#this is a good example. and thank you to this user who had to explain that CALCULATORS are fundamentally essential in todays world | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

the-travelling-witch · 2 years ago

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𝐂𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐊𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬

summary: kissing your friend aka your crush

pairings: riddle :: jamil :: vil :: idia x gn! reader

warnings: none! just fluff ♡

RIDDLE ROSEHEARTS

Sunlight was falling through the floor-to-ceiling windows of Heartslabyul Lounge and reflecting in your tea cup as you stared at the paper in front of you. Tapping the pencil against your chin you read through the assignment again only to lean back against your seat and sigh.

“Prefect, is there anything I can help you with? Please, do not hesitate to ask me if anything is unclear.” Riddle’s voice rang through the quiet room, the scraping of his pencil momentarily stopping as he looked up at you. “I’m sure it must be hard having to study an entirely new curriculum, especially when you can’t draw on any practical experiences with magic. As a housewarden it is naturally my duty to help my peers in their education.”

You were sure Riddle’s offer to help went beyond just his housewarden duties, having become pretty close friends with you after the overblot incident in your first month. Since then, he had gradually warmed up to you, inviting you over for unbirthday parties, study sessions or a stroll through the rose labyrinth.

So, quite inevitably, you slowly felt your feelings for your friend change. What used to be gratitude for getting the Adeuce combo off your back or joy at having someone to eat lunch with shifted into excitement at seeing him again or disappointment when you thought you had caught sight of him in a crowd, just for it to be someone else. Once you realised the situation you were in, it became even harder to hide those feelings, especially when you could feel the heat crawling up your neck when the housewarden reached over to fix your tie or straighten your uniform.

“Thank you, Riddle. There actually is something I don’t understand,” you sheepishly scratched the back of your head. Sliding over your Applied Magic homework, you pointed out the question you were struggling with. “Why is it dangerous to use a spell like this in that situation?”

“Ah, I see.” Taking a moment to reflect on how to explain it best, Riddle’s steel grey eyes flitted to the roses outside for a moment. “Try visualising the question’s context and the effect of the spell you're casting before your mind’s eye. What kind of environment are you in and how would the magic affect it?”

“Hmm, the energy released from the spell could… shake the unstable structure of the walls and ceiling and cause it to collapse? And even if it doesn’t collapse, the falling debris could still cause major injuries?”

“Yes, that’s correct. A lot of offensive magic packs more energy than defensive magic and therefore has a greater impact on the environment rather than the caster themselves,” Riddle explained further. “Now, consider all previously used magic. In this example, a few spells have already been cast, like this shielding spell for example. How straining are they on the caster and how long do they linger in the area?”

“Uh, let's see… The elements of previous spells might react with that of the current one, causing unpredictable side-effects. And in a stressful situation like this casting an unstable spell could put more pressure on the magic user, leading to… faster blot accumulation?” The last part was a total stab in the dark and you nervously watched Riddle’s unreadable expression before he gave you a satisfied smile.

“Correct again, Prefect. It is very impressive that you have such a nuanced understanding of Applied Magic, despite not being able to use it yourself.” The gleam in his eyes was genuine before he let out a defeated sigh. “If only some of the Heartslabyul first years would give magic a second thought before leaping into action…”

You couldn’t help but chuckle at that, having a pretty good image of just who he was referring to. Now, with your work out of the way, you could finally let your thoughts drift. And almost immediately they went to the housewarden sitting next to you.

Looking at him, it was almost as if time stood still. In the afternoon sun, his hair was positively glowing and his grey eyes seemed even brighter than usual. As always, his posture was perfect and poised and there was such an elegance in the way he carried himself. You wouldn’t be surprised if he was actual royalty.

When he put the tea cup to his lips and took a sip you suddenly remembered the videos you had seen back in your world where people kissed their best friend to see their reaction or to confess. Riddle probably wouldn’t approve but when he turned to you, you couldn’t tear your eyes away from his lips. You’d bet on the fact that they were soft with the taste of tea…

“-fect! Prefect! Are you alright? I’ve been calling your name multiple times now.” Blinking back into reality, you came face to face with a concerned Riddle who was leaning over. Putting the back of his fingers against your forehead, his brows creased even more. “I wanted to ask if you want to try the strawberry tarts Trey baked but you’re burning up. Perhaps you should go and rest up. The rules might not state it but you can even stay at Heartslabyul if Ramshackle’s too–”

Before the thought process registered in your brain, you had already pulled Riddle closer by his collar and connected your lips. You were right. As with every aspect of his life, his lips were properly cared for and pillowy soft and after you parted, you thought you could make out a hint of sweets and lemon.

With a shocked yelp of your name, Riddle snapped you back to the present once more. Under different circumstances, the sight of the usually put-together housewarden staring at you with saucer-wide eyes and his face decorated with a rose-red hue might have been endearing but, right now, it chilled you to the bone.

Jumping up from your seat and noisily scraping the chair over the floor, you hurriedly stuffed all your belongings in your backpack, ready to book the hell out of there. “I’m sorry, Riddle, I really have to go water the cat and feed the plants–”

“Prefect please wait.” A hand gently wrapped around your wrist and made you turn around. The short-tempered housewarden wasn’t yelling (yet), which you took as a good sign. In fact, he wasn’t meeting your eyes at all. “I have to admit that was quite the surprise. But… not an unpleasant one. Prefect, if I may be so bold, do you have feelings for me?”

“Well, I don’t kiss just anybody I meet,” you awkwardly chuckled but you quickly abandoned the idea of joking yourself out of this situation at Riddle’s unimpressed reaction. With a sigh, you conceded. “Yeah, I do have feelings for you. Look, I am really sorry, I don’t know what–”

“I’m not,” he quickly interrupted. “I’m not sorry this happened. I, too, like you. More than a friend, that is. I might not have the most experience in this field but I’m willing to try if it’s with you. However, I do believe there is a proper protocol to be followed.

“Prefect, before you spring another surprise kiss on me, may I take you out on a date first?”

JAMIL VIPER

The sound of boiling water and knives moving over a chopping board filled NRC’s kitchen. At this time of day -or should you say night?- nobody but Jamil usually came here. Most students were probably already heading to bed or cramming in a late-night study session right about now but the vice housewarden of Scarabia was still diligently meal prepping for the following day.

“Could you pass me the turmeric please?” He didn’t even look up to see if you had heard him, eyes still trained on his task at hand.

“Sure, here you go.” Sliding over the spice, you took another moment to study his side profile. As always, there wasn’t much of an emotion readable on his face but you noticed how his shoulders seemed less tense than during the day. Or maybe it was just your imagination.

After he hummed a ‘thanks’, both of you went back to working in silence. You really appreciated Jamil trusting you enough to let you lend a hand, knowing just how strict he was about being the only one to prepare Kalim’s food. The first time you asked to help, in fact, he had watched you like a hawk and your hands had never shaken more.

At first, Jamil had been a little annoyed, thinking he’d have to look after someone else instead, but as you swung by more often, he started to appreciate the company. Not only did you not cause any trouble for him but you also stuck by him even after his overblot, whereas the rest of his dorm gave him a wide berth. So he allowed you to stay and if he ever ‘accidentally’ made too much food he let you take the leftovers.

And you, too, started to enjoy his presence more and more. You didn’t necessarily need to do something together, just being in the same space while working was enough to put you at ease. That was when you realised your actual feelings for Jamil but you didn’t know what to do with them.

Besides fear of rejection, you were also well aware of his position as Kalim’s retainer. Acting out on your feelings could cause a lot of problems for him even if he were to reciprocate them. Could he even accept them?

Before you knew it, your thoughts had distracted you enough to where your knife was merely hovering over the poor vegetable in front of you. As you were about to shake your distractions away, two warm hands already took the knife and board from you.

“You shouldn’t handle sharp objects when you’re not feeling well,” Jamil sighed but you could tell he wasn’t upset with you, rather, he was concerned. “You could seriously injure yourself.”

“I’m feeling fine actually,” you said. It wasn’t like you were physically unwell.

“Are you now? I couldn't help but notice you spacing out a lot more often lately.” Quickly throwing everything into the pot, Jamil leant against the counter with his arms crossed, giving you an earnest once-over. He was quiet for a while before mumbling “It’s okay to ask for help you know. You don’t have to do everything yourself.”

“That’s rich coming from you, Mr. Workaholic,” you snorted. “Between the two of us, the one in need of a break is not me. Anyhow, it’s nothing, so don’t worry about me.”

“So there is something after all,” Jamil cocked his head to the side with a raised brow.

“Great Seven, if you must know. Yes there is something that’s been weighing on my mind,” you groaned. “Are you happy now?”

“I’d be happier if you also told me how I can help you.”

“And if I told you you can’t?”

“Then I wouldn’t believe you.” This guy…

“Agree to disagree, then,” you deadpanned. Turning your back to hide your burning cheeks, you pretended to wipe your hands. This once, you had wished Jamil’s sharp senses would fail him but of course not.

The irony of this situation wasn’t lost on you.

As you had your back turned, you hadn’t noticed Jamil stepping closer, so you nearly collided with him as you went to face him again. Quickly, he steadied you by your shoulders, his touch lingering perhaps a little longer than necessary.

“Prefect, let me be perfectly honest with you, I’m worried about you. You’re not normally this distracted or careless.” And whose fault was that?

“You know it’s hard to keep saying no to you like that. But I really don’t think you’d want to know,” you sighed.

Aside from the bubbling pot, the kitchen was quiet as you leaned against the countertop and examined your fingers. For a moment, nothing but you two in this moment seemed to exist. Jamil wasn’t bound to the Asim family and your future wasn’t so uncertain. If only it matched reality.

