#but i haven't read any of the others i don't think
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
SSR Leona Kingscholar - Nightmare Suit Vignette
"What makes a qualified king"
[Halloween Town – Town Hall]
Leona: You want to hear more about the Halloween we celebrate back home? We've already come up with enough ideas for you.
Jack Skellington: Well, you guys have so many fresh ideas. I want you to teach me everything you know, without skipping a thing.
Epel: Without skipping a thing… Hmm, was there anything else?
Epel: Oh yeah, don't the people in this town wear any costumes for Halloween?
Jack Skellington: Costumes?
Epel: Yes! We dress up like mummies, werewolves, vampires and other sorts of monsters to scare people.
Riddle: When it comes to scaring… I don't think any of that would be any different for the residents here.
Epel: Oh, right… Hmmm, I'm sorry, I can't think of anything better.
Jack Skellington: No, you're fine. Basically, you're saying that you dress differently than you normally do, right? That also sounds interesting.
Jack Skellington: Might not be too bad to have big ears, a tail, sharp fangs and claws to become a werewolf.
Epel: Jack-san… a werewolf?
Leona: Kekek, I can see that making things even more confusing.
Leona: Regardless, it's much too early to be talking about next Halloween.
Jack Skellington: Too early? Not at all.
Jack Skellington: Once this year's Halloween is over, we only have 364 days until next Halloween.
Riddle: Indeed. I agree in that it may not be too early. Even this time, we are all working on a tight schedule…
Riddle: If you were to create a rough plan now, there'll be more time for preparations next year.
Leona: I get what you're saying. But there's no saying whether our Halloween will even be successful.
Leona: We haven't even finished the prep for this coming Halloween.
Leona: I think it'd be best for us to give our brains and bodies a rest to make sure we can even prepare everything properly.
Jack Skellington: Yeah, it's important to take breaks. But once this Halloween is over, you guys are going back to your own world, right?
Jack Skellington: And during the day, we're all so busy with preparations. I want to hear all your stories while I can.
Leona: Your eagerness to learn is astounding. If that's the case, then there's someone else who can help you better.
Leona: Hey, Idia.
Idia: Eeek!? D-Don't just pan the camera over to me… Why me, anyway…?
Leona: "Why"? Well, obviously because you're the Housewarden of the dorm Ignihyde, which adheres to the diligent spirit of the Lord of the Underworld.
Jack Skellington: The Lord of the Underworld? That sounds fascinating. Idia-kun, tell me more.
Idia: T-T-T-Tell you more? More what? I mean, s-sure, I know all his lore, but I don't want to give a presentation, or anything…!
Epel: Right, since Jack-san is the King of Halloween… That means he'd be considered the Lord of this town, right?
Leona: You can't judge someone just by their title. A king is only as good as what actions they take.
Leona: Although I'm pretty interested in what exactly the King of Halloween is expected to do, too.
Jack Skellington: What I do? Well, of course, that's to make Halloween as frightening as possible.
Idia: I-I mean, since you're the King of Halloween, you just gotta hype up Halloween, right? I guess…
Riddle: In order to make Halloween as frightening as possible, what exactly do you do?
Jack Skellington: Let me think. I'd drive a cart…
Epel: You drive…?
Jack Skellington: Or take walks in the cemetery with Zero…
Idia: And walk your dog…?
Jack Skellington: And I'll also read, or do experiments.
Riddle: Reading is one thing, but what sort of experiments does one need to do on Halloween…?
Jack Skellington: And finally… It's also my job to look over the townsfolk's proposals that the mayor has gathered.
Leona: Ah, there we go, finally something that sounds appropriate.
Leona: But you're telling me that the king goes through everyone's proposals personally? I bet there's a more efficient way to do it.
Jack Skellington: No, not at all. I need to take everyone's ideas and bring them together to make the best Halloween ever.
Jack Skellington: Wait, yeah, that's it. The king is someone who can bring everyone together.
Epel: I see. So, that's why you're the King of Halloween.
Idia: Ugh… There's no way I'd ever be able to bring everyone together like that…
Riddle: I cannot allow you to wallow like that. It is a Housewarden's job to keep the students together.
Leona: Hey, now, Riddle, don't bully the guy. That's way too much to ask of that gloomy kid.
Leona: But, huh, never expected bringing everyone together to be considered what makes a qualified king here. Guess it's much easier to decide a king here in this town than in other places.
[Halloween Town – Center]
Mayor: Now, now, everyone work quickly! We must hurry to finish making all the decorations!
Jack Skellington: Mayor! I've brought all the finished decorations.
Mayor: Oho, these have been made splendidly! I'll get these up on the gate now.
Leona: …I thought I'd take a break around here, but it looks like I should look somewhere else.
Leona: I'm exhausted from all the troubles I've had to deal with. I can just leave the rest of the preparations to the townsfolk… Hm?
Grim: OUTTA THE WAY, GET OUT OF MY WAAAY!
1. Grim, stop! 2. Someone please catch him!
[Mayor's face changes to sad]
Jack Skellington: Mayor, look out!
Mayor: AAAAAAAA HE'S GONNA CRASH RIGHT INTO MEEEEE!!!!
Mayor: H-Huh…? I'm not hurt…
Grim: MYAAAAAH! DON'T PICK ME UP BY MY SCRUFFFF!
Leona: Shut up, stop fussing. Geez, it's just one thing after another with you.
Leona: What did this furball do this time?
1. He ruined a bunch of the decorations…
Leona: So, that's the reason why he's got so many things stuck in his fur after running away without looking where he was going, huh. Leona: There's spider webs, bat wings, and… is this a fish bone? How many decorations did you destroy?
2. He snuck a bunch of the candy…
Leona: There's a lot of crumbs all over Grim's face. …I understand what happened. Leona: You got caught stuffing your face, and just ran away without looking where you were going, huh.
Grim: Humph! Blame the decorations for being in the way!!
Jack Skellington: …
Grim: How dare all these things stick to my beautiful fur… I'll throw off all these weird decorations!!
Grim: HEY, LEONA, LET GO OF ME ALREADY!! LET GO, LET GO, LET GOOOOO!
Jack Skellington: GRAAAAAAAAAH!!
Grim: Eeep!?
Grim: I-I was just joking! And now that my tummy's happy, I'll totally help with the prep now!
Jack Skellington: Then make sure you put the decorations back where they came from. And apologize to everyone you caused problems for.
Grim: Fine…
Jack Skellington: Good. Halloween is right around the corner, you know.
Grim: His bones streeeetched, and he had such sharp teeth just now… That version of Jack was super scary.
Leona: Hey, [Yuu]. Go see Trey and Jamil right now, and tell them everything that happened.
Leona: Since it's those guys, I'm sure they already planned for any sort of possible trouble, but…
Leona: If Grim really did eat so much he's full, then there's no way we'll have enough to eat.
Leona: After you talk to them, do whatever Trey and Jamil tell you to. Got it?
1. I understand. 2. Yessir, right away!
Grim: Gweh!? Hey, [Yuu], don't you grab me by my scruff too!
[Grim and Yuu leave]
Leona: What's left is… Those decorations, huh.
Mayor: That's right. We need to finish decorating the gate as quickly as we can. I'll call the closest people and...
Leona: Hey, now, you planning on having everyone stand in a line and take turns going up and down the ladder to set everything up, or something?
Leona: Just have someone call over the witches.
Leona: These are all light. If they carry them up on their brooms and put up the decorations, it'll be over in less than 30 minutes.
Mayor: Eeeh!? But I'm having the witches do a different task.
Leona: Then have someone else do whatever it is they're doing. Halloween is right around the corner, right?
Leona: Do you all even have time to be lax about all this?
Leona: Pretty sure now's the time you want to start thinking about who should do what to get everything done in the shortest amount of time possible.
Jack Skellington: Yeah, I think you're right, Leona-kun. If we're looking for someone to trade jobs with the witches… I think that guy over there should work.
Jack Skellington: We'll tell the witches to come to the town center and have them do this task.
Mayor: We're going with what Leona-kun says, hm… Then, can I ask you to help on a few other things?
Mayor: You see, we're actually facing delays on this task and that one…
Leona: Haah… I just wanted to rest for a bit.
Leona: But it'd be bad if I just let it be and Halloween is a big failure, since I won't be able to go back home.
Leona: Fine. I'll just do a little bit more work, then.
[Mayor's face changes to glad]
[Halloween Town – Center]
[rabble, rabble]
Halloween Town Resident A: Jack, we've finished with our tasks.
Halloween Town Resident B: We're done, too. Oh, and it sounds like there'll be enough candy made in time, too.
Jack Skellington: That's great! Thanks, everyone.
Leona: …Looks like we somehow made it. Now all we can do is hope Halloween goes off without a hitch.
???: For my part, I apologize for all the troubles I caused.
Leona: Yeah, seriously. You can't possibly imagine the amount of extra work I had to do all because of your tantrum.
Skully: However, ever since you took charge, Leona-san, it seems as though all preparations were completed smoothly.
Skully: Vil-san looked over all the completed delicate needlework, and Idia-san provided so much help with difficult calculations…
Skully: I heard you took everyone's strengths and thoughtfully allocated tasks accordingly.
Leona: I didn't do nothing "thoughtfully." I just gave them stuff I didn't want to do.
Skully: Oh, you are most humble. Yes, even Trey-san and Jamil-san were especially thankful for your consideration.
Skully: Because you see, they were lacking in sweets in a greater number than Jamil-san had initially thought.
Skully: He said, if you had not sent [Yuu]-san to inform them…
Skully: We would have been forced to have a desolate Halloween without candy.
Leona: Heh, well, sorry for makin' him work harder, then.
Skully: …You keep a good eye on everything around you. Not only did you look after your schoolmates, but also the townsfolk.
Skully: You were able to get everyone to work together, despite only having met them only a few days ago… Your skill is a sight to behold.
Jack Skellington: That's right!
Skully: Jack-sama!
