#i gotta bunch most of which i will probably never share because i don't want to get ripped apart in my askbox

[mischievouslittlecreature]

I feel like this is gonna be a hot take, but I actually don't really want a Peaky Blinders movie.

I know I'm in the minority here but I actually really liked season 6, and I LOVED the ending. Open-endings have always been something I've enjoyed, and after spending pretty much the entire season just bracing myself to have to watch Tommy die, I was so, so relieved and ecstatic to see that not only did he live, but he actually got a pretty hopeful ending. And the symbolism was just *muah*.

I'm terrified that a movie will wreck a lot of that. I'm scared Steven Knight is going to regress characters. I could easily see him giving Arthur another drug-addict storyline and if he shoves Lizzie and Tommy back together after Lizzie finally went through the development and growth necessary to break away from that loveless, toxic ass marriage, I swear to God...

And I feel like this might also be an unpopular opinion but I really don't want Tommy to die. I know that's probably inevitable if we get a movie since Cillian seems to be just about done playing the character, and it would be the only way to really be able to end his storyline.

But I'm attached to the fucker, okay? I don't want to watch him die. And I've gotten tired of the trope of killing off the suicidal character because "it's what they want" or "it's the only way they'll actually find peace." It just feels like lazy writing to me a lot of the time.

I don't know I'm just sort of rambling at this point I guess. And don't get me wrong if we do get a movie or more content I'll probably be excited and will happily watch it. I just loved the ending of season 6, and I don't feel unfulfilled or like I need more of the story. I like stories that end, and I felt that Peaky Blinders concluded in a satisfying way.

Please don't come for me in the comments 😅 this is just my personal opinion.

[sgiandubh]

Labor of love

I was very interested to see what S told Mark Gillespie on the last episode of the latter's WhiskyCast podcast, @bat-cat-reader immediately shared with us.

It was a most instructive 35 minutes. I listened to all of it, because I wanted to also hear Gillespie's tasting notes forThe Sassenach. And I regret nothing: once you get past the traditional (and a bit obnoxious) 'why The Sassenach?' question, you're in for some interesting news.

You can listen to it here, by the way:

Before anything, who is Mark Gillespie?

One of the most respected professionals in the very small world of alcohol specialized podcasters, with a 37 years work experience in media and broadcasting, spanning household names such as CNN, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Gallup and MSNBC. But also, and this I found very interesting, given the current context, the owner of CaskMedia, a firm specialized not only in media production, but also marketing and PR.

The podcast was recorded at The Metropolitan Club's library, moments before the Keepers of the Quaich dinner, where S was a keynote speaker. So not 'just there for the Haggis Ceremony ' - a 'guest of honor' is never invited just for the show, people should have known better, eh?

S's 7 minutes interview starts at the 09:32 mark. Comments in brackets are mine.

Gillespie surely doesn't like to beat around the bush and after the customary niceties, asks a million-dollar question:

MG: 'I have to ask: did you have the troubles (problems?) in Germany straightened up?'

SH: ' Ha, ha, ha [not an organic giggle, but hey - gotta do what you gotta do, eh?]. Well, I am not entirely sure I should talk about it [speaks very quickly and through his teeth - visibly annoyed/nervous; not entirely sure I got it all correctly, so feel free to amend in comments], ah... ummm... not as yet... not as yet...ummm...we did fall into an issue with the name Sassenach, which was similar to a big brand in the US... ah!... in Germany, sorry... of a beer brand... I...I personally don't see the similarity [neither do I, S...neither do I], but I am sure once people taste our whisky, they'll know what it is, whatever the name is on it.'

Yes, this interview was probably rehearsed. Yes, Gillespie might have sent the questions to S/his people in advance for reviewing. No, he could not speak about a legally complicated situation before the final settlement with that Schoppingen beer brewer (penalties are probably still to be fixed and paid, but I will check that, so don't take my word for Gospel truth, yet). I will write separately about this whole thing, because I still think that was a very questionable decision of the EUIPO. Not because it royally pisses me off (so fucking unfair!), but because I really fail to see the proper legal reasoning and basis for it. His answer was perfect, under the circumstances. Absolutely perfect.

Anyways, FWIW, it would seem some sort of solution has already been found ('whatever the name is on it') and that most probably would be to rebrand it. And sell it on the German/EU market under a new name.

Lallybroch (https://trademarks.justia.com/981/67/lallybroch-98167525.html), perhaps? Time will tell, but that could explain this recent trademark application I didn't have time to properly look into, yet:

Further ahead (and fast forward through the cask version release, these things bore me to death), we land on another (as yet) unexploded ordnance:

MG: 'I have to mention your show MIK that you do with Graham McTavish, you visited a bunch of distilleries during that one... any visit in particular stands out?'

Now I am not very sure if that question was the best possible one, since that SAG-AFTRA strike is still an ongoing situation. And his answer was quite clever, changing the focus on their visit to Laphroaig's distillery on Islay and waxing lyrical about the casks, the peat, the landscape, etc. But other than a perfunctory and logical 'we', I heard absolutely nothing about McTavish, and it could have been so damn easy to further change the subject and mention his bourbon, with a few kind words. Therefore, I think things are pretty obviously not exactly on the sunny side, between the two. And I guess we all know why.

To end this long post on a cheerful note, I almost forgot to mention something very important. Answering a listener's question about Sassenach not being available in Rhode Island/part of New Jersey, S said something very interesting: 'obviously you can get it online, (...) we've just signed a deal with Southern Glazer's, so we're rolling it out. It is a limited batch, so you know, every year we do do a release and it is very limited, so it does tend to sell out pretty quick. But yes, it is available (...), but obviously you're not gonna see it in every bar, restaurant or retailer, because we just don't have enough of it. But online you can get it and great delivery service, it's very quick.'

I am taking two things home from this last answer: demand exceeds supply, which is both a blessing (solid yield, room for expansion) and a curse (lackadaisical market presence). On short to mid term, distribution will concentrate on the online market, with the help of Southern Glazer's superb infrastructure.

Remember the older guy he had lunch with in MIA, in May? You should, if you didn't focus on Mordor's inept babble about shirts, ballerinas and the like. That guy was instrumental into arranging the deal with Southern Glazer's. Just the biggest wine and spirits distributor on the US market, mind you.

Don't believe me? Check this out:

That company was founded in Florida. Its HQ is still in MIA. He didn't go there because he was looking for ballerinas at his birthday dinner. He went there because when these people are available to meet you, well: you leave everything aside and you damn GO.

Now who the hell is writing fanfiction, eh? You really should be ashamed, madam.

I rest my case.

[artonice]

Am I delulu?

Anyways... seriously y'all. I started publicly sharing B/V stuff in March. I'm just a girly from Boston who is obsessed with ice dance and the athletic, emotional moments it creates. I also enjoy its connection to art. Their 2023 FD reminds me so much of the above painting. I like to post comparisons and Kiki with the girls. Ice dance slays so hard bc I've never seen anything like it before! I really earnestly just enjoy all of the mechanics.

The dedication, the performance. Y'all caught me vicariously living, babes! We all wish we could've been something like a ballerina or an ice skater. Seeing Bella skate, inspires me to do the things that little me dreamed of. Still! Which I enjoy just as equally. Because everyone seems so grumpy all the time and I love having something to cheer for and believe in. I've competed for 2 bike races since following Bella. Because I'm rooting for someone who does cool stuff and think, wait I can do cool stuff too. And the duo for sure inspires me to paint and write and listen to good music and all that other important stuff. Like a good tv show or my favorite book would.

But this is my crutch, y'all. These are very real people. Celebrity and influencer culture makes us depersonalize the figures sharing their lives. I can def see how I get lost in the delulu of their skating story, and Bella's underdog lore (which is mainly why I'm here y'all). I know it's still a risk that skaters can see this post, but I just wanna yap to no one about how weird the modern world is. And I think Tumblr is probably the most private place out of all socials to yap anyways.

So, my point. I feel weird! I feel so weird making edits and talking about how inspired I am by these strangers, especially when the inspiring strangers can see😭. Bella follows my insta account (as well as a bunch of others) bc she's a cool and connective girl broooo like Bella pls don't unfollow girly I'm just saying I don't wanna freak anyone out 😭🫶. Cause I couldn't imagine all these people being so focused on my life and what I do, it might stress me out bad yall.

I know I'm delulu, but more so I'm sensitive. That's why I like this sport. And I like to chit chat!!! Combined with this hyper digital, often fantasy focused world we live in (movies, tv, sports, books) I don't want to be confused with some crazy person who can't decipher boundaries bc I run an active stan account. And no hate to my fellow Stan accounts, this scenario feels unique bc ice skating fan accounts have audiences that often include people in the skater's communities or families, if not the skater themselves. It's not like I'm posting about Taylor Swift who won't see it. Girl, my T-swift is 5'ft tall and can jump 6ft high in the air. Her Eras Tour starts in Lake Placid this July😭. And you bet your ass I need to talk about it!

But I also gotta remind myself that this isn't my favorite TV show but people's real lives. Like fr. Sometimes the competition is so good you'd think it was scripted, y'all. God, like let me keep yapping forever huh?

Anyways, I am so glad I get to connect with my favorite athlete, as I'm sure her other fans appreciate it too. She's honest and open to chat for a reason, it keeps us feeling like we are on the road to the Olympics with her. I'm gunna keep posting cause I love the idea of turning all of booktok on her lore and getting a million people to root for them so I can see them at freaking SKAM 🤨. The conversation between influencer and audience is just hella interesting. And I hope I'm towing the line okay!

[theliteraryluggage]

Yo, I've got a bunch. You don't need to do all of them, if it's too much. 🕯️🛼🪐🏜️🪲🐝🧩

I love your work, fanfic and art! Thank you a lot! I hope you keep at it for a long time!

