#they’re VERY popular. they’re public figures and they have a duty to act as such

[gub-bins]

ok but fr I hope none of the letter writers feel personally responsible for this just because Wayne didn’t just say “I took being told I did a racist thing as being accused of being Racist and had a knee jerk reaction to that, sorry” and then also acknowledging that taking the pizza tower sponsorship in the first place was bad and they are sorry. Don’t try to explain why you did it, don’t try to backtrack it, just say “we realize now that this was a bad thing and we will do better in the future” and then actually fucking do it.

im sorry that some loud and vitriolic bigots have given you grief and given them big heads.

I hope they’re undergoing a lot of reflection while writing that statement. and maybe deciding they shouldn’t be allowed to respond to fan messages of concern in the discord until you’ve had a proper moment to digest everything and think that you may be wrong this time and not everybody is a parasocial pseudofan out to get you. It ain’t 2021 anymore my dudes

Also “this isn’t us” okay whatever. Maybe the appropriate thing to say would be “this has been us and it’s not okay and it’s reached a boiling point and things are going to change from now on”

[audreydoeskaren]

do you know Chinese symbolism for homosexuality?

tw homophobia, pedophilia

Hi again, for gay men there are a couple really well known ones but I’m not sure if they were real or fabricated, because all the articles describing them always cite the same couple sources from Antiquity... I tried to verify them but the only articles that didn’t copy and paste from the same source came across as extremely homophobic, so I decided to give up. The most common and reliable one is probably 断袖 or “cut sleeve”, which I mentioned in a previous ask. I would like to use this opportunity to talk about some tangential but more important topics regarding homosexuality in China though.

As a followup to my previous ask where I said I'd look through some Ming and Qing novels to see how homosexuality was perceived at the time, the conclusion I (unfortunately) came to was that homophobia was very much alive and well in Chinese literature and society. A lot of people like to argue that gay people fared pretty well in China historically by either pointing to emperors who were or were rumored to be gay or time periods where gay sex was prevalent as a form of consumption. This is extremely shallow and also kind of Orientalist in my opinion, these arguments always go for the emperors and do not take nuance into consideration or dive into wider societal discourses on homosexuality in imperial China. If you research homosexuality in Europe by only looking at royalty, you’ll find plenty of homosexual behavior too, does that mean gay people had it very easy in Europe historically?? Not to mention that they usually don’t differentiate between dynasties, let alone centuries or decades, even though public opinion on homosexuality in China (or anywhere in the world tbh) could change very quickly. This is also sort of Orientalist, assuming “imperial China” to be a never changing entity with a never changing stance on homosexuality. Since I know nothing prior to the Ming Dynasty I’ll share some of my random findings on homosexuality and homophobia in the Ming, Qing and 20th century.

Gayness as disease

Nowadays the symbol of the cut sleeve is just a benign historical allusion but historically it seems that it was used in a negative and condemning sense, implying that people thought of homosexuality as a disease or deviation from the norm. The common phrase used for the cut sleeve is "断袖之癖", usually translated as "the passion of the cut sleeve" nowadays, but the meaning of the word 癖 here leans more toward "fetish", "obsession" or "hobby" with pathological connotations. I thought maybe this word had a different, nuanced meaning historically but it seems that it was used to describe what it means :(( The only silver lining is probably that with the progression of language it isn’t offensive anymore.

In a lot of popular novels from the Ming and Qing, homosexuality was depicted as a "perversion" and a decadent lifestyle that plagues morality, and gay characters were often either killed or straightened out by the end of the story. An example of this is the story 黄九郎 Huang Jiulang from the series 聊斋志异 Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio by 蒲松龄 Pu Songling written in the 17th century. In this story, one of the protagonists was gay; he died after confessing his love to the other guy in a very fast paced bury your gays arc which somehow reminded me of the Supernatural finale, and reincarnated as a straight man because of his piety. Thanks I hate it. Pu uses the symbol of the cut sleeve to refer to the protagonist, presumably in a negative manner.

Gayness as power/status symbol

Another thing was that historically in China a lot of people confused homosexuality with pedophilia. This is a global thing, but its presence in China is often overlooked. This could be seen in the popularity of another term for homosexuality, "娈童", meaning something similar to "pederasty". I read somewhere that since the late Ming, pederasty was considered a type of tasteful consumption for high society, along with things like fashion, food, music and art. This was not equivalent to the "cut sleeve" or homosexuality as we know it nowadays, which refers to a personal sexual orientation, pederasty historically often refers to an imbalanced power dynamic where a wealthy, privileged man takes advantage of a young boy as a leisurely activity. It’s more to show off that someone in a position of privilege and wealth has the power to procure sexual objects, gender and age don’t matter much in this regard. I cannot help but cringe violently whenever someone brings up pederasty as proof of China’s historical “openness” toward gay people. Talk to me again when in this time and place you could marry someone of your sex (not a minor) and be considered a respectable couple instead of two jerks with a degenerate fetish (not saying that gay people have to marry, it’s just that the ability to do so is an important indicator of equality imo). Pedophilia and homosexuality are not one and the same good heavens.

I hypothesize that the reason why Chinese society was historically homophobic despite having no religious condemnation of homosexual individuals was the idea that having many concubines and male children was a status symbol for men. Women of marriageable age were seen more or less as commodities and male children could supposedly "continue the bloodline" 传香火 and were vessels for passing down prestige, so having them were of utmost importance to a privileged man. Being just gay or lesbian, however, meant that you didn't perform the "man strong working woman weak making babies" heteronormative family prototype, and was thus prone to criticism. When gay men didn’t have children they “couldn’t continue their bloodline” and were emasculated, when gay women didn’t have children they failed to “fulfill their duties as a woman” and were shamed.

It kind of makes sense considering how being bisexual was never a problem in comparison, especially for men. If you were a rich guy who had both male and female partners, you would still have children and concubines both male and female so nobody gives a shit. Emperor Zhengde of the Ming (reign 1505-21) was presumably bisexual and had both male and female lovers, nobody had a bone to pick with that; he famously liked to fuck around but those who criticized him did so for his debauchery instead of focusing on the gender of his partners.  This is different to homophobia in Europe where same sex attraction was considered evil and immoral in and of itself because of religious reasons, in China it was rather the other practical implications of homosexuality (not having children or a family) that attracted hate.

By the way can we just take a moment to talk about bi erasure in Chinese history. From all accounts of Emperor Zhengde I’ve read he comes across as extremely bisexual, but a lot of people try to make him a gay icon? I mean, he liked women too.

One interesting homophobic angle in ye olde China which I find kind of funny was straight women who wanted to climb the social ladder by marrying rich men talking shit about them after figuring out they were gay lmao. Historically, there were not so many work opportunities for women, so the easiest way to improve social standing was to marry a rich and powerful guy. Not saying that women didn't work, they did but their upward social mobility was restricted because they couldn't enter the imperial examination system which was how men became rich and powerful. This angle is relatively benign and kind of helps illustrate that historical Chinese homophobia was indeed fueled by classism and patriarchy.

Gayness as crime

I used to think that there were no anti-sodomy statutes in China (laws prohibiting sex between gay men), but it turns out that there was one decree in the Jiajing era (1521-67) and one in 1740, and private gay sex was not actually decriminalized until 1957. Same sex marriage is still not legal in China at time of writing. I couldn’t find detailed information on what these laws entailed or how they were enforced, but they’re enough to prove that homosexuality in China was legally punishable from the 16th century onward. On top of that, even when there was no law prohibiting private sex acts between people of the same sex, displays of gay affection such as kissing or holding hands could still be legally punished under “public indecency” or “hooliganism”, which was frequently what happened in the 20th century. 

[emblemxeno]

Xander Support Science Rebuttal/Review + How Mediocre Localization Could Change A Character (1/2)

A couple of days ago I said I would do this because I haven’t watched the videos in question in a long time, and I wanted to see if I would hold the same opinions that I do now. In short, yeah, I do. (Part 2 of this Post)

The videos in question by Ghast (going by Faerghast now) can be found here: Part 1 Part 2

You’ve all most likely seen my posts and short analyses about Fates’ writing, it’s localization, and Xander as a whole. I wanted to make this rebuttal/review, not just as a way to get my differing opinion out there, but to also provide context on how translation and localization can alter a character’s interpretation with even the slightest change, and a brief summary on how Xander was supposed to be written from the get go.

TL;DR (Though I highly recommend reading the whole thing to really understand the point I am trying to make with this series of posts):

Xander’s character was altered in the localization due to a number of changes made that either replace/remove the original context of his writing, or add things that weren’t even present in the first place. The reason why I’m doing a rebuttal against these videos in the first place is because the greater community cite these videos as the correct interpretation of Xander, with there being no acknowledgement of localization being a factor of why Xander seems so inconsistent and poorly written. Further worsening the issue is Ghast’s own reading of Xander’s character, by roping him into a few select traits, and ignoring others.

Before moving on with the meat of the review, I’d like to link some things that would be useful to read/watch when they’ll be referenced in these posts:

- Analysis of the relationship between Garon and the Nohrian siblings (aka the abusive royal household)

- Xander’s Japanese supports with Camilla and Corrin. Here is a link to the localized Fates supports in order to spot differences.

-English patched playthroughs of the JP version of the game done by Linkmstr (Pre-decision   Birthright    Conquest    Revelation) as well as a link to said patch done by a team on Serenes.

-A link to the chapters of Fates, each one has a link to the script of said chapter.

(I’ll also be using quotes from Ghast in the videos, usually marked by time stamps)

Xander Summary

Xander is an intimidating figure who is seen as a stoic and unemotional Crown Prince. In actuality, he’s merely an introverted dude riddled with trauma, and is unable to express his emotions in a “normal” way. The person who’s feared by tons of people in Hoshido is the same guy who gets anxiety during public speaking (dealing with this by imagining his audience as bunnies or carrots depending on the version) and who’s greatest fear as a child was his own father (as revealed in the Boo Camp DLC).

He’s also heavily suicidal, a result of each time having to kill his enemies weighing heavily on his heart and his psyche.

While he seems to be relatively put together, all of these aforementioned factors influence his character, and the dichotomy of appealing to his duty as Crown Prince and appealing to his emotions. Moreover, it has lead him into a deep seated denial of his father’s evil actions, trying to justify or excuse the things Garon had done, a fairly common symptom of an abused child. Not only that, but it has lead him to believe that betraying Garon is synonymous with betraying his family and all of Nohr, something he finds inexcusable and outrageous, and only breaks out of this way of thinking once he witnesses Garon become truly monstrous.

And while trying to do what’s best for his people and his family are major parts of his character, they are not the only ones, and as we see in the game, they lead to him doing things that some would see as OOC, but actually are pretty reasonable if you dig deep into what makes Xander, well, Xander.

The Beginning

Unfortunately, a lot of this is lost in localization, which preferred to make him less introverted and more... observational and witty? He’s more confrontational in the localization, but only sometimes when the story needs him to be, making him look inconsistent and badly written. He tends to preach a lot more, but ends up contradicting himself through his words and actions. Almost all of these are issues added by the localized script, and either were completely different or just plain absent in the original JP script.

And the reason why this rebuttal exists, is because the videos blame the game’s writing instead of this very faulty translation, made even worse by the fact that Ghast’s channel is popular because of story/character analyses, so not mentioning how translation can affect story telling is the first glaring issue with the support science.

The first video starts with the main issue, how Fates has character’s written well in supports, but not in the main campaign. That’s the main thing with this, so I’ll save an overview for it later.

Mistranslated Support Lines

-At 2:25, Ghast talks about Support Xander, starting off with the Camilla-Xander support. The line in question that’s referenced is how Xander deliberately cultivated the image of him being stoic and seemingly uncaring. However, this isn’t true, Xander didn’t cultivate the image in the original JP support, he just ended up realizing that was how people saw him and thought it would be too much of a hassle to change it. This fits in line with how he acts later in the story, as an introverted character, he’s ultimately non-confrontational unless pushed to the limit.

-At 7:55, the Corrin support is brought up. This is the support that is the key reason why Xander is seen as two different characters between story and supports. The line where Xander said he’s now strong enough to stand up against Garon whenever he felt like it wasn’t present at all in the original JP support. Hence, continuing on with the idea that Xander is not as confrontational as he seems, and preferred to swing his sword to let out his emotions instead.

-Ghast then goes on to discuss why there’s this discrepancy between Xander in supports and story, where Xander supposedly acts out of character by fighting Corrin in chapter 2 on Garon’s orders (at 14:31):

“For this segment of the video, bear in mind what has been established about Support Xander so far. The feats that Support xander has disclosed from his past, particularly his courageousness to engage Garon in yelling fights and pre-established love for Corrin is entirely contradicted from the offset of the game...Given their (Xander and Garon’s) relationship before the game even starts, the game provides absolutely no reason why Xander would behave in such a sheepish way to his father. Where is the bravery he was talking about before? Wht did Xander hope to accomplish by striking at Corrin? Did he want to disable her? Did he intentionally want to harm her for Garon’s sake?” 

Except that’s not true. Applying what we know with Xander being non confrontational, scared to death of his father, being all too familiar with family dying around him, etc, and this scene really isn’t too out of character. But it seems so because of the lines added in the English script.

Adherence To Select Traits

-At 16:10-18:20, he goes on to claim that Xander’s reaction to Corrin choosing to fight for Hoshido is uncharacteristic and ‘stupid’ because of the former’s pre-established observational skills, doubts of Garon, and tendency to stand against his father when he disagrees with him (all of which are more exaggerated/added in the English script).

Besides the fact that Xander wasn’t written to be someone who regularly stands up to his father in the first place, the insistence that Xander remains strictly observational and pragmatic in these scenarios is the first big issue I have with these videos.

Ghast picks certain traits and latches them onto Xander without considering others that might influence the his actions; it’s true that Xander’s awareness of Corrin’s situation might have let him come to terms with the Hoshido family wanting them back, and yes they were kidnapped, BUT they were also raised as if actual siblings for over a decade, and feelings/attachment towards one's family is hard to let go of. Wanting Xander to be more accepting of Corrin’s choice of going back to Hoshido and, to him, abandon their family and everything they’ve had, just to have him continue to have his hidden awareness/familial observation be more forward completely betrays the fact that they’re still family, and Xander as a person should be allowed to have feelings and still love his sibling. 

The point that’s apparently tried to be made is for consistency’s sake, but what good is this supposed consistency when it doesn’t make sense for a family member to just accept their sibling siding with their enemy. Ghast goes on to say that he’d rather Xander say ‘I’m sorry for keeping secrets from you and I’ll follow up on those claims about Garon, but please come back’, and that’s basically what he says, but instead of trying to understand why Xander would react the way he would he instead reduces Xander’s reaction to a childish ‘Get Bent, Traitor’. 

Xander’s dedication to his family and his country aren’t mutually exclusive, at least to him. So when Corrin decides to break ties with Nohr, Xander sees it as them throwing away their family, friends, and every good memory they’ve had. Aside from the fact that Xander’s vehement defense of Garon is a result of having an abusive/destructive childhood, the shock of and surge of emotion from Corrin choosing to, from Xander’s perspective, betray everything they’ve had together is in my opinion, a perfectly fine reason for why Xander acts like he does. Ghast says this type of read of the situation is stupid, which isn’t a valid criticism and he doesn’t even go into why he believes so, and says it’s uncharacteristic, even though it really isn’t but the localization and his own insistence on having Xander adhere to a select few traits makes it seem that way.

Misplaced Criticism

-At 18:01 ”It’s alright for Xander to continue to try and persuade Corrin to rejoin Nohr, but he ought to be able to understand Corrin’s wavering loyalty. It’s hypocritical for Xander to flagrantly and ignorantly criticize Corrin for their decision and distance himself the most despite being made out to be the closest to them” 

Why? Again this ignores Xander’s own character having thoughts and feelings of his own, but also wouldn’t it make sense for the one to be closest to Corrin to be the most affected by it, and ergo the have the most negative reaction?

