#it's in every media industry tbh

[onceintwentylifetimes]

.

[opal-owl-flight]

can I ask about the poster "agent 3" kids story?

Yes you can and here it all is!! Presenting…

tldr: She comes from a family of big name actors in the industry, and shes been raised from hatching to continue their legacy. Its…a lot of pressure to put on a kid, especially one who just wants to make her (impossible to satisfy) family proud. Despite being surrounded by impossible standards, the fakest friends chosen for her, being given everything she can ever want (except what she really needs), and putting on a hundred masks for everyone in her life for survival’s sake in a cutthroat industry, she chooses to be kind.

more details under the cut!!

Her name is Sariwa, which means “fresh” . Named for her spring green tentacles and as a blessing from her parents that shed stay youthful, beautiful. a hope that she would be seen and be adored (as freshness implies coolness/popularity in sploonworld).

Shes hatched into the acting industry, with both parents being big in the industry. From hatching she was expected, trained to be an actor like her mother is. The media adores them, this “sweet little family”, but no one knows how nefarious everything is when the cameras are off.

The dad is neglectful, disappearing into meetings most of the time. The mom is a helicopter parent to make up for it. Pointing out every flaw that Sariwa apparently has in either performance or appearance. Never giving praise. Except when she performs “well enough” on stage. This instills in the child this need to make them proud. to…to make everyone happy. She becomes someone whose dependent on other peoples’ praise to function.

Shes given everything else, dont get me wrong. Every material thing she’ll ever need. all the big popular “friends” chosen for her. But…shes not allowed to turf. yknow. biggest event in an inkling’s life here in Inkopolis. and shes not allowed to go to school either. shes too busy memorizing lines for adverts or-

The second she turned 14, she was chosen as the lead role for Cuttlegear’s brand new show abt Agent 3. She looked exactly like the legendary hero, according to the sources. All her time went into this project. Thankfully, unlike at home…her co-actors were very kind. Her parents didnt choose for her this time. She was meeting actual people who dont put on masks beyond their job. the actor they got for Cuttlefish, in particular, is a very kind soul, defending her when the directors get too pissy with her performance. (Those are the only people she fears, tbh shes fearful of most authority figures.)

*Cuttlefish is also depicted as kind and supportive in the show. and in most games. Unlike the real Cuttlefish, which is kind of a loony old man who pushes ideas on young inklings. He still gives more support and kindness that 3s dad ever gave, but thats only RELATIVE to how little he gave in the first place. One can only imagine the longing this inspires in the real 3.

Sariwa…since shes hatched shes had to put on an act. Be the perfect little doll for her parents. For the world. But her friends here, they inspired her to…have fun with what shes doing again. To take off the mask (mostly beyond the clock). Breathe life in the character when she can. (But lets be real…shes getting 3 spot on with how many parallels they have with each others lives.)

But what is she beyond the mask, her role? She wasnt allowed to do anything beyond this. She was forced to depend on her abusive parents and their associates. She cant live alone beyond them. Not allowed to turf bc shes “a prim and proper young lady; above such violent drivel that only delinquents participate in”. They gesture to 3, whos one of the faces Squidforce uses in their promotions, and say (ironically.) that she must not become that. Face ripped to shreds and eye mangled.

No one knows they got that from the real war that Sariwa is pretending to show.

The show does its best to be an accurate telling. Child friendly, to a point. Horrifying things still get kept in somewhat. Things that will horrify a child on stage.

If Sariwa is terrified of the props, can you imagine how it was for 3?

————————

And once she realizes all of this. Once she gets out of this situation thanks to Callie, Marie, and 3 themself. Does she feel guilt? Guilt for depicting the horrors in a way that glorifies it instead? A part of a project that aims to make people complacent to the real horrors that churned below?

There is one thing Sariwa feels about 3, that I am aware of rn.

“Im glad, that out of every story I couldve told, Im glad it was yours.”

Just like 8, she sung this tale in her hearts. Just like 8, she used this to break out of this terrible situation, answering the call of the ones who promised her safety. A better life. Like the way she stage broke through that prop in the choreographed Octavio fight, she broke through the influence of those around her.

*She actually went off-script a bit in that scene. After she beat down Octavio, she held out her hand. Mostly to help the actor up. But then, without realizing, she spoke, she spoke of making things better between the nations. That maybe he doesnt have to steal the zapfish anymore.

Her time with the octoling actors, and hearing the stories from the ex-octarians, made her aware and know the fact that theyre people too. The directors kept it in. They knew that if they released this as they have planned it, there will be fuckign riots from the ex-octarians or the Inkling “sympathizers”.

She saw the value this story held, despite the subliminal messaging that she wished wasnt implemented. That she wished she wasnt a part of. She saw that its a tale of hope. A tale that inspires one to become the hero of their own life. A tale that inspires one to make the world a better place.

————————

So she was hatched and raised to make people smile, singing her songs and dancing their dances. Much like the clan singer that was 4, except the tradition is much more healthy compared to industry standard. And she didnt become as mean as the people around her, at least not internally. She put on a mean mask but she felt the void within. When she was given kindness for a long enough time, she put her walls down.

And just like the real 3, she underwent through the horrors of expectations she had to hold up, and trying to make uninterested parents proud. They dont see her as their daughter, shes just a means to an end. She had to wear a hundred masks to survive and it made her lose her sense of identity. She had to be mature, she had to take the shitty behavior of adults who expect her to be like one too. It made her lose grip of who she is beyond this role. Hell, they made her so dependent on their handouts that shes not sure she can exist beyond this hell. Much like how 3 struggles to know a life beyond their duty.

And much like 8, she used the story she was telling to break out and get herself in a better situation. She met with the real Agents 1 and 2 (without her knowledge) and asked. Begged. for help, after her show ended. (3 also kind of pointed the two in her direction. Bc cod knows how horrifying this industry is. Shes lucky she didnt get any of the grosser horrors ~~its bc I didnt feel comfortable writing such topics~~)

And then shes faced with the same problem all the real legends faced. What comes after the end? When the dust clears, what happens next? She wasnt given a damn choice, she wasnt allowed to try to learn things beyond this role. to be beyond an imagined agent 3. a soldier for the screen. who is she now, that shes out of that battlefield?

little does she realize that the real 3s asking the same question for themself.

[cardboardheartss]

NEWJEANS Overall Reading

⚠️DISCLAIMER! TAROT CARDS ARE NOT 100% ACCURATE! TAKE EVERYTHING WITH A GRAIN OF SALT! IF MY INTERPRETATIONS ARE INCORRECT FEEL FREE TO CORRECT ME!⚠️

*NWJNS current thoughts*

Minji : 7oC rx

In all honesty, from my cards, it seems as if Minji still wants to continue fighting. She is aware of the consequences that she’ll be facing but she honestly wants to fight. It seems like she will continue to demand change within the company, she only demands change for the sake of maintaining NWJNS creativity and image.

Hyein : 2oC rx

Hyein is completely tired. She wants to end her contract with HYBE, she is aware of the issues that HYBE and Fraudor will put her through and for her own sanity, she really wants to leave.

Haerin : 3oW rx, 9oP rx, The World

Haerin honestly wants a break! She is tired, and is literally on the brink of losing her mind atp. Haerin is also aware that HYBE will sabotage the girls careers on purpose, and she honestly does not want that for herself. She just wants to possibly go on a world tour and continue her career as NWJNS before April.

Hanni : AoW, 3oC rx

Poor Pham Pham, this situation has really made her question herself A LOT! She probably sits in her room and asks herself, “Why am I here?” “Why did I choose the fame life?” “Should I even continue being in NWJNS at this point?” Many thoughts surrounding her current situation as a member of NWJNS.

Danielle : Judgement rx, The Sun rx, 6oS, KoC rx, KNoP

The hate comments are hitting Dan Dan really hard, she has had the most difficult time. Since I watch NWJNS content, I can tell that she is honestly outraged and depressed too. Her whole vibe and personality has just become so closed off, it’s actually quite sad to witness. She really hates BSH too, many many negative thoughts about that man. Just views him as a money hungry coward tbh.

*thoughts on Jungkook’s support post*

Minji : QoC rx, WoF, KoS rx

“Oh no.”😤 She knew what was coming, the fans. She just knew that it will bring them more bad luck, because of the hate comments they’ll be receiving (which is happening as I type this). She’s thankful for the post, in a way but she knew that the fans will downplay this post and cause a ruckus.

Hyein : 3oC rx

She was worried about his fans turning against him. She is also worried about how the higher ups will react towards Jungkook after the post had been made.

