#trying to put the viewer in the mindset of a little girl that experienced something she never told in full to anybody
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Made (bad?) motivational images out of quotes that bounce around in my skull like the DVD screensaver.
âFelix. I need you to pick up the phone. Now.â -- Jack Walten, the Walten Files.
âHave these statements always been true? Or have I cursed you? Is such a thing possible? A curse that changes your past?â -- ???, Petscop
âLike a thunderclap to a small dog... I felt a strange powerlessness... Countless wonderful things were happening... âI want to be kinder.â -- Toby Fox I had to horribly misrepresent this quote to get it to fit. GO read the full post where they say this.
âThereâs just no peace for me, anymore.â -- Wolverine, X-Men: The Animated Series (1992-1997)
#petscop#twf#the walten files#jack walten#rainer petscop#undertale#yeah i think these actually say something abt me. not sure what other than i have trauma lmao#the last one i heard when i was like 8 & it stuck with me too hard even though i didn't realize why#i have always attributed that specific petscop quote to rainer as the maker of the game but lmk if that's wrong or whatever#anyhow proud pilferer of gettyimages i love open source#i made these in krita in like 30 mins & the 2nd one made it crash#v inspired by that one time everyone was posting around inspirational images w/ the 'i survived bc the fire within me burned brighter#than the fire around me' quote which was from a video game & was meant literally#the power of some of these is that random words taken out of context can mean a lot#but these are all special bc of the context around them!#the 'felix i need you to pick up the phone scene' is so strong. can't say more bc i detest spoiling#'have these statements always been true or have i cursed you?' is a character trying to explain a day shrouded in mystery#trying to put the viewer in the mindset of a little girl that experienced something she never told in full to anybody#to get them to imagine what happened to her on that day#but it also is directed to that girl in a way. reminding her of something that never happened but did occur.#in full context the toby fox quote is about the terror of creating something that becomes bigger than you could imagine very quickly#combined with the fact that he had once begged content creators not to cover the game it paints a picture#but also he is talking about what good undertale did for the world & in turn him#& in the last one. wolverine has nothing. he has nobody. he has no name. he is naked and covered in blood.#he has just attacked a woman. she is the first person he is seen in months if not years.#he does not know why he has attacked her. she has done nothing to provoke him. it is simply that his mind is so contorted by pain & fear#conditioned to fight or die that it is all he can comprehend. he has become nothing more than a bloodthirsty animal#he speaks for the first time in a long long time. he screams out into the ice & trees. 'there's just no peace for me anymore.'#this too they have taken from him.#it will get better from here. but in this crystalline moment this is what he has become
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act two pt. 1:
act twooooooo. we start w hands clean (this ensemble wowwowwowowow) and the stage opens to bella and andrew on either side of nick, all staring out into the audience. a few moments later jo and frankie come in from stage right and stand on either side of bella, comforting her and staying by her side as they walk off stage. honestly, i love how bella is rarely alone in all of this, jo and frankie are always there for her itâs really sweet.
as they all leave we transition to a psychologistâs office where steve and mj are getting ready to meet w the doctor. cue not the doctor. so good. so funny. so clever. when yana comes up behind them as the doctor and announces âhello i am the doctorâ itâs just so perfect. then comes the therapy session. the whole time steve is emotional and desperate trying to get through to mj and figure out whatâs wrong heâs just so concerned and mj is just so completely closed off: body language, speech and all. she does not want to be there. she does mention her car accident, though, and the doctor comments that physical trauma can awaken past trauma, even sexual trauma (hint hint see the predator theme from forgivenâŠ). mj immediately tries to deny this and steve just doesnât know what to do. there is a funny line though where the doctor asks if steve would describe himself as the high-libido partner and steve responds âi would describe myself as a puppy under the table begging for scraps⊠and getting kicked in the head w a loaferâ and mj goes âthese are not loafers these are driversâ and itâs so funny. but eventually the doctor asks if mj has always been reluctant to have sex and steve says no, that âthey were great once. remember?â cue head over feet. frankie and phoenix peek out from behind the panels on either side of the stage while mj and steve are still in the center as the song starts. eventually the couples switch places as the song grows and the swingset replaces the doctorâs office for frankie and phoenix to climb on while they sing. the song ends with them in frankieâs room, about to have sex. as they start taking each otherâs clothes off jo enters from the side, singing your house (wow i love lauren patten her voice i just ahhhhhhhh). all of your house is acapella and lauren patten is just honestly a freak of nature. she walks into frankieâs room and catches them in the middle of having sex, running out and trying to hide the fact that sheâs crying as frankie calls after her. she runs downstairs as mj and steve come home and announces that frankie has been having sex w a boy upstairs. she breaks the tension w one of my favorite lines âhe was wearing dog tags w no shirt like a douche!â then steve calls her joanne before running upstairs. as he and mj leave she stops for a moment and says, her voice small, shaking and cracking a little and with a hint of just utter devastation âplease donât call me joanne.â she then returns to her usual funny self though and yells âiâm not a fucking fabric store!â before exiting the stage. again, just beautiful acting from lauren. the face jo puts on only breaks for a second but wow is it like a punch in the gut. it breaks me every time.
ok so you know how in theaters there are poles/scaffolding on either side of the stage where they hang lights and speakers and things? yeah. so steve and mj run into frankieâs room and phoenix can be seen literally climbing down said scaffolding w no shirt or pants on, trying desperately not to drop his clothes. steve comments about frankieâs friend ârunning down the sidewalk w his pants falling downâ as phoenix stumbles through the audience just trying his best. it is so fucking funny. but then mj and steve start berating frankie. they say sheâs too young to be having sex âespecially w a boy she just metâ and frankie responds âwhat if it was with a girl? iâm bisexual, did you know that?â and steveâs like âwow okâ and itâs hilarious cause clearly heâs like not upset w this and would want to talk about it more but also thereâs another issue at hand and this poor dude is like idk what to do. meanwhile mj just keeps going on about how frankie shouldnât be doing this and frankie goes âyou donât care about the situation w bella but as soon as i choose to have sex w someone i care about itâs a crime?â and mj goes âdonât even get me started in the situation w bella. if youre not careful frankie the same thing could happen to you.â silence. a few gasps in the audience. frankie slowly stands up and pushes mj away âyou donât get it.â she says, devastated, and begins packing a bag. they ask her what sheâs doing, she says itâs none of their business and they say it is because theyâre her parents. she yells âyou are not my parents! look at me. you donât own me just because you have a paper in a file folder somewhere. you thought you could straighten my hair and raise me around white kids and i would turn out like you. well iâmglad i didnât. i donât want o be like you.â she rushes off and steve and mj yell at each other in anger, mj blaming him as the workaholic who was never around and steve trying to get through to her and say that maybe they made some mistakes when raising frankie and they should try to listen to her. to no avail.
cut to unprodigal daughter. frankie is on a train to new york and her and the ensemble just completely rock out. she has her moment, finally free of all the pain and stress of home. sheâs carefree and happy, dancing her heart out. OH WOW THE CHOREOGRAPHY HERE HOLY SHIT. also her voice. wowowow. so good. at the end, they do a lift w frankie thatâs the EXACT SAME LIFT as they did w ebony (her double) back in all i really want. so good. after the song she calls phoenix, trying to get him to come to new york w her. she tells phoenix she loves him and he canât say it back, he tries to explain that he really likes her heâs just not ready to say he loves her yet but frankie hangs up on him, heartbroken.
thereâs a mini transition scene where all of the ensemble are on their phones saying horrible things about bella like that sheâs only doing this for the money and that sheâs just trying to get attention. at the end they all silently hold out their phone screens to the audience and walk off without a word. wow.
the next scene bella walks into the healy house, looking for nick. instead the finds mj in the kitchen and they talk. mj says she heard about what happened and says she understands how bella feels. bella says she doubts that and mj says that sheâs experienced the same thing before, but that âwe have to be strong and accept our mistakes.â sheâs trying to smile, act like everything is ok. itâs a call back to her line in forgiven after she discusses her assault, where she says âi kept going i powered through.â bella looks at her for a moment and asks, âwhen did you start to feel better?â she pauses and her voice breaks as she begins to cry âhow long did it take? tell me when iâm gonna feel normal again.â silence. mj doesnât have an answer. âgreat.â bella says and leaves. nick comes in right after she goes and tells mj the police called, that he thinks he should say something about what he saw. mj immediately shuts him down, tells him to stay out of it for fear of him losing his reputation or, worse, his acceptance to harvard. he stops and says âi need to tell you what i saw that night.â cue predator.
this song is haunting. truly. it begins with that chilling theme and you just know whatâs coming and all the times that theme came in during the first act start to come together and it dawns on you and just. wow. we go back to the night of the party, but this time from bellaâs point of view. we now see everything andrew does so, so clearly and weâre left thinking: how did we not notice this before? the truth is each of us probably did notice something, something small. but weâve been conditioned to ignore it, see it as normal, something that âjust happens sometimes.â and itâs really a punch to the gut when you realize what you did, how you were a bystander who didnât notice the signs that were right in front of your face. i have never seen a piece of art or media so successfully throw viewers into this mindset, truly showing us how easy it is to be passive and complicit. we canât judge nick really. we canât think âhow could he not see something was wrong? how could he not say anything?â because we did it too. we see andrew give her drink after drink, pull her away from her friends and guide her as he pleases. about halfway through the song, however, bella steps away from the party scene to sing at the side and who replaces her? HEATHER. MJâS BODY DOUBLE. heather takes her place in her same outfit and begins a truly mesmerizing choreography that has her falling around the stage, being pulled and lifted and tossed around by the ensemble like she has no control over her body, no control over her actions. the panels begin to move in as we get closer to the final chorus and eventually they open up to reveal a bed standing upright (like weâre looking down on it) with the party still raging behind and bella steps over and leans back on the bed as she hits her big note going into the climax of the song. she lays there on the bed, immobilized, singing in despair as andrew slowly approaches her while the panels around her show the images that were taken at the party which frankie and jo mentioned in the first act. then, as the chorus come to an end, andrew removes her from the bed and brings her to the floor. itâs at this point that a few things come together and let me tell you: i gasped. first, we notice weâre now witnessing the rape. bella is unconscious and andrew is beginning to undress her. second, itâs at this moment nick comes out from behind a panel, revealing not only that he saw how drunk bella was, but that he saw andrew beginning to rape her and did nothing. third is that as bella is removed from the bed who takes her place? mj. mj takes the exact same position that bella was in, watching the assault on the floor below her in horror. and finally, the final punch to the whole scene, is that as the song comes to a close the panels cover the photos of bella once again for just a moment and when they move away, whatâs left beneath are no longer pictures of bella. theyâre pictures of mj. in the same position. just. heart-wrenching.
after the song we see mj really start to break down. she yells at nick, asking why he didnât do anything, asking if he âforgot she (bella) was a human being.â nick is devastated and mj is just barely holding it together. truly stunning. but even still mj tells nick he still canât say anything. she doesnât want him to get in trouble, and losing her perfect son is still central in her mind.