Oh my god are you kidding?? Of course I'll do them all!! I love this kinda stuff, thanks so much for sending them! And thanks for your kind words! 🥰

🕯️ ⇢ on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy editing? why is that?

Oh man, editing is not my favourite part of writing. 4? I'm not very good at identifying what about a first draft needs work and how to get there. I used to never really edit at all, except for some basic proofreading, I'd pretty much just stick with the first draft. These days I need to edit a lot more, because my first drafts are much rougher, because I've learned not to be so perfectionist when drafting. Which is good because it helps me write faster and more easily, and bad because I end up getting tired of editing or being unable to figure out what needs changing, and so I feel like my works aren't as polished as they used to be.

��� ⇢ describe your latest wip with five emojis

ehehehehe 🤭

👑🦾⚔️💀😭

🪐 ⇢ name three good things going on in your life right now

uh. that's a tough one right now, I've been having A Time™️ lately. But I cooked a very tasty dinner tonight! And my last convention went really well! Aaand my birthday's coming up, which.. I never know how I feel about that, but I am looking forward to seeing my friends and hanging out with all of them when I celebrate!

Already answered 🏜️!

🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here

They seemed to be of average size, though it was difficult to determine the physique underneath the loose, dark clothing. The fact that most of their face was concealed behind a mask did not inspire confidence, though Ling could see enough of their eyes to know they were Xingese—if the curved sword they were brandishing, not unlike his own, wasn’t indication enough.

60 words but, well, I wanted to finish the sentence.

🐝 ⇢ tag your biggest supporter(s) and say one nice thing about them

that's gotta be @nino-saurier with their endless enthusiasm for me and my creations. they can find something nice to say about every doodle and every inane idea I can come up with and their encouragement is always a great motivation for me 💖

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

Oof I mean I have my squicks and NOTPs like anyone else but usually I won't even click on a fanfic that features them, if they are correctly tagged. If a fic looks like it might be to my taste and I start reading, the thing that will most reliably make me close the tab is a) blatantly bad SPAG (I don't mind a typo or grammar mistake here and there, heaven knows I've got them too, but when it gets to the point of impeding readability...) or b) mischaracterising my blorbo. everyone has their character interpretations of course, and I have mine, and I'm not expecting anyone to completely agree with me on everything, but there are a few key points that I think are crucial to Ed's character so he actually feels like Ed, and if these aren't given, I probably won't keep reading a fic.

Again thank you so much for sending these in!!

Writer Ask Game

[eurydicees]

what are your ideas so far? :0 like fandom, ships, type of soulmate au, etc. im so curious!!

soulmate aus can be fun to play around with if you're doing interesting things with it <- the only way i like them fjdns. make it a little messy! complicated! i don't want it to be easy (this is me on my soapbox, not like @ you fjdjsjs)

ok HERE WE GO. thank you for the ask i am now going to proceed to Go.

so the easy bit: its gonna be haikyuu because the brainrot i have is literally incurable. now for everything after that. it gets a little more complicated. bc you are so right. if the soulmatism is easy then it's no fun! it's gotta be painful and messy for it to be interesting! what's the point of a world that's easy? (<- said by someone who keeps writing a concerning number of unrequited soulmate aus)

im gonna be honest, this is a little (a lot) inspired by a prompt i got in january 2022 (yikes sorry some of y'all are still waiting on a bunch of those) from @/what-the-flowers (once again im so sorry).

the parts of the prompt that i'm working with are (a) dreamsharing soulmates, (b) platonic soulmates, and (c) rare enough that 1/2 of the pair doesn't believe in them!! all of those ideas are SUPER exciting to me individually, but put them together......hehehhehehe

so the pairings im thinkin bout. i think it's gonna be hinata-centric because i've never really gone that route with a fic before and that feels unfair for a show literally about him. i think he starts sharing dreams with kageyama after he moves to brazil and then they have to navigate that change in their relationship when they're suddenly so far apart.

but the thing is that, like. they aren't in love with each other. they're besties, each other's greatest supporter and greatest rival, but they're not in love. i am forever a platonic kagehina truther. im not sorry for who i am. but anyways they've only ever heard stories about soulmates, and only ever been told that they're romantic.

and they don't really know how to navigate all of that, especially when neither of them are, like, the greatest at interpersonal emotional communication.

anyways! while this is happening i am shoving kenhina in there because i am currently shaking them around in my mind. it's kenma and hinata falling for each other but this whole soulmate thing is making things stupid complicated, and it doesn't need to, but it is, and it sucks.

oh and also kenma's bestie and no. 1 support system is obviously kuroo and as a side note, kuroo just straight up. does not believe in soulmates. i think i'm gonna force in a backstory about his parents there but it's probably gonna be not at all relevant, i just have a lot of thoughts about the kuroo family. anyways. this is ALSO making things complicated in some way that i haven't figured out yet.

but kenma doesn't have a soulmate, and he's falling in love with hinata, who suddenly has been given a soulmate years after kenma started being interested in him (maybe they were already established for a bit? not sure yet), and what does that mean for any of them?

i also have a side plot about oikawa and iwaoi and california and brazil. this is probably going to be a minor subplot used to push hinata towards being brave enough for an unconventional soulmate relationship and it may not really be necessary but i need 30,000 words out of this so it's going in there.

things i am most excited about:

kenhina !!! i've never written them but something about them is itching my brain rn and i want to try it !!!

hinata pov !!!! its so silly i've never done it and i want to give it a shot

dreamsharing!!!! i think i'm gonna play with , like, dreamscapes and the way dreams feel so liminal and unreal in addition to the way you can communicate with someone within dreams for realsies

world building !!! universes in which soulmates exist can be so crazy and i am going to make this one MESSY

subpoint to that: what are the implications of soulmates in the first place? what does it mean that they're so rare? and what does it mean to reject ur soulmate? what does it mean to have a platonic soulmate and someone else ur in love with? and what does it mean to be in love with someone who has a soulmate who isn't you?

things i am going to switch around/ideas i want to play with a little before i start writing in july:

hinata pov is very daunting. ngl. it is very daunting. and i may switch to a kenma pov bc that could also be super interesting (see: the last subpoint before this).

i want SO badly to write a kenma character study and i think this probably isn't the fic plot for that but WHAT IF IT WAS.

kageyama's role--i don't want him to just be there in dreams, so i want to figure out ways to work him into the physical world

how long does this last? -> i feel good abt starting at the beginning of hinata's brazil time, but i'm not sure how much time this needs to cover for it to make sense

there is so much to consider and i was on the fence abt this fic but now that i've written this all out i am getting EXCITED

[solarsavoy]

*Slides into ask box*

So like, remember when I told you that I had a whole bunch of secondary Isogai and Maehara ships? Welp, time to get some of them out there!

So there’s this ship called MaeChi which is Maehara x Chiba and I thought it was really cute so for ship Sunday, how about you share your take on that? (Unless if you already have another request than that’s perfectly fine)

*Slides away*

Okay, so I've held onto this ask for like, 7 months now. I'd really never thought about how these two would interact and most of it stems from how little I know Chiba, however, writing up that Algebro group text gave me some ideas.

I'll start by saying that I think Chiba would be really dense when it comes to relationships, initially. As in where other might assume they're in a relationship with him, he'd probably just assume they're still friends until something is physically said about it. Like "hey, we're dating now. You cool?" It's gotta be direct and I think he might blush a bit and then smile and then just... go with it.

I think Chiba is super reserved, so getting to know the real him would take a lot of time and patience, and imo he's probably the most patient person ever, so you'd have to somehow beat that. It's why I ship ChiHaya so heavily. These two seem happy to simply exist around each other without expectations. Sure, it's hard to get these two to communicate, but they'd probably just sit in limbo for decades and for the most part, be perfectly content with how things are.

But this isn't about ChiHaya.

So, for Maehara and Chiba, I can definitely see Maehara being the one to pull all the moves, but I also see him being indirect about it for the sake of "smoothness". So he'd ask Chiba out on a date, but he wouldn't call it a date, so Chiba would just think they're hanging out as friends. Unless it's something Chiba really doesn't want to do, he'd probably say very little and Maehara would just run the whole show. And because Maehara has his own density issues... I think it'd take him a while to realize he's essentially dating himself and Chiba is just sort of there to witness it. XD

When Maehara does finally "make it official" either by trying to kiss him or straight up asking him if they're dating, I see Chiba taking his time on deciding something that big. Throughout they're whole "hanging out" time, he'd probably feel like Maehara doesn't really know him, and probably won't take the steps to try to get to know him, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't at least give it a shot.

Maehara would probably be really into Chiba playing guitar and want to learn, but I don't think Maehara would be really good at it. 😅 Which would then prompt him to learn the bass because it's easier.

I see these two getting really close (not physically though) in high school and then later mutually deciding to just be friends. Chiba entertains Maehara's obsession with the Algebros and even though it doesn't seem like it on the outside, the backbone of the group is actually these two. Without Chiba, Maehara would be a one man show Algebro. In the very few times Maehara just needs a quiet place to think, he'd definitely go to Chiba and just exist for a while. And sometimes, Chiba is able to give him the advice he needs, despite all Maehara's problems being relationship problems and Chiba would be considered "inexperienced". Even so, as adults I see these two being those friends that only talk once every year or so, but they always hang out as though high school was just yesterday. 💙

Sorry again for the long wait, but I hope you like the response! (Willing to bet you forgot you even asked this. XD I'm sure it was back in October or something.) Love you, Hailey!