“Try me.” Jamil’s voice was a lot gentler now. You thought you saw his hand hover over yours for but a second, then chalked it up to wishful thinking. “You’ve shown me that it’s okay to be my own person and that it’s possible for me to have my own dreams despite my status; I’m very grateful for that. I also really like… spending time with you, so please tell me what’s wrong.”

Heaving a deep exhale, you braved yourself for whatever was bound to happen next. Maybe you were about to lose a friend.

“I don’t know if it’s wrong but… I like you, Jamil.”

As you looked up you caught a glimpse of surprise on his features before it was replaced by his usual poker face. “I’d hope so, seeing as you’ve referred to me as your friend.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know that.” If you took the leap you might as well see it through to the end. Leaning in, you placed a quick kiss against his cheek before turning and marching straight towards the door, leaving Jamil alone in the kitchen. “I like you like that.”

Luckily, the next day was a Saturday, so you could stay in bed and pull the covers over your head. Ignoring the yelling cat in your house and the absolute flood of text notifications from what you assumed was the first year group chat might as well have been your signature spell.

Eventually, you did crawl out from under the sheets and got dressed, even if it was just because the growling of your stomach became too annoying to ignore. As you were rummaging your fridge for something edible that wasn’t tuna, the doorbell rang which was suspicious enough. Nobody ever rang the doorbell.

As you approached the door, you could already make out Jamil’s neatly tied back hair. Steeling yourself, you slowly opened the door to find he hadn’t magically transformed into someone else.

“Jamil, what brings you over at this time of day?” Forcing as much normality as possible into your voice, you hoped that maybe he had just forgotten.

“I wanted to talk about what happened last night.” So much for that. “I sent you a few messages but you didn’t respond.”

“Nya! What’s that? Are you the reason my henchman has been hiding in bed all day?” You whipped around at hearing Grim speak, promptly grabbing him by the bow around his neck and throwing him out of the dorm.

“Go play with Ace and Deuce for the day.” Ushering Jamil inside, you threw the door closed before Grim could protest. “Don’t mind him.”

“I didn’t see you at breakfast,” he started as he handed you a container with some of the food you cooked yesterday. “I thought you might be hungry.”

As on cue, your stomach growled rather loudly. “That’s very thoughtful of you, Jamil, but you didn’t have to come all the way here just for that.”

“I also wanted to apologise,” he blurted out. Ah, so he came to reject you once and for all. “I didn’t give you a proper response. Well, to be fair, you didn’t give me the time to do it.”

You bashfully looked away, standing with your back towards him, at the memory of storming out of the kitchen. Your response came out a lot more seriously though. “Jamil, I’m sorry for saying something so selfish, I know that your work–”

You were cut off by being spun around suddenly until you were looking into Jamil’s sharp eyes. “No, I’m tired of my work getting in the way of what I want. You said it was selfish of you to tell me your feelings? Then let me be selfish as well and tell you I reciprocate them.”

There was such genuine certainty in those pools of grey, you couldn’t help but reach out and cup his cheek. One of his hands wrapped around your waist to pull you closer as the other found yours. Bringing it up to his lips, he held eye contact as he placed a tender kiss on your knuckles.

“For once, I’d like something entirely to myself.”

VIL SCHOENHEIT

“Hold still.” At Vil’s commanding tone you completely froze despite not moving much in the first place. “Good. Now close your eyes.”

You did as he said and tried your best not to flinch as the cool brush touched your eyelids. While Vil concentrated on perfecting your eye make-up, you did your best not to think too hard about his fingers currently holding your chin or how the scent of his perfume invaded your senses.

Despite being close friends with the Pomefiore Housewarden, it was still quite the task not to shrink away under his scrutinising gaze, even if it was directed at his own work rather than you. How did Epel endure this every day?

Well, the first year was most likely not head over heels for Vil and didn’t turn into a stuttering mess every time he talked to him. So much for your plan to play this crush cool and be as graceful and elegant about it as possible. Yeah, there was probably a reason you weren’t a Pomefiore student.

But then again, this was Vil you were talking about. The walking, talking, breathing definition of perfection. On top of that, he was smart and hard-working with the skills to back up his confidence. Naturally, he had people falling at his feet, no matter how intimidating he came across as. Not wanting to be seen as just another one of the masses, you decided to hide your feelings to the best of your abilities.

And so far, it seemed to be working. You were a regular visitor at Pomefiore dorm, so much so, the guards already let you pass the gates as if you actually belonged there. Seeing the actor achieve loftier goals over time, surpassing others and himself on numerous occasions, was fulfilling in its own way. There was a spark of pride every time he was chosen for a new lead role or when he had the chance to work on a new line of skin care. Yet, although you got to be close to Vil this way, it still kind of stung to know that this would be all there’d probably ever be between the two of you.

“My, I have to say, this is a job well done,” Vil concluded, giving you a content smirk and turning your chair to face his pristine vanity. What could you say, he was right. Even though the make-up wasn’t all that elaborate or out there, you still almost didn’t recognise the person staring back from the mirror. “You clean up nicely, potato. I’ll permit you to stand by my side now.”

“You never fail to impress me, Vil. Just, how do you do it?” you chuckled, your eyes finding his in the reflection. “Normally, I would’ve called it magic, but I know better now.”

“Magic has nothing to do with this. It’s solely hard work and practice which makes perfect.” Spinning you back around, he came face to face with you again. “While you flatter me, I am far from finished. I will see this through ‘til the end and perfect this look.”

With that, Vil went back to work, prepping your lips to the point where you were convinced this would be the smoothest they’d ever be. Then, with a look of utmost concentration, he started tracing them with a lip liner before filling them out with lipstick and applying gloss after blotting it.

Despite being finished, the housewarden didn’t move away from you and you were suddenly keenly aware of the distance between you. Or the lack thereof, rather. Subconsciously, your gaze drifted to Vil’s mouth before snapping back up as you caught yourself. Your heart was racing so fast, you’d be surprised if he didn’t hear it. Was this how you died?

You knew you shouldn’t, you really shouldn’t, but screw it. The few months here had already put you through so much, at one point you stopped thinking things through twice and just leapt into action. If you’d learnt anything in this school, then it was that you had to take what you wanted because nobody would just hand it to you.

So, against better judgement, you closed the gap between the two of you.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise but a simple kiss from Vil was overwhelming; it was entirely too much and then again not nearly enough. If you had to find just one word to describe it, it would be intoxicating. He might be the death of you but you couldn’t care less.

Even after such a short contact, pulling away wasn’t easy. Especially because you didn’t get far before a hand at the back of your neck held you in place. Your eyes flew open to see the challenge and amusement written in his lilac ones. Not that you minded per se.

In the end, you were positively stolen of your breath whereas Vil looked as dazzling as ever, except for the slight smudge of lipstick in the corner of his lips. In your opinion it only added to his charm though.

When you had sorted your thoughts again, your tone was slightly accusatory. “You did that on purpose.”

“Whatever do you mean?” His infuriatingly handsome smirk looked just a tad too smug for him to play coy. “May I remind you that you are the one who kissed me?”

“You weren’t even surprised!” You bristled at his act. “You knew, didn’t you?”

“Of course I did. I can read you like an open book, sweet potato. I just wanted to test if you’d be daring enough. Seems as though you’ve passed.” Reaching out a perfectly manicured hand, Vil wiped the stains under your bottom lip with his thumb while his gaze was trained on how your mouth parted at the movement.

“Hmm, it seems I need to do this again...”

IDIA SHROUD

Standing in front of Idia’s room, you firmly knocked on the door in a very specific rhythm to let him know it was you. Otherwise, there was a rather slim chance the housewarden would even open it. But luckily for you, you were one of the only people who were granted access to his abode.

After grumbling a greeting, Idia widened the crack of his door just enough for you to slip through. The two of you might be friends but that still didn’t mean he was suddenly a ray of sunshine, especially when it came to social interaction. As you adjusted to the artificial blue light, you were already prepared to be tackled by a certain blue-haired boy but the anticipated weight never came.

“Huh? Is Ortho not here today?” you wondered.

“Ah no, uh… Ortho’s out running errands,” Idia mumbled, shifting from one foot to the other. “You’re probably disappointed now, right? It’s like seeing your bias is not at a fanmeet…”

“No, not at all! I was just noticing it. You’re the reason I’m here.” Winking at him, you were already grinning at his reaction for what you were about to say. “I’m Idia-biased after all.”

And he didn’t fail you. Instantly, his eyes widened and you could practically see him blue screen behind his golden irises. Meanwhile, the ends of his long hair tinged pink as he tried to hide himself by tugging the drawstrings of his hoodie tighter. “HUH?! I- You- What– You can’t just drop SSR dialogue like that on me…”

“Why not? It’s the truth and you’re supposed to tell the truth, no?” You tilted your head to the side expectedly.

“What’s with you and your ability to turn a supposed buff into a massive debuff?” Idia shook his head miserably.

“Come on, I’m just teasing you. Although you are my fave, that part’s not a lie.” Nudging him back into the realm of the living as you pass, you plopped down on one of the gaming chairs in front of his PC. When had you asked him why he had two, he’d said that one was for Ortho, yet it was perfectly adjusted to your height. You just pretended he had fooled you though and didn’t comment on it further. “So, what’s on the agenda for today?”

“Uhm, that show we’ve been watching released a new episode today, so maybe we can catch up on that…” At your approval, he started setting everything up as you watched his fingers fly over the keyboard with such practised ease it amazed you every time. “You still remember the plot, right?”

“Of course, who do you take me for,” you playfully accused him. “The protagonist basically gets isekai’d to a mmorpg-like world and would die almost every two seconds if it weren’t for the cooler side characters.”

“Ya, cut him some slack. Everyone else grew up there while he’s a total noob.”

“Trust me, I know the feeling,” you deadpanned. “But even you have to admit his decisions are questionably stupid.”

