#official boring convention post

[acrosstheujiverse]

dynamics of an introverted couple

【🔎】 description: scenarios you have with your introverted boyfriend, woozi, as an introvert yourself. 【🖇️】 pairing: introvert!woozi x introvert!reader. 【💿】 genre: FLUFF!! 【🧺】 tags: butterflies in your stomach, x1000 cute.

📬 — author’s note！my first official post! haha. it MAY take a while for me to actually have the courage and confidence to post my aus, but i hope you will be patient with me ^-^

thank you ♡ enjoy reading this.

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your love story wouldn’t be one of love at first sight. no. instead, it would go under the slow-burn genre of romance. a friends-to-lovers slow burn.

in the few instances where jihoon would be outside and hang out with his small circle of close friends, he would be introduced to you. by courtesy of seungcheol.

you and jihoon’s first meeting was somewhat formal, with a few jokes and questions to break the ice, courtesy of soonyoung. it would take the two of you more hangout sessions to actually feel comfortable in each other’s presence.

jihoon would be the first to fall; he wouldn’t admit it to you, but he started to be interested with everything you said, and he would care about you. more than in a friendly way.

when hit with the growing feeling of being in love with you, jihoon would try to keep it to himself. he would be too shy to confess his feelings.

as the two of you walked after having finished yet another hangout session with your friends, you would be the one who confessed to him. in the many hangouts you had, you knew jihoon already; he was not the type to actually express his feelings. he wouldn’t be the one confessing, and he wouldn’t have the courage to actually risk your friendship.

you and jihoon wouldn’t have many fights.

when you two DO have fights, it’s because of a lack of communication. you suppress your feelings, whereas jihoon expresses himself with harsh words, pushing people away and isolating himself in his studio. (it’s due to his hectic work schedule and lack of sleep that he struggles to manage his stress.)

you both learned the hard way why communication—communicating your feelings—is an important part of any relationship.

both of you have slowly become vulnerable to each other. through face-to-face conversations or through text, whichever makes you both comfortable.

“not everyone is comfortable talking about their emotions and vulnerabilities, and that’s okay. but please don’t push people out without first telling them how you feel about the topic (that you’re uncomfortable and would like to not talk about it). if they’re truly concerned about you, they would understand the boundary you just put up and drop the topic.”

this relationship would be LOWKEY—i mean on the down DOWN-low. to the point where the only time you publicly show your guy’s relationship would be after like 5+ years of dating. (it’s THAT lowkey.)

it wouldn’t be surprising to many if you both decided to announce your relationship once you were both engaged.

even though he doesn’t have that much dating experience… jihoon would be the romantic type. he doesn’t show it, but he has seen different types of media—from shows to animes—to KNOW how to be romantic towards his partner. he wouldn’t be the over-the-top kind of romantic, but he would surprise you in the simplest but sweetest of ways. like randomly giving you flowers (if you’re allergic, it’s fake flowers) out of nowhere just because he felt like it, or (leaning to something more of his forte) dedicating a song he’s been writing to you—a melodic and nostalgic feeling to it.

for you and jihoon, it’s the little things that count. simple but never boring.

both you and jihoon liked the privacy and intimacy of your relationship.

you two are liberated from the social convention of broadcasting your guy’s relationship to the public. you two can be in love without the prying eyes of the public.

sleeping in on weekends would be the norm for both of you because you’re both sleep-deprived.

groggily waking up to sight of jihoon’s cute sleeping face, you honestly can’t be more grateful for his existence and presence in your life.

you can’t help but lightly pinch at the sight of jihoon’s squishy cheeks. he would slowly and slightly open his eyes, his nose scrunching from the sensation. he gives you a lazy smile and a soft peck at the tip of your nose.

“g’morning love.”

[it was in fact the afternoon, but who could correct this fatigued guy?]

although your love for each other may not be as obvious as most relationships are, it is the kind of love that you’re glad to be going home to.

a quiet love that speaks languages that only you two understand.

— fin.

[burningvelvet]

Ranking all the Brontë novels + briefly reviewing The Professor

I finally finished The Professor by Charlotte Brontë, which means I HAVE COMPLETED ALL THE BRONTË NOVELS, which means I can now rank them. This is a rough order, but brief explanations will be given...

As an aside, bc I don't want to make a separate post for my review of The Professor, but I did note several strong similarities to Jane Eyre (the female lead's description, her elvish comparisons) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Hunsden/Huntington as the cynic, although the former is mostly good and the latter mostly bad). Really all the Brontë novels are very similar so there are tons of more common themes I could mention but won't. Also, more references to Scottish besties Walter Scott & Lord Byron!

Now for my official Brontë Book Ranking (which may be subject to change over the years...)

7. Shirley - I would like to revisit this one. There are some great gems in it, and I'm fascinated by the Luddism subject matter. It is also a strong contender for the most feminist Brontë novel and has probably the most in-depth female relationships which does count for something. But it's SO UNNECESSARILY LONG! And often boring! And it took me the longest to finish. So it has to be last.

6. The Professor - this one benefits from not being Shirley. It's also a good attempt at a first novel I think. It has some gems, but it's often boring like Shirley is in my opinion. I thought the main male, Crimsworth, was a bit more exciting to follow than any of the men in Shirley. I actually think Crimsworth is a pretty inspiring figure and I enjoyed his observations and his anti-work rhetoric. Like most Brontë protagonists, he's a teacher who experiences classism, poverty, and oppression, and manages to overcome these things through frugality, faith, love, hope, etc.

5. Agnes Grey - it's hard to get through at times but it's generally worth it and has a strong pay off. I think Anne's writing style is generally enjoyable. It's has a lot of the horror of Wuthering Heights and the lighter parts of Jane Eyre but it lacks Charlotte and Emily's stronger passions and has more of Anne's calm reasoning, faith, and stoicism. That makes it sound more boring than it really is maybe. I also think it's fascinating for being largely semi-autobiographical like Charlotte's works can be. We get to "know" Anne more than we do in Tenant I feel, and I think she's pretty admirable. The bird scene was based on a real experience she had as a governess, and she wrote most of the novel as a rebellious act in her room right after work. All teachers and childcare workers – and really all women and members of the working-class – should take this novel as the cautionary tale it was written to be.

4. Villette - this is the weirdest Brontë novel. Some interesting scenes and characters. Charlotte's last novel shows far more writerly evolution than in Shirley where she was again trying for more progressive social commentary (and mostly succeeded I think) but often fell back into the more sedate or conventional nature that parts of The Professor has (saving Crimsworth's sometimes strong, sassy, rebellious attitude). Villette was written in a strange period of grief for Charlotte and it shows. Villette is basically Jane Eyre's weirder older sister.

3 and 2 are almost tied for me. I have also written about 3, 2, and 1 so much on my blog that I probably won't go into as much detail as I have with the others.

3. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - shockingly underrated. Hard to get through, but so is Wuthering Heights which it's pretty similar to at times. Radically progressive and daring, it is a strong contender for being the most feminist Brontë novel and the most oriented toward social justice (although they really all are). Brilliant use of mystery and gothic allure with a social realism that was too ahead of its time to fall into the common traps of that genre. Has everything you could want in a Brontë novel.