[hollow-prey]

some thoughts that are probably petty and silly (and not exactly self ship related, but more about the source material(s) for one of my f/os) but that have been on my mind a while:

I really miss the old ego stuff. I know time moves on and things are different, we've all grown up more and gotten older and circumstances have changed. The pandemic fucked up a lot of things. Creative projects evolve over time to expand and experiment and improve, or they get scrapped and reworked or rewritten. I get it. but I still miss stuff like the cryptic clues and teases and small glitches and glimpses of what was to come. that period between 2016-2018 when the ego stuff was most prominent was such a fun, cozy time for me and I wish the ego stuff could still be like that. I understand why it can't be like that anymore, why it has had to change and evolve, why S.ean is pulling away from YT in general to move towards bigger and better projects and opportunities. I understand that we've all grown older and changed between 2018 and now, especially after the pandemic. but it makes me sad that things aren't the same anymore.

At many points during the hiatus (if that's the right word for the gap in this case), between 2019 and early 2022, I genuinely thought all the ego stuff had been scrapped and abandoned. Especially in the midst of a quarantine when we were all struggling mentally, I thought maybe the spark had died and S.ean just didn't feel like making ego stuff anymore, so he would just...stop, and that would be it. Or I figured he was probably looking towards bigger and better things, and I held my breath waiting for him to say that he wasn't coming back to YouTube because he found better stuff to work on elsewhere. Not that I could blame him if that was the case (and I mean. I already know things are shifting in that direction), but at the time, I would have been crushed to see him go. The mere thought of never seeing A.nti again in official stuff was devastating to me.

I love the concept of the IR.IS project and the way the lore and characters are slowly getting fleshed out. "An.omaly Found" and all the community hype and chatter about it made it feel like old times. Just knowing that the egos weren't abandoned helped quell some of my anxiety, and I was once again content to wait for more updates. But I admittedly feel a bit conflicted about future ego stuff being split into different formats across different platforms/media. Like right now, they've just started releasing comics that tie into the over-arching lore and focus on different characters. Admittedly, I haven't looked into it much or ordered any of the current issues because...I'm kinda not interested? I don't know if they would really hit the same as the videos. It also makes me a tiny bit worried that if canon, plot-relevant ego stuff gets split up across a bunch of different formats and platforms, in order to get the full story and understand what's going on, we would have to keep up with all the different releases and the timeline and pay to buy or to access each thing. we'd basically get paywalled out of the full story/experience, or at the very least, it might get confusing to try and keep up with.

and that's probably not fair to say because I know YouTube is fucking abysmal for creators trying to make money off their work. Ad restrictions, copyright claims, demonetization, all of which are absurdly easy to get hit with no matter how hard you try to avoid it etc. etc. And I know S.ean puts a lot of heart and effort into what he does. He wants to do it and do it well, and stuff like IR.IS and An.omaly Found ain't cheap to make. Dude's gotta make money somehow. He's gotta pay for production and pay the crew/actors/editors/artists/etc. he hires and he has to pay his own bills. We've been spoiled for a long time, getting a bunch of ego stuff on YouTube for free over the years. And I don't think he'll completely stop posting ego stuff to YT once it's ready to be shared (at least not in the immediate future...I hope), but I know logically it makes sense to want to branch out into different creative avenues and try new things and ultimately, the price of a comic book is a small one to pay for cool new content from a project you like and helping to support the creator and the writers/artists at the same time.

idk, my little gremlin brain always dislikes change anyway, especially with stuff I like. I guess I just worry that this will be like. A New Thing and it will lose the heart and core of what made it special. Which is honestly pretty unlikely, since (to my knowledge) S.ean is definitely still very involved in everything and working on writing a lot of it...idk. many thoughts head full

[sentinelcole]

When I was three years old, I learned that if I told my dad my mom wouldn't let me have something, he's d get it for my out of spite. I didn't know why at the time. I knew they were divorced and for some reason, that made him buy me more stuff. I didn't care. I just knew with the right words, I could make anything happen. I wouldn't realize how right I was for another decade.

School had only reinforced what I already knew: a good story could get you anything. Forgot to do your homework? Tell your teacher you did it but you lost it in your dad's car and you wouldn't see him for another week. It would buy you a few days at least. Lose a library book? Tell the librarian, with tears in your eyes, that some bullies took it of you and ripped it up. The fact that these stories were sometimes true really helped sell them.

But lying to people is easy. So's lying to yourself. You want a real challenge? Lie to the gods. Everyone thinks gods are these all-knowing beings and they are but they've got some real blindspots. Ember only cares about fire. Stone only cares about earth. Strife only cares about conflict. They don't care how there is fire or earth or conflict, just that there is.

Everyone knew that priests could call upon the gods for favors. And they knew that mages could weild the gods' magic after careful study of the gods and science. But what a lot of people didn't know about mages, including myself, is that mages are just practiced liars. Their studies let them tell more convincing lies.

Enter 14 year old me, a scrawny kid who had his teachers wrapped around his finger but could never figure out how to befriend kids his own age. Maybe it was because I was always making things up. Maybe it was my big mouth. If I'm forced to be honest, it was probably both and more.

Anyways, I end up pinned against a wall by Doug Hillman, head rich kid, and his less rich (but still richer than me) friends. They were picking on Carmen Lopez just because she existed. I hated those pricks and even though I didn't know Carmen, I made some choice comments about Doug's daddy to get them to pick on me instead. Most kids would make mom jokes but I was an equal opportunity smartass and besides, Dougy was a daddy's boy. Wanted to be a real estate tycoon just like him.

There I am, about to get another beating from a kid who shared a last name with the new computer lab and I did what I did best, I ran my mouth. Except this time, I told Doug I had been practicing magic and I could burn him up. An unbelievable lie and everyone knew it. Everyone but me. I don't know what it was but I really believed myself that time. And that's the real secret of magic: delusion. You don't just lie to the gods. The gods can see into your heart but like I said: blind spots. If you really believe what you say and can imagine it clearly, sometimes a god will think they missed something and correct their mistake. After all, they're infallible so if you truly believe and can imagine there is a flame in your hand and there isn't, well, Ember isn't about to be proven wrong. That would invalidate their existence. So when Doug swung at me, I yelled "FIRE" and there it was.

Anyways, that's how I burned down my school and ended up in Magnos' Academy of Mages. Which is honestly great because we're all a bunch of liars. The theater department is out of this world too (literally). But it's a private school and my scholarship doesn't cover books and materials. Because why would it? Clearly a kid who needs a scholarship has money to drop on books right?

Good thing I know how to spin a story. Turns out anyone can do magic but most aren't creative in the right ways. That's where I come in. You tell me what effect you want to happen and I'll write out a story for you. All you gotta go is read it off verbatim, believe what you're saying and presto, you'll do magic. I don't deal in mind magic but anything else is good by me as long as you got the cash.

So, what story do you want me to tell?

365 Days of Prompts - August 3

Write a scene inspired by “This Ain’t A Scene It’s An Arms Race” by Fall Out Boy. Song link: https://youtu.be/GNm5drtAQXs

[fishoutofcamelot]

Arthur: have you seen any ghosts around here yet?

Merlin, literally floating a full foot off the ground and half-translucent: nope, no sir-ee, no ghosts here

Behold, mediocre art for my paranormal au! Which is really just a ghost au but with a neat lil spirit-based magic system thrown into the mix (do not ask me to explain the magic system, bc I'm very excited and I will rant about it for a million years) Pictured on the left is Merlin, and on the right is Arthur

The current working title is "Pennies On the Eyes", and its basic synopsis is that Merlin is a ghost who inadvertently gets roped into teaching a bunch of humans how to defend themselves against spirits of the dead, and they all get up to some shonen-esque ghostly shenanigans. Arthur starts out as a minor antagonist, what with him being an exorcist and all, but don't worry I plan to give him the character arc canon never could as he questions his biases and becomes a genuine ally. It also somehow turned out a lot more Gwen-centric than I was anticipating, but honestly who in their right mind would complain about that?

Anyway I love the dynamic between Merlin and Arthur in this fic, with Arthur being this hard-edged exorcist in training who's determined to rid Camelot City of its 'ghostly infestation', while completely oblivious to the fact that his quirky new friend is very obviously a ghost himself. Like at this point pretty much every other character *except* Arthur has figured it out, so they're all just kinda standing there like "...should we tell him?"

(Also I just gotta say the part of this fic I'm most excited about is the *mystery*. Namely, the mystery surrounding Merlin's death. Because in this story the main thing about ghosts is that the more powerful the ghost is, the more painful their death was. And uhhh Merlin is arguably the most powerful ghost in the entire fic, so it's, uh... probably a good thing he has post-mortem amnesia)

Like realistically I'm probably never gonna write this thing, but I'm still absolutely in love with the story and I wanted to share it with y'all anyway! <3

[toko-writing-imagines]

SDR2 girls reacting to their s/o giving them a bouquet of flowers

The V3 girls idea was pretty well received so now I'ma do the SDR2 girls ☆(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*

Will do this and then the THH girls so yayay

Enjoyyyy (๑•ᴗ•๑)♡

V3 Version | THH version

【Akane Owari】

• Wah,, you got her some flowers?

• Woah,,

• Can she eat them?

• You obviously tell her that the flowers aren't edible, and aren't for eating anyways

• You just wanted to give her some flowers to show how much you love her

• Aw

• I mean she would have preferred food but she appreciate the flowers

• She's kinda sad she can't eat em tho

• You later give her a bunch of random snacks to cheer her up though

• Expect to see the flowers somewhat wildly placed in her hair the next day, proudly claiming that it's her new look as the flowers were given from her amazing s/o

【Chiaki Nanami】

• Huh?..

• Oh you got her some flowers?

• Thats real nice of you

• Oh wait..

• You actually surprised her with home crafted Minecraft flowers instead of actual flowers

• You know she can lose herself with her video games so you kinda doubt she will take care of real flowers

• Plus you also made her cute little cutouts of the Minecraft bees as well for her ^^

• She actually really loves this and is even more happy you made this all for her

• Video game date time!!

• Sometimes you'll even catch her playing with cutout Minecraft bees while her console sits somewhere in her room

【Ibuki Mioda】

• Woah you got Ibuki flowers?!?

