#this is hardly an original idea but also not inspired by any particular person or set

[spacecasehobbit]

After seeing yet another popular tumblr post with thousands of reblogs bemoaning the state of comments on fanfics these days - more specifically, the supposed lack of commenting these days, as opposed to The Good Old Days - I have decided that this is in fact a hill I am willing to die on. I'm making a separate post about it rather than reblogging the latest iteration, though. This is hardly the first time I've seen these types of discussions, and my issue is with the mindset in general, not any of the specific people who hold it.

In the most recent version, the entire post with all its various arguments and assertions was plenty frustrating across the board, but it included one line in particular that cut beautifully to the heart of my issue with this type of discussion. The line in question:

"fanfic authors now are treated like content mills, and not like valued members of a creative community who thrive on interaction."

Once I read this bit, I had to stop, take a few deep breaths, and then go make my own post before I imploded over the sheer level of NOPE this line inspired. And okay. The thing is... I want to say this as gently and kindly as I possibly can, but I need to be real blunt for a minute, too.

That line I quoted sounds like a wannabe social media influencer.

It sounds like a person who thinks fandom is - or should be - comprised of fanfiction writers, aka Valued Content Creators, and their respective communities of readers, aka Content Consumers, a strictly distinct group from fic writers, for whom they create fanfiction content and who in turn pay them back with attention and validation in the form of comments and praise.

It does not sound like a fanfiction author who enjoys the creative hobby of writing stories based on characters and worlds from existing stories, engaging in their hobby within a community of other likeminded creators of fan content.

Frankly, fandom has always been worst when it starts obsessing over Big Name Fans who wind up treated like elite fandom social influencers, instead of hobbyists engaging in a fun hobby together based on mutual interests. A shift towards the idea that every fanfic writer should be effectively a social media influencer whose community consists of fans reading the content they oh-so-lovingly create (but only if they get enough positive attention from passive consumers, presumably readers who don't write their own fic or expect comments back from the author in return) sounds like an absolutely awful direction for fandom to take.

I don't want fanfiction and fandom spaces to turn into another social media space full of Our Valued Content Creators, all fighting to build the largest "community" of passive consumers turned devoted followers.

Again, that sounds frankly fucking awful.

The people who only read fanfiction are not your fanfiction community, because they are not engaging in the shared community hobby of writing fanfiction. Your fanfiction community is, perhaps, the other people who are also writing their own fanfiction based on someone else's original work.

So perhaps if comments really are declining on fics these days, instead of asking why passive readers aren't heaping praise on every fic they read and making sure it all happens where the Valued Creator can hear it, you should ask yourself how many other fanfics you've commented on recently, and then go comment on another one if you're still feeling down about your own work.

Or, I dunno, find a fic author you admire and send them a message on tumblr, if you've already commented on all of their fics that you read and enjoyed.

Or start your own discord for likeminded fans, or find a way to set up your own fandom forums centered on your personal fandom interests and invite other fic authors to come join.

Or, like, anything that involves reaching out to the actual community of hobbyists you can reasonably consider to be a community you are actually a part of.

Aka, other fanfiction writers.

[suzy-queued]

DVD Commentary: Under Lock and Key

@callivich invited me to share behind-the-scenes commentary from a fic. I hope you dig this deep dive into Under Lock and Key!

Give us some stats - (when you wrote it, word count, how long it took to finish, is it a one-shot/multi-chapter, etc) I wrote it in 2021. I posted a chapter a week, and I was actually writing those chapters each week as I went along. 15 weeks of their life = 15 weeks of my life.

What was the initial inspiration for your story? I have general non-specific angst about college. It feels like an earworm, a time in my life where so many things were unfulfilled or unresolved. So many roads not taken. I needed to write something to put those thoughts to rest.

If the story is written from a character’s POV, why did you choose this character? I alternated Ian's and Mickey's POV, because I love seeing both of their sides. That also helps increase the tension, because you can leave one person's thoughts on hold while you go see what the other person is doing.

What was your favorite scene to write? Any of the scenes in chapters 5-8, the simmering time before they actually get together. I love to write their push and pull.

How did you come up with the title? Because hair metal rules.

Did the storyline change in any way as you wrote the story? The story started as a college radio station, where Mickey was a shock jock and Ian was a new volunteer. It would be told via journals that Ian wrote for one of his classes.

I wrote a couple of Ian's journal entries, but nothing was gelling. Once I changed the setting to the lost keys office, the story took off.

Initial ideas, original opening, the day I decided to switch the setting.

Oh, by the way, I usually handwrite everything.

If you are writing a particular trope or genre, was it your first time writing this? This is the sweetest story I had ever written. I had always tried to write compelling plots before, things with adventure and intrigue. For this one, I wanted no villains, hardly any angst, just two people falling in love.

Are there any deleted scenes that didn’t make it to the final story? So, so many.

The original chapters from the radio station.

That night after the mid-semester party, I had about 5,000 more words of them making their way back to Ian's dorm.

I had more descriptions of Mickey being completely into the Chicago music scene.

I outlined an epilogue from 10 years in the future.

Would you ever write a sequel to this story? I do have that epilogue outlined. Not sure if it'll ever see the light of day!

Are there any ‘easter eggs’ in your story - e.g. references to other stories you’ve written, a trope you often use etc? There aren't references to my other stories. I had only published one fic before that. But, man oh man, are there references to my college experience.

The lost keys office was the most fascinating place on my campus. It lived in the basement of the next dorm over. I never needed it, but many people I knew did.

Mickey is based on my friend Sam, who I spent late nights with in the architecture building. He hated every guy I had a crush on and wasn't afraid to tell me. We climbed on yellow steel-beam sculptures, stole signage from the parking garage, scaled buildings and sat in windowsills, talked about music, and harassed each other endlessly. It was one of those "lightning in a bottle" friendships.

Trey Kanahele is based on Gordon, who lost his keys so many times, usually while in the shower. He made it a point to walk across campus in his towel, with his long black hair flowing.

Hannah is based on Leslie, the coolest girl I met in Moore Hall my freshman year.

"Charlotte" and "Clemson" were my top two picks for colleges.

Dr. Neal is based on my current friend Jayme, who is a forensic nursing professor and takes her students to Africa in the summers.

The bulletin board, the grounds of the school, the fire drills in your pajamas, the dining hall, the crazy late-night games, the challenges of registering for classes, the meetings with advisors … all of it is plucked from experience.

If you’ve chosen your most popular story, are you surprised by the popularity? This one has the most hits of any of my stories. I'm surprised that it's the one that people keep coming back to. I've written a bunch more since then, but this one has staying power.

Were you nervous or excited to post this story? I'm nervous to post everything. Even now.

Did you have a beta or a friend who helped you as you wrote? No, I'm stubbornly beta-less.

Anything else you’d like the readers to know about the story? I make my own merch for the stories I write. Here's me in actual college and me today re-imagining college through a Gallavich lens.

This is open to all writers! Pick your favorite story you’ve written or your most popular or the one you think deserves some more love! Or ask your followers to suggest their favorite fic of yours!

And hey, if there's another story of mine you want to hear about, I can share more!

[sokkastyles]

I have, on a few separate occasions recently, seen the phrase "toxic boymom" used about Ursa, and aside from the fact that it's coming from the usual crowd of Azula apologists, I found it hard to articulate why I found that uncomfortable until I read more about the phrase, which seems to have originated on tiktok.

Oh, I could already pretty much guess what these "toxic boymoms" were like, and I'm not contesting that it's toxic (and sometimes abusive) parenting.

But there's also a certain undercurrent of misogyny present that actually hits the nail on the head with why I don't like seeing the term applied to Ursa.

I mean, aside from the fact that Ursa is nothing like these moms that openly admit to loving their sons more than their daughters (the claim that Ursa favored Zuko and neglected Azula can't be supported by the actual show), a lot of the critiques tend to focus on why it's toxic for the wrong reasons, and this is hardly surprising considering how much pressure society puts on mothers.

I saw, in particular, the claim that the reason this kind of parenting is toxic is because "he won't be emotionally mature enough to support his mother when he's older."

It makes me think of the term "momma's boy," and how there's often an insulting connotation there. The idea that a boy who is too close to his mother won't be able to grow into a "man" the way society says a man should be.

Of course, the goal of every parent should be to raise children that are emotionally mature enough to be their own person. I'm not arguing that there aren't parents who treat their children in ways that are genuinely toxic and even abusive by being too emotionally enmeshed, but I do have to question this toxic boymom thing when the focus seems to be on gender expectations. Especially when I see it applied to Ursa, whose only real crime was to try to protect Zuko from abuse as much as she could, to emotionally shield him in ways that he deserved to be shielded, and to teach him to be kind.

There's a certain undercurrent here that seeks to pathologize Zuko's emotional vulnerability as a child, to make it something wrong or some harm done to him by his mother. especially when contrasted with the gendered expectations of his militaristic nation and violent father. And combined with the fact that the abuse Zuko experienced from his father and sister centered around him being seen as weaker, it comes across as blaming Ursa for Zuko's abuse for "making him that way," for not teaching him how to be a real man (Ozai makes it pretty clear how he thinks Zuko should be raised when he says "suffering will be your teacher"), or for being too involved (see also Ozai using Zuko's attachment to his mother against him in DOBS because he knows it's something he can use to hurt him).

In any case, Zuko's story actually does a really interesting thing with the way his mom influenced him by having him take his heroic inspiration from his mom in a way usually reserved for dads in stories, when they aren't hyperviolent abusers like Ozai. It does this in a couple of ways, by having Ursa be Zuko's inspiration for "not giving up even when it's hard," and also helping him to remember who he is. Two things that Zuko does grapple with before really figuring them out. In the beginning, his tendency to not give up led him to get into some pretty dangerous situations and made him self-destructive, and when he remembered who he was in the Earth Kingdom village, they were less than impressed with receiving help from a Fire Nation prince. But once he does figure it out, he takes those lessons and uses them to build a more positive sense of self.

In conclusion, Ursa isn't a toxic boymom.

[lurafita]

Make Them Sparkle

(fanfic, oneshot)

Summary:

If Raphael had any say in this, Magnus would not be allowed to give mundanes writing advice. Ever.

Magnus prided himself on being a person who went with, and adapted to the ever changing times.

He had witnessed many immortals who got stuck in particular time periods. Be it refusing to adopt new fashion trends, or remaining stagnant in certain behaviors or mindsets that had been common at one point in history. Bemoaning how things ‘used to be so much better back in the day’. People who needed to anchor themselves in the past, in order to face the present and future. 

Not Magnus, though. While he treasured many of the memories made during his long existence, he had always been the type to look forward, instead of back. 

He had seen and embraced the progress humanity made, philosophically, technologically, and socially. 

And, while the road of progression hadn’t always been a smooth one and weathered its fair share of hiccups along the way, Magnus certainly appreciated the fruits of this particular labor. 

(And not only mundanes, but the shadow world, too, had come a long way from what it had once been. Magnus would never not be proud of the part his dearest Alexander and his friends and family had played in that development.)

Anyway, being a "modern" warlock, and having personally supported some of the various technological marvels of the world they now lived in, Magnus had a deep appreciation for the internet. 

A way for so many people from so many different places and stages of life to come together, to connect and share with each other, was truly remarkable.

There was almost nothing that the internet didn’t have, unless it connected to matters of the shadow world, but even that was slowly changing.

From funny videos and beautiful music, to shops and art and so much more. 

Websites tailored to specific hobbies or tastes. Sites to find employment, or living accomodations. Those that gave the user an opportunity to make friends, or find love. 

And, of course, so called help-forums. Professionally or community run sites, spanning various topics all around offering advice when someone needed it. 

Like one particular writing forum for aspiring authors, which Magnus had found himself in one sunny afternoon, as he had been browsing aimlessly to waste some time.

One of the requests had caught his eye especially. 

‘Please help me bring fresh wind into old supernatural lore!’

Clicking on the request and reading further, Magnus had learned that the hopeful author was trying to write a teen love story with vampires and werewolves, revolving around a highschool mundane girl and her vampiric love interest, as well as a werewolf contender.

Magnus had snorted, thinking the idea hardly original, and had almost clicked away again, but one sentence had stood out.

‘Vampire love stories are a dime a dozen, I’m well aware of that. But while plot and circumstances often change around the different narratives, the lore and rules behind the vampires rarely do. It’s always a thirst and need for blood, a weakness to religious artifacts, and an inability to bear sunlight. That last one especially, I wish to change for my story, as I feel that describing a whole world that most humans are unaware of, and plays mostly in the dark, is terribly restrictive. But I also think that just waving any effect the sun might have on a vampire away, is a missed opportunity for exploring alternative plot points. Which is why I’m asking for any kind of inspiration or thoughts any of you might be willing to share.’

So Magnus had read on as the author had described their world and characters in a little more detail.

And upon learning of the broody, dark haired, stubborn, kind and compassionate main vampire character, Magnus couldn’t help it when his brain had made the comparison between a fictional character, and his very own favorite broody, dark haired, stubborn, kind and compassionate vampire. 

And as he was thinking of his dear little Raphael, the vampire he had taken under his wing decades ago and practically raised (even though Raphael had been 24 and fully adult by mundane standards when he had been turned), Magnus hadn’t been able to curb his more mischievous impulses. 

Clicking on the answering function to the thread, he had snickered heavily as he typed out just three words.

‘Make them sparkle!’

Who would have thought that, just a few years later, this little bit of innocent fun he had had, would come back to interrupt his sexy make out session with his precious shadowhunter boyfriend?

“Magnus!” The door slammed open and shut in barely more than a second, as an incensed Raphael stormed into the loft.

A lifetime of training and battle ready instincts had Alec lift Magnus off his lap and behind him in just one move (which was so fucking hot, if not for their unplanned intruder, Magnus would have climbed his boyfriend like a tree), as his other hand seemlessly went down to quickly retrieve the throwing knife strapped to his lower leg.

