#i think it’s a film class not gender studies also | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

rebecca-arielle · 3 months ago

Text

hello have not been on here in literal years and reactivated simply to post my modern bridgerton hcs that came to me as i was falling asleep would not let me go until i wrote them down! enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~

the entire family is still very much british upper class - they regularly interact with the royals and attend all the family event like wimbledon and ascot. they are regularly featured in the pages of the tabloids much to their annoyance. they also went to either oxford, cambridge, or st. andrew’s (franny)

- anthony - still who he is, took over edmund’s position in the family business. huge company either a law firm, business like real estate or holdings. he’s ceo and damn good at his job. still viscount but it is really in name only.

- kate - still very much who she is, i can see her either going very much a lawyer or the artist route but i like to think of her as leaving her art as a hobby that she does simply for the pleasure of it.

- benedict - artist can do either painting or photography but has become very famous for it, initially it was because of the family name but then people started seeing his talent for what it is. his photos have been featured a bunch of times in british vogue and he is one of their go to photographers.

- sophie - very much a primary school teacher because of her experience with araminta as a child she was determined to not let that happen for other children so she makes damn sure that while they are at school in her class they know some one is looking out for them.

- colin - travel writer. he works for some magazine and has his own column. the magazine is owned by like some big media company that has their own building.

- penelope - pen works for a different magazine that is owned by the same parent company as colin’s so they work in the same building when colin is not on assignment. she secretly still runs lady whistledown that is like deux moi and once she gets outed she starts her own mini media empire. still besties with eloise.

- daphne - she is very much the perfect socialite philanthropist that is so perfect she seems like she would be a bitch but truly is that nice. is still married to simon after they fake dated due to some media scandal. lives her absolute best WAG life and has the season down to a science.

- simon - is a huge sports star, think david beckham. technically was still the duke but officially gave up the title to piss off his father. this man was born to be girl dad.

- eloise - once she realized just how much privilege she has, she put her money where her mouth is and is constantly going to protests much to anthony’s annoyance (not because he doesn’t agree with the cause just because she is giving the family a bad name in the press, he actually super proud of her.) el went to school for a degree in women and gender studies and is super involved in academia when not getting arrested.

- phillip/a - a botany professor at the university where el is based out of. still has the kids from their previous relationship with marina but they were able to get a divorce because it is the 21st century and co parent the twins quite well. their gender honestly doesn’t matter for this, they love plants and eloise - the order of that is not important.

- francesca - autistic, it is important to me that you know that. she is a film composer, she loves getting to create the score for movies and that it doesn’t require that much human interaction.

- john - still unfortunately passes away, but prior to that was some kind of finance guy. was generally the nicest guy and loved fran with his entire heart.

- michael/michaela - hot. like the most beautiful human being you have ever laid eyes on. they work as an actor because it’s fun but secretly are insanely smart and like build computers for fun.

- gregory - anthony’s mini me and he wouldn’t have it any other way. he works for the family company and loves it. generally small bean like but is insanely tall, like taller than benedict much to everyone’s annoyance but no one more than hyacinth. he worships the ground lucy walks on but they only have three or four kids because they have access to birth control.

- lucy - a mini kate. also a lawyer who’s family firm got bought by kate’s and then started working under her where she eventually met greg when he was visiting his favorite sister kate for their monthly lunch date. has ocd.

- hyacinth - a child prodigy, started university at like 15 (which she never lets greg forget) works as a ta (or whatever the uk equivalent is) for agatha who is an old family friend through whom she meets gareth. her field is like archeology or some other super niche thing. (agatha does not have to teach, she does it because if she doesn’t how else will the new generation ever be taught the right way to do things)

- gareth - is so fucking chill but absolutely matches hyacinths freak. no one is quite sure what he does, he has explained it many times but no one truly knows even hyacinth.

- violet - was besties with princess diana (old money england) she unfortunately passes around the same time as edmund and she just loses it. luckily it is the modern days was able to get help but it took a little while. though once she is back on her feet she is a force to be reckoned with. she runs the family foundation which focuses on mental health and allergy awareness.

thank you for reading this! i will take no criticism at this time but welcome any addition thoughts!

83 notes · View notes

ineffable-opinions · 4 months ago

Text

MAME & BL Literacies (Part 4)

Other parts: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Contents:

MAME’s queer characters and their lives

Fetishization of queer men and profiting off LGBT community

Why other queer genres like gei comi struggle to get live action adaptation?

(bonus) What Did You Eat Yesterday sexy times

BL and rape culture

Everyday ethnocentrism & BL

This is the last part of this essay series. In this part, I want to discuss the response this review of TharnType by @waitmyturtles generated. As always, corrections and criticisms are welcome.

Here are the points @solitaryandwandering raised:

1. fans will get SO rabid for MAME’s stuff yet resist tuning in for more queer-friendly Taiwanese BL or lower heat fare

I think that the BL MAME creates is "queer-friendly". Moreover, her BL focuses on the intersection of queerness with local forms of gender, patriarchy & heterosexism, class, race, skin color, age, employment, location & regionalism, abilities and disabilities, education, health conditions and access to medical care, urban-rural divide, migrant status, culture, etc.

MAME's BL have aspects of Thai queer culture and praxis that are otherwise overlooked. Here's an example.

Through Techno’s interaction with Tharn in episode 1 of TharnType, MAME highlights an important issue: invisibility of androphilic “man”. Techno comments that Tharn is the first masculine presenting androphilic male he has met, even though he has several queer friends.

This is in part due to skewed presence of androphilic male characters in mainstream media. In Thai soap operas and movies, androphilic men are 'presented as effeminate, overreactive, with a passionate but unrequited interest in men'.

Countering this perception is the hegemony of masculine aesthetics in urban Thailand’s queer culture. 'The English word “man” has been borrowed into Thai gay-speak to denote acting in a masculine way. Man describes a masculine presentation of either gay-identified or heterosexual males and contrasts with the Thai term phu-chai, which also translates as “man” but is used in the specific sense of denoting the gender role of a heterosexually identified male.

'Many Thai gays believe that effeminate gay men, or gay sao, will experience discrimination and prejudice because of their feminine characteristics and behaviours. Thai gays also think that performing gender-normative forms of manhood are useful in establishing sexual and romantic relations with other gays. These expectations are associated with the culture of images, known in Thai as phap-phot, by which many homosexual men feel compelled to act in accord with normative male gender roles.'

This is in contrast to Techno’s queer friends who blur the lines between the masculine and feminine domains. His use of the word kathoey is case in point.

Moreover, the need for social conformity for Thai gays in terms of their gender performance is an urban phenomenon. Ethnographic study by Wijngaarden traced the rapid adoption of more masculine gender performance by gay men who moved from rural setting to urban for the purpose of education and employment. Ambiguity in gender performance is more accepted in rural setting where there is gender-based understandings of homosexuality. Also, gay dating scene in urban areas seem to assign value to masculine presentation.

source

I don't really know what @solitaryandwandering mean by "queer-friendly" in the context of Taiwanese BL.

Support of fu-people (BL fans) for queer works in Taiwan is well-known. When the play 《愛情生活》 Life of Love by Xu ZhengPing was staged, they had BL version shows too.

The play has a short film adaptation which is available for free on GagaOOLala.

youtube

Fu-people have also shown their support for series like Breakfast by 想再見你.

2. Fetishization of queer men in yaoi

By that standard, is Minamoto Kazuki fetishizing straight women through his works?

source

Minamoto Kazuki is a gay mangaka who creates straight romance and smut.

Arguably, his most famous manga, at least in BL fandom, is Wall Circle’s Doujin Artist Nekoyashiki-Kun’s Desire for Recognition Grows which got live action adaptation: KabeKoji in 2022.

