#im notoriously awful at researching things

[fanofthelamb]

gonna vomit blood. tryna look into different types of lighting to quell the unquenchable thirst for making art and its ALL SHADING TUTORIALS. WHAT KEYWORDS AM I EVEN MISSING. I DONT NEED TO KNOW HOW TO LIGHT STUFF UP I NEED TO KNOW HOW THINGS LIGHT UP IN DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS.

[inthewild-flowers]

Hi!! I'm sending an ask!!! So. Two ideas competing for attention in my brain, so you can pick! I can ask you to take a Regency era prompt that explores class differences, including British Empire things (TM) (doesn't have to be a continuation of your fic!! It can be hcs!) OR. Ideas/feelings/notions with trans Remus (transmasc or nb) please?

Sorry these are both extremely broad and difficult 🤠 hope they get creative juices flowing?

thank u for sending an ask!! i’m still planning a continuation of that fic but it needs more thinking and research than i have time for rn so!! transmasc remus

honestly i don’t think that remus would know he was trans super early? he might have if not for the whole werewolf thing, but as it is i think he would have spent most of his childhood more focused on being a werewolf and worrying about that and hiding it and therefore would have pushed any gender and sexuality thoughts to the side

i do think that he would have figured it out at hogwarts. as a kid he was always fairly isolated but also allowed to do more or less what he wanted, but then at hogwarts he would have been very suddenly pushed into all this interaction with other people and also all the very gendered stuff that he was mostly able to avoid before — separate dorms for boys and girls, potentially different uniforms depending on how you think of the hogwarts uniforms (i personally don’t have any concrete ideas about them), teachers calling miss lupin — and at that point he can’t really keep on indefinitely ignoring his discomfort at being lumped in with the girls

he does make friends with the girls in his dorm; dorcas, marlene, mary, and emmeline. not lily. we’ll get there. anyway: they’re all nice and lovely and he loves them to bits and they love him and they’re all the best of friends, they really are. but he also sometimes gets the sense that he’s not quite like them somehow. (and maybe he doesn’t know this, but dorcas feels the same sometimes. nonbinary dorcas is a hill i am willing to die on)

he does have a not like other girls phase. it’s short lived, because his friends tell him he’s being shitty, and then he feels bad so he keeps it to himself. it’s also around then that he starts to think about why, exactly, he’s so determined to be not like other girls. he thinks about it mainly so that he’s able to not be awful to his friends, but it eventually leads to oh shit. wait is that a thing? can i be not a girl?

he spends a lot of time in the library after that, trying to find any evidence of people like him. it’s there that he finds lily, although she’s not lily yet, looking for the same thing, but different. she wants to know if she can be a girl.

it’s exciting for both of them, that moment of im not alone look you’re here too you’re like me!! they still don’t know if they can tell anyone, but they have each other now, and that’s something. they choose their names together. remus tells lily he’s a werewolf. she thinks his choice of name is hilarious. she tells him that she wants to be lily because her parents always wanted to name both their children after flowers, but it’s hard to find boy’s names that are also flowers. remus tells her it’s a beautiful name.

she also introduces him to the boys she shares a dorm with. remus already knows who they are, but he hasn’t talked to them much. he’s been too busy with other things to seek out friends he doesn’t share a room with. they’re lovely though, all of them. james, sirius, peter, frank. frank seems like the odd one out, but lily tells remus that he doesn’t mind. his friends are in other houses. the other three boys like remus immediately. the four of them spend all their time together, they become notorious, and remus loves them just as much as he loves his roommates, and he didn’t know he’d ever have this many friends, and he loves it.

he comes out to them, and to his roommates, after sirius approaches remus one day, looking nervous, and says that they read somewhere about they/them pronouns and that they’d like to use those. they look terrified, and remus hugs them and says he’s proud of them and says i’m sort of like that too, and that’s how he comes out. lily does as well, shortly after. then dorcas. one by one, they find out that nearly everyone in the group is queer. they all think it’s amazing and hilarious and fantastic.

for a few years, remus won’t wear skirts at all, won’t touch makeup unless it’s to help sirius, doesn’t want to risk being seen as a woman at all if he can help it. but then he graduates, moves out from home, moves in with his friends, and the more he is seen as a man, the more comfortable he becomes with the idea of femininity.

he thinks, and he talks to sirius, and he decides that he does like they/them pronouns, and starts using them alongside he/him. they let sirius do their makeup sometimes, he steals some of their clothes, or lily’s. they start to relax in their gender, because they can. because he feels more comfortable now than he ever has in his life, and they don’t really want to have to go to all the trouble of performing a whole gender anyway, when it’s so much easier to just exist. so that’s what he does. he exists

[btssavedmylifeblr]

I forgot to send on my voting story. Ok so my brother and I both got mail in ballots, and let me tell you how we both forgot to mail it in so we just thought to bring them to our voting location. The lady there kinda yelled at us? She was confused and didn't know how to go about it. And honestly I just took it because we were the idiots who didn't mail in our ballots. We had to rip them up and they just us new ones to fill out in person and submit. Not exciting, but a story for void snippet. 👀

