non-con, underage sex, and etc.), I'm pretty open and willing to try a variety of things for shipping. It can go from fluffy/playful to angsty next. On that note, I am also open to exploring toxic ships/red flags as well. :3

How large does the age gap have to be to make it uncomfortable?

As someone who RP's muses who are either in the three digits or immortals, I can safely say as long as they are both ADULTS who are consenting, all is good. I will say NO if our muses have a parent/child bond like Muse A has raised Muse B since they were a kid, or anything similar to that.

Are you selective when shipping?

In general, it's a yes.

Mostly because I don't get home until the evening and by then my energy is pretty low. It takes time for me to sit down and focus on tumblr replies. Too many things happening can feel overwhelming for me, especially if I think about making sure shipping with the same muses are different/varied. It hasn't happened yet as my activity levels here are random! But I am thinking it about now and rjrbrjrhrje Y e a h. That is why I made the shipping rule for new people who are following me the first time.

Otherwise, if we're already friends, chances are we already went feral about the characters/ship. I don't mind going straight into pre-established ship or RPing (plotting) how they got together. I'm not picky in that regard.

How far do steamy moments have to go before they’re considered NSFW?

I don't think I have reached that point on this site. If I do, I would say the moment they start stripping while kissing and getting handsy with each other. Maybe there's touching the private parts. At that point, as I try to follow my own rules, I would probably move the full NSFW into DMs/IMs.

Who are other muses you ship your muse with?

Uh. For reasons, I'll keep this short and sweet:

For everyone who saw read my ramblings in DM's or I drop something and leave like a rat, thank you so much for indulging me. <3 I had so much fun coming up with fluffy, silly, and angsty stuff for our muses together!

And it doesn't have to be just romantic too! It applies to platonic/familial muses too!

I do hope we can continue this and watch out muses get into shenanigans together. <3

Does one have to ask to ship with you?

Preferably, yes! If you don't tell me, then I won't know!

How often do you like to ship?

I'm thinking hard on this, because both outside and inside here? Not alot honestly. I do think about shipping however it usually ends up being brief and passing entertainment. So I don't really have alot of ships I am committed to.

Are you multiship?

Yes! It's surprisingly refreshing thinking of each ship being it's own thing and not a bunch of connected events. <3 I definitely enjoy the dynamics of each ship too!

Are you ship obsessed or ship more-or-less?

I say ship more-or-less than ship-obsessed. I don't actively seek out people to ship. Also it's too much for me to handle checking too many things happening at once. So, I'm usually committed to a few ships and if something develops naturally, or I feel something is happening? Yeah, I'll ship. :3

What is your favorite ship in your current fandom?

Me x Dan Feng

Finally, how does one ship with you?

I would say just be direct and ask if we can ship our muses together. I will say "yes" most of the time, especially if we have been plotting in the DMs and have a few IC already). If not, then yes I would like to discuss it first and get some IC interactions going. I always have a meme tag for a bunch of memes I've reblogged to break the ice, or starters if you prefer that!

Because, the more we talk about our muses dynamics and each other, I am more likely to fall in love and turn feral! I will be 100% on board shipping them! Like moreso if it's a character I am neutral about it's a BIG WIN because YOU made me love them!

Trust me it happened like....3-4? times now since I started this blog. I love it when people have so much love for their muses I just support them and fall in love too!

Tagged by: @memovia, @etherealguard, @grislyintentions Tagging: You!

#jadecoocoo (mun rambles)#cluster gems together (dash game/bingo)#||Whew #||Some questions had me stumbling a bit

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msburgundy · 11 months ago

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Can you expand on your thoughts on pitbull discourse, I'm genuinely very curious (I'm not super informed on the topic since I'm not a dog person but the arguments can get very heated and very confusing)

the issue kind of stems from the fact that aggression itself is way more complicated than "is it present or not"

for one thing, every dog is *capable* of aggression but that's certainly not the same thing as being prone to it. and there are a variety of factors that go into that predisposition, but also there are different types of aggression

the target of the aggression is the biggest factor. and there are 3 main types there: dog aggression, human directed aggression, and prey/hunting type aggression. the last one is typically referred to as "prey drive" and is seldom considered a form of aggression but i don't know why it should be called anything else.

and then there are different contexts for aggression: fear, territory, possessiveness/guarding of people or animals, dominance/control, etc.

pitbulls are specifically genetically predisposed toward dog aggression and territorial aggression as those things kind of go hand in hand for fighting, which is what they were bred to do. they can also be possessive of people they love and maybe that's where that insane nanny dog story comes from idk.