#jlp#jagged little pill#jagged little broadway#elizabeth stanley#sean allen krill#derek klena#celia gooding#lauren patten#kathryn gallagher
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⧠â Ë âĄ MGA SEASON FIVE, EPISODE FIVEâ TRIOS PERFORMANCES!
âą âą âą bringing to the stage dna + bbom bbom w. minho & kyulkyung âȘ 0:00 â 1:55! â«
   it's odd how okay she is, how easy it is for her to accept defeat towards her own personal goals this time around, yet another week going by with her name being nowhere near the top of the ranksâ deep down, heejin believes she knew it'd turn out like this ( with every episode, results get tighter and tighter, outcomes easier to predict, and despite the motivation she has to break through the ceiling as she'd done once before, she understands the hurdles that entailed. she understood that, no matter how hard she worked, there would always be someone else working just as hard, if not harder ).
   she hates the predictability, hates how stagnant the top seems to be, but heejin is no foolâ those at the top, for the most part, are there for legitimate reasons. a bitter taste settles on the tip of her tongue, hidden by a honey smile.
   maybe it's me.
   it's a fleeting thought, one that hits her from the shadows of her mind, and it's all heejin can do to push it far away as she steels herself. rarely were there ever times where the brunette felt any sort of doubt in herself, in her capabilities, but every once in a while, they'd appear. they'd fester in times like this, her mind restless with dissatisfaction, hoping to take grasp and knock her far down from where she knows she's should be.
   silently, she's grateful for the crowd that surrounds her, the judges voices breaking through the self-induced haze she hadn't realized was there, and she tunes in just in time to catch the names of her two new partners for the coming weeks' performances.
   there's a sense of instant intrigue, relief washing over her, and there's no point in denying her luck any longerâ minho and kyulkyung, two powerful competitors, both of whom she'd had her eyes keenly trained on almost from start. immediately, any festering worries she'd briefly let cross her mind fade into the background, and for a moment, all heejins mind can conjure up are visions into next week. if she's meant to win, meant to earn praise as part of a team, the brunette was more than confident that it would be with this trio.
   she can feel her fire begin to rekindle, growing with intensity, morphing into something far greater than the simple heat it'd diminished into.
   she would stand a better chance now.
                                    âĄ
   the atmosphere is easygoing, open and inviting the longer the three of them are sat together, and heejin feels more at ease than she'd originally thought she'd be.
   oh, the wonders something as simple as having good food to bond over could do.
   it's a location unfamiliar to her, just as unfamiliar as her partners are, but the brunette has never been one to shut herself out from anything newâ maybe that's why she says what she does, words leaving her after very little contemplation once she'd made decent progress on her plate, her willingness to do whatever it took for the three of them to secure the best results they could pushing through entitled pride.
   "over these last 4 performances, all i've done is sing," she starts, eyes flickering smoothly between her older companions, fingers idly playing with the straw in her cup of water. "it's what i'm best at, so it made sense for me to focus on showing off my vocals, but i don't want people to think singing is all i'm capable of doing." she stays silent for a moment, thinking before she continues. "i'm open to trying whatever ideas will work for all of usâ singing, dancing, whatever it may be...just don't make me rap."
   heejin is sure that, had her partners been anyone else, she might not have brought up the idea of potentially putting herself so far out of her comfort zone, but it was a thought that had been weighing on the back of her mind the moment they'd decided to spend this time together. they were different than herâ their performances were different than hers, valuing contrasting skills when it came to their strengths thus far on the show, something she'd taken note of easily. while she'd been paired with rappers before, heejin hadn't been paired with any of the dancers ( they were a whole new territory this far in, one she couldnât afford to get lost in ).
   while it seemed somewhat daunting, she was well aware that an opportunity like this could help show off another side to herself, one that wasn't strictly rooted to her vocals.
   with that in mind, itâs easier to put aside her worries. if she was the one who needed to bend a little in order for their team not to break, so be itâ she would bend as much as she could if it meant they'd have the best chance at success.
                                   âĄ
   walking through the halls of sphere entertainment, she feels a plethora of emotions swirling in the pit of her stomach. heejin is excited, eyes searching up and down each hall they passed, taking in just how professional and experienced everything feels. she's determined, motivated to work her hardest, kyulkyung by her side as the two make their way to their appointed practice room. she's expectant, ready to experience only a fraction of what she knows is to come not much farther down the line ( the only difference, however, is in locationâ sphere wasn't her end goal, but being there was interesting, enlightening on what to expect when royal came for her ).
   she's anxious, eyes darting with every turn of the corner, waiting to see if, by some chance, she'd catch sight of painfully familiar purple locks traveling down the other end of the hallway ( heejin isn't sure what she wants moreâ to see younger now, or wait for a better time. her confusion had only grown the longer things seemed to drag out, but that doesn't stop her from wanting to keep a watchful eye out for signs between bathroom and water breaks ).
   heejin shakes her head gently. she needed to stay focusedâ for now, her private life could take the backseat.
   what couldn't be put off any longer, however, was minho. for as early of a bird as heejin tended to be, it had surprised her when she'd heard he had shown up before her and kyulkyung, waiting patiently for them in their borrowed, shared practice room. she was happy, though, taking his early eagerness as his determination to do well and practice hard. it was something she was inspired by, a quality she couldn't help but feel admiration for, and it only reaffirmed what heejin already knewâ she had good partners.
   just as they had already proven themselves to be good to her, she would prove to be just as good to them. they deserved that much from her, if not, more.
                                    âĄ
   from the very moment they properly begin their practices, there's no shortage of enjoyment.
   the earliest incident? walking in on minho all done up in his fanciest clown wigâ it had been quite the sight to see so early in the morning, heejins eyes still puffy out of dwindling tiredness, and for a moment she'd thought she'd been dreaming. it had only been once her pink-haired companion addressed it as well that she realized it was real.
   her eyes had widened considerably, any semblance of sleepiness gone from her body, brows raising in question, and it's all she can do to fight the giggles that threaten to leave her. she can only vaguely process the other girls' words, barely latching on to her question ( how long have you been sitting there like that? a valid question, one heejin wanted the answer to as well ) before she finally lets a laugh out.
   "you're an interesting guy..." is all she can say as she'd set her bag off to the side, casting a glance at herself in the wall mirror, and it isn't long until they start.
   as time goes on, heejin finds herself warming up more and more to the reality of cameras following their every move.
   it's different, more uncomfortable at first, knowing anything they did, any interactions ( good or bad ) within their own group or the other trio they were made to share with would be recorded and possibly shown to the public. she's not sure what to do, where to look, how to speakâ before, when everything was recorded on-site, it was easier to prepare herself beforehand, to get herself into a certain mindset and put on the best image of herself. now, there's none of that.
   there are no breaks, no timeouts to recollect and strengthen the mask. no, now was the time for blunt honesty, a time for viewers to see everything that goes on behind the scene.
   she's the most plain she's ever been, makeup-less, hair thrown up into a loose ponytail for as much comfort and ease as possible, oversized comfy clothes finishing the look, and it's certainly the softest version of herself the public could ever hope to see ( she's sure that, had she worn her glasses instead of contacts, that would have added only to the image, but glasses would have been too inconvenient for now ).
   but, as time goes on, the cameras seem to fade into the background.
   they become an afterthought within the rooms pleasant, hardworking atmosphereâ it shocks her, then, when her hair is all messed up thanks to some experimentation with props, that minho and kyulkung act as shields, keeping her new and odd look out of shot, helping her fix herself, and heejin can't help but laugh the whole time.
   running her hands through her hair as she finished fixing herself, makeshift goggles still in hand, heejin can't help the smile that persists her on her lips at the olders actions, and it's then she thinks they aren't just good anymoreâ she thinks theyâre amazing.
                                    âĄ
   sat between her partners comfortably, heejin can't help but feel excitement creep up her spine. she's restless, both eager to perform and nervous for everyone to see what it is the three of them have come up with. it's weird, her foot tapping to a gentle, silent rhythm as she waits, eyes seeing ( but not really picking up ) others take the stage and show off what it is they've preparedâ for as long as she could remember, heejin had never found herself letting her nerves wind her up this much, but the longer she thinks, the more it all makes sense.
   it's nothing like what she's done on the show before, nothing like what she's done ever, a performance she would have never thought of doing on her own.
   despite this, though, she's happyâ happy that her team had been able to come up with something so fun, while also managing to balance out different ways in which they'd all shine while sharing the stage.
   letting her eyes fall on the two separately as their names are called up to the stage, heejin wholeheartedly believes that, regardless of her nerves ( regardless of if they also felt nervous ), they would do well.
   taking the stage, their voices ring clearly as they give introductions. "hello! we are the royal court!"
   once they're given their queue to begin, they take their positions, and as heejin settles herself before the makeshift vr headset that had caused such a funny ruckus during practices, their track begins.
   the performance is a rush, one full of fun and expert timing, and by the time it ends, heejin no longer feels the nerves she'd had before the start. no, all she feels is satisfaction, gratitude towards the other two who stand on stage with her, having given it their all to ensure nothing but the best was shown on stage. reflecting, she can say she'd given it her all as wellâ when it came to her vocals, there was nothing for her to really worry about, her voice having been strong and stable, just as it always was. her biggest worry had been more towards the end.
   dance had never been her forte, but she could only hope her pleasant attempts were recognized.
   it's with a wide smile and heavy breathes that she exits the stage.
#Ë âĄ â§âË⧠âș THE SOLOS.#Ë âĄ â§âË⧠âș MGA5.#Ë âĄ â§âË⧠âș WC: 2064.#rkmga5#rkmga5trios#rkmason#rkkyul#rkyerim#( don t re ad this its so b ad esp the en d oh ygod#( i was stressing bc i've never cut it this cl ose and i cant think ; u;#( click the heart to see line dist+just like everything about their performance!
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Hello! How do you think the Survey Corps handle unplanned pregnancies within their ranks? Especially, letâs say, if they are people with positionsâ like squad leaders. I really wanna know your thoughts on this :D
Sorry, I promise I wasnât ignoring your first ask! I just wantedto find the time to respond properly. For the longest time I had a drafted metapost about this topic (âPregnancy & Disability in the Survey Corpsâ) that Ioccasionally added to when I had a thought. I think I deleted it when I purgedmy drafts, though. Oops!
