#radical kindness for myself yes thank you very much

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Inkjump Linkdump

For the rest of May, my bestselling solarpunk utopian novel THE LOST CAUSE (2023) is available as a $2.99, DRM-free ebook!

It's the start of a long weekend and I've found myself with a backlog of links, so it's time for another linkdump – the eighteenth in the (occasional) series. Here's the previous installments:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

Kicking off this week's backlog is a piece of epic lawyer-snark, which is something I always love, but what makes this snark total catnip for me is that it's snark about copyfraud: false copyright claims made to censor online speech. Yes please and a second portion, thank you very much!

This starts with the Cola Corporation, a radical LA-based design store that makes lefty t-shirts, stickers and the like. Cola made a t-shirt that remixed the LA Lakers logo to read "Fuck the LAPD." In response, the LAPD's private foundation sent a nonsense copyright takedown letter. Cola's lawyer, Mike Dunford, sent them a chef's-kiss-perfect reply, just two words long: "LOL, no":

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/04/19/apparel-company-gives-perfect-response-to-lapds-nonsense-ip-threat-letter-over-fuck-the-lapd-shirt/

But that's not the lawyer snark I'm writing about today. Dunford also sent a letter to IMG Worldwide, whose lawyers sent the initial threat, demanding an explanation for this outrageous threat, which was – as the physicists say – "not even wrong":

https://www.loweringthebar.net/2024/05/lol-no-explained.html

Every part of the legal threat is dissected here, with lavish, caustic footnotes, mercilessly picking apart the legal defects, including legally actionable copyfraud under DMCA 512(f), which provides for penalties for wrongful copyright threats. To my delight, Dunford cited Lenz here, which is the infamous "Dancing Baby" case that EFF successfully litigated on behalf of Stephanie Lenz, whose video of her adorable (then-)toddler dancing to a few seconds of Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" was censored by Universal Music Group:

https://www.eff.org/cases/lenz-v-universal

Dunford's towering rage is leavened with incredulous demands for explanations: how on Earth could a lawyer knowingly send such a defective, illegal threat? Why shouldn't Dunford seek recovery of his costs from IMG and its client, the LA Police Foundation, for such lawless bullying? It is a sparkling – incandescent, even! – piece of lawyerly writing. If only all legal correspondence was this entertaining! Every 1L should study this.

Meanwhile, Cola has sold out of everything, thanks to that viral "LOL, no." initial response letter. They're taking orders for their next resupply, shipping on June 1. Gotta love that Streisand Effect!

https://www.thecolacorporation.com/

I'm generally skeptical of political activism that takes the form of buying things or refusing to do so. "Voting with your wallet" is a pretty difficult trick to pull off. After all, the people with the thickest wallets get the most votes, and generally, the monopoly party wins. But as the Cola Company's example shows, there's times when shopping can be a political act.

But that's because it's a collective act. Lots of us went and bought stuff from Cola, to send a message to the LAPD about legal bullying. That kind of collective action is hard to pull off, especially when it comes to purchase-decisions. Often, this kind of thing descends into a kind of parody of political action, where you substitute shopping for ideology. This is where Matt Bors's Mr Gotcha comes in: "ooh, you want to make things better, but you bought a product from a tainted company, I guess you're not really sincere, gotcha!"

https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/

There's a great example of this in Zephyr Teachout's brilliant 2020 book Break 'Em Up: if you miss the pro-union demonstration at the Amazon warehouse because you spent two hours driving around looking for an indie stationer to buy the cardboard to make your protest sign rather than buying it from Amazon, Amazon wins:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/29/break-em-up/#break-em-up

So yeah, I'm pretty skeptical of consumerism as a framework for political activism. It's very hard to pull off an effective boycott, especially of a monopolist. But if you can pull it off, well…

Canada is one of the most monopoly-friendly countries in the world. Hell, the Competition Act doesn't even have an "abuse of dominance" standard! That's like a criminal code that doesn't have a section prohibiting "murder." (The Trudeau government has promised to fix this.)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-an-overhauled-competition-act-will-light-a-fire-in-the-stolid-world-of/

There's stiff competition for Most Guillotineable Canadian Billionaire. There's the entire Irving family, who basically own the province of New Bruinswick:

https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/dynasties-2-the-irvings/

There's Ted Rogers, the trumpy billionaire telecoms monopolist, whose serial acquire-and-loot approach to media has devastated Canadian TV and publishing:

https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/canadaland-725-the-rogers-family-compact/

But then there's Galen Fucking Weston, the nepobaby who inherited the family grocery business (including Loblaw), bought out all his competitors (including Shopper's Drug Mart), and then engaged in a criminal price-fixing conspiracy to rig the price of bread, the most Les-Miz-ass crime imaginable:

https://www.blogto.com/eat_drink/2023/06/what-should-happened-galen-weston-price-fixing/

Weston has made himself the face of the family business, appearing in TV ads in a cardigan to deliver dead-eyed avuncular paeans to his sprawling empire, even as he colludes with competitors to rig the price of his workers' wages:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-12/a-supermarket-billionaire-steps-into-trouble-over-pandemic-wages

For Canadians, Weston is the face of greedflation, the man whose nickle-and-diming knows no shame. This is the man who decided that the discount on nearly-spoiled produce would be slashed from 50% to 30%, who racked up record profits even as his prices skyrocketed.

It's impossible to overstate how loathed Galen Weston is at this moment. There's a very good episode of the excellent new podcast Lately, hosted by Canadian competition expert Vass Bednar and Katrina Onstad that gives you a sense of the national outrage:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/lately/article-boycotting-the-loblawpoly/

All of this has led to a national boycott of Loblaw, kicked off by members of the r/loblawsisoutofcontrol, and it's working. Writing for Jacobin, Jeremy Appel gives us a snapshot of a nation in revolt:

https://jacobin.com/2024/05/loblaw-grocery-price-gouge-boycott/

Appel points out the boycott's problems – there's lots of places, particularly in the north, where Loblaw's is the only game in town, or where the sole competitor is the equally odious Walmart. But he also talks about the beneficial effect the boycott is having for independent grocers and co-ops who deal more fairly with their suppliers and their customers.

He also platforms the boycott's call for a national system of price controls on certain staples. This is something that neoliberal economists despise, and it's always fun to watch them lose their minds when the subject is raised. Meanwhile, economists like Isabella M Weber continue to publish careful research explaining how and why price controls can work, and represent our best weapon against "seller's inflation":

https://scholarworks.umass.edu/econ_workingpaper/343/

Antimonopoly sentiment is having a minute, obviously, and the news comes at you fast. This week, the DoJ filed a lawsuit to break up Ticketmaster/Live Nation, one of the country's most notorious monopolists, who have aroused the ire of every kind of fan, but especially the Swifties (don't fuck with Swifties). In announcing the suit, DoJ Antitrust Division boss Jonathan Kanter coined the term "Ticketmaster tax" to describe the junk fees that Ticketmaster uses to pick all our pockets.

In response, Ticketmaster has mobilized its own Loblaw-like shill army, who insist that all the anti-monopoly activism is misguided populism, and "anti-business." In his BIG newsletter, Matt Stoller tears these claims apart, and provides one of the clearest explanations of how Ticketmaster rips us all off that I've ever seen, leaning heavily on Ticketmaster's own statements to their investors and the business-press:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/antitrust-enforcers-to-break-up-ticketmaster

Ticketmaster has a complicated "flywheel" that it uses to corner the market on live events, mixing low-margin businesses that are deliberately kept unprofitable (to prevent competitors from gaining a foothold) in order to capture the high-margin businesses that are its real prize. All this complexity can make your eyes glaze over, and that's to Ticketmaster's benefit, keeping normies from looking too closely at how this bizarre self-licking ice-cream cone really works.

But for industry insiders, those workings are all too clear. When Rebecca Giblin and I were working on our book Chokepoint Capitalism, we talked to insiders from every corner of the entertainment-industrial complex, and there was always at least one expert who'd go on record about the scams inside everything from news monopolies to streaming video to publishing and the record industry:

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

The sole exception was Ticketmaster/Live Nation. When we talked to club owners, promoters and other victims of TM's scam, they universally refused to go on the record. They were palpably terrified of retaliation from Ticketmaster's enforcers. They acted like mafia informants seeking witness protection. Not without reason, mind you: back when the TM monopoly was just getting started, Pearl Jam – then one of the most powerful acts in American music – took a stand against them. Ticketmaster destroyed them. That was when TM was a mere hatchling, with a bare fraction of the terrifying power it wields today.

TM is a great example of the problem with boycotts. If a club or an act refuses to work with TM/LN, they're destroyed. If a fan refuses to buy tickets from TM or see a Live Nation show, they basically can't go to any shows. The TM monopoly isn't a problem of bad individual choices – it's a systemic problem that needs a systemic response.

That's what makes antitrust responses so timely. Federal enforcers have wide-ranging powers, and can seek remedies that consumerism can never attain – there's no way a boycott could result in a breakup of Ticketmaster/Live Nation, but a DoJ lawsuit can absolutely get there.

Every federal agency has wide-ranging antimonopoly powers at its disposal. These are laid out very well in Tim Wu's 2020 White House Executive Order on competition, which identifies 72 ways the agencies can act against monopoly without having to wait for Congress:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/13/post-bork-era/#manne-down

But of course, the majority of antimonopoly power is vested in the FTC, the agency created to police corporate power. Section 5 of the FTC Act grants the agency the power to act to prevent "unfair and deceptive methods of competition":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

This clause has lain largely dormant since the Reagan era, but FTC chair Lina Khan has revived it, using it to create muscular privacy rights for Americans, and to ban noncompete agreements that bind American workers to dead-end jobs:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/25/capri-v-tapestry/#aiming-at-dollars-not-men

The FTC's power to ban activity because it's "unfair and deceptive" is exciting, because it promises American internet users a way to solve their problems beyond copyright law. Copyright law is basically the only law that survived the digital transition, even as privacy, labor and consumer protection rights went into hibernation. The last time Congress gave us a federal consumer privacy law was 1988, and it's a law that bans video store clerks from telling the newspapers which VHS cassettes you rented:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act

That's left internet users desperately trying to contort copyright to solve every problem they have – like someone trying to build a house using nothing but chainsaw. For example, I once found someone impersonating me on a dating site, luring strangers into private spaces. Alarmed, I contacted the dating site, who told me that their only fix for this was for me to file a copyright claim against the impersonator to make them remove the profile photo. Now, that photo was Creative Commons licensed, so any takedown notice would have been a "LOL, no." grade act of copyfraud:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/the-internets-original-sin/

The unsuitability of copyright for solving complex labor and privacy problems hasn't stopped people who experience these problems from trying to use copyright to solve them. They've got nothing else, after all.

