#the uk is a disaster im obsessed with it

[daisy-mooon]

English myths are like here is the cutest little fairy you've ever seen he occasionally pranks you and he likes butter. And then British mythology outside of England is like here is blood thirsty killer mckill kill who eats ten thousand babies and kills you

[taskmastersource]

Not sure if you've already done so, but can you rank the 15 UK series so far? Maybe based on your enjoyment if not overall quality? Or alternatively favourite 15 contestants? Or tell me to sod off 😊

my asks are always open to messages, i'm so sorry i just suck at replying to them and i wish i wasn't so busy bc somehow this has been stuck in my asks half written since june

i never really rank things like this, bc i love them all for their very different ways and moments. whenever i get asked for a favourite series i end up listing like half of them, bc you can't just choose! and what series im (re)watching becomes my current obsession

though, i will say s15 has been such a joy to watch with a great mix of contestants - frankie not giving a shit but still staying part of the silliness of the show, delivering many great lines as well. ivo, an aboslute disaster of a posh boy, eton mess. and pairing them together for the team tasks was just brilliant. jenny being our favourite crazy aunt who was just having so much fun and being a delight during tasks. kiell, just being so invested to win the the game and the times it doesn't pay off. i love the energy he brings. and mae, i knew from the very first episode that they were going to win, so calm and focused, yet awkward in a good way and wry in their humour. i've loved this series so much

[silveryfairy]

hey man if it's not too much trouble, could you give us a brief rundown of the Nocturnes? It's just, every morning I wake up and there's a new one, and I Care everyone in this establishment a lot though I don't really know them, thank you kindly have a nice day

let my preface this by saying: aayushi, i love you, and your enthusiasm and interest for the things i create never ceases to bring me joy. you are the kind of friend i think everyone should have and i say that completely genuinely outside of this bit.

i say that as an apology in advance for what i’m about to unleash upon you, because what you’re going to see is the product of my friend @himepapillon and i’s absolute BRAINROT and what comes of it when not only two people make an oc universe from scratch but what happens when we then have to explain that universe to other people

you are in no way required to retain this information as to be completely honest me and jeremie haven’t fully either and we’re the ones who MADE this shitshow. below is the shoddy family tree i lovingly crafted in ms paint

let us begin. 

for starters, i’ll specify some things:

1. not every oc on this chart is mine, as it’s a collaboration between me and jeremie - the koenig family and bishop family belong to faer but the rest is all me baby! for the sake of your soul i will only be going into my half of this Mess

2. the universe this takes place in is a pretty wacky and silly one, just, like, Slightly removed from reality. these characters are all completely batshit insane and do things that no human being probably should. it’s all portrayed critically, as the general concept of this whole thing is “the goings-on of a bunch of unhinged corrupt rich people”. we kind of flip flop on how seriously stuff is played but if i had to slap a genre on this it’d be, like, black comedy drama. i know a lot of these concepts sound kinda fucked to write but that’s just because i’m trying to describe them in a SOMEWHAT concise way without going into Super Introspective mode

the nocturnes are an incredibly influential and rich family in the uk that tends to produce very influential and rich people. they’re also all a little bit insane. the main characters of this Saga are the sons of desmond and xanthes, the family’s resident Power Couple and biggest figureheads. they suck ass but that will become apparent the second i talk about their children.

from oldest to youngest, the nocturne boys are:

ichor nocturne, 25 - the eldest, ichor was disowned from the household when he was 18 for unruly behavior, sent to live alone on a farm so he couldn’t tarnish his family’s image any further. since then, you’d think the isolation has driven him a bit mad - he’s a very prolific cotton farmer and has been doing astonishingly well for himself, running his farm on his own with only his parents’ inheritance as help. ...that, and, of course, the blood of the people he executes to keep his crops growing - or so he believes. he moonlights as an executioner in the small town over, exterminating the ‘pests’ of the city. despite his newfound violence, he still routinely checks in on his siblings, finding ways to mysteriously end up at their door to pay visits. the older brother instinct still hasn’t left

icarus nocturne, 23 - the second eldest (only by technicality, as he is a twin), icarus is the family’s golden child! but not in terms of business or anything, oh no - icarus is a famous heartthrob teen (sorta) musician! he’s been in the limelight since he was a little boy, being an actor as a small child and getting into music as he grew. his general Look(tm), accompanied by infectiously happy rave music, is a trademark cutesy mask over his face with oversized clothing - meant to express as much energy as possible as he bounces about the stage. in reality, he lives a life as forced and controlled as possible by virtue of... living the fucked up life of a child star. but his parents have someone to take the fall - so, what of his twin?

