#it’s an intimate subject and they’re helping each other through it in their unique ways

[najikasunart]

So if the faefolk can take names and identities, can they take gender? Can they trade them?

Happy pride month yall, I think Hyrule and Legend should trade genders. MtF Legend and FtM Hyrule bonded with fairy magic living their best lives. 🏳️‍⚧️

[snellyboi]

Ideas for the Owl House Musical

Dana Terrace has gone on record as saying “No, there won’t be a musical episode” or...something along those lines. But my failed musical composition career makes me uniquely qualified to Armchair-Sondheim my way through a score for an Owl House musical. Below the cut you can see some titles and liner notes! But it’s a long post so I’ll be adding a cut for convenience.

Oh, and if you have song ideas, feel free to add them on! Also, ask for permission before doing any arrangements/sketches of these ideas, simply put I may be using them as fan material in the future, ESPECIALLY the Hunter ones.

SERIOUS NUMBERS:

These are the showstoppers. The ones that get played all the time on Sirius XM’s On Broadway, between Seth and Christine talking about, like...Andrew Rannells’ dog or whatever. The stuff that gets performed at every student recital, that’s sung in every audition after the show gets nominated for a Tony. Hell, one of these songs is probably what they sing AT the Tonies!

Mother (Luz, Camila, Vee): What musical that has anything to do with a mom is complete without a song about moms? Sung when Luz is fading away from contact with her mother - Probably an act ending or something like that.

I Cannot Be Her (Lilith, Edalyn): A more serious take on a song we’ll discuss later, but that is basically Lilith and Edalyn discussing their past problems with each other, and both of them wanting to go back to the way it used to be (Hence not being able to be “Her” - a younger version of the self).

The Stars Outside my Window (Hunter): A soft, tearful, baritone-led, intimate number, dripping with melodramatic strings. A lamentation for his upbringing, specifically the @nadacwriter idea of his upbringing as Lilith’s long lost son, as he clutches Rascal close to his chest. Great for reprises when he falls in love with Willow (YEAH I SAID IT) and when he confronts Belos. That last reprise makes for a GREAT 11 o’clock number.

COMIC IDEAS:

Songs that are there not only to help beef up the count, but also to help keep things from being dower ALL the time. They also help sell tickets and work better in marketing material, and hey, they’re fun to play and fun to sing. Nothing wrong with a simple little tune here and there!

The Best there Ever Was (Gus): ...Gus is fucking awesome, that’s the song. The lead in is him showing off his illusion skills. Great excuse for a dance number but an even better excuse for Gus to be Gus. Who doesn’t love Gus? If there wasn’t an obligation to have other characters involved it’d just be a whole 2 hours of Gus!

I’m Proud of Myself (Because Mama Never Was) (Edalyn, King): Duet where they both talk about how they think they’re great, in spite of parental trauma™. Good stuff.

It Won’t Make me Love You (Amity, Luz, Ensemble): Every romance has at least one song where the leads say “I’m not falling for you, honest!” and then they IMMEDIATELY fall for one another. It’s just the sort of thing a show needs! Fans eat that stuff up and it becomes immediate undergraduate recital fuel - make sure to clinch the rights on that one before it gets to Musescore or IMSLP, though!

ROMANCE NUMBERS:

C’mon. Gotta have a love song. It’s a musical!

A Feeling I Just Never Knew (Luz, Amity): The big Lumity song. Softer, slow ballad, probably a slow groove to it. A bit more light hearted and fun, no ‘Music of the Night’ stuff here. More like Dancing Through Life, but less insidious and a little shorter. 

The Stars Outside My Window (Reprise) (Hunter, Willow): A reprise, featuring a voice from Willow and possibly a round of this and the previously discussed song. Also, uhh, look, I’m a Huntlow shipper. If you ship Hunter with someone else, that’s great! You can swap out Willow’s name and the concept still works great!

I Never Want to Let Go Again (Eda, Raine): A reunion song - their romance is hinted at but they only get back together near the end. The vibe here is something like Send In the Clowns, with an obvious difference in subject.

MISCELLANEOUS:

If these songs make it through workshops and previews, they can stick around, I guess.

Hooty Hooty Hoot (Hooty, King, Ensemble): A dance number oriented around Hooty recounting his dull boring day as a house. That’s it that’s the song. If we don’t give Hooty a song people will be mad at us.

A Day Without Sunshine (Camila): A song where Camila laments her daughter’s changes, and finding out that she’s literally run off. It might be TOO much to have it come right after Mother, but still, Camila should get a big part someplace.

[babsvibes]

Any tips on how to write good banter between characters?

Ohhhhh the trouble you have just found yourself in, my love. Buckle up! You’re about to see how much of a one trick pony I am.

Welcome to: Writing Banter with Babs

Covered here are: tips and tricks, troubleshooting, rule breaking, and an example of banter that works. Surprising no one, it’s Bob’s Burgers and louigan related lol

The key takeaway today will be that banter is character and relationship defining, so that should inform the dialogue. 

Establish your character’s goal for banter. Don’t get me wrong, it can be as simple as “they are argumentative” or “they like to win,” but people (and characters) are fueled by reason AND motivation. They are motivated to banter because they enjoy the challenge, but why on this day, why about this subject, and why with this person? You’ll find when you know your character’s goal that it informs a lot of what they’re saying. Through this medium, it’s a way to explore what MATTERS to a character and who they are. 

Characters have to be able to play off each other. Building chemistry helps with banter because it explains how their traits coincide with each other. Character A is passionate and Character B is stubborn. Together they seem explosive, but when dealing with external circumstances as a team they balance each other by bringing their individual strengths and weaknesses to the table. Characters that are too far in the extreme of similar or dissimilar are going to be harder to work with unless given a unique goal for banter (in reference to the first point).

Establish the level of intimacy between characters. Banter is inherently intimate. One of the reasons I love enemies-to-lovers dynamic is because you have to know your enemy to really get on their nerves. Characters aren’t going to engage each other if they don’t care, so give them a reason to care through personal history. Another way to build chemistry is through understanding the other, and banter’s a great tool for learning more about each other or proving they already know how to provoke the other.

To know each other is to also know what is too far. If you want to keep the banter fun, have your characters be aware of what The Line is. In my Neighbors AU, Louise can never tell Logan he’s unloved whereas Logan can never call Louise weak. If they do, the story becomes very different from whatever I set out to be.

Banter Troubleshooting:

If you are struggling to keep banter fun, see if maybe their reasons for arguing are too personal (or, and I've done this several times, boring).

If you are struggling to keep banter lighthearted, see if a character is actually (either knowingly or unknowingly) crossing a boundary.

If you are struggling to keep banter from ending too soon, see if they need a stronger external drive that would keep them apart.

If you are struggling to get banter going, see if the characters are too similar or dissimilar in their views to care. 

If you are struggling to make the banter sound natural, record yourself saying what you want the characters to say then write it the way you hear it. Ex: “Stop, I could have dropped my croissant.” becomes “Stooop! I could’ve dropped my croissant!” If it still sounds wrong, then the line (and probably the line before it) unfortunately might need to change to be something more in character (relating to their established goals) and natural to your ears.

If you are struggling with what the other character would say in response, research and argue with yourself! I prefer pie, but I needed to write a character defending cake. I asked people who prefer cake why, took those responses and came up with my own rebuttals, then I defended their points against me. It’s a great way to learn how to broaden your perspective!

Of course, break the rules! All of these tips and tricks are meant to be broken if you want to utilize a different kind of banter for your story. Have characters with no intimacy go at each other’s throats right off the bat, make the banter for no reason, have your character cross a line. Becaaauuuseee… what does it say about that character and that story that someone was willing to go there or do that? 

Let’s put all of this together with Louise and Logan’s first episode.

They banter off the bat, and I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Babs didn’t you say there needs to be a level of intimacy for good banter” and hot damn you are correct and thank you for listening. However, Louise and Logan’s first interaction is strong character definition.

Logan, through hearsay, is said to pick on kids. Louise chooses to ignore this and knowingly acts in a way that will provoke him. He takes the bait without fail. What did we learn?

Louise: brave, sarcastic, strong self-advocate, witty/quick with comebacks

Logan: stubborn, immature, protective of space, and is the type of dumbass to have beef with a toddler and lose 

They also play off each other by balancing each other's traits and by utilizing sentence mirroring. Neither character acts their age. Louise is incredibly intelligent for nine, whereas Logan is incredibly immature for a mid-teen boy. They are on each other’s level despite what the audience would see as an obvious power imbalance. We can see examples of this with how they throw repetitive phrases back and forth. Every line matters because, without one line, the next one wouldn’t make sense.

On the second interaction when Louise continues to ignore Logan’s declarations, we establish motivation.

Logan: “I just want no little kids around me when I'm decompressing after school. I'm trying to create a relaxed environment, I'm making my friends feel comfortable, and then you come by with all this attitude!” 

Louise: (through Tina) “Hey, you don't want to mess with my sister. She'll wear down your self-esteem over a period of years.” = Louise prefers to be in a position of power and will not be pushed around.

They even break banter rules and cross a boundary by not knowing each other. Logan doesn’t know Louise well enough to know how far she’ll go after her hat, a firm boundary for her, is taken. All he knows is that she’s worn it at least twice and she’s annoying him. This rule-breaking is why he ultimately faces consequences for his actions (having an adult grab him by the neck and hold a knife up to his ears).

It all comes together to form this super interesting dynamic that I can’t get enough of!

I hope this is helpful and that you’ve enjoyed reading through this nonsense (because I’ve definitely enjoyed writing it). Thank you for the ask!

[scoobydoofenshmirtz]

The Horny Cinematography of Seasons 4 and 5 of Supernatural

So I made this kinda silly post about how horny the late Kripke era of Supernatural was and it was mostly meant as a joke, but then it got me thinking. So I did a little bit of digging, went through some memorable scenes, and noticed some actual patterns in the way Dean and Castiel are shot versus other characters. Disclaimer: this is not exactly a scientific analysis. I didn’t rewatch the entire two seasons for this and there are probably shots with other characters that I missed that go against it, but this is just the general trend that I noticed. 

Click on the images for higher resolution. Analysis is under the cut.

So the general premise of this analysis is that Cas and Dean are shot noticeably close-up, typically staring intensely into each other’s eyes. I think we all know about the whole staring thing, but the actual close-ups were way more intense then I think some people might realize, especially when compared to other interactions between different characters. Cas in particular is shot very close-up frequently whether he’s talking to someone else or by himself (there are so many gorgeous close-ups of Misha in season 4), but the intense eye contact is pretty much only with Dean. 

It starts off almost immediately in 4x01 Lazarus Rising where in Dean and Castiel’s very first interaction, they stand very close and the camera focuses on their faces. First we have two close-ups, then in what is maybe my favorite shot in all of Supernatural, Castiel steps in closer to Dean and the close-ups get even tighter. He tilts his head and stares thoughtfully at Dean with those big blue eyes. Cut to Dean’s look of discomfort after being told (very accurately) “you don’t think you deserve to be saved.”

Things amp up in literally Castiel’s second appearance in 4x02 Are You There God? It’s Me, Dean Winchester with one of the horniest Destiel scenes in the show (again this is only their second interaction!) We have Castiel unexpectedly showing up at Bobby’s house, Dean sassing him, and Castiel stepping very close to Dean and saying “You should show me some respect. I dragged you out of Hell. I can throw you back in.” This is a very tense interaction with some beautiful low key lighting that pretty much went extinct after season 5. Notice how tight the frame is, even compared to 4x01. These are extreme close-ups where both Dean and Castiel’s chins and foreheads are cut out of the frame. 

Castiel’s third appearance in 4x03 In the Beginning is a lot more prominent as he has many scenes throughout the episode instead of just one. I’m not gonna include pictures of all of them because there’s lot, but there are plenty of close-ups and intense gazes between the two (e.g. sitting on the bed, “Hello Dean. What were you dreaming about?” which according to Misha, Kim manners said was “too gay” but they did it like that anyway) and contains the first time they touch and the first time they are shot in more high key lighting. Go rewatch the episode if you want to see more lovely close-ups between Dean and Cas. 

Next I would like to draw your attention to episode 4x07 It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester. This is Castiel’s fourth appearance and the first time we see him interact with a character who’s not Dean. This is where the differences between how they’re shot start to become apparent. First we have Sam’s first interaction with Castiel (greetings blood freak) that is shot with standard close-ups. Eventually, Dean comes in, conversation happens blah blah blah and we get to the more intense discussion about how the angels want to destroy the town. The discussion is between Dean, Cas, Sam, and Uriel, but Dean and Cas get most of the focus. The camera tells us that they are the main subjects in this scene. Dean and Cas are shot more close-up and tighter and they are standing closer and looking in each others eyes unlike Sam who is looking back and forth between them and standing a few steps back. 

Of course this doesn’t stop in season 4. Here is a similar example from 5x02 Good God, Ya’ll! but the difference between Dean and Cas and Sam is even more obvious. This is the “I'm hunted, I rebelled, and I did it, all of it, for you,” exchange which I find interesting. Some people could say here that Cas means “you” plural as in Sam and Dean but the Camera is so focused on just Dean and Cas while Sam just sorta hangs there in the background. 

One thing that I think is interesting is that these types of shots-extreme close-ups with two characters looking into each other’s eyes and standing no feet apart-are not necessarily exclusive to Dean and Cas, but they are usually in a different context. Pretty much all (at least that I could remember) the other examples of this type of shot are between one character and a villain. Below we have three fairly intense confrontations between characters, Sam and Uriel in 4x07 It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester, Dean and Alastair in 4x16 On the Head of a Pin, and Dean and Cas in 4x22 Lucifer Rising. The composition is almost exactly the same with similar lighting as well, but one of these things is not like the other. Very obviously Cas is not a villain and this scene in particular is a huge moment for his character that cements his decision to fully rebel against Heaven for Dean. 

