#i took all these links from a reddit post i just wanted to post them here to come back to

[ekingston]

SO HERE IS THE WHOLE STORY (SO FAR).

I am on my knees begging you to reblog this post and to stop reblogging the original ones I sent out yesterday. This is the complete account with all the most recent info; the other one is just sending people down senselessly panicked avenues that no longer lead anywhere.

IN SHORT

Cliff Weitzman, CEO of Speechify and (aspiring?) voice actor, used AI to scrape thousands of popular, finished works off AO3 to list them on his own for-profit website and in his attached app. He did this without getting any kind of permission from the authors of said work or informing AO3. Obviously.

When fandom at large was made aware of his theft and started pushing back, Weitzman issued a non-apology on the original social media posts—using 

his dyslexia; 

his intent to implement a tip-system for the plagiarized authors; and 

a sudden willingness to take down the work of every author who saw my original social media posts and emailed him individually with a ‘valid’ claim,

as reasons we should allow him to continue monetizing fanwork for his own financial gain.

When we less-than-kindly refused, he took down his ‘apologies’ as well as his website (allegedly—it’s possible that our complaints to his web host, the deluge of emails he received or the unanticipated traffic brought it down, since there wasn’t any sort of official statement made about it), and when it came back up several hours later, all of the work formerly listed in the fan fiction category was no longer there. 

THE TAKEAWAYS

1. Cliff Weitzman (aka Ofek Weitzman) is a scumbag with no qualms about taking fanwork without permission, feeding it to AI and monetizing it for his own financial gain; 

2. Fandom can really get things done when it wants to, and 

3. Our fanworks appear to be hidden, but they’re NOT DELETED from Weitzman’s servers, and independently published, original works are still listed without the authors' permission. We need to hold this man responsible for his theft, keep an eye on both his current and future endeavors, and take action immediately when he crosses the line again. 

THE TIMELINE, THE DETAILS, THE SCREENSHOTS (behind the cut)

Sunday night, December 22nd 2024, I noticed an influx in visitors to my fic You & Me & Holiday Wine. When I searched the title online, hoping to find out where they came from, a new listing popped up (third one down, no less):

This listing is still up today, by the way, though now when you follow the link to word-stream, it just brings you to the main site. (Also, to be clear, this was not the cause for the influx of traffic to my fic; word-stream did not link back to the original work anywhere.)

I followed the link to word-stream, where to my horror Y&M&HW was listed in its entirety—though, beyond the first half of the first chapter, behind a paywall—along with a link promising to take me—through an app downloadable on the Apple Store—to an AI-narrated audiobook version. When I searched word-stream itself for my ao3 handle I found both of my multi-chapter fics were listed this way:

Because the tags on my fics (which included genres* and characters, but never the original IPs**) weren’t working, I put ‘Kara Danvers’ into the search bar and discovered that many more supercorp fics (Supergirl TV fandom, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor pairing) were listed.

I went looking online for any mention of word-stream and AI plagiarism (the covers—as well as the ridiculously inflated number of reviews and ratings—made it immediately obvious that AI fuckery was involved), but found almost nothing: only one single Reddit post had been made, and it received (at that time) only a handful of upvotes and no advice. 

I decided to make a tumblr post to bring the supercorp fandom up to speed about the theft. I draw as well as write for fandom and I’ve only ever had to deal with art theft—which has a clear set of steps to take depending on where said art was reposted—and I was at a loss regarding where to start in this situation.

After my post went up I remembered Project Copy Knight, which is worth commending for the work they’ve done to get fic stolen from AO3 taken down from monetized AI 'audiobook’ YouTube accounts. I reached out to @echoekhi, asking if they’d heard of this site and whether they could advise me on how to get our works taken down.

While waiting for a reply I looked into Copy Knight’s methods and decided to contact OTW’s legal department:

And then I went to bed.

By morning, tumblr friends @makicarn and @fazedlight as well as a very helpful tumblr anon had seen my post and done some very productive sleuthing:

@echoekhi had also gotten back to me, advising me, as expected, to contact the OTW. So I decided to sit tight until I got a response from them.

That response came only an hour or so later: 

Which was 100% understandable, but still disappointing—I doubted a handful of individual takedown requests would accomplish much, and I wasn’t eager to share my given name and personal information with Cliff Weitzman himself, which is unavoidable if you want to file a DMCA.

I decided to take it to Reddit, hoping it would gain traction in the wider fanfic community, considering so many fandoms were affected. My Reddit posts (with the updates at the bottom as they were emerging) can be found here and here.

A helpful Reddit user posted a guide on how users could go about filing a DMCA against word-stream here (to wobbly-at-best results)

A different helpful Reddit user signed up to access insight into word-streams pricing. Comment is here.

Smells unbelievably scammy, right? In addition to those audacious prices—though in all fairness any amount of money would be audacious considering every work listed is accessible elsewhere for free—my dyscalculia is screaming silently at the sight of that completely unnecessary amount of intentionally obscured numbers.

Speaking of which! As soon as the post on r/AO3—and, as a result, my original tumblr post—began taking off properly, sometime around 1 pm, jumpscare! A notification that a tumblr account named @cliffweitzman had commented on my post, and I got a bit mad about the gist of his message :

Fortunately he caught plenty of flack in the comments from other users (truly you should check out the comment section, it is extremely gratifying and people are making tremendously good points), in response to which, of course, he first tried to both reiterate and renegotiate his point in a second, longer comment (which I didn’t screenshot in time so I’m sorry for the crappy notification email formatting):

which he then proceeded to also post to Reddit (this is another Reddit user’s screenshot, I didn’t see it at all, the notifications were moving too fast for me to follow by then)

... where he got a roughly equal amount of righteously furious replies. (Check downthread, they're still there, all the way at the bottom.)

After which Cliff went ahead & deleted his messages altogether. 

It’s not entirely clear whether his account was suspended by Reddit soon after or whether he deleted it himself, but considering his tumblr account is still intact, I assume it’s the former. He made a handful of sock puppet accounts to play around with for a while, both on Reddit and Tumblr, only one of which I have a screenshot of, but since they all say roughly the same thing, you’re not missing much:

And then word-stream started throwing a DNS error.

That lasted for a good number of hours, which was unfortunately right around the time that a lot of authors first heard about the situation and started asking me individually how to find out whether their work was stolen too. I do not have that information and I am unclear on the perimeters Weitzman set for his AI scraper, so this is all conjecture: it LOOKS like the fics that were lifted had three things in common:

They were completed works;

They had over several thousand kudos on AO3; and

They were written by authors who had actively posted or updated work over the past year.

If anyone knows more about these perimeters or has info that counters my observation, please let me know!

I finally thought to check/alert evil Twitter during this time, and found out that the news was doing the rounds there already. I made a quick thread summarizing everything that had happened just in case. You can find it here.

I went to Bluesky too, where fandom was doing all the heavy lifting for me already, so I just reskeeted, as you do, and carried on.

Sometime in the very early evening, word-stream went back up—but the fan fiction category was nowhere to be seen. Tentative joy and celebration!***

That’s when several users—the ones who had signed up for accounts to gain intel and had accessed their own fics that way—reported that their work could still be accessed through their history. Relevant Reddit post here.

Sooo—

We’re obviously not done. The fanwork that was stolen by Weitzman may be inaccessible through his website right now, but they aren’t actually gone. And the fact that Weitzman wasn’t willing to get rid of them altogether means he still has plans for them. 

This was my final edit on my Reddit post before turning off notifications, and it's pretty much where my head will be at for at least the foreseeable future:

Please feel free to add info in the comments, make your own posts, take whatever action you want to take to protect your work. I only beg you—seriously, I’m on my knees here—to not give up like I saw a handful of people express the urge to do. Keep sharing your creative work and remain vigilant and stay active to make sure we can continue to do so freely. Visit your favorite fics, and the ones you’ve kept in your ‘marked for later’ lists but never made time to read, and leave kudos, leave comments, support your fandom creatives, celebrate podficcers and support AO3. We created this place and it’s our responsibility to keep it alive and thriving for as long as we possibly can.

Also FUCK generative AI. It has NO place in fandom spaces.

THE 'SMALL' PRINT (some of it in all caps):

*Weitzman knew what he was doing and can NOT claim ignorance. One, it’s pretty basic kindergarten stuff that you don’t steal some other kid’s art project and present it as your own only to act surprised when they protest and then tell the victim that they should have told you sooner that they didn’t want their project stolen. And two, he was very careful never to list the IPs these fanworks were based on, so it’s clear he was at least familiar enough with the legalities to not get himself in hot water with corporate lawyers. Fucking over fans, though, he figured he could get away with that. 

**A note about the AI that Weitzman used to steal our work: it’s even greasier than it looks at first glance. It’s not just the method he used to lift works off AO3 and then regurgitate onto his own website and app. Looking beyond the untold horrors of his AI-generated cover ‘art’, in many cases these covers attempt to depict something from the fics in question that can’t be gleaned from their summaries alone. In addition, my fics (and I assume the others, as well) were listed with generated genres; tags that did not appear anywhere in or on my fic on AO3 and were sometimes scarily accurate and sometimes way off the mark. I remember You & Me & Holiday Wine had ‘found family’ (100% correct, but not tagged by me as such) and I believe The Shape of Soup was listed as, among others, ‘enemies to friends to lovers’ and ‘love triangle’ (both wildly inaccurate). Even worse, not all the fic listed (as authors on Reddit pointed out) came with their original summaries at all. Often the entire summary was AI-generated. All of these things make it very clear that it was an all-encompassing scrape—not only were our fics stolen, they were also fed word-for-word into the AI Weitzman used and then analyzed to suit Weitzman’s needs. This means our work was literally fed to this AI to basically do with whatever its other users want, including (one assumes) text generation. 