The defensive maneuver was aborted as soon as Alec registered who had just barged into the apartment, and instead the tall man slumped back into the couch (careful not to crush his boyfriend) with a deep, slightly annoyed, sigh. 

Raphael though reacted to neither the knife that had almost been thrown at him, nor the glare the shadowhunter was giving him right then.

Instead, he held up the book he had in hand and snarled in Magnus' direction. “What the fuck is this?!”

Magnus blinked, still trying to sort through the haze of his newly ignited arousal after Alexander’s display of strength and speed, and the clearly agitated mood Raphael seemed to be in.

“It’s called a book, my dear. It holds in its pages the wonder of the written word and thus the power to create wonderful and fascinating tales for all to share.”

If anything, that answer made Raphael look even more mutinous. Which was just rude, if anyone were to ask Magnus. 

“I know what a book is!”

Magnus huffed, finally straightening himself out of the mess of limbs he had been from Alexander’s manhandling him to safety (And they would have a talk about that later. As hot as that had been, Magnus couldn’t have his Alexander trying to shield him while facing a threat on his own.)

“Then why did you ask?”

Raphael could apparently not be bothered to explain, and instead just chucked the book at him. Once again shadowhunter reflexes trumped Magnus' own, and Alec snatched the book out of the air before it could hit the warlock. 

He scrunched up his nose a little (which was adorably cute in Magnus’ humble opinion and he quickly leant forward a bit to peck Alec on the cheek) as he read the title. “Twilight?”

It made Magnus smirk. “Oh, I think I have heard of this. A supernatural teen romance novel, if I remember Biscuit’s words correctly. I must be honest, my dear boy, I didn’t think this would be your type of thing.”

But the vampire just crossed his arms over his chest. “Open it up to the introduction.”

A little puzzled, but also curious, Alec and Magnus did just that. It appeared to be just your ordinary preface to any book. 

‘I thank everyone who has supported me through this, bla bla bla, I’m incredibly honored and grateful for this opportunity to share bla bla bla, I hope this tale will find a way into your heart bla bla bla.’

Really; pretty standard as far as the warlock was concerned. Until they reached the last section on the introductory page, and it slowly dawned on Magnus just why Raphael looked as if he had been forced to listen to Simon ramble about a deep introspection on why Spider-Man was the best Marvel superhero ever.

Oh.

‘I would like to give special thanks to someone I unfortunately have never met personally, but whose input has definitely helped to inspire me to spice things up a bit. So this is to you, The_Magnificent_Bane. I “made them sparkle”!’

“Oh.” 

“Oh?” Raphael thundered. “That’s all you have to say to this? You told this woman to make her vampires sparkle in the sunlight like some demented disco ball! We don’t sparkle! The only sparkly crazy person around here is you! Do you have any idea what the stupid flea balls are going to say when they learn of this? Are you laughing? Stop laughing! There is going to be so many glitter jokes in my future now thanks to you! I’m never gonna hear the end of this! Magnus! Stop laughing!”

Magnus stopped laughing. Eventually. 

[tinylittleobsessions]

What if “House of the Dragon” characters took the MBTI test?

Call me obsessed, but a while ago I wrote a Tumblr post about what personality type would each Narcos: México character get on the MBTI test. I had a lot of fun doing that, so, as my obsession for the last few weeks has been House of the Dragon, I decided to do the same with it's characters.

If you don't know this test, it's a personality test based on a theory written by Carl Gustav Jung that divides people in 16 different types of personalities. The personalities are defined by different combinations of letters that represent specific aspects of our behaviour and way of thinking: "I" for "Introverted", for example, "T" for "Thinking", "J" for "Judging", and so it goes. This way, your result will be something like "ENTJ", or "ISFP".

This test is not universally accepted as scientific, true or correct, BUT, as in the case of zodiac signs, I think it's a lot of fun. 😆 If you don't know your MBTI yet, you can take the test here.

SO, wich MBTI profile would correspond to each House of the Dragon character? My "methodology" here was the following: I took every MBTI profile and thought about wich character it reminded me more of. A few of them were a bit... off: I couldn't really find any character that seemed like an obvious INTP or an obvious ISTP to me; and there were a few characters I could see in more than one profile (Rhaenyra, Daemon, Corlys, Viserys).

Also, though I read the book, I tried to think mostly about the series when writing this; as some characters are a bit different in each story (Alicent, for example, is two different characters for me, if I compare book-Alicent to TV-Alicent). And, OF COURSE, a bit of it was inspired by headcanon: I don’t think we have that much information about Jacaerys or Lucerys, for example, so I may have been kinda influenced by what I read in fanfiction.  😬😅

I have to say I LOVE character study and discussing character personalities in detail, that's why I love writing this kind of post. 😌 I don't mean hate to any of them, and that's okay if you don't agree with me, this is supposed to be just fun. Let's examine each one of them, shall we?

THE ARCHITECT (INTJ- INTROVERTED, INTUITIVE, THINKING AND JUDGING) - Otto Hightower

(I think Larys Strong also belong in this personality type)

- Rational and quick-witted, they pride themselves on their ability to think for themselves - They aren't afraid to break the rules or risk disapproval - Want to be successful, not just inventive - Don't mind acting alone and prefer making decisions without asking for anyone else's input - Insight, logic, and willpower - May be cynical about human nature, assuming that most people are lazy, unimaginative, or simply doomed to mediocrity - Tend to prioritize rationality and success over politeness and pleasantries: they'd rather be right than popular - For these personalities, life is like a giant game of chess

THE LOGICIAN (INTP - INTROVERTED, INTUITIVE, THINKING AND PROSPECTING) - Lucerys Velaryon

- People with this personality type hardly ever stop thinking: they often lose themselves in thought - Have a reputation for being pensive, detached, and a bit reserved - Tend to get tired out by extensive socializing - Can overthink even the smallest of decisions, having a tendency for anxiety - It's a bad idea to lie to them - Open-minded, curious, original and perfectionistic

THE COMMANDER (ENTJ - EXTRAVERTED, INTUITIVE, THINKING AND JUDGING) - Rhaenyra Targaryen

- Natural-born leaders - They embody the gifts of charisma and confidence, and project authority in a way that draws crowds together behind a common goal - Use their drive, determination and sharp minds to achieve whatever end they've set for themselves - They love a good challenge, big or small; and they firmly believe that given enough time and resources, they can achieve any goal - Have a particular skill in recognizing the talents of others - Tend to be dominant, relentless, and unforgiving - "Fake it 'til you make it"

THE DEBATER (ENTP - EXTRAVERTED, INTUITIVE, THINKING AND PROSPECTING) - Daemon Targaeryen

- Quick-witted and audacious - They aren't afraid to disagree with the status quo: in fact, they're not afraid to disagree with pretty much anything or anyone - Known for their rebellious streak: no belief is too sacred to be questioned, no idea is too fundamental to be scrutinized, and no rule is too important to be broken - Knowledgeable and curious, with a playful sense of humor, they can be very entertaining - The ultimate devil's advocates - Take a certain pleasure in uncovering the value of underdogs and outliers - Original, energetic and charismatic

THE ADVOCATE (INFJ - INTROVERTED, INTUITIVE, FEELING AND JUDGING) - Viserys Targaryen

- Success doesn't come from money or status but from seeking fulfillment and being a force for good in the world - They care about integrity, and are rarely satisfied until they've done what they know to be right - Move through life with a clear sense of their values, and aim never to lose sight of what truly matters (not according to other people or society, but according to their own wisdom and intuition) - Carry around a sense of being different from most people; they don't always fit in with those around them - They typically care more about altruism than personal gain; they aspire to fix society's deeper problems - Tend to act with great thought and care, and it can frustrate them when other people don't recognize their good intentions - Creative, insightful; sensitive to criticism

THE MEDIATOR (INFP - INTROVERTED, INTUITIVE, FEELING AND PROSPECTING) - Helaena Targaryen

- They have vibrant, passionate inner lives: creative and imaginative, they happily lose themselves in daydreams, inventing all sorts of stories and conversations in their minds - Are known for their sensitivity: they can have profound emotional responses to music, art, nature, and the people around them - Idealistic and empathetic, they long for deep, soulful relationships; but may sometimes feel lonely or invisible - Introspective to the core, they're exquisitely attuned to their own thoughts and feelings, but they yearn to understand the people around them as well - They are compassionate and nonjudgmental, always willing to hear another person's story - The troubles of the world weigh heavily on their shoulders, and these personalities can be vulnerable to internalizing other people's negative moods or mindsets - May reveal their innermost thoughts and secrets through art, metaphors and fictional characters - Generous and idealistic; emotionally vulnerable and self-isolating

THE PROTAGONIST (ENFJ - EXTRAVERTED, INTUITIVE, FEELING AND JUDGING) - Jacaerys Velaryon

(I don’t know, Jace just has this “big brother” energy to me 🤣)

- Thoughtful and idealistic, they strive to have a positive impact on other people and the world around them - Rarely shy away from an opportunity to do the right thing, even when doing so is far from easy - Tend to be vocal about their values, including authenticity and altruism - When something strikes them as unjust or wrong, they speak up - Are motivated by a sincere wish to do the right thing rather than a desire to manipulate or have power over other people - Reliable; lead by example

THE CAMPAIGNER (ENFP - EXTRAVERTED, INTUITIVE, FEELING AND PROSPECTING) - Corlys Velaryon

- True free spirits; they stand out in any crowd - Are devoted to enriching their relationships and their social lives - Independent and creative, they're always on the lookout for the magic and meaning in everyday life - Believe that everything (and everyone) is connected, and they live for the glimmers of insight that they can gain into these connections - Imagination, creativity, and curiosity - Can get restless and struggle with self-discipline and consistency - Will spend a lot of time exploring different relationships, feelings, and ideas before they find a path for their lives that feels right

THE LOGISTICIAN (ISTJ - INTROVERTED, OBSERVANT, THINKING AND JUDGING) - Rhaenys Targaeryen

- Pride themselves on their integrity - They mean what they say, and when they commit to doing something, they make sure to follow through - Have an ability to stay grounded and logical, even in the most stressful situations - Rarely hesitate to take responsibility for their actions and choices: they are quick to own up to their own mistakes, admitting the truth even if it doesn't make them look good - Might unfairly misjudge people who can't match their self-control, suspecting that someone is being lazy or dishonest when that person might actually be coping with other challenges. Even if they don't speak these judgments aloud, their disdain can come through regardless, earning them a reputation for being somewhat strict or unempathetic - Dedicated, responsible, and honest - May find themselves doing other people's work (and not getting credit for it) - Aren't known for expressing their emotions readily

THE DEFENDER (ISFJ - INTROVERTED, OBSERVANT, FEELING AND JUDGING) - Alicent Hightower

(I think that, in the books, Alicent is much more ambitious. In the series, however, everything she does seems influenced by her father; or else out of a sincere desire to protect their children. So I think she fits this profile)

- Devoted, people with this personality type feel a deep sense of responsibility to those around them, and rarely demand recognition for all that they do - Despite their reserve, they tend to have well-developed people skills and robust social relationships - May feel guilty or stressed when they contemplate changes (even necessary changes) to themselves, their relationships, or the way they've done things in the past - People with this personality type can be meticulous to the point of perfectionism: "good enough" is rarely good enough - They tend to underplay their accomplishments, but that doesn't mean that they don't enjoy recognition, or that they're fine with being taken for granted - Loyal, dedicated, thoughtful, observant and supportive - Repress their feelings and are reluctant to change

THE EXECUTIVE (ESTJ - EXTRAVERTED, OBSERVANT, THINKING AND JUDGING) - Erryk Cargyll

- Representatives of tradition and order - Embracing the values of honesty, dedication and dignity, they happily lead the way on difficult paths - Demonstrate dedication and purposeful honesty, and an utter rejection of laziness and cheating - Even against heavy resistance, they stick to their principles and are more than willing to dive into the most challenging projects - Always meet their promises - Loyal, patient and reliable

THE CONSUL (ESFJ - EXTRAVERTED, OBSERVANT, FEELING AND JUDGING) - Laenor Velaryon

- Generous and reliable, they believe in the power of hospitality and good manners - Have a talent for making the people in their lives feel supported, cared for, and secure - Take seriously their responsibilities to give back, serve others, and do the right thing - Supportive and loyal, they build lasting relationships and can be counted on to show up whenever a helping hand is needed - Outgoing, they can always be spotted at a party - Sensitive, warm - Vulnerable to criticism and often too needy

THE VIRTUOSO (ISTP - INTROVERTED, OBSERVANT, THINKING AND PROSPECTING) - Harwin Strong

- Natural makers, moving from project to project, learning from their environment as they go - Love to explore with their hands and their eyes - Cool rationalism and spirited curiosity - Explore ideas through creating, troubleshooting, trial and error and first-hand experience - Enjoy lending a hand and sharing their experience, especially with the people they care about - Friendly but private; calm but spontaneous - Their decisions stem from a sense of practical realism, and at their heart is a strong sense of direct fairness - Struggle with boundaries and guidelines, preferring the freedom to move about and color outside the lines if they need to

THE ADVENTURER (ISFP - INTROVERTED, OBSERVANT, FEELING AND PROSPECTING) - Laena Velaryon

- Are true artists, although not necessarily in the conventional sense: for this personality type, life itself is a canvas for self-expression - Driven by curiosity and eager to try new things - Have exploratory spirits and ability to find joy in everyday life - Unassuming and humble - Embrace a flexible, adaptable approach to life: they take each day as it comes, doing what feels right to them in the moment - Tolerant and open-minded - They are arm, friendly, and caring, taking wholehearted enjoyment in the company of their nearest and deares - Live in the present, and they know that they do'’t need to dwell on past hurts or frustrations - It can upset them if they don't feel liked, approved of, or appreciated

THE ENTREPRENEUR (ESTP - EXTRAVERTED, OBSERVANT, THINKING AND PROSPECTING) - Aemond Targaeryen

- They keep their conversation energetic, with a good dose of intelligence, but they like to talk about what is: or better yet, to just go out and do it - They have a unique skill in noticing small changes: a shift in facial expression, a new clothing style, a broken habit. People with this personality type pick up on hidden thoughts and motives and use these observations immediately, calling out the change and asking questions, often with little regard for sensitivity - Leap before they look, fixing their mistakes as they go: they live in the moment and dive into the action - Are the likeliest personality type to make a lifestyle of risky behavior - It makes more sense to use their own moral compass than someone else's: rules were made to be broken - May get too caught in the moment and take things too far (or forget to take care of their own health and safety) - Love to be the center of attention - Enjoy drama, passion, and pleasure - Bold, direct and original; impatient, defiant and risk-prone

THE ENTERTAINER (ESFP - EXTRAVERTED, OBSERVANT, FEELING AND PROSPECTING) - Aegon Targaryen

- Utterly social, they enjoy the simplest things, and there's no greater joy for them than just having fun with a good group of friends - May get caught up in the excitement of the moment (and want everyone else to feel that way, too) - They love the spotlight, and all the world's a stage - Though it may not always seem like it, they know that it's not all about them: they are observant, and very sensitive to others' emotions - If the problem is about them, they are more likely to avoid a conflict altogether than to address it head-on - Are often so focused on immediate pleasures that they neglect the duties and responsibilities that make those luxuries possible: they are more focused on leaping at opportunities than in planning out long-term goals - Complex analysis, repetitive tasks, and matching statistics to real consequences are not easy activities for them - Recognize value and quality - Unfocused and easily bored

[pantswarrior]

Hii,

I read Fighting Gravity on ao3 earlier this year and I wanted to tell you I loved it! I'm one of those peripheral members of fandoms who haven't read or watched any of the canon stuff, but are too obsessed with the fanworks to stop. It makes me wonder about stories like yours - is some point in the larger canon where something similar happens, or do you just come up with the idea for an unhoused Spock on your own?