Also characters that tend to be that close together looking into each other’s eyes in two shots are usually villains except for Dean and Cas. Below we have a shot of Ruby and Sam very close together right before he drinks her blood and a very close-up shot of Dean and Alastair both in 4x16 On the Head of a Pin. Compare that to the two shot from 4x02 Are You There God? It’s Me, Dean Winchester above for example. There is a certain sexual nature in these two villain scenes (and a lot of villain interactions on Supernatural in general). Obviously, Sam and Ruby are literally having sex, but Alastair is also portrayed as a villain who sexually objectifies his victims (the torture scene with Ruby, calling Dean “Daddy’s little girl, etc.) but Cas is not a villain and yet the framing is very similar. 

Now I want to compare two fight scenes, one in season 4 and one in season 5. Here we have the fight scene between Ruby and Sam in 4x09 I Know What You Did Last Summer. Ruby is of course a sexy lady who Sam sleeps with in a sexy fight scene where she “proves” that she wants to help Sam by killing the other demon instead of Sam. But of course, the fight scene in 5x18 Point of No Return is shot way more close-up and Dean and Cas are inches away from each other. While I wouldn’t described this scene as “sexy” (Cas is literally beating Dean to a pulp) it is way more charged...intimate isn’t exactly the right word but there’s a similar but more intense erotic energy than in the fight scene with Ruby. 

Unrelated side note: there is a great use of breaking the 180 degree rule in this scene that I think works way better in this instance at disorienting the viewer than the shaky cam does. 

Next I have some random examples I noticed that show some of the different shots between characters. We have Anna in 4x10 Heaven and Hell right before she has sex with Dean. It’s fairly close-up, but still pretty loose framing compared to a lot of scenes between Dean and Cas. Anna’s entire face is still in the frame. Then we have a scene between Sam and Ruby in 4x09 I Know What You Did Last Summer that is also not as close-up as a lot of Dean and Cas scenes. On the bottom is a shot from 5x17 99 Problems which is I think the closest Sam and Cas physically get in these seasons before they ever hug. It’s more of a medium close-up than most of the scenes between Dean and Cas where they get that close. Lastly I have probably the tightest close-ups between Dean and Cas from 4x16 On the Head of a Pin. It’s similar to the shots from 4x02 but the context is pretty different with Cas trying to reassure Dean about the apocalypse. I know these don’t really have a theme but I thought they were good examples of the general pattern.

Finally I would like to point out a scene that is sort of the opposite which is the infamous staring scene in 4x21 When the Levee Breaks that goes on for like an hour. I don’t really know what to say about this scene only that I can’t believe it’s real. They literally just stand and stare at each other.

So what’s the point of all this? I honestly don’t really know. None of these observations are hard and fast rules and I’m sure there are times when other characters are shot like this. However, Dean and Cas seem to be the only ones consistently framed this way-tight close-ups, staring into each other’s eyes standing zero feet apart. What does it all mean? To me it shows that their bond is unique and special (profound you might say). It’s not even like they’re shot in a similar manner to love interests, it’s that their framing is unique, it stands out. Was it on purpose? Maybe. How shots end up looking is interesting because it really is the work of a lot of different people including the director, the cinematographer, the editors and more. I don’t think they were thinking “we should film Dean and Cas in this very intense way because they’re in love” or anything, but they obviously recognized there was something special between these two characters. And truly, the intentions don’t matter all that much to me. What’s there is there, and watching it the first time around I noticed how close Dean and Cas always were and watching it back post 15x18 all those shots stand out even more to me. There’s really no conclusion here, but I think it’s interesting to look a bit more closely at the cinematography in TV shows that we don’t always think of as having the highest quality production. There’s a lot of layers to be discovered outside of scripts and acting and things we tend to focus on more as viewers. 

[orionshounds]

I’ve been knee deep in dsmp lore streams and I just want to ramble about it

Dream smp lore is so good, it’s so good!!! Not only is the story itself just fascinating, but how it’s presented so uniquely through the medium of minecraft of all things is just so cool. One of my favorite parts of the lore is seeing how everyone on the smp has their own “style” they present it in, and watching them find the way they find the most enjoyment in is so cool. Literally no two streamer’s lore stream quite like each others and it’s just incredible! It just speaks to the flexibility of roleplay as an artistic medium and really shows everyone’s individual personalities. 

Wilbur was dramatic as hell and wrote eloquent speeches. He started a drug operation under the guise as a country, and it lead to a revolution in which he was able to explore the spiral of a man who loses control of everything he had built. And after his arc and he wanted a break from the server? He created ghostbur, an amnesic comic relief with just enough touch of tragedy that he is still able to make heartbreaking monologues when he wants to.

Tommy is able to run around with his friends and cause as much chaos to his heart’s extent, but there is so much more than meets the eye. He is incredibly social and isn’t afraid to start conflict with a lot of people, bringing them into the roleplay. He doesn’t back down from storytelling either. His character goes through terrible situations and he fully explores the trauma that comes from those experiences. His character goes against the “stereotypical” trauma I see alot in media; instead of being shy or scared he’s reactionary, he’s angry, he’s violent, he’s depressed. I’m actually really impressed with the heavy subject matter this 17 year old teen has managed to portray (I’ve connected with it quite personally at certain points), while still being able to keep the light hearted fun that’s so intrinsic to his personality. 

Tubbo isn’t really interested in serious lore as much. Even in dire moments he tells jokes and just has fun. So, in his recent lore, he just streams as normal while putting mysterious writing on screen that he doesn’t acknowledge or have to explain, which I think is just a genius work around for him to participate in lore. He still has his dedicated lore streams sometimes, and when he is in the acting zone he has some of the most powerful moments out of everyone on the server.

Ranboo, while having stake in the greater smp lore, is much more character focused. He presents his lore through long monologues and fucking heart-wrenching voice acting. He loves working in themes of horror and causing a specific feeling in the viewer. So he chooses specific music as a themes for events/characters and creates visual queues in his overlays to draw out that desired reaction. He also values improve a LOT, if something unexpected comes up he just runs with it and he has made huge changes to his lore as early as 30 min before a stream.

Technoblade, while arguably one of the most powerful people on the server, prefers a more light-hearted yet dramatic approach to lore. When Dream was at his house looking for Tommy, Techno had no problem joking around and making fun of him for being homeless. He tore down an entire nation on the server and had so much fun doing it! He’s more of an antagonist than a true villain in my opinion. And lets not forget how dedicated he is to the game, he’s cracked at the craft. He spends hours grinding and creating farms on the smp, for amazing pay offs (his several vault reveals, the withers, etc), most of which weren’t even on stream!

Karl Jacobs is extremely social, so he created Tales from the smp as a way to involve TONS of people in lore while exploring the past and future of the server (it was also a way for viewers who weren’t that well versed in dsmp lore to join and not have to worry about it!). And through this premise, he took the opportunity to develop his own character on the smp; making an incredibly tragic story of a time traveler trying to save his home while slowly loosing his memories. Not to mention the beautifully shot cutscenes of the Inbetween and the Other Side. He includes so many people behind the scenes as well, collabing with other members on lore, hiring building teams and people to make intros and credit scenes, and promoting fanart and fansongs from the community!

Quackity explores his lore through heavily scripted events and amazingly shot cut scenes. While the way he expresses his lore comes at the cost of improv, the payoff of the visuals and story is well worth it! The shots he makes of the smp is downright gorgeous, no to mention he’s the first person to include irl footage in his lore (not counting facecams)! He’s not afraid of thoroughly examining his own character, being one of the only people I can think of that shows us “past events” leading up to something that has already happened.

Badboyhalo, Antfrost, Ponk, Skeppy, Captain Puffy, Punz, Awesamdude, Hannahxxrose all work together on shared lore and the payoff is amazing! By introducing the Egg, a constant antagonistic force that constantly pulls on character’s relationships with each other, everyone is able to stream together to battle for or against the egg! There’s also plenty of room for people to do individual lore that's more intimate to their respective character. They spend hours changing vines, putting up posters, slowly shaping the smp in a way that makes it exciting to watch streams to see just what has changed everyday. Because there’s so many people necessary to tell the egg’s story, it does comes at the cost of time (the egg has been around FOREVER). However, they all work together super hard and I just admire their commitment to the story they’re trying to tell!

And Sam! He has several different “Modes” his character is in (and an entirely separate character, Sam Nook) that he gets to explore lore with. He’s a terrifying warden, he’s a money motivated businessman, he’s a conflicted lover, he’s a traumatized victim of the egg, and just so much more. Through having so many different “roles” in the rp he gets to explore relationships and plotlines with a whole array of people. Not to mention he’s absolutely cracked at redstone and has some of the most impressive builds on the server.

And Puffy! So much of her lore is calling into question the morality of the server and really makes you step back and think critically about the characters. Her character also has, in my opinion, one of the most interesting relationships with Dream, the main antagonist of the entire server, which is just fascinating to watch unfold. Not to mention she’s one of the first people to start exploring the backstory of her character!

George doesn’t exactly do lore. In fact he’s slept through so much of it it’s become a meme. And you know what? That mad man took that and ran with it. He explains his absence in the story by having his character literally being asleep through it, creating mystery where there used to just be an absence. He’s able to goof off with his friends and have borderline nonsensical streams, then at the end sucker punch the audience emotionally by “waking up” and have the viewers question just what was real and what wasn’t?

The smp has the freedom for people who want more independent lore to be able to explore their character’s that way as well!

Hbomb, Connereatspants, and Purpled don’t have a lot of lore on the smp, generally only coming on to have fun with everyone, but when they do have their moments it unfolds in very interesting ways!

Sapnap, Eret, and Schlatt maybe aren’t as active as some other people, but when they are on they actively participate in lore and have lasting impacts on the story (Ex: Eret’s betrayal, Sapnap’s visit to dream in the prison, Schlatt becoming president).

Philza mostly does his own thing, improving the server or making some bomb ass builds. He has incredibly devastating roles in lore (killing wilbur, blowing up L’manberg for the final time, starting the syndicate with Techno), but he also has quieter moments that speak to the depth his character has, such as fishing with fundy or reminiscing about his dead son and how it went so wrong. Like Techno, he doesn’t like to take lore completely seriously, often laughing no matter what’s happening or teasing chat after something big goes down, but his character is solid with a lot of potential for future lore.

Foolish has only started on his character and its already super interesting. The hints at his dark past as a “god of death” and his current conflict with the egg are intriguing as fuck. Not to mention the MASSIVE builds he does for everyone, helping to progress their lore as well.

Fundy has a lot of freedom with his character to participate however much he wants in lore. While generally he’s a trickster who loves to prank people he has enough tragedy build into his backstory he’s able to break the viewer’s heart with a flip of a switch. Not to mention his recent, almost surreal, stream that explored his character’s disturbing dreams that may or may not predict the future.

Niki is very character driven, exploring her character's grief of losing her best friend and her anger of being ignored in the very country she helped create. She has incredibly emotional moments, and even though she’s on her own building an underground city she still participates in other lore via teaming with jack manifold or the syndicate.

Jack Manifold’s lore is VERY character focused, and while he’s described his story as a “B plot that occasionally intersects with the main plot”, the story he tells is still fascinating. Being pushed aside not taken seriously his whole life, his character develops into a fun cartoony-esque villain who begs to be taken seriously, that has the depth of a truly conflicted person who is torn between wanting revenge on everyone who’s done him wrong and just wanting a friend.

Last but not least, the man himself, Dream. The most fascinating thing about his lore is that absolutely none of it is from his pov. All we know about his character is only from what we see from everyone else’s povs, and in his case it leads to a very intimidating villain! Not to mention, mans owns the damn server and yet has made himself the main antagonist! He is the only character I consider a “true villain” on the smp. His voice acting and writing is downright sinister. I could write a fucking essay on how his character’s obsession with power has led him to the point he thinks himself an unstoppable god

Everyone on this server is stunning and I love all of them!!!!!

[zodiactalks]

Zodiac Signs and Their Perfect Partners

While it's true that every romantic relationship is unique and depends on a variety of factors, it's also true that compatibility has a lot to do with the success of a relationship.

Yes, compatibility isn't only about zodiac signs, but zodiac signs are usually a good way of telling whether a partner will be compatible or not.

There are exceptions to this rule, but in general, these are the most compatible matches in the zodiac.

Aries

Assertive, impulsive, and well-aware of what they want, Arians will rarely sit around and wait to be seduced, but will instead be the ones to seduce.

They require passion, clear communication, honesty, and, above all else, a partner who can not only tolerate but appreciate Aries' abrasive nature.

The best matches for Aries are Libra, Leo, Gemini, Scorpio, Aquarius, Sagittarius, and another Aries.

Taurus

Taurus is one of the most sensual signs out there, though not necessarily the most romantic.

They appreciate shared experiences with their partners, intimate moments, and experiences that let them live in the moment.

They're slow to trust and will take forever to enter a serious relationship, so potential partners need to be just as patient as them.

Cancer, Virgo, Pisces, and Capricorn make excellent matches.

Gemini

Geminis need a relaxed partner with a laid-back attitude to every aspect of life, including sex and nudity.

They're sensual creatures who enjoy exploring different intimacy styles and prefer having a 'natural' approach to relationships, without all the pomp and circumstance other signs prefer.

For Gemini, the perfect match can be another Gemini or a Sagittarius. Libra, Leo, Aries, and Aquarius are also a good bet.

Cancer

Cancers tend to put their family and loved ones above all else, so they're unlikely to jump into a relationship without some serious consideration.

