#she also reiterated her support to the admins

[pommunist]

baghera thanking pomme and dapper admins and saying « I lost two kids »

[pixiecaps]

recapping a bit of what haru said on stream

haru on her stream spoke about how shes had a really awful past five years and all her experiences just from this past year has been incredible. she gave a massive thank you to everyone and that she has no regrets.

“i never imagined i’d be where i am right now and i mean it with all my heart thank you so much. i had a very good time and i hope to have made you guys happy.”

she mentioned that since she was young shes always wanted to make content that makes people happy because she felt the world was missing a lot of love so shes happy to have given the world a piece of her heart. she mentioned how shes met so many incredible people who motivated her to see the good parts of life. to have found even this little bit of sunshine has left her so grateful. she says thank you for all the kindness, all the moments, all the memories, all the words, everything. shes very happy and mentioned this has been a very special experience for her. she reminded her chat that theres always another day and to enjoy life to the maximum, to live, to love, to talk, to hug each other, to be happy always, and that all the beautiful happiness we’ve given her will be returned back to us. she continues to express her gratitude. she mentioned this is one of the most beautiful communities shes ever had the pleasure of meeting in the entire world. she goes on to include the spanish, portuguese, french, english, german, and korean community in that statement.

“there is love in all types of languages and that love needs to be shared.“

she said her words will never be enough to express all her gratitude. she gave a reminder to always keep being kind. her voice falters a couple times from all the emotions. she mentioned shes cried enough and didn’t want to keep crying since she had something to do tomorrow and she didnt wanna have swollen eyes lmao.

she then shares a more personal moment. paraphrasing here.

“after i lost my dad i swear i felt like my life was falling apart. i never thought i’d be able to recover. after that many things happened and in those things, i wasnt destined to meet two people, this is a story i’ll always remember because i wasnt destined to meet these people. … they tell me hey the actor for this little thing didn’t show up and i say no way seriously? tell them to let me be it, tell them please because i want to be with you guys (harus two friends who were apart of the project). and i didnt think they’d agree… and they said yes. and i met two very important people and honestly (starts crying) thank you so much. thank you so much nussa. thanks to you i was able to meet them. i never imagined this would happen i promise you. thank you nussa. it means a lot to me that you decided to put me (into the leo spot). the only major thing in my life, i started being so happy, i started enjoying all the moments in my life as if it were the last, thanks to all this i’m here. and could meet you all. such a beautiful community.” she goes on to keep thanking nussa while crying and saying it was written in the stars. she goes on to say that shes gonna tell this as a story some day to her family, who doesnt know what she does or that she streams, and she’ll tell them about all of this with so much care and love. shes very thankful to have learned so much english and more about so many different cultures. she again reiterates shes very happy.

she also teases that she wants to go to brazil!!!! which… might be soon… and that theres little things being planned so hopefully if all goes well…👀 (an egg admin meetup would go so hard)

NOW GO SUPPORT HER ON TWITCH @ HarumiVT

[httpsserene]

𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐚𝐥 - 𝐥𝐬. 𝟏𝟖 | 𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫 𝟒𝟎𝟒: 𝐏𝐍𝐅 |

𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫 𝟒𝟎𝟒: 𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 - 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐰𝐨

summary: if you love her, you have to let her go. who the hell came up with that? content warning: vacation romance. profanity. a couple of suggestive lines. one line of dark humor (toaster bath). fluff and angst. sibling dynamics (bullying). friendship. hard launch (but sad). emotional support esteban ocon (shrugs). heartbreak. this might count as getting together/breaking up. pairing: lance stroll x fem!black!reader

from serene: i feel like i have to reiterate that this does have a happy ending (in the next part). i think my tags are over dramatic asl but, i’m not trying to getting jumped in my inbox for miss tagging anything. also, i know lance isn’t a “popular driver” (whatever that fuckin means) but i’m in love with this smau, and i will not be accepting any judgement xxx

⌕ prev | join taglist | requests & feedback | table of contents | series toc | next ↻

instagram • ynplays • december 14th • cozy in a cabin ⚑

liked by valkyrae, yourbestie, segagenesisthedawg, and 43,879 others

ynplays: falling love with canada🇨🇦🍁🏒⛸️🌨️

tagged yourbestie, segagenesisthedawg, nhl

view comments

ynplays: sega cries after he walks us back to our room at night and leaves 😫

➥ user1: she’s just a liddol girl 🥹

➥ user2: the puppy has spoken u have to keep him i don’t make the rules 🤷🏿‍♀️

➥ user3: so...you have no choice but to run away with him into the sunset.

yoursister: booooo we get it you've been brainwashed by a canadian man 🙄🙄🙄

➥ ynplays: when was the last time you smiled today

➥ yoursister: it's difficult when ALL you do is yap about your crush on this hockey-core man 🤢

➥ ynplays: he gives himbo hockey player IM TELLNG YOU !!!

➥ user4: so he's canadian 😶

user5: his name starts with an L, he's approx 6'0, is brunette with brown eyes, and he's canadian with hockey player vibes👐🏻

➥ user6: i could walk two (2) steps outside of my house in ottawa and i'd run into a man who fits this description 😭😭

➥ user7: he sounds like every other bitch???

➥ user8: let's go through every minor and major hockey league roster again

➥ yourfriend1: "again?" who TF has time for that

user9: tagging THE nhl is crazy 💀

➥ user8: i'm telling you he's a hockey player

➥ user10: idk man he doesn't look like a hockey build in either of these photos🤔

igstory • yoursister uploaded!

[caption1; me and sis] [caption2; fuck. i guess they're kinda cute together 😒]

yourfriend2: did you see them doing snow angels together 🥺🥺☹️ yourfriend2: that had me smiling ngl...they're adorable yoursister: yeah, i'm just happy there's no red flags she's ignoring, he seems like a genuine dude

user11: do you improve of this lance? 6'0, brown eyes, brunette, canadian hockey player 🙂 yoursister: uhh i fear for his life,,are u gonna put a hit on him or smth yoursister: also he is not a hockey player lol user11: oh🫣 yoursister: i'm pretty sure he's like a car engineer or smth? i think i heard him say that

twitter • december 16th

instagram • ynplays • december 16th • sanctuary ⚑

liked by nhl, yoursister, yourbestie, yourmom, and 42,313 others

ynplays: i don't want to leave.

view comments

nhl: not me crying 😩 - admin

➥ user12: huh

➥ user13: nhl admin relatable

yourbestie: aw babe. enjoy your last five days here :)

➥ ynplays: i only have five days left 😟

➥ yourfriend1: oh girlie...it'll be alright

➥ yourfriend2: i always hate this part of the vacation

yoursister: please ask lance if he's willing to take you off my hands. permanently preferably.

➥ ynplays: are you familiar with the term sympathy?

➥ yoursister: oh you're sad for real

➥ yoursister: 😕 therapy session in the hot tub now ladies

➥ user14: this is depressing me

user15: hey, you can just elope? i don't think you've added that to your toolbox yet

➥ ynplays: too sad to even consider it rn

➥ ynplays: nvm he invited me to his cabin later 👅✌🏽

➥ user15: use protection 🙂‍↔️

user16: i feel like this should have a sensitive content warning

➥ user17: my day is ruined

➥ user18: and my disappointment is immeasurable

➥ user19: THERES 104 DAYS OF SUMMER VACATION🗣️🔊

➥ user20: read the room man @/user19

twitter • ynplays • december 21st

instagram • lancestroll • december 24th

liked by estebanocon, chloestroll, astonmartinf1, and 2,109,764 others

lancestroll: winter break has never felt so short. i missed you the second you stepped away from me. happy holidays, baby.

tagged ynplays

view comments

estebanocon: it’ll get better eventually mate ❤️‍🩹 believe it or not

➥ lancestroll: finding it hard to believe rn

chloestroll: come have some hot cocoa with me

➥ lancestroll: yn liked hot cocoa

➥ scottyjames31: oh mate…

➥ user21: okay, i'm concerned for my health. there's some sort of clear liquid leaking from my eyes

➥ user22: FUCK man this is sad 😕

astonmartinf1: chin up lance - admin

➥ alpinef1team: feeling for you mate - admin

➥ mercedesamgf1: sad it ended up like this for you lance - admin

➥ user23: the f1 teams are assembling like the avengers in infinity war for this

➥ user24: an unforgettable day in f1 history

yourmom: fix this. liked by lancestroll

➥ user25: w mama 🤩

➥ user26: tell him ma'am ‼️‼️

yourbestie: thank you for being good to her when you had her

➥ lancestroll: don't thank me for that.

➥ user27: cooking up my toaster bath actually

user30: well this is not the hard launch i wanted to confirm our theory.

➥ user31: brb about to create them in the sims and make them get married and have 6 children, sega, two cats and let them get old together

➥ user: realest cure for heartbreak

user28: no way they decided not being together at all is worse than being long distance

➥ yoursister: that's what i sad but nobody listens to me

➥ user28: why'd they do it???

➥ yoursister: my sister can be incredibly stupid about returned feelings. and for some reason she chose now to "protect her heart"

➥ user29: she deserves her happy ending and needs to allow herself to have it 😭😭😭

twitter • ynplays • december 25th

imessage • lance -> yn

© httpsserene 2024

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Good Omens graphic novel update: January 2024 ❤ 🐍😊

A toast to the new year, courtesy of your favourite angel and demon. Let’s start off 2024 with a preview of some new artwork from the Loot Packs, this time courtesy of Mark Buckingham: 

Our updates will, naturally, become more packed as the year goes on, and for January it’s a fairly swift one, but we promise from here in, there will be lots to cover. 

An update from Colleen

For those of you who missed it, Colleen Doran, our ineffable artist, has posted an update over on Substack detailing her 2023 working on the graphic novel, but also her own journey with various health issues and looking ahead to 2024. As she mentions, but it is worth reiterating: the Good Omens HQ team sends all the good wishes and support to Colleen, now publicly as we had previously done privately. The graphic novel is more than worth the wait. You can read Colleen's full post here.

Some admin...

Final reminder: Cameos 

Thanks to everyone who has submitted their photos. We’ve collated everyone’s excellent pictures for the various tier levels and been in touch if there are any issues, but we have to issue a final reminder for those who backed a cameo tier and have yet to submit. We have sent several individual chases to anyone outstanding and we want to make sure everyone who backed the tier gets their cameo. A final deadline of Friday 9th February 2024 has been set; while we will share any images submitted with Colleen beyond then, with the graphic novel significantly underway, we cannot guarantee inclusion beyond the deadline. 

Addresses

We’ve been messaged a lot about this, so to put minds at ease: we’ve not yet asked for addresses, and this will be done via PledgeManager when it launches later in the year. If you’re moving house, or have moved since backing, don’t worry! All is fine, and can be updated down the road. If you’d like to add more items, this will also be possible there. We’ll notify backers when it’s live, but you can also sign up for an update from PledgeManager if you’d like. 