Jack Skellington: As everyone finished their tasks, they'd all report to me afterwards, you see.
Jack Skellington: When I told them everything was all thanks to Leona-kun's improvement efforts, everyone was so pleased.
Dr. Finkelstein: That's right. Leona's got quite the head on his shoulders. He's a rather capable young man.
Mayor: Absolutely. Whenever we consulted him, he'd always have an idea ready, and once we implemented it, it always went well.
Sally: It was amazing how he didn't even need to leave the town center, and could figure out the situation and give the right instructions right away…
Skully: He never lifted a finger, and yet he was able to expertly give commands… Heheh, sounds like Leona-san is a king to me.
Skully: Perhaps it could be said, then… That this Halloween came to be thanks to two great kings.
Jack Skellington: Yes, it's just as Skully-kun says. Because a king is someone who can bring everyone together.
Mayor: I agree, you guys are so skilled in keeping everyone on task!
Sally: Both of you have amazing leadership skills.
Dr. Finkelstein: Indeed, we've received great inspiration from all of your original ideas.
Skully: Isn't it amazing, Leona-san? Not only are you receiving high praise from the illustrious Jack-sama, but also from all those who admire him…
Leona: Well, whatever, thanks for all the accolades.
Leona: Just hearing all of you say all that is making me feel idiotic for even putting so much thought into everything.
Leona: If someone is recognized as a king by all those who need and admire them…
Leona: I guess that person really becomes their "king," then.
[Savanaclaw Dorm – Lounge]
Savanaclaw Student A: And that's how we do Halloween at Night Raven College. That was epic!
Savanaclaw Student B: I had just as much fun prepping as I did enjoying the events. Man, I can't believe Halloween's over already.
Jack: What are those guys doing…? They should be getting ready for Spelldrive practice.
Ruggie: Guess they're just sufferin' from what we call the Halloween Blues. Y'see it every year. There's always freshmen who're burned out after.
Ruggie: I mean, I totally get the same "we did it!" feeling, sure. But if they keep lounging around like that…
Leona: Hey, you. How long do all of you plan to laze around?
Savanaclaw Student A/B: AH, HOUSEWARDEN LEONA!
Leona: It's almost time for Spelldrive practice to start… You guys must be feeling pretty good to not even be changed yet, huh.
Leona: If you've learned the applied magic needed to change your clothes right here, right now, why don't all you freshmen show me what you can do?
Savanaclaw Student A/B: S-Sorry! We'll go change right now and head towards the Spelldrive field!
Leona: Geez, they're just one pain after another…
Jack: They were all just laying around… But as soon as they saw Leona-senpai, they straightened right out.
Ruggie: Didja see how stiff they were when they shot up straight? …Well, I guess when a lion glares atcha, anyone'd fall in line.
Ruggie: See, that's why when Leona-san's around, everyone's at attention… It's like the whole dorm is in peak condition.
Ruggie: That's Leona-san, for ya. Our king is the best of the best!
Leona: What, I'm a king just 'cause I scolded some of our cubs? That's a pretty cheap price for a throne.
Leona: If you're gonna try to butter me up, try making a little more sense.
Jack: It's not just idle flattery. Just like Ruggie-senpai says, you're our…
Leona: Yeah, yeah, whatever, thanks.
Leona: …Leave the stupid chatter out of it. Time to head to the Spelldrive field.
Requested by @farfalla049 and @raven-at-the-writing-desk
#twisted wonderland#twst#leona kingscholar#epel felmier#riddle rosehearts#idia shroud#grim#jack howl#ruggie bucchi#jack skellington#halloween town mayor#sally#dr. finkelstein#skully j graves#twst leona#twst epe#twst riddle#twst idia#twst grim#twst jack#twst ruggie#twst skully#twst yuu#twst translation#twst halloween#twst nightmare before christmas#twst nightmare suit#mention: trey#mention: jamil#mention: vil
204 notes
·
View notes
Text
tirade on pirating software. 1.7k words.
i recently read a post by someone who is anti-piracy (better: against making copies of software). they said that if you can't afford something you should wait for a sale or find a free alternative. and then they said that the only time that they find piracy (better: finding a copy online) acceptable is for games that are so old that you cannot buy them from a licensed vendor, but only from resellers, because in that case the developer doesn't get the money anyway.
i feel like i could make a sort of loophole argument in this framework, which is that i can watch ebay until the game is listed by a reseller, and then pirate it, because i'm no longer making a choice between paying the developer or not paying, but paying a reseller and not paying, and i've decided not paying a reseller is morally permissable.
but i think it can go a little further. they specified developer. i should pay the developer. even though i don't buy directly from the developer, but a licensed vendor. but the vendor's surcharge is not worth bringing up.
this is because we don't believe in following the law, exactly, and thus you should follow all copyright laws for that reason. it's because of, usually, one of two reasons: developers deserve to be compensated, or that we have a moral obligation to support the developer.
on the first view, the "just deserts argument", it's not clear to me that the moral obligation to not pirate is watertight in this case (when i said "pirate" before, i made a silly gesture, meant to indicate that i'll say that for brevity, but am not acquiescing). a developer deserves to be compensated for their work; but what do they deserve exactly?
does every developer deserve to become as rich from their game as Notch, and every time they don't there's been an injustice? you probably don't think that.
do they deserve some particular amount that we would say is 'fair'?—it isn't unjust if they do better (although you might think so, and complain about how much of the spotlight they take up compared to others just as deserving), but we only require that much success of them. this might be dependent on the kind of game that it is, for example, a better game deserves more success. if that's the case, then we've exonerated at least some pirates; so long as the developer is as successful on the market as they deserve to be, we've done nothing wrong.
you might say that it's wrong to pirate games that haven't yet reached the threshold of just success, because you place them in jeoprady of never achieving the success they deserve. further, you might say that this threshold is epistemologically unknowable to human beings (see: click), and therefore in practice you can never justify piracy, because you never know if a game has reached the threshold of justice. pirates, therefore, gamble with justice, and only Minos will pay their winnings.
i think this would be a good argument, except that i don't understand why i, as someone who wants to download a copy of the game, am the one who bears the moral responsibility. if the success of this developer is a matter of justice, then surely we all bear that responsibility, even people who don't play videogames. therefore we should all purchase and promote every game, and so forth.
this isn't what any anti-piracy advocate believes, even if they seem to take a deserts line. instead they restrict our obligations to participating in ordinary market mechanisms. the game is being sold as a commodity; therefore people should buy that commodity from a point of sale apporved by the producer, and so forth. it's taken for granted that the anarchy of the market is the right way to guarantee justice, and other possibilities are never explored. ultimately, the deserts argument naturalizes capitalist relations. once you remove these blinders, the mechanism for delivering justice it actually proposes seems obviously unreliable and unsatisfactory (in fact, i believe this criticism applies to all deserts arguments).
here i will quickly add my complaint against the second argument, that we should support the developer. the argument runs: if you like a developer, you should support their work by purchasing their products. i am a lot more sympathetic to this argument and so i won't spend much of the post attacking it. it's enough to say that it suffers from the same problem we just mentioned: why is participating in ordinary market mechanisms the best way to support the developer? capitalism is likewise naturalized by this case when it is advanced as a moral argument against piracy. therefore we can run the same argument: if we have a moral obligation to support game developers, then it's not clear to me why only potential players have that obligation, and so forth (but this time the criticism doesn't apply to all similar arguments, just this one).
however, it often isn't advanced that way, and as a pragmatic argument i tend to agree with it. in fact sometimes they actually have a case for participating in normal market mechanisms: DMC fans want you to buy DMC games because then Capcom will look at their sales figures and decide it's worth making another game. you could argue that they still have capitalist blinkers on because they only advocate you buy one copy, the one you'll play, which is how the game is sold. maybe they should be asking you to buy a hundred copies or whatever. but we don't want them to do that, LOL. and the feeling is usually that there are limits of what you can ask out of someone; when one DMC youtuber was spending quadruple digits on a DMC-themed gacha, his viewers expressed concern and encouraged him to stop. so cheers to DMC players.
in fact, there might be ethical reasons to only ask someone to purchase a copy of something in the normal way: when i try to get you to buy one of Xraftstar / Charity / Porpentine's games, i am doing it because i personally want my friend to succeed, and i want to see their art recognized. this is a kind of moral motivation, but it's the morality of rendering personal obligations; you are not likewise obligated. however, i of course feel there are limits on what i can ask of you, and so, unlike when i make donation posts for my friends who are struggling, i'm only comfortable encouraging you to purchase a copy of something i think will actually render a use-value to you (even if you could still obtain it in other ways and get the same use-value).
but anyway, why specify the developer in the first place? the work put in by the publisher, the developers and maintainers of the platform its sold on, the bandwidth of the payment processor, and so forth, all get left out of the question, even though they are all more or less necessary parts of the normal market mechanisms we're encouraging you to participate in.
i think it's obvious that the anti-piracy advocate of this kind doesn't actually want to advocate for participation in the market economy, like Bush during the recession. they want to be just by the developer because they see the developer as a fellow individual like themselves; they actually want to cut through the market alienation and simply do right by another person. therefore all of the other capitalists who make money off the sale—publisher, platform, payment processor—are just more big companies, perhaps even leeches we'd be better off without.
it's funny, because historically this view was used to support piracy when it came to music. you used to see a lot of charts like this:
how much of a CD goes to the label, manufacturers and distributors, to show how little really goes to an artist, to shut down people who said you should buy the CD to support them. there's a sort of naive anarchism underlying this: i want to help the individual who made the music i love, who needs manufacturers and distributors anyway?
in this kind of simple moral reasoning, resellers really get shafted. they're seen as scalpers, taking money without producing any value. no one says: 'make sure to support resellers!' thus we never ask who the individual behind all of the market alienation the resller is. whoever they are they don't deserve the money. then, when you are poor and struggling, and cannot afford to buy things for yourself, what do people tell you to do? sell your games, CDs...
but i don't want to be too sarcastic here, because there is nothing funny about this impulse to reach through market alienation and connect morally with another individual. it is the essence of emancipation. but hear my argument: purchasing commodities from them is an unsatisfactory way to realize it. it's true that you can certainly help someone by buying what they sell; many of us rely on this to a greater or lesser extent, and, pragmatically, i hope we'll all buy Nadia Nova's next game and put food in her belly. but systematically, not in this or that case, but as a general moral principle, the commodity form, the exchange of cash for things or copies of things—this is the very thing that reproduces these conditions of alienation in the first place. and these relations—their predictability as a feature of the market, or even their scarcity as a part of a volatile and impermanent system—is what habitually places the developer in a condition of alienation from their labour, coaxing them to give up their so-called intellectual "property", then forbidding them from using the games they made; or by seducing them into placing their music on a platform, then offering them increasingly small margins and less control; or to post their content (qua sex workers) on a paywall platform, which then imposes complex payout structures to keep them from claiming their earnings. and so forth. the desire to reach through all of the noise and support the individual is inevitably captured, redirected, and fed upon in as many ways as it can be, until the whole thing crashes down and the cycle starts again.
therefore, should you purchase or pirate the next game you want to play? Remember Ptahhotep: "The noble who sitteth before food divideth it as his soul moveth him; he giveth unto him that he would favour."