• She loves the flowers but woah! She never expected to ever really been gifted flowers

• And she knows how to exactly how to repay you!

• Lots of playful kisses AND songs!!

• Oh boy

• You being the lovely and nice s/o you are, you (begrudgingly) accepted it

• Ibuki wrote a few songs about you in no time flat! Even though all of them has weird (but cute) titles

• Your ears may or may not work well for the next day or two

• At least she sweetened the pot with kisses, which you will accept because who doesn't like kisses? Especially from Ibuki Mioda herself

【Mahiru Koizumi】

• how the heck do you write mahiru

• Mahiru can make anything she takes a photo of look good

• But recently she may have lost some inspiration to really take any photos

• So how about some flowers to help cheer her up

• You know thats she's kinda a sucker for flowers after all

• And she really loved it!!

• Her face now showing a light tint of pink as she holds the flowers in her hands, a cute smile plastered on her face as well

• A soft kiss on the cheek was planted on your face, being stuck with the inspiration to take a few photos

• And guess what? She asked you to pose with the flowers so she can take some pictures

• How can you say no to her?

【Mikan Tsumiki】

• Oh the poor nurse would probably cry when you gave her the flowers

• More so when you tell her how she's not appreciated enough so your first act of this is by giving her a beautiful bouquet of flowers

• She feels like she doesn't deserve you

• But you tell her otherwise as she deserves everything and if you could give her the whole world, you would

• She gives you so many soft peppered kisses because she just loves you so so so much and is happy that you appreciate her

• She'll keep them in her office so whenever she doesn't have any patients she can look at them and think of you

• Will most likely try to give you something in return but you would tell her that she doesn't need to

• You continue to shower her in gifts, appreciation, and praise to remind her that she is worth everything to you

【Peko Pekoyama】

• Oh this stotic swordswoman would have no idea how to really react to it

• She has never really been given flowers- like at all in her entire life so when you suddenly decide to gift her a bouquet of them, it definitely catches her off guard

• But she accepts them either way

• Is she supposed to return the gift but giving you a gift? Is she just supposed to keep them? What does she do now?

• She's still getting used affection and gifts

• You just give her a smile, taking one of the flowers from the bouquet and softly put it in her hair

• You just tell her that she doesn't need to return anything and you give her a kiss on the cheek

• Now she's even more confused, though she has a light pink shade of blush on her face

• So much for being the stotic swordswoman

【Sonia Nevermind】

• This girl probably has fields of different types of pretty flowers back in her homeland

• She is the Ultimate Princess after all

• But when you decide to give her a bouquet of flowers

• Oh she is swooned

• It just feels much more special when your s/o puts the love and effort into giving you flowers, y'know?

• She loves the flowers so so much and gives you so many kisses as a thank you

• She'll even offer to use the flowers and make flower crowns for both you and her

• And if you don't want that, then thats fine with her

• Though, expect to be gifted a bouquet of flowers back!

• The love should be shared equally

❀•°•═══ஓ๑♡๑ஓ═══•°•❀

Woah this took longer than expected- I kinda lost slight motivation after writing Mikan, Ibuki, and Chiaki's part

Buuuut- I'm gonna do the THH girls after this but also gonna work on some requests ^^

Really tired now tho- but gotta keep writing ✍

~ Mod Toko 💜

[chicago-geniza]

well i intended to go for a nice evening walk, ended up having a panic attack, ordering a couple of cocktails at the bougie bar, joining a jam session with a bunch of old hippies on the logan green (one of them gave me a handpainted wooden medallion which seems to be carved out of tree bark, strung on a length of yarn???), met a crustpunk train-hopping dude in town for the month (& his dog, in a leather-studded harness) who's lived in 45/50 states & a 44 yr old guy everyone called "the wizard" wearing a tattered, patch-covered robe who shares most of my parents' conspiracy theories & considers himself a latter-day prophet, he bought us sorbet & ice cream, wound up hanging out with them & staying up all night at their indescribably eclectic, cluttered, blood-spattered (!!!) apartment, belonging to 44 yr old guy's art curator father & decorated accordingly, smoking m*th & listening to music & talking (or rather listening to them rant/rave/recount stories from their incredibly wild lives), i gave them advice on applying for unemployment & medicaid & how to appear compliant enough w/ carceral psychiatric intervention so they won't section you without actually submitting to forced medication or institutionalization, especially if they assign you a case worker & do regular "wellness checks." also how to pass off certain aspects of behavioral dysregulation as executive dysfunction, get them to pay for an adhd evaluation, get an adderall IR scrip, sell the 30 mg pills (cite body weight, high doses of other psych meds as reason for higher dose; look sincere; play to systemic biases toward cis white men, unfortunately), & use the cash to buy m*th, if they'd prefer to keep doing that. you can also pass positive psychotic symptoms--agitation etc.--off as severe anxiety, especially if you have a history of trauma, & they will give you benzodiazepines. it is in their best interest to keep you docile, i.e. tranquilized, particularly if your past convictions & involuntary institutionalizations revolve around a pattern of aggressive behavior, & that's On The Record/there's a paper trail. (e.g. one dude got arrested trying to keep cars away from an injured bird on the road, some genre of raptor i think (???) by threatening them with a shopping cart, not hitting them, but like, running at them as if to collide then feinting at the last minute so they'd swerve out of the way. not the safest or most effective maneuver, lotta reckless endangerment, but the motivation was admirable. probably put the fear of god into some drivers, though. he doesn't seem to have, like, impulse control.) it's a lot easier & you have fewer run-ins with the cops if you game the system & appear cooperative. they gave me this coat, which "just showed up in their apartment one day," like i did. 44 yr old guy walked me back to apartment, stole a street sign & tore down a real estate sign en route, lori lightfoot did indeed take down the pride flag in front of her house on july 1st & replace it with an appropriately patriotic american flag, i walked past the idling plainclothes cop car & another marked police vehicle with their Mayoral Guarding Detail inside at like 4.30 am smoking a menthol cigarette (not inhaling), high on m*th, draped in a neon anime jacket, in the company of a visibly insane, unshaven & unshorn middle-aged man in a technicolor patchwork trenchcoat, holding a lit cigarette in one hand & an upside-down traffic cone in the other, which he was using as an ad hoc amplifier for a noise track playing on my phone. he was also carrying the stolen real estate banner &, inexplicably, a stack of mail. i gave him my old backup phone (no SIM card & doesn't hold a charge long, ancient, but still works), since neither he nor the other dude have phones (cops took them), also one hybrid edible for each of them, as a thanks for the m*th & the kindness. their hearts are in the right place but they have some fucked-up beliefs about "reverse racism" being real, while also saying in the same breath that you can tell our country is irredeemable by the way it continues to

treat black people. we were discussing medical weed for seizures on medicaid & 44 yr old guy mentioned one of his close friends, a black epileptic woman, whose seizures were frequent & severe enough they prevented her from working. then he added, in apparent bemusement, they she hadn't spoken to him in some time, & he wondered why. a little while later he relayed their last conversation & i was like "my dude, i can say with 100% certainty she is not talking to you because you said some *appallingly*, jaw-droppingly racist shit & did not even realize it was racist." then i, comma, a white person, explained to this man that he literally thought of their exchange as, like, an abstract argument over insignificant ideas, a theoretical exercise, & therefore considered it simply a smug gotcha to "counter" hotep theories about egyptian origin by claiming that "if that's true, american slavery & the oppression of black people in america are divine retribution for the enslavement of the jews in ancient egypt, an eye for an eye & a deserved punishment." like, first of all, what the actual fuck, if i were that woman i would also never speak to you again, second of all there's the collapse of historical time & mythical time, history & exegesis, an assumption that rests on spurious claims of biblical literalism (zionist colonization logic, btw! him: what's exegesis? what's zionism? me: never mind, not the point. exegesis is the interpretation of religious texts in a religious CONtext, in this case what you would likely call the hebrew bible.)--but most importantly it is 100% irrelevant to this discussion whether or not black americans are Actually Factually descendended from ancient egypt! you just told this woman to her face that the ancestry she claims, of which she's proud, is the reason & justification for SLAVERY & BLACK SUFFERING--not only that, but that if it WERE true, than black people would DESRVE to suffer, by DIVINE DECREE. you are trying to force her to abdicate her claim on this heritage by putting her in a position where she'd be forced to concede complicity in her people's historical & present-day persecution, oppression, & essentially the existence of structural racism. & using The Figural Jew as a rhetorical cudgel to bludgeon her into this corner. what a despicable thing to say. like, he hadn't considered it from her perspective at all, & once he groked why the comment itself was, like, unforgivable (idk, maybe she's more forgiving; she has a virtue-name), i started socratic-method-ing him through why it was particularly unforgivable for *him* to say to *her*--the individual is not responsible for the systems from they benefit, but they are imbricated in them, they are implicated when they actively perpetuate & uphold them, even with speech acts. & finally gave the same "there is no such thing as reverse racism because racism is not an individual act, it is an institutional, systemic phenomenon, & it is an ideology, one which individual acts can bear out or be in accordance with, & to which individuals can subscribe (this bearing it out in their behavior, in their institutional roles, in their interpersonal interactions--here i gave & solicited examples of each) or be subject (also gave & solicited examples). m*th makes me very good at Explaining clearly & he was surprisingly receptive--like, it was astonishing that it had not occurred to him??? but it hadn't, the same way it hadn't occurred to my mother, & she interpreted it as "reverse racist" when their next-door neighbor called her the "white devil" for disputing their property line, & i had to be like "ok but if you called in a random third party to mediate in lily-white [city], oregon, where white supremacists openly drive down the street in pickup trucks with swastika armbands, whose side do you think they would take, statistically speaking, in your property dispute. that's why racism is systemic & institutional, & your rude neighbor calling you a name over a disagreement does not constitute 'reverse racism,' because 'reverse racism' by definition cannot

