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obey-me-mammon-lover69 · 2 years ago

Note

I wanna see your Obey Me MC ^-^

Ignore the colours, I just rlly like the dark black and the green theme

Thank you both for asking!! I’m glad you were interested in seeing her! All her stuff below

Warning: Spoilers for lesson 16, I started rambling a lot, also some light Belphie hate

Y’all can send me asks about her if you want ☞☜

Meet; Marilyn “Mini” LaCroix

Please ignore the older art, I’m planning on redrawing her soon

If you’re curious about the watermark, that’s my name on DeviantArt. I don’t post too often tbh.

This is Marilyn LaCroix, I originally made her with the name ‘Mini’ in mind, so sometimes I’ll call her Mini, or Mimi.

If you zoom in on her eyes, you’ll notice they’re very dull. It was an artistic choice, because Marilyn is blind. Though she doesn’t have the type of blindness that causes faded coloured eyes, I just did that because I thought it’d look cute.

Marilyn has optic nerve blindness, meaning she can see some light shapes, colours, and some movements, but everything looks horribly distorted to her. She’s legally and functionally blind.

Before entering the Devildom, she worked at a library, lived alone, and attended college normally studying literature. When she was swept up, she had a hard time believing any of the men were demons and assumed she was kidnaped by a crazy cult until Lucifer made Marilyn touch Mammon’s wings and horns on his demon form.

Some HCS:

Marilyn hates touching people, or people touching her without permission. Specifically, she hates being guided places and people acting like she’s glass because she’s blind. She’s fine, thank you very much, please stop touching her back.

Despite studying for a degree in literature and working in a library back home Marilyn has no real plans for the future. She’s just coasting along hoping she can find something she likes doing eventually.

Marilyn’s favourite things are to read and cook.

Because watching movies are extremely difficult neigh impossible, she has taken to reading the novelizations of movies written in braille so she can fully experience the movie.

She acts very spacey and somewhat serene. Off the top of my head, I’d compare her personality most closely to Luna lovegood in the Harry Potter series.

Despite this she has a very strong sense of justice, and hates it when people treat others as useless

She’s quite well read, with a love for history, mythology, and religion. Hearing all the boy's sins for the first time, she quickly realized 2 things.

1. There’s only 6 of the 7 deadly sins here

2. Where is Sloth?

Relationships with the boys along with what she associates them (colours, smells, touch, etc)

LUCIFER (Reds, blacks. Polished wood, paper. Hands are always gloved. They’re soft when ungloved, well moisturized):

I imagine if Lucifer had known she was blind, he would have never let her into the exchange program. Its already super dangerous for someone without a disability, adding one on top of it would almost be a death sentence.

But here she is

And Lucifer takes it as almost a challenge to prove that she is perfectly capable, because of course she is HE choose her for the program

Was actually shocked when he realized she’s legally blind

Started messaging Diavolo about adding braille to the signs and stuff around the Devildrom, and other things to help her

Despite his attempts to help her they routinely butt heads, mostly because Marilyn hates how Luci treats his brothers, and she is not afraid to speak her mind

Lucifer doesn’t hate her; he just finds her to be extremely nose

MAMMON (Golds, whites, hint of brown. Smells like dollar bills, a soft hint of iron like pennies, Soft hands):

Mammon felt slighted when he realized Marilyn was blind, he has to take care of a stupid human and a broken one at that?!

He didn’t really mean the broken part, but it just slipped out and Marilyn and he set off on a rocky path relationship

Marilyn is always defending him from his brothers if they get too mean to him, and he has no clue how to feel about it but his chest clenches

and before long he realizes he had fallen in love with her, a stupid human...

Mammon is the only person that Marilyn lets touch her to guide her places, he frequently holds her lower back to guide her or grabs her hand to pull her somewhere

Mammon gives Marilyn piggybacks sometimes, especially if the terrain is really rocky because he’s afraid she’ll trip over something and hurt herself

Very protective of her because she’s a human, but extra protective because she’s blind and his only experience with blind people is from TV

She doesn't like how frantic he gets over her getting hurt, she lived alone and had a job and went to school all by herself back in the human realm, she can make herself a sandwich Mammon

He won’t admit it, but he loves her

She thinks he’s very kind and cute, and despite being spacey, she is completely aware of how much he likes her

LEVIATHAN (Purples, blues, hint of orange. Smells like the beach, and gamer sweat. Rough calloused hands):

Levi’s only experience with blind people is from Animes, he instantly thought of Lilly from Katawa Shoujo when he saw Marilyn

Swears up and down he plays Katawa Shoujo for the plot, but I’m getting off track

He had 2 reactions, 1. Oh, she must be like a secret badass to compensate for her blindness! Maybe she knows how to fight! and 2. She’s going to need a lot of help...

Started watching a lot more animes with blind characters when he met Marilyn so he could relate to her in some way

Was so sad when he realized there were almost no animes or manga about a romance with a blind girl (I only know 2 off the top of my head)

Levi was the first to find out Marilyn wasn’t born blind but was able to see until she was 4 years old when she lost her vision due to illness

Tried to show her animes with very bright colours and descriptive dialogue so she could get into anime and stop being a normie

Started a whole rant online about how anime and manga should be more accessible for the blind or visually impaired

He hates people touching him and she hates people touching her, neither of them touches each other unless their lives depend on it

She frequently gets into spats with him because of what he says to Mammon

They’re at least acquaintances, but they’re not besties by any means

SATAN (Yellows, blues, greens. Smells like old books. Soft palms calloused fingers):

Due to his reading, he knew a cursory amount about blindness

He was the one who made the suggestion that Marilyn touch Mammon’s wings to prove they were demons

Marilyn has never forgiven him

Jokes aside, she did not like it

Satan also suggested she touch their faces to figure out what they look like, but Marilyn put her foot down and refused

Satan started reading a lot more about blindness, its causes, the different types of blindness etc so he could more properly accommodate for her

They talk a lot about the books they’ve read, and Satan started learning braille so he could translate his favourite series to her, and he could read any books she had on her

She hates it when he's mean to his brothers, mainly Mammon and tells him off a lot, which he very much dislikes

They get along occasionally, but they don’t talk too often, they’re the kind of friends that sit in the room and read different books and then talk to each other about said books

ASMODEUS (Pinks, blacks. Smells like flowers, but always different types. Dainty, well-manicured, soft hands):

Asmo thought she was pretty cute when she first entered the Devildom, and upon realizing she was blind thought she was even cuter for being fragile

Marilyn hates being called fragile or treated as fragile, and Asmo does it A LOT

He was under the impression that she saw the world as completely pitch black, and had no clue how she always matched her clothes colours until she finally mentioned that she can sorta see colours

He applies makeup for her because she has trouble with it without being able to see herself too well in the mirror

Eventually stops babying her because he gets bored and just starts treating her like he does everybody else

Once asked her how he looked forgetting she was blind and she accepted it, "You look lovely, Asmo." He didn't realize till later that night what he had asked

Tries to take her out places to go partying with him, but she doesn't really like going to unfamiliar places that are too loud, she's much more of a homebody

Asmo is another one Marilyn goes after for how he treats his brothers and even other people due to his somewhat narcissistic traits

He finds her to be a little boring, but he likes how well she listens to him talk

He sometimes wonders if Marilyn even likes him, especially because she can't see how beautiful he is

BEELZEBUB (Oranges, purple, blue, whites. Smells like sweat, and whatever food he most recently ate. Large and rough hands):

TBH I imagine they don't really interact often

But when they do, they're both very quiet so they just sit in a room alone together in silence

Beel loves her cooking though and that's really the only time they hang out

He constantly tries to sneak ingredients and Marilyn once was forced to whack his hand with a spoon

She apologized but she told him not to do it again

Does not give one shit that she's blind

It really does not matter to him, and because of that, he's the one who treats her the most like everyone else since the beginning.

Marilyn thinks he's sweet, but he needs more self-control

Beel likes her cooking and tbh that's all he thinks matters

SPOILERS FOR LESSON 16, AND SOME BELPHIE HATE

BELPHEGOR (purples, and blues with the slightest dash of white. Subconsciously smells blood whenever she's near him. Rough palms but soft hands):

How she found the attic and went up all those stairs completely blind is unknown

but she did, and she did not believe him for one second

A human in the attic? Sounded far fetched, in fact, this reminded her of a twist in a novel she read

And the missing 7th brother? She was able to at least figure out, "Oh this is that one"

She played along and got the packs he required

Belphie did not care one second that she was blind, much like his twin that didn't matter to him. She was human, and that meant she had to die.

Marilyn accepted her death with grace, she would not beg, her last words to him were, "I never trusted you."

After everything was resolved, and Belphie tried to be nice to her, Marilyn froze him out

She's very cold to him, she does not talk to him, she tolerates him and that is it

She flinches every time he moves too fast towards her, and of all the boys she hates his touches the most

Belphegor knows why she's so cold, and he doesn't blame her for hating him, he probably hates himself too for it, especially seeing how her 'death' tore Mammon down

#Obey me #obey me shall we date #mine #obey me oc #my art #obey me Lucifer #obey me Mammon #obey me Leviathan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #marilyn lacroix

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lady-bugginette · 4 years ago

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Rose Painted Glasses (A Lila Exposed Fic)

First Next

Inspired by @chatonbean post.

The first part is by another lovely user by the name of @time-is-a-pain. This is their original post here.

The part after this one, that I will make sure is indicated, is by another amazing user @lenoreofraven. Their original post is also here. Their entry is after the cut.

I want to quickly thank both of the amazing people above for letting me use their additions for setting up this fic. It is very much a collaborative effort between many talented writers, I cannot take entire credit for this. 😏

time-is-a-pain’s entry:

Nathaniel had noticed lately that a bunch of the art Lila claimed as hers were in wildly different styles. At first he tried to rationalize it, maybe she’d been branching out style-wise? Maybe she hadn’t actually found her own style yet?

It got much harder to rationalize away the differences when he caught a glimpse of an oddly colored part of a background. Only a shade or two off, but it was there. And it looked like it might cover a signature? Now that he was thinking about it, only a few of the art Lila had shown the class had a signature.