Idia just looked at you as if you had grown a second head. “Is the outside perspective making you realise something or what?”

“HEY! I can go three minutes without being an orc’s breakfast.”

“Only because there’s no orcs on Sage’s Island,” he taunted with a grin, showing you his sharp teeth. In return you gasped in faux indignance before dissolving in a fit of giggles.

“Just imagine there’d be a show like this about NRC…” You tapped your finger against your chin. “I wonder what kind of tropes everyone would fall into. Like, Kalim and Jamil are your classic deredere and tsundere duo.”

“Riddle is the type of crazy skilled character you wouldn’t consider at first. But then he saves everyone by casting some seriously dangerous magic or something,” Idia sniggered.

“Meanwhile Malleus is the impossibly powerful, show-breaking character who is always conveniently absent when there’s a problem to be solved,” you sighed. Turning in your seat, you leaned your head against the back of the chair. “Say Idia, what kind of character am I?”

He tried to suppress his tiny squeak at the drop of your voice. To be honest, you had never been shy about showing your affection for the housewarden but you had come to the realisation he just wouldn't catch on, no matter how many hints you threw his way. Or rather, he’d convince himself you couldn’t possibly mean any of it.

“Y-You? Uh I guess, you always jump in to save the day no matter the risks, so you’d probably be some sort of knight in shining armour type. But with a serious case of ‘chosen one syndrome’,” he mumbled. “Seriously, only crazy people would play hard mode with those gimmicky stats of yours.”

“Aww, really?” you cooed before preparing yourself to strike. “What if I want to be the love interest though?”

By the look in Idia’s eyes it was a critical hit.

“Lo-Love interest? You can be both I think… I mean there’s a lot of people you’re close to…,” the poor guy stammered. Seriously, how could one person be so smart yet so dense at the same time? But fine. If you needed to spell it out for him, so be it.

Getting up, you slowly came to stand in front of his chair and propped your hands on the arm rests. You almost felt bad for him with how he was staring at you like a deer caught in headlights; Idia looked as if his life was flashing in front of his eyes. But you’ve had enough of your little cat and mouse game, it was time for the chase to come to an end.

“I was talking about your story. I want to be the love interest in your story, Idia. Hmm, how am I going to get that thought through your thick skull, I wonder…” You pretended to think about it for a moment before giving him a cheshire grin. “Ah, I think I have an idea.”

By now Idia’s hair was bright pink, matching the colour of his face, and he was radiating heat like a fireplace. As much as you wanted to see his reaction to a kiss on the lips, you were afraid it would actually kill him and you didn’t want this experience to end in giving him CPR.

So you settled for a sweet but lingering kiss to his forehead. Just as expected, his skin was warm to the touch and you felt him relax after the initial tense up. Maybe it were your own rose-red glasses but as you pulled away to cup his cheeks you could swear little hearts were flickering at the end of his hair. “Pardon the straightforwardness but I really needed to get my point across.”

“Wait, so you like me?!” Apparently his brain had kicked back into action at this point.

“I have for a while now,” you laughed, “but thanks for noticing.”

“So you were serious when you got me roses? And chocolate? And said I was your favourite?” The incredible tone of his voice was simultaneously endearing and heartbreaking. How could he not notice how amazing he actually was?

“I told you, it’s the truth,” you smiled. “So how about it? Can I be your love interest? Or is my affection already high enough to clear your route?”

“Woah you’re like straight out of an otome game,” he breathed. “Is this the super secret ending you have to play flawlessly for?”

“Oh come on, Idia,” you shot him another wink, paired with a teasing smirk, “You don’t really think this is the end, do you? If anything, it’s only the beginning."

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virtualtadpole · 2 months ago

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Thailand's "cute boy" craze: an explainer

Here's another repost from Reddit, originally from 2022. Since Perfect 10 Liners is currently airing with the "cute boy" page as a key plot point, this seems as good a time as any to re-share (remember that the original novel was first released in 2018). Sorry this one is a wall of text, I wasn't sure it'd be a good idea to include example photos involving people who weren't really public figures at the time.

Those of you following Thai BL will probably have come across this concept of "cute boy" social media fan pages, and might have wondered whether they're an actual thing. Or you may have heard of actors being one of their university's cute boys before joining the industry, and wondered what exactly that meant. Here's my attempt at an explanation.

The roots of the phenomenon go back at least to the popular Thai web forums of the 2000s, especially the youth-oriented Dek-D.com, one of Thailand's biggest and oldest web communities (also known as the web fiction platform which launched many BL novels). Dek-D's forums had a picture-sharing section, with a subsection dedicated to photos of cute guys and girls. It was still the early days of digital cameras and camera phones, and these posts were popular among the site's teen users. A few (mostly girls) who became noticed from these posts became Thailand's first "net idols", many of whom went on to join the entertainment industry.

The arrival of social networking sites around 2007 (first Hi5, then Facebook a few years later) helped facilitate these posts, as publicly posted photos became more easily accessible. The issue of privacy wasn't really on most people's minds then, and most of it was done in a light-hearted spirit. Being featured in these posts meant a boost in followers and online popularity, enabling more teens to become recognized as net idols, but it would be a few more years before this really meant anything. On the other hand, the social networking sites themselves would eventually bypass the traditional forums as a central venue for such posts, and an increasing number of Facebook pages (followed by dedicated Instagram and Twitter accounts) would be created to offer a curated experience instead.

The actual trend of "cute boy" pages took off in 2012, around the same time as the explosive growth of Instagram. Teens flocking to the platform (escaping Facebook, which was now full of parents) filled their public profiles with selfies and portraits of themselves, generating a steady stream of material that these pages could pick up to post and promote. This in turn gave the kids likes and followers, a mutually beneficial arrangement for most thanks to the platform's like-seeking culture.

Of course, not all of these proliferating pages featured teen boys. "Cute girl" pages have their share of followers, though they don't seem to be as visible or talked about, perhaps due to a combination of factors including the way society doesn't consider it as creepy for girls to openly ogle after boys compared to the opposite.

As competition grew, these pages diversified into several niches, including those covering specific schools and universities. Most of the school ones aren't that unusual, given that it's quite natural for students to talk about the popular boys and girls at school, and this had been a trend in school forums long before then. Most of them didn't last long though, as page administrators soon graduated and moved on.

However, things were different for certain high-profile schools, particularly the country's four oldest boys' schools, which participate in the biennial Jaturamitr football competition: Suankularb (SK), Debsirin (DS), Assumption (AC) and Bangkok Christian (BCC). The schools had always been well known, but the Instagram era launched an unprecedented wave of interest in their good-looking students, many of whom attracted huge numbers of followers just by being on Instagram. AC especially stands out in this regard, as Instagram allowed outsiders to glimpse into this exclusive boys' world that served as the basis of Love Sick, the source novel of which was begun in 2008.

Not only were cute boy pages created dedicated to these schools (some by outsiders), some of the boys became minor celebrities in their own right, with fans (mostly sao Y (the Thai term for fujoshi), and also some queer folk) meeting up with and photographing them in real life, especially at school events such as AC's Christmas fair and the Jaturamitr competition. And they were serious about it, coming equipped with professional DLSR cameras and huge telephoto lenses. The schools' student bodies leaned into this popularity, having the popular boys promote fundraising events and selling merchandise to their fans.

The relationship between the boys and their fans seemed to be mostly good, the boys appreciating the positive attention and the fans getting to stan someone much more accessible than the mainstream celebrity. And if they later became famous, then there's the pride of having known them before everyone else. These being sao Y, there sometimes is a bit of shipping, though mostly jokingly. Of course, this was not limited to boys from AC and the other Jaturamitr schools, but they were much more prominent.

This was the backdrop against which Love Sick launched its casting calls in 2014, which generated a huge amount of online buzz throughout the cute boy pages and fan Twitter. There's a reason the series featured such a huge cast with so many minor roles - to provide ample opportunity for fans to latch onto the actors and the show.

In some ways, the cute boy label served as a distancing from the previous term net idol, which by 2014 had begun to develop into a negative stereotype of people using their online fame to sell beauty products for easy profit, especially those livestreaming on emerging platforms such as Socialcam and Bigo Live and whose followers tended to be less sophisticated as opposed to the urban middle-class. Which is why most people appearing on cute boy pages tended to come from higher socioeconomic backgrounds, and much more attention was given to those focusing on elite schools and universities.

At the university level, cute boy (or other similarly named) pages associated with the country's top universities became very prominent online and also offline, often collaborating with the universities' student bodies to promote events and sometimes also assisting in the universities' PR for prospective students. Many universities already had a pageant culture in one form or another, with which these pages tied in well. Most prominent among the pages were Chula Cute Boy and TU Sexy Boy of Chulalongkorn and Thammasat, the country's two oldest universities. The two universities have an annual traditional football match, which the Cute Boy and Sexy Boy pages played large parts promoting in recent years, and is another event that attracts many fangirls.

Some have argued that the net idol phenomenon serves as a democratization of the entertainment industry, opening up opportunities for aspirants to directly connect to audiences as opposed to the traditional model where everything depended on one being picked up by an agency. But it benefits the traditional model as well. While in the old days talent scouts would look for teens hanging out at Siam Square, today they only have to scan the cute boy pages. Many BL actors were discovered this way. Inn Sarin was a long-time favourite of Chula Cute Boy, and Up and Mix first became widely known from there as well. Many others have likewise previously been featured in various cute boy pages, and practically all of the younger actors who joined the industry more recently probably had strong followings before their debut.