Anonymous said: Hi!! I'm so excited for void! I voted today around 30 minutes before the polls closed in my neighborhood because I had to wait for my dad and brother to get home from work since they wanted to go all together hehe. It was a pretty fast process! We just pressed buttons on screens (compared to last election where we had to bubble in everything by hand) plus, I got to keep the stylus that they gave us and it works on phones too! 🥰🥰 Thank you! I love your writing so much 💜💜💜

Anonymous said: I did mine through mail me and my husband did and we went to the post office a little while back and then he took us on a nice little date afterward and we got ice cream! Also I love void💖 keep up the good work

Anonymous said: VOTES FOR VOID??? I love democracy and I love VOID! So since May I've (temporarily) moved back home from New York to Indiana RE: covid; I've voted absentee for the both the primaries and presidential election (I'm still in IN rn...blah). I voted early and mailed in my ballot for the presidential election (about 3 weeks ago). Made sure my family was voting (brother mailed it in, mom dropped off a ballot, and dad did early voting) and encourage them to put up a Biden sign in our yard <3

Anonymous said: HI BEE! I ALSO VOTED TODAY! IM 21 SO THIS IS MY FIRST TIME VOTING FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION (my 18th bday didnt make the cutoff since im a december bday) im so happy to have done my part! I made sure to study up on the judges and policies and everything! Luckily the polling place didn't have a line so i was able to get in, get my ballot, and fill it in right away! I even dragged my mom and cousin to come with me. I made a joke on snapchat to encourage my friends to vote too. It was a pic of my "i voted" sticker with a caption saying "omg youre so sexy when you vote aHaha" -🦙

Anonymous said: this is my first time doing this so, so i hope i’m sending this correctly! i voted early in late september by mail! i live in a swing state, so it’s really important for me to vote and not waste time!! bc of my age, this is my first time voting so i’m really nervous 😅

Anonymous said: I voted by email! I'm overseas so I wasn't sure if my ballot would actually make it through in time, so I decided to go electronically. Had to sign a waiver saying I understand that my vote won't be anonymous but I haven't been given a reason to suspect voter suppression/fraud in my state, so I'm happy I think...!

Anonymous said: hi, i voted early on oct 24th. my absentee ballot didn't come in, so i had to travel back home to vote (~3 hour drive). when we got there, there was a ton of people outside the polling place, but no lines, so i was in and out pretty quick. it was my first time voting, so i had all the candidates i was voting for written down on a tiny receipt so i wouldn't forget 😅. my mom was with me, so she voted too. took a pic with my sticker (mask on for extra covid-ness) and went home. drove back the next afternoon!

whippedforkook said: Hi Bee. 💕 I voted in early October - nearly a month ago! 😱 It’s been really weird with all the lead up to the election because it felt like it should have been done once I cast my ballot! A lot of my friends have volunteered to get out the vote: writing postcards to voters, texting, phone banking, working the polls, curing ballots. I didn’t volunteer at all this year, but I hope that all of my friends’ hard work and everyone else’s is enough. I’m also hoping and praying that I will be in a better place mentally for 2022 so that I too can volunteer. Our work starts with 2020 not ends. 💕 Wishing you well. 💕

begineuphoria said: I went and voted last Friday as it was our last early voting day. No way was I going to wait until today with the crowds of people in my area that still act as if masks are somehow infringing on their rights. 🙄 It was a rather normal experience for the most part. Other than having to use a coffee stir stick to press the buttons on the machine to vote. In and out within five minutes.

Anonymous said: I voted down the street at this pretty park this morning. I got up at 5:30 and it was freezing. Luckily I wore like 30 layers and stood outside for 2 hours. Some nasty orange man supporters were rude but everyone else was pretty nice. A really cute older couple was playing soccer with pine cones and kicked it towards me to play too. Not the worst time tbh.

Anonymous said: Did mail-in voting in California! Extremely exhausting and took forever to research all the propositions - they are notoriously tricky in hiding their flaws and one side tends to outrageously outspend the other. But in the end I felt really good about my research and decisions! No need for you to post a snippet for this story - would like to save that to read sometime in the future ;) Thank you so much for doing this!

joonsgotthejuice said: Votes for void??? I am here! I went last Thursday and it was chaotic bc I kept going past the poll place but the line was soooo long so my mom called me and woke me up like "its pouring rain and the line is super short get up I'm gonna pick you up" so thats the story of how I got dressed in 5 minutes and dragged my ass to vote in the rain <3

Anonymous said: i voted early on thursday it was cold and rainy but i went in the late afternoon and thankfully the only waiting i did was a few minutes for an elevator i got very lucky and while waiting for the results is awful the relief that came from voting in general was just great