achilles nocturne, 23 - icarus’ younger twin, which wouldn’t mean much... in any family but this one. achilles has had it drilled into his head since the beginning that he was a mistake next to icarus, to the point where legally, he does not exist. following icarus beginning his career, achilles was unpersoned completely - living in the family’s basement with the height of his education being for a very specific purpose... needing to be icarus’ body double on tours and for paparazzi - after all, they can’t have icarus’ purity tainted by all those clamboring fans! it’s a godawful situation. on the bright side, though, achilles has found a hobby where he can be himself: twitch streaming! yes really. under the name of 1upanonymous, hidden under a mask just like his brother, achilles at least has a fanbase that can love him for who he is! ...uh, kind of.

tomasine “tommy” nocturne, 16 - the youngest of the bunch, and it says a lot about his siblings’ capabilities that he’s the technical heir to the nocturnes’ various businesses and fortune. tommy is just a feral 16 year old that doesn’t give two shits about any fame or fortune, he just wants to party and drink and have fun like any other kid his age! he’s rebellious, loud, and charmingly annoying (to his brothers anyway), and has no real care for the gravity of his family’s situations beyond finding it annoying that they want him to be all PRIM and PROPER and BUSINESSY EEWWWWW. he’s just a funny loud little child trying to live his best life. loves his brothers fiercely

already a mess of people. and really, all you need to know about or really keep in mind are those four: the upcoming characters are largely just side ones we came up with because we thought it’d be funny to flesh out this fucked up family more. so let’s get into the anatra branch of the family - headed by jael nocturne, xanthes’ brother and the siblings’ uncle

jael anatra-nocturne, who i am not giving an age for my own sanity trying to decipher this fucking timeline - a crude and playful uncle, jael is someone the nocturne boys either love (icarus, tommy) or hate (achilles, ichor). constantly joking, as he expresses affection with loving insults - kind of a money-driven asshole, but a lovable one - he’s a career politician and met his current husband, joaquin, on the job. or, well... no longer current, because jael’s funny life of debauchery, toxic masculinity, and making fun of his nephews, came to an abrupt end when he was assassinated on live television. yipes!

joaquin anatra-nocturne, who also does not get an age - jael’s former secretary and current widow, joaquin is the local wine uncle. im not sure if that’s a classification but it is now, because he is one. an unapologetic gold-digger, he (publicly) took jael’s death frighteningly well, and is now living his best life with a revolving door of new boyfriends. his relationship with jael was a genuine and very loving one, and joaquin IS devastated by his death, but both of them just found the bit of pretending to be this loveless gold digger/politician couple very funny, and being as suspicious as possible around his husband’s death is exactly what jael would have wanted joaquin to do

taddeo anatra-nocturne, 14 - the youngest child of these two, a shy little boy with big Child In A Horror Movie energies. makes potions in the backyard and probably decorates his clothes with animal bones n stuff when he’s older. despite this he’s pretty harmless, nice and fiercely loyal - tommy especially thinks he’s fun and likes to hang out with him at family gatherings - just so long as you look past the creepy dolls he likes to talk to and fires he likes to set. especially close with jael and wants to be a miniature version of him, buuut still being a shy tween taddeo hasn’t been able to act on that much.

dailon anatra-nocturne, 20 - the adopted second child of jael and joaquin, dailon is a moody and unstable delinquent that was snatched up by them just as he was about to age out of foster care. while he has a chill ‘cool-older-even-though-he’s-younger-cousin’ demeanor, the tension when he’s around his parents - jael specifically - can be cut with a knife. dailon hates his dad: ‘someone who expresses affection with insults and jokes and likes seeing people pissed at him’ and ‘someone who’s volatile, short-tempered, and sullen after living in a foster home most his life’ are just as bad of a combination as you’d expect. dailon gets himself into a lot of trouble, and is an overall very self-centered prick, but we’ll get more on that in a bit.

HELL FAMILY...2!!! that’s the last of the families to cover, buuuut there are still some other names on that list - mostly connected to dailon. this is REAL “just going on in the background” shit that you also do not need to know whatsoever (except for mitzi she’s pretty important she’s just down here for organization purposes) - i just like to play god and make characters get into drama.

