#there's also a billion of other important themes here but they get more or less talked up

[freuleinanna]

The Fall of the House of Usher is many things and I'm making a conscious choice to not scream about every single one of them rn, but what left me staring at a wall in tears is just... kindness. Death was kind. She gave every choice, every reason to stop. She would take these kids anyway but she also regretted having to take them like that. She cared when nobody else would, even though they kept making the wrong choices.

She's never cruel for cruelty's sake. She wasn't cruel to Lenore. She just sent a child to sleep as lovingly as she could, with kind words and kinder touch.

And I don't even know how to express the absolute heartbreak with blinding warmth among the cracks, when Death herself kneels before one man, worst man, honest man, who refused her offer – and thanks him with such respect.

Mike Flanagan, you fucking did it again. Carla Gugino, you... I don't even have words for you. That's a whole-ass masterpiece of human soul, meaning, and searching right there.

Kiss Death with kindness in the end

And when she parts

You part as friends

[19burstraat]

queering futurity in crooked kingdom

if I had any real time for this (I do not) I'd be tempted to write a real essay about it, but I have a dissertation and two other real essays for my actual degree, so let's do a bad tunglr bullet point analysis. I'm... largely generalising and paraphrasing here, and I suspect this has a billion things to iron out or that I forgot about, but I hope this might be a bit interesting regardless of how much you may or may not know abt queer literary theory lmao.

in extreme short, there is a subset of queer theory around what is, in essence, queer time. there is a heteronormative future/'futurity', and it is marriage, children, a good job, a nice house, and dying at a good age after a fulfilling life. queer* and trans people both reject and often cannot access this: plenty couldn't/cannot get married or have children, or had to surpass lots of obstacles to do so, many queer and trans people were or are killed young, or died prematurely in the aids crisis. and so we get queer temporality; a resistance to the heteronormative future that is refused or inaccessible, and to reproductive futurism; the concept that people value the future over the present... and this manifests in kicking back against things like the symbolic 'child' as a representative of futurity. not real children, but empty platitudes like think of the children! think of the future for your children! there can also be a development of a death drive, which is sometimes literal and sometimes metaphorical, which is, again, basically a rejection of 'the future'.

while the grishaverse doesn't have homophobia as such, you can still do queer readings, bc it is ofc influenced by our world, by virtue of being Written By A Person From Our World. and especially in kerch, there's still stuff like patrilineal inheritance... buuuut reproductive futurity & friends are very deliberately destroyed by the end of crooked kingdom. mostly by the usual culprit (taps sign that says IT'S KAZ AGAIN LOL) but by the narrative and the other characters as well. walk w me! I don't think this is a real analysis more just a lot of Thoughts but... nvm

*used here as an umbrella term since the theory I'm pulling from is the field of queer theory

the two men (van eck and rollins) who are most concerned with reproductive futurism (having heirs and a legacy, 'building something that will outlast them'), are promptly buried under the rubble of their building efforts by our usual culprit. kaz uses the mentality of legacy and lineage against them both; he kidnaps van eck's pregnant wife to use as a bargaining chip, and he uses rollins's son and heir against him, because he knows what's most important to these men is their line, their work being handed down. he deduces that rollins has a son through rollins' vanity around building something to 'last', and his naming of the kaelish prince. rollins is literally themed around monarchy and descent; the king of the barrel, the kaelish prince, the emerald palace. kaz, for his part, is the bastard of the barrel. the illegitimate son, not produced by any conventional family structure, ketterdam his mother and profit his father... and therefore he is the perfect person to blow up this imagined monarchy

wylan is rejected by van eck for his disability, for being supposedly incapable of continuing his father's legacy; and so we gather that the actual child doesn't matter to van eck, it's what The Child represented to him, which was the future of the van eck company. the illegitimate kaz restores van eck's disowned son to the succession through sheer trickery, and jan van eck's trading empire is succeeded by his son he attempted to reject, and his farm-boy barrel-tough boyfriend. they bring home the first wife that van eck had committed, for failing to produce the 'perfect' heir. no perfect heteronormative future here!

(also by virtue of wylan and jesper being a mlm couple, there is now way less emphasis that can be put on the idea of biological children 'continuing' the line, and it somewhat stops the expectation that ruined wylan's life from being passed down)

the two m/f couples are also very distant from this idealised reproductive futurity. matthias dies, ruining any idea of a 'conventional' future he could have had with nina, and while his death is generally more about the extremist brainwashing stuff explored w the drüskelle, it does blow to shreds that futurity even more, and nina's power is also a very literal HEY GUYS. LET'S THINK ABOUT DEATH... plus she leaves ketterdam to take matthias to be buried at the end of the book.

kaz and inej both do very dangerous jobs and separate for long periods of time. they may marry or they may not, they may have children or they may not, they may be physical with one another or they may not. it doesn't really matter; they'll try, but we don't get to find out how far they may or may not get, which honestly I kinda like. their future is open, the river running carrying inej to the sea. also, inej makes an explicit rejection of this kind of 'normal' future:

So he wasn’t fit for a normal life. Was she meant to find a kindhearted husband, have his children, then sharpen her knives after they’d gone to sleep? How would she explain the nightmares she still had from the Menagerie? Or the blood on her hands?

we don't really know whether or not kaz as a character is queer (I do not think kaz knows either lol) but it doesn't really matter, you can still read him as a queer figure both a) just if you want to! and b) in this sense of queer temporality, bc he's the crux of a lot of it. we already covered the bastard thing and his happy habit of kicking reproductive futurism when it's down, and as Edelman says: 'If the fate of the queer is to figure the fate that cuts the thread of futurity...' well, kaz 'build something new. watch it burn' 'he knew exactly what he was going to leave behind: damage' brekker is our man!

he does not give a single flying fuck about the future. he destroyed van eck and rollins' legacies, and he'll do that shit again. he doesn't have enough of an ego to consider a 'legacy' for himself besides destruction, which is a rejection of a legacy in itself. his plans for the future amount to fucking shit up and making a bunch of money to use to do more damage, until he gets shot/stabbed/hanged/drowned/whatever, which he constantly anticipates.

kaz also has a massive distrust and disdain for traditional family structures, because he's seen them crumble twice; his actual family are all dead, and the hertzoon con was built on creating a convincing family mode to lure them in. "my mother is ketterdam, she birthed me in the harbour; my father is profit, I honour him daily" is a sneer at paterfamilias type families where the mother is there to just give birth and the father is the head of the family, to be honoured and served, rather than loved. he also has zero sympathy for the 'think of the children!' thing, bc he knows it's disingenuous; who thought of him? no one. rollins was happy to con kids with the false promise of family and safety, and all the people he paid off were happy to turn the other way. was there no one to look after you? no, there wasn't. his mother is ketterdam: filthy, feral ketterdam. no nurturing mother has he!

So he threatens Alby and Hanna with no qualms, because while he doesn't actually ever intend to hurt children (...not physically anyway, apparently upsetting them is fair game FJJFJD), he knows the power of the threat— the idea of the child— is often more impactful than the actual act itself. ("Inej, I could only kill Pekka’s son once. He can imagine his death a thousand times.") it certainly works on rollins and van eck! he'll make you think of the damn children alright!

inej takes direct action to defend actual children, not just the idea of them, and then we hear in rule of wolves she's hated by the kerch government for it because she's fucking with their profits. (look also to how they flapped about searching for wylan, one rich man's kid, and are completely useless about hundreds of forced indentures. what a surprise...)

she reunites with her parents, but she worries persistently about whether or not they will accept her for who she has become, and we are never quite told whether or not they do. we like to think so, but we don't actually know. and although she gets to see her parents again, her future is on the wraith, not with them.

most people have dead or splintered families, actually. only inej has both parents, and for three - four years, they didn't have a daughter.

The general proximity to death in general is very potent; nina's power, kaz's whole backstory, the camping out in a graveyard. jesper's recklessness and love for fights, inej being ready to die rather than be a captiver again and kaz's response to that being 'not just yet', rather than not at all...

all following into the whole no mourners, no funerals thing!!! the fact that they know they won't be remembered or cared about if they die!!!

Edelman: 'Choosing to stand, as many of us do, outside the cycles of reproduction, choosing to stand, as we also do, by the side of those living and dying each day with the complications of AIDS, we know the deception of the societal lie that endlessly looks toward a future whose promise is always a day away.'

SOC:

Inej's mother and father might still shed tears for the daughter they'd lost, but if Inej died tonight, there would be no one to grieve for the girl she was now. 

“No mourners, no funerals. Another way of saying good luck. But it was something more. A dark wink to the fact that there would be no expensive burials for people like them, no marble markers to remember their names, no wreaths of myrtle and rose.”

pick up what I'm putting down guys please please I don't have time to tease this out properly but like. I think kaz and wylan are the linchpins here. (again)

[mutable-manifestation]

The Heart of the Matter Ch. 7

Chapter 1 (Parts 1-3), Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6

my understanding of the Guardians of the Universe is that they want to maintain peace in the universe but they’re also kind of assholes, and did some shady shit and had their emotions removed for a while? And then ended up using time fuckery to summon younger Guardians for fresh perspective to help run the corps better/be less asshole-ish.

Idk if Hal in cannon trusts them, but here Hal knows they did some shady shit but also knows they brought in newbies re:time travel to try & be less shady. And he trusts them to mean well even if their methods can be shit, so that’s why he’s trusting that they actually want to help.

(spoiler alert, the Guardians a few billion years ago already decided torture-slavery was a great idea, so bringing in newbies that are their past selves isn’t actually all that helpful)

***

Hal senses the incoming signal long before it arrives in the Batcave to punch him in the face.

He thinks it’s just another Green Lantern, at first.

As much as Oa’s offer of help had been just that - an offer - they’d also tried to impress a sense of importance and urgency on him. That whatever was wrong with Red Hood needed to be managed sooner rather than later. They’d insisted on it, making vague allusions to the danger of leaving it too long.

But Hal had given the Bats a few extra hours to cool off, just in case. So he figures, hey, maybe Oa got antsy and decided he was taking too long.

He feels like an ass putting the guy in a cage when he tries to bolt on them, especially when he looks so terrified.

He does his best to push the feeling aside; the Guardians had warned him that, among their guesses for the cause of whatever was up with him, the symptoms might go beyond simple emotional dysregulation to include psychosis, delusions, and possible hallucinations - among who knows what else.

That he may not be capable of thinking clearly.

Still, he’d hoped he wouldn’t have to restrain him.

Aaaaand of course Bats’ attempt at being comforting falls about as short as is possible.

Hal doesn’t get a chance to reassure the guy. He’s too distracted by the other Lantern; whoever it is is closing in faster than expected.

Closer now, they shine brighter than any Lantern ever has against his senses. He can just feel the faintest brushes of ‘protectiveness,’ even.

Somehow.

Then the only thing he’s feeling is the fist ramming into his nose.

He drops Hood and slams into the far wall, mind swimming with pain and confusion and betrayal.

Except when he looks up he isn’t met with another Green Lantern.

Instead, he meets eyes with a stranger - some kind of glowy meta with a royalty theme or an alien he just isn’t recognizing.

It rubs Hal the wrong way, how he looks at him.

Like Hood had, almost. Plenty of disgust, plenty of horror, but all of the fear is swapped out for rage.

It had felt wrong enough caging Hood, even if he was only trying to help. But now this….

Well there’s an unknown in the batcave holding their possibly-ill-with-a-space-disease-and-or-parasite brother and just attacked their ally, so of course the bats attack, cutting off whatever the unknown might’ve been about to say in favor of avoiding getting punched.

Just as well, Hal figures. They can talk once he’s got the two of them restrained and the uninvited guest isn’t possibly-about-to-punch-someone-else.

And yeah, okay, he also might have a broken nose and not be in the best mood about it - and holy shit does the guy have a mean right hook.

But in his defense, Bats’ other kids are putting themselves at risk taking swings at the guy. If Hal just stands there and watches because the guy ‘might want to talk, actually’ now, Bats’ll kill him.

He waits for them to get clear before he heads in baseball-bat-first, hoping to herd the guy back into a nearby corner so he can more easily get a cage around him - something made a lot harder by a flying target.

Instead, the guy takes Hood and flees through the ceiling.

Hal stops his attack just in time to avoid battering the cave walls.

He curses under his breath, floating back down to poke at his tender nose, flinching at the sharp sting of it - healing, of course, but still plenty sore.

“What exactly did Hood say to you earlier,” he starts, interrupting whatever Batman was about to say to Oracle. “Because I’m beginning to think something is wrong. And not in the ‘space disease and/or parasite’ kind of way. Unless space diseases and/or parasites that mimic Green Lantern ring signals can somehow give people phasing powers - and whatever else that guy’s deal was. Because he gave off the same feeling Hood did, and he looked more pissed than scared. Which reeeeeally isn’t lining up with my expectations here.”

“We can learn more after we find the unknown and rescue Hood,” Batman answers, turning back towards Oracle.

He is, again, interrupted before he can speak.

“He just was rescued!” Nightwing all but howls. “From us! What Jason said earlier was that he thought your ring was a damn soul! If that’s the second person you’ve sensed like that, what if he was right!?”

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Red Robin yells, throwing his hands up in frustration before Hal could formulate a response. “I mean, what, do we not have souls?”

“Little Wing is still in a fragile state from the pits! For all we know his soul is just- exposed or something and YOU-” Nightwing whirls on Hal, poking a finger towards his face “-are some kind of- some kind of soul-battery using necromancer!”