Cancer's ideal partner isn't in any hurry, prefers a deep bond over casual intimacy, and cares about their family and loved ones with as much intensity as Cancer.

This means that the best match for Cancer is another Cancer, but Capricorn, Taurus, Pisces, and Leo are also great matches.

Leo

When it comes to relationships, Leos prefer to be worshiped, or at the very least, admired and adored.

They want someone who expresses their love in clear and obvious ways and is eager to help Leo achieve their goals rather than stifling them.

They don't like clingy partners, though, so their best matches are Aries, Scorpio, Libra, and Sagittarius.

A Leo/Leo match is also a possibility, as long as their interests and careers aren't at odds with each other. Competition isn't good for a Leo and Leo pair.

Virgo

Virgos are very emotional and tend to demonstrate their feelings in physical and obvious ways, which means they don't usually match with reserved signs.

They like public displays of affection, sensual touching of any kind, and intense intimacy.

In short, whether they want to admit it or not, they crave the typical old married couple style of affection.

Suitable matches for this surprisingly romantic sign is Pisces, Libra, Cancer, Capricorn, and Taurus.

Libra

Libras are big thinkers who enjoy words over acts of love and who treasure the opportunity to talk about all kinds of things with their partners.

They require constant and open communication, honesty, and the willingness and desire to form a deep emotional connection, as they don't jump into relationships without meaning it.

Aries is a wonderful partner for this sign, as they'll be happy to discuss all subjects without taking them personally. Libra, Gemini, Leo, and Sagittarius also make up decent matches.

Scorpio

Scorpios are known for their high sex-drive and their hesitance to jump into relationships right away.

They require to form a deep emotional connection before even considering dating someone, and they tend to commit wholeheartedly once they've found 'the one.'

They're eager to explore new things in bed, and they're very physical with their affections, so they need partners with whom they can share both of these characteristics.

Leo, Cancer, Virgo, and Pisces are excellent matches for this passionate sign.

Sagittarius

Obsessed with their freedom and independence, Sagittarians need someone who won't crowd them and let them live their lives with minimal intervention.

They despise boredom, so their best matches are those willing to try new things and pursue new experiences.

Aries, Gemini, Leo, and Aquarius are a great match, as they can balance being in a relationship with having personal lives.

Capricorn

Capricorn is easily one of the most sexual zodiac signs out there and one of the most emotional, so any relationship with a Capricorn is bound to be intense.

Slow to open and even slower to trust, Capricorn benefits from patient partners who won't pressure them through their relationship, like Taurus, Scorpio, Virgo, and Pisces.

Aquarius

Aquarians prefer a lively and exciting relationship full of playfulness and joy. They also require open communication in every aspect of their lives.

In shorts, Aquarians thrive in relationships where they can simply be themselves.

Aries, Leo, Gemini, Sagittarius, and other Aquarius make great partners for this sign, thanks to their open-minded attitudes.

Pisces

The traditional romantic, Pisces area always on the lookout for a partner that makes them feel special and desired.

They want a partner who loves them in obvious, sometimes even corny ways, and fantasize with finding a lover that's also their best friend.

Perfect partners for this romantic sign are Virgo, Scorpio, Taurus, and Cancer. Maybe even another Pisces, as long as there's balance.

[stormbornbastard]

The Potential In Philoise

gif credit: @vakariaan​

tw/ sexual assault, abuse, depression, suicide, julia quinn’s writing 

AN: Okay, so I said awhile ago I would explain why Phillip and Eloise are my favorite couple in the series so get ready...it’s a bit of a long one. 

I read four Bridgerton books immediately after the show ended. Skipping over The Duke and I because I wasn’t comfortable with the assault scene between Simon and Daphne and also because I had already seen the romance play out onscreen. I fell in love with each romance I encountered, mainly because I didn’t read them as they were but as the show would make them out to be. I romanticized a romance series as weird as that sounds. Yet, none of the romances struck me the way To Sir Phillip, With Love did.

It’s not a perfect book. In fact, it's incredibly problematic. Phillip rapes his depressed wife, Marina (although given Julia’s history with crossing the lines of consent I doubt this is the way she wanted us to interpret the scene. Actually, the way it was written made it seem like we were meant to sympathize with Phillip and his loveless marriage. Hence the way he immediately grows ill afterward.) Marina attempts suicide and dies due to disease later on. Given her storyline in the show and the fact that a young biracial woman is playing her was disheartening, to say the least.

(AN: I don’t consider the character to be Black representation, she’s biracial. As a black woman who enjoyed her character and arc, no part of me felt seen and represented through her because she was half black. She's Biracial rep, not Black rep and that’s okay. Just putting that out there. )

Phillip seeks a woman to take care of his children, fuck and do the shit he doesn’t want to do. His mental illness is handled in such a shitty way. The independent nature Eloise once has is almost stifled by Phillip and what he wants for some reason. He’s neglectful, erratic and he does dismiss potential negative feelings Eloise could have in their relationship because of his past relationship.

It's fucked up. The entire book.

And yet, imagining how this problematic romance would play out on screen once properly adapted for modern audiences makes me fucking giddy. All because of one, simple thing that remains the reason I am so fucking excited to see this pairing onscreen.

The unrealized potential the pairing and Phillip as a character have in the novel.

Let me explain.

Their romance is unique. Phillip and Eloise are not strangers when they meet. They’ve been writing to each other for months, picking each other’s brains every week or so. Getting to know each other in a way that other couples in the series don’t at first. Intellectually. They’re able to keep such a steady, enthralling dialogue through letters, and it's a friendship that they both enjoy. Phillip stimulates Eloise’s mind, something the show has emphasized her wanting, for months. He’s her intellectual equal, or at least...he has the potential to be. Of course, he slaves over the letters (which is cute as fuck because he really just wants her to like him) but it's still his words. It’s his voice. It is Phillip, at his best.

I hope the show can play this up. Phillip is a botanist and a scholar before he inherits his family’s estate. Eloise has a desire to learn and further her knowledge of the world around her. Bonding over their shared love of education, fun banter based around teasing the other and their individual studies, taking an interest in what the other desires to learn.  Reading books together in the greenhouse, etc. The show could easily play up the fact that Phillip was not only a gardener but a literal man of science, something Julia neglects in their book despite it having the possibility of playing a major factor in their love story.

The possibilities of it just...makes me swoon.

Moving on, Eloise choosing to pursue a possible future with this man is a big fucking deal. Running away from home to go after a future for herself IS her displaying her OWN agency. Sure, Phillip poses the question of it but she’s the one who chooses it. Phillip doesn’t demand her to come to him, he simply suggests it and she’s the one who acts. The one who pursues. And if they hadn’t been bombarded by her brothers, it would’ve remained her choice of whether or she wanted to be a part of this man’s life permanently.

Phillip wouldn’t have forced her, he could’ve easily tried to. By going to the Bridgerton house and discussing with Anthony the possibility of marrying her but no, he asks her. HE ASKS HER AND SHE CHOOSES. I fucking love that. It's like the bare minimum but given the time period and the number of couples where the man has the final say on the marriage, this just makes me giddy. The show could change this and give Eloise more time with Phillip to the point where she chooses him and isn’t forced into the marriage which I hope they do.

Also, their first meeting where neither one of them is what the other expects sounds amazing ngl. The initial confusion, shock, unease, and undeniable attraction, it's gonna serve why lie?

Despite how much it affects him, the subject of Phillip’s abuse is handled so...wrong. As someone who shares an experience with abusive parents, I understand the fear of becoming like them. Of hurting the ones you love and being angry and feeling guilty. Yet, Phillip never confronts these fears. Not really. Sure, we get the scene in the nursery but thinking of how the show could handle it and his relationship with his children makes me excited. Having him being neglectful of his children was the wrong move, especially if his fear is hurting them in an attempt to discipline them. It's clear he loves them and ultimately wants the best for them which is why he’s searching for someone to better take care of them despite the shitty bitch he already has hired. I hope the show capitalizes on that.

Have Phillip be involved but not a disciplinary figure. Yeah, I get that he’s the man or whatever but it's clear that Phillip finds no enjoyment in the act or even pondering it. But he does love his kids. Have him be overwhelmed but still involved. It just felt weird that Phillip didn’t want anything to do with his kids despite one of his main reasons to look for a wife was so that they could be properly taken care of. Have him try but struggle. A lot.

It’d be funny to see Oliver and Amanda running the house and Phillip struggling to keep up. They’re supposed to be mischievous, they should play that up in the show. Having the kids be little gremlins but instead of him ignoring them completely, he could just give in to their whims. And when his anger does get the best of him, then he could run. Be distant, wrestle with his internal struggle with abuse but also knowing he can’t let his kids run his household like this and go about as reckless as they do.

Speaking of abuse, I hope they scrap the nursery lady altogether. I know it’s supposed to show him stepping into dad mode but it just felt like unnecessary and triggering of his own child abuse. He could easily step into this role by learning to deal with his anger, learning to control it. Eloise could suggest journaling the way she does (another bonding moment that could be less cute and more intimate if done right.) Having him put his anger into gardening, I interpreted it as it being a safe place and coping mechanism for him in the book and that would be nice to see.

Having to finally put an end to his kids' tirade once he learns to trust himself and realize that he’s nothing like his father. Actual healing from childhood trauma and Eloise helping him do so. She could also suggest boxing with her brothers like...it just makes sense. As someone with a temper, boxing helped me sort through that and the opportunity to see Phillip and Simon bonding, while boxing, over their shitty dads, sounds pretty fucking cathartic (and hot).

I would just like the show to truly show that just because you’ve dealt with abuse doesn’t mean you have to be defined and like your abuser. Phillip is a pretty great candidate for it because the guy is...scarred, to say the least.

I love the physical side of Phillip and Eloise’s relationship. Like really love, it's said that they try different things and are comfortable in that regard with each other and it just...yeah, that makes me happy. Besides that, I hope they play up the intellectual side of their relationship. Two nerds in love are adorable and imagining Phillip ranting about plants and Eloise just being completely enthralled at this man and his passion sounds like the cutest fucking shit.

Speaking of intellectual, it's implied Phillip cares little about high society. Meaning, wouldn’t he care even less about societal expectations and norms? Meaning Eloise would literally find freedom with this man to just...do her. Despite the book showing how Phillip wants a wife, it never really says that he cares exactly how that wife maintains herself or their household. Eloise wants to fuck around and wear trousers? He doesn’t care. Eloise wants a private tutor and a study for herself? Cool. Eloise wants to take Amanda riding in the forest and then teach her how to shoot? All good. The man was literally proud to watch her beat her brothers in a traditionally masculine sport. He wants his wife to run his house and his entire life how she sees fit.

Julia really neglected how much agency and power that could give Eloise. She could be his equal, like really be his equal. Of course, Phillip becoming more involved in his and his children’s lives is a part of his arc but nothing leads me to believe he would want to control Eloise. The two of them being more than just lovers, but partners who allow the other their freedoms when needed sounds epic as shit.

Now some things that could easily be left out, the rape scene. It’s there to showcase that Phillip has lost his wife and there is no chance of reigniting whatever they may have had in the past. Yet, there are so many other ways to show that. Phillip could try and speak with her with no response. Hold her hand and she pulls away? He’s a smart man, it doesn’t take much to get the hint so that could’ve easily been written out and replaced with something else.

Second of all, I like the possibility of Marina and Phillip finding happiness at first. Of them trying to love each other after George and succeeding. The way Marina is written in the show, I doubt she’s quick to give up. So to see the two of them having an agreeable marriage and getting along would be nice. They could showcase her mental illness in a different form, it's clear she suffers from postpartum depression. She withdraws into herself, distances herself from her children. She’s depressed but it's not as stereotypical and easily spotted as Julia makes it out to be. Marina just gives up on her children and life without any fight? Absolutely not.

As someone who suffers from depression, the way Julia wrote it is so...??? The truth is, I would like Phillip and their family to not even realize she’s suicidal. To not see it coming when she jumps in the lake and attempts to end her own life because that's exactly how suicide impacts so many people and their loved ones. They don’t see it coming. Phillip struggling with the guilt of that rather than the anger of being trapped in a loveless marriage sounds...a lot more interesting to me. Me, personally. Considering how much buzz the show has, it would spark up a dialogue and a good one if handled properly. I’ve thought a lot about Marina but this is just how I would prefer to see it handled if they go through with her canon death (which I am not actively rooting for by the way.)

Another reason I like the potential of Philloise is Oliver and Amanda, they just add some extra spice. If fully realized characters, watching them grow closer to their dad and form a relationship with Eloise would be so rewarding for two kids who have lost a lot. Also, the amount of comedic gold in their pranks with Eloise and dynamic with each other would give the season even more humor on top of Eloise herself.

And as much as I love the line, “this-us-is heaven.” They could easily modify the love speech. Like very easily.

My point is, I think their potential outweighs the problematic factors in their story and I doubt the show will fail on realizing it and ridding itself of the problematic aspects. One could even say they already started, I mean look at the way the show made a point to show Eloise’s disgust with fathers and husbands who abandon their family, and then comes Phillip, doing the absolute most to protect his remaining family. I mean, Bridgerton did turn the weakest romance in the series into a whole pop culture phenomenon. My hopes are high. Okay, that’s all.

[californiannostalgia]

Tangled the Series Character Analysis: Childhood Trauma POV

I can't believe Tangled the Series really created two incredible antivillains and threw them in direct contrast with the pre-existing golden couple. I love what the showrunners did with the main quartet, so I made a very subjective analysis post about it from a Childhood Trauma POV. (Spoilers, obviously.)