But the craze might be coming to an end. While there have long been concerns over today's youth's obsession with looks, and the university cute boy pages have from the beginning been criticized for promoting shallow images of their universities at the expense of academic aspects, they didn't really have any effect on the trend. But this began to change in 2020, when a widespread youth protest movement swept through school and university campuses and liberal progressive ideas rose to the fore. The issue of "beauty privilege" became one of many perpetual topics of discussion, and many began calling for an end to university cute boy pages. Thammasat, long regarded as the university with the strongest student activism, saw the TU Sexy Boy page shutting down (though the admin cited personal reasons and it was never confirmed whether this was in response to the criticism). Many people seem to have stopped tweeting cute boy pictures since then.

On top of the political mood, the pandemic's disruption of normal school life also interrupted the cute boy momentum, as many photo opportunities dried up. Long-time page admins and fans outgrowing the topic and losing interest might also be a factor. The Chula Cute Boy page has also been inactive since late 2020, for undisclosed reasons.

The future seems at best unclear for now. There are still many active pages out there, but on the whole, from what I've seen, there does seem to be a loss of interest. If younger netizens are indeed disinclined to craze after them the same way, the era of cute boy pages might very well soon be over.

Or maybe they've just moved onto TikTok, and I haven't found out how.

----

In the above original post, I neglected to go into the phenomenon of real-people shipping, so I'm attaching this comment from later as an addendum:

Regarding real-people shipping, there are probably two lines of origin that influenced the practice. First is the rise of K-pop and the shipping culture that came with it, which led to a proliferation of online fanfiction in dedicated Thai web communities and a shipping culture forming around the reality singing competitions which were the talk-of-the-town entertainment programs in the 2000s. One of the first really famous shipped pairs was Nat and Tol from Academy Fantasia season 4 in 2007. (That is Nat Sakdatorn, whom you may recognize as the uncle from Never Let Me Go, among many other roles.)

The other origin is the rise of "net idols", which followed the arrival of social media sites (in Thailand this was led by Hi5 in 2006). I covered this in more detail in my post on Thailand's "cute boy" craze, but didn't really touch upon the shipping aspect. Indeed, a significant shipping culture did form (a few years later) around net idols/cute boys. At first this focused more on (people who were believed to be) real-life couples, like Both and Newyear, who became famous in 2012. From there, manufactured/imaginary couples naturally followed in hopes of cashing in on the popularity of such shipped pairs.

I'm a bit hazy on when the shipping of actors as couples actually became a regular thing in the BL industry. While the practice of fanservice moments on the promotion circuit go back at least to The Love of Siam, I don't think there was significant shipping of the actors' real-life persona, and the same seemed to be the case with Love Sick, especially after the series ended. The first actor pair to become shipped as such was probably Krist and Singto from SOTUS, and the practice quite definitely became a thing after that.

----

Postscript: Thanks for reading, and sorry the writing in this one isn't as good as the other posts I've shared. If you're interested in further reading on the topic, I can recommend the article The Yaoi Phenomenon in Thailand and Fan/Industry Interaction. (2019). Plaridel, 16(2), 63–89 by Assoc. Prof. Natthanai Prasannam, one of the leading Thai academics on BL/Y culture in Thailand.

#thai bl #thai culture #bl meta

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girlfriendsofthegalaxy · 3 months ago

Text

tuesday again 10/8/2024

The Boy is out of my house. end of an era. formally adopt the boy for only twenty of god's own dollars here!

listening

i really really love reading perfume reviews and i would love to start describing songs like a perfume reviewer but maybe this song is not a great one to start out with: the ghost inside by broken bells, off their 2010 self-titled album. it got stuck in my head bc it is sort of the ur-example of 2010s indie rock. you have to listen to it but after you listen to it you know i am Right. kind of a bonkers scifi music video with mostly practical effects and actress christina hendricks (interview here).

youtube

thank u spotify weekly recommended playlist bc i had completely forgotten about broken bells. i think i found them through one of those little music cards starbucks used to give out?

reading

The Blood Trials (Book One of the Blood Gift Duology, Jan 2023) by N.E. Davenport. i KNOW i originally put this on my holds list bc of a tumblr post but i cannot find that post again.

explaining the plot of this book to my best friend involved saying the phrase "and then THE BLOOD EMPEROR" a lot. there is no short way to explain the plot of this thing.

Blending fantasy and science fiction, N. E. Davenport’s fast-paced, action-packed debut kicks off a duology of loyalty and rebellion, in which a young Black woman must survive deadly trials in a racist and misogynistic society to become an elite warrior. It’s all about blood. The blood spilled between the Republic of Mareen and the armies of the Blood Emperor long ago. The blood gifts of Mareen’s deadliest enemies. The blood that runs through the elite War Houses of Mareen, the rulers of the Tribunal dedicated to keeping the republic alive. The blood of the former Legatus, Verne Amari, murdered. For his granddaughter, Ikenna, the only thing steady in her life was the man who had saved Mareen. The man who had trained her in secret, not just in martial skills, but in harnessing the blood gift that coursed through her. Who trained her to keep that a secret.

this is a "graduate or die" book that i would normally say is YA but the protagonist Ikenna is ~20ish and there are two quite explicit sex scenes. so i feel it veers more new adult? what if you learned to be an ancient greek spartan praetorian but also had blasters? that's what this school is.

this is a military scifi that is also a murder mystery (HELL of a dense concept to pick for a debut novel) that gets SO yuckydisgusting with loving descriptions of military training wounds and a cannibalism scene (not by our protagonist) i had to skip over. i think this would be terrific for locked tomb girlies but it is at the bleeding edge of my tolerance level. i am a noted big baby about gore, so ymmv.

tumblr user kay, why the fuck did you keep reading it? one of the best technically written debut novels i've ever read. extremely compelling in how the narration is from Ikenna’s point of view and she has almost all the murder mystery pieces but fails to put them together bc of personal flaws and foibles. and she is so good at tripping face first over those flaws and foibles it really effectively distracts you from the pieces of the murder mystery! she’s so so so good at making the worst possible decision (in hindsight) at any given point. all her decisions have complex hidden downsides but at the same time she could not have made any different decision. failsafes her grandfather put in place fail bc of the way she interprets them. she is a very good soldier but less good as a strategist. terrible as a politician. this sort of thing.

she is quick to act and quick to decide, and allies and enemies flip fairly quickly without much hemming and hawing. once she has definite proof of betrayal or alliance, she accepts it and charges on. i think the occasionally flimsy lead up to these flips is one of the book’s weaknesses, but i also think it’s one of Ikenna’s major weaknesses. im not convinced the author handles doling every clue out or how the very complex political situation clicks together Well, but Ikenna’s reaction and dealing with the fallout of these things is very believable and well done.

VERY rapid pace— reminds me of The Hunger Games, where Suzanne Collins’ background in TV helped her know when to break chapters. there aren’t any lulls where I lost interest— i read this book in basically one sitting overnight.

watching

meandering through a playlist of oscar-nominated shorts: the 1951 UPA black comedy musical film noir short "Rooty Toot Toot" has been one of my favorites so far.

youtube

it's so hyperstylized and so gleefully minimalist. the background characters, even though they are mostly just blobs and circles, are notably diverse for 1951. let's yoink some more background from the description/TCM:

Hubley brought in a number of interesting collaborators on Rooty Toot Toot. Dancer Olga Lunick was hired to choreograph the ballet-style dance moves. There was no rotoscoping involved; her moves were only referenced by the artists and animators, not slavishly traced. Paul Julian designed the backgrounds and utilized some non-typical techniques; in his essential history of UPA, When Magoo Flew: The Rise and Fall of Animation Studio UPA (Wesleyan, 2012), Adam Abraham quotes Julian on one of them: "'I found a kind of oddly corroded gelatin roller - an ordinary print roller that had been pitted and pocked in some way, chemically.' With this device, he produced distressed-looking backgrounds that suited the sordid tale." In addition, Hubley and the studio brought on jazz musician Phil Moore to write the score. Moore had done orchestrations for many MGM musicals in the 1940s, but uncredited--this would be a rare on-screen credit for the black musician. Legendary animator Grim Natwick also joined the crew. Natwick had been active since the silent era and had designed and animated Betty Boop for the Fleischer Studios. He went on to work on such key films as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Gulliver's Travels (1939). For Rooty Toot Toot Natwick animated the memorable shots of Nellie Bly on the witness stand.

playing

i don't have anything fun to say about genshin this week. prepare for me to lose my mind next week about hot ocelot lady.

making

sanitized/enzymatic cleaned everything orange boy touched in my office and the office bath, bc he was so full of love and also worms and boysmell. i believe the stink has been defeated, but only time and the girls will tell me. unforch, i will have to sanitize and destink the bathroom Again at the end of the month bc a new outside boycat will be recovering here after his neuter. this time i am Not paying for it and he already has a home lined up! it is a complicated case with a friend's exit from a Situation and it is not fully mine to tell. can't believe this office and office bath have been like a revolving door of cats this summer/fall. phil only got fulltime house privileges at the end of june-ish.

#tuesday again #tuesday again no problem #SoundCloud

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urlknight · 2 months ago

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Hi there, Love your work! I'm also doing stuff in Unreal and it feels like it's rarer to find other indie devs using it. I love how clean all your UI feels, and UI is something I seem to really struggle with.

Do you have any recommendations for workflows / tips / sources etc for getting better at UI?

Also I'd love to know more about the material / shader workflow for your latest post if you have more information anywhere.

Thanks :)

Hello there! Thank you!! I hope you don't mind me answering publicly as I feel like some people might be interested in the answer!

I really appreciate your UI (User Interface for those not knowing the acronym) compliment as it's something I've spent a long time working on and specializing in, in my career as a software engineer. UI/UX often goes completely unacknowledged or taken for granted even though it takes a lot of time and hard work to create and develop. In the engineering world I frequently had to advocate for and explain user experiences to those who didn't have as deep of an appreciation for UI or a very sophisticated understanding of why a good, visually appealing user experience makes, or on the flip side, can break everything. I think it's a very challenging, overwhelming topic to grasp and communicate, but just by being interested in it you're already way ahead!