It was harder, but it was Lila. They’d talked a lot about how horrible it felt to have your hard work stolen like that. She wouldn’t steal from anyone. Right?

Nathaniel shuddered, he hated the idea that someone would try claiming his work as their own. He made extra sure that his signature was on the picture, and would be hard to cover when he posted it to insta. H was proud of it, and no art thief would stop that.

And he was right to be proud. It quickly became one of his most popular posts. So when he got to school on Monday. and saw Lila showing off his work, he snapped at her.

Of course, most of the class took Lila’s side. But when Alix and Marinette got there, and saw what was happening, they took his side immediately.

“How can you prove it’s yours?” Kim asked.

A chorus of agreement swept through the room. Nathaniel took a deep breath, his hands were trembling, and pulled out his sketchbook. Flipping to the right page, he stalked over to Lila’s desk, and slammed the book down in front of her.

There it was. The original sketch. Clear in view of the whole class. Nathaniel’s work.

Lila peeked out from behind her fingers when the class went deathly silent, and Alya pulled away from her.

“How many others?” Nathaniel asked quietly, watching the panic appear, and get locked behind Lila’s mask. “Were any of them actually yours?”

lenoreofraven’s entry:

“How could you say that? How could you do this? After all the conversations we had about art theft.” Lila exclaimed back, trying to extinguish the doubt in the eyes of those that watched her. Not everyone was convinced. Alix stood by Nathaniel, trying her best to offer support. While Adrien gently touched Marinette’s wrist, as if signaling for her to stay back.

It was obvious Lila couldn’t win these artists over, artists who have had their work stolen. Instead her eyes settled to Ivan, Rose and Juleka. After the situation with XY, they were fuming the moment the accusation touched the air. It was their weak spot really. Took any logic they may have away.

“You said you wanted me to do a quick sketch, and lent me your notebook as I had left my tablet at home. Then you do this to me?”

“Lila just stop it.” Marinette growled, but she wasn’t the audience for this little stunt. Lila could claim they were in France, and Marinette would check google maps to make sure they hadn’t moved. This was about everyone.

Even Adrien, who glared at her from Marinette’s side, was part of the intended audience. As he could make, or break, her reputation if he so desired. Considering how Ivan responded to the demand. perhaps, just possibly, she could deal with two birds at once. Use this as Marinette was an expert on plagiarism, and if she picked the wrong side it could be ruin for her.

“Stop what? Trying to take credit for my own work? I know you don’t like me much, but do you honestly condone this? I thought you would be the first person to support the victim of art theft.” Marinette just looked back with a blank stare, not even humoring the accusation with a response.

All eyes were still on Lila and Nathaniel. Not ideal, but it could be managed. It was the wrong time for crocodile tears. Her eyes scanned the work again. When she had erased the signature from the upload she had been careful, after this she would start adding her own sign. For now she just needed proof. This was a draft, not the official upload. She just needed something.

“Maybe I have been experimenting with styles a bit, but this is mine. See, there’s an L, as in Lila. I made it subtle so it couldn’t be erased, like how you stitch your name into designs in clever ways, Marinette.” Lila explained, pointing at something that could be an L, but was just as likely to be miscellaneous lines. Alya, Sabrina, and a few others that were still on the fence squinted at it, tilting their heads to try and see it. The members of Kitty Section instantly took it as fact. Max, Alix and a few doubters all shook their heads, realizing the stretch.

Nathaniel glared back at her.

“That’s not an L. That’s just lines. I don’t erase signatures like some people because if you look on my insta it clearly had my signature, matches all my other work, and is clearly mine!”

“Then you must have added it. We all know how disrespectful you can be of other’s art.” Lila remarked, as she flinched away from Nathaniel. She made it as dramatic as possible, acting as if the artist would hit her.

“LILA!” Snapped Alix, not sparing any notice for Ivan, who now stood as a shield for Lila.

Lila simply sighed with a shake of her head, moving slightly to the side so she could be seen, but Ivan still acted like a bodyguard.

“I know Marc didn’t want to mention it, but that couldn’t have been easy to witness. I don’t know what happened, I wasn’t here for it, but I do know you tore apart someone’s journal. I can’t imagine anyone doing that. It’s cruel. Sure you’re friends and have made up, now working on the comic, but doing that to someone’s notebook? I’d rather eat glass than have my precious sketchpads or notebooks damaged in anyway. I’m just saying, someone who does that may be the type of person to disrespect other people’s art.”

My entry:

Nathaniel flinched back, looking at the others in class. Rose and Juleka glared at him while Ivan stood in front of Lila, unmoving.

“How dare you!” Alix started toward Lila only to be held back by Kim. Max frowned at Lila while adjusting his glasses, he looked at the drawing again, and looked between Lila and Nathaniel.

“Don’t you dare talk about something you have no idea about- You Snake!”

Lila smiled her condescending smile at her opposers.

“It’s not my fault he caused an akuma because of his jealousy. I know he was angry with-”

Alix made another lunge for her, Kim had to quickly catch her body from the air before she could attack the other girl.

Marinette was fuming, she was burning with rage. Her face was slowly turning red, before she suddenly took out her phone.

Adrien looked concerned. He could feel the heat coming off of her body. He looked to the windows, and the classroom door, fro any akumas. He knew it needed to be resolved, and fast. Rose and Juleka were yelling in defense of Lila, while Alix was screaming in defense of Nathaniel. Lila was still ‘cowering’ behind Ivan, and Nathaniel looked like he was on the verge of becoming another akuma. Adrien was about to speak up when someone else did.

“Actually-” A voice broke through the yells of the classroom. Alya looked uncomfortable, with Nino standing, just as uncomfortable, next to her.

Lila looked triumphant, she knew Alya would be on her side. She sent a smug look at the oposing group, one that earned a glare from Nathaniel, a growl from Marinette, and a lunge from Alix, again.

Nino stepped forward, his expression placating.

“All we have to do is see where Nathaniel says his signature is, and see if the spot was altered on the photo posted to both accounts.”

The request seemed reasonable, if the nodding heads of the other classmates were anything to go by, if it weren’t all a lie.

Lila started crying her crocodile tears, lip wobbling at the pair closest to the door.

“Y-You don’t believe me?” She sniffed as Rose comforted her, and Juleka glared at them.

“Not at all!” Alya walked up, her hands waving in front of her.

“We’re not accusing anyone.” Nino clarified.

“We’re just comparing the pictures, that’s all!” Alya hastened to add.

Lila didn’t look happy at all, but Rose was already pulling up the picture on Lila’s instagram. Marinette doing the same on her phone of Nathaniel’s instagram.

They both laid out their phones on a desk for everyone to compare. Max was looking at the two closely, as well as his own phone.

“Oh Marinette, that’s a screenshot.” Max pointed out.

Lila smiled through her tears, sure that she could convince the class that she edited the photo for Nathaniel, because he accused her that one time too.

“Oh, my bad” She said in a falsely sweet voice, something was up.

“Here. Oh!” She made it look like she was backing out of her photo gallery, when she just swiped over, and let the class see another piece of art work.

“Hey! That looks like one of Lila’s pictures!” Rose, oh so helpfully, pointed out. And it was, one of the ones she posted to her instagram anyway.

“Oh but that’s from this artist. See? I screenshoted it when they posted it, two weeks ago. See?”

They looked closer, and sure enough the artist posted it two weeks before, They looked at the same picture on Lila’s instagram that she claimed she finished two days prior. With a suspicious bloch where the other artists signature was was on their post.

Max pulled back, pushed his glasses back up, and nodded.

“Yup. That picture is the original, you can see the watermark. And the convenient spot that covered the watermark from the original picture, right there on Lila’s instagram.” Rose and Juleka looked at her, confused. Ivan turned around, looking for answers as well. Before Lila could get a word in Marinette took that moment to completely pounce.

“Oh, but what about these pictures? Do they also have erased watermarks, because they look an awful like the other artists I follow that have had their work stolen from them too.”

Alya and Max descended on the photos like vultures on a carcass, picking apart every screenshot in Marinette’s phone, and every post Lila had made on her instagram with Rose’s phone.

Rose didn’t protest as the hovered over her phone, she looked at Lila with tears in her eyes.

“Is it true? Did-Did you s-steal them?” Juleka wrapped her arm around her shoulder, but gave a hesitant glance to Lila. Ivan looked lost, Mylene currently being out sick, he didn’t know who to side with.

Kim didn’t have to hold Alix back, she stood back on her won. Her arms crossed, and a smug look on her face, she knew Lila had been caught. She gave a smile to Marinette, who gave a thumbs up in return. Nathaniel looked relieved, he also gave Marinette a grateful smile that she returned.

Lila knew she was losing her hold. She looked to Adrien, but he was busy looking (out for akumas) around the room.

She had to play her ace in the hole.

She burst into tears, sobbing.

“I-I’m so sick of this lying disease!”

The others looked at her confused.

Alix snorted.

“Yeah, you are lying, and you are a disease.” Kim elbowed her for that, but he didn’t say anything.

Lila had to move fast.

“I w-was going to take them down. B-But I really do like the pictures. I h-had no idea they had b-been stolen b-by those artists-”

“That doesn’t explain the watermarks!” Alix cut across.

“I didn’t steal them! Someone else did! I-I got permission f-from whoever stole the art f-first. A-and-” She hastened to add when she saw that Alix and Marinette were about to interrupt her.

“A-and I couldn’t help but put that I drew them, because of my lying disease! R-Remember?” Marinette looked enraged, Alix and Nathaniel looked at her in disbelief. Max also looked skeptical.

“L-lying disease?” Rose asked tentatively. Lila nodded.

“Yes! R-Remember? W-When I accidentally got Marinette expelled.” At the memory being brought up, Marinette’s face darkened further, Adrien looked uncomfortable, and Alix and Nathaniel shared a look of realization.

“I didn’t mean to get her expelled! It was my disease! It acts up during times of stress! And with all of the charities I help with, and my disabilities, I get too stressed out and start lying again!” She looked to Alya, who looked like she was almost convinced. Nino was looking to Alya. Rose, Juleka, and Ivam were firmly back on her side again.

She just needed to convince Alya, and the majority would follow, or join Marinette in exile.