96 notes
·
View notes
Text
TL;DR Joe Locke is a really good actor
I accidentally came across a couple people saying Joe Locke isn't a good actor and like... what tf were you all watching?? Cos it wasn't what I was watching, he's so fucking good!! (I can only talk about Heartstopper here cos I haven't seen much of him in other things, but given these posts were related to Heartstopper...) I think this is firstly straight up (ha!) homophobia, with a side helping of shitty masculine beauty standards. I think it also comes down to the story Joe Locke is acting being something people are super uncomfortable seeing, and his success at telling it makes them uncomfortable in a way they don't want to deal with.
Homophobia first. These are almost always people who like Nick/Kit Connor, and that's not a coincidence. Nick/Kit fits very neatly into normative masculinity (although you know I have things to say about that around Nick's character), so people who haven't done the work to recognise their homophobia don't feel so weird about him. (He IS a great actor, but not "better" than Joe, or any of the other actors in the show. He just has a different story to tell that some people find easier to digest.) But Charlie/Joe Locke reads as more "stereotypically" gay, and no matter what BS reasons people come up with for not liking him, it almost always comes down to "he makes me uncomfortable because GAY".
Masculine beauty standards are so related to homophobia, because what we construct as an attractive man is so linked to heteronormative masculinity - tall, muscular, strong etc (let's not forget white, although that's less relevant to this discussion). Charlie/Joe not only falls outside these standards, but he's shown in the story as still being desirable. I love that about this story, because people who fall outside the very narrow beauty standards in Hollywood are still desirable to a lot of people - including people like Nick who meet those beauty standards. We see this happen in public couples all the time, tons of people suggesting that the partner who is further from conventional beauty standards is somehow a bad person, or is "tricking" the more conventionally attractive one. (See all the years of people trying to suggest Hugh Jackman is secretly gay because they thought his wife wasn't pretty enough and therefore must be a beard, it's so fucking gross.)
Finally the whole "character makes me uncomfortable" thing. Charlie Spring's story is super important and it makes people feel things that, if they haven't done their own work, are going to be super uncomfortable. Again, this is tied to homophobia, because Charlie's story challenges masculine norms about what counts as strength, what men "should" be like, etc. He has an ED, he has anxiety, he requires and seeks help, he forms affectionate and strong relationships and needs them to be healthy, etc. These are things men "aren't supposed to do" (and Nick only gets away with it bEcAuSe He'S hOt, that's it, that's the whole reason). People read Charlie as manipulative or selfish or whatever because he's not acting the way they think men "should" act. It's not based in Charlie's character - he is none of those things. But they want to read it that way because to actually recognise what makes them uncomfortable about Charlie would require them to unpack their own homophobia and bullshit masculinity standards.
Anyway, the short version is: I think people need to stop confusing "character that makes me feel uncomfortable feelings" or "person who is unconventionally attractive" with "can't act" cos y'all are very confused.
#seriously tho joe locke is amazing#joe locke#charlie spring#heartstopper#heartstopper show#heartstopper netflix#kit connor#nick nelson
47 notes
·
View notes
Text
I'm just answering these because I want to, and skipping the ones that wouldn't be relevant or I don't feel like answering lmao
01. How many fics have you worked on since January? Hmm, five? I finished the Noct & Gladio one, I've been working on the rewrite of the aftermath one, I started the one inspired by @quartzguts fic Lost Signal (go fucking read this if you haven't), I did some more backstory for the college au, and I edited the secret one.
02. What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? I've been trying to do a sliiiightly closer POV than before. I think it came out nicely enough in the Noct & Gladio fic. Definitely a challenge for me though.
05. What ships captured your heart? Ignoct still has my heart forever and always, but I've definitely had a growing fondness for Gladnoct. More platonic than romantic but I don't mind the romantic.
07. Did you write for any new fandoms or ships this year? I mean I guess the Noct & Gladio fic is the first time I've written a fic centered on the two of them. I thought about writing a fic for Sword AF, and for Breath of the Wild, but I didn't. I'm unlikely to for either fandom, tbh. Too many for ffxv to focus on.
08. What fic meant the most to you to write? Aftermath fic, even though I'm not finished with it. I've been basically writing it since 2019 and it's the most in-depth fic I've ever written and I've put so much fucking work into it and it's over 600K I'm super proud of it even if it's slowly killing me and the fandom will be 100% dead by the time I'm done.
09. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on? college au, my self-indulgent beloved. I have no idea if I'll ever successfully write you, but I love you nonetheless.
10. What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing? lmao I only finished the Noct & Gladio one so I guess that by default.
11. What fic was the most difficult to write? the one inspired by Lost Signal. I have it all plotted out and I'm excited to write it but fuuuuck when I tried back in the summer it was not cooperating. and then writer's block just came knocking in general. I've got one finished chapter and I low-key hate it so I'm trying to ease back into things with working on my rewrite of aftermath fic before I attempt this fic again.
12. What fic was the easiest to write? I mean the Noct & Gladio one was pretty easy to write once I kicked my own ass and stopped procrastinating on the battle scene lol.
14. What were your go-to writing songs? I like to listen to a lot of EDM stuff. Especially Industrial but other stuff too. KMFDM, Assemblage 23, Lost Signal, Neuroticfish, Rotersand, Seabound, Lionhearts, Covenant, Wolfsheim, Acretongue, Michael FK... I also listened to Linkin Park and the Ori and the Blind Forest soundtrack.
15. What was the hardest fic to title? only two fics got titled this year... the secret one I ain't sharing lmao and the Noct & Gladio one, which was actually hard to title. Ameliorate. It fits but I kinda hate it ngl. I couldn't think of anything better. I still can't. It's whatever.
16. What's your favorite title of the year? the secret one. I'm so mean for it but as soon as I was done editing I knew I HAD to make that the title. I'm sorry my beloved blorbo. it was just too perfect lmao. one of my mutuals knows what I'm talking about XD it's all good.
21. What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story? my ass in 2019: I already wrote a lot of Noct dissociating in Under Grey Skies, I don't need to do it in aftermath fic. my ass in 2024: huh, Noct doesn't dissociate enough in this fic. soooo I guess now that's gonna be a thing. it has very much changed the story, several scenes have been changed/added for it and I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with it yet but that's why I'm writing without posting for now. wasn't expecting to do it but we'll see what happens.
22. What writing programs did you use? Did you write by hand? no to by hand, I only sometimes do that for notes/plotting. I use scrivener <3333 I bit the bullet at the start of this year and used the money I had left from selling my car/after buying a freezer to upgrade to scrivener 3 and though I miss some things from scrivener 1, I mostly like it. I've gotten a lot more into the organisational features and it's been a godsend for making the rewrite of aftermath manageable.
25. How did you recharge between fics? Killed myself 100%ing breath of the wild. including all 900 fucking korok seeds. and then started playing tears of the kingdom with the intention of 100%ing that too but fuck me upgrading the armour was such a fucking slog even with duping diamonds for rupees and I still don't even have all of the sets collected and the koroks are more annoying this time and hhhhhhh I went back to fic to recharge from that fucking game.
28. If this were an awards show, who would you thank? @ivorydice for letting me endlessly ramble about my fics and helping me with plotting some of them. @quartzguts for writing an amazing fic that has inspired me with one of my own that I will write and finish eventually hrgh. @smallest-turtle for also letting me ramble that one time and for stabbing me in the heart with painful headcanons that made me think more about my own. literally anyone who's read my fics regardless of whether they've left kudos or comments or bookmarked them. anyone who talks to me. anyone who likes my venting as support. all my mutuals for being my mutuals even if we've never had a single interaction.
29. What's left on your to-do list for 2024? to just keep pecking away at the rewrite of aftermath fic. by the end of today I should have 38 of 62 chapters rewritten... send help T^T
30. What would you like to write next year? I just wanna finish aftermath fic for the love of god. pls. also the fic inspired by Lost Signal, and I'd like to maaaaaaaybe (big maybe) write a companion fic to the Noct & Gladio fic, showing Ignis & Prompto's hunt, but I don't actually have any ideas for it rn. so we'll see.
A slightly revised version of last year's questions! Two ways to play: Reblog and have your followers send you numbers, or answer the whole list!
How many fics have you worked on since January?
What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year?
What piece of media inspired you the most? (This can be the fandom you wrote the most for, the one that spawned the most ideas, the one you thought about the most, etc.)
How many fandoms did you write for this year?
What ships captured your heart?
What characters captured your heart?
Did you write for any new fandoms or ships this year?
What fic meant the most to you to write?
What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?
What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing?
What fic was the most difficult to write?
What fic was the easiest to write?
What were your shortest and longest fics posted this year?
What were your go-to writing songs?
What was the hardest fic to title?
What's your favorite title of the year?