That's why everyone who's worried about the absolutely legitimate and urgent concerns over AI and labor and privacy has latched onto copyright as the best tool for resolving these questions, despite copyright's total unsuitability for this purpose, and the strong likelihood that this will make these problems worse:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/13/spooky-action-at-a-close-up/#invisible-hand

Enter FTC Chair Lina Khan, who has just announced that her agency will be reviewing AI model training as an "unfair and deceptive method of competition":

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4682461-ftc-chair-ai-models-could-violate-antitrust-laws/

If the agency can establish this fact, they will have sweeping powers to craft rules prohibiting the destructive and unfair uses of AI, without endangering beneficial activities like scraping, mathematical analysis, and the creation of automated systems that help with everything from adding archival metadata to exonerating wrongly convicted people rotting in prison:

https://hrdag.org/tech-notes/large-language-models-IPNO.html

I love this so much. Khan's announcement accomplishes the seemingly impossible: affirming that there are real problems and insisting that we employ tactics that can actually fix those problems, rather than just doing something because inaction is so frustrating.

That's something we could use a lot more of, especially in platform regulation. The other big tech news about Big Tech last week was the progress of a bill that would repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act at the end of 2025, without any plans to replace it with something else.

Section 230 is the most maligned, least understood internet law, and that's saying something:

https://www.techdirt.com/2020/06/23/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-section-230-communications-decency-act/

Its critics wrongly accuse the law – which makes internet users liable for bad speech acts, not the platforms that carry that speech – of being a gift to Big Tech. That's totally wrong. Without Section 230, platforms could be named to lawsuits arising from their users' actions. We know how that would play out.

Back in 2018, Congress took a big chunk out of 230 when they passed SESTA/FOSTA, a law that makes platforms liable for any sex trafficking that is facilitated by their platforms. Now, this may sound like a narrowly targeted, beneficial law that aims at a deplorable, unconscionable crime. But here's how it played out: the platforms decided that it was too much trouble to distinguish sex trafficking from any sex-work, including consensual sex work and adjacent activities. The result? Consensual sex-work became infinitely more dangerous and precarious, while trafficking was largely unaffected:

https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-21-385.pdf

Eliminating 230 would be incredibly reckless under any circumstances, but after the SESTA/FOSTA experience, it's unforgivable. The Big Tech platforms will greet this development by indiscriminately wiping out any kind of controversial speech from marginalized groups (think #MeToo or Black Lives Matter). Meanwhile, the rich and powerful will get a new tool – far more powerful than copyfraud – to make inconvenient speech disappear. The war-criminals, rapists, murderers and rip-off artists who currently make do with bogus copyright claims to "manage their reputations" will be able to use pretextual legal threats to make their critics just disappear:

https://www.qurium.org/forensics/dark-ops-undercovered-episode-i-eliminalia/

In a post-230 world, Cola Corporation's lawyers wouldn't get a chance to reply to the LAPD's bullying lawyers – those lawyers would send their letter to Cola's hosting provider, who would weigh the possibility of being named in a lawsuit against the small-dollar monthly payment they get from Cola, and poof, no more Cola. The legal bullies could do the same for Cola's email provider, their payment processor, their anti-DoS provider.

This week on EFF's Deeplinks blog, I published a piece making the connection between abolishing Section 230 and reinforcing Big Tech monopolies:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/05/wanna-make-big-tech-monopolies-even-worse-kill-section-230

The Big Tech platforms really do suck, and the solution to their systemic, persistent moderation failures won't come from making them liable for users' speech. The platforms have correctly assessed that they alone have the legal and moderation staff to do the kinds of mass-deletions of controversial speech that could survive a post-230 world. That's why tech billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg love the idea of getting rid of 230:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/facebooks-pitch-congress-section-230-me-not-thee

But for small tech providers – individuals, co-ops, nonprofits and startups that host fediverse servers, standalone group chats and BBSes – a post-230 world is a mass-extinction event. Ever had a friend demand that you take sides in an interpersonal dispute ("if you invite her to the party, I'm not coming!").

Imagine if your refusal to take sides in a dispute among your friends – and their friends, and their friends – could result in you being named to a suit that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle:

https://www.engine.is/news/primer/section230costs

It's one thing to hope for a more humane internet run by people who want to make hospitable forums for online communities to form. It's another to ask them to take on an uninsurable risk that could result in the loss of their home, their retirement account, and their life's savings.

A post-230 world is one in which Big Tech must delete first and ask questions later. Yes, Big Tech platforms have many sins to answer for, but making them jointly liable for their users' speech will flush out treasure-hunters seeking a quick settlement and a quick buck.

Again, this isn't speculative – it's inevitable. Consider FTX: yes, the disgraced cryptocurrency exchange was a festering hive of fraud – but there's no way that fraud added up to the 23.6 quintillion dollars in claims that have been laid against it:

https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/US-v-SBF-Alameda-Research-Victim-Impact-Statement-3-20-2024.pdf

Without 230, Big Tech will shut down anything controversial – and small tech will disappear. It's the worst of all possible worlds, a gift to tech monopolists and the bullies and crooks who have turned our online communities into shooting galleries.

One of the reasons I love working for EFF is our ability to propose technologically informed, sound policy solutions to the very real problems that tech creates, such as our work on interoperability as a way to make it easier for users to escape Big Tech:

https://www.eff.org/interoperablefacebook

Every year, EFF recognizes the best, bravest and brightest contributors to a better internet and a better technological future, with our annual EFF Awards. Nominations just opened for this year's awards – if you know someone who fits the bill, here's the form:

https://www.eff.org/nominations-open-2024-eff-awards

It's nearly time for me to sign off on this weekend's linkdump. For one thing, I have to vacate my backyard hammock, because we've got contractors who need to access the side of the house to install our brand new heat-pump (one of two things I'm purchasing with my last lump-sum book advance – the other is corrective cataract surgery that will give me lifelong, perfect vision).

I've been lusting after a heat-pump for years, and they just keep getting better – though you might not know it, thanks to the fossil-fuel industry disinfo campaign that insists that these unbelievably cool gadgets don't work. This week in Wired, Matt Simon offers a comprehensive debunking of this nonsense, and on the way, explains the nearly magical technology that allows a heat pump to heat a midwestern home in the dead of winter:

https://www.wired.com/story/myth-heat-pumps-cold-weather-freezing-subzero/

As heat pumps become more common, their applications will continue to proliferate. On Bloomberg, Feargus O'Sullivan describes one such application: the Japanese yokushitsu kansouki – a sealed bathroom with its own heat-pump that can perfectly dry all your clothes while you're out at work:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-22/laundry-lessons-from-japanese-bathroom-technology

This is amazing stuff – it uses less energy than a clothes-dryer, leaves your clothes wrinkle-free, prevents the rapid deterioration caused by high heat and mechanical agitation, and prevents the microfiber pollution that lowers our air-quality.

This is the most solarpunk thing I've read all week, and it makes me insanely jealous of Japanese people. The second-most solarpunk thing I've read this week came from The New Republic, where Aaron Regunberg and Donald Braman discuss the possibility of using civil asset forfeiture laws – lately expanded to farcical levels by the Supreme Court in Culley – to force the fossil fuel industry to pay for the energy transition:

https://newrepublic.com/article/181721/fossil-fuels-civil-forefeiture-pipeline-climate

They point out that the fossil fuel industry has committed a string of undisputed crimes, including fraud, and that the Supremes' new standard for asset forfeiture could comfortably accommodate state AGs and other enforcers who seek billions from Big Oil on this basis. Of course, Big Oil has more resources to fight civil asset forfeiture than the median disputant in these cases ("a low- or moderate-income person of color [with] a suspected connection to drugs"). But it's an exciting idea!

All right, the heat-pump guys really need me to vacate the hammock, so here's one last quickie for you: Barath Raghavan and Bruce Schneier's new paper, "Seeing Like a Data Structure":

https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/seeing-data-structure

This is a masterful riff on James C Scott's classic Seeing Like a State, and it describes how digitalization forces us into computable categories, and counts the real costs of doing so. It's a gnarly and thoughtful piece, and it's been on my mind continuously since Schneier sent it to me yesterday. Something suitably chewy for you to masticate over the long weekend!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/25/anthology/#lol-no

[septembriseur]

i just went in for another reread of the old words, and it remains one of the most gorgeous and brutal character studies ever posted on ao3 dot edu lol. i have found myself thinking about it a lot recently, since it is so much about violence and survival and existential anxiety when one's country has basically ceased to exist and one's citizenship is toxic. your musings on that kind of victimhood/perpetration balancing act and the resulting power paradox have really clarified things for me. but it is quite a different experience to be reading it in october 2024 than it was to read it in may 2021. and i know that your own life has changed so much since then. i seem to remember you saying somewhere that you went into writing it with ethical questions, and writing it didnt answer those questions, but it got you closer. it would be interesting to see you do a postmortem on that fic now. only if you want to! much love.

Well, first of all, THANKS.

It's crazy reading that story and seeing how clearly ideas (or revelations?) were percolating that would become fully formed after August 2021.

In terms of the central moral statement, I think it holds up. Actually, I'm struck by the light it sheds on a struggle I've been having recently: how to explain to people why torture and collateral damage are wrong. (Yes, this is a real, practical problem I'm dealing with.) I find myself wanting to explore the idea more, particularly because I'm surprised by how much I really like the Zemo that I created. (I was so good at writing dialogue then!)

I suppose I also feel that I didn't too badly at communicating other things, because there are parts that I feel so much more strongly about now that I could almost cry reading them, even when they're a little heavy-handed.

There are definitely technical things about the story that I would change. I don't think I had a fully formed idea of what I thought Sokovia was, and that ended up developing in more detail in my subsequent WIP. (Somewhere I have an extraordinarily detailed timeline of Sokovian history.) I had a shallower understanding of almost all of the issues involved: what it means to live with a history of violence; what it means to have lost your homeland; what it means to be "developing." I also think that I was more cautious and less radical than I am now:

I'm struck, in particular, by how I felt the need to clearly signal (at least inasmuch as I ever clearly signal anything in my stories) that, while rape was used as a weapon of war by Sokovian forces, Zemo did not participate. This seems cowardly. I'm very troubled by the way that, in general, fic treats rape as a kind of moral horizon. Characters can torture, murder, even mass murder— commit a variety of other war crimes— but to rape makes one an Evil Person. This, of course, is crazy. The men who rape in war are just as banal as other war criminals. I can imagine a more effective and less popular version of this fic in which Zemo did use rape as a weapon of war, which is consistent with the historical examples I've drawn on, and must overcome that as well as the rest of his sins. In fact, I very much want to write that story— if only I could carve out the time to do it.