Hal grimaces at that, looking at his ring and feeling more than a little unease.

He really hopes this is all some kind of misunderstanding.

“We can talk about this later. It is far more likely that Red Hood was just kidnapped than rescued. We need to find him now.”

“They’re in Gotham.”

Oracle and Hal trade looks at the accidental jinx.

Hal can clearly see the blinking red dot on the open screen, so he explains. “I can still sense them. Lanterns have a pretty big radius for sensing each other, and this new guy is…bright, for lack of a better word. Like staring into the sun - y’know, without the whole ‘searing pain and vision damage’ thing.”

“He certainly didn’t travel far,” she muses. “If he can sense you back, it’s possible he wants to talk.”

“Other than the initial blow to Green Lantern, the unknown made no attempt to fight back,” Robin notes. “Merely dodging.”

“He: opened mouth. Possibly: wanted to talk.” Orphan adds.

“Sure has a funny way of showing it,” Hal rubs his nose - mostly healed, thankfully.

“Yes, well, you did have my brother in a cage,” Nightwing says cooly.

Hal winces

“I thought he was having a health crisis! I was trying to help!”

“Help by-!”

“Take it easy,” Oracle interrupts. “Jordan might’ve caged him, but we didn’t exactly do anything about it either. We all messed up today. The path to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say. Let’s see if we can undo some of the road work, hm?”

She pulls up two feeds - a security camera inside of a café and one watching an intersection.

“His signal is coming from a populated café, plenty of foot traffic and no distress calls in the area - a regular Gotham miracle. I glimpsed him passing through the corner of the street cam in civvies, likely to the outdoor seating area, given the coffee he was holding. He also appeared to be talking to someone off-screen. So either he managed to get away from the possible-kidnapper, or we’re made and the person is probably friendly. Either way, we have an excuse to be there in civvies. I could go for some coffee. But first,” she spins around, putting her back to the batcomputer. “Let’s talk Lantern Corps.”

---------------------

Hal explains what he knows about the Lantern Rings, about the battery, about Oa.

He…doesn’t know much. Certainly not enough to sate the endless curiosity of someone like Gotham’s heroes.

He knows how the rings work, the general ‘hows’ of it - that they’re based on willpower, that they are largely self-sustaining, that they very rarely need a recharge on Oa.

He doesn’t know details.

‘Power source’ is way too vague. Way, way too vague when ‘literal souls’ has a possibility of being the answer.

Even if it is, like, a 0.00000000001% chance possibility. Hal would like a solid zero, please and thanks.

(Signal asks what it says about the Guardians' intentions for Hood if the rings are powered by souls, which sets everyone even more on edge.

And Hal…knows the Guardians care about peace in the Universe. He isn’t sure how far they would go to achieve that, but he already knows the answer is ‘too far.’

Knows when the rings were made. Knows the ‘younger’ Guardians they brought in to improve things were from after that time.

…He really hopes Glowstick Guy actually just also has a space parasite.)

Spoiler suggests asking ‘Mr Space Prince.’

They can all agree the guy probably has at least some of the answers they need, here, but they’re all hesitant to go charging in.

They don’t want to make Hood feel trapped.

(Nobody wants to make the same mistake a second time. Even without Glowstick’s intervention, it only took a little distance from the situation for them to start berating themselves about jumping the gun.

The sense of urgency the Guardians have given him - and that he had in turn given the Bats - was a lot more suspicious with this new context. Artificial. Insidious, if Hood’s feeling about his ring was correct.

And oh wow Hal had never wanted a Bat to be wrong as bad as he did right now, a chill of unease trailing up his spine at the thought.)

Instead, they contact the other Lanterns - no information about the ongoing case, just framing it as Batman’s incessant Need To Know Things getting the better of him.

All of the others were off-planet when the party happened, Hal being the only Lantern that could make it - the schedules wouldn’t line up for everyone to meet him at once no matter how they worked it. With so many people in the League, barring high-level threats? Thems the breaks - so they’d intended to meet Hood individually at a later time.

This meant none of them knew what had happened yet, so no worries about them reporting back Oa.

Which would be very important to avoid if it turned out the Guardians had….

Well, suffice to say it was a good thing they were in the dark. Where Hal would like to keep them until he knew for sure one way or another.

None of them know any more than Hal does.

Judging by the cameras around the café, Hood is still there.

They want to give him more time to cool off from the inevitable…maybe anger, maybe fear. They doubt any of their presences would help at this point.

But answers might. He’d been terrified not knowing why he was so scared.

When they ask to run some tests on his ring, Hal offers it up willingly.

---------------------

Tests don’t help.

Whatever energy the ring gives off interferes with the scanners, leaving them with nothing but junk data.

Signal’s vision is of no use - it’s just a ring, stable in his vision as any other inanimate object, if a bit brighter. But that would be expected even without souls being thrown into the mix.

And of course, with their ever-incredible luck, the JLD are all unreachable.

Two hours later and they haven’t learned anything they didn’t already know.

Two hours closer to the Guardians learning something is up; a disastrous outcome if it is a worst-case scenario.

Hal can’t join them, of course, since Hood wants to keep his secret identity a secret.

However, Nightwing promptly vetoes any of them going.

“We are going to call him,” Nightwing doesn’t demand, he states. “We are going to apologize, and we are going to ask if he’s willing to talk - in person or otherwise. We are not going to make him trust us any less than he already does - assuming there’s anything left to damage.”

The last part is a mutter, but everyone hears him loud and clear, grimacing or fidgeting their weapons or shifting from foot-to-foot.

They make the call on the batcomputer - after making Hal swear on his life to remain silent, lest he set him off somehow.

For all that they called, all of them are shocked when Hood actually picks up.

“I know what’s going on, if you’re willing to actually listen to what I have to say this time.”

A collective wince.

“Little Wing, I’m s-”

“Save it.” Hood snaps venomously, cutting off Nightwing’s attempt to apologize. “The only reason I am talking to you instead of shooting you all in the fucking kneecaps and promptly fucking off for the rest of eternity is because there is some major shit happening right now and Danny insists on trying the ‘talking things out’ option first. Civvies. My apartment. 30 minutes. Bring everyone, and tell Green Lantern his ass had better be there. And if it turns out he knew anything about this? May God have mercy on his soul, because I won’t.”

And on that incredibly ominous note, the call cuts off.

“Well that went well,” Hal deadpans.

“Considering my kneecaps are still bullet free, I’d say it actually did,” Red Robin says, voice tinged with disbelief. “Given what he was like at his worst and everything that just happened? That was downright civil.”

“Not instilling a lot of confidence here, Red.”

“Then take confidence in your continued cluelessness,” Robin offers from the base of the stairs. “And hurry up, we have a meeting to make.”

***

Gee, I wonder what the JLD could be so busy with

Up Next: Jason gets the scoop on the Lanterns, freaks out, debates the merits reverting to the ol' head-in-a-bag technique. The apartment meeting happens. GL & the batfam get to have a turn with the panic (and round 2 of beating themselves up)

Tags:

@skulld3mort-1fan @kyrianclawraith @jesimilu @bleuyellow93 @ocearnawrites @undead-essence @violet-catsarelife @sunsetdew0101 @tsukihimeyfan @the-legal-shipper @spideypoolalways @mariendall @jesus-camp-the-sequel @jotaroslooseeyebrowhair @akikoyuii @mrowsters @do3y @aikoiya @joaniejustwokeup @wwwwyamd @fox-sama97 @britcision @tealty @apersond @v-inari

[incorrect-web-novels]

No one asked, but here's my totally normal, not at all mentally ill-induced thoughts about tagging:

"incorrect [fandom] quotes" - good. The Right Way. This is the tag you bring home to your mother

"[Fandom] incorrect quotes" - you are letting their tits hang out, bro. Clunky. Weird. But also one of the most popular variations

"incorrect [fandom]" - this is only good for searching, not for posting. Incomplete

"incorrect quotes [fandom]" - what the actual fuck

Capital letters in tags - only for DIRE situations or yelling/emphasis

"fanart" - a classic. Fantastic. The only problem is when you wanna reblog official art but don't have an art tag. Tumblr should catch it under "art" as well tho, so you could have an "official art" and "fanart" tag but idk

Capitalizing the first letter of a tag - it can be an honest mistake

"queue" - kinda useless tbh. It's a nice tidbit, but no one searches up queued posts specifically. Plus, it doesn't really fit anywhere except as the last tag, which a lot of ppl don't read

"reblog" - also a bit useless but less so than "queue." Can be good if you wanna find more blogs

"Source: [XYZ]" - HAS to go 1st to look right, and so ppl will read it, which is annoying bc it takes up one of the 1st five tags that are actually picked up by Tumblr dashboard searches

Content/Trigger Warnings - important but confusing (for me specifically), especially with less common triggers. Is it "death," "death mention," "death tw," "death cw," "death ment," or "death ment tw?" (In art/images) is that blood or just a visual choice? Does "animal mention" accurately prevent ppl triggered or bothered by snakes, bugs, or other specific animals? If the word is in the post itself, will most people have it blocked in their settings?

"long post" - is this actually a long post that can be difficult to scroll by, or was there just a lot of words? Do both count?

"[fandom]" / "[shipname]" - sexy. Great for when the brainrot kicks in (and for finding posts via dashboard)

"not [blog's theme] - really funny but rare; I wish I saw it more

"my posts" - good to find original posts, but I don’t use it correctly. It feels wrong to use for "incorrect quotes" even though it makes sense

"incorrect quotes" - one of my fav tags bc I can just. Find incorrect quotes I want to use. Is it ethical? Idk, but thank you for your service (I do usually link back tho)

Tags where someone was just referencing smth that got caught by the Tumblr search - this is agony. This happened to me once with Liu Qingge when I wrote smth thinking about his character but not actually about him (and mentioned him in the tags), and that's the reason I use 10 billion slashes Just in Case. It's also kinda annoying when you're searching for smth and get random shit; I understand the OP's pain. We're all unwilling victims to this site sometimes

[salty-dracon]

More Octopath 2. All the Chapter 4s, minus the character whose story end was Chapter 3.

Partitio Chapter 4:

I was wondering what that brick smokestack covered city in the trailer could be... turns out it's AN ENTIRE ISLAND run by THE GOD OF CAPITALISM HIMSELF

This entire factory would probably get thousands of citations from Fantasy OSHA.

Oh. That's the loophole. Roque called it the Neo Steam Engine. Partitio is getting the rights to the original, which cannot be mass-produced. Clever, clever...

Oh. Okay. Not the loophole I was expecting.

HAHAHAHAHA THEY ACTUALLY GIVE YOU EIGHTY BILLION LEAVES-

*train whistle* Oh cool so in Octopath 3 we'll have trains.

Local cowboy face skids into the cobblestones.

Yeah!!! He said it!!! He said capitalism!!!

The fact that we're fighting a giant train, and it does the Octopath Final Boss thing where the part sprites look like they're pieces of the boss itself fucks so hard.

As someone who keeps collecting little doodads, I totally get it.

And so, we hired the bad guy to work for our new company where we use steam power to bring the world closer together! Up until climate change kicks in, that is.

I have no clue how one guy and his scent of commerce could possibly tie into the final boss.

Osvald Chapter 4:

Oh, hey. A mention of D'arqest. The one who opened a portal to attack people around Crackridge, fought back by a man named Kal.

The fact that Osvald is canonically a math guy trying to use math to understand the world of magic makes him a man after my own heart. The fact that he is good enough to teach it to a child is also amazing. I'm a math guy myself, and people treat me like a wizard because of it. Plus, doing math feels like magic to me sometimes and is how Western style magic is supposed to feel.

And Harvey is a biology guy. Less exacting, but respectable, I guess.

... Wow. There's even lore behind Soulstones! They're the dried and crystallized blood of monsters.

I haven't been talking much about the banter but it's so good.

Like what if he extracted blood from the creatures on Ochette's island. The goopy ones. Or the Scarlet Moon ones.

I'm just saying, this thing looks suspiciously like the Scarlet Moon monsters......

THAT'S HIS WIFE?! Is this a Graham Crossford scenario where Osvald's wife's bloodline is tied to a god?

Yes, in fact.

OH NO. OH NO

Osvald, get his ass.

Agnea Chapter 4:

That little kid's going to know so much dance by the time Agnea's done with her.

Aww, her mother came to this town and the grandparents remembered!

Oh. Cuani inspired Dolcinaea, then.

With the persistent theme of the Moon, I wonder if the Moonstep has anything to do with it.

Why is this rich Italian girl personally attacking the poor slums lol

So cringe that they give every female boss the craziest boob physics.

Get her ass, Agnea

Hikari Chapter 4:

The Seventh Source has to be the darkness in human souls or some shit, right? "The Shadow"? Null, as the Room series called it? Because it's in that sword.

Talk about broken bridges!

Awwwww.

Hikari's backstory is obviously pretty much entirely based on feudal Japan including all of its social issues, and those are coming out a lot here.

Hikari: And that's how, at the tender age of 12, I acquired my very own shadow demon.

The other seven : WTF?!?!?!

And in perfect protagonist fashion, the story important guy Hikari killed brought it all on himself.

the fucking banter where Osvald would have rather pulled the frigit isle prison break than have someone else just unlock the door for him. or use magic.

Rai Mei I love you but I was under the impression you wore cool armor, not a boob plate and leggings.

Throne Chapter 4:

Her real bio father probably wrote that message on Pirro's grave.

Oh yeah, that door. But wouldn't the team have realized that it was locked while scouting?