human directed aggression in animals is actually pretty rare and has to be trained in in most cases, some breeds that have been historically used for police work etc are more suited to that kind of training but almost any dog can actually be trained to bite if you do it during the early formative period

this can be trained unintentionally, or intentionally but improperly, through abuse (as is the case with my own dog) which creates a whole different set of problems

because what that does is essentially teach an insecure dog that biting solves problems. you get a lot of fear aggression from animals like that

this no doubt accounts for a non negligible number of pitbull bites on people but i'm not willing to say it's the majority either

overall mental stability of a dog is a big piece of this and that itself has several factors, including abuse, but also genetics and even training. a dog that needs a firm handler and doesn't have one will be insecure and untrusting. pitbulls need a firm handler

another component of stability is what the threshold for stimulation is that turns the brain off. this is something you kind of don't actually even see except in very unstable dogs, but using my own dog as an example again, there is a point where he gets too worked up that he simply cannot be controlled. he will bark and bite wildly and even bite me if i try to restrain him, without meaning to or even realizing he's done it until he snaps back to reality

the triggers for it vary depending on the dog, but the outcome is largely the same at a certain level of activation

so now if we take all of that, and apply it back to every "pitbull mauls toddler" story, it starts to make sense. nearly every single one of those stories goes "i left the dog and the baby in the yard for 2 minutes, i heard barking, and when i went out the baby was dead"

what invariably happens, is that another dog walked by the fence, the dog flipped out beyond its ability to reason, the baby cries because of the dog barking, the dog redirects on the baby

that is dog aggression redirected on a child, not human directed aggression

and that distinction REALLY matters

because for one thing, we need to acknowledge that pitbulls as a breed were not merely predisposed to, but selected for, dog aggression and that their use in fighting specifically has led to temperament based selection to either not occur or occur in a negative way.

many people have worked for a long time to change that and stabilize the breed, with great success, but not every dog is coming from those genetic lines. with pitbulls you just really need to know what you're getting

a dog that is WAY more prone to human directed aggression and is widely available and frequently biting people, badly, is the german shepherd

the stats are also very skewed. pitbull itself isn't a real breed, so any time a bully type dog bites someone it gets reported as a pitbull (which is fine) but then that gets compared against the total number of registered american pitbull terriers in the country and that's ridiculous

most bites are by pitbull type dogs because they make up the majority of the dogs in the country

the reason the pitbull stories are so prevalent compared to others is that they're shocking. "beloved family pet snaps and kills child" is just bigger news than "i bought a german shepherd puppy i couldn't handle and now he bites me every time i try to put a leash on him" even though one of those dogs is objectively way more aggressive than the other

#also 'there was no warning' is a lie #i believe they really didn't see it coming but that doesn't mean there are no signs #and if you can't read those you really have no business having a dog #especially if you have children #dogposting

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devourensarc · 8 months ago

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Tomorrow is gonna be a renovation day around here. So, for now, a slight announcement regarding stuff moving forward.

I'm going to hold myself to the 'highly selective' part more. As much as I would love to write with everyone, I just cannot. I don't have enough spoons or time. Although it does make me nervous to have so many eyes on my writing and my characterization, it's mostly just anxiety, and so I am not letting myself cave and remake to it.

However, I will be a bit more strict with my 'no interest expressed' rule. If it's been more than a month, especially if you followed first, and there's been no expressed interest in interacting, I will hardblock. I like to keep my dash manageable, and I would rather focus on people I write with, and who are engaged with my muse and portrayal.

That doesn't necessarily mean we have to be writing something in character yet. That could mean chatting ooc about our muses. It could mean I see you liking and/or otherwise engaging with my headcanons. etc etc. I try to do that with those I follow, because I am interested in what they have to say and how they develop their muses, and I like to have the same energy given back.

This also means that I am going to have to get better about ooc messages. I know I struggle with them sometimes, but I know it's hard on your end too. It makes my anxiety flare when I do reach out to someone, with an idea or silly memes or whatnot, and get nothing in response, and I don't want to be the cause of that in someone else. At the end of the day, I love being able to discuss muses and have fun building plotlines and dynamics with people, and that will be my focus moving forward.

Everything above also applies to Acheron and my multi.

If this doesn't work, I may end up remaking come summer, but for now, I'm holding myself to this plan.

And for smaller things: I think I will be changing my url. I've got vibes, but nothing solid yet.

#✶ — › worm off the string / ooc.#yes I am aware my url is similar to others out there. pls leave me alone abt it #for now my back is killing me so #I got my heating pad. I got my viddy games. so I am going to vibe before another week starts #mwah mwah take care

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valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn · 1 year ago

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Let’s pretend for a moment that Wanda’s antis are right and she actually did sign up for Strucker’s experiments knowing full well that he was Hydra. Would that make her and Pietro irredeemable? I mean, they didn’t exactly join Hydra’s ranks; they volunteered to be lab rats. There’s kind of a difference.