Somewhere inside me is a great truly radical postcolonial fic. Or, well, I have an original sci-fi novel that I've outlined that gets into some of the same issues, but really I'd love to write a truly savage Zemo fic, in part because I want it to be a commentary on the sanitized antipolitics of the MCU.

In summation: it's not perfect, but I still love it, and I wish I could write more.

[shoot-of-corruption]

Blog Announcement

Hi there my lovelies! It is a rare guest, Ria here :D

I put on an Oblivion Let's Play to hold my blood pressure low while formulating this announcement, so you better settle down with me xD

I would like to announce here how I will deal with my main blog and all my side blogs on tumblr from now on.

As most of you know, I am working a full time job in retail, so my nervous costume tends to be a tiny bit thin after around 9,5hrs of shift. I am happy to announce to you all that my time as a worker in retail is finally a finite one. If everything works out right, I won't just be able to start a homeoffice job by next year, but also live at a completely different place and city. Sadly there is still a good while of wait ahead of me until then and a lot of things are unsure as of yet. But I will do my best to get to that destination, because right now everything is pretty much murdering me.

What does that mean for my blogs? I have been on Hiatus for a long while, on and off, over years. And yet I have always returned here, more or less satisfied or happy with my performance or the RPC.

From this day on I will treat myself better about being able to come here and also, I will not spread myself thin anymore. I will transform Mariku into an Ask- and Art-Blog. Interactions are always welcome, on and off Anon, as well as dash commentary or writing pieces and updates of myself. You can tag Mariku and me in everything, the followed tags will stay the same, I will just update a few things on my BIO in the next days etc. [maybe I'll finally force myself to make a card, should the mobile pages not work anymore].

Things that will for the close future not be done on my blogs:

RP-Threads: no matter if long, short, or anything. I am torturing myself, because I cannot say no to new thread ideas and the moment I really get invested into plots, threads, ideas or anything alike, my partners tend to just leave and let me drop like a hot potato and I honestly neither need nor want that hate in my life anymore.

Anon-Hate: Will NOT be displayed on this channel. I will keep my Inbox with anonymous messages on, but every piece of disgusting hate will be immediately plucked out of the screen and burned in a bonfire. You will not get a stage here and you can be assured, that I will piss and shit on your disgusting hatred and then laugh about it for the coming week, because you are the most pathetic thing that I had the displeasure of even having to lay a momentary glance on <3

RPC/personal Drama: I will ignore drama and strictly remove myself from it. I will not be part or target of any hatred, impulsive meanness and/or random bouts of radical opinions. If you don't feel seen/represented in my opinions, turn around and find a place you fit into, but leave me and my muses alone.

Things that will be done on this blog (and partly my side blogs):

Ask-Memes: Of any kind. Ask-Plots, random asks, symbol ask memes, color memes, background memes, AU-memes and YES, also art related asks.

Open Commissions: I will open art commissions again after I had a bit more training on my tablet, for everybody, who wants to commission art. They will likely be limited and they may also for training reasons only be for free for training, thus included in art memes, but I will open paid commissions eventually again, definitely this year. I cannot tell you details, yet, but keep your eyes peeled ;)

IMs and Mun related things: You are definitely allowed to write IMs and ask me questions!! I am here to have fun as all of us are, so if your fun includes coming into my IMs and leaving a cat meme each day or send me weird asks, I am all here for it!! All of this might sound very dickish of me, but I just feel like I get too emotionally hurt and immersed and I want to protect me from bad feelings and you from my wrath xDDD

Thank you for reading all of this and I hope all of us can stick to those ground rules (for now) - we will get on peachy! If the fact that I am not RPing (for now) on here is breaking you beyond compare, I do own a Discord and I am usually willing to share it. Please contact me on here before adding me, so I know who exactly is adding me on there, otherwise, I might not accept your request. Discord: sangnoire

I will warn you though, that I will be very selective with accepting RPs and partners on there still and that any unwillingness to accept that will be met with... a uno-reverse card reaction x'D

[spiderfreedom]

The Curtain Closes, For Now

It's been a few months and I haven't really felt a desire to go back to feminist blogging. In some sense, I feel like I've said what I've needed to say, and reached the limit of what I can do with my words. I'm not an especially persuasive person, so my attempts to kind of get any sort of organized action going failed. Maybe I'll be back one day, but for now, this is the end.

I learned so much here, and the time I spent really changed how I viewed the world. I can't regret it. I met so many amazing women and was encouraged for the first time in my life to center women.

At the same time, I felt I was living a double life, which was extremely painful psychologically. I had an entire second part of my life I could not tell anyone about. It hurt, physically. I knew this couldn't last forever.

I also felt like there was no long term future for writing certain things here. We have diversity, yes, but some things seem to have become axiomatic in the community. There is nothing wrong with having principles, but there are issues when your commitment to a value prevents you from incorporating new evidence. I have met a lot of people who feel the same way I do about certain things - feeling that it is not wise to discuss certain things asexuality, sexual relations with male people, or the origins of MTF (beyond 'pornsickness', 'misogyny', 'internalized homophobia'). I don't like how many people have felt they couldn't be open about their experiences or theories without risking censure.

I don't foresee this changing in the future. Tumblr communities are notoriously difficult for anyone to control or set norms for. At a certain point, I realized that I simply don't belong here anymore. Perhaps the interests have diverged too much. I worried I was becoming too focused on a single interpretation of the world.

I will leave my posts up for the time being. Many people have told me they have helped them, which is perhaps the greatest gift I got. If I can help someone else organize their thoughts or find stats and resources, then I am happy. I wish I could have done more, but I can't continue to live a double life, and especially a double life within the double life.

My political views have mostly not changed, but it's easier to live day-to-day now. I roll my eyes when someone talks about le ebil radfems. I could tell them stories about what radfems really are like - a very diverse group of women concerned with misogyny, with a radical framework. But they wouldn't want to listen. Their loss. I will keep centering women anyway.

If you would like to contact me for whatever reason, feel free to DM me, though I can't promise I'll reply quickly. I'll log in every now and then.

Thank you for reading, and best wishes for the future.

EDIT: oh yeah, I was also retraumatizing myself by constantly exposing myself to misogyny, violence against women, and the mistreatment of gnc and autistic women. I went through a pretty dark period because of it. It was not at all sustainable. I don't blame anyone for this except myself, as I failed to curate my own experience, but this political work inevitably requires seeing that material. I can't do it anymore.

[sitp-recs]

Hello live, it's me :3 the anon who asked about having troubles with a common drarry dynamic. I just wanted to thank you because i didn't expect to feel so seen 😭 or find someone who felt the same way. I didn't get to speak much about it, but YES i also do feel very strongly about emotional imbalance. It's so important to me. Thank you so much for that kind and understanding answer.

This has encouraged me to really look at some of your personal recs knowing they're from someone with similar sentiments. I'm not saying this to put pressure on your personal recs! Please, this is your blog and i can really simply fuck right off, it's so not on you. the same way it's not on authors to write what makes me feel comfortable 🥂. It's just that i think your answer has given me newfound courage to look at some of your tags and faves with gusto~ I know some recs are made specifically for the askers and some works won't be in line with my preferences so I'm still very careful.

ALSO, thank you for reccing me authors!!!! Gosh! DID YOU KNOW THAT I'VE YET TO READ A FIC FROM TACKYTIGER?? Liv u rock.

------

regarding my previous ask, i guess then, do you have lengthy wholesome fics or those that end wholesome-lly 💛🍂☕? Feel free to recommend absolutely anything on that regard hahahha. And please only answer when you feel up to it, I'm good over here 😌 ✌. It's the holiday season, you shouldn't have to do things u don't feel like doing.

In light of our kinship regarding a certain veritaserum scene, i shall call myself, veritaserum anon.

Hi again, anon! I’m so happy you felt seen and validated 🫂 I noticed some comments on that post sharing the sentiment so we’re not as few as you might have thought! I’m very excited to hear your thoughts on those lists but I’d maybe start with the ones below and see if they work for you. Most explore Draco’s redemption arc in ways I personally found satisfying and without belittling any character. I avoided fics that deal with hardcore emotional imbalance (I love the secret identity trope but I didn’t want to take any chances) and tried to include some recent, lesser known fics in case you’ve already read the popular ones. Also - I’m biased af when it comes to my pal @tackytigerfic but imo you should definitely start with Modern Love then make your way through their superb catalogue! Happy readings, and Happy New Year :)

8th Year/War Years:

Like Lightning at Your Fingertips by potterwatch (T, 43k)

The July Tree by @oknowkiss (E, 51k)

Seeker, Chaser, Keeper by VivacissimoVoce (M, 59k)

The Promise of Summer by Omi_Ohmy (M, 66k)

Right Hand Red by @lqtraintracks (E, 73k)

At Your Service by Faith Wood (E, 95k)

Changing Tides by carpemermaid (E, 109k)

Far From the Tree by aideomai (E, 112k)

Eclipse by Mijan (T, 287k)

Post-Hogwarts:

Take a Chance on Me by @mintawasalreadytaken (E, 41k)

Here’s The Pencil, Make it Work by ignatiustrout (M, 49k)

Take the Air by dysonrules (M, 51k)

Meet Me at Midnight by @the-starryknight (T, 57k)

Modern Love by @tackytigerfic (E, 61k)

The Compact by astolat (E, 64k)

A Young Radical's Guide to Love by blamebrampton (T, 66k)

Home Truths by @skeptiquewrites (E, 67k)

Tea and No Sympathy by who_la_hoop (E, 70k)

Timecode by Rasborealis (M, 73k)

Among Ancient Pines by @graymatters (M, 74k)

Balance, Imperfect by @bixgirl1 (E, 91k)

Little Deaths and How to Avoid Them by nerakrose (M, 96k)

Who we are in the shadows by @quicksilvermaid (E, 100k)

The Liars Department by @dorthyanndrarry (T, 104k)

The Paradox of Active Surrender by @korlaena (E, 108k)

Way Down We Go by xiaq (T, 109k)

All Life is Yours to Miss by Saras_Girl (E, 114k)

A Sword Laid Aside by @korlaena (E, 128k)