Apart from creating commercial BL and yaoi (self-published BL like the ones in the image given above), he has also authored an autobiographical work titled Shoujo Manga Artist Minamoto-San Comes Out and a manga exploring queer life and homophobia titled The Gay Who Turned Kaiju.

Moreover, many scholars, mangaka, fans, etc. from Asia and elsewhere have already spoken/written plenty about the issue of fetishization. Here's a compilation of resources.

3. zero critical consumption and leveraging of abusive concepts

I wonder why it is assumed that BL is consumed without critical thinking. It is true that BL, especially MAME's BL, are not didactic. TharnType is a BL with odo (royal road) narrative progression. It is not one of the sweet BL that GMMTV produces. Due to a general lack of BL literacies, there are off-the-mark expectations associated with BL, particularly Thai BL. Hence, odo BL seems to violate a lot of these misguided expectations.

TharnType is a well-done odo BL, in my opinion. "Leveraging of abusive concepts" is not a failure but a feature.

When it comes to depiction of abuse, there are those who think that it always gives the wrong message. There are variety in opinions on what is the right way to go about it. BL being an accommodating genre has space for all sorts of treatment. Even in live action, there is good variety in terms of how the theme is treated. But nothing is everyone’s cup of tea. This being the case it is understandable if someone like how MAME handles abuse, just as it is understandable if someone doesn't.

Assuming that fans don't engage critically with the theme and are mindlessly consuming it, have the implication of infantilizing the audience - as though they are without faculties of discretion and are incapable of making judgements. It also has the added implication of demonizing all media concerning queer people that deals with abuse. If MAME’s approach is deemed “unsafe” for queer population, based on that judgement, where does BL and gei comi that offer erotic treatment of abuse fall? What about queer people producing and consuming them?

That brings me to the points @nieves-de-sugui has raised.

4. how much all of these tropes where used (and still are). I believe that when things are made for tv they should take all the things you mentioned into account more than they do.

I believe that makers of live action queer content are very cautious. Thanks to that we are yet to get live action adaptation of any gei comi.

I have seen mainstream media ignore Gengoroh Tagame (probably the most popular gay mangaka creating content aimed at androphilic men) and his works for years in spite of his tangible influence on East Asian queer men. And then suddenly creating a live action adaptation of his all-ages manga My Brother’s Husband.

Who will dare to adapt his works Gunji or Fisherman’s Lodge or Pride? How can we show rape, trauma and taboo involving queer people on screen? What message will it give to the queer population? To the non-queer population?

A scene from Fisherman’s Lodge. Image courtesy of @finalatomicbuster.

If MAME was not involved in producing her BL, it is doubtful if it would have ever happened the way it did. Almost all BL adaptation is a censored adaptation, with notable exceptions like Sei no Gekiyaku. Recently, 25 Ji, Akasaka de (2024) removed complicated sexual content (including a dub-con episode) from the volume 1 of the manga, which was critical to the story and the couple’s development, in adaptation. Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka (2024) went as far as removing the more sexual second couple from the live action adaptation probably because makers thought it was better not to go anywhere near cruelty.

The first ever anime adaptation of a gei comi, Shin Yaranai ka based on Junichi Yamakawa's Kuso Miso Technique, is *sigh* disappointing to say the least.

youtube

I wanted to quickly mention What Did You Eat Yesterday yaoi version since @waitmyturtles mentioned the series.

5. What Did You Eat Yesterday

I want to highlight that What Did You Eat Yesterday was not a BL in publication. It was published in Morning, a conservative magazine for middle-aged men. This is what got a live action adaptation.

Fumi Yoshinaga has created a proper BL doujin series that includes content that couldn't be part of publication in Morning.

Here are some panels from the two latest volumes of the yaoi. I wonder if audience would have had the same impression of the show if they had incorporated the doujin bits too.

6. One piece of the puzzle that's missing here is Thai rape culture that blankets all of their society.

This is an important point @yousaygoodbyeandisay raised and it applies not just to Thailand.

Sexual assault as a theme in BL, handled in a myriad of ways, has been the case since the inception of the genre. I have discussed the history in the context of Japan here.

It was during the publication of JUNE magazine that the importance of depiction of sexual assault in BL became clear to the editor through response letters from readers.

June is a place of therapistic rehabilitation for those women who had experiences of mental and physical abuses as a female. Mr. Sagawa said that he cannot ignore that there are not a few readers who had such experiences during their childhood.

source

MAME studied BL and its production academically (you can find her research output by searching her name: อรวรรณ วิชญวรรณกุล) before she entered live action production. She not only know what she is writing/creating but also is willing to deal with difficult themes without taking sweet, fable-like route.

Now onto the points @mikuni14 raised.

7. my shock seeing so much SA related stuff (the show covered just about every problematic sex thing there is, and finally forgave the heinous criminal instead of putting him in jail. I don't know how MAME can create for example AePete and also somany vile things

For those who don’t know, MAME is a unique Thai BL creator. Thai BL creators on average lack BL literacies for various reasons. MAME is one of the exceptions. This is because:

she is a BL author & hence, one of the creators of BL literacies

she studied BL and its production academically [you can find her research output by searching her name: อรวรรณ วิชญวรรณกุล]

then she started producing live action BL

In an industry which is lacking in BL literacies, what she brings to the table is fu-culture (BL fan culture) in all its glory. Unfortunately, the live action audience who are fans of sweet BL, have a hard time adjusting.

Here are some typical narrative progressions for a (Japanese) BL:

あまあま – sweet

ユニーク – unique

シリアス – serious

邪道 – evil road (jadō)

王道 - royal road (odo)

Any theme/one-line plot can choose to take any of these narrative progressions. Moreover, Thai BL usually originates online which allows for innovation.

MAME employs different narrative progressions for different ships. AePete follows the typical sweet BL progression. KengklaTechno follows jado and TharnType odo.

TarTum is a sweet BL, complicated by them being step-brothers. While their pairing is barely on odo, Tum as a character has a complicated odo progression within their ship.

Since TharnType is an odo BL all wrong-doings are not punished. Take for example KinnPorsche, another odo BL, where the ending can’t be 'organized crime gets the main characters in jail'. In odo BL involving crime, most of the victims are usually cannon fodders. So, characters are not bothered much by the crime. But in MAME's universe, Tum is an important character, someone designed to make audience root for him. Hence the audience can’t dismiss the crimes against him. It is not wrong to want the narrative to have Lhong jailed. If TharnType was a sweet BL, it would have gone there.

8. selective memory

Selective memory is indicative of preferences and it helps to fine tune BL consumption. MAME's storytelling incorporates diverse elements. Those who enjoy her works also might find that there something or the other that isn't to their taste. This is an important part of BL literacies.

I enjoy dangerous characterizations over subdued ones and prefer a meriba more than a happy ending. While there are plenty of BL media with those, they are super rare in live action. So, I appreciate MAME for taking into account fans who want something different from sweet BL.

Here are the points @bengiyo raised:

9. What Did You Eat Yesterday v/s Old Fashion Cupcake

This has nothing to do with MAME but has to do with BL literacies more generally. Old Fashion Cupcake is more appealing to BL fans because it is a BL and hence not sanitized to continue run on a conservative magazine. So, it permeates moe (affect). Moreover, creators of Old Fashion Cupcake are better informed than creators of What Did You Eat Yesterday in terms of BL literacies. So, the direction and acting works better in the former than the latter.

9. The Effect feeling like the first huge volley leveled at BL from within the genre.

I am always amazed at the takes on the Effect. Somehow it is assumed to be a critique of BL genre. That's not the case. The Effect is a proper jado BL.