Haerin : 5oW rx

She’s so glad someone with so much power finally stood up for her group. In the back of her mind, she’s probably thinking about how other groups could be envious about this moment that took place. Overall, she’s honestly really really grateful to have Jungkook on their side because she really thinks the group needed that one person to just shake things up a bit.

Hanni : 6oC

*do y’all know the “that’s a real black king right there🤪” sound from TikTok?*

Hanni in all honesty said, “that’s a real sunbaenim right there.🙂‍↕️” Wouldn’t be surprised if Hanni actually cried a bit after seeing that post and statement. She is soooo grateful, she honestly is so relieved to actually see someone with so much power and influence in the industry stand up for her group. She honestly is so grateful! My gut tells me that she probably saved that post as her Lock Screen or just looks at it every night for motivation.

Danielle : 8oW rx, Devil rx, The Empress

Initially, I don’t even think Dani was aware of the post. Poor Dani probably has her phone off or has deleted her social media for the sake of her peace. After she was aware of the post, she was quite taken aback because she doesn’t believe how Jungkook, actually had the guts to stand for NWJNS while being aware of the situation her group has with HYBE. She really respects him and applauds him for what he did.

*overall HYBE groups thoughts on this situation*

5oC rx, 2oP

Seems like these groups really be avoiding each other like a PLAGUE! These groups are completely and totally aware of the support NWJNS has, and I could say it kinda rubs them off the wrong way because they’re going through similar situations but they’re not getting the support from the rest of the industry and majority of the population of Korea (before y’all come for me, yes, support from this population matters the most, I’m sorry… I don’t make the rules!) It seems like they’ll try avoid thinking of this, and focus on support they receive from their own fandoms and promotions.

*will NWJNS stay in HYBE?*

5oP

No, the girls will eventually be leaving HYBE for good. In all honesty once again, these girls will have to leave this company for the sake of their own peace. They’re going to have many financial difficulties as they depart from this company but they’re going to have to either way.

*outcome of HYBE, once NWJNS leave*

AoP rx, The Lovers, 4oP, 10oS

lol. they’re going to be broker than ever! they will attempt to reconcile with their stock brokers or brands, to jump start their stock market value again, but it seems like all these businesses will stay clear from them to protect their own money because they’re aware, they’ll not be benefiting themselves with working with HYBE. HYBE will have to work really hard for positive public support again but it’s going to take a while.

*publics perception of NWJNS departure from HYBE*

6oW rx, Justice rx, Strength

the public will be divided ; Token/HYBE stans & Bunnies/K-Industry/Public & Rest of the public. The first group of people will be dissatisfied and angered by NWJNS leaving and claim that they’re ungrateful and stupid. The rest of the public will feel remorseful and encourage NEWJEANS to not give up but at the same time, should take a break!

OR!

the public will hate HYBE even more, and question their motives as a company overall. many people will not support HYBE any longer and believe they need their names tarnished as much as well. Would not be surprised if HYBE releases a media play article that day, in a celebratory manner about NWJNS departure but the public will remind them that they (HYBE) has not won in this situation, and will in fact be weak in terms of revenue.

*NWJNS careers once they depart from HYBE*

everybody say this with me : “NEWJEANS NEVER DIE!”📢

Pregnancy, Open Up Your Heart, Communicate, Manifest, Caution rx

*while shuffling the cards, the words NEWJEANS entertainment, came out my mouth lol! I would not be surprised if NWJNS establish their own company or they could possibly be moving to a different company, depending on their financial positions*

Anyways, the girls will come back better than ever! They will be expressing their gratitude to all the people who were on their side from the very beginning til the position they’ll be in once they’ve departed from HYBE. It seems as if the members 11:11 wishes will come true, and they’ll be a bit more stable and peaceful but it also seems like the girls will overwork themselves a bit too much because they want to prove to HYBE or the public that’s against them, that’s NWJNS as 5 shouldn’t be underestimated.

*individual messages from my cards for NWJNS members during this situation*

>this is so random lol but my gut is telling me to do this so I guess why not.🤷🏽‍♀️

Minji (Divorce) : my cards are telling her to consider canceling her contract with HYBE.

Hyein (Moving) : my cards are also telling her to consider canceling her contract with HYBE.

Haerin (Commitment rx) : my cards are also telling her to also just end her contract with HYBE.

Hanni (Health) : my cards are telling her to watch out for her physical and mental health! urgently so!💢

Danielle (Mercury Retrograde) : my cards are telling Ms Aries Mercury to hold herself back because people on social media will continue to attack her for what she says and supports.

That’s all for NWJNS today! The cards came out a bit better-ish than I had anticipated. I’m just relieved and touched to see how NWJNS will be okay after this situation. It will take some time for them to get back on their feet but they’re honestly going to kill it!

nwjns never die!🩷💛💚💜💙👏🏽

[jinnify]

irreplaceable pt. 2 — park sunghoon

pairing: sunghoon x idol!reader and a little bit of jay x reader genre: idk tbh LOL warnings: none word count: one thousand four hundred fourteen now playing: killing me by ikon extended note at the bottom. part one.

It had been a little over a month since you had broken up with Sunghoon when he received news of you being in a dating scandal with one of your seniors. If he were honest, he’d say he hadn’t ever expected you to move on from him that quickly, but maybe it had just been him overestimating how much he mattered to you - instead, he sent you a congratulations message that you never even opened.

Sunghoon, of course, had immediately started talking to his crush as soon as you’d broken up with him, trying to distract from the strange string of emotions you had stirred up within him that night. It was never more than a couple of dates before he lost interest in her.

Sooner or later, Sunghoon deleted your number from his phone, seeing how you had been caught with your presumed boyfriend more than once. It had been a mystery as to who you were dating as celebrity media outlets had only released your name, but Sunghoon felt bothered by it nonetheless.

Months passed with no news about you, which led him to quietly pass the time without thinking about you until end-of-the-year practices started ramping up for the entire industry. Suddenly, Jay would arrive at practices with a warm meal in hand, much too familiar with the way you once did for him. 

He tried to push away the many thoughts of one of his members and best friends dating his ex-girlfriend until he noticed a notification with your name on his lock screen. 

Sunghoon swore he died a little inside. How could his friend do this to him? To not even speak to him before trying to pursue you. Sunghoon was heartbroken for more than one reason that day. 

It took everything in him not to drag Jay out into the middle of the room and confront him for what he was doing behind his back. Instead, he went home without a glance back at the room filled with people. Sunghoon calmed himself down after an hour of pacing back and forth throughout his dorm room. He hadn’t been rationally thinking. 

Would Jay really do this to him?

The breakup had taken a toll on you. You hadn’t been able to eat or sleep well, which led to a lack of energy when you had practices that resulted in poor performance on music shows. You were more than aware of how dramatically you were reacting to this ordeal given that Sunghoon hadn’t even liked you, but that didn’t stop your heart from breaking every time a random memory of him doing something nice for you popped up in your head.

You tried to convince yourself that you hadn’t ever felt anything for Sunghoon yourself - that your infatuation had come from how handsome he was and you would get over this little slump in no time. 

You flopped around in bed, leaning over to look at your member’s alarm clock. 4:00 AM shown in red letters blinked back at you, taunting you with its horrendously bright lights.

This had been the third night in a row that you had been unable to sleep.

You felt your phone vibrate from under your pillow, alerting you of a text message. It took you a second to completely register who had sent you a message before you replied. Jay had asked if you were awake, wondering if you wanted to meet by a local convenience store. It only took you 10 minutes before you snuck out of your dorm, and were on your way to meet up with him.

You had never expected the level of true amity that would bloom between the both of you, but you were grateful to have had Jay there for you through one of the worst times in your life yet.

Neither you nor Jay was aware of the stirrup it would cause the next day when it had leaked that the two of you had met up late at night and after a stern interrogation from both of your managers, the situation had been cleared up without a problem.

The nightly outings with Jay continued whenever you couldn’t catch a full night’s rest, too preoccupied with your thoughts to give out. More and more of your fans had begun to speculate online, but your shared company never commented.

You had only recently started making Jay meals and dropping them off once you had started feeling better to repay him for all the money he had spent on your ice cream. Little thank-you notes littered the tops of the lids, cheering him on as you were both about to get very busy. 

It wasn’t until Jay asked you to stop that you realized there was a problem with what you had been doing. Of course, Jay had kept the reason for his hesitation to himself but it didn’t take a genius to understand what was going on.

In a fit of anger, you messaged Sunghoon’s number, still having his contact saved in your phone. It was a wordy message, filled with obscenities you wouldn’t have ever repeated to his face, but you were rightly upset that Sunghoon had the gall to be angry at his friend for comforting you as any normal person would have.

Who did he think he was to dictate his friend's actions?