Why is there a big valley under the sprawling metropolis of New Delsta?

Moon symbolism. Seriously, what the shit? Why does there just happen to be a cable car system under New Delsta, and wouldn't anyone know it's there just by looking up? Unless it's because they're over the Pit of Darkness or Pit of Shadows or whatever.

This is starting to feel like a weird semi-steampunk fairy tale in a half-forgotten dream.

Solistia, and moon symbolism for evil. I wonder if the two kingdoms are the light and darkness worlds. Maybe Osvald's wife and daughter and also Kal are descended from the Light lover, and there are others like D'arqest descended from the Darkness.

The Nameless Village? Which does, in fact, have a name.

This is like, Minecraft Ancient City levels of scary.

... What. The fuck. You're telling me that random ass kid in Oresrush- what the fuck is happening. If the Elden Ring x Cold Vein castle didn't turn my brain into mush already, this did.

What. The. Fuck.

Having like 200 kids and putting them all in one big organization so you can have the world's most powerful child. Hashtag immortal people things.

Throne... Get his ass and render it dead.

Castlevania looking asshole. (OP loves making fun of vampires)

Woooooooow. Woooooooooooooooooow.

Okay bravo, the ending was amazing, that shitty dad of hers is dead, and Throne gets a cute doggy to hang out with.

Temenos Chapter 4:

I was like "Kaldena" has "Kal" in front, so that can't be it. But yeah, they didn't overlook it. Her name was Dena.

Oh right the Nameless Village is in Toto'haha.

D'arqest came here, tried to call Shadow, yup yup... WHAT. So the Beastlings' ancestors were humans warped by The Shadow.

More moon symbolism on the ground. So combining this information with that from the end of Ochette's route, this Shadow is pretty much what attacks during the Night of the Scarlet Moon when the barrier between planes is broken.

I am not immune to hot lady knight.

Oh. She's a Dark Souls boss now.

Right, there's a leader of the Moonshade Order somewhere responsible for a massacre thirty years prior. Auuuuuugh I need a proper timeline of events! Too much stuff going on!

Castti Chapter 4:

Castti's a disaster relief apothecary, and I like her for that. I can't wait to see how she disaster relieves a COVID-er, purple rain coronation.

The fact that she saved all of their lives is crazy. And the fact that the townspeople listened is crazier.

Nooooooo I don't wanna fight a plague doctor. Where is his face. Please tell me I get to beat up a guy with a face.

Watching people die over and over is enough to drive one mad. But who exactly did he listen to in the first place, who made him this way? They must have a name. Is it D'arqest or Claude or someone else?

Bitch do NOT make me cry by having Castti formally put her friends to rest

And I'm crying at the ending image now. Poor baby.

Reactions so far to Octopath 2 chapters:

Agnea Chapter 2: I adored it! Agnea's story is pretty lighthearted compared to Primrose's, but I like how it's building up to the Artificial Silk Girl scenario we'll run into later. I like the villains overall, but this guy is partially why. He doesn't have Evil Disease, he just hates poor people. Also, so much good music so far.

Ochette Cateracta Chapter: Love seeing her clashes with places as deeply human as port towns. Love the important side character too. And I can't wait to meet the final boss. There's going to be lots of big monsters in this one... The ending scene where Alpione cries has beautiful music.

Temenos Chapter 2: I LOVE book based murder. It drives me insane I love it. And I love him and his himbo and the mysteries. Although evil knights clad in red = LOL.

I find it hilarious how when you get information out of a person, there's sometimes some funny shit, and sometimes some mind-blowing information rendered in normal text. And sometimes there's glitches.

HER SISTER?!

A DUNGEON AS COMPACT AS A SHIP????

I cannot wait to see what your cool boss sprite looks like with all it's moves-nooooooo moonlight judgment nooooooooooooo

Castti Sai Chapter: She's the one whose story I'm most interested in, since she seems like such a cool character to me. Also I love how the desert is explicitly the Gobi Desert- I feel like we don't get to see that sort of setting that often.

More glitchies!

Edmund, who looks like THAT: A man's gotta be a provider! Me: Got it, he's sexist, racist, and classist.

Stop killing people, Edmund. (10 minutes later) Good on you for whatever you did, Edmund, but fuck you still.

I can't be the only one who was really excited to see a sand lion and ended up disappointed when it was actually just a giant real-world bug. Called a sand lion.

Whoever voicing the Purple Rain guy is doing great. And I'm terrified for what he did to the Apothecaries and that town. Perhaps that's like Octopath's Ruins of Hornburg.

[yourmidnightlover]

Dreams of Iris - Chapter 1

chapter 1 - sealed with a kiss

series masterlist

spencer reid x fem!reader

series overview: when introduced by penelope, reader and spencer take on a sexual bdsm relationship. secrets are discovered as time goes by. what happens when they both try to discover who the other is within themselves?

series warnings: bdsm themes, smut (rough sex, penetrative sex, spitting, choking, cum play, fingering, oral (male and female receiving), bondage, overstimulation, edging, grinding, thigh riding, handjob, aftercare), talk about/illuding to previous abusive relationship, angst, crying. this series is 18+

chapter summary: when spencer and reader are at penelope’s birthday party, their paths cross, and they’re able to get to know each other.

chapter warnings: mostly fluff, mild sexual innuendoes

A/N: hi!! i’ve been pretty mia the past few days, i know. i’m sorry for the constant breaks i’ve been having. my mental and physical health has been slowly declining over the past month but we’re finally getting back uphill! i’ve been thinking about making this series for a while now, but never truly started it. i hope you enjoy this and the future chapters!

“i’m so sorry i’m late, pen,” you rushed out with a smile. “after i played with him, my dog wouldn’t come back inside.”

“oh, gosh it’s alright!” she assured you with a wave as if she were actively brushing it away. “anything for charlie.”

“he’s a handful, alright,” you laughed once more as you entered her apartment.

the place was decked out with color, and you expected nothing less from the dazzling woman. there were neon balloons, a few streamers, and you could see the cake she placed on the counter.

“so where’s the fiancé?” you gently nudged her shoulder.

“he’s somewhere in the kitchen making small talk,” she rolled her eyes. “even though i told him to refill the punch bowl!” she directed her gaze to where luke was talking to emily in the kitchen.

“poor guy,” you winced as he looked towards penelope, surely remembering what she had asked of him before he jumped into action and opened the fridge door.

“sorry, princess,” he chuckled as he walked towards penelope after refilling the bowl, placing a chaste peck on her cheek.

“what happened to queen, huh?” she chuckled while trying to keep a straight face on, pretending to scold the man.

“oh, you’re right,” he sighed. “you’ll always be my queen - mainly of ice, but i digress,” he laughed before turning his attention towards you. “hey, y/n. it’s so good to see you again,” he reached for a hug which you gladly embraced.

“you too, man,” you smiled before releasing him from your grasp. “how’s the almost-married life treating you?”

“it’s going amazing with this one,” the couple looked at each other with the epitome of heart eyes.

“he’s so cheesy, i know,” penny grinned with a fake scoff thrown his way.

you could only hope to find a love so enchanting one day. a love that stole your heart and mind all the while allowing you to grow as your own person with them. a love that would emphasize all the best qualities you had and helped you find your best self.

“it’s mostly just the team here, so if you’d like i could introduce you to the ones you don’t already know?”

“that’d be great, actually!” you nodded as she looped your arm into hers, beginning to lead you around the place.

“so you’ve met emily and jj, right?”

“yea, at karaoke night,” you clarified as you waved at the two of them in the kitchen where luke was once talking. “and i met rossi at one of his book signings.”

“right! i forgot you read those books,” she bit her lower lip. “tara? matt?”

“tara i also met at karaoke night, she can get pretty wild. i’m pretty sure matt was with his family that time, though,” you informed her as she approached matt and his wife, the two being very attractive.

“matt, kristy, this is y/n y/l/n, one of my best friends,” she kindly introduced you, placing a hand on your back as you smiled at the couple.

“hi, y/n,” matt extended his hand to shake. “it’s so nice to finally meet you.”

“you as well,” you replied. “i’ve heard only great things about pen’s team.”

“this one included?” kristy joked as she nudged her husband. “i’m kidding, he’s truly great. it’s so nice to meet you,” she shook your hand as well.

“alright, we have one more stop to make,” penny whispered in your ear before taking your arm in hers once more and guiding you to where spencer, as she’s shown you in pictures, was sitting on the couch.

he’s much more beautiful in person. the photos didn’t seem to do him justice, especially that jawline of his.

“spencer, this is y/n y/l/n,” he looked up from his book to greet you, his eyes going wide before he cleared his throat.

“um… hi, y/n,” he smiled. “i’m doctor rei-spencer reid, but you can call me spencer or reid or whatever you’d prefer, really,” he stumbled out.

“hi, spencer,” you nodded, extending your hand to shake. “you can call me y/n,” you joked, a soft laugh leaving the both of you as your eye contact continued.

“okay, so i believe you’ve now met the full team!” penny interrupted, giving you a pat on the back before having you sit beside spencer.

“so…” you trailed on after pen walked away. “i’m assuming it’s phd and not md.”

“oh, yes,” he laughed as he closed the book, home turning his body to face you. “i have three phd’s.”

“pen did say you were the genius of the team,” you nudged his shoulder gently.

“i uhm-garcia tends to brag a bit on her friends,” he humbly explained, trying to bite back the persistent grin.

“oh come on,” you egged him on. “it’s alright to admit when you’re above average. i mean, 3 phds? she told me how you can read like a billion words a minute and have an eidetic memory.”

“i-i mean… in a way that’s all true,” he blushed. “i can only read 20,000 words a minute.”

“you say that as if it’s still not incredibly impressive, doctor,” you compliment him, chuckling as you place your hands in your lap and begin to twiddle them.

“thank you, y/n,” he placed his hand atop your fidgeting ones, forcing your attention into himself. “so,” he cleared his throat, “penelope says that you own a bookstore?”

“i do,” you nodded. “it’s a bit quaint and homely, which is how i wanted it. i like the comfortability that comes with the place. people have told me the ambiance is soothing.”

“seems pretty accomplished,” he added. “i suppose i’ll have to stop by sometime, check it out.”

“i suppose you will,” you smiled.

there was just something that drew you to him. perhaps it was his smile, or his curly hair. or maybe it was the way he was so welcoming and comforting. the energy he gave off while simply sitting on a couch was able to calm your nerves.

it was gentle, warm, and tender. you could tell he’d been through a lot - and not just because pen had told you he’d been through a lot. the way he presented himself made it seem as though he took every day as a blessing. he made sure to make the most of every day he was given and to take chances.

and maybe he’d take a chance with you.

he, in fact, did stop by your bookstore the next day. you saw him enter on the cameras you had set up, and it was quite odd knowing he wasn’t aware of your presence.

he began by browsing the nonfiction section, eyeing some old historical books before moving to the ‘owner recommendation’ section. he pulled a couple of books from the shelf, smiling as he admired the cover. it was clear he recognized each one he pulled, as if he was the one who made the shelf in the first place.

eventually, he made his way to the front desk. he looked a bit… disappointed when he saw that you weren’t the one at the front desk. you chuckled to yourself before opening the door from your office, making your way to greet spencer yourself.

“hey, stranger,” you tapped his shoulder, hiding your hands behind your back immediately after with a sly grin.

“y/n! hi,” he smiled, the disappointment no longer comprehensible on his face as he embraced you in a hug. “i was hoping i’d run into you.”

“were you, now?” you pulled back from his arms and bit your lower lip.

“um-yea-yes. i was,” he nodded, sticking firm with his answer. “i wanted to get to know you more? i really enjoyed talking to you the other day and thought that maybe we could finish our conversation?” he raised his eyebrows, waiting for the other ball to drop.

“i would like that,” you nodded before glancing at your employee who gave you raised brows himself, two thumbs up displayed as he mouthed ‘he’s hot’ behind his back. you stifled a laugh and rolled your eyes before adding, “would you want to grab a cup of coffee? i actually have a room in the back that has all the fixin’s.”

“i think i would like that very much,” he agreed before you grabbed his hand, leading him to your office.

“have a seat,” you motioned to the couch as you made your way to the coffee station. “how do you take it?”

he bit his lip at the innuendo before answering , “sweet.”

“seems fitting,” you sighed as you placed a pod in the keurig.

you placed a couple pumps of vanilla syrup in both of the cups along with two scoops of sugar in one, only one in the other. you took one mug and put it under the stream, letting the hot liquid flow into the cup before stirring it and handing the mug to spencer, doing the same thing for your own.

“thank you,” he muttered before taking a cautious sip of the coffee. “you didn’t mention how successful your bookstore is.”

you shrugged, “i didn’t think that was really important. i mean, what really deems something as successful?”

“that’s a good way of looking at it,” he added as you took a seat beside him on the couch. “did i interrupt something when i came?” he furrowed his brows.

“no, no need to worry,” you placed a calming hand on his forearm. “nothing that i can’t do later. it’s just bills and everything.”

“right,” he smiled. “have you always wanted to open a bookstore?”

“well, i always wanted to be self employed so i guess? i just wanted to make sure i was secure since i was a little girl,” you revealed. “my dad was always out of work and my mom had to stay home to take care of us. stability was something our lives always lacked, so i knew it was a main priority for me when i would grow up.”

you didn’t expect to reveal so much of your past so soon. a part of you was ashamed of it and tried your best to keep it hidden. but you could tell that spencer would never judge you for your past like other people have.

“and you accomplished that,” the accolade made you blush, or maybe it was the way his free hand made its way to your thigh.