I definitely have a lot of thoughts on the topic. This is a really long post; there are a lot of things to consider with a question like this!
Let me start by saying this: I feel that strong worldbuilding isprimarily a result of consistency. I know SnKâs worldbuilding is, overall,rather weak, but thereâs no reason we as creators canât force consistency intoour own narrative explorations of that world! A consistent set of rules for thecharacters to operate under make for a better experience overall, not just inthe canon, but also for readers/viewers of fanworks. You can always switch thingsup for fun, but I personally like to have one particular set of rules that I useby default. It makes it easier for me as a writer to sink down into the storyand portray it without having to think too hard about every little detail as Igo.
One of the most interestingthings about SnK is that it portrays a sexist world but still allows women intothe ranks of its military branchesâall three of them. However, we generallydonât see women in positions of power: there are no female government members,no powerful merchants, no notable members of the aristocracy, and no confirmedtop female officers*.
*Rico is the closest we get,but she doesnât seem any higher-ranked than Ian or Mitabi were, and is clearly outrankedby Kitz, so she doesnât count. Hange is the only POSSIBLE high-ranked femaleofficer in the entire series, but âpossibleâ =/= âactualâ so again, no-go.
Boris accuses Hitch of(essentially) using her femininity in an underhanded way to get into the MP; asIâve said before, we donât know if heâs right or if heâs just trying to be anasshole because he doesnât like Hitch, but I think itâs fair to say that thiskind of misogyny is something that women in SnKâs military face on the regular,especially if they perform on par with male classmates. Hell, this is somethingwomen who work in male dominated fields face daily in our world. It doesnât surprise me. Isayamaâs not portraying autopia with this series, after all. But itâs clear he didnât put a lot ofthought into the little things: like sexism/misogyny in the military and how itwould clearly impact the lives of the girls and young women who enlist.
I donât think it makessense to say: SnKâs world is 100% reliable and the narration we receive is 100%credible. We donât see what happens to our female characters behind-the-scenes.We donât see if theyâre treated differently by their instructors, teachers,trainersâin front of peers or alone. We donât see if any of them werepropositioned for sex or other favors. We donât know that team leaders in theSurvey Corps, Military Police, and Garrison donât abuse their positions of relativepower over new recruits. We have to assume that in an imperfect and clearly sexistworld, these kinds of things do happen, and some people arenât left with a lotof choice as to how to deal with it. What would Hitch be able to do if hercommanding officer (Eibringer IIRC) propositioned her or touched her or [insertother possibilities here]? Who is she going to tell? Will they believe her? Andwhat are the chances that saying something would tank her career in the MP? Shedid all that work to get into the MP; would she risk doing something now that might get it taken away again? Yeah, saying nothing means putting up with abuse, but if she doesnât disturb thewater, so to speak, sheâll have a long career that pays well ahead of herâsomethingmost people on Paradis donât get to have. These are the little details thatwerenât considered but do mean agreat deal when youâre writing about the daily ins and outs of the world thesecharacters live in.
Which brings me topregnancy, sex, and all related topics. Iâve seen writers use various kinds oftea as âbirth control.â Iâve seen authors use oral sex or the pull-out methodto try and avoid the possibility of pregnancy. Some characters track theircycle (assuming for them itâs reliable enough to be tracked) as a form of birthcontrol. And look, all of these are perfectly valid and all are very likelyused in the world of SnK. Not all of them work. There may not be many herbalremedies that are effective; there may not be many that are readily or cheaplyavailable. These are the things to think about. Just because someone claims itworks doesnât mean it does. The characters have to contend with that!
And because no methodexcept abstinence is 100% effective, some characters are going to get pregnantâandnot just in the Survey Corps.
This world is sexist. Youhave to consider whether or not the Garrison or MP would allow for pregnantsoldiers to stay enlisted and you have to think about what would happen after ababy was born. Think carefully. Yes, it seems feasible to work and raise achild, especially on the Military Policeâs paygrade. But would it be allowed? Again, we donât see hardly any femalecharacters in a position of power, and the ones we do see arenât shown to bemarried or have children.
Think, too, about thepopulation, and about the worldâs belief that humanity is going extinct insidethe walls. All of these things affect the mindset of the general population:how they feel about women, what they feel a womanâs job/place in the world is,and so on. Notice that in background shots, you see women carrying babies,groceries, with their children, and always wearing skirts. Chances are, womenare wives, daughters, housekeepers, and babymakers first and foremost, andworking women (women who donât have a choice and/or are yet unmarried) do âlowerworkâ and probably not for much money (laundry for better-off folks, shellingnuts, simple factory tasks, sewing/darning, waitressing, prostitution).
All right, soâŠwith these considerationsin mind, letâs talk about pregnancy.
Thereâs a lot to thinkabout when it comes to someone in the military of SnKâs world getting pregnant.Is it considered shameful to get pregnant out of wedlock? Seems kind of thatway, re: Historiaâs awful mother and cheating father. Nobody blinks an eye atmen having affairs but women are another story. What are their optionsregarding birth? Are midwives easy to find? Doctors who can make a differentsure seem rare (re: Grisha showing up and magically being able to help people;Ragako Village letting some quack come in and inject them all without oncequestioning it)! Midwives who are trained and experienced? Expensive andprobably not easy to come by. Youâre probably going to be stuck with anotherwoman who has given birth before helping you out, and if something out of the ordinaryhappens, you or your baby could die. Because of this, abortion may be anoption, but what kinds of choices do these people have? The old coat-hangerroutine (that can easily end with death when the bleeding doesnât stop and isextremely painful)? Herbal remedies that might have side-effects that you canâthide/that may spell the end for your career?
If we assume that pregnancyand childbirth are a free pass out of the military, it will be abused. Therehave to be measures in place that would make a person want to avoid pregnancy.Is it a dishonorable discharge? Do you have to pay a fee? Do you have to givethe baby up for adoption? These sorts of things would discourage a lot ofpeople who might otherwise benefit from having a baby. The Survey Corps alsohas a built-in discouragement: your lover dying and leaving you alone with ababy to raise. But then, whatâs to stop them from crippling themselves to getout? It wouldnât be that hard to drive a sword through your own foot and makeit look like an accident. (No doubt doing this on purpose is treasonous andpunishable by death, just like running away/disobeying orders if doing soyields bad results.) The only way to keep that in check is to assume that itwould be hard for them to find work if they were too disabled. Maybe for somepeople it would be worth it, but othersâŠnot so much.
Being realistic, losingyour post in the Military Police would be discouragement enough; characterslike Hitch who are young and wanted very much to get in and stay in are likelyto avoid pregnancy like hell; any man who got her pregnant could deny it andwhat recourse would she have if he refused to acknowledge her and help her? Theydonât have paternal testing in this world. And sheâs not a high-rankedrespected member of the military: sheâd be out of a job with two mouths to feedand no experience in anything but military training! Thatâs terrifying. In manyways, that serves as its own form of birth control. (But we canât pretend thatmen donât abuse their positions of power in the military and push themselves onwomen anyway. We canât pretend that characters like Hitch can always say no and have that norespected. Sheâs going to be thought of as disposable to many people.)
The Garrison is a littlebit more interesting. Theyâre not hurting for soldiers, so if a few women hereand there decide to get pregnant and leave the military, there will be plentyof replacements to take their places. Itâs possible that the Garrison forcesyou to quit but itâs not looked on so poorly. Itâs also possible that if youârerespected or liked enough, or you know the right people, you might be allowedto keep working doing administrative work. Hey, being a paper-pusher might notpay as well as scouting on top of the walls or cleaning artillery, but at leastitâs work if you need it. And if youâre single: you will. Plus, since yourstation is permanent, you could have your parents move in with you to help withthe kid and maintain a full-time job without too many issues. Hell, because itâsnot so terrible a crime, or even a crime at all, you can probably speedily getmarried and avoid too much gossip. (Thatâs not to say that people arenât kickedright out of the Garrison for getting pregnant, but thereâs probably more roomfor the well-liked and hard-working individuals to stay on after giving birth.The MP are elites and may view pregnancy out of wedlock (possibly also workingwives) as imperfect and therefore not okay. Garrison soldiers are not elitesand donât have those kinds of delusions or grand appearances to keep up.
That brings me to theSurvey Corps. How many people join only to regret it a few months later? A babyseems a small price to pay compared to being eaten by a titan, trampled, orworse, mangled so badly youâre permanently disabled & discharged from themilitaryâleft with no way to care for yourself (except to maybe rely onrelatives if you have any to take care of you). Like I said earlier, if havinga baby was a free ticket out of the Survey Corps, people would be trying for iton purpose. There must be rules in place: dishonorable discharge,fraternization rules with stiff penalties, a steep fee you have to pay toleave, youâre forced to stay in the military and give up the baby for adoption.One or several of these would work well.
That said, giving up a babyfor adoption seems fine, but this is a world where the population is both âtoosmallâ and âway too bigâ (ughâŠ). It makes sense in its own way, but there areprobably tons of homeless children out there like Eren, Mikasa, and Armin, who didnât join the military. There areprobably lots of young women in poverty with babies they canât take care of,dropping them off at churches and on the porches of slightly better off peopleâmaybeeven at military HQ buildings. That makes that option feelâŠa lot less likelyIMO.
I want to look at anexample. Letâs say Nanaba and Mike are in a relationship and she finds out thatsheâs pregnant. Now, Mikeâs a decent person, right? He wonât deny his role inNanabaâs pregnancy. In that way, sheâs luckier than some women would be, butshe still has to tell him, still has to deal with his reaction. Itâs her bodybut her options kind of all suck, so it might be nice for her to discuss itwith him and get his opinion, too. How far along does she think she is, howsafe are abortion methods, would she be comfortable aborting, what are theside-effects of trying something like thatâarethe risks worth it? If they are, she has to try one of them, and theoutcome could be: hey, she can return to work in a few days (everyone probablyknows why she wasnât around, tbh). It could also just as easily be: she triesto return to work and canât due to side-effects of an herbal remedy or becauseher body is too weak, or she hemorrhages and dies within 24 hours, or she doesreturn to work but the side-effects linger and cause her death on an expeditionâorworse, they cause someone elseâs death.
So maybe she decides tokeep the baby. Mike cares about her, he wonât abandon her to raise a baby alonewith no help, but where is she going to live? With her parent(s)? His? Alone?What if neither of them have living parents? Or, as portrayed in the anime,what if her parent(s) are abusive? Is she going to take her baby back to aplace like that? Does she have much of a choice?