2. Wuthering Heights - a bomb in your face. Full of passion. Grand drama. What can I say? It's infamous for valid reasons. Never a boring moment, which instantly pushes it to the top of the list for me who am easily bored. I have elaborated on this work very often on my page so I don't feel the need to reiterate everything here but I will say that this novel has basically everything you could want.

1. Jane Eyre - has all the gothic mystery and passion of Wuthering Heights but focuses on fewer characters whose arcs thus feel more personable and fulfilling in my opinion. We get to know Jane and Rochester much more fully than almost any of the other Brontë characters I feel. And it is my love for the characters that really makes this one my favorite Brontë novel as well as one of my favorite tales of all time (whereas Heights is notorious for its unlikeable characters which actually repel many readers from enjoying it). No wonder it's the most adapted and tied with Wuthering Heights for being the most famous (although I think it may have surpassed Wuthering Heights in pop culture at times). I also think there are a lot of really meaningful themes, morals, and subjects that are explored in this novel, which again can be said of all Brontë novels, but it all feels so much more full in this one. The plot itself is also the most well-crafted in my opinion, and it has one of the greatest twists in all of literature/media imo.

[touhoucrackmonth]

Welcome to the first Touhou Crack Month!

Are you bored of conventional ships? Do you want more spice in Touhou works? Are you a writer up to a challenge? Do you want to try something completely new for a change? Do you want to see utter chaos reign? Whatever your reason is, welcome to the first edition of the Touhou Crack Month!

What is this event?

This is a month-long event where writers are given randomly-generated crack pairings, and have to desperately wrangle with whatever insane ship the RNG gods have wrought upon them.

The goal of this event is to celebrate creativity, originality and adaptability in shipping, and spawn many crackfics for readers and writers alike to enjoy!

Proceedings

The event lasts the whole month of March, starting on March 1st at 00:01 and ending on April 1st at midnight (both CET), so all fics should be published before that deadline. Each participant will get randomly-generated pairings to write fics about. All participants will receive different pairings, though a single participant can receive multiple pairings with shared characters.

Participants are encouraged to write several fics (up to 4) throughout the month, but there is no small contribution to this crackmonth! If you want to try your hand at a crackship but don't think you'll have the time to write more than one story, that's perfectly fine!

Please reblog and share this post with anyone you think might be interested!

Guide for potential participants (keep reading)

To participate, simply sign up using the form provided near the end of this post. In there, you can select different options to customize your event. First is a 'difficulty' setting:

Easy: you will receive 4 randomly-generated pairings, with one to choose from for your fic.

Normal: same as Easy, but with 3 pairings.

Hard: same as Normal, but with 2 pairings.

Lunatic: same as Normal, but with only 1 pairing, which means you have no choice!

You are not required to disclose your chosen difficulty, nor should you be judged for it.

You also have options to exclude some characters, for instance if you know them too little, or if you don't want to write ship content involving them. It's important you fill this in correctly, as the pairings that are sent to you are final and non-negotiable!

Completed fics are to be published to the official Touhou Crack Month 2024 collection.

If you're done with a fic and wish to write another one, simply apply again once the fic for your previous pairing has been published to the collection. You can only write up to 4 fics during the month.

Eligible pairings

Generally, eligible pairings are those where the two characters have no significant canon dialogue, interactions or strong backstory links (the latter case covers pairings such as Miko/Saki). Generic, one-off fight banter generally doesn't count (especially relevant for playable characters), nor does VS mode-exclusive dialogue (not counted as canon), nor do very brief manga/print work scenes (for instance the big banquet of Silent Sinner in Blue).

Additionally, the characters shouldn't be successive bosses in the same game (e.g. Wriggle/Mystia, Doremy/Sagume) on account of how relatively popular those pairings tend to be. In any case, the pairing should also have strictly less than 5 AO3 works under its tag(s), if applicable.

This event is yuri (F/F) only; male characters are excluded. Non-humanoid characters are also excluded unless otherwise specified by individual participants.

Note that these rules aren't exhaustive and there may be some pairings that we reserve the right to include or exclude when generating the prompts.

General fic rules

No NSFW, no pedophilic content. No incest (though all such pairings are ineligible anyway).

Beyond those no-brainers, there is no particular restriction on themes.

FORM LINK

The sign-up form is available at this link. Make sure to read the previous explanations!

For any additional questions, just send an ask and we will try to answer the best we can!

[hugintheraven]

The Undersiders and their Overwatch mains

(This will use OW1's 2/2/2 comp because that's what makes sense and will ignore any chars introduced after the point where that ceased to be relevant) (Obviously this team is initially sponsored by Thomas Calvert/Coil).

Grue: Reinhardt. He protects others, he likes how tactical Rein vs Rein can be, he's big and hits stuff, but it's not overly complicated or focused on accuracy. Brian can and does learn the other main tanks, and later on his Sigma is disgusting, but he was really happiest when it was just him and a shield trying to out-time some other guy with a shield, with the entire team on the line if either screwed up.

Hellhound: Off-Tanks. She doesn't have a main, preferring to pick a char depending on the situation(even going Mei/Brig/Winston if off-tanks are bad in the current patch), but "get in front of the enemy, get hit, hit back harder" are general themes. Was accused of cheating a few times because she runs a custom HUD mod that replaces all text with icons and all numbers with partially-filled bars; this was EVENTUALLY ruled to be assistive mode similar to colorblind mode and officially patched into the game, but she still receives online hate for it regularly(as she doesn't read and exclusively uses social media to post and look at pictures of puppies, she is able to ignore this, giving her the single healthiest relationship with social media possible for a streamer.)

Imp: Offensive flankers. She has a Sombra icon on most social media, has cosplayed as her, and many people call her a Sombra main, but Brian got the game because Aisha saw Tracer in the early advertisements and went "I want that". She does not consider it a win if her team wins. She considers it a win if the opposing team's Mercy or Widowmaker DCs, and will play any char that can accomplish that.

Skitter: Widowmaker, other snipers. Officially flex DPS, any time the Undersiders need someone to play an unusual hero in a new broken team comp, Taylor can pick them up quickly and well, but she's at her best clicking on heads and 180ing to take out Genjis and Sombras who thought no one had seen them coming up behind. Taylor is just very very good at noticing who's absent from the battle and knowing which route is easiest for them to take to get behind the team. Was laddering as Mercy/Ana with Emma's group of friends when she got scouted by Lisa. When solo-queueing she will literally play anyone to keep from getting bored.

Tattletale: Main support, heavily Ana. Shotcaller for the team, good at knowing who's high and who's low on health. Tends to tunnel vision on the fight and get taken out by flankers, but so good at keeping everyone else alive and getting her grenade onto key targets that it doesn't matter much. Lost a 1vs1 as Lucio to Taylor's Battle Mercy and sent her a friend request immediately.

