#i watch it on youtube though and leave it in the background most of the time i promise i do other things with my life 🤫

[infinity-on-ri]

IM SORRY YOU'RE ON SEASON 10??? ITS BEEN LESS THAN A WEEK

DUDE ITS BEEN LESS THAN A WEEK SINCE IVE STARTED RVB AS A WHOLE, IVE BEEN CONSUMED BY THIS SHOW 🙏

[madintersexmermaid]

Last night I watched a video on YouTube explaining the full entire history of Emily Armstrong, her background of being born into Scientology and being raised in that cult against her will, then escaping yet having to stay silent and under the radar about her experiences due to Scientology's notorious methods of stalking, threatening, censoring and silencing anyone that dares to openly speak out against the cult and expose the truth of the horrors that go on behind closed doors and how Emily finding her way into becoming the new lead singer of Linkin Park is not just a new career opportunity but also a safe haven. And having watched that video, it gave me better clarification of Emily, her life and the entire situation, and now with that I have to hold myself accountable and apologize for impulsively prejudging and misjudging Emily and her situation, and for engaging with biased YouTubers and Twitter thread outrage baitors that didn't tell the full story. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions about Emily and her story especially in the greater context of why she didn't--or, rather, couldn't--talk openly about her experiences in being indoctrinated in the Scientology cult; I mean, like I said, this cult literally uses spies and people with high ranking in the cult to stalk, follow, watch, spy on, scare, threaten, intimidate and silence people that even so much leave that awful horrible cult. And there's no telling how many times Emily's had to face those exact abuse and intimidation tactics--which now, for me, gives more of a different context as to why Emily talked about being asked to defend Danny Masterson, as she very well was possibly pressured and coerced--and what she's seen and been through during her time in Scientology. And so for Emily to make the hard decision to walk away and stay away even while enduring constant harassment is the bravest and gutsiest thing to do, and it makes me have so much more empathy, understanding and respect for her (and extra emphasis on empathy for Emily as I myself am unpacking my own religious trauma and cult trauma from having grown up in and been exposed to cult brainwashing and indoctrination via right wing conservatism, legalism, antisemitic blood libel conspiracist ideology and zionist cult propaganda and my ongoing journey in deprogramming from all of it, processing my trauma and exposing and speaking out against right wing conservatism and zionism. Even though it's not on the same scale as Emily's situation, I do empathize with her).

So I have to take the L and apologize to Emily, and I also want to apologize to Mike Shinoda for prejudging him and his reasons for taking Emily under his wing. Just as Emily deciding to walk away from the Scientology cult was the bravest thing for her to do, Mike and the rest of the band taking Emily in as one of their own to give her safe haven as well as encouragement to find her voice and eventually build the courage to speak more openly about her experiences and speak out against the cult, even in the face of heavy criticism from fans for associating with her and threats from the cult for exposing the truth, is also one of the most courageous things to do and it in turn makes me have even more respect for Mike and the rest of Linkin Park.

I hope Emily, Mike and everyone stays safe.

[kevinsdsy]

THE TROJANS SOCIAL MEDIA AU HEADCANONS pt. 2

jean moreau & shawn anderson dynamic

jean properly likes having shawn around. although he keeps telling shawn to fuck off. and to leave him alone. and to shut up. he doesn't actually mean it (most of the time).

and shawn knows this too. and what’s so great about shawn is he knows to set boundaries even though jean has never asked him to do so, but when jean seems even more quiet than he usual is, shawn takes a step back.

shawn notices when they're in a group environment jean is keeping more to himself and staying in the background where he can watch the group instead and shawn lets him without trying to put too much attention towards jean.

ananya deshmukh

ananya is a youtuber. idek why i made this a thing. i just love girls vlogging and blogging and i want her to be an it-girl like.

haoyu liu & travis jordan

look i'm going to be really honest. i forgot they were mentioned in the books for the longest time and then i did some stalking and was like ohh they exist too so i made their accounts on the same day and now they're dating each other in my mind

shane reed

OKAYY SO hear me out shane has not yet be mentioned in the au. but i’m posting this now for his introduction in today’s upcoming part. i was going through the book and noticed i missed his appearance when starting out the au which is CRAZY because he's mentioned quite a few times when the foxes vs trojans game is happening.

BUT I DECIDED TO ADD HIM AND I HAVE A FEW THINGS IN MIND FOR HIM (i want to give him shawn anderson treatment LMAO) but his character would be connected to kevin and it might be weird to have a canon x canon ship that's build on shit and giggles

but now that i think of it, is that literally not what jerejean used to be anyways??? SO LET ME TALK MY SHIT!!!!!!!!

with the summer olympics socmed au coming and having the foxes and trojans in one place i want to have them flirting with each other

like one day they barely know each other and the next day people are like ...wait?? what's going on here.

and not many of the trojans even know about the sexuality of either one of the guys so they all have to go and be like WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN

and i just think i can have a lot of fun with that LMAOO but maybe i'll decide to not even do it we'll see

angela "angie" lewis

angie, god bless her, has to put up with shawn during media training

angie pretends to be so sick and tired of shawn but she actually absolutely adores him

i was talking about them with @amberlouigi and i told them how i think when shawn graduates she will always mention him and be like "you guys be better! you will never believe, but i had to put up with shawn and he said..."

if shawn ever becomes pro he will be an ABSOLUTE menace to society/press/social media @amberlouigi said they think angie would get a call/message from his pro team asking if she wants a job. and angie decides to take it.

shawn will not necessarily stop his behaviour, but he respects and loves angie enough to cut back a bit on his behaviour so he can prove to everyone how well of a job she's doing.

i truly wish i had added angie to the socmed au before and added more of their dynamic together :((

bonus: kevin day

KEVIN DAY IS BISEXUAL !!!!!!!!! i think in canon he would have a lot of feelings to deal with and to unpack this but in the au he knows this about himself and he doesn't really care. he keeps it hidden from the press & media tho

[futurehunt]

"You're not the person I want to explain myself to." -Eris Vanserra and his hidden motives

The story of Eris Vanserra haunts me. At this point, most of the characters in ACOTAR are an open book in terms of their backgrounds but Eris's is still so shrouded in mystery and I have to know more. Consider this the inspiration for my following lengthy analysis of all the Eris Vanserra scenes we've been given. Additional inspiration being this clip of SJM from a since deleted live stream on Instagram (still available on YouTube) :

Love that SJM says that Eris is her favorite Autumn Court character but more importantly she spills a little detail about Eris having a secret history and a secret motivation behind his character. I think most readers assumed by now that Eris is primed for a redemption arc but this simply could've been reserved to him making amends for leaving Mor injured in the woods. No, this is something more than that- something significant that affected his actions back then and is still influencing them now.

Let's start breaking everything down:

Everything starts with: Eris found and left Mor in the woods at the Autumn Court border after she was tortured dumped there by her father, Keir.

Why did he do this?

“I knew why you did it... So I gave you your freedom, ending the betrothal in no uncertain terms" - Eris in ACOWAR

After Mor slept with Cassian, Eris knew Mor did it because she wanted out of the engagement (for a secret reason- on her end- that we'll touch on in a bit) so he ended the betrothal as she wished.

But why did Eris leave her there, injured with fatal wounds? This is still the biggest point of hostility between him and the IC.

"There were forces at work that you have never considered," Eris said coldly. "And I am not going to waste my breath explaining them to you. Believe what you want about me" - ACOWAR

What are these forces?

We're given an answer to this question during a scene in ACOFAS when Mor is recalling the memory of that day at the Autumn Court border.

“No one touches her,” he said. Eris. “The moment we do, she’s our responsibility.” Cold, unfeeling words. “But—but they nailed a—” “No one touches her.” - ACOFAS

If Eris or his men provided aid to Mor she would've become their responsibility, implying that she would've become a ward of the Autumn Court essentially. This is probably why Keir even dumped her on the border in the first place, because he knew that if the Autumn Court provided her aid they would have to assume responsibility for her. It was created as a lose-lose situation for Mor: get help from Eris and be trapped at the Autumn Court or be refused help and left to suffer and potentially die in the woods.

“I take it you do not wish to live here, Morrigan.” She would rather die here, bleed out here. She would rather die and return—return as something wicked and cruel, and shred them all apart. He must have read it in her eyes. A small smile curved his lips. “I thought so.” -ACOFAS

He knew she'd rather die than live there so he acted according to her wishes, even though it was done cruelly. This scene, which we're given from Mor's perspective, shows that she heard the true reason why Eris refused to provide her aid but because of the trauma of the whole situation she likely never put two and two together.

But the situation is a bit more complex than that. There is more to the reason that Eris left her in the woods to have her freedom.

“Eris nodded to where Mor watched them from beside Feyre and Rhys, her face neutral and aloof. “She knows the truth but has never revealed it." “Why?” “Because she is afraid of it.” - ACOSF; dance scene between Nesta and Eris

Eris knows something about Mor that she's afraid to reveal. What's the only fact we know about Mor that she's been hiding her entire life? That she's queer. It seems somehow Eris was aware of this.

“Eris looked between them, smiling faintly. Secretly. As if he knew something that Azriel didn’t. "I knew why you did it" Again that secret smile that had Mor shrinking." -ACOWAR

Later on in ACOWAR, we find out the big secret Mor is hiding is that she's romantically attracted to females. Alright, so somehow Eris knew Mor was queer back when they were betrothed. It seems that this was part of the reason he left her to her freedom.

Despite the cruel nature he's described to have, Eris keeps the knowledge that Mor is queer to himself. Eris left Mor in the woods because he knew she wanted her freedom and the reason she wanted her freedom was because she is queer. Out of some uncharacteristic kindness, Eris won't share this information with the rest of the IC because he seems to not want to out her because he knows she's afraid of the truth. Refer to the quote between Eris and Nesta above for proof of this.

But what are Eris's own secret motivations in all of this?

“So I gave you your freedom, ending the betrothal in no uncertain terms.”

“And what happened next,” Azriel growled.

A shadow crossed Eris’s face. “There are few things I regret. That is one of them. But … perhaps one day, now that we are allies, I shall tell you why. What it cost me.”

This is such an important line and one that if you don't dissect it properly, you won't understand it's real meaning.