[tw: cheating, unhealthy relationships, stalking]

mitzi “moon” altberg, 23 - achilles must feel very far away by now, but we’re back to him for a second! mitzi is his ex-girlfriend he met online, a fan-to-employee-to-lover and one of the maybe two people outside of the family achilles has shown his real face to. however, achilles growing up deeply unstable - between his parents’ abuse, having spotlights on him and adoring fans both as icarus’ body double and as a streamer, and in general not really growing up to be any kind of well developed human being - made this relationship a complete disaster. he grew obsessive and controlling - and when she tried to ignore him, he broke his one rule (to never go outside without permission) to find the hotel she was staying at in real life and show up to confront her. the incident was completely covered up, both by the nocturnes and with their connections, and so mitzi was forced to stay silent. this entire thing is based on this song! as time heals wounds, though, mitzi will end up doing pretty well for herself and putting achilles behind her - even getting a new boyfriend, jared!

reynard fiala, 20 - dailon’s (ex-)boyfriend, who he’s enraveled in his own weird soap opera subplot with. reynard is a relatively chill person, with an interest in art and taxidermy - just as morbid as dailon’s brother, but in a more. Normal way. genuinely a sweetheart who does not deserve what happens to them: getting cheated on with dailon’s best friend. yipes^2! while it's earth shattering in the moment, all reynard will really want to do come some time to process is to move on and for him and dailon both to heal in peace... far away from eachother (which is easier said than done since taddeo thinks reynard is super cool and loves having him over, the awkwardness between them and his brother be damned)

jared summers, 21 - the most normal person here. a longterm best friend of dailon’s, and yes, the very same one i just mentioned. he’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer - what we in the industry would call a himbo if his dumbassery didn’t cause very real damage - who had been pining for dailon for years and him dating was no deterrent, and dailon, thinking the world revolves around him as he tends to do, accepted jared’s confession so they just kinda started dating on the side. jared has the moral backbone of a pool noodle, and even after it causes dailon’s relationship with reynard to fall apart, will need a wholeass intervention to be staged to make them both realize just how shitty they’re being. after that, though, jared will end that mess and be on his way to becoming a better person himself - with the help of a sweet girl he’s met online.

jared and mitzi dating in the future is the most contrived thing on the planet but just hear me out that it’ll be HILARIOUS for achilles to check in on his ex-girlfriend and find she’s dating his cousin’s best friend, who said cousin was apparently dating on the side. very small world, it is. 

anyway, thank you if you’ve somehow stuck around to read this entire thing - this isn’t even getting into jeremie’s half of this whole ordeal, which includes some of these fellas’ friends and partners, as well as more crazy rich people nonsense. it’s been very fun to think about and i do love it all dearly, even if putting it all together it’s SUCH a mess.

we don’t intend to make anything Legit out of this, it’s honestly just a fun way to pass the time. it’s the adult equivalent of playing dollhouse. in our minds this is like a 20 season soap opera but actually explaining it to other people it’s just like this

but thank you again for letting me babble i hope it was somewhat entertaining! and again, godspeed if you managed to read this much XD

[jbuchanan]

Ten Shipping Questions 

i didn't want to do this because it looked HARD

but i was peer pressured by both @girlbookwrm and @padmedala so i guess im doing it (thanks guys ily really)

Ultimate OTP: *screams*  

I DONT KNOWWW i dont know i can't pick im SORRY

its a mix of literally every one i mention below. i left this one last and realised i had none of my main ones left so all of the ones below im sorry im cheating 

deal with it

Ship you’ll always love: my heart is FOREVER BROKEN for these two.. Merlin and Arthur 

they're just SO STUPID and DISASTERS and im sensing a theme

Current obsession: Steve and Bucky and yeah 100% @girlbookwrm‘s fault

I did love them way back when the first two films just came out but man this past year they've went from one of my ships to MAIN i just i love them. and its crazy how little screen time there actually is of them so GOD BLESS YOU @girlbookwrm you've done all of us a Great Service.

:( i love them such morons

Ship you never thought you’d like: OK so. im going to say.. Aaron and Robert from Emmerdale because,,,, it was Emmerdale. ( A british soap for those not in uk) So usually its something like my gran watches but i always liked Aarons storyline with his coming out and accepting himself etc. and then they give him a New Rich Boyfriend who is MARRIED and listen,, its so problematic and overdramatic (hydromatic) and there is cheating and murders and kidnappings and it just ridiculous sometimes...

but they're also really sweet and love each other a lot but also when they're not together/fallen out they can be Hilarious and i just,, love them sm. They're the Definition of Disaster Husbands.  and 4 years later they're actually MARRIED and i just yeah. That was Unexpected for me to get into. (i think their storyline is  still on youtube if anyone wants to check it out but im not sure) (you should)

Ship you liked but don’t anymore: does this even count?? ian and mickey only really because i cant watch shameless anymore?? the storyline got ruined and yeah its a shame 

the show just,,,ruined it for me. sad. im still fond of them 

Ship that should be canon: Steve/Bucky. Because????? it just makes sense from a storytelling point (basically what everyone else said) but its just ridiculous. Bucky is Steves motivation in all 3 movies and sigh