“I-I’ve been getting so stressed out lately! And I can’t control the urge when it happens! I am so sorry you guys! I didn’t mean-”

“That still doesn’t explain why you accused Nathaniel of stealing your supposed artwork.” Marinette pointed out.

“Or the fact that you brought up something that you have no idea about and threw it in his face!” Alix added.

Lila schooled her face to guilt.

“I’m sorry that I offended you Nathaniel. I didn’t mean to.” She let a few tears come to the surface of her eyes, but never let them fall.

It was all Juleka and Rose needed to flock to her and comfort her. She looked to Alya, who looked on the verge of joining her. She just needed a little more.

“I can understand what made you want to draw that picture you posted, it looks a lot like mine. You drew inspirations from that, I get that!” Nathaniel looked livid, and Alix was ready to blow.

But Lila only worried about the two that were in front of her that weren’t at her side yet. She needed them to keep her hold of the class.

“I can understand drawing inspiration from what’s around you, Marinette does that all the time no?” Said girl glared at her. Adrien had finally stopped his tour of the room with his eyes, and looked at the group. He glared at Lila, but she could deal with that later. As long as he kept his arm out in front of Marinette, and out of her way, she could deal with him later.

She just needed Alya and Nino.

“I don’t blame you for being inspired! Not at all! I just want an apology for accusing me of stealing.” At the start of the protests from Marinette, Alix and Nathaniel, she looked to Nino and Alya.

“Right Alya? Nino?”

Alya hesitantly nodded. Nino didn’t react one way or the other, Hmm...

“See? It;s alright! We just needed to communicate!” Rose cheerfully added.

At that convenient time, Madam Bustier entered the room.

“Alright class! We have a busy day ahead of us! Finish up your chat and get to your seats!”

Lila looked to Nathaniel, an expectant look on her face that made his stomach turn.

Was this how Marinette felt?

Rose, Juleka, and Ivan looked at him expectantly too.

Madam Bustier looked back at the group, waiting. Kim slapped him on the back.

“Hey! It’s resolved now! Just apologize and it’s all good man!”

Alix glared at him, but Nathaniel just sighed.

“I’m... Sorry Lila.”

She smiled her condescending smile once again, that Nathaniel was beginning to realize was the one she always gave to Marinette.

“I accept your apology.”

And everyone started to go back to their seats.

Nathaniel didn’t missed the way Marinette opened her mouth again, but stopped when Adrien touched her arm with his hand. He whispered something to her and shook his head. Alix noticed this too.

She looked angry, and gave him a look of disgust before she subtly tore her arm away from his. He looked sad, but retreated back to his seat anyway. Marinette looked back at Nathaniel and Alix, to see them already looking at her.

She gave them a sad smile and looked to her desk, to see Lila already seated there. She let out a quiet sigh, and made her way to the back of the classroom.

“Hey Marinette?” Nathaniel asked quietly. She looked between him and Alix, who was toeing the floor.

“Do you want to sit in the back with us?” She was about to ask why Alix would sit at the back when she saw her bookbag in her hand.

She smiled at them and nodded. They made their way to the back, not noticing Adrien’s frown of sadness or Lila’s frown of annoyance.

She didn’t like reminding them of her ‘lying disease’. It might give them a reason to not totally believe her,though it was a great skeleton key to get her out of any situation because of her lies.

She turned back around in her seat, plotting her next move for the two new people that joined her exiled list.

Oh well, looks like she’d be adjusting her plans to fit two more.

What she didn’t know, was that there was another person that was beginning to catch on to all of her little lies. He just had to catalog them all on his phone first, before bringing the evidence to light.

Tag List:

@bean2342 @chris-pixie @pirats-pizzacanninibles @multifacetedfangirl @might-as-well-happen @legallyspawned @firesong323 @kuroko26 @runestarchild @mariae2900 @laadychat

#Rose Painted Glasses #lila salt #lila rossi #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #max kante #alix kubdel #nathaniel kurtzberg #rose lavillant #juleka couffaine #ivan bruel #le chien kim #lila reveal in progress

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indomies · 4 years ago

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#showyourprocess

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES - When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag up to 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours.

sabrina @lanwangiji tagged me to show how i made my zayn’s birthday edit! check out her explanation on this mesmerizing zayn’s edit

1. PLANNING

It’s Zayn’s birthday, I ought to make something because so far I have made birthday posts for Louis, Niall and Liam. I didn’t participate in his birthday challenge so I had more time to create something for his birthday. I saw this post by @spaceniall and instantly fell in love with it. It's so clean, so neat, an amazing edit. I had that post tagged for inspo and because my Louis’s birthday edit was a bit “grand”, I thought I should make something simple.

I went to look for some photos of Zayn everywhere. Literally e v e r y w h e r e. I saved every photo I found beautiful and there were a LOT. I asked my friends for adjectives that describe Louis best and added them on my Louis’s birthday post, and I followed that approach for this edit. I asked several friends what they think of Zayn and collected the adjectives.

This was a time where I haven’t used trello board, so I put all the adjectives in a google doc. Seriously I swear by trello board, they make my life easier.

After I had all the photos and the adjectives, I went to pinterest to look for the color palette. I forgot how and why I came up with this color scheme, but I believed I wanted something pastel and muted color.

I had this idea to make an evergreen birthday post. I didn’t want to state any “happy birthday zayn” or his age on the graphic. I didn’t want to make all the edits to have his face because I wanted to showcase my graphics and typography style lmao. So I came up with 2 pictures with Zayn’s face and one central picture with his name. And I’m obsessed with space stuffs so this birthday edit is space themed.

2. PROCESSING

This is one of my earliest edits that I made in Illustrator, though I used Photoshop as well.

2.1 REMOVING PICTURES BACKGROUND

Remember I saved a LOT of Zayn’s photos? Yeah? Well I had a hard time choosing the right one. I asked Sabrina to help lmao. After I agreed with myself which photos I would use, I opened Photoshop and prayed it won’t crash after 5 min.

I uploaded the 2 photos and then I used selection on Zayn and then clicked inverse and deleted the background. Recently I found this website who can delete your background in 1 min, tbh that’s a life saver. I recommend using them, if you hate removing backgrounds with Photoshop.

I saved the backgroundless Zayn’s photos as png. And we’re moving on to the next step

2.2 THE TYPOGRAPHY

I only used Photoshop to remove the backgrounds. Now onto Illustrator. Always pray it won’t close by itself every 5 min.

I don’t really remember which dimension I used, but I suspect it’s 600x700 px. I made 3 artboards and loaded the color palette I found from Pinterest. I made 3 rectangles as the backgrounds for each picture and filled them with my desired colors, 2 pink and 1 green. Green being the standalone was put in the middle.

A bit of excursion based on my experience

When you open an artboard in Illustrator, you’ll see a white background. When you save the file you’ve worked on, it’ll actually be transparent. That’s why I always draw a rectangle as a background so it has a solid color.

I focused on ZAYN (middle pic) first because I wanted that to be the main focus. I don’t remember the font I used and I already deleted all files. I followed this tutorial to make the text. Basically you write your text first and choose effect > 3d > extrude and bevel > isometric top. Changed the colors according to my color palette.

I moved on to the first picture, Zayn and the adjectives. I uploaded his photo to the artboard and put it in the middle. I wanted the adjectives to encircle him. I just followed this tutorial on how to make the effect. I made that text effect because that reminded me of the saturn ring lmao.

2.3 THE GRAPHIC DETAILS

Once I got the typography done, I made stars and moon to make the edits merrier and more space themed.

For the stars you can follow this tutorials. For the moon I made 2 circles, one of them was bigger. I put the smaller one in front and click minus front (I think). For the saturn planet, I made a circle with filling and an oval with stroke only, putting the oval infront of the circle and delete the back part of the ring (I hope this makes sense).

I have these lines around Zayn, my intention was to make Zayn pop and kind of crown him or give him a glowy effect sort-of.

All I did was follow this tutorial and delete the lines at the top, because I didn’t want it to be too crowded. Then I put some stars and planets at the top to balance it.

2.4 FINISHING TOUCHES & EXPORTING

I rearranged some things, zoomed out the artboard so I could see everything as one post and picked and deleted some unwanted things. After I was satisfied, I added my watermark and it was my old url, I just typed louistomlinboo. (Now I made a logo-ish and use that as my watermark and the logo is not dependent on my url)

Ok I lied I used Photoshop again… so I had these adjectives in 2.1 that encircled him right but some parts of the texts are above him. I exported my Illustrator file as a psd, uploaded it on Photoshop and used layer mask magic to delete the texts that were above him to create an illusion that the texts went around and under him you know. See the picture below, some texts are beneath him.

For this picture I exported the png file from Photoshop, the rest directly from Illustrator.

This was when I learned I needed to scale up, because on Illustrator they all look good in terms of quality. But when I posted it, the quality was reduced. That time I just exported as big as the dimensions and I was disappointed with the quality when it’s on tumblr.

3. POSTING

I uploaded the 3 pictures I have on tumblr and chose “happy birthday zayn” with star symbols/emojis to keep up with the space theme.

So I always write out what my caption will be with the “rich text” option.

Then I go to this color html website to add the gradient color in the caption and remove the “;” with “ “ in here. Once I have everything, I change rich text to html so I can put the text with color in html mode.

Put some tags related to Zayn. (self promotion time lol. i have compiled tags for 1d creators check them out here)

I finished I think a week earlier before Zayn's birthday so I saved it on draft. I posted around midnight (my timezone is CET), because oh boy it is a competition with birthday post lmao. That’s what I feel like at least. You know, everyone wants to make a birthday post, I feel I have a better chance If I post something first. Whenever I have something done earlier before a certain due date, I either save it on draft or schedule it so it’ll be posted automatically.

Yeah that’s it! It’s not as detailed as before I think because the files are deleted sorry!

i’m tagging:

@spaceniall for this wonderful niall’s birthday edit

@she-fearlesss for this magnificent louis’s birthday gifset

@finewalls for this mesmerizing animation

@louitomlinson (i know you’re not that active but if you want and can!) for this amazing edit

and @tomlinsun for this cool edit

#showyourprocess #bacotan belle

21 notes · View notes

welcometocaritas · 5 years ago

Text

‘if you love me, don’t let go...’