A Masterful Masterpost

If you'd like to dive more into the behind the scenes of the graphic novel, there's a great masterpost to check out courtesy of @captainfantasticalright. You can view that on Tumblr and TikTok.

Pins? Pins! 

We’ve heard you asking for updates beyond the pins and while we’re working on getting a number of the items to the final stages for production and photographing to share with you, and plan to have some for next month’s update (wait until you see the socks that have just arrived), we’re not quite there yet. So, for those fans of “how many times can you say pins in an update”, here’s a first look at the bookshop pin from the mystery pin packs:

Pins are being notoriously shiny in photos, but exciting nonetheless. Here’s the first(!) delivery of pins that have arrived at GOHQ: 

Safe to say, we have a lot of pins. How many times have we said pins so far? One more for good measure: pins. 

A surprise!

(x) Until next time. 

[nostuntmanneeded]

Why I am “Team PR”

(Admin note: This is a great time to reiterate that I will NOT tolerate any kind of hate in the comments or in my inbox, whatsoever. This is solely my opinion based on studying journalism in school, and what I’ve learned about PR from my journalism classes and experiences. Some people may think that I need to “get a life” or “this isn’t journalism,” but writing is basically my life, especially when I enjoy writing editorials and columns that are supposed to be opinionized. Sebastian and Alejandra are in the public eye. Gossip blogs, meme pages and fan pages emerging is what happens in response to that. Again, please do not hate on me — or any gossip blog in that matter — for having an opinion. If I can respect your side of the story, then you can respect mine. Thank for you listening to my Ted Talk.)

After all of this explaining of how this relationship might be PR, I owe you — the readers — an explanation as to why I chose to side with “Team PR” instead of “Team Real.”

You all know that I’m currently studying to be a journalist, so my views on PR is quite iffy to say the least.

Here are some random and final reasons as to why I believe Sebastian and Alejandra’s relationship is a publicity stunt.

Alejandra’s Fame Versus Sebastian’s Fame

The most common PR relationships are between a well-known celebrity and a lesser-known celebrity. Alejandra is not well-known in the Hollywood industry, and it’s obvious she’s using Sebastian’s fame to get her name out there.

But the big question is: What does Sebastian get out of it?

Alejandra is known to come from a wealthy family, so Sebastian will most likely get money out of this relationship.

But Sebastian isn’t the only party who gets monetary benefits. Sebastian’s agency and team will also get a portion of that benefit, if not more of it.

In the music industry, an artist signs onto a record label in order to get their music recognized. But the artist must share the monetary incentives with their record label and management team. The same goes for the acting industry.

Why Hasn’t the Relationship Come Up in Interviews?

A huge tell to PR relationships is secrecy and hearsay.

You’ll hear about the couple through articles, but no one ever truly confirms the relationship. Or you’ll see something like “sources say” in an article, but no quotes coming out of the celebrities’ mouths.

This is because the contracts that are signed in PR relationships are most likely Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), which means whatever is in the contract is purely confidential.

So legally, Sebastian and his team aren’t allowed to say anything, which is probably why we haven’t gotten a firm confirmation from him.

People Claiming They’re Affiliated with the Industry

I have had some people comment on my TikToks that the relationship isn’t PR because they know people in the industry, and those people have said that it’s not PR.

There’s a couple reasons as to why this may be happening to me and maybe some of you.

First of all, these people who comment could be trying to save the industry or the job. If this person really has family members or friends affiliated with the industry, they could be protecting their reputation.

CAA is known to be “shady” and “scandalous,” as they seemingly supported Harvey Weinstein’s actions by sending actresses to meetings, alone, in a hotel.

Another reason why people might be commenting these things is because PR agents themselves may not be legally allowed to say anything about it.

I’ve recognized that PR agents and publicists will tell you what to expect in a fake relationship, but they will NEVER out or expose any celebrities who may be in one.

Think about it — if the relationship is exposed by an actual PR agent, then the contract is essentially broken and no one gets the benefits from it.

Just remember that a PR agent’s job is to push out a narrative they want you to believe. If that narrative is that the relationship is real, and you believe it, they’re doing their jobs correctly.

Overall, whether this relationship is PR or real, Alejandra is clearly using Sebastian for fame. Personally, this makes me sad and I hope it ends soon.

[no-whump-on-main]

My Experiences and Safety Concerns on the Whumper Gathering and Niji  Discord Servers

      A content warning for this post: I am discussing a real case involving sexualization of a minor and predatory behavior by an adult. Please proceed with caution if you are sensitive to these issues. I remain as vague as I can be throughout the post while still accurately describing what happened and capturing the gravity of the situation.

     I want to start this out by saying I hate cancel culture. I hate it, I hate witch hunts, I hate call out posts, I hate bitching about people on the internet for no good reason.

     But I draw the line when there is a reason. I draw the line where other people, especially minors, are legitimately at risk.

     There have been many posts on the topic of the Whumper Gathering server. Two that explain the situation well are this one and this one. I won’t pick the server itself apart piece by piece here, as I only intend on sharing my own experience there and why I am so concerned for everyone still in the server, and for those who interact with its’ owner, Yume.

     I first joined the Whumper Gathering server in November of 2019. Back then, it was a welcoming place, serving as a hub of roleplay and character discussion. There were a few bumps along the road, but they were routine server issues that Yume handled delicately. Everything was fine. I made close friends there.

     The issues involving me began around the end of January. Yume approached me on the 31st asking if I’d like to be a moderator of the server. I accepted quickly, overjoyed to be a bigger part of the community that I loved so much.

     Unfortunately, that conversation was when everything started to go downhill. The first instance where I felt incredibly unnerved by Yume’s behavior toward me was when she asked this incredibly off-handed question right after I agreed to be a moderator:

     I am a minor. At the time that this conversation occurred, I was thirteen. Yume was completely aware of this, she knew it from my introduction in the server, yet she still somehow considered it appropriate to ask me a question with romantic implications.

     I was extremely confused and taken aback in the moment. I just laughed it off because I didn’t know what else to do.

     Yume’s conduct toward me did not stop or change after that. If anything, it worsened. After I made one joke in the server implying that I wanted to go to college to be a trophy wife, she gripped onto the name for months, and called me HER trophy wife hundreds of times despite the original joke having nothing to do with her. I was too afraid to call her out on how inappropriate it was for her to talk to me like that when she was an adult and I was, by every definition, a child. I tried to drop hints that I was uncomfortable, and while it isn’t her fault for not being able to read between my lines, even when I did finally gain the courage to flat out say I was uncomfortable, she completely brushed me off. A few examples of this behavior are below, the last being her excusing her behavior after I finally told her I didn’t want to be called her trophy wife. *Please note that the names and profile pictures of others involved in the conversations have been crossed out, because they did not consent to being involved with this post in any way, and did not do anything wrong.

    These are just a FEW examples. Again, I don’t want this to be a witch hunt, so I am only providing necessary examples and not leaving unnecessary screenshots to gawk at. Also, there is a 10 image limit per post and I’m trying to fit everything.

     More rather disturbing screenshots that go further than the “trophy wife” deal:

     The first: Completely unpromtedly implying/saying that she wanted to cuddle with me, at the time a 13 year old. I just wanted to talk about bringing my blanket to school.

     The second: Calling me the “titty police” and going on to talk about me in relation to breasts further. 

     This is just what happened in public chats.

     One of the scariest instances of her conduct toward me happened in a moderator chat. I do not have any screenshot evidence for this, because Yume deleted the entire moderator chat after people began to call her out for her behaviors, but I do have the word of the other former moderators who witnessed this happen.

     Soon after I was appointed as a moderator, we had a situation with a user making inappropriate sexual comments/requests in our roleplay channels. This person by all means could’ve been considered a predator. Yume quickly decided that this person needed to be addressed. There were 3 adult moderators at the time, as well as myself and another minor moderator. We all banded together to figure out a message to send to this person as an immediate warning to stop their behaviors.

     Everything went well until it came to who had to send the message. By now, only Yume and Kekune, Yume’s best friend, were online, along with myself. Yume immediately said that her anxiety was too bad to send it, and said it wasn’t a possibility. Kekune also counted herself out on the grounds of simply not wanting to. That left me, a minor, to go privately DM an adult who was breaking rules in an NSFW manner. I was clearly uncomfortable with the situation, but was pressured into it by both Yume and Kekune and guilted about Yume’s anxiety until I gave in.

     Later into my time as a staff member, when I was a promoted to a co-admin, Yume refused to turn off the “administrator” permission for my role. This meant that I could see all of the server’s NSFW channels. I immediately muted and collapsed them, and told her that I was uncomfortable even being able to view them, but she refused to change the permission for weeks because she preferred to just click administrator and it was anxiety inducing for her to do the permissions individually.

     Yume has also engaged in multiple explicit NSFW roleplays in main roleplay chats and refused to move them to a section where minors could not view them, but I will not elaborate because though I was there and witnessed it, it was not a personal matter to me.

     After I finally left the server in July, Yume proceeded to gossip about me privately with other adults and spread misinformation to the members in her server. I have had multiple adult acquaintances tell me they had to shut Yume down from ranting about me to them on many occasions, and rationally, I can assume there’s many more people Yume talked to about me who did not tell me. Below is a screenshot of Yume spreading blatant misinformation about me in the main chat of Whumper Gathering, saying I sent her hate anons when I could not have possibly done so, since she blocked me.

     Again, I want to reiterate this is the surface level of things. There have been many, many more instances of Yume behaving inappropriately toward me or speaking about me in an inappropriate way. 

     What makes this worse is Yume and some members of her new staff team’s responses.

     Yume adamantly denies any wrongdoing and mongers people around her to agree with her by guilting them with her anxiety, triggers, and sex repulsion. She repeatedly tries to use her asexuality to excuse her actions, or to say that she couldn’t possibly be a predator because of her trauma. She denies every aspect of this situation and blames me.

     She blatantly lies about stopping calling me her trophy wife, as the nickname usage did not stop until I left the server and had no further contact with her. She also completely makes up me implying all asexual people are predators. That never happened. She calls my statements contradictory and tries to explain away her actions, taking no personal responsibility for the situation. She tries to use her sex repulsion as an excuse, and does not own up to being at fault for any part of the situation.

     This is just one of her many, many “apologies”/public statements.

     I rejoined both Whumper Gathering and Niji in July with the intention of shedding light on how dangerous of a person Yume was. Niji was originally an RWBY fandom project, but quickly devolved into Yume’s side server and personal venting space.

     I was met with the support of many members, both in Niji and Whumper Gathering, but Yume’s new mod team (not any of the mods I worked with, there was a mass walk out shortly before I rejoined; this is a newly hired set) had some particularly disgusting responses to me. I was attacked, called a liar, and demeaned, particularly by Kekune. Kekune, who is also an adult, said extremely nasty things to me and completely defended Yume and her actions while also flat out attacking me. She blamed me for everything in relation to Yume while trying to garner support from other server members.