Canon ship you hate: 

she's peggys niece????????? she is PEGGYS.NEICE she's-

Pair I’ve been shipping for years: The Doctor and Rose...still not over it

they're also dumb

Ship everyone loves but I don’t: I’ve been trying to think of one for ages and all i can think of is when Sterek? was a thing? i didn't watch a LOT of teen wolf in all honesty but i watched enough that i was confused about this one. it was like everywhere?? all i ever saw was those gifs in a swimming pool? was that the moment idk but if you ship it i cant really say anything look at the messes i ship

Favorite rare pair: LISTEN

i was ROBBED by this show!! these two :( i loved them sm Merlin broke ME

I tag (if you wanna): um im going to leave this open to anyone who wants to do it? literally anyone i TAG YOU ALL and maybe @recalibrates @vaerona @peteparkr @crimson-winchester221??

( shout out to @canliveforevr though just because im pretty sure ive ranted to you about all of these ships over the years for an annoying long amount and i want to apologise, sorry. you dont have to do the thing)

[chiefmauskateer]

When it became obvious that Corbyn would win the Labour leadership, I braced myself for disaster. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t understand why so many of my friends found him so inspiring. After all, I thought, he’s just another straight white man from London who’s been in Parliament for decades – what’s so radical about that?

My frustration with Corbyn has always been more about competence than ideology. I could see that he was a lot more comfortable preaching to a crowd of kale-obsessed students than carrying out the day-to-day duties of leading Her Majesty’s Opposition.

For the last 18 months it seems that he has either been scoring own goals or missing penalties. The most obvious example of this is Prime Minister’s Questions, which became a weekly sacrificial ritual. We’ve all been there, in school or at work, watching somebody who is visibly nervous and unprepared give a presentation. There are few things more uncomfortable. In fact, if it weren’t for the SNP, weeks would go by without the PM having to answer a single challenging question.

At a particularly low point last March, a secret list of Labour MPs who were described as “hostile” towards Corbyn’s leadership was discovered in a Commons bar. The list, which had been misplaced by one of Corbyn’s aides, was used by the Prime Minister to humiliate Labour and avoid accountability for a huge U-turn on cuts to disability benefits.

Hearing the deafening jeers from the Tory benches and witnessing Labour’s decline in the polls left me feeling frustrated that someone so hopeless was representing progressive values. I felt that, despite their best intentions, Corbyn’s supporters were ultimately harming those they wish to help by supporting someone so inept.

But could there be a flicker of light at the end of this dark tunnel?

When the general election was called, you’d have put more money on Theresa May representing the UK at the next Eurovision Song Contest than losing. I even considered spoiling my ballot rather than voting Labour. Yet over the last few weeks Corbyn has begun to win people over – including me. The unsure, inconsistent, tan suit-wearing liability has seemingly transformed into a confident, and dare I say it, shrewd politician.

Well, sort of.

It's no secret that Corbyn is at his strongest when he's out campaigning and interacting with people. Except, that is, in the EU referendum last summer. He loves a good debate and never turns down the chance to speak publicly. This passionate, open approach has been the antithesis of May's robotic, distant campaign. While it’s undeniable that he has been helped by his opponents’ failures, Corbyn has shown signs that he is much more astute than his previous actions indicated. Gone are the days of missing opportunities to hold the Tories to account. Each time May has stumbled he has been waiting with the perfect response, taunting and infuriating her at every turn. We haven’t seen him this enthused since Owen “I fought off all the fellas for my wife” Smith challenged his leadership. Instead of being sucked into an endless battle of soundbites over Brexit, Corbyn has managed to play to his strengths. Public services and housing are unifying issues. When it comes down to it, people want to hear about their local A&E or school more than Brexit. This discovery has been disastrous for May, who based her entire campaign on Brexit and personal credibility.

With U-turn after U-turn, people are starting to wonder what May really stands for. As her lead evaporates, it's clear that Corbyn's message appeals to far more demographics than first thought.

Unfortunately, politics isn’t like The X Factor and the runner up is rarely more successful than the winner. If the polls are to be believed, May will be returning to Downing Street next week, but it remains to be seen whether her abysmal campaign has fatally wounded her career. Still, we all saw film about a woman who ran an overconfident, secretive campaign last November, and it didn’t end well for her, did it?

Corbyn is by no means the perfect character, and while his campaign has been strong, it has not been without its own blunders. Still, voters are beginning to realise that this is a choice between a person who endlessly changes her mind to benefit her career, and someone who, for the most part, has been on the right side of history for over 20 years. Many, myself included, are choosing the latter.