-Talks about the Xander line at chapter 12 at 18:28, “Xander doesn’t make connections around the circumstances regarding Corrin’s betrayal after 5 chapters” He says this makes Xander out to be someone who has no observational skills, but in regards to what? Making connections to the reasons behind Corrin’s betrayal, leading him to question and go against his father? Well, that reasoning hinges on the fact that Xander is the person who would stand up to his father in situations like these in the first place, but he isn’t. Any lines indicating such are a result of the localization adding them in.

The criticism of Xander’s observation skills doesn’t make sense. In the context of the situation, where Xander is engaging a loved family member after they betrayed the Kingdom (which to Xander is synonymous with betraying the family), why are his observational skills being brought up? The reason why he’s engaging could just be summarized as “he’s angry and hurt that Corrin would fight their family”. A completely justified reaction to what Xander has been experiencing. But instead this is ignored in favor of criticizing Xander for not having the awareness of why Corrin betrayed Nohr, and the awareness of Garon being evil. Ghast says “Story Xander is unable to catch on that his dad is going bonkers” Simply put, it’s most likely that Xander IS aware, but keeps it locked deep down due to deep seeded denial. In chapter 27, (taken from English patch of JP version) he says as much:

Garon: Just what do you know about me...?

Xander: I should be saying that to you... Just what do you know about Father…?! ...All this time, I acted like I didn’t notice. No matter what the order, I obeyed. And that, in the end, you would return to your normal self. That’s what I believed. But, now, Father is… already…

Said denial had run so far, that it took Xander seeing Garon as a literal grotesque monster for him to finally break free. 

Xander’s Way of Thinking

-At 20:05, “While it’s true that Garon is family and Corrin is seemingly betraying that family, Xander’s supports suggest that he would at least consider Corrin’s motivations before putting a sword through her'' 1) it’s not seemingly, Corrin is pretty much betraying her family by choosing one nation over the other, made worse by the fact that Nohr is synonymous with family to Xander, making this worse 2) it’s completely possible that Xander does understand Corrin’s motivations by this point, but is simply too angry and hurt by his sibling’s betrayal to care or acknowledge. “It makes it seem like Story Xander has no critical thinking skills or has lost every ounce of empathy he has that’s established in his supports” or that this is just his reaction to these events, as I previously said? It’s not Xander lacking critical thought that’s the driving point here, he believes that Corrin going against Nohr, means that they’re going against him, their family, all of the innocent people in Nohr, everything they’ve had together. 

This includes Garon, because as a result of his upbringing, he justifies any shitty action Garon does because he’s clinging to any good thing his father has done, and desperately denies that he could be evil, because ‘how could the person that raised and cared for me be as bad as my brother/sister, who threw everything our family had together in our face, says he is. I love my sibling dearly, but asking to betray my father is asking to betray my family, my country, and my people, I can’t do that’; that’s essentially Xander’s way of thinking. Extreme, yes, but people don’t always do what’s considered the right thing just because it’s the right thing. There’s a whole slew of factors I’ve already explained as to why Xander would be hard pressed to betray Garon.

---

Anyway, this is what I have for today. There will be 2 (maybe 3?) more posts in regards to the rest of my notes. I hope you enjoyed the start of this, please leave any replies and asks and reblogs on any things you liked about this and anything you think I could improve on!

[ingek73]

The Curious Case of William’s Care for Harry

By Irene May 15, 2020 24 Comments

The Curious Case of William's Care for Harry

The Curious Case of William’s Care for Harry. There is not a day that passes without the British and Royal press blasting some headline about Prince Harry or Duchess Meghan, which news supposedly came to them via a well-placed source or a “friend”. Never mind that Harry and Meghan categorically stated that no one in the palace, or any royal source, well-place or whatever speaks for them. You see, since Harry and Meghan formally stepped back from their roles, there has been this insidious strategy to strip Harry of his agency and autonomy as a fully formed and accomplished human. Why would this be necessary? I think it’s a two-pronged aim.

First, it is obvious that despite the abundance of documentary evidence about Harry’s own feelings about remaining within the institution of the monarchy- ones that pre-date his meeting his wife- and since then, just the wretched way in which the media, some in the country and his royal family have treated him and his wife, the media and its puppet masters are trying. Trying to get us to take our thinking caps off and believe that Meghan alone informed their decision to step back. In the face of all logic and reasoned consideration, the powers that be are desperate to persuade us that Meghan is the big bad wolf. It would appear she’s the thing they fear or are threatened by the most, judging by how hard they try. Her power!

Harry dreamed of leaving Royal Family

Harry always wanted to leave Royal Family

Secondly, If indeed Harry didn’t know better and has been supposedly led astray by Meghan, then that leave a helpless Harry in your mind right? Does that sound familiar? “Harry is lonely in Canada”, now “ Harry is lonely in LA”, “ Harry feels out of sorts in LA”, “ Harry misses the UK”, “Harry misses his friends back home” and all that jazz. Poor Harry, you’re being led to think. What would they ever do about poor Harry? I have an idea.

Apparently there is a person who by birth is the second in line to the British throne. For whatever reason, he has been incapable of taking that birthright and his own God-given talents to create a profile for himself, outside of some tangent to his younger brother who is sixth in line to the throne. It’s been the unending refrain since their childhood. Look how responsible William is compared to Harry, or he’s smarter, he’s more traditional, he’s more dutiful, he has more hair… oh wait that wasn’t one of them, but you get the point.

Operation reclaim the spotlight is being resuscitated after an attenuated response to all previous iterations. It seems the role of future king and the business of preparing for kingship( if I hear this one more time…) is not enough to capture the spotlight, so the hunt for the shiniest new medal is on. I give you the embryonic stages of “benevolent future king”. The one who reached out and extended a hand to poor lonely Harry. Take note of the very recent headlines: “William is in touch with Harry” and the latest “Prince William writes letter to Princess Diana Charity from ‘my brother and I’” or “ Prince William Shouts out Prince Harry in Letter to Princess Diana Organization”. What the h-e-double hockey stick? I’m sure Prince Harry was dying for a shout-out like the air he breathes.

This is where I get off my detour back onto the main road. William cares about only William. And that’s what this not so cleverly disguised propaganda is about. Don’t forget that, it is this same William “who dropped Harry like a ton of hot bricks”, and who was reportedly “tired of holding his brother’s hand” during the feverish coverage of Harry and Meghan’s announcing they were to step back.

The timing is also curious because, Prince Harry has been receiving A LOT of great global coverage about his work with Well Child, the Netflix-Thomas The Tank project, Invictus, and recently his support of vets through the Guinea Pig club and CASEVAC club. And may I add, it’s coverage that has not been filtered through the refractive lens of the royal press. So like clockwork, here comes tag-along K to do what he does best, trying to get up the coconut tree. Don’t be deceived, all these weird stories about Harry missing his family, the UK, and XYZ have been laying the ground work for William to not only be inserted into this positive news cycle, but also for him to emerge as a magnanimous figure.

Nice try. This latest round of PR is dead on arrival, because no one is buying what they’re selling. We haven’t forgotten that it is this same brother, who sent his media attack dogs after Harry’s wife in particular, as a way of diminishing their popularity. If you don’t believe me, take it up with Tim Shipman. And while the media went after Meghan and stoked the most negative sentiment against her, this same brother, the principal at Kensington Palace, who is reported to be an anti-bullying advocate and even presided over a failed anti-cyberbullying initiative yet did not avail his digital media resources to sanitize their Instagram feed of the most vile, vitriolic, threatening and at times outright racist commentary about his pregnant sister-in-law. It’s because this team was working overtime deleting comments and blocking posters whose comments were deemed as infringing on his “human rights”. Okay!

It wasn’t even a year ago that, when Harry and Meghan were called every name in the book for traveling on a private jet( something all royals do and are defended for it), his brother tagged along that media cycle to pour salt onto Harry’s wounds. The night before their trip, last minute flight arrangements were made with the now bankrupt budget airline, FLYBE on behalf of William and family to travel to Scotland. He was cast as the responsible and eco-conscious future king for supposedly flying budget. Naturally, the royal rota were swift to his defense, when questions about the convenience of said budget flight were raised.

Naturally, like everything hatched in the dark, that publicity stunt unraveled when a report from the Scotsman uncovered, the last minute arrangements and the lengths the airline went, to position an aircraft for the auspicious royal flying act.

Fast forward to the next media storm around Harry and Meghan- The Southern African Tour documentary. As is customary with the British press’ dealings with Harry and Meghan, they always find the most negative slant and this time, the consensus was to portray Harry as “ mentally unstable” or “vulnerable”. Of course brother, the mental health advocate, did not miss the opportunity to enter the news cycle with his own label, Fragile. Why not ? Mental health advocacy and stigmatization go hand in hand right? The Curious Case of William’s Care for Harry!

William insults Harry and Meghan

William calls Harry fragile

My point is that, every time William has had occasion to be linked to Harry in a news item, it’s usually designed for his benefit. Whether it is a negative story or a positive one, Harry always gets the short end of the stick, so that William can smell like roses. This time is no different. Everything Williams’s actions have shown us does not track with this new narrative, except the part where there is a potential for good press. It is always selfish. They are brothers, and if they decide to smooth their differences, great. I however doubt that any genuine and well intentioned effort will be cataloged in the news. If for nothing, to protect that precious relationship you’re trying to rebuild.

So to the propaganda hacks, I say try another. Harry misses his UK friends? Are these the same ones the media hacks told us that Harry no longer hung out with because, you guessed it- Meghan had chased them away? And now he’s missed his family, the same ones who said they did not support him and his wife, and had moved to distance themselves?

The royal rift - The royal family not speaking to the Sussexes

William distances himself from the Sussexes

The same family which the media told us Harry and Meghan are no longer part of its inner circle? And this was all while they still lived in the UK. The very ones who couldn’t manage polite pleasantries at the last Commonwealth day service. Give me a freaking break! I think Harry is just fine in LA. And his brother could care less. He just wants you to think otherwise.

Nothing new under the sun. Just the tired old alliance whose enterprise is money-making on one hand and profile building on the other.

Silvester McMonkey McBean might think “you can’t teach a sneetch”.

I say, not so fast. “When people show you who they are, believe them”.

Dr. Seuss and Dr. Maya Angelou. Over and out.

-

(I could not post all pictures becaus of the photo limit but they are inthe article linked below)

[arcticdementor]

It’s been hard to miss the steady drumbeat of articles and think-pieces over the past few months about Election Day war games and post-election planning underway on the left, rooted in obsessive fears that President Trump will refuse to accept an electoral loss, triggering a constitutional crisis and maybe even widespread civic unrest, all in a desperate attempt to cling to power.

…

The news hook for most of these articles is a series of elaborate election war games hosted in June by a newly formed organization called the Transition Integrity Project, touted by the media as a bipartisan group of experts consisting of former elected officials, high-level government staffers, consultants, and journalists like David Frum, who wrote the Atlantic piece referenced above.

In other words, the Transition Integrity Project is a cross-section of our elite ruling class. In its own executive summary of the war games, the group states it was founded “out of concern that the Trump Administration may seek to manipulate, ignore, undermine or disrupt the 2020 presidential election and transition process” — never mind the many ways Democrats in Congress and the executive bureaucracy, aided by the media, have been doing just that since before Trump won the 2016 election.

The exercise mimicked the kind of war games sometimes conducted for foreign policy crises, only this time the format was applied to the presidential election, with one team playing the Biden campaign and the other the Trump campaign. The outlandish outcome of these simulations—that in the event of a close election, Trump might “federalize the National Guard and take military control of state voting sites,” as Frum writes — tells us less about what is likely to happen in the real world and more about the mendacious worldview, toxic prejudices, and treasonous imaginings of the elites themselves.

In one of the simulations, a scenario similar to 2016 was gamed out, with Trump losing the popular vote but winning the right combination of states for an Electoral College victory. John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chairman and a top adviser to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, played the role of Biden. According to Ben Smith’s account of the simulation in the New York Times, Podesta-as-Biden refused to concede, saying his party wouldn’t let him and instead alleged voter suppression, persuading the governors of Wisconsin and Michigan to send Biden electors to the Electoral College.

…

Whether they realize it or not, Podesta and Frum and the others are acting out a present-day version of the election of 1860, only they’re playing the role of the secessionist South. Indeed, well before Abraham Lincoln won the election, even moderate “unionist” southern leaders warned that their states would secede if the vote didn’t go their way. It amounted to mass political blackmail, and after Lincoln’s decisive victory the South followed through on its threat. For slave states, the Union was conditional, not perpetual, and Lincoln’s election violated their conditions.

…

We now seem to be on the cusp of relitigating the question, only instead of slaveholding southerners blackmailing the country with secession, it’s anti-Trump Democrats and left-wing radicals threatening to tear the country apart if Trump wins in November. For them, the Union is conditional, and Trump’s reelection will violate their conditions.

What do they have in mind? Not exactly an 1860-style secession, state-by-state, but something more immediately disruptive. Depending on the circumstances the day after the election, they might contest the results and trigger lengthy litigations and ballot recounts, working in the meantime to come up with enough absentee ballots to put Biden over the edge. In that case, while the lawsuits and recounts are underway, the left plans to do what it’s been doing for months now: take to the streets.

Last week, an initiative called the Fight Back Table, a coalition of more than 50 left-wing groups that got together after the 2016 election, met to formulate a plan of action in case no clear winner emerges after Election Day. Of course, “no clear winner” is something for which the left has been rhetorically preparing the country under the guise of ensuring all the mail-in ballots are properly counted.

The group “began charting out what it would take to stand up a multi-state communications arm to fight disinformation, a training program for nonviolent civil disobedience, and the underpinnings of what one official described as ‘mass public unrest,’” according to a report by The Daily Beast. One person familiar with the discussion said the goal was to figure out how to “occupy shit, hold space, and shut things down, not just on Election Day but for weeks.” By now, we all know what that means.

Perhaps more disturbing than the possibility of organized mass riots and looting is the open fantasizing among Democrats, including Biden himself, about the role the military might play in a contested election. Biden has felt free to ruminate, more than once, on the possibility of soldiers dragging Trump out of the White House if he tries to “steal the election.”

…

Indeed, paranoia and an assumption that any action by the Trump administration to ensure the integrity of the election is tantamount to stealing it pervades our elite class. The Transition Integrity Project’s war games played out various scenarios, utterly divorced from reality, in which team Trump “succeeded in invoking the Insurrection Act and sending active-duty military troops into US cities to ‘restore order,’ ‘protect’ voting places, or confiscate ‘fraudulent’ ballots.” In another scenario, Attorney General Bill Barr ordered “the seizure of mail-in ballots to ensure that vote counting would stop.”

…

All this tells us much more about the mindset of the people running the simulations than it does about what Barr or Trump are likely to do in November. The left simply cannot imagine an election in which Trump doesn’t win by cheating, hence they’ve decided they will accept only one outcome. Rahna Epting, executive director of MoveOn and a participant in the Fight Back Table discussions, told The Daily Beast, “It is very obvious that Trump is laying the groundwork for claiming victory no matter what.”

This is doublespeak. What should be obvious by now is that a broad coalition of left-wing groups is laying the groundwork to reject the results of the November election if Trump wins and claim victory, no matter what. The same left-wing groups that have been fomenting riots and street violence for months will again mobilize, only this time they won’t be calling for the abolishment of the police but the effective abolishment of popular government—an end to our constitutional system, and with it, an end to the republic.

…

Most northerners thought this was just bluster, that Lincoln’s election would never lead to actual war and bloodshed. They badly underestimated how lightly the South regarded the Union, and what southerners would do to the country to be rid of it. They should have taken the South at its word.

Now, 160 years later, we face what could be a similar crisis. There’s a rich irony in the elite assumption that post-election violence will come from “right-wing militias” or “vigilante groups,” when the last three months of rioting and looting by Antifa and Black Lives Matter activists have in some ways been a dress rehearsal for what the left is planning in November. You don’t need to read between the lines to understand this, you just need to take these people at their word.