Regent: Zenyatta, maybe Lucio if he's in a good mood or Brian asks nicely. Because:

The Heartbreakers are Canada's premier esports team, coached by former competitive Half-Life 1 player/asshole, Nikos Vasil. Several of his kids have shown up amongst its roster. People complain about nepotism, but the kids are actually mostly very good. Hijack and Cherish were standouts in the early days of Overwatch, with his Hanzo and her Genji working extremely well together, even if they hated everything about it. He eventually ran away and deleted all accounts, but his savings ran out and his attitude was not well-suited for a real job. So he went back to streaming with stolen wifi and his old gaming laptop. After all, if he didn't play Hanzo, no one would notice, right? Lisa spotted him in under a week and promised cash if he'd try out. His rule: No DPS. So now he's their secondary support, with a Zen that out-damages most Soldiers when he tries and at least keeps his healing orb out when he doesn't, and Alec shows up to competitions/conventions in a mask.

Other people:

Glory Girl is an obvious Pharah main, and Pancea learned to play by picking Mercy and jamming her staff directly up Pharah's butt. Amy ends up with more hours logged on AO3 than actual Overwatch despite eventually becoming extremely good as a support player/shotcaller(after leaving New Wave).

Cherish also leaves the Heartbreakers and gets picked up by Slaughterhouse, an extremely aggressive team coached by also-asshole Jacob Black(Jack / ). They peaked during dive comp. She continues to play Genji, and is still miserable.

Scion is Bobby Kotick.

[jackie-gremlin-ghost]

I’ve been rewatching the Captain Underpants movie lately and I thought, what the hell, I’m bored, let’s figure out the timeline for the movie. 😂

(I was mainly inspired by @biolizardboils’s headcanon post regarding the books’ timeline)

First off, I’m gonna humor the idea that due to the significant lack of modern technology (i.e. smartphones, iPods, laptops etc.), the movie takes place in 1997, the year the first book was released.

Second, I’m gonna disregard the calendar outside of Mr. Krupp’s office.

While yes, it says April 28th, it obviously hasn’t been used in some time, seeing as how it’s obviously still early to mid autumn, which helps narrow things down.

Judging from what I’ve looked up online, the official start of the School Year for students in 1997-98 was August 11th.

So, taking that into account, along with the tallies we see in this girl’s locker at the start of the movie, which shows about 9 and a half weeks into the school year…

Adding all those up (not counting weekends) I can conclude that the events of the movie start on October 16th, 1997.

And this actually lines up with Mr. Fyde’s comment about the upcoming Invention Convention on Saturday being the third one that month.

[steddiebang]

The Center Cannot Hold

Author: @mashawisotsky l Artist: @boiiko Posting on Monday, November 27

Days after an earthquake rocks Hawkins, Indiana, citizens struggle with how the strange event has impacted their lives. Rising sophomores strain to complete their first year of high school. The Wheeler family pretends everything is fine; Mike remains a member of Hellfire Club while Nancy gets a unique opportunity – intern-at-large in support of an AP crime reporter for the Northern Midwest region. The coverage of the Munson Murders is thick on the ground while the lead suspect is still at large. Lucas and Erica Sinclair have two enemies, the unfair house arrest imposed by their parents and the rising racial hatred as the mid-term elections of '86 rumble with the fractures of the Reagan presidency. Meanwhile, Susan Mayfield can't balance her thankless night job with a daughter in a hospital where no one will answer her questions. Rumors swirl around a Hawkins day-care while former King of Hawkins High, Steve Harrington, convalesces at home. One intrepid Roane County prosecutor is convinced the two are linked. Corroded Coffin is no longer playing at The Hideout but one member – the bassist – is certainly signing a tune for county officials. Joyce Byers and her kids return to a town that isn’t sure why they bothered to come back and has no interest in welcoming them. Underneath it all, there is something stirring. What was dead had risen once again

Keep reading for a sneak preview!

He’s bored of being bored. The first while had slipped away under a haze of painkillers and sleep. Mid-week Wayne had driven him back to the hospital to get the lingering stitches removed, the skin healing pink and itching around the black thread. The doc had snipped away the knots and then with tweezers pulled the thread right out of him. Eddie would find himself rubbing the scars and trying to ease the itch on the inside. He prodded the edges of the puffed pink lines and felt the tacky fluid of his body trying to keep itself together. The docs had gone in and manhandled his organs. The morphine was excellent, he remembers. It was like the best of anything he’d ever taken. Nothing bothered him. Everything easy, calm, and warm. The whole world kind and full of comfort. He had never had a sleep that good in his life.

Now at the motel and officially cleared for activity Eddie mourned a little. He’d been forced cold turkey off the booze and the dope; even after the feds had awkwardly returned his paraphernalia it was only the music shit he got back. Nothing he could move. The problem was that he sucked at planning ahead for so-called important shit. Stuff like drafting a campaign, was no effort at all. Burning through Off Season when he finally got his hands on it - not even stopping to eat or take a piss, eyes going dry from staring at the page, not even turning on the light after the sun got low - the usual when he liked a book. Taking all his codeine the first week, leaving him to lay on the bed and grit his teeth and drink whisky to sleep, well. He was predictable. Bucking convention exactly as expected. The refill was still days away.

The issue with drinking to sleep was that it made him have to piss early in the morning, pre-dawn light smearing across the floor, mouth dry and flooded with spit, stumbling into the bathroom and trying to hit the bowl. Everything grey-washed and even standing making him feel like his guts were water. When he had lived with Wayne after the disastrous first-last year of high school he had enough shame to creep around. They gave up the pretence after Wayne caught him in the dark eating a dry cheese sandwich and leaning on the counter, drunk in the witching hour after being drunk in the afternoon after being drunk the day before. Days bleeding one into the other. His dad would have brought out the belt. Would have swung so the buckle hit. 

“Go to your room,” was all Wayne said, and didn’t comment on the pull tabs littering the ground outside like shrapnel.

Getting to the bathroom today almost saw Eddie break his neck. He stepped on something that cracked underfoot but it was too dark to figure it out. The whole cleaning thing for him came in waves. Dirty clothes and books and scrap paper would pile up until it bothered him, then some kind of second wind would catch him around the throat then he’d spend the weekend scraping down to the carpeting and washing two weeks' worth of dishes until ten at night. Then he would feel good - scoured even - and his mind would be quiet. He always fucking himself over. The minute Master of Puppets dropped in his hands everything else fell away. Eddie spent hours listening to the tracks, could pick apart every section and examine it, turning over the riffs in his mind. Meditating on the progression. Sitting there and thinking about the rhythm. Drilling the solos over and over until the calluses were bruised underneath. Despite what the guys said, he wasn’t good. Music wasn’t magic to him, but it was his mother tongue. Some guys could talk Quenya or Conan or whatever, and sure he could do that, but he dreamed music. When he was showering or driving or even taking a shit sometimes a phrase would fall into his head, fully formed. He tried not to let the frustration get to him but playing at Jeff so the guy could play it back at him was always torture. Not to mention fighting with Gareth about, fucking, polyrhythms while Eddie could only say, look, look, like this man, and slap it out on his own thighs. As if he knows what tempo means.  Just listen, that’s all, recreate the noise in his brain out there in the open.

Read more on November 27!

