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Media Production: It takes a village to make a thing
I want to talk a bit about media creation this week. Mostly because I want these blogs then to be a reference for whenever that discussion comes up again. Because, frankly, I am very tired of people not understanding - and not caring - about how many people it actually takes to make most media they consume.
We see that both when a piece of media succeeds - and when a piece of media flops or is heavily critisized. In both cases both the general public and also fans will usually latch onto one or two people involved in the production to be deserving of either all the praise or all the blame. Usually this is the person with most name recognition, or, if there is nobody like that involved, a general idea of "the writer(s)" or "the director", because while a lot of folks do not quite know what is in the control of either role, it feels kinda right that they should be able to have the most say about the outcome.
And don't get me wrong: There definitely are examples of media where indeed it was the writer(s), director, or whatever person with most name recognition making a project fail or succeed. And yes, this even goes so far as including actors. I can think of at least two movies where an actor, who was very full of themselves, made it almost impossible to work on a set. Just as I can think of examples, where a project would have failed without an actor putting all their name recognition and everything behind it to secure enough money to actually finish production.
But most of the time... It is a lot more complicated than that.
General rule: If a piece of media is not a self-published published book or comic, there is definitely more than one person involved into having gotten that piece of media onto the market.
Yes, even with a book. Sure, generally speaking, an author is allowed to ignore any advice given to them by an editor and publisher, unless their contract states something else (which it rarely does, because publishing industry standards). Does not mean that writers do. And yes, I know definitely cases where at least in my view editors have made books worse - often by pressing for more traditional climaxes of books that originally did not have such a thing. (You know, at times you can resolve the tension in certain books without a big BOOM. But I definitely know a lot of editors who will at least advice authors to do an action finale in a fantasy or scifi book, rather than one where characters talk that shit out.)
And of course, once we are talking "multimedia" there is gonna be a whole lot of people involved. If you have ever sat down to watch that by now 10 minute long credit roll of a movie or game, you know how many people there are. And... yeah, often not everyone gets credited. Because other wise those credits would be 20 minutes.
Of course, of those often hundreds of people, most do not have the kind of power over the project to make it either become amazing, nor fail. Neither the single accountant, nor the gaffer, nor the catering service will probably majorly influence the outcome of a project. But there are absolutely other people than just the director, the writer and the headline actors.
If we talk about both TV and movie production, it usually starts with a pitch or a script. Both are options - though the pitch will usually never get anywhere, unless there already is someone with a recognizable name and/or some influence attached. Though these days it is also very common that a pitch is: "Let's do a movie based on recognizable IP XYZ." At least when we are talking projects with some budget.
But let's not assume the "big budget" stuff for now. If it is not big budget, it usually starts with a script. And that script is gonna get sent into with a variety of producers. Most of them will usually put those scripts right into the trash, because they might on some days receive tens of those things. But some might read a script when it sounds interesting and if they see some promise, they might give some feedback for the writer to workshop it. Often it will get sent back and forth then, until the producer then goes to pitch it to investors and studios. And if the people involved are lucky, it is gonna get picked up.
Now, this is where a lot of people think the involvement of the writer ends - which studios will use to horribly underpay writers, mind you. But no, usually the writer is gonna be involved till the shooting is wrapped. You know why? Because no script will survive the reality of shooting or even just animation.
There is stuff that sounds amazing on paper, but just will not work in real life on set (or in the animation). Maybe a line sounds cool when written out, but once the actor says it, it sounds wrong. Maybe the writer imagined an amazing scene, but when they try to make it work, it won't because physics are a thing - and working against physics while possible does take more budget than a project eventually has. (Not to mention: In action heavy productions, there are enough writers that have learned to write in something across they lines of "they fight, X wins" and let the director, stunt coordinators, and actors/stunt people figure it out. I have seen fans of certain media rage about those "lazy writers", upon getting their hands on scripts, but... yeah, no this is actually a good practice, because those other people will usually have a better idea of what is possible than a writer.)
Also, directors and actors often have ideas about a story, and will want to change a scene or two.
If you have ever watched anything having to do with productions (no matter if movie or tv) you will have heard actors talk about receiving their pages for the shooting day early in the morning while in make up. That is because of those last minute changes. And that is why usually you do want to have writers involved in the production - and also why writers want writer rooms. Because two to three writers can mostly handle a movie, sure. But a TV production, that covers a lot more screentime in a few months of shooting/animating? You want more people working on it to make the daily adjustments.
And again: One of the main reasons why the writers guild was protesting last year was, that studios did a) not want a writers room (because more writers to pay) and b) actually did not want to pay the writers for those last minute adjustments during shooting. Which we hopefully can agree is very much unfair towards the writers.
The main director(s) will usually make a lot of decisions of course of how things happen on set or in the animation. Ideally a good director in this listens to the other specialists involved - though not all directors do, and in terms of certain productions recently (MCU *coughs*) often do not get the chance. But ideally they will get the input of actors, stunt people, the cinematographer, the people in command of set stuff, and also the people working on the visual effects. While the director(s) are definitely creative people and the role is a creative role, it is also very much a management thing, to get everyone onto the same page.
How much a director is involved in the pre-production (aka: getting an idea of the visual language, getting sets, costumes and whatever prepared, casting talent, getting the character and environment designs done, and so on) and the post-production (aka editing, visual effects, reshoots, retouching and so on) is very different depending on the project. Again, with Marvel Studios in recent years directors are usually only hired for the main production, with Marvel mainly taking care of both pre- and post-production, as most directors do not get to put in their unique creative style - it has to fit the brand after all. But even outside of Marvel it is also very dependent on the director and the kind of project it is, whether the director is heavily involved in this. Some directors will be sitting in the studio every day during post-production helping out whereever they can, others bring people for these things they trust and will only be on call, and some others will disappear on the last day of shooting.
And of course there is always the producers and executive producers. Every media project has them in some way or form. They are the people mainly there to secure funding and work as the communication line between the heads and board of a studio, and the creatives on set. As Guillermo del Toro once said (I am paraphrasing here): "A good producer is there, when you need them, but leaves you alone, when you don't." But... The higher the budget and investment, the worse the producer is usually by this metric.
Please note: By now it is fairly usual that at least big stars (both in terms of directing, and acting) will have their own production studio, and yes, also be credited as producers in a movie or TV show. However, as soon as there is more budget involved, that budget usually comes form a bigger studio or media conglomerate (like Disney, Netflix, Warner-Discovery and so on) and the producers who are responsible for the big investors in a project will have a lot more say. This might lead to something called "executive meddling" about what I am going to talk in two days.
And yes, before I forget. There is of course also game production, which usually is very different from anything else, because game productions most of the time do not start with a story concept, but rather with a general concept/game play concept. This might of course be different when you produce within established franchises, where people might expect a certain gameplay and your question is more what kinda story will allow that gameplay to happen again, but generally speaking: Gameplay will trump story in game productions.
But here is also the issue with game productions: These work very, very differently depending on what studio we are talking about. Sure, the AAA studios work in comparable ways, but everyone who isn't AAA has their unique style, because compared to every other form of media games are still fairly young as a form of media. And while for big budgeted releases certain "best practices" (given these will usually involve crunch for at several weeks) have been established that managers and investors will push for, smaller studios might well have their own best practices (that ideally will involve less crunch). But of course, with games the effect that there is not a single person or group of people to be praised/blamed for something being really amazing, or really bad, is even stronger, because usually game productions are more spread out and have a lot more moving parts that can make a thing really great or really bad.