Anonymous said: Wheeew the polls just closed and I finally got to cast my ballot yayyy ( I was the one working the polls from earlier) it’s been a really really long day and we actually had surprisingly good turnout. I saw a woman try to vote for someone else who claimed to be “helping” and I saw a woman who I’m pretty sure was on some typa something 👀 Overall though I really I’m really thankful for people like you who encouraged people to get out and vote. I hope the odds are in our favor❤️🤞🏼

chelsea-chee said: Hello Bee! Today surprisingly my elderly father wanted to vote so I brought him out with me. He only cared about voting for Biden, which meant I got to help decide who he should vote for with the rest of the candidates and amendments! Say hello to baby bee for me as well! 💖

Anonymous said: Okay I gonna got a chance to vote today and the process wasn’t that bad actually. I went in just now and it wasn’t that busy( thankfully) so no lines. I’m from Texas and it’s gonna be almost impossible to turn this state blue, but every vote counts! I love that you are getting people to vote and also sharing your experiences as well!

owl-orgy said: Dropped off my mail in ballot at a polling location! I originally wanted to vote early in person because I was worried my signature wouldn’t match closely enough but ended up just turning it in and double checked today to make it said “ballot accepted and counted”!

Anonymous said: I voted in person this afternoon, better late than never I guess. I was gonna go last week but then I got cramps from hell. There was no one in line in front of me, I think my county early voted because it was packed everyday the last few weeks

Anonymous said: I voted early a couple weeks ago. Exciting thing though that did happen was I got both my parents to vote for their first time ever.

Anonymous said: I had a mail in vote. So, I filled it out and dropped it in at the ballot box at my library. (I also checked out books for the first time in years, so I had fun!)

bubblyjiminnie said: I literally just finished voting. Lucky for me, the line and wait wasn’t very long, and it was a nice enough day that the short amount of time I had to spend in line outside of the building wasn’t too bad. My social anxiety when it comes to stuff like this tends to be high but that’s what I get for waiting until Election Day instead of going the mail in route. This was only my second time voting, but I’m glad that I did 😊

Anonymous said: I turned my ballot in last week :) I’m not a big fan of crowds and I hate make spur of the moment choices but despite that the first time I was able to vote back in 08 my Mom pressured me into voting in person because “you’d have to experience it at least once in our life”. And ever since then I comfortably vote by mail. I take my time, do all of my research, listen to music, and best of all don’t have to deal with people.

Anonymous said: here in Washington state it’s super easy to vote. I dropped my ballot off in mid-October and it’s already been accounted for! Mail in voting and drop box voting is fantastic and provides equal opportunity and access. Sad to see some people in red states misinforming Americans about it! We also have a referendum for implementing mandatory sex ed, including teaching respect, empathy and consent as part of the curriculum so I was happy to vote yes on that too!

unionrox006 said: I voted about 2 weeks ago by doing a mail in ballot. The other eligible to vote members of my household did the same. We chose to vote by absentee ballot because both my mom and I have an autoimmune disorder, so we have to be careful going out in the pandemic. Tbh, the ballot layout was a bit confusing at first as was all the paperwork and required IDs and documents. But my dad explained it to me and we got them filled out and mailed off. Kinda mad I didn't get a sticker for it though

bluetostone said: Love this and so excited for the next chp of void! I early voted a few weeks ago and because I live in a pretty rural county I was in and out of my polling place in a few minutes. No sticker though 😢. I live in a swing state so it could go either way in terms of delegates. Just praying everyone is safe tonight as the results roll in...though, won't we not know for sure for a couple of days or weeks?

Anonymous said: My mom, sister, and I received our early voting ballots a while ago and I took the longest to fill mine out because it was making me anxious :,( but I did return it before it was due. I checked our ballot statuses and mine and my moms were accepted but my sister’s said they hadn’t received hers back. Then she got another ballot so she filled that one out too and I took it yesterday 👍👍 I think she got two because she changed her address late so they sent two?

vixsynsblog said: Non-interesting voter story: I'm paranoid and live in a highly divided area, so I filed mail-in ASAP, mailed it a few days after cause neighbors are nosy and don't understand boundaries. Was able to track my ballot through my credit company, which was nice. Only thing I was missing was my sticker. Never got one✊😔. So I had to improvise and write it in pen on my disposable mask. I'm working all this week so if riots break out from either side, I'll be at work. Prayers for the safety of others🙏

______

Waaah!!! Thank you all for voting!! You are all my heroes. I am so grateful and proud of you. I’m sorry I ran out of time to respond to you individually. I’m going to drop two big scenes from Chapter 7 in gratitude (one of which will be familiar to my patrons and one won’t). I’m hopeful I will have the whole next chapter out very soon. Love you all!

Void spoilers below the cut.

When you wake up in the morning, there are still no signed HR forms in your messages. Had you been a fool to think they were interested? How much time does it take to decide such a thing? Perhaps just by putting the idea out there explicitly, it had lost all of its taboo appeal. 