[jessthetea]

To anom who said that Jess has the right date whoever she wants:

Nobody said that Jess was not allowed to date someone, but her problem is that she used and manipulated her ex partner, she uses and manipulates Jamie for her own interest and to make her name known, there are many people who have noticed that she seeks to attract the attention of the public and the media since Jamie officially introduced her as his partner at the preview of Stranger Things season 4 in New York (personally, it is since she posted this video in which Jamie swimming naked in a pool that I understood who she really is) and after this preview, she started following Jamie everywhere he went for 1 year and a half, knowing that she had a business to manage in New York (according to Jess) and she took pictures with his fans during conventions or other and I don’t think Jamie’s ex-partners did this to attract attention.

Some people said that she went to every convention with him to support him, personally I did not believe it, but seeing the photos Jess seemed to be bored at the convention because the attention was more on Jamie than on her, there were Jamie fans who went to the convention and who confirmed that she was rude to some of them and I specify that many of them confirmed her rude behavior and I don’t think they would lie.

[gentil-minou]

Xiantober Day 10 - Fanartist!Xian

WlW Wangxian Week Day 2 - Queen for a Day @wlwangxianweek

NSFW (masturbation, body worship, thirsting over your own art)

--

The email sat in her inbox untouched for days, heavy and daunting, the sender's address highlighted and glaring at her. It arrested her breath every time her cursor hovered over the unopened message.

Wei Ying has been creating fanart for years, and recently her clay sculptures have achieved widespread recognition for their level of detail and stunning paintwork. It's not uncommon for her to get emails asking to commission her.

But not all of those emails are sent from famed cosplayer Hanguang-jun's official email address, titled "Commission Request" in bold unassuming font that might as well be plastered on a neon sign for the way Wei Ying can't look away at all.

Hanguang-jun wants to commission Wei Ying for a tabletop sculpture to scale of her latest elven cosplay. She's willing to pay generously for Wei Ying's time and labor, well above her usual rates. She has a small list of specifications and offers to meet one on one for measurements.

How can Wei Ying explaing to HGJ, the queen of cosplay herself, that she doesn't actually need her measurements because she's spent the last few years memorizing her body by sight in all the the thousands of elegant cosplay photos HGJ posts on a weekly basis.

What would HGJ think if she knew the entire reason Wei Ying is lauded as one of the premier up and coming sculptors of her generation is because she's spent years honing her craft for the express purpose of being able to perfectly capture the essence of HGJ in inanimate form?

How did HGJ find her anyway?

Okay, actually, that's a dumb question. When Wei Ying started sculpting a year ago one of her first videos was a time lapse on tiktok with a clay model of a HGJ cosplay of a xianxia character.

And admittedly, Wei Ying did spend the entire video thirsting over HGJ while in her small studio surrounded by her fanart of HGJ and okay yeah so that video has several million views and quite a few cheeky comments tagging the queen herself…

So okay, it makes sense how HGJ found her, but it still doesn't explain WHY she chose to commission Wei Ying directly.

Like, here's the thing. Wei Ying knows she's good. She's super good. She didn't get to quit her boring day job for no reason, and she's spent practically all her life getting this good, she's not gonna pretend to be humble.

But HGJ never commissions people. She doesn't even reshare fanart or even respond to fan's comments. Her photos and videos are cinematic and expertly shot, but she doesn't do lives or anything like that where she talks to fans. Wei Ying has never been to a convention to see her personally, but with her expert internet sleuthing skills she knows that when HGJ does meet and greets, only ever for charity or some good cause, she doesn't do more than nod politely before posing with them.

So why would she all of a sudden reach out to Wei Ying and go against all of that?

But it doesn't matter why…because Wei Ying just responded to her email and took up the offer to meet Hanguang-jun to talk about her commission.

She's going to meet HGJ…in the flesh…outside of costume.

Wei Ying looks arond at her walls, plastered in artwork and photos of HGJ in all her glory. She stares at the smattering of sculptures she has displayed in a place of honor. At the life-sized cardboard cutout she got of HGJ cosplaying as Shego a couple years back, glaring menacingly in a way that makes her spine tingle...

Wei Ying is going to have to clean up her studio before she meets with HGJ…

What is she getting herself into?

--

Wei Ying likes to make prototypes before she meets with any client. It's not really a courtesy so much as a necessary requirement. A sculpture is way more taxing on her resources after all. She needs to make sure her client likes it before she gets started on the real deal.

She might be…spending more time on the prototype for Hanguang-jun than she has for anyone else…especially considering she's sculpted her enough she knows its good but, well…

She almost can't help it. Whenever she makes art of HGJ, it's like she's under a spell and can't resist. It's mesmerizing, watching the block of clay taking form and shape, transforming into a temptress that leaves Wei Ying glued to her desk until she finishing the final touches and sits back to admire her work.

Wei Ying used to exclusively make fanart of fictional characters. She mostly liked donghua and manhua, and rarely ever caared for things that were live-action or realistic. It took away the fun, she'd always thought. She lives in the real world so why would she care about something like that in her work?

Then, she saw Hanguang-jun cosplay her favorite character from her favorite novel. It was all over from there.

It wasn't even one of HGJ's more scandalous cosplays that showed off her ample cleavage or milky white thighs. She was completely covered up, wearing an intricate set of robes that must have been embroidered by hand with long black hair too silken to be a wig styled up in a top knot.

The costume was stunning, but it was HGJ's expression that ensnared Wei Ying. Fiercely intense, and a gravity that made the character come alive.

For a moment, Wei Ying forgot she was looking at a fanmade cosplay. For a moment, it was like the character she'd admired so much had come to life right on her computer screen, all elegant lines and secret curves. Her hand had reached into her shorts of its own accord…bewitched.

And so followed a mad scramble to get as much content about HGJ as she possible could, imbibing every last ounce until Wei Ying felt like she knew everything she could about HGJ.

Despite being notortiously private about her personal life. HGJ regularly shares bts about her costume work and and what goes into creating cosplay. There was a panel she'd done for a con where she explained how she'd sewn every costume painstakingly by hand, and how long each costume took.

That more than anything, pulled Wei Ying deep into HGJ's orbit.

She'll never forget listening to that video, the soft cadence of HGJ's delicate voice, so seldom heard when she plays so many silent and serious characters, as HGJ spoke about her love for her craft. Wei Ying was lost to the moment, to the wonderful sensation of someone knowing exactly why one would spend hours and days on creating something. The pure love for her craft, shining in the golden contacts HGJ wore, the stage lights giving them a twinkle that seemed to come from within.

That's when Wei Ying realized her crush on HGJ was more than that.

But until this moment, she didn't have to worry about it. Wei Ying was perfectly content making artwork from a afar, ever getting any closer. A fan and her muse, the simplest pairing there was.

Except now Hanguang-jun is coming to her studio. For a private meeting. Today.

Needless to say, Wei Ying is feeling woefully unprepared. She'd at least had the wherewithal to hide her more salacious fanart away. HGJ does not need to know how often Wei Ying has imagined and tried to paint her breasts…that would be a bit too far.

Her studio as ready as it is ever going to be, all she needs now is to finish the prototype.

It's a crude model, really. Meant mostly to test the pose HGJ requested. It's not even painted, though Wei Ying did spend more time on it than she has for anyone else.