Though a general rule still holds true for games as well: The bigger the budget, the bigger the power of certain producers and managers to overrule any creative decision in an attempt to appease investors. Because executive meddling definitely isn't a problemt unique to a single medium. But I will talk about that on Wednesday...
#media production#movies#movie production#tv production#tv shows#netflix#marvel#mcu#it takes a village#creative industries#writers strike#writers guild of america
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okay listen I'm so tired lol
I am a fandom old. I've been around the freaking block like eight dozen times. I'm at the point in my life where I enjoy media because it's FUN and ENRICHING for me personally, rather than something I base my identity on. I adore the community that happens in fan spaces (mostly).
here is why I never trust an anon that's clearly just being a dick: I've been in way to many scenarios where people who aren't even invested in the thing just think it's so fucking funny to watch segments of a community fight with each other. it tickles some part of their lizard brain. their mom never taught them not to be an asshole to strangers. idk.
there's a political term that you may or may not be familiar with called astroturfing. it's frequently used in marketing and politics to falsely create the image of vast public support for something that doesn't actually have all that much natural support. for example, people who don't especially have strong feelings about trans issues being encouraged/paid/instructed to respond to any and all trans support a certain way. responding to blogs, sending letters to the editor, posting on message boards, etc. their goal is to create a broad public perception that most people are anti-trans (untrue).
and it works. entire fucking laws and legislation and protests and fearmongering come out of that shit. people make up FAKE PROBLEMS (cis men dressing up like women to go be pervy in public bathrooms???) and spread the word via bad actors and controlling the public discourse. the media conglomerate that gamed Facebook to disproportionately support asshole authoritarian alt-right clowns and got them elected was EXCELLENT at it.
a similar thing can happen in fandom, ESPECIALLY when that fandom is a haven for women, POC, queer folk, and other minorities. you guys might remember GamerGate and SadPuppies? yeah all those fuckers are still active and still purposely being shitty at every given opportunity because they think it's funny to make the "libs" fight amongst themselves.
look up #yourslipisshowing if you're not familiar. it was a movement by Black Twitter (specifically Black WOMAN Twitter) to expose bad actors who would create accounts posing as Black woman activists, learn the surface-level terminology, and just purposely cause discord in leftist spaces under the ever-familiar activist method of "being morally pure is a thing that can exist."
anyway: any time I get an ask or comment without a name attached that is very obviously intended to poke me in a sore spot, I delete that shit and assume it's some fucker trying to start fan drama for kicks. even if I'm wrong, I still don't need to feed into that shit. this is my fun, happy space. I'm an activist and do activist shit and get angry at the world in real life, I don't need it in my little fandom corner of the internet too.
which is not to say that shitty fans and shitty fandom takes don't really exist. they very much do. but I don't give them much air unless there's an actual name attached. and even THEN it can be hit or miss because people can and do create fake accounts if they're especially dedicated to being a shithead.
so: if you're minding your business and some goober comes into your ask box with shit that's clearly intended to push a button, give it like 24 hours to cool down and decide if it's actually worth it to respond. for me, most of the time I determine that it's not.
don't get me wrong. calling out bad behavior in fandom IS IMPORTANT and SHOULD BE DONE. I just also think it's important to try and find the joy and camaraderie in these spaces as much as possible and that people who try to disrupt that for jollies suck real bad and give a disproportionate perception of "what X fans are like."
in summary, my philosophy is be the best person you can be, be as kind as is warranted, focus on the parts of your fandom that make you happiest, and carry a big stick for when the jerks won't take a hint.
also like. shitting on other characters to prop up your fave is such a freaking middle school move. are you in middle school? if so, I'm sorry. if not, I'm still sorry, but for a different reason.
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no cus i totally understand your frustration, ive also quit splatfests for the moment until they get an overhaul
i suggest if you feel close to getting hateful to either shiver or shiver fans then maybe quit for a while for your own sake cus ive felt a lot better after doing so, im still really sensitive to negative comments towards frye or rude ones about shiver winning but taking some time for myself has made me feel infinitely better
ive been close to hating shiver before bc of how cocky and rude them and their fans can be but it doesnt really do anything but sour your enjoyment of the game more, so its really not worth it
i do have to say though, anyone who says "its just a game" reaaally needs to understand the frustration of people OTHER than them, sympathy is something a lot of people forget about when it comes to things that arent real life. just because it doesnt affect you doesnt mean everyone can shut off their attachment to the game or a character like a light switch; a lot of the time you dont know whats going on with them. i myself am really attached to frye cus i am hashtag autism creature and he brings me comfort, so anyone being rude to me about shiver winning really REALLY gets under my skin. its not entirely (if they were serious, if they werent then its not at all) their fault, but nintendo fixing the frustration of splatfests constantly keeling in one direction (which theyre supposed to do anyways but they havent) would definitely fix the issue. we need to find a way to have nintendo fix this, not attack anyone else for what bundle of pixels and text theyre attached to.
not everyone has really thick skin and if we want splatoon 3 to be more hospitable then we should try to cut down on the general splatfest bullassery in public spaces (being overly cocky and rude/blaming others in a way with no basis or truth behind it). its not something everyone can always do since we arent all perfect, but if we make steps in that direction then we could help more people enjoy the splatoon community rather than being eaten up by toxicity and spite
i didnt word all of this entirely correctly so like interpret ad best as you can cus im eepy but yeah.
a fye for u to enjoy (also ur anon is off btw)
u dont have to but for the sake of not being harrassed id appreciate if u didnt tag with public tags
šš PREACH
I don't want to quit playing it, I do enjoy splatfests, to a certain extent, i like going with my friends and i made a lot of new friends through it, it's like, the online community that I'm having a problem with
I don't hate shiver, I thought I did but I can't, she is still a comfort character (tho Frye is like, my obsession besides being my comfort character cuz I am also part part the 'tism XD), in a way, I like her dynamic with the group at least, she annoys me, yes, very much so, but I don't hate her
And I don't hate people who like her either
Who I do hate is people being mean about it, I had turned off anon cuz of a stupid person who was going around every frye support account anonymously just saying mean stuff and praising shiver as the best, I just forgot to turn it on, so thanks for reminding me š
Saying that "It's just a game" is so annoying to, tell that to the football fans, they go just as crazy if not more so
Splatfests are ment to be fun! You should be able to enjoy the splatfest without having to worry about people fighting
I don't like fighting with people, I hate how angry I become, how mean I can sound sometimes, I usually just vent without interacting
At least she won in Japan, so that is one other win under her belt, I just wish she'd win more in the future š
Oh also I almost didn't participate in this splatfest either and I did only because I haven't had time to play and I haven't finished my catalogue yet š
I usually use splatfests to up my catalogue quicker lmao
Also, don't worry, I won't tag anything that could get you harassed, if anything does happen, please block for your health, I don't want anything happening to you, you seem very sweet ;w;
Edit: also YOUR FRYE PLUSH IS SO CUTE! I've been seeing people get her but idk where to buy her!!!! Where'd you get it? :0
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Men who constantly post publically that they want to die donāt actually want to die. Youāre lonely because you think youāre lonely. Find people who care to surround yourself. Posting on the internet that you want to die constantly isnāt going to save you.