The Boys

The series' focus is on Rapunzel, and by association her direct opposite, Cassandra, so the boys get comparatively less screen time. But it doesn't take long to figure out that Varian is meant to be a parallel for Eugene—these are two people dealing with the absence of parental guardians, struggling to reconcile the lives they previously had with their changing ideals in relation to a less-than-perfect Father Figure.

They both respond to the helpless state of being young, alone, and powerless by trying to take back power in any way they can. Eugene reinvented himself and buried his desires for a family. Varian throws in everything he has into recovering what he lost, because he's a child and the best solution he can think of is to return to the familiar safety of his father's presence. A significant portion of his desperation is fueled by fear of his father’s disapproval, because as much as Quirin loves Varian, he wasn’t the dependable voice of support. Varian needs approval from outside sources, which was also Flynn Rider’s purpose in life, once upon a time. (Again, parallels.) 

Throughout the series, the boys' relationship with each other transforms from exasperated incomprehension to easy understanding. The process is hastened as Eugene lets himself realize he cares a lot about troubled kids who remind him of himself. He becomes aware that children should not be required to survive on their own like he and Lance had. Spurred on by his significant other's love and encouragement, Eugene is able to acknowledge the adverse affects of his childhood on his life and start moving on. His extending a ready hand to Varian is his process of healing. Though Eugene's first priority will always be Rapunzel, he truly wants to save Varian from the uncontrollable volatility of risky decisions because he knows that downward spiral intimately.

Of course, there is a difference between thieving from the rich and planning the destruction of a kingdom. We'll get to that later.

The Girls

Rapunzel and Cassandra are the biggest driving forces of narrative power in the show, and they are survivors of child abuse. Every one of the main quartet has Parent Issues, but Rapunzel takes the crown (figuratively speaking) with this one. She was kidnapped and groomed into a life-giving doll, and she was only able to escape her abusive adoptive mother through incredibly traumatizing means. For Cassandra, it was neglect, and even her loving adoptive father couldn't leviate the scars left on her childhood mind.

They're a classic case of Golden Child vs. Scapegoat, which is a common case seen in siblings raised by Narcissistic parents. When one child is "favored" more than the other, the kids experience vastly different childhoods, resulting in resentment that stems from their inability to understand each other. Rapunzel and Cassandra are both jealous of what the other had—Rapunzel wants Cassandra's casual, practiced ease with freedom and personal agency, while Cassandra wants the attention and respect that Rapunzel is given by the status of her birth. Because they're unwilling to speak candidly about the unique hardships of their childhood, what results is a series of miscommunications that put a strain on their friendship.

Cassandra and Rapunzel both want the other in their lives, but how they attempt to make that connection is very different. Cassandra wants to be a helpful, essential force in Rapunzel's life. Unfortunately, Rapunzel has been raised on the idea that when push comes to shove, no one will help her survive. Cassandra interprets Rapunzel's desire for independence as Rapunzel scorning the connection that Cassandra is attempting to create. Add in some manipulation from an ancient evil, and Cassandra decides she is done exhausting her emotions for Rapunzel.

Rapunzel, on the other hand, wants absolute honesty in her relationships. Gothel raised her on lies, so she spurns deception. But Cassandra knows the merits of protecting herself by holding her opinions in, which is where the misunderstandings occur. Rapunzel cannot trust someone who isn't completely forthright with her. She's tired of dealing with liars, and she grows afraid that Cassandra will cause her the same pain as Gothel did. But the thing is, Cassandra is not Gothel, and Rapunzel loved Gothel. She couldn't save Gothel, but maybe she can save Cassandra. It's not too late.

Rapunzel doesn't know when to give up on Cassandra because she is aware that she and Cassandra are similar people. Giving up on Cassandra would feel too much like giving up on her own hopes for a happy life. Rapunzel can't let Cassandra be unhappy. This princess cares too much, loves too hard. She never learned how to write people off because you can't survive a childhood like hers with that much cheer if you don't hang onto your optimism like a goddamn lifeline.

This is Rapunzel’s method of taking back power for herself: saving others. Rapunzel could have been Cassandra. Rapunzel is trying to believe she herself is worth saving—therefore, Cassandra must be worth saving as well. Rapunzel's significant other is giving her a stable source of love and support, but without a proper resolution to Cassandra's struggles—a final proof that despite Gothel's influence, they can both be happy—Rapunzel would feel incomplete.

The Golden Couple

At the end of the day, Rapunzel and Eugene are fundamentally good people. If it comes down to it, they would be unable to sacrifice the world for their own desires. (Eugene's thievery doesn't count as an expression of true desire because it was literally his method of survival. An expression of true, selfish desire for him might've been something like manipulation and abduction for the purposes of making people stay, but Eugene is not Gothel and he would never do that to anyone in a million years.) (On a side note, Rapunzel's selfish desire might've manifested in the abandonment of all duties and personal connections in favor of eternal exploration, or revenge towards a kingdom that failed to save her, or a thorough destruction of authority figures—but she loves people too much and would never be able to forsake her family.)

Life threw a lot of rocks at them, but these two came through it marginally well-adjusted. They affirmed their love for each other in a violent, unforgettable manner, which makes it easier for them to trust in each other's affection. Eugene would've been okay with never finding his biological father, just as Rapunzel had been okay with her biological parents' inability to protect her. They have no wish to punish the world for what they suffered. They’re content with who they are. They're just glad they made it, that they're finally allowed to love someone without being afraid. They're each other's saving grace.

The Antivillains

This is the difference between Hero and Antivillain: Cassandra and Varian are willing to punish the world for what happened to them. There’s a very faint line between justified retaliation and venting. In their desperation and anger, they cross the line, and they’re unable to stop themselves once they get going. Unlike the Golden Couple, Cassandra and Varian refuse to settle. They want what is owed. 

Also, they really, really hate themselves. (This is important.)

Varian believes Quirin is the ultimate source of affirmation. The fact that he lost his father by way of his own dangerous experiment, coupled with the fact that no one prioritizes his call for help in the face of national disaster, is enough to make him feel isolated from the world. Though he is burdened with a growing sense of remorse for his deeds, he doesn’t stop resorting to drastic, harmful measures to get his father back until he is forcefully stopped by betrayal from his allies. He finally makes the full transition from “antagonist” to “protagonist” when Rapunzel risks herself to save Quirin from the rocks. If Quirin could not be saved, there’s a possibility Varian might have stayed an antagonist, unenthusiastic though he may have been in his villainous role. As long as Quirin is trapped in those rocks, Varian remains the villain who put him there.

With Quirin safe, Varian allows himself to take huge steps in healing. He slowly rediscovers his self-worth, one that is separate from Quirin’s approval. Rapunzel—and by extension, Eugene—play the friendly, supportive role to Varian’s ingenuity, helping him along in his quest for self-acceptance. Varian still has trouble working through the heavily ingrained self-hatred, but he recovers enough confidence in his own judgment that he takes Eugene’s warning to heart and is able to install a safety device in his father’s helmet, just in case.

This is the Varian who meets Cassandra in the Tower that once belonged to Gothel. At this point in time, Cassandra has been manipulated into thinking of herself as weak and unimportant in comparison to Rapunzel. Her adoptive father, much like Quirin, was too gruff to be vocal with approvals. Her efforts have not been met with successes. She feels like a failure, and she hates feeling like a failure. This is Cassandra’s method of taking back power: by turning herself into someone unforgettable. If she can make something of herself, she’ll finally be able to prove Gothel wrong. She can be just as special as Rapunzel, if she’s given the chance. She wants that chance.

Similar to Varian, Cassandra doesn’t stop her downward spiral until her supposed ally and mentor betrays her and forcefully takes her power away. Only when there are no options left does she allow herself to admit that she was wrong. She is then rewarded for her honesty with Rapunzel’s love and trust. Armed with a new confidence, the sisters vanquish the evil together in an epic showdown that will long be remembered. Cassandra finally gets her dramatic hero’s tale.

Rapunzel and Eugene have an internal compass that lets them make snap decisions. They don’t have the healthiest self-esteem, but they can at least stand by what they think is right. Comparatively speaking, Cassandra and Varian have terrible self-esteem. They don’t trust their own judgment and are heavily influenced by outside forces. Without the constant barrage of trust and affection from Rapunzel, who is akin to a blazing sun when it comes to personal loyalty, these antivillains might never have reached their redemptive ending. They wouldn’t have been able to let go of their twisted priorities without outside influence. Can’t blame them for it, though.

It’s no surprise that Cassandra and Varian are relatable to many people. Who wouldn’t want to reclaim what was taken from them during childhood? (Of course, the problem occurs when you start hurting others to reclaim what you lost.) Their journey is a different kind of vulnerable from Rapunzel and Eugene’s journey, and it’s extraordinary in its detail. This show is essentially a long exploration of the various ways a parent can mess you up and the coping methods of kids who want to become more than their past, which is totally up my alley of expertise. I’m grateful I got to watch them grow taller than their trauma.

Finally, here’s a parting gif of Lance, because I love him and he’s a well-adjusted ray of sunshine. We all wish we could be as mentally stable as Lance—the main quartet included.

[daily-dose-of-imagines]

Hi! Could you please write hcs on yakuza Johnny, Gyro, Diego, and Giorno’s ‘weak spots’? Like things their S/O can do that would make them melt? Hopefully I’m not bugging you, haha

Hello anon~! Of course I can~! hehe I hope you enjoy these hcs~! And sweet pea, you’re not bugging me at all~! I’m just ecstatic that so many people enjoy this AU~! ;; <3 

Now, since this one doesn’t have a specified reader type, I’ll go ahead and work with a Underling!Reader ~!

» » Admin Ko

ᴍᴇʟᴛɪɴɢ ᴀ ꜰᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ʟᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ | ᴊᴏʜɴɴʏ ; ɢʏʀᴏ ; ᴅɪᴇɢᴏ ; ɢɪᴏʀɴᴏ | [𝕁𝕁𝔹𝔸] Yakuza!AU | Head Canons

ᴊᴏʜɴɴʏ ᴊᴏᴇꜱᴛᴀʀ

First and foremost, some background with this relationship. Johnny never anticipated to feel the way he does for another person, more or less an underling of all people. Though he has his distrust for all their underlings, he keeps a majority of those opinions to himself-- rather he tries to.

However, his world is thrown for a loop when he meets her. Despite being an underling, her absolute drive and motivation to accomplish her duties was something he couldn’t really keep his eyes off of. Eventually, they end up together. Johnny becoming a smidgen more interested in the work all the underlings do to help keep the business afloat. 

He won’t lie when he’s playing favorites, he’ll be distinctively clear on that. Those who work hard and have strong loyalties to the Joestar family are the ones he has a... in a sense, kinder eye to. 

With time, he ends up going on more missions with her; to observe or to mock no one would ever really know, but least to say the pair grew quite close in that aspect; and no matter how much coaxing he tried, he couldn’t get her to budge from the position she choose for herself. 

Now then, our reader has had an ample amount of time to observe and understand the little ticks of Johnny, and even more so once they’re officially together. It’s easy to say that within Johnny’s faction, if he happens to have a large amount of pent up rage, she’s the first to be called to settle him down.

First it’s her soft voice luring him back into the world, and then it’s her soft touch against his palm, her fingers tracing simple yet meaningful words into his palm while she counts down. That’s one of the few things that she does to calm him down.

The other is during their more private moments, when it’s just the two of them. Being on his lap helps soothes his more humane thoughts of losing her, and the sweet and simple kisses are what truly melt him. 

He absolutely will without a doubt become putty in her hands after 2-3 solid sweet kisses. Though the key to this is eye contact and reassuring smiles. 

Though it is harder to bring him down to the ground once his emotions flip to his more...sporadic emotions, it’s the same nonetheless, except a much more blunt way of handling things. A strong yank down and a firm kiss is all it really takes to melt him back into her hands, and she’s learned to keep him in place until he melts. 

ɢʏʀᴏ ᴢᴇᴘᴘᴇʟɪ

For Gyro, he isn’t opposed to the relationship. Rather he welcomes it with open arms! Their meeting is purely coincidental. During one of Gyro’s mock experiments with a live subject, she had waltzed in with a couple of heavy injuries. 

Thankfully they weren’t fatal, but she was pretty certain the blood loss aided in getting her through the ordeal of having to stare at a screaming person whilst the mad doctor treated her wounds; and because of that he ticks her off in his mental box as someone of interest. 

As time passes and her visits frequent, with each visit getting much more bizarre every time, the closer the pair become. He questions her, probes her, and dissects every word she utters for a better understanding as to why she acts and responds the way she does around him, and to say the least he becomes absolutely starstruck when he realizes that she doesn’t mind his grotesque work, and is actually interested in his research aspect. 

Thus, they spend more time in his office reviewing over his old files as he understands the operating room isn’t for everyone, and that’s when he realizes that even the mad doctor himself has some weak and soft spots.

It starts off as a simple brush against his ear. The way her fingers delicately brush his hair out of his face and the affectionate eyes she held towards him.

The next is when he allows her to play and brush his hair. It’s almost comical how it comes about, but in the end he naturally becomes putty in her hands when he’s seated before her and her fingers begin to work their magic on his hair. 

But if there is one thing that will always be considered as his most prized and valuable possession, it would be a small spherical orb. It’s unique shape and functions amusing him as she gifted him the little trinket; and let it be known that whoever touches it besides him or her, they would never see the light of day or another human being ever again. 

ᴅɪᴇɢᴏ ʙʀᴀɴᴅᴏ

Cunning to a fault, Diego has no qualms intermingling with his underlings within his faction. Rather he relishes in the fact that he can blend in with their crowds with ease. 

That’s exactly how he met her. A sort of routine clean-up and check-up that he planned in his mind as he evaluated each of his underlings. Who would fail and who would pass? It was a game he enjoyed in his past time, and the looks of horror he sees when they realize it’s him is what brings him the most joy. The moment when their minds are in a frazzled and weak state.