What audience are picking up on is the 'I can do it better' spirit that motivates a lot of BL creation. It is natural for audience to feel like the depiction of complex themes, such as sexual abuse, bullying, delinquency, identity theft, murder, infidelity, pregnancy, etc. are not dealt with well. Creating BL that fits one's taste better is one way authors and artists go about addressing the issue. That is how we end up with same theme dealt with in numerous ways. When that expands, we end up with sub-genres and BL categories.

Jado BL are rare, particularly in Thai BL.

It is difficult to sell BL with jado and other narrative progressions. It becomes even more difficult to sell branded pairings when the characters they play are not impeccable. It is unlikely that actors playing bad guys can sell products for advertisers. (Imagine the characters from The Effect being in ads together!) It is even more unlikely that fans would go broke behind wicked characters and would want to attend fan-meetings and concerts featuring them in some way.

This is also so as not to trouble the average audience’s worldview (世界観) and is clearly a low effort and low skill (in terms of BL literacies) approach. But since a lot of audience don’t appreciate villain-like characterization, it is clearly low risk, no chance of a backlash from angry audience and the best method for assured money making.

@respectthepetty has also flagged the next issue:

10. History3: Make Our Days Count.

Gays were being buried and put in prison in Taiwanese BLs in the same year it legalized marriage equality.

There is a lot of ethnocentrism in the hate that MODC gets, apart from lack of BL literacies. While I understand where that take is coming from given American media history in the context of Hayes code, AIDS crisis, etc., I wish media from elsewhere would be looked at independently.

Queer narratives everywhere have their own over-used tropes and historical issues. Malayalam media, for example, has the issue of having one of two queer characters having varathan vibe (Rosy in Ponnaranjanam, Kiran in Sancharram, Antony's boyfriend in Mumbai Police, Kiran in My Life Partner, etc.) that makes them look odd in Kerala's rurban landscape. Even Kaathaloram played into this trope. The problem is that it perpetuates the belief that queerness is an import of sorts.

Mindless application of media critique learned from the west leads to the brushing aside of pertinent issues with media of the region in favor of finding legitimacy via commonality with the west. That way we end up with crits accusing Moothon of employing bury the gay trope while ignoring that:

Moothon is a gangster action flick like Kammattippaadam

It is rare for romances irrespective of the gender of the main characters and genre of the movie to have happy ending in Malayalam. In fact, almost all great love stories in Malayalam movies are tragedies. This is unlike in Hollywood where heterosexual romances usually get happy endings.

more importantly, every queer character, including Latheef, is infused with varathan vibe.

Taiwanese BL has issues worth exploring. Issues of their own media - not varathan queer trope from Malayalam media or bury your gay trope from American media.

MODC was an dealing with well-established BL tropes (like any other show in the History franchise). It explored bereavement (a tribute to Lan Yu, first ever danmei live action adaptation) and substitute lover trope.

The series introduced a doppelgänger of Yu XiGu (Xiang HaoTing’s white moonlight), a perfect candidate for substitute lover trope. But instead of pursuing it, they subverted the trope.

History franchise, which was build to grow BL and BL literacy in Taiwan, ended up victim to prejudice since it failed to measure up to foreign standards. MODC offered something rare. The audience didn't appreciate it. They dismissed it for not measuring up to expectations colored by experiences which danmei is not connected with for historical reasons.

By that standard, would tongzhi literature from Taiwan too have to make amends for sins of the west towards its queers? Imagine stripping of death as a theme from tongzhi author Chiang-Sheng Kuo's works! Then there is also difference in how death is perceived in different societies.

Why must BL be arm-twisted to fit into norms from elsewhere and correct the wrongs of someone else?

11. BL profit off LGBT community

This is really interesting. There are many questions that I can think of that is linked to this take:

Is BL really profitable? Short answer is no. Long answer here.

Is it really LGBT community that BL profits off?

Probably not. It is moe that BL sells. That imo, is the main difference between BL and other queer genres.

Anyway, BL predates LGBT acronym. It predates de-pathologization of homosexuality in many BL creating regions. Fu-people were creating BL before mainstream media started representing queer people in media. Fu-people battled state and its censors everywhere along with queer people. Live action BL surely is commercialized. But that is capitalism reaping the dividends of decades of fu-people's labor of love.

@he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle raised the following point.

12. 2019 saw significant increase in quantity and quality of BL. Since then, live actions smoothed out the rougher edges of the source material (like what happened with Kinnporsche and Love in the Air).

While I understand the rational behind toning down dangerous characterization to appeal to the largest audience, I think that kind of censorship for commercialization limits potential of the genre. The impact is most visible in case of GMMTV BL such as Only Friend (where it could neither be sweet BL nor could it embark properly on jado).

Compare it with adaptation of the ero-BL Sei no Gekiyaku. It stayed true to the content and pushed the boundaries enough to bring about convergence between gay pinku cinema and BL. When BL is allowed to explore its potential freely, it not only imparts BL literacies but also makes it possible for other queer genres to gain new audience, which in turn encourages production houses to venture into different queer genres.

jjsanguine raised the following point.

13. I don't even hate toxic characters or plotlines, actually I love them. But like even if the characters don't know they're doing it, the show should. And it really really doesn't. And neither do the fans. Kind of alarming.

This is in relation to Lhong and San.

Lhong is a yandere in a odo BL. (for detailed discussion see Part 3) It is a matter of the world view and less about show's self-awareness (which I believe it has). If TharnType was an jado BL, Tharn could have ended up with Lhong and Type would be the stalking horse.

@jjsanguine later commented about how Lhong felt "goofy" by way of his over-the-top actions which made the show's convictions questionable.

San and Tharn's relationship was, to an extend, the most realistically depicted. I remember starting to learn about Thai queerness and realizing that a lot of elements in their relationship reads like ethnography. Consider for example Tharn being only fourteen at the time of sexual debut and San being older. This is not too different from the average age of sexual debut in Thailand. Despite it being a compoundable offense, average age of sexual debut is declining. Tharn's discovery of what he likes and dislikes and shedding cuteness (which San comments about) and adopting manliness (which Techno comments about) too is in line with what is observed among urban queer youth. Contrast this with Sky in Love in the Air whose sexual debut and exploitation are tied to his migration to urban landscape. Sky's backstory too read like ethnography and his vulnerability a reflection of the many others' in his society.

@absolutebl raised the following points:

14. Rape - as plot device - doesn't make good stories - lazy & bad writing: Feminist critique and modern narrative analysis.

Feminist and queer BL scholars from Akiko Mizoguchi to James Welker have discussed rape as a plot device in BL. Since experts have written plenty, I'll spare my effort discussing this misconception.

15. rape is an act of sexuality (or worse, sexy), it is NOT - it is an act of violence. But that is only the start to the way it’s chronically mishandled, especially in commercial fiction (of which romance makes the largest percentage).

Akiko Mizoguchi's two decade of work have addressed this in relation to Japanese BL which I feel holds true for BL more generally. Moreover, BL is not a romance sub-genre. BL is a genre in itself. A lot of BL is romance. There is enough overlap between those genres to give the impression that BL is a romance sub-genre. But there are plenty of other works too. Like One Room Angel and Social Reform Season. Similarly, BL is not a porn sub-genre. A lot of BL is porn. But come on!

16. [MAME] produces consistent highly-profitable narratives by-and-about queer folks but utterly disingenuous to the queer experience and that defines exploitation in the ET industry... Right, just adding that yes BL does not represent (in any way) the reality of being queer in any of these countries.