I suppose if this were true then the question would become “for what purpose did they volunteer?” I could see it being spun similarly to the five Winter Soldiers from Civil War who volunteered to be more efficient agents, but I don’t think something like that would be in character for either twin.

I think there would be at least a small gray area if they knowingly used Hydra to get powers and then planned to either abandon or straight-up destroy them. But then again, if you think the “if you work with Nazis then you are by definition a Nazi yourself” mindset should be applied in that situation, then I could understand that too.

Obviously this is a moot point since the only account of their recruitment shows otherwise and from what I know nothing contradicts it, but I just want to look at the worst possible scenario.

I'd say intention matters the most. If they knew they were Hydra and they only joined them with the intention of using them to get powers so they could then betray them and go straight to the US to kill the Avengers... it's still messed up but I wouldn't call it "joining Hydra". That'd be more like "using them".

Now, assuming that was the case and they had always known, but their plan was to leave and not stop/kill them, I would have an issue with that. These people were killing Sokovians right, front and centre in their experiments and it would be out of character for the twins to not care about that. In fact, judging by their immediate rejection of Ultron once Wanda sees the many deaths he intends on causing, it wouldn't make much sense that they'd be selective when it comes to saving lives: if we don't count Johannesburg, they never attack citizens, quite the contrary. Their battle is with the Avengers, no one else. And Wanda isn't exactly a fan of killing people either, we can see that in Lagos when she basically leaves it to Sam to be more forceful while she just uses her magic to stop them (never kill them).

My point is... using Hydra like that doesn't make you a nazi but the problem is you're there with them while they're doing unspeakable things to other people. And if you do nothing to stop them and you just focus on yourself and what you can get out of them... then yeah, that's despicable. I wouldn't expect the twins to stand up against them immediately post-experiment (we can only imagine the mental state they were in at the time), but once they had full control of their powers and they were alert enough... not doing anything to destroy that base and just running away is messed up, no doubt about it.

However like you say, this is speculation and it's still up for interpretation as I don't think canon stated at any point that they knew for sure they were volunteering for Hydra. The prelude comics make it clear the twins didn't know they were Hydra, and these bunch of nazis weren't exactly advertising themselves (much less in a country that had been invaded by American troops, it would have been pretty stupid to do so), so how were the twins supposed to know? Also, I highly doubt they met Strucker right away, the scientists conducting the experiments as seen in WandaVision were two nameless goons accustomed to seeing volunteers die at the first contact with the Mind Stone.

Assuming lab rats would be informed of everything Hydra did or didn't do is plain dumb. So Agent Brexit had no way of knowing Zola was Hydra but the twins are supposed to know everything that happened in that base? That's hilarious.

#wanda maximoff #pro wanda maximoff

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apexulansis · 1 year ago

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SHIPPING INFO // ANSWER THE FOLLOWING FOR YOUR MUSES SO PEOPLE KNOW HOW SHIPPING WORKS ON YOUR BLOG.

TAGGED BY: @dynamoprotocol who did this a while ago but maybe fixed the @ because i Just Now got the notif for it thank you!

WHAT IS YOUR OTP FOR YOUR CHARACTER(S)?

Vindaka with @vin-robles obviously!!! That ship is literally the entire reason Ardaka even exists. Probably why Kariians are they are right now exist as well, since I might not have bothered to split them off from their original fandom-related stuff were it not for this particular dynamic. They're very dear to me. :')

HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE IT UNCOMFORTABLE?

In large part, it's pretty dumb to try and apply age gap stuff to aliens who live hundreds, thousands, if not an indefinite, number of years. So a literal age gap is inevitable and kind of always will be. Obviously I don't mean this as a way to excuse gross shit but when it comes to adults, yeah, the age can vary by literally millions of years in some cases.

It gets uncomfortable when the other muse is more comparable to a teen than an adult. As Earth years equivalent I'd say anything younger than 22 would be Uncomfy.

(But again, doesn't always apply. I mean, one of Ardaka's partners is an A.I. and they most definitely do not mature the same way that organics do. So.......)

HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS HAVE TO GO BEFORE THEY ARE CONSIDERED NSFW?

When it comes to writing with me, you'd probably just know it when you see it. I don't like to jump right into NSFW territory, I'd rather allude/suggest to it first — and the post would be tagged 'SUGGESTIVE CW' or something.

If it's the very first time things creep into NSFW territory with someone, I will just give them an OOC heads up so they know, and we can go from there. Sometimes people don't want to write those things out, in which case I'd like to know that so I can fade-to-black accordingly.