The clay is still wet to the touch, as the model sits on her workbench and she trails a careful finger down the side of HGJ's face. Her eyes are still hollow and blank, but the shape is correct, the lines meeting at the corners to taper off underneath arched brows she's etched in.

HGJ's high cheekbones were carved at an angle over a mouth with a tiny smile, barely there. The reference photo Wei Ying had used for HGJ's expression wasn't from the official photo shoot, but a bts video on HGJ's brother's feed (also public, and filled with so much delicious content). HGJ wasn't even looking at the camera. She'd been holding her pet bunny in her lap, smiling so sweetly down at it, the corners of her mouth just barely lifting up and the softness of her eyes breathtaking. Wei Ying had felt like she'd been suspended in midair with the force of that little smile.

She'd fully intended to use one of the more serious expressions from the photoshoot, but when the time came it's like her hands had a mind of their own. It was instinct and the image of that sweet smile that guided her as she etched in the lines of the model's face.

Once it was done, there was no way she could smudge it away. And so the small smile stays. Wei Ying's hand trails over to the slope of HGJ's nose, and she giggles as she gives the figure a gentle boop. The clay sculpture is pretty large, about the size of her torso (also not the standard. usually these reference models are smaller than the sized asked for. But well...if Wei Ying has to give the final sculpture to HGJ maybe she can keep this prototype for her collection...) but that doesn't mean she's willing to risk damaging it when it's still so fragile. She'd be devastated if something happened to HGJ, in whatever form she's in.

Her finger slides down over plump lips that Wei Ying has spent many lines drawing over and over again, sketches of that mouth in every expression, closed and pursed into a frown, even open and waiting… She has the lines of HGJ's lips practically memorized. Can imagine how they'd feel when she traces over her own.

She does that now, the fingers of her right hand tracing over her own lips as the pad of her left index finger trails back and forth over the model's lips. Chapped against glossed. Plush pink. How would HGJ's look free of lipstick, smudged and wiped away at the edges onto someone else. Lips bitten red.

Wei Ying's breath hitches and she pulls her lips into her mouth to bite down on. Her right hand falls into her lap.

She lets the tip of her finger trail to HGJ's pointed chin, then curves it down as if Wei Ying is lifting it up to draw her towards her. That would be ludicrous, to kiss a statue…except….

Wei Ying had taken care to carve HGJ's elegant veins that jut out from her neck, and follows them down her slender throat and over her collarbone, to where the shape of HGJ's breast sit, exposed to the frigid way that would surely harden her nipples into soft rosebuds if they were real.

Wei Ying has spent many nights staring at the ceiling of her room, idly tracing figure 8s around and around her small chest as she ruminates on HGJ's full breasts, the way they effortlessly lift and nearly slip out of her costumes, though the never actually do.

How they must be twice the size of Wei Ying's own, leaving her to lift her own and wonder how heavy HGJ's must be. Imagine the weight of them in her palms, how they'd look when she squeezes. The sounds HGJ would make, her quiet gasps echoing in the silence of the room. The way those honey brown eyes, her real ones, not the fake contacts she uses for her cosplay, would be fixed on Wei Ying's, long lashes fluttering as she leans forward to give Wei Ying a better angle.

The heat inside Wei Ying flares up, and she lets her hands pull her shorts away so she can lip her hand inside, trialing over coarse curls until she reaches the place that's hottest within her. Not for the first time, she wonders what it would feel like to touch HGJ in this place. Would it feel the same as it does when Wei Ying touches herself? Would it feel like something else entirely?

She draws circles around her lower lips with the fingers of her right hand as her left index finger trails down the center of HGJ's chest, over the valley between her breasts.

Perhaps she should have sculpted the mounds of her breasts closer together so they'd create the cleavage HGJ is known for. But like earlier, when she'd felt out of control with the need to carve her smile, Wei Ying had wanted to let HGJ voluptuous breasts hang free and apart, natural the way she always imagines her.

Besides, it would fit with HGJ's request to create a sculpture of her recent cosplay of Galadriel.

Wei Ying had just about lost her mind when she'd seen the gauzy fabric of HGJ's dress, how it left only the most intimate parts of her to the imagination as the sheer dress draped over the curves of her body. How she could so clearly see the outline of her full breasts, with no bra restraining them only a simple fabric to tastefully cover her nipples. Beneath her chest, the dip in her slender waist flared out into wide hips. The curve of her thighs, with a wide slit in the dress that revealed the tiniest tantalizing peek of pale skin…

The pale blue, nearly see through fabric had been both too little and too much. Wei Ying had felt like she needed to look away. She'd also felt like she never wanted to stare at anything else ever again.

Remaking the exact gauzy lines in a clay sculpture will be a fun challenge. She can already see the way she can carve the lines so the creases of HGJ's dress show it's there while the rest of the fabric clings to her shape and form, a glimpse of something that shouldn't be seen. That Wei Ying sculpts herself, a shrine to a goddess.

The thought makes Wei Ying gasp, as she dips one finger inside her, slipping through her drenched folds with ease.

The heat is jarring, almost burning where it stokes a fire deep within her core, spreading outward, consuming everything in its wake.

In contrast, HGJ's clay figure is nearly ice cold against her heated skin. But as her finger rest against the figure, it turns warm, as if a heart truly beats beneath that clay chest.

Would it be the same if she was trailing her fingers across the real HGJ's chest? With a frozen exterior melt into warmth? Would a pink stretch across her torso, matching the lips she bites down? Would her heart beat just as fast as Wei Ying's?

Wei Ying rocks against her finger, but one just isn't enough. She adds another, strokes herself with intent even as her eyes flutter closed as her other hand slides down to the contours of HGJ's flat stomach, then to the v that points towards a place Wei Ying can only imagine in her wildest dreams.

If she doesn't pay attention, she can almost imagine her left hand is touching something else, something alive and real.

She whimpers, feeling the fire burn bright and hot and all encompassing. She wants to throw her head back, let her gasps echo off the ceiling. She wants to recline in her chair, give herself completely over to her pleasure. But how can she, when that would mean she can no longer touch HGJ, even this mere imitation of her?

At the thought, she opens her eyes again, gasping as she struggles to keep them from shutting, as she shudders from her approaching climax, curling those fingers and rubbing at her clit, faster and faster.

HGJ's model is haloed in a yellow spotlight from her desklight, drawing the eye and entrapping it.

It's not the real deal, but if Wei Ying squints her eyes she can pretend the burnished red figure is Hanguang-jun, blurry but real. Here, in front of her, panting breaths a match to hers.

She can almost see it, hear the intake of breath as HGJ watches her. What would HGJ think id she saw her? What would she do if Wei Ying called out for her? If she begged for her aid?

Would she hang back and watch? Would she be mortified? Intrigued?

Would she…would she dare approach? Would she stand over Wei Ying as she lies back in her chair? Would she draw her hand down the side of Wei Ying's face, past her chin and her neck, following the path Wei Ying traveled along her clay figure? Would she let her hand pass through the valley between Wei Ying's smaller breasts, fingers feather light, down, down over her stomach to join where Wei Ying's fingers slide in and out, pumping rhythmically as she chases her release.