"What it cost me". The cost that Eris is referring to is one that he suffered as a result of leaving Mor unaided in the woods. NOT from breaking the engagement, from leaving her. "The cost" is something that would've been unaffected by breaking the engagement (because Eris has no remorse over that) but affected by abandoning an injured Mor (because this is what Eris labels as one of the few things he regrets). Mor being left in the woods was, in the grand scheme of things, inconsequential for the rest of Prythian. The only people negatively affected by it were Mor and the rest of the IC.

"Perhaps one day... I shall tell you why" when Eris says this, he means: perhaps one day he'll them why he regrets it, NOT why he did it. It's important to read this quote in the context of its surrounding passages because you'll see that he had an opportunity to explain why he left her but he instead tells Mor he's not going to "waste his breath explaining it to her."

So after breaking down those lines we know: Eris regrets abandoning Mor because of something it cost him in relation to the IC now hating him after the events at the border but "the cost" is something he's hesitant to reveal to them.

For the sake of the analysis, let's go over a few things we know Eris does canonically care about and why they are not the cost he's referring to:

His father's throne: It's not secret that Eris wants to usurp his father. Feyre even notes how startled she was to hear Eris discuss killing his father so blatantly. Also, if the marriage to Mor would've aided Eris in taking the throne then Eris would've expressed remorse at ending the engagement but he didn't. He only regretted leaving her injured.

His mother, Lady of Autumn: The text shows us that Eris is concerned over the welfare of this mother when he angles his body to protect her during the High Lord meeting scene. However at the time of Eris's betrothal to Mor, his mother wasn't miserable in her marriage the way she's described now. It wasn't until LoA's affair with Helion was revealed, which happened decades after the Eris and Mor situation, that Beron began abusing his wife. Of course, Eris undoubtedly wants his father dead because of this but we know it's not "the cost" that Eris references since it wasn't a factor at the time.

“Helion shrugged. “On and off for decades. Until Beron found out. They say the lady was all brightness and smiles before that. And after Beron was through with her. You saw what she is.” “What did he do to her?” “The same things he does now.” Helion waved a hand. “Belittle her, leave bruises where no one but him will see them.” - ACOWAR

Lucien: Eris has a soft spot for Lucien but he wasn't born for decades after everything happened so he can't be a factor in why Eris regrets his actions.

His father tortures him: It's revealed at the end of ACOSF that Beron tortures Eris after Cassian realizes Eris is injured after returning back from Autumn. We're not told how long it's been occurring and Eris is extremely reluctant to speak on the matter. However, if this was the big secret Eris has been hiding there'd be a bit more emphasis placed on the reveal. In fact, Cassian pushes him again after that to tell him the true reason he left Mor on the border (keep in mind Cassian doesn't know Mor is queer and Eris is refusing to reveal that information to others) and asks Eris for the real reason he's back the Night Court trying to make amends.

Why is Eris back at the Night Court after everything that happened, pushing so hard to build an alliance?

When pushed for the truth, Eris tells Cassian:

"You're not the person I want to explain myself to" - ACOSF

Cassian assumes Eris means Mor and tells him she won't want to hear his explanations anyway. But is Mor really the person Eris was referencing. I think not, given we've been given these lines:

Eris nodded to where Mor watched them from beside Feyre and Rhys, her face neutral and aloof. “She knows the truth but has never revealed it." -ACOSF

"There were forces at work that you have never considered," Eris said coldly. "And I am not going to waste my breath explaining them to you. Believe what you want about me"- ACOWAR

Eris says that Mor already knows the truth and has explicitly said he doesn't care what she thinks about him. He has nothing to explain to her. And aside from those two facts, which already make it clear enough that Mor is not the person Eris meant, what more would Eris gain from speaking to Mor? Assuaging his guilt? That could be a reasonable explanation if it weren't for Cassian already asking Eris if guilt is what was motivating him, Cassian realizing it's not and pushing for Eris to "give me a damn answer".

"You're not the person I want to explain myself to"

So, who in the IC does Eris want to explain himself to?

Mor? No, for reasons stated above

Cassian? No, they're speaking in that scene and if Cassian were the person then Eris wouldn't have said that

Feyre? Nesta? Elain? Weren't alive so aren't applicable

Lucien? Wasn't alive during the incident and is thus unaffected

Rhysand? We're told in ACOSF (Chapter 7) that Eris already has Rhysand's trust and allyship

Amren? I guess I can't necessarily eliminate Amren as the person Eris wants to explain himself to but let's be real, it's not her.

Azriel? Hmm....The person who arguably hates Eris more than even Mor herself. Who has such a burning passionate rage towards Eris that he attacked him during a High Lord meeting, yet also dropped everything to fly to the Continent to save Eris when he was abducted by Koschei.

Conclusion and remaining questions

Let's put everything together:

Eris is back at the Night Court attempting to smooth things over, make amends, and build an allyship. On the surface, we're told it's all because he wants the throne. But what we now know from SJM (in her interview) and our textual analysis is that Eris paid a big, deeply personal price due to the fall out of leaving Mor injured at the Autumn Court border. This cost was directly tied to the IC's perception of him. Eris lost something or the chance at something when the Night Court began to hate him. So he's back, 500-ish years later, attempting to make amends because of the same problem that plagued him all those centuries ago. We also know there's only one person he's interested in explaining himself to- and that person interestingly seems to be Azriel. Why would Eris want to explain himself to Azriel? Why go to these lengths to make amends with him? Was "the cost" Eris paid 500 years ago tied to Azriel?Is this all tied to Eris's "secret history and secret motivations" that SJM referenced? Crack theory time: What if Eris and Azriel are mates? If they are, it would seem maybe Eris knows about it but Azriel isn't consciously aware? It could explain Azriel's extreme and passionate reactions to Eris. What if when Eris became an enemy of the Night Court he lost his chance at having a connection to his mate. It would also explain why Eris is so tight lipped about his secret motivations. We know that Beron tortures Eris as he is now, imagine what he would do to Eris if he found out he was queer. If Eris is queer it would also explain his empathy to Mor and his reluctance to tell her truth to other people. This could also explain why Azriel is the one person Eris wants to explain himself to, because Azriel is the only person whose opinion he cares about. AND this would also provide an answer to the great "Azriel mate debate". I know Gwynriel is a popular theory but the text has not given us any indication that they are (yes, bonus chapter included) and Azriel had never displayed any mate-like behavior around her. Eris and Azriel also provide interesting foils to one another: flame and shadow- which is a theme that's mentioned in both of SJM's other series. We also know how much SJM loves her enemies to lovers.

"There was an icy rage in Azriel I'd never been able to thaw" -Rhysand in ACOMAF

Azriel is routinely described as icy and frozen, physically and emotionally. What better to thaw ice than fire!

If you read this far- thank you and ily.

Feel free to let me know if you have any critiques to my reasoning!

[jimpagne]

Would it be possible for you to make a post talking about/explaining batchim? I watched two videos about it on YouTube but I was still really confused… I found your explanations (and guide in general) very helpful and interesting so I was thinking you could make a post that was clear and understanding.

Hi anon, sorry it took me like... *checks calendar* ... three weeks to answer this... I got a little busy. Maybe very busy. Oh well.

But oh boy, yes, I remember the days of having to learn batchim... Well, if I'm being entirely honest, in my Korean classes my professors actually never touched on the topic besides some of the most basic forms. They just hoped that we would pick it up by ourselves through listening and reading practices.

And in a way, that's exactly what happened.

However, I do know it's pretty hard for someone just starting out, especially if you've only just learned Hangul. I will keep it real with you: don't view batchim as some type of roadblock or something that stands in the way of you progressing with your learning. With enough practice, you'll begin to pick up on these changes and eventually integrate them fully with your speaking skills.

Despite this, I will explain batchim as best as I can, and I will do it from a more linguistic type of view, since I actually study linguistics/phonetics (한국어로 '언어학' & '음성학')! A lot of sources will try to explain batchim in its most simplest form, but I'll try to get a bit more technical with it, but hopefully not in a way that is confusing.

Alright, let's begin!

받침 BATCHIM OVERVIEW

Batchim, in the most simplest terms, is the final consonant at the bottom of a Korean syllable block. However, depending on which consonant it is and which sound proceeds it, can have a pretty big impact as to how its pronounced.

I know everyone (including me) goes on and on about just how perfect the Korean writing system is, and how it's phonetically consistent -- until it's not. But we try not to scare Korean learners away from learning the language, and to be fair, even though batchim can be confusing, it is still way easier than English orthography (writing).

Intervocalic Forms: Voicing

Okay, before I actually dive into the more complex batchim forms, I'm actually going to start off with something that is not batchim. Wow. I know, this is a little inconsistent.

But anyways, have you ever looked at a Korean Hangul chart and asked yourself: why can the ㄷ, ㅂ, ㄱ all be read as both a d & t, a b & p, and a g & k? Many might answer this question with a simple, "because Korean sounds are not like English sounds", which yes, but also because these characters can be read like voiceless and voiced variants depending where they are in a sentence.

For a bit of background, in linguistics, we classify consonant forms as "voiced" or "voiceless". All vowels are voiced sounds, so they don't have a voiceless classification. Basically, to make it as simple as possible, this just means that some sounds produce more buzzing in the throat, whereas others do not. I think the best way for me to really show this to you is for you to say "s" and then for you to say "z"... you feel that difference, right? That's voicing. B, G, D are all voiced, whereas P, K, T are not.

So to try to sum this up: vowels are voiced, liquids (r & l ㄹ) are voiced, nasals (m ㅁ, n ㄴ, ng ㅇ) are voiced.

In Korean, you can have words where one character can be read as both its voiced and voiceless variant. How do you know when to voice versus when to leave it voiceless? Intervocalic positioning.

Intervocalic, in this case, basically just means between voiced sounds.

Let's take the word "idiot" in Korean. 바보. Notice that when you said this word, the first sound in 바 is more like a p, right? And then the second sound in 보 is more like a b, right? That's because the ㅂ in 보 is sandwiched between two voiced vowel sounds, ㅏ & ㅗ.

Other words where this trend is apparent:

바다: pa-da; ocean

아버지: a-beo-ji; father

예쁜 구름: ye-ppeun gu-reum; pretty cloud(s) Again, the ㄱ in this one is read like a g because it comes after a nasal (m, n, & ng), and a vowel, and nasals & vowels are voiced.