Please donāt assume things about me
I have attempted suicide in 2016 (the particulars of how I survived can be deemed as āluckyā by many) and was hospitalized close to a year for it (I have some mutuals from my first account (Iāve had three accounts) that can attest I went missing for a year around that time))
Other than music Iām completely indifferent to things, nigh anhedonic if I didnāt care so deeply about people. But even this year I have lost interest in music immensely
I really honestly genuinely donāt have anything to live for other than the serious harm I may cause to others if I didnāt so
I have stopped therapy countless times with like 9+ therapists in the last 10 years because each attempt invariably ended in the same conclusion: Iād rather die than to live
I currently live somewhere in the middle east and should something happen to me by my own hands, the law would also harass my family which I donāt want
So itās a case of really wanting to do something but I canāt, doesnāt mean that I wonāt should I see no other way to get through a fucking hard day.
Yes Iāve been āstrongā enough to have survived this long but it was never for myself it was for othersā¦
Really I post about it a lot about it because what the fuck else can I do if you much rather I take action, donāt worry because Iāve spoken to everyone I know seriously and told them that I feel with a high degree of certainty that I will take my own life and that will be my way to go (I think the breaking point would be anything happening to my mother), and everyone either thinks itās dramatics/exaggeration (those who donāt know me very well) or they hope that Iām wrong and that things may work out in the end
Ffs I have to take 5 pills a day to be remotely functional and even then im a mess
P.S. Iām lonely because I am lonely, Iāve had close to 35 people show up to my 30th birthday and not a single one do I feel connected to in a significant way despite trying so hard, itās all in my head but does it matter if thatās how I feel?
Rationality has always been bullshit to me because there is not physiological elements attached to it, but feelings? Ye I experience that shit all the time in my body
I donāt want to be saved because if 10 years of therapy didnāt save me then nothing can
Funny that you mention that because thatās exactly what someone told me recently and my response in my head was āI canāt be saved anywaysā
Iāll end this with a lyric that I strongly relate to
āTell me how does strength make a difference, when all I ever feel is indifferenceā
#asks#you can just ignore or block but I guess I have to use a tag again out of respect#just gonna use venting as a tag#venting#also I was hospitalized literally early this year for not being able to take care of myself because I wasnāt able to eat or drink anything#and wasnāt able to sleep for 3 days#and on the 3rd day I decided to drown everything in alcohol and ofc that just shut my body down and I had another close encounter with death#if you think this is an act then thatās on you#but Iāve never once self harmed because i donāt want a meagre release I want something final
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as someone who's JUST been raped again this whole story thing you have going on feels like a huge betrayal. sorry not sorry but rape culture already forgives abusers, ESPECIALLY if they're male, and your story contributes to normalizing abuse because "ohhh the rapist is just a little guy!! the rapist ALSO has feewings ohhhh they're sooooo sad they totally regret doing this guys". have you seen how the public response towards sa/csa allegations against celebrities usually goes? the VERY first thing people do is jump to the rapist's defense because they seem so normal, how could they? obviously the accuser is lying. your attempt to "humanize" your abuser oc is deeply insulting and though i do agree that punitive justice does more harm than good in the long run the thread of logic you're spinning wrt this situation more often than not culminates in villifying victims when they're caught venting ā as if victims of other crimes (or their families) don't also do this and as if expressing anger inmediately turns us into monsters, you know? i would much, much rather an actual rape victim tackled this rather than someone who needs to do research on how it feels to be raped and is using a deeply traumatizing event as a fun little hypothetical in all honesty. boost our voices if you want but don't twist our experiences into... this.
my advice on what to do with the story: absolutely DON'T post it on this account because warriors has a huge pedo problem and they will jump on the opportunity to absolve themselves via your characters. if you really want to keep going make a sideblog with a different name and trigger tag your stuff appropiately. this is like, common practice regarding nsfw stuff
hey, youāve just undergone an incredibly traumatising event and are feeling all your emotions very highly right now, i completely understand where youāre coming from but i have given every possible warning and and way for you to avoid seeing this content.
for your own personal mental health, i highly highly recommend you block me and avoid looking at my content if itās going to trigger you so intensely. you shouldnāt be so attached to my online persona that me exploring different topics in my work feels as though a personal betrayal to you.
the pedophile problem in the warrior cats community is not something i am personally responsible for, nor is it something that i should have to curate my space to avoid. it is not my job to cater to the media illiteracy of potential viewers.
additionally, i donāt intend to, nor would i *ever* create nsfw content regarding such a story and the insinuation that i would is deeply upsetting. sexual assault should not be an adults only topic.
finally, i understand your feelings that this story may be better if told by an actual rape victim- and i donāt disagree, but several rape victims have offered their assistance with this project and volunteered personal anecdotes and advice for writing about it.
ultimately, i feel as though i am doing my very best to handle the story with tact and grace, and while i am not against criticism, i feel as though you havenāt offered substantive evidence of such towards me.
still, i appreciate you giving your feedback, and i hope you block me so as not to trigger you any further. apologies if any of this comes across as aggressive or patronising, it is not my intent.
#yeen rambles#ask#rape ment#csa ment#and listen. i get that itās a luxury that i get to be calm in this situation. but i donāt think that i should be barred from exploring#topics i havenāt personally experienced in my art as long as i do it respectfully#alvin's infurno
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I feel like we gotta start demanding people's information sources more. Unless they're the primary source of the information (like, they're sharing about something they directly experienced), they got the information from somewhere. And if I can't track down what that is, that's immediately a red flag for me. And most of the time it's just annoying little things, like people making up fake origin stories for song lyrics, but sometimes it's big things!
You may have seen a viral tweet claiming that the leader of France said that France has never invaded anyone:
The attached image is just a picture. It's not a video of him saying this. So where did the user get this information? There's basically three options:
1) They were actually there when he said this.
2) They got the information from another source. (Hopefully a credible one, like someone who was actually definitely there when he said this, or a press release or post from Macron's team.)
3) They made it up.
It's probably not #1. This seems to be a random person. It's unlikely that they talk to the President of France very often. They don't seem to be a reporter, and if they were, there would probably be a proper record of that interaction.
It could be #2. But if you do a Google search (or whatever your preferred search provider is), there's no record of him saying this anywhere beyond just this one tweet (which, again, provides no proof that this happened as the attached media is just a photo). But if this is true, they had to get the info from somewhere. So either this random internet stranger has access to information sources that are inaccessible to the general public (i.e. you and me) or...
They probably just straight up made it up. Shocker. And like yeah, it's great that we have "community notes" now on Twitter, but we shouldn't rely fully on them instead of doing our own research. Remember, we're more susceptible to misinformation that makes us scared or mad (Source: American Psychological Society). So if you think "holy shit, that's so bad, I can't believe that", probably a good sign that you should double-check that it's actually true. Yeah, the world sucks, it's gonna be true a lot, but you know what I mean. Make sure we're mad about stuff that actually happened.
And on that note, I think a lot of the misinfo that spreads around here just comes from people saying stuff with their full chest even though it's only a guess or they're just straight up wrong. But even if we're not lying on purpose, it still causes problems! A while back, my favorite guitarist got kicked out of his band and didn't say anything. But noticing his absence when the tour started, fans invented a narrative that he'd temporarily left to help another band and he would be back halfway through the tour, despite neither him nor the band indicating anything of the sort. Clearing all that up wasn't fun for anyone.
I've also seen lots of people claiming that "blood is thicker than water" is actually short for "the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb". There's literally no indication that this is true. The shorter one has been traced back to the 12th century, and the two books (both published after 1990, hundreds of years later) that claim the longer one is true do not cite their sources. (But also, like, it's just a proverb. It's not a law of the universe. If you disagree with it, you don't have to act like it has a secret historical meaning that a conspiracy theory has covered up. You can just be like "nah". You're allowed to disagree with the 12th century dude. It doesn't mean everyone in the world is misremembering it.)