Any Instrument by @dictacontrion (E, 130k)

By the Grace by lettered (T, 140k)

All Our Secrets Laid Bare by @firethesound (E, 150k)

Foundations verse by Saras_Girl (E, 364k)

Angst with a happy ending:

Vale Sanare by RurouniHime (M, 23k)

Holly and Hawthorn, Thistle and Thyme by bryoneybrynn (T, 31k)

Kept in Cages by @sweet-s0rr0w (E, 77k)

Super Rich Kids by @thusspoketrish (E, 81k)

I Am Not Who I Became by mab_di (E, 93k)

Nor All That Glisters by @sweet-s0rr0w (E, 110k)

Medium Length:

Tidings of Comfort by blamebrampton (G, 10k)

Rebuilding Draco Malfoy by khasael (E, 11k)

How We Throw Our Shadows Down by thistle_verse (T, 14k)

Turn and Face the Strange (time may change me) by @punk-rock-yuppie (T, 16k)

Vortex by @xanthippe74 (T, 20k)

Nice Things by aideomai (M, 22k) - 8th year

Doing the Lambeth Walk by blamebrampton (T, 26k)

Speak (and may the world come undone) by @shealwaysreads (E, 26k)

Slithering by astolat (E, 27k)

The Nobility of Ascent by Lomonaaeren (E, 27k)

Waiting by an Open Door by Femme and noeon (E, 29k)

Faint Indirections by ignatiustrout (T, 29k)

The Consolations of a Summer's Day by blamebrampton (T, 33k)

Open for Repairs by @drarrytrash (M, 35k)

Follow the Water by @xanthippe74 (T, 38k)

In Dreams by @moonflower-rose (E, 38k)

[shootingstarpilot]

🎵

with literally any fic from the shoulder the sky series. or maybe even 1 for each book in the series to make a series playlist. either way, i love the series 🧡🧡

Why yes, I am replying to this a month late- sorry anon, I just got so excited and had FAR too much fun with this:

♫ send a fic and i’ll make a 3-5 song playlist for you

So MAYBE I went a bit overboard, I just did a playlist for each and restrained myself to listing 3-5 songs here:

back then, i was dauntless:

Hieroglyphs, by The Oh Hellos

Antebellum, by Vienna Teng

We Can Build a Fire, by Autoheart

The Calling, by The Amazing Devil

Inkpot Gods, by the Amazing Devil

if i don't make it back:

The Parting Glass, by Celtic World Orchestra

My Friends, by Oh Wonder

Heaven Knows, by Five For Fighting

Elysium, by Bear's Den

Inkpot Gods, by the Amazing Devil

how to bring him home:

Welcome Home, Son, by Radical Face

Secret for the Mad, by Dodie

Not Home Yet, by the Gray Havens

No Light, No Light, by Florence and The Machine

Inkpot Gods, by the Amazing Devil

like lightning changing hands:

The Horror and the Wild, by The Amazing Devil

Wise One, by The Gothard Sisters

Homeward, by Future of Forestry

On Giant's Shoulders, by Future of Forestry

(Skipping and bit by bit because I couldn't stop myself from adding songs that spoke to the return to Kamino fic, haha, whoops, so I'm saving that for later >:3)

The ask game in question

Thanks so much for the ask and the kind words, anon <333 they are very much appreciated!

[heraadora]

Things That Are Controversial About Me That Might Get Me A Follow or Unfollow:

I don't support Gold Star Lesbianism. A type of Lesbianism that defines Lesbianism as something that is pure and didn't have any period of comphet at all in any circumstances. I don't think you are some true homosexual, you just got lucky you were born in a place where you knew what the word "Lesbian" meant and was not somewhere the mere mention of "Lesbian" - could get you beaten up. I wanted to marry women when I was 5 years old and I didn't even know what "Lesbian" even meant, all I remember is mom telling me you can't do that, it's a bad thing. So - growing up I fantasized being with men and never liked them beyond wanting attention and social validation. Your existence that you pride on being fully devoid of men is a existence of privilege to me.

I am a Radical Feminist Separatist. I don't support women who willingly date men after calling themselves feminists and involving themselves in feminist activism. Let alone calling themselves misandrists or radfem. Clowns.

I am Trans Inclusive in my Feminism, my focus is heavy on Transsexuals of South Asia.

Lesbians are more oppressed than any other minority in the L-G-B-T-Q1234567 community. And yes, they are more oppressed than Bisexual woman. - "Is it like some oppression Olympics-" -Yes it is and Lesbians are winning. Shut up and Get out if you disagree. - "All of us are oppressed by the Cishets -" All of us are oppressed by the cishets and lesbians are oppressed by both Cishets and By other Queer People. It's not a shock that Lesbians are treated as a last stage outcast from Pride Parades to Lesbian Bars even. All of us are oppressed, it's just lesbians are oppressed like a subhuman. So No, Thank You but I disagree.

I will let a Trans Man call himself a Lesbian if he looks like a Lesbian and acts like a Lesbian. The definition of Lesbianism doesn't need to involve "attraction to men" or "Lesbians can be attracted to Men" -this kind of bullshit for all that. Lesbians don't like men. Full Stop.

I am starting to look into the whole feminist perspective on male celebrity worship culture and it's patriarchal origins, effects etc. I don't have a strong opinion on this yet because I still don't know much about it, but I can get annoying sometimes with my little knowledge. So, if you are just trying to Simp over your Fave Oppar or Something and I randomly drop some unpleasant fact about him being Misogynistic or a Sex offender, or Racist etc. - you have been warned.

I tried to force myself to like men and I couldn't. This.. will be hard for me to talk about as the impact is still fresh- but I forced myself unironically find men attractive. Since I already suffered from Comphet and Sexual Orientation OCD - I actually thought it would be easy for me to find men attractive. It wasn't and in fact it didn't help. It left me feeling frustrated and a bit empty instead. I tried to do self conversion therapy on myself. I tried to look up pictures of men and tried to find something attractive about them. I simply couldn't. I didn't stop. Watched Romantic Video Edits of Straight Couples and I only could look at the Girl. I forced myself to look at a bunch of Naked Pictures of Men and all I felt was Vomit growing up inside my mouth. They are very gross and disgusting and repulsive. And I started to see some of those men I forced myself to like molesting me in dreams. That's the point where I stopped cause I was scared of my brain at that point. I even put "Bisexual" on a secret Tumblr account of mine, as a lie and then removed it because I was feeling weird and strange. I just didn't mention anything at all about myself in the end.

Why did I do it ? Because - I don't wanna be a Lesbian, I wanted to like men. Even just a little bit. Even if I am not gonna date them anyways, I wanted to like Men. Women like men. Most of them do, even the Gay ones. They like women who likes men and talk about Men with them. Everyone, including Gay People. Queer people don't like Lesbians. I wanted to assimilate and belong to at least in the Queer Community. I wanted privileges that comes with being able to like Men. Privileges and humanity that society is willing to provide me with by being interested in men.

I failed in liking Men. I just don't like them- they are ugly and gross and I envy those who do.

I mentioned this useless fact about me to get to a point about something.

The point and fact of the matter is- I get very pissed off when people accuse me and literally every single Lesbian I ever encountered actually - of being "Biphobic" every time they try to talk about how being a Lesbian has Marginalized them a lot, a lot more than any of their Bisexual counterpart. As if Lesbians need to lie through their teeth about the fact that they are getting treated like absolute shit by almost everyone in everywhere in order to not make their Bisexual friends feel "Excluded" - a minority which is literally included in every single part and corner of the Queer Community. As long as a Lesbian plays -"We are all oppressed the Same" - She is Ok. They are a "Cool" one. Once she decides to open her mouth and talk about the reality about her marginalized existence - aha NOW ! This is a UGLY MAN HATING DYKE. The monster, the man hating subhuman. Boom.

Yk, I am not writing all this paragraph to get pity party or sympathy. I already got a lot of them. I am some lesbian who lives in a country where my existence is illegal. I can't guarantee if I will be able to get out one day or just kill myself before that. I don't like my existence. It wasn't like that before. But the constant dehumanization lead me to hate myself. So kindly don't bother being worried about me, I shouldn't matter to anyone for any of this. All I want is for people to listen to what I have to say carefully.

I don't want any other lesbian to feel like this about their existence. And it's just not gonna happen if the whole Queer community stops acting dumb and obtuse about how Lesbophobic their community actually is. Start by stop calling Lesbians Biphobic or Overreacting every time they wanna talk about how they are more oppressed and marginalized than Bi woman or complain about pride stores keeping every single flag and then not even keep one lesbian flag. Stop taking personal level offense when they call a Guy you like Ugly or Misogynistic - they are very definitely just telling you the truth and it shouldn't be on lesbians to deal with your cope about it. Listen to them talking about getting hate crimed by other Queer Men or Cishet Man of a Queer Woman in a Queer Inclusive Space without feeling the urge to call them Biphobic.

Lesbians shouldn't only be talking and crying about getting correctively raped for you to think Lesbophobia is a serious issue when you all consider calling the bf of a Bisexual Woman Ugly some form of hate crime.

Anyways, long post, but the end. Good job if you finished it.

[reachexceedinggrasp]

I go back and reread your posts occasionally because I really resonate with your posts about Epic Romance that I think transcends some of the tropes fandoms evolve around (e.g. enemies to lovers) which I don't always find myself connnecting with. I am just a bit curious about something:

What do you think of the pairing Solas/Lavellan from Dragon Age? (I searched your blog for it just in case you already spoke on the subject but sorry if I missed it).

I don't know if video games are your thing, or if a Player Character changes the dynamic you're into, but I was curious because it's a mythic romance of quite epic proportions. I know you've mentioned you sort of don't like a blog that is into adjacent ships to it (I think when you discussed Raistlin/Crysania) or maybe I'm just reading into that hahahah, so I understand if that influences if you do/don't. What I like about it beyond the character of Solas is that it's a tragedy with potential for hope ('Our love will endure'), and I think that's something your speed?

If you are not interested in the pairing (though I'd be interested to hear why, especially because Solas hits a few similar archetypal boxes and the reason why you don't like the pairing is as interesting to me as why you would!) and want another question to respond to instead:

2. Are there any new ships you've got into recently, or old you've revisited?

Hope you are doing well and doing the things you love!

Thank you for the ask! Yeah, same. EtL is only rarely written with the dynamic that I like, so most of the popular ships are not for me. I think I've disappointed a lot of fellow travellers by having zero interest in rivalry or frenemies style EtL ships.