“so,” you sighed. “did you always want to join the bau?”

“no, not really,” he chuckled, his thumb beginning to rub circles on your skin. “when i was little i wanted to be a cowboy, but before that a magician.”

“a magician?” you giggled at the thought.

spencer in a black cape, you at his side in a sparkly purple leotard, clinging to his arm with a wide smile.

“yea! i know a bit of sleight of hand,” he added.

“i wanna see!” your eyes lit up, all wonder entering them in the most innocent, beautiful way spencer had ever seen.

“alright,” he sighed as he looked around the room. “see my hands?” you nodded eagerly. “completely empty, right?” you nodded once more as you bit your lip. “so… how did i do…” you looked at him quizzically for a brief moment, “this?!” he reached behind you and picked out a single red rose from your hair.

you reached your hand out as he presented the rose to you, placing it in your hands. you looked at the flower with admiration, as if he had just handed you the world. he hugged your hands with his own, bringing them to his lips to place the softest kiss to them. his lips felt like clouds on your skin, and you could only imagine what they would feel like elsewhere, traveling down your body and exploring your own mouth.

“that was so cool!” you decided to say, rather than displaying your own internal monologue so soon.

“thank you, thank you,” he blushed as he waved to a faux crowd. “i’ll be here as long as the owner wants me to be.”

forever, you thought.

“can you teach me?!” you asked, now sitting on your feet and nearly launching yourself on top of the poor man.

“a magician never reveals his secrets,” he rose his hands in defense.

“i want to know all of your secrets,” you said in a low, innocent voice.

“all in due time, angel,” he compromised. “all in due time.”

you shivered at the nickname, partially wondering where he had gotten it from all the while hoping he’d call you it again.

“promise?” you were now a mere inches away from the man, your thighs touching as his hand wrapped around one of them.

“promise,” he whispered as you closed the gap, he pressed his lips to yours softly, not wanting to go too far so soon.

the kiss was a seal to the promise he had made. one day, he’d let his guard down for you. one day, he’d let you knock his walls down. one day, he’d be rescued by his princess from the tall tower he had built to protect himself. one day, he would let you see how he was both the victim, and the monster.

[arterrorist]

If there was something I didn't see comming it's me becoming an Alice Copper fan. It hit me by surprise. I mean big time. I knew Alice since his 90's hit „Poison”, which I liked, but checked the album it was on, called „Trash” and I thought to myself: what an appropriate name for this hair metal garbage! and didn't bother to check anything more.  So I've come quite a long way from regarding him a pedestrian rocker to become an acolite fan. I've accumulated all these records within last month or so. It's my top ten of AC. It happens to contain five Alice Cooper band albums and five from Cooper solo period, mostly from the 70s, Dada being the only 80s album.  

Now, getting to know all these records, I consider Alice Cooper (as a band and solo), as one of the most unique artists in the 70s and it's the era full of brilliant bands.

When they rock, they outrock The Who and are equal to Stones, but they are much more than that. Take those unbelivable theatrical arrangements – all those cheesy, or rather kampy choruses, vaudeville inspirations, strings, brass, along with bluesy harmonica and creepy passages with Alice many times being more of an actor than singer with his incredible interpretations of particular lines. Broadway shmaltz mixed with rock played with swager  – brilliant, catchy and provoking mixture!

And then there are all those wonderfully weird and wacky covers with billion dollar bill in the wallet, pants in the schooldesk, callendar with the hangman, cartboard package, book cover, face being the door to assylum and what not!  

And those clever, witty lyrics, sometimes provokingly schocking, sometimes pointing out important social problems, sometimes achingly honest, horror-themed (often in burtonesque way) or speaking directly to the mind of adolescents and sometimes utterly bizzare. Like the one song which is a dental horror, complete with the drilling noises with the story about pulling the teeth, being druged to the point when you halucinate being in a spy movie, with the triumphant fanfare moment of pulling the teeth out. All perfectly accompanied by evershifting musical soundtrack: bombastic when needed, sparse when necessery, cinematic at times and rocking hard when it fits the purpose. And it's only one song of the album, on which others are no less adventurous, but in it's own different way and still remain cohesive. And it's only one album with at least ten others full of their own intricacies to discover and complement the picture of this versatile phenomenon know as Alice Cooper.  

Of course there are more, I just happen to like those ten here the most, but there may be some others comming. I seem to geting like the so called blackout period. „Flush the fashion, Special Forces, Zipper catches skin” - they all have some good material plus I'm still digesting the first two albums by the band, so who knows. I'm not much into later (to this day) Alice period as I think he kinda dwarfed himself to this hard rock/metal persona abandoning most of his uniquness in the process. I mean it was always a rock band of course, but also something more than just it and I feel all the rest is gone now. Anyway those early Cooper stuff is amazing and in constant rotation on my turntable for about a month, and I'm sure, for many years to come.

[nomunamuinmybrain]

Work you out (M)

Pairing: Jungkook x Reader

Rating: M

Genre: Smut

Word Count: 2.4K

In collaboration with the lovely @alwaysdarkestbeforethedawn94

Disclaimer: if you are under the age of 18 please know that this contains heavy sexual themes and mature language.

Summary: Working for Hybe has been an experience. Being Jungkook’s manager is another story. His sharp eyes, firm jawline and snarky attitude was a deadly combination to begin with. The guy easily found his way to your heart and you simply couldn't take it anymore.

Thinking back to how I managed to land such an unimaginable employment opportunity must have been a miracle. Unquestionably, working for HYBE had so many benefits; I swore to never leave this place. Sure, I was a simple manager's assistant, but I was by the side of one of the managers that handled the most important talent in the stretch of South Korea, the entire globe to be honest, BTS. I was assigned the position of assistant to the manager of one of the guys, none other than Jeon Jungkook. I really couldn’t believe my luck. Not only was I a part of one of the most skyrocketing influential enterprises in the country, but I also had the chance to meet some of the most inspiring people in the whole world! Who would have thought?!

Did I have a crush on the guy by the end of my first month working here? Yes, but who wouldn't? He is the sweetest, always polite and courteous. I've met my share of self-boasting asshats; this industry is flooded with such. This guy is worth billions and he has remained ridiculously humble. Word got around about him being a wonderful young man and I could positively say he is so much more up close. Jungkook is ridiculously handsome that’s a given already, but his personality was the real deal-maker. He reminds me of a dark stormy thundery night where I cover myself with my favourite warm fluffy blanket starring out of the window a rich flavored hot chocolate in hand.

In general, I quite enjoy working at the company’s principled environment. Don’t get me wrong, nothing in this world is rainbows and butterflies, but overall, I can confidently say that it’s been a mainly positive experience. Thankfully, the department I am in is assembled by kind, funny people who like to get things done. There hasn’t been a day were I regretted coming here. As for my daily duties as an assistant, working for Jungkook meant keeping up with his appointments, helping him with anything at anytime, managing his schedule, making sure it matches with the other guys' and so much more. I was required to work around the clock and as a single independent woman in her late twenties who was trying to figure out the world around her that didn’t sound like such a bad idea, though I digress. Essentially, I was one of the employees responsible for pretty much anything and everything he needed. Our department was at his disposal 24/7 running around, living that busy life.

That's until the pandemic struck. That was the first time I thought to myself that this might be nature’s valiant plan to get back what man so forcefully took from her. Suddenly, everything was canceled; life got put on a hold. My dearest supervisor, Jungkook's manager, had to stay at home because he had kids. In fact, a lot of people had to stay at home. Abruptly, days became weeks and weeks became months. The desperation and frustration we were feeling was like nothing else ever experienced. Truthfully, it felt like something had been stolen from us and we could never get it back. In this manner, when the gears finally started grinding again I was assigned to be the on-site manager for Jungkook. That meant being in direct contact with him more so than before and of course, being responsible for a ton of other obligations.  

Not going to lie, the first months were slightly awkward for both of us and understandably so. We both were used to very different working arrangements. I might have been working behind the scenes before, but now I had to step into the spotlight becoming his own personal shadow, and I am sure he wasn’t really comfortable with that. Taken into account the current situation everyone looked like a volcano ready to erupt.  

Once, I happened to accidentally step in a not so common incident; maybe it was a circumstance I wasn’t supposed to witness. He was on the phone at the time, when I saw him. That’s why I decided it was best if I stayed behind the half closed door of the studio. I couldn’t hear what he was saying and it was none of my business after all, but I could tell by the minute I laid my eyes on him that something was wrong. Something had been bothering him; irritation written all over his face. He was pacing back and forth, phone still on his ear. He was clenching his fist so hard I wondered if his nails cut into his skin. He was breathing heavily, almost as if he would burst and his muscles grew tense.  

Then, in an instant, it seemed that the call ended and as he was putting the phone in his pocket he slammed his fists down onto the table a loud bang echoing in the room. After some consideration, I knocked on the door to make my presence known and he sharply looked at me. Without having the chance to say anything to him he let out a loud growl and left the room leaving me dumbfounded and unaware by the door. Soon after that, he apologized for the way he acted confessing that he had an unfortunate falling out with one of his closest friends and at the time he couldn’t process what was happening. I would never forget that day. It was the day I came across a not so familiar side to him.

From that day forward, things miraculously became easier and Jungkook was way more relaxed around my presence, we joked around often and he even texted me to ask about a variety of things outside of regular working hours. We managed to develop a teasing relationship full of endless borderline flirtatious banter. He had this other side to him that only a selected few got the chance to know. Jeon Jungkook was indeed a comforting raging night, but he was also an infuriating playful mischievous brat when he wanted to be. This in all honesty, made him a hundred times more irresistible in my eyes.

Life was going on smoothly until Jungkook decided that taking after midnight trips to the gym was perfectly acceptable, insisting that I escort him instead of his bodyguard. I cursed every single time but I went anyway. Forty-five minutes after midnight he was lifting weights, unbothered. Taking secret short glances towards him I contemplated what I had done in my previous life to deserve this torment. Don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t care less about the late hour, but to have this view in front of my eyes was causing me both mental and physical pain. The guy was clearly sculpted by the gods. With his broad chest, muscular arms and thick thighs he could have anyone he ever wanted. He even sported an hourglass figure; He is insanely unreal. That’s the main reason why I decided to sit there preoccupied with a silly game on my phone to kill time until the suffering ended. I was barely hanging from a string at the verge of blowing off the barrier between my personal and professional life.

Out of the blue, with a loud grunt, he dropped the weights, drawing me out of my contemplation. He looked annoyed for whatever reason. He tried his best to seem nonchalant but it was obvious, in his beautiful stern eyes. Could he be craving for an audience? Abandoning every rational thought I had, I put my phone away, looked in his direction as I got up to get water. I smirked at his clear annoyance. Surely, we weren't supposed to interact with the artists this way but I am cranky and sleepy, and for the first time ever, he was being kind of an ass to me. Was I perhaps the reason behind his sudden personality change? The thought kept floating at the back of my mind.  

This kept going on for about three weeks or so and I gave him nothing. His annoyance prominent in his expression, more and more as the weeks went by. He was hot but I am sure all he had been seeking was an audience given that he missed it, or so I thought. Thursday evening rolls around and I was particularly iffy tonight ‘because I was extremely frustrated, sexually. This one was making my situation worse, sporting a tight black tank top and skinny grey sweatpants which made him look like a treat. He could easily pass for a bodyguard with those broad well-built shoulders. As my eyes scanned his body I realized this was the first time his tatted sleeve was on display. I couldn’t help but let my eyes wander. By the time I was done his eyes were already fixed on mine and I turned away immediately, embarrassment written all over my face.  

Seeking solace in the women’s bathroom I tried to extinguish this ravenous yearning. The feeling of cold water did nothing to help the burning desire that was building inside me. Without warning, a knock at the door was heard, his sweet angelic voice following "Are you okay?" he asked, the remnants of a smirk could be heard still. "Jungkook you cannot be here, I am okay. I'll be out in a minute." I exclaimed, as calm as I could. "It's been ten minutes. I can't continue unless you're there." He insisted, I heard him chuckle after that.

With that, it was now or never, I pushed the door’s handle and made my way outside rolling my eyes in the process and he caught that, quickly moving closer, clearly annoyed, jaw clenched, eyes taking in my features, making him look not quite intimidating but definitely interesting. No, it was my mistake. Not just interesting, he looked ravishing. "As I said, I'll be out in a minute. Then you can finish up" I argued. But he didn't budge, moving even closer, if that was even possible, he was almost a breath away. "I don't feel like working out anymore" he declared like a child whose toy was taken away from him. As if I chose to play heads or tails with my career, I poked the beast further, "What is it that you want to do then?" I asked making sure he heard the annoyance in my tone. Coming even closer, to the point where he was completely pressed up against me, "You" he uttered calmly yet authoritatively. Before I could process what he had just said his soft lips crushed mine with a vengeance, thirsty. Pulling my lip with his teeth, he kept planting kisses from my lips to my jaw trailing down to my neck and décolletage; a surprised panting left my lips.  

It felt as if I had involuntarily awakened this beastly hunger within him. His kisses insatiable and his touch was possessive, "I've been thinking about this for so long" he confessed as he took my hoodie off. "Sitting there, not giving a word let alone a glimpse. If you think this is off-limits you're wrong" he growled pointing at himself. "I can guarantee that once we're done here you definitely won't be able to look at me, ever." As he said all that, he managed to get me in a compromising position against the sink, his slim waist in between my legs. He kept my gaze as he lowered his head between my thighs. Little shit kept giving me hickeys on the soft flesh of my inner thighs, so close to my now dripping core. He enjoyed tormenting me and it showed. I was helpless but oh, God was all of this hot. He licked a stripe over my soaked panties, "Oh baby, you smell delicious" and with one hand he took off my underwear completely.