There's a lot going on with UI. From visuals to knowing common design elements to successfully conveying a story to the user to implementation to testing to designing for accessibility to animation and I probably didn't cover everything with that run-on sentence. There's frontend engineers out there whose role is solely to maintain and improve UI component libraries for companies. And that's without throwing games, whose UIs are all uniquely visually tailored to their experiences, into the mix... I could keep going on about this honestly, but I'll get to what I think you can do personally! 1. Learn about common design patterns. What's a toast? What's pagination? What's a card? Little things like that. These apply to all software UI/UX, including video games- and knowing these off the top of your head will make it so much easier for you to invent your own UI designs and patterns.

2. Study the UI in the everyday applications you interact with. Step through menus and think about how you got from point A to point B. Take a moment to think about the why someone put a button where they did. Study the UI in your favorite video games, too! Take a lot of notes on what you think works really well and what you think doesn't. And also there's online resources that are great for inspiration. I personally spend a lot of time on the Game UI Database. - https://dribbble.com/ - https://www.gameuidatabase.com/ 3. Don't be afraid to start with basic sketches or even just simply representing everything with grey boxes. All my UI starts out as really crappy sketches on paper, or tablet sketches on top of screenshots. Visualize your ideas and then keep iterating on them until you've got something. For example, I went from this:

To this. (And come to think of it I might actually still want to make those cooler looking buttons in my sketch) 4. Break everything out into pieces and individual components. A good UI is made up of building blocks that you can reuse all over the place. That's how it stays consistent and also saves you a lot of stress when you need to go in and update components. Instead of a million different looking UI pieces, you just have to update the one! These individual components will make up your very own UI Component Library, which will be the standardized design system and source of reusable components for your project. This also applies to your visual elements that don't do anything (like I personally have a whole mini library of diamond and star shapes that I reuse everywhere).

For reference, here's a breakdown I made of my Inventory UI. On the right, I've labeled most of the individual components, and you might be able to see how I'm reusing them over and over again in multiple places.

5. Spend some time listening to designers talk, maybe befriend some designers! Many of them have an unique, interesting view of the world and how we interact with it even beyond just software. Their perspectives will inform yours.

6. Test your UI on users whenever you can. Get feedback from others. This is the best way for you to see what works and what doesn't. As game devs we spend so much time with our games it's easy for us to lose sight of the full picture.

7. Be patient and don't give up. Continue to be open to expanding your knowledge. These UI skills take time to develop. I personally am still learning even after like 10 years of doing it. Coming up with the visual elements is very challenging for me and I spend a lot of time rearranging things in photoshop before I actually start coding anything at all in Unreal.

Whew, that was a lot, but I hope that gives you some thoughts and a place to start!

I don't have any posts out there about Blender/Unreal shader workflows right now, but I'll consider making another post sometime soonish. I appreciate you asking and you're welcome! :)

#ask #ui/ux #long post

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kyouka-supremacy · 2 months ago

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You said In the tags of your recent asks "akutagawa actually is portrayed very naïve in canon".

Could you explain this more pls? Because I want to improve my writing of his character in my fics and in a sense i do understand what you mean here but I can't put it into words?! Like I don't have good grasp on this aspect of his character..

(And sorry if you received this ask twice my connection is bad idk if my previous ask has been sent or not 🙏)

I'm truly endlessly flattered you would take my interpretation of the character as characterization model, but at the same time I feel like advicing you to take everything I say with a grain of salt, since I feel like my interpretations can be a little unpopular in the fandom... (´；ω；｀)

Hi, thank you for this ask! I love talking about Akutagawa, and I find this to be a very endearing trait of his. Although I don't have many specific instances to pinpoint, I believe that there's a series of mannerism and inclinations he has that, together with his personality, can be explained in a picture of general naïvety. In particular, I think his general impulsivity and habit not to think things through result in such outcome: he's very... Superficial in a way. He takes things at face value. He's easy to trick. He doesn't constantly question and overthink as Atsushi does; he's simply very straightforward and direct. That's just how he is! (It's cute). The most blatant example for me is when he falls for Atsushi-Dazai's trick in chapter 34- of course, he's desperate, it's a very heartbreaking moment, but you see how Dazai wouldn't have fallen for it had him been in his place. Atsushi probably wouldn't have either, because he cares about his life enough not to jump off a balcony just like that. And that's the thing about Akutagawa's naïvety in the scene- he acts impulsively, spontaneously, without thinking about the consequences of his actions (even ignoring the putting himself in danger, he ultimately was easily tricked into letting Atsushi escape).

Akutagawa *is* narrow-minded. He speaks very bluntly and honestly, and he wears his heart on his sleeve. I remember one post defining him as having a single set of priorities that goes like “1. Kill the weretiger 2. Get Dazai’s approval 3. Die. That is his entire plan for his future. He has not planned farther than that.” and I think it really catches the character's essence. He doesn't overthink! He's straightforward! The man is thick. Take a look at his guidebook profiles answers: “What did you feel when joining forces with Atsushi? I’ll kill him next time.” “What's something you've recently been worried about? Does Dazai-san think about how much I've grown stronger?” “Something you've been into recently? Searching for Dazai's house.” “What do you want to overcome? My nemesis, the man-tiger.” “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?: Becoming the strongest ability user in Yokohama.” He really has like, two thoughts going on for him, and doesn't think much further than that. His whole “all you think about is slicing up the enemy before you” attitude as put by Atsushi is symptomatic of his simpleness of mind; and Atsushi is not wrong about him. Do you understand why I say Akutagawa is naïve? He's got a very limited set of priorities, and doesn't think much beyond of that.

By the way, in my opinion Akutagawa has been moulded by Dazai specifically not to approach things critically, to make him more inclined to follow orders blindly and not question things; so that contributed to this certain tendency to simply believe that what he's being said is, generally, true. I believe it makes sense for his position to contribute to that, too? Akutagawa is a pm executioner, a scary serial murderer; there's not that much people who would dare lie to him, but that probably ended up backfiring in the way that he ended up not expecting it from people, and he'll be assuming his own frightening aura will scare people off trying to lie to him, which in reality doesn't always work.

It’s quite endearing. I think Akutagawa is childish in a lot of ways - impulsive, immature -, and that's simply because he never got to grow up, you know? I stick to my take that Akutagawa looks way younger than he is in age, and that contributing to the horror aspects of his imaginary- like a ghost who was killed too soon and didn't get to grow up. Him having been deprived of normal circumstances that help properly develop critical thinking skills is self-explainatory, so that also explains him being so naïve, like a child.

#Thank you for the ask!!!!#Sorry it took me. Literally forever. I hope this still reaches you Anon (╥﹏╥)#ryūnosuke akutagawa #bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd analysis #mine #people asks me stuff

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tenebraevesper · 9 months ago

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I don't know if you saw the publication that @zoe-oneesama made but in this publication she points out that Lila is a mediocre liar and manipulator who only achieves her goals thanks to the power of the script and because Lila simply knows that everyone is stupid when she is around and takes advantage of their stupidity showing the scene in which Lila tells Adrien that she is a heroine with the Fox Miraculous and also Tikki says that she had never I've seen someone lie so well when in reality Lila didn't even bother to hide the shopping bag from the necklace but it's right next to her and no one notices.

Furthermore, Lila has no reason to be the new Hawk Moth to terrorize Paris. I would dare say that Chloe has more reasons to be the new Hawk Moth because she literally lost everything because of her parents, Lila, Ladybug and Hawk Moth and they all live (lived in Hawk Moth's case) in Paris so she has many reasons to want revenge of all of them while the only reason Lila has is that Ladybug, Marinette and Adrien called her out for lying which I think is the stupidest motivation I have ever seen in a villain.

Another thing I have seen is that many say that Lila is a better illusion magic user than Rena Rouge but they forget that Rena had the restriction of the Fox Miraculous of only being able to use her special illusion ability ONCE while Lila could create the amount of illusions that she wanted because she was not using the Fox Miraculous but rather she was AKUMATIZED and the power that her akuma gave her is based on creating illusions.

With the terrible writing this show has, I really wouldn't be surprised if Lila is a sentimonster or an adult who looks like a teenager due to a hormonal problem.

I follow @zoe-oneesama and I absolutely agree with her take on Lila, as well as this post.

In a show with bad writing, Lila is just an example of the writers telling us stuff, i.e. that she's very good at lying and trickery and manipulation, but they don't even show us her competence, instead making everyone take their stupid pills for Lila to actually get away with her lies. Once again, if any character in this show had braincells, she wouldn't survive even for an episode.

I also agree that Lila has no reason to be the new Hawk Moth, and it feels that this is just Thomas Astruc going ''teenagers are worse than abusive adults''. Not to mention, despite being the next main villain, she barely has had any appearances in the show, or had even done anything besides being Gabriel's lackey or suddenly teaming up with Chloé (that team up literally came out of nowhere, Lila wasn't even present anywhere in Season 4 until then).

Honestly, I too wouldn't be surprised if Lila was a Sentimonster, because at least you can explain that her power is to lower the IQ of everyone she interacts with so she can get away with her lies.