If Sunghoon were honest with himself, he’d admit that he knew Jay dating you shouldn’t have bothered him as much as it did. He hadn’t even actually dated you - his friend was more than validated in his right to pursue you. 

He didn’t completely understand what bothered him more, the fact that it was Jay who was dating you or that you had moved on. He knew he should be happy for you, especially since he knew how hurt you had been when you broke up, but he couldn’t find it in himself.

He often caught himself daydreaming now, imagining how it must be for you and Jay on your dates. The glimmer in your eyes that had once been only for him to see was now shining for someone else. There was a sickly feeling in Sunghoon’s stomach, one he knew he shouldn’t be feeling.

After a while, he started avoiding Jay as much as he could. Sunghoon hadn’t expected the misery that would accompany him after your breakup. There had been an intense guilt that had started eating Sunghoon from the inside out. Couldn’t he just be happy for his friend?

Awards shows came quicker than he would have wanted. Sunghoon had managed to suppress his feelings long enough to get through practices, but he had no idea how well he’d hold up if he came across you with Jay. On top of that, you were upset with him over his reaction to your relationship.

It was only the beginning of award season, but Sunghoon had already seen too much. The smiles shared between you and Jay did not go unnoticed, and he hated it.

He hated just how much he wished your smiles were directed at him.

Sunghoon’s intense stares didn’t go unnoticed by you either. They were difficult to miss when you could feel his eyes burning into you whenever you stood to applaud his group. It was an intense feeling to know that you were being watched with such disdain, but there wasn’t much you could do. Jay tried to comfort you as much as he could through text messages whenever he was in his green room. 

After one particular performance by your group, you ran into Jay and his members, excitedly congratulating them all with hugs as Sunghoon distanced himself as much as he could. Again, you felt his stern stare, hesitantly turning to him you gave him a thumbs up and a smile.

You figured keeping things civil wouldn’t hurt, despite being annoyed with how he was acting lately. Unsurprisingly, Sunghoon didn’t return the small gesture instead he looked away from you almost entirely.

Yes, you hadn’t expected much from him but it still hurt. You didn’t understand where this hostility came from. The last time you had physically seen Sunghoon he looked like he was on the verge of tears, yet now he stood looking miserable at the thought of your presence. 

The thought hadn’t even been processed in your mind before you were walking toward him, escaping your member's hold on your hand. 

“Sunghoon, can I speak with you?”

EXTENDED NOTE. ok she's not done but I really really struggled with her so I just cut it off here 😔 I promise the next part will be nicer and probably fluffy <3 also jiji I thought I was gonna post this yesterday but I didn't ansorrriiiiii

[summercreolefanfictioner]

diabolik lovers modern college au general headcanons (sakamaki brothers)

• the sakamaki bros don't live in the same house, except for the triplets bcos cordelia is the only legal wife of karl in this au (she's the first wife after all)

• shuu lives in one of beatrix's old condo unit while reiji in one of karl's mini house (yeah he has that house all by himself bcos kaaaaarl)

• subaru lives in the university dorm bcos he doesn't like relying on karl (well except for christa's meds bcos she went insane and all that sht so karl might as well pay for that)

• despite going to the same university, the six of them don't cross paths often (except for the triplets and subaru bcos they like to rile him up and tease him endlessly like a torture)

• since this is modern college au, all characters are aged up (shuu is 22, reiji is 21, the triplets are 20, and subaru is 19)

• despite being the oldest, shuu is stuck in his second year bcos he kept repeating most of his law electives (he would rather slack off than pass his law course wtf and it usually takes around 4-5 yrs to finish)

• all bros were mandated by karl to take at least one business elective per year bcos they might be working under his corporation in the near future (ayato's major is business so he has no escape)

• reiji is an exception to this rule bcos he had been granted by karl to focus only on neurosurgery since "he's the only son who doesn't disrespect me" (tbh it was only a ruse by karl since he has no reasons to make reiji his heir despite him being a genius 💀💀💀)

• ayato is so famous in the university like his red hair stands out and his status as the university's most popular basketball player made him the school IT boy

• but bcos he's a varsity player, he's not often at school so he had to take weekend classes (this is also another reason why most of his exes are either girls who watched his game or they're students from other univ or college)

• his famous relationship tho was with a rich girl who's also the main dancer of a popular cheerleading squad from a rival school (ayato broke up with her due to the immense pressure of social media and her fans)

• ayato is also the eternal chauffer of his two bros like hello let him flaunt that red sports car baby (laito and kanato have their own cars; they just don't like driving that much)

• kanato studies forensic mortuary in the same bldg as ayato and reiji; the law bldg is a separate institution from them so they have no idea what shuu was doing

• except for kanato bcos he likes lounging in the music room singing scarborough fair and bcos his voice is so relaxing, shuu listens to it for free (kanato secretly hates that shuu does it tho bcos it reminds him too much of cordelia and her shtty ways of traumatizing him)

• laito is studying hotel and restaurant management on another bldg and it's the farthest one from all his bros (like you have to pass by 4 or 5 larger bldgs before you reach their institution)

• this is bcos ryoutei university has their own dedicated hotel and restaurant for students with courses related to said industry

• so yeah maya (aka my oc/kanato's s/o) sees laito more often than her own boyfriend in the campus

• laito always has exes in every course like there would be 3 or 4 girls under the same course that have already slept with him what a slut

• and yes there is a huge possibility laito, subaru, and shuu have dated the same girl bcos these three would only date the same type of girl (the pure looking one who secretly has lewd desires and digs bad boys like them)

• it was a shock for yui when she found out half of the girls from her class have slept with laito

• then laito told her he likes corrupting pure girls and toying with their minds until they become insane and dependent on him (sounds canon, no?)

• there was a time when laito dated one of kanato's professors and she ended up dealing with kanato's incessant and murderous glares every time she teaches their class. his reason? bcos "she reeks so much of that perverted laito"

• the sbros actually had this same english prof who randomly fails someone despite their intelligence bcos he likes exerting his power like that

• while some of them threaten him using the sakamaki name, kanato had to disguise as a girl and seduce the sht out of this perverted teacher (the old geezer was so hooked he just believed this girl was kanato's twin substituting for his bro bcos he was 'sick')

• speaking of which, subaru got attracted to kanato's alter ego like once upon a time he saw her daintly pick up her bag and tuck her hair behind her ear and boom heart arrows everywhere

• afterward, subaru asked kanato who was that one chick at his class with the long black hair dressing like a sexy lolita

• "oh, you mean me?"

• subaru had nightmares after that

• and yes kanato uses that info to blackmail him to do his bidding

• "if you don't do what I say, I'll tell everyone you fell in love with my alter ego"

• oh btw subaru's major is more on athletics? like he wanted to be a PE or sports instructor/coach in the future bcos accdg to him "fighting is the only thing I'm good at"

• his allowance is mostly spent on repairs on the dorm tho (guess punching walls ain't limited in the family house)

• the reality of his dream is beginning to weigh on him tho bcos some students are scared shtless of him and his violent tendencies

• laito became one of his students one time when he was assigned to be an assistant coach

• "waaahh subaru-kun your expression is so scary pls be gentle"

• reiji actually dated someone from ayato's class bcos her father has huge connections with famous neurosurgeons

• shuu keeps a video of one of his exes doing some cowgirl sht on him (he likes her moans that's why)

• all of kanato's exes studied in the same bldg as him; and yes, they are all from yui's course but each of them from different years and classes (he is picky like that)

• up to this day, reiji looks down on this one female classmate who dated shuu like what does she see in that good-for-nothing (well uhh his huge d-)

• accdg to both kanato and laito, yui is the loudest girl ayato has been with (kanato swore one day he'll stuff her mouth with socks until she chokes if she keeps moaning so loud while he's watching his fave murder docu series)

• ayato keeps teasing both reiji and subaru as virgins (they aren't tho; but despite their tough facade, their experiences are quite hmmm minimal so there are things they don't know)

• shuu almost dated this one classmate of kanato (almost bcos she keeps talking abt those dead people she handled with formaldehyde which is gross so he was turned off a bit)

• the triplets are usually the representatives of karl during his corporate and family parties (sometimes the other three will drop by... well mostly reiji but the other two must've been forced by karl somehow)

• there was a drunk scandal video of the triplets and subaru where subaru was driving while kanato and ayato kept making fun of him

• then kanato was video calling maya and asking her to come over and "watch a movie with him" while ayato was making delusions of aliens flying around the car, almost causing subaru to drive the wrong way

• laito was sitting beside subaru, reprimanding ayato to stop his delusions bcos there were no aliens but only flying trees (ayo what?)