I've even seen posts inciting outrage about a user getting banned, only to look the user up to find that their account is still there and they have no idea what people are talking about.
Anyway. Point is, we can also stop the spread of misinformation by just not making it in the first place. If you don't have proof that something is true, don't act like it is. If someone else makes a post claiming something they couldn't possibly have insider knowledge of and you don't know where they heard it, dig. If you can't figure out where the info's actually from, and they won't say, red flag.
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hi I'm a casual gomens show enjoyer and pro-sharing the kiss image which was shared on an official show promo account lmao. it's so funny for people to be like "don't share it!! Neil is mad!!! he's sooo upset people worked so hard on this show how dare you share a gay baiting promo image the promo team shared themselves!!" like even if you're Neil and mad for any valid reason about this being public now (which. there's no reason that isn't a Bad Look for him to be mad about this anyway lmao) you should just be having beef with your marketing team? like what happened to the whole once you post something on the internet it's immortal. mr gaiman learn some basic internet safety. don't post hole don't post gaybaiting kiss if you don't want it to haunt you forever. take the L and stop being weird to your fans about a still from the show that Shouldn't Be A Problem unless the context for it in the show is shitty. this whole situation is SO funny. I saw someone on twitter posting "oh I saw Neil say he's furious about this and I feel so bad for sharing it :(" like. good gd you aren't his marketing team this is in all possible ways not even your business
it's such a fascinating and funny phenomenon to me because it could only happen with good omens and amanda palmer's ex-husband. i don't know how much creative control neil gaiman has over amazon's good omens adaptation, and it's entirely probable he doesn't have input on the marketing, but getting so wildly butthurt about it to demand fans don't share or discuss the two frames posted in promotional material by an official account is embarrassing on so many levels. they used material from the show to promote it and it generated interest? oh my god what a tragedy
the fact that people are genuinely defensive about it/him is also morbidly fascinating. it's not just that people have a bizarre parasocial attachment to neil gaiman, it's that neil gaiman has intentionally cultivated this bizarre parasocial attachment by the way he uses social media and interacts with fans as if he is their friend. he is not your friend, he is an author continuing to profit off of the work you're obsessed with because he dangled Men Kissing above your head, who gives a fuck about how he feels. he's been demanding brownie points for 'groundbreaking queer representation' or whatever for years by daring to have two men sorry, non-human nonbinary creatures who are never acknowledged or meaningfully treated as such in the text, be friends sorry, queerplatonic partners or whatever the fuck, instead of filthy homosexual degenerates who fuck raw. anyway no matter what he comes out of this situation looking like a hypocrite and i think it's fucking hilarious
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better left unsaid // cth
chapter twenty one
in which orion has leukemia, and calum doesnāt know.
calum hood x fem!oc
read other chapters
august 29, 2018 uncasville, connecticut calumĀ
I donāt know what it is, but thereās something strange about being away from Orion for this long. Itās almost been a month, and we still talk almost every day. I know I canāt expect for things to feel all that normal. I left her alone in LA. She has a life there. Iām busy, touring with the band.
I think days like today are when I feel it the most. Weāre in a random ass city in New England. We have a show tonight, but today we arenāt doing press, and thereās not exactly a lot to do in Connecticut. Itās just another day with the boys, whom I love dearly, but donāt exactly have a lot of fresh topics to talk to them about.Ā
At least it felt okay to sleep in this morning. A lot of days it feels like a waste of being in a cool city or a waste of being close to family to sleep in, but in Uncasville, Connecticut, sleeping until 11 feels like an appropriate start to the day.Ā
I wake up to a few texts from Orion, which is unsurprising but always good to see.Ā
From: my love + stars good morning hi hello i couldnāt sleep last night i am zombie today running on hella coffee i think duke misses you he keeps going into your studio and pacing around itās so sad do you think he can come to the venue in san diego? omg i can get him a little shirt that says āi <3 5sosā can you imagine if i do that you have to post it to your story so the fans can see they would die hope you have so much fun in the fantastic town of uncasville today!!!!
To: my love + stars itās always a good morning when i can hear from you! very good morning to you my very beautiful girlfriend my favorite zombie you can eat my brains if you want send me duke pics rn i miss him too please bring him!!!! iām pretty sure dogs are allowed. i will riot if not. yknow you could post it yourself. just make your profile public ya silly goose. the fans love you now.
From: my love + stars cal if you ever donāt hear from me in the morning you need to call the cops i will always say hi asap i will eat your brains first look how cute dukey is!!!!!!! Images attached (3) they occasionally tOleRaTE me NOW. the tables could turn at any time.
To: my love + stars i will never call the cops on you you can do no wrong even if you eat my brains donāt tell dukeās mom but i think i miss my son more than i miss his mom (I AM KIDDING I PROMISE) literally the only reason the tables would turn is if you were a shitty person and youāre the best person i know so youāre good of course only go public if you want but just sayin the world would be a better place if everyone could see your beautiful sunset selfies
From: my love + stars somebody call 911 shawtyās lying to me on the dance flo itās ok if you miss duke more than me i am not offended i swear you know i wonāt go public i just donāt need that chaos in my life i love quietly lurking on stan twitter from my burner account
To: my love + stars i am not lying i miss you more than i have ever missed anyone duke is close second dw it could be a rush to go public for a day and then go back private see what happens
From: my love + stars stop youāre gonna make me cry in the club rn it would be not fun cal you know this iād get a bunch of DIE BITCH I COULD TAKE UR MAN IF I WANT TO YOUāRE SO UGLY and maybe a sprinkle of wow youāre kinda cool sometimes
Iām not sure how long itās been that Orion and I are just sitting here texting each other back and forth until Ashton is giggling across the room at me.
āWhat are you making all those faces for, Cal?ā He asks.
I flip him off. āJust texting Orion.ā
āOooh, what are you guys talking about?ā Luke walks in the room, a banana in hand and Sierra trailing behind him carrying a Starbucks cup.Ā
I roll my eyes. āNot that itās any of your business, but I was just telling her she should make her Instagram public, and she thinks itād just open up a door for death threats.ā
āThe fans like her now, donāt they?ā Luke asks. He plops down on the couch next to me, and Sierra sits on his right side. He looks around the room at all of us, searching for confirmation.
āShe always gets love when I post a picture with her in it,ā Ashton confirms.Ā
Itās no secret that Iām not exactly an active user on any social media, so even though I have millions of photos of me and Orion, I donāt share them much. Thatās both due to my personal social media habits and Orionās wishes to keep her presence on my social media to a minimum. Itās kind of like her rule for flowers ā only for special occasions.Ā
Ashton, on the other hand, posts a few photos at a time to his story and feed pretty regularly, and more often than not, if thereās a group picture, Orion is in it. Heās also the only one that really hangs out with Orion on her own regularly, so naturally they have more photos of the two of them. That said, if sheās only getting positive comments on Ashtonās posts, Iām sure sheād get positive reactions if she shared her own.