#Ten's Thoughts #ask #ml salt #mlb #miraculous ladybug #lila rossi #lila salt #ml writing salt #thomas astruc salt

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siffrin-enthusiast · 9 months ago

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hello! I don't follow you but I've seen your post about the fact Tumblr is banning trans women, black people and censoring posts about palestine for no reason float around, I had no idea that was happening, so thanks for pointing that out, but also, do you have more info on that? This might be a huge ask but this is such a strange and sad thing to hear about and I want to know more about it if that's okay.

hi anon! i would like to point out that i'm not one of the marginalized groups being censored by tumblr (as i'm a white, american transmasc) and i recognize that i'm very privileged to not have been censored and have the ability to speak on this, with resources predominantly gathered by trans women and people of color, so in future i would reccomend you ask someone who is a victim of transmisogyny/racism by the tumblr staff. that being said, i'll do my best to educate you and point you in some good directions. if anyone else wants to add anything that i missed to this, or correct any mistake i've made, feel free to do so!

tw for transphobia and screenshots of explicit calls to violence (there will be a clear TW so you know where it is.)

if this gets my account exploded, it’s been real.

the most recent example that made site-wide news was banning the transfemme user predestrogen (also known as rita) who was undergoing transphobic harassment and mass false-reporting for sfw pictures (here's a second tumblr user i found undergoing the same kind of harassment and here's a second account of rita's experience with photomatt from a friend of hers). she reported these threats and false reports, to no avail (as a post here details matt's response to terfism), and got pissed off and made a VERY obviously joking post about the site's ceo mattphoto’s car being exploded with hammers. this was very clearly one of the absurd joke threats tumblr is known for. this resulted in predestrogen getting banned, with matt nearly calling the police on her, and furthermore, followed onto twitter by matt.

here is the tumblr post in question that started everything.

here's one of MANY tweets of matt's to rita, and to do your own research a post i found with multiple more of them.

following users to a platform without them mentioning you? IS REALLY BAD. he deliberately searched for that account and sent multiple replies back to predestrogen. and hey, while we're here, he also..stalked the tags for a little while LMAO and kept replying to random users.

as you can hopefully see, this is very obviously a joke threat. "i hope your car is covered in exploding hammers" is not a credible threat of violence. all of this over..this post.

you don't even need to take my word for it. here is a dropbox folder of screenshots of his that you can personally look through.

please note that this is ONE recent example of a disabled trans woman being banned without violating the tumblr terms of service in the sea of many trans women and people of color who have likewised been banned despite not violating TOS, unlike a few that i can find within about three clicks from my post that went viral. i have reported both of the below replies openly calling for violence against immigrants in the comments of this post already yesterday, and they have not been removed.

tw: explicit calls for violence.

scroll past this section if you do not want to see them.

these are not joke threats. i don't think i need to explain why talking about shooting immigrants is really fucking bad. i’m aware that tumblr has to deal with a large number of reports, but i hope you can recognize the absurdity of exploding hammers being banned and having the threat of a police call and followed on a different platform while actively calling for death to immigrants remaining unchanged at the time of posting this.

tw ends here.

while we're here, have some receipts of matt being not exactly pro-palestine.

to show that this is not a one-time thing, here's him following a zionist on this platform. funnily enough, from math that i could be wrong about..

the right screenshot says transmascpetewentz reblogged with the pro-isreal comment eleven days after its original date, feburary 12th, which means feburary 23rd. which happens to be the same day photomatt followed petewentz. i am not saying matt followed petewentz because of this post, i just noticed a coincidence.

i encourage you to do your own research, ask trans women and people of color on this site, and come to your own conclusions, anon. i hope this could help point you in a helpful direction.

#trans #free palestine #kuiper asks #tw transphobes #transphobes #tw violence #transmisogny tw #predestrogen #photomatt #predstrogen

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countriesgame · 1 year ago

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I have to say. I don't mean to be rude, but I feel like some of these polls need some research from your part. Obviously, the fun of the game is having people submit what they associate with any given country, but a lot of the stuff people have been submitting is... a tad off.

I don't expect the average Tumblr user to know the intricacies of, say, Bulgaria or Kyrgyzstan, but I feel that's where a bit of better research from your part would go a long way. Like I know it's frustrating that there's not a lot of prompt submissions, but that's where you'd fill in, instead of doing stuff like associating entire countries with stuff like Harry Potter.

I also don't really understand what counts and doesn't count as a morbid topic, either? Some countries' polls were cool in that you deliberately avoided having terrorism and war be one of the possible prompts (I was the anon that thanked you for not including a cartel option for Mexico, once again many thanks for that), but then other countries are seemingly unable to shake that off, like Kuwait for example. It's also bizarre that you exclude Israel on account of current affairs but had no problem adding in Russia, despite the fact the Russo-Ukranian War is still ongoing and it has been confirmed they've enacted genocides in certain Ukranian cities.

It's also a little weird that the US poll was so negative when the other two comparable powers, Russia and China, got more positive choices. I get that English-speaking Tumblr is mostly American, but I'm going to be entirely real with you guys, as someone who isn't, the mindset of portraying yourselves as the world's devil is a facet of American exceptionalism. It doesn't magically stop applying to your ideology just because you think of yourselves as Satan as opposed to God. You should either commit to portraying imperialist countries negatively or treat yourselves like any other.

Sorry for the long post and for the scolding at the end, I just want to see this fun blog bloom into the best possible version of what it can be.

Believe it or not, I do actually do research, but you do understand that "doing research" for a blog, that is pretty much not important, is just... googling stuff. Yes, I could have added other stuff that wasn't HP related in the Bulgaria one, I chose it because I didn't see it as offensive per se, not like horrible associations people had for other countries, and it was the most mentioned thing by far.

Doing these polls take a lot of time. If I were to do more research, I would have to slow down the polls... a lot. And I think it's naive to think I could possibly do a good research for every single country. A lot of history is very intricate and deep and it would take me a lot of time to study... and then what? To determine myself what is important and what is not? As a foreign reading stuff in a language that is not even their own - because i can only read in three languages. I started doing this because I accepted that it was going to be imperfect. I do not have the time or the energy to do justice for every country, which was why from the very beginning I made it clear that it would be based on people's association and I would only censor what I thought was very bad. And guess what, I'm actually doing more than that. Many countries didn't have enough submissions to say 11 different things and I had to google, and choose - from what I personally think it looks more important from random websites like the country's wikipedia page or tourism information to what to visit in this country.

I do think the Israel situation is different then China and Russia, which is why I included it. It's not a "israel is evil, other countries are good" thing. I do not believe in "evil" powers. There are good people and good things everywhere, there are many horrible governments. I already explained part of my thought of not including it and I'm not going to go around discussing this again, because it was a decision I made, with what i was comfortable with. As I said, it was more of a solidarity gesture with Palestine than anything.

Lastly, please stop assuming I'm usamerican, I'm not and I've said it on this blog many times, so I don't enjoy your use of "you" to refer to me as I was was usamerican. I was not born in that country and have never lived there. When I started doing this, my point was that it would be nice to learn about other countries and share about their cultures. The US does not need this.

Other countries may be imperialists, yes, but in western culture the US dominates media in a way no other country does. I do not know if people in Asia, for exemple, feel the same way. I'm speaking for myself and, considering everyone who shares polls here is on tumblr, I'm going to assume everyone is used to a very US-centric view. This means we do NOT need to know about their culture, their cities, their monuments. God, we know about it already. So my choice to include negative options in the US was not "imperialism is bad", is the US doesn't need this.

I don't think, in a western view - that dominates tumblr - projecting Russia or China as "evil imperialists" is actually uh groudbreaking. That is literally what we hear the most. I did include things like imperialism in Russia, did not really include it in China because it was NOT as mentioned in the associations.

I'm sorry for this long ass answer, but doing this is very tiring. I am doing research and I am thinking of every single option and whether it is offensive or is it just a history fact, and is that a fun fact or is that even true, and hey that country doesn't have stuff let's see each of the single submitions stuff and see which one seems more famous or more adequate, and finding people who are from that country and talking to them and seeing if it is ok. And I do that because I care and I think learning about other cultures is very important and if at least one person is learning something about a different country is at least worth it. And maybe a lot of times that person is just going to be me doing the polls but that's okay too. And still every country I do there is someone in the tags angry at me because i either didn't include an specific thing or included something they didn't like it, even when it's knowingly what their country is most known for. If I try to care and worry about all of that, i am going to explode.

The very first week I started doing that, I was almost giving up because I felt it wasn't worth it. And my therapist said I should try to see it as an exercise to see people criticizing and being angry at me so I would get dessensitized in time (hey, can you guess that's a issue for me from this or what) and that would be good for me in other areas of my life. Clearly, I'm still not great at just listening and not being affected by that.

TL;DR: I am trying. I'm trying very fucking hard. But I am a human with a real life out of this, I don't have enough time. And I'm always trying to make decisions fast here so I won't just stop doing it. It's not always the best, but it's what I can do.

#i was going to reply in private #but you know what just going to post it so if other people feel the same #answers

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spacestationvampire · 8 months ago

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the way you color things makes me want to commit crimes. any coloring tips for a baby digital artist who doesn’t know how to do the computer things good?

AUGH apologies for taking so long, i was in the middle of writing this answer and the whole thing was deleted as soon as i switched to another tab on my phone, and then the draft didn't save the second time i tried to write it. jfc at least i had it written out in my notes app the second time. anyway, thank you thank you thank you!! this was very nice to recieve, i love getting asks ❤️

i'm not versed in the arts of drawing on a computer, either, so i can't give tips in regards to specific programs (said in chronic procreate user voice) but i can certainly give universal advice keep in mind that i'm not professionally taught in the slightest so i lack much of the vocabulary to describe my methods, and remember that my word is not law!

in case of confusion, everything has been explained. i've added a cut because it got needlessly long. i've also added visual guides for certain tips, and image descriptions for each one

to be honest, much of what i do when picking colors is done with the help of gradient maps (more on that later) but when choosing my base colors i follow these rules:

1. you don't have to cell shade with purple + multiply and an add layer. that's the voice of lavendertowne attempting to take control of your body. stamp it out. (/j i love her)

2. bright, vivid colors!

3. instead of shifting just the brightness and saturation when picking colors to shade, shift the hue, too! in the first image, we can see that the circle is dull and boring. in comparison, the second image pops!