I'm sending my ask to thank your for your story, but I also wanted to ask if you were alright with people printing and binding personal copies (ie. not for profit) of the fic for themselves.

I've been hand binding sketchbooks on and off for a little while, and I saw a tiktok of someone's self-bound versions of their favourite fics and thought that trying my hand at fic binding would be a fun project for this summer.

I just wanted to ask bc I heard some authors aren't okay with personal prints, so just let me know please; I'll always love the story regardless.

Aw, thank you so much! I'm sorry it took so long for me to reply - my laptop completely died several months back and the only one I could get online with is 11 years old, freezes up upon trying to load Tumblr, and is physically falling apart. -_- So I have been away from Tumblr all this time and did not see this until I got a new laptop tonight and could load the site again, I apologize! First of all - I consider it a great honor when anyone thinks enough of my fanstuff to want to do ANYTHING with it. =) I mean, I'm just out here being a nerd, writing fic about characters that are not mine. I can hardly be possessive about them. ;) So while I suppose it's rather late for a summer project, if for some reason the inclination strikes you in the future, feel free! It sounds like a beautiful project and I'm honestly flattered that you would think my story worthy. =) As for the inspiration behind that particular story... there is a rather silly story behind it. (tl;dr, possibly...) My partner-at-the-time and I were both really into the new Star Trek movie when it came out in 2009 - and this was not long after both of us were fixated on Ace Attorney fandom, which had recently had a new game released. Before the game was released, there was some character art showing an existing character looking scruffy, and the Ace Attorney fandom decided he must have fallen on hard times. There were multiple fanfics written about the guy he's usually shipped with finding him unhoused and taking him in and helping him get back on his feet. It became sort of a fandom injoke, "Miles adopts a homeless Phoenix". Not long after the first reboot Star Trek movie came out, the ONTD Star Trek community over at LiveJournal (good times!) dug up some screen test pics of Zachary Quinto wearing the Spock ears... but with a scruffy unshaven look and longer hair. So I showed them to my partner, who reacted with six little words:

"So... Jim adopts a homeless Vulcan?" I laughed because that was ridiculous and impossible given how some things work in the Star Trek canon. ...And then I started thinking about it, and how maybe it wasn't impossible, how someone *could* possibly wind up in such a situation in the Star Trek universe, and stopped laughing. ...And then spent the next several months of my life having this offhand joking comment turn into yet another exploration of one of my favorite themes: predestination vs. free will. OOPS. My partner, of course, was laughing their head off incredulously the whole time as I sent them drafts of the next chapter to read over and repeatedly reminded them that this was ALL THEIR FAULT. ;) So that is the...origin story... of that fic. Apologies for the length of this (and again, the lateness of the reply) - though to be honest it's so absurd it's fun to share it again. :D

[h34vybottom]

Apologies to anyone seeing this post! I just need a fast way to document some thoughts before I forget them (it's for the article i promise)

If Tatsumi and Shirogane are supposed to be commentaries on gendered expectations and gender essentialism, as they are, then they've failed in their entirety.

Tatsumi's narrative is pretty egregious in every way possible. His potential bisexuality is always a joke to make fun of gay men in particular. His shyness around Shirogane is treated as a light romantic oddity and like they're similar in being foils, but like. Not really? Tatsumi's dungeon is all a homophobic stereotype (literally all of it. Including the music). Tatsumi is never outright stated as gay or bisexual and yet is constantly mocked and belittled for the suggestion of light deviation from heterosexuality and machismo norms (Given how Japanese conservatism has been addicted to claiming that Japanese men are all weak and that's why society is collapsing, you can see some clear inspiration). Tatsumi's only "gay" moment is being assaulted by Kuma, which isn't gay and is pretty bad. It's framed as a joke of course, because Persona is very bad. A majority of the dialogue in the game relating Tatsumi in the main story is a joke about his sexuality and feminine interests, including when he gets aroused by Satonaka and Amagi and all of the times he's more interested in sewing. His side story is actually pretty good but it comes w/ the problem of being a Persona 4 side story (not important to the narrative; a repeat of the original tatsumi section in the main story).

Shirogane is pretty lesser, if only because she's barely in Persona 4 and once her dungeon is over, she takes over as the surrogate protagonist. That said, the way they use Shirogane is as a sex object and not as a person because of her gender. The "twist" that the boy detective is actually a girl, le gasp, doesn't work because a. Hardly a twist and B. They instantly treat her like they do every other femme party member, a soulless sex object who doesn't retain their lesson. Shirogane trades in a bit of the gender confusion for just plain shyness and social awkwardness, but it's only ever framed as if she's to be ogled at through a lense of fetishist intrigue. The only calm against this storm is that she's the only character w/ a braincell (until the awful Namatame murder attempt scene) and is basically just the actual protagonist now. Not a shock that the animated scenes start to prominently show her in charge. Cuz like yeah. Everyone is fucking stupid and incompetent to absurd degrees. Shirogane's side story is also pretty misogynistic towards her (In regards to her needing to be protected like I'm pretty sure a 15 year old w/ a fucking revolver and gun training in Japan is doing fine on their own there, bud but okay). Her dungeon's doors all have a Phoenix emblem and her final area is a surgery table w/ drills. Like. Man they just say the quiet part and think people are too stupid to see it (to be fair, a lot of persona fans are just stupid).

If there is any actual message towards social deviance in Persona 4, it's to tolerate the deviants at an arms length and nothing more. Like how else are you supposed to take any of this in a positive manner? Otherwise, the takeaway is literally that gay people deserve mockery and that any suggestion of changing one's gender or fitting outside of a gender role is worthy of ridicule? Like that's what the text fucking does and says 24/7

And who the fuck thought making Kuma a fucking sex pest was a good idea? Why did they copy paste that part for Morgana? I hate this fucking sub series so much wow

[samsaraandbeyond]

OC Introduction: John and Bain

Art drawn by ImQuiteSleepy    

The wolf in wolf's clothing!

(John is the wolf, Bain is the living hood.)

Design

Jon and Bane, the original design/characters, Art by Teh-Ray  

This was a character that was designed using Ray's creator!

I drew a nifty little line detailing the look I wanted!

Although the name is a clear reference to Jon Talbain from Darkstalkers, I didn’t use many elements from him other than the fact that it’s a werewolf that has expertise in close-quarters combat.

John and Bain were one of many characters inspired by my love for fighting or combat related anything really; they in particular were inspired by wrestling games and animes that crank up the absurdity and abilities of the sport to an extreme. These two are fist fighters with a dash of wrestling related maneuvers.

My first encounter with any sort of wrestling orientated character was...

King (Tekken)

My thirteen year old ass saw someone with a tiger head (mask) and I mained him immediately. He made a damn good first impression.

Even though I'm not good at Tekken.

The second wrestling character, the one that inspired Bain, was...

Beowulf (Skullgirls)

Skullgirls gave Beowulf's hood this funny quirk of mirroring whatever expression Beowulf did in-game and outside promotional art, despite the fact that it isn't alive.

Which gave me the idea; what if it was? That became Bain!

Abilities / Traits

REALLY REAL WRESTLING

King's Muscle Buster

Jobbers! Heels! Faces! KAYFABE! Atomic Drops, Dragon Sleepers, Kinniku Busters, all that good stuff. Consider them in John and Bain's repertoire.

"Wow! John and Bain putting the hurt on their opponent with that Haymaker!"

Minor Ki Manipulation

Ryu (Street Fighter)

If you asked John where he learned how to do this, he wouldn't have an answer for you.

John and Bain can channel Ki at will. They are able to use it to enhance their physical capabilities or they can launch it as a projectile.

"I know the energy crap is cool and all, but maybe we shouldn't be flinging magic spells in the ring unless they do it first." - Bain

Parasite: Bain

John's loyal partner. Bain is a parasite that formed from John's body, enhancing the wolf's physical capabilities ten-fold.

Whoever Bain attaches to he can take control of at will. He links with his host mentally, allowing him to communicate without vocalizing if necessary. He can also recede into the host's flesh should the need to be concealed arise.

Bain can detach and is capable of surviving without a host. However, his form is very weak on its own.

"Hey! HEY! You know you can't do this without me!" - Bain

Personality

John, despite being a general doormat, is a wolf with a penchant for physical confrontation and overcoming obstacles. He hardly speaks for himself as Bain almost always speaks for him or over him. If John ever does have anything to say and gets the chance to say it, expect it to be around six words or less.

He experiences a weird thrill in figuring out how to get out of the messes he finds himself in (or willingly threw himself into). He expresses only minor interest in things that aren’t going head to head with someone.

Bain is practically the opposite of John personality wise. Brash, arrogant, crude, generally uncooperative. When Bain wants to take the lead, he places himself over John’s head completely and pilots the body to his whims. He doesn’t want John to be a doormat so he’s perfectly fine with snatching control away from him and showing how things work.

Despite their differences, they cooperate quite nicely in combat. Their frequent switching of control gives them the strengths of one style and subtracts the weaknesses of the other to overwhelm opponents. It helps that this aids John when he fights in the ring; he isn’t much of a performer or a braggart, so Bane usually takes control there.

"...I'm gonna have to do the talking, aren't I?" "Mmhmm. :)" - Bain and John

Backstory

John wasn't a bad wrestler per-say. He wasn't one for showboating, gloating, or the usual wrestling theatrics; he entered the ring, fought as best he could, and that was it.

The audience found him dreadfully boring. No charisma, no personality, no nothing. He didn't even have any unique abilities. If he changed outfits, everyone would probably forget his name.

John's coach, only known by the name of Coach, desperately wanted to fix that; he didn't want to be known for tutoring a no-name all his life. First, he would get John a unique gimmick. Scouring the black market, he came across lab-grown Parasites for sale from Hentsworth Industries. As that was the first thing he saw and as much effort as he wanted to put into this gimmick search, he ordered one right away.

It had arrived in liquid form, meant to be injected into a host so it could materialize from their genes. Coach begged John to let him inject it as it would save both of their careers. John very reluctantly accepted. Once the needle was removed, Bain slowly formed around his new host's neck.

Freshly formed and already rocking an attitude, Bain demanded to know who his host was and what led to his manifestation. He looked at his host expecting an answer but only received John's awkward waving, so he turned toward Coach instead who explained everything because he was slightly intimidated.

His host was a boring wrestler

His coach decided the best way to make him interesting was ordering a parasite online to inject into him

His host agreed to this

No. Nope. Both of them are stupid and that needed to be adjusted.

First, Coach. He took control of John to beat the shit out of him.

Second, John. He couldn't beat the shit out of his host like that so he settled for repeatedly bashing himself against John's face because you don't let some attention whore INJECT YOU WITH A PARASITE FOR CAREER CLOUT. Luckily, this would be the best thing to ever happen in John's life because Bain was going to show him how things work from now on.

The wrestling crap? Sure, they could stay involved. Bain would get to beat people up for money! Why quit that life?

John didn't voice any disagreements, not that Bain expected him to.

"John, John, John, you're such a pushover! Where's the backbone? For fuck's sake, speak UP! Here, I'll show you how all of this works!" "..." - Bain and John

[tibby]

character bios ✩ robin buckley (stranger things)

↳  "We all die, my strange little child friend. It’s just a matter of how, and when.”

[undertale-data]

[Image Description: An Undertale chat box that has “WHY FANS LOVE UNDERTALE” at its center. Next to it are a line chart and an Egg from the Dating Hub on its left, and a CRIME measurer (also from the Dating Hub) on its right. End I.D.]

[Image Description: a pie chart titled, “LEVEL OF LOVE FOR UNDERTALE.” The textbox on the top right reads, “On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the least and 10 being the highest, how much do fans enjoy Undertale?” From the top going clockwise, 12 or 0% chose 5 and below; 23 or 1% chose 6; 98, or 4%, chose 7; 325, or 12%, chose 8; 529, or 20%, chose 9; and 1664, or 63%, chose 10. End I.D.]