Would she slip inside as well, bending over her, only touching that one most intimate place, Would she watch Wei Ying, those honey-brown filled with a new sort of intensity, something she's never worn for any of her cosplays. A vision just for Wei Ying.

Would she smile at her?

Wei Ying's orgasm crests and flares over her, all at once, rocking through her as the fire burns and burns and burns. She cries HGJ's name into the ceiling, caught in a wanton moan that goes on forever, obscenely so, until all that's left are Wei Ying's panting breaths.

When she returns to her body, feeling lightheaded, she registers the sticky wet sensation of her right hand as she pulls it out of her pants, feeling hollow inside. The tiny studio smells of sex as sweat beads down her back,

At some point during her climax she must have knocked over HGJ's figurine to where lies forlornly on its side.

"Shit," she whispers, checking over it with her clean hand and setting it down securely in its base. Thankfully it is undamaged, and she moves on to look for something to clean herself with.

It's not the first time she's done this here. She really should be more prepared for this sort of thing.

She cleans her hand as best as she can with her water bottle and hand sanitizer, wiping the rest away on her shorts. There's no mirror in this room but she's got enough time she can probably go to the bathroom and fix herself up, maybe air out the room before Hanguang-jun arrives—

There's a knock, quiet and polite, unintrusive, on the door to her studio, and Wei Ying jerks her head up in shock.

It's too early, she's supposed to have another ten minutes at least… it can't be.

The knock goes off again, this time louder and more firm. Wei Ying yelps, before covering her mouth with her hands. But it's too late.

Someone calls from the other side, "Is this the Yiling Matriarch's studio?"

It is. Fuck. Wei Ying is shaking, but she can't put this off any longer.

She opens the door.

TBC

(threadfic here)

[dreamsy990]

rewriting my pinned post because this ones kind of old and i think i can be more brief

hi, im ash. my pronouns are he/they.

im aroace (more specifically aego, if you like microlabels) and even though i call myself enby most the time i think agender is a more accurate description. enbys just easier to type and more fun to say.

for the record i am Very bad at social interaction. so please know if i miss something, misinterpret your tone or your message, or whatever else, or even if i come off more aggressive than normal. im simply not good at this stuff.

im audhd and my psychiatrist thinks i could also have an anxiety disorder but i havent been officially diagnosed

my birthday is homestuck day (april 13) which i found out accidentally when i opened tumblr on my birthday and got bombarded with homestuck. for the record, no i have not read it. i tried and got very bored immediately.

my normal tags are:

#doodles for my art #stale pepsi water as a completely non fandom related talking tag #random thoughts for media analysis and things i noticed

otherwise things are tagged by characters (i tag full names (i.e. 'kris dreemur' and not 'kris' or 'kris deltarune') and fandoms (i also tag full media series names and not by acronyms (i.e. 'wings of fire' and not 'wof') and USUALLY not individual works (exceptions would be things like in my kh reviews where i tag the individual game im reviewing) (PLEASE NOTE older posts from me might not follow these tagging conventions)

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Knefel at MMFA:

Several right-wing extremist figures spoke at a weekend event organized by conservative radio host Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Action, which is partnering with the Republican National Committee and former President Donald Trump's campaign. At least two speeches included the phrase “Christ is king,” an antisemitic dog whistle long favored by white nationalists. Speakers at The People’s Convention included right-wing pundit Candace Owens, who has a history of making antisemitic remarks and appears to be associating herself with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes; neo-Nazi collaborator and Pizzagate conspiracy theory peddler Jack Posobiec; and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The presence of these figures is not surprising, given the significant ties Kirk and Turning Point have to right-wing extremists and white nationalists.

The three-day summit illustrated how Turning Point Action and its affiliate Turning Point USA have come to serve as a bridge between official Republican Party institutions and the more openly bigoted and extremist elements of Trump’s movement. Over the weekend, CNN reported that the Trump campaign is working with Turning Point Action. Politico wrote that Turning Point “has become a central player in the party apparatus,” as “part of recent collaborations between the [Trump] campaign, RNC and outside groups.” In May, The Washington Post reported that the RNC was adopting a “leaner” approach and was considering outsourcing much of its voter outreach to TPUSA and other right-wing organizations. Speaking directly after Kirk on the event’s opening day, Owens opened and closed her speech with the phrase “Christ is king” — a slogan long used by Fuentes’ “groyper” movement that has gained antisemitic connotations through its use in far-right-wing contexts. Last November, Owens used the phrase to troll Ben Shapiro, her then-colleague at The Daily Wire — one flare-up in a monthslong feud between the two. The Daily Wire and Owens “ended their relationship” in March, according to CEO Jeremy Boreing. 

[...] On the third day of the event, Posobiec echoed Owens. “We understand this is a war against the demonic, this is a spiritual war!” Posobiec shouted, raising a rosary in his clenched fist. “We can only defeat a spiritual war with Christ as king because Christ is king.”  “Christ is king,” he repeated. That phrase wasn’t the only example of the groypers’ influence on Turning Point. In 2021, Chet Hanks attempted to manufacture a viral moment for himself by calling for a “white boy summer,” but the phrase was quickly adopted by neo-Nazis and other extremists, including followers of Fuentes. On Sunday, Posobiec took the stage next to a banner reading “WHITE BOY SUMMER” and tossed hats branded with the slogan to the crowd.

Posobiec then introduced Jones, appearing fresh off a court order to liquidate his assets in order to pay surviving members of the Sandy Hook massacre whom he’d repeatedly defamed by claiming the shooting was a false flag. “The answer to 1984 is 1776,” Jones said before attempting to lead the crowd in a “1776” chant — a dog whistle that signifies opposition to the anti-racist 1619 Project.  “Just three or four days ago, the great folks at Turning Point Action invited me on here. I’m very blessed and honored to be here,” Jones said before pushing an election denialist conspiracy theory. “We are in the very center, the TCF Center, where almost four years ago, in the dead of night, they stole the election not just from our amazing president, but from us.”

[...] Other notable speakers included anti-LGBTQ extremist James Lindsay and QAnon conspiracy theory peddler Scott Presler, who was present during the January 6 attempted insurrection and previously worked at anti-Muslim hate group Act for America. 

Turning Point USA, run by far-right extremist Charlie Kirk, is making connections with far-right extremists to the RNC and Trump’s 2024 campaign.

[laf-outloud]

I wondered if you'd see the going-ons from today. Welcome back! And yes, Will is notorious for claiming information after the fact that multiple people would have had access to. I don't really pay that much attention, anymore, unless someone points it out.

I'm with Jared on turning convention appearances into vacations (like he's done with Scotland). I may have done that with my job a few times (sharing expenses, of course, lol).

Very interesting gossip... we'll have to put this in a Save folder for future verification. Do I think Creation would pull that stunt? Absolutely. Do I want Jared to spoil Creation by posting his full con schedule before he's officially announced? Yes, the pettiness in me absolutely does (though I know he probably won't).

Re: the remainder of your ask, I am doing very well, thank you for asking! I completely understand earlier frustrations, especially in haste. It happens to all of us, myself included. Thank you for sharing all that you have, (even the stuff you think might be boring... personally, I find the whole process very interesting).