I have already discussed how MAME's works are intersectional reflections of queer experience. BL has been reflecting different queer experiences in Japan even before the term boys' love emerged. But narrow, ethnocentric ideas of queerness doesn't lend itself to honest understanding of other forms and representation. Consider characters being addressed as เมีย ‘wife’. It is a Thai queer practice. One can always dismiss that since it sounds heterosexist in the culture one comes from as absolutebl does in this post. That, imo, is 'disingenuous to the queer experience' of Thai people.

The question is what are westerners missing in their own countries' queer media that they feel they must just judge everything with no care for the cultures and people producing content for themselves? Seriously, what have the westernization done to some in the audience that they emerge so desperate for queer content that they watch BL yet remain blind to the cultures (fu-culture in particular) that produce them and splooge vitriolic ethnocentrism?

That concludes this discourse series. I want to sincerely thank everyone who contributed to and inspired this 🙏.

Other parts: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

60 notes · View notes

fangirlingfromdownunder · 2 months ago

Text

A Sweet Mishap - Chapter 20

Pairing - Jensen Ackles x Reader

A/N: I just want to start by thanking everyone for all the love on this story so far. Let me know if you want to be added to the tag list. This chapter is a little heavier (as is the story going forward, but I'll include potential triggers for each chapter as relevant), so please read the TW below and only read on if you feel comfortable doing so.

Potential Trigger Warnings: no warnings

A Sweet Mishap Masterlist | Main Masterlist

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

As the reality of making it on Broadway sets in I dedicate myself to self-improvement. I go for lengthy walks or jogs daily either before or after work depending on my shift. I call or text Jensen whenever we can, and decide to give a relationship with him a real shot.

But, as the week goes on and he prepares to go back to Vancouver to start filming and I busy myself with night rehearsals, work at the cafe, and prep work for my classes, all while attempting to maintain a healthy sleep schedule. My contact with Jensen eventually drops back to sporadic text messages and a range of missed calls on either side. The one thing keeping me from a major meltdown is knowing my best friend will be back Sunday and I’ve already got a coffee date planned for Monday morning.

When I finally lay in bed on Saturday night, getting some much needed relaxation I scroll through my social media feed. Thanks to Jensen’s surprise stunt at the wedding and then his run-in at the barbecue joint, his face is all over my feed. I scroll through the lists of speculations about a secret girlfriend or project in New York. The adrenaline and secrecy makes me smile, but at the same time I’m terrified of the truth coming out before I’m ready. I send a few of the articles to Jensen. Minutes later he’s calling. As I answer I can hear music and other voices in the background and I instantly feel guilty for disrupting his night.

“Hey Darlin’. Relax. I know about the posts. That’s one of the things my agent called about the other day. I’m handling it.”

“I’m sorry, did I disturb your night? You sound like you’re out. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have-”

“I just haven’t had a chance to bring it up, but I’m here now. It doesn’t matter where else I am. You need me, so I’m here. Take a deep breath for me.”

I throw my head back on my pillow and take a deep breath, “There’s no way you’re real…”

“It makes me disappointed in my gender that you think that. It means your standards are low.”

“You don’t exactly get high standards when you’ve dated the people I have…But I really don’t want to talk or think about them. What’s your plan?”

“To treat you like my queen. Prove to you that you deserve the world and that you’re my number one.”

“I uh…I meant about the rumours…But that sounds amazing. It’s not gonna be easy, but I’m rooting for you.”

I hear another voice call out on the other end of the line, “Hey Jensen, go easy on my top shelf whiskey! And get back in here!” I figure it’s just someone else at the party or bar or wherever he is.

“I’m comin’!” He calls out before lowing his voice again, “I promise I’m gonna handle it all, so you can just focus on becoming the star I know you are.”

“Thanks. Sounds like your friends are missing you. You should get back.”

“Only if you’re sure you’re okay? No brisket?”

“No brisket, I’m okay now. I should get some sleep anyway.”

“Alright, Darlin’. Sweet dreams.”

I hang up and snuggle into my bed.

After a long few hours in the cafe, I sit back at the counter in my apartment infront of my laptop. I fill out the digital forms to drop back to part-time study. I figure with getting fit, rehearsals, work and my new, budding relationship I just don’t have the time or mental capacity for the extra unnecessary stress and workload. And last night just confirmed in my mind that I need to focus on my mental health and wellbeing. Feeling a little disappointed but also relieved, I submit the forms and then focus on the required reading for the acting classes.

After an hour and a half my eyes are straining and my stomach is growling, I shut my laptop and walk around the island bench to find something to eat. As I make a sandwich I keep glancing over at my face-down phone As I sit down to eat I quickly flip it over and slide up for notifications. I notice a missed call from Stella. I quickly call her back, excited to hear from her after what feels like the longest week ever.

“Hey, Bestie! How’s married life?”

“Amazing! I’ve had the best week ever! I can’t wait to tell you everything tomorrow!”

“Abridged, please. I need a PG version, M at your worst. You can leave out the X-rated stuff, which I know there would have been plenty of.”

“That takes out 90 per cent of my week! Nah, you know what Nick’s like, we did plenty of PG-rated activities.”

“Speaking of Nick, shouldn’t you guys be enjoying your last afternoon and night before the official end of your honeymoon?”

“You would think…But Mr. Reality-check got back to reality the second we touched down. He’s busy checking mail and paying bills and then onto meal prep. I guess it’s good one of us wants to do that…”

“I’m sorry…”

“I know who I married. It’s sweet really, cause I know he’s only doing it to make the transition easier for both of us, and he knows I’ve been dying to hear your goss!”

“We agreed to talk about everything tomorrow…” I say trying to deflect as I start to pace.

“Yeah, but I’m only gonna get an hour for lunch and that includes travel time to and from the cafe. And I need more than the 45-ish minutes that we’re gonna have left. So, tell me about you and Mr Tall and Sexy.”

“There’s honestly not much to tell…We are a maybe something…a far-fetched possibility…”

“There’s a story there…You need me to come over?”

“No! No…You need to be at home with your husband. In other news! Grease? The audition YOU signed me up for…”

“No way! You got it? Who? Sandy? Frenchy?”

“Understudy…and…Female Student number three.”

“Well, you’re gonna be the best damn Female Student number three to ever bless that stage!”

“That’s the plan, but also, chances are over the six week run I’ll get at least one matinee show as the lead.”

“When that happens, I’ll be in the front row.”

“I know you will. Thanks.”

“I’m glad you got a part. I was worried I was gonna have to get you the junior HR position…”

“Broadway is where I want to be. I’m willing to work for it. It’s my first role and it’s a great position. No one lands the lead as their first role…except for probably Jensen Ackles,” I add under my breath.

“What’d he do? You always wear the blame but it’s always the guys in your life taking advantage, so what did HE do?”

“Nothing…I’ve got so much work to do before classes start this week, and I’ve got rehearsals most nights.”

“Hey, I’m your best friend. You can talk to me.”

“I’ve just got a lot to do. I’m thrilled that you had an amazing honeymoon and I can’t wait to see you tomorrow. But go enjoy your night with your husband…”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

“I know. Enjoy your night.”

“I plan to. Don’t get too in your head about whatever’s going on.”