I do play games, but I've only played like five minutes of one of the Dragon Age games. I've seen a lot of people talking about Solas and know he's the wank magnet tragic murder boy fav of the franchise, but I haven't gathered much of anything about the ship dynamic. I don't know enough about his arc/characterisation to say whether I'd be interested. But for sure, if there's an element of enduring hope, tragic romance can be my thing (so I read 5437540 fix-it fics).

I'm sorry I really don't have any thoughts to offer either way! :( If I get around to playing the game, I will post any ramblings I have about it!

I'm developing a fic for my long latent and repressed Cosmo/Kathy shipping urges, but that's like a radical departure for me on several levels lmao. Yes, I confess, sometimes I'll ship a couple of wholesome cinnamon rolls who have zero conflict because the banter is spicy and the vibes are adorable.

It's so funny how people are always trying to compare B&tB ships (like Reylo, E/C, etc. with grotesques or tragic heroes) to the Bad Boy/Ingenue/Nice Guy triangle and dismiss redemption romance fans as silly girls who haven't learned their lesson about being attracted to Bad Boys, because any example you can name of a triangle where the love interest is actually a Bad Boy, I ship her with the faithful friend (not a Nice Guy, but a legitimately nice guy). Like, I watched Pretty In Pink a couple years ago and man it was obvious she was not supposed to end up with Blane. I felt so vindicated when I read about the intended ending lol.

But anyway, I've been crying about whouffaldi again lately, re-reading some E/C fics, thinking of fleshing out/finishing some very self-indulgent E/C one-shots I made notes for, still wanting to write that Oh Hyun Jae/Soo Young fic that I accidentally wrote a kind of weird 'humour' prequel too D:, and as always trying to finish my Lokane fic finally. It has 2-3 more chapters, tops, and it's killing me I can't just get it done. It already has its main emotional climax, so I'm not leaving people hanging too bad, but maaaaannn!!! I swore a blood oath with myself I wouldn't start another novel-length fic until it is finished and this has lead to cascade of procrastination where I use it as an excuse not to do other things while also making zero progress with it. Agjkdfhdfd.

Also, I kinda want to add that extra chapter to my Bang-won/Hui Jae fic because I looooooove him and it's such a great pairing and I was pleasantly surprised how well that fic turned out, but it would be hard to justify and thus hard to find an 'ending' for it. It'd just be some 'stuff' pasted on lol.

[flabebabe]

Saw your post. Just wanted to share my story. I grew up in a very conservative leaning household and it took me until nearly the end of high school to start questioning whether or not i actually cared about those beliefs. The people around me were patient enough and willing to teach me more about LGBTQ+ topics and its because of them, and some self reflection, that i was able to become who i am today.

if i had instead interacted with the puritans on this website, i probably would have been pushed bitterly back into 4chan. i think people need to be more accepting of growth and patient with the people who werent fortunate enough to "start with a clean slate." but i think that also applies to ourselves as well.

everyone has done something wrong in their pasts, but we've also done some things right, too. and i think we just need to try to remember the good we're capable of. i try to just remember that i'm not who i used to be, and even if i fuck up again, that i'm aware now and i'll try to be better. it's not easy but i try my best, and thats all i can do.

i'm not sure if any of this is helpful. but if theres anything that you take from this, i just want to say that i see you, and i extend my hand in solidarity <3

Anon, I pretty much had the exact same thing happen to me with the conservative upbringing. I found tumblr at a time when I really needed an LGBT community and I will always be thankful for that but I didn't realize that I was getting into a space that nurtured something very ugly inside me. And I'm not trying to bOtH SiDeS y'all, at least this community actually means well, unlike communities like 4chan and the like. Speaking of 4chan, I find myself fascinated with it. You said that the toxicity of tumblr could have pushed you in that direction and I think people misunderstand what that really means. There's that comic where the author pokes fun at people who claim that they're being bullied into becoming nazis and while that is amusing and topical, I think it's too simplified. People don't become alt-right ghouls overnight, it's a long process that we're not really being honest about. Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems to me that the hostility of internet leftist spaces towards people who are wrong is unproductive. If a person seeks out community and is rejected, they're going to go somewhere else and that somewhere else is full of hateful people who want to hurt others. The person seeking community is vulnerable; otherwise they probably wouldn't be looking for comfort online. And then the ghouls get them. I don't have nearly as much sympathy for people who are completely radicalized by the alt-right but I do have sympathy for the lost people who just want to belong. I'm not saying we should coddle them, I just think maybe we shouldn't maul people for being wrong because it's just going to push them away. Yes, people should know that the world doesn't revolve around them and that there are many injustices in this world that they are likely contributing to but, again, flipping a dick at them is not going to help them do that. People think that being mean is work towards change but it's not work at all. It's waaaayyyy easier to be mean than kind. Sorry for the rant but I'm kind of realizing how much terrible behavior on my part was influenced by coming here. I'm going to put in the work to be better, and I think you, Anon, are on that path already. Thank you!! Peace.

[taegularities]

Day 6

STUPID STUPID STUPID BOY

(seriously I love him so much they way he is little annoying but a fluff ball of suppressed emotions 🤧)

My favourite characters has to be yoongi and eun they are such Goldiess smooches for them 💋💋and yoongi's plaster 🙋🏻‍♀️ I wanna volenteer too lemme draw lot of cute yellow dick Minions.

I am just lovin it' they way you write how you put each and every character's perspective and analogue I didn't know I would love some details in ffs this much it was never that serious but the it's expression of radical optimism for me now

whenever you refers to oc's hair as "mane" I always imagine her hairs to start to glowing like Tinkerbell whenever she is at her confront or with jk like babe yeps that's right there some angle type a shit..... pet name is even more hypnotizing 🫠(I DON'T LIKE IT HOW YOU ARE MAKING me LIKE EVERYTHING THAT I DON'T LIKE) first stupid lover boy and now pet names I can't with you I hate you but I will always love you for this fluffiest brain wrecking agenda you have going on and now just to keep us in constant chokehold for

seriously though our boy needs a therepy I would say everyone needs in big letters THEREPY

Because this suspense is killing me (I DITCH MY FRIEND'S BASH JUST) to RUMBLE SHIT TO YOU FIRST BEFORE READING cmi-blue OFFFF feels like I love this sensitive side of him more kinda wanna see him crying more I'm mean he just gorgeous so why not 🤷🏻‍♀️

just aww moment for they way you make their whole confession thing in cmi-blurred I never thought I would enjoy so much someone's full on confession like yes babies talk it all out the satisfaction it's so hard to talk it out BUT THEY DID IT I'M SCREAMING THROWING UP ON THE SIDE

The whole time in my head jk in cmi-blurred was like @kookiechimm character's it's prefect fitting for that chapter through out the drive and confession time yeps that's tiny kook energy

FINALLY the boy is opening up I can finally killing myself but before that yes I will recreate those two paintings too lemme finish this whole thing and my toxic semester we are on journey to become the next beat up best Picasso baby 🫡 and I love you byeee take care and on my way to slap some people

- 🦴🔫

omg i know a few more days have passed butttt HAVE YOU READ ONNNN, HOW DID YOU LIKE IT LMAO and this is a fun review, too!!! 🥹 "a fluff ball of suppressed emotions" is sooo right :') i'm glad you love him as much as i do. and yoongi and eun, yesss, i adore them!! they'll become a bit more prominent soon, i think, but it's always nice when ppl praise eun especially, she's very important to me hehehe

i think i'm kind of a crazy optimist, so that fits well lol. it means a lot that you'd talk about my expressions like that.. i try my best, so it's always so cool when That Best is appreciated. oc issss an angel for real!! our very own tinkerbell.. i can't wait to show more sides of her bc she's all i wanna be. pet names are truly a hit or miss hahaha but i think they've become part of them and they can't go without them anymore 🥰

HE WILL CRY LOL he will cry a lot of times more, and so will oc 🤣 idk how far you've gotten, but there'll be plenty more tears ahead. thank you so so much for reading, enjoying and being so sweet about it 🥺 i will keep trying to wreck brains :D and looking forward to those paintings like are you kiddingggg!! ty and ilyyy <3

[lindsaywesker]

Good morning!  I hope you slept well and feel rested?  Currently sitting in my study, attired only in my blue towelling robe, enjoying my first cuppa of the day.

Welcome to the working week although, for those of you working in the NHS, welcome to just another day.

The Mighty Josiah had been good at school, so we had a much more chilled weekend with him.  When he left on Sunday, I begged him, I pleaded with him, “Please be good at school next week!”  “Yes, Papa!” he said, in a weary voice.

Many thanks to everyone that listened to the radio show.  Many thanks for all your kind words and comments.  If you missed it, it’s up on Mixcloud.  Danny Talbot was on before me and he did a cracking job!  Always good to inherit an audience!

Sunday afternoon, I just stared at the television in disbelief.  Don’t think I’ve ever seen my team play so poorly!  Bad day at the office?  What kind of office is it?  An abattoir?  Something very radical is about to happen.  Don’t know what but things cannot stay the way they are!

Sunday evening, I got involved in a very interesting two-hour discussion for a radio station called Trax FM.  Not your ordinary music radio station.  Lots of music but lots of talk as well.  We paid tribute to the pirate radio era and the way it changed so many lives.  Will post the link when I get it. 

Every so often, the universe sends you messages.  That shit happens!  So, while scrolling through TikTok, as I do, I suddenly see some guy saying, “If they’re teaming up to go against you, you should understand how powerful you are by yourself.”  I can so identify with that!   

If you’ve got young kids, you will end-up watching a lot of kids TV.  Fact.  Here’s my confession: I really like ‘iCarly’.  Shame the show is shrouded in such controversy!  If you want to read the creepy stories about the show, look them up online!

Last week was busy and, unbelievably, this week is even busier, and not just Monday to Friday, the weekend too!  I will be grabbing every minute of sleep I can to keep myself healthy.

Have a marvellous and momentous Monday.  I love you all.

[jonkentdeservesbetter]

On the one hand: we’re technically losing the Jon we’ve been watching this whole time.

On the other: I learned a long time ago that to combat anxiety, you gotta let yourself consider first and foremost what’s the best case scenario with this?

The best case scenario is that we fall even more in-love with the new actor’s portrayal, and/or (for some of us) the writers decide to let Jon be bi as a way to do a sort-of soft reintroduction of S&L’s version of Jon Kent.

And also that he fiNALLY GETS REAL ARCS, ofc. Jon fans know what I mean. Anyway…

What’re your best-case-scenario thoughts?