First chapter of my yumagna fic is out ladies and gentlebabies!

Chapter: 1/6

Characters: Yumiko & Magna

Pairing: Yumagna

Fandom: The Walking Dead

Format: Multi-Chap

Summary: At some point, you just have to let go - or so Yumiko keeps telling herself.There was never any letting go of Magna.

Links: A03, FF.NET

[watermark is from my instagram yumagnas.home don’t worry i didn’t steal the pic ;)]

A/N:

[The rape/non-con is there for Magna's cousin and it will only ever be in references I will not be writing anything detailed about it because I don't want to trigger anyone and this isn't the story for writing about something like that as I would not be able to give it the time and attention it deserves]

Small note: Magna's cousin is called Maisie in this and I've also given her a brother called Morgan.

y'all are going to hate me because yes, this is going to be over 20000 words about a single night. And probably not even the whole night. but there's also flashbacks so it's OK? In my defense, we've gotten very few conversations with these two so there was a lot to talk about. I can't be held responsible for my actions. blame the writers.

I’m honestly a little worried that I’m going to bore people to tears because there’s really no plot. It’s just yumagna being soft and finally sorting out their shit.

I'm also working on a short oneshot - for real this time it's actually going to be short - that's set in the indeterminate future after this. It's basically just going to be pure fluff which you should knew is unheard of - I never write fluff. So hopefully it's not terrible.

There be angst here, lots of angst, but also comfort - if you’re familiar with my writing that won’t be a surprise to you.

I don’t have much hope for canon so I decided to do what I could to fix the mess they made.

I normally wouldn’t reveal anything that’s going to happen in a fic but y’all have been tortured enough already so just know I will absolutely be getting these girls back together, it won’t take more than a night, but it will take about 20000 words. Most of the story is written out already I’m just doing post-edits so I’ll update daily :)

If things seem a little disjointed it’s because I wrote everything out of order and it’s been a bit of a struggle to get everything to fit into place. I also haven’t slept more than 1-4 hours a night for the past three weeks, have been getting constant migraines and blood sugar crashes so I’m gonna apologize right now if there are any mistakes. I’m super sorry.

This is for the yumagna fandom cos I wanted y'all to have something nice with everything that's going on. I would also like to give a special thanks to Abbey and Mina who acted as my sounding board throughout this whole thing and were very patient with me - love you guys :)

....

"If you love me, don't let go

Hold

Hold on

Hold on to me

'Cause I'm a little unsteady

A little unsteady . . . "

- Unsteady by X Ambassadors

. . .

Nightmares had always been an issue, though less so in recent years. Magna had gotten almost gotten used to having a full night's sleep, barring the occasional pillow snatch. Back before all this started, she'd been on medication for PTSD, but well, it was kind of hard to fill a prescription in the middle of the apocalypse - and, well, the apocalypse had only added to the previous need for said medication. At least she was in good company. These days, it was more of a surprise if someone wasn't experiencing some form of post-traumatic stress, and that was a somewhat odd reality to wake up in, day after day. For years, this thing had set her apart but now? Now it just made her like everyone else.

Miko had nightmares too.

It was what had led to them sharing a 'bed' in the first place, way before things between them moved beyond the confines of friendship. They'd fallen asleep by the fire one particularly cold night, curled around each other for warmth, and they hadn't awoken until morning.

It had been something of a revelation.

On Magna's end, she suspected it had had a lot to do with trust. She'd trusted Miko not to shove a shiv into her side or try to cop a feel whilst she slept, trusted her even more to have her back if things went south during the night. She'd been . . . safe. Magna wasn't used to people being safe - she wasn't quite sure what she offered Miko in return, though; maybe the same thing.

Of course, in many ways Yumiko wasn't safe. There was nothing safe about the way Magna felt about her. Or the way those feelings seemed to be returned. She knew Miko had had a girlfriend in college who cheated - and when the other woman had told her that, a vindictive part of her had hoped the bitch had been one of the many, many people to meet their end by sicko teeth. Miko had smacked her on the arm for that comment, exasperation tempered by fondness and reluctant amusement.

She'd realized in her time away, that this past hurt would have only sharpened Magna's betrayal. Trust was important to Miko - hell, it was important to Magna - and she had broken hers by lying, lying for years. She hadn't thought of it that way when she'd been doing it. The secret had weighed on her, yes, but she'd been viewing it from a place of hadn't really considered how it would hurt Miko, only what it would do to their relationship if it had ever come out, what it would do to her.

That, more than anything, had made her realize that Miko had been right to kick her out. More than right.

Which is why she could hardly believe that they were here now. That Miko was letting her head rest in her lap, that she had invited her to do so. Sitting back against a tree and patting her thigh with a small smile her way when Magna had gone to settle a short distance off. The way she had nearly fallen over herself to accept that invitation was almost embarrassing but she couldn't bring herself to feel self-conscious about it, or to second guess the action. They'd done this as friends too and she was glad it wasn't something she had sacrificed with their relationship.

She'd been attracted to Yumiko from the moment they met. It was hard not to be. She wasn't blind - hot lawyer lady in a suit, how could she not notice her in that way? The woman had entered into her dilapidated life with a sureness and determination that was hard to dismiss. Intelligent, strong, and fighting for her.

No one had ever fought for Magna. Not until Miko.

(really, she'd been screwed from the start)

Of course, the person Yumiko was fighting for was little more than an illusion. If Miko had only known the truth then . . .

She probably would have dropped her like a hot potato, just like everybody else. She probably would have been wise to.

Or maybe she wasn't giving Miko enough credit. After all, she was still here now. Carding her hand through Magna's hair in a soothing motion as she pretended to sleep - and Miko pretended to believe her. She knew the truth now, and still she kept close. Maybe they weren't together anymore but that had been as much Magna's choice as Miko's. She couldn't let herself get to that place again, where she was so terrified of losing something, she ended up destroying it.

And God, Magna was so tired, so tired of being afraid, so tired of being angry.

Just so tired.

('I can't do this anymore.')

She needed a distance between them, even if she didn't want it. Romantic relationships had a tendency to blow up in her face. But friendships . . . well, they tended to be more reliable. After all, she had been friends with Miko for years and things only turned sour after they had crossed over the safety of that border into something more.

(things turned sour because you couldn't stand keeping it a secret from her anymore. The same thing would have happened if you'd still been only friends)

She shifted uncomfortably, remembering at the last second that she was supposed to be asleep. But Miko only stilled a moment before continuing with her motions, allowing the deception to maintain itself.

The relief passed her lips in a shaky exhale.

Magna couldn't bring herself to talk anymore. She was drained - both emotionally and physically - and the thought of pulling any more words out almost made her cry from exhaustion. And Miko seemed to sense that, almost as soon as Magna had first fallen silent. But then, she'd always been good at reading her.

She was observant. Like Connie.

Squeezing her eyes shut tighter, she immediately regretted the action. In the darkness, all she saw was her friend's face, disappearing into the crowd of sickos, possibly never to be seen again. Of course, Magna hadn't seen that at all. She'd kept her gaze ahead, too wary to look around and give away the disguise, but she had felt Connie's hand slip from hers, the ache of the empty space it left behind. Her imagination filled in the blanks now, even adding in a few colorful extras - wide eyes, a silent scream, falling beneath the weight of too many bodies, torn apart. Gone.

So many people were just . . . gone.

"Do you think she survived?" The words hung in the night air; foreign, distant. Magna blinked, unsure if they'd really come from her. She couldn't remember opening her mouth. But her tongue felt thick and heavy, her lips cracked, she could taste the metallic hint of blood caused by the effort.

Miko paused. Just a second, her fingers tangling in Magna's hair a little too tight, almost painful, then a breath, and she returned to smoothing it back. "You did."

"Barely. I was lucky."

"And there's no reason she won't be, too. Connie's smart, strong. She could make it."

Magna could think of a hundred reasons. A thousand.

Her stomach turned and she closed her eyes, opening them in a snap when Connie's face answered her. She trembled. "I should have stopped. I should have looked for her."

Miko didn't hesitate. "Then you'd be dead. Might even have gotten her killed as well. All for nothing."

At least, I wouldn 't be feeling like this.

Magna opened her mouth to argue but found that she didn't have the strength. She closed her eyes again, inhaling the scent of the woods, of the leaves and dirt beneath their bodies, of Miko. Especially Miko. "What the hell am I going to say to Kelly?"

If she wasn't dead.

What if they were the only ones left? Her and Miko. Bernie gone. Connie gone. Kelly gone. Luke gone. She'd failed to protect them. All of them.

And she'd thought she'd cried enough tears but her eyes burned and she rubbed at them fiercely, like there was dirt, like if she could just get it out the fire would vanish and she wouldn't crumble to ashes in its grip.

And there was Miko's voice, all at once gentle and firm, pulling her back. "She won't blame you. She knows you. You've always fought hard for us. As hard as you can. This just wasn't a situation in which you could."

Magna nearly scoffed.

No, she could have fought. But she'd gotten scared. She'd hesitated. She hated being fucking scared (small and shaking, hugging Morgan to her chest as Daddy's voice got loud, so loud, why was it so loud?). It was such a useless emotion. And now it had probably gotten Connie killed.

Miko tugged at her hair slightly, gentle but scolding. "Seriously, Magna. You couldn't have done anything. If anyone should be feeling guilty it's me."

Frowning, she turned her head in her grip to look up, a strand of hair snagged but she didn't mind the pain. "What are you talking about?"

But Miko shook her head, refusing to meet her gaze as she focused on raking her hands through Magna's hair, avoiding the knots with an ease born of years of practice. "I should have been there with you. I shouldn't have stayed behind that day."

And then you might be dead, too. Magna shuddered at the thought. Her worst fear, worse than Miko choosing to leave her, being taken from her. Forever.

And it wasn't even a what-if situation. It felt inevitable. This was the apocalypse: their expiration dates were always inching closer.

"I'm glad you did." Even though Magna couldn't see her face, she sensed her hurt, felt the flinch of her hand. "I couldn't lose you. Not like that."

Giving up on getting Miko to look at her, she settled back in her lap but kept her eyes open.