Maybe she does. Maybe Mikeâsparents will be happy to have her live with them. Mike can send them money. Heonly gets furlough at most 4x a year so they get to see each other a few timesa year for a few days/a week. This could depend on how far away they live, somaybe Mike uses some savings to move them closer so that visiting can happen onweekends or afternoons off. Cool. Great.
If Mike is 40, his parentsare likely to be 60+ years old and maybe not in the greatest health. This worlddoesnât exactly allow for easy aging, you know. Are they working? Is Mikepaying all the bills himself? Well, whatâll happen when Mike eventually dies oris hurt so badly he canât fight anymore and is sent home to die or lay arounduselessly?
Nanaba has to sit at homeand think about that kind of stuff. What if Mike dies? She canât help him, canâtbe there for him; sheâs just at home waiting for the news. Itâs possible heâlldie before their kid is very old and wonât remember him at all. How are thebills going to be paid? Are his parents capable of watching the kid if Nanabahas to try and go to work herself?
Itâs scary no matter howyou slice it.
And thatâs not includingthe potential dishonorable discharge, payment of a high fee for leaving, andpossibly even a paycut for the remaining spouse if they fess up to their rolein it (all of which make raising a baby even more difficult).
You would think thispotential future (or worse, depending on circumstance) would promote abstinence(or at least methods of sex that have no chance for pregnancy)âand it probablydoesâŠbut not in everyone. A lot of people enjoy sex, and mistakes happen; somepeople may just get carried away but others may have too much to drink or lackthe foresight to consider what may happen to them if they do get pregnant.
The problem here is that itâswomen who primarily suffer the consequences of a pregnancy. Itâs women who losetheir position in the military. Itâs women who can be pushed around or abusedby male peers or superior officers and women who wonât be trusted or believedif they complain. And it sucks, but in the world weâre presented with in the canonâŠitfits. And it leaves us to wonder how many women this happens to. How many arepassed over for promotion because theyâre women (and considered likely toleave/want to leave/or less-than their male counterparts)?
It really makes you think!
I know I didnât give you adefinitive answer to your question, anon, but I hope that there was enoughspeculation here to help you come up with your own headcanons (while alsogiving you a good idea of what mine might be). ;)
The usual disclaimer: IMO, YMMV, et cetera and so on.
To add, I didnât really talk a whole lot about pregnancies as a product of rape or of a loving relationship where the man denies his part in it, but a lot of the same things apply.Â
Lastly, I donât want readers to think that men can get away with anything in the SnK world; I donât actually think thatâs the case. But like in our own world, a patriarchal society makes it hard for women to feel safe speaking up, with the result being that very few women do. The problem with SnK is that there arenât many ways to prove that what youâre saying is true; if you say youâre pregnant, you canât prove who the father is unless by some miracle that baby comes out looking like them (and that would truly be a mixed blessing anyway). If youâre not a respected officer who will believe you? If youâre accusing a respected officer, or worse, accusing someone who is married with children already, do you think anybody will be on your side? I do think some men are caught in the act, or there is proof of some kind (love letters clearly written by them); sometimes theyâre even brought to court and prosecuted for crimes and fired or sent to jail or fined (and forced to pay some compensation to the mother-to-be in the case of a child). But how often do these things end in favor of the women involved? Probably not often. With rape itâs: âBoys will be boys.â âWhat were you wearing?â âWell you canât blame him... youâre a healthy, attractive young woman.â How many women say something and are faced with these kinds of things? In court, even? Women still hear some of these things today. In a modern society. And with men who would choose to run from their responsibilities instead of facing them like an adult, the women involved still have to deal with the emotional betrayal and all of the other fallout.Â
Itâd be kind of silly to imagine that a fantasy world that clearly functions as a patriarchal society wouldnât be almost exactly the same in this regard.
#snk#snk hour with july#snk meta#tw: abuse#tw: rape#tw: pregnancy#for the record i think the results in the SC are the same#no matter what your position is#i doubt the rules there bend for more important people#cute anons
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Phandom Reverse Bang Story
Summary: Dan is stuck taking his little brother to Vidcon where he doesnât know anyone, nor any of the creators, but taking his brotherâs advice to heart, he sets off to catch âAmazingphilââs panel. By some stroke of luck, he runs into Martyn, who offers Dan a behind-the-scenes look at the YouTube sensation. What Dan doesnât know is that the Lester brothers have their own agenda- an agenda that just might change Danâs life.
Read it on Wattpad:Â https://www.wattpad.com/501228030-unorthodoxsavvy%27s-reverse-phandom-bang-story-2017
Artist Art coming soon (hopefully)
Link to Phandom Reverse Bang:Â https://phandomreversebang.tumblr.com/
Being stuck as the one who had to take his little brother to Playlist Live had itâs pros and cons for Dan.
For one thing, he was going to a convention for cheaper than he would have on his own, since his parents had paid for both their plane tickets. Another perk was that he would hopefully be able to meet some new people that were somewhat similar to him. After high school, heâd lost any âfriendsâ heâd had, and the people at Uni just werenât comparing. At least most people left him alone, though. That was something.
Some drawbacks, however, were the fact he still had to pay for his ticket to this thing, and bring spending money for food and in case his little brother ran out. All money he could have been spending on school supplies. Plus the fact he wasnât even a fan of YouTube.
âYouâll like it if you just give it a try!â Harvey had told him when it had been confirmed it was Dan taking his brother out of the country.
âI donât have time to, I have to study for a degree,â Dan said, though the words sounded like a lie.
Dan still questioned if he was doing the right thing for himself, but if it wasnât studying for a degree, what was it?
Even the YouTuber Harvey had told Dan he might get along with had a degree or two up his sleeve.
His name was AmazingPhil- well, his âYouTuberâ name. He was a few years older than Dan, and from England as well.
âJust give him a try,â Harvey had begged. Dan didnât though. It wasnât out of disrespect to his little brother, who only wanted to be closer to him. It was out of stubbornness for something else.
But here Dan was, in a world he didnât understand, hoping to find something to do while Harvey waited in line for Smosh. At least that name Dan recognized. The rest were names he had only heard from his brotherâs mouth.
So what to do? Dan stood against one wall of the show room, glancing at the battery on his phone, which was swiftly dropping.
Either he could cling to the last bits of life on his phone, and then be left without it, stranded, or he could change his mindset, and actually go find something to do. After all, these panels and things couldnât be boring if so many people traveled all this way to see them, right?
Dan heard his little brotherâs voice in his head once again. âJust give it a tryâ. He was here, he had nothing to do, so he might as well try. AmazingPhil, right? Dan glanced at the map. Oh no, Dan thought to himself. His panel was going on right now. Dan quickly weaved his way over to the show-room door, but it was closed tight. Seriously? They canât make this a come-and-go-as-you-please thing? These people mustâve been really uptight.
A guy was stood next to the door, and Dan flushed in embarrassment.
âTrying to get in?â the man asked in a thick northern accent.
Dan nodded sheepishly.
âAre you a fan?â
Dan shrugged. âNot really, actually. My little brother just said this guy was really good, and that I would like him. I wouldnât know, though. I didnât have time to watch any of his videos.â
âWhy not?â the man asked.
Dan flicked his eyes away and thought of his so-called reasons. That he was studying. That he needed a degree. That this was where he was meant to be. And so that was what he said.
âHuh.â The man eyed him, his expression changing-hardening?
Dan felt the weight of everything on him all at once. The weight never left, but sometimes it was heavier.
The manâs expression changed again, to something of-sympathy?
âIf youâre really interested, come with me,â he said, turning, but not quick enough to hide his smirk at being able to use such a smooth line.
He started walking down the hall to the next door on the right, labeled âStaff Onlyâ.
Dan felt his face heat and flush again and started to finger the bracelet he had on. âStaff Onlyâ? But he wasnât staff. And what if this man wasnât staff? And what if someone found them? What if when they found them they kicked them both out? How was he going to get to his brother Harvey? Sure, he could tell them that he had to get his brother, but what if they thought it was just a cop-out? What if-
Dan forced himself to take a deep breath as he passed into the dark depths that laid behind the door.
âSo you know this AmazingPhil guy, yeah?â he asked, keeping his voice low in the all-encompassing silence.
The man, however, gave a hearty laugh. âKnow him? Well, I should hope so! I had to grow up with the twat! But for real, heâs not a bad guy. He deserves all these fans and more,â he said, sweeping his arms in a motion to gesture all the fans they were about to see.
âOh.â
âIâm really proud of him, for putting himself out here, you know. Taking a chance. This is what he really wants to do. I donât think he could do anything else.â
Dan felt like the man was maybe trying to hint at something, but he put it down to his overactive, anxiety-ridden imagination jumping to conclusions. He felt the cords intertwining in his bracelet carefully, and then dropped his fingers from it.
âWhere are you taking me?â he finally asked.
âSomeplace you might be able to get some perspective on things.â
Okay, so not over-reacting.
The man, Philâs brother, whose name Dan didnât even know yet, put a finger to his lips as he opened a door impossibly quiet.
The sound of a guyâs voice struck Dan immediately.
âSo, yeah, thatâs just how I got started. Enough of that boring stuff,â he chuckled with a shrug, as if it were nothing, and the laughter of a few hundred people came at Dan seemingly like a freight train. He gasped, forgetting the brotherâs warning.
The man on stageâs eyes flicked to the side of the stage for a second, but it was almost imperceptible. Dan felt his stomach clench with anxiety.
âInstead, letâs talk about you guys. This is for all of you. This convention, this panel-everything. None of this would be possible without all you dedicated viewers. Whether youâre here âcause you got nothing better to do, or youâre a fan-thank you from the bottom of my heart. You all deserve warm, cuddly badgers under your bed tonight.â
Dan thought that was kind of a weird thing to wish for, but he let it slide.
The panel was going to be over soon, but from what he was seeing, Dan was enjoying it. No wonder this guy had so many followers. He was just so- unique. His personality didnât seem to have any barriers. He was in tune with himself, and he was unapologetic about who he was. Dan couldnât relate.
Another thing that struck Dan was how his features were startlingly contrasting, much like Snow White, with the pale skin, raven hair, and her original blue eyes. His lips werenât as deep red as the Disney Princessâ were made out to be, but they were noticeable.
The crowd was simply eating him up. It was nothing like Dan had ever experienced. So many people at once, so many people happy, and feeling connected, at once. Only he didnât feel connected to them.