It’s clear from all of the data analyzed so far that fans who took the time to answer our survey love Undertale. It is unlikely that they would have taken the time to answer so many questions if they had not, and even less likely that they would have come across our survey in the first place. Naturally, it comes as no surprise that 63% of our responders gave their love for Undertale a score of ten out of ten. 95% gave their love for Undertale a score of eight or higher, and only 12 responders responded with five or below, a number so small that their responses had to be lumped together to be visible on the pie chart. Of those, only 3 responders gave their love for Undertale a score of 1, and based on those responders’ other answers, it is likely that they were only intending to troll. We are very fortunate that the vast majority of responders took the survey seriously, enough so that responses like this are barely a blip in the data.

Now, for our final analysis post of the event, we will delve into the reasons that fans love Undertale so dearly.

(Essay and highlights under the cut.)

There have been countless essays on the impact that Undertale has had on people’s lives. I can hardly add more on the subject than what has already been said, but I hope this summary can provide a brief overview of what stood out among the over two thousand answers given in response to this survey. That said, due to the sheer volume of answers, I could not read every single one in depth—however, I did skim all of them, and some that stood out or were representative of several responses have been highlighted below. If you would like to see what every fan who consented to share their response had to say, you may view the full list of responses here. Note that these responses have not been edited in any way. This document may take a long time to load, as it is over 100 pages long.

(Warnings for mentions of suicidal thoughts in the following essay.)

Several responders loved the theme of choices mattering in Undertale. Whether people played the pacifist, merciless, or neutral routes, they enjoyed how the game reacted to their actions. For some, it even made them consider their own morality. One touching response explained the impact that the theme of mercy made on them. “I realized that Mercy isn't something that's given to those who deserve it. Flowey didn't deserve it. I don't deserve it myself. Shoot, we ALL need Mercy in our lives.” Many fans left similar comments about how the themes of Undertale made them better people.

Undertale changed how its fans treat others, and it also changed how fans treat themselves. The theme of staying determined and the messages of hope in the game were a light to a very large portion of fans. I cannot list all of the fans who said that Undertale helped them out of a dark place, or that they would not be alive if not for Undertale. “DETERMINATION became a metaphor for not killing myself at a really rough time in my life and I’ll always cherish that. Undertale isn’t afraid to go to really dark places but at the same time holds on so tight to its hope.”

Undertale brought fans together in unexpected ways. Some said they met friends or significant others through the fandom. “I wouldn't have met my now husband without Undertale,” one fan said. A different fan who is non-native English speaking mentioned that the game and the fan community helped them to learn English.

It would be impossible to discuss Undertale without mentioning the fan community. Whether for good or bad, many responders mentioned the fandom in their responses. Overall the feelings towards the fandom seem positive, though many made references to “toxic” parts of the fandom without specifying which parts they consider toxic. Others rejected the idea of toxicity in fandom. One response said: “[SLAMS FIST ON DESK] I KNOW MOST PEOPLE SAY THE FANDOM IS TOXIC AND CRINGE OR WHATEVER BUT OH MY GOD. The Undertale fandom, both the UTMV and the actual UT fandom, has been so much fun to be a part of. I've met countless friends because of our shared interest in something related to the game! The art people create can be breathtaking and so inspirational, and the fanfics are so so good!! I've seen people write incredible things for this fandom and it's what made me continue writing!”

One thing that makes the Undertale fandom unique is the way it embraces various AUs. Some fans are tired of AU content, but the majority of responses show a love for the creativity behind AUs. “Roll your eyes at the 50th AU Sans all you want, it's encouraging people to step outside the boundaries of fanart and pushing people to make their own ideas! I mean, hell, it was how I gained the confidence to start making my own original content.” The lack of a judgemental atmosphere seems present in the AU community, according to the responses we saw. There is an interesting balance between AU and canon (sometimes referred to as “classic”) content that another responder pointed out: “The fandom helped keep the game alive all these years, with all of its AUs. Although personally, I always enjoyed AUs that kept characters as close to the classic material as possible (dancetale, outertale) I do appreciate the creativity of the fandom. They almost created entirely new stories with new characters of their own! If it weren't for those people, the Undertale fandom would have probably not been as active as it is now. I do feel like we're getting a resurgence of classic content now too! (In 2021)”

Regardless of the many AUs the fandom has created over the years, the original game of Undertale still feels like home for many fans. They wished they could reclaim the feeling of playing the game again for the first time, but even though we can’t reset time in real life, there is still a special feeling for fans each time they play Undertale. One fan said, “Even the best fics I've read can't capture that feeling of nostalgia/almost-"coming home" that comes with hearing the music and talking to the characters.” This feeling is one that can be cherished time and time again. In the words of another responder: “It always feels welcoming like home or like comfort food that I never grow tired of no matter how many times I go to it.” Others pointed out the strength of the found family trope in Undertale, which likely contributes to this feeling of “home” as well.

As mentioned briefly earlier, the music is part of what makes Undertale feel like home for fans. Even when responses focused on other aspects of the game, many would throw in a comment about the soundtrack at the end. One comment focused on the music said “IT'S SO GOOD like I will literally go through the entire thing over and over and not be bored with it. It makes my monkey brain so happy you have no idea.” Like with the game itself, the music has incredible replay value, an amazing feat considering most of the tracks use the same few motifs. “I think what I like the most about Undertale is how the music attaches you to the story,” another responder said. “They're simple melodies that stick with you throughout the whole game, and they can remind you of both good and bad times.”

If the music sticks with fans in their hearts, then the game’s lore sticks with fans in their minds. Even six years after the release of Undertale, fans are still creating new theories and digging up new secrets. The way the game breaks the fourth wall in particular intrigued many fans and has stuck out through all these years. The awareness that the game shows for the RPG genre makes it memorable. The game plays with the player’s expectations and turns them on their heads, all while reminding the player that they’re in a game. There are few other games that do this on such a large scale, so it’s no surprise that fans cite this as one of their favorite things about Undertale.

Lastly, the LGBT+ representation in Undertale has been a huge draw for fans. Especially in 2015, the sheer volume of non-cishet characters was unprecedented, as one fan pointed out: “It's practically unheard of to see so MANY from just one source, especially during its heyday in 2015-16. Hell, you can't even GET the true pacifist ending without helping two gay couples hook up. It's really nice to see all of them being accepted for who they are and not judged for their sexuality or gender, at least in-canon.” The LGBT+ cast including Frisk, Chara, Napstablook, Monster Kid, Mettaton, Alphys, and Undyne each connected with fans in unique ways. It’s clear how important this is from responses such as: “There are canon nonbinary characters 🥺. i have never seen representation of myself before.” “It made me gay and trans so thanks for that.”

Once again I am overwhelmed with just how much there is to say about Undertale. One responder really understood when they compared Undertale to an iceberg, explaining that there are so many layers to the game that there is something for everyone: “everyone can find something to enjoy in the lore/game regardless of what kind of fan they are! Being able to appeal to various types of fans—from simple happy shipper people to deep dive lorediggers—is the mark of the coolest games!” I would have to agree with them.

It’s been six years, and despite everything, it’s still you. Thank you for reading, participating in this survey, and above all, staying determined.

Highlights:

DETERMINATION became a metaphor for not killing myself at a really rough time in my life and I’ll always cherish that. Undertale isn’t afraid to go to really dark places but at the same time holds on so tight to its hope.

I think the coolest thing was having the opportunity to watch the AU community grow from its bare roots. It's nearly insane how big and complex it's gotten, unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Roll your eyes at the 50th AU Sans all you want, it's encouraging people to step outside the boundaries of fanart and pushing people to make their own ideas! I mean, hell, it was how I gained the confidence to start making my own original content.

i love how the lgbt rep is so naturalized... there are just gay people! and its nobodys business!

The music is my go to answer, but what I really really REALLY love is how the minor characters have so much personality to them when you talk to them. They aren't incredibly important to the overall story, but they're all so likeable and diverse that you just can't help but like them immediately!

I think it was the first videogame I have played that broke the fourth wall that much. Of course there has been other videogames that broke it but just for one or two tongue-in-cheek jokes. The guilt of killing mama goat was also something intense as well that I appreciated as an experience and that I didn't think a videogame could cause on someone.

I love how no character can be seen as completely bad! Everyone builds up Asgore as some horrible villain, but he turns out to be a 'fuzzy pushover' who's broken and just wants his family back by the time you meet him. Then you think Flowey's an irredeemable killer who engineered the suffering of the monsters across many timelines, and he is... but he also used to be the kind and beloved Prince Asriel Dreemurr, traumatized by his death and subsequent rebirth, projecting his best friend onto you.

The fact that choices matter in the game. Your first playthrough and getting the golden ending for the first time. I can never replicate those feelings again, wish I could erase my memories and replay the game from the start.

I wouldn't have met my now husband without Undertale.

(Toxic parts of the fandom aside) The community is possibly one of the kindest I've ever met. Cringe culture is completely dead, and I feel like I can be myself. I felt a very close connection to many of the characters, and I loved consuming content about them when I was in a rough patch in my life.

just everything, the whole game has just impacted my life so much. i know it sounds really lame, but when the game first came out, i would purposely put my hands in my pockets and sway slightly, like sans' idle animation. of course i dont do that anymore haha, but undertale still really impacts me to this day, and i wouldnt have it any other way :)

it made me gay and trans so thanks for that

I realized that Mercy isn't something that's given to those who deserve it. Flowey didn't deserve it. I don't deserve it myself. Shoot, we ALL need Mercy in our lives.

The thing I love most about Undertale is no matter how many times I play or watch a playthrough it always makes me genuinely happy. It always feels welcoming like home or like comfort food that I never grow tired of no matter how many times I go to it. Toriel still makes me feel all warm and cozy in her home, the Skelebros always make me laugh, and I still cry on the inside watching Frisk comforting Asriel. And on the flip side the No Mercy run still invokes the negative emotions in me as well. In short Undertale just feels like a second home to me and I always wish I could stay.

The reader inserts are my favorite way to decompress after a hard day

I think Undertale helped me discover my love for 8-bit games, and made me realize how IMPORTANT music is in video games.

the worldbuilding and character design are my favorite parts of the main game apart from the music! I’m also a huge fan of the random AU music- not for like underswap or underfell i like the stuff where someone makes a megalovania for a random au where gru from despicable me replaces sans as the character. i think its funny

Just... the vibe, honestly? Even the best fics I've read can't capture that feeling of nostalgia/almost-"coming home" that comes with hearing the music and talking to the characters.

there are canon nonbinary characters 🥺. i have never seen representation of myself before.

[SLAMS FIST ON DESK] I KNOW MOST PEOPLE SAY THE FANDOM IS TOXIC AND CRINGE OR WHATEVER BUT OH MY GOD. The Undertale fandom, both the UTMV and the actual UT fandom, has been so much fun to be a part of. I've met countless friends because of our shared interest in something related to the game! The art people create can be breathtaking and so inspirational, and the fanfics are so so good!! I've seen people write incredible things for this fandom and it's what made me continue writing!

There's a scene where Frisk (the player) is going towards what is presumably going to be their death. They will fight Asgore and he will use their human soul to break the barrier and free his people. The music, despite the player's impending doom, is... triumphant. You are not the triumphant one here, and yet, the score invites you to experience the monsters' joy and happiness as they tell you the tale of their subjugation. The monsters are going to be free. This is their victory, but they don't hate you or want you to die. They're just... happy. That scene has always struck me very deeply. I feel it represents the best parts of Undertale.

I loved how well thought out the Geno route was. It really made me feel like I was doing something horrible, and the characters were very obviously reacting to dire circumstances.

I dunno? I like Undertale for it's characters, story, music, secrets and many more. I am not good with Headcanons but I also like the neutral endings and how different they can depending on who you spare and kill

I was very bad at english before, i thought i couldn't progress because i was very shy and not confident. But my sibling and i wanted to have the best experience with this game so we wanted to play it in english. It's this game and the fandom which helped me to make huge progress in english !

THE SOUNDTRACK. IT'S SO GOOD like I will literally go through the entire thing over and over and not be bored with it. It makes my monkey brain so happy you have no idea.

to avoid writing an essay i will say one word. Mettaton

It is like Toby specifically made the games to fit the iceberg meme and it's awesome, everyone can find something to enjoy in the lore/game regardless of what kind of fan they are! Being able to appeal to various types of fans - from simple happy shipper people to deep dive lorediggers is the mark of the coolest games!

I love almost everything about Undertale as a game on its own. The music, the art and especially the characters and how they interact. They made me feel at home. Undertale means a huge amount to me. (I even got a tattoo of the castle when you and MK walk together!) The fandom helped keep the game alive all these years, with all of its AUs. Although personally, I always enjoyed AUs that kept characters as close to the classic material as possible (dancetale, outertale) I do appreciate the creativity of the fandom. They almost created entirely new stories with new characters of their own! If it weren't for those people, the Undertake fandom would have probably not been as active as it is now. I do feel like we're getting a resurgence of classic content now too! (In 2021)

the mystery. toby fox refused to give answers to anything and i think thats very sexy of him.

I just feel guilty for liking it so much when I'm in my 30's. But I recently got diagnosed with ASD, so I guess it explains things a bit. Many ppl consider Papyrus to be neurodivergent, and some adult fans are too, so seeing that makes me feel a bit better.

i think about "Despite everything, it's still you" everyday of my life.

I like how it's just as funny as it can be serious. All routes are this way. I laughed as much as I cried when I played the Pacifist route and then once I opened the game again and Flowey was telling me to let them be happy, I immediately turned off the game. I somehow felt bad.