āIām not saying she should or shouldnāt,ā Sierra starts. āBut I definitely get why she doesnāt want a public profile.ā
āI mean, to be fair, a lot of what she posts is of you guys,ā Luke adds. Heās not wrong. Because her profile is private and she can pick and choose who follows her, she feels fine to post whatever she wants, and that means posting a lot of pictures with me, of me, and of Duke. āShe definitely wouldnāt want to do that if she went public.ā
I sigh, knowing that Sierra and Luke are probably right, and Orion is too, even if sheās not completely accurate with what would actually happen if she made her profile public. I decide to drop it.Ā
āWhereās that Starbucks at?ā I decide to ask, changing the subject. I nod at Sierraās coffee cup in her hand.Ā
With the address in hand, I head off to find someone to drive me to the Starbucks and go back to texting Orion.Ā
To: my love + stars itās pretty early to be in the club but still donāt cry just a little over a month. weāve got this!! only go public if you want. i support you regardless and happy to be bad cop and defend you in your comments if you needed
From: my love + stars a 2018 shakespearean level romance defending me in an IG comment section iām a lucky girl
read next chapter
a/n: fillery chapter ik. but still plantin a seed for something later on. i posted this poll but also feel free to drop a comment on your wishes on this post too pls n thx.
#5sos#5 seconds of summer#luke hemmings#ashton irwin#calum hood#michael clifford#fanfiction#fanfic#5sosfam#imagine#calum 5sos#calum imagine#calum x fem!oc#calum x ofc
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I'm not defending the anonymous person, but maybe it would be easier to take the criticism that they didn't get their fanart done because your art is good and worth getting. The comics you draw are pretty close in feel to the show and it's alot like having an expanded universe, so people want to get art from you just like they'd want their character to show up in the cartoon. That's my two cents.
I almost didin't answer this one because I'm getting fucking tired of concerns about my character over my decision to draw some fucking free fan art every now and again, but two things up front:
I think it gives a good foundation to address a broader topic.
I appreciate your asking it with your account attached. Thank you for that, and I invite you to DM me if my response is something you feel you want further discussion on.
That said, and please don't take this as a personal attack: I disagree with your assessment on how I should take the wants and desires of my fellow fans (and again, I reiterate -- I am a fan like everyone else, here) with every fibre of my being. I've been an artist, writer, animator and developer with enough published and public work to my name to garner my fair share of fan interaction through the years, and "taking criticism" as you are writing about here, is different from being expected to cater to every request from every person every time without fail. Especially when I'm not the actual creator of the source-content and when it comes to the things I share on this blog and the Dethkomic blog, I am sincerely, honestly, truly, just some fucking guy at the end of the day.
I've said it before as a joke, for all the questions I get, but maybe I should also make it perfectly clear in a more serious tone:
I am not Brendon Small.
I'm really not. And if I was, in what universe would it be okay for folks to come on my blog and get mad that they didn't get a chance to have an idea heard because I simply didn't have time to take every request I got? How does the idea that I'm the one producing your favorite show somehow correlate to a built-in expectation that I should cater to the wants, desires, and wishes of everyone who enjoys the thing I'm making?
See how ridiculous that sounds? You can't stick a "well, you're practically making official content" label on me and then feel okay about holding me to a higher standard than you would the people making the actual show. Or, Jesus Christ, I hope you don't think holding the creators of your media (who are people, by the way) to such standards is okay.
For a while now, this has gone beyond the ask that went down, yesterday, which, in retrospect, I probably never should have even answered. I get a lot of troll messages on here, and I usually just trash them. But if you want to know what Dethkomic's greatest hits of troll commentary looks like, the breakdown is something like this:
"I think you should write (some character, some fan creation, some wholly different story) along with/instead of the thing you are writing about."
"I don't think you should have fan-characters at the center of the story like you do."
"I think (canon character) actually acts this way and I don't like it when you write them the way you do."
"(this character) is my baby and I hate (this character) for looking at them."
All of it, and I mean all of it, is usually presented in the same way. That Dethkomic is a work the troll enjoys reading, but... (insert grievance here). To anyone who has sent an ask like this, please consider the alternative: Write your own story. Because this is the one I'm choosing to tell. Dethkomic is fanfiction and won't be affecting the canon any more than anything you come up with will.
So, back to your original point, OP -- if I draw art of your character, or put them in my comics, or give a kudo on AO3, or nod in approval to a character you come up with, or reblog art you did, it does not canonize those things any more than me writing and sharing my own works does. It's fan content. It's all fan content. I'm glad you like my stuff and I'm flattered to hear you feel like it's semi-official, but it is you putting it in that space. I don't suddenly get a production team, thousands of artists, and a big payday from the networks because you think my stuff is good enough to warrant it, so please don't expect me to suddenly be okay with handing public relations the same way I would if I suddenly had all of that.
And this is the last statement I'm going to be making on yesterday's situation. I think too, I'll be taking a little hiatus from Tumblr until the next 'komic update on Tuesday.
Sorry for being quiet in the coming days, but I'm presently exhausted.
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Please feel free to ignore this, if you don't want to speak on the topic anymore. :)
I read a translation and explanation of someone (unfortunately I lost the post) who spoke about the Ohm issue and from what I remember I thought the topic was brought up to the school and parents, there were apologies and consequences for Ohm for doing what he did. Of course, the saying boys will be boys is shitty but I think it's difficult to blame someone for doing stupid things almost 10 years ago. Most people will look back on their past and have done something they regret and I think it's unfair to make him out to be the devil just because he is a person in the public eye.
Sorry for the word vomit, I just read a lot of hurtful and hateful words towards Ohm recently and I wonder if I apologise for him too much or if feeling sorry for him is okay too. :(
Totally agree with you. The over emotional involvement should get toned back because once it is discovered that they are actually bad people the fans will either be so troubled or being forgiving when it's not their place to forgive.
-------------------------------------
I put these asks together because I want to close this topic after this but still wanted to share your messages.Ā Ā
@ anon 1 youāre totally free to forgive whoever you want so itās absolutely fine if you do!!Ā
Cancel culture is intense but also kinda temporary. the internet gets heated up over something and a few weeks later everything is back to normal. it happens all the time and Iāve seen tons of people who share your opinion that these actors shouldnāt be held accountable for something they did or said 10 years ago and I agree to some extent but it depends on the incident. if someone commented āno homoā on a picture once when they were 13 then thatās no reason to cancel someone in 2023. But in Ohmās case, what he did is problematic enough for me to remove him from my radar lol. And not just what he did but also the way he reacted to it in his apology, completely missing the point and proving that he has no understanding of how what he did was wrong, not to mention not even apologizing to the victims. Regardless of if and how he got punished back in the day.Ā
I guess forgiving is easier than cancelling but in my opinion forgiving culture transmits the message that these people can do whatever they want as long as they post some form of an apology because their fans will forgive them no matter what. Has any (bl) celebrity ever gotten cancelled for real to the point where they lose their platform, followers and get fired from their company? no. and that will never happen even though some people deserve it. Which is probably why Iām a bit more resentful when it comes to these things. Iām not saying Ohm should be fired and banned from all social media but... you get my point.Ā
As I said itās up to each individual how to react to these things - thereās no cancellation guidelines lol so itās totally fine if you feel sorry for him. Itās alsoĀ harder when thereās an emotional attachment so I get it. But like anon 2 said, itās a good idea to tone that down (if possible lol) to avoid possible disappointments.
xxx
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Twitter exists in such stark contrast to Tumblr, it's really incredible (bear with me for a minute). Like at 11pm EST on a Friday, I see two different professional North American writers with their bylines in their bios and everything either:
1. Retweeting every single social justice item they come across in rapid succession for like an hour before I muted them. It was like they went through their tracked tags and tweeted out 20 things about covid, 20 things about unions, 20 things about the earthquake, etc--even if it was like someone else's 12-part thread and part 1 clearly said "1/12" for anyone who was interested in all of it, she'd retweet all 12 parts. Who is doing this at prime time on a Friday night? Which is like a Twitter dead zone? Or more to the obvious point, whose drunken party time behavior is blindly retweeting hundreds of human interest stories at once to an audience of possibly none? There has to be a nice degenerate hobby this person can pick up, jfc. Like take up smoking or something, do something else with your hands.