All too soon the panel ended, with Phil announcing to the audience heâd be doing his meet-and-greet outside the hall in ten minutes. The crowd cheered and roared, and Phil got a standing ovation from his dedicated fans and viewers. It reminded Dan of his theatre days, though they had never been clapping solely for him and something he had built himself.
Phil hopped off his stool as the crowd filed out the door that Dan had been trying to get in, and made his way over everyone in the stage wing.
âOi, Martyn!â he exclaimed as he hurried over to his brother. They shared a handshake before Phil turned to Dan.
âWhoâs this?â
Dan felt himself blush yet again, and figured that it was just commonplace at this point.
âThis is- geeze, I didnât even get your name dude, sorry,â the guy, Martyn, chuckled, fixing his hat.
âDan,â he mumbled.
âDan? Cheers! Whatâs up?â Phil smiled, passing his microphone off to someone. Dan liked the way his name sounded when Phil said it.
âI, uh, just came to check you out, Imeancomewatchyourstageshow,â Dan rushed out at his seemingly-embarrassing word choices. Phil didnât seem phased, however, or was at least good at hiding it, probably the later, Dan figured, and moved on.
âSo are you a fan?â
âNo, but my brother is. He said Iâd like you. Iâm sure heâd like to come meet you, but heâs in line for Smosh at the moment.â
âWell, if youâre really interested, come to my meet-and-greet, and we can talk more!â
Phil started to make his way past Martyn and Dan, and Dan went to follow, but Martyn grabbed ahold of his arm.
âWait until the crowd has died down to get in line. Youâll have more time to talk to him that way. If a fan comes up to meet him, just wait for him on the side.â
Dan nodded, but refrained from asking Martyn why he was helping Dan to meet this guy so much.
Dan exited through the âStaff Onlyâ door and back into the showroom where he could see a queue forming to the side of Phil, who was standing in front of some kind of curtain or something with little logos all over it. As he passed, he heard the girl talking to Phil introduce herself as Cami, and tell him that she had drawn some fanart for him, which she handed to Phil.
Phil met eyes with Dan, gave him a quick grin, and turned his attention back to the young girl, engrossing himself in a genuine conversation with her, before she got his signature and another hug and moved on.
*-*-*-*-*
Dan walked around for a little bit, but never strayed far from where he could keep an eye on Philâs queue. Eventually, at the last five minute of his meet-and-greet section, there was only one fan left, so Dan made his way over to Phil.
âHullo, Dan!â Phil smiled at him, thick northern accent sounding like his brotherâs.
âHi, uh...â
âYou can just call me Phil, haha,â Phil provided, sensing what it was that Dan was stumbling over.
âThanks, Phil.â
âSo, you said youâre not a fan, but you want to be?â
âYeah, I guess,â he mumbled, playing with his bracelet again.
âThatâs really nice of you,â Phil smiled at him in a way that no one had for ages.
âYeah, I guess,â he said, then worried that he sounded narcissistic, so said thank you again.
âSo, what are you up to in life? Graduated from high school?â
âYeah,â Dan chuckled, âIâm in Uni.â
âOoh!â Phil exclaimed. âStudying what?â
âUh, law,â Dan said, and Philâs expression kind of⊠froze⊠in place.
âThatâs cool,â he said, but it didnât sound as happy. Maybe Dan was overthinking again.
âWell, I hope you got a little taste of what I do,â Phil said, awkwardly shuffling his feet with a smile that felt plastered on.
âYeah, uh, I guess,â Dan said, immediately regretting it yet again. Canât you just form proper sentences that donât make you sound like an arse? He fiddled with his bracelet quicker as his heartbeat picked up.
Phil seemed to jump on his words though. âWell, if you feel like you still havenât had the full experience, thereâs going to be a YouTube party tonight! And all YouTubers are allowed to bring up to three guests.â
âOh, okay. Cool,â Dan responded, not wanting to assume that this was Phil inviting him until Phil explicitly said so.
âSo I was wondering if you wanted to be my third guest?â Phil asked hopefully.
Oh. So he was already taking a few other friends. Dan was probably going to just be sat in a corner then.
âMy other two guests are Martyn and his friend,â Phil said, almost as if he was reading Danâs mind. âMartyn practically has his own set of friends at these things.â
âThatâs cool,â Dan said. He was really excited to go. Dan hadnât been invited to a party since going to someoneâs Sweet Sixteen. But he had Harvey to think about. He couldnât leave his little brother in a hotel room.
He expressed this to Phil.
âAh, right,â Phil agreed, crestfallen. âWell, hereâs my number. Just to, uh, keep in touch, or whatever, if you want,â he said, scribbling his number on Danâs hand like some sort of 80s romance movie. His hands were soft, Dan noticed, and it was such an out-of-place thought in his head. He tried his best to ignore it.
âT-thanks,â he said.
Phil looked at the time. âWell, Meet and Greetâs officially over, so Iâll have to be going now. Hug?â Phil chuckled.
Dan shrugged, not knowing how to say âno, Iâm good thanks, youâre really intimidating even though youâre really nice,â and gave Phil one of the most awkward hugs heâd ever given and received.
*-*-*-*-*
âWhoâs phone number is that on your hand?â Harvey asked in between talking about everything heâs experienced that day on the ride to the hotel in an American taxi.
The taxi pulled up to the hotel and they got out.
âItâs AmazingPhilâs.â
âYOU GOT AMAZINGPHILâS PHONE NUMBER?â Harvey practically screeched, and Dan quickly dragged him through the hotelâs revolving door to prevent any fangirls of Philâs that might have been lurking to ambush them.
âYeah, he invited me to the YouTube party that all the creators are having tonight.â
âYouâre picking up the lingo,â Harvey joked before asking excitedly if Dan was going.
âOf course not. I have to watch you,â he said.
Harveyâs face fell for a second, and then lit up again.
âWait! I made a friend in line for Smosh that is staying in the same hotel as us who wanted to hang out tonight! His dad offered to chaperone! So I can go hang out in their hotel room, and you can go to the party!â Harvey smiled.
âI donât know, Harvey, Iâd have to meet this guy,â Dan replied, playing with his bracelet.
âThatâs fine,â Harvey said, âThey left early, so they should be back already. Besides, do you know how many YouTuber signatures you could get me?â
Dan chuckled, ruffling up his little brotherâs hair.
âAlright, weâll see,â Dan said, but in his head, he was really excited that things had worked out this way.
*-*-*-*-*
âSo?â
âHeâs not coming,â Phil replied, flopping down on the couch Martyn and him were temporarily sharing in their hotel room.
âOh,â Martyn replied, moving Philâs legs and placing them on his lap as he sat down on the other end of the couch. âIâm sorry. Why not?â
âHe has to watch his little brother.â
Martyn cursed himself under his breath. He should have thought of that. But Dan⊠Dan was the right one. He was sure of it.
âIâm sorry. Do try and enjoy yourself, though, yeah?â
Yeah, Iâll try, he thought to himself. Got to keep up appearances, after all.
Phil nodded glumly, arching his back to slide his phone, which had just gone off, from his back pocket.
There was a text from a number he didnât recognize, but the few words he could see on the home screen read âHey, itâs Dan.â
Philâs heart pulled and he opened the text.
âHey, he is coming!â Phil cheered.
âThatâs awesome,â Martyn smiled, hiding his relief. âAre we going to meet him at his hotel?â
Phil hesitated.
âHowâs this, Iâll go with my friends on my own since they all know how to get there, and you go meet this Dan fella?â Martyn suggested.
Phil smiled. âThatâs a good idea.â
Martyn moved Philâs legs again to stand up, and casually tossed âDonât forget the roses and chocolate,â over his shoulder, giggling to himself.
*-*-*-*-*
Dan had agreed to meet Phil outside the hotel Harvey and him were staying in and take the taxi Phil had arrived in from there.
Dan shuffled his feet on the sidewalk outside the hotel where people passed in front of him occasionally.
He was dressed as best as he could manage with the clothes he had brought. Obviously he hadnât brought anything too trashy, but he hadnât expected to be going to a party, either. Especially not with people who were celebrities in their own rights. He went to reach for his bracelet, and then remembered he had taken it off.
He should have kept it on. Was it too late to go back for it?
Dan glanced at his phone, which he had charged up finally. Phil was two minutes late. But who knew when he would arrive, then?
He forced himself to calm his breathing.
A moment later, a taxi pulled up to the curb, and Phil moved over to the window in the back facing Dan and waved. A startlingly pale face framed by that dark hair of his. Anyone would agree he was simply stunning.
Dan danced in and out of the people on the sidewalk, or the pavement as he was used to calling it, and into the taxi. Phil had moved over to the seat he was sitting in before.
Dan realized Phil mustâve already told the taxi their final destination, because the taxi started pulling down the street without further instruction.
âI donât think I could ever get used to riding on the other side of the road,â Phil joked to Dan.
âYeah,â Dan agreed, turning back to look out the window, something he always found calming. Phil, for all his enthusiasm, did they same, and they spent the ride to the party in silence, until Dan could tell they were nearing.
âSo, whatâs the protocol for something like this?â Dan asked.
Phil glanced at him from the corner of his eye.
âProtocal? I donât know. I just stand by the food usually, but youâll end up mingling one way or another.â
Phil went back to focusing out his window, leaving Dan not at all reassured.
The taxi pulled up to the curb, and Phil paid for the fee in American money. Transferring currencies was such a pain, in Danâs opinion, but he didnât mention it to Phil.
He was mildly surprised when Phil looped his arm through Danâs, but he went with it, being able to sense that the inside was noisy and crowded. His social anxiety was tingling.
âAmazingPhil, with my third guest. My first two guests should have arrived already, yeah?â Phil asked as they stepped up to the door.
The security guy smiled. âMartyn and his friend? Youâre right, they did,â he agreed, checking something off on his clipboard. âYou guys are good to go.â
Phil pulled Dan inside, where Dan was instantly overwhelmed.
The room blasted music, which people had to speak loudly over, or even shout to be heard. The lights were all a faint pinkish or purplish color, Dan couldnât be quite sure. The furniture was chic and new-looking, and everything was super modern. Men and women with serving plates wandered in and out of the crowd with a natural grace Dan knew he could never attain, no matter how much he practiced. He tightened his grip on Philâs arm and Phil placed his hand reassuringly on Danâs arm.
âLetâs go over to the food,â he spoke loudly into Danâs ear, something that would normally make Dan recoil, but not this time.
The food table was ever-so-slightly quieter, and Dan and Phil didnât have to strain as much to be heard by each other.
âThis probably isnât the best setting to try to get to know someone,â Phil apologized, but Dan told him not to worry about it.