Yumiko's voice was caustic when she responded, fragile and harsh all at once. "I thought I lost you." The hand resumed its stroking, stiffer now, almost angry. "At least if I had been there I could have helped, and I would have known. I would have known if you were okay."

Not if you got out with Kelly.

But, no, Miko wouldn't have left them, wouldn't have left her. She would have seen her double back with Connie and gone after her too - like Magna, she was always watching. Maybe she would even have noticed and gone after Connie first - she was equally as protective of their group - and then Magna would have been the one left behind, to wonder, to fear.

Thinking about it, that probably would have driven her to punch Carol, too. Though her fuse had always been a lot shorter than Miko's.

Now, she snorted at the sudden memory. "I can't believe you punched Carol. I've never seen you like that." In a way, it had scared her. She was so used to Miko being the calm one, forever in control. She was the one who reined Magna in.

Okay, it had also been kind of hot. Even half-dead on her feet, she couldn't fail to notice that.

"To be honest, neither can I." There was a wry note to the older woman's tone, and Magna wondered if she was smiling, almost risked looking up again to find out. "I don't regret it, if that's what you're wondering."

"Not like you to kick a dog when it's down."

"Not like you to be so forgiving."

She scoffed. "I'm not. Connie's gone. Probably dead and she-" Magna swallowed, collecting herself. "I'm not forgiving. I just don't have the energy to be angry anymore."

"Well that's definitely not like you." Miko teased, hesitating for a moment before severity bled back into her tone. "Are you going to be okay?"

She closed her eyes, sighed. Why was she so good? "You don't have to worry about me, Miko."

Scoff. "Another lie. I found a grey hair the other day, thanks to you."

"Oh and it couldn't have possibly been the literal end of days that we're stuck in?"

"Have you met you?" Another tug at her hair, this time playful and, for a moment, Magna could breathe easier. "Seriously, though, are you going to be okay?"

For a moment.

She shifted, hair pulling painfully but that was almost welcome. "I'll be fine. I'll be a lot better once we find Kelly and Luke."

"And Connie."

"And Connie." She wished she could feel more hopeful on that front. Miko squeezed her shoulder and she relaxed slightly, trying to push the dark thoughts away for now. There'd been too many of them tonight already. There were always too many. But just for tonight she wanted to escape them, to hide away in Miko's lap and absorb every touch, every smell, every word . . . that she had come so close to never experiencing again.

. . .

"How can you lose me? You've owned me from the first moment I saw you."

― Dianna Hardy, Cry Of The Wolf

. . .

The full gravity of the world ending fell upon Yumiko within a matter of hours, there'd been no time to trivialize or hope. Right from the start, she'd felt the impact.

Her mother had been a doctor in the old world and she'd been working a shift at the hospital when the outbreak hit the city and surrounding areas. Yumiko's stomach still turned at the memory of calling her up from the safety of Magna's apartment, her eyes trained on the insanity playing out across every news station, her heart pounding as she pleaded, pleaded for the other woman to pick up, to be alright, to-

But the phone had rung and rung. One, two, twelve phone calls later and nothing.

----

Unable to sit and wait any longer, Yumiko swiped her abandoned keys off the table and marched towards the door, ready to drive over there right that second and make her mother okay. She was smart, her mother was smart, and resourceful, and she'd never stopped practicing krav maga - and Yumiko would definitely come to regret refusing all those classes the woman had tried to get her to enroll in growing up but she 'd been focused on her books and her studies and all her dreams for a future that fighting never entered into-

Her mother would be fine .

But a hand grabbed hers - strong, nails almost biting into her skin - and pulled her back. "You can't go out there."

Magna.

At some point, she 'd forgotten the other woman was even there, just whose home she stood barricaded within.

"I have to get to the hospital, my mother she-"

"Yumiko, you saw the news - hell, you just almost got your face bitten off by one of those sickos - the world's fucking lost it. " Her face took on an expression of incredulity. "And you want to go to the fucking hospital? No, no way."

Yumiko clenched her jaw, trying not to snap. "She's my mother. I need to make sure she's okay."

"I know, OK? Trust me I get it but . . ." she took a breath, frustrated and Yumiko could detect an air of desperation in the way she closed her eyes, pressed her lips together. "But you just, you can't, okay? They said that part of the city is already overrun and it's a hospital . The amount of people in there, dying people . . . it's a death trap."

Yumiko looked away, knowing she was right but unwilling to face it. It was her mother .

For a spiteful moment, she wondered whether Magna really did 'get it'. As far as she knew, the other woman hadn't visited her own mother since she was a child. Yumiko didn't even know if she was still alive - or if Magna knew for that matter.

"Look, I . . . " Magna shook her head. "If I thought that it could work, that we'd be able to help, hell even be able to get in there, I would drive you myself."

"You don't have a license." She wasn 't sure why she said it, why out of all the things Magna was saying, that had stuck out the most. But it was the only thing she had the means to protest.

Magna huffed. "Fine, I'd let you drive but that-that's not the point. Miko, we don't even know how to kill these things. I stabbed that guy in the neck and he barely even flinched. The dead are eating people, I can't . . ." She shook her head, lost for words. "I can't protect you from that."

Yumiko cursed the way those words made her stomach flip - not the time. Her phone felt heavy in her pocket, useless, and her mind was a violent hellscape, tossing up image after image of all the situations that could be keeping her mother from answering but . . .

Fuck it.

She was right.

The world shook for a moment, shaky legs almost falling out from under her as she allowed herself to sink down onto the floor, hiding her head in her hands. She was right . The darkness made everything still and she could imagine for a moment that this wasn't really happening, that it was just some big nightmare, that-

People were fucking eating people, for god's sakes. Dead people. How could this be real?

There was a pause, the sound of shuffling, and she felt a stiff form settle down beside her. Hesitantly, an arm came around her, too lose, too distant, but there. "I'm sorry."

Yumiko shook her head, forgetting entirely Magna's discomfort when it came to any kind of physical intimacy - hell, any kind of intimacy in general - and allowed herself to collapse. Falling into her, she buried her head in the other woman's chest, hands coming up to latch onto the fabric of her shirt, desperate for something, anything to hold onto.

Magna flinched and her body became like a rock, rebelling at every place of contact between them.

Remembering herself, Yumiko moved to withdraw, "Shit, sorry, I-" but the arm around her tightened, keeping her in place. Slowly, she felt the muscles against her force themselves to relax as that arm found a surer purchase, pulling her closer. After a moment, she felt the slight weight of a chin coming to rest on her head, a hand coming up to find one of hers. Disentangling Yumiko 's almost rabid hold, they wrapped around her and squeezed, held tight and this-

This was better.

"Stay."

She did.

. . .

"I am your friend. a soul for your soul. a place for your life. home. know this. sun or water. here or away. we are a lighthouse. we leave. and we stay."

― Nayyirah Waheed

. . .

Magna knew that Miko's upbringing had been a fair bit more stable than hers. Parents divorced at nine, yes, but that was terribly common wasn't it? (and neither of them had tried to shoot the other.) She'd graduated at the top of her class, whilst Magna had been kicked out of three schools for fighting before her aunt and uncle had given up and stopped sending her. It wasn't a huge loss. The only classes she'd been doing well in were art and P.E. And whilst she had missed those it was a relief to get away from the taunting students and judgmental teachers.

Considering her criminal record that kept her from working at anything other than a seedy truck stop with its overly handsy customers, that had probably worked out for the best. Good grades wouldn't have been of any help to her by then.

She still laughed sometimes at the memory of Miko popping by on her shifts, how out of place she'd looked, sitting on a rickety stool behind the counter whilst Magna tended customers, still dressed in a suit from work that never seemed to wrinkle.

The pair of them had garnered more than a few looks.

But Miko had been at ease with it, picking at her fries - the only food on the menu that would probably pass a health inspection - making small talk, interjecting with the occasional complaint about Jerry, the company vulture, who kept trying to steal her clients. Magna had been confused by the attention, wary even. She'd wondered if the lawyer checked up on all her former clients like this, or if she was just a special case. She hadn't asked - she hadn't wanted to know the answer, to face the inevitable 'yes'.

A part of her had wanted to scare her off, had hated the way she got instantly on edge as soon as she saw Miko's form enter in the door, the way she felt even worse when she watched her leave out it. But another, more secret part, had been starved for company; the kind that didn't make her want to punch someone, anyway. So she'd held her tongue, and slowly let down her defenses.

Until one night, a trucker had gone to bite a chunk out of Miko's face.

It had been her turn to work the truck stop diner connected to the store, and Yumiko had been leaning against the counter, nursing a cup of too-sweet hot chocolate and conversing with her between customers. She'd just glanced down at her phone after hearing a ping and Magna had looked up at the sound, glimpsed the man lumbering closer, closer - too close.

She'd never been so glad of the quick reflexes life had beaten into her, because in that moment she hadn't needed to think. She'd shoved Miko back, a little too forcefully since she ended up hitting the ground with a smack that made Magna wince - but it was enough.

Her hand had been grabbing the knife from beneath the bench before she even registered, her arm jolting with the shock of sinking it into flesh that gave way too easily as she leapt across the counter, blood spattering against her face in a terrible sort of deja vu, her stomach turning - fuck fuck fuck - but he didn't fall, didn't scream; and then she'd grabbed Miko, tugged her up and ran, ears howling with the sound of all hell breaking loose around them. The police sirens in her head hadn't been real, she'd known they weren't, they couldn't be, not this soon, but her heart pounded in her chest from more than just adrenaline and fuck-

She'd done it again.

And just when she was finally starting to get used to freedom.

She hadn't realized until later that night, hauled up in her apartment - it had been closest and neither of them had really wanted to be alone after that - and watching the actual End of Days unfold on international television, that it had been the first time they'd touched. Magna had always kept a certain level of distance and Miko had never tried to cross it. Not until later that night, when Magna had reached out to stop her from leaving, when she'd collapsed into her arms with an ease that made Magna want to run out the door instead . . . and later when Miko grabbed her hand as she was heading to bed. It was just a moment, just a brief squeeze accompanied by a weak but grateful smile - but Magna had felt her heart try to escape her chest at that smile, at that touch . . .