4. so, how does this work?

without getting too much into color theory--because while i've studied it before, i don't trust myself to articulate it properly without making a fool of myself--it's all about how colors interact with each other. for example, a beige circle looks lighter when surrounded by a dark background rather than just plain white.

in the same vein, surrounding greys/desaturated colors with warm colors makes them look blue, and vice versa.

5. blue/grey shadows and warm lighting!! or the other way around. actually, you can use any color for shadows and lighting, depending on your light source. is it sunny outside, or are they beneath white light?

6. for color picking, i reccomend avoiding using the wheel, instead opting for the rgb sliders or the hue saturation brightness sliders if you're dumb like me. this allows for precision in the colors you pick, and accuracy when putting together color palettes.

7. and, finally, the actual computer stuff: gradient maps! i looove gradient maps.

as far as i'm aware, procreate and krita have the gradient map tool. ibispaint does not. i am not sure if firealpaca does.

i usually use gradient maps to make my coloring more cohesive, rather than just slapping them on a monochrome drawing (which is also a totally viable method for coloring, but you'll be less precise, as gmaps only recognize values). when using gradient maps, i prefer to duplicate my completed artwork, lower the opacity of the duplicate on top of it (usually between 25 and 50%, depending on how strong i want the effect to be), and use gradient maps on the duplicate.

this makes my colors all nice and pretty!

11. if you use krita, it can be hard to find the right colors to use for your gradient maps. never fear! i'm here to give you the default templates from procreate, as well as a couple of the ones i've made.

if you have any more questions, or you want me to get further into a specific topic, feel free to send me another ask

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sol-consort · 1 year ago

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You have just opened the floodgates to my long-repressed ME smut ideas I had nowhere to air out. I hope you know I appreciate you💙

Anyways. So. I have a headcannon that biotic fields are, like, personal to each user. For example, if someone raises a shield on someone else, it will feel slightly different depending on who does it, if that makes sense? Anyways, I was thinking in relation to that about human biotics, whose fields feel a little more staticy, especially the early generations, each use giving them slight zaps, sometimes its just their hairs standing on end, other times it's stronger, like getting shocked by an electric fence, really it depends on the strength of the ability and on how they wake up that day, but each person just... feels different. Could inspire deeper connections whether or not romance was present, the comfort of knowing its them, the familiarity of not just their touch or voice but their general being, knowing they have your back each time enemies fly into the air and the air gets that slight smell of ozone and their unmistakable presence.

Ngl, I forgot where I was going with this. I know it was about Kaidan, but I can't remember what it was😅 I'll let you know when I remember more, lol

AAA first ever request on this blog let's fucking gooo!!☆°•●○~

Gonna make it about our beloved support man, Kaidan.

Humans are unbelievable good at pattern recognition in everything. Even things we are not aware of, we still recognise a pattern for, that's the core mechanics of a gut feeling and what helped us survive.

Much like each person having a different gut biome☆ biotics would definitely be different from person to person, think like fingerprints or how each hug is different.

Kaidan's would feel different especially because he is an L2 and one of the first generation of human biotics.

Electricity is more natural to us than we think, it runs in our brain, neurons constantly firing off. So it's nor far fetched for the biotic shields to just align the right way to make us feel certian things on our skin and in our body.

Kaidan is constantly behind you in battle, watching over you and assessing your health and shield. The closest thing to a token medic you could call out for in desperation.

His shields would feel like a wave of soothing chill after the burn of a bullet, like the comfort of a ibuprofen after a strong headache. It's refreshing and makes you focus on the moment.

It's also intimate in a way you can't explain, in a way that feels very Kaidan. You've felt the shield of other biotics, ones that felt like a warm soft blanket, others that felt reassuring and desensitisating like a surgical table.

You would always murmur a small thank for Kaidan after his soothing shield cools off your burning body, drying off your sweat under the armor suit and lessening the ache of your joints.

And he'd eat those small compliments up. Be it a full thank you or an appreciative nod of the head. One time, you said, "Good job, Kaidan." A slip of the tongue where you forgot his title amidst the battle, it rings in his head to this day.

How breathless your voice was, the genuine gratitude in it as you praised him for doing such a good job at watching over his commander, having your back. You acknowledged his effort in supporting the team when lesser soldiers would scoff at his lack of combat power.

Somehow, you're always the first to get his shield during battle. His top priority over everyone else in the battlefield. You can confidenlty storm through a crowd of enemies and be confident that your lieutenant has your back.

One time your hand brushed against his and you noticed something. How soothingly cold it was.

Also feel free to flood my inbox with all of your thoughts I am literally starving like a hungry mutt for Mass Effect concepts. I am frothing at the mouth as we speak I am going to gnaw at the GPU of my pc.

#☆Kaidan #☆fluff #☆character specific #Kaidan Alenko x reader

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ewanmitchellcrumbs · 1 year ago

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People are forgetting something important. Everyone has a right to write what they want, and/or state an opinion on their own blog. The nuance is that there is a way to do it. There is a difference in these next 2 sayings:

« I don’t like to drive. It just doesn’t make me feel good and I don’t see the point of it. »

« I don’t like to drive, can we all just fucking stop driving? As if that even made you cool! Since when is driving something that gave you importance? Are we even living in the same world?? »

In both these statements, an opinion is stated. In the second example however, the tone is condescending, almost belittling. That is all the difference. That is why people reacted the way they did. The opinion was never wrong. The way it was stated was. As if people who did not share your opinion, were less intelligent. That is why they are upset. Not because you don't like one fanfic trope.

I am not writing this to stir drama even more. I geniunely like you and your blog, I am just trying to explain what I feel is the reason for the drama around your reblog. Maybe you can understand where others are coming from and why they got upset and hurt from your reblog.

Hello. Thank you for the message, and thank you for keeping it civil. I appreciate that!

I had considered waiting until I returned from my hiatus to respond to this, but there are a few things that have immediate relevance that I feel are worth pointing out.

When responding colloquially to a post, as I had in that instance, I tend to type how I talk - it can come across as a bit abrasive, but my intent was never to upset anyone. I was just venting, not suggesting anyone stop doing what they are doing. More of a “this really boils my piss” rather than “don’t ever do this or I will tar and feather you”.

My mistake was in replying to a user that had reblogged my response - I wanted to clarify my intent, but hadn’t realised that this was a person who has previously been involved in spreading hate about me on this website.

Their responses to me grew increasingly hostile, and as soon as I realised who they were I blocked them. But it was too late.

You see, it doesn’t matter what I say, this person and the people they associate with will find any excuse to drag me. I could say the sky is a lovely blue colour today, and their response would be “oh my fucking god, she has a problem with all other colours!” When you’re determined to hate someone then nothing will stop you. That post was effectively a red rag to a bull.

I don’t really mind that they are publicly being nasty about me - I am an advocate for freedom of expression and it is their right to call me a cunt, etc. I may not like what they have to say, but I will defend with my life their right to say it.

What I do have a problem with is them suggesting I am xenophobic/racist. That is defamation of character, that is libel, and you can land yourself in serious legal trouble with that sort of chat.

To clear things up, this stems from my scepticism over the initial announcement of Ewan attending CCXP. I refused to believe it was true until it was officially confirmed, which I think is a rational mindset to have, but apparently that equates to me hating Brazilians?! Let’s be clear, I’d have reacted the same way to Ewan being announced for a con anywhere in the world, because he has previously refused to do them.

Sorry this ended up being much longer than I anticipated! And to clarify, this is not an invitation for people to send hate to the people I’m talking about, so please don’t.

#asked and answered

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forcedhesitation · 6 months ago

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only received about 150 follows or so bots from last night. thank goodness this is slowing down. there is still a discrepancy between my follower counts each day, that I'm not able to explain. I don't know if I just can't see certain bots, or something, because I've scrolled through my entire follower list and not found bots to account for this increased number. I know for a fact my follower count wasn't that high before, so I'm a bit confused...

I will warn anyone else, though, that the bots aren't always using the default new account picture with some random three word url. nor are all of them trying to advertise online gambling. some of them do actually have "bios" that try to mimic the bios of real accounts.

common features I've noticed in the "bios" of these mimic bots:

usually a nondescript anime character profile picture. very often the character will have pale skin, dark hair, and white clothing. if not this, it's a photo of an actual person with a similar appearance, but the photo might be a bit artsy, like a close up of the face, or a mysterious side profile.

if the profile picture does not feature a person, it will likely be a cat photo.

there is usually just one emoji in the bio, and it might not even have anything to do with their name. most common ones I saw were any one of the heart emojis.

the description might fully repeat their url, or contain some slight variation of their url, and then pronouns. usually nothing else will be included, except maybe a country or just "minor." The way all of this information is written is formatted without the typical consideration for readability that real human tumblr users typically have, and looks more like an unformatted copy-paste.

there are sometimes weird characters in the bio that make no sense to use. Like a percentile sign (%) placed in a strange place, for example.

as is common with other bots, there are no posts on the blog, or there is just one post. most common subject for that one post seems to be a cat photo, or a link to something. which you should obviously never click.

You do not get a notification for the follow from this account. Over the past few days, I've gotten thousands of bot follows. I am still only getting notifications for follows from real people though, and not for any of the bots. So that gives away who the mimic bots are. of course, there is the chance that notifications may not be working correctly all the time, so take this piece of advice with a grain of salt.

hope no one else has to deal with this bullshit. If you are dealing with it, I pray that it will not be anywhere near as bad as what I had. if you can, try to report as many as you reasonably can because that at least gives information to the people on staff whose job it is to handle bots.

#observation logs #bot spam #bot follows #follow spam #bots #spam bots #I'm not sure what's more pathetic.#people who bot spam tumblr.#or people who cheat in dead by daylight.#you have got to be one HELL of a loser to do either.