exist." now this dude wants to like, read books, so i gotta get him some entry-level Intro To Racism primers??? how did i end up here, but better me than his black epileptic (ex-)friend, i guess??? jesus christ. both of these guys have the most chaotic, reactionary politics in a potpourri with these deep commitments to abolition & mutual aid & a kind of proto-anarchist consciousness, none of which would be called by those names, but all of which is borne out in practice & in the politics of everyday life. they remind me a LOT of my parents. i'm loath to imagine how they'd internalize my stepdad's rambling, street-preacher-style libertarian lectures. probably go out & buy guns & invest in gold on the stock market & double down on the conviction that free speech is being curtailed & individual rights are in jeopardy because you can no longer unleash a barrage of harassment against some guy on the street because you think he looked at you funny. these claustrophobic convictions, like the space to express oneself is getting smaller & smaller every day, *other people* are taking it away from you, suffocating you on all sides with their offense demanding your silence, they are *making* the walls close in--when in fact it's more like a holodeck. you're a member of the Hegemonic Group, afforded the privilege of the default, so you don't question the vast verdant expanse that is your domain--ah, Free Speech, the sun never sets on the empire of ~uncensored expression, you can say whatever you want whenever you want without facing consequences because you control all the organs that mete out consequences & you have also determined that those groups who might be adversely affected by your words--emotionally OR materially--are not, well...of consequence. but of course the vast verdant domain is an illusion, photons & forcefields, held together by the all-encompassing TOTALITY of the dominant group's hegemony, power, etc. once that power begins to redistribute throughout the system--however unevenly, however incrementally, however slowly--as even the smallest pieces are appropriated by those deemed inconsequential, who have endured years of systemic, material, institutional violence that allowed the dominant group to become dominant & retain its dominant position--once those 'inconsequential' groups speak up & say "actually, these words bear an indelible imprint of the violence enacted upon us, these words are the legacy of that violence, these words are a tacit endorsement of the ideology behind that violence, which classifies us as subhuman, & even if *you* can't hear those echoes, the words broadcast on two historical frequencies, so now that we're able to broadcast on a frequency *you* can hear, we request you find other language, & consider the implications of the words you've been using for years." well--once The Subaltern Speaks, the dominant group loses its 'innocence,' & becomes aware the vast verdant expanse of language is an illusion of infinite space, aware of the four holodeck walls pressing in behind the simulacrum of the horizon, & suddenly "what one can say without negative consequences"--largely social, sometimes, rarely, if social media goes viral, professional--feels much more claustrophobic. so they get angry. & some of them are just bigots, obviously, but some of them--like my parents, &, even, this weirdly well-intentioned m*thhead who said one of the most shockingly racist things i've heard in my life & *honestly didn't understand why it was racist*, is really riled up about free speech & individual rights, hates the government, hates "FANG" (facebook amazon netflix google) & has a bunch of dystopian conspiracy theories about data harvesting & personal information that only miss the mark in that they get too nefariously biopolitical (billionaires want to put microchips in everybody for surveillance to monitor our movements & sell us more stuff; they don't need to, they already use our phone location & browsing habits to generate the algorithm & sell the information to ad companies lol, it's digital& cast a

single illuminati figure in the role of comic book villain, controlling the operation behind the scenes like an evil puppetmaster (classic conspiracy fare; again, we gotta take that energy, that suspicion, the understanding that they are being taken advantage of & tricked, the idea that power & capital & resources are concentrated among a very small number of people, however it's not an individual wealthy villain with a desire for world domination who wants to turn Free Americans into microchipped drones, it's a *class* of people--or rather several classes, but *who those people are as individuals does not matter*. if you guillotined bill gates, another billionaire would take his place. bill gates qua bill gates is not the problem. it is classes of people who control the means of production & own property & profit enormously from exploiting the labor of a desperate, rapidly increasing underclass, i.e. from the system as it is. therefore it is in their interest to maintain the status quo, because it serves them. 'the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.' the middle class gradually ceases to exist. if you want to compound it by race, consider the GI bill as an example - you learn about it as the leg up that enabled thousands of WWII vets to buy houses, enabling them to enter the middle class. hundreds of thousands of third-gen middle class white americans still reap the structural, socioeconomic benefits of their grandparents' initial upward mobility, including,, very tangibly, those selfsame houses, which can be inherited & then rented out as a second property if the children or grandchildren accrue enough money to buy their own properties. but only about 100 black vets got approved for homeownership loans, despite the staggering numbers of black soldiers who enlisted & applied through the GI bill. anyway! the impulses are there, & they're only being funneled into conspiracy thinking because that makes intuitive sense on a narrative level. these guys have a high school education; so does my stepdad. their reading habits are...eclectic, sporadic, pretty much dictated by occasional recommendations & like, little free libraries around the neighborhood. it's both interesting & frustrating to see like - hey, here are these people, we agree on a lot of things, they're earnest & open & want to learn & would give their neighbor the shirt off their backs as a matter of principle. they'd give a *stranger* the shirt off their backs; they'd share whatever they had. even what chores there are in their collective--they live with two other guys--(dumpster diving, walking the dog, tidying up the apartment) are allocated by ability & inclination. they made advance plans to look after the dog & their roommate with War PTSD on the 4th of july if the fireworks upset them, jokingly called the dog an emotional support animal. you give them the tools, the reading, talk to them like normal people with a stake in society--like, imagine a society that would have a stake in people like you instead of criminalizing you & consigning you to the margins! that's already *political imagination* because anyone who occupies a marginalized position will have their existence politicized, whether they want this or not, so better to become a self-aware, self-reflexive political subject, no?--talk *with* them because tbh i am them, i'm just better at situational masking & also i am very very afraid of cops so i only damage property in groups during planned political actions (not spontaneously, because i feel a flash of rage at my neighborhood gentrifying, & simply do not have a superego, so i tear down the real estate sign for the fancy new apartment complex in a fit of pique, because in this house we believe that spontaneity can & should be developed into class consciousness, again, the seeds of which are there in the initial trigger for the spontaneous reaction, i.e. anger at gentrification. not opposed to a little direct action, but they're just gonna put up a new sign tomorrow, it doesn't advance your agenda or hinder the gentrifiers' progress. now, if

you sabotaged the construction site for the new apartment buildings & painted a few potent symbols + graffiti'd a pithy, written statement expressing your opposition to gentrification generally & these apartments specifically? in a prominent place, large font, eye level, visible & legible from oh, a block away? maybe as a member of a collective, your neighbors, perhaps? & you could sign it "[neighborhood] or [block] residents" to pack more of a punch, the power of a crowd speaking in unison to say "not OUR home, you predatory developers"? that's no longer spontaneous, impulsive, affective violence, & it's also no longer an individual--acting alone leaves you vulnerable. again--i didn't just *intuit* that he tore the sign down because he was mad about gentrification, i asked, in a genuinely curious tone, not at all accusatory, no hint of reprimand or censure, just...interested, "why did you do that?" & he was like "it made me fucking mad." & i was like "what about it made you mad? the apartments? how come?" & he thought about it for a minute & explained. i'm not sure *he* necessarily made the conscious connection until prompted. idk, i know people talk a lot about the fact that breitbart & drudge report are free while NYT & "all the news fit to print" is paywalled, & q-pilled covid hoax sites are free while "reputable" pandemic coverage & public health guidelines & explanations of mRNA vaccines for a lay audience are paywalled & that's true but also We Live In A Society & if you talk to the wingnuts who AREN'T that way because of any far-right ideology, a lot of them are just...autodidacts without much formal education but a lot of raw intelligence that leads to analyzing The Big Picture & trying to deduce a pattern, find a framework that explains why the world is the way it is, profoundly frustrated, deeply aware of American society's, universalized & figured as the world's, exceptional unfairness & cruelty, & *that can be redirected* with reading, discussion, prompting critical thought, introducing community connections, & perhaps most importantly for this genre of person, getting them to see patterns at work in terms of systems & structures rather than individuals, letting go of American individualism's explanatory power & belief in its liberatory potential (see: the sort of ad hoc libertarianism that goes hand-in-glove with much conspiracy thinking, both stemming from 1) mistrusting the government, & 2) ultimate freedom of the individual as the most sacred value, therefore it is what all enemies want to take away), outlining positive, actionable goals rather than just ambient suspicion & anger at authority, & figuring out how those goals can be accomplished more effectively by an organized collective (but this will ultimately benefit the individual). If the world isn't run by a shadowy cabal, if you begin to understand the structures responsible & how they manifest even on the scale of your block (e.g.!!! predatory developers buying up properties during a pandemic, tearing down affordable housing to build expensive condos on the lot, or giving old buildings a "spit and polish" so they can double the rent, pricing all the current residents out, not to mention all the little local businesses, almost all mexican & run by the mexican families who live here, that give our block its culture & will get pushed out by boutique coffee shops & the like, catering to a more affluent & almost certainly whiter clientele)--you can, in fact, change the world, something both of them repeatedly referred to as their purpose on earth. it may not be as a maverick figure, one against an army, but strength in numbers is an aphorism for a reason.