***Fan fiction appears to have been made (largely) inaccessible on word-stream at this time, but I’m hearing from several authors that their original, independently published work, which is listed at places like Kindle Unlimited, DOES still appear in word-stream’s search engine. This obviously hurts writers, especially independent ones, who depend on these works for income and, as a rule, don’t have a huge budget or a legal team with oceans of time to fight these battles for them. If you consider yourself an author in the broader sense, beyond merely existing online as a fandom author, beyond concerns that your own work is immediately at risk, DO NOT STOP MAKING NOISE ABOUT THIS.

PLEASE check my later versions of this post via my main page to make sure you have the latest version of this post before you reblog. All the information I’ve been able to gather is in my reblogs below, and it's frustrating to see the old version getting passed around, sending people on wild goose chases.

Thank you all so much!

[empuratapatient]

cool things

[mementomoriwithacherryontop]

Thoughts literally no one asked for but I want to share anyway: Why I'm still supporting Dead Boy Detectives

And some facts on his connection to a show I've fought for for the last several months

What is being made is as important to me as how something is made. And after I first watched Dead Boy Detectives and later learned what a positive experience it was for literally everyone involved, I knew I had to champion it.

Steve Yockey and Beth Schwartz, the showrunners, took extra care to make sure the set was a safe space for everyone who worked there. Crew members have mentioned on a Reddit thread that they mourned the cancellation not so much because of lost income, but because they wouldn't have the chance to return to a work environment that truly valued them, that respected them, and that made them love coming to work every day.

And Steve and Beth took care to make sure the writers were diverse.* This is important, because they pulled together a team of people from marginalized and diverse backgrounds to tell a story about characters who are also marginalized and from diverse backgrounds. Many of the creatives are members of the LGBTQIA community. They were strategic about casting, too. Only two characters of the main cast are white, and one of them is gay; everyone else is a POC. Niko's character was created from the ground up by Steve and her actress, Yuyu Kitamura.

Steve and Beth were intentional about their choices. I mentioned crew members above, but I want to clarify that writers and cast alike have commented, repeatedly, how safe and respected they felt on set.*

This is not the norm in Hollywood, and the choice to create in that way needs to be recognized.

And in this political climate? Queer media matters now more than ever.

As we sift through discourse regarding social responsibility and accountability when it comes to consuming media and art, the phrase, “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” comes to mind. Nuance matters. Details matter.

Of course he-who-shall-not-be-named needs to be held accountable. But the fact remains that he was only very loosely connected to Dead Boy Detectives. He wasn't associated with it at all until it moved to Netflix late in production and incorporated the two cameos from The Sandman. His writing credits total under 11 minutes of the 8 episode series (just those two scenes). He was never on set. He never met the cast in person. He had no creative input on the series, which he has stated multiple times. Additionally, the story isn't even based on his works; it's based on the comics by Toby Litt and Mark Buckingham. Lastly, it's worth noting he does not own the rights to the show. Steve Yockey owns the Dead Boy Detectives, and Warner Brothers has production rights.

His loose connections cannot be allowed to overshadow all the GOOD that this show did, both in it's making and in the story it tells. How art is made matters. And art that is created with kindness and respect for our fellow humans, that gives voices to marginalized people, that allows viewers who are vastly underrepresented in the media to finally see themselves represented on screen?

That's huge. That resonates with people. It's life changing and sometimes even life saving. It's a lantern in the dark, and it gives people hope.

And that matters. Quite a bit, actually. And it deserves to be championed.

It deserves to be saved. ------------------------- *Info regarding writers and set culture is largely gleaned from creators social media accounts, posts/public fan interaction, director interviews, and gameos/gameodens. For more nitty gritty on exactly what his involvement looks like in Dead Boy Detectives, this link has a ton of solid info:

[mochimoqa]

The Climax Problem

Literally thought that this was so funny and I wanted to make it a small story lol

Also, this was basically from this post by @faretheeoscar

This is the link to the original post! ^^

Gender neutral Y/n x Steven Grant

Warning: 18+ Mentioning of climaxing (aka: c*mming), some inappropriate jabs here and there

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

We all know of how innocent Steven is and crazy for you. But him releasing during a make out session? That's crazier.

You cupped his face as you kissed him passionately. Your tongue fighting with his and moaning into each other's mouths. You gently pulled his curls as he moaned from the action.

The passion needed to die down as you needed to go to work.

"I gotta go, baby." You pecked his lips and he responded with a small whines.

"A- Alright, love! I'll be waiting for you!" He waved goodbye to you as you waved back and closed the door.

Steven sighed as he looked at his pants. The noticeable bulge in his pants as he unzipped them and revealed a patch of his seed in his boxers.

"Bloody hell..." Steven mumbled to himself.

He got up and took off his pants and boxers to the dirty laundry. He walked to the restroom and looked at the mirror.

"Why do I even do that..." He massaged his temples.

"Looks like someone has a hard time to stop cumming." Marc looked at Steven in the mirror with his little smirk.

"Look, I just can't help it...! Y/n makes me feel so good! I- I- I just can't help it!"

Steven turned around facing at another mirror staring at his reflection.

"You gotta ask some advice for that problem of yours, hermano." Jake crossed his arms and cocked a eyebrow.

"You don't think I know that, Jake?"

He sighed as he cleaned himself with a wet towel.

"Have you ever tried to masterbate before? That could help you, Steven." Marc chuckled.

"What!? Marc! You know I could never do that! And I'm gonna wait til I marry Y/n...! How could you even think of that!?

"Steven, you poor sad little virgin." Marc sighed.

"What about you go on reddit and go to r/Advice?" Jake smirked.

"Reddit...? No, I shouldn't..."

"It's the only thing to help you." Jake chuckled lightly.

"D'oh... alright..." Steven sighed as he grabbed some new boxers and put them on.

◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤

"Steven, I'm home!!" You placed your bag on the floor as you took off your shoes. You walked into your shared bedroom and see him laying down.

You laid down next to him and peppered his face with small kisses.

"Hi." You smiled lightly and played with his curls.

"Hey..." He smiled lightly but then faltered to a small frown.

"Aww... what's wrong...?" You cupped his face.

"It's uhm..." He sighed. "Love, uhm... during out make out sessions... I uh... I cum."

You frozed when you heard that.

"Like, pre-cum or...?"

"No, like full-on climax... and it's embarrassing... just instantly releasing during a make out session...! And I went to Reddit for advise... I- I just know that you're gonna judge me..."

"Steven, that's not embarrassing at all... to be honest, I find that really flattering."

"Really...?"

"Yes, it makes me feel good. It let's me know of how good I can make you really feel..." You leaned into him and gently kissed him softly.

He pulled away and smiled.

"Thank you, love..."

This got me cracking up 💀

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed this :]

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

hi! so I saw a reddit post a few days ago about a dead aasimar (Omar) who can be found in the House of Healing - but what was interesting is that they said it was *his* wings Balthazar took for Marcus. I always thought they were Aylin's wings; isn't there a line about how Balthazar experimented on her early on, or Isobel reacting to the wings/realizing what Balthazar did, something like that? or did I imagine that? I would love to hear your take on this! (I don't know if I can send links in asks, but it's r BaldursGate3/comments/1gxo0tm/)

Oh, hey! It's Olam the Dead Aasimar Harper, my own personal favourite basically nonexistent NPC to shower with utterly disproportionate levels of attention! He's the guy I brought up in the final part of Moon-chosen, Moon-guided, who Aylin hears about and then really wants to retrieve and give a proper burial to. Entirely because of my aasimar fixation and because I love playing around with Aylin being an aasimar but also absolutely not being a regular aasimar, and how she'd feel about others both like and unlike her.

Olam is indeed the only other aasimar in the game. I love the little story we get told there, via one journal and one note, and one fight against a special animated armour.

The full text of his journal aka "a chilling account of an aasimar Harper's final tendays in the cursed lands" is here, and I find it a really nice bit of writing and an insight into that period - piecing together all these little bits and pieces about what happened to the Thorms and Reithwin and the armies on both sides is my favourite part of the game. Act 2 my beloved.

'All beings should walk free of fear', I was taught. Oh, if only were I granted such a fine fate.

So, Olam is a Harper who fought against Ketheric a century ago, and was there when the curse first happened. He was some kind of spellcaster (his insistence on research and experimentation screams wizard, to me) and he had an affectionate bird familiar called Corvin, presumably a raven. In his experimentation and efforts to lift the shadow curse, he accidentally animated his own armour, which you can fight in that acid pit area. But he ultimately failed, and then he succumbed to the shadows, alone. Tragic stuff, right?

You've activated my trap card! By which I mean I saw that post, saw videos of "you won't believe this NPC you missed!!!" go viral, saw people take it as gospel and start parroting misinformation about a very specific fandom interest of mine again, and got so frustrated I almost started posting WELL ACTUALLY Reddit comments. Horrifying.

Instead I get to ramble here! Thank you so much for providing an excuse (genuinely). It's kind of like the oathbreaker/disowned by her mother nonsense, people just can't seem to leave Aylin alone and let her have any of her actual damn story beats and themes and it grinds my gears. And just like the Child of the Moonmaiden stuff, someone has already added it to the BG3 wiki with zero sources, and now it's spreading like wildfire based on absolutely nothing. What a glorious microcosm of our reality.