[rockinjoeco]

The Stigma from the Media

In the wake of the tragic suicide of former Love Island presenter Caroline Flack, the topic of mental health has become more vital and sensitive than ever. It shouldn’t have to take a tragic suicide for people to start thinking about how they impact other people’s mental health, but it seems that’s where we are now. I could preach to people about thinking about mental health, etc, but it appears that in the wake of Brexit, those days where a majority of British people are kind appears to be over. If we are to tackle mental health stigma, then we need to get to quite possibly the key architect behind this stigma and influencing a toxic attitude on society; the media.

The media is a very powerful tool in our society and unfortunately it’s been proven so by influencing a poisonous culture on everyone. Is it any coincidence that dumbed down, exploitive outlets like tabloid newspapers are the most-read newspapers during a time when, as proven with Brexit and the election, that maybe a majority of the British public aren’t as intelligent as we’d like them to be. This isn’t an assessment I’ve made because an election result didn’t go the way I wanted. We all know about the problems caused by the Tory government, like many people being forced into poverty because of austerity and universal credit, how a knife crime epidemic started because of police cuts made by the government and we all know the billions of pounds wasted on Brexit, which I’m still yet to hear any logical reason as to why that’s a good idea, leaving the NHS to be underfunded. Yet the conservatives won the election by an overwhelming majority despite the hardship that they’ve caused for a lot of British people. Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party may not had been the formidable challenger to Boris Johnson as many would had liked, but Corbyn would have been more likely to fund the NHS and help those in poverty than Johnson. The theory is still that the media won Boris Johnson the election with a smear campaign against Corbyn, although the antisemitism allegations weren’t a complete fantasy. The media spouted propaganda to manipulate the public rather than being unbiased like any insightful journalist, and unfortunately too many people were gullible to believe some of the wild speculation they reported.

When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle decided to retire from royal duties, there was outrage amongst the public, but there were still people like myself who knew that the media treatment they had received was a major reason behind this. In the wake of Caroline Flack’s death, it’s a tragic summary of their brutal treatment of public figures and how it can seriously harm their mental health. The media relentlessly report on celebrities’ private lives, usually against their will, but for what reason? The private lives of celebrities isn’t exactly need-to-know information and doesn’t boast any insight into anything. It’s just a money-making scheme to sensationalise the most insignificant of events so the gullible and ignorant people can absorb themselves into. What we know now is the harm it does to the people that the news articles are about. Of course those in the media have branded Prince Harry and Meghan Markle selfish for stepping out of the media spotlight as an effort to excuse their abhorrent pursuit of them. They still make excuses for the car crash that killed Princess Diana in Paris back in 1997 and state that she was killed because the driver was intoxicated, but just before the crash, paparazzi were chasing the car that Diana was in and so it must be argued that the media had a part to play in the horrific car crash. The media are so powerful that they can get away with anything, even murder it seems.

We can debate about whether Love Island is a good tv show, and whether newspapers like The Sun, Daily Mirror and Daily Mail are good newspapers, but what must be talked about is whether or not they’re harmful. Let’s not forget that that two Love Island contestants, Sophie Gordon and Mike Thalassitis, also tragically took their own lives last year. Whether Love Island played any part in Caroline Flack’s suicide is up for debate, but surely the TV show should be under more intense scrutiny than ever, especially as questions about whether it damages someone’s mental health. Also last year, a guest on the Jeremy Kyle Show, Steve Dymond, took his own life and the show was cancelled as a result. For Love Island to not only continue, but add a winter series after two of their previous guests committed suicide raises a lot of questions and shows that ITV put ratings before the well-being of their participants. The media has now become more of a weapon, especially looking at Piers Morgan’s merciless vendetta against Meghan Markle and Jameela Jamil, all because he finds them irritating. Not because they’re criminals or because they’ve done any kind of wrongdoing. The phone hacking scandal by the News of the World demonstrates how certain media outlets have become weaponised to intrude public figures for the means of getting a story. Piers Morgan has frequently dismissed mental health awareness by stating that those who speak out are just ‘wallowing in self-pity’ and are ‘virtue-signalling berks’. If anybody else had tweeted that, they’d probably get in trouble at work, maybe even sacked. The fact that ITV haven’t punished Piers Morgan in any way shows contempt from the network as well as Morgan in regards to mental health and this is why there is still so much stigma around mental health. As someone with anxiety and depression, the media, especially ITV, is why I’ve suffered in silence for so many years.

Social media has also become more harmful than ever too. It has become a tool for users to harass and abuse people, especially celebrities. The cancel culture on social media is so brutal. Taylor Swift spoke out about how social media had impacted her when, following a public falling out with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, the hashtag #taylorswiftisover trended for days on Twitter and it was like being told to kill yourself and Twitter users were likening a human being to a TV show and they could just be killed off if they’re not how the public wants them to be like. Meghan Markle has also been victim of savage abuse on social media, as she admitted on ITV last September, and Lily Allen quit Twitter days after the General Election as she said that Twitter ‘gives a voice to the far-right’ and that it is used to ‘spread disinformation and lies’. When celebrities give their political opinion on twitter or if a news story has that sort of thing, the comments on twitter can contain people saying things like ‘stop talking’ or ‘stick to acting’, which is killing democracy in our country. Are celebrities not entitled to an opinion? Why are they less allowed to have their say than any non-famous person on social media? Nobody has to agree with them, but they have the right to an opinion, just like we are.

ITV has always been a poisonous institution, as any company which keeps Piers Morgan in a job would prove to be. Caroline Flack was forced to resign from Love Island following her assault charge on her boyfriend Lewis Burton, but many have pointed out that Ant McPartlin was allowed to keep his job at ITV when he was convicted of drink-driving, arguably a more serious offense than the one that Caroline was charged with. Because of McPartlin’s popularity, you could say that he is untouchable and can get away with almost anything, even if he did cause death by dangerous driving, ITV will still keep him on because he generates ratings, and that’s what comes first with ITV. The moment when Philip Schofield came out as gay on This Morning was a heartwarming moment and was seen as brave and inspiring to express your sexuality in the way Schofield did. Those inspiring moments are too few on ITV, especially looking at the suicides of their participants. Something at that company is wrong and their mental health campaigns seem redundant now. ITV care so much about ratings that it wouldn’t surprise me if they announced an autumn and spring series in addition to Love Island.

Caroline Flack said back in December; ‘if you’re going to be anything, be kind’. It shouldn’t have to take a tragic suicide for people to start being kind, but Britain has become a less tolerant and more crueller country than ever, especially in the wake of Brexit. People are so quick to pounce whenever a celebrity makes any kind of mistake, like all human beings do, and berate them in the most brutal way possible. While it is important to be kind, we still have to be brutally honest on important matters like mental health and we must get to the source of where it stems from; media corporations like tabloid newspapers and ITV. I, like many other people, hope that action is taken against the media for all the harm that they have caused people, because the media have too much blood on their hands.

[aion-rsa]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Funniest Guest Cast Characters

https://ift.tt/3oTakdX

Warning: contains Brooklyn Nine-Nine spoilers.

Brooklyn Nine Nine is one of the funniest sitcoms around thanks to its fantastic ensemble cast and just-broad-enough humour blended with almost-realistic cop show elements. But that great regular cast are supported by an equally brilliant array of recurring characters and guest stars. In this list, we’re celebrating the funniest of the show’s less often-seen characters, those guest appearances who’ve turned up once or twice to inject a fresh burst of comic energy into the show.

Note that we’re not counting regular recurring characters like Adrian Pimento, Madeline Wuntch, or Kevin Cozner, aka Mr Raymond Holt. If they turn up more than once a year, or in more than three episodes in one season, they’re off the list.

12. Adam Sandler, played by himself in Operation: Broken Feather, Season 1, Episode 15

Adam Sandler’s appearance as himself in Season One is beautifully self-deprecating as well as funny. His deadpan delivery of “I’m a serious person” is hilarious in just the right way – of course the real Sandler is, presumably, as serious and as complex as anyone else, but he knows his own public persona and just how to play on it in the right way to raise a different kind of laugh. The interest in antiquities, the planned film about the Russian Revolution, it’s all funny – and somewhat undercut, even more amusingly, by his taunting of Jake straight afterwards. The whole scene did help to flush out a criminal though, so it wasn’t a total loss for Jake.

Funniest moment: Admitting his “serious” Russian Revolution film features Kevin James as Trotsky, and a wife who doesn’t wear a bra through the whole film.

11. Geoffrey Hoytsman, played by Chris Parnell in two episodes in Season 2

When Jake’s lawyer girlfriend Sophia uses her boss as a transparent excuse to break up with him (by going on ‘pause’), Jake wilfully misunderstands and decides that the boss is the key problem, so he sets off to make the man like him. It all goes horribly wrong when Jake finds Hoytsman snorting cocaine in the bathroom, which Hoytsman claims he was doing accidentally while screaming loudly that Jake is arresting him to the whole room of lawyers. Sophia somehow still ends up blaming Jake – probably because she simply wanted to break up with him in the first place – and Hoytsman ends up returning to take Jake hostage and quite seriously threaten his life later in the season. Parnell’s over-the-top performance as a character who is, of course, high for much of the time, is what really sells the character.

Funniest moment: Sniffing cocaine off his collar in the middle of the police precinct.

10. Jessica Day, played by Zooey Deschanel in The Night Shift, Season 4, Episode 4

Back in 2016, both New Girl and Brooklyn Nine Nine were active Fox sitcoms, so the network decided to do a crossover event in which the New Girl characters travelled to New York City and ran into the 99. Most of the crossover scenes actually ended up in the New Girl episode, but Zooey Deschanel’s character Jess Day did make a brief appearance in the otherwise stand-alone Brooklyn Nine Nine half of the crossover. While the New Girl episode provided a lot more context for Jess’s feelings about New York and her stress level surrounding Schmidt’s mom’s car and the soup she’s carrying, her appearance as an apparently slightly nutty woman who resists Jake’s attempts to commandeer the car is an entertaining interlude during the half hour.  

Funniest moment: Insisting that Jake’s oath to serve and protect applies to her soup.

9. Philip Davidson, played by Sterling K. Brown in The Box, Season 5, Episode 14

If this were a list of the show’s ‘best’ guest characters, rather than ‘funniest’, the top ranked would surely be Philip Davidson, played by Sterling K. Brown. ‘The Box’ is a tight, taught bottle episode that takes full advantage of Brooklyn Nine Nine’s hybrid status as both sitcom and cop show, and Brown’s Davidson forms a strong third of a triangle in this three-header with Holt and Peralta. It’s a really strong performance, but given that he’s playing a tough-to-crack murder suspect, not really the funniest, exactly. Still, he gets a good few laughs when appropriate over the course of a really engaging half hour of comedy/cop show crossover.

Funniest moment: When Davidson finally cracks, he cracks hard – his confession is equal parts triumphant, cathartic, and hilarious.

8. Karen Haas, played by Maya Rudolph in Coral Palms Parts 1&2, Season 4, Episodes 1&2

Maya Rudolph has a good line going in slightly weary authority figures (see also: The Good Place). Handling Holt and Peralta while they’re in witness protection is not an easy job and her exasperation at Jake’s refusal to accept his situation is well played. Haas is really funny, though, when she starts bringing her own issues into her official duties, clearly trying to get permission to cheat on her husband from someone, anyone – and Holt is happy to oblige.

Funniest moment: Whoever it is she wants to sleep with is “really young” – something that clearly shouldn’t be funny, but the face Rudolph pulls as she says it is what sells it.

7. Lin-Manuel Miranda as David Santiago in The Golden Child, Season 6, Episode 9

Miranda is marvellously smarmy as Amy’s too-perfect brother, her demanding parents’ favourite, who snubs popular culture and shows off by saving people’s lives (including Amy’s own husband). Amy’s delighted reaction when he’s arrested for cocaine possession and deep disappointment when he turns out to be innocent are highlights, but the funniest scene by far is the dance-off between David and Amy, in which both comprehensively demonstrate that dancing is not among the Santiago family’s many strengths.

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Funniest moment: David thinks elbows should form a bigger part of a dance routine than they really should.

6. Frederick, played by Nick Offerman in Ava, Season 3, Episode 8

Any time we meet Captain Holt’s friends and family, many of whom share his stoic, Vulcan-like demeanour, it’s always hilarious. JK Simmons as his old friend Dillman very nearly made the list, but he was just pipped to the post by Ron Swanson – sorry, Nick Offerman – as Holt’s ex-boyfriend. There’s a lot of crossover between Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine Nine among the cast and crew and Offerman isn’t even the only Parks & Rec alumnus to appear on this list, but he’s probably the one whose appearance most quickly calls to mind his earlier character. The idea that Holt’s ex-boyfriend is Ron F-ing Swanson is just genius. OK, Frederick lacks Swanson’s magnificent moustache (though he has a glorious beard) and he’s even more brusque and stand-off-ish, but he’s a perfect match for Holt, even more in their post-break-up mutual antagonism than we imagine they were in their relationship.

Funniest moment: His straight-faced insistence at the door that they have a “wooden-duck situation”.

5. Mark Devereaux, played by Nathan Fillion in Serve & Protect, Season 4, Episode 14

It’s always funny any time police characters in a cop show visit the set of a TV cop show, and for added meta humour, in this case the actor playing the fictional detective is played by an actor who works on a cop show (albeit as a non-cop character). Phew! That’s a lot of layers of meta. Nathan Fillion’s pompous star who apparently thinks playing a detective makes him a detective is very funny, and it gets better when it turns out that was a ruse to cover up his own petty criminal activity before he folds like wet paper. It’s just a shame we didn’t get to see more of him.

Funniest moment: Devereaux tries turning on the angry detective act from his show to cover up his own crime, only to be confronted with quite a lot more than a “shred” of evidence and fold immediately.

4. Eleanor Horstweil, played by Kathryn Hahn in Hostage Situation, Season 3, Episode 11

We heard a lot about Boyle’s ex-wife over the first couple of seasons, partly because Boyle was still living in her basement, hanging out with her new husband Hercules. We knew what sort of person Eleanor was when Boyle explained that he gets the beach house from December to February. When we finally meet her in the flesh, Kathryn Hahn does not disappoint – Eleanor is surely one of the most purely horrible characters we’ve seen on the show (and yes, we’re including all the murderers). She hits a 90-year-old priest with her car and then destroys Boyle’s frozen sperm, all with no apparent sense of guilt, and she largely gets away with it, too. But she does it all with a perfectly deadpan expression and carefree attitude, each horrifying act funnier that the last.

Funniest moment: She goes further than Jake ever thought she would when she “shoots a hostage” – i.e., throws some of Boyle’s sperm down the drain.

3. Seth Dozerman, played by Bill Hader in New Captain, Season 3, Episode 1

Bill Hader’s screentime on the show is relatively brief, but he is hilarious from start to finish, attacking the squad with every shouted command like he’s firing metaphorical bullets at them. It might actually have been really cool to see the squad try to deal with him as their Captain for more than one episode, with his extremely demanding requirements and very highly strung personality, but on the other hand, perhaps this is a joke that works better in small quantities. Any character whose dying words are “Tell my wife I love her work ethic” is probably a character better enjoyed for a shorter period of time. 

Funniest moment: Both heart attacks are very funny, but the first (non-fatal) one just pips it for the sheer suddenness of it.

2. Caleb, played by Tim Meadows in three episodes in Seasons 5 and 6

Jake is shocked to discover his only friend in maximum security prison is a cannibal (though he would prefer to be identified as a wood-worker), having assumed everyone in protective custody was a wrongly accused police officer. Caleb is surely Brooklyn Nine Nine’s best streak of really, really dark humour – not only did he murder and eat nine and a half people, they were small children too. Every reference he makes to his “nightmare” past is sickly hilarious, and gets worse and worse every time, including a reference to his “skin suit”. But he really does care for Jake, even if he still kind of wants to eat him. The sheer audacity of the black humour surrounding this character is fantastic and always funny.

Funniest moment: Caleb shows that he has a softer side when he saves Jake’s life – but he immediately deeply regrets it and would not do it again.