The Found Family Trope

The True Pacifist Ending is just...man. And the fanworks about saving everyone even when the game doesn't let you? MANNNNNN

I think what I like the most about Undertale is how the music attaches you to the story. They're simple melodies that stick with you throughout the whole game, and they can remind you of both good and bad times.

there's honestly a LOT to love about this game, but i think one of my favorite things about it is just how many lgbt+ characters there are??? i can think of alphys, undyne, frisk, chara, mettaton, napstablook, monster kid, asgore, mad mew mew, the dress lion, the royal guards, and arguably even papyrus off of the top of my head, but im sure i'm forgetting a few from just undertale alone (there's even MORE in deltarune)!! it's practically unheard of to see so MANY from just one source, especially during its heyday in 2015-16. hell, you can't even GET the true pacifist ending without helping two gay couples hook up. it's really nice to see all of them being accepted for who they are and not judged for their sexuality or gender, at least in-canon.

[Image description: A wordcloud in the shape of the capitalized word UNDERTALE. The text is white on a black background, and uses the font found in the game. Some of the most visible words are: Game, Love, Music, Life, AU, Store, Friend, and Feel, which represent the most common words in the essays people wrote about their love for the game. End of ID]

[wondersofdreaming]

Keepsake

Characters: Captain Syverson x female reader (3rd person)

Word count: 1.827

Warnings: Death, loss, hopelessness, light cursing, sadness, melancholy, grief, heartache, mourning.

Author’s note: This story was inspired by the song 'Everglow' by Coldplay.

Do me a favour and listen to the song, while reading this, I'll link to the different versions, depending on your mood.

Everglow (original) by Coldplay

Everglow (acoustic) by Coldplay

Everglow (instrumental) by Alexandre Pachabezian

The links are for Spotify, if they don't work try this link for YouTube

I do not own any characters in this short story, except the wife, son and Elijah Reed, who are figments of my imagination.

A massive, MASSIVE, thank you to my beloved angel, @radaofrivia, for giving me the idea from just a few thoughts, for sitting through with me while I wrote this, for giving me advice and for just being there.

Please check out her stories right here: RADA'S MASTERLIST

MY MASTERLIST

Feedback is appreciated.

(Young Syverson, picture credit to @killjoy-assbutt-1112 - find it here)

Oh, they say people come Say people go This particular diamond was extra special And though you might be gone And the world may not know Still I see you, celestial

Lyrics are from Everglow by Coldplay.

The looming grey clouds were moving closer towards him. He could hear the distant sounds of the rumbling thunder. Before long it started to rain and lightning lit up the entire house. The dirt road was flooded in no time, giving the crops the liquid nourishment they needed.

The former army captain was restless. It was on days like these he missed him, more than anything else in the world. He couldn’t sit still and had planned on working on the house, but the coming storm was putting a stop to that. Instead, he sat on the porch swing he built with Elijah when Lucas bought the house.

The Syversons had moved to their farm when Lucas was 4. A few days into the move, their neighbours had stopped by with some casserole, and to welcome them to their community. Mr and Mrs Reed also had a son who was a few months younger than Luc. Elijah had hidden behind his mother’s leg, a little shy, but with some encouragement he greeted Lucas.

“I’m Lucas, but my baby sister can’t say it yet, she keeps babbling Luc, so if it’s easier, you can call me Luc too.”

“I’m Elijah.”

Sy remembered he was trying so hard to pronounce his new friend’s name. He smiled at the memory, the name had been permanent in Lucas’ mind, only using Elijah, when he was mad at him or thinking he was about to do something stupid, which he did often.

“Lija, wanna play?” Lucas asked awkwardly.

“What?” Elijah looked profoundly confused. “I… don’t know.”

“Go on, son. It’s okay,” Mr Reed tried to encourage him.

“Come with me, Lija. I wanna show ya somethin’.”

Lucas had shown Elijah his new toy tractor that his parents had given him for his birthday. The two young boys had played together, and before long were inseparable.

A round yellow object in the palm of his hand. He was fiddling with it. The coin was always in his pocket, so he could keep his best friend close to him at all times. It was an old arcade coin that you could plot into any machine and play one game.

The two best friends had each gotten a dollar’s worth of coins, but the man at the ticket booth had miscounted, so Sy had gotten an extra coin, which the two friends had fought over during their time in the arcade. Lucas being the protector he was, lost to Elijah on purpose, so his friend won the coin.

“I’ll savour it, it’s going to be my lucky coin!” Elijah has announced.

Syverson swung the porch swing with his booted foot. He stared at the coin, wondering why he had been the lucky one. Luc shook his head faintly, his face full of pain and sorrow.

The coin became a thing that decided their fate. When the boys couldn’t agree on something, they would flip the coin. The picture side was heads and the text ‘No cash value’ side was tails. It might have been worth nothing, but it was a priceless item to the two friends.

“Heads: I ask her on a date, tails: you ask her,” Elijah flipped the yellow coin and covered the back of his hand as it landed. The two teenagers looked over at the brunette cheerleader, who was laughing with her friends. Prom was upon them and they both wanted to ask her. Elijah lifted his hand, it was heads.

The dumb coin was always on Elijah’s side. Lucas let out a soft laughter of the memory. Elijah’s face had been priceless, Sy wished he had taken a picture of it. It had been Elijah’s first kiss that night.

When Lucas decided to enlist, Elijah followed him, even with a lot of arguing against it from Sy’s side. He didn’t want his best friend anywhere near a warzone but in the end, he was glad that Lija was there with him through every hardship during training, when they lost people on their team, when they had to carry the dead back to base, it was better to have a friend by your side and share the pain with.

It didn’t take Syverson long to rank up and become captain. He ended up leading a large group of soldiers in a village in Iraq, with Elijah as his lieutenant, he felt like he could conquer the world.

During one of their trips home, Sy had bought a house he wanted to renovate, maybe start a family in. Elijah had spent every moment he could, helping Lucas with the house. It had made them closer as friends, and they had heartfelt talks about their future. Elijah wanted to come home and help his ailing parents with the farm, maybe get into breeding horses, preferably racehorses. Sy hadn’t thought of his future in that sense by then. He just wanted to relax, drink beer and ride his motorcycle.

There was hardly a moment in Lucas’ life where Elijah wasn’t a part of it. Elijah was his best friend, and if he had to be a little girly, they were BFFs. His best friend’s presence had made every moment special, made them better. It was the hardest part, to not have Elijah by his side anymore. He missed Elijah’s silly, huge and sometimes irritating grin, which somehow made the world seem a bit brighter during the dark times. Elijah made his life easier… he just made it better to have a friend to share everything with.

His heart had broken in a million pieces when the building collapsed on top of his best mate.

“Captain, we need a scouting team. I’m taking three soldiers towards those buildings and see if there are enemies up ahead,” Elijah had suggested.

“Lieutenant, I make the orders here. I’m going,” Lucas commanded.

“Heads or tails, Luc,” Elijah picked out the coin from his breast pocket.

“This is no time for such thing, Lija,” the captain grumbled.

“This is the perfect time, Luc. We promised that whenever we couldn’t agree on something, we would use the coin. So, heads or tails, captain Syverson.”

“Heads.”

The coin had landed on the tails side. Lucas had cursed the coin, fuck, shit, crap, dammit!

“It’s my turn to protect you, Luc. I’m not the scrawny little kid anymore, let me show you!”

Elijah had gathered three soldiers and run between two concrete buildings with a big smile on his face. Sy would never forget the smile. It was a grin of pride and determination. And it was the last time Lucas would ever see his best friend.

Moments later a huge explosion shook the ground they were standing on. Sy watched with horror as the buildings collapsed, trapping Elijah and his team. What they didn’t know then was that the impact with the concrete walls had killed him instantly.

The rest of the soldiers watched as their captain went on his knees. Utter despair and anguish plastered on his face, tears about to escape the corners of his eyes. The usual strict army captain, the man with the muscles, the tough guy who could break you with a stare, was breaking down.

“Lija…” he whispered into the dust-filled space, his voice breathless like somebody knocked the air out of his lungs.

At night he had screamed in pain of the loss of his most beloved friend. His days were filled with hopelessness as he prepared to fly home with Elijah’s corpse in a coffin. The nights only brought nightmares, so he started writing a letter to his best friend and thinking of how to tell Elijah’s parents.

“Dear Lija. I can’t believe you’re… Shit, I can’t even write the word. Just a four-letter word, and yet I can’t fucking write it down on a piece of paper. I wish I could have taken your place, man. It should have been me. I hate you for forcing me to pick a side on that stupid coin. I hate you for being so brave. I hate you for wanting to protect me. Fuck you for dying. Fuck you for leaving me. Here. All alone. What about your parents? How am I going to tell them that you’re… how am I going to face them? You are and will always be my best friend. I wish you could go back to your parent’s farm on your own two legs, not in a fucking box. I miss you, Lija. You’re the closest thing to a brother I will ever get. So rest in peace and keep the seat next to you warm, I’ll see you on the other side. - Luc.”

Lucas had sneaked the letter into Elijah’s breast pocket of his uniform before they had shut the coffin. The coin that Elijah had on him, had been put in a plastic bag with the rest of his belongings, prepped to be given to his next of kin, his parents. But Lucas took the yellow token. He needed a memento to remember his best friend by, something that he could keep with him always. A keepsake.

It had taken every ounce of courage for Lucas to step up to the front door of the Reed’s farmhouse. A house he was so familiar with and had so many adventurous sleepovers in Elijah’s space-themed bedroom. He could smell Mrs Reed’s famous peanut brittle, making it harder for him to knock, but he did it anyway. Standing there in his military uniform, he told the two people, who had acted as a second set of parents to him, that their only son had died heroically in battle. Lucas stood frozen, watching them mourn the loss of their son. He was about to step away to give them space, but Mrs Reed grabbed his wrist and brought him into the hug.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect him,” he pleaded, his voice breaking slightly.

“Was he in pain?” Mrs Reed asked, breaking Lucas’ heart all over again.

“No, ma’am. It happened really fast.”

Sy fiddled with the arcade coin. Having zoned out the thunder, not noticing the storm had come and gone. The sun was slowly setting on the horizon. It was a peaceful ending to an emotional day.

A loud wailing came from inside the house. The front door opened and out came his beautiful wife with their young son in her arms. His face was stained in tears. The tiny boy reached towards his father the minute he saw him. In his father’s arms was the only place the boy was happy and content. Sy’s face broke into a happy grin at the sight of his son. His tiny fingers trying to grab the coin in the former captain’s hand.

“This,” Sy showed it to his son, “will be yours when you’re old enough not to eat it.”

He chuckled at the frustrated look on the boy’s face. Sy kissed the top of his son’s head.

“I love you, Elijah.”

[sideblog-666-thousand]

A long bitch of an interview with Euronymous, from Orcustus zine in early ‘92.

What is Orcustus? Orcustus was an early 90’s black metal ‘zine run by none other than Bård “Faust*” Eithun— murderous pretty-boy, and o.g Euronymous simp. I think he might have also played drums in a band called Emperor... but I’m not sure! Its full name is actually “Orcustus— The Shadow of The Golden Fire”, and no, I’m not making this up.

This particular issue here opens up with a quote from a short story called ‘The Doom That Came To Thomas Parkes*’.

Assuming the reader hasn’t read the story, Faust explains that the quote is in reference to what happened to the titular ‘Thomas Parkes’ when he tried to raise spirits. Faust then admits that he’s unsure of his own ability to ‘raise spirits’, but says he hopes that he’ll raise some fists in agreement that there’s something wrong with the underground scene. Ironically (you’ll see why this is ironic very soon), he doesn’t like that certain bands, namely Entombed, are selling so many copies of their LPs.

After a brief diatribe on just that, he goes on to explain that he was in a rush to get this mag out because of problems with the printer. Then, he tells anyone who doesn’t like the fact that this ‘zine only features black metal that they can fuck off, with three exclamation points.

Finally, we get to the end of the opening page, where Faust pulls what can only be called an early form of the Twitter exposed thread. It reads as follows, with absolutely no changes to the text:

“I would suggest you to not do any business with that sucker Evil Ludo from France. He have riped me and several others off, by not return what we ordered. I suppose he’s a medical sensation, as I didn’t know it was physical or psychical possible to live without a brain”

Why am I telling you all of this, when this is only meant to be a transcript of an interview with Euronymous, you may be asking? Because I find it funny, that’s why.

Anyhow, the Euronymous here acts and feels very differently from the Euronymous of the last interview I posted. However, I hope you’ll still enjoy it, and I hope you’re able to appreciate the tiny glimpses of humanity talking to a close friend allowed him, even though they both behave like complete asses. Even though it’s hard to sympathize with him at points.

Like last time, any (sparse) commentary will be between (parenthesis) and in bold. Without further ado, let’s get into it.

.

F: Well, how in hell shall one be able to come up with an intro worthy enough for this band? The words I wanna describe Mayhem’s music with, is not yet created, and it won’t be created either, because no one has really experienced the real darkness and pure brutality with lays behind Mayhem’s hellish sound, but I suppose you all are familiar with this band anyway. Well, in the first place, I hadn’t really thought to enclose this band in this issue, because if we look away from rereleases of old demos (“Pure Fucking Armageddon”) and live tapes, it’s a pretty long time since their last release (in ‘87 that was). I thought I rather should interview them when they released their forthcoming album “Dee Mysteriis Dom Sathanas”, but due to the circumstances, I realised the time was right for an interview now. I won’t bother you with any history shit, but I could tell a bit about what has happened last year. You all know that their vocalist Dead comited suicude in April ‘91, that was a bigg loss for the underground, and I suppose I don’t need to say that this mag is dedicated to the memory of that infernal man. Anyway, Dead was replaced by Cultòcùlus (back then called Occultus), but due to different problems within the band, he left the band in January ‘92, but let’s not say more about that, as Euronymous didn’t want me to say anything about it at all (but Euronymous, you must admit that it has sounded pretty artificial if I hadn’t mentioned it at all). So now, the band consists of Hellhammer (drums) and Euronymous (guitar (and probably bass too)). I know the singer of Tormentor (rip) from Hungary (Esihar Attila) is interested in singing on the album, and also even moving to Norway, so it seems like Mayhem got some sort of predilection to foreign vocalists, but this Hungarian guy happend to be a good one as well, so never mind that. But I don’t think this is official, so don’t tell anyone you read it here, ok? Well then, it’s an honour for me to dedicate the next following pages to one of today’s most legendary and infamous bands......... THE TRUE MAYHEM!!!!!!!