As for my personal opinion — I kinda just think of the meaning of NSFW, as in Not Safe For Work. If I wouldn't want to be caught reading it at work/in public, then yeah, it should be censored or tagged.

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WHEN SHIPPING?

Yes lmao. I don't just want IC chemistry, I want OOC chemistry too, and that can be kinda hard to come by on this site. I don't really like shipping with people (Emotional Character Relationship kind of shipping, not just 'they fuck sometimes') if I don't consider them a friend. Honestly, the rapport being good OOC is almost more important than the IC connection to me. Like... if I don't add you on Discord, it's safe to say I'm not gonna ship with you.

When the IC/OOC chemistry is Just Right, then no, I'm not selective. If I've already established a ship with someone, I'm pretty willing to do Whatever since I already trust in their writing skills.

WHO ARE OTHER CHARACTERS YOU SHIP YOUR CHARACTER WITH?

Other than Ardaka / Vin....

Ardaka / Two / Xaallo with @precognitor and @xaallo. I love them as an OT3 but also as separate ships on their own right. The chemistry of these three is always good, but it definitely changes depending on whether or not Ardaka is with both of them, or just Two, or just Xaallo. It makes for a very dynamic relationship with a lot of variety. It's been one of my favorite things to write over the past year or two.

Ardaka / Sliske with @ohshadow. Sometimes I think about the interactions of their original canon counterparts and it's wild. It's wild how far they've come now. Channy and I haven't gotten too many chances to write them but it's great when we do. I just feel so!!! Proud!!! Of where we've both taken our characters. I love the way Ardaka and Sliske banter of course, I just feel a lot of OOC contentment for it. It's been so many years since we've known each other, and I think it's pretty cool where we're at now.

Ardaka / Malphas with @guildoffarah. One of the few ships I can't exactly call slow-burn even if there is a good amount of development behind it now. Their chemistry was just Immediate. Also one of the only relationships Ardaka has where his species/identity isn't a barrier he has to overcome at some point, so that has a lot to do with it, I'm sure. Anyway, Farah has been a joy to know and write with!

DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU?

Ehhhhhhhhh? Probably not? It's beneficial to confirm it later down the line sure but if the ship happens naturally in writing then so be it. I don't really like controlling the relationship direction much OOC, I just want it to progress naturally. If it happens, then it happens.

I don't want to just be asked straight up for a ship. Someone can suggest a scenario in which our muses could bond, but I don't want to plot the outcome of such a thing, if that makes sense.

ARE YOU SHIP OBSESSED OR SHIP MORE-OR-LESS?

Obsessed but only with the ships that develop naturally or for ships with already established shipping partners. I have NO idea how people can just make posts that say "like this post and we'll ship together". Shipping calls? I think it's weird, cannot relate at all, sorry.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SHIP IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM?

Not in a fandom. I don't really like picking a one favorite anyway; they're all good ships! I like them all for their own reasons!

FINALLY, HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU?

Write with me. If we're mutuals, I am open to the possibility of it happening. We would just have to find out how it goes IC!

If we're already shipping partners, it's as easy as just suggesting a potential other pairing in passing and we can shoot the shit about it.

#OOC.#OOC: DASH GAMES.#thats a tag now i guess #anyway ty for the tag again!

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ofluminance-a · 1 year ago

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SHIPPING INFO // ANSWER THE FOLLOWING FOR YOUR MUSE(S) SO PEOPLE KNOW HOW SHIPPING WORKS ON YOUR BLOG.

tagged by: @celestiialnotes tagging: YOU READING THIS. :D go for it!

WHAT IS YOUR OTP FOR YOUR CHARACTER(S)? gosh. there are so many muses on here!! uhhh. i guess i can just list the more active muses that i have? however, in doing so, that doesn't mean i am not ever down to try new ones or even rare ships! rare ships are some of my favs, tbh!!

ochako: kacchako, izuocha, kirichako, shinchako, todochako, monochako, iidachako. joke: eraserjoke, micjoke, mightjoke. lucy: graylu, lolu, gajlu, nalu, laxlu, stinglu, freelu. erza: jerza, grayza, mirza. emma: drakemma. takemichi: akkutake, maitake, fuyutake, mistutake. ( i am honestly still developing him / reading the manga more so that's all i've got right now!! ) lumine: chilumi, xiaolumi - just two faves but she obvs works with so many hahah

HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE IT UNCOMFORTABLE? for a lot of the b.nha student muses that i have and even tr characters, i mean.. a couple years? like one to two years apart, max? i mean they are younger characters and in some cases teens, there's no way i am comfy having them date someone way older. as for the more adult muses: fairy tail, etc. --- i mean, not too much older also? the same concept applies. the most i'd say is about a 5 year difference but no more than 7ish or so.

HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS HAVE TO GO BEFORE THEY ARE CONSIDERED NSFW? when you know, you know. it's pretty obvious. a lot of the characters i write tend to be younger and for that i mean, nsfw is pretty non existent. but in the rare chance that it is written here it's with a mun i trust and am comfortable with wholeheartedly. the same can be said for the muses: the ship would have to be pretty well developed: chemistry, built on trust, etc.

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WHEN SHIPPING? yes and no? i mean, if you'd like to ship our muses and our interested in doing so, please let me know! however, i also have to keep the muse in mind / and categorize things in my brain to not make things complicated. i tend to work off a mains system so as to not have 10 ships with the same character. so, as an example: ochako has a very established ship with @ofdetonation's bakugou, so i'd be very selective in shipping her with another. i hope that makes sense? but in all honestly, i am very open to lots of things!

WHO ARE OTHER CHARACTERS YOU SHIP YOUR CHARACTER WITH? ahhh! gosh it'd bee too much to name them all. but, as mentioned: - ochako is with cam's bakugou, and his izuku over at @starvirescent. also for izuocha: @starshinc & @roguesenses. monochako is shipped with @galaxythixf & @beastincidents. - lucy is shipped with @ofsavior's gray and loke. as well as @celestiialnotes's gajeel and soon to be @diablescharmants's freed! - joke is shipped with @spllledwlne's shota and @spydcddy's loid! (yor is also shipped with juice's loid). jean is shipped with @resolutepath's diluc! ** there are so many more things i am sure i cannot think of at this moment! & a lot more developing that i am very excited for!

DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU? it would be much appreciated! i am ALWAYS open to it!! it just helps me to know that you're interested in doing so! everything with my muses is based off of chemistry! but if we've talked forever and you just wanna ship our muses or try something out? let's chat, plot, and see what can happen!

ARE YOU SHIP OBSESSED OR SHIP MORE-OR-LESS? hmmm--- i'd say, ship-more-or-less! i am here for my characters, and in some instances, that's the last thing that's on their minds! however: ME, DANDI-- HEAR ME RAWR-- i mean, ahem--- me? i, myself, am a shipaholic, and i'll be the first to admit that! a lot of my characters tend to have like.. main character energy? so! they're very ship-able! & even if they're not a main character, i also love all the random like side stuff or rare ships! i am always up for making an interaction happen!

my only ask is that we've written a few times and that the mun and i have spoken! but trust me, once we ship? it's over for you, and your muse. muahahaha!! .. in a good way!!! :) it will consume me and just: happy sighs.

ARE YOU MULTISHIP? oh! yes! very much so! the only two characters i am sort of sensitive when it comes to multi-shipping in certain ships are ochako and lucy! and that's simply because, as stated, they're the two that have been around the longest and in some ships, they are very well along and established! but that's not to say, depending on what happens, that it won't work out! it just means, i am slightly more selective with both of their muses & may only have a few of each individual ship.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SHIP IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM? if i answered that for every character on this blog we'd be here even longer!! i will just say, at points, kacchako, izuocha, monochako, eraserjoke, matchablossom, graylu, grayza, nalu, jerza, grayza, chilumi, drakemma, & zutara have consumed my soul. honestly? a lot of ships do! i am also really hung up on the tr brainrot and holy hell, i am just :eyes: at so many ships!

FINALLY, HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU? talk me me. slap me with the ship, art, send an ask, or a meme! i am really open to just so many things and i would love, love, love to start writing & shipping! with so many more of you! <3

#this got long oh my god #i blame me and multimuse ass #dash games tag tba #THANK YOU FOR TAGGIN ME MY LOVE #⋆ ― ✧ out of chocolate. / ooc.#now onto s.inday things and g.enshin

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worldhell-a · 10 months ago

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♛ WORLDHELL ━━━━ laws.

INTERACTION.

mutuals only. I don't follow minor muns because I am in my mid twenties. if I follow you it means I want to write, so come kick my ass if I have yet to send anything to you. I am open to starter calls (from however long back), inbox memes (from however long back + at random), and plotting (just hit me up for my discord or over IMs whichever you prefer!). I write with crossover characters (though I may be selective) and original muses (lets make them canon now bby). basic etiquette applies. mun doesn't equal muse. I will always have my own portrayal for my characters and no I don't take influence from other writers - it's just very common for multiple people to take points from the character and series to adapt into portrayal and writing.

ACTIVITY.