Share your favorite opening line
Share your favorite ending line
Share your favorite piece of dialogue
Share your funniest line
What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story?
What writing programs did you use? Did you write by hand?
If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?
Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?
How did you recharge between fics?
Did you create fanworks other than fic?
How many events did you take part in? (bangs, exchanges, ship weeks, zines, prompt memes, they all count!)
If this were an awards show, who would you thank?
What's left on your to-do list for 2024?
What would you like to write next year?
847 notes
·
View notes
Text
metal from heaven fans i have character design sketches for most of the cast I would love if anyone has Thoughts Ideas or Suggestions (gay sketches as a reward if you read to the bottom)
i did..... not quite every on page character, but pretty much everyone who's there more than once and at least vaguely described (or like. I'd do gwyar if it wouldn't be a spoiler)
all the character descriptions I have recorded are here by the way !!
some of the characters are described a lot but most are like.....their face/hair but nothing about their clothes, or the other way around, so for a lot of them I just winged it - part of the reason I wanted to do so many characters roughly was so get a sense of the overall styles and vibes? august said they were thinking about john galliano for fashion so I took a lot of inspo from that and also a heavy dose of western vibes.....fashion is not my strong point though. truly just stuck it all in a blender and slapped it on.
and also for most of these it's sort of first-or-second-pass designs - basically just getting an initial feel rather than really solidly Designed. so likely to change. I could definitely push a lot of them further!!!
fingerbluffs/choir etc!
sisphe is described with having sunlight trapped in her hair and then also a dark curtain of hair and it's PROBABLY dark but I did imagine her blonde initially because of that. going with blonde hair as a kid that got darker to compromise...
her disguise outfit isn't really described other than gloves but I kinda matched it to marney disguise (below)
harlow took me so long to figure out getting her face like I imagined and also like how I described....I'm not sure still. i love her sm
amon is accidentally giving victor arcane. the character archetype + colour palette I guess. I specifically made it blue/black with pink highlights because of the tullian gender colours though..
tbh I still haven't figured out how their bandit hoods work. I think they pull over from the back of the head but I can't figure out how to draw that in a way that works so they're bandanas for now
not pictured but what are we imagining the lurchers like. just fun punky sff motorbikes?
aristrocrats !!
i am pretty happy with my marney and goss (though goss could be shorter...)
wanna do more vikare outfits
yann i. chauncey supposed to be quite boring and nondescript but also. sure does like Like A Random Dude in this lineup huh
basically all of the bottom row are only lightly described so I just went with the initial vague mental image I had tbh!
could I put more effort into giving them more cultural distinctions / make the areas they're from more visually distinct? yes probably. it's hard to get a sense of some of that when some of the places are within ignavia and some are like.. separate continents - and there's no map to sort it out in my head. (you may notice i wrote where they're from in blue by the names though)
description: 'detailed traditional tullian/drustish/etc embroidery' me: here's some vague scribbles
could deffo get some more body diversity in here
anyway genuinely very interested if anyone is like 'I imagined x to be completely different in y way' or fancasts or anything else! i am so open to and interested in making changes if other people have thoughts (and like if you're not an artist so can't draw it yourself) (or even if you are an artist but don't have the time and want to make me draw it instead. i know the feeling)
----
thanks for reading here's sketches:
I promise I will post these properly on my art blog sometime. also if anyone has ideas for little sketches like these, of any particular interactions or whatever....
#metal from heaven#art inside! but rough and i want peoples thoughts if you have thoughts!#my art#august clarke
41 notes
·
View notes
Text
Like... WARNING THIS MIGHT TRIGGER SOMEONE.
The LADS boys when...they find your 'Diary'
--Xavier-- Part 2 of 4
I call my Diary, 'My Death Book' because I want people to be able to read it after I'm gone and be able to understand how I think, somewhat. I made these because I wondered what their reaction would be if they saw it with no context lol
All other details of this are on part 1 Sylus' so, go read it lol cause I also updated it to make it better.
Anyway- you done been warned it is ANGST.
Xavier-
•He felt he knew a lot about you, if not everything.
•Your favorite song, favorite food, favorite drink. He even knew your favorite color, even though it changed a lot.
•He wanted to know more, sure, but he didn't want to overstep any boundaries you set. Hell, it took him months just to be able to stand next to you without you taking multiple steps back.
•He asked once why you stepped back, you told him that you just don't like people that close.
•He was ecstatic when you started standing close enough to him to brush hands. His slow heart starting to beat a little faster at every small touch.
•He also noticed you laughed more, talked more. In the beginning you barely spoke two sentences before going quiet, you said it's because your voice hurt and you liked company more than conversation.
•Now you talk so much he noticed you had an adorable stutter and a slight accent. He loved to hear you speak.
•But then one day, while you both were having fun trying to get plushies in the claw machine, you were having so much fun neither of you noticed an older woman walk up and stand with her arms crossed and a disappointed glare.
•Not until you both heard an 'Ahem' from behind.
•The voice was familiar to you, making you flinch.
•"What are you doing? Haven't I told you not to waste your money on these games? And who's this? It better not be a boyfriend or we'll have to have another talk."
•Xavier stared at the lady for a bit before looking over at you, opening his mouth to ask you who this was, when he saw your face.
•Your face was now devoid of the spark he loved so much, your lips pulled into a thin line and eyes lifeless.
•He stood straight as his eyes widened a bit, especially when he heard your now small voice answer.
•"Yes Mom."
•Just before the lady could speak anymore, Xavier stood protectively in front of you, his hand reaching back and holding yours gently.
•He spoke in a stiff, confident voice, his lips in a tight smile as the lights around you flickered.
•"Okay Ma'am, I'm going to be taking her with me. If you follow us or say one more word to her, I will not promise your safety."
•He pulled you along as you both heard the lady spluttering out about manners. Your eyes widened as you stared at Xavier's back, not used to somebody speaking up for you.
•Xavier's blood was hot with anger towards that woman, your supposed Mother. How could she talk to her daughter like that? I mean, yeah, it's a waist of money playing the claw machine but you love it so he doesn't care. Spend his money.
•He took you straight to your apartment for some much needed downtime, he wants to cuddle and nap but he feels lucky to be holding your hand rn and he doesn't want to make you uncomfortable with him. He'll wait.
•You both sat on your couch, he didn't want to leave you alone at the time, he never does.
•You weren't talking much so he decided to put on a movie, of which you immediately fell asleep watching.
•He smiled a bit as he got up to grab a blanket and cover you with. As he was tucking the blanket around you he found a notebook hidden away between the pillows on the couch.
•Out of curiosity and wanting to move it so you can be comfortable, he opened it. Thinking maybe it was a diary of some sort.
•The first page made him breathe in sharply and his blood run cold.
•The page was Titled, 'My Death Book'.
•As he flipped through it, he found it had things ranging from what you want at your funeral to small tidbits from day to day life.
•Most pages made him want to scoop you into his arms and protect you, even from yourself. Other pages had left a bitter sweet taste in his mouth. As if to help whomever would read this through the grief of losing you.
•When he got to the last page you wrote in, he closed the book, put it back where he found it and sat on the ground next to your sleeping form.
•He lay his head next to yours as he watched you sleep, gently holding your hand, as a lump formed in his throat. He watched your lips part as you breathed deeply, seeing every small twitch you made. His eyes closed as he pulled your hand to his face, holding in there to feel your warmth.
•He wants to protect you from all the things written in that book, wants to make sure you never have to finish writing in it. He really wants to make sure you never run into any of those terrible people again...
•He doesn't ever think he'll be able to leave you alone, ever again. He doesn't want to have to read that book again...and not be able to hold you after.
#love and deepspace#love and deepspace sylus#xavier love and deepspace#zayne love and deepspace#rafayel love and deepspace#love and deepspace imagine#lads sylus#lads zayne#lads xavier#lads rafayel#lads#lads angst
35 notes
·
View notes
Text
Sins of the Past buried at the Old Creek
(Lilia ×Agatha×Rio)
V: The Rebellion
TW: Description of Torture, brief mentions of rape, dehumanizing. Lesbian divorce got Messier btw, but Agatha and Rio dealing with grief has to result in animosity, like every parent or well couple that loses a child, animosity is normal!! Doesn't mean it should carry on for a while though!
...
It took her w few moments before she realized how severe the blast was. She could only watch as her beloved Lily's body crumbled to the ground, falling unconscious.
"Lilia? LILIA!" She heard herself screaming, her feet carrying her to the crumbled up body, now greying on the floor.
"Lilia— Lily— Mellilla please— I'm sorry. I'm so sorry my sweetest nectar, please— Lilia?" She whimpered pathetically, cradling the limp body into her arms, pushing the strands of hair that had fallen out of Lilia's French bun with a feather like touch. Almost afraid to touch her any further.
"Lilia?" A pathetic whisper it was. Almost a silent prayer to the Mother Above, begging her to not let Death burry her clutches deep into their shared lover and keep her away from her for all eternity. Like she did with their son.
"Go" The familiar voice rang in the fogged woods.
"No" Agatha snarled back, staring at the familiar face of Death.
"You killed her Agatha, she belongs to me now" Rio said almost taunting the mourning woman.
"Haven't you taken enough?" She asked with a scoff, keeping Lilia's head close to her chest, as if it'll keep her soul close to her own, as if Rio wouldn't reap Lilia's without taking hers in the process.
"I'm not the one who killed her Agatha" Those words were like a cold hand that wrapped around her throat, holding her in a chokehold as the tremors seeped into body, her lungs, freezing and squeezing them until the air was knocked out of her. "You did" Those final words were enough to evoke the built up rage of grieving.
"All you do is take! All you do is take and take and take!" Agatha could only scream
"I told you a child of death can not live for long! YOU chose to have Nicky, and you knew the consequences —" Rio could only fight back, her words as pathetic as the tears in her eyes. After all, Death is no human, but in the arms of two certain woman, she becomes one.