F: First of all Euronymous, I know you and Dead live/lived totally for the old black metal attitude. Is your hate now total to young and trendy bands after Dead’s suicide?

Euro: YES, we have declared WAR. Dead died because the trend people have destroyed everything from the old black metal/death metal scene, today “death” metal is something normal, accepted and FUNNY (argh) and we HATE it. It used to be spikes, nites, chains, leather and black clothes, and this was the only thing Dead lived for as he hated this world and everything which lives on it. If we had the economic possibility to do it, we should meet up at concerts and beat up ALL trend people ALL the time untill they would be too scared to go to concerts at all, now we need to suck their money instead. It’s impossible to stop the trend no matter how much we want, we have to do the best out of it and sell lots of trend shit to them. (I don’t need to tell you that that’s totally not why Dead killed himself, right?)

F: In the spring of ‘91 you started up a shop in Oslo which sells all sorts of music within metal. Is there anything you can tell us about the shop (ideas? plans?)?

Euro: Well, the original idea was to make a specialist shop for metal in general, but that’s a long time ago. Normal metal isn’t very popular anymore, all the children are listening to “death” metal now, I’d rather be selling Judas Priest than Napalm Death, but at least now we can be specialized within “death” metal and make a shop where all the trend people know that they will find all the trend music, this will help us earning money so that we can order more EVIL records to the evil people. But no matter how shitty music we have to sell, we’ll make a BLACK METAL look on the shop, we’ve had a couple of “actions” in churches lately, and the shop is going to look like a black church in the future. We’ve also thought about having total darkness inside, so that would would have to carry torches to be able to see the records.

F: Well, how is the situation all in all in the Mayhem camp right now?

Euro: Difficult as usual, but we’re closer than ever to record the Mayhem lp. Almost all the material is completed, then I and Hellhammer will record the whole thing with 3 guitars, 2 basses and so on. It will be very massive. Who’s to sing on the lp is not yet decided, we’ll wait and see what happens. We have several people who can do the job very well.

F: As Metalion of Slayer mag* said: “it seems like you at certain times lives on the edge of starvation”. Have you ever been on the thought to just give up the whole band and become a normal 9 to 5 person, or is this a completely stupid question to ask?

Euro: It has been very hard at times, but I am not a normal person anyway so it would just not be possible to do that. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why things are as they are (this answer will be long) (that’s okay for me/Ed). The reason why we don’t have any money, is because of hardcore. We have for too long been following the “underground” rules, which say that you must hate money, you must not think you are anything, you must be open-minded, you might have a lot of attitudes and so on. Extremely stupid. But the situation has been that if you don’t follow these rules which are made by hardcore pigs, you are not accepted as a death metal or black metal band! Then you MUST be signed by some big label to be able to make some money, and we’ve never wanted to do that. Then you would anyway be labelled as “commercial” by the HC pigs. This has caused that after 8 years, we are still as broke as ever, while the HC pigs themselves are controlling all labels, and they sign only the bands which fit into their own idiotic world, that means “death” metal bands with society lyrics and jogging suits, and this is what the people see when they grow up. They don’t see any EVIL bands with spikes, as we did. Well, I’m tired about being broke, just to be “underground”. I’m tired of not having money to eat for just because tons of people will call you a “rip-off” if you don’t write 20 letters each day. It’s time to say fuck off to the whole system, which is built to strangle the evil bands in the birth. We must start taking inspirations from the ancient ones, from Venom and their likes. They did their thing BIG, and they never had to think about any idiotic underground rules. They did it big and so must we, but it must never become a trend, it must become a CULT. This is why we have started on a brand new policy with the band and the record label. It’s about time that someone makes a label for black metal and other grim music, and STRIKE BACK. There is NO reason why DSP shouldn’t be as big as Peaceville or Nuclear Blast, if we can just get the business on its feet again and get good distribution. That’s the only way to compete with the HC labels. It’s about time we start taking control over our own scene. We must spread the EVIL bands and pervert people’s souls.

F: What about the Norwegian scene then? Don’t you think that something is terribly wrong when it have gone so far that we have a christian “death metal” band here (Crush Evil)? Advices on how we should kill them?

Euro: First of all— the Norwegian scene is the BEST. There are a lot of GREAT bands (yet with no album out) and of course some shitty trend bands, but nothing as in Sweden. There you have 2-3 good bands out of 100, while here we have a few shit bands who hardly have made even a demo, while all the great bands will make records in the near future. Such as Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Thorns (I’m flattered/ED*), Arcturus, Enslaved and newer bands like Malfeitor and others which I have not yet heard. BUT— when it comes to bands like Crush Evil, we must take serious action. It’s bad enough to have a couple of society bands, but a CHRISTIAN band is too much. But don’t worry, we have plans. They will not continue for a very long time.

F: And now over to something more humouristic....yes.... snuff movies. Who had been the perfect actor for a snuff movie, and why the hell aren’t they legalized? Don’t you think that every video-store should have its own section with snuff-movies?

Euro: Actually I think it’s great that movies like that are forbidden. If they were legal and easily accessible, all the small trend children would be watching them, and then it would not be something extreme anymore (I’m not sure if I agree with you here Euronymous. Snuff movies are usually too raw and brutal for the people with their “peace and life” infected minds. Remember the HC rules/ED) (shut the fuck up, Faust*) It’s just the same what happened to death metal— it became something everyone could buy in every store, something normal and accessible for everyone. All the mystic and evil atmosphere is GONE. I do not think snuff-movies are funny, I think they are DARK. I’ve seen people laugh at them, but that’s probably because they will not be mentally able to take the PAIN and EVIL on over themselves. That is the best way to watch such a movie, to try to FEEL the actual pain of the victims. It becomes much more gruesome then, and that’s great. One must be alone in the darkness and suffer with the victims, if you watch it with other people, they will often talk, laugh and so on, and then you get more distanced from it, it’s not supposed to be funny (death to fun), it’s much better when it’s depressive.

F: Through the years you have been talking about releasing bands like Samael, Rotting Christ, Master’s Hammer, Tormentor, Matricide, Imperator, Massacre etc. on Deathlike Silence Prod., but now some of these bands have released lp’s on labels which only have money in their eyes and know that black metal sells. Doesn’t that frustrate you, and don’t you feel it like the time is running out for you?

Euro: It’s a bit frustrating, but it is also a result of trying to be “underground” which is a suicide policy. Anyway, the main thing is that these evil records get released at all, and not who’s releasing them. We will probably release a record with Tormentor, they’re split up, but they still want to make their Anno Domini demo on vinyl, and we’ll try to fix it within the summer. The time is not running out, because there are a lot of really evil bands around. — most of the Norwegian bands which other labels haven’t heard about. Burzum is ten times better than all the bands on Earache together, and so are Thorns and Arcturus. So there is no problem, really. As for bands like Rotting Christ and Master’s Hammer, we might do something in the future instead. I’ve never been talking with Samael about any deal, but I wish I had as their album is FUCKING GREAT.

F: Almost all bands in the underground today says that they think they got their own style and originality, but the fact is that 95% of the bands sounds totally the same. What is an original death metal band today?

Euro: There exists no death metal bands today. There are only a handful of (mostly great) bands (in case someone hadn’t got it right— black metal has nothing to do with the music itself, both Blasphemy and Mercyful Fate are black metal. It’s the LYRICS, and they must be SATANIC. If not, it is NOT black metal) and what we choose to call LIFE METAL bands. Take a band like Therion. Their music is quite ok, it’s actually one of the best Swedish bands (even though that doesn’t say much) but their lyrics STINK. They are about society and pollution, what the fuck has that got to do with DEATH? If a band cultivates and worships death, then it’s death metal, no matter what KIND of metal it is. If a band cultivates and worships Satan, it’s black metal. And by saying “cultivates death”, I don’t think about thinking it’s funny, or being into gore, I’m thinking about being able to KILL just because they HATE LIFE. it’s people who enjoy to see wars because a lot of people get killed. How many bands think that way? Not many. I can’t think of one.

F: You’re maybe not the most active band when it comes to gigs, but at least you’ve managed to tour Germany and Turkey. What can you tell us from the tour, and is there any new gigs planed?

Euro: That tour was a big mess, we’ll NEVER take the train again! We lost quite some money, but still it was great to get to East-Germany and Turkey. The memories of the tour consist mostly of the starvation and idiotic custom officers, but still I wouldn’t like to have missed the opportunity. We don’t have any concrete plans, we’ll see happens in the future. We don’t like to play for a lot of trendies in jogging suits, so we prefer to leave it be.

F: What do you think of the fact that death metal has been on MTV?

Euro: It sucks. But it isn’t death metal anyway, so....

F: I know that you will soon release the debut album of Abruptum on DSP, so, what can you tell us about it?

Euro: It’s EVIL. It’s PURE EVIL, they were torturing each other in studio DURING the recording and you can HEAR on the music how they SUFFER. It will be the most demented record EVER, and it’s NOT for normal people. This is music which NEVER can become trendy, because normal people won’t be able to understand it. And that’s great. The price for the album it’ll be the same as for the BURZUM lp, which should be somewhere else in this ‘zine*. It’s called “Obscuriratem Advoco Amplèctere Me”, and stay away from it if you don’t like pure DARKNESS.

F: Don’t you think that people in the underground should respect others ideas and views more? I mean, it’s not accepted to spread unpopular thoughts. It seems like there is some sort of guardians of morality and most people keep in mind not to say or do anything which is not accepted by the public.

Euro: I don’t think people should respect each other. I don’t want to see trend people respecting me, I want them to HATE and FEAR. If people don’t accept our ideas as their own, they can fuck off because then they belong to a musical scene which has NOTHING to do with ours. They could just as well be Madonna fans. There is an ABYSS between us and the rest. Remember— one of the HC rules is that you must be open-minded (except for themselves), so we must be careful and avoid being open-minded ourselves. The HC pigs have correctly made themselves guardians of morality, but we must kick them in the face and become guardians of anti-morality.

F: You say you want your riffs to have a dark mood and really sound evil, but what if you came up with a riff which just sounded good, but not evil. Would you use it then?

Euro: Well, if a riff sounds good to me, it mostly means that it sounds evil too. At least when I make the music myself. Haven’t really thought about this about this before.

F: Do you think you’ve been playing this sort of music today if it weren’t for those old bands like Mercyful Fate, Venom and Hellhammer?

Euro: It’s impossible to say. Venom and the other ancient ones have been fundamental influences on Mayhem, and also the direct reason of the band’s existence. We like to think that if they hadn’t started up this, we would have, but who knows? Doesn’t really matter anyway, we hail ancient Venom as the CREATORS.

F: Ok, no more questions at the moment. End the interview in what way you want......

Euro: Perhaps it should be mentioned that well re-release the MAYHEM mini-lp “Deathcrush” VERY soon. We also have t-shirts available now. People should write for prices on things. Be EVIL, not open-minded.

Ok, I suppose some of you already know that Euronymous started up a shop in Oslo in the spring of ‘91. The shop is called “HELVETE” (which is Norwegian and means “HELL”) and are specialized within underground stuff and death metal in general (though he also have some other styles of music there). As he said in the MAYHEM interview, the shop really have a black metal look, so if you ever visit Oslo, I really recommend you to visit “HELVETE” as well. I think it’s good that people take the initiative to start up with such things, because if everyone were just passive, we would all get ruined by poser-shops like Hot Records where they take 140 NKR for the Earache albums (which you in “HELVETE” can get a CD for the same price). Euronymous also sells though mail, so write and ask for a list or something: HELVETE, Schweigaardsgt. 56, 0656 Oslo. NORWAY.”

That’s all! :)

And now for the things I put in asterisks, in order of their appearances.

*If for some reason you actually don’t know who Faust is, he was the drummer on the Emperor LP and “In The Nightside Eclipse” but you might also know him from other great hits such as “threatening to kill Mortiis from prison whilst simultaneously attempting to plead murder of the secondth degree”, “I’m glad the people Euronymous ripped off won’t get their money back because he’s dead hA hA!”, “I got fourteen years for murder because I’m a socially inept virgin— oops” and “bad... bad lyrics who’s quality somehow don’t improve with the passing of time”. All jokes are done in good humour— if it seems like I dislike him, it’s not that at all. I just find him easy to make fun of.

Here is another short bio, this one less sarcastic: he was born in Trondheim, lived around Kvikne, and Lillehammer, worked at Helvete, was a close friend of Euro’s, and has his sun in Taurus.

He also beefed with Glen Benton for dissing the Party City cape (Note: of course I’m being extremely reductive) he and Euronymous seemed to share. Here are a few pictures of Faust:

Here is the infamous Party City cape:

*This was surprisingly hard to find. I think he read it in a mag or something. Here’s a link to where you can find it: https://issuu.com/davidgamble/docs/paranormal37/3 page 64-65.

*Slayer mag was another zine, this one by a bloke named Metalion, who was Euro’s best friend.

*Faust (who felt the strange need to make a distinction between himself, the editor, and himself, the interviewer) also played in Thorns (well, Stigma Diabolicum), under the hilarious moniker: Fetophagia✨

*He’s being a fucking idiot, what was I supposed to say? It should be noted that Faust actually went down for the snuff films too.....

*In case you’re interested, for whatever reason, the prices for the Burzum LP were as follows:

Norge— 130 NKR

Norden— 100 K

Finland— 60 FN

Island— 1000 IK

Europe— 15$

Outside Europe,

Overseas— 15 $

Air— 22$

East Europe— 10$

By ‘norden’ he presumably meant ‘northern Norway’, and “Island” is the Norwegian word for Iceland. Notice the way he doesn’t include Sweden! (Edit: Originally I thought he didn’t include Finland because there was a black metal war with them as well, but it seems as though that feud came a bit later or had already passed)

That’s all, for real this time!