1. Doug Judy, played by Craig Robinson in multiple episodes (one episode or two-parter per year)

Yes, we carefully defined a recurring character as someone who is either in more than three episodes or who appears more than once a year specifically so that we could include Craig Robinson‘s Doug Judy. It’s our list and we make the rules. There’s something twistedly beautiful about Jake and Doug Judy’s tender but tense friendship, even in the early years when Judy is constantly double-crossing poor Jake. The two of them have perfect comic chemistry, and each running gag in their friendship, especially their fondness for swaggering out in a new outfit or disguise, just gets funnier and funnier. Long may Doug Judy continue to turn up roughly once every twelve months to harass his long suffering best friend.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Funniest moment: Having escaped yet again, Doug Judy leaves Jake a pre-recorded message in a karaoke booth – complete with a full hour of pre-recorded singing for Jake to duet with.

The post Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Funniest Guest Cast Characters appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[nalasan]

Concerning CCaTH chapter 27

I figured since I spent a lot of time doing research for this chapter, I might as well share my sources - but if you’d rather not know what’s real and what’s fictional, feel free to skip this. ;-)

The cases Simon Bromley (fictional) and Sebastian discuss at the beginning of the chapter were indeed real life cases of two very young, orphaned maids, Jane Wilbred and Mary Parsons, who were neglected and abused by their employers, which resulted in Mary’s death and a public outcry. Parliament did react and passed the Apprentices and Servants Act of 1851, which determined that every master was responsible to provide food, clothing and lodging for his servants or apprentices, and could be punished for neglecting said duty with three years in prinson (source: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian Servant by Pamela Horn), which is, let’s face it, still laughable. Bit like mininum wage these days. I could not find anything else about that act though, so George Manners’s involvement (though there was a MP named like that) is entirely fictional.

While servants would have a few hours off on Sunday to go to church, I doubt they’d have as much free time as Kurt, Jane and Nick - but that is the beauty of fiction, and I wanted to write about London so badly.

The Theatre Royal, today Theatre Royal Haymarket, did play Mark Lemon’s Mind your own Business in 1851 (though I don’t know whether they played it in April). The Adelphi definitely played Jack in the Green and The School for Tigers in April 1851, which were also written by Mark Lemon, BUT there were no performances on Sundays, so that part is fictional. The ticket prices are real - you can find a lot of information about the Adelphi and which plays were on in the 19th century here. Both the Haymarket and the Adelphi still exist by the way, I saw Heathers and Kinky Boots there and they’re both amazing theatres which really make you feel like you stepped back in time.

The Cyder (or Cider) Cellars were a popular pub right behind the Adelphi, a predecessor to the immensely popular music halls of later years, where men of all classes mingled; the establishment is sadly not around anymore. W.G. Ross did work as a singer there and was quite popular, though I do not know whether he still performed in 1851 - the last mention I found of him was in 1849. “Sam Hall”, or at least a version of the song (a slightly different version was sung by Johnny Cash, because of course it was), was quite a scandalous song for which Ross gained some notoriety; whether it really sparked the reactions I described I do not know (source: An Illustrated History of British Theatre and Performance, Vol. 2 by Robert Leach).

Due to early 19th century censorship, Shakespeare plays could actually only be performed in the two patent theatres, Covent Garden and Drury Lane. The Licensing Act was dropped in 1843, which allowed all kinds of theatres to open and put on spoken plays, though the censorship, like in the case of The Cider Cellars, had also opened up other venues and forms of entertainment, which would later become the music halls.

It is really hard to find anything about how servants would spent their leisure time - presumably because they didn’t have any. So I do not know if people like Kurt would have really frequented theatres like the Adelphi - but I like to imagine it.

[hollowedsammy]

Hello, hello, everyone! My name is Susie, I am 21-soon-to-be-22, I live in the EST timezone, and this is the first of my two characters, Sam! If you’d like to plot, like this or IM me! This contains his basic info, backstory, info about what he’s currently up to, some misc. information, a small playlist, tropes that apply to him, and wanted connections. Yeah... I went a little hard.

☾  ↪  cillian murphy, male, forty, he/him.  ／  ❛  have you heard from samuel marx lately ？ yeah, the forty year old mechanic / drug dealer. pretty sure they’ve been here twenty years, and from what i’ve heard, sam can be kind of cynical  &  self-serving, but i caught them on a good day once, and they were pretty funny & clever. i’m probably overthinking it, but given all the crazy shit around here, i hope they’re okay. maybe they’re watching their favorite scary movie, i heard it’s child’s play.

trigger warnings: homophobia, parental/domestic abuse, self-harm, depression

BASIC INFORMATION

Full name: Samuel Joseph Marx

Nickname(s): Sam (everyone), Sammy (his mother, close friends, or significant others only)

Age: 40

Gender: male

Sexual orientation: bisexual

Birthday: January 12, 1956

Zodiac: Capricorn

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

Personality type: ISFJ

Family: Joseph Marx (father, deceased), Serafine Marx (mother, deceased)

Criminal record: shoplifting (3 counts), underage drinking (2 counts), auto theft (1 count), fraud (2 counts), possession with the intent to distribute (2 counts)

TROPES

Beware the Quiet Ones

Cornered Rattlesnake

The Cynic

Deadpan Snarker

Don’t You Dare Pity Me!

Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas

I Just Want to be Loved

I Need a Freaking Drink

Lower-Class Lout

Not Good With People

Perpetual Frowner

The Runaway

Smarter Than You Look

The Snark Knight

Sour Outside, Sad Inside

When He Smiles

FIVE-SONG PLAYLIST

“The Mute” by Radical Face

“Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” by Cage the Elephant

“Run Boy Run” by Woodkid

“The Kids Aren’t Alright” by Fall Out Boy

“Emperor’s New Clothes” by Panic! at the Disco

BACKGROUND

Sam was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He had a small family -- just him, and his parents. His father was a police officer, and his mother was a housewife.

Sam never got along with his father. Never. He can’t remember a single time that he didn’t entirely despise the man.

Joseph Marx was a corrupt cop, as well as an abusive husband and father. The Marx household was frequently filled with the sounds of slamming doors, screamed profanity, and glass breaking. While he frequently took his anger out on his wife, Sam quickly became Joseph’s favorite target.

Sam was also a favored target of other kids. An incident during which two older boys held him under the water instilled an unshakable case of hydrophobia in him, and he was often beat up when teachers weren’t around. Many said he brought it on himself -- what did he expect, when he was so obviously queer, dressed in such ratty clothes, acted so strangely?

Unsurprisingly, he developed delinquent behavior early on, and was frequently in trouble for cheating on tests, stealing other students’ possessions, skipping class, smoking, drinking, and stealing cars for joyrides.

Bullied at school and abused at home, Sam had few friends, and spent as much time as possible out of the house. He’d wander the swamps and streets alone, only occasionally having a companion with him.

Finally, when he was sixteen, Sam hit a breaking point. A terrible fight with his father led to Sam being thrown into the kitchen window. The glass shattered, cutting into Sam’s skin. His mother tried to help him get cleaned up, but Sam had had enough. That very night, he packed a small bag and snuck out the back door. He stole a truck from one of his neighbors, and hit the road, never to return to Baton Rouge.

Lacking any sort of plan, Sam wandered from town to town, making money via odd jobs, shoplifting, pickpocketing, purse-snatching, and selling dime bags of weed. He had his fair share of scrapes with the law -- even spending six months in a correctional facility when he was eighteen -- but always managed to worm his way out any long-term consequences. 

While in jail, Sam finally wrote to his mother -- now that he was eighteen, he couldn’t be forced to return to his family’s home, so he could assure her that he was alive. While he kept in contact with his mother from then on, Sam never spoke to his father again, and refused to ever return to Baton Rouge, even after his father was shot and killed in the line of duty.

ARRIVAL IN HOLLOWAY

Sam got to Holloway at the age of twenty. He only intended to stay for a couple weeks, long enough to make enough money to make a cross-country trip. The girl he was dating at the time went to school in Maine, and he wanted to go visit her.

When the first Hollow Man murder happened, a couple weeks after Sam’s arrival, he was nervous. When it became evident that there was a serial killer in Holloway, he started thinking maybe he should just say “fuck the money” and skip town altogether. However, before he could, the police were asking to talk to him.

It had been discovered that a couple of the deceased had bought drugs off of Sam a few times. While they hadn’t thought much about Sam at first, this caused the cops to look closer at him. Upon further digging, the investigators found that Sam was a drifter who had dropped out of school and run away from home, had a history of behavior issues, an ever-growing rap sheet, a brief stint in jail to his name, a skittish and antisocial air about him, and an obvious hatred of cops.

Yeah. It did not look good.

Sam was interrogated many times. His story never changed. He did sell weed to two of the deceased. No, he didn’t hurt them. He never even interacted with them beyond the sales. He was asleep at the time of the murders. No, no one can confirm that, he was alone. No, he doesn’t have a hotel room, he’s been sleeping in his truck.

Despite a lack of solid evidence or a motive, Sam was still a prime suspect for the first few murders, and he was told not to leave town. Knowing it’d look much worse if he ran, Sam decided to get a job -- partially because he was stuck in Halloway for the foreseeable future, and partially because he knew he might have to hire a lawyer soon. He eventually persuaded the local auto shop to hire him as a mechanic. (Accused of murder or not, Sam is damn good with cars.)

No official charges were ever brought, and eventually, another murder took place while Sam had a clear alibi, having been drinking in a local bar in full view of at least a dozen people all night. He got busted for having a fake ID, but at least he wasn’t an official murder suspect anymore.

Key word being official. Some suspected that Sam had an accomplice, and that the whole thing was a set-up to clear his name. Despite rumors, whispers, stares, and even a few people accusing him of the crime to his face, he always maintained that he never hurt anybody.

After being cleared, Sam intended to get out of town as soon as he could. But then, the girlfriend in Maine he’d been planning to go see dumped him... via postcard. It was the cherry on top of what had been a shitty few weeks.

Sam decided to stay for a little while until he figured out where to go next. He was rather enjoying having a steady paycheck for once, and it wasn’t like he had a plan. “A little while” eventually turned to twenty years.

NOWADAYS

Sam has now lived in a half-double in town for many, many years. It’s small, but he makes it work.

While most have probably abandoned the idea that Sam killed anybody, he’s still not exactly Mr. Popular in town. He’s known to be a sarcastic, self-centered dick, who has no respect for authority. (Some things never change.)

He still works at the auto shop. The original owner’s son runs it now, but Sam is the longest-standing employee, as well as the best mechanic.

Sam still hates cops. If he could refuse service to them, he would.

He’s still selling weed on the side (his boss looks the other way -- so long as Sam doesn’t get busted while at work, he doesn’t really care), and can be bribed into purchasing alcohol for underage students. However, he refuses to get mixed up in anything harder than that.

He mostly keeps to himself, and isn’t known to be particularly violent. If someone else attacks him, he’ll defend himself, but he rarely throws the first punch.

He’s been in an even more melancholy mood than normal lately, because his mother died last month.

He honestly thought the Hollow Man business was behind him. But now that a new victim has been found, he can feel people looking at him sideways again.

And, no matter how much he says he doesn’t care what other people think... he doesn’t like it at all.

MISC.

Sam’s sexuality is not public knowledge. He’s not ashamed of it, but he also wants to avoid harassment, so he’s only ever openly dated women. The only people who know are men he’s been with in the past, and maybe, maybe a very close friend.

Despite his dislike of people, Sam is quite fond of animals, and even adopted a stray cat he found a couple years ago. He’s named him Hecate, and he is quite possibly the ugliest cat in existence -- he has one eye, crooked fangs, and scratches everything that isn’t Sam.

Sam suffers clinical depression, but is in denial about how serious it actually is. It’s driven him to make some pretty damaging decisions, and he’s had a habit of burning himself with cigarettes since high school. The scars are all over his shoulders, arms, and stomach. 

Sam was -- and still is -- a frequent target of classism. Due to his lack of education and working-class background, many assume the worst in him, and many underestimate his intelligence. While he uses it to his advantage, he is irked by it.

It surprises people to learn that Sam is actually very well-read, and a talented actor. In another life, he could’ve joined a Shakespeare company. In this one, he reads passages aloud to himself when he’s alone.

Sam claims to hate... well, everyone, but he holds a special contempt for bullies and abusers. One of the only times Sam’s been known to instigate a fight is when he got sick of listening to a drunk guy catcall a woman walking by, and just decked him.

Sam still hates water, and refuses to go swimming -- on the rare occasions he has to go near the water, he won’t put his head under.

Sam has a pitch-black sense of humor. The Hollow Man murders are one of the few things he won’t joke about.

SUGGESTED CONNECTIONS

Someone who still believes Sam was or is the Hollow Man.

Related to the above, some of the younger characters have probably been told by their parents to stay away from Sam. Whether or not they listened is up to you.

Friend with benefits.

Exes.

Someone who has become aware of Sam’s depression and is trying to help him -- whether he likes it or not.

Unrequited crush (from either party).

And anything else you can think of!

[thekillerrink]

so i know i got that one info post with basic descriptions, but i figured that here, i’d go a bit more into detail about the various groups and what they’re doing in the fantasy au

Sakako + Dorothea + Kokichi & D.I.C.E. (+ Verny also technically)

Sakako’s been a member of D.I.C.E. (or “The Trickster’s Outcasts”, as they’re known to the general public) ever since it was formed, and as in the normal verse, is Kokichi’s second in command.

During one raid, where they were to steal a dangerous magical item from the royal family of Elizaveta (they had no idea the item was dangerous, but the group had gotten word of someone in the castle who DID know, and who intended to use it for malicious purposes), Sakako had disguised herself and gone in to keep an eye on stuff. This was how she met Dorothea, the third child of the royal family, and though she quickly found out Sakako’s true intentions, after hearing her explanation, she agreed to stay quiet.

The two bonded for a while, and eventually, Dorothea opened up about her desire to leave. She’d been in the castle all her life, basically, and even when she went to other kingdoms, she barely got any time to explore and observe them. But her parents, and even her own retainer, were adamant about her staying safely in the castle.

On the day that the group acted out their theft, Sakako made one last stop in Dorothea’s room...to offer up a spot on the team, willing to take her wherever she wished to go. The princess took up this offer immediately, and left with Sakako and the rest of D.I.C.E..

Of course, this didn’t go without notice. The whole family was distraught, as was Verny, Dorothea’s retainer and childhood friend. Convinced that the thieves had kidnapped her and planned to do horrible things to her, he too left the castle, to search out Dorothea and return her home.

Saiba + Yurasu + Sonisoru

The southern kingdom of Inraidou is fairly small, but still well known. They have high-quality fruit crops, and a strong military force, led by High Marshal Sonisoru Aritayaki.

Of course, that isn’t his true last name. Not anymore, anyway. Sonisoru is, in truth, the first born son of Grand Duchess Nori Inritsu, and her ex-husband, Majuro Aritayaki, who abandoned the kingdom for unknown reasons. Soon after, Nori remarried to a young noble man named Shigure Inritsu, and with him gave birth to her second son, Saiba, who is set to inherit the throne after Sonisoru denied the position, both due to his duty in the military, and his growing relationship with a young dancer woman named Yurasu, who was a popular performer at the capital’s theatre. He kept his old last name, too, as a reminder to never be like the other one who held it...and for something else...

Eventually, though, it was discovered that Majuro has been plotting against the royal family, and left in order to continue work on his plans in secret. With hesitance but understanding, Nori brought together her beloved sons and the one she considered a daughter. Under her command, they left Inraidou, and began traveling under the guise of being a traveling performance and mercenary troupe, in order to find Majuro and stop whatever his plans may be. Due to the secretiveness of their mission, the three almost never give out their surnames, just to be safe.

Hari + Kegawa + Hasu

Hari was born in a town of style and bright colors. She was lucky enough to be chosen at a young age to be the apprentice to a cloth mage, who taught her how to weave spells into cloth, and eventually, into outfits. After years of perfecting her craft, Hari left her town in order to bring her items to people all over the world.

Kegawa, a young natural-born werewolf who used a special artifact to control his transformations, lived with his pack in a cave in a dark forest...one that Hari happened to pass through on her way to a certain city. The night they met was cold and stormy, and in exchange for staying the night in their cave, she made special cloaks for them. See, this pack deeply sought to observe the outside world, but were ostracized for their inhuman features. These cloaks, however, had spells that allowed them to hide those features for as long as they wore them. Beginning to bond with this kind woman, Kegawa chose to accompany her, rather than go with his pack on their journey.