"You—"
"I am DEATH! I don't kill, I guide you to your afterworld! I collect your soul and take you to whatever place you were destined to rot to! You thi— You think I willingly wanted to take Nicky's soul? WE had a deal. You kill and I keep Nicky alive, I can not keep wrecking havoc and killing innocents when there time wasn't meant to c—"
"So you admit to killing?" Agatha could only scoff.
"Don't go twisting my words!"
A moment of silence passed them by before a small gasp startled Agatha. Lilia. Lilia woke up.
She could only stare in disbelief at Rio, eyes wide in both grief and betrayal. Why did Lilia wake up and Nicky didn't?
"She has a long life ahead of her. That's what the Fates have written" Rio answered quietly, as if she had just read her mind. "But a new Witch Hunt and a Plague will come again. And Lilia will have to pay the consequences, you on the other hand, are meant to leave. Your paths can not cross again, and when they do, that's when her time, or yours, will meet their end"
"Rio?" Lilia asked, watching the hooded figure approached her.
"Lily" It was a quiet whisper, a skeletal hand reaching out to cup Lilia's dirty cheek, her thumb going over the wrinkles and the crevices. "Did that boy hurt you?" She asked ever so quietly.
"No, no he didn't mean to hurt me. He was trying to save Jen and I, by kicking us out of the road" Lilia defended the boy, trying to keep him away from Rio's wrath.
"He took a body that was supposed to be mine—"
"He's young! He was barely 13! He doesn't know how to exist or why he exists! He doesn't remember anyone or anything Rio. The poor boy just wants to live"
"Everyone wants to live, no one wants to die, Lilia" Death snarled, pulling away only to be pulled back into the seer's arms.
"Spare the boy. Take me instead"
"No"
"Rio—" Her sentence was cut short by Rio once again.
"No. I said what I said. Agatha lied to me, Agatha betrayed me! She's now saving that boy instead of— instead of giving him to me!" It wasn't Death that made that demand, it was Rio. The poor, broken down and humanized Death.
"Give him a chance. Give peace a chance" Lilia whispered, caressing the green witch's cheek before she kissed her forehead. "Like you gave me a chance"
Another moment of silence passed them by before Rio murmured against her lips "And look where it got you now"
"Walk" The man demanded, dragging a trembling Lilia towards the well known cage she grew accommodated to.
"Whe—What are you going to do this time, huh?" She asked with a scoff, almost sarcastically, or well with a failed attempt at sarcasm.
"Keep walking" The man hissed, shoving her forward as she stumbled on her feet.
She bit her tongue and kept walking, limping actually from the severe bondage they had on her not so long ago. And eventually, they reached the damned room, where the walls were cold and peeling from the water floods, the floor stained in blood and the chains rusty and cutting. She knew the room all to well, she's been there a few times.
"Ms Calderu, or shall I call you your grace?" The priest teased, mocked as he twirled the cane in-between his fingers.
"Lilia works just fine" She huffed, breathless as the other guy shoved her to the ground.
"Lilia. A beautiful name for a beautiful woman..shame you are tainted by Satan's mark. His claws forever imbedded into your heart, your soul" The man said, thumping his cane onto the ground a few times as he approached her.
"Yet it hasn't kept your men from—" She gasped, the air getting knocked out of her chest as his cane collided with her back
"SILENCE! You are not to speak back!" He snarled, grabbing a fistful of her hair. "Your kind has done nothing but sully our society! Our women! Our children! You have spread evil and started a rebellion against the words of our father! Of God!"
"I have done no such—" Another yelp, as the cane once again collided with her back.
"SILENCE! YOU WILL NOT REBEL AGAINST ME! YOU WILL NOT REBEL AGAINST THE MESSENGER OF GOD!"
"YOU ARE NO MESSENGER OF GOD! YOU ARE AN ABUSER OF THE WORDS OF GOD!" The seer shot back through gritted teeth.
She could only regret her words when the last blow of the cane aimed for her head. The world turned black before the blinding lights blinded her into consciousness, and a terrible pain shot through her head and from behind her eye sockets.
"I see you're finally awake" The priest said. You almost hear his smug grin.
She groaned weakly and forced herself up by her elbows and forearms, looking towards the voice only to see him standing infront a table layered with many torture tools. The atmosphere shifted, a cold shiver ran down her spine, her barely healed wounds on her back flared painfully at the sight of the familiar Cat-o'-nine-tails in the man's hand, cleaning it with a cloth. She knew what was to come.
"Care to confess your sins?" His voice a cold whisper against her exposed skin.
"No sin of mine is worse than yours, Father" She spat.
And of course, it is her words that trigger the first blow. The cold leather ruthless against her skin, causing it to break open once Despite it all she could only suck in a pained breath, her back hunched forward and her arms trembling. The next few hits were far more brutal than the first, she could feel the warm liquid spill down her back, her old wounds mixed with the new ones. Everything hurt. Everything ached. Yet it wasn't until she heard the sound of a zipper being pulled down, that true fear registered in her head.
"I'll make sure you meow and mewl like a cat when I'm done with you. Or you know what? How about you start meowing now, maybe I won't punish you if you do" The man said, his lips turning upwards in a sinister smile.
"Wh—What?"
"You heard me. Meow for me and I'll spare you"
Swallowing thickly, she slowly stared up at him, her eyes meeting his.
"..S—Father Edwards—?" She stammered, only to be startled into silence by the sound of the whip, breaking the air and slashing next to her face.
"Last try" He threatened, voice a dangerous whisper.
"M—Mhm—" She whimpered. "Meow"
"Mhm? What was that?"
"Me—MEOW—!" It came out as a scream more than a whimper as the last hit felt like her back completely broke in half.
"My, how the mighty have fallen" He whispered, tossing the whip aside and stalking slowly towards her. She knew what was to come.
"No—" She found herself gasping in-between heavy breaths. "Please"
"Begging has always suited you"
And as his hands reached for her head, pushing it to the ground to keep her restrained, the anger inside of her reached a boiling end, the yellow jolt that left her paralyzed the man and left the hounds barking.
"Open your eyes, Lily" Rio whispered, holding Lilia's face in her hands, thumb brushing away the tears. "He can not hurt you anymore"
The seer's eyes fluttered open, gasping for breath and trying to pull away from Rio.
"Shh, you're okay, you're safe" Death whispered ever so quietly, pressing feather like kisses onto Lilia's cheeks. "He can not hurt you anymore, you're okay. He's dead. He's dead"
She could only cling onto Rio for support, unable to remain on her own two feet. The green witch could only hold dearly onto her forgiving lover, the most tender and gentle soul she has ever met and ever known.
"You're okay, Mellilla" She whispered once more, tilting Lilia's head to level hers before she placed a soft and tender kiss onto her trembling lips.
❛°•☽☼☾•°❜
Tag list: @yourbasicqueerie , @thoroughly--confused , @walkethisway , @thegoddamnfeels , @jubshead , @freuleinanna , @greek-freak101 , @casteel08 , @kukikatt @itwasagatha @ofgoldandbraid @daddyriovidal
#lilia calderu#agatha harkness#rio vidal#agatha all along#jennifer kale#billy kaplan#billy maximoff#sins of the past buried at the old creek#agathario#lithario#< thanks jubshead for the name#agatha all along fanfiction#lilia calderu×agatha harkness×rio vidal
26 notes
·
View notes
Text
I have read the reactions towards this post, and I'm grateful for the attention it got. Thank you for wanting to know the truth, and thank you for your kind words.
Also, I decided to make a correction, because I think that I was too judgmental with feminism and taking things out of proportion.
To put things in perspective, this thing has been running for more than ten years, and tons and tons of men believed it without a second thought; reporters did a terrible job and fueled an incel meme; evopsych is clearly an inspiration for the manosphere, even when they have made big changes in their theories (please, check mutual mate choice theory in contrast with males compete, females choose theory) they haven't done a good popularization of it nor criticized the manosphere since the beggining -and they don't have excuse in that regard.
(Some) feminists went with the flow once the 2018 chart was viral, without knowing better, and in previous years, there were feminists efforts to combat/constrast manosphere talking points with the creation of -for example- r/exredpill and r/incelexit or Laura Bates book on the topic. I also consider feminists efforts to contrast/argue evopsych popular talking points too.
And, most important, it really harms your mind to deep dive on manosphere content, so it's a no-brainer if healthy minded feminists were not willing to dive into the manosphere to debunk an absurd theory that no one imagined it could go mainstream at some point.
Don't make my mistake, don't be harsh if you see other feminists repeating manosphere memes.
I'm still a contrarian and also have a marginalized POV that makes me not go in tune easily with any ideology/movement. But I know to recognize when I'm wrong.
Again, thank you for your notes and for help me to spread the truth.
Why "male loneliness epidemic" is a male supremacist psyop [corrected ver.]
I said in a former post that the "male loneliness epidemic" is not real and is a male supremacy psyop, and I want to explain more broadly why it is.
Manosphere
If you don't know about it yet, there is a thing called "Manosphere", a name that stands for a group of communities created by men and oriented towards men. Manosphere is composed of incels, redpill, blackpill, MGTOW and MRA ideologies.
Incels are "involuntary celibates", men who want to date but can't do it. The term was created by a woman called Alana (invcel) and mostly referred to people who felt isolated and incapable of forming romantic relationships or trapped in a dying relationship. But nowadays it is tied to a broad ideology that I will explain later.
Redpill stems from the Matrix scene where Neo has to choose between the redpill and the bluepill, being the redpill the one who will awaken him. The whole ideology started to take its form in pick-up artistry forums such as SoSuave, and states that in order to mate and get laid a lot you have to become a "high value male", while also understanding "female nature". The original big three exponents of this ideology were Rollo Tomassi, Chateau Heartiste and Roosh V, but nowadays only Rollo remains moderately relevant.
Blackpill is the most pessimistic and nihilistic version of the redpill, it is tied to incels but is not exclusive of them. It focuses on biological determinism, and states that the most important thing on mating is looks. That seems innocent at first sight, but this ideology also states that most men are not attractive to women, and they are having a soft harem relationship with “Chad”, a highly attractive man, in detriment to average men and creating incels in the process.