I work a full time job and have a lot of adult responsibilities to attend to, so my activity can be sporadic. I try check dash as often as I can. my timezone is also GMT+8 so I am usually more active when people aren't online. I can take a hot second to get back to people ooc just because I am both nervous or my social battery is drained from rl.

MUSES.

I am prone to add a lot of muses. and I do often forget to write up their bios. as I go along building them I usually try and add information to their pages. I write my canon muses here and my original muse on a separate single blog (on that note: don't feel pressured to follow that blog because you follow me here. I am p happy just plodding along on that blog and vibing in my area if ocs aren't your thing) please do specify musein comments for starter calls or when you send things to my inbox. not specifying = I give you floch by default as punishment.

PLOTTING AND THREADS.

I try not to drop any threads and will respond to them all even if it's been awhile. never feel pressured to respond back if it has been too long, but I will try my best to always write back. I have no cap for threads, and I am so happy to leave anything if we lose the vibe for it! it will always be etched into my character's canon even if the thread isn't complete. I wing a lot of threads to see what my character does, but I am also open to plotting scenarios and bonds! I struggle to put my thoughts down so bear with me on that, or I just ramble and scream random things.

SHIPPING.

I am always very receptive to the idea of shipping. that doesn't specifically mean romantic either, because there's so many different kinds of bonds. romantic shipping I do enjoy if our characters mix - I also like the entire build, which means it's not always just soft and fluff, because we as humans we be build different. and often it's not about saying I love you, but showing it in characters own unique ways. I won't ship anything romantic with vets and 104th etc. don't force ship.even if our muses are interested in each other in canon I prefer to build towards that (this won't apply so much to characters who are married in canon). that being said please feel free to reach out! I am super friendly and happy to see if our muses end up vibing. shipping with ocs is the same. if our muses are vibing that way then absolutely open to discussing! I don't consider flirting forced shipping, or someone having a one-sided crush. as long as the mun themselves aren't trying to force something with that, then I actually have a lot of fun with that kind of dynamic!

DARK THEMES & NSFW.

the series is full of dark themes ranging from war, violence, gore, death, abuse, mental health, etc. and they won't be ignored. I do my best to tag the heavier content. things I won't touch are incest, noncon, etc. you know the drill. NSFW content is written given all my current muses are of age (if I add minor characters, this definitely does not apply to them) and found on my sideblog listed in my pinned post.

DRAMA.

Don't care just don't be a sus or shitty person pls

FOLLOWING / UNFOLLOWING.

if we haven't interacted over a decent period of time I usually do a little blog sweep to keep my dash for my rp partners - I am also not strict about this because I do know we have lives outside rp, and often make a little post before I do anything. I usually base my follows of who my mutuals interact with and if the mun seems chill. again if you are someone that vague posts or starts drama then I don't follow / I unfollow.

I swear I am so friendly even though I am so spacey at the best of times. I appreciate you all very much <3 if you need or want anything / or even just need to discuss something with me, once again come fly kick me. as long as we act like adults and use basic decency, let us vibe c:

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anquenin · 10 months ago

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IMPORTANT TO NOTE. i am not affiliated with the larger baldur's gate 3 rp community, i am open to connecting with others and exploring dynamics with canon and oc characters alike, however i will not hesitate to soft block and unfollow people as i see fit. please read my rules, i want to have a good time here.

I AM SELECTIVE AND PRIVATE that means that i will be selective of who i roleplay with, and will only thread with mutuals.

I AM A PLOT CENTERED BLOG i have too many blogs and there are specific things i want to explore with astarion, therefore there is a big focus on plotting, once we have digured out a dynamic or a timeline or have discussed our portrayals can we move on to wing some aspects of interactions.

PLEASE DO NOT ASSUME THINGS ABOUT MY PORTRAYAL i am taking into consideration many things said and shown in the game but at the end of the day this is MY portrayal and talking with me is the best way to get to know it.

I SHIP CHEMISTRY and CHEMISTRY ONLY. meaning that after a couple of interactions or even in after discussing in depth i see the possibility of a romantic tone to the relationship we can discuss that with more detail

IN LINE WITH THE RULE ABOVE. i am extremely selective when it comes to developing a romantic dynamic with astarion, as we've seen his personality is very seductive and flirty but that does not equate to him having genuine feelings towards others. this is heavily related to his trauma, hence why it is important to me that we plot before we write.

THIS BLOG WILL FEATURE A HEAVY TRIGGERING CONTENT since this blog is baldur's gate 3 based, any trigger warnings on that material may occasionally apply ( triggers will be tagged as tw blood and cw blood ). not to mention that astarion has trauma, he's been enslaved, he's got sexual trauma that results in various trauma responses that although not always present it is something that he constantly struggles with. i do not take kindly to dismissing this aspect or him and i do not take kindly to infantilizing because of his trauma.