     As you can see, Kekune not only excuses Yume’s behavior, but lies about the facts of the situation, and blames me, the literal child in the situation, for every aspect and states that I should‘ve prevented myself from being sexualized by an adult. “She didn’t mean it like that” is just one of many excuses made during this conversation.

     This entire situation has been extremely emotionally and physically exhausting for me. I’ve put off making this post out of fear of backlash, but at this point, I am more concerned about general and minor safety of the whump community than about whatever hate I may receive. There are many, many other horrible behaviors and things Yume has done in the WG and Niji servers; these are just my own personal experiences, as I think the posts I linked above do plenty of explaining, and I don’t need to beat a dead horse.

     My message and point with sharing this is simple. Do Not Interact, particularly if you are a minor. If you are still in WG or Niji, leave. Yume is a dangerous individual, as are many of her mods.

     Yume has over a hundred side blogs. The ones I know she uses most are @/whump-dream and @/midian-alexandra. I urge EVERYONE, particularly minors, not to interact with her or either of her servers. It is not safe. You could end up gaslit, manipulated, and/or verbally abused. It’s not worth being there for entertainment or to “watch the drama.”

     All of the above words are mine and mine only. No one else edited this, or even saw it before I posted it publicly. You are welcome to reblog for signal boost if you’d like, but I ask that you please do not add any comments and message me privately with any concerns, because I do not want this to turn into a witch hunt or a flame war against Yume or her staff, and again, this post is 100% from me. Please be safe, friends. The whump community is meant to be safe and welcoming and individuals like this prevent that from being the case.

-Sara (nowhumponmain)

[cinderllas-archived]

hello, all. as i have a handful of anonymous messages still in my inbox regarding everything that’s happened over the past few days, i’d like to address it as a whole rather than giving the, rather rude, messages i have waiting for an answer. i’ll leave it below the cut for whoever would like to read.

firstly, as i had mentioned in a previous answer, i was not complicit or involved in any of the racist remarks that were shared in the server. furthermore, i absolutely do not condone or support the things that were said whatsoever. i understand that my association with those users and the server involves me in this bigger issue, but please understand that i had absolutely no idea about those messages that were said about a particular ethnicity, and furthermore seeing the screen shots that were posted, was the first time i had ever seen them. i am making sure to distance myself from certain users, and i have deleted my discord account entirely because i do not want to be on that platform anymore. the messages that were sent were inexcusable and intolerant and to reiterate one more time: i was not complicit or involved in the racist behaviour. i do not support what was said, i do not support the racist remarks, and i do not condone any of this behaviour.

secondly, for the anons asking about dailymythology network - yes, the network is technically still up. i have removed all members from the group, and I, myself, have left and unfollowed it. the reason there is one sole member left, is because she was also an admin and therefore i could not remove her. unfortunately, she needs to leave the group herself, and once that has been done, then the net will be terminated. i believe that for all the members who were part of that net, it was in all of our best interest to disconnect from it. 

thirdly, just to reiterate once again, i am distancing myself from the users and no longer have a discord account. i am making sure i distance myself from what unfolded as i do not want to be any part of what happened, since i was not part of any of it to begin with. however, i do understand that i am involved due to my participation in the server. this is why i ultimately feel it is important that i do make a post about this.

(i have turned off my anons because like i said previously, i’ve been getting a lot of rude and aggressive messages which i do not want to deal with anymore. for the anons who have already sent me asks, i will not be replying to them individually - please understand that this post is my answer to all of them. if anybody would like to reach out and discuss anything with me, please DM me privately.)

fourthly, i have spoken with naina and i will continue to support her as well as all other poc on tumblr, and in real life. for the people who have sent me nice and supportive messages, i thank you very much. 

and lastly, to sum all of this up once more - i do not tolerate racism or any other forms of discrimination (i.e. homophobia, anti-lgbtq+, prejudice, etc). so if you find yourself in belief or in support of any of those things that i do not agree with, please unfollow me. hate of any kind toward people of colour, sexual orientation, gender dysphoria, race, religion, culture and/or ethnicity, will absolutely not be tolerated here, so please leave. thank you. 

- chels 

[pochinumaki]

Masterpost on the Hong Kong Extradition Amendment Law Bill

I’ve struggled for a while whether to make a separate and anonymous tumblr blog/email account just to post this, since there have already been arrests made on university students as well as police officers showing up at the house of an admin from a Telegram group that organizes the protest and searching the place. But I know it in my heart that I do no wrong in speaking up. If I do end up facing legal consequences for doing this, then it only further proves my point on how dangerous it has become to live in this once beloved city.

Hong Kong citizens are protesting against the government’s proposed Extradition Law Amendment Bill (“Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2019” in full) that would allow people accused of offense to be handed over to Mainland China, Taiwan, and Macau upon request with only prima facie level evidence provided to the court. The bill has raised serious concerns and opposition for its possible violations against freedom of speech, judicial independence, and Hong Kong’s autonomy under One Country Two Systems, etc. With incidents such as the disappearance of the five staff members working in Causeway Bay bookstore, many fear that the passing of this bill will allow China to request extradition from ANYONE, INCLUDING THOSE WHO ARE NOT RESIDENTS who dare to speak in any form against the CCP and step foot in Hong Kong even only for transition.

Because of this proposed amendment, Hong Kong people have taken to the streets and other acts of protest to voice our disagreement. But our democracy and rights are being stripped away by a government that will not budge even with over 1 million people (one seventh of our population) marching to be heard or seeing students being tear gassed and shot by rubber bullets. The government is refusing to listen to its people, instead it is using unnecessary force on us through its police force and calling us rioters when all we did was gather together and protect ourselves.

As of right now (16th June, 03:00 GMT+8), there has already been one casualty in our fight to be heard. The government has only promised to pause the passing of the bill, meaning that at ANY TIME the Legislative Council can restart the reading process on the bill. Though we still feel suppressed and carry a heavy heart, we will not lose hope. If its citizens are not enough, we are wishing for louder international attention to give the government more pressure to COMPLETELY WITHDRAW the bill to safeguard Hong Kong’s democracy.

PLEASE HELP US STAY INFORMED AND SPREAD THE WORD ON ANY DEVELOPMENT TO AID OUR PROTEST FOR FREEDOM. MORE WAYS TO HELP INCLUDE:

Knowing why it matters to you even if you DON’T LIVE IN HONG KONG.

#News Sources

Read credible, international reports about our protest:

BBC News (topic, all related articles)

Bloomberg: Everything You Need to Know About the Extradition Bill Rocking Hong Kong

CNN (Live updates)

The Economist: The rule of law in Hong Kong

The Guardian: What are the Hong Kong protests about?

The New York Times: What is Hong Kong’s Extradition Bill?

Reuters (Live blog/updates)

SCMP (topic, all related articles)

The Wall Street Journal: Why are People Protesting in Hong Kong?

WashingtonPost: Hong Kong’s protests are about more than an extradition law. Here’s why.

#Petitions

Reject Immigration or Non-Immigration Visas of Hong Kong Government Officials violating human rights (34,785 signed out of 100,000 goal)

Request for Sanctions Against Those Responsible for the Extradition Law Amendment in Hong Kong (100,525 signed out of 100,000 goal)

Impose sanctions upon Hong Kong officials who are acting against American interests (22,560 signed out of 100,000 goal)

Revoke the U.S. Citizenship and Visas of the Hong Kong and China Officials who are in Support of the Extradition Bill (267,354 signed out of 100,000 goal)

Extradition Law Amendment in Hong Kong - Threat to Personal Safety and Freedom (129,991 signed out of 100,000 goal)

Global Signing: Against Extradition to China (580,597 signed out of 1,000,000 goal)

Demand retraction of ‘riot’ classification by the police (81,312 signed out of 150,000 goal)

Revoke Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam's Legion of Honor Distinction (150,176 signed out of 200,000 goal)

#Police Brutality

Cases of questionable behaviour and unnecessary violence committed by the police.

An Open Letter Addressing the UN against Police Brutality - PDF on Google Drive (containing multiple sources listed below)

Compilation of Several Clips on Hong Kong Police's Brutality on 12th June, 2019

Youtube Channel containing footages listed below

Against the Press

French Journalist yelling at police officers to "STOP SHOOTING JOURNALISTS!"

Police officers ignoring freedom of press and forcing a journalist to leave, beating him and calling him “journalist motherfucker”. (Youtube Source 2)

Police officer using pepper spray on journalist then running away. 

Verbal violence

Group of “Elite Team” police officers yelling profanities “Come on out, motherfucker! Lib-tard (literally “liberal cunt”)!”. (Youtube Source 2) (Facebook source 3)

Excessive physical violence

Police officers using water cannon on lone protestor.

Aiming and firing bean bag rounds at protestor’s head. Videos derived from TVB News broadcast. (Youtube Source 2) (Youtube Source 3)

Protestor recounts being shot by police without warning.

Entire group of “Elite Team” police officers jump on unarmed protestor from the back. (Youtube Source 2 )

Same as above. A protestor carrying a box of water.

Same as above. A female protestor.

Group of police officers suddenly beating an already restrained protestor to force him onto the floor. (Youtube Source 2)

Police officers using pepper spray on protestors already retreating into MTR station.

Police officer using pepper water spray multiple times on foreign protestor suffering from leg pain and resting by the grass to force him to leave.

Other abusive behaviour

Smiling/Laughing after firing water cannon. (credit)

Cheerful reaction for colleagues at firing tear gas (presumed).

Posing for photo inside the Legislative Council building after chasing protestors away. Screenshot from Apple Daily News.

Conducting excessive stop and search on young student protestors carrying backpacks or umbrellas in MTR stations.

Blocking an ambulance from reaching injured protestor.

Reports on police officers stopping a blind protestor in the MTR station for suspecting their support cane is a weapon. Both the Hong Kong Blind Union and Ebenezer School Alumni Association have criticized the police’s behaviour. (News Article Source in Chinese) (Hong Kong Blind Union’s Statement on Facebook in Chinese)

Statement and reposted photos by ActionQ, an LGBTQ advocacy group formed by students across higher education institutions on alleged sexual violence committed by police during protests. (Facebook Source in Chinese)

#HongKongers

Members of Gender and Sexual Justice in Action going on hunger strike to protest the bill. They plan to continue for 103 hours for the 1.03 million protestors that showed up on June 9th. Up till now several members have not eaten for 100 hours.

Legislator Kwong Chun Yu, Roy fainting after delivering heartfelt speech to protestors. Caption says he had not eaten or rested for a day since the protest started.