MGTOW started as an independent community, with a first manifesto written in 2001 in a male focused forum. In the manifesto they advocated in favor of a society with enforced gender roles and a smaller state. But nowadays they are connected to redpill and blackpill. It is mostly overlooked, but in Spanish communities there are also two other manifests, MGTOW 2.0 and MGTOW 3.0. I don't know if there is a fourth one nowadays, but they help to understand the transition MGTOW has made over the years and how manosphere ideologies have been adopted by this group.
MRA stands for Men's rights activism, also called Men's rights Movement (MRM). The father of the movement is Ernst Belfort, who wrote against women's rights and the "legal subjection" of men, in response to feminists and John Stuart Mill. Nowadays it is also tied with redpill, given that prominent figures of the movement promote or believe in redpill ideology, such as Paul Elam or Karen Straughan.
In 2014, Cassie Jaye who was allegedly a feminist by that time, did a documentary on MRA called "The Redpill". It's not clear why she called it that way, but it is suspected that it was with the purpose of dragging more people on the redpill. It is also said that she received money from r/Theredpill subreddit. The documentary was international, since it reached both English and Spanish audiences (I don't know much about other languages/countries). It exposes a lot of problems men face, such as dying in war, losing custodies and domestic violence, but never explains what MRAs do to help those men.
That term
Once you become familiar with all these communities, you start to see how they are all the same. They share the same stats, the same studies, the same terms, the same narratives. The only thing that changes is the label, if the members can or not to have sex with women, if the members want or not to have sex with women, and if the members "care" or not about society.
One of the core terms that is transversal to almost all communities is "Hypergamy". (The central one on MRA is Gynocentrism). And it is a tricky one.
Men in these communities are used to gaslight and belittle external people, but also they bully each other constantly. In Spanish, for example, MGTOW ones used to dedicate long livestreams and called each other cucks, betas, manginas, etc. One point of discussion and "artistry" in the manosphere is hypergamy. It has inspired long videos, live streams, books, blogspots and debate among its members. Entire communities have been divided over this concept, and others have been created.
In their videos and "private" spaces they call any woman hypergamous. I remember when MacKenzie Scott divorced Jeff Bezos, and she was called hypergamous by these people, arguing that she planned it all - “they marry the provider and once they secure their money, they go with someone they really like”- and ignoring that she divorced because Jeff cheated on her.
“Hypergamy” in short, is mating “up”, but the manosphere twists this term to make it fit anything women do. Women who date men who are more attractive than them are hypergamous, women who date men who are less attractive than them but have money are hypergamous, women who date men with less education than them are hypergamous. Women who rate men "below average" (another male bullshit story) are hypergamous.
Women's nature is hypergamous and male nature is not, even if men also leave their geriatric wives for 20 year old women, even if men also cheat with a more attractive mistress, even if men marry more educated women, even if men marry women with more money. They are not hypergamous, they are polygamous, but also don't mind settling with a woman given that "women choose" and men barely have any chance with women.
Anything a woman does is hypergamy. Except when you call them out and tell them it's all fake, or where is the inner consistency, given that they call marrying a poor man and a rich one “hypergamy”. Then, they come with studies on hypergamy. "How can you say that women are not hypergamous if this study says that they 'marry up'?". Suddenly the term only applies to marriage, behind are left all those theories over “Chad” being picked by all women.
Hypergamy, in academia, is a term used by social scientists that is related to marriage and the act of marrying up in social class, annual income or status. Since superior education in the west is a high sign of status (repeated two times in a list of status signals among men and women across 14 countries), studies on the subject account for income and degrees.
The research found that women are married to men who earn more than them, but don't have more education than them, so men are "marrying up" in status. Such a trend has not substantially changed among decades. Nevertheless, it is recognized that it doesn't translate on men being the breadwinners, given that most marriages are dual income, and that hypogamous marriages, where the man has less education than the woman, are becoming more common.
Nothing about women making heartless plans on marrying with the rich one, divorce him and then mate with “Chad”, nothing about women sleeping mostly with “Chad”, certainly nothing about hypergamy being exclusively female. But it's enough for them, even when the second they provide those studies they make it clear they are being dishonest. The seeds have been planted; women are choosing only the rich ones to marry, leaving poorer men single. The one who is debating them and the ones watching the exchange, only have to start to believe that female hypergamy is rising, being amplified by technology and being extended to other aspects of relationships.
The Lie...
...and how everyone decided to believe it
As we have seen, the manosphere term is not the one that social scientists use. It is whimsical and doesn't make sense...on the surface. The magic is in repeating that women are hypergamous, that they will choose all the time only a few men and let the rest sexless, single or childless, that sexual revolution and women's freedom of choice is a disaster and contrary to civilization. If the lie is repeated enough times, people will start to believe it.
And well, it worked. It worked so well that feminists, instead of checking the data, seeing the male strategy and debunking the nonsense, decided to repeat the same lie. “Women are choosing better, women are making men single and sexless! Pussy Power!”. There is literally a book on this.
White supremacists also adopted the term, and the manosphere also adopted white supremacists perspective; they quote the work of Roger Devlin, Sexual Utopia in Power from time to time.
Authorities regarded as “thinkers”, such as Jordan Peterson, and a long list of influencers also adopted the narrative and repeated it to the public.
Normal people also believe in it, in 2019 The WaPo decided to craft and release a graph that, until today, is made viral countless times in social media, indicating that “men are in crisis” given that “ a third of them are sexless”. They repeat that there is a “male loneliness epidemic” and it’s implicit that women are the problem; “they should lower their crazy standards, they should stop being delusional”.
Women are rating 80% of men below average! They are delusional! Their simps make them believe they are 10/10!
It's extremely easy to fall in the rabbit hole. They start hearing about a disbalance on the distribution of sex, or dating, or in dating apps matches. They start hearing about a singleness crisis among men, and they have already accepted that such disbalance, such crisis, is a modern thing, because no one seemed to talk about it in the past. (right?)
They hear about male loneliness and mental health issues, and they understand that the disbalance is a bad thing. So they are one step away from starting to believe that mating is a process that should be regulated and controlled by the state, religion or cultural norms. Like, one click away from watching Jordan Peterson saying exactly that.
The manosphere has been repeating this idea for more than 10 years. At least one decade feminists had to stop this shitshow and they didn't, which is surprising given that the whole thing is perfectly summarized in the white supremacist essay I linked above. But they didn’t, because at some level, this meme also can benefit liberal feminism. The ones who spread and believe in this idea don't care about the data, they want the narrative, and it can be used to promote diverse agendas. So, instead of debunking and calling out, they chose to use the narrative for the feminist cause and they are now losing. Women are losing. Women lost.
The truth
While the General Social Survey graph from 2018 is made viral again and again on social media, the same survey on more recent years is completely ignored.
The most repeated bunk of the last couple years.
Reality is that in both 2021 and 2022, the sexless in those years were below 20%, which is consistent with former years. Most men and women were having sex. In 2021, women even reported being slightly more sexless than men -but no one threw a tantrum over a “female loneliness epidemic”.
The survey also included a variable to measure people who were sexless for the last 5 years. Less than 10% of men and women reported being sexless that amount of time. It indicates that there is not “soft harem” around “Chad” or “Alpha males”, but people are having sex in a 1:1 ratio, and that most of the time, for every sexless man there is a sexless woman.
It is also repeated constantly that there are more single men than women, and it is suggested that it is because women are part of soft harems with High Value Males. This idea has been repeated so many times that even researchers have adopted it.
But the truth is that this disparity has been a thing for decades, even a century.
Before the sexual revolution, when everyone was married (right?), there was also a disparity between single men and single women. The key here is that the disparity exists between young people, and the most near explanation is age gap relationships; young men are more single because their female counterparts are dating slightly older men. But also, nowadays single people report less interest in having a relationship; men are not suffering for their “involuntary celibacy”, they are not into it.
I't curious how the "women and men are different" crowd swear that single women are looking for casual dates with "high value males" when it has been proven over and over than men have a higher sexual drive.
It’s also said that Dating apps have caused a disaster on the “dating market”, given that women nowadays have instant access to “high value males” and can ignore average men, while they are there longing for the minimum chance. Again, the idea that women are into a soft harem with “Chad”. This idea doesn’t hold reality, it’s true that by taking into account raw data, it seems that women have much more matches than men, but the major factor ignored is the gender ratio within dating apps; when adjusting that, matches become even, again fulfilling the expected 1:1 ratio between men and women.
It’s also stated that dating apps have increased “hook-up culture”, but that doesn’t seem to be true. Here's a deep dive on dating apps and dating.
Academic naiveté(?
Manosphere gives a final push for the hypergamy narrative by quoting the experts on the matter. And somehow, researchers don't have a problem with it.
It has been said -by prominent figures like David Buss- that there is or will be a mating crisis among educated women, because there will be a shortage of high income husbands. They say "women don't marry because there are not enough economically attractive men". And with "don't marry" they understand "remain single and childless".
That crisis doesn't exist. Marriages between college educated people are the longest ones, there are less widows and divorces even. Educated women are more likely to be married than the opposite.
The focus also is steady on marriage, and I suspect that’s because their narrative perishes if they actually start to value mating and reproduction instead. In the US, at least 40% of all births are out of wedlock, and that figure increases if we take into account other American and European countries. Maybe women are not marrying out of “lack of economically attractive men”, but they are still reproducing with them. More bluntly: women are having kids with men that can’t buy a ring, but they keep saying that women are “too picky”.
The real crisis, if there is any, is happening among classes, the poor are poorer and the rich are richer. They are sharing their assets with each other and forming strong families while the poor prioritize reproduction since they can’t afford marriage and everything that entails.