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knave-of-flowers · 6 months ago

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my personal wheelchair dos and don’ts

please note, i don’t speak for all wheelchair users. i use a powered/electric portable wheelchair part time. i use a cane for very short distances and around my house (or i just hold onto walls at home due to space, but i don’t suggest this). my chair is fairly small and it folds so someone can lift it into a vehicle for me. i also have a walker to do seated activities at home because my house is very old and isn’t wheelchair accessible. if i’m shopping, or going to browse at the library, or going out for a walk, or going to a large building for a doctor’s appointment, i’m in my chair.

do ask before touching or moving my chair, take no as an answer, and ask me to move if i’m in the way.

don’t move or touch my chair without asking, power it off without knowing or asking me how to do it (it will beep loudly at you, it yells if it isn’t happy), try to fold it, ask to sit in it just to try it out, try to move me or my chair if i’m in your way (good luck, it has brakes), treat my chair roughly, move my chair accessories for me, etc.

do ask to open the door for me, and stand to the side while holding the door open with your arm or foot.

don’t rush to grab the door without my consent when i’m already partway in, even if i look like i’m struggling.

don’t open the door for me without asking, or if i say no to your request. i will still thank you no matter what, but i will probably insult you to a family member or friend later.

do ask to get something off a high shelf and respect my answer if i say no.

don’t hand me something if i asked you not to, or stare or insult me if i stand up to get something.

do understand that i can walk and stand sometimes, and i can fully move my legs and arms as long as i’m not in severe pain that day.

don’t become shocked, horrified, angry, disgusted, etc. when you realize i can stand, move, and walk. your gasps and stares and assumptions i’m faking are just offensive.

do talk to me normally, and look down toward my direction some while you speak as if you were speaking to an adult who is seated in a regular chair. i also don’t mind it when someone grabs a chair for a longer or one on one conversation, so they can be at a comfortable eye level.

don’t bend down, kneel, crouch, use a baby voice, or ignore me in favor of talking to whoever is with me unless i have indicated they can explain something for me

do treat me like you would a person in a chair, or a person who’s walking and simply takes up more room and has a larger personal space area, and warn me if you’re behind me or out of sight but still very close to my chair.

don’t crowd me, stand right behind me, give me a ridiculously huge berth, ignore me if i say excuse me, purposefully bump into me, or put yourself in a position where i might not see you and run into you.

do say i’m going for a walk, a stroll, etc.

don’t say i’m going for a roll, a drive, or anything else of that nature. even if i’m not literally walking on my feet, it’s still the same idea.

don’t correct me if i say i’m going for a walk or walking over somewhere and i’m in my chair.

do make well timed jokes that aren’t ableist and don’t mock me, if we are decently close. for example i’ve had friends call me snap, crackle, pop due to my noisy joints.

don’t make jokes at my expense that put me down or mock my disability, such as jokes about me being weak or telling me i must be old.

don’t make the same joke i’ve heard a million times. saying “go for a walk… or go for a roll, haha!” isn’t funny. it’s not a matter of offense, i’m genuinely just bored.

do compliment my chair or chair accessories, and ask me what kind of chair i have.

don’t ask me personal questions about why i use a chair, unless you’re close to me or are my medical provider.

don’t ask me to explain every detail about my chair or why i chose it unless you’re shopping for one yourself or for a loved one, or we’re close (and i’m not in a rush).

don’t tell me why i don’t need this specific type of chair, ask me why i don’t use a manual, etc.

do compliment me, nod to me, wave to me, glance at me, look at me for a couple of seconds (my chair is cool, i don’t mind this).

don’t laugh at me, glare at me, stare at me/watch me for a very long time and never talk to me, follow me, roll your eyes at me, shake your head at me, etc. just be kind.

do schedule get togethers at venues that are truly accessible, and tell me the details or send me reviews with photos of the location before hand.

don’t schedule at inaccessible places, or assume a place is fully accessible just because they say they’re ada compliant or have a ramp.

do ask me specific questions about my personal needs and what accommodations i need.

don’t assume you know what i need and what my abilities are in a certain situation unless i have explicitly expressed them before.

do ask me about my horn if you’re up for hearing a very loud and shrill extended beeping noise.

don’t ask me about my horn if you’re not up for hearing a very loud and shrill extended beeping noise.

those are the main ones i think, but i might edit this if i think of more!

#disabled #ambulatory wheelchair user #wheelchair user #part time wheelchair user #dos and donts #accessibility #power wheelchair user #disabled adult #personal preferences

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adventuringblind · 9 months ago

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Hi! I really liked your magical realism AU! Would it be possible for you to explain it a bit more? Like- how do levels work? Does it mean that the higher the level the more powerful the element you have is? Who is the most powerful member of the grid in your AU? Also, if you had a level/ability, what would it be?

Also also, you're a really good writer, just wanted to say 💗. Thank you for exploring some heavier topics in your writing and allowing readers to be a bit more vulnerable too!

There is like... so much here honestly. World building is my absolute favorite part of writing AU's because not one is the same! Obviously there are other magical realism AU's similar but this one is mine and I spent literal days figuring this out

In all honesty - you hit my sweet spot with this question. Below is my long ass rant about this AU along with an info dump. Gonna start creating tags for it since it's picking up more traction!

So I spent more time than I want to admit playing around with certain concepts. The rating system was a big one for me because it allows for abilities to manifest in different ways.

I started out calling it a 'scary rating' because I thought it was funny and now I head cannon they use it for fun. Rating is so... boring.

The scale is a 1-10 system. ! is the least powerful where 10 is the most. the most common are 4-7 simply because of how these energies manifest themselves.

The EU's (energy users) are more or less feared. I've deemed this as part of human evolution. It's not some kind of lab experiment gone wrong, just humans adapting to things in the environment.

That being said - Energies are more or less sentient. It's something I plan to explore in later fics. This comes into play a lot in Mend Me because I wrote an entire scene of energies either meshing or not.

In that fic, the protagonist is a level 10 meaning her energy is really high. People feel it because it's strong. Lando is a three (I think) and should not be able to be in the room with her but is able to manage because their energies meld together well.

One of the big things I stumbled across while building is that kind of dynamic. I tried explaining to a few people and it wasn't making sense so I had to rework it a few times. Here is the condensed explanation:

Energies are a natural thing and the next step in human evolution

They have their own personalities and often work with their human counter part versus working for them

Because normal humans fear the unknown and crave control, they came up with the identifying bands

All EU's are required to wear one

It shows their ability category (more on that later), their rating, and acts a suppressor band

Because EU's aren't allowed to be out without them on, the normal humans never adapted to the presence of energies and can't stomach being around anything 4 or higher. 1-3 still messes with them but not as severely.

Due to energies not being allowed to interact with each other and work together as intended, other EU's have to make a point to spend time together without their suppressor bands on in order to gain that familiarity

If you take it a step further you can even use it for different relationships. Pierre and Esteban for example might not work together well because their energies simply clash.

The rating system depends on a lot of different factors really! A level 1 who manipulates water might be able to make a bubbles and that's it. Where a level 10 could make a tsunami and then go for a mile run. A level 8 might be able to make that tsunami, but doing anything after would just be painful.

Now onto the fun part: Powers! I want to note that there are the main branches of powers, the actual power type, and then the sub categories of how that power might manifest. Bare with me here as this isn't all flushed out yet!

Also for references: EU's make up a little less then half the human population. I don't have the time to calculate what it would be in terms of the entire population for these statistics so don't be upset with me please T_T

Healers make up 3% of the EU population. Know by their white arm bands w/ black stripe in the middle (or the reverse Oreo technically speaking).

Witchers (healing but same name twice was driving me insane)

Alchemists

Energy Readers

Mind make up 8% of the EU population. Know by their light blue arm bands.

Telekenetic

Mind Reader

Mind control

Precognition

Illusion

Fazing

Illusion

Psychometry

Empath

Shifters make up 12% of the EU population. They have a bronze arm band but the shifter type is outlined on it (paw print, body, shape).

Animal

Partial

Body Mod

Inanimate (this one was for giggles really)

Sound makes up 11% of the EU population. Their arm bands are gold with vertical gray stripes.

Vocal Flux

Music

Language

Mimicry

Body makes up 15% of the EU population. Known by orange arm bands.

Speed

Strength

flying

Size Alteration

Agility

Druids makes up 9% of the EU population. Known by a Green armband w/ brown stripe in the middle

Animal communication

sentient creation

Plant communication (Lorax style)

Fabricators

Sensory makes up 17% of the EU population and have purple arm bands.

Sight

Smell

Hearing

Taste

Touch

Reapers make up 3% of the EU population. Know by their black arm bands w/ a white stripe in the middle (The real Oreo cookie).

death touch

dream walking

judges

channeling

Primary Elementals make up 12% of the EU population. They have gray armbands w/ a colored strip in the middle indicating element.

Water

Earth

Fire

Air

Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked

Secondary Elementals make up 10% of the EU population. Plain black arm bands because there are to many of them to pick a way to diversify!

Metal

Shadow

Weather

Electricity

Light

There's a ton of details about each of of these but that would require another post. For now, I'll finally answer the questions!

The most powerful in my own head is Carlos because I made him a shifter. A level 8 BEAR. Why? because I can. I like to experiment though so that's my own fantasy world. However, if you see a consistent stream of bear Carlos that's why.

If I personally had an ability I'd have to Say a Witcher (leave the name alone! Saying healer twice is weird to meeee!). The reason is wildly morbid...

Draw backs of being a Witcher (healer) is what I like to call a wound transfer. I - much to everyone's displeasure - have intrusive thoughts about hurting myself in incredibly morbid ways. Getting to heal one person and hurting myself in the process? Sounds like a win-win to me!

#Ren's.inbox #MagicalRealism #Ren's.thoughts #im sorry #not really #spent hours answering this T_T

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