He sank in my folds, letting a guttural moan that I felt vibrating through my core. Not being able to think about what was happening I let myself indulge in my carnal desire my hands tangled in between his luscious hair.  

He loved food and I've watched him eat before, but this must be one of his favorites ‘cause he was doing his best not to let a drop go to waste; he acted like a man starved. His hands held me in place, thankfully, ‘cause everything was too much; nothing could stop me from shaking, feeling everything deep in my core, he was too much. He just had to be good at everything. He kept a torturous tempo, from sucking my clit to his sinful tongue penetrating me, and as tears gathered around my eyes he decided to add his slender fingers in bringing me closer to heaven than I've ever been. "That's it baby, let go. Let go for me" he exhaled and just like that I had the most intense climax. My limbs felt numb, my whole body felt like rubber.  

Before I could register what was happening he was back at it, sucking my over stimulated clit, my thighs unconsciously closing around his head as oversensitivity hit. "One more, please, come on baby, you can do it" he begged. He kept pumping his fingers while sucking my clit, as if it was his only goal in life. My screams muffled through my own hand clamped on my mouth as I reached my high for a second time that night. I felt it take over me with such intensity I didn't register what had happened. He emerged from between my thighs, soaked from me squirting and with a proud look on his face he declared "Now I look like I had the workout of a lifetime".  

He helped me get dressed and pulled me close for a soft peck. He must have noticed my concerned look because he wrapped his arms around me in a warm hug and said "Don't be scared about this, we can work it out. I really like you and I'd like you to stick around". Starring into his eyes, I nodded and he pulled me close for the sweetest kiss, trying to tame my bewildered hair. He helped me get dressed and got out the door first to make sure that no one was around. I waited for a moment and then I got a text.  

[bae-science]

oh? uprising pentagon funding moments? tell us more

okay let’s get into it hello everyone and welcome to unraveled with newt bae-science. i’ve replaced the twink.

BACKGROUND:

when creating the first pacific rim movie with gdt at the helm directing, the cgi being done was pretty expensive. it’s giant robots, giant monsters, huge military complexes, and making raleigh’s pupils into circles and not big pink hearts. complicated stuff! so the expectation from the big boys at legendary was that they would take the marvel route: get funding from the us military. 

the way that works goes like so: there is a team at the pentagon that reviews every script sent to them by film producers that would like funding. if the script is deemed to portray the us military in an acceptable way, the production gets free use of military bases, tons of cash, use of equipment, and a ton of other stuff. this is how marvel does all their movies. it’s propaganda, babey!

so they polish off the script and send it off to the boys in brown in washington to ask for cgi money. the us military reads the script, says “no we’re not portrayed well and also the ppdc is too international (and lbr, with the kaidonovskys and the triplets they probably weren’t too happy about that teamup)”, and sends it back for changes. no changes? no money.

well del toro says fuck that.

he says considering all the lovely things the us military had done to latin american counties while he was growing up (because remember, the guy is mexican), he wasn’t gonna take a penny of their propaganda money just to kiss up. no changes are made, a crap ton of more money goes into the cgi, and the first film barely broke even. it had a budget of $180 million usd  (10 million more than godzilla king of the monsters) and grossed $411 million worldwide. in big budget movie world? that’s fucking nothing. the first avengers movie had a budget of $220 million and made $2.048 billion worldwide. in 2012. so the bar was set and pacific rim did not meet it monetarily.

cut to five years later with uprising. legendary is sitting around, going “okay we know there’s still a strong fanbase for this franchise, there’s still blockbuster material in here, can we make a profit?”. they don’t want a repeat of last time, because if you bring in del toro, he’s gonna give us a script that won’t get military funding, and we cannot afford to make this movie without it. it’s pacific fucking rim. so they bring in a guy whose never solo directed before and has a background of working on the transformers movies, which are also about giant robots and also chock full of us nationalism. you can pay him less than a big name like gdt, he’s guaranteed to make something that the army will like, and he knows what he’s doing with the rock ‘em sock ‘em robots, which is all we really care about. 

enter steven s. deknight.

THE HUNCH:

gonna put a great big ALLEGEDLY here because none of this is confirmed, i’m only speculating, but i’m also a double entertainment major who’s been working in the industry for almost half a decade, so. i have a solid proposal.

here’s my pitch: i think they whip up a script that is us military catnip. tons of glorification of soldiers, turning the ppdc into a police state, child soliders going uncriticized, more emphasis on the jaegers and fight sequences than actual characters, and of course, the villains. you have shao, a chinese businesswoman who has an extremely unethical company culture (stream) and turns out to have been blind to the evil aliens destroying it right under her nose, and then you have the precursors. because putting aside the whole twist thing and newt being possessed and tortured, all the poorly done allegories, blah blah blah, before the big twist that it’s faceless aliens we can blamelessly kill, it looks like the fruity dude who defected from the government to the private sector and sold out, is the main villain. you have several excellent things the audience is already primed to hate (girlbosses, china, people being successful at things who aren’t the government and refusing to work with them, schrodinger’s evil dandy) thanks to propaganda. formulaic, basic plot with little scary nuance or criticism + easily vilifiable concepts the us doesn’t like = tons of cash from uncle sam. free money, right?

well we all know how that girl bossed now don’t we.

the budget for pacific rim: uprising was $150 million. it grossed $290.5 million worldwide for a monumentally worse box office flop than the first movie, mixed reviews from critics, an outraged fan response, and everybody got on their ass for fridging mako and being yet another sci-fi franchise to screw over john boyega. it premiered in march, Q1, where movies go to die. i was there. i sat in that theater in my little newt cosplay and was set on the path to also become a psych student (i have a lot of fields of study. nomative determinism, okay?), and felt my extremely normal and average height body fill with rage. it was a shitshow at the fuck factory. 

THE TAKEAWAY:

we all know why uprising sucked. it was a textbook example of fridging, the characters were underdeveloped and one-note, there were no real themes or points made, newt starred in a one-man one-hivemind trauma porno; i’ve said all this before. 

but i try to do this thing where i take away a lesson from a shitty experience, whatever it may be. what can we learn from uprising (allegedly)? well for one, don’t cram your movie full of enough propaganda to please the army and expect it to actually be a good movie. don’t let a first timer direct such a big project with so many politics behind it. let financial constraints push you to think outside the box with your art: just look at new who! blink is one of the highest rated episodes of the whole damn SHOW and it came out of penny pinching. and most important: support art that means something. throw your money at projects that have something important to say, and encourage the people you know to do so too. because if we don’t? nothing is immune to propaganda. not even giant robots.

(and stream pacific rim: the black so i can have a big budget for when i direct pr3 ❤️)

[panharmonium]

next round of in-progress naruto thoughts under the cut!  we started season 12 finally and we’re only like ten episodes into it but i have already experienced the most stressful moment of my life so.  lots to scream about.

[spoiler policy disclaimer first, as always: I am watching naruto for the first time and have only gotten a partway into season 12.  i am trying to avoid spoilers, so please don’t interact with this (tags included, because the notifications now show them to me automatically) with any spoilery commentary, including even general things like “oh i love this show but it gets less good after X point” or “X season is better than Y season” or any general assessments of quality/likability/etc re: future seasons.  Thank you! <3 ]

- the amount of information dumped on us in the first half of this season is SO MUCH!!!!  i don’t remember any of it!  i can’t keep it straight!  we met kushina and did the entire nine-tails attack backstory and all that stuff about the land of eddies and the previous nine-tails jinchuriki (which, UH....yikes), and then a bunch of very confusing information about the sage of the six paths (we still don’t even know what that title MEANS) and some kind of special/complementary creation powers inherent to the senju and uchiha clans that apparently were used to create the tailed beasts from the ten-tails, and then all these references to other things like....madara fighting the first hokage to acquire his powers?  madara giving nagato the rinnegan (...how?)  nagato being an uzumaki??  and then we get dumped into the actual formation of the allied shinobi forces and how they’re organized and that in itself it a lot for me to keep straight........so many characters...i still don’t know half their names....i feel like i need to rewatch the entire first half of this season just to try to absorb all of this information again

- i can’t believe this show actually gave one of the mothers a personality.  shocking.  

- re: above - i liked kushina a lot.  but can i just say, while we’re on the subject, how FUCKED UP her entire story is???????  the hidden leaf administration......imported a child........to make her the nine-tails jinchuriki......a fate in which she had no say.....that’s.........abhorrently fucked up.  i thought we’d reached the limit of “how evil is this administration actually” but i guess not

- relatedly, i still feel like.......weird about minato’s choices?  not really sure where i stand on that one yet.  like...they kind of make us assume up until these episodes that minato HAD to use the reaper death seal and sacrifice his own life in order to stop the nine-tails, but now we know that’s not even the case.  kushina was going to take the nine-tails down with her.  minato didn’t actually have to die, and kushina didn’t want him to.  she didn’t want to make naruto the jinchuriki, and she didn’t want him to grow up without any parents.  and it’s not like her original plan would have been a permanent solution for everyone; minato says the nine-tails will just reemerge someday if they don’t seal it inside someone now, but still.  i dunno.  

it’s not like an EVIL choice.  i get what he’s saying.  i just don’t know how i feel about it.  minato on the whole has just been a character that i haven’t quite figured out how to connect with - i don’t dislike him, and i WANT to like him more than i already do, but even back at the end of the kakashi chronicles his vibe just felt a little weird to me.  a little...detached.  i dunno if i’m just like...wanting him to be something other than what he is, because the show builds him up so much as the ideal?  but then he doesn’t quite match what i envision.  

he’s not BAD in any way.  i just keep wanting him to be...warmer, or something, and maybe that’s just not who he is.

- i was bizarrely fond of young!Killer Bee.  the way he was just such an optimistic kid who never let anything get him down...he’s kinda like naruto in that way.

- and i had a Very strong reaction to that moment where motoi apologizes for trying to kill Bee that one time and Bee’s smiling response is “you know, i don’t remember that happening.”  that was, uh.....you can definitely feel what they’re getting at with that.  

honestly, the second half of this show is doing a lot with radical forgiveness/compassion and that is one of my BIGGEST thematic weaknesses, so i’m prepared to continue getting punched with it.

- KISAME LMAOOOO.  man, i’m gonna miss him.  i guess if you’ve gotta go out, feeding yourself to your own sharks is one way to do it.  

- i loved that flashback to kisame meeting itachi lol.  they have a brief tense moment and then kisame literally is just ‘lets be friends and have some fun’ and he’s not SERIOUS obviously; it’s meant in a ‘let’s just not make waves here so we can get our work done,’ but then it’s hilarious because the two of them literally never argue again.  they’re the only two akatsuki members who actually get along XD

- KONAN OMG.  ;________;  

- how fucking badass do you have to be to pull off that move though.  six hundred billion paper bombs???  six hundred BILLION?????????

- i was EMOTIONALLY COMPROMISED by the sudden jiraiya flashbacks and his little froggy tile system for keeping track of the children, oh my god.  that was...no.

- loved naruto telling the nine-tails “i’m sorry...i won’t do wrong by you...just hang in there for a while longer”.......i loved that.  (see again: radical compassion)

- how DARE they use the reanimation jutsu on asuma.  how DARE THEY.  

- i....really can’t imagine that sasuke is gonna be cool with them using itachi’s dead body like that.  like i know he can’t see that they’re doing it right now, but those bandages have gotta come off at some point, right? 

- definitely Did Not Like kabuto saying that he also reanimated “other shinobi of significance”...that really just leaves the door wiiiiide open and that is a stressful feeling

okay now the main event -

WHEN KABUTO SAID HE WANTED YAMATO FOR HIS EXPERIMENTS I STARTED FULL-ON SCREAMING THREATS AT THE TV (@PADMERRIE WAS THERE SHE CAN CONFIRM)

AND THEN THE VERY NEXT EPISODE KABUTO SWALLOWED HIM AND SLITHERED AWAY AND NOW YAMATO IS CAPTURED AND BEING EXPERIMENTED ON AND/OR USED LIKE A FUCKING...DNA BANK OR CHAKRA RESERVE FOR MADARA’S PLANT ARMY OR SOEMTHING AND IT’S HORRIBLE AND I WANTED TO CRY THE WHOLE TIME

you guys i cannot emphasize enough how upset i am about yamato being trapped in kabuto’s clutches i was clutching a blankie the whole time we were watching and i cannot stop thinking about it even into today; i am just sobbing on the inside

one of this show’s recurring themes is the whole “treating people as if they’re nothing more than weapons/tools to be exploited is bad actually; maybe we should stop doing that” (eg the cultural view of shinobi, the jinchuriki, the hyuga clan’s curse marks, all of orochimaru’s “projects” [kimimaro, taka, etc]), and yamato is another victim of that - we’ve barely gotten any details about his history yet but we do know that he was originally one of orochimaru’s experiments and i just cannot STAND the thought of him being back in the hands of those fucking people.  i cannot stand the thought of him being tortured and stripped down and experimented on.  the idea of him being trapped in this dehumanizing position again is KILLING ME INSIDE.  i need kakashi to break in there and rescue him YESTERDAY.

[almosttenaciouscreator]

When Did Socks Become a Thing?