anyway! thse guys were also really weird about jews, in the philosemitic way conspiracy theorists of a certain stripe often are. the itinerant vagabond guy gave me one of his drawings; it's really lovely. i'm going to give them "are prisons obsolete?" & "the wretched of the earth" & some david graeber. 44 yr old guy has this idea that society is atomized & people aren't connected to each other & have lost the willingness or the ability to communicate with each other, also that the overreach of authority has driven some people to violence, & that makes the world feel unsafe to everyone else. he feels guilty because he is acutely aware that language, when wielded adroitly & intentionally, always has the capacity to manipulate; he is afraid of succumbing to the temptation, because he senses the coercive power of language within himself. the other guy was mostly quiet but said 44 yr old guy is one of the best friends he's ever had. he thinks animals are able to sense emotions and to heal, & he thinks they can mediate between people who have become too isolated, who have forgotten humans' innate ability to forge connections, approach others as social creatures seeking to bond instead of mistrustful, apprehensive, rejecting overtures of friendship because they expect subterfuge, or propriety has evolved to deem such overtures inappropriate outside of strictly delineated, artificially orchestrated contexts. deviation from the norm is not permitted. & back again to policing. they have an idea called "the omega family," omega for the end, a group of like-minded people who come together, who encounter each other serendipitously (predicted through auspicious auguries & recognized on sight through a constellation of signs & wonders, because of course we are all psychotic here, it was nice to just be psychotic & discuss these things like they were normal lol), & serve as catalysts to each other's "personal truth." anyway this is why i don't go out when i'm crazy, i always end up in situations like this, see also: the last time i did m*th, in a pizza hut bathroom in tallinn with an art student from glascow named muhammad ali (he went by ali), the son of white muslim converts--we thought it was c*ke but it got lost in translation & that's how i figured out i had adhd. later i got [redacted] by a filmmaker from kazan & he gave me his business card afterward for some reason, which was extremely funny. thankfully these dudes were better behaved. one of them even gave a speech about how men shouldn't rape people??? & also how our society shouldn't construct women as universal victims because in doing so it makes victimhood almost compulsory & shoehorns women into a victim role as part & parcel of womanhood? i was like yes my dude you are almost there, read the essay "abject feminism." (i did not tell them i was trans bc i wasn't sure how that would shake down, to be honest; couldn't get a read on it. did tell them i was gay & they respected it, though one did say he dated a lesbian once, & i explained that many men feel compelled to interject with an anecdote relating an exception to the rule or insist that they will he the exception to the rule, & it's really just bad manners, not even getting into the bad politics. he took it on the chin & talked about how the girl in question came home to find her partner dead of an overdose & his wife had just died of MS, so their relationship was more about grief & comfort than sexual attraction. i was like that's really, really sad, & it's wonderful that you were able to be there for each other at a time of such staggering loss, & i am a person who totally understands what you mean to communicate, but if a lesbian tells you they're a lesbian & you reply that you once dated a lesbian & they get offended & instead of responding with contrition or correction you elaborate on the tragic backstory of the relationship as though that explains the circumstances in which a self-proclaimed lesbian would date a cis man, other lesbians *will* deck you, or at the very least not take you, an unwashed white guy in

his 40s who isn't neurotypical & sits way too close for social convention in a way that could easily be construed as a come-on, in good faith.) tl;dr made some new friends, did some good drügs (i much prefer smoking m*th to snorting it, basically like purer, more potent adderall, & as such will not be doing it again for a LONG time, because i enjoy it FAR too much; slices through the brain fog & the chronic fatigue & the joint/bone pain, makes me able to pay attention, follow the thread of a conversation, actually be *interested* & want to ask *questions* & expand, build, encourage my interlocutor to elaborate, place more kal-toh pieces until the conversation shimmers into a three-dimensional shape, instead of being listless & exhausted & disengaged & *bored* all the time, so obviously i would get addicted immediately if given the opportunity, & i've known this forever lol)--now going to hydrate, refill pill case, write some emails, & meet C at the beach! not how i expected to reboot my brain, but it works! also putting them on limited facebook view because i try to keep some groups of people in my life quarantined from each other & that includes 1) my relatives & my academic ~colleagues (ne'er the twain shall meet), 2) my exes & my family, 3) my relatives, colleagues, & uh. a couple of lovely, but extremely psychotic dudes with very long criminal records i met while doing hard drugs

[ufonaut]

also THANK you bc youre one of the few ppl ive ever seen/interacted w online thats a comic fan that addresses the problem of people only consuming comics through out of context panels n like theme blogs/accs and just pretty art. like omg i feel a lot of solidarity w u even tho i dont actually know u personally bc i used to feel like i was being “cynical” for my opinions but its literally just critically engaging w media n its genuinely disheartening to see ppl taking critical engagement and actually reading comics as being cynical and not letting people enjoy things. ur a BLESSING and it makes me happy to see your posts! i think people dont understand you can like… respectfully disagree and just move on w your day </3 you probably already know, but youre not alone in this! you have at least one random anon in your corner!! i hope you enjoy the rest of your night :))

EXACTLY!! EXACTLY!!!!!!!!! this is so tremendously well put, it's exactly everything i've been saying & believe in and i can't thank you enough for reaching out, it's genuinely extremely reassuring to know there's someone out there who shares this point of view

the thing is no one would call themselves a fan of a movie they saw a poster/gif of & never actually watched or a fan of a musician they've seen a couple pictures of & never actually listened to but suddenly all logic goes out the window when faced with comic books! the reason i advocate so much for really actually engaging with comics as a legitimate medium is specifically because i want people to enjoy things, i'd love for them to find a book or a series or a character that's everything they've ever dreamed of in canon as i have. no fandom interpretation necessary, no ignoring the parts you don't like, just genuinely engaging with the text & finding something that feels like it's meant for you and you alone -- a possibility that exists solely & precisely because there are so many comics out there in the world. it's a wonderful thing to have as a hobby!

i personally consider comics one of the most accessible forms of media in the world -- readcomiconline is a godsend & it only requires an adblock to be absolutely perfectly safe on both desktop and mobile, not to mention it's got everything from the literal golden age of comics (stuff from the 1930s-40s that's not been collected anywhere or you'd have to spend $100000 to even breathe in the same room as!) to weekly releases.

and, speaking as someone who's completely broke as we speak & generally grew up poor, it's an astoundingly cheap hobby to have. free methods aside, if you happen to have a local comic shop or a convention or anything remotely similar then you're bound to find a whole bunch of comics for absolutely insane prices. i go to the london comic mart, which is a free entry event, every two months & come back with 30-50 individual issues for £10! hell, i do even make an effort to support what dc's putting out right now and generally stick with 2-3 monthly series from creators i sincerely love and a couple specials, which still comes to max £10-15/month. i can't think of any other hobby that's genuinely this affordable and this fun, i consider getting into comics to be one of the best thing that's ever happened to me

but all the same, i don't even believe people need to own any of this at all, they've just gotta read it to call themselves fans. it's the simplest thing in the world.

SERIOUSLY ANON THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!! YOUVE GOT ALL MY LOVE

[gallavictorious]

It's such a weird thing to do tho - go gay friends hunting. "Imma be friends with you, but only if you're gay!" Mickey would find that ridiculous, lol. But I'd find it hilarious if Mickey actually made friends with some gay dudes while Ian ended up disappointed because they don't "do it" for him. ;)

While I agree that the sole fact of a shared sexuality isn’t necessarily very much to build a friendship upon, I don’t find it all that strange that gay people living in a heteronormative society would want gay friends: as long as not being straight is perceived as setting you apart and marking you as ‘other’, finding a group and a space in which you are the norm can be quite important. In a world of perfect sexual equality, seeking out specifically gay friends might be weird; in the world we live in, not so much.

However, not every gay person will think having specifically gay friends is important or desirable, and my instinct would be to agree with you on Mickey finding the notion ridiculous. I'd be a little surprised if going friend shopping is his idea, unless something happens to prompt this sudden wish, but who knows? He might surprise us!

No matter who suggests it, though, I'd love for Mickey to find some friends who will adore him because everyone should love him always (even if I tend to think that Mickey isn't only pretty unconcerned about having gay friends but having friends in general)! But to be honest, I'm not sold on the notion of Ian ending up disappointed because he's had a lot of disappointment to deal with already. Yes, he's married to the love of his life and that's not nothing, but it's also not a cure all and I think out boy's been struggling quite a bit lately. Him having some fun wouldn't be so bad, would it?

Still, I could kind of see them getting to whatever LGTB+ space they've chosen and Mickey's still not convinced of this idea, but Ian's excited, all ”c'mon, Mick, it'll be fun, there's gotta be some interesting people here!”

Eyeing the partying crowd with characteristic skepticsm Mickey mutters something about only seeing a bunch of [semi-offensive adjective] [slur] and not knowing why they're even doing this because there's no way they're going to meet anyone even remotly fun here.

Ian shrugs, deliberatedly. ”Well, I mean, you probably won't.”

”The fuck's that supposed to mean?”

”Just saying, you're not exactly a people person.”

”Not a– ! Fuck you, I can be a people person. But in case you haven't noticed, most people are fucking morons. Not worth my goddamned time.”

”Uh-huh.”

Ian's smiling and looking condescending as fuck and maybe Mickey wants to punch him a little, but he doesn't, he takes an aggressive sip of his beer instead, and he's never been good at backing down from a challenge, not even when he knows what Ian is doing, so obviously the whole thing escalates into our favourite husbands heading off to see who can find the most and the best friends before the night is through.

And you know, Mickey isn't wrong about how he can (fake) be(ing) a people person if he's properly motivated and right now he's motivated as hell, so in the end he presents Ian with no less than half a dozen people that he persistently claims are real fucking funny, just great guys, you know, wouldn't mind hanging out with them for the rest of my life.

He's lying through his teeth; he doesn't give a rat's ass about any of these dudes (well, two of the dudes are actually chicks, but whatever, he ain't got nothing against women as long as he doesn't have to fuck them), but whatever it takes to stick it to Ian, right, and of course they should all meet up again for a beer on Wednesday, that sounds super fun, doesn't that sound super fun, Ian?

And they do meet up (somehow... let's not question the corona of it, okay?) and it turns out that these random people ain't actually so bad? Hell of a lot better thant he three potential friends Ian's managed to scrounge up, anyway; that trio quickly reveal themselves to be self-important and boring assholes. Ian readily admits as much and admits defeat – but he's not actually very disappointed about it, because the end result is still them having six gay friends to hang out with. (And part of Mickey will forever wonder if Ian didn't plan it like this, right from the start... but so fucking what if he did, it was still Mickey who charmed them.)