âSo, about Uni, and your degree,â Phil started, and Dan felt his heart sink. He hated when people asked him about his degree, it made him feel like he had to hide, like he wasnât good enough, like he-
âDo you like it? I mean, are you happy?â
âW-what?â Dan started, not expecting to be asked that.
Phil repeated himself, but more loudly.
âA-am I happy? Well, I donât know. Itâs something to do. It gives me a sense of purpose in life.â
Phil nodded, but didnât press the issue any further. He couldnât, actually, because at that moment someone came up to talk to them.
It was a woman, older than both of them, but with a genuine smile on her face and impeccable makeup and a stellar outfit.
âPhilly!â she smiled, hugging him while they laughed together. âHullo, Louis!â He smiled. The fashionista, Louis, pulled away from Phil and beamed at Dan. âAnd this must be the mysterious Dan!â she smiled, politely holding out her ring-clad hand for Dan to shake, which made her bangles jingle-jangle.
âMysterious Dan?â Phil interjected with a smile, but a strained one. Both Dan and Louis could sense it, and Louis adapted accordingly.
âYou didnât think word wouldnât have gotten out about the AmazingPhil himself picking up a kid that doesnât even watch his videos to take under his wing, did you?â
âTake under my wing?â Phil exclaimed, his voice tight.
âWell, sure, thatâs why you brought him, along, isnât it?â she asked.
Philâs mortified silence spoke more than actual words could have.
Louis smiled and patted his shoulder. âNot to worry, dear, weâll help you sort this out.â
Phil nodded but didnât say anything, instead clenching and unclenching his hands, not in an angry way, but as if he wished he had something to hold. Dan did too, if he was being honest with himself.
Together they weaved their way to a couch that had an empty end, free of party goers mingling. Louis excused herself to talk to other people, but promised sheâd check in on them.
Dan huddled close to Phil, feeling extremely anxious.
âIs it true?â he asked the older boy, rubbing his wrist where his bracelet would have been.
âNo. Maybe. I donât know.â
Dan nodded, but didnât quite understand.
âItâs true I was looking for someone, maybe to be in videos with me. A part-time partner I guess you can say. Also just a friend. But youâre in Uni. Youâre busy.â Phil clenched his fists. âYouâre busy with something that doesnât even make you happy.â
It was true. Dan wasnât happy at all. And he knew that Phil had seen right through him like no one else ever had, besides Martyn, so he didnât bother trying to deny it anymore.
âYeah.â he admitted. âIâm not. But what else is there to do?â
âThis!â Phil exclaimed, using his hands fervently. âLook around you! People can get paid for this! People like me, and people like you.â
âPeople like me?â Dan scoffed, âIâm a wet towel.â
âExactly!â Phil said, much to Danâs surprise. âPeople like honest and awkward. Itâs relatable. Itâs constant. People can depend on it.â
Dan eyed Phil. âPeople can depend on other peopleâs anxiety?â
âYes, because they can relate to it,â he smiled. âDan, you can be the role model people need for following their dreams. Tell your story. Break out of your shell.â
âAre you suggesting I drop out of Uni to become a full-time internet hobo?â Dan asked, not even caring if he offended anyone anymore.
âWho said you had to drop out of Uni?â Phil asked.
âYou, basically,â Dan pointed out slack-faced.
âMaybe you can switch degrees. Find something that makes you happy. I donât know. But please, just try, for me?â Phil asked, his shiny eyes wide and innocent. Innocent? No, that wasnât it. It was almost like⊠it was almost like Phil was begging Dan. He really wanted Dan to do what he did.
Dan leaned back on the red leather couch to put things in perspective. First he would need equipment, and he didnât have a lot of money. Most people who started off didnât, though, so that shouldnât be too much of a problem. Second, he was going to need time to make and post videos. In theory that should be difficult, with the amount of coursework and studying that was expected of him. In reality he usually ended up playing video games alone in his room to try and relieve some of his constant stress and depression. Which did help. And making videos would be more useful than video games, he guessed.
Not to mention how happy Harvey would be. Right, he was supposed to be getting signatures for the kid. He pushed the thought out of his mind and went back to focusing on what being a YouTuber would mean for him.
It would be weird to film in his dorm where people could hear him. Heâd have to find another place to film. He didnât have any good ideas, so he moved onto something else.
He was going to need content. An intro video to start, and to dig up repressed memories to share to people on the internet.
Oh god. Sharing his fails with people on the internet?
He took a moment to ponder this, thinking about how he was already a fail in general. It probably wouldnât be that much different honestly. But it was still scary.
And dropping out of Uni was almost as scary as being in Uni. But Phil was right. He wasnât happy. Dan knew he had been kidding himself this whole time, but he didnât know what else to do with his life. Admitting you have no idea what you want to do with yourself is not only scary but embarrassing, and Dan didnât want to have to deal with that. He had felt for once he could actually get on top of things. Who makes fun of someone going to law school? But Dan really wasnât cut out for it.
âIf I drop out of Uni what then? My parents will probably kill me. I doubt theyâd let me move back in, even though I still have a room at home.â
âI have a spare room in my apartment,â Phil offered. âI can pay for food for both of us and stuff for a few months while you get settled. If you want.â
Someone I met like seven hours ago is trying to convince me to drop out of Uni and move in with him, Dan thought to himself. But why?
âMaybe,â Dan said.
âThink about it, but let this influence your decision,â Phil told him, gesturing around them. âIf Iâm not convincing enough, talk to them.â
So thatâs what Dan did. Heâd been taking other peopleâs advice so far, and it had been working well, so the two of them went around and asked what people thought of Danâs ideas for content and if he would be cut out to be a YouTuber.
Every single person they talked to said yes.
âSee? Itâs not just me!â Phil said at the end of the night.
Dan sighed. âI guess youâre right.â
âYes, I know I am!â Phil smiled, calling them a cab from outside the building where they were waiting in the fresh night air.
Dan looked around. It suddenly hit him that their night was about to come to an end.
Phil noticed the look on Danâs face.
âWhat time's your flight back tomorrow?â he asked cautiously.
âNot until four. Why?â
âWell, I was thinking maybe we could go somewhere else or something,â Phil suggested.
âLike where?â Dan asked.
âWell, we are in Orlando,â Phil smiled.
âAnd?â
âHave you ever heard of Downtown Disney?â
âMaybe?â
âWell, itâs a quaint little place I always liked better at night,â he smiled, and so when the taxi came, that was where he asked to go.
Pulling in revealed a world the likes of which Dan would have never imagined couldâve existed. Everything was Disney themed, even down to the lamp-post and the shapes of the bushes. It was a quaint town-like area on the waterfront, with many, many stores, and even a lego sea monster that was actually in the water.
âIâve always wanted to ride a sea monster,â Phil mentioned casually as they walked by it. Dan wasnât even surprised at this point. His face was alight at everything to be seen. Phil mentioned heâd visited often as a kid, and took Dan to all his favorite places. They went to a store that was filled with Disney merch and displays, and found an Christmas ornament store that had an entire room for Nightmare Before Christmas merch. Dan ended up buying a Jack Skellington sweatshirt and skeleton gloves that he mentioned reminded him of Frank Ieroâs gloves, a reference he was happy Phil understood.
They went to Ghirardelli's and ordered themselves extremely fancy hot chocolates even though it was a warm summer night. The place was crowded inside, so they sat on the edge of a raised bed with a tree in the center, shoulders touching.
They went to the Lego store and built Legos together. Phil ended up making little Lego replicas of them. Dan was focused on making- well, he didnât really know what he was making, when Phil shoved them underneath his face.
âTheyâre so cute! We have to get them!â he said, and Dan rolled his eyes, making sure Phil could see, but agreed, so thatâs what they did.
âWe should switch,â Phil suggested, âand so weâll have something to remember each other by.â
âYou think Iâm going to forget about you?â Dan teased, and Phil blushed. Dan didnât know he would take it so seriously.
âNo, I just thought it would be nice to have something physical from the time we spent together,â Phil said quietly, and Dan thought the idea was appealing, so he offered his hand, in which Phil put his mini figure in, exchanging it for Danâs. Their hands brushed again and Dan was reminded of how soft the older boyâs hands were.
âWhat now?â Dan asked, turning to hide his blush as they exited the store. It was almost midnight.
âWant to walk around a little more?â Phil asked. Dan shrugged. âSure.â
Walking around, they came upon a little amphitheatre that was having a live DJ cranking up a dance party that Phil insisted they had to join. Families, teens, and awkward friends danced to the beat of a song, before they put on one that everyone knew the dance moves to, except Dan, of course, so Phil had to teach him.
âYou thrust your hips out like this,â Phil said, hands on his hips, moving them around in a circle to the time of the beat.
âIs that so?â Dan joked, but realized what Phil was saying was true, and so followed along with everyone else. Watching Phil dance was amusing. He wasnât really the most graceful person ever.
Phil noticed Dan looking, and repeated Danâs thoughts aloud.
When the song was over, the DJ came onto his microphone. His message was not one that Dan wanted to hear.
âNow, just like your awkward senior prom, or for you youngsters, what will be  your senior prom, weâre going to slow things down for a song for those of you who have been requesting it, but after that weâll be up and running with these beats again, I promise!â
A lot of the families cleared out with a chorus of moans and groans, but some parents and teens stayed.
Dan turned to go as well, but noticed Phil wasnât following him.
Why wasnât Phil-
Oh.
Oh.
The crushing weight of that singular word, and all its understanding fell on him like a ton of bricks, heavier that the stress of Uni had ever been.
Oh.
âI-â Phil started, looking like a deer in headlights. âW-we donât have to. No, we probably shouldnât. Itâs late. We should call a cab. You have a flight to catch tomorrow, and I have things to do tomorrow, and itâs just silly-â
Dan started walking towards Phil and grabbed his hand to stop it from clenching and unclenching.
âItâs fine. Right? Itâs fine,â he laughed shakily.
Phil laughed along with him.
Danâs wrist itched where his bracelet should have been.
Dancing to the music, Phil went on a nerves-induced rant.
âIt was stupid of me to ask something so big of you. Iâm sorry. It was selfish, too. I just wanted someone to be in videos with me. I wanted a friend. And I told Martyn. I told him to keep an eye out. And he did, and I was glad to meet you. I didnât actually expect it to work. People knew I was lonely, and I wanted a friend. Look how well Smosh does. So when Martyn said I had another guest coming, they must have assumed- well, thatâs what people do. They assume. And I guess I assumed too. That youâd want to drop everything youâve worked so hard for to chance it all on a sketchy career that involves showing yourself off, flaws and all, to everyone on the internet. Insane, right? You canât just ask someone to do that for you. Iâm stupid. You have your own life, and we should just be friends or something.â
Dan felt something pull at his gut in a way he didnât like. His hand tightened on Philâs hip. Just friends? After everything he had just accepted, after feeling like maybe he was onto something, after- just friends?