Salt aside, thank you for the question! Let me actually answer it, and dig out exactly what is in the game itself.

TL;DR: While nobody looks at the camera and says as much, I'm convinced the wings are Aylin's, and that Balthazar had nothing to do with this guy.

First of all, and my simplest point: regular 5e aasimar don't actually have physical wings. One subtype of them (or, more recently, one of their three once-per-day "transformation" options) gives you this:

You can use your action to unleash the divine energy within yourself, causing your eyes to glimmer and two luminous, incorporeal wings to sprout from your back.

Two luminous, spectral wings sprout from your back temporarily.

This lasts for a whole minute, and then you have to long rest to do it again. Of course, BG3 plays around with 5e rules and adapts them as needed, and there's no actual BG3 aasimar set of racial abilities implemented in the game. There's only Aylin who has the wings on by default, and there's our wingless boy of the hour, Olam - who is a corpse statted as "Human" if you right-click inspect him, so no help there. The only actual mention that he is supposed to be an aasimar comes from the description of his journal I quoted up there, and from the inspiration popup that some character backgrounds get when you find him (Sage and Acolyte, to be specific).

On a personal note, as a player of aasimar characters who've died by being thrown from great heights after having used up their wings for the day, believe me when I say I am deeply envious of whatever Aylin has going on in the wings department. She makes them appear and disappear in a flash at will and it's very cool. I love it. There's a special graphical overlay of feathers fluttering down all over your screen sometimes when she's around. I am enamoured.

Next, in the Marcus confrontation, Isobel doesn't give any signs of recognising the wings, nor does she comment on them specifically - she's shocked by Marcus' betrayal as he's been with them for a long time and nobody ever suspected a thing. I checked the dialogues/devnotes to see if there's anything else there, and there isn't. It's delicious angst material, certainly, the implications are deeply horrifying, and several people have written about it, me included, in tumblr posts and in fics, so you've probably seen the idea around a bunch. Not in the game itself, though.

Moving on, here's the full text of Balthazar's note you can find in Moonrise, titled "A Little Gift":

Marcus - I assume no explanation is needed for just how rare these appendages are, and I trust you shall make good use of them. You have a golden opportunity to please the General. Do not squander it. Access to the unwilling donor has proven difficult since the harvesting, but if I am afforded the opportunity, I shall pass along your gratitude. B.

This is pretty much it with regards to the wings explicitly. Speak With Dead on Marcus doesn't give anything related to the wings either. The only other thing is a little exchange between Z'rell and Marcus at Moonrise if his mission was a success, part of a series of little dialogues where she keeps rebuffing him and his efforts to get his hard-earned "audience with the General":

Marcus: I am free to do more for the Absolute, Disciple. Anything. Z'rell: Would you cast yourself from the tower-top? Marcus: Of course. I have the Absolute's wings to catch me. Z'rell: Off you go, then. I've always wanted to try those ballistas.

Ah, Z'rell, always a delight.

Now, let's look at the relevant final line in Balthazar's note.

Access to the unwilling donor has proven difficult since the harvesting - Balthazar, the necromancer who makes dead pixie moonlanterns, does not have big problems navigating the shadow curse like the Harpers do. Thus, getting to a corpse in the House of Healing morgue a little ways away from Moonrise is not the access problem he's having, nor is it the bunch of zombies that stalk the place. Rather, it is that Shar is angry at Ketheric who betrayed her for Myrkul and is keeping him and his out of the Shadowfell. I've so often seen people rather bafflingly confused by why Balthazar needs the player's help getting to the Nightsong prison when he's the one who imprisoned Aylin there in the first place, and this is why. He tells you as much himself - for instance when you actually enter the Shadowfell:

Balthazar: It seems Shar bears a grudge against my master, General Thorm, and so sought to prevent me from entering in his name. Luckily, you were the perfect agent in helping me slip past her defences. Now the Nightsong is within reach.

As for the unwilling donor bit, and your question of whether there is a line about how Balthazar experimented on Aylin early on - not really? He calls her "his masterpiece" a bunch and loves objectifying her in very specific and gross ways. There's again no mention of wings specifically, but what they do say is he cut out her tongue at least once before:

Nightsong: Ramblings most unsane. Poor Balthazar, for maggots ate his brain long ago. Balthazar: Hold your tongue, Aylin. Or I'll take it away from you again.

They make it so very easy to hate the guy - and agree with Aylin when she says her "heart lit like a full moon when you struck down that cadaver". Here is all the overworld banter you can hear from them, which fleshes out their relationship a bit more. Shocking spoiler: Balthazar is revolting.

Balthazar: As much as I savour our conversations, it's high time we got started. Nightsong: Do what you will. I cannot prevent you. But you know as well as I, I will come for you. One day. Balthazar: Poor child, so enthralled by gory revenge fantasies. You may find yourself disappointed by reality. Nightsong: Let us find out.

Nightsong: Someone's coming. Another Justiciar, I presume. Balthazar: Do you hunger for more company? Am I not enough to keep you sated? Nightsong: I'd [rather] live a thousand years in solitude than lay my eyes [upon] thy putrid visage again. Balthazar: Only a thousand?

Nightsong: Hatred makes you so hideous, Balthazar. Balthazar: Unkind, Aylin. Unkind and incorrect - I could never hate my masterwork. Nightsong: Perhaps you're right - perhaps you're incapable of feeling at all. Balthazar: Please, Aylin - spare me. Your insults grew tired and shopworn years ago.

Balthazar: How long has it been so far? With my work, time just slips away from me. Nightsong: A hundred years. Balthazar: A mere interlude for the likes of you and I. But nevertheless, perhaps it is time for a new chapter. Nightsong: Do as you will. You can pierce my flesh, but my heart beats on, forever.

There's also a tidbit if you ask Aylin how come all it took to release her from the prison was a friendly hand on her shoulder, and she'll tell you Balthazar "taunted and cajoled" her about how easy it would be to break the spell, if anyone just thought to try. So considering all of this, you bet he'd just love to "pass along gratitude" to Aylin and tell her alllll about how they used her own stolen wings to kidnap Isobel, of all people.

So basically, yeah, Balthazar is the one who's been in the Shadowfell prison most often, before Ketheric's relatively recent turn to Myrkul and Shar barring the way in response. We're given the above general vibes and implications of what he was doing there, and the rest is left up to our own gory imaginations. As Gale put it:

A dismal place for an aasimar to spend her existence. Especially with that necrotic toad for company.

There is no connection between Olam and Balthazar at all in the game, but there is one connection between Balthazar and the House of Healing - a negative one, notably.

You find Olam in the morgue of the House of Healing, which is Malus Thorm's stomping ground. It is his laboratory and research notes you find there, not Balthazar's. Malus complains in those very same notes found there that he gets the dregs of cadavers to experiment and mess around with because his nephew Ketheric is letting his Evil Chancellor Traytor Balthazar get first pick and keep the best for himself.

So no, Balthazar did not experiment on this guy or "harvest" anything. Olam is a fairly regular Harper who we can imagine may have lasted a bit longer in the necrotic curse because as an aasimar he'd presumably have necrotic damage resistance and the ability to cast light. He's been dead for about a century, and that's about it.

Aylin is the one the note clearly points to, and, setting aside all the crunchy mechanical and nitpicky details about who does or doesn't have wings and for how long, on every meta and storytelling and textual and subtextual and thematic and classically tropey level, Aylin is the only relevant person those wings could (and should) have come from. It is evocative, it is part of the chilling tale of her betrayal and captivity and serves to paint a vivid picture of the depths Ketheric and Balthazar have sunk to, as well as make Aylin's immense rage and desire for vengeance all the more visceral - and ultimately satisfying.

[brownsugar-dreams]

Another Approach To Online Sugaring

Recently I took a break from dating. The dating apps can get exhausting and sometimes you’re just not in a place where you have the physical/emotional energy to get dressed up and go out. I didn’t want the money to stop, so I decided to start camming again but only for online sugar dating(OSD)/girlfriend experience (GFE). It’s been such a success I decided to make a post about it.

When I reactivated my no face cam accounts, I started casually talking to users in my chat rooms. There were a good share of users who just want to chat. If you have an outgoing personality, this is really easy and comes natural. We would talk about all sorts of things from what they do for work/fun, casual interests, kinks. I’d tell them stories, my POVs on pop culture topics, fantasies, made up stuff. At this point I noticed specific users were tipping in the general chat. I focused on those users and made sure to show them the most attention and they continued to tip. They’d often initiate a private session (more $ per min) and we’d continue chatting.

If you’re consistent with signing in at least 1-2x a week, it’s easy to find someone who adores you. I created a Snapchat (SC) profile and advertised it on my cam site as a way for users to connect with me 1:1. Set it up so they have to pay to get the username. Using SC, I posted no face pics with a link to my wishlist/cashapp and sparingly answered messages (mostly messages inquiring about pricing/services never free endless chatting). Later I created a price menu for services offered and shared that from time to time on my story. Once a relationship is established, it’s super easy to straight up ask for money. Since they met you on a paid cam site they already know what’s up so don’t let anyone pretend to be naive or use your time for free.

Overall this has been a flexible way to earn money that is relatively easy and low maintenance. Most of these clients are lonely and desperate for female attention so making each feel special is the key.