You don't need to memorize/learn any of this linguistic mumbo jumbo, but it's just a way of showcasing a pattern that many people learning Korean might have not noticed. You don't need to hyperfixate or constantly look out to see which characters are sandwiched between which characters... because that would be exhausting. A lot of this voicing occurs because it's just more natural to the human articulators to pronounce it that way, so you might just end up doing it without thinking. I just thought I might answer that quick question that some people might've had about Hangul.

But anyways, isn't that cool?! It's cool to me. The linguistics student.

Coda Neutralization

I know, that's kind of a scary linguistic term. Coda. In the simplest words, it's just a term that means the final sound in a syllable. Like the batchim. But in this case, Korean has a lot of batchims that when they are the final sound and not followed by an additional vowel (again, they're the coda), then their sound will neutralize/sound the same as other consonant sounds.

The first rule you should know is that if the sound is aspirated (ㅋ, ㅌ,ㅊ, ㅍ) or doubled/tensed (ㄸ, ㅆ, ㅉ, ㅃ, ㄲ) in the batchim, if it is by itself and does not connect to a vowel, it will unaspirate/untense.

EX) 있 -> 잇, 밖 -> 박, 엌 -> 억, 밭 -> 받, 빛 -> 빚 etc...

The 'T' Variant

Many consonants in the Korean batchim will come out sounding like a 't' if there is no vowel to follow them.

ㅅ

ㄷ

ㅈ

ㅎ

So, words like 곧 (soon, immediately) will sound like got. 빛 (light) will sound like bit, and not bich. Remember, ㅊ had to unaspirate first as well.

The Normies

These are the batchims that are more loyal to their sounds, and will only undergo the aforementioned unaspirating and untensing.

ㅂ

ㄱ

ㅁ, ㄴ, ㄹ don't have tensed/aspirated forms, so they're just chilling fr.

But like I said multiple times, this is only if there is no vowel sound to carry over the batchim sound. If there is a vowel, the sounds will be pronounced as normal.

Like 있다, when added to ~어요, the ㅆ will undergo resyllabification and will be read as i-sseo-yo (있어요).

Cultural notes: Sometimes Koreans will pronounce the batchim as its original sound for comedic effect. I've heard Jimin do this a lot with the ~ㅅ/ㅆ batchim.

Tensification

This section will focus on ㄷ, ㅂ, ㄱ, ㅈ, ㅅ and their tensed/doubled variants ㄸ, ㅃ, ㄲ, ㅉ, ㅆ. Basically the rule goes that if a non-tensed consonant that has the ability to be doubled/tensed is in the batchim, and it comes into contact with another consonant that has the ability to be doubled/tensed, the latter consonant will be doubled/tensed.

Kind of a wordy explanation, but let me try to clarify it.

Take the word 식당 'restaurant' for example, the ㄱ is in the batchim and the consonant that proceeds it is a ㄷ. Both of these sounds have tensed variants. So instead of reading this like sik-dang, you would read it more like sik-ddang. The latter consonant of ㄷ has been doubled into a ㄸ.

학교; school: hak-kyo -> hak-kkyo

먹방 mukbang, (taken from the verb 먹다 [to eat] and the noun 방송 [broadcast/stream]); muk-bang -> muk-bbang

낮잠; nap (낮 day, 잠 sleep): nat-jam -> nat-jjam

있다; to have, to exist: it-da -> it-dda

Nasalization

The process of nasalization occurs when a stop consonant (p ㅂ, t ㄷ, k ㄱ) comes into contact with a nasal consonant (m ㅁ, n ㄴ, ng ㅇ). Though the 'ng' sound can't ever be a proceeding consonant since the 'ng' sound can only be voiced in the batchim, but you know...

I'll explain further.

This is BTS' wonderful MAKNAE LINE. The word maknae in Korean is spelled like 막내. As you can see, the batchim ㄱ (a stop consonant) is coming into contact with the nasal ㄴ sound.

So how will that impact the pronunciation of this word?

When the batchim ㄱ comes into contact with the proceeding ㄴ sound, the ㄱ sound transforms into an ㅇ sound. So instead of saying the word mak-nae with a prominent 'k' sound, you would say it more like mang-nae. The process of nasalization has just occurred!

Other Instances of ㄱ + ㄴ interactions:

학년; school year/grade: hak-nyeon -> hang-nyeon

먹는다; to eat (in the plain form): meok-neun-da -> meong-neun-da

ㄷ&ㅂ Interactions with Nasals

When a batchim ㄷ (and its other variants) comes into contact with a nasal, it assimilates and turns into a ㄴ sound.

받는다; to receive (in the plain form): bat-neun-da -> ban-neun-da

However, if the batchim ㅂ (and its variants) comes into contact with a nasal, they can take on an ㅁ sound. Also, remember, I taught coda neutralization first, because remember, the ㅅ turns into a 't' sound in the batchim if it is not followed by a vowel!

있는데; 있다 [to be] + ~는데 grammar form: it-neun-de -> in-neun-de

앞문; front door: ap-mun -> am-mun

~습니다; deferential conjugation form: seub-ni-da -> seum-ni-da

So, to sum it up, just remember this quick little chart.

ㄱ -> ㅇ ㄷ -> ㄴ ㅂ -> ㅁ

ㄹ Nasal Interactions

ㄹ is a bit of a special case; if nasals like ㅇ & ㅁ are in the batchim, or if ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ are in the batchim BEFORE a ㄹ, the ㄹ will change into a ㄴ sound.

심리; psychology: shim-ri -> shim-ni

통로; aisle: tong-ro -> tong-no

This makes a lot of sense! Just try saying tong-ro or shim-ri... it just feels a little uncomfortable, right?

Lateralization: Progressive & Regressive

Time for some more fun ㄹ forms! This particular form circles around ㄹ & ㄴ. I want you to think of these characters as siblings, and ㄹ is the older sibling, and ㄴ is the younger sibling that wants to copy everything that ㄹ does. Basically, if ㄹ and ㄴ are right next to each other, the ㄴ will turn itself into a ㄹ phonetically. Remember, these are still spelled the same way, but when spoken it just sounds different.

There are two instances in which this structure can occur, and it's formally known as progressive or regressive lateralization.

Progressive Lateralization: the ㄹ is in the batchim and turns the proceeding ㄴ into an ㄹ sound.

설날; Korean New Year: seol-nal -> seol-lal

실내; indoor: sil-nae -> sil-lae

Regressive Lateralization: the ㄴ is in the batchim and turns into a ㄹ upon connection to a proceeding ㄹ sound.

신라; Silla Dynasty: sin-ra -> sil-la

난로; stove: nan-ro -> nal-lo

Again, you don't really need to memorize these linguistic terms. As long as you know that ㄴ changes to a ㄹ if they're next to each other, that's good enough.

Palatalization

This will focus mainly on ㄷ and its aspirated (again, just meaning its just spoken with more air) variant ㅌ, and their interactions with 이. This form is quite easy and there's not really a lot of content that goes into this one. Basically, all you need to remember is...

When ㄷ is in the batchim and meets 이, the following sound that carries over will not be 디, but instead 지.

맏이; the eldest/firstborn (like Seokjin!): ma-di -> ma-ji

When ㅌ is in the batchim and meets 이, the following sound that carries over will not be 티, but instead 치.

같이; together: ka-ti -> ka-chi

Syncope (Deletion) & Fusion

This is primarily going to focus on the function of ㅎ, who has been up until this point pretty impartial toward most of the changes that we have covered. However, the ㅎ undergoes deletion and fusion when meeting certain vowel and consonant forms.

If ㅎ comes into contact with unaspirated stops (ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ) & affricates (ㅈ), it will aspirate them/carry an aspirated sound over. This can occur with ㅎ in the batchim, or if its proceeding one of these characters. This explanation might be confusing, so bear with me if you can.

DELETION: ㅎ in the batchim

A common process that ㅎ undergoes is having its sound "deleted" when proceeded by a vowel sound. ㅎ is a "weak" consonant, and therefore just falls silent, even going as far to be overpowered by other consonants in its double-batchim forms.

좋아요; it's good [좋다 to be good] + 아/어요 conjugation form: jo-ha-yo -> jo-a-yo

많이; a lot (adv.): man-hi -> ma-ni

괜찮아요; it's alright [괜찮다 to be alright] + 아/어요 conjugation form: gwen-chan-ha-yo -> gwen-cha-na-yo

As you can see, in both 괜찮아요 & 많이, they have the double batchim ㄶ, but in this case, the ㅎ is completely ignored in favor of the ㄴ.

FUSION: ㅎ in the batchim

This is when ㅎ comes before an unaspirated stop (ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ) or affricate sound (ㅈ). The ㅎ will turn its proceeding sound into its aspirated form (ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅊ, ㅍ).

좋다; to be good: joh-da -> jo-ta (조타)

넣다; to put/insert: neoh-da -> neo-ta (너타)

싫지만; 싫다 [to loathe/disagree] + ~지만 but: shil-ji-man -> shil-chi-man (실치만)

FUSION: Following Stops and Affricates

This is when ㅎ proceeds an unaspirated stop (ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ) or affricate (ㅈ) batchim. The ㅎ will carry over the sound from the batchim much like a vowel would, but it will carry its aspirated form (ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅊ, ㅍ).

막히다; to be blocked: mak-hi-da -> ma-ki-da (마키다)

입학; matriculation (entering a school): ib-hak -> i-pak (이팍)

축하하다; to congratulate/celebrate: chuk-ha-ha-da -> chu-ka-ha-da (추카하다)

When you sing Happy Birthday in Korean, the process of fusion takes place!

생일 축하합니다 생일 축하합니다 사랑하는 [이름] 씨 생일 축하합니다~🎵

Double Batchim Battle!

Well, we've reached the end of the road... for now, anyway. The reason why I decided to include this last is because this is something that'll just require memorization. I don't really have any cool hacks for you here, it's just something you'll have to manage to cram into your brain. So, let me make a WHO WILL WIN!!! type of guide for you. Again, this is in the case of reading it without a vowel for the other batchim to attach itself onto.

ㄱ WINS!

ㄳ - ㄱ ㄺ - ㄱ

ㅂ WINS!

ㅄ - ㅂ ㄼ - ㅂ

ㅁ WINS!

ㄻ - ㅁ

ㄴ WINS!