In another forest, one that was much brighter and sat next to a certain sea village, lived Hasu, a young elf who spent her days studying nature magic. When her home was threatened by a wild creature whose rampage caused a fire, Hari and Kegawa stepped in to aid in saving it. Hasu began traveling with them afterwards, wishing to repay them, to also see plants and flowers from all over the world...and to seek out and reunite with a certain friend.

Kurin VS Kadora

Kurin is the Knight Commander of the northern kingdom of Blomenberg, which sits right next to Elizaveta. While her stoic and stern nature may make her seem a bit scary, her loyalty to her country shines brighter than anyone else. She’s considered to be one of the strongest commanders in the country’s history, in fact.

Which is good, seeing as they’re dealing with a little problem right now regarding a certain thief. Kadora is known as the Rabbit-Eared Phantom (though she prefers being called a bunny), and steals valuables from all over the place, using her own skills and the many stuffed bunnies she’s used magic to animate and control.

This manmade group of thieves and the army of Blomenberg have been at odds for a while now, and the animosity between Kadora and Kurin in particular is at an all-time high. When one spots the two somewhere in the same place, a fight is certain to follow.

Ureshi + Kobashi

These two grew up together in a small town, Ureshi’s family running a bakery and Kobashi’s running a dual sweets-and-potions shop. The boys have been close friends since childhood, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when they eventually told their families that they were in a relationship.

What did surprise them was the two asking permission to go on a journey together. Ureshi wanted to help those around the world who had no food readily available, and Kobashi wanted to both aid him and also perfect his chocolate and potion making skills. With their families’ blessings, the two packed their bags, then set forth out into the world.

They go anywhere and everywhere they can, aiding people in need along the way. Ureshi sells his baking to help get them funds, but is also willing to give free food to people who truly need it. Kobashi practices his own skills as much as possible, and both sells his wares, and keeps some around for other uses.

Seiun + Nijiko + Dekai

Seiun was born in a very unique town. The people who lived there worship the sun, moon, and stars as deities, and it was said that those born with golden eyes or white hair were said to be able to speak with the sun and moon respectively, and receive prophecies of the future. So, imagine a certain couple’s surprise when their own child ends up with both, able to speak with both celestial bodies, as well as the stars. Seiun’s fate was set the moment he came into the world: he would become a Great Celestial Seer, a person meant to communicate with the celestial bodies, and deliver their prophecies unto the world.

Dekai was born in a village by the sea, of a tribe that has close bonds with sea spirits, and practically all the beings within the vast ocean. He trained to be an Ocean Guardian his whole life, and just days after he officially received his title, he was called upon by the town that worshiped the stars. Their Great Celestial Seer was to travel the world soon, and needed a guard. Nobody in that town was both versed in combat and readily available to leave the place for long periods of time, so they asked the village for one of their guardians, and Dekai was the one chosen. He agreed to this task, wanting to perfect his skills.

Nijiko, meanwhile, was once a simple artist in a city of creators. Well, not ‘simple’, truly. She was of a family with the unique power to bring their creations to life, as long as they willed them to do so, and could complete said creation fully. When Seiun and Dekai passed through this city, a sudden proclamation from the stars helped prevent a travesty that could have resulted in her family losing that special power. Wanting to repay them for this, she chose to become a second guardian to Seiun...not really giving him a chance to decline (though he didn’t mind, really).

[half-elfdisaster]

Aelen Panterra

Age: 188

Race: Wood Elf

Alignment: Lawful Good

Class: Level 6 College of Swords Bard / Level 3 Oath of Devotion Paladin

Height: 5”10

Appearance: Aelen has tanned, coppery skin with bright green eyes and dirty blonde hair which he has mastered the “just got out of bed”, perfectly tousled look with. He has a short beard of neatly trimmed stubble. He wears the commanders armour of the Order of the Ruby Rose which is a set of intricate detailed rose gold plate armour. He wears a cream sash over it embroidered with the symbol of the Ruby Rose, a red rose. He wields a singing great sword, an item specially made for him.

Aelen was born in 3341 AT under the rule of Queen Ivana II, however living in the small forest village of Oak Vale he grew up with little concern for the politics of the outside world. Aelen was born to Erendriel and Maylin Panterra who were two of several rangers who protected the village from the wilderness surrounding it. He grew up admiring his parents and looking up to them as his heroes, one day wanting to be able to fight to protect like they did.

When he was 52 his younger sister Artemyste was born, and although the pair got on tremendously, he regretted having to be stuck on babysitting duty a lot as he parents went off into the forests to deal with threats. As he grew up he pestered his parents to bring him along on their scouting missions as he had been training to become a ranger when he was old enough too. However, more often than not, he would be left behind with Artemyste. In their time alone the pair would very often sneak into the woods where Aelen would practice and Artemyste would enjoy the surrounding nature.

They were returning from one of these trips when they heard a commotion in town. While their parents were out on a scouting mission they had encountered a group of pillagers and engaged in battle. The other rangers had run in to help them, however the battle was hard and they were too late. Erendriel and Maylin, as well as a couple other rangers, had been killed, and due to the remainder having to retreat they were unable to recover the bodies. This devastated Aelen and Artemyste as the people they looked up to the most were killed. However, after being taken in by Erendriel’s brother, Petnan, who owned the local bakery, and the town preformed a memorial for the fallen rangers, honoring them as heroes who protected their people to their last breath, Aelen came to the realisation that he was privileged to be the son of such people and knew he must honor their memory.

Still underage at 91, Aelen became one of the towns rangers. He served the town for 38 years, protecting it with the others from anything that may threaten his remaining family. However, he still made time for those trips into the forest with Artemyste. After all those years Aelen felt his ambitions had grown bigger then the town of Oak Vale and he longed to journey to the closest city where he hoped to be trained as a true knight. Although, he loved his uncle and sister and wanted to be there for them, he knew that there were other people out their that needed help and he wanted to push himself to do anything in his power to aid them, just like his parents used to.

With the help of his uncle he wrote to an authority figure at the closest town of Halivaara who informed him that any citizens wanting to be trained as guards must travel to the House of Tolerance, a fortress temple of Dol Dorn and Dol Arrah to the southwest of Oak Vale. Knowing that when elves leave home it can be many years before they ever think of returning due to their long lives, he said his farewells to Artemyste and Petnan, who wished him the best on his journey.

At the temple he was trained with a large group of men and women from surrounding towns such as Halivaara, Alverton and Queenstown. Coming from a small town Aelen had never been surrounded by so many new people, however found that he could thrive in such situations. Being the trainee with the most experience, having served as his towns ranger, he quickly got to showing off and became quite popular, always able to enthrall a crowd with tales of the things he had faced in the wilderness around Oak Vale. A travelling aasimar bard of Dol Arrah, who was currently at the temple, noticed his growing confidence. She introduced herself as Marsih, and told him she wanted to mentor him to use his spirit to further his training. Aelen soon learned how to use magic and how he could inspire others and himself to push themselves beyond their limits.

At the age of 133, he decided to leave the temple with Marsih and join her on her travels across the continent, working as a guard in various towns and cities as they went. They spent many years together, however after so long they felt their feelings were getting too mixed up and complicated as emotions were getting hurt. They had worked well as friends however the second it started to go further, differences came to the surface. They parted ways after 28 years travelling together.

Aelen thought it would be best to travel to another Dol temple where he would hopefully be placed in a more permanent position within a city. As such, Aelen found himself at the House of Honor when King Rolland II came into power in Hegeahend upon the death of his father and the split of the nations. The King, wanting to clean up and improve the nation, asked for the best guards from the temple Aelen to move into the capital, Khaggon. Aelen, gratefully for the opportunity, quickly settled into his new home within the mountain city where he was placed as a guardsman in the Sune district.

After Dol Dorn and Dol Arrah opened his eyes to the religions of the world, Aelen had been increasingly interested about learning as much as he could about as many as he could. Unfortunately, until now he hadn’t felt like he could connect with one as he did with Sune over the next few years. Believing what she taught of cherishing the people around you and the value each of them can bring to the world.

Outside of the mountain however, war raged on as the four rulers pushed against each other, and although Aelen loved his job for all the new people he met within the massive city, the feeling of being trapped only increasingly grew as the war got worse outside. He couldn’t help thinking that his talents were being wasted when he could be out fighting to protect people in smaller towns, like his sister or uncle. His frustrations grew until one day he learnt that Marsih had been killed in one of the battles. Struck by grief and guilt he planned to approach his superiors about being repositioned outside of the capital, however he was too late, as before he could the disappearance of the king finally reached the public.

Aelen saw it happen as the priests from the Truesilver temple ran out and started to spread the rumour, the panic washing over the city like a wave as the public started to turn on the guards for not protecting their ruler. For the next three days of the riot, Aelen tried his best to stay hidden while helping as many people he could who were in danger or injured. On the last day he witnessed a priestess of Sune, a girl by the name of Faymer, get trapped by a cart on fire. Wanting to do all he could, he freed her before escorting her and her sister, Orala, to the temple of Sune to be healed. Not wanting any further harm to come to them Aelen stood guard overnight within the temple. This act of bravery drew the attention of the Goddess Sune who granted him a vision, appointing him as her champion.

The council of priests, now in charge after the disappearance of the King, recognised this great gift and their need for a true policing force after the events of the riot, decided to designate Aelen as the new commander of a specialised force of Sune champions called the Order of the Ruby Rose. In his new position of authority, he swore he would never let the devastations of the riots happen again to his people.

Now with the war on pause Aelen asked for one thing as his reward for service; to visit his sister and uncle, hoping they’re safe after the 48 years he was gone. Unfortunately, he arrived in Oak Vale only to find it in ruins with his sister and uncle nowhere to be found. He asked round at the neighbouring towns hoping someone would know what happened to the people of his hometown, however most said the town had been gone for over 30 years now. Feeling like he had failed his parents by not protecting Oak Vale only made him more determined to do good by succeeding in his new job within Khaggon, defending an entire city and its people to make up for the losts he’d endured throughout his life.

[michaelandy101-blog]

How Google and Yelp deal with pretend critiques and coverage violations

New Post has been published on https://tiptopreview.com/how-google-and-yelp-handle-fake-reviews-and-policy-violations/

How Google and Yelp deal with pretend critiques and coverage violations

Evaluation platforms, like Google and Yelp, allow native companies to broaden their online visibility and set up credibility by means of buyer critiques — two essential features of marketing that SMBs could in any other case wrestle with.

Over the previous couple of years, sustaining an correct online presence has gone from being an essential marketing device to being a lifeline for native companies. Actually, platforms like Google and Yelp churned out a slew of new features last year in response to the coronavirus pandemic, enabling companies to quickly talk enterprise hours or service modifications to their clients.

Sadly, unhealthy actors could search to hurt a enterprise’s online popularity by means of pretend critiques or by crowding them out with pretend listings. Whereas Yelp and Google each have intensive techniques and insurance policies to battle unhealthy actors, there are essential distinctions that each native marketer ought to pay attention to, and understanding them may help body your expectations for every platform in addition to allow you to make extra knowledgeable selections about the place to spend your time and assets.

Along with a side-by-side evaluation of Google and Yelp’s respective detection techniques and ramifications for violators, we’ve additionally featured insights from skilled native search marketing specialists on the efficacy of every platform; you’ll be able to learn their insights in direction of the tip of this text.

How Google and Yelp detect pretend critiques and listings

Each Google and Yelp have carried out automated techniques as their first line of protection in opposition to pretend critiques and unhealthy actors. And, they each use human moderators for duties that the expertise isn’t appropriate for. Nonetheless, their respective insurance policies and approaches, which inform the deployment of their expertise and human employees, are crucial distinctions to remember as you determine your online presence.

Google’s strategy appears to emphasise prevention at scale through machine studying algorithms that assist to deal with pretend critiques and listings. Yelp focuses closely on the integrity of its critiques and appears to have extra strong punitive measures in place for violators. 

Google’s automated detection system. Google’s automated techniques “use hundreds of cues to detect abusive behavior, such as a shift of review patterns on a business and implausible behavior patterns by reviewers,” an organization spokesperson advised Search Engine Land. Typical person sample information (for instance, customers have a tendency to go away critiques, scores and photographs at locations they’ve already been) is one in every of Google’s most essential assets in relation to figuring out illegitimate overview content material and implementing options to fight them.

Google’s machine learning-first strategy, which has additionally turn into a outstanding side of its paid and natural search techniques, is designed to stop policy-violating content material at scale. “For example, we have focused efforts on detecting content coming from click farms where fake reviews and ratings are being generated,” the corporate mentioned in a February 2021 blog post, “Through better detection of click farm activity we are making it harder to post fake content cheaply, which ultimately makes it harder for a click farm to sell reviews and make money.”

Machine studying fashions are additionally used within the Google My Enterprise verification course of to catch pretend profiles earlier than they seem on Maps. Ideally, Google’s techniques will take away the policy-violating content material or flag it for additional overview, together with the related person account, earlier than the content material will get in entrance of customers. However, some pretend critiques and profiles are sure to slide by means of the cracks, as they do with all platforms, which is why the corporate additionally deploys 1000’s of human analysts.

Google’s human content material moderators. Groups of human operators and analysts complement Google’s automated detection techniques. These analysts assist with content material evaluations that algorithms could not be capable to analyze, similar to understanding native slang inside a overview.

The corporate has but to reveal extra details about the position of its human analysts, similar to whether or not they assist to enhance Google’s techniques (the best way search quality raters do), stating that, “Staying a step ahead of scammers is a constant battle, so we don’t share specific details about our processes.”

Yelp’s automated detection system. Yelp’s automated recommendation software analyzes information factors from all critiques, reviewers and companies with the intention to advocate critiques to customers, nevertheless it additionally appears for solicited critiques and unfairly biased critiques (like critiques that could be written a few competitor or somebody’s personal enterprise). This software program takes the relevance of the overview and the reliability of the reviewer (how usually the person is lively) under consideration as effectively.

Yelp’s human content material moderators. Yelp has been comparatively open about the way it makes use of each expertise and its human content material moderators to fight policy-violating content material: “When a community member, a business owner or our automated system alerts our team about potential issues, a real human reviews the issue every single time,” Noorie Malik, Yelp’s VP of person operations, advised Search Engine Land.

Yelp’s person operations workforce investigates fraudulent exercise, validates new companies once they join with Yelp and works to establish exercise which may warrant a Client Alert.

Client Alerts. When Yelp detects irregular exercise on a enterprise profile, which can be an try to govern a enterprise’s critiques or scores, it conducts an investigation which will result in the appliance of one in every of its Consumer Alerts.

A Yelp Client Alert. Picture: Yelp.

These notices seem as a pop-up over the enterprise’s overview part and should include a hyperlink to any proof Yelp has gathered. The platform may briefly disable the power to put up critiques when it applies a Client Alert. There are presently six varieties of Client Alerts:

Compensated Exercise Alert: This can be utilized when Yelp has proof that somebody has supplied an incentive (similar to a reduction) in alternate for a overview.

Public Consideration Alert: This alert was created in response to the rise of social activism surrounding the Black Lives Matter motion. When somebody related to a enterprise is accused of, or the goal of, racist habits, Yelp applies this alert to warn customers that the enterprise could also be experiencing a spike in critiques because of the elevated public consideration.

Business Accused of Racist Behavior Alert: Yelp could apply this alert when a enterprise with a Public Consideration Alert attracts media consideration over the usage of racist symbols, slurs or different acts of overtly racist conduct. This alert at all times embrace a information article the place folks can be taught extra.

Questionable Authorized Threats Alert: Yelp applies this alert when it has proof enterprise is abusing the authorized system to intimidate a reviewer.

Suspicious Evaluation Exercise Alert: This can be utilized when Yelp’s techniques detect questionable overview exercise, similar to when a big amount of critiques originates from a single IP deal with.