How about it, nonnie? Everybody wins? Acceptable?

[letterstothemidnightsociety]

It's 2007 and somehow, miraculously, Supernatural survives yet another rocky (?) season of mediocre ratings to come back for a third season, or at least, half season, but that season starts out with a real bang! Like, just a real solid trio of an opener for season three. It reminds me of all the things I love about SPN and also it reminds us of all the things that frustrate the hell out of me on SPN. So where did we leave things off?

First up, there’s Dean, who sold his soul to the devil in order to bring Sam back from the dead. Sam, you’ll remember, was part of some overly complicated ponzi scheme to find the perfect vessel to open a door - yep, open a door - and lost to Aldous Hodge who just straight up murders Sam in the season finale. So Dean get’s Sammy back, but in exchange, he’s only got one year left before he permanently moves down south. Oh! And even though they got Sam back and Sam kills Aldous Hodge (RIP pal), they neglected to keep the door from opening. The door to Hell, that is, and now they’ve allowed a shiz ton of demons out to freely roam the earth. Way to go, boys, you lost again! They are two for two on these season finales guys!

OH but they DO kill the Yellow Eyed Demon, so that’s a plus, but not before he plants the most perfect seed of doubt in Dean’s mind - “How do you know what you brought back is all Sammy?” Like, ugh, UGH, ugh!!!! What a way to drive the knife in deeper! What a way to make the heart of this show slowly start to crumble! C’est Magnifique!! *chef's kissy fingers*

So with all that emotional baggage weighing us down, how do we start season 3? How else - with a threesome of course! And also some technicolor grading, it’s wild guys.

Oh boy guys, let’s talk about this opener for a hot sec. I got into it a little bit last season, but as much as I love Dean, you HAVE to admit that that boy is gross. Just like...he’s a little gross. I’m also old enough now to see exactly how many red flags he’s raising through the last 45 episodes. Like, sorry Little Me, but he is not boyfriend material. Not to mention that all this debauchery is 1,000% him distracting himself from the consequences of his own actions, but we’ll get into that later.

Meanwhile, Sam is doing something constructive and trying to figure out how to reverse the curse and save Dean’s soul. And here we have the culmination of two seasons worth of character development - faced with the imminent demise of Dean Samuel Winchester, Sam tries to step up and take care of his brother for once in his life; Dean parties like it’s 1999. There were two things I thought of during this episode - 1) isn’t this not unlike the sort of behavior you see in suicidal people who have finally decided to take their own life? Which is just, like, further held up by the fact that Dean’s big monologue at the end literally has the line “Truth is I’m tired, Sam. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.” and like...dude, you are NOT ok! Why isn't??? ANYONE??? ADDRESSING THIS????? And 2) Dean is sharing a lot of similarities with the demons in this episode.

Because MEANwhile, there’s demons! So many demons! Specifically, the Seven Deadly Sins ones, but also, spoiler alert, Ruby, who is gettin’ reeeeealll into that ketchup.

All these baddies just really taking advantage of their time topside cuz Hell is, as they so artfully put it, it’s like Hell, so they’re just livin’ it up while they still can ~almost like foreshadowing or something~?!?!?

Real talk though, it being a real long time since I’ve watched this season, it’s these kinds of details that I’m impressed with this time around. There is so much character work that goes into this show and it’s something I definitely connected with the first time around, but not on conscious level. Now I can look at it through time and experience and articulate what I’m seeing, which makes this re-watch infinitely more enjoyable.

Episode 1 of this season continues what they started in season 2 and just keeps building out that Hunter Community. Like, there really is a whole Community out there that keeps in contact and works together and makes sure everyone’s up to date on the latest hot goss, and it all makes John Winchester come off like a real creepy splinter cell lone gunman type. And that in turn makes the Winchester sons look like total, unprofessional boneheads who managed to open a portal to Hell. “UGH Great Jorb Guys, but can we blame them? They’re John’s kids,” is a conversation between hunters that I am headcannoning, but also 100% support.

Honestly, I love the idea of the Winchesters being just these real, like, b-grade, Walmart Brand Hunters that other Hunters are just SO done with. We kind of see a little bit of that with Isaac and Tamara, but by the end of the episode, the Winchesters prove that they’re...better Hunters? I hope somewhere in the next 12 seasons I get an episode that is told from another Hunter’s POV who is legitimately better/more emotionally balanced than the Winchesters and the whole episode is them just, like, cleaning up a bunch of Winchester messes like, SONuvabitch, these two ASSholes. I think we see a fair amount of episodes from the POV of people who are less qualified than the Winchesters who end up being mentored by them, but I’d be stoked for them to run into just a group of people who hate them for totally legitimate, professional vs amature reasons.

Bobby does not count because Bobby signed up to be their Dad and so he agreed to take care of their messes when he took that job.

And then we get to “The Kids Are Alright” which showcases one of my fav changes for this season - BRIGHTLY! LIT! HIGH! SATURATION!!!! And of course, by fav, I mean, Most Hilarious.

I do walk a fine line on this one truth be told. Like, season 1 was definitely going for A Look. It’s super gritty and high contrasty and stylized. Now, I got what they were going for but I wasn’t always crazy about it, mostly because the quality on the DVD’s was terrible. Quick tip for everyone: in order to get 2+ hours worth of content on a DVD, you have to compress the final edit of the program to a pretty small bitrate. When we drop videos onto DVD’s at my work (it isn’t often, thank goodness), the discs themselves only hold, like, 2GB worth of content and that is NOT A LOT when it comes to video files. The more compressed a video file is, the less detail you’re gonna get in the visuals. Watching episodes on Netflix (where everything’s probably at a higher bitrate and therefore is a better quality visual), it’s not bad, but on my DVDs, the compression is so heavy that we get SUPER hot highlights and SUPER crunchy shadows - what a lot of people would called “crushed blacks” because you’ve lost all the detail in the shadows and you’re left with a grainy, noisy, black hole on the screen. Like I lost so much detail in the pilot episode guys, I could not make out this guy’s face.

A rough approximation of my DVD quality. Still recommend it over Netflix for the Accurate Soundtrack tho.

Season 2 SPN toned that Look down a lot, like, a lot a lot. Enough that you still got the general vibe they were going for but not enough that you couldn’t make out faces anymore. But through this whole process, the CW execs kept pushing for the show to look lighter, more colorful, less film noir more...well, CW. And in season 3 it finally happened!!!

I get what those execs were going for, but also, I feel like the colorists on these first few episodes just REALLY went wild out of spite. Lookit this shot from “Magnificent Seven” right before Envy causes some rando innocent bystander to beat a girl to death for her shoes -

GREEN GREEN GREEN GREEN!!!! I WONDER WHICH SIN THIS GUY IS????

Then in “The Kids Are Alright” the birthday party looks like everything is coated in day-glow neon.

The Winchester Bros look like they just got back from 3 weeks in Aruba - LOOK at the saturation levels in these skin tones! LOOK AT THEM!!

My screencap ability aside, only in SPN can a cemetery at night have brighter lighting than a diner in the middle of the afternoon.

This is definitely a thing I will be tracking the rest of the season because I have a distinct memory of a future episode where the brothers have been magically gifted completely different lives where they were never Hunters, they know nothing of Hunting, and they’re completely normal until the end when everything gets snapped back and the episode literally changes colors. V. Excited to see just how saturated this season stays through the end.

But maybe more importantly in “The Kids Are Alright” we learn that Dean does NOT, in fact, have a son. Not that he would be a good father...well...maybe? I mean, this Dean, this season 3, definitely-suicidal, completely-reckless, can’t-keep-it-together Dean, is not good Dad material. Later seasons Dean? Probably fine? Earlier seasons Dean might ALSO be fine? And if he’d found out that Ben was his legitimate kid, it could have made a WORLD of difference, who knows. I know he ultimately does become father-like to Ben and that gives me a lot of feelings. But this Dean is not in a good place to take care of anyone, including himself and really, someone ought to do something about that.

I gotta say, this is an actual bummer. I can’t remember if, in the later seasons, they do any clarifying on this or not, but I am legitimately bummed that Ben is not Dean’s kid and that as far as we know, Dean has no natural children floating around out there with surly attitudes and soft hearts. Dean’s motivation from Day 1 has always been family and despite what comments he may make in early seasons, Dean’s secret desire is to have the wife and the kids and the dog and the white picket fence. And honestly, we’re only 3 seasons in and I just want Dean to have nice things!!

And then guys, we come to “Bad Day at Black Rock,” and I just...WHAT a masterpiece. I had almost NO memory of ever watching this episode before and I don't understand why. What a glorious masterpiece this episode is. Let’s make a list -

More Hunters™, who should be really annoying but were actually kinda charming in a Marx Brothers kind of way

Gordon’s in jail, where he belongs, but also is masterminding a coup against the Winchesters which is A+ spooky stuff

Slapstick comedy that I didn’t know I was missing from my life

Bela F*cking Talbot

Guys, I think this is my fav episode so far purely because I felt, while watching it, that the last 10 years of my life were not in vain and that I had in fact grown as a human person. I remembered hating Bela Talbot. Like, I DID. NOT. LIKE. HER. To the point that I questioned if her British accent was even real. It is, her mother is from the UK and she lived there for a time, but like, honestly, the audacity of Little Me.

This time around? Oh she’s defs my new fav. Just everything about her is like, A+, Great Job, Why-Did-We-Cancel-Her??? Like, oh yeah, probably because somewhere in here they try to shoehorn a romantic side plot with Dean. I don’t actually mind rioting over shoehorned romance, but also, if they’d let this play out for a season or two and then got the two of them to bone? I’m on board. I’m 100% on board.

Maybe it’s just that she is unapologetically out for herself, maybe it’s the fact that she is definitely a match for the Winchesters in a non-murdery way, probably it is both of those things. She's smart, she’s crooked, she has impeccable taste, she’s honestly a helluva lot of fun and I am so excited to see more of her and so BUMMED that she will not make it past this season.