Legal disclaimer: I am absolutely, in no way shape or form, claiming that the stupid cape you see them wearing is literally from Party City. From my limited research, I’ve gathered that the Party City chain hasn’t yet opened its doors in the beautiful and glorious country we know as Norway— Norge. However, I am saying that the cheap, dinky piece of cloth covering their backs and shoulders are of the same kind of shitty quality you’d expect from a Party City Count Dracula costume and that maybe Glen had a point about how stupid Euronymous (and Faust) must’ve looked.......

[devinoxart]

Cross-posted From: Buzzly.art

Date Originally Published: March 8 2022

I haven't seen the show myself - I mostly consume it through second hand means such as critique videos, sin counters, and misc clips, and so far I don't think it deserves most of the hate it gets but it does deserve all of the critisms. I also think the story has some potential, and I think that's why so many people are upset about it and critiquing it so much. The characters don't even have the worst designs, they're simply not handled all that great and their story arcs aren't given any individual attention.

But I still thought it'd be fun to put my own twists on them. I also designed them with a different story in mind. I decided to get rid of the magical school since that sort of setting doesn't really fit in the world of DnD and went with idea of a guild instead.

From left to right:

Rosemary: I ended up changing her the most since I feel like they could've done more with her given that this story is supposed to be inspired by DnD. I tightened up the armor, got rid of the dress shirt and skirt combo she wore under it, moved her bow to her hair (apparently she originally had hair bows anyway before they redesigned her for the anime, and gave her some leathers for no particular reason other than to look cool. I also gave her pants since they seem much easier to move around in.

Oh yeah, and I made her an half-orc x) I keep seeing redrawings where people use green to break up the pink and this is how my mind chose to interpret that. Her father's an orc sad her mother, the legendary, MIA warrior, is human. Also, her brother? Yeah he died around the time Lavender went MIA. Rumors say losing her son drove her mad and that's why she never came home. But who's to say 😏

Instead of going to study being a Guardian at an Academy, Rosemary spends most of her time helping out her father, and her village with fighting monsters and protecting livestock and crops. But lately their monster problem is getting worse and with their letters and pleas to the famous High Guardian Guild going unanswered, Rosemary makes the decision to go in person to "drag their uppity asses back and help them".

Sage: Her design isn't the worst thing in the world, it's just very monochromatic. I took inspiration from the cottagecore fashion to break up the blues while still leaving the feeling of a country bumpkin who's never left her hometown before. Her and Rosemary are still childhood friends (I just forgot mention it until now) and while Rose is protecting her town from the local monsters, Sage and her family work at the local apothecary to create beneficial potions and protective wards, but lately those wards don't seem to be working as well as they should.

Old magic seems to be weakening and Sage sets out with Rosemary to find out why.

Parsley: I actually like her design! She's a cute round friend and is generally well liked, it's just unfortunate she's mainly used for exposition and doesn't go through any character development or growth through the show. I still decided to give her an alternative outfit since I think she's supposed to be accociated with orange. I also gave her some stubble since female dwarves also have facial hair but it's tidbit if lore that's hardly ever used. She still helps run her family's forge, 12 brothers and all, but what she really wants to do is get an apprenticeship with the High Guardian Guild's artificer to study under him instead.

She meets Rose and Sage when they come to the capital (where she lives and works) when they bring in the locket that was broke during their journey to the capital. They get to talking and one things leads to another.

Thyme: I also really like her design and kind of do regret giving her braids, especially without a reference because I couldn't find one that I liked, even if they are more practical. But that leather top piece and belt dhe's wearing? Yeah they're meant to keep clothing in place and conformed to the body, so it's kind of ironic they decided to style these pieces with loose fabrics. I swapped out her tunic dress for a tunic and a pair of leather pants and gave her some boots to match her gauntlets. (I also wanna give her she/they pronouns but don't know if I should).

She's still an angsty elf who comes to the capital with her mother seeking answers and also to plead her case with the High Guardian Guild. She meets Sage and Rose when she comes to their aid during a scuffle with a monster and the three sort of head the same way. Though I imagine she also goes to the blacksmith for some arrows or something.

I have other thoughts like:

- Rose and Sage still staying with Sage's cousin, Anise, and her wife, Aloe, until they find a more permanent arrangement.

- Mandrake and Olive being introduced early on because •°•Secret Mission•°• Also, they're a friend duo and actually look out for eachother.

- Amaryllis and Sage are rivals who have differentiating opinions and views on old magic vs new magic. She's still the chaotic rich and powerful brat who's apart of the High Guardian Spice Guild and thinks herself one of the best mages the guild has.

- Snapdragon, instead of being Transgender, is just a guy who just happens to also like some traditionally femine things. I also like the idea of him being gender fluid, but I don't like the idea of him being m2f in the context the show gives him (that because he's a guy who like feminine things that he must be transgendered; the transgender identity doesn'texist to reinforce gender roles).

- Caraway is still f2m transgender but instead of having to take a potion monthly and suggesting his transition is not permanent and he can go back to being a girl at any time, it is permanent and the suggestion of using transition magic is not brought up immediately to someone still figuring themselves out (Snapdragon). Obviously he's a veteran member of the guild who has worked with Lavender in the past.

I might go into this a bot more, a may not. Honestly I don't even know why I'm so fascinated with a show that I haven't even watched and don't think I would even like with how immature the writing is and the constant waste of potential for deeper plot points. ESPECIALLY FOR THE CHARACTERS.

[sedge-yells-at-comics]

Reprinted below, in case the link implodes.

Flash #27 Reveals Why Reverse Flash Is a Truly Unique Villain                

The finale of "Running Scared" provides a gut-wrenching Rebirth update to one of DC's most complicated villains: Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash.

By Meg Downey Published Jul 27, 2017               

If you’re a fan of the Flash, you’re probably pretty familiar with the concept of the Reverse Flash, a man named Eobard Thawne who, like Barry, has super speed and wears a flashy costume. Of course, the “Reverse” might sound like he’s the literal opposite of the Flash -- maybe someone who slows things down instead of speeding himself up? Or maybe someone who runs backwards?

There are a lot of obvious and incorrect guesses pretty readily available for casual or newer fans to throw darts at. The reality of the Reverse Flash is, however, pretty complicated. Mostly because his “reverse” status is actually ideological at its core. Flash media, be it print, animated or live action, has traditionally made this apparent by painting Eobard as someone who is essentially pure evil -- a sort of manic, time traveling serial killer who is motivated solely by his endless need to destroy Barry Allen from the ground up.

At that point, the problem then becomes finding a way to make Thawne’s homicidal drive, well… unique in the scope of the DC Universe, a place that just so happens to be populated by enough over-the-top villains to populate a decent sized Midwestern town. Why is Reverse Flash someone that’s specific to The Flash? What differentiates him from any of DC’s other iconic arch rivals, like Lex Luthor or The Joker?

Well, The Flash #27 has the answer, and it's probably not the one you expected.

Running Scared

The rebirth of the “classic” Eobard Thawne (as opposed to his New 52 revamp) began in the Flash/Batman crossover mini-event “The Button” back in April, a four-part storyline which connected the original Thawne to the events of last year’s DC Universe: Rebirth one-shot.

Since, then, Thawne’s taken up residence as a perpetual thorn in Barry’s side in the hero's own ongoing series, stepping directly into the spotlight for the three-part “Running Scared” arc which served to highlight Thawne’s Rebirth status quo. For the most part, it’s a story that fans will be pretty familiar with, borrowing heavily from elements of stories like The Flash: Rebirth and Flashpoint. Thawne’s from the future, he time traveled to kill Barry’s parents, he’s connected to a negative form of the Speed-Force, and so on -- But that’s where things start to get their Rebirth-specific legs.

It’s not that creators Josh Williamson, Howard Porter and Paul Pelletier are trying to reinvent the proverbial wheel with “Running Scared” -- just unlock a different side of it by shining a light on one of the most unique aspect of Eobard and Barry’s relationship.

Reverse Flash doesn’t hate Flash the way Lex Luthor hates Superman, or Bane hates Batman. It’s actually (appropriately) quite the opposite. It’s the reverse. Eobard Thawne loves Barry Allen, obsessively and vengefully, which is where his endless, destructive need to ruin Barry’s life comes into play.

“Running Scared” highlights the fact that a young Eobard grew up alone (though Williamson was quick to confirm that that particular story element came out of an earlier Geoff Johns Flash issue) with only his idealized and imaginary version of Barry -- a character from his history books -- to keep him company. Barry was, for all intents and purposes, Thawne’s only friend, confidant, and emotional anchor, despite the fact that the two of them wouldn’t actually meet for years and years.

It was plenty of time for a very troubled and very lonely Thawne to fall in love with a version of The Scarlet Speedster that existed only in his imagination...and, well, it’s pretty obvious how that particular emotional endeavor actually went down. Actually meeting Barry and subsequently being forced to deal with the fact that he was just a guy and not the cartoon character Thawne had built in his head for years, proved to be too hard a stress test for Thawne’s fragile psyche.

Fatal Attraction

Meeting and being disappointed by a personal hero is a rough experience for just about anyone, but rather than allowing himself to move on -- or even allowing himself to simply decide to hate Barry instead, Thawne’s obsession only doubled down.

As issue #27 hurtles to its conclusion, Thawne’s real motivations become abundantly apparent. As Barry, infected with Thawne’s own inverted Negative Speed Force thrashes Thawne within an inch of his life, he presses him with a question - Why, if Thawne has always been so inspired by him, has he gone out of his way to ruin Barry’s life at every turn? Why has he done all of these terrible things, from killing Barry’s parents to beating Wally within an inch of his life, to kidnapping he and Iris and hauling them to the future?

Thawne’s answer is as unexpected as it is heartrendingly honest: because these horrible things are the only way Thawne understands how to make Barry spend time with him.

It’s that simple.

Thawne’s love for, and obsession with Barry Allen has permeated his life so deeply and completely that he is even willing to count his time spent being pummeled half to death by Flash as a win. He’s completely unable or unwilling to differentiate between Barry’s affection and Barry’s hatred, and he’s ready to do whatever it might take to put himself at the center of either emotion in Barry’s mind.

“A few years ago, it would have really hurt my feelings to hear you say that,” Thawne taunts after Barry threatens him, “but now to think that I caused you that anger? That I could get under your skin like this? It warms my heart.”

It’s deeply troubling, of course, and horrifyingly uncomfortable to get a look into the head of a villain who is, essentially, the personification of a fan gone terribly, terribly awry -- a theme that only gets more difficult to swallow when you begin to think about the increasingly complicated relationship between fans and their idols in actual, genuine, non-super heroic world around us.

This subtle reworking of the Reverse Flash has made him one of comic’s most poignant ruminations of the idea of toxicity in fan communities, idolization of strangers, and self destructive obsession, and it did so in a way that boldly allowed Thawne to win at the end of the day.

The issue closes, and the arc completes, with Barry exactly in the position Thawne wanted him in: completely alone, just like Thawne was as he built Barry into a hero of mythological perfection in his head. Now, where Barry will end up, and whether he’ll be forgiven by Iris, Wally and the roster of people he’s been manipulating as he leads his vigilante double life, is still largely a mystery.

It’s clear that Thawne didn’t expect, or even really want, Barry to come running into his arms to start their life together the second he succeeded in isolating him -- he makes that abundantly clear as he warns that he’ll just return again and again and again, de-powered, killed or otherwise hindered. Iris may have added an exclamation point to the end of the story arc by “vaporizing” Thawne with a Black Hole gun, but it hardly matters.

Reverse Flash will be back, somehow, at some point, and it’s doubtful that his love and obsession for Barry will have wavered in the slightest. We know now that’s just now how his mind is capable of working. It’s unlikely that Thawne will ever feel anything for Barry beyond his own supremely twisted adoration, no matter how many times the Flash pummels him into the ground. It’s just not the way Thawne’s brain is able to process information anymore.

It’s complicated, messy, and uncomfortable, but it’s also one of the clearest articulations of exactly what makes Reverse Flash such an interesting villain in the scope of not just the Flash family of books, but the DCU as a whole.

[zeppelin-and-unicorns]

you should do the 16personalities test with the t70s characters in mind. it would help us understand better your interpretation of the characters, thus, how you write them in your stories! also, if you don't mind answering, what's your personality type?

Ever since I got your message three days ago (sorry for taking so long to answer), I couldn't get this out of my head. This is actually a pretty nice idea, so I just spent hours last night taking the same test over and over again, each time, with one specific character in mind.

Here are the results:

Jackie: ESTJ-A, Executive.

Strengths: Dedicated; Strong-willed; Direct and Honest; Loyal, Patient and Reliable; Enjoy Creating Order; Excellent Organizers.

Weaknesses: Inflexible and Stubborn; Uncomfortable with Unconventional Situations; Judgemental; Too Focused on Social Status; Difficult to Relax; Difficulty Expressing Emotion.

Friendships:

Executives are strong, traditional friends who appreciate loyalty and shared values. Friendships with the Executive personality type are often defined by their mutual activities and routines, by external factors, more so than the sense of intellectual or mystical compatibility that many Analyst and Diplomat personalities share among themselves.

Romantic relationships:

Because they value honesty and straightforwardness so highly, people with the Executive personality type are likely to be clear about who they are, what they’re like and what their goals are from the start, and to stick to those statements long-term.

You can read more about her personality here.

Hyde: INTP-T, Logician.

Strengths: Analytical; Original; Open-Minded; Curious; Objective.

Weaknesses: Disconnected; Insensitive; Dissatisfied; Impatient; Perfectionist.

Friendships:

Like anyone, Logicians look to their friends for companionship and support. But people with this personality type prize something else as well: intellectual depth. Not everyone will meet Logicians’ standards for a potential friend, but when someone does, the connection can spark instantly, surprising everyone who thought they had this seemingly distant personality type pegged.