And again, to those reading... you're welcome to believe or disbelieve the information provided, but if you respond, please remember to keep it respectful. I'll try and keep up with asks, but it's already been quite a busy day and I may take a break.

[murfeelee]

End of Year Asks

Saw this questionnaire on my dash, and couldn’t resist!

___________________________________________

1: Song of the year? The Rumbling (Attack on Titan OST). AoT started 2022 off CORRECT, lemme tell you.

2: Album of the year? The Bleach Thousand Year Blood War OST. That Quincy Imperial March gets me going! I can’t wait for the official release.

3: Favorite musical artist / group you started listening to this year? Kaho Nakamura, from the Belle (2021) OST. Every song she sang was EXCELLENT, her voice is LITERALLY a bell.

4: Movie of the year? The only movies I’ve watched this year are anime, and Belle was my favorite, even though it came out in 2021.

5: TV show of the year? TV: AMC’s Interview with the Vampire. Anime: Bleach.

6: Episode of tv or webisode that defined the year for you? Bleach TYBW S01E01, the hype was real--Bleach is BACK, baby! \(^0^)/ This has been the year of astounding adaptations. We waited TEN YEARS for this, and it was PERFECTION.

7: Favorite actor of the year? Jacob Anderson. My mind was blown, seeing Grey Worm from Game of Thrones turn into THIIIIIIIIS sexy AF vampire, WTF?

8: Game of the year? God of War: Ragnarok. Only been waiting FOUR EFFING YEARS for the sequel.

9: Best month for you this year? June & July, when I was on Summer Break.

10: Something that made you cry this year? So much anime, too much homework.

11: Something you want to do again next year? Go to an anime convention.

12: Talk about a new friend you made this year. I met a nice girl in my Greek class who’s super sweet. We study together and spend most of the time fussing about how much we hate Greek. XD

13: How was your birthday this year? I don’t even remember. My Halloween was lovely though.

14: Favorite book you read this year? The only books I read lately are for school, and none of them are what I’d call favorites.

15: What’s a bad habit you picked up this year? Getting fat off of junk food. I’ve never been this big in my life. I’m depressed.

16: Post a picture from the beginning of the year:

I really didn’t sim much this year--the only pic I posted in January was from my New Years miniset. U_U

17: Post a picture from the end of the year:

My newest hyperfixation--I make myself tired.

18: A memorable meal this year? I ate raw fish at a sushi place for the first time. Never again. At least I wasn’t the one paying. DEEP FRY my food, please, thanks.

19: What’re you excited about for next year? My fave professor’s coming off sabbatical next year, so I’m stoked! I was dead bored this year.

20: What’s something you learned this year? A lot. How much of it will be relevant to my research though....? HA.

21: What’s something new about your place of residence (room, home, or general location) now vs the start of the year? The extra layer of dust over everything, cuz I ain’t in the mood to clean.

22: Favorite place you visited this year? My mom’s is the only place I ever travel to.

23: If you could send a message to yourself back on the first day of the year, what would it be? Get more sleep, idiot, and put the Pepsi down.

24: Did you keep any New Year’s Resolutions? Not really U_U I didn’t get around to doing any Dragon Age or Cyberpunk stuff this year. And I only did a little bit of the Untamed gameplay. The most headway I made was with Bleach, but I didn’t even finish the Substitute Arc--I really wanted to get to the Soul Society stuff.

25: Did you create any characters (in games, art, or writing) this year? Describe one: I REcreated plenty of sims from a bunch of new fandom INSP gameplays, including: Bleach, The Old Guard, Critical Role, and Interview with the Vampire. I think my favorite has been Caduceus from Critical Role.

I had a lot of fun making him and his CC with all the mushrooms, and the lot I built for him, full of plants and stuff. So rarely do I indulge in High Fantasy, because it’s HARD to do fanciful gameplay--especially for MEN, since everything’s female-oriented in The Sims 3 communitty--unless I make the CC myself--which I hate doing. But I really wanted Caduceus in my game, so, alas.

________________________________________________

Thanks for reading!

Happy Simming, and Happy New Year!

[rededgefashion]

I'm back and I'm here to judge the leftovers fro the circus and yes, they are considered the leftovers. Be thankful there's not an official event this month so you can let your wounds heal from this post.

Tyler looking like like she's about to start middle school instead of attend a ciricus. TJ looking like he's here to just drink beers with his friends and not care about the circus. Kiara looking like she's about to go to a convention of people who love leather. Kennedy giving us the same old, same old with her look. You're a model, change it up! Kat looking bored more than anything else. Declan looking like he's about to go on a date, rather than be at a cirucs. Brittany looking like a knock of Lululemon model. Emmett looking like a poser to be honest. Honestly Emmett, the "too cool for anything" act is just boring. Maverick looking like security rather than a patron. Logan looking like she's about to model for American Eagle. Who gave you those flowers Lo?

Hope you all had fun.

XOXO

@tylerxdupont @tjxcohen @kiaraxlangford @kennedysimpson @katerinaxlopez @declanxmitchell @brittanyxmillerx @emmatheeklund @maverickxanderson @loganxslater

[40sandfabulousaf]

大家好! This week, I had my simple breakfast of instant meepok out of compassion for starving Palestinians in Gaza on a WFH day. Much has happened in the last 7 days, including news that Israel has (unsurprisingly) reneged on its own ceasefire deal a second time. Now why would they pretend to be open to negotiations if they never intended to honour the terms they came up with? The Biden administration wants us to believe Hamas is the only thing standing in the way of a ceasefire, but Israel undermined the deal almost immediately after Biden announced it, even before Hamas could respond so..... 🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥 As we say in Singlish (Singaporean pidgin, if you like), 'Please lah, you think we don't have eyes meh?' which, loosely translated, means 'Please, do you honestly think we can't see what is happening?'

To celebrate KY's birthday, ML, SC, RT, DL, CY, JC, DT and I bought him lunch at a Chinese restaurant. There was a lot of food! We had lor bak gou (radish cake in Cantonese), a platter of crispy fish skin, siew mai and scrambled eggs with crab meat, char siew bao, fish maw soup with crab meat, steamed fish, wasabi prawns, roasted chicken, broccoli and mushroom with abalone, seafood pao fan (crispy rice in broth) and lastly, dessert. Everything was delicious, but what was more important was the good company. In order to avoid hitting the 10-photo limit per post, I made a slideshow. Enjoy! I know I did; the lor bak gou, fish maw soup with crab meat, siew mai and wasabi prawns were especially yummy!

After such a heavy lunch, I felt bloated. To ease the discomfort, I had cai fan salads. The first comprised bean sprouts, green beans, okra, bak choy and otah. The second comprised a sunny side up, cabbage, Chinese spinach and green beans. Cai fan hawkers here work their culinary magic on vegetables; the dishes are so yummy, many of us enjoy eating them. The secret to family, friends and I crunching our way through enough veggies: make them delicious as well as moderately healthy. Not going to the extreme where 'eating healthy' is concerned gives us plenty of leeway to include different cooking methods. We don't get bored. Increasing my fibre intake helped; soon, I was back to normal.