No.
âNo.â
âNo?â
âNo. Iâm going to do it. Iâm going to drop out of Uni and move in with you.â
âW-what?â
âYouâre right. Iâm not happy. Iâm miserable. I agreed to take my brother here hoping- praying- something would change. That I, Iâd get a sign or something. Make a friend. Find out what it is that makes all these people happy to be here. To find clarity. To find a purpose. And even if YouTube doesnât work out⊠well, itâs a start. Quitting and moving out is a start, and youâve been kind enough to help me, becauseâŠâ
Dan looked at his feet. He couldnât say it. He wasnât 100% sure, and he couldnât say it.
âBecause I like you,â Phil filled in.
âB-because you like me. And you know that I like youâŠâ
âA lot.â
âYeah.â
âEnough to agree to move in with me.â
âEnough to show me things from your childhood.â
âEnough to agree to slow-dance with me.â
âEnough to show me off to your friends.â
Philâs grip on Danâs hand tightened, and as the song ended, he dropped their hands to their side, and together they exited the small novelty town.
âWhen?â Dan asked, looking up from their hands where he had been staring at them in disbelief.
âWhen? As soon as possible. How soon can it be?â
âA week,â Dan said.
Phil gave him a joking pout.
âFive days. Four if you help.â
Phil released Danâs hand to wrap his arms around his new partner in videos, crime, life, whatever in a hug.
âYay!â he said excitedly. âWeâre going to become super popular! I promise, thingsâll work out!â
Dan giggled, something he hadnât done in years, and hugged Phil back.
*-*-*-*-*
Five days later, Dan had a bed in Philâs apartment, and an entire room to himself to go with it. He even ended up buying a matching duvet to Philâs, and their rooms balanced out their personalities while keeping a common theme.
They enjoyed doing domestic necessities like shopping for groceries together, picking out clothes the other might like, and arguing about who has to do what chores when, as well as binge-watching shows together, competing in video games, and generally sharing more about each other and opening up about their past and their goals for the future.
Dan did end up becoming a rather successful YouTuber, and over time, he even passed Phil in number of subscribers, but Phil was never bitter about it. Instead, he was really happy that Dan had turned his life around for the better. In the years to come, they would make two more joint channels, a few tours, a few books, a whole lot of videos, and a lot of memories. They never confirmed nor denied their relationship, liking to keep their fans on their toes, much to the frustration of some of them. They grew together, laughed together, created together, and existed together. Of course they talked about their relationship with each other, but they decided not to really call it anything just yet.
They had all the time in the world as of now, and that was enough for them.
#phandom reverse bang#prb#dan#phil#dan and phil#daniel howell#phil lester#danisnotonfire#amazingphil#phan#phandom#phanfiction
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The Second Post
I am a writer. Always have been, always will be.
I belong to the small percentage of the population who get their thoughts across more easily through pen and paper or keyboard and screen than through verbal communication. The only time I find it easier to communicate verbally is when I have an intimate and very close relationship with the person I am talking to. But the story of verbal communication is for another time. The impressions Iâve had of inspiring people were what Iâve encountered today and will henceforth be the main subject of this page.
Going back to my impressions of blogging, Iâve managed to stumble across a Youtube video of a young girl who had just entered college. As I watched the video, I thought to myself, âHow is it that a young girl not even in her 20âČs had been able to set up a steady, stable YouTube vlog for herself?â As I scrolled through her past videos, my thoughts defaulted towards âOh, sheâs rich. Thatâs howâ, and âShe probably has A LOT of ideas in her head.â But then I remembered that even well-established vloggers and bloggers alike still had difficulty thinking about what kind of content they needed to put up on their site. They often had to ask their subscribers on what they wanted to see in their next post, or brainstormed with a couple of close friends and family âtil an idea popped up and had birthed another smashing video.
As I looked further into the YouTube account, I saw that the girl didnât really have a lot of viewers back then. Her posts seemed.... purely for fun and werenât after anything in particular (even though we older people know better than that). I saw that she took the things that she was interested in or the things that happened in her life (which were a lot because her family travelled a lot), and created vlogs out of it. They werenât so extravagant or specially or smartly thought out. They were just created as she went, filming bits of pieces here and there, catching memories-in-the-moment, and put them all together into a 15 to 22 minute vlog she could share with everyone.
I remembered seeing other people who shared how they started their own websites for their blogs and vlogs. Those that usually had the best, most natural content were those that took their time, knowing that their patience would pay off in the end. What all of them had in common were five things.
The first was that they had personalities that were very open to learning and trying out new things. Never mind if these trials were âfor the vlogâ. What was important there was that they were willing to step out of their comfort zone and expand their borders. If they were hesitant about it, theyâd convince themselves that theyâd either still do it in the long run or that theyâd regret not doing it in the first place. They werenât afraid to lose themselves in the indulgence and bliss of new environments and experiences because they knew theyâd always find their way back one way or another. Those traits and mental mindsets were braveries on their own. Anybody able to do those could already be called as super humans.
The second was that they communicated with other people. This didnât just mean asking them about their opinions whether an idea was good or bad or which option was the better among others. It also involved meeting new personalities, making memories with them, making them feel important and adding value to their lives by giving them entertainment or sharing perspectives or teaching each other new skills. They knew how to network, which is a skill that is never instilled into a person as a trait, but is a skill that can only be developed through practice and habit. New people didnât intimidate them; it was the thought of being all high-strung and mighty that could intimidate others that kept these people on the ground.
The third was that they were passionate about what they did. Whether it was doing tech reviews or selling products to others or teaching or communicating with people or experiencing all the wonders the world had to offer, whatever they did, they made sure they enjoyed it and made the most out of their experiences. Iâm sure behind the scenes they had to take a few deep breaths to gain the courage to face the challenge head on, but when they did, they did it with their heart on their sleeve and the goal to complete it straight ahead.
The fourth was that they didnât give up when it came to roadblocks, or when they hit a wall in the next bit of content they would put up, or when they suffered with the dreaded âwriterâs blockâ. They brainstormed with friends, both actively and passively. They took breaks to relax, recalibrate, and refocus on the reason why they started on their passion projects. They rested for a few moments, and got back up on their feet, whether they had a plan for their next move or not. They. Got. Back. Up.
The fifth, and which I consider the most important, was that they started. It was as simple as that. They started. They wanted to start a vlog? They started it. They wanted to learn how to sell products? They took a course, gained and practiced the skills, and started their project by applying those skills. They wanted to write a novel? They started with the storyboard and started writing Chapter 1. Theyâve probably heard all the âYou canât do itâ, âItâll take timeâ, âAre you sure about this?â They probably werenât too sure about something they wanted to invest their time, energy, and possibly money in, but they did it anyway because what they wanted to do was something they were sure theyâd enjoy and be productive with.
Its these kinds of people that really get you going. Those with their feet on the ground, head on their necks, ideas soaring in the sky, and mind functioning at the pace at which they are most comfortable and happy with. Those who are able to truly live in their little projects, and be satisfied with. Their passion and gratefulness for the things they are doing makes me grateful for my ability to put my feelings into words to share with everybody who feels the same way as I do. A little lost and confused in the world, but knowing thereâs a spark burning in you, waiting to be kindled and grow into a tinder, then a blaze.
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Against Nihilism
Kate Ferro for BuzzFeed News
After a big breakup earlier this year â I was the one who ended things â I gave myself a lot of room to grieve in whatever ways felt good at the time. Ordering takeout for both lunch and dinner? Sure. Downing IPAs while watching womenâs soccer at 10 in the morning? No problem. Draining my savings on weird funky clothing and yet another pair of clogs? You bet!!!
According to the tenets of modern pop feminism, Iâm entitled to a certain amount of overindulgence because, as a hardworking woman, Iâve earned it. Everything from institutional sexism to harassment to heartbreak can supposedly be assuaged by a couple bottles of wine with a group of good girlfriends. The treacly âTreat yo selfâ mantra popularized on Parks and Recreation has enabled many a stressed-out woman to place that $800 Anthropologie order (you can always return most of it, right?). Life is hard and the world is on fire; maybe we deserve to indulge in some good old simple pleasures.
So what if wine is a carcinogen and the alcohol industry has actively worked to downplay the link between drinking and cancer? So what if fast fashion is built on exploitative labor and contributes to mass global pollution? So what if the concept of self-care â popularized by Audre Lorde, a black lesbian activist battling breast cancer â has been co-opted to sell us things we donât need, things which indirectly harm others and might actually harm us in the end? Weâve earned it, ladies!
Iâd like to think I donât actively buy into the capitalist vision of self-care, even as Iâve thrown my money into its maw; at least, I donât assume any sort of entitlement to feeling good via the accumulation of material things. More so, I just thoughtâŠfuck it.
A few months ago, drunk in the middle of the day, I impulse-bought a Juul at a bodega in downtown Manhattan. Iâd been taking hits off my friendsâ vapes for months, only after Iâd had enough to drink that smoking became pleasurable instead of disgusting. That was the rule Iâd used for myself previously with cigarettes: I could never buy my own, but if I was drunk, I could bum one or two or five. Actually owning a Juul, as much as I liked to think the vapor or whatever made them safer than my beloved Marlboro Lights, was definitely breaking the rules. But Iâd reached a point where I no longer cared.
While other people were having their hot girl summers, I spent mine flirting with a sense of doom I havenât experienced since I was a hope-starved teen. (Nihilism: Itâs back in style, just like denim miniskirts!). And Iâm not alone. Twitter offers a daily glut of jokes about the apocalypse; things have gotten so bad weâre begging for vaping or an asteroid or alien overlords to finally put us out of our misery. The novelist Jonathan Franzen published a (much-maligned) essay this past weekend about climate change, arguing that the oncoming disaster is impossible to mitigate and âweâ can no longer pretend otherwise. (âEvery day, instead of thinking about breakfast,â he wrote, we all âhave to think about death.â) Reading recently about presidential candidate Andrew Yangâs dystopian vision of the future, I found myself dismayed, and thoroughly dragged, by Max Readâs description of a âdoomer,â the archetypal internet memer who believes weâre all totally fucked: âa depressed, purposeless 20-something usually depicted smoking a cigarette and wearing a beanie.â
Okay, Iâm not a doomer, but I have become somewhat fatalistic lately. With talk of another recession and the continued possibility of dying in a mass shooting or some sort of natural disaster, the scarcity mindset Iâd developed as the child of a parent living paycheck to paycheck kicked back in again. Thanks to a few greedy corporations and crisis-denying national governments, climate catastrophe seems inevitable â no matter what personal choices I make about things like food or travel or children.