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 328: Pandora’s Box of Discourse

Previously on BnHA: DEKU TOOK A BATH.

Today on BnHA: 

Also Naomasa grew a beard. Goddamn. 

please let this be a cool chapter that plays nice with my ADHD lol

(ETA: lol I feel guilty because a lot of people hated this chapter, but I’m just happy there was a lot of stuff to make fun of, and also that I have another week to work on my backlog of meta posts since the kids were MIA.)

around one month ago?? ah, okay, so we’re gonna find out what was in that Tartarus security file huh

I love that they just randomly set the place on fire

was it necessary to do this in order to escape? no. was it a good idea to set the island they were occupying on fire while they were in the midst of still occupying it? uh. was it cinematic as fuck? fuck yeah

wow it’s a pervert!!

that’s so great that the villains set loose this fine fellow who I’m sure is definitely not a serial rapist. truly the LoV is so noble and misunderstood. they’re just trying to free society from its chains people

oh my god??!

SHANKED!!! oh my god I cheered for Stain before I realized what I was doing. time to have an identity crisis I guess

so he’s all “hey what’s going on.” which, while a respectable question, is something I personally would have waited to ask until I had put a bit of distance between myself and the fiery murder island. but that’s just my personal preference

Stain you really are tenacious I’ll give you that

“what’s the point of escaping prison if you’re not gonna be smart about it” well shit. anyways yeah you’re dead right, society is in the process of collapsing and the outside world is in total chaos, good call there

oh shit

I mean it’s not like we really expecting anything otherwise, but still. fucking brutal. I feel like these guys’ fates were decided the minute that one guy called AFO “scum” back in chapter 94. AFO is unmatched at getting long-term revenge

??

ahh, was it the security footage??

fdsdfk he’s still alive??

and he’s immediately launching into an inappropriately theatrical monologue even as the darkness closes in on him fdlfksjdlk. you know, was it ever confirmed that the other guy back in chapter 297 was Seiji’s dad? I’m just saying

very impressed that he’s still coherent enough to weigh the pros and cons before making the decision to gamble on giving this info to Stain, who at the very least has his own moral code and isn’t allied with AFO. it was definitely still a risk, but as we now know it was also the right call

what a weird alliance. so Stain tells him that he’ll give it to a just person, and the guy is all,

okay for real though I’m gonna need someone to run a DNA test on this guy. maybe it was some kind of cuckold situation?? the other guy had the family resemblance, but this guy absolutely 100% raised Shishikura Seiji and you are not going to convince me otherwise

anyway, so Stain is all,

PRISON GUARD: “???? ??????? what the hell. what the fuck does that fucking mean. I’m dying here, jesus christ, whatever man fuck you”

(ETA: I kind of feel like this might have been Stain’s last appearance in the manga, given all the fanfare. there’s not really much else he can do for the story at this point, and he seems to have gotten all the character development Horikoshi was planning on giving him. so if this really is it, hasta la vista and good riddance I guess.)

DWLFDKSLDK MEANWHILE, OUTSIDE

(ETA: I feel like this is meant to be evocative of that Sermon on the Mount painting, but in a really fucked up way lol.)

if it were me stumbling upon this scene I would just shake my head and walk right back into the flaming building. not getting involved in that mess. sorry not sorry. I’ll take my chances with the fire, especially given that it’s half-assed neutered BnHA fire lol

blah blah blah and so he decided to pass the info on to All Might -- HOT DAMN, HOLY SHIT

NAOMASA HOLY SHIT. THE APOCALYPSE LOOKS GOOD ON YOU, BOY

“I really like that facial scruff thing Aizawa’s got going on, I think I’m gonna get in on that” yes sir. “also thinking of ditching the tie in favor of the bulletproof vest look. also thinking of getting totally fucking jacked.” good lord. except I’m pretty sure that’s just body armor, but also I don’t care. anyway I should probably stop staring and actually read the fucking speech bubbles here lol

“All Might first handed this information over to Nao, and then went to see Deku, and then came back to Nao” thanks for that tidy little summary Horikoshi. we are capable of piecing events together in sequential order, I just want you to know that. but thank you

“so has Deku finally gotten a bath? also, sucks that Stain saved the day, but what are you gonna do” Nao I missed you so fucking much and didn’t even realize. how am I just now realizing that you are the perfect man

for a second I was gonna ask why Tartarus’s security systems would be cut off from the outside world, and then I remembered that’s a basic security control, and then I actually got impressed by how sensible that is. like, it’s been a while since I could genuinely say that the good guys (excluding class 1-A) did something smart. not that it helped them much in the end, but still

anyway so they’re talking about how AFO was able to coordinate the attack by communicating between his horcrux self on the outside and his ugly peanut-faced self on the inside

huh

okay you have my attention. I am taking notes here lol please continue

ah okay so he says that prior to Jakku, the transfer of information between him and his Vestige self was only one-way. but post-Jakku when Deku was in the hospital, he was able to tell what was happening inside the OFA Radical Lisa Frank Dead People Book Club Realm when he touched him. I feel like we established that before, actually. but he didn’t talk about how it actually felt, though

boy we already know this lol. yes AFO can talk with his horcrux self. and he can also communicate with his little bro in OFA too, let’s talk about that sometime why don’t we. what exactly does that imply, based on the rules we’ve established here

my god I cannot get over Naomasa and his fucking facial hair

no wonder All Might was in such a hurry to leave Deku and get back here

like I have no idea what this radio waves nonsense is but my god, people

that jawline. also so it’s a quirk, I see. except last I checked Deku didn’t have a radio waves quirk, so that doesn’t really explain his connection to AFO. but whatever, hopefully we’re at least getting closer to some kind of reveal here

(ETA: since I sometimes forget that other people’s lives don’t revolve around my theory posts, here are the two relevant links if you by chance want to know my thoughts about this.

Hagakure is still The U.A. Traitor™ regardless of whether Deku is passing information on to AFO through his psychic link, which he almost certainly is.

speaking of said psychic link, Deku is a horcrux.

just posting these now, because whenever trippy OFA stuff happens I tend to get an influx of theory asks. so hopefully this will be a bit of a time saver lol.)

-- wait, what

THAT’S what the recording was??!? holy SHIT. I genuinely was not expecting that. y’all wiretapped his fucking telepathy. fucking quirks, man. wild

AND THEY USED THAT POWER TO DETERMINE WHAT WE ALREADY KNEW, HUZZAH. GOOD SHOW

-- oh shit wait lol, except I forgot we’re not talking about 38 days from the present, we’re talking about 38 days from the date the conversation was recorded. heh. um

yeah that’s the face I would make too if All Fucking Might just casually told me we had eight days left until the end times

oh, pardon me. three fucking days

r.i.p. anyone who thought we were going to have another band arc sob. I sure hope Deku is enjoying that nap

(ETA: I realize people were hoping for a longer rest period here, but given that the man warned us all the way back in chapter 306 that we were entering the final act, you can’t really blame him too much when that turns out to be true. anyway but I do recognize that we’ve reached the point in the story where this kind of discourse is going to become a weekly occurrence, simply because there’s no possible way for Horikoshi’s actual endgame to line up perfectly with the variable headcanons of millions of fans, all of whom have wildly differing and in many cases contradictory expectations which can’t possibly all be fulfilled. anyway, so I’m already bracing myself for that lol. this coming year is going to be a wild ride.)

damn, U.A. out here looking like the motherfucking United Nations

-- is this U.A.?? I actually just realized, U.A. is four interconnected buildings, not two. wait holy shit is this Shiketsu?

wait holy SHIT

based on the overwhelmingly powerful vibes of bureaucratic incompetence, I’m thinking this really is the (future) U.N., or whatever organization it is that deals with international hero stuff

“just let them handle it themselves I’m sure they’ll be fine” yeah okay, thanks guys. appreciate it

wait oh shit did he say that it’s not just Japan?

soooo, what you’re telling me is that AFO is this close to bringing about the end of not just Japan, but the entire world, and you guys don’t think it’s a good idea to help the Japanese heroes stop him? so, genuine follow-up question: are you guys already planning your rich people exodus into space a la Wall-E, and that’s why you don’t give a fuck?? like, what??

omg international heroes

these guys are from World Hoodie Mission, right? is this Horikoshi’s way of reminding me to buy tickets

(ETA: and it worked too lol.)

WHO??? WHAT???

don’t tell me you’re introducing yet another badass new female character for me to fall in love with only to watch as you dismember them and/or blow them up, Horikoshi. I’m getting tired of playing this game my dude. don’t lie and tell me this time will be different. we’re not doing this again goddammit

noooooooooooooooooooo

god fucking dammit lmao. [sighs and rips the previous paragraph into shreds]

on behalf of Americans I apologize for our superheroes always being Like This

I also apologize because I love her already and I’m gonna be shameless about it. so fucking shameless you guys

is her fucking hair red white and blue. it is, isn’t it

this is the volume cliffhanger, 100% lol. it will take every ounce of Horikoshi’s willpower not to put her on the volume cover. he’ll have to settle for the spine or the inner cover this time because Deku VS his class 1-a superpals takes precedence. but it will be a close thing let me tell you

tbh it’s that smile that does it for me. she’s definitely All Might’s protege. get out there and show them how it’s done girl. and maybe call Salaam and BRD and see if you can’t convince them to play hooky from their governments as well. why not. world’s ending in three days you guys. “sorry, I’m busy this weekend” ain’t gonna cut it lol

so while I am not fully caught up with Vigilantes, I have read far enough to know that there’s an American hero named Captain Celebrity whose superpower from what I recall is being a humongous douchebag. and while I haven’t read far enough to know what happens to this guy, I can’t say I’m very disappointed to learn that he’s no longer the number one hero in the U.S. (actually, didn’t they kick him out and that’s why he moved to Japan to begin with?). anyway, so my thanks to Horikoshi for having a marginally higher opinion of Americans than Furuhashi, even though we have definitely not done anything to warrant said opinion lately, and you may have inadvertently opened the door to a pandora’s box of discourse lmao

(ETA: lol I went into the tags and they don’t disappoint. “why is she dressed like a flag” because she’s an homage to Captain America and Major Victory and literally every other character on this list. again, I apologize for fictional American superheroes being Like This. “oh boy another thicc waifu to make the fanboys happy” look, tumblr fandom never seems to have a problem thirsting over Dabi or Tomura or Aizawa or Nao, lol, I’m just saying. “where is Captain Celebrity” idk, probably murdered by the exploding bee cartel, let’s just be grateful for our good fortune and try not to Beetlejuice the man.)

anyway, so let’s see if Horikoshi’s recent character development with regards to making Mineta not terrible anymore will apply to other aspects of his writing as well. I know I was making light of discourse just now, but I do think the complaints about him introducing yet another new character at the 11th hour to be cannon fodder in the final battle are absolutely valid. and again, it wouldn’t be a problem if he didn’t keep maiming/killing off his female characters one by one instead of developing them and letting them kick ass long-term. but that said, I will never complain about Horikoshi adding another female character to the series, regardless of how clumsy the attempt may be. go ahead and pander away, just give us more girl power lol

anyway so we’ll see how it goes, but I think I’m gonna be optimistic and let myself hope once again, even though I’m probably gonna regret it lol. it is what it is. she is standing on an airplane just chilling for fuck’s sake. I’m only human. anyway fingers crossed

[irlwakko]

What’s the Franklin + Franklin strip history?? :0

Ooh yay!! Thank you for asking!!