ㄵ - ㄴ ㄶ - ㄴ

ㄹ WINS!

ㄽ - ㄹ ㄾ - ㄹ ㅀ - ㄹ ㄿ - ㄹ

Alright, did you get all that? I hope so because I have no other way of explaining this.

The End ... ?

Congratulations, or 축하해요! You made it this far. If you managed to get through that without a headache, I applaud you. As I stated in the beginning, trying to memorize/learn all of this in one go is motivation suicide. So, I really don’t recommend that you get stuck on this. Don't worry about it too much, you'll pick it all up eventually!

Also, there are a fewww more details when it comes to batchim, however I thought it would be better to save that for a Korean conjugation/present tense lesson instead, since I feel like it fits a bit better into the "curriculum" of my brain. The conjugation lesson would be devoid of linguistic terminology, but would still answer some questions some may have about it.

Well, until next time!

[onehelluvafan]

IncuBlitz Part Three: Just an ex??

This is part three of a three-part analysis related to "Better Than Blitzo" (or "IncuBlitz" as I like to call him) and the look that he gave Blitz, right before he kissed Stolas.

Click here for Part One: His Tattoo, Part Two: Verosika, or keep reading to dive into Part Three: Just an ex??—what his personal motivations could be for taking the time to check if Blitz is watching before kissing Stolas.

My last theory, and the one that I think is the most likely, is that he’s just an ex of Blitz’s at the party who saw an opportunity and took it.

As we can see from when Blitz and Stolas first enter the room, IncuBlitz is already standing in perfect line of sight of where they sat down to have their conversation.

Considering that IncuBlitz doesn’t pop in until over five minutes later, when Stolas is breaking down, I think his intention was genuinely just to ‘rescue’ Stolas from the person who was making him upset.

It does beg the question though: Was his primary motivation to help out Blitz’s “freshest ex”? Or did it have more to do with the fact that the person bothering Stolas was actually Blitz?

There’s definitely no question that he does know that Stolas is the ‘freshest ex.’ He explicitly mentions Stolas’ song, saying that he has “great pipes,” where Stolas had been introduced by Verosika as the “special new guest of honor.”

But did he recognize Blitz? And if so, at what point?

As with Verosika, there are several times throughout the night when anyone could have noticed and recognized Blitz. But in addition to those mentioned earlier, there’s one moment in particular that I think kicked off the events that followed. During the scene where Stolas stands up on the couch, yelling, “Harriot! Don’t get on that train. It’s going to London, and I cannot be without you!” there’s at least one moment where Blitz’s full outfit is exposed. Not only was this in that same line of sight from where we’d originally seen IncuBlitz, but we can also see that the people he’d been standing next to, both turned to look directly at Stolas.

Whether or not he recognized Blitz in that moment, I do think it’s the moment that his attention was brought to Stolas and where it seems to have remained.

While it is possible that he was no longer standing in that exact spot anymore, we do know for a fact that he was still nearby. 

Because 15 seconds later, when the point of view changes to Blitz, you can actually see IncuBlitz in the background, just a few feet away.

This places him well within earshot when Stolas wails at Blitz that he doesn’t want him there and to please go home, followed by a moment of distressed weeping.

Even then, we don’t actually see IncuBlitz pop in until it’s clear that Blitz is not only choosing to stay, but is also about to try engaging with Stolas further.

It’s at this point that not only does he interrupt them, but he explicitly does not look at nor react to Blitz throughout the entire exchange. In fact, it’s actually noted as an intentional detail in the official storyboard. Storyboard artist Tony Raphielle uploaded clips of this to YouTube three days after the episode was released. 

They even noted in the video description that for this scene, the voice actors' performance was based on what was blocked out on the storyboard. 

This is the reverse of how their earlier conversation was handled. For that scene, the voice acting was recorded first, with the storyboards being drawn afterward. 

This leaves me even further convinced that IncuBlitz’s behavior and timing, from beginning to end, was very carefully crafted by the Spindlehorse team.

And finally, let’s discuss the kiss that shook Blitz, and many of us in the fandom, to the core. 

Now, obviously, we can’t know at what point, if at all, that IncuBlitz recognized Blitz specifically as the person who was bothering Stolas.

But I personally feel confident that by the time he looked up at Blitz, right before that kiss, he knew exactly who he was messing with.

Because honestly, the entire context of the party would make it almost impossible for IncuBlitz to not have recognized him.

First and foremost, there’s the fact that Stolas’ invitation implies that the people in attendance either dated or at least had a brief encounter with Blitz. 

There’s also imagery of Blitz plastered all over the place, with the exact same outfit that he wore to this party.

And if IncuBlitz somehow managed to miss recognizing him before whisking Stolas off to the dance floor, it would feel downright comical to me if he still did not recognize Blitz while he was up on the balcony. 

Because not only is the tablecloth hanging open, revealing his signature outfit, but Blitz had also taken down his hood, leaving his hard-to-miss horns and unique forehead tattoo exposed to anyone who looked up.

Either way, the fact that IncuBlitz looked up at the person that he perceived to be bothering Stolas, right before he kissed him, in my opinion, was definitely intentional and personal.

And it’s entirely possible that it’s actually just as simple as that. 

After digging into this and doing my best to analyze and consider all of the evidence, I personally think it’s the most likely explanation. That he was just someone at the party who saw an opportunity to help out Stolas and stick it to Blitz.

I am super curious though, to see if the show mentions IncuBlitz going forward and under what circumstances.

Considering that his canonical name in the credits is “Better Than Blitzo” Guy, I think it’s safe to assume that this will not be a recurring character. 

I do hope that we at least get to hear if his interaction with Stolas ended on the dance floor or if they actually ended up spending the night, or several nights, together.

I will definitely be surprised if we don’t see at least one awkward moment between Blitz and Stolas related to this. Even if it’s just a nonverbal decision to not talk about that just yet.

[wildharesandboundteeth]

FREE No Effort Palestine Activism

(!!!Zionists hate this easy and simple trick!!!)

What you need

A device with a social media app (like YouTube)

A channel that uses ad revenue to fund Palastine donations and efforts such as Artistic Antics LLC on YouTube

Time

(Optional) A playlist of such videos

All you need to do for this is just to put on the video, mute it, and leave it in the background.

That's it.

You can literally help survive a genocide families while napping or taking a massive dump.

You might have to shake your cursor or tap the screen once in a while (or click the "Yes I'm still watching" button for platforms like YouTube) but that's literally it. (Though there may be extensions to remove that I'm not sure.)

Can be used for stuff like Ukraine, Yemen and other fundraising efforts as well!

Additional stuff you can do for good spoon days 👇👇

Additional ways to increase ad revenue for the video:

Liking

Commenting (you can literally just post quotes the bee movie script or talk about how your day was. Doesn't matter)

Sharing (most valued by algorithm)

For sharing, you can just click 'copy link' without actually sharing the video. You can also copy link on top of sharing the video with other friends or to those group chats that only contain you that you actually use as a grocery list or a place where you save cool videos.

Remember, viewer retention for YouTube is key. Not sure about other social platforms, though since I don't use them oops!

Ideas on what to do in the mean time:

Fixing phone a addiction (something I do). Do this while challenging yourself to not look at your phone for x number of minutes/hours. I've found that helping the Palestinian families while doing this actually motivates to keep to my goals!

Touching grass/going for a walk (I like setting up challenging myself by making myself walk for x amount of videos helps build up stamina/determination.)

Doing your homework on a separate device (stops from being tempted by doom scrolling 💀)

Using the videos as a timer/goal for exercises ("I'll stop planking after x number of videos finish" "I'll see how many crunches within the span of this video")

For laptop only users, doing something else on another tab. Don't mute the video using that speaker toggle thingy like a boomer. Just the tab itself. Mute the tab itself (left click the tab it's on and click "Mute Tab".)

Godtier Additional Help:

If you're able to, you can also set up your own YouTube channel, adopt a varified family or use funds to donate to reputable charities like Unicef. From your videos, others will be able to use your videos to generate ad revenue.

This post was entirely inspired by Artistic Antics LLC and not really my idea, so kudos to them. They're literally the best, please please please check their soap making YouTube Channel and their soap store out!

Rambing:

Now, as someone who regularly has really bad seasons when caused by various disabilities, circumstances and other mental health issues, keeping up activism can be a really challenging thing. Even thinking about the absolute codswallop going on in Palastine can be extremely risky on my worse days.

Outside of mental health and disabilty stuff, keeping up consistent and regular activism can easily lead to burn out.

Remember this: suffering is not moral. Even if whatever we may be experiencing may be a drop compared to what Palastinians may be experiencing but staying in suffering or 'muscling through' burnout is not the answer. In fact, it can actually make things worse. Using tools like this can help you to persevere so please use them.

Ignoring your own wounds won't make others' wounds disappear. Neglecting them will, in fact, get in the way of helping.

Please share with the class if you have more ideas or other easy activism ideas!

Photo of eepy cat made by Dương Nhân

[ratwithhands]

I'm curious. I've seen your art and something that's come to my mind is what actually got you attached with the Subway brothers. Your narrative on their different AU forms is so unique which is what brought me to that question

Alright, rat history time.

So basically back in 2021-2022, I was working on an old OC storyline (about 3 years old by then) and I was in grade 9 so I was like “A new Pokémon game? Pfft, like I care” and just didn’t watch any of the stuff related to PLA when it dropped. I still got recommended Twitter posts about it on Instagram and I ended up seeing this one.

I tried looking up Ingo cause I was like "oh, funky design, looks like a captain or something" but I didn't end up finding anything so I didn't press further. Anyways in March break of 2022, I got bored and decided to put some game streams on in the background while I drew. I saw Alpharad's PLA video and decided to watch it for a bit when I saw Ingo.

I was like "Hey you're the guy from Twitter!" and since I knew his name now, I looked him up and found his Bulbapedia article. I found him much more interesting than the rest of the PLA cast since he had history outside PLA, and I ended up reading up whatever I could find on him. I also by extension discovered Emmet this way, which only served to suck me deeper down the rabbit hole. By the end of March break I had a fan OC and 2 AUs made with more on the way, as well as a YouTube recommended page with nothing but theory videos on Ingo and decade old Submas content.