I sigh and hang up. As I try my best to refocus on the text about tone and enunciation, my mind keeps wandering back to the night before and the endless rumors that I’m caught in the middle of.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

Taglist: @stoneyggirl2 @hobby27, @n-o-p-e-never, @deansimpalababy,

@winchesterwild78, @kr804573, @chriszgirl92, @smoothdogsgirl

@speakinvain, @deans-baby-momma, @1967winchesterimpala

#jensen ackles imagine #jensen ackles fic #jensen ackles x y/n #jensen ackles x reader #jensen ackles #supernatural imagine #supernatural fic

22 notes · View notes

saintsenara · 10 months ago

Note

I’m obsessed with your unhinged ship opinions! They’ve really gotten me thinking about interesting combinations which is such a fun activity for the subway

My submissions:

- Narcissa Malfoy/Petunia Dursley

- Voldemort/Molly Weasley

- Nagini/Crookshanks

- Walburga Black/Barty Crouch Sr.

ahhh, thank you so much @epigaea-repens - light of my life and producer of the finest piece of fan art i've ever seen - i'm genuinely delighted to discover that somebody other than me gets something out of doing these.

narcissa malfoy/petunia dursley

i'm oddly partial to a bit of draco/dudley - entirely because the idea of vernon trying to out-pompous lucius is funny to me, as is the fact that they'd clearly both think harry would care and harry's actual response would be 'who's draco?' - and i have to confess myself partial to this too.

narcissa's narrative mirror is molly weasley - both of these women share a certain fierceness [and, especially, a fierceness and strength one might not expect of them at first glance], but they also share a certain disconnection from the rest of their family, and an undercurrent of loneliness can be detected in their characterisation.

this is present in the way petunia is written too - the implication of canon is both that she's married "up" in terms of social class and that vernon is quite a bit older than her.

[and her fandom reception is a victim, i think, of the aging up of the adult cast of the films - petunia is, at most, twenty-four when lily dies. like her sister, she marries and has children young, even by the social standards of 1970s/1980s britain, and having to take on harry changes the trajectory of her life when it's only just started - i am absolutely wedded to the idea, for example, that harry being placed in her care means that she gives up a plan to have a second biological child.]

she is, of course, also confined in a prison which is directly of her own making - the bland domesticity of her perfect little house, all of which is an artifice constructed so she doesn't have to admit how deeply she once longed to be magic. narcissa experiences the same - i always read her as someone who leans heavily on the gendered conventions of the wizarding world as a way of coping with how utterly both of her sisters defied them, and as being someone who is very concerned with keeping up appearances [hence why her wildness and desperation when she goes to see snape in half-blood prince is so shocking]. i think you can imagine that she runs malfoy manor to have the same nothing-wrong-here vibe as number four privet drive, and i think you can do something very interesting indeed with the idea of two women who live behind masks being forced to drop them when they find each other.

lord voldemort/molly weasley

does, in fact, exist, in the form of a story i will recommend to everyone - come slowly, eden by paimpont - which, like all the best rare-pair fics, takes two implausible characters and creates a genuinely meaningful love story between them, through a lovely character study of molly and her ability to notice when people [and, especially, when people who are very much in want of a mother] are hungry.

nagini/crookshanks

i had to look up crookshanks' gender for this - which is a wild thing to say on a weekday afternoon - so that i could confirm... flopping. nagini's a lesbian, crookshanks misunderstood when she said she liked pussy.

it's fine in the end, though. nagini's got something happening with one of the malfoys' peahens, and crookshanks can go back either to the enemies-to-lovers thing he's got going on with mrs norris or to the soulmates thing he's got going on with sirius.

walburga black/barty crouch sr.

i am completely obsessed with this concept, i don't even think it can be considered a crack ship, and i would like to see it written immediately.

debilitating grief at the son you thought you knew disappearing - whether literally or metaphorically? delicious.

#asks answered #asenora's opinions on ships #unhinged and deranged ships #but only a bit

30 notes · View notes

lalalikecrazy · 1 year ago

Text

The stars in her eyes reflected in yours

(G)I-DLE alien!Minnie x gn!reader

fluff, classmates to friends to lovers, sfw, wordcount:1.8k

The new girl in your college class is like out-of-this-world beautiful. As your friendship with her develops into something more, you discover that home can be a person rather than a place. While you don’t know everything about her, Minnie means the world to you, and she feels the exact same way

notes: reader is gender nuetral but refered to as pretty; reader is also a lil bit awkward lol; inspired by Paradise by (G)I-DLE and their new I Do music video; please enjoy!! ✰★

Minnie was beautiful. Like really, truly, otherworldly beautiful. She was gorgeous enough to stand out in a sea of people at your huge university. You still remember the first time you saw her, in the lecture hall for your gen-ed math course with over 100 other students.

You didn’t have to wait long to find out. The next time the class met, you arrived early, like usual for you. This time, the mysterious new girl did, too. As she walked towards you, your heart began to beat faster. What would be worse– if she sat next to you and you had to think of something to say, or if she didn’t and you never got a chance to say anything at all?

One day, she just appeared. Close to the start of the semester, but not close enough for people to still be adding the class. You swore that you would have noticed her if you had seen her before.

For the next hour and a half of that class session, you snuck glances at her, wondering where she came from, what her name was, and if you’d ever get the chance to speak to her.

“Hello,” She said, sliding into the seat next to you, a friendly smile on her lips.

“Hi… Are you new to this class?” You said, feeling your face heat.

This close, you could see her better than last time. Her hair was split dyed, half of her wispy bangs a midnight black, the other a near-impossible silver. Despite the unnatural color, you noticed it looked soft, as if she had been born with it like that.

You could also see some rhinestones on her face, twinkling under the light. The little gems accentuated her wide eyes, her smile, which now seemed to contain some humor. As if you’d been staring at her for too long… Had you been?

“Yes, I’m new… I’m not from around here.” She leaned in closer to you as she said this, as if it were a secret, despite the information being completely mundane.

You nodded, telling her your name, “Welcome to Intro to Algebra,” You added.

Welcome to Intro to Algebra!? Who says that? You thought to yourself. But she nodded graciously, laughed a little, and told you her name was Minnie.

Then, just before class started, she tested your name again, “Y/N? It's pretty. It suits you.”

And in that moment you knew that it was love at first sight. Or at least, love at first awkward conversation.

✰★

That was at the start of the semester. Now, Fall was nearly over, and soon it would start to snow. Since that day, you had sat next to Minnie every day in math. Sometimes, the two of you studied together afterwords. She helped you with Algebra, she had this way of solving the problems that you had never seen before, completely different from what the teacher instructed, but it worked. You tried to help her with history, but along the way, you had become her pop-culture teacher instead.

It all started when you mentioned offhandedly your favorite rom-com, which she had never seen. You invited her to watch it at your dorm, and steadily developed the habit of inviting her over to watch anything from your most beloved classics to your latest drama obsessions. Each of them were completely new for her, and you liked to tease that she must had never seen any movie before at all.

During your movie nights, the two of you would cuddle on the couch, watching the screen intensely. You loved how invested she got in every film, how she laughed at the same moments you did, how she held your hand tighter during the really heart-wrenching scenes.

During one movie marathon, you looked over at her as the movie played, something you had done often– but this time, there were tears in her eyes.

“Hey, are you okay?” You nudged her softly, concerned, “Why are you crying?”

“Because! It's sad!” But she was laughing, wiping away her tears.

“But I told you this one has a happy ending!”

“And I told you to stop spoiling the endings! Besides, aren’t you crying, too?

“What?” You said, surprised she had noticed the slight tears welling in your eyes. You’d seen the movie a thousand times before, but a sad scene was still a sad scene. “No way…”

You turned back to the screen, but Minnie was still looking at you. Had you still been looking back at her, you might have noticed that her teasing grin had softened into something warm and fond.

She hummed, “Your eyes– it looks like they have stars in them.”

“That’s just the T.V. glow…”

“And the tears,” she added, and you scoffed.