Things to Note/Logistics

I personally don’t show my face by having the cam positioned from the neck down. But other no face cam girls have talked about using full or half face masks to conceal their identity. Given the nature of “professionalism” in our fields I can understand a lot of us wanting to preserve our identities. But do what you’re comfy with! I’d suggest no nudity in free chat otherwise users will be less likely to pay for private.

Each cam site is different and pays differently. Most let you adjust your price settings as you like. I researched the sites with the most consistent/quickest payout schedule and reputation by searching Reddit posts and cam girl forums. I picked my favorite sites shared below.

To maximize earnings, I stream multiple sites at a time by opening tabs. Some use OBS software but I haven’t had the time to figure out how to incorporate that yet.

I changed the settings to allow only users with money to participate in chat. This helps reduce hecklers and incels looking for a free show.

Sites have varying popularity during different times/day. Keep that in mind when starting out so that you can develop a schedule. We’re busy professionals irl so making sure to cam on days/nights that have the most earning potential saves a lot of time.

Different clients have different needs so it’s important to be flexible and only take on clients you’d be comfortable with. I have clients that want me to be bossy and mean while others want a more traditional GFE where they’re the caretaker (think MTS “daddy am I your baby” type of thing lol).

Tips to Earn More

Share your wishlist in your bio across platforms. I like to use throne.

Create a links page and share to let your big spenders get notified when you’re online. I use beacons

I use sextpanther to supplement on weeks that are too busy to cam. I love the convenience of texting and it yields good money.

If you want to incorporate toys in your private shows when you’re starting out, use Aliexpress to order cheap toys. Eventually when you gain a consistent following, I suggest making the guys pay for anything they’d like to see you use and of course non sexual gifts for you too!

Keep a list/diary of users to keep track across platforms. Make note of their interests/kinks/imp things they’ve shared so you can refer to it during sessions.

Successful Cam Sites: CB CS

Keep working towards your goals!😘❤️✨

[ym-loreposting]

Exploring the Zelda Merchandise Map

The above is something I have been curious about for a while: a map of Hyrule that is included with many pieces of merchandise. Despite this, this map of Hyrule does not correspond to any game and many oddities can be observed if it is examined in closer detail, which is what I want to do here.

To start with, it appears this map appeared about a decade ago as a licensed puzzle. Since then it has cropped up in all kinds of places, such as the background of the Japanese Zelda Portal, page 14 of The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia or even just on packaging for stuff like keychains.

But what does the map actually depict if not something from the games? For clarification, it is first handy to look at the Hylian text on the map and translate it. This was already done in the Reddit post linked above and I have my own version of this below.

Of note is that there are various Hylian ciphers throughout the Zelda series. The one used on this map is the one introduced in A Link Between Worlds, which came out around the time the map was made in 2013. This Hylian cipher has gone on to become the standard cipher used in the series, making an appearance in every new Zelda title released since A Link Between Worlds.

This text makes somewhat clearer what landmarks we are actually looking at. It also becomes fairly clear that the middle of the map is based on Ocarina of Time's incarnation of Hyrule: Hyrule Castle sits north of Hyrule Field, with Lon Lon Ranch in the middle. Kakariko Village is east of Hyrule Castle and sits at the foot of Death Mountain, both of them sporting their designs from Ocarina of Time. To the southeast of the field is Kokiri Forest, complete with the Great Deku Tree and Link. Finally, we also have a lake that appears to be Lake Hylia from Ocarina of Time to the sourthwest of Hyrule Field.

Moving further out, things get a tad stranger however. Let's start in the southwest and move around the map clockwise from there. In that corner of the map, a rendition of Gerudo Desert can be found.

This is consistent with the placement of the desert in top-down Zelda games that were out at the time like A Link to the Past, Four Swords Adventures and A Link Between Worlds. In the 3D games out at the time, the desert instead extended across the entire western portion of the map (Skyward Sword) or the northwest (Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess).

As for the landmarks on this portion of the map, they are a strange mix. The broken down ship mast may be a reference to the Sandship from Skyward Sword, which was broken after that dungeon is finished. The structure to the bottom of the map appears to be a reference to the Ancient Castle of Ikana from Majora's Mask, given the similarity and the presence of Redeads and a Gibdo (enemies that can be found in and near the castle). This is strange given that the Castle of Ikana is not located in Hyrule, but in Termina, which is a parallel world. The third structure on the top right appears to be an original of the map, but vaguely resembles Hyrule Castle from Twilight Princess. There is also a fourth structure tucked in the mountains on the northeastern border of the desert, perhaps referencing Gerudo’s Fortress from Ocarina of Time.

Moving to the northwest, we find Castor Wilds, a swampy area from The Minish Cap that was also located in Hyrule's west. Interesting to note is that Castor Wild is only the region's name in the English version of The Minish Cap. In Japanese, it is called タバンタ秘境 (Tabantha Wilderness), a name that would be reused in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. This may indicate this map was put together in the west instead of Japan or that the original artist took from the localized games for some reason.

The depiction of Castor Wilds above has more in common with the appearance of the Southern Swamp from Majora's Mask, given the presence of bayou trees, a Big Octo and disconnected bridges made of logs. This poses the same problems as the seeming Ikana Castle in Gerudo Desert, as the Southern Swamp is in a parallel world.

There is also a mountain with a dragon on top in this area, east of Castor Wilds. It brings to mind Dragon Roost Island from The Wind Waker, a tall mountaintop upon which rests the dragon Valoo. That place is found in the northeast of Hyrule however and not the northwest. The dragon on the map also does not particularly look like Valoo, nor does the mountain particularly resemble Dragon Roost Island.

Other than this, there are few notable things in this quadrant. Depictions of a Wolfos, a Deku Baba and Stalchild can be seen, but most of the actual landscape is barren mountains or obscured by the compass. Perhaps the region is supposed to represent Snowpeak, a snowy mountain range in the northwest of Hyrule in Twilight Princess. There appears to be a tower in these mountains surrounded by Guays, but this does not correspond to any known location in the games.

In the direct north of the map are two more structures not in the games: two pointy mountains connected by a rope bridge and a spiral quarry of some kind. A Goron can be seen at this quarry.

The northwestern quadrant is home to Zora's Fountain, corresponding roughly with its location in Ocarina of Time (south of Death Mountain and Kakariko Village and north of Kokiri Forest). It is far more to the west however, but it is still on top of a mountainous plateau behind a waterfall like in Ocarina of Time. The design of the fountain does not match any depiction found in the games however, albei a Zora can be seen bathing inside it.

Other than this, this quadrant of the map is home to many more structures where it is hard to pin down what they are. There is a village northwest of death mountain, a snowy village in the far northwest of the map and a pond surrounded by ruins that feeds into Zora's Founain. This last structure also somewhat resembles the Fairy Fountains from Ocarina of Time, except that those are found underground. There are also a couple of floating islands, but once again they do not correspond to anything in particular like the City in the Sky or Skyloft.

More to the south of this quadrant we also find a small stone building, a gate guarded by two statues with crossed arms and a cave with a treasure chest. This last structure is likely a reference to grottos from throughout the series wherein treasures can often be found. Finally, a Skulltula is depicted in this quadrant of the map.

The final quadrant of the map, the southeast, is mostly made up of featureless ocean. There is a nondescript ship in that ocean, also what appears to be Gyorg, a boss from Majora's Mask. Other enemies we can find on land here are a Chuchu as first depicted in The Wind Waker and a Peahat. A Gossip Stone is also present in the northeast of the image.

The final names location on the map is Faron Woods, and the art seems to pull from Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess. There is the Great Tree from Skyward Sword's version of Faron Woods and buildings that resemlbe Ordon Village, which is found in the forests south of Faron in Twilight Princess. The general location of Faron Woods on this map also matches that of Ordon, being found in the far south of Hyrule, beyond lake Hylia and many of the woods.

Finally, in this quadrant there are two more nondescript villages that do not correspond to the games.

And that is everything I could find on this map. I seems to depict Ocarina of Time Hyrule, with its borders expanded with miscellaneous locations from other 3D Zelda games that were out in 2015. A lot of original locations are also mixed in. The origins of the map still remain a bit vague, but given how much it pops up in Zelda merch, it does appear to be official in some capacity. If anyone has more information about this topic, I'd be happy to know.

Addendum: As pointed out by @lady-sophie-17, it seems the structure at the north of the map with the Goron is actually Goron City, as it appears more or less he same as it is depicted as on the map of Ocarina of Time.