2. Again as a public person with professional references in their bio, tweeting [approx] "My biggest issue right now is that the closest people to me see me as a non-sexual being and they can't push past that narrative" like oh for the love of god please do not tweet this are you insane? Are all your "best friends" supposed to check in with you after seeing your tweet to reassure you that they definitely perceive you as a sensual, erotic creature? And also the previous point applies, if you are tweeting this from an account that is attached to your career on a Friday night, you are being really visibly drunk and you should know that.
...meanwhile on This Blue Hellsite, we don't even know what time it is, and it wouldn't matter if we did because we're all airing our grimiest business all the time because it's just the local culture here. There is rarely a reason to feel embarrassed about it because everyone is doing public flagellation and it just doesn't matter except in the most extreme cases; when everyone is ashamed no one is ashamed. Tumblr is a much safer, more satisfying place to be because we have collective anarchy, whereas if you act a certain way on Twitter during the wrong work shift you're automatically, obviously nuts.
#not like big deal writers#just people trying to present professionally in public#and this is what they do
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I was wondering if there is gonna be more aftermath regarding Ga On's action during "the final trial". Will he panic once more knowing now that his love was televised?
Will he be more aware now of how this public information can hold him accountable now that he is aware of his feelings?
To be honest with you? Not really, no.
Mainly because the premise I've built this fic on is that Ga On wasn't actually in love with Yo Han when he offered to die with him. He did love him to some extent and was extremely attached, yes, to the point where he would rather die than be without Yo Han, but that wasn't because of romantic love.
I think that, if anything, Ga On's willingness to die with Yo Han was more connected to his fear of losing those he cares about and, once again, being left behind (just like with his parents). So it also stems from trauma, not just his affection for Yo Han.
So, at least in Who Holds the Devil, Ga On doesn't view his actions during the final trial as a confession of romantic love. And that means he doesn't really have a reason to panic about it, either. Maybe he'll have a brief moment of "oh god, did that make me look gay?" but he'd quickly realise that, no, not necessarily. Or, if it did, it flew above most people's heads.
I mean, the final trial is now over eight months ago and if no one's mentioned it so far (aside from Jin Joo, who knows him well enough to be a bit more suspicious), they probably never will. Not that it will ever be quite forgotten, but since Yo Han is dead in the eyes of the public, it's not likely that conspiracy theories about their relationship will suddenly skyrocket for no apparent reason. And Ga On is clever enough to see that too and, as a result, has no reason to panic.
In addition, South Korea is conservative enough that the number of people who took his words to mean anything other than platonic or perhaps a mentor/subordinate thing is very, very low. We might find it very suspicious since we're looking for the gay, but the vast majority of the Korean public didn't. So the information isn't really all that incriminating? It wouldn't even cross most people's mind that it COULD be gay, let alone that it IS.
To be honest with you, I think more people worry about the extent of his involvement in Yo Han's crimes than what exactly their relationship was. Like, did he do enough that he should be charged and sent to prison? That is something he's more likely to be held accountable for rather than whether or not he was in love with his now-dead boss ā and Ga On knows that too.
That said, it will definitely be mentioned again from time to time and he still dislikes seeing clips from that day, but that's mainly because he doesn't like to see his own desperation. But even he knows that, at the time, he wasn't in love with Yo Han yet. Well on his way, sure, but not quite. So he's not really scared of the final trial from a gay panic perspective because it's not actually gay? Incredibly intense and emotionally fraught, yes, (and definitely one of my favourite moments) but not gay.
I know Ga On overthinks and panics about a lot of things, but with the setup I have for the fic and everything surrounding the situation taken into account, this really isn't one of the things he has to be worried about. It's easy to explain away even if anyone, against all odds, were to ask him about it ā he can just say he looked up to Yo Han as a superior and mentor and most people would buy it.
Sidenote: It obviously depends on the fic, though, and your take on canon. If you DO go with the idea that Ga On was in love during that scene then, yes, he would have more reason to panic. But he doesn't here due to the choices I've made as I built the story. So please don't take this as me saying it would never happen, it's just not entirely logical in Who Holds the Devil :)
#Amethystina Replies#Anonymous#Who Holds the Devil#Questions like these are difficult to answer sometimes#Because I do get where you're coming from#But it just doesn't quite align with how I've set things up#And some of those details are ones you readers don't even know#So that makes it harder for you to guess in which direction I will take things#So I totally understand the question#But yeah#Not really applicable here#Also#To be entirely honest#There's already enough drama in this fic#I don't need to bring in Ga On being afraid of being publically outed as well x'D#He already has enough problems
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I love this kind of exploration of themes! Iāve noticed the Captive Mermaid theme - good name - but I think itās been around for as long as the ideas of zoos and freak shows and human subject research. There's the whole Feejee mermaid concept (hello P.T. Barnum) which gives the concept of a stuffed mermaid on display. Thatās been in the public imagination for a long time now. And since 1947 there have been women performing as mermaids at Weeki Wachee Springs, which is not the same thing, but still - the idea of going and paying to see a mermaid...
And there are folktales! There are so many stories of people capturing fairies and mermaids and selkies. But this modern Captive Mermaid is something slightly different and pretty specific, involving a theme of display or study. I tried to think of some examples matching that.
There's an Italian folktale, "Cola Pesce," centered on a fish-man. In almost every version, a king demands that he be brought to him to perform tricks and wonderful feats of diving, but this always leads one way or another to the fish-man's death. This goes back pretty far; thereās a 12th-century version where the man is named "Nicholas Pipe.ā
The Dutch story of the Mermaid of Edam, which was written down in 1470, features a mermaid who is captured and taken to live among human beings. She was taught to spin and kept in a house where she was carefully guarded, and people came from all over to see her. I think in early stories she looked pretty much like a human, but later versions described her with a fish tail; one newspaper account had it that āShe would have her tail in the water, and accordingly had a tub of water under her chair made on purpose for her.ā The Spanish story of the fish-man of Lierganes, placed around 1650, is really similar although I donāt think itās been as romanticized. (Thereās a running theory in both cases that these stories might have been inspired by real human people who were found swimming.)
In Juan de Luna's 1620 book The Second Part of Lazarillo de Tormes, the main character is a normal man but is captured and forced to dress up like a merman and perform in a tank.
A Manx newspaper from 1810 describes a man discovering two wounded āmerchildrenā on the beach after a storm. He was able to save one and nurse it back to health, at which point it was:
conveyed to Douglas, where it Ā still remains, and seems likely to do well. It is one foot eleven inches and Ā three quarters in length, from the crown of its head to the extremity of its Ā tail ; five inches across the shoulders ; its skin is of a very pale brown colour, Ā and the scales on its tail are tinged with violet ; the hair, Ā if it may be so called, on its head, is of a light green cast, it is attached Ā to the crown of the head, only hanging loose about the face, about four inches Ā in length, very gelatinous to the touch, and somewhat resembling the green seaweed Ā commonly growing on rocks; its mouth is small, and has no appearance of teeth. Ā It delights much in swimming about in a large tub of sea-water, and feeds chiefly Ā on muscles and other shellfish, which it devours with avidity: it also now and Ā then swallows small portions of milk and water, when given to it in a quill.