It had just been a push. Barely anything compared to getting someone out of jail at least twelve years - though more likely an entire lifetime - earlier than expected. Especially when she still hadn't known that the person she'd been fighting so hard to free wasn't nearly as innocent as she'd assumed.

Somehow, the most surprising event of the night, was that Magna hadn't minded the touch, hadn't pulled away. More shocking, she'd missed it when it was gone; had felt empty each time Miko left her grasp, yearning to reach out and-

And that was when Magna had known she was screwed.

Miko told her that she'd known the same thing sometime around the third day of planning their trial strategy.

Thirteen years later and they were still pretty screwed.

. . .

"I've spent much too long in the space between staying and letting go."

- Perry Poetry

. . .

A/N: So this story has turned out to be a lot more Magna-centric then intended and that's not because I love Yumiko any less, I just find it easier to get inside the heads of characters like Magna. I'm used to writing somewhat dysfunctional people with more than a bit of trauma (probably cos I have a bit of trauma of my own lol). You know, the loveable walking disasters of the world. She might come off a bit ooc in this and that's partly because I'm still familiarizing myself with writing her and because she's a tad bit fragile after everything that's happened, which i think we all saw in last episode - Miko is also feeling pretty fragile for the same reason. Speaking of which. What. The. Fuck. It makes zero sense to me that these two would make up but still not get back together and I'm gonna sue the writers for torture if this keeps going on. So I had to write a fix-it fic. And I also felt like there was a lot these two still needed to talk about that I'm not entirely confident the show will ever address so voila a fic was made.

Also, just gonna note going forth that Magna’s own feelings about herself aren’t necessarily a reflection of my own feelings about her character. Girl’s got some insecurities to sort through. Likewise, her judgments - good and bad - about Yumiko aren’t necessarily true, either, for the same reason. It’s one of the causes for conflict in their relationship.

So there are probably two ways to look at how these two might have noticed they had feelings for each other: a) these two idiots have been in love for 13 years and were both too chicken and oblivious to do do anything about it, or b) their love developed slowly from the bonds of friendship over a very long time. I like both options but I decided to go with the former for this fic.

The series titles is from the song You by Keaton Henson. If you're familiar with the song - my Lost Girl buddies will be - don't worry nobody is going to die! that line just really fits them so much, and it's also about accepting the fact that you might lose the one you love but that doesn't mean you should be afraid of loving them or living your life.

. . .

OK, just gonna do a little shameless self-promotion, hope you don't mind :)

I made a yumagna vid so if you haven't seen it already and you're interested it's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grzrpr0QZEE (I'm gonna do more so if you want to stay in the loop subscribe to my youtube channel. I'll probs end up doing a short one for Unsteady because of this fic but I'm holding out till we get a yumagna hug)

I have an insta for yumagna called @yumagnas.home . my multifandom one is @bonnielextra (lots of awesome women that i make edits for just fyi) and my personal one is @cissyalice. Hit me up so I can follow some more yumagna stans!

My twitter is @bonnielextra and @welcometocaritas (for my edits). Currently just a lot of crying about yumagna on the first one.

And my tumblr is welcometocaritas. Obviously no pressure to look at any of these but I just thought I'd put them in just case :)

#yumagna #magniko #the walking dead #nadia hilker #eleanor matsuura #yumagna edit #yumagna fanfic #magna twd #yumiko #yumiko twd #mypost #My posts #myfic #my fic #my edit #myedit

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ginnyzero · 5 years ago

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Completely Harmless Ch. 7

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

When Lily and her friends wanted to buy horses and were directed to the Silverglade Manor and its myriad of problems, they didn’t expect to start a revolution. They were just a bunch a stable girls. Completely harmless. Right?

A/N: Things are only canon if I say they’re canon. Pre-Saving the Moorland Stables compliant for the most part. Posted in its entirety on my website. Posted in 2000 to 4000 word bits here. Rated T for Swearing Word Count 177,577

Chapter Seven Meeting Agnetha and Bjorn

“Well girls, the stables are clean,” Regina said. “We’re on our way to getting G.E.D. out of the fields. Now what?”

“We might have gardeners showing up this afternoon,” Lily said.

“And, the gardens are currently a fire hazard,” Pauline murmured as she texted their new name to Linn.

“Heavy gloves,” Jennifer said firmly.

“I think there are some clippers and hoes and such in the hay dryer. That should also be in the tack room,” Tyra cracked her neck.

“Let’s go girls,” Lily said.

Brittany started to hum an older but still popular country song.

“I only want to have a good time. The best thing about being a woman is the prerogative to have a little fun,” she sang.

Those who knew it joined it. “Oh, oh, oh, give them a lady…”

Linda burst into giggles.

“Man, I feel like a woman,” Lily said as she did a little dance step.

They went to the hay dryer and Tyra handed out equipment and they tugged on heavy gloves. They split into two teams each taking one side of the gate and started by clipping the weeds. Lily kept her eye on the gates just in case Iris’ gardener friends started appearing.

Seeing that the girls were working on the gardens, the gardeners approached them. Some were incensed that the girls were weeding. As if the girls were going to start planting flowers next without any supervision. Others had grand plans that had nothing at all to do with the space or what the Baroness might like.

Lily scratched those types right out of consideration.

Late in the afternoon, a pair of gardeners showed up. One was a rather pleasant fellow with a beard, straw hat and a flower dangling out of his mouth. He looked around the place with consideration. The other was a hard faced woman who looked over the space imperiously. Seeing the girls pulling the weeds into piles. She marched over.

“Hard workers, I like that,” she said and put her hands on her hips. “Can’t really get a sense of the space with all these weeds in the way. Now, who is in charge here?”

“Well, that would be the Baroness,” Lily said slowly.

“Linda is the stable manager,” Regina said. “Judy is the stable master.”

“We’re a bunch of stable girls,” Lily said.

The man came over. “Agnetha,” he chided gently. “Stop bothering these poor girls. They’re working.”

Agnetha huffed.

The man smiled. “I’m Bjorn,” he said in a friendly manner. “My wife, Agnetha, and I have done a lot of research about the Silverglade Manor gardens and their history. When our good friend Iris said that the manor was in need of some care and attention,” he trailed off.

Lily leaned against her hoe. “Well,” she gestured. “As you can see, it’s gone a bit to seed. You’re more than welcome to look around.”

Pauline stripped off her gloves. “I’m local,” she said. “And I know these terraces like the back of my hand. I can give you a tour if you like.”

“Do you have any ideas?” Theresa asked.

Agnetha sniffed. “Not until I see what we’ve got to work with and if I could get my hands on some of the old layouts from the former gardens. I’d like to restore and update rather than start from scratch.”

“They might be in the library,” Pauline said. “We can ask Linda. She knows where everything is in the library.”

“Do you ride?” Tyra asked. “It would be easier to show you if you can ride. Big gardens are… big,” she smiled weakly.

“We can try.” Agnetha said. “Never been much for horses,” she mumbled.

“We’ll be right here with you,” Lily said. “Wait here.”

“We’ll keep at it,” Theresa said.

“And abscond with a person from the other side. Keep the teams even,” Elsa wrinkled her nose.

Lily and Pauline giggled. They jogged off and returned with their horses and gentle horses for Bjorn and Agnetha.

Pauline led the tour skirting around the empty reflecting pool that had lots of leaves and dirt in it.

“We better shovel that out next,” Lily said and texted it to Grace to add to their list of things to do.

Agnetha nodded.

“So, the gardens are a bunch of terraces that wind back and forth all the way down to the Riding Arena,” Pauline said. “They all have irrigation pipes. Not the big ones like the grape fields above the ground, but smaller ones. But everything is broken. You can take the main road down to the Riding Arena that skirts the mountain and the gardens or you can take the winding path through the gardens that ends on the opposite side near the gate for the Golden Hills.”

Agnetha nodded.

Bjorn made passing comments about what the different areas of the garden used to be according to their research.

A chipmunk darted across their path holding some seeds in his cheeks and with distinctive stripes down his back.

Pauline winced. “As you can see, we have a chipmunk infestation.”

“It looks like there is a lot of work to be done,” Bjorn said.

“Roses,” Agnetha said shortly. “Lots of roses. Lilacs. Purple fountain grass. Maybe some white cloud grass or white pampas.”

“The Baroness we know likes purple,” Bjorn grinned. “It’s the official color of the family because of their access to red grapes to get it for dye.”

“The tannins,” Agnetha waved a hand.

“So, they could make purple dye too?” Lily asked.

“Birch makes an excellent reddish brown dye,” Bjorn nodded. “That’s how they added more red to the purple to get the lovely mulberries.”

“Ohhh,” Lily said. “Makes sense to use their natural resources around them.”

“Allium,” Agnetha murmured. “Glads are too much work if we’re doing roses. Foxgloves,” she nodded. “Definitely want a wild folly type feeling back here through the back. Lupines. Lisianthus, white and purple in one flower. Maybe Clematis to hide the corners. It’s a climber.”

Bjorn just looked fond.

“Lily of the Valley for the shady spaces. Vinca, they’re showy. The frost is long past so Queen Anne’s Lace won’t go amiss. Wild feeling again. Foam flowers for the shady areas near the clematis. But mostly, we’re going to want roses. Lots and lots of roses, they’re enough types for height and ground cover. Just want to break them up a bit back here.”

“You’re the expert,” Lily murmured.

They ended up near the riding arena close to the Iron Gate that lead to Golden Hills. Agnetha nodded her head. “I’ve got the feel for it.”

They escorted them back to the Manor by taking the road. Linda met them and so while Pauline and Lily went to take care of the horses, Linda led Agnetha and Bjorn to the library where she’d already laid out a bunch of books and blueprints of the gardens.

“You’re the first ones to ask in an age,” Linda said apologetically. “I hope that this is useful.”

“You’ve given us more than we could have hoped for,” Bjorn said with a smile.

“The gardens are well documented at least here in the Manor library,” Linda nudged her glasses. “If you have any questions or need more sources, please come find me.”

They both nodded but were already engrossed in the papers.

Linda left them there.

By the time the girls left to go back to Moorland that night, there were big piles of weeds and bracken that they didn’t know precisely what to do with in the garden spaces. (Tyra thought they should compost it somehow.) Their limbs were also quite sore. But they were hopeful.