CWs: Light discussion of racism and segregation, as well as outdated language around race.

In 1968, a teacher (Harriet Glickman) wrote to Charles Schulz to implore him to add a black character to Peanuts. Schulz replied and said he'd wanted to add a black character for a while, but was afraid of coming off as patronizing in doing so.

[ID: A letter written by Harriet Glickman to Charles Schulz on April 15, 1968. The letter reads as follows:

"Dear Mr. Schulz,

Since the death of Martin Luther King, I've been asking myself what I can do to help change those conditions in our society which led to the assassination and which contribute to the vast sea of misunderstanding, fear, hate, and violence.

As a suburban housewife; the mother of three children and a deeply concerned and active citizen, I am well aware of the very long and torturous road ahead. I believe that it will be another generation before the kind of open friendship, trust and mobility will be an accepted part of our lives.

In thinking over the areas of the mass media which are of tremendous importance in shaping the unconscious attitudes of our kids, I felt that something could be done through our comic strips and even in that violent jungle of horrors known as Children's Television.

You need no reassurances from me that Peanuts is one of the most adored, well-read and quoted parts of our literate society. In our family, teen-age Kathy has posters and sweat shirts... pencil holders and autograph books. Paul, who's ten and our Charlie Brown Little Leaguer... has memorized every paper back book... has stationary, calendars, wall hangings and a Snoopy pillow. Three and a half year old Simon has his own Snoopy which lives, loves, eats, paints, digs, and sleeps with him. My husband and I keep pertinent Peanuts cartoons on desks and bulletin boards as guards against pomposity. You see... we are a totally Peanuts-oriented family.

It occurred to me today that the introduction of Negro children into the group of Schulz characters could happen with a minimum of impact. The gentleness of the kids... even Lucy, is a perfect setting. The baseball games, kite-flying... yes, even the Psychiatric Service cum Lemonade Stand would accommodate the idea smoothly.

Sitting alone in California suburbia makes it all seem so easy and logical. I'm sure one doesn't make radical change in so important an institution without a lot of shock waves from syndicates, clients, etc. You have, however, a stature and reputation which can withstand a great deal.

Lastly; should you consider this suggestion, I hope that the result will be more than one black child... Let them be as adorable as the others... but please... allow them a Lucy!

Sincerely,"

The image cuts off before the signature. /end ID]

[ID: A letter written by Charles Schulz in response to Harriet Glickman. It is written on Peanuts stationary with a drawing of Charlie Brown looking sad with his kite wrapped around Snoopy's doghouse. The letter reads as follows:

"Dear Mrs. Glickman,

Thank you very much for your kind letter. I appreciate your suggestion about introducing a Negro child into the comic strip, but I am faced with the same problem that other cartoonists are who wish to comply with your suggestion. We would all like very much to be able to do this, but each of us is afraid that it would look like we were patronizing our Negro friends.

I don't know what the solution is.

Best regards.

Sincerely yours, Charles M. Schulz" /end ID]

Glickman asked for permission to show Schulz's letter to her black friends, and Schulz agreed, saying he would be anxious to hear their feedback and suggestions. After hearing back from Glickman and her friends, Schulz decided to introduce Franklin later that year. He followed Glickman's friends' recommendations, introducing Franklin without fanfare or any acknowledgement of his skin color, simply showing a black child and a white child interacting and becoming friends.

[ID: Two Peanuts comic strips in black-and-white. In the first, Franklin hands Charlie Brown a beach ball, and then the two walk over to a lopsided sandcastle, with the following dialogue:

Franklin: Is this your beach ball? Charlie Brown: Hey! Yeah! Thank you very much! Franklin: I was swimming out there, and it came floating by... Charlie Brown: My silly sister threw it into the water. Franklin: I see you're making a sand castle... it looks kind of crooked. Charlie Brown: I guess maybe it is... where I come from, I'm not famous for doing things right.

In the second, Franklin and Charlie Brown begin rebuilding the sand castle, collecting sand and water in buckets, with the following dialogue:

Charlie Brown: Is your whole family here at the beach, Franklin? Franklin: No, my dad is over in Vietnam. Charlie Brown: My dad's a barber... he was in a war, too, but I don't know which one. Franklin: Do you like baseball, Charlie Brown? Charlie Brown: My problem is I like baseball too much. Franklin: Are you a good player? Charlie Brown: I have some friends who would regard that as a great topic for a panel discussion. /end ID]

The two are shown befriending each other on a desegregated beach and build a sandcastle (which is the scene shown in the ornament from this post).

Franklin's inclusion made him the first black character in a nationally syndicated comic strip, and later strips showing him attending school and sitting in front of Peppermint Patty also marked the first appearance of a desegregated school in a nationally syndicated comic strip!

Since then, he's also featured in several TV specials, The Peanuts Movie, and a few Peanuts-related video games as a supporting character, and a meet-and-greet character in Planet Snoopy!

Fun fact: Franklin's semi-canonical last name is Armstrong, a last name given to him in the 1990s by Charles Schulz after black cartoonist Robb Armstrong. Armstrong had been six when the original Franklin strip came out, and recalled that Franklin's inclusion as an inspiration to his young self.

[ID: A person dressed in a full walk-around costume of Franklin. The costume is clothed in a light green shirt, blue shorts, white socks, and white tennis shoes with red soles and black laces. He is standing in front of the Camp Snoopy Theater and giving two thumbs-up to the camera. /end ID.]

Bonus: After Franklin's initial inclusion, and especially after strips showing him attending a desegregated school, United Feature Syndicate asked Schulz to remove Franklin from future strips due to backlash. Schulz's response was "Let's put it this way: either you print [the strip] exactly as I draw it, or I quit. How's that?" Many people don't know this, but Charles Schulz was often incredibly badass.

(P.S.: This is my first time writing a long-form informational post like this, and also my first time writing image IDs, so please let me know if there's anything I can improve on!)

[five-rivers]

What if Danny's ghost form reflected his ghost maturity instead of his human maturity? Halfas are different, especially without being in the ghost zone to speed it up, it must take a lot of energy to develop. (I bet he'd almost never use it if he turned into a toddler when he went ghost)

This is probably going to be more angsty than you wanted, but...

.

When a ghost forms from a death, they generally look about the same as they did when they died and change from there.  No messy second childhoods required.  

Other methods of forming a ghost, however...

Well.  Danny didn’t exactly die, and a ghost started from scratch needs time to mature.  Especially if they’re building off of a human blueprint.  

Danny doesn’t realize he didn’t just get ghost powers until over nine months later.  

.

“Wait, wait, wait,” said Danny, squinting up at Frostbite, who was his friend and therefore not likely to be pulling his leg.  At least not about something as serious as this.  “Are you trying to tell me that I’ve been, what, pregnant with myself for the last nine months?”

“An apt analogy!” said Frostbite, who apparently did not have enough knowledge of human culture to understand why that statement and all its implications were horrifying.  “Of course, you are not giving birth to another individual.  Instead, your other half is maturing.”

“Is there any way to, uh, stop it?”  asked Danny, nervously plucking at the paper on the examination table.  “Because I really, really can’t be randomly turning into a ghost baby for however long this maturation thing is supposed to last.”

Frostbite looked like Danny had just suggested he murder someone.  “Great One,” he said grimly, “you do not know what you ask.”  He knelt next to Danny, and still wasn’t quite short enough to look him in the eye.  “What you’re asking...”  His voice was soft.  “To snuff out a ghost that young...  Not to mention what it would do to you as a whole.”

Danny laughed.  Stupid anxiety reaction.  “It-It wouldn’t kill me, though, right?”

“I do not know,” admitted Frostbite.  “But it would certainly remove your powers.  Your other half is their source.”

“Right,” said Danny.  “Okay.  I sort of expected that.  So, what do I do?”

“I would suggest,” said Frostbite, “staying here until your ghost half is at least as old as you are now.  For safety reasons.”

“How long do you think that will take?” asked Danny.  

Frostbite’s grin became rather fixed.  “Fourteen years, or thereabouts,” he said.  

“Frostbite,” said Danny, aghast.  “I can’t wait fourteen years.”

“It’s possible that being in the Ghost Zone may accelerate the process somewhat, as compared to staying in the human world.  The high-ectoplasm environment is more nurturing.”

“How much faster are we talking about?” demanded Danny.  

“I would need to run more tests to be certain,” said Frostbite.  “And compare the ectoplasm concentration of your home to the one here.  It is unfortunate, but there are no ghosts quite like you.”

Danny groaned.  “Thanks,” he said.  “But I can’t stay.  Not even for a week.  I have responsibilities.  What should I do to just...  I don’t know.  Manage this?  Keep myself from turning into a ghost baby in the middle of the day, or during a fight?”  

Frostbite looked intensely uncomfortable.  “I am unsure.  You are still intending to fight?”

“Yeah?” said Danny.  “I kind of have to.”

“Don’t let the ghosts you fight see you in your other form.”

Duh, thought Danny.  “I don’t have a death wish,” he said instead.  

“They are extremely unlikely to try to destroy you.  It is much more likely that any adult ghost that saw you would adopt you.  And you wouldn’t have the ability to resist.”

“As soon as I got back to my proper age, I could,” said Danny. 

“That’s another thing I am concerned about,” said Frostbite.  “You have several ghostly mental tendencies already.”  He tapped Danny’s forehead with an icy claw.  “I am unsure how much more your other half will influence this one.  Clinging to an older ghost is instinctual for infant ghosts.  Which your other half is.”

Danny closed his eyes, centering himself.  “Okay,” he said.  “Anything else I should know about?”