MUN IS 18+ and in line with the above rules, astarion at a point in his character arc has a very low libido and is restructuring his relationship with sex and his body, therefore UNLESS PLOTTED there won't be any sexual encounters with people he does not consider close or even people he doesn't consider his partner.

PLEASE DO NOT FOLLOW ME IF YOU ARE A MINOR.

ALSO DO NOT FOLLOW ME IF you have no intention of engaging with my portrayal and ideas, i am not here to suplement you interacting with astarion via the game.

REGARDING ASCENDED ASTARION. i will write him i will explore dynamics with him, but i will not be doing so with the only purpose of it being that it satisfies someone's weird hot sexy ideal of him. that is the BAD ENDING for astarion, he doesn't make anyone into a vampire bride or groom, he turns his partner into a spawn with the sole purpose of having power over them. that's the dynamic. there may be some nuance but again. things will need to be plotted and discussed.

IF YOUR CHARACTER HAS COMMITTED R*PE do not follow me this is a big trigger of mine, i will hardblock you.

I WON’T TOLERATE untagged drama and callout posts, please tag them i don’t care about you reblogging or making them i just hate seeing them on my dash so any posts you do, please make sure it’s tagged so my blacklist catches it.

REGARDING CHARACTERS THAT MAY BE CONSIDER PROBLEMATIC. safe to say i do not condone their actions, but i do not mind interacting with them. if that is a problem for you this is not the blog for you.

SPECIFICALLY REGARDING CAZADOR, i have very specific ideas and themes that i might potentially want to explore, but safe to say i will be extremely selective of who i would write the dynamic with. and regardless of verse, or AU...cazador is astarion's abuser. that's it. that's the core of the dynamic for me.

FOR ANY OPINION I MIGHT HAVE ON A CHARACTER DYNAMIC you can just ask, i will headcanon and talk more about dynamics as i continue the development in this blog.

I CREATED THE GRAPHICS i use here and the psd is by supersources.

#rules.#dnr.

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merymoonbeam · 2 years ago

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With all due respect, I’m not the one who needs to get a life. There is a large amount of gwynriel fan art - especially of that scene where Azriel rescues Gwyn. However, there has only been one creator who has depicted Azriel as shirtless. And, of all the countless (!) gwynriel shippers, only a select few people have made comments calling the scene ‘passionate’ (keeping in mind that for many, English isn’t their first language…)

And, even if you do have an issue with how this particular scene is being portrayed by some people in the fandom - why can’t we simply have a conversation about it? Especially given that the people elriels are ganging up on (who are real life people - not fictional!), could very well be SA survivors themselves. But instead, and as always, the default mode for elriels is aggression and hostility. I actually used to ship elriel myself, but couldn’t stomach being part of a community that is full of so much hatred.

You are also incorrect in saying that the comparison I made is like “apples and pears.” Literally just google search ‘Feyre and Rhys Under the Mountain’ to see COUNTLESS art pieces of Feyre dancing over Rhys’s body, or any other scene from the first book (which was incredibly traumatic for Feyre, and something that Rhys himself acknowledges was awful) but is instead made to look like this super sexy scene between the two of them. I’ve seen art of Rhys twisting Feyre’s broken arm as he winks, or art of Rhys drugging Feyre, and kissing her as tears fall down her face in disgust. Yet, I don’t hear the same outcry. As far as I can tell, gwynriels aren’t producing art of Gwyn being assaulted… yet there’s a myriad of art pieces of Feyre being assaulted (which is then also romanticised! By other elriels too!)

As for your point about Gwyn (potentially) being a morally gray character - sure, no one’s denying that. Anything is possible in SJM books. But, the lightsinger theory, by extension, suggests that Gwyn is lying about her past. It’s also in poor taste to suggest that the character who has endured extreme sexual violence is ‘luring’ Azriel as a means to get between him and another girl. If elriels care so much about how Gwyn’s SA is portrayed (to the extent that they’ll go after gwynriels who don’t paint it in a way they deem appropriate), then why doesn’t that apply to your theories as well? Or even how you all talk about Gwyn online…?

Do you care (or even listen) when gwynriels and other people in the fandom have spoken out about how so much of the discourse elriels engage in is actively harmful to SA survivors (and spreads a really gross and incorrect rhetoric?) Or, is it just another chance to dog pile on, and demean people in the fandom who just so happen to have a different shipping preference to you…?

let's go bit by bit again shall we...

TW: SA

With all due respect, I’m not the one who needs to get a life.

you are the one who is sending me anon defending the romanticizing of Gwyn's SA...so yeah. get a life.