A young protestor refused to use the last bottle of saline solution carried by first aid volunteer and asked her to use it on herself instead so she could save more protestors as they are both injured by tear gas. (News Article Source in Chinese)

An unarmed mother crying her lungs out at police officers in attempt to stop them from using more pepper spray and tear gas. (Youtube Source 2)

Protestors giving their umbrella and putting a helmet on a reporting journalist (Ramy Inocencio, from CBSNews) as they all run from tear gas. Others helped douse his eyes with water.

Video captured by Nathan VanderKlippe (Globe and Mail Beijing correspondent), on joint effort of protestors rushing to douse a tear gas canister to protect other protestors from the gas.

Protestors wrapping the sharp ends of mills barriers to avoid other protestors or police officers getting hurt.

Protestors returning to site of protest after being evacuated at midnight to clean up rubbish.

More than 6000 Hong Kong mothers attended the “Hong Kong Mym AntiELAB Assembly” on 15th June night.

#Live Updates and #Social media in English

Telegram channel: Verified information from various sources , Hong Kong news updates

Instagram: @protecthongkong , @hknews.en

Twitter: @fight4hongkong , @anti_elab , @antielabhk

#Livestream

Twitch: ronald_fung (with english/multilingual interpreting)

Twitch: unabletobreathe 

Facebook: TheStandNews  

Believe it or not, this is not yet a complete collection of footages and news sources. The fight is on-going, and today (16th June) we will march the streets again, not only to reiterate our demand on completely withdrawing the bill, but also for the life that is lost to this fight and to condemn the classification of our protest as a “riot”.

TL;DR Hong Kong needs your support and attention. Please reblog to let more people know. 

[nyfacurrent]

Business of Art | The Arts Administrator’s Creed: 5 Guiding Principles for Your Arts Admin Career

Empowering advice from arts administrators nationwide on how to define and achieve success in your life and work.

Arts administrators work behind-the-scenes on behalf of artists and creatives everywhere, providing resources, support, and structure for their projects and practices. Often, these types of jobs combine a passion for the arts with business, management, education, programming, fundraising, or communications expertise. The work can be highly-rewarding yet also challenging in terms of budget, time, and staff constraints. To help you navigate, we’ve asked leaders in the field for their tips on how to succeed and thrive as an arts administrator.

Manage Your Time

It’s hard not to get stuck in the day-to-day and to lose perspective on the bigger picture. Avoid burnout and fatigue by recognizing that you can’t accomplish everything overnight (or by yourself!) and that there are tools and systems that can help you stay organized.

Many of the arts administrators that we spoke with make lists and use project management and time management apps to keep them on top of their workloads and priorities. Deana Haggag, President and CEO of United States Artists, writes a to-do list every Monday morning and tackles it throughout the week. “On Fridays, I audit what didn't get done and why, so I can resolve it the following week. For reference, we use several project management apps at work—Asana, Airtable, Lattice, Slack, etc—and they're all very helpful but nothing compares to my handwritten list. It's the holy grail of my work week.” Haggag also schedules a few hours each day or week to respond to emails, using a ‘VIP’ inbox to filter through priority contacts so she sees those immediately.

Ben Hartley, Executive Director of The National Arts Club, keeps organization top-of-mind. “Every day, I list my priority projects and make sure they are sitting in front of me at all times. However, sometimes this can be overwhelming, so I also keep on hand a one-page overview of the big things I have to achieve this year. It’s easy to get subsumed by day-to-day detail, but if you’re not stepping back and looking at the big picture once in a while, you risk losing perspective,” he says.

Hunter O’Hanian, Executive Director and CEO of Stonewall National Museum and Archives, relies on two time management techniques: first, he prepares things well in advance and second he is a life-long list-maker who feels a strong sense of accomplishment when crossing off his “to-dos.”

“Figure out what works for you and stick with it,” advises Heather Pontonio, Senior Program Director at Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation. “I’ve tried lots of online note/task apps, but learned that I remember best when I’ve written it down — so my trusty journal notebook comes everywhere with me. I use my calendar app religiously and in addition to appointments, I include scheduled work time when there are projects that require focused attention,” she added.

Adriana Rios, Director of Programs at NALAC, takes five minutes out of every hour to stretch, breathe, or hydrate. “A tool I love using to help keep me accountable is the Focus app, which uses the Pomodoro method. In short, you set a time period (usually in increments of 25 or 55 minutes) around a certain task such as checking emails. For that time period, you focus only on that task. At the end of the allotted time, you have a five-minute break where you can do what you like. Personally, it’s helped me structure my day better and reduce distractions. It has also helped me start structuring my overall time by helping me better understand when it’s time to work and when it’s time to rest.”

Practice Self-Care

You’ll do your best work when you feel good about yourself and the value that you bring to your organization.

A lot of what Rachel Adams, Chief Curator and Director of Programs at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, and her curator friends say (especially as so many are now parents) is "we are not saving the world." She explains: “This is not to say our jobs are not important, but it is important to give yourself a little life/work balance. Even if it is to take a quick walk around the block for some fresh air. Or, turn off the computer and go see that show before it closes. Read something non-work related for 20 minutes a day. Building that into your calendar really helps. Block off that time, and you’ll be happier and also can focus better on the tasks at hand when you need to.”

For Pontonio, self-care isn’t just about yoga and eating healthy, it’s about holding time for what makes you happy. “My first job was with an off-Broadway theater that led to taking an additional house management job at another off-Broadway theater to make rent. I justified the 80 hours a week because I was working in a field I was passionate about. My schedule left little time to actually enjoy theatre and on a night off it was not how I wanted to spend my time.”

Jacque Donaldson and Mara Vlatkovic, co-directors and founders of New York-based networking organization Young Professionals in the Arts (YPA), reiterate the importance of keeping your passion for the arts close and not losing sight of it. “We find it vital to remind ourselves time and again why we work in our field. Go see that concert, exhibition, theater piece, or dance performance that will reignite that spark that made you choose your profession in the first place. Knowing that we all contribute to the art world and are helping creatives achieve their potential can be one of the most rewarding jobs!”

For Ricardo Maldonado, Managing Director of Unterberg Poetry Center at the 92nd Street Y, a demanding job goes beyond the 9-to-5. “Admin gigs require one to find a space—between rooms, between tasks—for the kind of creative thinking that eventually nurtures your own creative practices. For example, before I sat down to answer these questions and after spending a good two hours processing submissions for a poetry contest I run, I gifted myself five minutes to think in response to a screen-shot of a poem I read last week and write, for an additional five, my own response. I collect screenshots and lines that I shape into the body of a poem. As a poet and translator, I am constantly surprised at how the language of work—a move toward that language, and against it—has informed the spirit of/behind (and the ethics of) my poems.”

Stay Curious

Making things work better, identifying and tackling challenges, and being interested in the work that you do and the world around you are key to feeling satisfied in your job. “Always find opportunities to learn. We owe it to ourselves to be lifelong students. We owe it to the next generations to pass down our knowledge,” says Quanice Floyd, Founder and Director of the Arts Administrators of Color Network.

Rajshree Solanki, Chief Registrar for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and Atelier 4’s first-ever Registrar of the Year, is interested in learning techniques on building and strengthening teams within her organization and providing others with the opportunities she was given earlier in her career (note: she donated her $5,000 award to the Smithsonian Institution’s Office of Fellowships and Internships’ Minority Internship program, which gave Solanki her start). “I tend to read business management books specifically on project management, communications, and team-building. I particularly recommend books such as Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, Kim Scott’s Radical Candor: Be Kickass Boss without Losing Your Humanity, and Dan Coyle’s The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups.”

Pontonio stays curious by proactively keeping up with conference offerings in the field that align with her work. “If there’s something of great interest and I am not attending that conference, I will reach out to the presenter afterwards to schedule a meeting about their presentation and top takeaways.”

Adams recommends inexpensive classes from Node Center for Curatorial Studies or travel scholarships for conferences like Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC), College Art Association (CAA), and Common Field. “It’s best to get on all the email lists, specifically I like Call for Curators,” she added.

Yeiry Guevara, Grants Manager at Houston Arts Alliance, says her secret for staying up-to-date is newsletters. She recommends joining the mailing lists of Grantmakers in the Arts, NALAC, Americans for the Arts, and other cultural affairs offices, where she can learn from their layout, messaging, and content, in addition to getting relevant information from the field.

JiaJia Fei, Consulting Director of Digital at The Jewish Museum, makes staying informed a priority since success in the digital world means always keeping your eyes open and asking questions. She begins every team meeting with two agenda items to stay informed about industry changes and advancements: 1) Digital Landscape: sharing an outside project or news item from within the field and its application to the work they do and 2) Digital Cross-Fit: asking another colleague on the team a question about something they’re working on or training on a tactical skill, to encourage cross-training and collaboration. “As an added bonus, we have the privilege of working inside an art museum, which makes us all naturally curious and lifelong learners across everything we do,” says Fei.

Hartley suggests a more organic approach, and encourages you to allow serendipity and chance to play a role in your constant learning: “Sign up for LinkedIn groups, newsletters, and news-feeds that don't relate to your work, but may provide sparks for new ideas; be a source, not a drain, if you see an interesting article, piece of research or video, share it with a friend or colleague and tell them why you found it interesting. Ask them what they're looking at these days that's challenging, informative or exciting.”

Donaldson and Vlatkovic also recommend looking beyond the industry to learn from others, citing resources such as The Muse, Harvard Business Review, Inc, and The New York Times’ “Smarter Living” and “Entrepreneurship” sections to find out recent trends. They then suggest learning how to apply and adapt your discoveries and learnings to the arts.

Artist Sharon Louden, who wears many hats in the arts including serving as the Artistic Director of the Visual Arts at Chautauqua Institution, believes that being curious means being open. She also dedicates time each day with a number of sources to explore what’s happening in the industry. “I love taking about 15-30 minutes a day to peruse online publications, blogs, social media to read about what people are sharing, etc. to not only follow the work of colleagues I know personally but also to see the road maps of their lives, which ultimately leads me to unexpected paths of discovery.”

This practice is also highly beneficial to Louden’s work as an artist: “Following a lot of artists' lives tells me a lot about community, how artists sustain their own lives and ideas for opportunities for myself to grow my own practice. That kind of organic research enables me to build more of my community by reaching out to those I discover, perhaps offering to collaborate, and definitely creating spaces and opportunities for others to share as much as possible."

Create Meaningful Relationships

We’re all in this together, so why not establish lasting ties with peers and mentors at your own and other arts and culture organizations? These relationships are mutually beneficial, and can help you chart and map your career path in ways you may not expect.

“A tip that has served me well,” says Maldonado, is “try to learn as much as you can from as many people as you can; if I’m being generous, in most of my tasks, I often remind myself that I am working with/within a language that needs to be tended to. That impulse to learn affects every curatorial decision I had made since the day I started working and pushes me to move beyond the boundaries of what's expected. And has made me a more attentive (and kinder, I would think) administrator.”