Around May I decided to decommission my OC storyline for personal reasons, and by this point Submas was starting to occupy more of my creative work anyways. Since I didn't have my storyline to put my energy into, I started funnelling literally any story ideas into Submas. This led to nonstop content for a shockingly long time, and ofc I'm still coming up with stuff now.

Long story short, I got attached to them by accident! It was a "right place, right time" sort of thing since they came in as I was starting to get sluggish with my original content and I ended up being more interested in writing for them.

As for narratives, I am effectively playing dolls with these guys. Usually the kind of stuff that I write for them is meant for OCs, but I dumped the 60+ person cast so I put that energy into them instead.

Most AUs will either have a core theme, an out of pocket idea, or both to make things interesting. Usually I just come up with a dumbass idea like "what if we brought ReBURST back for a rerun" or "what if Emmet signed a contract with an eldritch space spider" or "what if Submas could see into the future" and stuff like that, then it picks up themes as I keep writing. For some silly examples:

Burst is based on Pokémon ReBURST and the idea of human-Pokémon fusion, but there's focus on skill, how characters misperceive it, and resentment as a result. There's also a spotlight on inferiority complexes, bottled up guilt, and blind confidence depending on which main character you look at

Journal is about a diary that helps Ingo to regain his memories, and it focuses on remembrance and regret as a result of him reading it. Spotlight on lacking awareness vs hyper awareness and the monotony of living as people around you leave

Oracle is exactly what it sounds like, with the twins being able to see into the future. It focuses on cooperation and the importance of working together, but also learning how to work alone. The spotlight's on jealousy and gratitude for this one, though the latter greatly outweighs the former in this case

I also just have AUs I made to try deranged shit for funsies, like Sapioflora, Cybernetic/Z-Λ, Team Supernova, and Idol. Those are mostly for exploring goofy ideas that may or may not go anywhere.

Right anyways basically I just saw Submas after watching PLA gameplay and found the twins more interesting to write about than the project I'd exhausted by then. The narratives are like that because the AU ideas I make are actually OC concepts that I modify to fit Pokémon specifically for these two or ideas about the two that I'd like to explore. Hope that answers the question ^^*

[cyle]

you've talked before about the difference between what tumblr users seem to perceive as the norm for how to use the site, versus what the statistics actually say. how much, if any, of that difference do you think is a difference between superficial use and dedicated users? for example, by far the #1 cateogry watched on youtube is actually music, but that's not what people who actually use the site "on purpose" are there for. hope my question makes sense?

the question kind of makes sense to me. it highlights an important distinction, because if you're on youtube, how do you know what it's "for" and what actions are "on purpose"? what does that really mean? how is using youtube "for music" invalid? how is that not also "on purpose"?

that's an interesting case study, because youtube's response to people uploading music wasn't to shut that down and ban it, it was to make the default YouTube app experience stop playing videos when you background the app, and make the YouTube Premium paid experience not do that... probably because they knew they were essentially making a music app, without it being a music app.

yes, Google has a music product as well adjacent to YouTube, but why not capitalize on the thing that's probably supporting what you're considering the "on purpose" part of the platform? that's a pretty clever way of taking a large group of peoples' behavior and essentially paying for everything else, the usage you're saying is what youtube is "really for".

with that in mind, i guess i'd ask you what you think are the actions and behaviors of "superficial" people versus "dedicated" people.

i usually refer to two groups of people on tumblr (and most platforms): power users and casual users. power users are the minority (10%? 20%? on some platforms it's 1%) but they perform "multiplicative" actions more than others: making posts, reblogging stuff, etc, and they're very active (as in they use tumblr daily). then there are casual users who are the majority, and they may use tumblr daily as well, but they're not performing as many actions as that group of power users. fundamentally, the behaviors are different.

are the power users keeping the site alive, or are the casual users? the answer is both. it's a balance. if all of the casual users went away, tumblr would basically stop making any money (right now we're not making enough as it is), and it'd be shut down very quickly. doesn't matter how dedicated the remaining power users are. if all of the power users went away, either the casual users would adapt somehow, or they'd leave too, but it'd take longer, because there's far more of them. not great either, because the fundamental part of the engine would be broken.

this is a very simple and incomplete example though. it's too narrow of a way to think about it, in my opinion. tumblr has millions of people using it. it's an ecosystem, one that's too big to see accurately if you're inside of it. it's hard to see even at my level. the plankton don't know about the sharks, and the sharks don't know about the plankton, but the two are symbiotic. you can see that as a marine biologist, but even they don't have all the answers.

[neontoad]

“Ouch.”

“Oh, stop whining, you rabid dog,” Dazai says, pulling the thread through the loop and tightening the knot. She takes one last look at her stitchwork and hums, brushing her hair out of her eyes and finally making eye contact with Chuuya. “You wouldn't have been injured at all if you paid attention to your surroundings for once.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Chuuya snaps, sceptically looking at the stitches. As always, Dazai did a perfect job patching him up. That doesn’t mean he won’t bitch at her. “I’m the reason why your ass doesn't have a single scratch.”

“Yadda-yadda,” she says and theatrically yawns. “I would have dodged the attack. But how would you know that, right? I’m only the best strategist of the Port Mafia. No way I would have predicted that ambush, yeah?”

Chuuya grits his teeth and turns away. So what if she’s right? Maybe when Dazai calls him a dog, she’s not too far from the truth. Blindly protecting people around him is what Chuuya has always been doing. He’s not planning to stop, even though the person he’s protecting is the most annoying lanky mackerel in the world. 

“Whatever.” Chuuya looks around the safe house. It’s a decent one. As opposed to the ones they are used to, it’s pretty spacious, there’s a kitchenette, a working shower and even a TV, a luxury for a place that’s only used in extraordinary circumstances. “Wanna watch TV?” he asks, prodding Dazai’s foot with his.

“How fun.” Dazai rolls his eyes, but still, she gets up and grabs the remote control. “I’m choosing,” she says and brushes her unruly hair out of her eyes.

Chuuya nods and plops onto the couch. He doesn't really care what Dazai picks. He just needs some kind of background noise, as well as long-awaited peace and quiet. As long as he’s getting that, he’s content with whatever horrid TV show is gonna be on TV for the following few hours. 

Of course, as expected of Dazai, she opts for some bizarre obstacle course gameshow, bush as much as Chuuya hates to admit it, it’s really fucking fun to watch. Two cans of beer materialise out of nowhere and the evening gets somewhat tolerable despite throbbing pain in Chuuya’s chest where he got hit.

As he watches the show, Chuuya keeps seeing Dazai’s hand darting to her hair from the corner of his eye, brushing it out of her face and behind her ear, only for the unruly locks to fall back a few seconds later. 

“Wanna tie your hair?” Chuuya asks when Dazai fixes her hair for the millionth time. 

“Do I look like a person who owns a hair tie?”

“Uh. Yeah. You don't, actually.”

“Mind your business then,” she says and tucks her hair behind her ear, an uncharacteristic curse leaving her mouth when it falls on her face again.

“Ok, here,” Chuuya says, his hands acting faster than his brain, and rips off a strip of fabric from his t-shirt. It’s ruined, anyway. Won't hurt to make it into a makeshift hair tie for his slob of a partner. 

“It’s not gonna help,” she says, without ripping her eyes off the TV. “It’s still gonna be everywhere. It’s annoying.”

“Cut it, then.”

“Eh.”

“Or I can cut it for you.”

“Nah.”

This is so Dazai - being obviously uncomfortable but doing absolutely nothing to fix it. Sometimes he wonders what’s happening in her brain. Sometimes he’s too afraid to know. 

“I have an idea,” Chuuya says. “I can braid it.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Didn't know you were an undercover barber. Then why is your hair so shi-”

“I don’t fucking know how to do it!” he snaps, regretting he offered it in the first place. “I’ll follow a fucking Youtube tutorial. Or whatever.”

For a few seconds, it’s silent. 

“Ok,” Dazai says. “Fine. It’s gonna be hilarious. I just know it. Go ahead, Chuuya. Unleash your inner stylist. Try not to rip my head off, though.”

It’s gonna be hard not to, Chuuya thinks and opens the first braiding tutorial that pops up. It’s the most basic braid. He just can’t fuck it up, right? 

Needless to say, the third time he has to start again, Dazai is laughing and shaking so hard, Chuuya feels like her hair strands are reigns and Dazai is a particularly insufferable pony on crack. 

“I need a fucking hairbrush! Don’t you have a hairbrush?!”

“What do you think, Chuuya? Does it look like I have a hairbrush?”

In a way, Chuuya is glad there’s no hairbrush, otherwise, it might have become a murder weapon. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. “Stop fucking moving, shitty Dazai. I can do it. Give me a minute.”

“Of course, you can,” she says in the sweetest voice which makes Chuuya want to smack her. At least she stops moving.

“Maybe you should practice on yourself.”

“My hair is too short for braids if you haven't noticed, you blind mole.”

“Maybe you should grow it out. Like a mullet.”

“A mullet my ass,” he hisses through his teeth, trying his best to focus on crossing the hair sections in the right order. A fucking mullet. Never in his life. He’d just look like a moron. 

Finally, the braid is ready, and, feeling content and accomplished, Chuuya ties it with the strip of fabric he’s been holding between his teeth. 

He looks at the finished work. 

He swallows. 

It looks fucking horrendous.

“Uh,” he says, scratching his head. 

“What?”

“Uh. Nothing. Wanna see it?”

Instead of an answer, Dazai hands Chuuya her phone and he snaps a quick pic of that abomination of a braid. 

He mentally braces for another taunt (or probably a lifetime of taunts), when Dazai finally speaks.

“I love it.”

Chuuya blinks. 

“Thank you,” she says and moves to her seat on the couch, eyes fixed on the screen, a light blush gracing her cheeks.

“Uh. No problem,” Chuuya says, taking a sip of his beer. 

When they go back to the Port Mafia headquarters the next day, Dazai is still brandishing her ridiculously crooked braid. 

She still has it the day after. 

And the following day as well, even though it has gotten way too messy. 

Dazai still seems to like it. Chuuya likes it, too - although Dazai doesn’t have to know about it. 

“Wanna braid my hair?” she asks him the following day, handing him the strip of the ripped t-shirt, her hair messy and unruly. 

“Sure,” Chuuya says, opening the tutorial again. 