Uncommon Exercise Alert: Sudden media consideration could trigger an uncommon spike in exercise on a enterprise profile — for instance, as an alternative of basing their overview on firsthand expertise, customers would possibly go away critiques as a type of social commentary. In such instances, Yelp applies this alert and briefly disables content material till exercise returns to regular and its moderators clear up the web page.

Penalties for violating Google and Yelp’s content material insurance policies

For those who get caught, working afoul of Google and Yelp’s respective content material insurance policies may end up in a spread of penalties for your online business.

Each platforms can take away illegitimate critiques. “Reviews are automatically processed to detect inappropriate content like fake reviews and spam,” Google states in its prohibited and restricted content page, “We may take down reviews that are flagged in order to comply with Google policies or legal obligations.”

Actually, in 2020 alone, Google eliminated 55 million policy-violating critiques and virtually three million pretend enterprise profiles. Nonetheless, these figures, which the corporate publishes yearly, inform an incomplete story as a result of it doesn’t disclose the entire variety of critiques submitted, lively enterprise profiles, critiques and profiles flagged by customers and so forth.

And, as among the native search professionals who spoke to Search Engine Land for this text have highlighted within the part beneath, “the success rate is very tiny” in relation to getting Google to take away pretend critiques as soon as they’re stay.

On Yelp, “Reviews that the software determines to be less reliable are moved to a separate ‘not currently recommended’ section of a business’s Yelp page and are not factored into the business’s overall Yelp rating,” mentioned Sudheer Someshwara, Yelp’s head of belief and security product. The “not currently recommended” part continues to be accessible to customers through the hyperlink beneath the advisable critiques, and critiques could transfer backwards and forwards between the 2 sections over time, as the advice software program continues to be taught and consider alerts.

When content material is flagged on Yelp, both by its expertise or customers, the platform’s workforce of human moderators manually investigates the criticism, which can consequence within the elimination of pretend or bought critiques, whether or not these critiques are “recommended” or not.

Yelp applies rating penalties; Google declined to remark. When companies violate Google’s insurance policies, the corporate removes the deceptive content material and extra penalties could also be utilized, relying on the precise case. Google declined to remark when requested whether or not it particularly applies rating penalties to companies that violate its insurance policies.

Yelp was extra clear about rating penalties: “When we find evidence of extreme attempts to manipulate a business’s reputation and inflate their search ranking, we may issue a search ranking penalty,” Someshwara mentioned. These penalties are lifted as soon as the offending habits has stopped. Specifically, search rating penalties could be utilized in opposition to companies that solicit critiques; “If we find indicators of systematic review solicitation, we will apply a search ranking penalty to affected Yelp business pages,” the corporate mentioned in a support center post.

Yelp could take away enterprise listings; Google could revoke profile possession. Yelp reserves the suitable to take away from its platform companies that search to artificially manipulate its techniques or mislead customers.

“If we determine that a business is buying fake reviews or violating any other Google My Business policies, we take swift action ranging from removing content to account suspension and revoking Business Profile ownership,” a Google spokesperson advised Search Engine Land.

Violators can nonetheless promote on Google, however not on Yelp. Along with managing their enterprise profiles and natural presence on Google and Yelp, enterprise homeowners can make the most of every platform’s paid merchandise to spice up their visibility.

“Businesses are banned from advertising with Yelp for at least one year if they receive a Compensated Activity Alert or a Suspicious Review Activity Alert (including if our team finds evidence that they participated in a review ring),” Someshwara mentioned, including that these alerts require concrete proof earlier than they’re utilized. Yelp may ban companies from promoting if it identifies egregious makes an attempt to govern a enterprise’s search rating or star ranking.

That is one space the place Yelp and Google differ dramatically, as Google presently has no promoting penalties for companies that violate insurance policies on the natural facet. All of Google’s standard ads policies still apply.

Yelp continues to watch listings; Google doesn’t appear to. “Yelp has a system in place that monitors and detects if repeated violations occur,” Someshwara mentioned, including that it additionally depends on its base of customers to report violations.

Google didn’t disclose particulars about if or the way it continues to watch enterprise listings which have a historical past of coverage violations. Nonetheless, the corporate did emphasize that “we closely monitor 24/7 for fraudulent content, using a combination of people and technology.”

Google and Yelp, by means of the eyes of practitioners

A enterprise’s expertise with a platform usually performs out in another way in actual life than it does once they’re studying in regards to the platform. The three native entrepreneurs who spoke to us for this text have intensive expertise with each Google and Yelp and their insights may help to border your expectations when utilizing these platforms.

“Room for improvement in . . . both platforms.” “I think the strengths Google and Yelp have as local review platforms is their reach and their authority, so to speak,” mentioned Niki Mosier, head of web optimization at AgentSync, who spoke extra broadly in regards to the professionals and cons of those platforms. “I posted a review for a national park less than a week ago with a photo and got a notification yesterday that over 2,000 people have seen that photo,” she offered for instance.

Mosier pointed to the problem concerned with eradicating policy-violating critiques as a weak level for each Google and Yelp: “Slanderous or inaccurate reviews can be very harmful to a business,” she mentioned, “I know it’s a slippery slope with letting people get reviews removed but I think there is definitely room for improvement in that area on both platforms.”

Google. Ben Fisher, co-founder of Regular Demand and a Google My Enterprise platinum product skilled, and Pleasure Hawkins, proprietor of the Native Search Discussion board, Native U and Sterling Sky, spoke to the respective strengths and weaknesses they’ve skilled throughout Google and Yelp.

“Google powers local search, and while [reviews] are a conversion factor, they can also be a ranking factor,” Fisher mentioned. Individuals could resolve to go to a neighborhood enterprise after studying critiques, and critiques are additionally a rating issue for Google. “This is a powerful [benefit],” he added. 

“[Google’s] strength would be that it is easier for business owners to collect a high volume of reviews without worrying about them all getting filtered (like Yelp),” mentioned Hawkins.

Fisher and Hawkins each singled out pretend critiques as an issue for the search engine: “The most negative con is that reviews can be gamed, they can be bought by competitors and in the worst-case scenario, they can be weaponized in an attack,” Fisher mentioned, “A successful negative attack can easily wipe out your star rating and bring down the ranking of GMB and any Local Service Ads you have connected to GMB.” Google does have workflows for dealing with detrimental critiques, “but the success rate is very tiny,” he added.

“For Google, their biggest weakness is combating fake reviews,” Hawkins mentioned, “They are beyond terrible at it and even the most obvious cases that get reported by a human (not automatically caught) get missed (Google deems the reviews fine even though they’re fake).” 

Yelp. “Yelp’s power is unquestionably that they fight fake reviews (and filter them) higher than another platform, in my expertise,” Hawkins mentioned. Fisher shared an analogous opinion: “Yelp has a better way of handling reviews and I hear clients that get very good removal rates; additionally if there are a lot of fake reviews Yelp may put up a warning to consumers.”

Yelp’s extra stringent critiques coverage appears to be a double-edged sword for entrepreneurs: “The negative is that they also filter out a ton of legitimate reviews which makes the overall ratings for many businesses appear to be much lower than what Google shows,” Hawkins mentioned, “Their no-soliciting policy makes it really hard for businesses to combat negative reviews,” she added.

“This is probably the most frustrating part: a user must have a trusted account to leave a review and many users simply do not fall into this criteria,” Fisher mentioned as regards to Yelp’s advisable critiques, “Therefore, a review on Yelp could be a lost opportunity.”

You don’t get to select and select

Don’t put all of your eggs in a single basket. As entrepreneurs, we should meet our clients wherever they’re, and on this case, which means rising your presence on each Google and Yelp. Realizing the coverage and functionality variations of every platform may help you make investments your time and assets extra properly, however in the end, every website ought to serve to bolster your online business’s total popularity. This may be particularly essential in the event you ever turn into the sufferer of a detrimental overview assault on one platform, as your presence on different platforms can proceed to herald clients.

About The Creator

George Nguyen is an editor for Search Engine Land, overlaying natural search, podcasting and e-commerce. His background is in journalism and content material marketing. Previous to coming into the trade, he labored as a radio character, author, podcast host and public faculty instructor.

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[ladystylestores]

Graphic novel on the Tiananmen Massacre shows medium’s power to capture history

As a young man in Beijing in the 1980s, Lun Zhang felt like he was taking part in a new Chinese enlightenment.

The country was undergoing paramount leader Deng Xiaoping’s “Reform and Opening Up,” and previously sealed-off areas of knowledge, arts, and culture were becoming newly available.

People who had only years before been living in the stifling, hyper-Maoist orthodoxy of the Cultural Revolution, in which anything foreign or historical was deemed counter-revolutionary, could now listen to Wham!, hold intellectual salons in which people read Jean-Paul Sartre or Sigmund Freud, or even publish their own works, taking aim at previously sacred political targets.

“In those days, our thirst to read, learn and explore the outside world was insatiable,” Zhang writes in his new graphic novel, “Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes.”

But with this intellectual awakening came a growing frustration with the pace of reform in China, particularly how economic liberalization was taking precedence over any suggestion that the Communist Party give up its tight control on the country’s politics.

An apocryphal quote attributed to Deng captured the mood at this time, that “to get rich is glorious,” but for many people, it was increasingly apparent that only a handful were becoming wealthy, while others were suffering due to growing corruption and the destruction of the social safety net.

Small demonstrations against graft and for greater political reform ballooned into what would become the 1989 Tiananmen movement, in which hundreds of thousands of people protested across the country, with the largest demonstration in Beijing led by workers and student groups.

The pro-democracy protesters occupied Tiananmen Square for months, even holding meetings with top officials. At the time, many felt hopeful that these actions would bring about wider societal change in the one-party state.

Crackdown

Zhang was on the square that spring, when the protesters put forward seven demands, including for democratic elections and an end to state censorship. He was there as the crowds paid tribute to the late reformist leader Hu Yaobang, and he was there as the occupiers sang and danced on what had become the people’s square.

He was not there when soldiers opened fire on protesters and fought with them in the streets of the Chinese capital. He was not there when the tanks rolled in. Zhang was in the suburbs of the city with another activist, recuperating in preparation for what some thought would be a last push before the government gave into the protesters’ demands.

“When we heard the army had entered Beijing, we tried to reach the square, but our efforts were in vain,” Zhang writes of when they learned of the bloodshed.

Far from reaching the center of the city, Zhang’s attention turned to escape: the authorities were rounding up prominent protesters and leaders, and he was worried about arrest. He fled first to rural China, eventually becoming one of dozens of Tiananmen protesters smuggled into Hong Kong by activists in the then British colony.

An excerpt from “Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes.” Zhang (pictured wearing a sash on the bottom left) was a young sociology teacher in the late 1980s. During protests, he was in charge of management and safety. Credit: IDW Publishing

Graphic novel

Zhang eventually moved to France, where he has lived ever since, and is teaching at the Cergy-Pontoise University near Paris. While he writes about the Chinese economy and geopolitics, he has largely left out his own personal history prior to this month’s publication of his graphic novel.

“I worked with (French journalist) Adrien Gombeaud, who wrote the script for the format,” Zhang told CNN. “We read some graphic novels about historical events, and together came up with the plan, for example, to imagine a theater scene to link all the parts of the story.”

While the Tiananmen Square Massacre has been widely covered in the media and in documentaries, with many focusing on the iconic image of the Tank Man or utilizing archive footage from the square itself, much of the events leading up to the infamous night have been lost to history, available only through witnesses’ accounts. Zhang said that the comics format provided a key means of capturing the emotion of the demonstrations, in a way that does not necessarily come across in text.

“It is difficult to find a satisfactory way in which this kind of big event is reported, in my opinion,” he said. “In some reporting on Tiananmen, the authors didn’t reflect enough on the will of students to cooperate with the authorities in peacefully reforming China.

“When you take into account the emotion involved, we can understand why the peaceful way of demonstration was chosen, why there was the huge hunger strike.”

After the initial script was written, the authors worked with French artist Ameziane to develop the comic’s visuals, by sourcing images of the various characters, and referencing archival photos of era-appropriate objects, such as clothes, cars and teacups from 1980s China. “We spent a lot of time in discussions on how to arrange the scenes, how to convey the essential message, what limits we might have on a given page. It played to the style and skill of our painter,” Zhang said.

The shift in artistic style is most notable in the scenes depicting the massacre itself. Prior pages feature white backgrounds and muted colors, but as the crackdown begins, the pages turn to black, with a heavy use of oranges and reds. Ameziane’s illustrations become looser and full of movement, emphasizing the chaos and panic experienced by the characters.

The book is structured in several acts, with Zhang as its narrator. He said the play format was an obvious storytelling device, given “the protest movement itself felt like a drama, with its different phases akin to great acts.”

Comics journalism

Zhang, Gombeaud and Ameziane’s book joins what has quietly become a major strand of modern comics: graphic journalism or historical comics dealing with topics that were once considered out of the art form’s remit.

American cartoonist Art Spiegelman’s “Maus,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning account of his parents’ experiences as Holocaust survivors — with the Jews depicted as mice and the Nazis as cats — has long been considered a masterwork in the graphic novel genre.

While adult themes and history were features in comics long before “Maus” debuted in 1980, including in Spiegelman’s own work, its use of accessible, black and white art combined with a sweeping historical narrative broke into the mainstream, and set a new standard for “grown up” comics with political subject matter and potentially upsetting content.

Works like Maltese-American Joe Sacco’s ground-breaking comics journalism in “Palestine” or “Safe Area Gorazde,” and French-Iranian Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis” have further driven this trend, with the latter turned into an Oscar-nominated movie in 2007.

The popularity of comics and graphic novels has only grown in recent years — with the help of blockbuster film adaptations. This has happened in conjunction with the rise of comics journalism, in everything from newspapers to dedicated publications such as The Nib, which has long recognized the medium’s ability to tackle serious issues, interweaving reporting with satirical cartoons.

Sacco has talked about how the use of comics, the presentation of the artist and writer as a figure in the story, helps remove “the illusion that a journalist is a fly on the wall, all seeing and all knowing.”

“To me, drawing myself signals to the reader that I’m a filter between the information, the people and them. They know that I’m a presence, and that they’re seeing things through my eyes,” he said in a recent interview.

This is very much apparent in Zhang’s book, as he uses his role as narrator to critique both the protest movement and himself.

“Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes” cover. Credit: IDW Publishing

Asked once about whether drawing helped him deal with being the child of Holocaust survivors, Spiegelman answered: “I’ve had therapy, and I’ve made comics. The comics are cheaper.”

Part of “Maus” deals with Spiegelman’s guilt over his difficult relationship with his father and in comparing his problems with depression and work to the experiences of his parents. Zhang too writes in “Tiananmen” of his own survivor’s guilt and of questioning his decisions made as a younger man in the midst of history.

In an interview, Zhang said he did not write about Tiananmen for so long, because his role, his involvement, seemed inconsequential compared to what some went through.

“The way I saw it, there were many people dead or wounded in the aftermath, and many people lost their jobs; their families were never the same after,” he said. “The real heroes were the ordinary students and people in (Beijing) and other cities. By comparison, what I did personally didn’t seem worth telling. The most important thing I could do was live my life in a way that wouldn’t dishonor the dead.”

He was eventually convinced by an editor to write the book last year, around the 30th anniversary of the massacre. “She convinced me that I had a duty to the memory of that time,” Zhang said. “I accepted it. ‘No justice, no peace,’ but I think also, ‘No memory, no justice.'”

“Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes,” published by IDW Publishing, is out now.

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[fayewonglibrary]

CHEEK TO CHEEK, FACE TO FAYE (1998)

An encounter with the Chinese pop reclusive iconoclast has never been easy to come by. Andy Chen scores a coup in Hong Kong as he makes close contact with the relaxed superstar in her usually off-limit Tsimshatsui office.  

The heat is on. Faye Wong’s releasing a new album and 8 DAYS has been granted an exclusive interview with her. That’s if she doesn’t get temperamental on us at the last minute. No, make that the last second. Consider this: when was the last time the Southeast Asian media was granted a face-to-face interview with the notoriously withdrawn wunderkind?