[absolutebl]

Question: Considering that Nitiman was originally a JJP (Jaebeom/Jinyoung) fanfic, are the characterizations so blatant as to be off-putting, or can they be overlooked?

Your recent Nitiman posts have enticed me to watch it and I just got reminded of the fact lol.

Oh dear. I try not to cross fandom streams, dabble in the vast waters of K-pop, and I avoid fanfic like the plague.

A thousand lawyers from a thousand IPs are screaming legalize at me in the dulcet tones of na na na na na... uh uh.

But I do like Got7.

I don't stan or bias or any of that mumbo jumbo, tribalistic tendencies worry me deeply, although I get the networking nature of the human monkey brain. It's just with K-pop fandom there's a lot of, ya know, whoah there, back up babies. Obsession is not a good look on ya. (Says the BL obsessive in the corner.) Don't even get me started on K-pop skinship, talk about cultural misunderstanding and touch shaming. GAH.

Now where was i?

Nitiman

Putting aside the highly questionable, not to say creepy AF nature of it's origin story. (Honestly does everything good and gay in pop culture HAVE to have a repulsive origin? I'm starting to get a complex.) And I guess we're all collectively ignoring that odd creepy weird BL microfilm that Mark & BamBam did that got intentionally sunk into obscurity because WTF JYP?

So, right, Nitiman.

Are the characterizations so blatant as to be off-putting, or can they be overlooked?

I do think Bbomb is being acted like, and bears some resemblance to, the JB persona/brand in its Got7 from.

That said, Im Jae Beom himself is clearly currently evolving away from JB/JYP since the split and the Jay B rebrand. So I'm not sure on his persona anymore. It seems currently somewhat shaky, poor thing. Jay Park doesn't have a clean brand history himself, in fact, quite the opposite (he always was too American for Korea but that's a whole other conversation). I'm not sure he's much help guiding Jay B, so I hope he has an outside team for the R&B direction he's going in... or whatever, but that ain't my problem.

But yes, I think Bbomb is somewhat JB (Got7 phase) derivative, although not exactly. For the purposes of plot the Bbomb character/actor has to let a lot more vulnerability show than any K-pop leader ever could.

Jin, on the other hand, seems to me to bare VERY little resemblance to Jinyoung in anyway. And let's face it, Jinyoung had, and still has, one of the best handles on his pubic facing brand. (Better than a lot of other idols. Since the beginning of Got7 at least.) He's an admirable actor, and one of the few idols who never seems to forget that the camera is watching. Is he actually that protective, guarded, cool, and snarky as a human, or is it all an act? Or is he one of those celebrities for whom the two are inexorably linked? The world may never know. I hope the world never knows.

Good for him, if you ask me.

I admire Jinyoung, because in an odd way he's managed to do what MaxTul did in the BL world (differently, of course), Dom the bejesus out of the fans. I mean Ahgase are basically like, sure he's an asshole to us, but he's OUR asshole. Honestly, if I were him I'd stick with it. It's a GREAT persona, and it's the most likely to keep him safe. I mean, props dude. Seriously. Sir.

But is that the way Jin in Nitiman is being played? Not even slightly. He's way more classic tusndere uke, meets disaster bi, with a touch of competent player/flirt. That last being quite refreshing. But none of it jives with Jinyoung's branding.

So either Nitman the Y-novel moved quickly on from its slash fanfic roots, or this series has recharacterized Jin a lot. Or Jin never was that much like the Jinyoung brand to start with.

A good celebrity brand is just amorphous enough to become the fantasy the fans want of it... so... ?

Look the point of fanfic is to take an existing character and make it perform to a non-cannon fantasy, is it not? Often this materially impacts the original character with dilution or rebirth. Because in genre fiction character is informed by plot, and if you change the plot, you change the character. So even if you are writing fanfic featuring idols, you're writing with the brand the K-pop industry, and idol, has built for themselves, mixed with your own perception of that brand.

(I don't feel this justifies IRL slashfic, however. I find slash using idol/actors/actual humans, branded or not, hellishly creepy. I mean what if your neighbor were writing fanfic about your sex life? Yech. The act of becoming a celebrity, or a brand, does not render the actor any less of a human being worthy of empathy, privacy, and compassion. Please unfollow me if you disagree. I don't hold to many moral compass points, but that happens to be one of them.)

Do I find Nitiman creepy knowing it's origin.

Maybe when I really think about it.

*shudder*

But honestly when I'm watching it, I don't really see JB in Bbomb and I certainly don't see Jinyoung in Jin, so I kinda forgot about it until you asked. And it's so faint I don't think it will bother me going forward, either.

And I'm the type it should bother.