“Mh, yes.  Great One, when was the last time you measured your height?”

.

“You don’t think I’m aging?”

Frostbite attempted to explain.  

“You don’t think I’m going to age until I catch up?”

.

Danny flew the Spector Speeder away from the Far Frozen, laden with various health instructions and several gifts the yetis said infant ghosts tended to enjoy.  He was okay.  This was fine.  He’d fought things just shy of godhood with glitchy invisibility, unreliable phasing, lackluster hovering, a magic soup can, and whatever of his parents’ inventions happened to be working that week.  What was one more?

Too much.  

He briefly let his head rest on the steering wheel.  

Apparently, even this respite was too much for the universe to give him, because the Poltergeist Proximity Alarm started to blare.  He jerked his head up.  

Somehow, in his second of inattentiveness, he’d been surrounded.  By eyeball ghosts.  

Maaaaybe he’d just drifted into their meeting, and they’d let him drift back out?

The ghosts raised their hands, each one glowing ominously.  

Yeah.  He didn’t think so, either.  He hit the accelerator and-

Time shuddered.  

He was suddenly very much not in the Spector Speeder, and still surrounded.  How-?

Several of the eyeball ghosts touched him, and his skin pulsed with pain as ectoenergy was forced through it.  He gasped, then choked as white rings sprang up around his waist.  Not now!  Not already!

He couldn’t stop it.  He was too full of energy.  

Just like every time before, his mind went fuzzy as it adapted to radically different sensory inputs.  

“... should keep him in ghost form until it catches up to his human age,” said one of them, as he came back to himself.  “At least.”

“We’ll need a longer-term solution than simply feeding him too much power to stay human,” said another.  

“Clockwork will have something,” said a... a third?  Danny wasn’t sure.  They all sounded the same, and Danny’s field vision was limited from the... basked?  Yeah, it was a basket.  

Who was Clockwork?

“Regardless, we must ensure he is raised correctly,” said one of the ghosts, putting a delicate emphasis on the last word.  “Teach him respect and obedience.”

The others voiced their agreement.  

Danny didn’t like the sound of that.  He reached for his human half, just as a clawed green hand reached into the basket.  Energy flushed through him again, and the warmth of his human half fluttered out of his grasp.  

The clawed hand then pulled a blanket over him, tucking him in.  And...  actually...  he was pretty worn out by everything...  ectoenergy took time to process properly for a body as tiny as his currently was...  it would be okay if he... fell asleep...

Right?

[accioecho]

Lee Da Hee for GQ Korea

"Everything becomes memories in the end. You should always strive to have a positive energy."

Feel free to share this translated interview! Though I would appreciate if you could credit me by linking back to this blog or tagging me on Twitter ^_^

GQ: But... uh, why do you look so happy? You’re looking at me with such a happy expression that I don’t know what to do right now.

LDH: Hahaha. No but if I kept listening with a blank expression, I would come off as cold looking. And you would go: “Are you in a bad mood?” So I try to smile more. Otherwise I would come off as cold looking.

GQ: That’s quite a big difference. I got startled when you pulled a straight face.

LDH: Right, it looks like I’m angry. But I’m not, so this is why I try to smile more. If I don’t smile like this, people tend to think I’m cranky. Of course when I get angry, I have a temper, but I’m not usually like that.

LDH: And it goes both ways, it’s easier for me to open up to someone if that person is smiling instead of sporting an expressionless face.

GQ: You were laughing/smiling so brightly that I was kind of hypnotized.

LDH: Hahaha

GQ: When you appeared in the drama “Beauty Inside”, you weren’t the typical villain wearing a red lipstick but were the kind of villain to wear a new, nude shade.

LDH: Ohh, that’s a very nice way to put it.

GQ: Really?

LDH: A nude tone villain. This is the first time I’m hearing this expression, I like it. Yes, up until then, secondary female characters usually tried to win someone’s heart or because they lacked attention and love, they tended to bother the female lead. But “Beauty Inside” was different. It was a different kind of role. I played a villain but my character wasn’t hateful. She had her own convictions and that’s why she was so interesting.    

GQ: Kang Sara was that kind of character, played by Lee Da Hee.

LDH: This is why I didn’t want to play the typical secondary character, the typical second female lead. Yes she was given a fancy background but I also wanted to try something new, something different. Not something that could be shown through strong makeup, I wanted to add a layer of depth to her style.

GQ: I think we could feel the difference hence why it was so interesting. It was obvious that you studied this role a lot and this perfected style has stuck to you, the actress.

LDH: Well, first of all, I find it fun to radically search for something new. In a way that doesn’t stand out too much, while still being faithful to the character, I try to bring out the best of what I can do. Back when I was younger, I had no clue about all that so I just did what I was told to do. As I matured, I discovered what were my weaknesses, what to cover/hide etc. For example, you might think that I’m skinny, and that all my clothes fit me well. But I have a big bone structure so clothes don’t fit all that easily. But because I know this about me, I’m able to adapt,  know how to find the right clothes to try to keep looking pretty. Thanks to the GQ photoshoot, I got to try out this colorful mascara for the first time. And it’s so much fun. As I experience new things one by one, I’m able to see what’s right for me and what’s not.

GQ: It might be insensitive/rude to say this to an actress who has a career spanning 20 years, but I feel like the name Lee Da Hee has become clearer to me since “Beauty Inside”.

LDH: No it’s not insensitive. I’m really thankful that you remember me from that role. No matter how recent the drama is, the point is that you remember me because I left you a good impression. I really appreciate it. To be honest, a lot of people remember me from my role in Beauty Inside. People actually think I didn’t play in many projects before that.

GQ: But you did consistently star in various projects.

LDH: Yes, but I guess they weren’t memorable roles. I don’t think I played characters that stayed in people’s minds. Beyond the character and the role in itself. A drama can be loved by a lot of people, but beyond that, when I watch a show as a viewer, there are some actors that leave a deep impression in the way they play their characters. I wonder if I lacked that kind of aspect. I kept thinking to myself that maybe there was something missing in my acting that didn’t leave a memorable impression.

GQ: You left quite a strong impression after playing roles like Kang Sara in Beauty Inside and Cha Hyeon in Search: WWW. But more recently in LUCA: the beginning, I feel like you shed that strong image. If you found a type of role that fit you, you could have just kept on playing the same kind of characters, but it looks like you’re not afraid to radically change your image.

LDH: You’re right, I wanted to do something different. I wanted to show a different side, something that differed from the bright roles I usually played. After Beauty Inside and Search: www, I was afraid of being type casted. I didn’t want people to think I always played the same kind of roles. But I think I was was too confident when I chose to play in LUCA. I thought I could do anything.

GQ: You thought you could do anything but it didn’t turn out this way?

LDH: Even my mom thought the same thing. That it wasn’t a really good fit. In a few words, she thought my acting felt a bit forced. Hahaha. That it didn’t really flow well. The main takeaway is that I tried something different. If it turns out to be a good fit, then it’s good and if it doesn’t, it means I can just find something that does.    

GQ: Your mother sounds like the type of person who doesn’t mince her words.

LDH: My mom is very level headed. Just by looking at my back, she can tell if I was focused or thinking about something else. I spent a lot of time with my mom, even more so than with friends, and I also cried a lot in front of her. If I ask her “Mom, what’s wrong with me”, she’ll tell me not to think these kind of thoughts, that whatever I’m thinking is not true. We had a lot of moments like that.

GQ: You looked so cheerful today that I didn’t think you could also have rough times.

LDH: Why wouldn’t I? I went through times of depression when I would think, “Am I charismatic enough?”, “Do I lack something as an actress?”. There were times when my self-esteem was very low.

Since I’m tall, I used to have Directors who always said “you don’t match, you don’t match” (with fellow actors). Since I couldn’t do anything about my height, I thought that I could at least work on my body, make myself smaller. So I worked really hard on my diet. I used to eat rice cake soup that my mom used to make using beef broth, once every day. My mom followed along and did the diets with me. Every time. You can guess what kind of mom she is, right? I used to say: “Mom, should we at least drink soju since we only had one meal today?” And we’d share a bottle.

GQ: Hahaha, I see that you don’t hide your positive energy.

LDH: Everything becomes memories in the end. You should always strive to have a positive energy. And try not to think negatively. This way, you can find more motivation when an opportunity comes along, and this is also how more opportunities come up. I know that if I don’t love myself, I’ll end up being depressed and have a low self-esteem. So starting with myself, I also try to be nice to everyone, to compliment them. Let’s not be hurtful, and let’s try not to say mean things. I try to tell myself I’m a good person, and I project that to others as well. Let’s be nice to each other. Let’s be someone that gives off a good energy.

GQ: Why did you hurt your knee?

LDH: Ah, this? (Points to her left knee). I rode one of those electric scooters and fell as I tried to avoid an electric pole.

GQ: It must have hurt a lot if you fell while riding it.

LDH: I’m okay now. It was a bit concerning at first, but I’m just glad I didn’t hurt my face. It’s too bad I fell while riding it for the first time, but I wanted to try it so I learned my lesson now. I don’t even look at the scooters now. I know they’re too dangerous for me.

GQ: You made a very decisive conclusion based on your experience.

LDH: Yes, I should never try to ride a scooter again.

GQ: I also see a scar on your neck. Do you fall often?

LDH: Hahaha. No, I was washing a necklace. It’s a necklace made with my grandmother’s ring but the edge is a bit sharp. I got scratched while washing it a bit hastily.

GQ: Did you grow up under your grandmother’s care?

LDH: No I didn’t... actually both of my grandparents died in a car accident. They were so healthy so I thought they would live for a long time, but they suddenly passed away. When I didn’t work for a while, they used to say “When are you going to make money”, or “how long are you planning to live like that, without earning any money for your mom and dad”. It hurt me sometimes. But whenever I appeared on tv, they were the first ones to watch, and they always asked me when I would be on TV, on which channel... and when the time came, they always made sure to turn the tv on and watch my shows, and whenever we met, they told me they were proud of me, holding my hands and hugging me. I always think about these times. I miss them. Very much.

GQ: This is very moving. I believe these emotions and feelings make who you are.

LDH: I might sound like a crazy person, hahahah, but I have a picture of my grandma and grandpa next to my bed, and I always speak to them: “Grandma, I’m back”. If I’m upset about something, I say “Grandma, this thing just happened and this is so hard. I miss you.” - that’s how I cope and move on. This is how I try my best everyday. It makes me focus on what’s important. My family, tomorrow (the future) and all the things I love.