Ironically, equality and women's choice have achieved what these men are apparently longing for. The secretary marrying her boss or the nurse marrying the surgeon is becoming a thing of the past -or probably it was never a thing. The doctor is marrying another doctor, the boss is marrying a woman with a Phd. Rich men are not dating down, even when rich they marry rich women, not the cashier 20 years younger than them.
To counteract this they quote Leonardo Dicaprio and his creepy behavior, without noticing that the man is not marrying or having children with those women. While even richer men are married and with kids with women at their level.
The future
It's clear to me that the agenda is settled, and they will do anything that can reinforce it. If we push for the truth to be known, they probably won't be able to use sexlessness or the singleness gap as a thing, so they have created a new term: "dysphoric singlehood". And they will start measuring it soon.
The stats, the terms, the memes will change. But the core will remain the same. Women’s choice is dangerous, it leads to the creation of more incel men and to degeneracy. "Women will destroy civilization" at worst and "women's nature causes pain to men and it should be controlled or put in check" at best. And there are and there will be groups who will propose tight control from men over women as a solution.
Call to action
Nowadays, as I have said, this conspiracy is shared by a lot of different groups with different interests, but are more tightly enforced by male supremacists.
As feminists are interested in women's well being and freedom, they shouldn’t make male supremacists work easier by repeating their lies. Sadly, I have seen countless times feminists, here and in other places, spreading manosphere lies, mostly because it serves to a temporal sense of victory over men or because it can feed the “patriarchy hurts men too” libfem bit.
But feminism shouldn’t prioritize fantasy over reality, even if it’s rough; almost everything remains the same in the heterosexual world, women are still dating, having sex, marrying and having kids with men in large numbers. Incels are tiny outliers in the big scheme of things: nothing is rising.
Our sisters should know the truth, our nature is not contrary to civilization, our choices are not detrimental, we shouldn’t be controlled. Nature runs its course.
Conclusion
It is important to understand that evolution doesn't allow everyone to reproduce. It's nothing new that some men and women didn't pass their genes, this was a thing in the past and will always be.
Mating, having sex and therefore, reproducing is not a right. The whole point of evolution is that effective subjects make it, and the few remaining ones are left behind. This process is not being blown up by technology or women having more freedom.
The influence of women on reproduction is discussed, but given that even in cultures with arranged marriages the future wife has a word on it and mothers, who are also women, have also a said in who the husband should be, I highly doubt that there was a long period of time in human history where women had no choice at all. It doesn’t seem to be consistent with reality to believe that women are programmed to only like a few men.
About data on human relationships, I think it’s important to be skeptical from now on of every viral graph and any “too perfect and bright” theory. If it relies on a result given in only one year, it’s bunk. If it incites a moral panic, it’s bunk. If multiple sources don’t show a clear trend, it’s bunk.
Doesn’t matter if it comes from your respected professor, that influencer or popularizer that you like, that intellectual that always transforms big chunks of information into easy concepts to get. Don’t trust, they are probably wrong. If your grandma knows about it, you are late in your contact with reality by at least 20 years.
286 notes
·
View notes
Text
This is the last thing I'm going to post about this. Yes, reblogs are turned off. No, I am not tagging anyone's Tumblr or pointing you towards the people involved: I have them blocked. Do not go bother either one of them.
The Tumblr post I responded to earlier tonight went up before I read the actual response emails, because, well. They were sent while I was AFK, and then the Tumblr post containing Razz's response emails was tagged for me while I was, you know, not working. When I finally got to actually read the emails, I hit this line:
I bought the first heat pack during your sale and it said very explicitly in the emails that you guys would send a random one from your supply, no mention that customers needed to put something else in their cart.
Emphasis mine.
And at the point where someone's just fully making stuff up rather than admitting they fucked up, I'm done. So. In the name of my own sanity, I issued a full refund for this order, and:
Hi Razz,
Since you and your friend decided to take this conversation to Tumblr in the 3 or so hours I was AFK spending time with my partners, I hadn't actually gotten an opportunity to go back and read these emails. The first time I saw them was not in my inbox but idly scrolling Tumblr while petting my dog at 11 PM with your friend's, uh… commentary on them. Your assumption that I was condescending and calling you stupid rather than that I'm autistic and speak very precisely is very interesting, in context, and skipping over me saying 'I'm baffled' and 'I'm genuinely confused' to call that 'I think you're stupid' and all of the other really shitty commentary your friend put on those emails is… well, it's a choice. And at first I thought this must be someone out of pocket and white-knighting for you so I was not going to hold you to account for what they said, but then when I went to go block them, I saw your comments, and your posts, so. Yeah, that's fun and cute.
Anyway, the email absolutely did not "explicitly say" that we would be picking from our stock. What it said was, as follows:
"Emet just spent a week going through our entire stock of fabric, adding all of the new patterns & figuring out which designs must be discontinued since the fabrics can't be ordered anymore. She's got all of the closeout heat & cold packs prepped - ready to fill & ship - and you can get one of the discontinued prints FREE with the purchase of any regular-price heating pad, no code required! When they're gone, they're gone, so don't wait! Order by December 14th for domestic heat & cold pack delivery estimated by 12/24."
This section is followed by a selection of 9 New Heat & Cold Pack Patterns, labeled "New Heat & Cold Pack Patterns," followed by another section marked "Closeout Options!" which had 5 of the then 15-20 Closeout patterns, all labeled with CLOSEOUT at the front of the name.
After this was our legally-required footer with our mailing address and the unsubscribe link.
Nowhere in there does it explicitly say that we will be picking the item for you. In fact, it says "you can get one of the discontinued prints free," which would seem to imply you need to pick something.
I'm not sure why I should have assumed that sending you a screenshot would be something inaccessible to you when you… sent me a screenshot. Nobody said you were incompetent. Nobody said you were stupid. Nobody said blind people can't take screenshots. I mean, you took a screenshot of the email that you said explicitly said something it does not at all say, so clearly you personally can take a screenshot, and find that to be a useful tool in communicating. Why would I have thought that responding in kind would be something inaccessible to you? I haven't a clue, but what I do know is that my wife just walked downstairs after her full sleep cycle and said, "Is this still that person?" so … yeah.
I've refunded this order & closed your customer account. It's genuinely worth it to me at this point to lose the money so I never again have to deal with a person who chooses to try to tell me falsehoods about the content of an email that I just told you that I wrote. No further responses will be received by any of our staff.
Spider
I’m not going to waste more time reading paragraphs of you insulting me over not understanding your esoteric definition of closeout and deciding that a blind person can’t be blind if they can take a screenshot. I had a simple question, I practically resolved it myself, and between my first email and the next you leapt to conclusions and treated me like dirt for the crime of not having access to information you never provided in am accessible way. I choose to speak with a trusted friend over the situation the same way you would speak to your own partners. it was up to them what they did with your own words. Whatever fallout comes of this is on you. I’ve made sure the blind community is aware of your discrimination and as far as I’m concerned that’s the end of this. I hope your shipping costs I never even asked about were worth the income you've lost from me and my extended community since that tiny amount of money appears to be all you care about.
Razz T.
Razz,
Go away.
36 notes
·
View notes
Text
Some advice for writers
I would like to offer some advice to my fellow writers. Caution: this post is a bit on the longer side.
If you have any type of series on the internet, please have a master post for that series, or at least some form of organization. No, I am not going to go endlessly scrolling through your blog or website to find the first chapter/page.
Please have links to chapters if you are writing a digital novel/novella. It makes it easier for the reader to get through the story. This is assuming you're not using a website dedicated to literature.
Tag your work with what genre it is. I see a lot of stories and chapters on the internet that don't do that or only tag one genre. I would like to know what genre your story is as I have preferences for what I read.
When writing a synopsis or a pitch, please establish the stakes. Tell me what the conflict is and why I should read. What are the consequences if the protagonist fails? Also don't describe what your story is. I'll find that out as I read.
Plan your story out before you write it. You are not that 1 in a million who's going to be able to write a story as you go along. PLAN OUT YOUR STORY BEFORE YOU START IT. Here's my advice: Establish your plot and ending, write the plot, write your characters, then write an outline for the story. Make sure you're happy with it, iron out any last minute details, then write a rough draft.
Have multiple drafts and don't post the first thing that comes out of your head. Don't worry if you mess up during the rough drafts, you can fix it later. How many drafts you have is up to you, just don't get carried away with them as you'll never finish the story.
The protagonist must succeed. It doesn't matter what they succeed in, they must succeed in something. There's no two ways about it. The protagonist can be anyone, be it a hero or villain. protagonist versus antagonist is not good versus evil, it's a clash of egos and ideals. It doesn't matter who they come from.
Write an evil villain and a strong hero. Let your villain be evil and let your hero be heroic. This is storytelling 101, but so many stories these days try to make everyone morally gray and indistinguishable from each other. You can have sympathetic villains and questionable heroes, just make it clear where the lines between good and evil are drawn.
Stop trying to be relatable and POST SOMETHING. I don't care about how many WIPs you haven't finished or about how your cat keeps interrupting you. Post your story. If you're more concerned about being relatable than actually writing, you're not a writer.
If you're expecting overnight success, you are in for a very rude awakening. No, you will not have overnight success. AND NO, you are not that 1 in a million. It takes time, effort, and dedication for your work to get noticed. I should know: have you heard of ULTRAMagic Alternate? I didn't think so.
If you are writing to make money and become famous, get out. I'm serious, leave. If you just want to make money, go get a regular job. You are legitimately getting in the way of actual writers who actually have a story to tell.
Having beta readers is ideal for improving your story. Find people interested in the genres you're writing and see what they think. You can always go back and fix the story if there is something wrong with it.
This one is for readers: If an author asks you to be a beta reader, they are NOT asking you to edit their story (although you can if you want to). You don't have to be an author, the writer is looking for your perspective as an average Joe off the street. Tell them what you think of the work, even if you have no knowledge of writing.
DO NOT USE AI IMAGES. The instant I see an AI image attached to your post I'm immediately scrolling past it. Either learn how to draw or hire a real artist.