[saintmeghanmarkle]

Two things we know about Meghan: she never misses a chance to play the victim and she practically wrote Spare. There must be a reason these parts of the book were so vague. by u/so_fkn_dn

Two things we know about Meghan: she never misses a chance to play the victim, and she practically wrote Spare. There must be a reason these parts of the book were so vague. I haven't read Spare first hand, but I recall these two excerpts both including accusations/insults against Meghan but stopping short of saying exactly what they were. My guess is there was truth in those insults, and she purposely kept them hidden to cover her ass while maintaining her victimhood.1. The argument that got Harry to seek therapy"Maybe the wine went to my head. Maybe the weeks of battling the press had worn me down. For some reason, when the conversation took an unexpected turn, I became touchy. Then angry. Disproportionately, sloppily angry. Meg said something I took the wrong way. It was partly a cultural difference, partly a language barrier, but I was also just over-sensitive that night. I thought: Why's she having a go at me? I snapped at her, spoke to her harshly—cruelly. As the words left my mouth, I could feel everything in the room come to a stop [...] She was calm, but said in a quiet, level tone that she would never stand for being spoken to like that. I nodded. She wanted to know where it came from. 'I don't know.' 'Where did you ever hear a man speak like that to a woman? Did you overhear adults speak that way when you were growing up?' I cleared my throat, looked away, 'Yes.'"My take: Since Harry mentioned the press wearing him down, and Meghan asking where he heard a man speaking like that to a woman, I'm guessing something about her past (or a rumour about it) bothered him. Whatever it is, either there's some truth to it, or Harry's not such a feminist ally after all.2. Charles banning Meghan from the Queen's deathbed"Then came another call from Pa. He said I was welcome at Balmoral, but he didn't want…her. He started to lay out his reason, which was nonsensical, and disrespectful, and I wasn't having it. 'Don’t ever speak about my wife that way.' He stammered, apologetic, saying he simply didn't want a lot of people around. No other wives were coming, Kate wasn't coming, he said, therefore Meg shouldn't. 'Then that's all you needed to say.'"My take: Charles accused Meghan of wearing a mic, or something equally shady.For a book that detailed decades-old conversations verbatim, I'd say these omissions are very telling. post link: https://ift.tt/AQ6OjpB author: so_fkn_dn submitted: August 24, 2024 at 10:11AM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Hi there, first off I'm really sorry for deleting the comment! While I wish I could keep it up the private messages were too much. Sadly I don't think I can report whoever it was. Reddit has this weird thing where if you pay for it, you can privately send some messages without any username or something to be shown. So yeah some random person got really upset at the idea of PJO being in Greece and decided to pay money towards Reddit to let me know.

As for the xenophobic things that were said about Greeks. I have to rely off the top of my head since I deleted them pretty quick. It was a bunch of "nobody cares about you Greeks, the country's a shithole that has to rely on tourists, you can't even claim to own the mythology because you were a bunch of colonizers who took other POC myths and made them your own" stuff.

Barely nothing about why they hated the idea of having the series in Greece. I think it was just some xenophobic ass who pretends to be progressive. But man I did not expect the subreddit to hate the idea of a Greece setting so much. By the time I deleted the comment it was at -20 downvotes.

-🌟Anon

I planned on replying sooner but chronic illness is a bitch. I am outraged that people feel comfortable being such assholes for fucking nothing, and they have completely false arguments on top of that.

I am sorry that it was such an unpleasant experience, and I hope you are feeling better now. Those malakes should go fuck themselves, plain and clear. They are such stupid and incompetent bullies that they'll fart your dick and balls (Greek expression for "they don't have the guts to do shit to you"). They are cowards and their "progressiveness" is no more than a shitty excuse to make everything about them and bully people in the name of "justice". They probably got their friends to downvote the comment and did a small smear campaign. Cause I find it hard to believe that a whole subreddit actually hates Greece.

I am all for recognizing when Greeks have done and do something bad/wrong but the statement "you can't even claim to own the mythology because you were a bunch of colonizers who took other POC myths and made them your own" is just factually wrong in so many levels. Even the smidge of truth in that statement is so twisted that I cannot give them right. So, they're spreading misinformation on top of everything.

You are in charge of your actions and feelings, so if you feel the comment is best deleted, then that's okay. My humble suggestion - in general - is to not give these fuckers an inch. I had my fair share of them here, for years. When they realize their cyberbullying doesn't work anymore because people don't get intimidated, they just whine to their equally fanatic friends. The only power they have is whining online, and when people back down, they get encouraged and do the same thing to more people.

Unless you feel your safety is threatened, or you feel too unwell to engage (all valid!), then ignore them and just leave your opinions online where people will inevitably see them. Do it once, do it twice, and you'll see that nothing more than unpleasant messages (which you will just delete and block) will happen. Your comment was civil and completely harmless. You are on the right here.

Even if I agreed with their opinion, their approach of behaving like violent crybabies is simply inexcusable. Tolerance has its limits. Their behavior should not be tolerated, because it leads to the opposite of tolerance. (It's a famous paradox) The only thing that stops them from joining a nazi party is their life circumstances.

P.S. A friend of mine wants to comment on the subreddit with your (or a similar) message. Would you send me the link of the post with the Hot Takes so they can do that? (She's feeling a lil' silly - and no, it's not me :p)

[ineffable-opinions]

MAME & Queer Cultures

MAME & BL Literacies Part 3 Other parts: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4

In this post I want to discuss the response TharnType generated and reflect on BL genre and MAME as a creator centered on this discussion led by @waitmyturtles focused on plurality of queerness. I try my best to address the following points that @waitmyturtles has raised about TharnType and MAME. As usual, critiques and corrections are welcome.

1. Focus on physical relationship between leads

It is no coincidence that there weren’t many “high heat” live action BL from Thailand. It was by design and sexism played a not so small part. MAME deserves credit for challenging that head on.

It was not obvious to industry leaders when TharnType aired that fans wanted “high heat” content.

This is precisely due to lack of BL literacies. BL has a separate sub-genre of pleasure training/conditioning. There are ero-BL. After yaoi boom, BL is considered as a porn genre too.

2. How survivors of sexual assault receive the show

Sexual assault as a theme in BL, handled in a myriad of ways, has been the case since the inception of the genre. 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.

But sexual assault as a theme is always controversial. 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 of the genre. Even in live action, there is good variety in terms of how the theme is treated. But not everything is everyone’s cup of tea. (If I manage to do a companion post on different treatments of sexual assault as theme, I’ll link it here.)

This being the case it is understandable if someone like how MAME handles sexual assault. Similarly, it is understandable if someone doesn’t like it at all. But what’s not understandable is “natural tendency to criticize and blame MAME for our needing to have conversations about safety towards queer family”. Unfortunately, this type of takes have the implication of infantilization of 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 sexual assault. 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 sexual assault fall? What about queer people producing and consuming them?

3. yaoi origins of BL

Some clarification of what the terms mean: “Yaoi” aka 801 refers to self-published (doujinshi) BL - this is what Nekoyashiki produces and sells at the comic convention in Kabe Sa Doujin Sakka no Neko Yashiki-kun wa Shouninyokkyuu wo Kojiraseteiru (2022) which is based on a BL manga by, Minamoto Kazuki, a gay mangaka (artist).

source

There was a yaoi boom right before BL commercialization took place. The term is in popular use among Thai fu-people (BL fans) as they use the Y from yaoi to mark the genre.

Yaoi is borrowed by the English-speaking fu-people to categorize BL with sexual content, as opposed to shonen ai (another loan word with very different meaning in past and present Japan) as a category of BL without sexual content.

4. yaoi origins are themselves problematic, as created by a majority cishet female artist base

Frankly, this is an old argument with sexist and xenophobic roots and is indicative of unfamiliarity with gei comi and gay pinku cinema which are popular in Thailand just as it is in other parts of the world. Thailand’s indie gay movie industry (reddit post by @virtualtadpole) too deals with “problematic” themes and they are inextricably linked with Thai BL. 

5. many in the queer community still consumed this media, as the West was producing next-to-nothing by way of queer love and/or queer perspectives.

Western-centrism aside, Thailand and other BL producing nations have been producing BL in non-live-action forms: novels, comics, animation, etc. as well as translation and subs for these from one language to many others for decades now.

Live action boom didn’t happen in a vacuum. Just because a bunch of westerners discovered BL through live action doesn’t mean that it holds true for everyone. MAME’s own success as a novelist is what motivated and funded her venture into live action production. Danmei author Chai JiDan’s venture into live action production is a comparable track.

6. common stereotypes held by Asian nations

I don’t think there are any common stereotypes among Asian nations. The stereotypes @waitmyturtles encountered while growing up are probably stereotypes NRIs holds, under the influence of the culture in the region they reside in. Also, Indian queerness is very different from western forms of queerness.

For example, it is only the upper-class, westernized queers who adopt LGBTQ+ identification and presentation. There are those who float between westernized forms and indigenous forms, such as a transgender person who is loosely linked to a hijra group without having actually initiated into the community. [Hijra is an intentional kinship system with a hierarchical guru-chela relationship. Identification as hijra indicates membership in a hijra community.] There are wide variety of indigenous queer practices such as masti and there are different stereotypes and worldviews associated with them.

Some of the examples @waitmyturtles gave throws light on some flawed yet popular ideas about Thai queerness:

a) Tharn repeatedly and casually calling Type “his bitch”

No Tharn didn’t. Tharn calls Type his “wife” (เมีย). The use of that term by Thai queer men is well documented.

Narupon Duangwises and Peter A. Jackson in their 2021 paper Effeminacy and Masculinity in Thai Gay Culture: Language, Contextuality and the Enactment of Gender Plurality note insertive partner or fai ruk being called “husband” (phua) and receptive partner or fai rap being called a “wife” or mia in Thai gay culture.

In the book Male Homosexuality in 21st-Century Thailand based on longitudinal ethnographic study of Thai queer men, JWL van Wijngaarden highlights the difference between referring to one’s partner as “wife” and simply as “boyfriend” (faen) and how much more the former is valued.

It is callous to refer to something that is a part of Thai gay culture “an Asian stereotype” just because it doesn’t fit into western perspective. I am surprised that @waitmyturtles went there given one of the Indian/South Asian form of queerness, the Kothi-Panthi queer culture, also use such forms of endearment.

The perception that the term is a pejorative is popular in English-language discourse thanks to some popular ethnocentric takes. Notable exception being this detailed post by @thebroccolination.

Also, the way Aof Noppharnach shamed the use of the term เมีย ‘wife’ in Bad Buddy in spite of its usage by queer people, especially the little people among them, is evidence enough of the contempt and disregard he can bring in through his positionality as an “auteur” which is very unfortunate.

b) Type’s queerphobia and use of slur

I think it is dealt with in the series itself. It is a recurrent source of conflict, inflicting hurt on Tharn and others.