• there's a part 2 but this time shuu and reiji were in the car and shuu kept laughing at ayato bcos subaru's driving is getting messed up bcos of the alien shenanigans

• and reiji was crying bcos apparently all of them are going to die and also bcos kanato is finally talking "properly" to a girl (what do you mean properly he is being a pervert)

• he also said "laito has finally seen the light and started being the good son"

• yui is actually the one filming all this videos tho

ps. I might make memes abt modern college au later on

[barsformars]

Disrespect

//

g - angst

p - wooyoung x f!reader

w.c - 1.1k

t.w - mentions of insecurities regarding looks and body

c - wooyoung is mad at you for starting rumours and you’re pissed at his insensitivity

a.n - have not written an angst piece in a very long time, idk if anyone is interested to read this tbh but it comforted me a little to write this because something similar happened to me quite a while back so 🥴 also disclaimer, this is completely fictional im not saying wooyoung is an asshole irl

//

“i don’t ever want to see you again” doesn’t really work when you’re working together and have to see each other literally the next day. not only is it painfully obvious and awkward to your coworkers. it’s also incredibly exhausting switching from being mad at him to seriously missing the good times with him every half an hour or so.

it took one more glare sent towards wooyoung’s direction for san to finally decide to come talk to you. “you wanna talk to me about it?” he asked softly as he sat himself beside you.

you furrowed your eyebrows at san, wondering if he was serious about it, especially considering the cause of the whole fight. “what, and have you report everything back to your best friend? no thanks.”

“my lips are sealed,” san tried to reassure, slightly taken aback by your attitude. he has never once betrayed anyone’s trust, unless they were doing something illegal but that’s a story for another day.

that phrase meant nothing to you but empty promises to you now. your only fault was telling your fellow backup dancers that you felt uncomfortable with how close wooyoung was being with a certain girl group member, and now he was blaming you for calling him a womaniser and a cheater because rumours had spread. and instead of apologising for causing your trust in him to waver, wooyoung was more concerned about his reputation.

“i’ll respect your wishes if you don’t want to talk about it, but i strongly encourage for the both of you to talk it out,” san advised, “the atmosphere is kind of heavy because of the two of you.”

san got up and walked away, revealing wooyoung who was staring at you from the mirror as the stylist fixed his hair.

“have you been crying?” was the first thing that came out from his mouth after the both of you excused yourselves to a more private space. you swear you could have punched him right there and then.

surely it was obvious that you had been bawling all night with how swollen your eyes were, and the sunken eye bags that formed overnight – an observation wooyoung had made when you had cried to sleep in his arms a long time ago.

“which answer will hurt you more?” you spat, provoking your boyfriend.

“drop your glare, you’re being rude.”

“rude? you know what’s rude? not respecting my boundaries, then proceeding to invalidate my feelings,” you replied as you balled your hands into tight fists.

the following were wooyoung’s claims: he did not pat her head or rest his hand on her lower back and that you were delusional and lying because you’re insecure that you’re not as attractive, face or body wise, as compared to girl idols.

“and you did not respect my career, your words have spread and if the media catches wind of this i could be ruined!” wooyoung rebutted, his voice louder than before.

“again, like i said, all i wanted was to tell somebody that i was uncomfortable with it! i never meant to say that you were a cheater, nor did i want to spread it to the whole world.”

“what you intended to do doesn’t matter, that’s how the media industry is! and you could have told me directly how you felt-“

“so you can tell me i was overthinking and extra sensitive?” you were now face to face with the man, extremely agitated.

wooyoung backed away from you with a few steps and audibly sighed. he turned his head to the side in an attempt to calm down, biting down on his lower lip.

“look, i don’t know how else to explain myself other than saying that i did not do whatever you said i did. regardless, i’m sorry you felt that way and i apologise.” wooyoung decided to be the one to back down first, his arms opening up as an invitation for the both of you to hug it out.

you don’t accept it, also taking steps away from him while shaking your head in dismay. you were not going to let him get away so easily with this, not after he utterly shattered your heart. what wooyoung did, misunderstanding or not, was not what hurt you the most, but how he reacted when he heard about it.

wooyoung had always reassured you that you were the most beautiful in his eyes, that no one else could compare to you. you were not stupid enough to think it was an objective statement, you have seen enough idols to know that even the ones that aren’t photogenic are on another level. but he has now turned this insecurity of yours into a weapon to make you think you’re an insane jealous girlfriend.

“what do you want me to do to show that i still love you?” wooyoung questioned. again, his choice of words irked you.

you felt tears welling up in your eyes, the disappointment you were feeling made your heart ache so much. you love your boyfriend, but not this version of him. and you don’t know the answer to his question because the damage feels irreversible.

“please just come here,” wooyoung carefully takes a step closer to you, his arms opening once again for you, his voice still firm but slightly more gentle now. he wished you would understand the reason he, in your words, ‘overreacted’ is because ateez is at the height of their career and he can’t risk having anything knock it down right now. he knows, he knows it seems never ending for you, being patient until he reaches his next goal. there’s always a next goal, and it’s always harder to reach than the last, and each time there’s more at stakes. he knows he’s being selfish, one can’t have it all but here he is, greedy for both success and love.

“i’m sorry,” he apologised again, his two hands cupping your face as the tears begun to roll down your cheeks, “i shouldn’t have been so harsh on you.”

“i think we should break up.” you felt like choking on your own words. yet for some reason, your body still gravitated towards him, and the next moment your lips are already on his.

wooyoung did not have time to react to what you had just said, but he doesn’t care. all he wants to do right now is melt into your kiss so he reaches for the back of your head.

the both of you are grown enough to know this was not the healthiest way to resolve conflicts, but everything just felt right. “we are so not breaking up,” he breathed heavily as he pulled away for a second.

“you are mine.”

[inamagicalhallucination]

i had the best bsd famous no powers au headcanons because i got the mental image of dazai saying he “hates” chuuya and none of his friends should listen to him because chuuya sucks and atsushi sadly putting the chuuya poster he wanted to buy back

and also “wait so dazai can sleep with chuuya but i cant listen to his music??? wtf ???”

most of them would be in the entertainment btw but a few exceptions here and there

okay first of all a lot of the ways every one met every one would be different for the sake of like creative liberty sfakdj like dazai and atsushi would have met earlier ; i would probably not put akutagawa in the music industry so his relationship with dazai would be different - but i havent actually worked any of that out yet so ignore this

anyway

first of all - a key plot point would be that chuuya and dazai had a falling out - and i mean an actual falling out like they cant stand anyone bringing the other up

which really sucks for the ada becuz like chuuya’s music >>>>>>>>>>>

anyway here are what i think some of the characters would be like

chuuya: 

- he rose to fame as a teenager - he’s wildly known for his good music and his smexy face 

- a good portion of younger artists like his music and look up to him

- he likes writing his own music but sometimes feels conscious about more dark/personal songs

- had a falling out with dazai at some point becuz of this he does not like ppl listening to the music that comes from dazai’s friends but he does secretly like a lot of their songs

- has secret social media accounts to stalk dazai

- has cried becuz he convinced himself at some point about dazai ‘being with’ almost everyone at the agency (at different time periods) and was not right even once

- every single one of his friends knows that half of his music is obviously about dazai but no one knows how to bring it up

- every one’s favorite thirst trap

- you know how a product will appear for a .000000000000000001 sec w/ a bts member and immediately get sold out ?? yeah thats how it is for him

- he’s very strict about crediting ppl - like someone will say like two words to him that’ll inspire him and he’ll credit them as co-writer

//

dazai:

- im not sure if i want him to be a singer or not but he’s definitely involved in other aspects such as writing producing etc

- HATES chuuya 

- so much that he’s constantly thinking about him like the pathetic wet cat that he is

- he has forbidden everyone in the agency from listening to chuuya’s music

- there may or may not be a secret underground community within the ada that listens to chuuya’s music and fangirls over him and it may or may not include everyone but dazai

- when someones mad at dazai they blast chuuya’s music

- *listening to chuuya’s music, secretly* wait is this fucking song about me ? ... nah

- atsushi once wrote a song about dazai and how glad that he was that he had a brother figure like dazai and dazai cried for 24 hours straight 

- atsushi is no longer allowed to casually write about him 

- he acts really playful and aloof but he streams all of his friends music religiously and is secretly their biggest fan

- has tried to convince everyone he knows that sings to sing his suicide song - no one has agreed yet

- he has trouble finding inspiration but when he does he latches on - sometimes he’ll disappear for days and then come back with the most perfect songs 

- really only openly nice and supportive to atsushi tbh 

//

atsushi

- i want him to be with dazai earlier becuz i think it would let their dynamic really settle and atsushi trauma-response personality won’t be as prominent if that makes sense

- atsushi’s favorite musician is everyone :D no im kidding thats what he says but its actually chuuya 

- yeah he’s the younger brother of dazai (not sure if their kinda like brothers or just adopted brothers or what yet) and he’s in love with chuuya it runs in the family

- he’s in a band

- it’s called snow beneath the moonlight - it’s him, naomi, and junichiro

- maybe they’ll add lucy and/or kyouka but idk

- atsushi’s the main singer - juni’s on drums - naomi’s on guitar - but they switch around for the funsies

- im gonna create a separate section for them actually and keep the focus on atsushi for now

- atsushi’s solo music is....