There is a calendar reminder waiting for you: Today is chili pepper pollinating day. At least this gives you an excuse to talk to Hoseok. 

You find the science officer in the lab as always, sitting with his knee up against his chest. Hoseok doesn’t look well. He’s got dark circles under his eyes.

“Hey, um…” You shuffle your feet. Want to fuck me? No wait…“You don’t look good. Were you here all night?” you ask.

He blinks at you, bleary-eyed. “Um, was I? Yeah.. I suppose. Lost track of time.” He rubs his eyes, before looking you up and down, then casting his gaze back to the floor. 

All you want to do is ask about the forms. Or the meeting. Or what he thinks of you now. But you don’t. “I need to pollinate the chili peppers today.” Usually Hoseok is the person who assists with that. “But I can get one of the other guys to do it if you need the sleep.”

“No!” Hoseok lurches forward, standing up a bit to rapidly and needing to put his hand back on the bench to steady himself. “I mean, I’m fine.” 

You should disgaree with him. He is exhausted. But you’d like more time to talk to him. 

Pollinating the chili peppers is both time-sensitive and time-consuming, hence why it took two of you to get the job done. There were no insects on your ship to do the job for you and if they didn’t get pollinated, they wouldn’t bear any fruit. Your chili peppers were your favorite crop. Not only a vital source of Vitamin C, but all your food benefitted from having a bit of spice added to it. 

You and Hoseok head for the greenhouse together. The intital set-up gives you something to talk about in the beginning. Hoseok gathers the pollen from one flower onto a paintbrush, then hands it over to you to paint onto the stigmas of each little flower on the next plant in the line.

Slowly the conversation dries up as you fall into a silent rhythm. Other than just enjoying the chili peppers, you must admit that this was one of your favorite tasks on the ship because of the high likelihood that the two of you would brush hands peridically. Always gave you butterflies. But today he seems extra intent on keeping his distance from you. Was he disgusted by you now? His hands are trembling.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” 

His hand twitches so hard that a little rain of yellow pollen cascades onto the floor. He curses in frustration before turning to face you. “Are you sure you’re okay?” 

“Um, yes, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“This, um, plan of yours…” he gestures to the vague tension in the air. “It doesn’t feel like you.”

“I’m trying to save the mission. That has always been my top priority.”

“Yeah, I’m still not clear on how this benefits the mission.”

“Yoongi said…” you start to say, but are cut off my Hoseok’s derisive snort. 

“Look, if you’re in love with Yoongi, just go date him, okay? Don’t feel obligated to include the rest of us out of pity.” 

You frown. “I’m not… I’m not in love with him. It’s just sex. Just biology.” 

“This isn’t you!” Hoseok argues back. “You hated the idea of anyone of us ever treating you that way. And now you just want all of us to… to… use you like that?”  He splutters out the end of the sentence.

“No one is using me! This is my plan! I’m in charge!”

He sighs. “Well, I can’t be a part of it. Excuse me.”

______

Taehyung finds you in the gym. It’s good to see him up and about, even if his arm is still in a sling. 

“Hey, so I need to talk to you about this, um, ape sex thing.” He fishes awkwardly into his pockets and pulls out his tablet.  Maybe Jimin was right. Is Taehyung going to be the first to take you up on your offer?

You pause your jog on the elliptical machine. You wish you weren’t so sweaty and gross for this conversation. Taehyung is such an intimidatingly attractive man with those strong eyebrows and that perfect skin. 

Taehyung opens up the tablet and flips to the form. It’s happening. He’s going to sign the form. Shit. Then what will you do? It’s one thing to say you want to have sex with your whole crew, but what if he’s hoping to go right now? You need a shower. 

Taehyung has really nice hands. Long strong fingers delicately navigating the touch screen. It seems totally improbable that a man this attractive would be into you, even if you were the only woman in the universe. It just adds to your suspicions that hormones are driving everyone crazy. Perhaps if you slept with him once, he’d lose all interest. 

He finds the form and then turns his gaze up to you, staring you down with those eyes. It’s a good thing that Taehyung rarely turns his full gaze on you, because it is almost too much to bear. Shit, is he just going to sign it? Is he waiting for you to give him some sort of signal?

“You can’t do this to Jimin,” he says.

“What?” Not what you were expecting. “Do what to Jimin?”

“This.” He gestures over the HR form. “Signing these forms with everyone. Having sex with everyone. You’re going to destroy Jimin.”

“Jimin’s the one who suggested this whole thing in the first place.” It’s a lie. You know its a lie. Or at least a gross exaggeration. But Jimin was the one who first brought up the idea of sharing. All for the benefit of the man in front of you now. 

“No way.” Taehyung scoffs, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. “No way was it Jimin’s idea that you sleep with the whole crew.” 

“Well…” You can’t bear his gaze anymore and look down at the floor. “He wanted me to sleep with you.”

That surprises Taehyung. He puts down the tablet. “What? Why would he want that?”

This is awkward. “He, um, thinks you’re in love with me.”