Yet with her he didn’t exactly see that. Yes, he had managed to surprise her with his sudden appearance, but unlike most it took a second longer for him to pry into her mind; unlike the rest of the underlings he had managed to check off. Thus, she ended up being promoted to a higher ranking underling. 

Eventually, he finds himself frequently checking up on her. His reports stacking up as his observations become almost obsessive with her, and he’s absolutely shocked when she confronts him about it. It brings a coy smirk to his face knowing that he has such a valuable asset in his arsenal. 

With time, he comes to terms with his emotions and realizes that he has fallen in love with his subordinate, and her with his strange yet endearing self. 

The way Diego falls and melts is...in a sense peculiar. It’s rather comical in one sense, and very sad in another as his upbringing is shone more in the light. He adores affection, despite the front he puts up against it, he absolutely loves it. 

The moments that melt him the most is when he’s curled up next to her watching a documentary on dinosaurs. His arms wrapped loosely around her waist and his head laying on her shoulder will always bring him at ease, and her gentle hands against his back always help in bringing him down from a stressful day.

As for any sudden weaknesses or melting points, it would be the nape of his neck. A quick kiss or teasing blow of air will have him struggling and stumbling over himself. Make no mistake, if she does this in a public area, he won’t hesitate to ravage her right then and there. 

ɢɪᴏʀɴᴏ ɢɪᴏᴠᴀɴɴᴀ

Due to his upbringing, Giorno is a man of secrets and respect. Unlike the eldest Dio, he’s much more compassionate to his underlings like Jonathon and in a sense, Diego. He’s patient and loves to hear of what goes on in his subordinate’s minds. 

Be it for the greater good or the worst he finds the information valuable and handy in any sort of situation that may arise in the future. He meets her on a whim, it’s during her rookie training and hazing when he faces her, and is quite impressed to say the least when she holds her own rather well against the veteran underlings. 

He ends up frequently checking up on her, having her stop by to provide her reports in person as well as telling him of any troubles within the lower ranks of his faction. Though to his absolute surprise-- one of the few times he can be caught off guard-- she’s not someone who came for the Joestar family, but the new Passione gang. 

To say the least he’s smitten right then and there. After all, Passione was his own work, his own undoing and rebuilding. None of his siblings had really stepped foot into helping him and it proved to be one of his greater accomplishments. 

Eventually, he finds himself aching for her daily talks, and finds himself smiling every so often after she leaves. He’s told by Bruno, and he too can agree it’s an odd soft spot he’s grown. 

Though once together, the little ticks and habits Giorno has is exploited fully by her. She doesn’t hesitate to put him in his place and will help in any way she can to calm him down if he’s enraged, but god help her if he ever is enraged. 

The one thing that will absolutely melt Giorno’s facade is in the little moments in their shared room. If he’s laying on his stomach topless, she’ll paint beautiful pictures or words with watercolor. The intimate moment is something Giorno always looks forward to no matter the skill level of his significant other as the ministrations and her humming will always bring him into a new plane of existence. 

A surprising way to bring him down or to exploit his weakness, is by tugging his hair down/up to eye level roughly it brings him pain, but also an awakening to what he’s been doing and how he should actually be handling a situation. 

[monster-bait]

I’m an exophilia writer like you, and I like writing intimacy in my work. But sometimes, I feel internally weird/embarrassed/ashamed about writing sex. If you’ve ever felt this way, how’d you get over it/how do you cope with that feeling? I just want to enjoy writing sexy stuff without feeling weird about it. Any tips would be appreciated. Love love love your blog.

Aaaa, Hello, fellow writer! Thank you so much for the kind words! 

Okay, so first off...I have been writing for a very long time. Like anything, writing a sex scene is something you have to learn, a skill to develop, and no skill develops overnight. So, if you’re relatively new to writing sex scenes (relativity is relative) then cut yourself some slack. I look back on some of my early smutty scenes and nearly die of cringe. Hell, I look back on smut scenes I wrote last year and want to die of cringe. Our skills are ever-evolving, and the more you do it, the easier it gets. 

I’m going to break this answer into two parts: smut-specific and writing intimate scenes in general. Also: what is sexy is subjective. I was asked a very similar question about a year or two ago by a young writer who didn’t have much experience writing intimate scenes, but had one planned for her story. Another writer jumped into the conversation, at which point I bowed out, because she and I had polar-opposite styles and were giving conflicting advice. It played out like this: 

Asker: I’m brand new at smut and don’t know where to start, teehee! 

Me: be sure to include sensory details and show what you’re comfortable showing! 

Other writer: be sure to vividly describe character A’s testicles slapping character B in the face! 

😐 

Writers giving advice: for the love of Mab, please consider your audience.

Smutty smutness: No, I don’t get embarrassed when I’m writing these scenes. No, I don’t get turned on when I’m writing them, I don’t feel the need to go to church and confess my smutty sins, I don’t need to book quality one-on-one time with myself and a vibrating partner immediately after finishing said scene. Writing, for me, is technical. Writing sex is old hat. Again, I’ve been doing this for a long time. The more you work at it, the easier it gets/those feelings will fade. If you put more of the focus on the craft of writing itself, the subject matter becomes negligible.

But! Within saying that, I think there are some things you can do:

Use language with which you’re comfortable 

I will tell you guys right now, there are certain words you will never find in my writing. I don’t find them sexy, and if I don’t find them sexy, I’m not going to use them. I don’t care what other writers do, I don’t care if readers think that’s limiting. Dick sounds like something a 14 year old boy would say. You know what’s not sexy? 14 year old boys. Pussy to my ears is a word for male gaze-driven porn, and has no place in my writing. Cunt has its place when applied well, but if its the only word you know how to use, I’m probably going to stop reading. If you’re describing your female character’s genitalia as a greedy, dripping gash, I can promise you I’m going to stop reading. And that’s fine, because it wasn’t written for me. Don’t use language you’re uncomfortable using. I know that seems small, but it can make a huge difference, and adopting a mindset of staying within the parameters of your comfort and control might lessen the subconscious need to “sound” smutty, if you know what I mean. There is no right way to write, and that includes sex scenes.

By that same token:

Show as much as you’re comfortable showing 

There’s nothing wrong with a fade to black. There’s nothing wrong with soft-focus sex. There’s nothing wrong with graphic details either, and you’ve got to figure which of the three (or which combination) works best for you. Think about the difference in the M and E rating on Ao3 for a guide, if that helps. (someone in the audience, find that great post about mailing a letter, pls!) Decide the tone of your scene: Do you want to focus on sensuality or the details of the actions? This is the difference between slowly peeling that quivering-with-anticipation little stamp out of her papery underthings and affixing her gently to the front of the envelope’s broad front; and licking that stamp for all she’s worth, your tongue moving in a frenzy against her stickiness and you can’t tell where your mouth ends and her sticky back begins, the drool from your oral onslaught activating her adhesiveness until she’s stiffened against the envelope, flat on her back and spent, the act complete.

(seriously, someone find that post, it does a much better job than I just did!)

Above all, stay true to your characters, and remember that your writing skills don’t get to take a smoke break just because you’re writing a sex scene...which leads to my secondary set of advice:

(I by no means consider myself an expert in this arena, but here are some things I like to focus on when writing an intimate scene)

Sensory details: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell 

A good sex scene needs to be more than “insert tab A into slot B”. Give us a sense of the space, put us into our character’s head. The sensory details you add can paint a very specific picture for your reader, so that one sex scene doesn’t blend into the next. In Girl’s Weekend, I tried to give the sex scenes between Tate & Silva a very distinct feel through the sensory details Silva experiences: she feels small beneath the high ceilings, the bedding in his apartment is always plush beneath her, the lighting is always dim, his hair is silky in her hands, his lips are always sweet. And you know, they’re fucking. But that’s not the only detail I’m focusing on, because that’s not giving insight into her state of mind, and also: it’s boring. Set a scene, tell us where your characters are, what they’re experiencing, if that vase of roses can be smelled from where they are, how the moon cuts through the window to bathe the bed in shadows.

State of mind

You don’t need to exclusively write about genitals mashing together. There was an essay I read million years ago (about the writer’s relationship with her boyfriend and his watersports kink, of all things) that was ostensibly about sex, but the focus was on her state of mind for nearly the entire piece. There’s a scene towards the end when she’s describing the last time they had sex, objectively the best, most satisfying sex they’d ever had, descriptive and hot, the female MC is riding her boyfriend, she’s in absolute ecstasy...but she already feels emotionally disengaged from him and the relationship, and the line I still remember almost two decades I after I read the essay for the first time is “And as I’m loving you, I’m leaving you.” You can still pack an emotional wallop in the midst of a sex scene without needing to stop the action and make your characters have a Serious Conversation™. Show us into their heads! Which leads me to...

Don’t forget about character voice! 

If you guys are ever worried that I’ve been body-snatched, just know that if I ever respond to one of these asks and don’t mention character voice, you know it’s not me. Just because you’re describing the hot and heavy stuff doesn’t mean you shut the proverbial bedroom door on your character’s unique voices and personalities. If your character would never engage in dirty talk, don’t force it on them. Tate and Silva have the capacity to be f i l t h y with each other; Khash does to a point, but Lurielle would die laughing of embarrassment. Know your characters! 

If you keep the focus on the characters, their voices and actions and thoughts, the fact that someone’s getting their face ridden is going to be a heck of a lot less embarrassing, because you’ve to focus on the writing. 

I hope that helps, Anony! 

Team, going forward all of your anonymous writing advice asks are going to be fair game to be included in the “For Writers” sections of my (still under construction) website which you should absolutely go visit! ...and sign up for email updates on my publication news, and click some of the other social social media bubbles while you’re there!

[mamsellechosette24601]

In the Green vs the real Hildegard's writings and philosophy

Because of “In the Green”, I started reading a bit about Hildegard and her thinking so as to better explore the themes of the musical. I read the book “Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader", by Carmen Acevedo Butcher, which was short and insightful, with lots of excerpts from Hildegard, so I’ll share what I got from it in relation to the musical.

1. The symbolism of the colour green and of the sun

"Hildegard called this vigor viriditas, the “green” energy of agape love pulsing through the entire universe. Over and over in her writings, she chooses viriditas to express God’s vitality and the ways His goodness and love charge the whole world with life, beauty, and renewal—literally, with “greenness.” Her unique, creative use of this Latin word makes it something of a neologism in her work. In Hildegard’s mind, viriditas was first found in the green of the garden of Eden, but it is also the green of whatever twig you or I happen to be looking at in this present moment, whoever we are, wherever we may be. She knew that the natural opposite of this “greening” energy was spiritual desiccation (including what we often call “depression”). But, like God’s mercy, His revitalizing viriditas has no limits. Wherever Hildegard looked, she saw that this “green” force animates every creature and plant on this planet with verdant divine love."

"The patriarchs and prophets who prefigured and predicted Christ were the “roots” of God’s divine tree, on which sprouted the most delicate “bud,” who is God’s Son, and from Him grew the “fruit” of the virtues: Humility, Charity, Divine Love, Patience, and their sisters. This is a favorite metaphor for Hildegard, and in her songs she praises the Virgin Mary as the “twig” or “branch” on which the “bud,” baby Jesus, flowered. By her intelligent selection of this one word, oculus, Hildegard has shown the center of her work—that to see God is to grow."

"In one of this volume’s poems praising Mary, “Grateful for the Unobtrusive Good,” Hildegard’s use of metaphors suggests that she saw no separation between symbol and fact. Metaphors were reality to her. Hildegard’s point in this song is that the divinely made sun giving earth life is also, in a mystical way, the life-giving Son of God who as the Word made creation’s every twig, including Mary, and yet was also Mary’s “Bloom”(…) In this song to Mary, the sun (also God’s Spirit) shines on the Virgin Mary, the “greenest twig.” She is a twig, not even a branch; but she is green with God’s pregnant vitality, and her comparative insignificance (as a woman, and unmarried) prepares her for the greatness of God’s Spirit to grow within her and produce the miraculous “flowering” of God’s divine-human Son. Her weakness is her strength, a recurring theme in Hildegard."

So, when Jutta sings “I can see the last of the light / Reflected in the green / Of everything”and we know what is going to happen, we’re supposed to cry at the distortion of life’s goodness

Sun Song gains a much more religious meaning, when we see everything that the sun and nature meant for Hildegard. In her “Book of Divine Works”, the Holy Spirit says: "I’m the divine flame of life, I burn above the golden fields, I sparkle on water, and I shine like the sun, the moon, and all the stars. Together with the loving, hidden power of the wind, I make everything come alive. Remember that I’m also Reason. I inform the wind of the first Word that created all things. I’m your breath, I’m the breath of all things, and none die because I am that Life." (should I read into In the Green’s “Air leaves my lungs/ I’m lying on my back / I’m staring at the sky / I open up my mouth but the air swallows my cry”? Jutta was forsaken by God, completely).

Death Ceremony, with its translation of “O Viridissima Virga”, introduces us to Jutta’s and Hildegard’s quest away from Eve’s curse and towards the Virgin Mary. The “little green branch” seeks the “branch of freshest green”, instead of rotting.

The idea of strength in weakness, which the Hildegards find in First Verb, appears, together with the aforementioned notions of the “green” and the “bud”, in Hildegard’s “Play of the Virtues”. "The virtues and the souls: 'When the world began, everything pulsed with life and was the tenderest shade of green.Flowers blossomed everywhere. But, after the Fall, everything green faded." The Warrior-of-Truth saw it all and said: 'I see what happened, but my house is not yet full. Look at me instead. I’m the image of your Father. Know my broken body broken for you. I’m exhausted. I’m tired of being made a laughing-stock. It goes straight through me. Even my followers lose heart. But remember this. The original abundance of green did not have to shrivel up, and your faith will see its way to strength, until you know the divinity of my jewel-covered body intimately, a gem in each injury, and each injury a bud. Look, Father! See my wounds? Now, let people everywhere kneel before God the Father, who’ll hand us strength on strength." 