- the first album he released came after weeks and weeks of people spotting him going to the studio in bright fun clothes - and he posted a lot of fun things

- so everyone thought it’d be a fun, motivational bop album

- it was so fucking sad like holy shit what the fuck atsushi go to fucking therapy

- really good tho :>

- like if you could u would inject his voice into ur veins 

- ya know lyn lapid’s song detached 

- yeah

- if atsushi sang that itd be about akutagawa btw im not saying anything but i am

- a lot of his clothes are styled by rashomon - a fashion brand owned by the akutagawa siblings - half because of however celeb - brand partnerships work - half because he somehow became ryuu’s muse 

- i want him to live with dazai - which is one of the reasons why they need to meet earlier because i had the mental image of atsushi talking about moving out and “yeah so i moved out of my brother’s place and ya know it’s strange. good at times but strange. Like i can do so many things i was never allowed to - like i can get wasted, try acid, invite someone for the night, buy chuuya nakahara posters, put up my chuuya nakahara posters, listen to chuuya nakahara’s music, own chuuya nakahara’s albums”

- since i think dazai would probably let atsushi drink as long as he’s not insane about it , throw kunikida in there too

- has a lot of songs about ryuu but he’ll never tell him

- ryuu listening to any love song by atsushi “wait is this fucking song about me??? ...nah”

- he may or may not be fucking ryuunosuke akutagawa i cannot deny or confirm anything

//

akutagawa:

- he owns a fashion brand with his sister solely becuz i showed him to my friend a few months ago and i said “sorry he dresses like a sad vampire victorian orphan thing” and she said “that is the sexiest man i have ever seen” or something like that its been a hot second

- may or may not be in love with atsushi you cant prove it - well okay sure he has collection after collection inspired by atsushi but-

- okay so maybe he listens to atsushi’s music when he’s coming up with designs but-

- okay so maybe he has all of atsushi’s albums hidden where atsushi cant find them but-

- okay so maybe atsushi’s been at his place enough for akutagawa to think ‘oh no what if he finds all the albums’ but-

- anyway

- he had a lot of goth, punk, etc, vibes and stuck to a dark, muted color range

- and then one day dropped a gold-violet colored bright not-at-all-like-his-previous-stuff collection and pretended it was normal

//

snow beneath the moonlight - band

members: atsushi, junichiro, naomi

- it was started in highschool by juni going to atsushi and being like ‘wanna start a band’ and atsushi, who was sleeping a little cardboard box in the spot where the sun was, was like “hmmm? um sure zzzzzzzzz” if that makes sense 

- naomi found out about it and joined before atsushi and juni could ask her

- so typically it’s atsushi on vocals, naomi on guitar, juni on drums, but they can be pretty versatile like atsushi’s usually got a guitar on him sorry i cant think of the words rn and juni can play the piano and naomi can do all of that

- naomi and juni sing too if they want - theyre not strict about roles 

- they wrote their music together in highschool 

- they still do - but now when their stuck they dont cry they ask others for help :)

- very sweet and fun vibes

- they literally just do whatever they want - if there is a style or genre they want to try they probably will

- naomi has to do a lot of the talking becuz juni gets uncomfy and atsushi’s attention span causes him to leave ppl mid conversations becuz he saw a cool leaf

okay

//

quick notes:

- not sure if oda and his orphans will be alive but itd be weird to kill them off in this au for me but idk

- oda’s a writer

- poe is also a writer 

- idk where to stick ranpo in becuz it hard for me to imagine him being anything but the world’s best detective

- i kind of want yosano to be in the industry but i also want her to be a doctor

- the ada is just fukuzawa’s adopted children that do whatever they want career wise becuz of him - nepotism babies btu theyre all orphans 

- kyouka’s a singer and so is kenji

- katai’s a producer

- kunikida’s someones manager but who knows whose he only ever babysits dazai and the rest of hte agency

- so as you can see im still working out the kinks of this au

- if you have suggestions or comments lemme know

- this would be equal parts skk and sskk and whatever the fuck everyone else’s got going on

- kouyou would also be a singer - im thinking classical

- q is that child artist that you love but cant help but wonder fi theyre being exploited

- lucy is trained in america and started off there but has recently moved to japan idk how thatll work for her

- sigma is a big atsushi fan btw

- the ada is so chaotic and disorganized and half the ppl there arent even in the industry but it’s just a cover for fukuzawa’s children so it still works

anyway i might continue this and update as i go

feel free to ask more about this au or give ideas or whatever <33

[kustas]

Do you have reccs for "ugly" art (manga, comics, movie, etc.)? Thanks for the Tekkon recs btw I really liked it

That really depends on your own personal media landscape and what your definition of "ugly" is! As a random example, I've seen many people call ONE's art ugly because of the wobbly linework when I think it's lovely. Ugly could also mean something a bit shocking/crass in its themes. Etc, etc... I'm going to go with the definition of "something that's a bit jarring to look at or go through" here :)

Disclaimer: a lot of these tackle sensitive topics, sometimes for fun and not always tastefully. If there's themes you really can't handle in media, do your research before looking into them.

Manga

I keep recommending yes because it rules but Dorohedoro and its scratchy messy art and gore galore. talking about the manga exclusively here the anime is too polished for my taste

God's Child (Kami no Kodomo): tbh this one is for the art only I hated the writing. very gruesome & unique looking short story

I hesitate to recommend this one because it's edgy as hell but I shan't lie I had a lot of fun with Hellsing. it's "bad" in the same areas as something like berserk but unlike that one it does not take itself seriously

if you liked Tekkon i strongly suggest trying out more stuff by its author (saying this with immense biais). the most ugly/messy thing i've read of his, which isn't a lot because i find his work very delicate, is No. 5 which i would less describe as "good" than "very compelling to me". i also recommend this wonderful essay tearing it down

Comics (non JP)

FLEEP: a short story about a man who wakes up in a phone cabin seemingly encased in concrete. one of the comics i always recommend for its length and storytelling. (link leads to the artist's website where you can read it for free!)

The Astonishing Exploits Of Lucien Brindavoine: a young artist gets drafted in the first world war and goes through a series of almost supernatural adventures. beyond the adventure book aspect, a harsh criticism of nationalism/patriotism that's still awfully relevant

Animation

Ruben Brandt: Collector: a psychiatrist suffers from strange art related nightmares ruining his life. his clients, a bunch of high profile criminals, decide to help him fight off his demons by organizing one long vacation where they steal every painting involved. extremely unique visually, a fun heist movie with thriller elements.

Junk Head: goofy post apocalyptic movie about a man on a quest to save, who keeps losing sight his goal because cartoony violence episodes have his head tumble into new lows, literally. this is, perhaps, one of my favorite animated films ever, it's earnest and fun and lovingly crafted. very unique of a watch

The Apostle: freshly escaped from prison, a thief is on a mission to find treasure hidden by his old cellmate, and finds himself stuck in an ancient village who's strange looking elderly inhabitants are way too insistent on his stay. classic spooky folktale with its millennial curses and foreboding warnings, it's also a nice peek into the culture of Galicia and old world medieval weirdass catholicism. you can buy a DVD on their website

MKFZ: dumb as hell high adrenaline animated B movie with excellent animation. there's a plot about alien living undercover in fantasy california but you don't watch this kind of film for the plot. fair warning this is adapted from a french comic so of course, it's crass and racist

Blow to the Head - Lightning bolt: awesome music video (YT link)(warning for flashing/strobing lights if you're sensitive to that!)

Canon Fodder: from the Memories omnibus film. little slice of the life of a fantasy war obsessed industrial nation

with its new movie on the horizon, it's a great time to get into Mononoke, despite traditionally pretty visuals its got a unique style and gets pretty offputting

Live action cinema

7:35 in the morning: short film about the fear in improvised musical numbers where you don't expect any. it's on youtube in bad quality

The Draughtsman's Contract: an artist is hired by a Lady to draw several vistas of her house, in exchange for money, good drawing condition, and the Lady. follows a good hour of cunts in powdery wigs being awful to each other for their own gain. if you're into dark humor it's a good test, otherwise it has a really satisfying murder mystery to follow too.