“What?” There is only surprise on Taehyung’s face. It’s actually a relief to see that Taehyung is just as shocked by that idea as you were. “Why does he think that?”

“I don’t know…” You feel kind of dumb now. Of course, Taehyung doesn’t feel that way about you. Look at him. “Cause you told him you were jealous. Cause you can’t stand to be in the same room as us…”

Taehyung bites his lip. “Oh, um, shit, sorry, that’s not what I meant.”

If Taehyung isn’t jealous of Jimin... 

“Taehyung…” He looks up, biting his lip. “What did you mean? Who are you jealous of?” 

Taehyung’s eyes widen, but he doesn’t say anything. Instead he reaches for his microphone and mutes it. Out of respect, you mute yours as well. He glances toward the camera in the corner of the room, then stands up and begins unzipping his jumpsuit. 

“Um…” You are distracted by the golden arms that peak from either side of the tank top as the zipper reaches his groin. “What are you doing?”

“Need something to block the camera.”

“We have towels,” you mutter.  But he’s already stripping out of his shirt. The musculature of his back ripples. He hangs the shirt off of the camera to block the rest of the room from view. 

“Yeah, but this way anyone watching will think we’re having sex.” His chest is just as attractive as his back and you flush at the sight of it. Mercifully, he zips back into his jumpsuit as he returns to his position in front of the exercise machine. 

“You want them to think we’re having sex?”

“Don’t you? It plays right into your whole save the mission with bonobo sex plan.”

“I suppose.” Though the plan was also supposed to be that there would be no more secrets between the crew. “What plan of yours does it play into?”

“The one where Jimin doesn’t realize I’m in love with him.”

“You’ve never tried to tell him?”

Taehyung laughs wryly and shakes his head. “How would that conversation go? Hey man, I know we’ve known each other for years and I’ve already seen you naked and that you just think of me as a friend, but I’m in love with you. I know that’s awkward but now you have to spend the next twelve years with me, knowing that I’m attracted to you when you don’t feel the same way.” Taehyung sighs. “Doesn’t sound like a good plan to me. If he doesn’t feel the same way, I’ve just ruined the friendship for nothing and then I don’t even have that.”

“Yeah… I get that.”  There’s something touching about realizing that Taehyung has been fighting the same battle as you for the last two years. 

“I couldn’t tell anyone before launch because what if they wouldn’t let me go then? You know?”

“Yeah, the director wasn’t big on sending anyone who might ‘complicate’ the mission.” The two of you share a sad knowing smile. 

“Yeah… And I thought it would be fine, you know? I like women too. I’d just date women until launch and no one would know. I wasn’t planning on falling in love with my roommate.”

“I don’t think any of us really knew what this would be like.”

“I knew it was going to be a problem. I should have pulled out…” 

Your mind flashes back to that moment of doubt when Hoseok talked you into still coming on the mission.

“But I couldn’t just let him go off into space without me. Even if he’d never feel the same way, at least he’d still be in my life.”

The emotion in Taehyung’s words makes your eyes begin to mist. “You really do love him.”

“Yeah,” Taehyung sighs again. “But he’s in love with you.”

“Well, he thinks he is.”

“What does that mean?”

“He only feels like that about me cause he thinks I’m the only option.”  You wonder if maybe he would feel differently if he knew about Taehyung’s feelings. 

Taehyung frowns and shakes his head. “You don’t give him enough credit.”

“Oh come on, you know him. How many women did he date while we were in training?”

“A few…” 

“And how many of them was he in love with before he found the next one?”  

Taehyung bites his lip. He can’t really argue with that. “So why are you with him then, if you don’t think it’s real?”

You shrug, rubbing your arm. “He wants me. It’s nice to feel wanted, I guess.”

“You know you could have that with any man on this ship right?”

You scoff. “They’re all suffering the same delusion. It’s only-available-vagina syndrome. I just want us all to fuck and get it out in the open. Maybe if we could get it out of our system, they would see I’m nothing special. And then we can get back to the mission.”

Taehyung eyes you up and down. “You don’t give yourself enough credit either.”

You shrug. “You wait and see. Jimin will get bored of me. They all will.”

The two of you both slump backwards in your seats, mulling over your shared woes.  Taehyung bends down and picks up the tablet again. “So what should I do with this?”

“Obivously, you don’t have to sign it. I should have realized that not everyone would be interested.”

“Jimin thinks I’m in love with you?”

“Yeah…”

“Is it okay if we let him think that for now? At least until I figure out how to tell him the truth?”

“Okay.”

Taehyung smiles and signs the bottom of the form, then sends it to you. Your phone lights up with a message. “Thank you,” he murmurs before he leaves. 