What this MAME show does best is the portrayal of rampant heterosexism and anti-queer sentiments prevalent in the society. I was impressed by the way it was portrayed in the series:

Techno’s friends approach Type, drawn in by his good looks. We get to know that they operate a cute-boys (khio-boi) page on social media.

Quick side note:

[T]he cute-boy culture on social media platforms, notably Facebook, that has developed over the past decade. This culture is characterized by the widespread presence of Facebook pages with names that include the terms ‘cute-boy’ or sometimes ‘sexy-boy’, with or without a hyphen, featuring images of appealing and delightful youths, predominantly high school and undergraduate students.

Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have become valuable resources for production studios to discover and cast cute-boys for Y-series, with modelling agencies occasionally acting as intermediaries.

Bunyavejchewin, P., Tungkeunkunt, K., Kamonpetch, P., Sirichuanjun, K., & Sukthungthong, N. (2024). Socio-demographics, lifestyles, and consumption frequency of Thai ‘Boys Love’ series content: Initial evidence from Thailand. Cogent Social Sciences, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2024.2307697

more on this topic by @virtualtadpole

End of side note.

Type reacts violently to being groped by Techno’s friend. The social media post calling out Type’s behavior attracts sympathy for him from a homophobic classmate. Through this no-perfect-victims set up, MAME address queerphobia and heterosexism internal and external to Type. When Type confronts Tharn during this debacle, he highlights the pitfalls of the situation which I think is a nuanced portrayal of rampant heterosexism.

c) Techno

Through Techno’s interaction Tharn, 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 mainstream Thai soap operas and movies, androphilic men are presented as effeminate, overreactive, with a passionate but unrequited interest in men.

(source)

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.

(Source)

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 in the end of episode 1 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.

d) Promiscuous gay - Countered within the narrative.

e) Lhong

He is a yandere (a rarity in Thai BL) albeit a different one from Kengkla in Love By Chance. Lhong is set up to lean towards the crazy rather than the romantic-obsessive. So, his approach is very different from that of Kengkla as he is the villain in this narrative. His crazy-love Tharn motivates him to deliberately isolate him from everyone else. It is in line with his characterization to employ every weapon in his repertoire against his rivals Tum and Type. Gang rape in this case is a multipronged approach employed to extract max harm. It is brutal and yandere characters are created so that they can deliver all that brutality.

TharnType is an odo BL (one with royal road narrative progression). Such a narrative is not set up where all wrong-doings are punished. Take for example KinnPorsche, another odo BL, where the ending can’t be organized crime gets the main characters in jail. Most of the time in odo BL involving crimes, victims are basically cannon fodders. So, characters are not bothered much by the crime. But here Tum is an important character, someone designed to make audience root for him. Hence the audience can't dismiss the crime.

While Lhong is let go, it is meant as punishment. He is in an earthly badro of his own making and reincarnation is only possible once he has given up on Tharn completely, let go of all that he was previously entangled with. But it is not wrong to want the narrative to punish Lhong in other ways. If TharnType was a sweet BL, it would have gone there.

7. Geography of queerness

The assumption that “gay culture” thrives in cities is most likely correct. But that is not the only form or mode of queerness. What TharnType offers is not a helping of urban gay culture. Instead, it gives an interplay of different queer cultures, centred on characters who are from different socio-economic, racial and geographic backgrounds. Techno’s engagement with masculine urban gay culture, Tharn’s conditional acceptance in Type’s household, Type’s own struggle with queerness and Kom’s story – all of them engage different strands of queer praxis.

-

There are two more points @waitmyturtles discussed that I have already wrote about in Part 1:

How could MAME be writing about sexual assault

Queer content from MAME versus queer content from queer creators since MAME harms queer community through perpetuating stereotypes

-

This review generated good amount of response and I want to discuss some of those too. That will be the fourth part of this series on MAME & BL Literacy.

-

Finally, a quick note on this recent post by @waitmyturtles where this one line stood out to me:

If MAME wants to take on a healthier stance of equity, and to play around with more realistic depictions of what it means to be queer in Thailand, then go for it, girl.

I don’t think MAME is in anyway doing anything very different with Love Sea or Wedding Plan. The Y novel Wedding Plan: The Groom's Evil (Love) Plan started serialization on the platform dek-d in 2016, years before any of her works was adapted into live action and got popular globally. But it is likely that western/westernized fandom couldn’t relate to or even understand the non-urban modes of queerness in her earlier shows.

As I conclude I want to highlight the hegemony of LGBTQ+ model of queerness. In India, westernized queer people sometimes don’t even know about indigenous forms of queerness. As a result, thousands of year old forms of queerness is relegated to the margins within a marginalized community. Hijras can be found in every metro in India. Yet, hijra community rights (legal recognition for the association between guru-ma and chela) are not even in the periphery of legal battle and political movement spearheaded by the likes of Menaka Guruswamy and Arundhati Katju as well as Uday Raj Anand and Parth Mehrotra. (This is not to underplay their valuable contributions.) Hijras can get married legally but most of their other rights and opportunities are tied to their communities which are not legally recognized.

Other parts of MAME & BL Literacies essay series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4

[rxzennia]

On Aventurine's Cooperative Eidolons

– an unprofessional dissection

✎𓂃 Namely E1 (Prisoner's Dilemma) and E6 (Stag Hunt Game). I don't doubt that this could just be pure coincidence, but this is Hoyo we're talking about. Properly capitalized work on my blog? More likely than you think. I am not eloquent enough for this. On a side note, I got a deep ass papercut from trying to dig through my bag a while ago, then I hurt the base of my finger 'cause I smacked it into a drawer. Ouch.

Context

See the Etymology section of Aventurine's trivia on the Wiki. There are further Wikipedia links to everything for all you nerds out there (I'm one of them, don't worry). This Reddit post is also good enough, methinks.

If you don't want to read all that, here's the TL;DR:

Prisoner's Dilemma has prisoners A and B who committed, say, arson together. They're interrogated separately (i.e., no communication between them), and there are four outcomes – if neither of them confess (both serve 0 years), if A confesses and B doesn't (and vice versa – whoever doesn't confess serves 20 years), and if they both confess (both serve 10 years). The best individual outcome for each side, then, is to snitch ("defect").

Stag Hunt Game has hunters C and D who must decide whether to hunt a rabbit or a stag with no knowledge of the other's decision. The stag will feed them for a week, and the rabbit will feed them for 2 days. To hunt the stag, they must work together. Otherwise, it could end in three ways: D goes for the stag (D will then starve) and C goes after the rabbit to feed themselves (and the other way around), or both C and D go for the rabbit and each respectively gain 2 days' worth of food. Both hunters are, therefore, more likely to cooperate to get the best outcome (the stag).

On Aventurine's Cooperative Eidolons

What catches my eye is how these two are sequenced. With the Prisoner's Dilemma at E1, and then through E2 to 5 until Stag Hunt Game appears in E6, it's more than just a representation of Aventurine's life up to this point. I wonder if this is a reflection of how his beliefs have changed, or if it's a reflection of what the individual departments of the IPC means to him, or if it's both.

As that Reddit post has already said, the PD applies to Aventurine and his owner. However, if we consider the game as between him and the IPC (or specifically the Marketing Development Department in this case), then the PD takes on a completely different meaning. When the Second Katica-Avgin Extinction Event took place, the Avgins were expecting the IPC to come to their aid, so they went ahead with the festivities on the day of Kakava. This was the worst possible outcome for the Avgins, and honestly I think I died a little inside when I came to this realization halfway through writing this. Sure, it's uncertain if the Avgins would've called off the festival were they aware of the IPC's plan, but I think that's just a bandaid on a broken bone.

The Avgin clan cooperated, and the IPC defected. The IPC acquired the optimal outcome – they effectively ensured the elimination of the Avgins and the Katicans from the politics in Sigonia – while the Avgin clan found themselves facing extinction. While there has been communication between the IPC and the Avgin, it's untrustworthy communication – basically equivalent to having no communication (the PD may still hold when there is communication, granted that it is ineffective; for explanations see here). Logically speaking, the Avgin clan should know this; the IPC did have an indirect hand in their banishment to the desert, which would then be reasonable to say that the IPC has no interest in resolving the enmity between Avgins and Katicans. The rational action here for the Avgins, then, would be to defect as well, but this isn't a world where every player is rational.

What all of this implies is that in such a situation, where a rational player in the Avgins' position would choose to defect, the Avgins in the story chose to bet on that non-existent chance of cooperation in a Prisoner's Dilemma. How desperate must they be to take that chance in cooperation, to wilfully ignore all the signs that point to defection by the IPC?

If you hear sobbing in the distance, you'd better join me. Well played, Hoyo. Well played. Okay, let's move on.

A Prisoner's Dilemma (PD) can become a Stag Hunt (SH) through eliminating the factors that contribute to the "every man for himself" sentiment in the PD. Suppose there is a scenario where the PD applies. What makes both sides equally wary of the other, and what prevents them from working together as they would've in a SH? Uncertainty. Incomplete information and trustworthiness – if you don't know what move the other side is going to make, you have to look for the best move for your situation.

In the real world, incomplete information is generally addressed by institutions. Information is made transparent by various institutions at various levels so that there is less guesswork for the players in the dilemma. It reminds me of the IPC Strategic Investment Department, since they are providing information for Aventurine to make decisions for his next move, and simultaneously trade information with the Marketing Development Department. It's less that they do it willingly, but because they're both departments under the IPC, there is a certain level of transparency between them. 