You may have noticed that women basic socks aren’t what they used to be. Think back: for a long time socks were just something you used to cover your feet. Possibly black, probably ankle-height and definitely an afterthought. Socks are now an important part of your outfit at the least, the making of an outfit at most.

Socks have become an area of diplomacy and woke-signalling – the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau is perhaps the biggest name to use socks in this way, choosing pointedly themed ones for public occasions. Or a telling insight into a political mind: Boris Johnson was criticised recently for not washing his lucky socks, emblazoned with a ruler of the Neo-Assyrian empire King Ashurbanipal, often enough.

Socks are such a basic item that they're easy to take for granted...and leave on the floor, shove under beds, or lose to the dryer monster. (It happens to the best of us.) But socks actually deserve mad props for keeping our wiggly and sometimes stinky feet dry, warm, and free from blisters, so in honor of National Sock Day, here's a little history of how they became a thing and some guidelines on what kind to wear and when…or not.

Until the 17th century, men basic socks were called stockings, but according to Wikipedia, the modern English word sock (first recorded in 1690, btw), evolved from the Old English socc which evolved from the Latin soccus…"a lightweight shoe worn by ancient Greek and Roman comic actors." Socks are worn on our feet (mostly) and come in various lengths, fabrics, colors, patterns, and styles, depending on their intended purpose, i.e. thick wool socks for skiing, thin wool dress socks for business, and short white socks for running. But the first socks were actually made from leather or matted animal hair – called "piloi" in 8th century BC Greece. A thousand years later in the 2nd century AD, the Romans were the first ones to sew woven fabrics together and make fitted socks ("udones").

The oldest surviving socks are a red-orange pair from between 250 AD and 420 AD that were excavated from Oxyrhynchus on the Nile in Egypt. They were made with the nålebinding technique, which means "knotless netting" and uses a single thread...the precursor to modern-day knitting and crochet. And they have split toes specifically for—gasp!—wearing with sandals. (Which the ancient Romans and Greeks did more or less exclusively, so they get a pass on any fashion judgement.) Speaking of Egypt, socks were so important that alongside all of the gold and jewels, King Tut's tomb supposedly contained several pairs made from linen.

In the Middle Ages, socks were brightly-colored and started becoming more of a fashion statement. As trousers got shorter over the next few centuries, socks got longer…and more expensive. So expensive, in fact, that by the end of the first millennia, socks were actually a status symbol among the nobility, and had also become highly ornamental. #FunFact: a fancy design that's embroidered or woven on each side or the outer side of a sock beginning at the ankle is called a clock. Who knew?

As societies progressed, so did basketball function socks, and they were made from wool, silk, and cotton, depending on a person's economic class (nobles = silk; peasants = wool). Besides being a display of wealth, socks served an important utilitarian purpose since even nobles faced harsh conditions at times. (Indoor heating wasn't a thing until the 20th century, so keeping those piggies warm was essential…frostbite didn't care if someone was wealthy.) Peasants especially were exposed to the elements way more than we are today and needed to protect their feet from the wet and cold. (They also bathed less often, so if you think your teen's basketball socks are stinky, just imagine the funk of a 16th century pair.)

Socks were so critical to life that mending them—called "darning"—was a very important skill. Cold feet led to frostbite which could lead to gangrene which could lead to death, so when a sock had a hole in it, it most definitely got fixed! As early as the 12th century, the heel of a sock was the last part made, which made it easier to replace when it wore out…a very common practice. Sock owners took their maintenance seriously.

The knitting machine's arrival on the scene in 1589 was a game-changer since six pairs of football function socks could be made in the time it took to create one previously, but socks were still hand-knit alongside the machines for another couple hundred years. A tiny percentage are still made that way today. Socks were historically held up with ribbons or ties or by garters since elastic wasn't a thing yet. Until Jedediah Strut's Derby Rib machine in 1758, that is, but it was so expensive that it took almost two more centuries before more socks were held up by elastic than garters. To put it in perspective, in 1899 England, a pair of socks sold for the equivalent of $15 today…a LOT back then.

The next biggest thing to happen to socks was—drumroll please—the 1938 introduction of…nylon. The blended fabric was born, and synthetics changed the sock world, along with the rest of it. With socks now being made from recycled plastics, their evolution has come full circle in the last 80 years. The most common blends today include cotton, wool, and polyester or nylon, but socks are also made with silk, spandex, bamboo, and other fabrics.

Another big moment in the evolution of socks was globalizing production. In 2011, the Datang district of Zhuji in the Zhejiang Province of China was known as "Sock City." Why? Because it was producing 8 billion pairs of socks each year, which was a third of the world's annual total. Finding accurate sales numbers is challenging but suffice to say that BILLIONS of pairs of socks are sold each year for even more billions of dollars, the competition is fierce, and socks are almost as high-tech as electronics in some facets of their engineering.

The Rules of Socks

We've established that socks come in all kinds of fabric configurations and all kinds of styles, some of the common categories being: dress winter floor socks, athletic socks, hiking socks, ski socks, knee socks, tube socks, ankle socks, foot socks, boot socks, novelty socks, booties, slipper socks, tights, and pantyhose. There's no question that with the help of socks, shoes protect your feet from debris, disease, injury, and the elements. But sometimes, it's the outer world that needs to be protected from sweaty or smelly feet. To that end, businesses and venues with dress codes will usually tell you if socks are required (that would be yes 98% of the time). But what about when it's completely up to you? Socially and hygienically, are there times that you should always—or never—wear socks? (That would also be yes.)

Seriously, lost socks are a real and quantifiable phenomenon. But quantum physics theories aside, the average person loses 1,264 socks over his or her lifetime, so where do they GO? One clue is the way that some socks take a detour and mysteriously show up within the next couple of laundry loads. So, they weren't really lost, they were stuck in a fitted sheet, stuck to a sweater, stuck under the upper rim of the washing machine basket, or otherwise occupied for a bit. The socks that are actually lost could be under the bed, they could have fallen out of your gym bag in the locker room or landed in a gutter when you were walking, someone might have thrown a sock away because it had a hole and they didn't know how to darn it, they could be stuck to something neatly folded in a drawer somewhere, or they could actually be IN the washing machine in a hose, filter, or other part, especially if they're small, and ditto with the dryer! (Yes, really...certain models can literally eat your socks.)

[bellablue42]

Myself as a writer and Death of the Author

I’m trying to write a novel, and it’s really hard. I feel like I’m not getting anywhere, I’m on my fifth draft and trying to create a lengthy enough narrative that doesn’t feel like filler. It is difficult, to say the least, and I really admire people with the ability to write quickly and well. 

But there’s a lot about She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named going around again, and it made me think. We all know that she’s not the best person, but she is a writer, and she is a creator, and her works are widespread. And that... causes problems.

Is it ok to consume her work? How much do her opinions reflect in her work, and can we spot it? I have no idea, but here’s my best shot, as an aspiring writer and a high-school literature student.

Please be warned I have no experience, and I’m kind of making this up as I go along, but here we go.

Last year, at the start of the school year, in Literature, my class watched Midnight in Paris. The movie was written and directed by Woody Allen, who is... well-known for all the wrong reasons, namely allegedly assulting seven-year-old Dylan Farrow. One of the girls in my class pointed out this fact, and my teacher nodded and said that we were discussing Death of the Author.

Death of the Author is an interesting topic. It holds that an author’s intentions and background should have no impact on interpreting a text. It is interesting, and it is really bloody hard to do.

Keep in mind that if you pick up a book by a relatively famous author, you will know something about them. If you take Mrs Dalloway, for example, if you’ve ever heard of Virginia Woolf, you will doubtless know that she was a writer and that she committed suicide, even if you know nothing else. The fact that she did commit suicide will influence the way you read Mrs Dalloway.

If you read Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath, for example, you will probably know that Plath was not mentally healthy and committed suicide by sticking her head in an oven. And that will influence the way you read Lady Lazarus. If you read any of Lovecraft’s work, you will come to the conclusion that he is a racist. It’s not hard to figure out.

Death of the Author means separating these facts from the way you interpret a work. It is really hard, trust me.

Because we look for links, everywhere we look for these links. We know that Sylvia Plath committed suicide, so when you read Lady Lazarus, you make connections. Go read Lady Lazarus now, go read it knowing that Plath committed suicide, and keep that fact in mind. Here’s the link: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49000/lady-lazarus

Now read it again, and try to forget it, all the connections you made knowing that Plath stuck her head in an oven. It is really hard to do, because you know, and you remember. Death of the Author is forgetting the context of the author, forgetting their impact on the text.

Here’s a thing, I write a lot. Like, a lot. Not published, obviously, but I write about as much as I read, and that is a lot. And I believe, that when you write, you put a bit of yourself into it. It doesn’t have to be obvious, maybe just the way you connect to a character, or your views on a topic. I can’t say I don’t do this - my main character is an asexual lesbian who panics a lot and loves her girlfriend. Her competence doesn’t come from me, but the gender, the sexuality, the panic? All of that is inspired by, you know, me. My experiences, my opinions. I am conscious in my word choices, I’m trying not to use gendered language for the soldiers, because they are men, women, non-binary, genderfluid and others, all together, so my main character can’t call them her men, they are her soldiers. It’s hard. I’m aware that I have biases, and my reading experiences are usually texts that ... do not do this. 

Sorry, I’m rambling, and no-one wants to know. 

But I as a writer, put a bit of myself in my work. And I think that’s what makes Death of the Author so hard to do, so hard to remember. 

And now onto HER. I can’t remember what brought my attention to her in the first place, maybe a post about a Harry Potter tv show?

The problem about JK Rowling is that she wrote Harry Potter. And Harry Potter is... huge. The problem is that we grew up on Harry Potter. 

Looking back, there are big problems with the series; plot holes bigger than my fist, a lack of original plot lines, and little creativity. Harry Potter is a mishmash of already well-established genres and archetypes, and it... doesn’t fit together particularly well. 

(Take Dumbledore, at once the mentor archetype from the fantasy genre and the authority figure in the boarding school genre. The problem is that being both causes a bit of dissonance. He mimics the typical ‘wise old mentor wizard’ from fantasy, like Gandalf, but he is also a school headmaster. He is a grandfatherly teacher who takes an interest in the son of two of his past students, nothing particularly new, but at the same time, he’s a figure out of legend, an incredibly powerful man, both magically and politically. It is hard for my brain to fit them together well because they are two different archetypes and they don’t mesh. They belong in different genres, because the way he is written can’t seem to decide which one he is. I might write more on this later if anyone’s interested)

But Rowling’s a TERF. And she’s been on Twitter and said all sorts of bizarre things about the odd mish-mash of genres she’s created. I’m not really a fan of Harry Potter anymore, I grew up with it. I have seven books in a shoebox under my bed. I have read far better books, I have read many, many books with more interesting stories, better internal consistency and characters with actual depth, who don’t need fandom to be interesting. 

And yet I still have all seven books in a shoebox under my bed. It’s hard. I genuinely liked the books - when I was twelve. I’d sooner recommend the Discworld books by the late great Sir Terry Pratchett than Harry Potter, and not just because of HER. They’re better books. Harry Potter is average. 

But we loved them. 

And Rowling’s a TERF. Her views on trans people are... not okay, by any measure. I don’t have words for ... how great the cognitive dissonance is. She wrote a series, a seven-book, eight-movie series, about the power of unconditional love. Over a million words, just under 20 hours about acceptance and tolerance. And yet she doesn’t believe that trans women are women. 

The problem is that it is hard to apply Death of the Author. Once you know that JK discriminates against transgender people, it is hard to read Harry Potter without remembering that. 

Then you get into other issues about how all of the endgame couples are straight. And Dumbledore’s only gay when the series is ended. And there’s a lack of diversity in the books and the movies. And once you start reading into it, it gets ... iffy. Because it’s not meant to be read into, not meant to be analysed. It’s a children’s series. But it’s problematic, not for the things it says, but fo the things it doesn’t say.

The thing is that SHE is impressive. As a writer, at least, not as a person. Because it is hard to write, and she managed an extensive, relatively-coherent storyline across seven books, released over ten years. But her first book got rejected, again and again. 

Her net worth is somewhere between 650 million and 1.2 billion. And she earns all that money off a book series whose main themes are friendship and love. And she’s a TERF.

I can’t say I hate her - I don’t know her. She might be a genuinely nice person, but she’s a TERF. She doesn’t believe that trans people are the gender that they say they are. I cannot understand how you can believe that, but. She does, apparently. She wrote so much about love conquering all evil, and friendship saving the day, but she doesn’t think that trans women should be allowed into female bathrooms.

I hate her ideology. 

Go read Discworld instead. Think about Death of the Author, then read Night Watch. It’s a great book. Or go read Good Omens, because Pratchett co-wrote that. 

The thing about Discworld is that you can tell what Pratchett thinks is worth paying attention to. Small Gods is primarily about religion, about belief, and about people. The last one is the most important, because Pratchett believed that the greatest thing you can be is human and kind, and he’s right. The witches on the Discworld are... perhaps not nice, but they are decent, and they are fundamentally people. They are human, and they are kind, and that is what makes them good people. 

The thing about Harry Potter is that “Muggle” sounds like a slur. There’s all this attention paid to the whole “mudblood” thing that people forget that behind all the blood purity nonsense - which sounds a lot like eugenics - the purebloods, the rich entitled kids, believe that non-magical people are less than animals. The Wizarding world is stuck in the Middle Ages, not even the bloody Renaissance. Human history has passed them by. It is so hard now to read Harry Potter without finding problems, like how all the magicals are fundamentally stupid, how a literal one-year-old is praised for supposedly killing an extremely powerful mass-murdering psycopath. A one-year-old. The Wizarding World is not a functional society, and it’s not meant to be. It’s not meant to hold up to scrutiny.