Three Kings: during the gulf war, a group of US soldiers decide to steal Hussein's gold for themselves under the mighty standard of kuwait's loot repatriation. extremely caustic take on good ol murican international politics. i was shocked at how far it goes and it's express, low budget treatment which i did not expect from a hollywood film. the movie tires itself fast and becomes less good in its second half but the it's opening acts are interesting

Delicatessen: a sliver of humanity survives in an old timey stone building in the middle of nothingness on top of a functional butcher's shop. gossip follows the arrival of a new roommate. how does one even maintain a butchery in a no man's land? weird film with a unique(ly goofy) take on the post apocalyptic genre

Other

For traditional artists, I like the works of Beksinski (<3), Schiele, Giger. For modern artists Oleg Vdovenko (heavy gore warning for that one), Jeff Simpson

I'm less a fan of the MV and live performances they got infamous for than their music proper but I really like the band Cardiacs, who's judged by many of my friends to be extremely hard to get into lol.

[lover-of-mine]

We have all gone back and forth on if Tommy is coming back. The odds in my head changed every week, TBH. But now I couldn't even place a bet. I know you mentioned filming already starting ext. But I keep thinking about how Tim's interview was what 2 weeks ago??? And he said it out loud, so it was clearly something on the surface still. I have just never seen this happen in a fandom before. It's wild. And we know Buck and Natalia filmed, and it was all cut, and storylines were changed.

I just truly have no idea what to expect and I think all the rules are out the window. If they ever taught a class on this.. I would enroll in it eight. Chapter 1, how to media train someone you just dragged into kiss a boy.

I have a lot of conflicting feelings about this, but someone made a point, I think it was @leothil anon blog, but I can't find the post I want, but the thing is, when we think about the narrative the show actually established Buck as unreliable when it comes to Tommy, ao they kind of need Tommy to be present for a breakup, because since Buck is unreliable when it comes to this relationship, just having Buck retelling the breakup wouldn't work very well. They could do it, but there would be problems. But the situation is they have a pr nightmare in their hands no matter what, there's nothing they can do that's going to make them happy, so it doesn't matter how they write the breakup, shit is gonna hit the fan. They are going to go crazy so they are kind of backed into a corner no matter what. Because writing him off off-screen will create problems within the narrative because Buck's unreliable, they made an episode about Buck being unreliable, so they need him at least for the breakup but at the same time keeping him at this point is just asking for things to go wrong, yk? It is crazy that we got Tim on record talking about how ugly things have gotten, and he said that and things somehow got uglier. I don't doubt that they have someone monitoring fan reactions because it is part of the job, like, making sure they keep up with the audience is part of the pr thing and I think that they have been monitoring what we are doing to some level. I don't think they are in that deep because they don't need to appease people who are in too deep, people who are loud tho, they are listening, and unfortunately, they are very loud. So we are in a very delicate situation, I don't think Tommy is established enough for it to matter if they just write him off in the first episode but to do that with Buck again, considering that we had Natalia and we had something that was supposed to happen that didn't happen because the actress couldn't come back, to have this happen to Buck again and making him miss out on whatever development that they wanted to make because of the actor it's going to be a problem. I don't know how they are going to work around this because at this point keeping him is not worth it, it's really not worth it, this chaos is not good for the show. I don't doubt that the shows PR department had a conversation with the writers about how to handle him, and I think that conversation is happening again if they see what happened this weekend, we don't know if they actually saw what happened, probably but we don't know. What I do know is that they are speedrunning them getting him out if they actually need him. Because it's not a situation like with Marisol that the actress was problematic but she was staying in her lane, Lou created this situation, the cameos created the situation, everything about this chaos is going to be traced back to the cameos. So it's not a good look on him. And you would expect that someone who grew up in the industry because their father is an actor would know that they couldn't do what they did. I don't think it was against his contract but it was of bad taste of him to do that. I don't know, I am also going back and forth, but at the end of the season I was ready to deal with him at least throughout all of it 8a, now I don't even know if he's making past episode 1. But I do think that he has to come back for a breakup, I think that they need him for two scenes, they need him for a scene where tension is added and then they need him for a breakup. Ann the rest of the breakup arc can happen with Buck talking with other people. But that's just me.

[determinate-negation]

tbh I do think that like. It is the fault of the people committing the attacks rather than the zionists but I do also agree that committing an act of continuous and horrific violence in the name of your demographic makes people dislike your demographic

yes obviously the people who do it are making a conscious decision and its their fault but also i would analyze any types of isolated attacks (against jews, but also muslims, women, even school shooting type attacks) in terms of the conditions that create them. like theres a reason theres tons of school shootings in the us and very few elsewhere, even in countries that have widespread gun ownership. theres an entire fucking industry dedicated to israel propaganda (hasbara) and shutting down criticism of israel as antisemitic, the ADL and all their lackeys have been doing everything in their power to conflate jews and israel and call anti zionist jews fringe and fake jews, and so is mainstream media coverage. THESE PEOPLE ARE CREATING THE CONDITIONS FOR ANTISEMITISM WHEN ISRAEL DOES SOMETHING FUCKED UP BC THEYVE BEEN CONFLATING JEWS AND ISRAEL ON PURPOSE EVEN THOUGH ITS ACTIVELY HARMFUL TO US. if every fucking politician and mainstream media site and jewish institutional leader is telling people all jews are zionists and saying you cant criticize israel maybe thats gonna have an effect

[legionofpotatoes]

All other criticisms of modern Star Wars aside, the thing that gets me the most is how every single story is being written to fit into some Avengers-level grand finale that just isn't laying a solid enough foundation to make it worth the wait. Regardless of whether the individual stories are good or bad, what makes them fall so short, imo, is that there's usually no real payoff within their own runtimes (unless you count cheap callbacks or loose promises of More, which you shouldn't)

Like, I already knew halfway through Ahsoka that we were in for a cliffhanger and it's just like...alright, guess we'll see how this ends in about 5 years? Even Mando, which had a great first season and was poised to stand on its own two feet and ride off on a rootin' tootin' bounty huntin' adventure, has ultimately become yet another dusty path on the road to the current Big Plot with an indeterminate due date. That's not deliciously addictive media, it's a dry-ass carrot on a spindly little stick, lol

Of course, this is a problem that many franchises are happily getting cozy with lately because everybody wants to have their own Infinity War / Endgame moment, but I guess it seems a bit more egregious with Star Wars because, ironically, it used to work best because it had less overall focus. Like, sure, we had concurrent movies, animated series, and games, but they were always happy to do their own things and tell their own stories with definitive conclusions. Now it all has to funnel into the Big New Plot and, man, I honestly just can't bring myself to care when it feels like an endless waiting game

I definitely need to get around to watching Visions at some point because, every time it pops up, it sounds like the lifeblood that Star Wars sorely needs atm

Yeah the setup-and-payoff a-to-b type dramatic clarity that seemed so entrenched into the very bones of cinematic grammar - up to around the emergence of streaming, wink wink nudge nudge - is sorely missed in star wars atm. sure maybe downsized writers rooms fidgeting with limited series formats instead of doing actual seasonal TV has something to do with it, but even that is probably such a small piece of the larger issue that spins all this longform storytelling bullshit ferry wheel around.

Another part is certainly chasing the MCU business model of it all like you said. Carrot on a stick is verbatim how I've often described these things myself, the endless promise of another promise of another promise instead of forming a complete thought with a beginning and an end. servicing the plot before story at all costs. another part still is reverence towards the aesthetic trappings of the source material instead of its themes, trying to nail the exact texture of tatooine's huts and dial in the perfect balance of lightsaber choreography and pay homage to a thousand iconic shots before articulating something true in the text.

And like it's an endless laundry list, this confluence of capital-I Issues both industry-scale and creatively-driven that seem to be flaying the skin off the bones of whatever star wars even "is" nowadays. no one can answer that in the context of billions of dollars made off toys and storylines centering around this one moment in fictional history about sons and fathers and empires and rebellions. so they just keep twisting in the wind filling in any gaps within that period. I don't know nonnie, it's all so bleak. ahsoka and obi wan and even mando tbh. as charming as season 1 was, it truly felt like it coasted on its incredible restraint to avoid muddying its aesthetic with cameos, and lucked into effective storytelling as a result of that utterly unintentional alchemy. that's obviously well and truly gone now as its true optics have reared head.

what star wars is by itself is such a pointless discussion, right? andor argues it's a perfectly functional heightened universe that can support incredibly nuanced and dramatically charged stories of grassroots rebellion and the bureaucratic strain of fascist regimes. visions argues it's a world beholden to the force, an endlessly mutable and elegant metaphor that can support infinite monomyths and fairy tales. both are equally fantastic at executing on their takes, despite being in diametrically opposite extremes of interpreting the source. so it's not really about that at all, why the other stuff sucks this bad.

they're just bad at the craft of it, that's really it. whether it's auteur worship or business decisions rotting that fish down, it still rots all the same. maybe the new writers' guild contracts can shift the winds a little, because I was so securely done with star wars and then the aforementioned 2 shows came and affected me. so, so profoundly that I'm back on the hook again. like a lil sucker!