It can also be helpful to re-frame the concept of networking. To that end, Donaldson and Vlatkovic wish “we had known at the beginning of our arts admin careers that networking simply means making connections with other people. From volunteering for organizations you believe in, going to industry events, participating in professional development workshops, or even your small friends group that meets monthly over drinks, all that engagement counts as networking! All those connections are incredibly important and will provide support throughout your career, whether it’s friends looking at your resume, acquaintances recommending you for jobs, or former colleagues sending useful articles.”

Adams suggests a proactive outreach strategy, and encourages arts administrators to reach out to people who are inspiring to you. “See if you can buy them a cup of coffee or have a phone call. Mentorship is important and establishing these relationships (whether it’s a cold call/email or through a friend of a friend) will help propel you.”

It’s important to forge meaningful relationships with both your co-workers and with others in the field. “Your team is there to support you in this work, and if not in your immediate workplace there are other arts administrators out there that want to connect. Reach out!” encourages Rios. Guevara concurs: “I am able to succeed because of the immense support of my team and my current leadership. Their sage insight helps ground me,” she says.

Ashley Walden Davis, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Alternate ROOTS, encourages peer-to-peer relationship building. “Your careers will grow together and one day, you will be those executive leaders and the next generation of future leaders. Having relationships with your peers across the field will make it easier to execute the work of organizational partnerships, fundraise, and execute day-to-day operations which by and large takes place in middle management. Furthermore, you will develop lasting friendships with other arts leaders who can help you troubleshoot, talk through ideas, or just share a laugh about drafting an artistic grant narrative about a project three years away. Having a strong accountability and support system is key to a long, healthy, and sustaining career in the arts.”

Guevara is emphatic that peers make the best mentors because “we’re all figuring it out together. The transparency in learning about each other’s process is very validating.”

Be Confident in Your Abilities and Have Fun!

In any industry, self-doubt can creep in. Don’t let it get the best of you by learning to recognize the unique voice and vision that you bring to your work. Says Guevara: “The first step of owning your value is being able to see or acknowledge your strengths,” and suggests that having mentorship can help you reflect on your strengths especially if you may not be cognizant of them.

Louden has affirming advice for artists who are arts administrators: “We as artists have the ability to bounce back from failure like no other in any other field; we can easily create things from nothing and we can problem solve outside of our studio in much the same way as we do when we make things. The way artists think and just naturally do things in the world is unique from people in every other occupation. There is often a disconnect between artists making their work and applying those skills and talents elsewhere in their lives. Since I see artists valued beyond making their work, perhaps the real challenge is for them—us!—to recognize and apply our natural creative talents on a daily basis."

O’Hanian adds: “People often don’t understand their professional values because in many cases we think we should be doing something else such as paint, sing, write or dance—things we really want to do. However, most people I’ve worked with have been very good at their jobs, whether they know it or not.”

Haggag highly recommends that everyone follow Picard Tips on Twitter. “Wow! I stumbled on them a few months ago and had no idea how badly I needed Star Trek's retired admiral Jean-Luc Picard's management tweets in my life. He recently tweeted 'No one can relax around Dr. Jekyll after they have met Mr. Hyde.' In my management experience, has that been true? Absolutely. Or 'Once all their basic needs are taken care of, crew members are motivated by the meaningfulness of their work.' Like, yes! Gospel!”

In Closing

Kristy Edmunds, Executive and Artistic Director for UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) and the inaugural recipient of United States Artists’ Berresford Prize, provided us with inspiring words to illustrate her belief in arts administrators as change-makers. We’re closing things out with a stanza that we hope propels you forward in your day and in your career:

“Press on, press on, press on! Our cultural charge isn’t fleeting, of this we are certain indeed. Your hand on the wheel is impressive and furtive persistence is key. Press on through the standard of measures. Press on through the spreadsheets and sing! Press on (oh press on) we are counting on you…to care for the cause thus imbued.”

-Amy Aronoff, Senior Communications Officer

Arts administrators in the five boroughs of New York City and surrounding metropolitan area are encouraged to apply to participate in our Emerging Leaders Program 2020. Free of charge to selected participants, the initiative provides leadership training for arts administrators over nine months. Our core objective is to help arts administrators discover, identify, and develop their personal motivation and individual competencies as leaders while exploring the attributes and themes of arts leadership.

This post was inspired by “The Artist’s Creed: 10 Guiding Principles for Your Arts Career.” Published in 2019, it provided empowering advice for artists, distilled from people we admire.

Images: Jenny Kemp (Fellow in Painting ’15), Breach, 2015, gouache on paper; Christie Neptune (Fellow in Interdisciplinary Work ’18), Pulling At My Labels, 2016, single-channel video; and Paul DeMuro (Fellow in Painting ’15), Nailz, 2013, oil on canvas

[resurgemus-hprp]

So this is seriously not something we as admins have ever wanted to do, and we tried to avoid putting attention on one person’s unsubstantiated claims for as long as we could, but we see now that they are on an irrational crusade and will attempt to bring down anyone they can to support the idea that somehow, a canon character that only belongs to Joanne Kathleen Rowling, is actually exclusive to her. We tried to keep her name out of it, we tried to keep our name out of it. But this person has not extended this courtesy to us and so we feel it’s impossible for us to no longer say something when it’s being implied that plagiarism is something we tolerate in our roleplay.

For anyone who is blissfully unaware — and Lord, do we admins wish that we were too — our player Nina (@villainrps), who is our Lily Luna Potter, has been accused of plagiarizing her character from someone named Sarah (@marvolo, @lilys).

I would like to make one thing very clear. We admins did not know Nina or Sarah prior to this week. We are a new rp and we decided to create Resurgemus after taking a break from a different rpc because we wanted to play our favourite canon next-gens. We have no stake in taking a side in this battle. Protecting Nina does nothing for us. We were not Nina’s friends before she joined our RP and frankly, we only really became friends after the absurdity of this entire situation brought us together. We would not be bending over backwards to protect someone we barely knew if we did not honestly, fully believe that she had done nothing wrong.

When Sarah initially approached us with these accusations, we took them very seriously. I (Admin S) discovered one of my OCs had been plagiarized this week as well, and Admin L has had this happen to her before too, so we know the severity of plagiarism and how awful it can feel to see your hard work stolen.

We initially assumed that Sarah was approaching us about an OC, because no one but the creator of a canon character can claim ownership over them, but we kept open-minds because Sarah said she had damning evidence that would prove Nina’s Lily was a carbon copy.

She shared these proofs with us, we both examined them carefully, and even had other people — outside of the rp community mind you, and people who don’t know Sarah or Nina — take a look as well.

We all came to the same conclusion: that while their portrayals of Lily were somewhat similar (as many next gen characterizations tend to be), there was nothing close enough to suggest paraphrasing, let alone straight up plagiarizing.

I (Admin S) am a journalist. Plagiarism is an extremely important part of my job, and I have a very critical eye when it comes to it. But the only commonalities were a generic fanon portrayal of Lily — yes of course, she always knew she was going to be Gryffindor, everyone writes Lily as the most Gryffindor to ever Gryffindor —  and similarly flowery writing styles. Many rpers have that writing style. Personally, I do not, because again — as a journalist — flowery writing has been cut out of me in exchange for concise, snappy phrasing. I feel like I shouldn’t have to explain that people can have similar writing styles unintentionally. You develop your writing style based on the writing you read, and it’s not hard to imagine that many people in the hprpc read the same types of fiction.

In our eyes, this situation is as equally irrational as claiming that a Ben Barnes fc for Sirius Black that likes to cause trouble and flirt and has a headcanon about him going to muggle clubs and/or smoking or something belongs ton one person and anyone else who writes the same type of thing is copying. They’re common portrayals. More than one person is bound to have the same idea because everyone is picking from the same source material. 

Another point I would like to address is this idea that as admins we handled this “irresponsibly”. Sarah never told us she wanted to remain anonymous until after we told her we disagreed with her interpretation of the situation. After the fact, she got upset and claimed that we should have told her. I don’t know how she expected us to address this without giving Nina a fair chance to defend herself — that’s not how life works. If you make massive, severe accusations like this, the accused gets to know what’s going on. We weren’t just going to kick her out willy nilly. We also gave her the screenshots she demanded to further show that we had nothing to hide.

Sarah claimed she wanted to be anonymous to protect herself from harassment when she was the one that on her own admission said she would follow Nina from blog to blog to keep an eye on her Lily. She was the harasser in this situation. I hope I don’t need to tell you that that is creepy. If she’d suspected this for so long, she could’ve said something much sooner. Watching someone for years is stalking, no matter how you slice it.

Furthermore, the way she is handling the situation is immature and irresponsible. She blocks anyone who tries to reason with her, and frankly has made both admins feel gaslit and has done the incredibly manipulative move of threatening to harm herself because of how this is making her feel. We’ve read her “evidence” over and over trying to figure out if we’re missing something with how convinced she is that something has been stolen from her, and we’ve noticed nothing. It’s getting to the point where we’re starting to doubt ourselves because of Sarah’s obsession with victimizing herself, and so this is going to be the only thing we say on this topic. We wanted to post this to defend ourselves, and to defend Nina, and while I’m sure Sarah will find a way to warp this to make us seem like the bad guys, we want to make it clear: the only person in the wrong here is her.

We tried to help her sort through this by letting her know that Nina was happy to discuss the issue with her — since Nina knows she’s done nothing wrong — but in that conversation she also gaslit Nina, accused her of lying over and over, and then had the audacity to imply that Nina stole her Lily characterization for a different, canon character in an entirely different fandom.

The self-absorption is staggering. The implication that her Lily is memorable enough to be used as the basis for a Shadowhunters character (Emma Carstairs) instead of Nina just making her own character and then using her own character as basis for her Lily  is laughable at best. It’s always nice for people to connect with fictional characters, but when it gets to the point that you’re tossing out baseless accusations, that’s the point where it gets unhealthy.

We don’t like being threatened, and we stand by our players 100 percent. 

However, Sarah, as I said, has been posting some concerning content so I want to reiterate that no one should be harassing her, and I encourage her to reach out to people she trusts for support if this situation has made her mental health deteriorate. RP is supposed to make you feel better, not worse.

This is the last we’ll be saying about the matter. To all our players, we’re sorry about this and we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled activity now. Heads up, a plot drop is coming soon!

[bethsblog-languageandnewmed-blog]

My Online Communities

It’s no secret that although Facebook is the most popular social networking site with over 2.3 billion active users, and was once the must have social media site, it has kind of become synonymous with middle-aged women over-sharing, re-runs of the same old Tasty videos, and pretty much just ad-central. Though one of the longest standing social networks and clearly the front runner when it comes to longevity and popularity, the site is full of affordances and constraints, with the majority of them, constraints as many argue that Facebook is pretty outdated - but I’m here to argue the opposite. I have more recently become aware of some of the innovative ways people have adapted Facebook’s widespread “popularity” - as let’s face it, it’s hard to find anyone under the age of 50 that doesn’t have their own Facebook account. And though young people may argue that this is a huge constraint (because who wants their nosey Auntie spying on their every move?) the fact that people of all ages, from all walks of life is actually, when it comes to online communities, is a huge affordance.  