But as she returned her focus to the movie still playing, Minnie rested her head on your shoulder, closer to you than before. You hoped, in that moment, that all the stars in your eyes could hide the flush in your cheeks, the way you were now suddenly aware that her hand had been holding yours the entire time.

✰★

Minnie was a fast learner. She had far outpaced your math course since the start. She had taken up reading history books in her free time, and now she could practically teach you, instead of the other way around. She joined the art and writing clubs and was steadily building skills in each.

Minnie had learned you, too. All your little habits. She knew your favorite drink, and somehow always showed up with one from the vending machine when you were having a bad day. She could somehow always catch you when you stared at her, meeting your eye when you had been just about to look away.

She had a way with words, too, really. You couldn’t explain it, but she always knew what to say. She knew what kind of compliments to give you, the genuine, well-thought-out kind that anyone would treasure. And she knew how to comfort you, whether it was a joke or some reassurance, or usually, from her, a healthy mixture of both.

But the most remarkable thing that she had learned was the ability to sing. When you told her that her voice was like the perfect dessert– a tiramisu, maybe– she almost died laughing before asking what you meant. But the metaphor made perfect sense to you. Minnie’s voice was warm and comforting. But it was strong and powerful, too. It wasn’t too light, it was substantial. It wasn’t too heavy either, but it could be rich. It wasn’t too sweet and it wasn’t too bitter.

With her voice, Minnie could convey any emotion beautifully. You often thought that every movie you’d ever seen would have become an instant masterpiece if only Minnie’s singing was the soundtrack.

“Hey, Y/N?” Minnie turned to you as your math class ended. The students around you swarmed out the doors and towards the library– it was finals season, after all, “Are you doing something after class?”

“Studying.” You said decisively, thinking about your exams. “Ah, do you wanna study together?”

“Do you have time to hear a song first? A song I wrote?”

This was the first time you had heard of her writing her own songs. Suddenly, all thoughts of studying vanished.

“Of course,” you said. “Let’s go.”

She grabbed your hand, and the two of you practically ran out of the stuffy lecture hall. Minnie led you out of that building and towards the music one, where the private practice rooms were. She flung open the door to a small room with a keyboard.

Sitting there in front of the keys, backlit by sunlight streaming through the window, she looked like she belonged there. The gemstones under her eyes glinted as she smiled up at you, one of the biggest smiles you’d ever seen on Minnie before.

“Ready?” Minnie asked.

“No. Yes.” You laughed, “Why am I the nervous one?”

“No idea. It's cute, though.”

With that– leaving your eyes widened and heart beating somehow even faster– she began to play the first notes.

“I’ll be landing on your mind…” She began to sing.

And her voice transported you to another world. The melody was celestial, the voice singing was heavenly. And the words? The words were so vulnerable– you couldn’t imagine that Minnie had written them, but you also would never believe that anyone else could have.

As the song ended, you returned to earth, meeting Minnie’s expectant eyes, the slight flush on her cheeks.

“So?” Minnie asked, “What did you think?”

“... It was perfect.” You started. So perfect, you were at a loss for words. “It was beautiful. Amazing. I mean, you–”

Minnie stood from the bench, never looking away from your reaction. “You inspired it, you know… You inspire me,” She said.

“I do?”

She nodded. When you looked at her, you could tell: the moon and the stars that she saw in your eyes were reflected in hers. You almost couldn’t bear it, the look you were sharing, the words to her song still echoing in your head, in your heart.

You looked away first, focusing on the window behind her.

“H-hey, it's snowing,” You realized, “Its the first snow–”

The two of you rushed to the window, watching the light snow starting to fall from the still sun-filled sky, the people below starting to rush outside to play.

“Wow,” Minnie breathed beside you.

“That song…” You said, “It was really special. I don’t know how to describe it, it was so you… I think I could listen to your voice forever…” You trailed off, suddenly shy, laughing a little at your own words.

“Y/N, this is my first time seeing snow like this. And I’m really happy I’m seeing it with you. My home is so far away… but I feel like home with you. Thats why I wrote the song.”

“Oh. I feel like home with you, too, Minnie. Always.” You said.

“...You know, where I’m from, it snows diamonds,” Minnie said, and you could hear the grin in her voice as you watched the snow.

“Oh really?” You laughed, this time, genuinely. “One day you’ll tell me what it's actually like where you’re from, right?”

“I promise,” And she was laughing, too, a sound as melodic as her music, “But you might not believe me.”

There, standing by the window of the practice room, you realized that you had grabbed Minnie’s hand. At this point it was like second nature for you. To reach for her like it was an instinct but to hold onto her like it was a choice. And you never wanted to let go.

Minnie was beautiful, mysterious, otherworldly. But she was so much more than that. Funny, kind, passionate… genuine. She was yours. And you were hers. You turned to her as she continued watching the snow and made a silent vow to make sure she knew that someday. The same way that she had used her song to tell you.

✰★

#gidle x reader #(g)i-dle x reader #minnie x reader #gidle minnie x reader #gidle fluff #minnie fluff

96 notes · View notes

skeletalsepulchre · 1 year ago

Text

the barbie movie like. ok so [spoilers and long paragraphs under the cut]

yeah it was really basic ideologically it didnt cover all the various intersections and theories of feminism but i think when people saw conservatives flipping their shit people expected it to be like, a manifesto. its a film, and more importantly, it's the Barbie Movie. i think expecting a gender and womens studies class from it would be silly, and while i get why people are disappointed in how much sympathy it lends to the men in the movie, i dont think like, once again, that was ever something to not expect?

furthermore on that point i think showing misogyny from a place of defining the self around a sense of loneliness by men isn't...far off. theres never an excuse for misogyny but thats rhetoric that radicalizes a lot of incels and shit i would rather that than they treat it like some mysterious miasma.

also, i think, once again while it was pretty basic in the ideas it presented... how often is it show that explicitly in broad-audience film? like stated directly to the audience in that manner? theres no flirting with the feminist theory in the movie; it says it outright, which is something a lot of films shy away from out of fear of alienating men once it becomes too "girl power"-y. im not usually for the use of a lot of buzzwords in film and discussion of issues but these buzzwords are never said with cheapness or to obfuscate. it could be heavyhanded at times, but that heavyhandedness wasnt ever really obnoxious? it walked the line of "haha silly" but still took its point seriously enough that you could appreciate the use of that heavyhandedness for comedic effect without being mocked

i also think the fact they just like "solve" the patriarchy in the barbie world isnt meant to imply that you can just fix the real world with a woman president or by being aware of misogyny. in fact a lot of the movie is dedicated to showing how the barbie world and real world are different. the conclusion of the movie is that barbie wants to become human, even though the human world is messy and unsolved and nothing like she assumed it was. she believed barbie had solved misogyny forever, which is a direct jab at the idea that any "one thing" or "girl power" movement can just suddenly whisk away the very power structures that created that sort of oppression.

its very much coming from a cis/heterosexual/white basis. they flirt with further intersection but dont commit, which im really not a fan of. my friends after the film were like "it was more homoerotic than i expected haha" and...yeah, it was, but it didnt do anything to address gayness or what that means in such a heavily gendered heterosexual society. you could read that subtext through allen and his thing.... but allen is a joke. his story is never resolved. hes one of the guys but he isnt, hes one of the girls but he isnt, he benefits not at all from "kendom" but conversely is not oppressed the way the barbies are and vice versa. he's just allen, and the only allen there is. when sasha and her mom want to go back to help barbie, the fact he just goes "God im never getting out of here" and thats just like, left was kinda. well. it was something for sure.