What they didn’t know was that evening, Baroness Annabella Silverglade decided to inspect her stables and gardens to see what needed to be done herself.

And she was very impressed with what she saw of the work that had been done.

Very impressed indeed.

FOR THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE MY WATERMARK AND CONTACT INFORMATION. THANK YOU. I get it. Some of you might get excited and want to see this stuff in the game, especially the clothes, tack, and pets. However, the only way I want to see this in the game is if I get paid for it. If I see it in the game and I’m not paid for it, there will be hell to pay. You think I’m salty. I’d be angry. Personally, I’m not going to send this info to SSO. If you do, leave my contact information there! Don’t give them any excuses to steal.

Now, I’ll know you haven’t read this note if you leave me comments about how ‘salty’ I am about the game and if I hate it so much I should do something else. I am doing something else. It’s called Mystic Riders MMORPG Project. Mystic Riders however is a very baby phase game. You can check out our plans on the game dev blog. (Skills, Factions, Professions, Crafting, Mini-Games, 25+ horse breeds!) If you know anyone who would be interested and has money or contacts about game making, direct them to the blog.

#star stable #star stable online #sso #fanfic #star stable salt #short chapter #completely harmless #jorvik reimagined #silverglade reimagined #many nods to ruth westside #promise to an appendix post soon

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dats-hq · 2 years ago

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What Happened With Digital Opinion Box? (Niche Fandom History Story Time)

Oldheads around here may know that I started this blog to help out @digitalopinionbox, at the request of @rikatastic and @theultimateburst. Back in 2014, there were a lot fewer places to find good video sources online for Digimon, and specifically clean rips of Digimon Savers/Data Squad basically didn’t exist. You could find videos of the Japanese version with subtitles and a timestamp in the corner, or you could find the American version with a Disney Channel logo in the corner. So, they had trouble finding images to accompany confessions that involved Digimon Savers/Data Squad that didn’t look like shit.

Because I owned the Digimon Data Squad DVD boxset, and because I make AMVs, and because I actually give a shit about the quality of those AMVs, I regularly had access to uncompressed video files of Digimon Data Squad. And because I followed Digital Opinion Box while all this was happening, I reached out and offered to make a sideblog that collected screenshots of the uncompressed video files and organized them (not particularly elegantly, I’ll admit) with tags so that the mods of Digital Opinion Box could use it as a resource.

For a while, that’s what happened. You can see a lot of the Data Squad confessions from 8 years ago on Digital Opinion Box use the same frames that I had on my posts. (compare the bottom center image on my post and this post)

Brilliant. Everything is in order.

Fast forward to early 2015. Rikatastic quits Tumblr. When she does, she reaches out to me and asks if I’d like to be the new head mod of Digital Opinion Box. I say yes. She tells me about the way she likes the queue organized, tells me about the font they use, etc. We wish each other a good life and go our seperate ways.

There are other people who post on Digital Opinion Box, however. And despite Rikatastic telling me that I would be the head mod and giving me some advice about managing the other contributors, they are all off on their own doing their own thing. There’s no communication at all. Something that one or possibly multiple other mods start doing that was never discussed is including a watermark on the confessions (see here).

So I wanted to talk. I had an opinion on the watermark that doesn’t really matter. The point was that I wanted us to be consistent. Either whoever made the watermark can send it to everybody so every post can have it, or we stop using the watermark.

Radio silence.

I know they’re online! I can see the queue getting filled by multiple other mods with multiple image editing styles! But nobody is responding to my messages!

We get hate mail about the watermark. I message everyone again, saying that clearly we need to talk about this.

Want to know how I know they got my message? They couldn’t unmod me, but they could delete posts that I added to the queue (which did not feature the watermark) and replace them with their own edits. Which they did, obviously because I was saying shit about the watermark controversy.

At this point I would like to again clarify that I did not care deeply whether or not the posts had watermarks, but the absolutely petty reactions to basic attempts are communication were very annoying to me. I was the “head mod” of one of the most popular Digimon blogs on Tumblr, and I had literally never received a single word of communication from the other staff of the blog.

Eventually I got tired of talking to a wall, and I just left. I have no idea how leadership got shuffled around when I did so, but it seems to have worked out just fine, because the blog still posts semi-regularly. With a new watermark, even. They don’t use screenshots from my blog anymore, though. Different frames, very different transfer quality when the frame is the same. I can tell, just trust me.

Funnily enough, I’m still linked in their web ring. Alongside AR Pulver, for some reason. I don’t think he was ever involved with this. If he was, and he’s reading this now, hi! Big fan!

No hard feelings. Just a sudden urge to share this weird little niche bit of Digimon Tumblr fandom history. As an aside, I post a lot more often nowadays on Twitter (@DigimonSurvive).

#digimon #digital opinion box #digimon confessions #fandom history #tumblr history

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thedeevirus · 7 years ago

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It takes quite a lot to make me angry and I have a keen aversion to any drama. But I saw a post today that, as a content creator, made my blood boil.

It is NOT OKAY to take art/fic that someone worked hard on and poured their heart into then deliberately ruin it out of pure poisonous spite by adding snide comments or large watermarks denouncing the ship all over the art.

You can disagree with a ship without being a petulant, selfish child about it.

You can disagree by: blocking the relevant tags, leaving a RESPECTFUL comment explaining why you disagree, not reading the content that involves it, avoid blogs dedicated to the pairing, etc.

Just to be clear, I’m not about to get drawn into the whole ‘homophobia’ debate currently raging about the Sofiawald ship. There are some very charged opinions on this and it’s not really the focus of my post.

This post is purely to voice my anger at the disrespect being shown to content creators who are creating works for a ship they and others enjoy which some people happen to disagree with.

As said above, you don’t have to support a ship you disagree with. Nobody is asking you to.

But what most people WOULD ask for is a little respect and decency to be allowed to create content for a couple they personally enjoy. Especially since the ship in this case involves two mature adults.

I do not personally support Sofiawald, Grundygma or Freezewald: as anybody can guess I ship Nygmobblepot.

But I am not about to personally insult anybody who does support these other ships, send hateful anons or tear their art/fics to shreds because these are ROTTEN things to do!

Sorry about the rant guys. Just had to get that off my chest.

Back to your usual programming of fics and occasional meta :)

#gotham fandom #i hate bad manners #and people who destroy rather than create #thats all i have to say about it

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engekihaikyuu · 8 years ago

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Sharing Stage/2.5D Content

So there are some things I want to go over about sharing, reposting, and general distribution of content. And while I’m going to talk specifically about Engeki Haikyuu, some of the more general stuff can be applied to most Japanese stage plays, musicals, and general theater.

I wanted to make this post because I’m seeing a lot of frustration in fandom from both content providers and fans and followers butting heads on this issue. First off, we have to acknowledge that there is an undeniable precedent that’s existed in fandom that makes fans feel entitled to all the content all the time, for free. And there is knowledge of the industry that content providers have that I think we’re not communicating frequently enough to help fans understand our positions on these issues.

It’s lengthy, but please take some time to look under the Read More and read about this issue.

There’s a reason why I chose Tumblr as the medium for distribution of Engeki Haikyuu information, translations, scans, gifs, etc… and it’s because there is little-to-no Japanese fandom on this website. Most Japanese fandom is on Twitter and on other Japanese sites like Pixiv and NicoNico, but for the most part, Tumblr is not on their radar. It’s quickly getting to be on the radar for Pixiv artists because of the rampant problem of art-reposting, but by and large, they’re still not ON this website, browsing and using this website, and engaging with fandom on this website. Which is to my benefit because most Japanese fandom would HATE what I am doing.

I want to explain that Western fandom and Japanese fandom operate VERY differently when it comes to the topic of spreading information and official content. For example, there are Japanese artists I follow on Twitter who are now drawing fanart about the stuff they saw in Winners and Losers. Fun stuff about cross-dressing Takato and Shouri, the little gags and ad-lib that changed from night to night, Kageyama in the fish suit… but the thing is, they all waited until AFTER the show was finished touring completely. Out of respect and consideration for the people who could go see the show but hadn’t yet, they all waited until there were no more chances to see it live to post what could be considered ‘spoilers’ for the show.

By contrast in Western fandom, a movie is out in theaters for about 5 hours before I see gif-sets on Tumblr. It’s incredible. It is genuinely difficult to not be spoiled for content when in western fandom because everyone wants to talk about it right away, they want to share information right away, they can’t, they won’t wait until a movie is no longer playing in theaters, etc… the information is out almost instantaneously.

But in Japanese fandom, you have seiyuu events that have afternoon and evening portions, and they almost always release exciting new information or announcements at these events. But the people who go to the afternoon portion of a seiyuu event, say NOTHING until the evening portion of the seiyuu event is over and everyone who could’ve had a chance to go see it has seen it. Their fandom etiquette is INTENSE about no spoilers and respecting the creator’s wishes. When seiyuu events give them exciting new info and then say, shh, now don’t share it on social media yet, Japanese fans LISTEN. Japanese fandom draws a HARD line with this stuff. For them, if you can’t buy it, if you can’t afford to go see it, then too bad, that’s the end of it.

So sharing stuff like scans and torrents and youtube streams is a serious infringement to them both culturally and legally. Rightfully so, and I think it’s an admirable thing that they can operate that way. But the other side of that coin is that it does make all the content less accessible and hard to promote widespread interest for. In western fandom, we have seen piracy benefit Hollywood in many ways so I know a lot of us don’t bat an eye or think twice about pirating movies and music anymore.

But with Engeki Haikyuu? With 2.5D plays and musicals overall? We’re not talking about multi-million dollar shows and productions with huge profit margins that are too big to fail. It’s not Hollywood; it’s not even Broadway. We’re talking about an industry where the minor actors are sometimes not paid for the rehearsal period of a show, and where they’re sometimes paid about $100 for each show they perform. Some of my posts mentioned that Winners and Losers performed a total of 36 shows, and that was over a span of almost 2 months not counting rehearsals. Imagine getting paid around $3600 for your time for those 3 months. I’m not saying that there are Engeki Haikyuu actors that were paid that little, but that IS the industry in which they live and work. We’re talking about an industry where the sales of your character bromides indicate your overall popularity as an actor and also serve as an indicator for your potential success in other shows producers might want to cast you in. Financially, it’s a small industry, however big it seems.