Facebook is being adapted in really innovative ways to keep up with the times and provide us with communicative tools to achieve things that were never before possible. Pretty deep? Yes. True? Absolutely. 

If you think I’m being a bit vague - I’m talking about online communities. Boyd and Ellison (2008) stated that social networking sites are “web based service[s] that allows individuals to... articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.” As soon as I read this I was reminded that I myself, am a member of three specific “online communities” in particular, each with their own very different purposes.

These groups and the media they share are rich in content, with the ability to react to posts, use polls and of course emojis, restricting the constraint of context and allow users to communicate how they are feeling with almost no ambiguity: this in itself has affordances and constraints - because I don’t think many people would be too pleased with a “sad” or “angry” react on a personal post, or a “haha” react on a sad story - so this can bring problems, but these are in the small minority. These little “reacts” are a great tool to eliminate the constraint of contextualisation and are used in my online communities consistently. 

GIRLSMOUTH

Now girls, if you haven’t heard of this one, let me tell you, you’re missing out on some top quality entertainment. In a nutshell, Girlsmouth is a private Facebook group that is strictly girls only. At the time of writing this, the group has 171,146 members, consisting of four admins and six moderators, who monitor the comments of posts they have approved to ensure that there is no selling, promotion, or horrible comments being made. The “founder” of the group, Chloe Todd, describes the group as;

“an empowering support group for women to bring females together rather than bash each other. #girlpower 💁🏼”

The purpose of the group is for members to post for advice, gain support and build relationships with one another. All women are welcome which means that the posts come from women all over the globe, wealthy or struggling, young and old. An example of a post made today is below, within an hour already 28 people have commented offering advice, regardless of the transaction costs of the “conversation” and of over 170,000 people having the ability to see and judge them on their advice and experiences: 

On the whole, the group is very supportive and many members have actually built real life friendships as a result of coming in contact on the site. It is not uncommon for women to post their struggles - whether that be regarding their health, relationship  or financial struggles, and many will come to their aid, offering support and even in some examples, a place to stay, money to tide them over and offerings of friendship to people at their lowest points. 

After being on the group for a while, you start to recognise names and faces and become familiar with people’s stories and struggles and even become a bit invested in some of the stories - a particular stand-out story to me is a girl that has been in hospital for over 13 months now, who has been sharing her story and the challenges shes faced.

Not all the stories are inspirational and moving, and to be honest, this is what I love most about this online community. When trying to find examples of posts to add it took me over thirty minutes to find at least five acceptable ones for an academic blog: I’m talking posts that didn’t mention polls on sexual encounters, disgusting flat mates and family meltdowns and every swear word in the book. As well as these, random questions about people’s favourite foods and make-up are regular features, but that’s all part of life too and really reiterates the idea that people come to Girlsmouth looking to connect and relate to others. I can guarantee now matter how wild or weird your story or post, there will be a group of women on Girlsmouth ready to relate to you. And that’s what makes Girlsmouth so great at what it does - and a huge source of entertainment.

In summary, Girlsmouth is pretty much the best procrastination there is. But aside from that, it reminds us that whilst social media may be full of unattainable goals - whether this be in our appearance, holidays, relationships of financial situations, at the end of the day, we are all just human, and we could all do with a bit of advice and support sometimes - even if it is just about which Diet Coke tastes best (which is obviously full fat instead...)

READING WOMEN WALKING HOME

The second online community I am part of is a pretty new development, and if you live in Reading (which considering this is a university blog, is all of you) you need to join this group. With 2538 members, including University of Reading security team member Steve, this group was created with the purpose of warning other women about the strange and worrying behaviour of members of the public to ensure we can all stay safe. Unfortunately, there are multiple new posts daily, with women experiencing harassment, break-ins and burglaries on a daily basis. 

Some may argue that this group does nothing but scaremonger, possibly stating that ignorance is bliss, as they say - but I couldn’t disagree more. As women it is our duty to stand together in the face of such adversities, and in a world where we are at risk simply from walking home from a lecture in the middle of the day, no precaution is too much. This feeling of support and community is exactly what we need when facing these issues.

Thankfully, this support group is not just something that is happening at our university. The group was inspired by The Tab newspapers article on another “Women Walking Home” group chat. As well as a page for women to join, there is also a Facebook messenger group chat in which members are encouraged to message if they feel unsafe so another member can ring them on their walk home in another selfless offering of support, between women with weak and strong ties alike. Some may argue that this group isn’t entirely inclusive because it is heavily orientated towards females, but this doesn’t stop the group from being an online community, as these are defined as a tool to enable users to “ articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection” (Boyd and Ellison, 2008) as aforementioned, and typically, males don’t get approached in this way. Males are present on the group as I have mentioned, in the form of the university security team. In fact, them joining the group could be a positive step, so that they are aware of what is going on, but this could also be negative as this could allow the members of the public who are engaging in this behaviour to become aware of the location of users and thus perpetuate the problem. So, in some cases, being inclusive of both genders is not of upmost importance.

This online community and utilisation of social media is a huge affordance of Facebook and social media, showcasing an amazing and innovative way to use the sites to stay safe. It’s also a great example of the constant development of social media and how we can use these advancements in everything we do. Which begs the question, is Facebook really as outdated and boring as everyone says?

LOST AND FOUND PETS IN BRISTOL/SOUTH GLOS

Finally, a group I have been a member of for a few years now: Lost and Found Pets in Bristol/South Gloucestershire. This group really epitomises the affordances of social media for me. With 30,208 members, this group is responsible for re-uniting thousands of lost, found and stolen pets with their owners, as well as re-homing pets with no where to go. The idea behind it is simple.

Lost an animal? Found an animal? 

Simply post a picture, location or description and the tens-of-thousands of members will get to work for you.

Due to the longevity of the group, members and admin have a great relationship with one another, and its a recipe for success. Admin are aware of members and their location so that when an animal or pet goes missing or pops up in their area, someone can be on site ASAP. It really is as simple and effective as that. The admins are so invested in the page that they have been known to recognise pets that have gone missing years prior when their little furry face pops up on their feed - with one cat and owner being re-united after eight years! EIGHT! This group proves that miracles really can, and do, happen.

Never have I lost a pet (thank goodness) but the sheer thought of losing my dogs motivated me to join this group to ensure that if I ever do, I know that 30,000 people in Bristol are aware of it almost instantaneously and can assist in my search, with success. In 2015, 7000 pets were reunited with their owners from the group alone - even pets with no microchip are often re-united purely from the work of this group! If that doesn’t convince you that Facebook can be used for good, I don’t know what can. I think that it is a priceless and hugely innovative way to use social media - gone are the days of soggy “LOST” posters stapled to lamp-posts and trees and loss of reunion hope. 

In summary, These communities are characterised by their complex nesting structure but this complexity and structure is what makes these groups so diverse, and so great: the variety of connections made possible by these communities is unparalleled. The media richness and participant framework within these groups, one many times a global level, allows users to be bound together by a common interest, concern or topic and though they may have no personal relationship with other users, referred to as weak ties, this factor doesn’t restrict their capacity to offer advice or engage in conversation, with mavens: who are people with access to things that are beneficial to others, and connectors: people who act as bridges for the facilitation of these things, working together to achieve positivity, costly or not.  

These communities are the future of Facebook.

Dunbar’s number, who? We have thousands of online friends now.

Boyd, D., & Ellison, N. (2008). Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 13, 210-230.

[indieviolet]

shadows, chapter five

notes: Not a pretty fic, will discuss sex and alcohol. Also implied self-harm. Lots of angst. Rated a high T, borderline M. I’m not a doctor or healthcare professional so treatment and diagnosis may be wrong.

Alicia had suspected dehydration as soon as Duffy was admitted to the department, but had to wait for the blood tests to determine that it was. The results came in just after Alicia had, had a break and she went to the cubicle.

She opened the curtain and smiled sadly. Duffy was asleep, her hair in her face, one hand wrapped around the blanket. She closed the curtain and stepped towards the bed.

“Duffy?” Alicia called quietly only to receive no response.

“Duffy?” She called her again, slightly louder but still didn’t get a response. However, as soon as Alicia placed her hand against Duffy’s shoulder to shake her lightly, the older of the two shot awake, her breathing fast. Alicia jumped back, startled at Duffy’s reaction and removed her hand from her shoulder. Duffy took a deep breathe in, she’d been dreaming of something and Alicia’s touch had snapped her out of that.

“I didn’t mean to startle you,” Duffy said to Alicia when she’d gathered her breath back.

Alicia shook her head, “you didn’t, not really.” She paused, “I came to tell you, I’ve got your blood results back.”

“And?” As soon as she asked the question, Duffy yawned.

“As I suspected, you’re dehydrated. I’ll need to give you fluids in order to hydrate you.”

Duffy nodded, she’d suspected dehydration herself, especially the last couple of hours when she had nothing to do but think.

“I’ll go and get your fluids and then I’ll leave you to get some more rest.”

She nodded again. Dehydration wasn’t so bad, she’d only need a bag of fluid before being sent on her way. She could’ve done that at home, she really hadn’t required hospital services had she? Before she knew it, Alicia had returned and set her up on the drip.

“I’ll redo your bloods at the end of this and depending on the results means you are able to go home or not.”

She nodded and yawned again, closing her eyes for a second. Alicia smiled as she left her to rest, drawing the curtain around the bay as she moved on to deal with another patient.

After been woken, mid nightmare by Alicia, Duffy struggled to sleep. She was tired, wanted nothing more to go back to sleep but her mind kept replaying over the same scenario, over and over again. She closed her eyes and opened them quickly, looking down at the drip in her hand. She sighed. Trust her to become dehydrated. She rubbed her forehead and yawned again, frustrated at her lack of ability to settle. She closed her eyes, hoping that if she kept them closed, she might dose off.

Alicia picked up her plastic coffee cup from the side, downed the contents and disposed the plastic in one of the recycling bins. She sighed as she took herself to the admin area in the middle of cubicles and picked up Duffy’s file. It was in the file that mentioned she’d previously been prescribed antidepressants but there was no mention of those antidepressants when Duffy presented to the ED with her previous fall, a couple of weeks back. Alicia was obviously concerned for Duffy’s well-being. The fact she was dehydrated was a good indication she hadn’t been looking after herself as well as she could. Not to mention it was possible she was using alcohol as an emotional support, following her split from Charlie. Alicia wasn’t sure how best to broach the situation- Duffy’s earlier attitude with Iain and Ruby for doing their job, made Alicia slightly afraid. Still, she was a doctor and if she had any concerns about her patient, she’d deal with them. Regardless of who her patient was.