still. i know i just wrote like 200 words on the ideology of this movie but first and foremost its a pg13 comedy meant to be shown to broad audiences in theaters for money. its meant to be an enjoyable watch, and it is! its a gorgeous film, its funny, the songs are fine, and the way it makes its side comments arent distracting nor meanspirited. it knows when to take itself seriously, and i like that. i was actually expecting it to be a general audiences like, kids movie i was so fucking surprised when barbie said penis.

i also think saying the line at the end about the gynecologist is like "saying you need a vagina to be a real woman" is disingenuous honestly. one its meant to be a bit of a shock quip to get a giggle but two i think a lot of people who need gynecological care (which can include trans women) are afraid when it comes to that first visit and finally sitting down and talking about those areas because of the shame and lack of proper education. maybe its bc i grew up mormon but i dont think its meant to imply thats what MADE barbie a real woman or that its fundamental to being one.

once again it definitely isnt a perfect movie. i think the way the ken and barbie talk happened at the end was still a bit coddly and the scope of the ideology underneath the movie was, once again, still very much centered in white cishetero society and thought with only passing mentions of intersectionality that felt both shallow and (especially with the gayness and racial dynamics) occasionally like it was being turned into a joke

still all in all it was a pretty good movie. weird barbie #1. allen get behind me i will protect u

#barbie movie #barbie movie spoilers

49 notes · View notes

drumlincountry · 6 months ago

Note

in the og script patrick's character description says he's jewish 🤷🏻‍♀️ and zweig is a culturally jewish last name anyway

all this to say i think it's meant to contrast art's WASPiness. art has a superrr american name, classic easy to market good old money american (which helps his pro career). Patrick being catholic would contrast this pretty interestingly as well tho given the catholic - protestant dynamic.

but with either interpretation, Patrick's first and last name's etymology cement him and his outsider status in the world of tennis, despite his family's wealth since tennis is considered a WASPy game. but he's still a rich white man at the end of the day and is able to float around the pro circuit aimlessly without having to try. unlike Tashi who is seen as the true successor to women's tennis and was able to get there all on her own, no pretenses. she's a low/middle class Black woman and not some rich tennis boarding school kid (like art and patrick). culture, class, and race are just barely explored in this film but it's all very interesting

anon I am kissing you on the mouth, if you're into that kind of thing!!!

I am fascinated by the class aspects of the film but as u say they are lightly touched on & for myself I don't know USA class markers except thru media so I probably miss a lot.

The way class/race/gender plays into Tashi's story is soOooo!!!! Tennis was something she succeeded at in spite of the ways ppl look down on her. It's in her first lines in the film - her competitor was a racist bitch and a sore loser! She's aware how her race influences how ppl treat her on the court and she is not afraid to speak on it.

Typing it now, I wonder if that was a bit of a test for the boys. Like "you seem interested in me. Can you be normal about me experiencing racism? Can you be normal about me being angry about it?" All that as a teenager!

Tennis was a way to force people to see her not just as an equal, but in the sport, as a better. She's better than all of them! She's the best. And then she loses that. Ugh this adds so much more to the "you're not a member of my fan club?" Scene.

Patrick can be both Jewish and irish American! I vote we explore that one. There's so much to say about the conditional nature of the white privilege Jewish ppl can have in the global north - I usually leave that to my Jewish friends to explore but I Have Heard About It! The actor has Jewish & irish heritage fwiw.

Also fascinated with Patrick's relationship with his generational wealth. Like, clearly he has it. Ppl reference it. But he has eschewed it to pursue tennis. His family have decided he can be a rich man or he can be a tennis player (third option=getting a different job. Unexplored). He has made the choice that results in sleeping in his car and not EATING between competitions.

Like that seems like dramatics of a man who has never known true precarity. and yeah partially! But also, have you heard of financial abuse? I had friends in college studying degrees they didn't want for careers they hated the idea of. Because generational wealth meant they didn't qualify for financial support from the state. Leaving them dependent on parents who can withdraw their support at any time if they do something which looks Bad for the Family. The capacity for abuse in these situations is staggering. And yeah, he could get a "real" job. He'd have an easier time doing that than ppl without his class background. But the man would literally rather starve. And he is.

I would love to know what u think of Art's class background! I feel its least explicitly explored of the 3. I saw someone saying he didn't come from money at all and I thought That's Not Right I Saw His Grandmother's Ring. But I really can't say beyond that

#Seriously anon this is exactly the convo I wanted when I posted that....this is some Good Fucking Food #Challengers #challengers 2024 #Me Fein #Film

11 notes · View notes

alkalilu · 3 months ago

Text

Billy Pseudotsuga Character Sheet

"What is it that within your mind you seek?"

Name: Billy Pseudotsuga

Gender: Male

Age: Unknown (but more than 400 years)

Species: Fae

Birthday: June 15th (Gemini)

Height: 180 cm

Eye Color: Yellow

Hair Color: Somewhere in the magenta. Think gills of a pink axolotl

Homeland: Pine Hills (same island as Briar Valley)

Family: Cyfrin Pseudotsuga (twin brother)

Dorm: Octavinelle (was in Diasomnia for his first year)

School Year: Junior (Class C)

Club: Film Studies

Best Subject: Magical Analysis/Enigmics

Favorite Food: Canned meat

Least Favorite Food: Brightly-colored cupcakes

Dislike: Being locked in

Hobby: Playing piano

Talents: Psychoanalysis

A cunning fae often twisting words and minds to get what he wants... or so it would seem. Fairly good at seeming convincing at a glance, and has a tendency to voice your thoughts before you can even get a word in. Secretly insecure about his abilities, and has no idea what to do with his life. However, he can be reliable and brutally honest when needed.

Twisted from Bill Cipher, with a side of Grunkle Stan and Dipper Pines.

Trivia:

Is way better at flight than he makes it look during class

Rook's nickname: Monsieur Providence

Only wears his eyepatch in his Dorm Uniform

Wears a lace shirt in his School Uniform

Floyd's nickname: Axolotl

Nicknames people using their coffin symbols, or their 10 cards titles.

Unique Magic: Mindscape Haunting

"The muse comes, inspiration strikes. Now in the dream, let's seal the deal."

Allow Billy to enter the mind of whoever he thinks of. For that, he either needs to place a marker on that person (which he usually does via a handshake), or to enter via the dream world.

Billy himself is unmoving and acts unconscious during it, same as his target.

________

FINALLY, I'm starting to get these guys in! Billy's twin brother should come tomorrow if everything goes well.

I affectionately nickname them as "Twills", portemanteau of twins and Bill, being both based on that lovely triangle demon in one way or another. Also it's shorter than "Pseudotsuga twins".

Now, for Billy himself: I'll admit, he can be hard to pin down due to how much he changed since I first created him. To the point when I struggled with the first quote.

"Billy" means "Will helmet" or "Protector", surprisingly ironic considering what his UM does. "Pseudotsuga" refers to the Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), or Oregon pine, an invasive species of pine tree that isn't in the Pinus genus.

There's a long-standing inside joke in the RP I'm playing him in that he adopts freshmen on a semi-regular basis.

#twisted wonderland #twst #ilu's art #twst oc #twst original character #twisted wonderland oc #twisted wonderland original character #billy pseudotsuga #pine hills twills

5 notes · View notes

daincrediblegg · 7 months ago

Note

How did you come up with Lady Terror?

OH THAT'S A GOOD QUESTION!!! Well. The short answer is that I watched The Terror again after a few years and needed to jump that grumpy old irish man immediately because he's so sad and outcast and pathetic, so I did what I usually do, which is wedge myself as hard as possible into the canon, slap a cool nickname onto it, and that was that.

But as many of you know, I'm not into short answers. So here we go.