Hairdressing might have just become his new passion.  

Thank you for reading! Check out this lovely femzai art by Aimi on twt! I'm in love <3

[tasty-littl-snack]

same anon as before; thank you for your thoughtful answer and analysis, i hope you don't mind if i give some additional thoughts

for background, i was one of the fans that was soured by the announcement of the streamer. i didn't go and spam hate, though, it just felt like a kind of blow which slowed down my support from them. it never wavered though, and i still watch their things on youtube from time to time (i can't afford a subsription or any subscription, for that matter, i only have a spotify student discount). i guess what upset me so much is knowing how many people were in the same situation as me.

obviously the discourse was blown out of proportion (if you can even call it discourse, at times it was pure venom) and things changed for the worse (in my personal opinion). they were enclosed in a decision which was supposed to be freeing from them and backtracking to youtube meant increased dependency on performance-analysis when making content-based decisions (as their overall audience on youtube became smaller and people left, so did other fans like you and me, who prefer non-spooky shows - ultimately leaving the large percentage of horror fans to "dictate" the performance of their content). I think this aligns with what you said in your reply; that GF, MF and AYS are the best performing; but they are also the most "conventional" shows that Watcher makes, appealing to the widest audience. It doesn't leave a big space for fans who prefer niche topics (i'm sorry, but i don't see ghosthunting or telling ghost stories as niche at all, even when they do it in their special ways :/)

i agree with what you said about making different channels for different types of content. i will admit that i am one of those rare (?) fans who doesn't care for horror OR food content. i recognize that this isn't their fault, because it's my personal preference, but again we come back to the fact that OTHER shows will get pushed back, which again, upsets me. this is obviously largely on me, though.

i kind of disagree with your point about the podcast. i certainly feel as if watcherpod started as something different than being about the goings-on and current things in watcher ent. just look at their earlier episodes, something like from ep. 1 to ep. 15 (?), when they all had to come up with a one-word topic and chat shit the whole podcast about random stuff. i loved those episodes as they provided us with a different view of all three of them and gave us some great anecdotes and running jokes. the podcast has become worse, in my opinion, because now it feels like an (unnecessary?) extention of content they already have put out (the ghost files debrief s3 episodes were an hour long? and more? basically a podcast ep). sure they provide some good insight, but how much more can they talk about ghosts? i have also noticed the influx of new fans who send them questions on the pod, which is great, but i find myself listening to stories and answers which i, and many other long time fans, have heard thousands of times over, and are well-known in the fandom space. i'll admit here too that this one is more of a personal grievance and relates back to the fact that i dislike horror content.

sorry for the word vomit but i am looking forward to your reply :)

Thank you for your thoughts. I didn't consider that there are actually fans who came back after having been soured by them, I admit in the last half year I became more of in a bubble of being on the streamer since it is something I am fortunate enough to afford. But as you mentioned many fans couldn't, and thus watcher needed to focus on youtube again and make adjustements.

I find it interesting that you said that both of us left in a way, and that might skew the amount of views they get on non-spooky content. I didn't think of it that way, but indeed putting things on the streamer diminishes the youtube views, this is even true for the podcast which went up yesterday. And I did the thing they expect me to and didn't give a view to the youtube version because I could already watch it earlier. I think the same is for the shows. Fans of spooky content will always come back for it, while fans who might have watched and enjoyed www didn't because they still had feelings about not wanting to support them. (I'm not saying it's you but I've seen some opinions that skew that way).

This is also an insteresting year because Puppet History didn't premiere so we don't know how that would have preformed. Maybe if they did premiere it, some fans would come back earlier and they'd see that they don't need to change into spooky content in everything they do. But we'll never know at this point. I hope the new season preforms well enough that they'll keep it on the main channel, because while not performing as well as ghost files I feel like it has many dedicated fans and is one of the staple watcher shows, wether they planned for that or not.

Yes ghost hunting content might not seem like a niche one but I meant it in comparison to other youtube channels, or if you were to explain watcher to a new person who hadn't heard of ghost hunting before. If youtubers read stories then they just pull them from reddit and not think about it, ays is more of a unique way to do it than just people reading a story and laughing about it.

That's the tricky thing about having a production company as a business but doing personality driven content. It all hinges on people wanting to watch and trust that the shows will be good and the content will not change. Therefore implementing changes is always a risk.

It seems that the main criticisms that they took to heart was that they don't listen to their fans. This is why they made a way for them to contact them, and I didn't get the impression that they answer the same questions all the time - only when people call in live, which happened twice or maybe three times at this point. This puts them on the spot and they have to answer a question that would be usually filtered out by Matt, the producer of the podcast.

When you mentioned that the first fifteen eps seemed different I went back and saw that they didn't have Matt Real in them yet (In a speaking role or otherwise as a producer, the camera angles and lights are different). Therefore the shows are less structured than in the later eps, and they go on a tangent a lot in a way they don't later because mr Real heards them like a pack of sheep to topics and segments that he comes up with. It might be a personal preference wether that's good or bad, personally I love him and I like the vibe that they all get along. But that might lead to the impression that these are friends hanging out and they have topics between themselves that a listener is not a part of. You can always tell them that, if you plan on listening later. I know that when they started taking in the viewer questions many people said that they prefer the off the cuff topics they come up with and they seem to have one or two questions per ep now. (They take last 15 minutes of a one hour podcast and they sometimes also go on tangents from them.)

That change happened in June I think and that's when they let go of their patreon and another show that was basically answering questions my absolute beloved wife, watcher weekly +. (rip sweet prince I miss you every day). Of course these shows were shorter (up to 30 mins every week), but they did go into the behind the scenes content of watcher in a way it is now continued in pod watcher and I really appreciate. But yeah if you started to listen to the podcast for them I get how it might be dissatisfying. (WW+ also went under major overhaul somewhere in the middle of 2023 and became more of a structured show, for the ease of them batch shooting the episodes, and I think that's one of the things - if they shoot say two podcast eps per day, then they can't really have current topics, or talk about what happened last week because it's still the same day and they are people at the end of the day. It is more convenient for them to shoot the eps this way and ultimately they have to produce content in a sustainable way for them.).

About the debriefs, well I think that since they plan on probably keeping the alternating week schedule, they need to justify the content by length. It also probably has to do with youtube algorythm because as I said earlier - uploading content similar in nature around one hour, or 40 minutes is good for it, even if it might make less sense for the structure of the episode (and in the last one they answered the same question twice, and that also has to do with catering to the youtube audience. One part of questions is from the streamer people, the other is from youtube viewers, which sometimes makes for interesting corrections they wouldn't have made, but sometimes they answer questions they already did weeks ago. My personal theory is that they didn't plan on having them that long but then realized that not answering questions from youtube might once again bring the haters in and people saying that they don't care about their audience. So debriefs are a way to compromise and satisfy both audiences. (This is pure speculation on my part though).

So yeah in the end they need to carter to many people and they're at least trying to give the people what they want. I'm very interested to see how they will respond to the comments that people gave them. It's great that most of them are positive and people aren't afraid to tell them what they think. I hope it can only get better from here :D

[sweetdevil-sims]

Get to Know Me - Sims Edition

I was tagged by several people (thank you!), so I decided to get off my ass for once and answer this 😆

What’s your favorite Sims death? I think the mummy's curse one! There's just something about that ominous vignette during the countdown days, only for the sim to dissolve into dust at the end 😩👌

Alpha CC or Maxis Match? Both! Maxis Match for clothing, Alpha for hair.

Do you cheat your sims weight? Nope! I leave them at whatever weight they happen to be, unless they want to learn/practice the Athletic skill. I do cheat to give them more muscle tone if they're super muscular already, though; EA really should've made that slider move along the muscle mass one :/

Do you move objects? Oh yes. I can't imagine decorating without it.

Favorite Mod? Nraas Master Controller my beloved 💖 Can't forget BrntWaffles's lighting mods, they make the game look so beautiful that sometimes I like to just leave it on 2x while watching the sunset over the sea.

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack? The first EP I got was World Adventures and it's still my favorite. The first and only SP I have is HELS, along with bits and pieces from the others.

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing? The latter, though this question tripped me up the first time I saw it 😅

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? Ohh that's a tough one. Fergus Vane is definitely among my favorites, he was a Johnny Bravo knockoff who eventually got married and I swear that he and his wife could NOT keep their hands off each other 😆 First is him making friends at uni, second is him with his wife.

Have you made a simself? Oh yeah, when I got the game and was trying to figure out how to play. Didn't last long until I started making serial black widows, lol.

Which is your favorite EA hair color? That platinum blonde looks so tacky that I can't help but love it.

Favorite EA hair? I think EA struck gold with: Loose Curl, Dramatic Ponytail, La Dolce Vita Updo, Chorus Girl Curl, Pin-up Pretty, Skinny Dreads, Wavy Bob, Elegance Style, and Wild Fire.

Favorite life stage? Young Adult, because it has the most things available.

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? Ohh it depends. I go through phases when I'm not interested in gameplay at all, mostly when I set up a savefile for the first time. But now I've been more into gameplay for a few months.

Are you a CC creator? Yeah, mostly with CAS items and minor annoyance fixes.

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad? I have a lot of simblr mutuals where I feel like a nosy person sometimes poking their head above the neighbor's fence to see what's going on 😆

Do you have any sims merch? / A Youtube for sims? Nope.

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing? I give my concrete boxes a few more decorative elements now 😅 For once, I stopped playing serial killers (mostly to avoid the NPC pudding spam that ensues), and am making an effort to not micromanage sims as much and to fulfill their wishes instead of ending up with mostly level 10 chefs and gardeners all the time.

Who’s your favorite CC creator? Oh man do I have to name someone?? SimplexSims, @aroundthesims, Mutske, @simtanico, @simaddix, @twinsimming, @bioniczombie, @martassimsbookcc, @simbouquet, @plumdrops, @ifcasims, @sim-songs, @deniisu-sims, @bellakenobi, @brntwaffles, @omedapixel, @wanderingsimsfinds, @simlicious, TheSweetSimmer and on and on.

How long have you had Simblr? 2016! Sometimes I can't believe it's been so long.

How do you edit your pictures? I have a few customized Gshade presets, and only convert gameplay screenshots to JPG. For CC previews, I may change the background color and will combine several previews into one image (and I occasionally correct small issues like unsightly clipping due to the poses).