This is the 29-year-old superstar whose relationship with the press has been less than salubrious. The Faye who’s been known to trade insults with hecklers at her concerts, who answers questions in monosyllables and fires sarcastic ripostes at nosey scribes, and who has declared cold war against the Hong Kong media (after they splashed photos of her performing sanitation duties). The Faye who’s willfully gone against the grain of what’s expected of Cantopop’s cardboard cut-out stars: she won’t smile or spout inane pleasantries just to butter up tabloid reporters.

This is the Faye I’ve been tasked to coax into opening up. Mine was a heart that skipped a couple of beats, then another couple more. This being the sole interview given to an English publication in Singapore, there’s no room for mistakes. I mean, what if the interview falls through? What if she gets cranky and sews her lips shut? What if she ups and shows me a clean pair of heels? What if, what if…?

Before the face-to face was penciled in, there’d been much to-ing and fro-ing between Faye’s record company and us. First, we were told to fax our questions to EMI’s Hong Kong office for Faye to record her answers on a tape which would be sent to us. Later, it was to be a phone interview.

But when EMI learned that we were going to be in Hong Kong the week she, too, was to be there, the possibility of an exclusive was raised. After a flurry of phone calls, we were instructed to fax a list of proposed questions for Faye’s approval. They also recommended that we submit as many questions as possible so Faye won’t abort the interview prematurely because of any surprise query. Like I said, no worries, eh?

Is it really possible to have a journalistic tête-à-tête with Faye? We had our doubts. After all, here’s a pop star so elusive she could give American author-cum-recluse J D Salinger a run for his media phobia. Faye’s mastered the art of playing hard to get, so she’s been accused.  Before I leave for Hong Kong, my editor-in-chief wishes me good luck and tells me to call her the moment the interview’s done - or not done, as the case may be. We’re taking nothing for granted until after the very bites of Faye’s voice are secured on tape.

It’s 6.50pm. An EMI rep is supposed to have picked me up at the hotel 20 minutes ago. Has Faye changed her mind? I cross my fingers so hard they turn blue. Five minutes later, the van arrives. 8 DAYS’ stylist and photographer, who’re in Hong Kong for other assignments, tag along for a glimpse of this celebrity enigma. After a short journey through heavy peak-hour traffic, we’re led to a nondescript grey office block on the outskirts of Tsimshatsui. The lift takes us up to the 12th floor. A sign on the door reads ‘A Production House’ - it’s the company Faye set up with producer Alvin Leong and manager Katie Chan. Stepping into the crammed office, I uncross my fingers slightly.

There Faye is, already seated inside a room cluttered with files, cabinets and pieces of hi-fi equipment, throwing us a curious look. Catching sight of this beauteous creature with a mystique of unicorn-like proportions, I find my knees turning to jello. On the brighter side, I feel the blood returning to my fingers. Chances are good that the interview will come to pass. Faye’s lithe 1.72m figure is clad in a comfy plain brown t-shirt, blue jeans and a pair of electric pink Converse All-Stars. Her straight, red-tinted hair ends just above her shoulders. There is not a trace of make-up on her elfin visage, out of which peers her bright, sparkling eyes. Her flawless fair skin has a translucence that’s radiant. Faye is, in a word, sublime.

That she’s not togged up fussily for an official press interview she reportedly dislikes so very much must be a good sign, no? The casual homeliness of her outfit suggests a relaxed Faye, in contrast to the hairnet defensiveness of last year.

Spying the notes in my hands, Faye gasps slightly bemused, “Wah, so thick! Are there many questions?” Taken aback by the gentleness of her soft lilting speaking voice, I find my opening banter catching in my throat. Still, the walls of silence and non-cooperation she normally erects to keep out intrusive tabloid hacks seem to be missing. Slowly snuffing out the butterflies in my tummy, I ask if she’s seen the list of questions I had faxed over. She shakes her head. Apparently, her notoriety is based as much on truth as it is on myth. Things are starting to look up. My fingers loosen up and begin to take notes.

I wouldn’t have guessed that the Faye I’m about to encounter is thoughtful, open (but don’t hold your breath for details about her private life) and funny. I couldn’t have hoped for more. Maybe playing mummy to Dou Jingtong, her 20-month-old daughter with Beijing musician Dou Wei, has mellowed her attitude towards the press?

“It’s not a question of mellowing, I haven’t refused to co-operate with the media just because I’ve become more popular. Sections of the Hong Kong media are unreasonable and that’s why I don’t want to have anything to do with them,” she asserts.

“I’m definitely not against them if they’re interested in my work. What turns me off is that there’s no limit to the extent they would hound me. Some other entertainers may think that answering questions about their private lives is a part of the job and can’t be avoided. However, I feel I must draw the line somewhere. I can’t help it if they resort to all ways and means to take pictures of me; but under such circumstances, there’s no way I can bring myself to co-operate with them. Right now, however, I’m quite happy to be doing this interview.”

Faye’s salvo against the paparazzi and tabloid-mongers confirms what I’ve suspected all along: keep the line of questioning to her music, respect her privacy and you’ll be okay. The problems arise when people want a toll-free highway ride into Faye’s innermost sanctuaries. A public figure by default, she’s more a music-lover who hadn’t expected her star to go supernova.    

“No matter how much my supporters love and know my songs, there’ll always be that distance between them and me. There’s no way they’ll fully understand me. As long as they love my songs, it’s good enough for me,” Faye says, stretching out to tap the singed tip of her Marlboro menthol into an ashtray with her long, slender index finger. Now and then, she turns to look at her close friend and make-up guru, Zing, who’s ensconced in a chair to her left. You get the feeling that she’s relaxed because there’s a familiar face around.

“But I’m not as cold as some people say I am. I hope not,” she laughs a tad shyly. (Wow, a laugh!) “If I’m cold, it’s only to people I’m not familiar with. When people become my friends, I believe I’m rather lively and can get rather …. crazy.” Another self-conscious chuckle escapes her. (A chuckle!) Zing, who’s Singaporean, concurs that she’s actually a very warm person who just happens to be brutally honest. “She’s someone who’d rather risk offending you than lie to you. Once, she tried to tell a white lie but failed miserably.”

It’s clear Faye - 'Ah-Fei’ to those close to her - surrounds herself only with people she trusts and who reciprocate her sincerity. So there’s little chance of being hurt, misunderstood or misrepresented. For a woman as guileless as a babe-in-the-woods, who says what she thinks and acts on how she feels, the importance of a coterie of confidantes can’t be over-emphasized. A quick survey of her recent album sleeves betrays a line-up of usual suspects: Leong, Chan, Zing, composer Zhang Yadong, photographer Cheung Man Wah, image designers Ti Ti Kwan and Thomas Chan, hairstylist Elaine Wong, and, of course, hubby, Dou Wei.

“If we [she and her collaborators] couldn’t get along, then we wouldn’t have stuck together for so long that we’ve all become friends. Perhaps people may assume we hold endless meetings to plan an album, but we’re actually very easy-going, very relaxed. Our taste and thoughts about music - among other things - tends to be quite similar. That’s why there’s no real need to talk about it. When Zhang Yadong writes a song for me, I’d almost certainly like it. When I record an album, I never consciously plan a style. I just follow my instincts.”

There in lies Faye’s problem. Not that her insouciance is a problem, but it’s the reason why many critics and fans alike can’t figure her out. Artful dodger, master manipulator, sly schemer - Faye’s often mistaken for all of the above. Truth is, Faye’s a simple Beijing lass with Teresa Teng in her heart and playfulness in her soul. Playing hard to get? More like just playing, period. Never mind that she’s a mum, all she wants to do is have some fun. “I love to play. As long as it’s a game. I love to play it. Like mahjong - does that count?”

Her inquisitive, opalescent eyes frequently hold my gaze with equanimity. I even detect a hint of liveliness, but that may be too much to ask for. I’ve known her only a few minutes, and I’m still a reporter.

Laid-back as she is, it’s hardly a surprise that Faye has few words about her new album, entitled Chang You (a clever pun that roughly translates to Songs of Wanderlust).

“Convey what kind of message? I’ve no real message that I wanted to convey. Actually….” she sighs ever so softly, “how do I put this? Whenever I start working on an album, I never have anything concrete to convey. I’m only concerned with producing a good album. If I’m able to have more involvement in the making of an album, that’d be ideal. But at this point, I’m not yet able to record an album that’s written entirely by me. Ideally … when music is purely an interest and not my work, I might be able to do so.”

“That’s why making music poses me such a conflict. Music is my work. To me, music is essentially not a product. It shouldn’t be, but it’s become such. Naturally, I feel conflicted. This paradox is difficult to resolve. Maybe there’ll come a time when I’m not signed to any record company and will record albums purely for interest’s sake - and with financial security in place - that’ll be when I’d be really happy.” she chuckles again, not unaware how unglamorously practical this sounds.

Faye doesn’t hide the fact that all she wants in life is to be happy. Not unlike her character in Wong Kar-Wai’s Chungking Express who wants to win the affection of a cop played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai and to go to California. Although the singer insists that she’s “very afraid of acting”, she was showered with numerous accolades near and far (nominated in Taipei for Best Actress and won in Stockholm) in what was only her second film role, and had many besotted fans confusing the film’s Faye with the real Faye.

I don’t know about real overlapping reel. All I know is I’m awestruck when Faye turns and presents me with her right profile, the same right profile Chungking’s Faye shows the audience as she hides from Leung on the escalator. Here, sitting not two meters from me, is an iconic movie still coming to life miraculously.

But the Faye sitting across the table isn’t so naive as to believe a sojourn in California - or Paris, the other city she longs to live in - is the be-all and end-all of happiness. Give her some credit: she may be child-like but she’s also wiser than her age suggests.

“I don’t think I’m easily satisfied, but I hope to be. I feel that human beings are not easy to please. Little things are enough to make me happy and unhappy. Like how can you not be happy becoming a mother and looking at your daughter? But these also come with worries and concerns. Humans are basically paradoxical creatures.”

These days, Faye is locked into a lucrative recording deal said to be worth S$10 million (with final artistic say on her output!) in the bag and a lovely daughter to boot. Surely, then, she has found some way to resolve the paradox of human condition? Doesn’t the carefree jollity she expresses in the photos of “Songs’ album sleeves mean she’s quite happy? She won’t be drawn into this directly. "Did you all think Faye Wong doesn’t know how to smile? Wouldn’t that be horrible?” She giggles amidst our hearty laughter. (A giggle!) I might’ve struck gold here. The heavens are smiling on me.

The stylist to my right must be thinking the same thing. Out of the corner of my eyes, I realize he is staring unblinking - and unflinchingly - at the ethereal figure. To quote a pop song, he’s lost in her bewitching eyes. Enchanted. Captivated. Spellbound. Later, during dinner, he can’t stop raving about how bee-ewe-ti-fool Faye is, going so far as to claim no photos can do her justice. Dare I say I concur?

Forty minutes later, my job’s done. “Finished? Thank you, thank you,” she pipes brightly before bounding out of the room. I imagine she’s eager to get back to her playground.

Actually, the pleasure’s all mine.

No, Faye, thank you.

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

GET THAT NAME RIGHT:

Faye Wong, one of GQ magazine’s 50 coolest women in 1996 and reigning Empress of Chinese popdom, in both name and acclaim. Idiosyncrasies aside, Faye is arguably the most influential Asian pop music figure in recent memory. Do you see SC or even JC-the man dubbed god of songs on the cover of Time magazine? And who else has so much clout in the shamelessly commercial industry of pop as to release an album containing nary a handful of intelligible lyrics in 35 minutes of music (1996 Exasperation)? No one else with her degree of commercial success (to date, her albums have raked up sales of about 10 mil) has been as non-conformist as Faye. Not in East Asia anyway.

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SOURCE:  8 DAYS  

[weekendwarriorblog]

30 Minute Experiment: Concerts Part 2 #30ME

Okay, let’s do this. Some may remember that I did a  #30Me on concerts a week or two ago, and I was pretty mad when I wrote that one, since I had too many pessimistic friends (or “realists,” if you must) who didn’t think we’d be seeing any concerts before next year or even 2022 at the earliest. I basically said that that was crazy talk. Well, today I’m gonna use my 30 minutes to offer solutions on how we can get concerts happening again.... Read on:

Obviously, there are a lot of problems with starting concerts up again right now and not just the social distancing thing and the fact that concerts tend to be pretty crowded and cramped events even in (and especially in) big places like MSG, Jones Beach and Radio City Music Hall. The thought of allowing 3,000 to 15,000 people congregating in one place is just very scary right now, not just for the obvious reasons but also some that maybe people aren’t thinking of. There are even problems with smaller venues like Mercury Lounge which may only hold a couple hundred people but that’s a couple hundred people completely packed together in that space.

So yes, that’s the first issue even if everyone is wearing masks and gloves (and we’ll get into this a bit further down). 

The second issue is concerts just by their nature tends to bring people from other areas so if a band were to play only in NYC or one of the bigger theaters on Long Island or in Jersey, you have to expect that people from other regions will want to travel to see these bands. It’s very very common. I hear that some people in Manhattan even go out to BROOKLYN!!!!!! to see concerts... crazy, right? :)

Right now, the numbers are starting to go down in the NYC/NJ/LI region but none of these places are completely out of the woods as people are still being hospitalized and dying, and more people asymptomatic are being tested and discovered to have COVID and immediately quarantined if they’re not in bad enough shape to hospitalize.  So yeah, if I was the governor of Jersey or mayor of a city there or on Long Island, I would not want someone potentially with COVID from New York coming there and potentially starting the spread all over again.

Oh, I should probably mention that the reason I picked this topic as today’s #30ME wasn’t just due to my previous one, but also because I spent much of this past weekend watching the PlayOnFest on SongKick’s YouTube page. Just as much as enjoying the bands, I also enjoyed seeing all the young faces of people having fun and dancing and singing along to these bands. One of the concerts was Coldplay in Sao Paulo where they were playing to what must have been 80,000 to 100,000 people. Another one was Green Day in Spain also playing to a huge audience that could have been 20,000 people or more easier. In both cases, these were shows that were massive due to the venues and the popularity of the bands, and part of that success came from the way that the singers of each band was able to interact with the crowd and connect with their fans. While I’ve enjoyed some of the at home concerts quite a bit, there’s only so much you can connect when you can’t cheer and sing along and let the band or musicians know how much you love what they’re doing.

I could go into other reasons why I love going to concerts so much... and if you read any previous #30MEs, you may remember that I went to see the Pixies out in Newark, NJ at a big theater that held maybe 4,000 people maybe 110 days after my stem cell transplant. I would never tell my doctor (or even my brother, who escorted me) that I was doing this, but I had a blast and I didn’t get sick or end up in the hospital again.

Anyway... solutions.

Obviously, it would be hard to tell someone from New Jersey that they can’t go see their favorite band play in New York City or vice versa, but one thing that can be done is limiting the seating at least for the early shows. Some place like Madison Square Garden can easily be set up so that only half to the two thirds of the place can be sold. Bigger bands that usually pack the place would have to contend with playing more less crowded shows and seats can be sold in blocks of two or four or something to that effect. I’m sure the smart computer people at TicketMaster can figure this out. The same can work for Jones Beach and even sporting events.

The problem is that the lines to get in and bathrooms also involve a lot of proximity but bigger venues like Brooklyn Steel already are paying attendants (or maybe they’re not getting paid) to hand people paper towels for tips. But it’s a big bathroom and (maybe it’s because I only go when I arrive and don’t go in between bands or after shows) I rarely see more than three or four people in there. It should be easy enough to limit number of people to the number of stalls and maybe a couple more for urinals.  Of course, it would require that venues are much more on top of cleaning up after each patron and you’d have to pay the people who do this GOOD MONEY so they’d want to follow everyone into the stall to wipe things down. I know, it’s not great but it seems like doable.

New York was pretty quick to stop restaurants from allowing patrons but many restaurants (at least the good ones) have enough space between tables that one could have a few guests, maybe less than usual but way more than right now.

What about the general admission venues with floor space where you can’t keep people apart and everyone will want to be up front as close to the band as possible, creating a very intimate and packed and potentially infective situation?