[graines-and-grains]

Graine 2/4/19: The Advent Of Rage Marketing

I recently binged season one of “Goblin Slayer” season 1 and 4 episodes of “Rising of the Shield Hero” after many recommendations from reviewers i frequent. When they initially came out i was preoccupied with watching other shows or helping friends catch up on shows i had already seen. Mostly everyone i knew was watching it weekly on release. Not due to them being avid manga readers anticipating an anime release but in spite of the backlash the release created on social media. The following review of the two programs is to illustrate if they can deliver as entertainment by themselves or if they flounder without political outrage acting as a tentpole. Keep in mind that this is not to serve as a quality comparison between the anime and manga as i have not read the manga versions of either. “Goblin Slayer” is a rather generic fantasy story with faceless enemies and a faint allegory and political commentary on rape culture. Faint being the key word here. The first two episodes clearly set a darker tone of a more physically realistic fantasy setting where a lack of experience can lead to a quick death, or worse. That an enemy no matter how small should be taken seriously. However, this air of danger dissipates as soon as the show offers the protagonist a fully experienced party and some quick ex-machinae. The rest of the show is essentially a cake walk for goblin slayer and the supporting cast. Some might say that the last resorts are clever and well thought out additions to the sakuga as they are explained, they are still explained somewhat poorly. Alternatively screen time could have been used to show how events transpired in order, allowing for possible character building. We could have seen more into whatever association the goblin slayer and the witch (simply called “witch”) had together, how the goblin slayer persuaded the witch for high tier scrolls that are powerful enough to hold the awe of hundred year old adventurers,  why the sword maiden chose to do the things she did, or how she had the ability to do so despite her fear of goblins, and the sudden change of heart of the guild’s adventurers to help for little pay despite being one note for the larger duration of the season. One would hope that sacrificing the quality of the action of the show would leave more time for the writing and themes to be further developed. Unfortunately this is not the case. The accuracy of the allegory ends at the refusal of assistance from the law or high ranking adventures. The goblins are too faceless and too feral to be an accurate symbolism for rape. I’m not sure if that was the creator’s intent, perhaps it was not. Most reviews i had watched or read depicted praised “Goblin Slayer” as an accurate allegory for rape culture. If the creator of the series did intend for the show to service a politically charged audience with its morals, it failed. There is no clear group of people who travel in tribes or dwell in caves that plan to abduct, rape, and kill innocents from neighboring towns. Not in civilized society anyways. Rape is often perpetrated by individuals. Whether they’re aggressively horny criminals, close-knit predatorial friends, associates and family, or extremists; rape can come from anywhere. You cannot spot them in the street by their appearance like a goblin. You cant lead a feral pack of rapists to a town and then say “ok go rape the populace”. Rape is not a plague or a race, it’s a culture. Please do not go into “Goblin Slayer” expecting a riveting story with a political message. I believe that the lack of attention to the show’s aspects comes from a jack of all trades mentality that focused too much into giving equal screen time to plot, action, and the proverbial soapbox. Given its state of lack-luster writing quality and animation (rumored in comparison to the manga, which more brutally emphasised dire circumstances during the story), im lead to believe that the majority of why “Goblin Slayer” was so popular was because a community of viewers that notoriously loves to piss off the left, watched the program out of spite. If not for the political backlash, i probably would have never watched it. Overall it felt like a diet/discount berserk. A tale for those who don’t feel like sharing the mass suffering and loss that other more well respected stories endured but still want some edge in their seasonal anime selection. “Rising of the Shield Hero” is another story. Many claim that the show is revenge fantasy for “incels” or “M.G.T.O.W.”. This could not be further from the truth. While the protagonist does eventually get his long awaited revenge, the show is not spent too long on getting back at the antagonist, but rather developing a hatred for the antagonist. This show is not a cut and dry revenge fantasy like “Payback” or “DeathWish”. As the apt title describes, this show is about the MC rising from a framed, deposed, felon released from prison only to save the lives of those who hate him to a hero. Facing not only the challenges one endures trying to yield adoration from a state of infamy, but the internal struggle of not losing empathy towards your fellow man despite survival instincts telling you otherwise. The show does not feature any political allegory or moral themes besides doing a thankless job because no one else will, then learning to ask to put your pride aside and ask for help. An overused theme but a powerful one nonetheless. I cannot conduct a proper review as the show is still in production as i write this partial review, but i can say for sure that the backlash surrounding the series release has died considerably faster than the one surrounding “Goblin Slayer”. I’ll have to do more research on which of the two were more popular during production after both are fully released, but those who have seen ROTSH have fallen for its supporting cast and despised its antagonist universally. Compelling an audience to feel for the plot rather then let it pass casually like another average seasonal show usually speaks of its quality. Please don’t let rage marketing out-capitalize word of mouth recommendations. Tell your friends about “Rising of the Shield Hero”, tell them to watch it.