Despite the fact that I absolutely adore all three of these episodes, they also bring up the problem that I was starting to see in season 2 - WHO is this show about? Isn’t it supposed to be about the Brothers as a whole? But the majority of these first three lean pretty heavily on Dean’s emotional arc. Granted, it makes sense. I mean, of COURSE Dean’s demon deal is gonna be the BIG thing in a season where he is literally staring down the barrel, but knowing that there’s a side plot about Is Sam Evil?? seems like...something we should really explore more? I believe it comes up in season 4, or at least, Sam’s demon-blood powers become a bigger deal in season 4, but I would have enjoyed seeing Sam have a more active stake in this season. I can see planting some weird new ticks being planted for Alive-Again Sam that just get weirder and darker and then a mid-season finale or a run up episode to the end of the season where Dean (finally) decides he needs to stop his demon deal because he needs to stick around so he can keep Sam from going completely off the rails. As much as I love Dean 5ever, I do think the show works best when the emotional weight of the season is distributed equally is all. And to be fair to the writers this season, there could have been a bigger plan for something like that but they ran out of time - their season was cut by about a third due to the Writer’s Strike.

Still, all in all, a solid opening to the third season. I want to say that these episodes feel like Classic SPN, but then I remember that this is season three out of fifteen. These ARE Classic SPN. Mostly self contained with enough emotional drama to remind us of the overarching plot. Maybe a little heavy on the emotional drama, but Dean’s only got a year to live and the show’s only got 16 episodes to resolve that crisis, so it’s fine.

[transgenderteensurvivalguide]

Kinda off topic but idk who to ask I follow another lgbt account and they have a list of triggers and I don't understand tham. They won't explain them to me and it's driving me crazy. I'm not trying to be rude but my stupid neurodiverse brain won't give it up. What do I do??

Lee says:

It’s like if I posted “I like a certain type of jewelry...” and then didn’t specify. If you ask me to explain whether I’m talking about rings or necklaces or earrings and I say “NopE! I’m just never going to tell you!” that might be frustrating for you, and you might wonder why I even bother talking about something if I won’t give the details or context you need to really understand what I’m talking about.

But if you continue to harass me about it and send a bunch of asks when I’ve said “conversation’s over, I will not discuss this topic further” then you’re upsetting both me and yourself and gaining nothing here. Even if I didn’t have a reason to withhold info (which applies to the jewelry example but not triggers, as there are legit reasons why someone might not want to talk about triggers) it’s still my choice to stay mum and you can’t force someone into telling you anything. Sometimes you just gotta let it go. 

Let’s recap here.

Someone has something on their blog

You don’t understand the thing 

You want to understand the thing

They won’t explain the thing

Not knowing the thing upsets you

Now you have two options:

Just accept that you don’t know the thing they’re talking about and probably won’t ever know the thing and continue to follow the blog

Or unfollow the blog so you stop being exposed to the unknown thing and move on

Getting more specific to your situation, sometimes people are triggered by a specific thing because it was associated with a traumatic memory.

Let’s give a hypothetical- say I had a traumatic experience involving a Honda Odyssey. Now whenever I see posts with a Honda Odyssey car shown or mentioned, I get panic attacks. So I ask folks to tag things that are related to the Honda Odyssey vehicle. 

But I might not want to explain why I have that particular trigger because then I have to talk about something that I find really hard to talk about or think about, or maybe I don’t want to share something traumatic and personal with the whole world wide web. 

So maybe I was hit by a car once and was left with a traumatic brain injury and the car happened to be a Honda Odyssey. Or maybe I was abused in the back of a Honda Odyssey by a family member once. And so on. There’s a lot of things that can cause someone to be triggered by a random object/show/topic/etc and sometimes they’ll ask for their mutuals to tag it without them also wanting to explain why those things are triggering. People have the right to privacy.

Nobody “owes” you an explanation of their deepest traumas- but you don’t owe anyone a “follow” either. If you can’t accept that you don’t know what their triggers are or why they’re triggering and it’s becoming an obsession for you, you need to take a step back, disengage and take care of your own self.

There’s going to be a lot of stuff on the internet you find upsetting. There will be people who are intentionally trying to mess with you, there will be well meaning people who you have misunderstandings with, there will be hostile people, people who will refuse to explain themselves, people who are mean, rude, transphobic, racist, abusive, etc. There will be posts and blogs with triggering things and videos that are disturbing or have misinformation.

You need to take care of yourself, which means avoiding places you know will be upsetting, whether that’s certain blogs or entire websites, the comments section on most websites, particular tags, etc, and recognizing when you’re getting stuck on something that’s frustrating or harmful to you, and trying to redirect yourself.

Our Mental health page has a few links you may find useful, and I’d suggest getting a therapist because they can help you work on coping when you get stuck like this.

And yes, you gotta stop asking them about it.

[solarsavoy]

Everything for Krystar, here we go! 😁

🪩—Would you want a movie adaption, TV, or something else? Animated or live action?

Definitely an anime! No live action. No. Will not approve. Nope. Never!!

🎧—What would the soundtrack be like?

I'm not sure because I've never really paid attention to soundtracks before, but I'd try to add some rock sounding songs for things like fight scenes and such and I 100% want "Still Here" by Digital Daggers to play during the end of the Fragment series. These are non-negotiable. Also, I need an extended opening sequence for Fourth Fragment that goes to I Prevail's "Pull the Plug". Also non-negotiable.

✅—Which character/plot point/etc would be your favorite to see on screen?

The end of the Fifth Fragment... It's what inspired me to start writing the story again at age 29. I saw the ending so clearly in my head, and I'd absolutely love to see it on screen someday, going to the some "Still Here" by Digital Daggers, bawling my eyes out. I'd probably watch it over and over again because that would mean it was finished, that I made it, that the scene that drove me to write so much since then is finally a reality.

If I'm being honest though, seeing the opening scene described below would be just as awesome too, but not near as powerful as seeing the ending. And then there's the Echo series because Stag... Grr, what a jerk, making a whole ass second series just so he can get more screen time. XD Seriously, the story was supposed to end with the Fifth Fragment and then Stag went and made a whole origin story which started a whole other series and it's all his fault it's going to be twelve books now. All Stag's fault. XD

🥀—Which character/plot point/etc is most important for an adaption to get right?

This isn't for all adaptations, just for mine. I need the characters to age the way they do in the story. Because I deal with time, we sometimes go forward and back and characters will be younger and older and this is impossible to do for live action without changing the actual actors. Second to this is my secrets. If I say a detail is important, they better damn well include it in the fucking anime or I'll be pissed. Look, it's important!! Like, if they decided to exclude Taki's interludes or show an extra scene that wasn't in the book because it wasn't in Deshi's POV, then I am not okay with it. The fact that it's in Deshi's POV is very important to me, okay? There are other things, but I'd hate to draw attention to them by pointing them out here. XD Girl's gotta keep her secrets close to the chest, you know.

❌—What’s the worst thing an adaption of your WIP could do? Your absolute worst nightmare?

Making a live action anyway and destroying it like they did Percy Jackson. They changed his 16yo prophecy to 25yo, they didn't have the characters look or act like they're described in the book, and it's like they didn't even read the actual books at all… Don't do that to me. Read the fucking book. Follow the fucking book. Adapt the fucking book. I get that some changes will need to be made for different media types, but there's a right way to do it and a wrong way. At least make it look like you read the book, okay?

🎬—Who would you cast as your characters?

This will take some listening to VAs. The only one I'm sure of, absolutely non-negotiably sure of, is John Burgmeier for Mythren using the same voice as he uses for Shigure from Fruits Basket. Non-negotiable. As for the rest, I'm going to be listening to a bunch of voice actors over the next week so I can pick some for other characters. I will say that I'd love to get Vic Mignogna and Jason Liebrecht for a role, but I'm not sure which ones yet.

🎤—Describe the opening scene

I'm not sure I'd keep it this way which is why I'm sharing it, but this was the scene I first envisioned when the story idea came to me at age 12. There's a girl with her head laid down on a desk and she's presumably sleeping during class. Her desk is right next to a window that goes outside, but instead of the city, it's a meadow. Inside, the colors are dull and boring, but outside the meadow if vibrant and beaming with life. The camera zooms into the window until the classroom and sleeping girl's head are out of the frame and then it goes out to the meadow, traveling out towards something in the distance. It starts to focus on the back of the head of a girl, possibly the same girl, with long, dirty blonde hair going all the way past her backside. She slowly turns around, her hair flaring out, and looks at the camera sadly. She isn't wearing any clothes, but her hair covers everything. Her hands pull out what looks like a glowing blue item (I later decide this is a blue flower) and the sad glow fills her face, making her look sadder. The colors start to fade, to the bland look the classroom had, but it keeps going and going until everything around her is dark and black. She opens her mouth to breath, but then drops the flower, which starts to wilt as it too fades, and cluthes at her neck. Then she she too fades, after she struggles to breathe and eventually stops moving. Then the title would appear: Krystar: First Fragment. This is the scene that 12yo me came up with. I've never forgotten it. I remember attempting to draw it even, but those pictures are long gone. 😅 Whatcha think?

💿—Free space for anything I didn’t mention! Talk about things you would add, things that are important to you, or even lay out the plot of every episode of your Netflix Original if it suits you!!

I haven't planned out that much detail for it actually. I'd love to break out of the standard 13/26 episode blocks and just do as many as are necessary for each book. I've also considered separating B1 in half and doing the second half with B2, for reasons. Either way, the details of each episode I think would be better laid out in comic form, which I do plan on making someday, but the ideal goal is for it to be an anime. Someday, someday.

Thank you so much for the ask, tuuli! You just never let me down. 💙 Hope there was some interesting stuff here for you!

Ask thing.