[olderthannetfic]

All the griping about #ownvoices claiming to represent diversity but really just forcing minority authors to write very particular ideas of what a "minority experience" is that please what publishers and "progressive" readers of majority groups want to see.... makes me feel like that movie American Fiction can't come out soon enough. I mean idk how much penetration that will have with the YA and genre publishing industries but. It floored me when I realized the novel it was based on was like 20 years old.... it just shows how while we might have a different publishing-industry label for it, black authors feeling like their books get ignored if they don't write for a particular (racist, tbh) fantasy of what the "black experience" looks like is an evergreen problem.

--

I know someone who's a tv writer, and they're always calling her up and using the word 'urban'. She's a dork. She should be writing for Gus from Psych or just any old show, not whatever it is they think she's going to be good at.

The real sticking point for a lot of white readers isn't a heavy book about issues: it's connecting with a trashy beach read about a Mary Sue who happens to be black. Or, for those of us who read trash m/m, asking us to have a black man as our single perfect tear woobie of choice.

I don't know why this is so hard for us. (I mean, racism, duh, but specifically why? It's all very well to blame the R word, but there are a million flavors, and unraveling stupidass underlying assumptions and bad behavior requires grasping what's going on more precisely.) I suppose it's a lifetime of training about otherness and who's allowed to be fragile and perceiving every single instance where the fairytale princess doesn't match our hair and eye color exactly—yes, even if she's white—as a demand that we never have personal wish fulfillment fantasies again. The atrociousness of a lot of media doesn't help, particularly for fanfic, but that's not the whole of it. A lot of people act like you ran over their cat if you ask them to identify with a sensitive, vulnerable black character in iddy trash fun.

[tododeku-or-bust]

insane year for music. megan thee stallion publicly scalping drake and offhandedly mentioning nicki minaj and nicki minaj losing it (and everyone losing respect for her). beyonce bombing the country genre and collabing with dolly parton. taylor swift releasing her worst album to date and even fans being like yeah i can't defend this. j cole experiencing divine intervention and saving the world from the unimaginable levels of haterism kendrick would've released if he'd had to put out diss tracks for two people. and now this. what the Fuck is going on

The Rap Rumbling has begun 😎 it was past time for some shit to be shook up.

Megan deserves all her flowers for bringing all this shit to the table fr. Because the way the industry and the world treats her as a Black woman trying to do her damn thing... Yeah. I fully support. She deserved far better than the bullshit that Terrible Man and the media put her through, and Drake never shoulda opened his damn mouth.

Tbh, I feel ambivalent about Jermaine dropping out. Because they're rivals. It wouldn't have been a hateful thing, it would have been like watching rivals verbally spar. Those two are similar in skill and respect for one another. It wouldn't have gotten as deep. So booooo Jermaine RAP Jermaine!! But at the same time, I can see wiping my brow with relief that I wasn't caught up in the public evisceration that is Kendrick with Drake rn. Bc this is next level. This is ACTUAL hatred.

And I don't think Kendrick is doing it for social justice either, btw. But I do think the result is gone be larger than his hatred.

As for Beyonce, I'm not even a huge fan like that, but I've always respected her skill and work ethic. And I'm always fully supportive of artists trying new genres. It annoys me when people are like "well this sounded better-" shut up!!! Artists have a love and creative urge for their craft!! They should try new things too!!! Why should they put out the same shit just to entertain you!!! Switch it up every time!

And look. That album is a joke lmao. This is a Taylor Swift Downfall Praying Blog. I don't even dislike her as a person, I do have some songs of hers I'll sing. But I am TIRED of having The Mediocrity of White Womanhood™ shoved in my face as Sublime. And that's what she represents to me. THAT'S what I hate. She's the Ideal American White Girl, the "teen girl next door" even though she's almost 40 atp. Like... We get it. She's "better" than the rest of us savage brown women despite the same behavior. Okayyyyy. 👍🏾

[sourcreammachine]

SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY MANIFESTO 2024 SUMMARY

cw: extreme transphobia

ok story time. after thatcher happened the labour party elected a left-wing leader to try stop her. four labour MPs left the party in protest and formed the SDP. they formed a non-aggression pact with the Liberal Party, and after a couple years voted in favour of merging to form the Liberal Democrats. one of the four founders disagreed with the merger and founded a new party, calling it the SDP again and acting like it was the rightful successor. after a year or two the continuation party had been destroyed at every little election it had tried to fight, and it voted in favour of disbanding. however, a few activists disagreed with the disbanding and founded a new party, calling it the SDP AGAIN and acting like it was the rightful successor. this second continuation, this third SDP is what survives today

when reading about this party thirty years later, i’d found descriptions that they had become ‘economically left-wing but socially right-wing’ and tbh, i took them at their word. i were told they were communitarians, using traditionalist conservative moral frameworks to promote social democratic economics. that description is very, very wrong

this manifesto is deeply fascistic

i was expecting a couple of yikes moments, especially about trans people, and while there is truly an avalanche of transphobia and trans-hostile policy proposals, the fascistic nature is all over the place, especially on migration, hypernationalism and security. they are beyond Likud on some security matters – if the IRA came back under the SDP we’d be living in a hypermilitarised apartheid state before you can say boyfanny

the reason i’m covering this manifesto is because they’re comfortably the sixth largest party in terms of seats contested at 122, narrowly behind the workers’ party (though they have a suite of endorsed independents). i want you to look at this atrocity. i want you to see the number of votes they get in these 122 seats and despair. this is your country, this is your fascism

💷ECONOMY

abolish housing benefits

audit board of private industry to audit the entire public sector every three years

ban the public sector from buying from foreign manufacturers. at all.

stop benefits after six months. councils required to “hire” (force the labour of) six-monthers for random stuff like street sweeping

expand tax incentives for marriage

raise the minimum wage to 2/3 median wage

raise corporation tax to internationally standard levels, but instead rollout freeports and Special Economic Zones

introduce laws discriminating in favour of parents for redundancies, “protecting them” as a protected category in equality legislation

unilateral expansion of fishing. sorry iceland, it looks like we’ll be having another war

🏥PUBLIC SERVICES

renationalise rail, water and energy

require the showing of an ID card to access the NHS and basically any free public service to prevent its use by illegals. immigrants, when given ‘indefinite leave to remain’, STILL won’t get the right to use any service for ten entire years

massive rollout of elite selective schooling

reduce the number of bachelors’ degree places

force over-65s to do community service to pay for their eventual social care

“teaching will reflect Britain’s important contribution to the world in the context of its time. teachers will avoid advocacy of unorthodox or sectarian agendas”

fully nationalise the BBC to seize state control, requiring it to ‘promote national cohesion’

schools to confiscate all phones during the day and “impound” (their word) any found phone for two weeks

ban the NHS using any language other than english or welsh. whoops looks like they forgot to include BSL

the manifesto includes a whiny “charter” on “academic freedom”

mandatory one mile walk every day in schools

require international students to take a strict english test before being offered a place

“public funding of culture, media and sports organisations will be conditional on those organisations respecting the principles of balance and free speech. institutions that fail to do so, by censoring artefacts, promoting sectarian agendas or deterring people from civil discourse, will have funding withdrawn”

rewrite the PSHE curriculum to prioritise “parenting and household management”

🏠HOUSING

“the fundamental aim of national housing policy shall be to ensure that young people seeking to start a family will be able to find a suitable home in which to do so”

create a public company to create 100k new social houses a year

discriminate in favour of the married and veterans for council and social housing

suspend but later reintroduce right to buy with a one-in-one-out clause

ban buy-to-let

👮FORCE

“restore the offence of sedition and actively use this law to pursue those who incite terrorism overtly or covertly, or who act in flagrant support of the UK’s enemies”

abolish the supreme court and transfer its powers to the house of lords, which due to reform will be more politically partisan

leave the UN refugee convention

abolish the human rights act

abolish the european convention on human rights

leave the council of europe

surge defence spending

surge funding for MI5 and the NCA

surge police funding and pursue an aggressive broken windows policy

double all sentences for violent crime, and for any repeat offence

mandatory minimum of ten years after three serious offences

mandatory hard labour for parolees for two years after release

all non-citizen prisoners to be deported and permabanned after release

any legally resident non-citizen to be deported for “any act considered materially hostile to Britain’s social peace”

“prisons will become safe, orderly institutions - whatever it takes”

asphyxiating migration cap of 50k/a, but “agreements between key strategic partners may result in selective exemptions if clearly in the national interest” (ie, we’ll let in anglophones, but probably not anglophones from africa or asia or the caribbean )

“promote a generation-long cessation of mass migration”

cease all aid for ukraine

🌱CLIMATE ?