2. Hildegard’s “Scivias”, where she first shares her divine visions vs Jutta

In “Scivias” Hildegard writes a metaphor of the sinning soul. Turning away from God and towards sin (the “North”), the soul speaks “I regret that so much now! For I was captured, robbed, blinded, and violated. My garment was torn. I was dragged to a gruesome place and subjected to the worst kind of slavery”.

Then the soul repents, and hides in a cave, like Jutta hid in the Undergound: “After I’d said this, I went down the narrow path and hid from the eyes of the North. I went into a tiny cave and wept because I’d lost my Mother Zion. I wept, too, for all my wounds. I wept for my sadness. I wept and wept. I cried so many tears, they absorbed my pain and bruises. Then I smelled something very sweet. It reminded me of my mother’s soft breath on my cheek. That small comfort made me cry some more. I was so full of joy that I cried until it shook the mountain of my cave." The crying out of joy that will force the soul out of the cave also kind of reminds me of The Ripening, especially in this connection to a mother’s love (“In living I have learned/ to love another as a mother/ And I’ve felt that love inside my wicked flesh”) but I may be reading too much into it.

The soul then is persecuted by her enemies, and we are told “Then I saw poisonous snakes, scorpions, and other hideous reptiles slithering towards me. The snakes were hissing. I screamed, “Mother! Where are you?! Help me!” I heard my mother say, “Run, daughter! The Omnipotent, Unconquerable Provider has given you wings. Fly! Fly over these things blocking your path!” And I did." Compare this to “I’m not going back / I’ll run until I die / And when I can no longer run / I’ll teach myself to fly / I try”. All in all, the world of Hildegard’s visions is far from the reality Jutta faced.

The soul faces self-doubt and recovers remembering it was created by God: “The Devil’s poison arrow is the evil robbing me of my spiritual joy. I don’t want to celebrate people or God. I doubt everything when I feel this way, including my salvation. But when God helps me remember that He created me, then—even in the middle of my depression—I tell the Devil, “I won’t give in to my fragile clay. I’ll fight you!” How? When my inner self decides to rebel against God, I’ll walk with wise patience over the marrow and blood of my body. I’ll be the lion defending himself from a snake, roaring and knocking it back into its hole.” It echoes Jutta’s advice to Hildegard in The Rule, but of course, she is not whole like she claims she is. (“When you are whole, you will be like me / When you are whole, you will move confidently / Through your life / And you will understand how the boulder becomes sand / And you will know how to not become sand / When you are whole, you will never be scared / When you are whole, you will always be prepared / For a dragon's attack! / And you will slay the beast..or scare him away at least / And you will never again be the least”)

3. In “The Play of the Virtues”, Hildegard focuses a lot on clothing, as a metaphor for the “wearing” of salvation, as something we’re born with and must keep clean. This enhances how soul shattering Jutta’s experience was, “His hand pulling at my skirt”.

4. Letter to the Belgian Monk Guibert (1175) and Light Undercover: "My spirit is ever illuminated by what I call the shadow of the living Light. It has no physical limitations whatsoever and is much brighter than a cloud through which the sun shines. I can never predict when or how I’ll see it. As water reflects the sun, the moon, and the stars, this shadow of the living Light reflects God’s Word, sermons, virtues, and the things that humans do. Whatever I see in that Light’s shadow stays in my mind for a long time, stored away. I see and understand, hear and know at the same time. I only know what I see in these visions, because I’m untaught. I record what I see and hear, without adding my own words, and my Latin is unrefined, because that’s how I hear it in my visions. I’ve not been taught to write like a philosopher. Also, my visions are filled with images and sounds that are nothing like words spoken by any human. They’re more like a blazing fire and a cloud floating through a clear sky. I can’t comprehend this Light’s shadow any better than I can look right at the sun. Also, sometimes in that shadow (but not very often) I see another light. This is the living Light I spoke of earlier. I’m even less able to explain what this Light is like in comparison to the other. But I can say that when I look at it, every feeling of sadness disappears, and my every ache leaves me. I’m no longer an old, sick woman. I become young again." “Light is in the dark”, strength is in weakness.

5. The entire play gains a deeper, metalinguistic meaning, when we learn that for Hildegard, “When we sing, we repossess some of the Eden lost when Adam fell”. (Letter to the Prelates at Mainz, 1178).

6. Becoming Whole

Hildegard’s visions in “The Book of Life’s Merits” and Underground"I saw a very tall man. His head and shoulders were above the highest clouds. His torso was in a white cloud below this, while his upper legs were in the earth’s atmosphere. From the knees down, he was planted in the earth, and his feet were rooted in the deepest waters of the abyss, which represent the virtues and their power. They are the antidotes to sin, because they have the might to make anything whole. They do this by cleansing whatever they touch and making it holy. They nurture and sustain the world, and they bear all things. Everything on earth steeps in the moisture of the virtues and is made strong, in the same way that the soul makes the body moist and healthy, regenerating it."

In contrast to Jutta’s teachings about the body, Hildegard finds more balance in her writings, as Butcher puts it “Hildegard understood the symbiotic relationship between body and soul. She knew that when the body and soul are not in sync, a person’s whole world is out of whack. While she believed that the physical body is easily wayward and must be controlled, she did not teach that the body is evil (…) Hildegard’s work also emphasizes taking care of the body, because it is the sacred temple of the Holy Spirit”. Against ideas of duality, Hildegard brings “God’s goodness and the essential wholeness of a divine creation that refuses to be separated into neat-but-useless categories of earth and spirit, body and soul, nature and people”.

[kingspoetrysoc]

Interview with Basmah Mohamed

Basmah is a first-year undergraduate student studying English at King’s. She writes spoken word poetry as well as free-verse poetry, publishing it on her Instagram account @basthepoet. Basmah is a SLAMbassadors Finalist and Speak Out Regional Finalist, writing for publications like Young Writers CW and Exposure. The King’s Poet’s Ishita Uppadhayay speaks to Basmah about her creative process, the ‘purpose’ of poetry, and more.

When did you first start writing poetry? Was there a specific moment when you felt it became an established interest?

I started writing poetry when I was in Year 8, so quite young. I had experience writing short stories prior to that. There was a defining moment, sort of. At my secondary school, we had an opportunity to do a 2-day workshop with Joelle Taylor, who ran the SLAMbassadors competition, and Deanna Rodger. I had never written poetry before. The competition was on the theme of ‘Identity,’ and we had to write a poem in a day, and then film our audition clips. Two other poets and I were chosen to go on to the next round. Then we performed at the Arts Theatre in the West End.

Can you imagine? At the age of 13, having never written poetry before, I got the opportunity to delve into it on stage. I remember going back to school afterwards and everyone asked, ‘How was it?’ I was just like, ‘I killed that.’ We ended up being highly commended out of three schools nationally, and after that experience, I knew poetry was something I wanted to pursue. I had the pleasure of performing my spoken word poetry for many years throughout secondary school –- moments I’ll cherish forever.

I started off writing spoken word poetry, but for the past couple of years, I’ve gone away from that and started writing lyrical and free verse poetry. As of now, I don’t have many opportunities to perform on the stage, so that’s also why I’ve switched my focus to written poetry. But yeah, I’ve been writing poetry ever since I was 13, and I’m 19 now.

Do you prefer spoken word poetry to written poetry, and do you feel there’s a different process to writing each one?

There’s definitely a different feel to writing each of them. I don’t prefer either one, but I feel more experienced in written poetry as of right now and wouldn’t necessarily say I’m exclusively a spoken word poetry artist anymore. I definitely believe they’re two separate art forms with different creative processes behind them.

I love watching spoken word performances – there’s something so special and unique about the form. I could listen to them for hours and hours. Joelle Taylor once said that spoken word poetry is about showing, and not telling. I think this is completely true – with spoken word poetry, there’s an emphasis on ‘showing,’ through gestures, emotions, or visual imagery.

What’s your creative process when writing poetry? Do you have any writing rituals? 

I tend to write my poems digitally, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Usually, I just sit down at my laptop and write whatever comes to mind. Over the years, I’ve compiled a sort of master document full of ideas, scraps, fragments, and shorter lines of poetry I’ve thought of. I split my computer screen into two, and on one side I have a fresh document, while on the other, I have these fragments to use for inspiration that I can just pick and choose.

If I force myself to write a poem, it just doesn’t work out, so I don’t set aside time for it. I just write whenever inspiration strikes me, or when I feel like it. I’ve collected quite a few poetry journals over the years, and write all my poems down to have written copies.

Is there anything you’ve studied while at King’s that’s inspired your writing?

In our first semester, we did the Reading Poetry module, which I absolutely loved. Not only were my tutor group so inspiring and creative, but I was also able to find my new style away from spoken word poetry through the module. It inspired me to write shorter, more powerful poems – a style I’m proud of.

Who’s your favourite poet?

I always get this question, and I never know how to answer it! I feel like I’m someone who writes more poetry than I read. One of my biggest inspirations is Poetcurious, he was my former teacher and writes a lot of spoken word poetry. Poetcurious was the one who provided me with various poetry opportunities throughout my time at secondary school and really helped me grow into the poet I am now. I couldn’t be more grateful!

Some of my other inspirations are Akala, Hollie McNish, Solomon O.B, Zena Edwards, Deanna Rodger, and Joelle Taylor – of course, this is also because I’ve had the pleasure of working with them and seeing them perform live. I’ve also been inspired by George The Poet more recently. I look up to Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes a lot, I really enjoy reading their poetry. I love Lucille Clifton as well. I read a lot of Middle Eastern poetry too, which has inspired my own poetry that I’d love to share in the future.

Do you think poetry is sometimes perceived as an inaccessible art?

I wouldn’t use the word inaccessible. I think poetry is very misunderstood. I think there should be more opportunities to learn about poetry in secondary school, as well as more of an emphasis on various styles of poetry – going beyond the canon and diversifying into teaching and learning about spoken word poetry.

Do you think poetry is meant to have a specific purpose?

There’s no one purpose of poetry – it can be anything you want it to be, which I find really inspiring and beautiful. Poetry is expressive for me: it lets me share my feelings with the world, and can also be a way of capturing a moment. The significance of poetry is subjective, so it truly can be anything you want it to be.

Does a poet need to have natural talent? How important is constant writing practice?

I think there are definitely good and bad writers. I know I said earlier that poetry is subjective, similar to how art is, but there are some boundaries. I don’t think writing poetry should be a tedious task where you have to write every day. If it helps you grow as a writer and a person, that’s great – it really is up to the poet.

Reading and thinking about what inspires you is the most important thing, across all different forms of media, whether that be painting, reading, listening to music… You don’t necessarily need to be very strict with yourself as a poet. At the same time, you need to edit your poetry and receive constructive criticism for it. Otherwise, your work won’t improve.

You publish some of your poetry on Instagram. Why this outlet?

I’ve been published before, and have done competitions. At a point during lockdown, I realised I had been writing more and wanted a way to showcase it. Instagram is the easiest way to do this. Using it as an outlet feels freeing, but also, I want to keep certain poems to myself. Sometimes poetry feels really personal and posting can feel like revealing aspects of myself.

I’m not looking to go viral. It’s just my hobby, what I love, and I’m really proud of it. I want to showcase it because I know people might feel how I feel, or even feel different. I love getting feedback from them too, it helps me improve my writing for the future.

Do you think publication in a journal or poetry collection is more intimate than self-publication on Instagram?

When I publish poetry online, I choose poetry I’m not too vulnerable about, and usually, work that I’m more open to criticism on. There is a different feel to both mediums. I do question using Instagram to publish poetry because of how exposed it feels. Instagram is freeing, as I said earlier, but it is also restrictive because I don’t want to expose all of my poetry – I’m not ready to share all these different parts of myself with the world.

What advice would you give to aspiring poets?

As cliché as this is going to sound, just write. Just keep writing. No matter how critical you are of your work, just write whatever comes to your mind. If inspiration strikes when you’re outside, or walking, catch it immediately and write it down. As passionate as I am about poetry, it’s not my future career. A lot of people think you can’t do anything else if you write, but you definitely can.

Also, always edit your work. It can sometimes be a difficult process, and no one really wants to do it, but it helps fine-tune your writing and gather inspiration for future work. Poetry is whatever you want it to be, and there are a lot of opportunities to publish or work with poets, so keep an eye out for these on social media. Just keep writing and keep going.

[bigskydreaming]

Why isn’t Dick/Joey more of a thing, inquiring minds want to know......but I mean, just look:

You want Daddy Issues? They both have them in spades....just like they both know what its like to be pegged as being nothing more than that, with that being assumed to be all that they have issues about when they both have so much more going on and aren’t defined by their fathers.

You want mutual struggles with crossing the line and going too far? They’ve both been there, toed both sides of the line and know full well that the world is not black and white and that just because one of their fathers is ‘good’ and the other ‘bad’ that doesn’t mean that the bad one isn’t capable of nobility and the good one isn’t capable of fucking shit up....just like they know its no different for them....heroes can be villains one day and villains heroes the next.

They both know intimately know the desire, the need to break free of expectations and the shadow hanging over them and be their own person. 

They both have history and experience with being controlled and used by others and thus can lean on each other as someone who actually understands what they’ve been through. 