Look, Harry Potter is average, at best. Ask me for good kids books and I will point you in a dozen different directions, and I will point you in a dozen different directions - but not there. 

Because Death of the Author is hard. Not taking the creator’s intentions and background into account when interpreting a work is hard. You can know that an author is queer, or a person of colour, or of a certain religion, but once you know it, it is hard to not see it. 

You see, all the main characters in Harry Potter are white. They’re also all straight. Everyone not Harry Potter is flat. There is very little depth to anyone in those books, because they don’t matter. Hermione is defined by her relationship with Ron because her relationship is the most debated part of her character. Ron - in the movies at least - is seen as stupid because he is written stupid, he is written as comic relief. Book-verse Ron is a strategist, but that’s only really shown in the first two books. They’re not written with depth, they don’t need it. Harry’s the protagonist, Hermione’s the smart one, Ron’s the dumb-but-loyal comic-relief best friend. Ginny is the love interest, Luna’s the crazy one, the twins are comic-relief pranksters. Draco is the racist antagonist, Voldemort is a more extreme mass-murdering version. There are exactly zero trust-worth adults in a whole seven-book series, there are three? characters with depth in the whole series, everyone else is defined by a role and a single characteristic.

It is so hard to look critically at Harry Potter and not see everything that relates to Rowling. It is problematic as a series, and problematic as content created by a TERF. It is problematic as literature in the first place. It’s written as a kids book, but for all its ‘adult’ themes, it can’t stand up to scrutiny.

This got long - I got a bit carried away. Sorry.

Tell me what you think, tell me your opinion. I’d love to discuss this with you because it so hard to write about. Argue with me, tell me I’m wrong. Tell me I’m right if you think I am. Have I said anything problematic? Please lets start talking about this because it’s interesting and a difficult topic, and I think we need to start looking closer at authors and content creators. 

[johnny-and-dora]

could never want for more (when you’re near)

65. “help me find my shirt.” “you know, as much as i want to...i don’t want to.” requested by anon or, shameless early relationship fluff counts as a healthy coping mechanism, right?

read on ao3 -

Amy blinks herself awake in the early morning light, coming to her senses slowly, head clouded by a slight hangover that seems to pair nicely with the foggy autumnal morning outside. She’s confused and honestly, a little disappointed to find she’s alone in her bed – she has to admit she treasures her boyfriend’s sleepy smile in the mornings, the way he’ll pull her closer to him before he’s even fully awake, mumble a muffled good morning that tickles, a low and warm hum in her ear. The days that start off that way always seem to go better.

The confusion only increases tenfold when her alarm clock reads 7:17am despite it being a rare, precious shared day off with said boyfriend, who is notably a) not a morning person and b) mysteriously absent, his phone missing from the extra charging cable she bought him.

She’s dragging him to one of her favourite art galleries today, knowing the exhibition they have on the art of movie posters will catch his attention. Then it’s lunch in a cute French-themed café she found and a walk in the park near her apartment. She’s been looking forward to spending this time with Jake all week. He even put a reminder on his phone so he wouldn’t forget, just one of many recent tiny gestures that speak a million words about how much effort he’s been putting into their relationship.

Amy’s about to launch a full investigation as to why he’s out of bed criminally early when he emerges from the hallway clad only in his boxers, phone in hand.

“Holt called.” He says while wriggling into his jeans, grimacing apologetically in a way she knows means all her plans are instantly out the window. “Apparently a witness came in with new info on the Abernathy murders.”

Amy nods, understanding at once – he’s been working this case for weeks, desperate for any kind of new lead. There’s been a lot of coffee drinking and teeth grinding and her offering sympathetic smiles over her monitor whenever he lifts his head from a long period slumped against his desk.

There’s also been a lot of letting him choose where they order from or what film to watch and her letting him be the big spoon. She even brought some Orangina for when he’s over, which she knows he appreciated even if it apparently wasn’t exactly right (She personally can’t tell the difference, but she’s not about to start that debate again).

And as much as she mourns her original plans to spend the day together, Amy understands how important this is, likely more than most other girlfriends would. Hell, if their roles were reversed, she’d probably be halfway out the door already.

That doesn’t necessarily mean she can’t mess with him a little, though. Or make the most of the time they have while he’s still here. In the name of maximum productivity, of course.

Amy Santiago is nothing but efficient.

She props herself up on her elbow to get a better look at him, purposefully letting the comforter drop to her lap so she instantly has the upper hand in any negotiations they might be making. He’s fully engrossed in the search for the rest of his clothes, strewn across her bedroom a little too enthusiastically last night in a post-Shaw’s haze. It could take him a while to notice her, but it’s worth the wait.

“Will you help me find my shirt?”

“You know, as much as I want to…” She says, slipping into that low sultry voice she knows he’s utterly powerless against, “I really don’t want to.”

Jake finally glances up at her and freezes midway through putting on his sock, eyes suddenly wide.

“Oh, that is so not fair.”

“What?” She says innocently. “You’re my extremely cute, very handsome charming boyfriend. I’m just trying to get a good look before you disappear and leave me alone all day.”

She’s expecting the usual bravado or blatant over-confidence that Jake usually exudes, some kind of snappy retort or playful engagement in their usual verbal sparring. What takes her aback is the way he goes quiet, wonder and maybe even shyness flooding his expression.

Jake is a lot of things. He has a wide and vivid emotional spectrum that she’s gotten to know pretty well over the past few years. He is rarely ever shy.

“You…you think I’m handsome?” He says – and there’s the dopiest, cutest disbelieving look on his face that melts away all her playfulness entirely.

“Of course I do.” She says, softer now. “I mean, I like you for lots of other reasons, but- “

He perches tentatively on the end of her bed, shirt clearly forgotten. “You like me for lots of reasons?”

“Oh my god, yes, you dork.” She laughs lightly, sitting up and tucking her hair behind both ears. “I thought…that was obvious?” Amy gestures back and forth between them, loosely symbolising the whole relationship thing that they’ve been doing for almost three months now, and is relieved to finally see him smile, brilliant and bright.

“I…yes. Yeah, of course. I like you too, for a million billion different reasons, obviously- “ He runs his hand through his already messy hair, face a little flushed. It’s a sight to behold, a flustered, half-naked Jake Peralta. She’s studied many revered and respected pieces of art in her time, but he might be her favourite.

“It’s just, uh. Sometimes it’s still kinda surreal to me. That you actually like me back. That we’re, um…that I’m…”

“My boyfriend?” She prompts, and the reverent look on his face could power the entire city in a blackout. He shifts closer, enough for the scent of his cologne to pleasantly flood her senses.

“Yes. That I’m Amy Santiago’s boyfriend. Man, I should get that on a t-shirt.”

“Please don’t.”

“Oh Ames, you know Charles is probably hand-stitching them as we speak.” Amy wrinkles her nose in disgust, pushing him away as he laughs, bright and loud and sweet. The world is fuller, better somehow when he laughs, even if it’s about Charles’s weird obsession with their romantic relationship. Suddenly things not going to plan is an opportunity to take stock of her stationary needs and to organise a date night rather than the onset of a full-on anxiety attack.

“Ugh, I’m sorry.” He sighs, intertwining their hands – Amy furrows her brow, confused.

“For what? Charles? He’s pretty intense, but his enthusiasm can be actually kinda-“

“No, no. I meant for ruining all the plans you had for us today.”

“Oh. You’re sweet, but it’s okay. It’s the job, you and I know that better than anyone.” She says softly, unable to resist the impulse to card her fingers through his soft curls. He takes her hand back, pressing a kiss to each of her knuckles.

“Still. It sucks. Now I have to leave my gorgeous, incredible girlfriend to go work a stupid case I don’t even care about.”

“Jake, this is all you’ve cared about for weeks.”

“That is so not true.” He says, pouting. “You’re what I care about.”

And well, there it is. If she wasn’t going to tempt him to stay a little longer before, now she barely has a choice. They easily slip from a sweet kiss into something hungrier, more passionate – painfully aware of her morning breath and general dedication to punctuality, Amy tries one last fruitless attempt to get Jake to work on time.

“You’re going to be late…” It comes out breathy and trembling and it’s poorly timed, really, because he’s just started trailing kisses down her neck and collarbone in that way she’ll never get enough of.  

“Don’t care.” He mumbles into her shoulder, warm and low in exactly the way she’s been craving. “Amy Santiago thinks I’m handsome.”

It’s quite a bit later when Amy finally manages to muster up the willpower to gently pry him off her, pupils blown and breathing heavy. She revels in the moment before laughing as he grumbles about having to put his jeans on again. Then she dedicates herself to studying his sleepy, blissed-out lopsided grin as he finally manages to find his shirt, partially hidden underneath her bed.

“You know I’m going to ride that high for weeks, right?” He grins at her as he buttons up his slightly rumpled flannel, smoothing it down as best he can.

“Yeah, yeah.” She waves him off. “Don’t tell anyone the reason why you’re so late. I have a reputation to maintain.”

She scrolls through Instagram as he laces up his sneakers, smiling at the message from Kylie asking about the guy in her most recent post. It’s a slightly blurry selfie of the two of them, a couple drinks in at the squad’s latest Shaw’s get-together, her head resting on his shoulder. It may not be the best photo ever taken, but the way Jake looks at her so tenderly, so happily, makes her incredibly fond of it, nonetheless.

And it’s not like he fills a missing part of her or anything equally as mushy. She’s always been whole, an entire living breathing person that doesn’t need a relationship to sustain her. But there’s something, there’s always been something about Jake that makes her feel lighter whenever he’s around. Less trapped in her own head, less worried about what other people think.

His sweet and open good-naturedness and his talent for making her laugh take care of that. And he always takes care of her. Just as she’ll always take care of him. That’s been an unspoken truth for much longer than either of them would easily admit.  

“I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay? And we’re doing a proper date night tonight. Fancy restaurant and a movie that isn’t Die Hard and everything.”

“Wow.”

“I know. I am the king of romance.” He leans in closer, eyes wide, whispering fake-conspiratorially. “We might even get to second base.”

Amy snorts. “If you’re lucky.”

“Lucky enough to be with you.”

He kisses her once more, quick and sweet, before hurrying out the door; Amy dreamily ghosts her fingers over her lips, grinning. She’s never had something like this with anyone before, and though it scares her a little, she secretly revels in the quiet thrill of already caring so deeply about him.

With promises of many more mornings like these glimmering on the horizon, it’s all too easy for her to climb back under the covers and enjoy the sweetest of dreams.

[jessicalky]

Social Gaming

Social games generally refer to the online games that allow the digital interaction between players. It includes multiplayer card games, board games, social network games, and interactive multiplayer video games. Digital casinos that enable gamblers to play the online casino games and place bets are one of the largest branches of social gaming (Clement 2021).

Online Gaming Communities

The shape and scale of online gaming communities vary. Some focus on reviewing games, some focus on specific games and franchises and some focus on news or guides. There have different aspects for each game theme that players might want and the community of discussion threads. Online gaming communities allow players to play everywhere. They can also connect and dive in with each other when playing at home (The Editors 2020).

GameFAQs

GameFAQs is one of the most tried and tested online gaming communities. It was founded in 1995. It is a forum for gamers to publish, including common questions about game content and games. It is also the most important platform for video game walkthroughs and guides from the beginning. Today, it has more than 40,000 frequently asked questions about video games. Here, players can almost get answers to any game questions and any difficulties players encounter while playing the game (The Editors 2020).  

Are gaming communities becoming less about play and more about monetization?

The gaming communities become more about monetization. This can be shown that The revenue of the video game industry has exploded in recent years, and the mobile game market alone will be valued at more than $77 billion in 2020. The game software industry relies on three monetization models to make such huge profits: consumers can simply buy games, which can be generated through in-game advertisements, or they can allow players to spend on micro-transactions and downloadable content (DLC) in games money. Each of these models can be developed separately, but, in many cases, game companies choose to combine at least two of the three models to improve revenue prospects. The combination model mainly plays a role in free (F2P) games, encouraging gamers to pay for enhanced features, such as extra life, currency, personalized avatars, ad-free experience or unlimited game time (Clement 2021).

COVID-19 has facilitated interaction with video games and esports. During the pandemic, the revenues of many game companies and platforms have increased. The pandemic is accelerating existing trends in the gaming industry.

Despite the widespread economic damage caused by the coronavirus, the global video game industry is still booming. Through the practice of social isolation, consumer and corporate activities are reduced to a minimum. The game provides a kind of attractive attention for people seeking social interaction at home and the initial data shows the game time and sales are increasing substantially (Hall 2020).

References

Clement, J 2021, Social gaming - statistics & facts, Statista, viewed 13 May 2021, <https://www.statista.com/topics/2965/social-gaming/#dossierSummary>.

Clement, J 2021, Gaming monetization – statistics & facts, Statista, viewed 16 May 2021, <https://www.statista.com/topics/3436/gaming-monetization/#dossierSummary>.

Hall, S 2020, ‘How COVID-19 is taking gaming and esports to the next level’, World Economic Forum, viewed 16 May 2021, <https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/covid-19-taking-gaming-and-esports-next-level/>.

The Editors 2020, ‘Social gaming communities; 10 online communities to join in 2020’, RitualTM Motion, viewed 14 May 2021, < https://ritualmotion.com/articles/social-gaming-communities-10-online-communities-to-join-in-2020/ >.