What expansion/ gamepack is your favorite? World Adventures is #1, followed by Seasons and prooobably Supernatural.

Oof we're at the end! Thank you for tagging me and for reading, and I tag ✨anyone who wants to do this✨!

[italiansteebie]

Love on Screen

Episode Five, four, three, two, one

It had been months (gaining on a year) of content and collaboration from the two creators now, and they hadn’t made any move to announce that they were together. Dustin began to think they really were just friends, but the way they called each other ‘babe’ in passing and he honestly thinks Eddie has moved in with Steve because he never seems to leave, and the guy even tells Eddie to ‘go to his room’ sometimes. Does that mean he has a room in Steve’s house? Ugh, what does it matter anyways, the content is flowing and still, Dustin is loving it.

He walked through the halls of his highschool, slumping against the wall and sliding down it. He was on his lunch break, and look, he would eat in the cafeteria, but that place was like the wild west and he just… Chooses to not get involved. His friends all had a different lunch period and he really didn’t feel like sitting with…. Well, no one. So he settled in against his usual spot against the wall near Mr. Clark’s class, and grabbed his paper bag lunch out of his backpack and chomped into the peanut butter and jelly sandwich he packed. He scrolled through instagram carelessly, looking for any source of entertainment, really. A few pictures of Eddie, a few pictures of Steve, some of Robin and Nancy, he’s really seen them all. He can’t blame them, not every aspect of their lives are going to be recorded for his entertainment but damn. He was fucking bored. He sighed and put his phone down, deciding to focus on his lunch.

“Hey, Dustin. Another floor lunch I see?” It was Mr. Clark. He knew Dustin sat outside of his classroom and made it a point to check in almost every day. It was nice, even though it made Dustin feel kind of like a troubled loner or something. (If he was being honest, he kind of was). He looked up at Mr. Clark, “Yeah. I usually watch these youtubers… I think they went here, actually. Uh. But they haven’t uploaded in a few days. You know what youtube is, right?” Mr. Clark laughed, throwing his head back, “Yes, Dustin. I know what youtube is, and you must be talking about Steve and Robin. Boy, they were two peas in a pod. It’s nice to see them so successful nowadays. I taught them one year actually. They weren’t the best students when they were together.” Mr. Clark explained, effectively blowing Dustin’s mind. Could he have sat in Steve’s seat? He felt like a proper fan girl at that moment.

Dustin nodded along to Mr. Clark, eventually saying their goodbyes as Dustin returned to his lunch. Dustin let his head fall back against the wall, it was times like these when he really wished he had lunch with his friends. He usually got by okay watching Steve goes to Hell and corrodededdie’s compilations but when there wasn’t any content, the loneliness really began to set in.

He was just about to make the studious decision to work on his homework when his phone buzzed, ‘Nancy and Rob have uploaded a new video titled: Gays throw a party.’ Hm. It wasn’t what he usually liked to watch, but at least it was something. He tapped on the video, earbuds firmly in place, it opened with Nancy running around the house, trying to get it organized, while Robin laughed at her meticulousness. Five minutes into the video, the party was in full swing, many youtubers and various friends in attendance, including Steve and Eddie who seemed to be hanging off each other for most of the thing.

The video was pretty entertaining, there were interactions between people Dustin never thought would happen, for example, Jim Hopper, who made nature survival videos, was there for some reason, and the younger creators seemed to be pretty close with him despite the… Oddness of it all.

The 10 minute mark of the video was when he saw it.

In the dark background, he could softly make out Steve and Eddie dancing in the corner. It was sweet, a little close for a couple of friends, but sweet nonetheless. And then, oh and then, he watched as their lips met in a way that was too practiced to be a drunken mistake. Holy shit. “Holy shit!” His outburst caught the attention of a nearby teacher to which he whispered an apology. He rewound the video and watched the same clip about 19 times. Holy shit, holy shit he was fucking right, he was right! He began screen recording the video and zoomed in on the… moment between his two favorite youtubers. This might be the best day of his life, and he’s not kidding. Them being together, and living together? Oh man. It made his cynic heart believe in love again. (Look, Suzie had broken up with him a few months ago and he was a little tender, leave him alone). He did what any fan would do, and immediately posted it, pointing out what he had seen. He also sent it to Mike, with an ‘I fucking told you so,’ because he did.

He also sent it to Will with a winky face and a rainbow emoji. He knew that Will occasionally watched ‘Steve goes to hell' and thought that he might like this news. And based on the 15 smiley faces he sent back, Dustin decided it was a good call on his part.

—

“Steve, oh my god. I am so sorry.” Robin’s anxious voice filtered through the phone as soon as he picked it up. “What are you talking about?” He responded, he wondered if what he was about to hear would ruin his life only slightly, or in a more major way. He hoped for the first option, Eddie had just moved in and they really didn’t need another big change so soon.

“In Nance and I’s most recent video…”

“Just tell me Rob, do I need to flee the country or?”

“Oh, no! Nothing like that, just. In the background of my party vlog, you can see you and Eddie kissing. Like, pretty clearly.”

Steeve felt himself relax, he and Eddie were both publicly out, respectively, and they were recently considering making an “official” announcement because apparently that is what you do when you’re in the public eye and dating someone who is also in the public eye. He pondered for a moment before deciding that this was actually a good thing, it was a great segway into their relationship becoming public. (Even though he knows their viewers were always really suspicious of them).

“Steve?” Robin’s hesitant voice came through the speaker, and that broke Steve out of his thoughts. “Oh! Sorry, got lost in my thoughts, uh. This is actually a good thing, me and Eds were just talking about making an announcement or whatever so… Like perfect timing.”

He heard Robin sigh in relief, “Oh thank god. I really am sorry though, I thought I caught everything during editing.”

“No big, Robs. I’m gonna call Eddie.”

He said his goodbyes and tapped Eddie’s contact, waiting for him to pick up. “Hey baby,” Steve loved the sound of his boyfriend’s voice over the phone. “Hey Eds. So look. In Rob's last video, y’know the party vlog?” Eddie hummed over the phone. “In the background of one clip we can be seen kissing.” He waited for Eddie’s answer. He knew he was fine with it but a small part of him was nervous Eddie would completely freak out. “Oh okay. That’s like perfect timing.” Steve felt his shoulders drop in relief, “That’s exactly what I said! Okay cool. I’ll see you when you get home baby. Plenty of kisses waiting for you here.” He said. “I’m looking forward to it.” And Steve could practically hear the smirk.

So it was settled. They’d be recording their official relationship announcement tomorrow. (They know it won’t come as a surprise).

[aroacegundamalex]

hi hiiii i've been wanting to get into the mecha genre and the like, but im not exactly sure what to start with/where to start? I know theres not technically rules, but would you have any reccomendations for media to begin with? no worries if not, and thank you !! ^.^

I’m honored you’d go to me!

In terms of what to start with, it depends heavily on your personal tastes, so I’ll be including a range of series. Most of these are real robot, because super robot series can be very jarring for people who’ve never seen mecha before. I personally love super robot stuff, but it can be strange if you aren’t expecting a mech to pull out a giant top to hit pretentious bull-horned space princes with.

This is going under a cut for length!

If you’re looking for tragedy and horror, I have to suggest Space Runaway Ideon. While Tomino is most famous for his work on the Gundam franchise, Ideon is absolutely phenomenal. It often borders on Lovecraftian horror, and is famous for gruesome deaths and unrelenting tragedy. The gist of it is that a group of space colonists find a starship and a combining robot, and wind up in conflict with an alien civilization. As the war stretches on and the tragedies mount, it becomes clear that their wonder weapon, the Ideon, has a mind of its own.

Speaking of Gundam, the main timeline isn’t too unapproachable, and the standalone universes are all excellent starting points. I’m going to be giving a few of these, since Gundam series are ridiculously easy to access for English speakers— no having to dig through fan translations to find whatever has the least agonizing subtitle font here. Looking at you, Brave series.

The newest Gundam, the Witch from Mercury, is a wonderful starting point if you’ve not seen it already! It’s only twenty-five episodes, and while it pulls heavily from franchise history, it can be enjoyed without having seen a single prior Gundam.

It takes place in a future where humanity is split between Earth and space, with Earth being polluted and exploited by warmongering corporations, and space effectively being ruled by said megacorporations who are given the impunity to execute people. The first season primarily takes place in a school for the wealthy, which is effectively a training ground for future corporate executives, and a means to advertise their tech via mech duels. Everything in the school is dependent on one’s class, with even the dorms dependent on who sponsors your attendance.

The plot kicks off when our main character accidentally wins the hand of the daughter of the president of the largest conglomerate, as a political drama unfolds in the background.

It’s all on YouTube, and there’s a short story you should read between the prologue and the first episode, Cradle Planet. It’s on their official website, both in English and Japanese.

The original Mobile Suit Gundam holds up excellently, though the animation is rather clunky and dated. It’s a war story heavily pulling from WWII, following a child soldier who’s effectively forcibly conscripted when his home is attacked, and he hops in the main mech to defend civilians. It focuses on the horrors of war, and particularly soldiers’ PTSD. I’d personally suggest watching the three compilation movies and then circling back to the series proper if you liked what you saw— the compilation films cut out a lot of the fluff and make it a much more streamlined experience, but they also leave out a lot of lovely episodes and character moments.

Gundam the Origin, both the manga and the anime, are also wonderful beginners’ series. The manga is a retelling of the original series made by one of its creators, and expands upon it, giving neglected characters and storylines a lot more attention. The anime is an adaptation of a flashback arc, detailing the events leading up to the war in the original series, albeit with some timeline differences. It’s in my opinion the best place to start with Universal Century— while there are continuity differences, it’s a great primer for what Universal Centiry is at its core, a character-driven political drama and war story.

Obligatory recommendation for my favorite Gundam show, Gundam 0080. It’s a small-scale look at the tail end of a war from the perspective of a civilian child caught up in the mess when his home is used as a development center for the military. It’s a short little OVA, only six episodes, and doesn’t require much prior context for the rest of the franchise at all. It’s a very personal story focusing on a small cast of characters — a civilian child, a rookie soldier, and a test pilot — and their experiences with the war.

It’s best enjoyed with a burger.