Every fear Dick has about himself at his worst and how dangerous he can be unchecked, or if controlled or swayed by someone like the Court of Owls, Joey can relate to. He has a constant self-vigil to keep from using his powers unethically even though the temptation to do so is always there, given that there’s so much more he can do with it with his real limitation being himself and his own ethics.

Joey’s got his own traumatic childhood to deal with, with that trauma largely a result of being a pawn subject to the whims of people who couldn’t care less about him and what happened to him, which is something Dick understands perfectly as well. 

Joey’s a highly skilled fighter himself and he’s an artist and musician which complements the fact that Dick is a performer by nature.

Joey was the real playboy of the Titans, the flirt who was constantly with a new date every week, he’s canonically bisexual, and just as prone as Dick is to being the center of attention in the room or the life of the party, making it a non-issue and something he’d never resent Dick for as so many others often do....and he’s always brought out Dick’s playful side in their friendship because Dick’s charm pairs so naturally with Joey’s own unique brand of charisma.

Joey brings his entire own family drama into the mix with his siblings, whether they’re dead or alive, and of course there’s his dad, which when not focusing on pairing Dick with Slade in that Wayne + Wilson family mash-up, allows for playing around with the possibilities in Dick and Joey’s respective siblings teaming up and causing drama the two of them have to deal with couple-style.

Joey also knows exactly what it feels like to lose a brother he wishes he’d had more chances to get to know, and also what its like to deal with a father who is driven to extremes by the death of a sibling.

And they’re FRIENDS, they’ve been through so much together and have seen each other at their literal worst and their absolute best. Dick was the first person to extend a hand in trust to Joey when he joined even though he was the one with the most reasons to distrust him. And Joey was the first person Dick really took a chance on trusting again after Terra’s betrayal thanks to Joey’s own father, and Joey never ever ever let him down by his own choice or gave him cause to regret putting that trust in him.

Joey died before the stuff with Mirage happened, which means once he came back there’s the opportunity to use the fact that he is one of the few Titans who Dick never had to deal with blaming him for that or viewing him differently because of it.....he was gone for all of that and thus can be the longtime friend and confidante Dick needs, to unload his issues from that and how he was treated by their mutual friends and teammates.

Dick never got over Joey’s death, IMO, and I don’t think he’s ever forgiven Slade for killing Joey, even though he knows Joey begged Slade to do it rather than be controlled again.....because until the very end, Dick was determined to find a way to save Joey and was fully committed to his belief that he wasn’t past saving, that he was still in there, still fighting, and thus could still be brought back....all of which means when Joey returns, there’s no guilt or resentment or blame he’d feel towards Dick, even irrationally, because he knows he had at least this one person who never gave up on him, never believed he was too far gone even after all he’d done while in the spirits’ control, that Dick refused to accept that he couldn’t save his friend.

(And I maintain a huge part of Slade’s behavior towards Dick after Joey’s death, how he can never seem to decide if he wants to help Dick or hurt him, be his ally or his enemy, is because he wants to honor his dead son’s friendship with Dick, but deep down Slade also believes that Dick could have found a way to save Joey if he’d just gotten the chance, if Slade had held off and refused to kill his son and give up on him, and there’s a huge part of Slade that hates Dick for that but he can’t admit that even to himself because that would mean admitting that he hates himself even more because he doesn’t think he could have ever actually found a way to save Joey himself.)

Similarly, I don’t think Joey would ever forgive Slade for what he did to Dick while Joey was dead, for Slade’s role in the destruction of Bludhaven and how that affected Dick, for Joey that would have been the one thing too far, the one crime his father committed that he simply can’t forgive or reconcile, even though he’s forgiven his father for the things he’s done to him or the things that have happened to him because he’s Slade’s son time and time again.

These two are so good together, and so loyal to each other, and they understand each other so well because they have so much in common and the parts that don’t overlap, that they can’t relate to each other about, they are still totally comfortable with and respect and accept as a necessary part of what makes the other so distinctly them, the person they admire and are so loyal and committed to.

Dick and Joey together could be one of the most dangerous, dynamic power couples in the world if they wanted to and put their minds to it, they’re the legacies, the heirs apparent of two of the most dangerous men in the world, and they know their own minds and have their own agendas and accept no one’s authority over their own personal agency. And there’s virtually nothing that could come between them because everything that potentially could split them apart, they’ve already weathered and dismissed as inconsequential to them.

In conclusion.....

MOAR DICK/JOEY, ALL THE DICK/JOEY, THIS FANDOM NEEDS THE DICK/JOEY!

BRING ON THE DJ!!!

[thegildedlady]

Life Itself

In all of Revendreth (and quite probably all of the Shadowlands) no fortress stood with such dominating impenetrability as the spires of Castle Nathria. The structure loomed over the landscape of deep blue pines and thorny underbrush, casting a long shadow onto the valley below. Layer after layer of jutting turrets and stained-glass windows rose up out of the darkness in tiers, with the crackling lightning of anima-extraction glowing through the panes like the crimson compound gaze of a monstrous insect. Atop it all was a giant stone gargoyle whose watchful eye reflected those of the Master as he looked down upon the unfavorable ones residing outside the castle’s walls. Groaning bellies and parched throats were turned away at the gate. No trace of the drought could slip through its iron bars at risk of dampening the revelry within, and the Master would not have that. Those lucky enough to hold a coveted invitation to tonight’s masquerade made their way across the colossal cobblestone bridges that fed into the castle’s core, each Venthyr dressed more lavishly than the last. They dripped with rubies and diamonds and black pearls, golden chains softly rustling against velvet gowns and doublets. No expense could be spared if there was a chance that they might meet their Sire this night. He demanded perfection, and so perfection he would have.

The labyrinthian castle defied all laws of reality, twisting and turning in on itself with hallways that lead to nowhere and stairs that loop infinitely around the echoing stone corridors. An upstart without a proper escort could spend eons wandering Nathria’s grand halls before they ever found the main event that all visitors sought- the ballroom. Every visible inch of the space was leaden with scarlet drapery and gilded candelabras, their gentle light casting shadows on the walls and reflecting off the marble tiled floor. The results gave the whole room a hazy golden glow, much akin to how overindulging on anima consumption can simultaneously ignite and blur the user’s senses. It was a space designed to be jaw-dropping, and it served as the setting for the Dionysian delights of court. Though the ballroom was impressive enough empty, it came alive when the party started. Venthyr of all shapes and sizes packed the room to bursting, even in the air above the dance floor. Over the raucous chatter of the crowd and the tinkling of anima-flutes, a band of dredgers plunked away at waltz after waltz- some fast, some slow, all with an intoxicating rhythm that compelled the feet to move. Even the most sour of souls eventually joined the line for a dance or two. No one, in this afterlife or the next, threw a party like Denathrius.

Little did the pompous partygoers know that a much more exclusive, intimate soirée was taking place at that very moment beneath their feet. If you could peel back the layers of stone that made up the gargantuan structure- starting with the ballroom and digging down, past the private baths, the chef’s kitchen, the disembowelment room, and below the undercroft, one may find themselves standing outside the Master’s botanical laboratory. Two identical, ancient wooden doors guarded the entry, each with a long, pointed window that formed a coffin shape when together. The glass was opaque, but one could still make out the colors inside as they scurried around the room. Should you venture even further past the doors, one may find on any given night two very different people working within.

Cazimir looked the part of head scientist in his pale gray lab coat and goggles. A tug on the chain hanging next to his left ear brought down glass lenses in metal frames over his vision. He was fiddling with piles of indistinguishable plant matter with the intensity of some far more interesting task, while his lab assistant, Ciaragan, was throwing open windows to let the cool night air clear the room. Her smock was darker and dirtier than his, and hung a bit too short on her spindly legs as it was a much better fit for someone Dredger-sized. They were quite the odd couple- in every way Cazimir was ashen and cold, Ciaragan was warm and full of life. Where she was impatient and pessimistic, he was a calm, steady presence. The pair had worked together for what felt like years in Revendreth, though the exact amount of time could not really be measured. Tonight was nothing special. Even the soirée upstairs was to be expected, since Denathrius hosted guests around the clock. Cazimir hummed along with the soft melody floating through the open window, the music traveling down from the balconies of the grand ballroom above them.

“Ciara- pass me the forceps, please.”

She did as he asked, moving away from the open night and towards the dissection kit lying on his desk to retrieve the tool in question.

“Forceps,” she repeated as she plonked them into the palm of Cazimir’s hand.

“Much obliged,” was his reply. He didn’t look up from his work, but let his fingers curl around the metal instrument and added it to his ever-growing pile of sharp, pointy objects that teetered on the edge of the lab table. He resumed humming along with the waltz, hitting every note with eternal familiarity. Ciaragan rested her hand on the back of his chair as she silently watched him work.

“You enjoy this piece?”

“Hm? Oh, yes. Though it is not my favorite. They haven’t played that one yet.”

“Are these unique to the Venthyr, or do you play songs from your home world?”

“We play whatever the Sire wants to listen to, of course. His will is the will of Revendreth.”

“Meaning his taste is the taste of Revendreth as well?” she prodded.

He shook his head, taking a moment to lean back in his chair and break the line of concentration he had been walking. Cazimir was always ready to humor Ciaragan’s questioning. There would be time for work later.

“Taste?” he half-chuckled, “Taste is unique to the individual. Entirely subjective.”

“Yet you claim to have a favorite,” she pushed back, a sly smile appearing at the corners of her mouth. “...so there must be something about that particular piece that makes it superior to other pieces.”

He dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand. “‘Superior’ is the wrong choice of words here, I think. No, I would say instead that there is something appealing to me about that particular piece.”

“So it’s an issue of semantics, then.”

“It’s not an issue at all. It is an instinctive feeling- a warmth that starts in your core and spreads over your body, til your fingers cannot help but tap along to the rhythm and your head swims with the melody.” Cazimir reached up to remove his clunky goggles, tugged his leather work gloves from each finger, and smoothed a hand over his crown of curls.

“It is an attraction; natural as night and day.”

Ciaragan tried not to think about what Cazimir might find attractive. Instead she shrugged coolly before circling around him to take her chair on the opposite side of the lab table.

“I thought we were talking about philosophy, not physiology.”

“We can talk about whatever you desire to, my dear assistant.”

This brought the smile back to her lips. Ciaragan did not mind his doting on her- many more ‘dears’ had been slipping into Cazimir’s vocabulary as of late. He had also started calling her by her nickname, Ciara. The changes in their relationship were subtle, but never slipped past her unnoticed. How could they? No one else in this accursed place had ever shown her the compassion that Cazimir was generously giving. Many Venthyr considered it beneath their standing to interact with the souls bound to Revendreth, preferring the company of those freed from their sinful burdens already. But Cazimir was just... nice. He saw Ciaragan as the person she was and still wanted to be around her. That was more than she was used to.

“Why aren’t you at the party upstairs tonight?”

Cazimir flicked his eyes towards the ceiling, having nearly forgotten it entirely. “Bah, it is no concern of mine. The Master has given me enough to remain occupied with this evening. Besides, there will be another one tomorrow. Always is.”

“Still,” she said as she listened to the sounds of jubilation coming from the open window, “I’m sure you would have more fun there, rather than stuck in here with me.”

“Are you really so sure of this? You wound me, Ciara. I thought you knew me better by now.”

He clutched a hand over his heart and pantomimed his anguish, all the while unable to hide a grin. Ciaragan rolled her eyes and crossed her arms before defending herself.

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic. I can’t imagine picking at bark samples all night is more thrilling than whatever they’re getting up to.” She jabbed a finger upwards, though her eyes were set on the window where sounds of the party crept in to remind them of what they were missing.

Cazimir’s ear swiveled in its socket akin to a bat’s to locate the source of the noise. His eyes lit up when it hit him. “Ah! This is it, you hear? The one I was telling you about- my favorite…”

Before she even registered a change Cazimir appeared at her back and pulled the chair Ciaragan was seated in away from the lab table, bowed regally at the waist, and extended his hand for her to take. She was still in defensive mode, arms tightly wound across her chest and one leg slung over the other’s knee. Her cheeks flushed hot and red, and her mouth fell slightly agape. What was he doing?

“What are you doing?” She demanded, trying to convey the annoyance in her voice clearly.

“I’m asking you to dance the waltz! Does this gesture have a different meaning on your home world?”

“N-no but-”

Her feet left the ground before she could complete the objection. Cazimir was much larger than her and found no trouble scooping her up around the waist to pull her into a spin. He held her hand in his, clumsily at first, but adjusted to a gentle leading grip. Ciaragan felt his arm pinned against her back as he danced her around the room, her shoes barely brushing the floor. You could only just hear the muffled waltz drifting out of the grand ballroom above them. She had meant to protest, but no words would come to her. The mind was a fickle mistress- all that energy formulating how she would berate him for declining her declination was useless when he set her senses alight. Now all she could think about was the closeness of their bodies, the pulse in her wrist, the roughness of his palm, and the heat pooling in her belly. The air between them was hazy and blurred the edges of the world as they spun through it. Her golden gaze locked with his eyes, black as night, and saw the same conflicted desire reflected back at her.

Neither of them realized when the song had ended, or when they had stopped dancing. They just stood like that, holding each other, for some time afterwards. Neither quite knew what to say, either.

Finally, Cazimir blinked.

“I must say… You make an excellent dance partner…” His voice rumbled low in his chest.

Though his own appearance had been somewhat ruffled in their motion, the Venthyr’s undeath kept Cazimir from experiencing the breathlessness Ciaragan was still catching up from. She was much more disheveled than he, with strands of ebony hair falling over her face and dripping down her shoulders. Beads of sweat formed on her brow and her face was awash with rosy colors. Her chest rose and fell, the sound of her labored breathing the only accompaniment to the next song lilting in from above. She stared up at him under heavy eyelids.