Most of the time, I favour noodles, congee and rice over potatoes, but there're some potato dishes I find hard to resist, so I don't. Potatoes in chicken curry or curry puffs, for instance, are just about the most delicious way to eat them, ever. Cai fan stalls also stirfry or braise them, but I don't usually order these because they're smothered in sauces which overwhelm the delicate sweetness of the spud. But when I saw stirfried potatoes without a lot of sauce at the cai fan stall I ordered lunch from, goodbye rice! I ordered that, along with cauliflower, brinjal and tomato egg. They were melt in the mouth tender, and I could taste their natural sweetness. Definitely ordering this again when I see it!

It seems like, globally, countries are growing sick and tired of this genocidal war in Gaza and increasingly signalling their displeasure. To many, the only obstacles to peace are Israel and the nations arming it. It isn't rocket science; once the weapons supply dries up, Israel will have to negotiate for a permanent ceasefire more sincerely. If the US can shift goalposts regarding the red lines it previously declared, namely, an attack against Rafah, it makes the Biden administration appear untrustworthy and weak. In short, not a good look. And if I think this way as a normal everyday person, imagine what various countries' leaders privately think, even if they don't voice it out. Watch the video of delegates walking out during Israel's speech during a UN meeting. The global community is so fed up. 下次见!

[nat20marketing]

Welcome back to this week’s Nat 20 Marketing!

We are reaching the final stretch of this blog. It has been quite an exciting journey throughout, for I have learned a lot more about IMC itself through in-person lectures and activities, as well as outstanding real-life examples.

One thing I noticed during this whole journey is the frequent creative brainstorming processes that happen behind the scenes. As a creative person I’ve always been since childhood, I have absolutely enjoyed the opportunities this path has led me to so far.

This brings me to this week’s topic on traditional media for marketing and advertising.

Before we get into the juicy part of this blog post, let’s talk about what traditional marketing is.

We are so used to digital marketing these days on our smartphones, tablets, and computers that it is very easy to overlook traditional marketing channels like the television, newspapers and magazines, billboards and advertisements printed on vehicles, expos, and conventions, etc.

The reality is that there is likely never a point in time we can completely abandon and move on from traditional marketing means, because we are humans, and we are social creatures. We go out for school, work, social activities, and many things else. They may seem insignificant in our busy lives, but they are still information our brains gather passively as we move along with whatever we may be doing. Just like digital advertisements, it takes a few times before our brains can fully register and retain the content in our minds. When we are surrounded by the same advertisements over and over, it is more likely that we will recall the brands in the future when we need any goods and services from those lines of business.

In the past, I have always thought that traditional marketing is relatively boring because, in my perception, this type of marketing is just advertisements on printed media. I will admit that I don’t read a lot of newspapers or magazines myself, and I have so easily dismissed the advertisements around me as I go on with my day because I am simply so used to seeing them all over the place. What I do not notice is that my subconscious has been silently soaking up all this information like a sponge every day. The constant and regular exposure to these advertisements, as I revisit them when I commute back and forth, functions the same way as we view the same advertisements on social media repeatedly in intervals.

On top of these passive advertisements placed around us, there are still other meaningful methods to get the brand’s products out into the market.

For most DND enthusiasts, anime, movies, and video games are easily the common go-to entertainment aside from tabletop games. I’d like to talk about video games in particular this time. There are many conventions and in-person events across the world yearly that showcase upcoming games developed by both indie teams and AAA companies. Some games offer a free demo if you visit their booths, and you can decide whether you want to buy the games when they officially launch in the future. These playtests are also used as a critical source of instant feedback from a large pool of players of different ages, genders, and preferences. Developers can easily collect data and modify their games to better fit the expectations of their potential players, who are going to be their customers. If the team decides to listen to and adopt the feedback provided by the players, it can build positive relationships with the players. This is beneficial in the long run and creates strong brand loyalty.

Now that we’ve covered the gist of what traditional marketing is, I want to go over how we can get creative with them using a couple of examples I learned about last week.

Let's start mashing traditional marketing with the future!

The first example would be the KitKat billboards that give you a massage when you lean your back onto them. I would have never thought of this idea. It is truly out of the box and brings technology into these plain advertisement billboards you can so easily find at bus stops and train stations. While I cannot say how the massage experience really feels because of the unconventional limitations to these massage devices that were installed inside the billboard, it is most certainly the uniqueness of the experience that would leave people a long-lasting impression. People would remember that KitKat once did this campaign, and I think it aligns well with the value the chocolate tries to deliver. It is a snack we would eat when we want to relax for a bit. It is a convenient snack we can have on-the-go.

The second example would be Canadian Tire’s marketing campaign on their pet products. It is extremely creative and smart for the team to focus their attention on the pets instead of only on the pet owners. The team created these scented promotional devices to attract dogs when they are on their walks with their owners. These devices are also tailored to attract them visually, in colors that they can easily discern, as it is commonly known that dogs are born with colorblindness. Much more is done throughout the campaign to bring more dogs (and their human friends) to shop at Canadian Tire. With this example, it is so difficult not to realize that sometimes we don’t always have to market our products to the ones who are paying, but also to the users. Be it your children or your fur companions, it is proven time and time again that marketing campaigns creatively designed are far better than generic advertisements.

That being said, these campaigns are often far more costly. It is truly an investment that takes time, effort, and money. Sometimes, it may even be a risky one, and may not even be well-received!

Before we end this week’s post, I’d like to try out this handy dandy poll function on Tumblr! We’ll be back at Nat 20 Marketing next week with the topic of “The Power of Personalization”.

[pazodetrasalba]

Business *and* Pleasure (& 2)

Dear Caroline:

I continue with the last part of your previous post. I have never heard of Amy Snow, and I seldom tend to buy books at airports (usually, I always travel with at least one or two of mine for the flights), but some years ago, I did get into the custom of buying a Terry Pratchett Discworld novel every time I had to pass through Stansted. I suspect they would be my personal equivalent to your Amy Snow. As for Pratchett, I'd say:

Good points:

set in a detailed, silly and nerdy fantasy world, which parodies a lot of genre conventions in general and academics in particular

small chapters without headings, almost all of which end in a mini-cliffhanger

witty and funny dialogue and some main event/mystery the whole book is building up to.

Bad points:

characters are pretty one-dimensional too, especially in the early novels

they feel distinctly bestsellery: even though they frequently try to touch serious topics in a reflective and not sermonizing manner, the takes feels a bit superficial. You know you're reading a book whose main purpose is just entertaining.

Your last paragraph is very apposite, as I think there's a bit of Paradise Lost in the type of material we could read and enjoy when we were young and naïve, but which now is a lesser source of pleasure. If you are used to reading round, well-developed characters that change, you will always feel a tad bored at the one-dimensional ones. And while you might be carried away by the sheer pleasure of world-immersion and following the plot to its denouement, there's always an inner voice nagging and negging you that what you are reading is beneath your intellect and expectations, even if it just meant to entertain.

Quote:

When Terry Pratchett was awarded his knighthood in the 2005 New Years Honours list, the official justification was for “services to literature.”  The newly knighted Sir Terry himself commented that “I suspect the ‘services to literature’ consisted of refraining from trying to write any”.