[crouchcs-blog]

✧*:･ﾟ✧  merlin! is that DOUGLAS BOOTH? no, it’s just BARTEMIUS CROUCH JR the SEVENTH YEAR RAVENCLAW ( PUREBLOOD ). we’ve heard rumors that HE ( CISMALE ) is REFINED, GLIB & PERSONABLE but can also be very MERCURIAL, ANTAGONISTIC & MANIPULATIVE. if i had to pick one song to describe HIM it would be I WANNA BE ADORED BY THE STONE ROSES. Good luck with the rest of your time at Hogwarts.   ( M, SHE/HER, 22, GMT )

just to get this out of the way he is the fucking worst. please be aware that i’m aware of this. i hate him!!!

typical blue-blooded rich kid with a family history of having their fingers in every political pie. spoilt, easily bored, charming. just a complete and utter insufferable toff. 

has pathetic man-boy angst pain because his daddy never spent enough time with him or gave him enough attention because he was always at the ministry. wants to make more power for the family and thinks his father’s ruthlessness could be put to better use elsewhere. a total mummy’s boy. 

had the most sought after governess in europe when he was younger, socialised at many pureblood and ministry functions so has impeccable manners if need be. didn’t learn his charm and charisma from his father who has people’s respect solely through being stern and notoriously severe. his mum dotes on him because he’s such a little gentleman.

absolutely hero worships tom. wouldn’t ever say it aloud but he quietly tries to emulate him as much as possible. its as sad as it sounds. thinks he’s a visionary but only in the methods he uses to gain power.

sports the golden pocketwatch that pairs with his father’s. 

awfully manipulative, sort of like a wolf picking off the lame sheep of a herd he picks up misfits or people who are struggling and instils confidence in them, tutors them, befriends them or does whatever they need to get their loyalty. will tell five different people the exact same thing about them being his most trusted and closest confidante to reassure them. 

doesn’t particularly believe in any sort of blood disparity just is along for the power grab and the ride. wants to be on what is clearly the winning side. will spew dogma at the drop of a hat in meetings though.

( blood, alcohol, substance abuse, violence tw ) feels like he’s a suffering misunderstood intellectual, has harrowing mood swings that he rarely controls in private. self-medicates with anything he can get his hands on. may have been part of a tip to the prophet about dumbledore’s awful influence. the poor boy taken advantage of by an authority figure and from such a promising family how awful. cue pictures of crackhead crouch™ . 

can be funny and clever, genuinely, however he’s just not a good person who only betters himself for his own benefit and certainly not in healthy ways. hedonistic and self-centred, always. 

is a prefect, in the orchestra (plays the violin), duelling and slug club.

excellent grades and an exceptionally intelligent and talented individual. i mean the motherfucker in the og timeline tampered with the triwizard cup then turned it into a portkey and planted all the clues that drove the plot of the goblet of fire after being in prison for years and then his dad’s pet under imperius with no free will. at least ten years with no opportunity to learn or research.

is one of those pseudo intellectual boys who read fight club and completely misinterpret the message and thinks nihilism is a Hot Take.

I DON’T HAVE TO SELL MY SOUL, HE’S ALREADY IN ME. I WANNA BE ADORED. you adore me.

so essentially barty was desperate for attention from the get go, he just wanted to connect with people when he was younger and chased that for years but now he wants to be adored so he can take advantage of people. he no longer feels as if he has an emotional need for it. 

swirling a glass of wine to scent the bouquet, galleons raining out of the palm of your hand, the throbbing pain of a hangover-comedown while curled in expensive sheets, the satisfaction of shattering a ming vase that has been around twenty times longer than you have been alive, a laugh that sends shivers down other spines, the waft of expensive aftershave left behind when someone walks by, a shirt buttoned to the throat fastened with a silken tie, the freshly-stung nerves up and down your arm from the first time you cast the cruciatus curse, the shift of the most fashionable dress robes against the floor of the ministry, muttering to yourself by candlelight.

if you wanna plot feel free to message me, i imagine alot of the IMs will  prob be ‘haha ym character would want to fucking deck him’ which is fair bc i do too xsjfkdsfs

[morphogenetic]

hiromi for the character meme? i love his design omg i would love to know more about him

anon this is a blessing i really needed to flesh him out bc i literally just named him completely today and this gives me the perfect excuse to talk about him. note that finch and rabia are the other two main protags of the story and i haven’t actually developed them that much but….they’re HereB A S I C S

full name: hiromi tsugumi. theres a pun in there but if i explain it i will ruin part of the plot of my story, so

gender: very much A Guy, cis guy [he’s one of the few cis people in my story actually, he’s a Good Cis]

sexuality: bi, 80-20 male pref 

pronouns: he/him, he’ll take they/them bc he doesn’t Really care but he/him

(im adding this bc why not) height: Tall Boy. 5′10. his parents are pretty average and are both shorter than him so no one is quite sure how that happened.