The collector noting this down comments that āIt is regrettable that the merchild should not have delayed its appearance until Ā the institution of a Manx museum.ā Tongue-in-cheek but still feels notable. (A Manx Scrapbook, W. Walter Gill, 1929)
The trope is also in āThe Asrai,ā a story in Ruth Tongueās Forgotten Folk-Tales of the English Counties (1970, pg. 24):Ā a man captures a water-sprite-like creature and thinks "He would take her to the great lord's castle and he could keep her in the fountains there and show her off to his noble guests.ā I have to say Tongueās an infamously untrustworthy source and I think she was indulging in a little bit of āiām just going to make up my own stories and claim i heard them as folklore.ā But the trope is there.
Thatās stuff I can recall and have noted down, and I feel like thereās probably more out there. If people believed in mermaids, then there is naturally the idea that someone could catch a mermaid and bring it back. And they would have known of such things happening with wild animals, or seen unusual people and sights being shown off, so why not mermaids? And now we have aquariums, which itās even more natural to imagine a mermaid in. One big change that I do think is modern is how the captive mermaid is typically viewed with sympathy - way more sympathy than there would be in older folktales.
The Captive Mermaid is one of those very specific cultural images which I think has only been around for the past forty years or so, but itās basically everywhere at this point. A mermaid has been captured and is on display in a fish tank or an aquarium or in some kind of government research site.
Splash, 1984
Siren, 2018
May: The Mermaid of Lily Lake by Andy Ivanov
āDeep Trouble,ā Goosebumps Terror Trips, 2007
This is also everywhere in fanfiction and fanart. You canāt swing a stick without hitting a mermaid AU featuring The Captive Mermaid.
And I canāt stop thinking about The Captive Mermaid, because itās such a huge and recognizable image, and as far as I can tell, nobodyās recognized it as a. Thing. A theme. A trope. If you look up āmermaid aquarium art,ā youāll get hundreds and hundreds of extremely talented and beautiful pieces of art by artists online, but nobody Iāve seen has stopped to say āOh hey this is a recurring image in western art and media, I wonder why that is.ā
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hey so i could use some advice about a crush. so i just met this guy in july and weve become friends but i very quickly developed feelings for him. every time i think about him i smile and hes just a really nice guy. i want to tell how i feel but im not sure how or when to do it. we dont know each other that well yet and im worried if i tell him he wont wanna be friends anymore if he doesnt like me back and i really wanna at least be friends with him. so what do u think i should do?
This is hard. It depends so much on you personally.
When I get crushes on new friends, I am quick to ask them out so I can stamp out the crush before I get too attached if they say no. And it's bonus really great if it leads to something.
But not everyone wants to do that and it does run the risk of losing that friend.
In my experience, if you're open but not pressuring, things tend to turn out fine. But that doesn't always happen.
It's up to you, you know this person better than I do and are more likely to know how he'd react.
If you decide to tell him, it's best to do so when you're not around any mutual friends and probably in public so he doesn't feel cornered. A park or somewhere else public but quiet would probably be good in my opinion. Over text also works well so he can process in his own time and respond when he's ready.
I asked a guy out once at 9pm in a Taco Bell while our mutual friend was in the toilet. That was not an ideal location but it went well. We didn't end up dating but he's my best friend now.
In my experience, asking "Do you want to go on a date with me?" Or something along those lines has better results than confessing your feelings in detail. And also way better results than "do you want to be my boyfriend?" Don't jump right into commitment or overwhelm someone with how you feel for them when they might not feel the same.
If you don't want to go on a date though, it is okay to just say like "hey, so you know, I think I'm developing a crush on you."
It's all about what's comfy for you and what you want to do. Obviously, you want to take his potential feelings into account but you gotta put yours first.
Good luck! You've got this. There's no shame in having feelings and whatever you decide to do (including doing nothing): hell yeah.
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The Second Coming of Jesus Christ
Note: Colson Linās Twitter profile has exactly 181 followers, which will be relevant. He recently used a different profile he created for his project to follow himself. Before these tweets, he had 180 followers. Please remember that Colson Lin is a Yale Law graduate. All of the empirical claims he makes about his life story are true and verifiable by the media.
The opening of Colson Linās Twitter profile:
1.
The Second Coming of Jesus Christ is about to post Riddle 1 of 42.
Itās from God.
I know you donāt really want to die. You just want the pain to be over. I know you got tired of America. I know it got hard to stay sober.
Iām going to blow your mind.
God is a woman.
Infinity?
2.
Hey, traphouse vandal:
Or likeā
Try to help?
Jesus fucking Christ.
I wonāt out you because Iām not a cult leader here to turn everyone against even a single one of you.
Iām literally here to help.
[Note: The above tweet was written at 4:44 AM.]
Oops?
Truth hurts.
āLizzo
Nothing in the Universe is more Powerful than reality. Reality has a trick.
Reason.
Reasonable beings use intelligence to attach to reality.
Oh the cords get tangled for all sorts of bad reasons (Power!), but those bad reasons are smaller than Reality.
With time, Truth bites.
To be fair [to the traphouse vandal], I didnāt click [your profile].
After I clicked, I was hopeful again.
Hope I click for you too, buddy.
3.
Iām gonna laugh at the media if they try to bury the next few tweets in obscurity after I email them an outline of my philosophical postmodern-art project that challenges the status quo, by an LGBT child of working-class immigrants with a perfect SAT score and a Yale Law degree.
Donāt worry.
Yāall are off the hook for now.
I havenāt done it yet.
But pretty soon after I do?
Iām going to publicize the recipients in this thread.
Sorry for being a living, breathing 21st-century icon.
4.
I just realized.
Shared power means at least somebody should be verifying my work.
Given that Iāve apparently scared the fuck out of 99% of humanity so that nobody wants to engage with meā¦
Can the NSA just do it?
(Yāall establishment-media typesāyāall trust them, right?)
š
I am happy to communicate with any world leader through text or email.
Yāall know how to find me.
Hell, letās hop on Zoom.
Itāll be a quick century.
Call me crazy.
But Iām smart enough to speak to you.
5.
@NSAGov
u up?
Hereās my phone number.
[Note: Colson Lin provides a phone number, but it is reacted from public view.]
Yāall can confirm every aspect of my life to check.
Donāt leak my phone number unless I do anything evil.
Yāall can go through all my texts and emails.
It really doesnāt feel fair to the rest of humanity, you know, for like one person to be this iconic.
And not famous.
lmao stoppp iām literally just kidding y r u being so mean
Iām the sweetest girl in town so why are you so mean? When you gonna ditch that stupid ***** you got? Itās me you should be seeinā
Sorry yāall.
I censored the word Satan, because heās my enemy.
6.
Hereās how this Twitter will proceed:
When I want something, Iāll ask for it.
Literally anyone with a Twitter account can tell me if Iāve made an unreasonable request.
DMs are now closed.
Our book of wisdom will be for future humans.
Donāt worry.
āIām good with languages.ā
Languages spoken or studied: English, Spanish (middle school and high school), French (college), Arabic (college), Chinese (youāre racist).
Iām only missing one to hit the UN six.
Haha.
Oh wait.
What are the chancesā¦ my brother Ilya is Russian.
Wise people who can touch powerful wisdom using wise storytelling can touch God.
By the way, for some reason unlikely coincidences seem to stack up around them.
I think those are called āmiracles,ā but can anyone google it and check?
Hey humanity.
That was my first question.
Donāt worry.
Because Iām a kooky guy, Iāll answer your questions with either tweets or little creative videos.
But if I answer you, Iāll have to delete 1 of my older tweets.
So ask wisely.
If a bot farm fucks this up for all of humanity, Satan wins.
(Iāll literally give up.)