However, it’s obviously very difficult for international fans to support it in legal ways. Goods for the show including pamphlets and bromides, tote bags, are ONLY sold at the theaters where they perform, and they are not available afterward. Japan is all about exclusive content, limited goods, it makes the few that are out there special. But that means if you can’t go to the venue to see the show, you can’t buy your favorite actor’s bromides to support them. And if you buy it afterwards at a secondhand shop like K books or some Yahoo Auctions seller, the money’s not going to the production anymore, it goes to secondhand sellers. Your voice of support is lost with secondhand sales, but sometimes they’re the only way you can get this stuff, so I’m not discouraging people who are trying to buy this stuff secondhand. I just want people to understand the full situation there if you do.

Anyway, this is why I do the, let’s be real, illegal thing of scanning bromides and pamphlets to share with you guys. Because if you can’t fly to Japan and get a hold of these elusive tickets to see the show live and THEN still have money left over to buy the goods, it’s tough/impossible to get it. So, I see it as a moot point when it comes to scans, because those image sets get spread around, and they do promote new interest in the production. And since nobody can even buy the bromides from Engeki HQ directly after the show is finished touring... eh. It’s still illegal, but for me it’s a slight gray area because of the lack of accessibility.

But the DVDs, and therefore the show itself, is different. It’s made WIDELY available on multiple ordering platforms online and in physical stores (in Japan), websites that DO ship overseas and where pre-orders don’t sell out. You can still buy DVDs of the very first Engeki Haikyuu that toured in fall 2015. And so long as you’re buying from official retailers like Amazon Japan, CDJapan, amiami, now Animate International, your money, your support goes directly to the production and they get the means to make more of these shows. I provide links for people to buy their own DVD copies all the time; they’re in my FAQ, I have posts that I regularly try to reblog.

I make gifs and I provide scans and clips as teasers so that I can promote as much interest as possible so that you guys, if you can, will support the show financially. But these shows aren’t cheap, and Americans aren’t used to paying $80 for a DVD, and I get that. I do. So if you can’t afford to buy the show legally, that’s unfortunate. I’m sorry. I wish I could buy DVDs for all of you that want the show. But still, I will not put up a download, I won’t upload a stream, because I know it will discourage some of the people that can buy it from buying it because they expect it to be free. There are people I know that do this, and it’s infuriating.

So, ok. Distribution of the full show explained. Bottom line is, I’ll share a lot with you guys, but I won’t share the full videos of the shows because you can still buy the DVDs.

As for the topic of reposting, I’ve mentioned the difference between Japanese and Western fandom earlier, and again: That’s why all the scans go on Tumblr. Now, I know I can’t stop the INTERNET from reposting. That’s why all the uploads are lower resolution and watermarked to hell so that it’s barely worth taking. Take note re-posters, you’re not even taking the good stuff. But reposting the scans to Twitter, could actually get me in trouble. Because as I mentioned, Japanese fandom is pretty prevalent on Twitter, they frown upon this sort of behavior, and they DO report people for this stuff. It’s great for spread of awareness of this production, but I sometimes worry about getting close to an official cease and desist.

And maybe that’s because I personally work very closely with this industry with my work for Sakura Con, and so I’m maybe being a little paranoid. But I also totally understand the viewpoints of Japanese fandom, which is why I don’t cross post everything to Twitter, and I sure as hell don’t tag it to make it easy to search for.

Basically, all of this boils down to:

Please don’t repost the scans and gifs on Twitter or Facebook (and don’t tag them so obviously).

Please stop asking me to upload the shows for download or streaming.

Please understand that everyone that’s working hard on these productions for us to enjoy… the actors, the producers, the director, the musicians, the theater staff and crew… they’re working in a niche market, and they’re not making millions here. Not only that, you’d be shocked how little some of them make sometimes.

So support the shows however best you can, encourage your friends to do the same if they can, and don’t… harass people for free stuff.

That’s all. Thank you for watching and for supporting Engeki Haikyuu (the show, not me), and if any of you have any questions about anything I’ve just talked about, if you want more details about one part or another, send me a message! Have a great day~ Haikyuu’s the best!

#important #please read #especially everyone who sends me asks about where to download or watch the plays online #If you're on mobile and you apparently have zero access to read mores #please check this out on desktop mode in your phone web browser

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toldnews-blog · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/world/tiktok-when-gummy-bears-singing-adele-rule-online/

TikTok: When gummy bears singing Adele rule online

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionWATCH: What is TikTok?

Have you seen the viral video where a choir of gummy bears sing a rousing chorus of Adele’s Someone Like You?

Or maybe the slightly bizarre sight of people putting make-up on potatoes?

Or perhaps you have been out and about and someone has inexplicably shouted “hit or miss” at you?

These seemingly unconnected experiences all share one thing in common – they are memes on TikTok, the short-form video app that you may not have heard of if you are over the age of 35.

For those who use it, it is a big deal and the app is looking to extend its reach to new demographics all the time.

Owned by Chinese internet firm Bytedance, the app was first launched in China in 2016 with the name Douyin and grew to 100 million users in the space of a single year, with a billion views daily.

It went on to become the most downloaded app in China and Thailand by the start of 2018, and in October was the third most downloaded app globally.

Image copyright Reuters/Getty Images

Image caption Gummy Bears singing an Adele song was a big hit on TikTok

And it has not done badly in the West either, with 80 million downloads in the US.

In 2017, Bytedance purchased Musical.ly – another short video music app with which parents of young children may be familiar – increasing awareness and adding 30 million more users.

It now has more than half a billion active users, with 40% of those outside China.

Videos created on TikTok are generally no longer than 15 seconds – although it has experimented recently with longer clips and some star users are allowed to make videos of up to 59 seconds. Adverts have also recently been spotted on the site as it looks for ways to monetise its content.

All the clips are based around themes, such as music, cooking, dance or fashion.

Previously, Bytedance had focused on news, with an app called Toutiao which used AI algorithms to learn user preferences. The same AI is used to provide relevant videos to TikTok users.

Image caption Musical.ly, beloved of pre-teen children, has brought a new generation of users to TikTok

TikTok has a bunch of clever movie studio-style special effects, such as an editing tool that allows people to appear to move objects with their minds.

“TikTok has tapped into a successful model of user-generated content by making professional-quality video creation simple and accessible,” said Paul Barnes, managing director of analytics company App Annie.

And while it is not the first of its kind – remember Vine? – it has proved far more durable.

“Vine popularised the short-form video format, but it was much harder to create a quality video. You were really left to your own devices, and needed a high level of technical expertise, along with talent as a performer, to create something people wanted to watch,” said Mr Barnes.

“In contrast, the editing features in TikTok and the relatively straightforward nature of lip-syncing means it’s easier than ever before to create original video content.”

TikTok is often applauded for being one of the few happy places on the internet – its silly video clips contrast starkly with some of the darker content on YouTube.

That may not last, thinks Charlotte McEleny, publisher of marketing magazine The Drum.

“No user-generated, or mostly user-governed platform, is ever going to be squeaky clean. What it can and should do is learn from those errors made before, as there is a tough balancing for these platforms to make in allowing creativity and self-expression, while also wanting to protect users from inappropriate content.”

Who uses TikTok?

Sophie is 12 (so in theory not old enough to use the app which is officially for 13-year-olds and over) She, like many youngsters, came to it via Musical.ly, and has parental approval to use TikTok. She says she used it more when it was Musical.ly, but likes the ephemeral nature of its content.

“You can go on for one minute, the videos are 15 seconds long so you can watch a lot in a short time,” she said.

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption Munavar Zeb doesn’t take part in challenges because they require a lot of creativity and are time-consuming to make

Munavar Zeb is 32 and lives in the Indian city of Surat. He has been on TikTok for more than a year and likes to post videos of himself, which he makes on a Sunday, his only day off work.

“I think the basic fundamental thing which appeals is that one can act, dance, sing, and do whatever you are good at in front of a camera and upload the same to get liked by the world and ultimately become famous,” he told the BBC

“I don’t know about everyone but, yes I feel very excited and happy whenever my video is being liked by someone.”

Image copyright Laurie Elle

Image caption Laurie Elle checks the app every day and has got involved in some of the challenges

Laurie Elle is a 20-year-old from Manchester who has more than 2.5 million followers on TikTok, and has been invited to attend some of its offline events. As a dancer, she uses it primarily to share dance videos.

She says that she finds the app really easy to use. “You can film the videos straight from your phone and add effects in the app, you don’t need any professional equipment to use TikTok.

“The trends on the app are also really popular, fun and easy to get involved in so it gives everyone a chance to share their own content and get creative,” she said.

She told the BBC that, while the app is largely free of “negative content”, it is the online space where she personally receives the “most negative comments and messages”, although TikTok does have the option to disable these.

Love it or hate it, it could soon become hard to avoid, in part because whenever a meme or clip from the app appears on the web, the branding is watermarked on it with people invited to visit the site, a clever piece of marketing that is making its name stand out amid the ton of anonymous web content.

That, and the fact that it has concentrated on one thing – user-driven video – could mean Bytedance can achieve what bigger, rival platforms like Tencent and Baidu have not – breaking into the conscience of Western users too.

“It’s interesting that something so single-minded has done that, over the hugely successful WeChat in China. A lot of people looked at WeChat and thought that would be the crossover app,” said Ms McEleny.

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption Why did tumbleweed become a challenge in which nine million people took part?

“While most young Chinese will order, pay and socialise through it constantly, that behaviour hasn’t translated as well into Europe and America.”

TikTok was given a boast in terms of visibility in America, when US talk show host Jimmy Fallon promoted the app and initiated a campaign #TumbleweedChallenge.

In the challenge, people roll on the ground to music associated with Western movies.

Since November 2018, when Mr Fallon mentioned it on The Tonight Show, more than nine million videos have been tagged #TumbleweedChallenge on the app.

For TikTok, there seems to be no tumbleweed moment as it sweeps its way through more and more countries, picking up new users at every turn.

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