This is where masks and gloves come in. It will be another expense that will probably have to be considered in the ticket prices but venues could have the simplest paper masks available to patrons who show up not wearing masks and then... and get this, cause this is my BIG GENIUS IDEA... bands who regularly have shirts and merch should have official band masks that patrons can buy (right near the door in case they’re not wearing masks already). Or they can take a paper one and then get any of the band’s original designs at the merch place..  Price point might be an issue -- they can’t really be more than $5 -- but honestly if I knew that I could buy an official The Alarm or Ash or The Cure mask that I can wear around to show support my favorite bands (preferably in black), don’t you think I would shell out the money to get one? I mean, you all know how many black concert T-shirts I have, right? 

I figured a few weeks ago that if wasn’t able to wash a shirt for the next few months, I probably can still get through it wearing a different shirt every day and never run out. 

People really underestimate the passion of music fans for specific artists and groups, and I saw it a lot on the PlayOn Festival YouTube page which was teeming with fans at all hours of the day and night to see their favorite acts. The event raised almost $5 million over the course of 72 hours, which will be matched by Google, so it earned $10 million.,

Some of the richer bands who may want to be generous can even offer to donate a certain percentage of mask sales to first responders and hospitals and other charities which will give people even more reason to buy then.

Bars at concert venues aren’t as big an issue if bartenders are required to wear masks and gloves while on duty. 

The big question is when people will be ready to go out to concerts again even with all sorts of safety precautions. I can only speak for myself since I know I’d go to a concert tomorrow if there was one, particularly at the Bowery Ballroom or Mercury or another one where i can walk to without using public transportation. 

Some people might want to wait until 2021 or 2022 to see a concert and maybe these are people who don’t regularly go to concerts or are as avid music/band fans as others, but some venue is gonna have to be the first one to say “Okay, we’re opening but you have to buy tickets in advance so we can see how many people might actually show up if we take predetermined safety precautions.”

I certainly don’t want to get a point where we have to carry cards saying that we’ve passed a COVID or immunity test since that just offers a lot of issues if someone buys a ticket for a concert and they find out when they get there they can’t get in cause they’re not one of the “Immune.”

I hope that most of the people who go to see the bands I like are smart enough not to go out if they’re feeling sick but by the time some place opens, maybe there will be an easier way to test people. 

Obviously, there is some worry from the venues and bands about liability if one of their concert starts a new outbreak of COVID that can be traced to one of their concerts and sadly, when one buys tickets, there must be some sort of wording saying that the venue isn’t responsible if anyone gets sick. Would that really be that hard and would there be that many sue-happy music fans be unwilling to attend or buy a ticket under those conditions?

Listen, if I was still in a place of risk where I could easily get infected by stuff like after my stem cell transplant, then I sure as hell wouldn’t be going out in public like I did back in 2014, because that’s dangerous even wearing a mask and gloves. Sadly, this means that people at greater risk may want to wait a little longer before going to big concerts or sporting events but those of us who have already gotten and kicked Corona or aren’t at risk? Why not try to figure out a way that bands can go out and interact with their fans live again?

My time is almost running out, so I’m sure this is gonna be another topic of discussion especially as states start figuring out the phases and in which phase larger public gatherings can happen. I know that in NYC it’s gonna be a while and I’m never really that keen on traveling to Jersey or Long Island but if there’s some way of implementing safety measures that can make audiences know that they can go out and congregate and have a good time without spreading COVID and making things as bad as they are now, I’m willing to bet that many of them will do whatever they need to allow for bigger concerts to be a thing again. (I know that I would find it weird being at an MSG concert that’s not completely packed.)

Anyway, my time is up for the day... back tomorrow!

[saezutte]

Dear Yuletide Writer

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Happy end-of-the-year season! Thank you for writing for me!

This is my first time signing up for Yuletide, though I’ve been reading Yuletide fic for 14-15 years and it’s one of my favorite yearly traditions. Now I’m turning over a new leaf of active participation in my old age! I guarantee you I am much more worried about what I’m writing than what you’re writing—I’m pretty easy-going about the fic I read and I am going to try to help you out as best I can with this letter. If there’s something you’re unclear about, feel free to contact the mods or stalk me to find my preferences.

My AO3: saezutte

My public twitter: juncassis

My tumblr: here but I do not use tumblr much anymore, sorry.

Do Not Wants

[note: I have no actual triggers, nothing you can write for me will make me any more depressed or anxious than I already am]

Death (of major/important/beloved characters)

Suicide attempts

Rape

Angst without a happy ending, really too much angst at all

University/college settings

Established relationship

Cheating

Actual Unrequited Feelings

Pregnancy (the actual process; breeding kink is fine)

Scat or watersports

Hard BDSM or any kink complicated enough that the characters would have to discuss it ahead of time

Non-canon cisswapping or gender change (it’s ok if they do it in canon, e.g. HX/SQX)

Homophobia as a plot device

Excessive attention to sexual identity or queer politics

Note on AUs: I am ok with the usual popular AU tropes (except, see above, university settings) but I do not want them combined, e.g. A/B/O is fine and coffeeshop is fine, but I don’t want an omega barista getting his scent all over the lattes he makes for some alpha lawyer who comes in every morning. (Ridiculous example, but you get the point.) For AU/modern settings of fandoms with magic, I often like it when the magic is still there in the AU setting. I also like AUs which maintain the general outlines of the character’s relationships, like if the characters are childhood friends in canon, I like to keep that intact.

General preferences:

I am a pretty basic bitch when it comes to fanfic: I like it when two clueless boys pine for each other through some shenanigans and then lock eyes/lips/dicks.

If you fed a neural net every fanfic written in Stargate Atlantis fandom between 2005 and 2010, the result would probably be some nonsense I’d enjoy.

I love many tropes. Tropes! Bed-sharing. Sharing an umbrella. WASHING EACH OTHER’S HAIR? Confessions where they are having an argument and then one of them yells “Because I love you!” 

I love situations where characters are forced to spend time in close proximity and find themselves with feelings.

I love fakeness: fake dating, fake marriage, arranged marriage, marriage of convenience, fake lust induced by sex pollen or heats, aliens make them have sex, whatever. 

I’d prefer story/romance/build-up to PWP but you are welcome to write porn

Tian Guan Ci Fu

Requested characters: He Xuan, Shi Qingxuan

Note: If you don’t want to write those two, I would be happy with Hualian! There are other pairings I like as well, like Fengqing. I requested these two because they are the ones I want the most, but I like almost all of the characters in TGCF so if you want to write me something that sells me on your pet pairing, go for it. Caveat is that I don’t like Qi Rong (sorry cousin)—he makes me anxious, haha.

Why I like the canon: Tian Guan Ci Fu is my favorite of MXTX’s novels, which took over my life this summer. What I love about it is the gods/mythology angle. The different story arcs remind me of reading myths about gods going out on adventures—I love folklore and myths! I love Xie Lian, I respect him so much, and I love Hua Cheng. I love how dark the story gets and I love that I could read it while being relatively assured of a happy ending. But with MXTX, you only ever get that happy ending for the main pair, hence why I requested my side pair.

Why I like these characters: I was in love with these two when He Xuan was pretending to be a grouchy Earth Master who reluctantly goes along with whatever Shi Qingxuan wants. When it turned out to be ABOUT REVENGE and they have FATES WHICH ARE ENTANGLED TOGETHER, I promptly lost my mind. I like the contrast in personalities.

I love Shi Qingxuan as a happy gossip god who is friends with everyone and yet also still pretty good at his job (unlike a lot of the gods around). I like his struggle with realizing he wasn’t meant to be a god and I honestly like where he ends up at the end of the novel—but personally I’d like it better if he re-qualified as a god, haha. I love his sex switching and you are welcome to play with that, though I would prefer if it weren’t a straightforward switch where he (she) settles as a woman. With He Xuan… I love that he’s on this dark completely-justified vengeance quest but he is also kind of a mess? How in debt is he to Hua Cheng? Has he totally neglected his ghostly duties to play Earth Master in heaven? How did he feel starting to be friends with SQX when he’s still planning on ruining his life?

What I would like for these two is something between pure fluff / all the issues are solved / “decapitated brother who?” and angst. I think they mirror Hualian in a lot of ways and I wish they had a chance together!

Prompts:

Them meeting again post-canon: He Xuan not knowing what to do with his (after)life now that he’s got his revenge and not being totally sure what’s keeping him around now that his business is over. SQX living his happy beggar life and HX not sure how he’s still so energetic.

A canon divergent AU where He Xuan doesn’t pull off his revenge plot ? Instead something else happens?

A soulmate AU would work well for these two IMO

Modern AU where HX is infiltrating the company that destroyed his family business and falls in love with the heir to the company president

SQX reascending to godhood as a beggar god and HX suspecting he will come for him in revenge but he just wants to be friends again

The Untamed (RPF)

Requested characters: Wang Yibo, Xiao Zhan

Why I like the canon: Uh, it took over my stupid life this summer. I haven’t liked an idol in years. I have frequently said I don’t like RPF because the canon is too diffuse to keep up with! And yet look at my twitter. I’m living in a hell of my own making.

Anyway, I got into the RPF side for The Untamed initially because the fictional canon here was very overloaded with its status as an adaptation of a novel where the characters are already together and where there aren’t many points for a writer to jump in and add to it. So I got more interested in the actors’ dynamic particularly because it’s different from Wangxian—WYB is a gremlin! Xiao Zhan is the serious professional one! And then I fell in love with them and now this is my life.

Why I like these characters: I just love their stupid handsome faces, I can’t help it. Don’t look at me. I am more of a Xiao Zhan fan but I want to be Wang Yibo’s best friend and bully him.

With Xiao Zhan, I love his smile and I love that he can write a whole essay on Wei Wuxian’s character and I love that he was a regular person who worked in an office before deciding to join one of wjjw’s basically-a-scam idol raising shows and then accidentally becoming the most famous man in China. He’s so professional and serious in interviews and it’s a great contrast to how we see him goofing around with WYB and the others on set.

With Wang Yibo, I like that he’s a wild boy who will run off to race motorcycles at any minute. I would like to shove him a little bit, in an affectionate manner. I love that he’s always looking at XZ and smiling and doesn’t seem to care if anyone notices.

Prompts:

Fooling around on set leads to love? The most basic of basic  

AUs with different settings/meetings—maybe XZ is still a designer and his company ends up working with WYB (who is still an idol)? Or WYB is a pro motorcycle racer and XZ is a sports photographer?

They drift apart now but meet again in 10 years with Regrets

Porn star AU

Having to share a bed

WYB is scared of something! XZ comforts him!

Any dumb AU you want but I would like to veto ABO for this, it’s too weird for me when they’re real people.

The Untamed (TV)

Requested characters: Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian

Note: There are other CQL/MDZS pairings I like, namely Jiang Cheng/Nie Huaisang. I also like the junior trio (as OT3 or as various twosomes.) Also, one night I read a Jiang Cheng/Lan Sizhui fic and suddenly I got all these ideas for inappropriate uncle pairings JC/LSZ and LXC/JL. If any of that speaks to your heart instead, go wild.

Why I like the canon: So obviously I read the novel and plunged into this MXTX abyss for 100 years. With this adaptation, there are a few things I don’t like versus the novel but I’m happy to ignore them because I love what they did with the visuals and music and the acting choices. Some of the changes I also do love—I love how WWX seems to be so much more into LWJ from the beginning! I love seeing them goof around, I love drunk!WYB in the drama.

I also don’t like established relationship fic for the most part, so the censorship in this adaptation means I have more to play with in fanfic!

Why I like the characters: They invented love!!! They did. I particularly like them both as kind of messes… It’s easy to forget with how great Hanguang-jun is but he’s also bad at expressing himself and it gets him into trouble. Then you have WWX the deviant genius troublemaker with a heart of gold (even when he doesn’t have his golden core). They’re immature kids who can’t figure their shit out before things get serious and then 16 years later, they are emotionally stunted 30-somethings and (tbh) I feel that. These two are meant for each other and meant to wander the country following the chaos and getting into adventures together while fucking a lot.

Prompts:

How do Wangxian get together in this universe? Was it as teens? During the war? Did they split up? Did LWJ give in to temptation earlier than in the novel? When did WWX realize his feelings?

Fix-it for the ending where they separate!! Duh! Does anyone think them being apart is going to last?

Star Trek AU with the Lans as Vulcans

Uh, I really like A/B/O fic for these two.

MAGIC SEX CURSES. Fuck or die! Sex pollen! Particularly if they’re not a couple yet and this leads to awkwardness and getting together.

Nirvana in Fire (TV)

Requested characters: Mei Changsu, Xiao Jingyan

Note: I also love Lin Chen so if you want to write some MCS/LC or LC/Fei Liu or LC/MCS/JINGYAN OT3??? go for it. I am also a Nihuang/Xia Dong shipper so if you want to put that in… somehow… my gay little heart would be happy. I also like Nihuang/MCS/XJY or MNH/MCS + MCS/XJY but I’d like the focus on the men in that case! 

Why I like the canon: I watched this show because someone recommended this show to me as, like, Chinese Game of Thrones but good. I think it’s genuinely one of the best TV shows I’ve ever seen. I love plots and revenge and good people doing bad things for justice. Even the ending is good for me though obviously it left me unsatisfied on several points.

Why I like the characters: I am deeply into sickly doomed genius MCS and every time he got even more deeply ill, I fell deeper in love. Every time he coughs up blood, my heart would race. I love his terrible schemes and stupid self-sacrificing choices. I find watching this show very soothing because I knew he would always come out on top in his schemes. I trust him. I love handsome clueless Jingyan and how he’s just so good (it’s terrible.) I love his mom and how much he cares for her. I love him but he is useless, he needs his Xiao Shu and I need fanfic to restore him to him.

Note: So my limited research on this says that male/male sex practices were accepted and well-known in this time period in history, so I really don’t want them thinking “oh no what are these weird gay feelings.” There are other barriers to them being together, like a ruler or official being overly attached to one person was considered very bad. I am also a big supporter of the socially-approved polygamy of this time period, so I don’t need Jingyan to refuse to sleep with his wife or something out of loyalty to MCS—he has to do it! Or all their plans are ruined! And he can enjoy spending time with her or the concubines without affecting his feelings for MCS—you could explore that complexity in fic if you like.

Prompts:

Mei Changsu isn’t dead, he’s hiding again, Jingyan searches for him

They start having sex during the series, the ending is averted [somehow]

Post-canon, MCS is alive and Jingyan hides him in the palace with his consort/concubines to keep him on as an advisor without anyone objecting

AU where male/male marriage is customary (maybe aristocratic men are expected to have one male and one female consort?) and so MCS decides the best way to influence and help Jingyan in the capital is by becoming his wife or one of his concubines

anything just get them together and happy.

Promare

Requested characters: Galo, Lio

Why I like the canon: I love this film but I also find it to be… not enough? I wanted more character development, I wanted more plot, I wanted the goddamn Burnish to stay burning things. So I requested it because I want more! Please help me.

Why I like the characters: I love freedom fighter idealist Lio who will kick everyone’s ass for what is right. I love idiot idealist Galo who wants to fight all fires and learns to love exactly one fire. I think now that they aren’t saving the world by punching global warming, they should have a nice romance. I also like they points where they clash in the film, so I’d love to see them adjusting to “normal life” and having to deal with not having the crisis to make sure they get along.

Prompts:

Galo and Lio rebuilding the world together

Lio regaining Burnish powers?

AU where the Burnish are still a thing but it’s not a big crisis/battle and they just have normal jobs and there are integration programs and Lio is an angry Burnish teen and Galo volunteers at a community center helping Burnish control their powers. Like a world that’s more everyday X-Men than X-men in full adventure war mode.

This is the one request where I’d probably enjoy gen fic with lots of worldbuilding.

I would also enjoy lots of horny porn, preference for Galo topping with his giant stupid dick? I’m sorry I’m like this.

I do want to note ahead of time that I might be traveling (as in, possibly literally on a plane) when fics go live, so please do not be upset if I do not comment on the fic right away! But I definitely will! I know this can be a sore spot for authors so I wanted to give some warning. 

I think that is all! Thank you very much and I’ll see you at the end of all this.