[kalahamsa]

Meaning of digital marketing and opportunities

To run a business requires creativity, flexibility and the ability to overcome challenging situations. It is the fastest way to be your boss. Making decisions here usually takes courage, forsight and determination. Then the first question which comes into mind is how can I become a successful owner? There are also many secrets to running a successful business. In this article, you will learn some of these secrets.

Expand your business with Digital Marketing As a business owner, you’ll always be in search of new ways to grow your business. There are many ways to achieve this. One of main ways to expand your business is via digital marketing. Many firms haven’t been able to engage their customers online. Considering the current situation , it is one of the most effective methods of growing your business.

Meaning of digital marketing It is the online platform for promoting your online or offline services and products.

How digital marketing works • Stay focused on your customers. • Ensure traffic acquisition and conversion optimization get found by using right. • Search engine optimize strategies. • Build your marketing strategies according to analytics. • Develop story of your brand.

Opportunities in Digital marketing

The information and communications technology (ICT) sector is looking to fill “tech-lite” roles, such as in digital marketing.

Many businessmen says that, aside from jobs that require people with tech skills, the sector also wants to tap the experience and knowledge of specific industries and sectors. The sector last year registered a strong growth in employment even amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

As at February this year, more than 13,600 job seekers were placed in ICT jobs, traineeships and attachments under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package. There remain over 18,000 of such opportunities on offer.

Digital marketing jobs requires working with partners to create courses, and with companies to make available training and attachment. common misconception is that it is hard to get into the technology sector. Growing an e-commerce business can be summed up in two words—digital marketing. Companies are placing their ads where eyeballs are: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest and other platforms. Brands that have effective social media campaigns are seeing major returns. You need more than a good product to see a spike in revenue from digital advertisements. Many startups are losing money creating lackluster ads or failing to analyze their metrics to reach their target demographic.

5 tips to grow revenue through digital marketing

Use Relevant Content

Long gone are the days when companies needed big marketing dollars to produce advertisement campaigns. Today’s social ads look less like cinematic TV commercials, and more like organic content anyone could create with an iPhone and basic editing software. Large and small businesses are using customer or influencer testimonial videos or shooting videos from their phone, adding subtitles, music and uploading the content as an ad. When done right, this approach translates to customer acquisitions.

Test out different creative assets to discover what your audience responds to. Social media algorithms favor video, so that’s a good place to start. Include subtitles as most users watch on mute.

Social media has changed the way consumers speak and what they respond to. User-driven trends are here to stay, so keep up on current trends to create content consumers respond to. And a trend that goes viral on one platform (think of the rise of TikTok videos with on-screen text) will likely carry over to all social media channels.

Start Small

The last thing you want to do is go all in and spend a sizeable amount on an ad that doesn’t perform. First, identify who your potential customers are through market research, surveys and by testing out audiences through Facebook or Instagram ads. Optimize your ad spend by ROAS (return on ad spend) instead of CPA (cost per acquisition), CPC (cost per click), and others, as it is often the metric that will make the most sense for your business. If your website is user friendly, the ads are compelling and visible to your demographic, sales will come in.

Hiring Right

Two scenarios can occur when startups contact digital agencies. They discover most charge a minimum $5k a month (not including the ad budget) and can’t move forward. Or they hire an agency by cutting costs in other departments and see very little or no growth in sales. There are great agencies that do exceptional work and provide flexible pricing, but new businesses must be extra diligent, especially when cash flow is tight.

If you want to outsource, find someone who understands your industry. Choosing a marketer experienced in marketing pharmaceutical equipment but not your industry won’t provide you with critical insight on the behavior and trends of your specific audience.

Take the time to interview potential firms or individuals to find the right fit for your industry, product and customers. Call or email current or past client references to see how they performed within their specific budget and time frame.

With the job market changing due to Covid, many marketers have gone independent and are looking for new clients. If working with a freelancer is a better option for you, search for professionals on LinkedIn and Upwork to find the right candidate.

You can learn more about digital marketing by watching videos and taking online courses but consider if it’s more cost efficient to hire someone for the job. A skilled person or team allows you to focus and grow other areas of your business.

Be Involved

Outsourcing doesn’t mean handing over the reins completely. You know your business better than anyone and the vision you have for your brand. When you bring on a new person or company to help with marketing and advertising, be clear about the voice, mood and aesthetic you want, but keep an open mind and be willing to test new concepts and ideas. Remember, it is okay to say “no” to suggestions that don’t align with your vision. Even though you hire someone for their expertise, you always have the final say in what moves forward and what doesn’t.

“Founders of companies we work with are involved in the revision processes necessary to achieve the right vision and visual aesthetic for their brand. With that comes a lot of cooperation between my team and the founder. While creative chemistry between us is an important factor, I believe an exchange of ideas is key to creating a concrete marketing strategy,” says social media manager Misty Lam.

Have an Optimized Website

Startups will often cut corners with their website to save money, not realizing their site needs to be fully optimized for desktop and mobile devices. Most consumers decide whether they will stay or leave a site within the first 3 seconds. Your product or service must be clear with captivating images and copy to keep them engaged. Having a general understanding of how SEO works (Search Engine Watch provides an easy-to-follow guide to understand SEO) and hiring a specialist in Google optimization is essential.

“When reviewing our analytics, we saw 60% of our traffic comes from mobile, but 78% of revenue comes from desktop, indicating our website was not fully mobile optimized. We created more call-to-action buttons, divided our products into category-specific collections for easier and quicker navigation, and included customer reviews directly under our products. We also discovered that our website theme was slowing down our page, so we are changing that,” says Broglie Box founder Julia Broglie.

If you are currently selling or getting ready to launch a product or service, the most impactful tool to scale your online sales is through digital marketing. Look at ads and content posted by your competitors or companies in your industry to see what is resonating with their audience and what isn’t. As you review their content, read the comments. The most valuable insight is from consumers. If your ROI is positive when you start running ads, incrementally increase your ad spend on the best performing ad.

At first, testing ads, finding the right agency or freelancer and discovering what is effective is trial and error. When you find the formula that is right for your company, double down on that and you will reap the financial rewards. During the Covid-19 pandemic, e-commerce experienced a massive boom as consumers and companies did business online with greater frequency. As a result, the internet is a more crowded shopping space than ever with the global digital ad spend projected to surpass $389 billion in 2021.

But while your niche likely gets more crowded, that’s not a reason to slow down on ad spending, it’s a license to get more creative with your digital marketing.

So, there are both pros and cons in this sector. If you work properly for a client, they will definitely suggest you and make you more commited in the work.

see more at www.kalahamsa.in

[firelxdykatara]

I think if fiction didn’t matter we wouldn’t be rallying for better representation. But at the same time, there’s plenty of fiction that so clearly doesn’t try to impose a moral. Are you of the opinion that any fiction that displays objectively horrible things in a gratifying lense should be banned? Would you call people who liked the saw films monsters? What about first person shooter games? Any porn that features power imbalances as a kink?

Short answer, to all of those questions: No. Absolutely not.

But of course, as it’s me, have a much longer answer:

Here’s the thing that the ‘FICTION AFFECTS REALITY’/’IF YOU LIKE DARKFIC YOU’RE A MONSTER’ crowd fails to realize: when we say ‘fiction is not reality’ we are not saying ‘fiction doesn’t matter’ or ‘fiction has no affect on reality whatsoever’. What we are saying is that fiction does not have a direct, 1:1 affect on reality. ‘Normal’ people will NEVER read a piece of fiction and suddenly become a pedophile. Normal people will not read a piece of fiction and forget about boundaries. Normal people will not read a piece of fiction and suddenly think that societal taboos which used to disgust them are A-OK and then try to enact them in their real lives.

Antis really love to cite the Jaws Effect when talking about how fiction affects reality, but they miss one crucial point--Jaws was playing on the pre-existing fears of the movie-going public. (And also the fact that Jaws had millions of viewers worldwide and reached a far greater audience, and therefore had far greater impact, than some niche darkfic on ao3 ever will.) It’s the same argument that’s been trotted out again and again by the ‘violent video games turn normal happy kids into school shooters’ crowd. Can playing violent video games temporarily heighten someone’s aggression/make someone already prone to violence even more aggressive? Sure. Will playing violent video games (or watching/reading violent media) make someone with a normally healthy emotional responses to stimuli suddenly become a violent person? Absolutely not.

Like, I love games like Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. I love slipping into Ancient Greece and running around, merrily hacking and slashing my way through Athenians and Spartans. I’ve never once gotten the urge to pick up a sword and go outside and start sticking it in people. I know plenty of people who love Grand Theft Auto and don’t have a violent bone in their body. I greatly enjoy taking head shots as a sniper in Mass Effect, but I’ve never picked up a high-powered rifle in my life. (I go to the shooting range sometimes, with my grandad’s old .22, but I certainly have never wanted to shoot anyone with it.) My taste for video game violence has never translated to my reactions or interactions with other people in real life. Because I’m not a violent person, and while I can’t say I’m mentally healthy, I can say that I’ve never wanted to hurt other people. (And I have one of those ‘scary’ mental illnesses that get demonized all the time in popular media.)

So like, here’s the thing: first of all, the argument that video game or media violence (or abuse, rape, incest, pedophilia, etc) creates violence (or etc) in otherwise normal people is absolute bullshit. You may hear antis trotting out the Slenderman killings as another example, but they again fail to take into account that even if the game was the trigger, it was not the cause, and if it hadn’t existed, something else would have set them off. (And that was 2 people out of the, I’m gonna guess, millions of people who’ve played the game or watched let’s plays or whatever else. Not exactly terrifying odds.)

Secondly, you have to remember that while fiction and reality do have a relationship and do have an affect on one another, that affect is far more noticeable from the other direction. Fiction informs reality--it is often a direct reflection of it. This is why Greek tragedies became so popular--because people saw in them the human condition, in all its ugliest parts, and found extreme catharsis in watching it unfold. And this is part of why, yes, representation is so important--because, right now, most fiction is not an accurate reflection of reality, and that creates an unbalanced dynamic that’s going to take a very long time to fix.

Which leads to my final point, that is most often overlooked by antis who insist that fiction cannot be separated from reality: mass media reaches a far greater audience than fanfiction. Yes, it’s bad that so much of Hollywood fare is white--because Hollywood has reach. Billions of people tune in to watch the latest blockbuster. Your average niche darkfic on ao3 will never reach that kind of audience, not in a million years. The effect of that reach is simply not comparable. If someone who is already prone to violence plays a game or watches a movie or tv show that glorifies it, sure, it may heighten their violent response, but that’s because it’s playing on something that’s already there. The fiction itself is not to blame for whatever the person who viewed it chooses to do.

One last thing, since this is something that I feel doesn’t get mentioned enough in these debates: if you’ve been following me long enough, you’ll probably have seen me rag on Twilight or 50 Shades of Grey. I hate both of those series’ with a burning passion. I think they’re badly written tripe, one of which began as fanfic of badly written tripe (and if 50sog had languished in the annals of internet obscurity as Master of the Universe and not become a multi-million dollar hit, I’d probably never have heard of it--again, the difference in reach between niche fanfic and a mass media sensation), and I hate the way the abusive relationships in both of them are glorified. I think the ‘themes’ Twilight spoonfed preteen girls who ate it up are harmful. I think the racism involved in its depiction of the Quileute tribe was despicable. I think everything 50sog had to say about BDSM and the kink community is horrific, and deserves to be called out.

But you know what else these books did?

They started conversations. Conversations that may not have happened to such a wide degree had these books not become famous. (Not that I’m saying it’d be any great loss if they’d never seen the light of day, but hey, they did, and we have to live with the fallout, so at least something good came out of it.) Conversations that desperately needed to be had--about red flags in abusive relationships, about what is ok and not ok to do or say to your partner, about what consent is and what healthy relationships are, and what a healthy BDSM/kink relationship should look like. (I swear to the gods if any anti kinksters start crawling all over this post, I will eat their toes. Stay out of consenting adults’ bedrooms for the love of all that is fucking holy.) Conversations about safe words and how to use them, and how it is always ok to use them please dear lord do not let things progress past the point of your comfort. Conversations about the real life Quileute tribe who has been trying for years to talk about the realities of tribal life, which were so butchered by Twilight, but that hopefully brought more awareness and helped show what not to do when you’re incorporating a real life culture into your work.

These are important conversations, which may not have been had to the widespread degree that they were and are were it not for the cultural phenomena that sparked them. So no, I don’t think it’s wrong to point out if an author is, for instance, glorifying harmful things in their works--however, I do think that the reach of the work in question matters. If you’re targeting a work with a few thousand hits at most, ask yourself: why? Why this work, and not an actual cultural powerhouse like, say, Game of Thrones, which features such hits as the showrunners openly admitting they waited for a teenage actress to turn 18 so they could film a scene where her character is brutally raped on screen? Why is it so important to draw attention to some niche work of darkfic (especially if it’s properly tagged so that it can be avoided by anyone to whom it would be harmful; and by the way, these tags don’t exist for things like, oh, VC Andrews novels, which any kid can pick up in a library without warning; I think that even a glorified/romanticized rape scene that is tagged as rape on ao3 is less harmful than similar themes occurring without warning in a book I picked up because it had pretty flowers on the cover), when you can easily find the exact same things in published, popular fiction?

Just something to think about, before trying to insist that fanfics that reach an audience of a few thousand at most are anywhere on the level of ‘affecting reality’ the same way that mass media that reaches billions is capable of.