Trustworthiness is essentially how one convinces others of their intentions. How else can anyone look at your past actions and determine that you're likely to cooperate if you have nothing vouching for you? Aventurine went from being a slave to a Stoneheart, and so with his current position and connections comes a certain degree of trustworthiness. Therefore, the IPC, too, have to honor deals made with him, as they have an image to maintain to everyone else in the cosmos – all because of Aventurine's position. It's a real shame that only now that the Marketing Development Department can't walk all over him again. A real shame.

By E6, Aventurine is playing the Stag Hunt Game, as opposed to the Prisoner's Dilemma. Is he collaborating with the Strategic Investment Department to achieve some mutual goal, where both will benefit? Hell, is he playing the Stag Hunt with the Astral Express, too? What is his desired outcome, then? 

If we look at this in terms of how Aventurine's beliefs have changed, he's gone from a lone player to someone with a lot of cards. He's intentionally put himself in a position where cooperation becomes worthwhile, thus ensuring his interactions all fall under the "Stag Hunt" category. This doesn't mean that his life is free from betrayal, given how he seems to expect the dirtiest tactics in the execution of an interaction; rather, he expects that the outcome of any action would bring him a net benefit that offsets the price of being betrayed. 

This means he's learned from the Second Katica-Avgin Extinction Event, where the defection of one player and the cooperation of the other resulted in the optimal outcome for the defector at the expense of the cooperator. I'd like to think he is where he is now because he wants to be well equipped to turn any future interactions that would land him in a PD into a SH; he sees the value in cooperation, the benefit of being able to play his cards with the expectation that his opponent would play into the outcome he wants because of a shared goal. 

If we examine this as two distinct interactions with the IPC departments, we have the Prisoner's Dilemma and the Marketing Development Department on one hand, and the Stag Hunt and the Strategic Investment Department on the other. This interpretation brings up a very familiar notion: Aventurine and the Marketing Development Department are never going to get along. With the PD, there is no way both sides would cooperate, and so there we have it. Even if Aventurine doesn't know about the role that the Department played in Sigonia (as there is no canon confirmation as of yet), he isn't going to get along with them as someone of the Strategic Investment Department. True to the political climate within the IPC, there is barely any trust, nor any expectation to cooperate beyond what is absolutely necessary.

Aventurine's association with the Strategic Investment Department is a SH game in and of itself. Diamond gets a new Stoneheart, and Aventurine gets to live. I have no doubt that he manipulates every mission into a SH situation by revealing just enough of his cards; it's highly unlikely that he's able to achieve the Department's goals with no assistance. 

Overall, well… This goober is still living in my head rent free. Thanks, Hoyo.

[fanficfish]

some random hetalia thoughts about the countries

mostly headcanons and character studies i guess. probably canon but who knows i'm too sleepy to go check. i'm gonna ramble and maybe it'll maek sense i don't know. Someoen tag me if they get anything idea worthy out of this.

link the inspired post: https://www.reddit.com/r/hetalia/comments/1eqt7ek/after_all_these_years_im_gonna_say_it_i_did_not/

I've seen a little talk about how England leaving America on his own for so long messed him up a little (thank you reddit user who go that talk going). So i wanted to think about some of Englands' other colonies and stuff i guess?

so like we have America. I still stand he's probably like, Jamestown or something and over time he became the main US rep, like how the UK has the four brothers (five? Six with Sealand) but England represents them at meetings. Or Japan reps all of Japan instead of like a couple dozen prefectures showing up. That kind of thing. And like that guy's a little messed up. In earlier parts ofhis story, he's shown to just be really explorative, stil strong tho, but mostly jsut a nice sweet kid who happens to have three teenagers fighting over him. Seriously couldn't they share? Oh wait it's hetalia no they can't XD

anyways, it's only wlater once America is firmly under British rule that he starts growing the yelling and loudness. I think that's like the sign hhat he wants a little attention f rom England- like, he's shown to just be a guy when it's Canada when they're kids but england gets the "SHOVE FOOD IN MY PIEHOLE" treatment. And I think that's just because England keeps leaving and coming back but sometimes he just ignores the kids and does his own thing for a long time. Canada ends up letting America take the lead for them. And then later on once all is said and done America revels in his big parties and whatnot because the attention is on him, and it won't heal the hrut of England just leaving all the time but it sorta helps. (Canada doesn't count they're basically joined at the hip it's not the same).

and if you compare it to like the Italies for example. Austria was still there to watch over Italy North even though he really went for the uh. Less optimal route. But he was till there, in his own way. Prussia definitely wasn't going to leave HRE and later Germany alone unless he absolutely had to. Spain didn't jsut go gallivanting around when Romano was there (no comment onhis other former colonies). Ofc you could make an argument for Iceland, but by the time Norway took over he'd been alone mostly for 300 years, and even if Norway and Denmark didn't exactly visit all the time because i headcanon Iceland stayed happily on his island 90% of the time like Aland and Faroe Islands to avoid the drama called "four nordics pretending they could get along under one roof when they definitely are not good rooommate compatable", I doubt he was entirely without parental guidance. Norway could always sense him (so themoment anything bighappened Norway would be marching right over), and Iceland mentions sending letters out. I'm jsut gonna guess he sent the letters via Mr. Puffin, and I'd guess Mr. Puffin could always deliver some words if needed from overseas. Iceland also apparantly has fairies at his house so there's that too. Not thet he'd admit it.

But if you notice, it's def circumstance that gives some character which is cool when we're talkign about stereotype-based characters. Ameriica becomes loud and "ignores" the room when he's given the stage, because if he outrages everyone then he'll get attention. Italy N.. had everythig taken care of for him and has few worries, and a pretty good work ethic since Austria isn't a slacker. Roomano is a spoiled brat. Iceland....honestly boy just needs to accept the others rubbed off on him and he's just as kooky as the rest of them. I know you're a teen and all but kid c'mon you love them mystical animals and you keep bringing up your weird museums XD (I swear this child got Norway's anti-socialness, Sweden's inability to admit things (in his case, he actually likes hanging out with the others), Finland's oddness, and Denmark's everythign else because we all know Norway probably saw Iceland at last and had a crisis over it, man knows when Iceland appears but can't get around to taking the ruling for how many years????

And then there's New Zeeland, who had to raise Austrailia when NZ was also pretty young. NZ doesn't even have the hope of hep fro manyone- America and Canada i'm pretty sure still had visitors from like France and I think the Netherlands would have popped by a few times, because they did do a bit of um. Trading. with the colonies and stuff. Austrialia used to be on the other hand where they sent English prisoners. New Zealand is not ready for that kind of craziness, and so of course we're gonna get a free range crazy Austrailia and a done with it New Zealand who got no help and probabl ygot even less parental support then America. BTW it's crazy that technically GB still techncialy rules over so many big places like Canada and Austrailia even though they also technicall ydon't like that's just so wild.

so what have we learend from this? England sucks as a dad, and Iceland's teen rebel phase is in full swing. WHat was the poitn of this? I don't know but you read it and i wrote it so.....

ima sleep i forgot the poitn already lol

[eggburtisme]

This is not a website com .com codes/ what i found

so, for the website after the countdown finally ended, you're met with a computor made by mcgucket. Awaiting a code.

There are already many known codes, not only through discord, but also reddit, tiktok, and other social media platforms.

I'm going to list as many as I can find so many people can get as much content as possible, I will also explain/ show what occurs for most codes if people cannot (for some reason) access the website itself.)

I'm going to start with some that you might not think of right away.

GIFFANY

typing "giffany" will give nothing but 2 sentances. stating that there are procotions to keep AI off this device. (Also proving that giffany is 'gone')

MASON

Because of his nickname being what he prefers, Dippers real name wouldn't be the first thing anyone thinks of.

But typing it in gives this note written by Dipper himself

I feel like 'solving' the anagrams could be done easily for anyone, so I will not tell. (Just for fun)

WEIRD

Picture not provided, because what is given is in a video format.

If you use 'weird' as a code you will get a video from weird al' pretty much being... himself.

ALEX

Sends you to a tab searching for flannels

STAN/ STANLEY (multiple times)

Looking up Stans name is easy enough, but if you look it up multiple time,( you wont only get multiple ebay listings) you will get a 'letter' called 'THE WHEEL OF SHAME'

Many things can be speculated here, but once again. I'm just here to show everything.

YES or NO

'yes' will give a... question.It caught me off guard personally. Just says 'what's mcguckets favorite soday?'

But, no is more a responce to when Bill was asking you to join him

Other things like 'rizz' or 'matpat' are like the others. 'rizz' is just Bill(?) saying he's going to pour acid on you, and 'matpat' will show a video of Matpat himself telling us how we will have to solve this ourselves.

Now, I want to look at the surroundings before I continue (Because I'm very tired and clicking on my laptop screen is easier than having to guess random things)

clicking on-top of the computor will show this letter, from the man himself. (Mcgucket)

the knife

The 'BoB' itself

Glass bottle

Golden tooth

computor nob (will just get static)

I have heard from others they heard voices talking to them, after multiple trys however, I didn't hear anything.

DISCO GIRL/ BABBA

Both codes with have the audio of Dipper singing disco girl. This audio clip has been on youtube for awhile.

(Not the full song is played though.)