Forty minutes after putting up the drip, Alicia returned to check on Duffy’s progress. Duffy was still awake, fiddling with the ends of a blanket watching the drip go to work. She sighed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Can I get you anything?”

Duffy shook her head, “no thank you.”

There was a silence as Alicia stepped towards the end of the bed. “I’ve been reading your notes..”

“And...?”

Alicia cleared her throat nervously. “Well, three months ago you were diagnosed with depression and prescribed fluoxetine. But when you had your fall, there was no mention of your medication or your previous diagnosis.”

“What are you getting at Alicia?” Duffy’s tone was abrupt and sharp. Alicia sighed, this wasn’t going to be an easy task.

“Are you still on the medication?”

Duffy didn’t answer for a couple of minutes, “that’s none of your business.”

“As your....”

“It’s none of your business!” She reiterated, “and I’m not prepared to discuss the matter further. Now I’d appreciate it if you left.”

She sighed, “Duffy. I’m only trying...”

“To help?” Duffy scoffed. “No one can possibly help! Now go away.”

Alicia sighed, nodded and turned to leave the cubicle. She’d heard all about Duffy’s stubborn streak, had witnessed it several times at work but there was something slightly, uneasy about her current stubbornness.

At around six-fifteen, Duffy’s drip was changed and she was having her second lot of IV fluids. There was still a tense atmosphere between two women, Duffy refusing to acknowledge Alicia when she was spoken too. She knew it was rude but for Duffy it was also a way of keeping her at a distance, she couldn’t let her get too close to the truth. Alicia was sat, chewing her lower lip, repeatedly clicking her pen, a form in front of her. She was considering a referral to the mental health team but she wasn’t sure.

“Morning,” There was a gentle squeeze to her shoulder as Ethan arrived with a coffee. He placed it on the desk in front of her. “You look like you could do with a coffee.”

She smiled at Ethan and glanced at the clock. “Thanks, you’re here early.” She commented noticing the time and that he wasn’t due to start until 7.

“I had a few things to do beforehand. Are you ok?” He gestured towards the form on the desk.

She nodded and picked up the coffee, took a large sip and sighed. “I’ve just got a difficult patient that’s all.”

“Talk me through it? What makes you think a referral is necessary?”

Alicia cupped the plastic cup in her hands and answered, “female admitted with severe dehydration after collapsing twice. Clear signs of alcohol abuse and possible self-harm. Was diagnosed with depression three months ago but..” she sighed, “There was no mention of this in her previous ED attendance which was only a matter of weeks ago.”

“I’ve assuming you’ve tried talking to the patient?”

“Yeah but she’s not the kind of person to listen to what you’ve got to say.” Alicia replied, taking another sip of her drink.

Ethan laughed, “stubborn?”

“Very.” There was a comfortable silence before Ethan spoke.

“You know the patient better than I do but if you feel a referral is necessary, I’d go ahead.” He smiled, “I’ll leave you to get on.”

As he walked away, Alicia glanced over at the cubicle Duffy was in, down at her form, took a deep breath and then decided to fill it in.

—x—

All feedback is appreciated and welcomed, thank you for the feedback so far. Don’t forget to like the post.

[gqteach]

It’s been a minute, hasn’t it? This time I didn’t forget the blog exists, though, it’s just been busy and I haven’t had even a second to sit down and make a post.

Things with my co-teacher came to a boiling point because of a comment I made about the situation to another teacher (who already knew about all this). It was pointed out that this is a straight-up Title IX violation and that if not for respecting me and making it easier for me to do my job, then she should at least try harder because there are actual legal consequences.

For the record, I’d been intentionally avoiding thinking about the whole Title IX thing, but as I’ve worked through this more, my denial and repression have been less successful. Which is probably healthy but also inconvenient.

Anyway, I got screamed at that now people are going to think she’s a horrible person, and a whole bunch of other stuff, and we basically ended with this is the best she can do (I will reiterate from an earlier post, she has never corrected herself once and continues to slip into gendered honorifics) and she won’t change, so it’s up to me whether I learn to put up with it or escalate the situation.

You will be happy to know, dear reader, that I decided to take care of myself and ended up having a meeting with the principal about it. She’s supposed to see if she can talk to said co-teacher, convince her where I failed, and has promised if that doesn’t work, we’ll talk about “Next Steps.” Genuinely, it’s really nice to feel supported in this by admin, and it sucks that it’s impressive and not just the norm, but it is and I’m glad I’m here, experiencing it.

On a happier note, I’ve been working with the district advising committee for the GSAs. We’ve been talking a lot about transformative justice, which is awesome because it’s a step beyond restorative justice that I’d never heard of before. It’s going to be hard to implement on a large scale, but it’s definitely the next logical step after restorative justice, so at least I can try some of these practices.

I really wish schools were better about the restorative justice stuff, though. The punitive discipline still seems favored in a lot of places, but I’ve had a lot more success by speaking calmly and addressing the root of the issue. Of course, that just means I get to lead the change, but that gets exhausting.

The other fun thing about the advising committee is that I’m on my way to having friends. I’m still awkward as hell and don’t know how to interact with people, but I’m doing my best. The whole lot is neurodivergent anyway, so they get it. I’ve also determined I’m quite bad at holding text conversations, which probably explains why my long-distance relationship fell apart (cuz she had the same problem) and why I don’t really have friends (yay pandemic). I will accept tips from other ADHD friends because text communication doesn’t seem conducive to how I usually converse, so feel free to volunteer some if you’ve got ‘em.

I’m still exhausted all the time, the weird summer-winter is wrecking my physical form, and I’m worrying about pretty much everything, but I am feeling peace right now, and a little bit hopeful. I wish you all a peaceful time, until whenever I manage to post next.

(11/13/22)

[thelittlepalmtree]

I'm going to complain about work again. There's an admin at my school and I initially did not like her and then I kind of got on her team and now I don't like her again. The reason I initially didn't like her was that she says things like my wondering is. And she uses as annoying teachers speak with us. Like I don't know how to describe it there's certain teacher speak that's good that's like really effective because it's just super clear communication. And certain things are annoying like saying my wondering is instead of I just wonder. Or like one time she said that she felt Othered as a kid And I won't get into why. But like just say left out. Like it just comes off so condescending. So a petty reason to not like her I get it. She just came off as condescending And fake as hell to me.

And then our building got worse and worse and I reached out to her more and/or more and she became pretty supportive. And like she's supportive of me doing what I want to Do. Which I like but I'm coming to realize that this is because she is bad at her job. And to be fair in our district everybody gets set up to fail like from the top down. So maybe she's just like way overloaded with stuff.

But she is really bad with the kids. Like 1st of all, she doesn't know any of them because she only meets them when they're at their worst. But like every time she pulls a kid these days she's not calm she's like pissed. And for most kids, that is just gonna turn them off more and make them listen to you less. And I get that you're frustrated but it fucks me over when I'm having a conversation with a kid and then you burst in to yelling at them. And what am I gonna do to undermine you? No. And there are certain kids that I have built a really strong report with throughout the year there's one girl who We'll do work if I ask her too and it's like really trying to do well but just can't control herself. And I keep trying to support her because like when I have a conversation with her I do feel like we get somewhere. And there's another girl with a similar situation I'd have to be a little bit harder on her. But like It's frustrating to me when I'm like Hey let's go talk to the administrator. And I come in with the kid and I'm like let me help you communicate your feelings and then also sort of like being a mediator for the situation and I'm having to be a mediator between the admin and the student. Like as opposed to the admin being a neutral party I'm having to get us back on track and focus on this person yelling at this kid.

And like you can tell that she's upset that all the kids hate her. But like that's the job bro. And if you want to build relationships with these kids it sure as hell doesn't come with yelling at them when they're at their worst. I mean you wanna know why they treat you like this and they are so rude to you it's because they can tell they got under your skin. Like if you were just calm and chill and just reiterated what's going to happen even when they're being assholes to you you would be so much more successful. And I get it for like a lot of people it's like there's a lot of really difficult stuff that goes on. But for her, it's like literally every situation. And it undermines her authority because like they can tell. And she always looks 10 times more stressed than she needs to be. And I know I'm being harsh here but this is the job. This is why I would not want to be an admin. It's really hard and if you're bad at it a lot of people suffer. Mostly the kids.

[kpopscenariosblog]

A past in the nile: Part 1

Jungkook x Reader

Ancient Egypt au, mystery au, Fantasy au

Word count: 1,591

Summary: Fresh out of high school you go on a trip to Egypt with your friend just to witness an ancient corpse be brought back to life.

1| 2 | 3 | 

The crew that you were packed up with had decided to station outside of one of many tombs that surrounded the area in which you were located. You were to be camping out here until tomorrow or the day after, seeing as to how there was a bunch more to do before you guys left. Although this was not your area of expertise, being fresh out of high school and soon to be starting college, you ended up here with your close friend Jimin who was invited on this trip by his friend, jin, who was an archeologist.

Jimin perched himself next to you extending his arm out to offer a bottle of water, to which you accepted gladly, taking big gulps and not placing the the bottle of warm liquid down until it was less than half-way full.

“Hey do you wanna go look into one last tomb before we head off to get some shut eye?” He asked wearing a wide yet soft grin

You were convinced to reject his offer, but who could resist the smile of Park jimin? Definitely not you and so you nodded your head standing up, with your flash light in hand

You alongside four others observed the brown and worn out walls of the supposed to be “tomb”. But inside of this tomb there was nothing: no treasure, no jewelry, and no sarcophagus, save for the writings on the walls. You tried to decipher what story it was telling but not only was the writing hieroglyphics but some other ancient writing form.

“what does it say?” hoseok asked, walking up behind you to study the wall that you were extremely concentrated on

“ i’m not entirely sure. its in some other type of language.”

“oh, I see.” he started, his face growing even brighter “ It’s in hanja, a ancient korean type of writing.”

“But why would it be in korean.” jin pitched in

“I guess we’ll have to find out.” said Jimin and everyones heads whipped in his direction just to see him leaning on a wall which sat beside a staircase going down. You don’t recall that being there before so it must’ve been hidden. As you guys walked down the dark stair case hoseok was reiterating what story the writings on the wall above was telling. 

“Once upon a time there was a princess whose name was Bektamun, she eventually married a korean prince by the name of jungkook. Thats probably why some of it was written in hanja. But anyways they got married in secret because neither of their families supported their relationship. But there was nothing that they could do about it because the ceremony and ritual was already complete. Jungkook and Bektamun ruled over some kingdom for a solid year, where most people saw them as a god and goddess because of their “powers”.

“oh so lots of family drama and then death after a year of being married.” you rolled your eyes “ sounds like the perfect love story”

You ended up in a candle lit room where finally there were two sarcophagus’ sat side by side. One of which was completely empty. Thats odd but not only that but there were lit candles scattered around the room. you squatted down to feel the white substance that lay on the ground in a an almost perfect circle. It had a powdery texture. 