“overrwhelming focus on climate ‘catastrophe’ is fostering anxiety and despair in children. from early years to key stage 3, all children will learn about British wildlife. the Natural History GCSE will [teach] the inspiring achievements of Britain’s pioneering naturalists”

abandon net zero

re-legalise fracking and expand oil and gas

pursue energy autarky where the country always has 12 months’ supply of fossil fuels

prohibit the rewilding of farmland

create no new low emissions zones

the fishing industry to oversee existing marine protection areas and any proposal for any new ones

🗳️DEMOCRACY

english parliament for english people

explicitly codify the fact that scotland can’t leave

proportional representation (specifically STV) for the commons

evict the hereditary lords and bishops but keep the appointees, capped at 400 with 15 year terms and appointed by committee

increase the powers of parish councils

🏳️‍⚧️REACTIONARY AGENDA, other than everything else

strip trans people of discrimination protections in both the equality and gender recognition acts to protect “sex-baesd rigths”

catastrophic reduction in NHS funding for trans healthcare, remaining funds to be for “psychological intervention” (state-mandated conversion therapy)

mandatory profiling of all trans people for all public data for all purposes by keeping separate sex and gender categories across the ENTIRE public sector

ban ALL pharmacological care for trans minors

ban trans women using women’s shelters

ban trans participation in sports competition

force trans prisoners to be incarcerated at the prison for the opposite sex

all public sector DEI to be stopped, so goes the policy

introduce a bad internet bill, require id for porn sites, require all tech companies to “promote free speech”

mandatory spyware on all devices: “a digital border application will be created to detect digital content which is malignantly pornographic, supportive of terrorism or otherwise contrary to law. all internet service providers operating in the UK will be required to utilise this scanning software and take steps to block undesirable content.” all smartphones “sold to or used by” an under-16 to have mandatory age restrictions

[chaos0pikachu]

i'm sorry for jumping into your inbox like this but what bothers me about people going "the show is making a point about how society treats sluts!" when talking about only friends, and boston in particular, is that this point is made (a lot of the time, from what I've seen) in this weird condescending tone, as if the people questioning the narrative and going "hey, what the fuck" are just too stupid to get it, yk

(also, sidenote: if the show was trying to make a point, do a commentary, a critique if you will about how society (even queer society) slut shames and treats nonmonogamy, it failed imo, lmao)

Don't be sorry! I've basically been bothering my penpal about this all day lmao they don't even watch the show but they're feeling my rage today so bother away you're very literally doing them a favor

Personally, and this is me being openly a bitch, I think some folks are just looking for excuses to justify that they're fine with the finale (b/c ppl don't wanna feel guilty about liking something problematic~) or that Jojo isn't a bad writer actually. Which, bro who cares, if you enjoyed the ending dope, I didn't.

I've said this before, but other media has made commentary regarding sex, and slut shaming in ways that hits harder and better. Without doing the office looking into the camera action. I hate when ppl say that we're not fucking stupid like my god I work in a creative industry I understand both how narrative works and how it's literally made. I've SEEN the sausage I've been to the factory front row.

But even without that experience ppl aren't dumb, they can tell when they're being sold something disingenuous. Those takes that "well you just don't see~~ the vision" or "the show doesn't have a message, actually" when Yo was literally monologuing the message for 5mins at the end of the show is hella disingenuous. People also seem to forget that inherent and implicit bias are a thing in all of us, yes even the creators you like.

Also you can't have both, either the show was purposely making commentary regarding how society treats promiscuous people, people who are poly or want open relationships and critiquing that OR the show didn't have a message at all and was totally egalitarian.

If it's the former it failed drastically, I wrote weeks ago that the show was slut shaming Boston, I had a whole draft about how the hypocrisy of the characters wasn't intentional (but it'll stay in the drafts now I don't feel like cleaning it up lol), Boston ended up punished every step of the narrative repeatedly - with Mew blackmailing him, with Gap non-con recording him, with Atom, with Cheum, with the whole friend group, and in the end even Nick left him - with no recourse. With no opposing viewpoint. Nick was the only char who showed Boston a shred of empathy - and even then, he still showed Atom more empathy than he deserved - and in the end that was used up too.

If it's the latter the show still failed b/c the show absolutely had a ton of bias - I've had multiple ppl point out to me that the darker skinned chars are all predators or slutty whores in the show - and dropped storylines that should have been expanded on - Gap has folders upon folders of sex tapes???? Does Boston's privacy not matter?? - that were dropped in favor of further punishing Boston. And when things were supposed to be seen as "bad" the narrative made them clear.

Mew partying was bad, Ray drinking was bad, Boston sleeping around, welp you guessed it.

but yeah, how exhausting tbh all I want post-series is a bunch of Boston fanfic that gives him justice or even some fucking nuance (oh and that playboyy the series is actually good lol)

[bookishtheaterlover7]

Booky, you’re such a sweet person. I know it’s probably hard for you to be a fan and see stuff that annoys you, but remember that it’s probably happening to other fans with celebs they like.

Those poor Henry Cavill fans - though I don’t even think his gf is that bad. Lol.

And as for the Jeff Conway person…

lol. First of all he’s very very cringe. I’ve rarely seen an interviewer editor be this thirsty to repost his own articles and also be so unbelievably tacky as a grown man. But hey.

That being said, he was the one who wrote the Forbes article for Chris and his jinx thing at the end of December, right?

He was also one of the writers who wrote a people article of them going public. Somebody should check back those archives because I’m almost positive Jeff started following fish the night before or around the time they went public.

He also interviewed Chris the day Chris said his long term partner was his dog 🤣 - I wonder if he told Chris that 😭 and gave him a very cringey shirt “my dog is my soulmate.” A grown ass man.. giving another grown ass man a shirt like that. And then repeatedly bragging about it on twitter. How is he not embarrassed by himself?? (Jeff)

My personal thought is he goes where he has an assignment. I sometimes have to write really cringe social posts for work but thankfully they’re not attached to my name. He was probably instructed to hype her up because tbh, I still believe they’re trying to make her happen.

Think about how the kardashians, TikTok influencers, and other random ass “Celebs” pop up and start being placed everywhere and nobody is asking for them and the comments are filled with hate. But do these outlets ever stop? Really think about it. Step back from the fishbowl and observe the other industry ppl who have basically been shoved into our faces without our desire. I think the media knows Fish is DOA but she’s here and unfortunately here to stay for awhile. I think people can and will continue to ignore her so that’ll be pretty funny to watch.

I’m also sure fish wasn’t rude to Jeff because I doubt she’s like openly a rude person. I’m not trying to defend her because I know people on here will feel how they feel about this girl, but she’s not going to be a brat to everyone just because people want to hate her. I do think it’s interesting that post had Jeff hyping her up and then just mentioning Chris was also there. As if he’s her plus one and not the other way around.

I feel like she’s getting way too much attention for being virtually nothing and a nobody. The general public simply does not care about her.

I think someone just posted up TMZ posting celebs at the parties and they posted Chris alone and cropped her out. If true, LOLLLLLL TMZ 😂

Just Jared has written at least 600 articles at this point and they’re still getting her name wrong.

By the way, in my line of work, we have to proofread our articles before submitting them to post. So does every single outlet just accidentally miss fish’s last name?????

I’m starting to feel like it’s intentional.

🥹 Thank you, Marketing An🫶n!

It must suck for everyone, but it's good to know that what I'm feeling is definitely not just me. Makes me feel less crazy. 🙂

Good Lord, Jeff seems to be overselling and overdoing it, a little. But, as you said, it's a thing that needs to be done.

And you've got a point about celebs we DIDN'T ask for, just popping up. And it causes quite a stir. Which is effective for their reasons.

No, they do not. Hell, she's simply known as Chris Evans' wife. No more, no less. Imagine that as your only title. It's sad.

I hope it's intentional, because that's too many typos, and almost (I'm assuming they did this at least once) zero edits... 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Thanks for talking with me, Marketing An🫶n. It's really a highlight everytime you're here. So thank you ❤️ and it seriously means a whole lot. 🥰🥹

Until the next one...