Cazimir could not focus on one part of her for long as his eyes swept over every inch of Ciaragan, dark and hungry for her. She had never seen him look at her that way before. It was almost frightening. Almost.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered.

“Nothing, I- ...You’re so-”

With her free arm, she instinctively reached to push the hair from her eyes and fix herself. “Oh, I must look all out of sorts.”

He stopped her before she could reach anything, taking her ever so gently by the wrist and bringing it down to meet the other as he placed his hands around hers.

“You look like life itself, my dear. I wouldn’t change a thing.”

----------------

There were no birds to sing the arrival of day in Revendreth, no sunrise to paint the sky in pink and golden hues- mornings were just as shadowy and gray as the evening time. The guests of the Master dragged themselves back home at break of dawn, worn and weary and gorged on anima. Every soul in attendance would be riding on Denathrius’s coat tails for weeks to come as they delighted their village with tales of the Master’s decadence. Though all would claim to have had the best night of their afterlives, that special victory was quietly confined within two coffin-shaped doors deep inside Castle Nathria’s corridors. Ciaragan slept a dreamless slumber, while Cazimir kept watch over her nearby. What they shared was heaven, hell, and everything in between.

[skamamoroma]

How do you feel about them using violence in wtfock? You are all about the warmth of skamit and the hope and comfort but you are super balanced about all remakes and appreciate them all so i would like to hear your perspective on this whole thing of that is ok with you?

Thank you for your lovely words, anon ❤️

I do always talk about the hope and comfort of it all. That, for me, is why Skam is special. So you’ve absolutely read me right there.

This is the only post I’ll make on the whole thing (after last night’s emotion fest). It’s a little long, I got a little carried away...

So I guess I’d say first of all that I do not need a remake to be the same as the original. I appreciate changes, I appreciate creative choices and alternative approaches. They may not all work for me but that’s fine, we’re all very different, but what doesn’t work for me will no doubt be someone else’s exact cup of tea.

Julie Andem has always been very open with her intentions with Skam and it was always to firstly reflect reality properly, none of this sugar coated, vapid kind of reflection of young people but a real, genuine, warts and all, personal and in-depth look. Another thing she always talked of was reflecting the thoughts and experiences of young people in their own environments and shining a light on actual experiences but always with a view to ensure young people to know they aren’t alone and that there is hope and comfort... the very things that Skam has always striven to do and, for the most part, done very well.

We’re talking about s3 here and the original was absolutely special. That’s undeniable. There’s also a reason it was incredibly popular and one of those reasons is the sheer U turn on classic LGBT storytelling. It was hopeful, intimate, affectionate, clever and still maintained the real and honest storytelling while ALSO touching on very serious subjects like homophobia, mental health, parental importance, found families, loneliness, suicide, religion, friendship, forgiveness etc etc etc.

It was a story written FOR young people and in a way to raise awareness on topics that still provided them with hope and effectively telling them that if they’ve got it rough like Isak or Even then it may be difficult for a while but it can and will get better. She didn’t choose to show too much of the difficult stuff, rather hinted at it. Examples being Even’s intentions for suicide, Even’s episode was minimally shown, Isak’s mother wasn’t shown, homophobia was casual rather than intense etc. It had its own issues and wasn’t perfect but as a whole was done with love and respect and wonderful intentions and it resonated.

They were artistic choices and WONDERFUL ones. I appreciate them so much for so many reasons and they worked.

A show like Skam is going to be watched by many and s3 was going to be viewed by both LGBT+ people looking for representation or hope etc and also non LGBT+ folks. The intention was always clear - she’d give LGBT+ folks a story to hold tight to and the non-LGBT+ folks a story to learn from and to help perhaps some less supportive or educated people to see LOOK THIS IS LOVE ALSO. You know?

So that has always been the way of Skam. Each remake has considered its approach and has done its own thing, some in a much more drastic way but the overall requirement has always ultimately been to primarily provide hope and a story for those who identify and, as an extra, provide a story to educate those who don’t.

The country the show airs in is very specific too. Take Italy, with a right wing political landscape and significant issues with LGBT + representation, safety and support, decisions were made to give a huge dose of HOPE. It was warm and cosy and emotional but Ludo Bessegato even talked about how Giovanni GaraU as a character was his “tool” in that season for people to learn from - be more like Giovanni GaraU. It was beautifully done and is absolutely dear to me and always will be.

To me, darkness and reality isn’t to be shied away from necessarily. I have experience a lot of stuff in my life and the most affected I have been by media/fiction when these sensitive topics are touched upon have been when the sheer reality has been shown and a person has then been shown to grow, heal, gain strength and love and support and leave it behind. Not everyone will respond the same but many many will.

So, there’s contention in including blatant homophobia and violence concerning LGBT+ folks in a season dedicated to LGBT+ issues (amongst other things). It has been done time and time again and even in the 90s, it was the staple of any LGBT fiction. LGBT+ folks craved (and rightly so) to be depicted beyond that, to be shown to be loving and caring and varied and intelligent and filled with the same multitudes as any other group of people but also for the unique things about the LGBT+ community to be celebrated. That’s entirely a worthy cause and likely why we have so much more diverse LGBT+ media/fiction. Look at Moonlight winning the Oscar and Love Simon being released as a successful teen movie and San Junipero being arguably the most beloved Black Mirror episode and winning Emmys... it has been a long fight and it isn’t over but it’s WONDERFUL to see that type of progress.

But. Society isn’t there yet. I can’t speak for every society and country because I’m merely 1 person who is still learning and I am uneducated for that but violence against LGBT+ folks still happens, LGBT+ people still fear for safety in public etc etc etc. These issues haven’t disappeared. They are a reality for many. A sad, maddening reality that is horrific to comprehend but a reality all the same. So many folks who have endured this have grown, thrived and proven the world they are as worthy of love and support as any and that those who seek to destroy their love or community will fail and are worth nothing. Should they have to? No. But their stories are worth telling. The same way that an experience I lived through that was harrowing and has changed me as a person to this date when much of it happened when I was a teenager... was made easier by seeing other succeed from where I was. Their power and optimism and stories helped me make big decisions and change my life.

There is more than one way to do something. I will ALWAYS be a champion of hope and comfort and contentment. I strive in my life - everyday - to live that way and to give that to people around me because I know what it is to be without it. People need kindness and hope and you can provide that in many effective and useful ways that will work for some and not for others... and isn’t that wonderful? Isn’t it great that media and fiction has that power? It can be used for bad and we should ALWAYS constructively call that power out but Skam has always been a champion of hope and I don’t think wtfock’s intention is to provide misery porn for the enjoyment of straight folks. They wouldn’t be striving hard to show a complex, moving, intimate, affectionate, real relationship between two boys if they didn’t have respect for the people they are trying to portray.

Do we always need the stark realities of life to know they’re there? No. Do we need hope in media/fiction especially LGBT+ focused fiction? Damn right we do. Can a story like that be told without showing or highlighting those topics in any significant way? Of course it can and it is. But is there value in representing the stories of those who have sadly been subject to mistreatment or who have acted poorly when struggling with internalised homophobia? In my opinion, yes. Watching a journey of a character you are living the life of and seeing them succeed from a very difficult place is absolutely what some need. Not all. And if folks don’t like or agree then that’s the beauty of media/fiction, you can choose what you consume.

Wtfock has a lot to prove but I haven’t been shown anything in the clips so far that suggests that they intend to do anything other than show a story of survival and hope and comfort. If I’m proven wrong then so be it - won’t be the first time haha - but Julie Andem wouldn’t give the rights to her story if it wasn’t going to achieve that. I’m willing to give them a chance.

[but a warning should have 100% been added to last night’s clip. Nobody should have to watch scenes like that if they don’t want to and need to be given a choice]

I hope this answers your question ❤️

[youthagainstrape]

Sex Education:- A must need for future generation

Meaning:- 'Sex education' simply means the introduction of concept regarding sexual reproduction and sexual feelings'. It is a systematic study of the gradual development of body, sexuality, and relationships in school. It aims to help young people to communicate and make the correct decision regarding sex and their sexual health. Need:- Our schools teach our children everything they need to know to succeed – right? Intensive classes, exams to help them get into the best universities in India and abroad, and even extra out-of-school tuition so they can compete with their global peers. What is the need to teach our kids' sex education? If anything, it will distract them from their studies and put wrong ideas in their heads. Well, actually, when we watch our children, what we see is a safe, simple world – our kids go to school, study, and do their extracurricular activities. In reality, there is a lot of turmoil going on inside the adolescent mind. Take an average adolescent girl in India – she gets little information on her menstrual cycle so feels confused and embarrassed every month on her period, regularly gets harassed on the street, and then goes to school and does not know if it’s ok or not ok to talk to the boy she likes in class. If she faces some sort of sexual abuse from her teacher, she’s scared that she will get blamed if she speaks up – and she does not even have the words to say what has happened to her. It’s a similar situation for the average adolescent boy. In addition, he is usually consuming a lot of pornography, shaping his perceptions about girls and women. Adolescents these days are actually battling deep insecurities, facing challenging social situations with no easy answers, and getting a flood of vulgar, sexist, and misleading information from the media, which is usually their only source of information about how to interact with the world. All of these factors are having a deep effect on our kids, and shaping them into the adults they will be in the future. How do we combat this to create young adults who are confident in who they are, understand how to interact with each other in healthy and respectful ways, and are staying safe? It’s hard to have these conversations with kids because we do not know exactly what they are facing or what to say to them. Contrary to what people think, that is exactly what sex education is. It is not about teaching children how to have sex – it is about informing them about what is happening in their bodies and also teaching them to make safe, healthy choices as they grow up. It is also about helping them understand that the messages that they are getting from Bollywood or pornography are not realistic and can be harmful. Instead, it is about helping them come to their own conclusions about what it means to be a successful, interesting boy or girl. Roles of Parents and Schools in Sex Education In this era, rapes are increasing daily. One of the reasons for it can be a lack of sex education. In India, we are not getting sex education as awkwardness and ignorance from parents as well as from school. Information regarding sex, pregnancy, and contraception should be provided to children and adolescents in an age-appropriate manner from parents and schools. For children, it is necessary to understand the difference between good touch and bad touch. Sex education is a complex topic so it has to be handled with care. And in this process schools can play a very vital role. Teens go to school to get an education and school is a huge factor in growing their mindset and shaping their future. So, if they got to know about sex education from their growing stage the whole scenario of rape in India can change. As they know what is wrong and what is right. Also, the family atmosphere is very important as children adopt many things from their homes. Parents have to listen to them and make them understand what it is and why we required it. Parents have to look after their child’s life what they are facing. Also having healthy talks with them and let them understand is important. Schools can have a special sex educator and conducting seminars can create a huge change. Kind of sex education to different types of age group Awareness The pediatrician should encourage early parental discussion with children at home about sexuality, contraception, and Internet and social media use that is consistent with the child’s and family’s attitudes, values, beliefs, and circumstances. •Gender wise type. Diverse family circumstances, such as families with same-sex parents or children who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning, create unique guidance needs regarding sexuality education. •Stabilize Converse. Modeling ways to initiate talks about sexuality with children at pertinent opportunities, such as the birth of a sibling can encourage parents to answer children's questions fully and accurately. Parents and adolescents are encouraged to receive information from multiple sources, including health care providers and sexuality educators, about circumstances that are associated with earlier sexual activity. Adolescents are encouraged to feel empowered through discussing strategies that allow for practicing social skills, assertiveness, control, and rejection of unwanted sexual advances and cessation of sexual activity when the partner does not consent. •Proper Use- Discussions regarding healthy relationships and intimate partner violence can be effectively included in health care visits. Pediatricians are encouraged to acknowledge that sexual activity may be pleasurable but also must be engaged in responsibly. •Regulatory- Specific components of sexuality education offered in schools, religious institutions, parent organizations, and other community agencies vary based on many factors. The pediatrician can serve as a resource to each Ages wise- Age 2-5, in this age group parents can do like telling them about bad touch and good touch. Saying like this is not good and awarding them. Age 6-8, you as a parent should discuss with your child that how to use a digital world. Also, make them aware of the pornography world so that they don’t miss understand anything. Age 8 and 12, children often worry whether they're "normal" — particularly when it comes to penis size and breast size. Explain what happens during puberty for both boys and girls. Teenage, If you’ve established yourself as open to discussing those topics, “your kids are probably going to feel more comfortable talking to you and asking you questions,” says Thornhill. At this age, you should start interacting more with your child so that he/she can be on a good path with the help of sex education. Offer reassurance that children of the same age mature at different rates. Puberty might begin years earlier — or later — for some children, but eventually, everyone catches up. You might want to share experiences from your own development, particularly if you once had the same concerns that your child has now. Each thing has its own pros and cons. Similarly, sex education also has both. Let us look into it. Pros:- Sex education can also become the answer to many hormonal changes, which happens in the body. Sex education can also help to solve child sex abuse, as they will be aware of good touch and bad touch. It is good to teach them in school, as they will be having a guide, which can make them understand. If they are aware of it then they will not do any immature thing or the wrong thing. Cons:- Right now the teachers who are teaching at many schools they are not expert in this field. So there is a high risk, that students will get things wrong. And the wrong thing can be very much harmful. If sex education is not teaching properly, then a student can take it for granted or just not follow it. In most of the school sex education is not yet the primary subject so that’s also a reason, students won’t consider it to learn. Conclusion Helping kids understand that they have a gut, an inner voice, and they can and should listen to it, is a big part of what sex education is about,” says Silverberg. At the right time and in the right way sex education can be very helpful. It is necessary to keep a healthy conversation between parent and child. In addition, schools have a vital role as well. “Sex Education is as necessary as education and morals, for a better future.”