Honestly, the process of developing Lady Terror has been a really interesting one. As I've explained before she was initially meant to be part of a more sci-fi centric AU based loosely off of 1899 in which she is a physical manifestation of the ship, but the way she developed from there is entirely due to three factors, 1) my friend's staunch encouragement (some of whom are still around, some of whom have deactivated, alas), 2) the Gothic Literature, film theory (which was very philosophically heavy), and the women gender and sexuality classes I was taking last year and 3) my staunch love for Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre reemerging in my consciousness at the time. These elements combined really gave me a sense of purpose when thinking about the relationship dynamics that I wanted to put forward with Francis and Lady Terror because I can absolutely never in my life just throw my self-inserts in all willy nilly because I am of the firm and staunch belief, which has been reinforced by my studies of all genres, that romance has the capability to be as radical and philosophical as any other, and where Crozier is concerned, I think he has so much potential as a romantic figure to break a lot of the common conventions that proliferate the genre, and put together with a figure like Lady Terror, it just makes my brain go brrrrr in a way that a lot of pairings with him just... don't.

Because the focus of their relationship is on the complexities, horror and fear of love. These are two people who have been ostracized in different ways but recognize in each other that ostracization, but beyond that, their capability that continues to be stifled by a social order that is designed to keep them in their place. I've talked a lot about how Francis is probably my favorite to do think work on because he's both a colonized subject but he's also a colonizer and that's his big struggle throughout the series (mirrored, perhaps, only by Hickey), but Lady Terror mirrors him in a unique way in that she is a privilaged colonized subject, and the unique experience that that entails connects them in a way that he doesn't share with a lot of characters, and one that I think is fascinating to explore.

Because like god. What if you were all that but also truly loved? Not to be confused with devotion, adoration, admiration, or with simply being seen. What if you were loved with those things, but also then for your mind, your humor, your ability to reject and rebel against that social order, and still be loved in a way that was barred to you because the social order that you were born into is designed to continue to reject you on every level? What if then you found it in a place that wants you dead? What do you do with that love? Knowing and fearing that you will be rejected again or, even more horrifying, that it could be ripped away from you at any moment because, again, this place wants you dead. You could not be more equally as lucky and as damned. But then also you wonder if this small and sacred thing can do anything at all? does it have the capacity to change things? Does the reinforcement that the union brings matter at all to anyone else? And how do you cope with that? All questions that I'm hoping to pose with them. I don't have strict answers for all of those questions, of course, but perhaps some hints in certain directions. But I hope to put them through their paces in this way.

... but also. Fundamentally, at the end of the day, I did come up with Lady Terror because I want to fuck that old man so bad it makes me look stupid. But also I'm a lit major and if I don't get freaky with it I'll die. Just how it goes with me, I guess.

#lady terror #francis crozier #egg's oc's #also a part of me was really sick of the 'oh no he just wanted sofia to be his beard he would've gone back to sea' bc I just genuinely don'#get that sense from him as a character. he wants to chill out. and hearing about how traumatized he and ross were after the antarctic #expedition I feel like there's way more credence to that. also how that puts crozier in a feminized position #there's like. a million more things I could say that went into developing the lady terror story into the way it is currently. literary #and cinematic influences and the like. also the critical race theory and gender and sexuality stuff. there's a whole lot of that #but if I did that it'd be a whole book in and of itself lmao. and I'm already tryina write one and I gotta get back to workin on that one #but suffice it to say. yeah. many thoughts. head always full.#ask games #THANK YOU FOR ASKING I AM DELIGHTED TO LAY IT ALL OUT THERE

7 notes · View notes

ukrfeminism · 1 year ago

Text

Victims of sexual harassment in film and TV experience the “worst of both worlds” because they are encouraged to speak out but face a backlash for doing so, a study has found.

Some women said the industry was more dangerous since the #MeToo movement because victims felt under pressure to disclose their abuse but were then punished or victimised, according to the research.

The report, Safe to Speak Up? Sexual harassment in the UK film and television industry since #MeToo, found formal measures to hold perpetrators to account were still not in place and there was a lack of proper support for victims.

The study’s author, Dr Anna Bull, a senior lecturer at York University, said the backlash that victims face ranged from inappropriate jokes about #MeToo to being blacklisted.

In some cases, men became aggressive because they were angry they could no longer enjoy the sexualised working environment to which they felt entitled, she added. “That is turning into misogynistic resentment or gendered bullying and humiliation.”

Bull, who has previously researched sexual misconduct in universities and in classical music, said sexism and sexual misconduct was far more blatant in the film and TV industry, with high-profile actors and presenters among the worst offenders.

“It does seem that there’s a culture where indecent exposure is something that’s done for attention-seeking purposes, to shock people, and to have power over people,” she said.

Although Bull found that some, particularly younger, men in the industry were more aware of what constitutes sexually inappropriate behaviour, misogynistic attitudes remained widespread among male leaders.

The report draws on interviews with 18 people in the industry, working across prestige drama, documentary, reality TV and journalism, who have experienced or spoken out about sexual violence and harassment since December 2017. The 17 women and one man include producers, researchers, runners, journalists and an actor.

Five interviewees were subjected to sexual violence, including indecent exposure, sexual assault and rape. Interviewees described being groped, forcibly kissed, and touched in sexualised ways while at work or work-related events. One interviewee was raped after a work event by someone she had met there. Particularly risky environments were work social events, filming on location and industry events.

Several interviewees raised concerns about the blurred boundaries between work and social life, especially given that networking is regarded as essential to success. Some reported incidents where their production company had provided free alcohol and then sexual harassment or an assault took place.

“Alcohol and class A drugs were normalised and sexualised jokes were very common,” Bull added.

One woman in the report, referred to as Sienna, who was raped by a man at an industry festival abroad last year, said: “There’s thousands of people in this space with a lot of booze and pent-up desire to network, but also very little rules or accountability. Every event I’m at, do I have to be really careful to not get raped or spiked or assaulted?”

The woman, who is in her mid-20s, said: “It has got better and it has got worse. I don’t think there has been a watershed like #MeToo and post #MeToo. Loads of really problematic behaviours are still dormant and being protected from years ago.”

Several interviewees said they had not come across any mechanisms or initiatives to tackle sexual misconduct in the companies they had worked for in the past six years.

One of them, Vanessa, quit her career as a broadcast journalist after sexual harassment from a senior male colleague. She felt that the company’s handling of the harassment was inadequate.

She only felt able to make an informal complaint after leaving, having earlier found out that another woman in the company had also been subjected to inappropriate behaviour from the same man.

“For a long time I definitely felt that I was filling a vacuum of responsibility that should have been filled by people a lot more senior than me,” Vanessa said. “That translated to people putting pressure on to speak out. I think general attitudes have changed towards sexual misconduct and the nuances of it, massively. I don’t think it’s reflected in the beliefs of senior management, though.”

Dawn Elrick, the founder of the Instagram account Shit Men in TV Have Said to Me, which has received hundreds of anonymous submissions detailing sexual harassment of women in the industry, agreed that little progress had been made in tackling the problem.

“Men who have had several serious complaints raised against them, whether anecdotally, officially or [as] open secrets, are still employed by our major broadcasters at the top level,” she said. “They have perpetrated against, for the most part, young female researchers who have just entered the industry.”

Elrick, a TV director and producer, said there was a pressure on women to name and report perpetrators but it was still unclear where to turn to get action taken.

“I’ve raised complaints with [the trade union] Bectu, to the BBC. But I’ve been told: ‘Well, if it’s anonymous, we can’t do anything about it.’ So the onus is on me, and the people who’ve been at the receiving end of sexism [to deal with it].”

#Articles #me too

16 notes · View notes