O T H E R S

family: older sister who has long moved out, younger sister, parents, grandfather who lives with them. haven’t fleshed them out much but his parents own a restaurant and are Baller at cooking. (hiromi is….not good at cooking.) they’re middle class but not Super rich, in all likelihood

birthplace: Somewhere In America, probably la tbh but i haven’t really even figured out where this takes place yet, so. (for the record he’s sansei)

job: pizza delivery guy, he likes driving and this lets him listen to a ton of music so it’s good for him. he’s a combined pre-med/music student on top of also having a part-time research thing too

phobias/mental stuff: the fear that he’s going to disappoint his family and everyone he loves constantly, which often pushes him into overworking himself. he also has generally high levels of anxiety though that isn’t exactly a phobia, and he’s also bipolar but has been on meds for a while so his swings don’t happen nearly as often as they used to

guilty pleasures: not really guilty but? he really loves music so sometimes he’ll fucking blast metal/screamo when he’s driving his pizza route. absolutely no one would peg him for a metal/screamo fan. he’s also pretty edgy tbh, still in his mcr phase. when he drinks he gets....drunk as all hell, but it only happens at the end of the semester also getting off to the idea of kissing finch before they’re actually dating cough

M O R A L S

morality alignment?: hmmm haven’t thought about this much but i’m gonna say…..lawful neutral? with a side of neutral good to him. he’s less lawful in the sense of actual laws and more in the sense of internal senses of duty

sins - envy, jesus fuck is he envious of literally every single person who he thinks is better than him. he will work himself to the bone in order to try to be better than other people and gets jealous of people who have a GPA that is 0.01 higher. also this isn’t really a sin but he can get really really possessive really fast, and gets kind of mad when he’s in a gathering with finch and rabia and they don’t talk to him. also not really a sin but it’s really hard for him to let himself relax, like he feels bad if he isn’t working

virtues - he is very, very detail-oriented and very diligent about achieving all of his tasks, he’s that guy in college who does all his homework a week before the deadline. he is also very willing to lend an ear to his friends, even if he’s notoriously bad at giving them advice.

T H I S - O R - T H A T

introvert/extrovert: introvert and he will literally go days without talking to anyone except the professor who he does research with, like if finch, raven, or rabia don’t check up on him he will literally not talk to anyone who he doesn’t have to talk to for work

organized/disorganized: organized as FUCK, he does all of his homework a week before it’s due. he has six different planners. why? who knows. only him. he has a pizza job and a part time research job and is a double-major premed/music student and no one knows how he does it

close minded/open-minded: he’s open-minded to new knowledge but if you try to tell him to stop thinking so rigidly about himself? No. He Will Not.

calm/anxious: he’s anxious as fuck but his anxious behavior is to Look really calm even though he’s internally screaming so….calm on the outside, Disaster on the inside. always slightly vibrating from how much coffee he drinks

disagreeable/agreeable: he’s pretty agreeable but not in the friendly way is the way i’d put it. it’s not likely for him to actively disagree with someone because he’s pretty passive, even if he internally is disagreeing.

cautious/reckless: not really either honestly? he’ll go with the choice that he thinks is logical, but he’s not strictly very cautious.

patient/impatient: impatient as FUCK despite the fact that he knows he should be patient. again he seems patient on the outside, but internally? Please Do That Thing Oh My God Oh My God Oh My God

outspoken/reserved: reserved but with finch and rabia he can get really outspoken and honestly kind of annoying. which is not something you would expect on first view

leader/follower: he’s more of a follower/supporter type, he’s literally a healer [as in healing magic! surprise fuckers this is a modern fantasy story] and he prefers being the strategizer anyway so it works for him.

empathetic/unemphatic: he’s empathetic but he doesn’t tend to show it much? like when you know him you can tell when he is but he has to pretend to be a lot of the time

optimistic/pessimistic: pessimistic For Sure, he’s literally never going to believe someone if they tell him something will work out all right if he’s stressed out about it. it does work out all right but he’s also the most organized person on the planet so that’s pretty much to be expected.

traditional/modern: weird mix of both, i think? he’s internally very traditional in his beliefs a lot of the time, but he also listens to screamo so. idk. you tell me. the way i’d describe him is “types in lower caps but is still a grammar prescriptivist and rarely uses slang”

hard-working/lazy: hard working, if that wasn’t already obvious by the double-major premed/music thing. it’s honestly kind of ridiculous how good he is and finch is permanently in awe.

R E L A T I O N S H I P S

otp: see below

ot3: finch/hiromi/rabia! i haven’t really mentioned rabia much, but she’s the main female protag [finch is nb and the Main protag overall, and hiromi is the main guy protag]. he’s more friendly w rabia than anything else but they do like each other too, though definitely not in the same way they like finch.

brotp: raven, who i also haven’t talked about at all but she’s the cool butch fencing assistant. she’s closer with finch (best friends w them actually) but is friends with hiromi by proxy. ironically i think he’s closer with phoebe who is raven’s gf but i haven’t fully figured that out yet. and finch, before they start Officially dating, since they’re childhood pals, and they’re still great friends when they do start being more than friends

notp: …anyone who isn’t finch or rabia tbh. at the very least i would question any pairing that doesn’t involve him and finch bc they’re just so close.