“Hey guys, look” Jimin called out and every one in the room gathered around the golden box that you assumed belonged to jungkook. Where was Bektamun’s body then?.

Hyuna, one of the bunch of you who tagged alone to explore this last tomb began to whisper something that you couldn’t quite make out. After awhile of her just straight out whispering you figured that she was chanting something which kind of creeped you out. Eventually she grabbed your hand and placed it on the corpses chest, as her chants got louder. the necklace wrapped around the dead man’s neck began to glow and you tried your hardest to pull away but to no avail could you do so because Hyuna had a tight locked grip on your wrist, you looked down in horror, wandering why no one was doing anything about your current situation. Finally she let go as you let out a horrendously loud scream and jumped away from the sarcophagus. She and everyone else in the room fell into a fit of laughter, as you rubbed your wrist, not very happy at Hyuna for making you touch a corpse.

“Come on (y/n), it was just a prank” said jimin trailing behind you as you stormed off

“It wasn’t very funny.” 

you ended up in some unknown room that held a bunch of scrolls and you rolled your finger against the rough material called papyrus. Hearing rustling from behind you, you snapped your body to face your guest.

“Look Jimin, I don’t feel like-” you started but soon stopped realizing that the intruder was not Park Jimin nor was this guy anyone from the crew that you were stationed with.

“Who are you.” You asked and the tall dark-haired stranger gave you a cute bunny smile

“Bektamun?” he asked and upon seeing your confused face he uttered out another name

“(y/n)?”

“How do you know my name?”

His grin got bigger if even possible, before he spoke something in a foreign tongue

“JIMIN, I SWEAR TO GOD IF THIS IS ANOTHER JOKE.” you threatened 

Jimin alongside the rest of the group came trailing into the room and the mystery guys eyes lit up instantly in recognition

“Jimin?” he questioned and the latter turned to face him before he engaged into a conversation with the guy, all the while you not knowing anything that they were saying

The unknown man walked towards you lifting his hand to place it onto your cheek which somehow felt very comforting and warm

“Bektamun, my love, it has been over 5,000 years, It is I, Jungkook.”

This had to be some kind of a prank. You ran off to the site where jungkook’s corpse was located just to see it empty. For some reason you refused to believe that the man was just brought back from the dead. Jimin came from behind you and placed a hand on your shoulder.

“Where is the body Jimin? This is not funny.”

“(y/n), I’m gonna need you to listen to me.” He began and you turned around to face him your lips quivering and your eyes starting to water from shock, disbelief, and fear.

“You are a reincarnation of Bektamun and you have a history with Jungkook. The memories will come to you sooner or later because he has awaken.”

You slid down until you sat down on the cold hard ground, trying to process the information that was just fed to you, before everything went black.

It was a normal hot and sunny day, you stood beside a man and woman who appeared to be of high class. These two were your parents. You looked up and instantly locked eyes with chocolatey brown orbs, getting lost into the foreign boys eyes while he did the same.

“(y/n), this is Jungkook and his father Jinwoo, they are of royalty from a foreign land and we will be housing them until they are able to get back to their home.” your father said, snapping you out of your trance.

“It is my pleasure to meet you both.” you spoke before your mother chimed in

“(y/n), why don’t you show Jungkook around. We have stuff to discuss with his father.

“Okay.”

You and Jungkook walked side by side, strolling through the food markets

“This is a really beautiful place.” he said and you flashed him a smile

“It truly is and someday I will be the ruler of this beautiful kingdom.” 

“ A beautiful kingdom, for a beautiful girl, whomever you shall marry will be very fortunate.” You both wore uncontrollable smiles

in this day you taught jungkook how to do some traditional dances such as belly dancing and body rolling, you introduced him to your cultures style of food, and even taught him a few words in your own language, while also telling him of some old stories before your time. In the end you both had a ton of fun and couldn’t help the giggles that fell from each of your mouths.

“How about we meet again, tomorrow maybe?” Jungkook asked and you beamed

“Tomorrow sounds perfect, meet me by the courts.” And with that you both went you separate ways anticipating the meeting that you both sat up for the following day.

Your eyes snapped open, scanning your surroundings, just to figure out that you were in a tent.

“How are you feeling?” a voice to your side snapped you out of your thoughts

“ Oh Jimin, you will not believe the dream that I just had.” you cried out getting ready to tell him of your rollercoaster of emotions.

But just as you were about to spill to Jimin about you extremely odd dream you locked eyes with the same guy that haunted your mind at the moment, Jungkook,. You stared at him for a few minutes trying to process in you head what was happening and while you were doing so he smirked at the same time that Jimin let out a small chuckle. That was when you knew that those supposed “dreams” that you had just experienced were indeed real.

What were you going to do now?

~ admin

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GDFI’S GENERAL MANAGER LOOKING BACK AND MOVING FORWARD

Growing at an unstoppable rate  year-on-year, Global Dominion Financing Inc. (GDFI) is certainly one of the best financing companies in the Philippines today and the following decades, considering its powerful workforce, committed top talents, flexible structure, innovative tools and processes, competitive products and services, data-centric operations, and last but not the least, positive culture. Its products have been evolving to be tailor-fit to Filipinos’ needs, including OFW Loan, Pinoy Abroad Loan, Seaman’s Loan, Doctors Loan, Car Loan (Sangla OR/CR), Car Financing, Truck Loan, Truck Financing, Medical Equipment Financing, and Business Loan.

As usual, people wonder who the man is on top of it all – actually, it’s a woman!

Driven by her utmost passion to make an impact, fate swayed Patricia Poco-Palacios (PPP) to Global Dominion Financing Inc., where she now leads as its General Manager (GM). “The financing space, as a service business, really gave me opportunities to apply my creativity, made me discover that there’s so much more for me to learn, and made me realize how much its products help people and communities,” Patricia said in an interview. The rock star GM is one of the firsts, if not the first, to initiate the use of cash cards for loans releasing, and delimit repayment options to just post-dated checks, in the face of the lending industry in the Philippines.

A marketing graduate from De La Salle University (DLSU), Patricia achieved one of her first successes being named as among the 2004 Agora Youth Awards’ Ten Outstanding Students by the Philippine Marketing Association (PMA). Patricia Poco-Palacios further sharpened her mind and skills with another academic tool, finishing Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in the Ateneo Graduate School of Business.

Culture And Commitment

Looking back, she never really imagined the company growing this big and herself enjoying developing more and more people for more than a decade. Trusting that nothing’s impossible and staying committed helped blossom the best in the people and in the organization. When she started taking over a leadership role, Patricia started transforming the company’s culture, to deliver results with a few questions in mind.

Can people really perform better with fear?

Are there processes or ways which are no longer applicable and could result to improvement if eliminated?

How are employees supported to achieve their goals? Are they being trained? Are they being coached to get from point A to point B?

What are the consequences of measuring new employees in the same manner done for the experienced ones? Is that even fair?

Are people aware of the good there is in them?

Transformed by a series of training and personal development programs herself, Patricia introduced learning concepts and actual training sessions to the team. “The main thesis of the coaching process is that people are good; it’s just a matter of helping them discover the good in them and be the good they are,” she uttered. Needless to say, through PPP, GDFI’s growth direction is being supported by developing people and keeping a collaborative environment.

And because the organization immensely invests in its people, letting go is definitely the toughest part of the job. But Patricia knows that letting go helps keep the organization far from mediocrity, keeps balance and fairness, and actually sends others to better places where they could potentially discover the best in them.

“My hope is, that everyone gives their best not just because the company invested in them through several training and development programs, but also for themselves, because they really want to be their best,” the General Manager added.

GDFI’s very own Assistant General Manager, Jeric Cornejo, and the General Manager of Global SME, formerly GDFI’s South GMA Area Manager, Jan Wesley Albajera, are just two of the living testimonies to the company’s development culture and commitment.

Fast Talk With PPP

To failures: “Oh my, we failed! Well, yes we really did. But what’s the lesson?”

To the ever-changing sky-high targets: “Wow, what am I going to learn this time in the process of getting there?”

To GDFI as an organization: “Global is a force for good, transforming our employees to the better versions of themselves, and helping more and more people with their financing needs.”

To the past: “I am kinder now to people and to myself (a bunch of laughs).”

To the competition: “That’s what we have been preparing for!”

The Leader She Is

Dubbed as the great development counselor and lead innovator by many, Patricia finds it hard to use just a few words to describe her own leadership style. But help isn’t scarce in Global Dominion, and so I got a few statements. Jennie Mamerto from Finance describes the General Manager as ‘straightforward’ and ‘objective’. “In a coaching session with her, which by the way you wouldn’t notice that it’s a coaching session, she will help you solve a problem yourself and discover that you actually have everything you need to resolve it,” Jennie added. Abbey Blanco, Head of Systems Admin department, said that Ma’am Pat will “help bring out the best in you, and to treat problems or failures as challenges which can be resolved.” Forbes Financial Consultancy Corporation (FFCC) President Chito Francisco R. Dizon (CFRD) had the following words to describe the GDFI leader “very innovative and responsive to market deviations” – the very characteristics required to lead a reputable financing institution to the right direction.

“Passionate and full of energy. Her optimism and positive outlook affect and inspire the troops,” Robert Jordan Jr. (RBJ), Asialink Group of Companies Chief Executive Officer (CEO) stated, describing Palacios.

Welcoming 2019 With A Bang!

Probably just as curious and excited as everyone else, PPP reiterated that aside from taking action to hit higher targets and continuously making significant headway in strengthening our commitment to our employees and consultants, GDFI will be more focused in building stronger long-term relationships with its clients, and understanding them more with the help of data and technology for the year to come and beyond.

Truly, nothing’s going to get in the way of GDFI to be the leading force in expanding financial inclusion globally, by helping individuals and businesses accelerate the achievement of their full potential through innovative loan products and services, such as Non-collateral Low Interest Multi-purpose Cash Loan for OFWs, Non-collateral Fast Personal Cash Loan for Doctors, Non-collateral Low Interest Multi-purpose Personal Loan for Seafarers, Car Collateral Loan (Sangla OR/CR), Second-hand Car and Truck Financing, Car Loan Takeout, Non-collateral Low Interest Multi-purpose Cash Loan for Pinoys Abroad, Truck Collateral Loan (Sangla Truck OR/CR), Tricycle Collateral Loan, Medical Equipment Financing, and Modified Business Loan.

“There is still a lot of things to accomplish and a lot more to improve on. As one of our key officers mentioned, we have barely scratched the surface of what GDFI is capable of. We are proud of our achievements, but we still have a long way to go to help make things better for the Filipinos here and everywhere across the globe!” Patricia Poco-Palacios pronounced closing her interview.

For inquiries about this article please shoot an email to cpguanzon@gdfi.ph. To apply for a loan product now, just click here!