There is a large amount of gwynriel fan art - especially of that scene where Azriel rescues Gwyn. However, there has only been one creator who has depicted Azriel as shirtless. And, of all the countless (!) gwynriel shippers, only a select few people have made comments calling the scene ‘passionate’ (keeping in mind that for many, English isn’t their first language…)

so you accept that you guys use that scene to show "gwynriel"? the scene that didn't happen in the book but you are altering the scene to show gwynriel? Did I get that right?

there is so many of that scene where azriel is naked. I see them daily. Like come on... don't lie. He is shirtless in nearly 90% of them.

and english being their or any ones second language doesn't give them the right to be careless about their language. English is my second language and I use Google translate when I don't know a meaning of the word or to check if I'm correct about the meaning and use it correctly. So get out of here with that mindset. they can use Google translate like me or any other translator. that is not an excuse to use that word or doesn't give them any right to be so careless. and passionate is not a hard word to know like...it is a word I learned early on when I started learning english so...

Especially given that the people elriels are ganging up on (who are real life people - not fictional!), could very well be SA survivors themselves. But instead, and as always, the default mode for elriels is aggression and hostility. I actually used to ship elriel myself, but couldn’t stomach being part of a community that is full of so much hatred.

the fact that when elriels speak up about a fanart being triggering for SA survivors beeing seen as ganging up on a real person is...just weird.

And there is this stigma that when a person is from a country or from an ethnicity or have some type of trauma that doesn't mean whatever they do or say about that situation is right. When other people who is from that country or ethnicity or have that trauma as well say that thing is wrong or triggering it should be listened not get their comments deleted or get blocked. and this case that artist is deleting comments and blocking people who is spoken about that art being triggering or any other situation closer to this.

and I don't see elriels as hostile sure there is bad apples in every fandom but where is your standart against gwynriels who bullied artists out of the fandom or bullied people to closing their accounts or people who got ban from gwynriels reporting their fanarts? Why are we not talking about that? if there is 3 elriel bad apples there is 100 of gwynriels bullying elriels left and right. but bc of their numbers they are more heard bc they are louder. when we raise our voice about something, we are shown as "ganging up on the artist or whatever".

I googled. only saw one. other fanarts are with either the twins nuala and cerridwen or Feyre as alone. and those other fanarts with feyre sitting on rhys' lab is from acomaf lol. Get that right.

and if there is anything else I have never seen them.

I’ve seen art of Rhys twisting Feyre’s broken arm as he winks, or art of Rhys drugging Feyre, and kissing her as tears fall down her face in disgust. Yet, I don’t hear the same outcry.As far as I can tell, gwynriels aren’t producing art of Gwyn being assaulted… yet there’s a myriad of art pieces of Feyre being assaulted (which is then also romanticised! By other elriels too!)

I didn't see it. and if you did why are you not talking about it in your blog? coming to me using this to defend romanticizing gwyn's sa...LIKE ???????

I only saw one fanart of Rhys' holding Feyre's arm and it was done way before I joined the fandom. What do you want me to do about that? Go talk about a fanart that was done years ago when I didn't have any clue who sjm was?

and the issue is not about gwyn's assult being show...it is Gwyn's trauma is being used as a way to get a point for gwynriel. Literally this is what I'm trying to explain but you don't get it and trying to justify it to me by using Feysand fanarts that I can't seem to find.

lying about her past? lmfao. Lightsinger theory doesn't say or show that. I don't get it. WHAT? I'm confused. It is a theory to explain why she is glowing when she sings or shadows singing in answer to her breath like nesta's power did. that's all about it. where did you get that for real?

maybe it isn't to get between the girl and the guy but there is an another reason. literally you guys made yourselves believe that gwyn is a love interest for azriel and when we theorise she could be a lightsinger you are saying we are making gwyn be in between azriel and elain. lol no. That's not it at all. it is just that we are theorising why this girl glows when she signs and all those singing reference in the bonus. I can literally give two shits about gwyn coming in between azriel and elain.

do you mean when we said Gwyn might not be ready bc she hasn't shown anything about being ready and at the end of the book went back to library which is the place she went in the first place bc of her trauma and Gwynriels started assuming about her being ready and drew her in extreme sexual positions(I'm talking bdsm and all) and other SA survivors also talked about how we shouldn't assume she is ready and then we were made villains bc gwynriels twisted our words to "elriels say gwyn can't have sex bc she is SA" if you are talking about that...READ THIS AGAIN. I explained. you are not the one who is dog pile on for shipping another "couple"...we are.

Okay. Bye now.

#anon ask #I'm done.#wtf is this.#I'm not answeing anything after this...bc what is this??????#TW SA

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