DO NOT USE AI WRITING. I will ignore your entire existence if I catch you copy and pasting stuff from an AI chat bot. I'm okay with asking a chat bot for assistance as long as what is written on the page came from your head and human hands, however. Also newsflash, if AI becomes truly sentient, you are stealing ideas and work from another individual. Let that sink in.
#chaotictempleknight#writing#writers on tumblr#writeblr#writer#writers#writers of tumblr#writing advice#advice#my advice#advice for writers#writing community#literature#bookblr#writing tips#tips#writing help
24 notes
·
View notes
Text
read through alien space for star rail context and every frame himeko's in you can faintly hear me in the bg trying hard not to think about how much she looks like diluc
#personal stuff#delete later#remembering the reason i got into honkai in the first place was to see what similarities genshin might have inherited#and going oh yeah!! this is fun actually#anyway yeah. woe same hair color bangs and art style be upon ye. the little hair loopy is driving me crazy#don't get me started on the red eye that pepper mint has contrasted to the delusion. good night#the manga itself was really interesting though! i haven't read a whole lot of the honkai manga bc i don't know where to start really#like i've read azure waters bc i love my girl. and second key for gay people lore#but i haven't read any of the others i don't think#also REALLY funny to me who didn't finish apho 2. originally i thought welt's star rail experience was an isekai.#i honest to god thought void archives hit him with a train and he woke up on a different train#while funny. the actual reality has me head in hands. the image of star rail himeko that welt sees and recognizes her.....auuuugh.#and the very person who rescues him is the person he feels like he did wrong by lying to her. agh.#but yeah! i only knew a little bit abt himeko's dad based on what we're told early in game#so i originally speculated that genshin murata's father was the og pyro archon who died and she took his place#but now i'm not entirely sure.#chances are. since we've seen archons inherit the same Ideal along with their element. murata probably fought her predecessor#and took their place#ACTUALLY FUCK ME. WAIT.#LIBEN'S LINE ABOUT NATLAN . WAS HIM TALKING ABOUT OTHER WORLDS.#at first i thought it was just a cheap way for the developers to talk about their other new game and maybe it was BUT ALSO.#AND AT LEAST ONE MURATA WAS OBSESSED WITH GOING TO SPACE.#HMMMM#listen i am not all that excited for natlan purely on the basis that i know mhy is going to fuck up every character design#but plotwise maybe i am allowed a little bit of hope. lol#anyway void archives pretty. i get it now.
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
I've figured out viewer's mixed emotions towards Maya. Maya receives either hate or love for her character, and the support gets argued with "bad character, mean," etc / dislike usually gets accused of "misogyny" "ableism" etc, but, personally, I feel the reason for the mixed emotions is because her character is quite hypocritical (in the drama).
She wants to be left alone, except for those *she* chooses (whose space and time she basically occupies without consideration)
She wants people to stop making assumptions about her, yet she pushes her own assumptions onto Kohei (and others)
She thinks everyone treats her fake, but she puts no effort into genuine communication
She feels morally superior, but she fails to actually take others into consideration
She has a victim complex, where she feels the world is against her (natural coping mechanism for someone who experienced trauma)
She hates sympathy, yet when she doesn't garner it, she seeks it out
A hypocritical personality is a normal development during youth (and especially in Maya's case), as it develops through fear and low self-esteem. It is the easiest way to subconsciously protect ourselves from harm. It is especially common to develop for those that desire love and fear judgement. So Maya's past is a perfect explanation of her seemingly difficult character.
It is completely normal for viewers to have mixed feelings about her, because it is the same with hypocritical people in real life too. We feel empathy for them, yet their actions/words are not always understandable. She is quite a realistic and intricate character. Which is why the viewer's reactions differ so drastically, some falling to her absolute defense, other's trying to communicate the dislike. It's totally normal.
She's not evil, but she isn't a saint either. She's just human.
And so are the viewers who are free to like or dislike her character...
#i hear the sunspot#hidamari ga kikoeru#maya#jdrama#haven't read the manga#I don't have anything against maya#but I do think her character has been the focus for the 2nd half of the show#I don't think it would be so noticeable if other characters got some attention too#Kohei and Taichi barely had any scenes together#their communication also did a 180#I don't think it's okay to attack haters or lovers#everyone can feel differently about people#it's okay if the characters are not for you#or if they are#sometimes characters are there for tension#and to raise awareness#not every character has to be likable or even understandable#let's also stop trying to find ppl's dislike of a character as a sociopolitical issue straight away#it's okay to like or dislike#sometimes it is just about personality
40 notes
·
View notes
Text
Featured Fic Friday!
Welcome to Featured Fic Friday! A day where I, or someone who suggests one, tell you about a fanfic that I really enjoy! Spoiler's under the cut! Today's featured fic is...
A Dog in the Cat House by SoloShikigami (General Audiences, Complete)
Nightmare has lived happily with his three cats, Dust, Killer, and Horror. But one day he comes across a poor dog in need of a home, and hey, he could always use a guard dog. But will his three cats get along with the newest member of the family?
A short but cute fic, I enjoy the concept behind it! It's a little unusual to find a fic where most of the characters are animals, but the author does a good job of writing the characters regardless!
Spoilers ahead!
I think it's a really cute fic with an interesting premise, having Cross as a dog in what was previously an all cat house.
The way the author writes the characters makes it known what they think & how they feel even without any dialogue spoken between them.
#i almost forgot to prepare this#i'm also running out of fics to feature i think#i have plenty in my bookmarks#but some of them i haven't finished reading & likely never will#while others just don't stick out to me#so i don't have much to say about them#please excuse any mistakes you may find in this post & the following ones#i am very tired but wanted to get these out of the inbox#but i made the mistake of trying to do so at 10pm#fic rec#fic recommendation#ao3 fic recs#utmv#nightmare sans#dust sans#killer sans#horror sans#cross sans#featured fic#mod sleepy
31 notes
·
View notes
Note
*glances at svsss' vol 4 worth of extras, aka 'the whump and smut pile'* you haven't seen anything yet
You guys are seriously taking an axe to my self-control;;; I'm trying to make this series last longer than a single month!! I'm trying to savour things!!! I'm trying to read something else and give the series a bit of breathing room before I pick up the last book but I want the "whump and smut pile" I want that so much I feel like a dog that's getting a treat waved in front of its face .·´¯`(;´д`)´¯`·.
#svsss already had a bunch of whump! i wasn't expecting that! it was a really really nice treat#honestly i am going to need to find fics that delve into the whole blood parasite thing cause yall holy shit#that's fucked and i'm very into it#anyway you CAN'T just tell me that the biggest book in the (already whumpy) series is the “whump and smut pile” without destroying me a bit#i've almost finished all mxtx books and what am i supposed to do after that?#i've read the main story for mdzs / tgcf / and now svsss#all i have left are the extras - i've intentionally not read the extras for any of the series yet because i figured i would get to a point#where i'd finished the main series and would want to have something to return to#but that's three books AT MOST because most of the extras aren't a full book#i'm so close to being done them and i don't want this ;;^;;#i'm going to have to seriously start thinking about which danmei/xianxia book to read next because i'm really enjoying this genre#i have a few options i haven't touched yet because i've been busy with mxtx's books... maybe i should do a poll and see what people think#since i don't really know much about the genre or the other books out there or what's good.... hm....#bene speaks
29 notes
·
View notes
Note
sci i have a vintage donald duck anthology <3 i appreciate that you have some odd hyperfixations bc i have a TON
🤝
we love duck
#hmm. trying to think up other obsessions i have that you guys don't know about.#douglas adams.#i've bought and read Every Single Douglas Adams book. multiple times.#i think i've read the entire hitchhikers guide to the galaxy trilogy of 5 like. 7 times.#that's not including the times i've listened to the audiobook.#um. uuum.#i don't know if any of my other interests qualify.#i am. pretty normal about everything else.#drag queens maybe. but not. like. i don't watch any media about drag queens. i'd die before i watch rupaul (sorry)#but i like to know all the drag queens local to me and follow and support them.#also lately i've become obsessed with coatis. they have a long snoot and i think they're really neat.#i begged my mum to bring one back for me from mexico. and she brought me a stuffed toy coati. and i love him a lot.#they look so friend. i met loads of them on my last trip to mexico and i haven't stopped thinking about them since.#they're like. elongated raccoons. like if you put a raccoon in a taffy puller. i love them.
26 notes
·
View notes
Text
"Zira" "Azi" "Az" SIGHHHHHH
is anybody else irritated at the widespread fandom nicknaming of Aziraphale and fucking nobody else? is that just me? because it really feels like a "oooh [wince-hisses through teeth], no, that's too long and weird. that's too hard. i'm gonna call you This instead" situation, and i do not care for it. it pissed me off when i was writing good omens fanfic thirteen years ago and it pisses me off now. you care enough about everyone else to get their names right, all the unusual demon and angel monikers, but oh no, Aziraphale, oh that's ten whole letters, that's way too long. oh you're not gonna bother to type all that, no, his name is just Zira now.
and like, he's not real, so this super duper does not matter and isn't deeply and incredibly shitty the way it is when it's directed at real people. but it still rubs me the wrong way every time i see it. that's not his name! why is his name not good enough for you to take the time to type out the way you do for everyone else! ugh.
#i dunno. i dunno.#i am hoping posting this gets it off my chest and helps me stop being quite as fucking annoyed about it#this isn't directed at any one person#this is widespread#i haven't seen nicknaming to this degree in ANY other fandom#which is why i can't just tell myself it's a friendly nickname because he's likeable and familiar or whatever#it's definitely a Me Problem but there's so many good posts i haven't reblogged#or have sighed while reblogging or just straight up have stopped reading because of this#i do realize that for a lot of folks#it's probably just that they've seen other people doing it and figured it's just part of the good omens fandom culture#i don't care :/#NOBODY ELSE gets nicknamed like this#aziraphale#good omens#good omens meta#dal is a rage demon#it's been long enough that i think i can add these tags now without it hitting the top of the tag as a 'hate tag'
110 notes
·
View notes