Let me make an empirical prediction supported by logical reasoning:
The hardest time to take me seriously is when:
(1) I have no social power. (2) The entire world isnāt talking about me. (3) Your coworkers. Your mom. Your spouse. Everyone.
And yet so many right now still do.
Iām trying to prove here that God can come out of the elites.
God can come out of world leaders. God can come out of federal workers. God can come out of journalists. God can come out of prisoners. God can come out of international criminals.
I have hope, yāall.
Donāt kill it.
By the way, I will artificially up my follower count to 181 by making one of my other Twitter profiles for this project follow me when Iām not in the mood to talk, when Iām too busy hanging out with friends and living my actual life becauseā
lmao yāall
This Twitter is literally just a fun hobby for me.
Iām a writer.
This is the most provocative Twitter thread in human history.
Anyone inside humanity can verify it.
7.
If you believe I can channel God, then not a single person in the world can up my follower count.
If you do, I will wait for someone to unfollow me before I talk in public again.
Iām not the Anti-Christ.
Iļæ½ļæ½m the Anti-Twitter.
(Which means Iām pretty sure I just became cool.)
You knowā
180 people defended the Alamo. (āIs that true?ā)
180 is a perfect LSAT score. (āIs that true?ā)
Truth is like a circle of perfection.
Everything outside=Satanic
The first person to follow me and bring me to 181 followers will fuck up the Bible.
So donāt do it.
;)
In the spirit of the idea I just had tonight, I will announce a change of plans.
āA Stick of Dynamite in the American Eliteā is a book that will now grow indefinitely.
But I will maintain the Twitter at meaningful numbers.
Which meansā¦
You got it.
This Twitter self-deletes.
Does anyone know how to use Twitter search and take screenshots?
In the meantime, I have a riddle for humanity.
Do you have what it takes to survive?
Postmodernists vote āyes.ā
Nihilists vote āno.ā
Just kidding.
š¤ oig I'm like so funny
Iām never gonna reveal how to vote.
Yes No
8. [Note:Ā This is a lucky number in Chinese. Colson Lin was born in Shanghai, China. He is the illegitimate bastard child of Chinaās most iconoclastic philosopher whose writings had a significant influence on the Communist Party of Chinaās policy in the 1990s. The philosopher is married to a successful mainstream film director named Hu Mei.]
Iām, like, not a real person. Iām a fictional character on an HBO show called āA Stick of Dynamite in the American Eliteā that tells the preposterous story of the bastard child of China and the favored son of America coming together to be the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. butā
So anywayāitās May 26, 2023.
You know.
The day after Jesus 2.0 was born.
Howās everyoneās Boxing Day going?
Meritocrats?
Yāall doing well? (I heard āYale Lawā and āLSATā trended on Twitter today; randomā¦)
You know what came out on Boxing Day half a century ago?
Google it.
My name is Colson Lin and I got a 1600 on my SAT, bitch.
But Iām gonna inch my number of videos and images up to 1610 before bringing it back down to 1600.
Because Iām from Houston, yāall.
The moon was your first international dynamite.
BeyoncƩ was your second.
āIām your 3.ā
Hey guys.
If I is 1.
II is 2.
What does 111 stand for?
9.
Tomorrow night on āA Stick of Dynamite in the American Eliteā:
The Second Coming of Jesus Christ watches a Netflix show called āBeef.ā
It was the first time he has seen so many Asian-Americans.
He has thoughts.
āTheyāre flatter, fewer-dimensional renditions of the people Iāve met and know. Godās coming out of all of them except the Satanic elite Wal-Mart lady (but Iām only on episode two). Wow. I bet when she and her Japanese husband are bored, theyād watch HBOās A STICK OF DYNAMITEāā
Tomorrow.
Only on HBO:
āA Stick of Dynamite in the American Eliteā found God by breaking the meta.
Itās the show that doesnāt make sense for anyone in Netflixās āBeefā to have known or heard about.
Because it would break the meritocracy.
Introducing:
āThe Lotteracyā by CL.
If youāre too impatient to see the HBO episode:
Read it in real fucking time.
Every Friday night.
Only on @dumatology.
A time-stable book about God, written on Twitter over the course of a summer (āThe Summer of the Second Comingā) on Twitter, in 16 chapters.
Backwards.
š
Spoiler alert:
God is trying to rise out of every tribe at the same time.
The results are Satanic.
Yāall need a leader.
;)
Do you want your leader to be Godly or Satanic?
Wait.
Does God exist?
Holy shit, you guys!
That tweet went up at exactly 2:12 AM on May 26, 2023.
Tell me something:
Am I just a really, really good storyteller?
Or can my brother Ilya see that Iām channeling all of this in real time, because K. from TH Rogers spontaneously texted me to recommendā
The Bible made God boring. Postmodernity made God boring. God is boring.
IQ Test:
Which of the above is true?
āA Stick of Dynamite in the American Eliteā is bringing God back to postmodernity.
Yo elitesā
Who among yāall ready to click on this video?
2023
youtube
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This looks like a place I used to go as a very little girl. I still don't understand what that was or what the building was for.
Being chronically gaslit will mess with your memory. My [REDACTED] specialist reminded me I should see a neurologist. It made me sad.
I can't remember what I was writing, that happens when I think about anything upsetting or get even a little stressed. Uh...
Oh yeah. I was reading about schizophrenia prodrome. Sounds like my mum a lot. I wonder how different I'd be if I could talk to her.
"Remember when we went to the hotel?" And she'd just tell me that never happened.
I remember the nice lady (?) (sometimes a man) at the launderette who liked me a lot. She always gave me lolipops. There was a jar of them on the counter.
I don't think we had money back then, or something was wrong.
Those "sleepovers" were fun though. We got a big room with lots of beds for me and my siblings and her. The beddings were fluffy and big and white. I remember all that as well or better than what happened 2 days ago (meaning fuzzy, or not at all. Just a suggestion of a shape. Body sensations, bodily emotions. I think and recount in touch and direction mostly, it tells you a lot).
I remember grammar rules people find weird and don't use now that we're older. I suppose English has changed. I suppose British English got more American to fit everywhere else. I remember being told off for doing things that were drilled into me when I was 6.
I don't remember how much my body hurt in my teens, I don't like to. I don't like to remember how no one understood.
My boyfriend is Norwegian. He said it's normal to have mothbitten muscles after being in the snow in not enough for long. It made me feel better. I was on the bed wondering if I was "getting bad" again, so it was comforting. It put me at ease. England doesn't get that cold though, I don't know why I was feeling like that.
I was getting on the circle or district line to Victoria when I was 17 and my legs stopped working for a second on the stairs. I remember that.
Maybe I should close the window...
I like public diaries. I don't entirely mind that, if I say something naughty again and this account gets sniped, I'll lose all these entries. It's happened at least twice now on various sites. I don't mind because I don't feel attached to my memories.
I like clinging to him when I feel like something's wrong, although, I wish he helped around the house a bit more.
I feel like everyone likes you when you're a little girl, except the man who swore at me at the bus stop. I'm often invisible now, it makes me worry about other little girls. Will they feel invisible when they grow up? I certainly hope not, maybe I just got unlucky.
His friends don't always know how to say hi to me, and I'm not always good at introducing myself. I can't be bothered. I'm tired, I'm shy, my mouth gets full of cotton and sewn up sometimes. I both love it and hate it when people online call me a doll. I want to be a real girl, but sometimes it feels like that isn't enough.
Is it only me who would love to read a book in this living room by @RaphaelMetivet
Get Inspired, visit www.myhouseidea.com
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