If you’re looking for gritty military sci-fi, Armored Trooper VOTOMs is an excellent place to start. In this series, the mechs are walking coffins, with the outright referred to as “bottoms” because they’re considered the lowest of the low. It takes place during an uneasy truce between two warring nations, focusing on a man betrayed by his own side, hunted by both his former faction (and quite a few others) as he tries to discover the truth as to the mission that led to him being branded a traitor.

It is on the harder end of the sci-fi spectrum, so if you’re here for the ridiculous robots, it might not be to your liking.

If you’re curious about fantasy and shoujo-flavored mecha, Vision of Escaflowne is a phenomenal series. It’s an isekai, following a girl accidentally transported to another world by a brash prince on the eve of the destruction of his kingdom. From there on out it’s a mix of romance and political drama, with our heroes trying to thwart the machinations of an evil empire.

The mechs here are designed after knights, with utterly gorgeous designs and some really interesting setup mechanically-speaking— they’re magitek, and rather low-tech at that, with pilots seeing out of holes in the mech. Your enjoyment of the series will heavily depend on your fondness for shoujo romance and fantasy tropes, and especially love triangles. The movie adaptation has some fascinating piloting systems that skew close to body horror. While this one has manga, they’re generally not worth checking out.

If you’re looking for a mix of light-hearted fun and more serious action, the Patlabor show and OVA are essentially buddy-cop series taking place in a futuristic Tokyo, focusing on a department created to deal with mecha-related crimes. Both the OVA and series proper are a solid blend of fun, light-hearted character moments and tenser action. Our protagonist loves her mech like he’s a person, and it’s adorable. However, this one heavily depends on whether you like screwball police comedies.

The Patlabor movies, on the other hand, are densely political, examining the place of such technology in the world, and raises questions about the ethics of law enforcement and its use of violence to combat crime and terrorism, and the implications of using advanced military weaponry. They’re directed by Mamoru Oshii of Ghost in the Shell fame. These ones are pretty standalone, but if you’d like prior context, they take place in the same timeline as the OVA.

If you’re interested in mecha video games, I’m having a blast with Zone of the Enders: 2nd Runner! It’s got wonderful gameplay, and some really interesting mech designs. They’re themed after ancient Egyptian mythology, and the shape language of most of the mechs is very curvy and round, something you don’t really see often, giving it a very unique aesthetic. I haven’t finished it yet, however, so this is based only off the first chunk of story.

After a terrorist attack drags him into a conflict he thought he’d abandoned long ago, our protagonist is shot and left for dead. In a desperate attempt to save him, his body is connected to his mech as a form of life support— if he leaves it, or the mech shuts down, he dies. Seeing as the mech is what his enemies want, this leaves him no choice but to stay involved. The gameplay is quite energetic, the boss battles are fun, and just about every move and animation are designed to make you feel as cool as possible. It is a Hideo Kojima game, so keep that in mind going in.

While it’s a classic and often recommended, don’t watch Evangelion as your first mecha. It pulls very heavily from Tomino’s body of work, and I’d only suggest watching it after you’ve seen a show or two of his— especially Gundam or Ideon. Hell, watch an Ultraman or two first— that’s where the Christian imagery comes from. You’ll miss out on a lot if you go into it without prior context.

There’s a lot of mecha out there, but these are what I consider to be the most beginner-friendly. When it comes to banner franchises like Getter, Mazinger, or Brave— you can honestly pick any one of the shows to start with, as there’s no overarching continuity. Do some reading and pick whatever interests you! If you’ve got an hour or two to burn, there’s a retrospective on Getter Robo and its influence on the genre that’s worth watching even if you don’t plan to check out any Getter yourself.

I hope you find something you enjoy!

[changelingsandothernonsense]

Random ask: share something weird/funny/quirky about your creative process (could be writing, could be art) that you've discovered recently and went "huh."

Hi!

I can share a few things, been thinking about my painting process a lot because of the tutorial I'm making, though I don't know if they're unique or anything XD

I spend my doom-scrolling time looking for art references, Pinterest, goggles, I buy a lot of reference packs, whatever for inspiration. Sometimes during a doom-scroll I find a reference that gets my mind working and I have to drop everything immediately and draw it. It basically becomes an intrusive thought until I spit it out in Photoshop. This has been more frequent since going off of my old medications, I got my brain back.

I can not, have never and probably will never make thumbnails or practice sketches because I see the image in my head too clearly. It's not an amorphous concept, I do not feel the need to play with it. (My brother has a similar thing with his music).

I essentially use a bastardised version of the oil painting process when I make my art. And there's a heavy, heavy influence from Baroque styles since I fully admit to being in love with that art style completely. I say this as someone with zero formal training in fine art whatsoever. I just read a lot of books, got hounded by a shiddy partner who gave me a bunch of art-related hang-ups and watched a shit ton of youtube tutorials as I developed my painting process.

I start with a sketch, though when I do this I prefer a white canvas and royal blue (it's a holdover from when I used to scan all my art for digital painting, back when I used a mouse and drew exclusively anime vampire boys). I differ quite heavily from more classical styles here just because I don't like black or dark red for drawing. I still use Loomis though.

I layer values starting with mid-tones and then blocking in darks and lights, though I put them mostly together as opposed to leaving them for last. I always skip the eyes and mouth though, no idea why, it's just a preference.

Then I blur the shit out of it and carve it all back in!

Background colour-main base tones-skin-mouth-eyes-hair-clothing-metalics-background detailing if any is necessary.

I may rely too heavily on references but Vermeer traced using the world's most easy light magic trick so...ner!

Like I have 5 up right now for skintone alone.

I've used the same 3 brushes for the last 9 years and I don't want to change them. I modified their settings to my exact liking over the years and nothing else feels right.

I fix all my main lighting at the end of painting, and even out colour mistakes.

My reliance on chiaroscuro as a crutch, there's so much of that. But it gives skin a glowy effect that I'm obsessed with right now.

I actually love painting hands a lot. So I started painting a lot of hands XD

[thatoneao3author]

Interstellar Ian - gallavich kid’s show au

i can’t find a discord server to ramble about a gallavich-centric au i’m working on so i’m gonna ramble about the concept here. I am writing a fic for it so I’m not gonna go in depth on the specific plot points, just the idea/background/set up

if you are interested in specifics, though, i’ve already posted a few excerpts from chapter one on this blog under the tag ‘Interstellar Ian AU’. 

so seriously hear me out here

ian gallagher is the host of a kid’s show in the same vein as Lazy Town, Blues Clues, etc. He serves as the host who takes the viewers through adventures in a space setting in a show he scored when he was fifteen: Interstellar Ian. it’s on PBS Kids, which is a educational kid’s channel here in the US that is publicly broadcasted and easily available to everyone for free via libraries and youtube and such. shows like Arthur and Sid the Science Kid aired there. it’s actually a really good resource for low-income families with kids but that’s a rant for another day. ian’s show is on their roster!

Frank scammed his way into getting Ian one of his first minor roles when he was fifteen but from there, it was all Ian working his way up. Being an actor screws with all of Ian’s plotlines/erases them even down to the earliest episodes in season one, but most of the rest of the show’s canon still plays out the same except the family’s financial strain isn’t as high for a couple years while fiona uses his income for the household. 

it kinda evens back out once ian is an adult and moves into a little apartment closer to set and becomes independent. Ian continues hosting this show into his early adulthood, even though it’s starting to become evident by season eight of Interstellar Ian that they are starting to run out of fresh content and maybe should’ve wrapped it up a few years ago. 

Instead of dating Mickey first, Ian actually meets Trevor (trans guy from around season six/seven) FIRST bc he costars on the show during some of the earlier seasons. they have a secret relationship and it eventually goes public, drama, drama, drama, and oops Trevor isn’t an actor anymore and he goes on to open his shelter/queer youth program. Ian and Trevor are on good terms by the main timeline of the fic though 

ian remains host of the show and after the initial drama, he becomes well known as a queer icon/actor, especially for young ppl who watch the show/grew up watching it

During the filming of season seven of interstellar ian, Ian also messes around with the new director on set: Caleb the ex firefighter. They don’t get caught or anything but there is still drama and they decide to step back and Not Do That Anymore 

Ian has a Thing(tm) for messing around with cute guys on the set of his show and he swears off of it forever. 

forever lasts until there is a new electrician hired to the set, reformed criminal!mickey milkovich

in this universe, mickey decided to stop being a major nuisance to the world because mandy got custody of their half-sister from earlier in the show, Molly, and he wants to be able to help them out or at least not cause more problems for them. so he took a course and is a certified electrician who signs a contract with the show because he needs long term + stable work. 

Ian can’t drive. he just doesn’t have a car, he never got a license because he got caught up in the acting thing gig around the age that he should’ve gotten it and now he has too much pride to do it. so he leaves the set an hour or two later than basically everyone else. everyone knows this, he was even given a key to the warehouse they film the show in because of it

so, when mickey starts showing up as the actors and crew are leaving to fix flickering lights and switch around wiring, the star of the show is still just There. because despite being famous and rich, his main form of transportation is the public kind and that’s inconsistent 

ian and mickey meet due to this overlap in schedules and ian spends the first chunk of the fic struggling because he doesn’t wanna mess around with another guy from set and cause unneeded drama, while mickey seems to like him- but not because he’s an actor/minor celebrity, just because he’s “pretty or whatever” 

that’s the general gist of what’s going on, but some other cool details include: svetlana stars as ian’s hairstylist/makeup artist who faked her way there with a forged cosmetology certification, mickey has one pierced ear and maybe a cat, ian takes care of franny a lot + mickey steps up for his younger half sister: molly (so you get like, familial/dad-like gallavich at a few different points), the fic is ian centric and in his pov, and there is a multi-chapter gap in the fic where gallavich “aren’t dating” but are basically in a relationship and I know some of you guys love that trope based off of most of the fics i’ve read in this fandom 

I think that’s all I wanna reveal but if you have questions or thoughts, feel free to reblog/send me an ask with them! the plot plan for this thing includes 15 chapters total and i’ve written 4 of them in their entirety. I’m thinking i’ll write all/most of the fic before I start posting it, but we’ll see what happens!

if you wanna know when this fic goes up, make sure you follow this blog. I’ll be using the specific tag ‘Interstellar Ian AU’ to organize information on this, as well. thanks <3