Now, I'll make a list of all (obvious) codes

DIPPER

STANLEY/ STAN- sends you to multiple ebay listings for things stan is known to have/ like

Like i mentioned before, inputing stans name multiple times will give you the wheel of shame.

STANFORD/ FORD/ SIXER- You'll receive a medical record talking about Fords Polydactyly and how smart he is.

We could have finally known is age, but noooooooo. Thanks Alex.

BILL- send you to another youtube video. this one being a sesame street video/ song

BILL CIPHER- I originally thought that 'Bill' and 'Bill Cipher' would be the same, but 'Bill Cipher' actually brings you to a wikipedia page.

MABEL- press the button multiple times and you'll get stickers around the room!

SOOS- You get a VERY long message from the one and only!

Notes like his are probably scrapped pages for the end of the BoB

GIDEON- a link to sweat resistant bolo ties

ROBBIE- I realllllyyyy like thi one. It's a chatlog between Robbie and Thompson, and their plans to summon Bill.

Bill's a freak

OK SO, I took a break for the past couple hours and learnt more things. But since this post is allll over the place I'll make another post. (About Bills questionair)

Thank you so much for reading!!!

[egotankart]

Attention All JSE ARTISTS AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS!!

Hello everyone taday I’ll be talkin’ about the odd behaviour I and my husband have encountered with a user by the name of Cassidy Brody (@/Chasetine100) on Twitter. Ye might also know her by Chasetine24 on other platforms such as Reddit, Wattpad or from her TikTok (@/roslynpettay2). I have yet ta see if they’re here on Tumblr.

I had originally followed them back on Twitter when I noticed they followed my husband but quickly felt awkward once I read their former bio which read, “Daughter of Chase Brody” now I know what some might think, “But aren’t you a role play account?” I was key word was a role play account

and all my fellow role play followers understood when I stopped role playin’ they also understood I am a Chase alter so never pushed me inta tryin’ ta role play again. Chasetine has tried pushin’ my husband inta doin’ role plays when he has specified on multiple occasions that

he only role plays with me it’s a boundary most people have respected (For those that have respected it thanks). Then there’s the whole situation where I posted an edit from my system’s tiktok on ta my twitter (@/ChaseBrodyTwt) and she asked fer the link which I didn’t think much about because I thought she just might have wanted ta like the video she did but she also took my edit chopped it up placin’ the entirety of my edit inside of her own edit without even creditin’.

(Below is my edit and a screenshot of the edit she made that contains my edit within it all chopped up)

Ta add ta this if ye watch her edit ye will see clear parts of my edit bein’ used and if ye scroll through her account some more ye might find very talented JSE artists works being used without credit ta their rightful owners and I highly doubt with permission.

Further more she also left a strange comment below another one of the videos on my system’s TikTok. It made most the Chases with in my system feel creeped the feck out.

She was repeatedly told ta stop by both me and my husband (@/Schneepletwt) ta stop buggin’ us with her strange behaviour but she only seemed ta become more obsessed with the both of us as she then obsessively reposted every tweet we ever sent.

In conclusion be very aware I don:t want anyone else’s shite being taken, anyone else gettin’ harrassed or even stalked by this creep.

[twinuchiha]

Okay. Those who know me know that I’m not the type of person that likes to make serious posts. But this situation has been on my radar since Wednesday, and has turned into borderline harassment.

This is a warning to be wary of the Naruto anon rpers.

This is not a call to attack anyone. This is not a call to harass anyone. This is a warning. Trigger Warning: Harrasment, Death threats, SA threats, Stalking and Abuse will be mentioned under the cut. If you can not handle these topics, feel free to not click read more. However, it would be appreciated if you relogged this post to spread awareness.

Some people may already be aware that I used to interact with this group, and be on friendly terms with Sasukeanon, but not anymore. I have blocked most of them, and they may have already blocked me as well by now. Honestly? I'm just disappointed. So around January 30th, someone sent a hate post to Hidan anon mentioning a few of their fellow blogs. Understandable, they mentioned Kisame anon to ask them what was going on, as they have also recently been getting hate.

They're trying to figure out who this possibly could be, but then out of nowhere, Orochimaru's anon says this:

To which??? Okay, some people just type similar to each other? I've seen it happen. Anyway, when Kisame tries to explain that they've had problems with people in the past and listing off who it could have been, Sasuke comes in with this:

How they came to this conclusion, I don't know. But they then suddenly start going on a tirade and start making threats.

This took me off guard. I knew Sasuke could be harsh in some of their posts, which made me uncomfortable, but this was the first time I've seen them jump to death threats. This is no way to talk to someone. Especially when you have no evidence against. And don't have any evidence, because all you have done is claim things, never show proof, and then harass Kisame further (along with your friends) when they were trying to prove their innocence to everyone. Even in posts that had nothing to do with any of you!

(Note that Sasuke's mod was handling Hidan's blog at the time of this)

You keep saying that Kisame has been sending death threats and SA threats yet show no proof to back up your claims when someone confronts you on it. Instead, insult them. And type in all caps to try and be intimidating.

These were in response to cherrypiesakurokun's posts on the matter, as like me they have also been talking to Kisame about what has been happening. The top one was after the Naruto anon blog added them in a callout and basically implied they were a death threats/SA threat defender. All because what? They tried to be supportive and wanted everyone to make up? I agree that they probably shouldn't have jumped in, but that's not fair.

The blog you claim that is Kisame's main isn't even her main. This is her main. She linked me her Reddit account to prove this.

Do these blogs look remotely the same??? The threats you claim were sent by Kisame to herself hold critical information that held her real name and where she lives. Why would someone do to themselves, risk doxing themselves? It doesn't make any sense. She's sent me proof of that as well, but I will not be showing them here because that is private information. Kisame told me that she gave you her discord, you could have asked her what was going on. But you never did. You just jumped to conclusions.

When I asked Kisame about the threats that were being, her conclusion was that it was from her stalker ex boyfriend, who's she's been gathering evidence of for doing the same behaviour. She's informed me that she's currently trying to get a restraining order. I've been given permission to show these screenshots.

Congratulations on harassing a victim of stalking and abuse. But if that wasn't vile enough, the night Kisame's mother was taken to the hospital, and they explained they'd be offline because of it, Sasuke, still using Hidan's blog, said this:

This was vile. Fucking vile, and was the straw that broke the camels back for me. I blocked as many of the blogs I could. Like I said, I'm disappointed. Sad, even. Sasuke was one of the first blogs who'd interacted with me, and i thought they were nice. It seemed like I was wrong though. As I mentioned before, this isn't an attack. This is simply to warn others about the kind of people they will be interacting with should they come across the anon group.

[cainemur]

Silly little Shinji action figure I did a deep dive on

so, I really like action figures right, and yk, being the NGE fan I am I desperately tried searching for a Shinji action figure, or at the very least a Kaworu one, especially with how Rei, Asuka, and Mari seemed to have a few themselves (figma, etc)

(Btw I must mention I do not mention Real Action Heros here. Because I don’t like them, I think the Shinji ones have a weird face sculpt and the weird latex fabric stuff is bound to rip in due time)

Anyway, I’m searching on Google one day, and I randomly come across a Reddit post, also asking about Shinji action figures, and with it came an edited note to a link to a website called WorthPoint. The images, though a little blurry, are Shinji action figures. I was so excited when I saw this, I was just itching to know where it came from and where I can get it.

(the image above being the first image I had seen of it, while the joints looked a little ugly I was hoping for anything at all)

this is the WorthPoint link. I started constantly reverse image searching these images in the listing to find anything about it, anything at all, I so desperately wanted this silly little figure because I love Shinji so much.

then, I came across a tumblr page, though not much, it did share an image of what appeared to be an official poster for this action figure (along with what appeared to be three others of Kaworu, Rei, and Asuka!), I was so excited, again it was a little blurry but I felt like I was getting closer and closer to finding this fig.

(Image from the page I linked)

but, afterwards I felt like I was kind of hitting a dead end with this, up until now I had only payed attention to “figma” in the original link, which these aren’t. It’s probably why I had some trouble locating it to begin with. I kept going back to WorthPoint and trying to see what else I might be able to find, reverse image searching, etc etc, until I started noticing a lot of this “customa-p” along with the figure, now I had never heard of Customa-p before so naturally I started to look it up on sites like myfigurecollection.net, and lo and behold, there it was.

Shinji Customa-p by Volks , a garage kit action figure

I was ecstatic, but I wasn’t done, I wanted to find out how to get it and up until now I had little clues for that. I noticed in the comments there were quite a few people also wondering how to get him, and scrolling all the way to the bottom I saw a user by the name of kkat, I don’t know what compelled me to click on their profile but I’m glad I did. I scrolled through to see if they had the figure, and to my shock they had all four—Shinji, Kaworu, Rei, and Asuka—I was so happy. Not only did they have them, but they talked about what it took to paint them in an article, I read through all of it and the comments.

From what the comments said, keeping an eye on mercari japan would be your best bet, so far I’ve only seen the pre painted Asuka and Rei up for sale on the site, still trying to see if a Shinji pops up every so often but I haven’t had much luck.

worst of all, I emailed Volks and they couldn’t even tell me much because of the age of the product, they claimed they rarely ever do re-runs of their lines (like Customa-p), I felt really disappointed I wouldn’t be able to get Shinji, but glad I got some of the answers I wanted. It’s a really nice figure, and I’d love to get it. Hopefully this helps anyone else who might be on a search for it.

extra links:

kkat’s myfigurecollection profile

”Putting Together Ikari Shinji and Nagisa Kaworu Customa-P Kits” by kkat