Romantic relationships:

People with this personality type may seem cerebral and reserved, but once they let their guard down, they have a playful, creative side as well.

You can read more about his personality here.

Eric: ISFP-T, Adventurer.

Strengths: Charming; Sensitive to Others; Imaginative; Passionate; Curious; Artistic.

Weaknesses: Fiercely Independent; Unpredictable; Easily-stressed; Overly Competitive; Fluctuating Self-Esteem.

Friendships:

Intellectually exhausting pastimes like debates over European economic policy won’t hold their attention long. The here-and-now is what’s important to Adventurers, and they love spending time with their friends doing casual, fun activities.

Romantic relationships:

Adventurers may not be great long-term planners, preferring to let their partners take the lead when it comes to logic and strategy, but they almost never run out of things to do in the present. Also caring and loyal, Adventurers love finding ways to surprise their partners in fun little ways.

You can read more about his personality here.

Donna: ENTJ-A, Commander.

Strengths: Efficient; Energetic; Self-Confident; Strong-Willed; Strategic Thinkers; Charismatic and Inspiring.

Weaknesses: Stubborn and Dominant; Intolerant; Impatient; Arrogant; Poor Handling of Emotions; Cold and Ruthless.

Friendships:

Friendships of circumstance, built on things like shared routines, are not Commanders’ preferred method – rather, they pursue their friends, seek out individuals who share their passion for deep, meaningful discussions, and who enjoy learning and development as much as they do. It is not always easy to be Commanders’ friends – they demand a lot from these relationships – but they pay a great deal of attention to their friendships, and it is unlikely that it will ever feel stagnant.

Romantic relationships:

People with the Commander personality type are in it to win, and will gladly take leading roles in relationships from the start, assuming personal responsibility for how smoothly things go and working actively to ensure a mutually rewarding experience.

You can read more about her personality here.

Fez (I did this based on s1-s4 Fez, aka the Fez I choose to write in most of my stories): ESFP-T, Entertainer.

Strengths: Bold; Original; Aesthetics and Showmanship; Practical; Observant; Excellent People Skills.

Weaknesses: Sensitive; Conflict-Averse; Easily Bored; Poor Long-Term Planners; Unfocused.

Friendships:

Entertainers are known for their irrepressibly social and excited attitudes. They don’t internalize much of anything, sharing it all with their extensive circles of friends with wit, style, enthusiasm, and optimism. Entertainers are explorers of the pleasures of life, and they take particular pleasure in sharing those experiences with others.

Romantic relationships:

Entertainers are social, fun-loving, free-spirited people who live life in the moment and squeeze every little bit of excitement from everything. Naturally, they don’t spare any of this freshness and energy when dating. For people with the Entertainer personality type, relationships aren’t about slowly building foundations for the future, or planning out a life – they are bubbling, unpredictable things to be enjoyed for as long as there’s enjoyment to be had.

You can read more about his personality here.

Kelso: ESTP-A, Entrepreneur.

Strengths: Bold; Rational and Practical; Original; Perceptive; Direct; Sociable.

Weaknesses: Insensitive; Impatient; Risk-prone; Unstructured; May Miss the Bigger Picture; Defiant.

Friendships:

People with the Entrepreneur personality type are definitely the life of the party. With an enviable imagination and invigorating sense of spontaneity, Entrepreneurs are never boring. They love exploring interesting ideas, both in discussion and by going out and seeing for themselves, which means that Entrepreneurs always seem to have some fun activity hidden up their sleeves.

Romantic relationships:

When it comes to romantic relationships, people with the Entrepreneur personality type can hardly be said to be pining away for their wedding day. Life is fun and full of surprises (something Entrepreneurs have particular skill in delivering), and they enjoy it all in the here and now. Entrepreneurs may not spend a lot of time planning for “someday”, but their enthusiasm and unpredictability make them thrilling dating partners.

You can read more about his personality here.

I think the results were actually really accurate, I had fun doing this.

(and my personality type is INFP-T).

[trans-advice]

Excerpt from “Transgender History” (2017) by Susan Stryker (“Chapter 3: Trans Liberation”)

[...]

Stonewall:

Meanwhile, across the continent [from San Francisco, California, USA], another important center of transgender activism was taking shape in New York City [New York, USA], where, not coincidentally, Harry Benjamin maintained his primary medical practice. In 1968, Mario Martino, a female-to-male transsexual, founded Labyrinth, the first organization in the United States devoted specifically to the needs of transgender men. Martino and his wife, who both worked in the health care field, helped other transsexual men navigate their way through the often-confusing maze of transgender-oriented medical services just then beginning to emerge, which (despite being funded primarily by Reed Erickson) were geared more toward the needs of transgenderwomen than transgender men. Labyrinth was not a political organization but rather one that aimed to help individuals make the often-difficult transition from one social gender to another.

Far overshadowing the quiet work of Martino’s Labyrinth Foundation, however, were the dramatic events of June 1969 at the Stonewall Inn, a bar in New York’s Greenwich Village. The “Stonewall Riots” have been mythologized as the origin of the gay liberation movement, and there is a great deal of truth in that characterization, but—as we have seen—gay, transgender, and gender-nonconforming people had been engaging in militant protest and collective actions against social oppression for at least a decade by that time. Stonewall stands out as the biggest and most consequential example of a kind of event that was becoming increasingly common, rather than as a unique occurrence. By 1969, as a result of many years of social upheaval and political agitation, large numbers of people who were socially marginalized because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, especially younger people who were part of the Baby Boomer generation, were drawn to the idea of “gay revolution” and were primed for any event that would set such a movement off. The Stonewall Riots provided that very spark, and they inspired the formation of Gay Liberation Front groups in big cities, progressive towns, and college campuses all across the United States. Ever since the summer of 1969, various groups of people who identify with the people who participated in the rioting have argued about what actually happened, what the riot’s underlying causes were, who participated in it, and what the movements that point back to Stonewall as an important part of their own history have in common with one another.

Although Greenwich Village was not as economically down-and-out as San Francisco’s Tenderloin, it was nevertheless a part of the city that appealed to the same sorts of people who resisted at Cooper Do-Nut, Dewey’s, and Compton’s Cafeteria: drag queens, hustlers, gender nonconformists of many varieties, gay men, lesbians, and countercultural types who simply “dug the scene.” The Stonewall Inn was a small, shabby, Mafia-run bar (as were many of the gay-oriented bars in New York back in the days when being gay or cross-dressing were crimes). It drew a racially mixed crowd and was popular mainly for its location on Christopher Street near Sheridan Square, where many gay men “cruised” for casual sex, and because it featured go-go boys, cheap beer, a good jukebox, and a crowded dance floor. Then as now, there was a lively street scene in the bar’s vicinity, one that drew young and racially mixed queer folk from through the region most weekend nights. Police raids were relatively frequent (usually when the bar was slow to make its payoffs to corrupt cops) and relatively routine and uneventful. Once the bribes were sorted out, the bar would reopen, often on the same night. But in the muggy, early morning hours of Saturday, June 28, 1969, events departed from the familiar script when the squad cars pulled up outside the Stonewall Inn.

[Source text Inserts “Sidebar: Radical Transsexual” here]

A large crowd of people gathered on the street as police began arresting workers and patrons and escorting them out of the bar and into the waiting police wagons. Some people in the crowd started throwing coins at the police officers, taunting them for taking “payola.” Eyewitness accounts of what happened next differ in their particulars, but some witnesses claim a transmasculine person resisted police attempts to put them in the police wagon, while others noted that African American and Puerto Rican members of the crowd—many of them street queens, feminine gay men, transgender women, or gender-nonconforming youth—grew increasingly angry as they watched their “sisters” being arrested and escalated the level of opposition to the police. Both stories might well be true. Sylvia Rivera, a transgender woman who came to play an important role in subsequent transgender political history, long maintained that, after she was jabbed by a police baton, she threw the beer bottle that tipped the crowd’s mood from mockery to collective resistance. In any case, the targeting of gender-nonconforming people, people of color, and poor people during a police action fits the usual patterns of police behavior in such situations.

Bottles, rocks, and other heavy objects were soon being hurled at the police, who, in retaliation, began grabbing people from the crowd and beating them.Weekend partiers and residents in the heavily gay neighborhood quickly swelledthe ranks of the crowd to more than two thousand people, and the outnumberedpolice barricaded themselves inside the Stonewall Inn and called for reinforcements. Outside, rioters used an uprooted parking meter as a batteringram to try to break down the bar’s door, while other members of the crowdattempted to throw a Molotov cocktail inside to drive the police back into the streets. Tactical Patrol Force officers arrived on the scene in an attempt to contain the growing disturbance, which nevertheless continued for hours until dissipating before dawn. That night, thousands of people regrouped at the Stonewall Inn to protest. When the police arrived to break up the assembled crowd, street fighting even more violent than that of the night before ensued. One particularly memorable sight amid the melee was a line of drag queens, arms linked, dancing a can-can and singing campy, improvised songs that mocked the police and their inability to regain control of the situation: “We are the Stonewall girls / We wear our hair in curls / We always dress with flair / We wear clean underwear / We wear our dungarees / Above our nellie knees.” Minor skirmishes and protest rallies continued throughout the next few days before finally dying down. By that time, however, untold thousands of people had been galvanized into political action.

Sidebar: Radical Transsexual

Suzy Cooke was a young hippie from upstate New York who lived in a commune in Berkeley, California, when she started transitioning from male to female in 1969. She came out as a bisexual transsexual in the context of the radical counterculture.

I was facing being called back up for the draft. I had already been called up once and had just gone in and played crazy with them the year before. But that was just an excuse. I had also been doing a lot of acid and really working things out. And then December 31, 1968, I took something—I don’t really know what it was—but everything just collapsed. I said, “This simply cannot go on.” To the people that I lived with, I said, “I don’t care if you hate me, but I’m just going to have to do something. I’m going to have to work it out over the next couple of months, and that it doesn’t matter if you reject me, I just have to do it.”

As it was, the people in my commune took it very well. I introduced the cross-dressing a few days later as a way of avoiding the draft. And they were just taken aback at how much just putting on the clothes made me into a girl. I mean, hardly any makeup. A little blush, a little shadow, some gloss, the right clothes, padding. I passed. I passed really easily in public. This is like a few months before Stonewall. And by this point I was dressing up often enough that people were used to seeing it.

I was wallowing in the happiness of having a lot of friends. Here I was being accepted, this kinda cool/sorta goofy hippie kid. I was being accepted by all these heavy radicals. I had been rejected by my parental family, and I had never found a family at college, and now here I was with this family of like eight people all surrounding me. And as it turned out, even some of the girls that I had slept with were thinking that this was really cool. All the girls would donate clothes to me. I really had not been expecting this. I had been expecting rejection, I really had been. And I was really very pleased and surprised. Because I thought that if I did this then I was going to have to go off and live with the queens. And I didn’t.

Stonewall’s Transgender Legacy:

Within a month of the Stonewall Riots, gay activists inspired by the events in Greenwich Village formed the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), which modeled itself on radical Third World liberation and anti-imperialist movements. The GLF spread quickly through activist networks in the student and antiwar movements, primarily among white young people of middle-class origin. Almost as quickly as it formed, however, divisions appeared within the GLF, primarily taking aim at the movement’s domination by white men and its perceived marginalization of women, working-class people, people of color, and trans people. People with more liberal, less radical politics soon organized as the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA), which aimed to reform laws rather than foment revolution. Many lesbians redirected their energy toward radical feminism and the women’s movement. And trans people, after early involvement in the GLF (and being explicitly excluded from the GAA’s agenda), quickly came to feel that they did not have a welcome place in the movement they had done much to inspire. As a consequence, they soon formed their own organizations.

In 1970, Sylvia Rivera and another Stonewall regular, Marsha P. Johnson, established STAR—Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. Their primary goal was to help street kids stay out of jail, or get out of jail, and to find food, clothing, and a place to live. They opened STAR House, an overtly politicized version of the “house” culture that already characterized black and Latino queer kinship networks, where dozens of trans youth could count on a free and safe place to sleep. Rivera and Johnson, as “house mothers,” would hustle to pay the rent, while their “children” would scrounge for food. Their goal was to educate and protect the younger people who were coming into the kind of life they themselves led—they even dreamed of establishing a school for kids who’d never learned to read and write because their formal education was interrupted by discrimination and bullying. Some STAR members, particularly Rivera, were also active in the Young Lords, a revolutionary Puerto Rican youth organization. One of the first times the STAR banner was flown in public was at a mass demonstration against police repression organized by the Young Lords in East Harlem in 1970, in which STAR participated as a group. STAR House lasted for only two or three years and inspired a few short-lived imitators in other cities, but its legacy lives on even now.

A few other transgender groups formed in New York in the early 1970s. A trans woman named Judy Bowen organized two extremely short-lived groups: Transvestites and Transsexuals (TAT) in 1970 and Transsexuals Anonymous in 1971. More significant was the Queens’ Liberation Front (QLF), founded by drag queen Lee Brewster and heterosexual transvestite Bunny Eisenhower. The QLF formed in part to resist the erasure of drag and trans visibility in the first Christopher Street Liberation Day march, which commemorated the Stonewall Riots and is now an annual event held in New York on the last Sunday in June. In many other cities, this weekend has become the traditional date to celebrate LGBTQ Pride. The formation of the QLF demonstrates how quickly the gay liberation movement started to push aside some of the very people who had the greatest stake in militant resistance at Stonewall. QLF members participated in that first Christopher Street Liberation Day march and were involved in several other political campaigns through the next few years—including wearing drag while lobbying state legislators in Albany. QLF’s most lasting contribution, however, was the publication of Drag Queen magazine (later simply Drag), which had the best coverage of transgender news and politics in the United States, and which offered fascinating glimpses of trans life and activism outside the major coastal cities. In New York, QLF founder Lee Brewster’s private business, Lee’s Mardi Gras Boutique, was a gathering place for segments of the city’s transgender community well into the 1990s.