So why bother saving for the future if there isnât even going to be a future? Why bother being kind to my body by taking it easy on the beer and potato skins when all the crap I consume might not catch up with me by the time that not-future comes to pass? No matter how I treated myself â and no matter what infinitesimal steps I took to be a better human citizen â weâd all end up in the same place in the end.
For a while during my âfuck itâ summer, it felt great to be a mess, if only because of its implicit rejection of corporatized self-careâs evil twin: self-optimization. Since diets have become passĂ©, weâve entered a new era defined by âwellness,â but women are still expected to meet Eurocentric and patriarchal beauty standards â only, unlike with dieting, weâre now supposed to feel good about attempting to contort ourselves into socially acceptable bodies.
Fuck other peopleâs narrow ideas about the only right ways to live a good and happy life.
âWellnessâ conjures images of Gwyneth Paltrow peddling hundreds of dollarsâ worth of Goop vitamins and oils and crystals and juices to customers who, because they are not wealthy celebrities, will never look like Gwyneth Paltrow. Organic vegetables and private Pilates instructors are the provinces of rich people who have the time and money to optimize their bodies as if itâs their job (because it is). Fuck wellness! I thought, ordering chips and queso for the third time in a week. Fuck other peopleâs narrow ideas about the only right ways to live a good and happy life.
But was my life really better, or happier? I loved taking shots with my sister at my favorite dive bar, bonding in a way we sometimes struggle to when sober. But I hated that by the time we got home I was sobbing on the couch about our fraught relationship with our mother, some deep dark part of me ripped open and exposed to the unforgiving light. I loved the dopamine rush of confirming yet another online shopping order, but I hated having to return half the crap once it piled up in my bedroom. I hated hangovers, mountains of takeout containers, and the point at which my Juul would stop giving me a stream of little highs and instead just start making me sick.
Amazon Studios / Courtesy Everett Collection
Jillian Bell in Brittany Runs a Marathon.
Last weekend, I took myself on a date to the movies. I saw Brittany Runs a Marathon, which is the exact kind of movie Iâve been seeking out lately: funny, uplifting, and you know going in exactly what youâre getting. Keep your twist endings, Quentin Tarantino! Iâll watch the movie where the ending is literally spoiled by the film title.
Paul Downs Colaizzoâs indie movie, which won the Audience Award in the US Drama category at Sundance, stars Jillian Bell as the titular Brittany, a goofy twentysomething in a major life rut. A doctor tells her she has an unhealthy BMI (proven to be a bogus measure of a personâs health) and that she needs to lose 50 pounds. This leads Brittany â and Bell herself â to attempt to shed the weight of a âsmall Siberian huskyâ over the next year, at the end of which Brittany plans to run the New York City Marathon.
A movie about a woman trying to find fulfillment through weight loss sounds pretty out of step with our current cultural moment, when fat acceptance and body positivity have been gaining significant ground. Kate Browne in Runnerâs World argues that the movie functions as âfitspoâ by conveying to viewers that if you lose weight, you, too, can achieve your dreams. âThe story weâre too often told about fatness and running,â she wrote, âis that body size is an obstacle to overcome in our quest for glory.â Madison Malone Kircher, in a piece for Vulture, made similar points: âIn Brittany Runs a Marathon, being fat is portrayed as a starting point instead of just a state of being.â
I, too, would have preferred a movie in which Brittany ran a marathon after gaining back all the weight she initially lost while training â proving to herself, and to viewers, that she could do remarkable things at any size. Still, I think the film does complicate more straightforward and more explicitly anti-fat weight loss narratives in popular culture by making clear that personal fulfillment and a small waist arenât inextricably intertwined.
Soon before sheâs set to run her first marathon (spoilers ahead), Brittany pushes herself too hard in her attempt to lose her final 10 pounds; she deprives herself of food and ends up in the hospital with a stress fracture. She has to miss the race. While recovering, sheâs much thinner but more miserable than ever. In the filmâs cringiest scene, Brittany gets drunk and heckles a fat woman at her brother-in-lawâs birthday party, refusing to believe that the womanâs âaverageâ size partner could actually love and desire a fat person. At other moments, she makes jealous assumptions about a (thin) neighbor she doesnât actually know; she begrudges a married friend his happy domesticity with his husband and children. The film suggests that Brittanyâs main problem has never been her weight â itâs that sheâs convinced all her woes have nothing to do with her own actions and that other people, in turn, donât deserve their happiness.
Amazon Studios / Courtesy Everett Collection
Patch Darragh and Jillian Bell in Brittany Runs a Marathon.
At the end of the movie, when Brittany signs up for the marathon again the next year and actually makes it to the race â cheered on by friends sheâd previously spurned â I cried. I cried because it was, yes, inspirational, but I was also moved by the way the story managed to explore personal autonomy and desire in a self-improvement narrative without discounting the significant role played by larger systemic forces.
No, Brittany shouldnât have to lose weight to be treated with respect â but the material reality of her life is that, when sheâs thinner, sheâs actually âtreated like a woman,â as she tells her soon-to-be boyfriend: People smile at her; they hold the door for her on the subway. No, it isnât fair that the fancy gym she tries to join when she first decides to lose weight is cost prohibitive to so many people â but that doesnât discount the fact that running, and other ways of moving oneâs body, are completely free.
I cried because Iâve long resented all the pressure I feel to work out and eat âwellâ and drink less and sleep more. So much of that pressure comes from a world hellbent on optimizing our bodies and brains for workplace efficiency, for social acceptance, for conventional beauty standards, for ânormalcy.â Itâs pressure designed to make us believe the world will become less of a hellscape through mere personal effort, rather than structural change.
But what if we donât make those choices (just) to make ourselves more palatable to the world around us? Yes, living âwellâ â if weâre financially and physically able â benefits The Man. That doesnât change the fact that treating our bodies with respect and care might benefit us too.
When I first thought about quitting drinking, about a month ago, I read Sarah Hepolaâs 2015 recovery memoir, Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget. I sobbed through the last 50 pages. (Yes, Iâve been crying a lot lately.) She talks about how, even after she got sober, she still wasnât taking care of herself: lots of takeout, not a lot of making the bed or hanging up her laundry.
I told myself this was OK, because our society was beyond warped in its expectations of women, who were tsunamied by messages of self-improvement, from teeth whiteners to self-tanners ⊠I wanted to kick the whole world in the nuts and live the rest of my years in sweatpants that smelled vaguely like salami, because who really cares?
But then, after a while, Hepola realized: She cared. She realized she didnât need to make her body and home feel and look better to please men, or because it was what she was âsupposedâ to do. âI should take care of myself because it made me happy,â she wrote.
After finishing the book, I wondered if, angry at the propagandist sham of American individualism and bootstraps meritocracy, Iâd course-corrected a little too hard â giving up on trying to improve myself or the world around me.
Eddy Chen / HBO
Zendaya as Rue on Euphoria.
My nihilism was both political and personal. Politically, Iâd become Chidi, the philosophy scholar on The Good Place, who ends up in Hell because of his ethical indecision. At one point, after grasping so desperately for moral purity and failing to find it, he gives up. âThe world is empty,â he yells. âThere is no point to anything. And youâre just gonna die. So do whatever!â Personally, I saw myself as Euphoriaâs Rue (minus the hard drug-taking), who returns to her life of debauchery after getting clean in rehab because she doesnât see the point in trying to get better. âThe worldâs coming to an end,â she says in the first episode, âand I havenât even finished high school yet.â
Itâs a lot easier to believe that you canât do much to improve your moods, your relationships, and the way your body feels while simultaneously believing you canât do much to improve those things for other people, either. Abdicating that sense of any responsibility let me avoid a deeper, darker worry: that prioritizing the self is, by nature, saying to hell with everyone else.
My obsession with that particular quandary led me to Trisha Lowâs new book-length essay, Socialist Realism, in which she attempts to reconcile her desire for the comforts of love and home with her desire for a socialist utopia. Is it even possible to pursue personal happiness and fulfillment while prioritizing The Greater Good at the same time?
âHome,â she writes. âItâs just something to contain our misplaced desires for a better world. How can we willingly long for that?â Her work is built upon that of her teacher, the academic JosĂ© Esteban Muñoz, who famously theorized that queerness is, by its very nature, not-yet-here â âthat thing that lets us feel that this world is not enough.â
In Megan Milksâs review of Socialist Realism for Bookforum, she notes that a decade ago âmany queers were enamored with the alluring radicality of queer negativityâ â think Lee Edelmanâs 2004 polemic No Future, about the queer death drive â but âin the Trump era such grandiose nihilism seems puerile.â
I loved Lowâs book for its messiness, its sense of struggle â a perfect depiction of the constant tugging I feel within myself every day, between my desire to deal with the realities of my own life and my desire to think on bigger, more ambitious scales. âWhatever,â Low eventually concludes. âYou can make utopia out of almost anything.â
Since last month, Iâve stopped consuming alcohol (for now, though maybe also for longer). I threw away my Juul, then got jealous that I didnât get rid of it more dramatically when I saw somebody smash theirs with a hammer on Instagram. Even King Princess, the Gen Z queen of Juuls, recently quit â a harbinger of change if Iâve ever seen one.
Iâm trying to whittle away at my nihilism (both the personal and the political) in other small ways. I signed up for a trial at a rental clothing company, with the hopes that Iâll spend less money on shopping and contribute less waste. Iâve stopped eating beef, hopefully en route to full-fledged vegetarianism. And I joined a powerlifting gym after my friend Katie, who is basically a lifting influencer, extolled its many virtues. Iâm hoping the sportâs focus on strength and power, rather than weight loss, will help me stop punishing my body for the way it looks and start celebrating it for what it can do.
Iâve had these little bursts of self-improvement projects before, but in the past Iâve always gotten bored and given up eventually. Iâd start drinking again. Iâd order a bunch of crap I didnât need from companies that mistreat their workers and actively make the world worse. Whatever, who cares, nothing matters.
Just last week I caved and ordered six different white T-shirts and a $200 pair of boots. (âBasics!â I told myself. âJust the basics!â) I know Iâm still going to have nights where I eat only popcorn for dinner and watch six straight episodes of Love Island and bum hits from my friendsâ Juuls. I think whatâs most important is that Iâm at least trying to train myself to rely on more than just instant gratification. To have faith that, if Iâm lucky, thereâs a lot more life Iâve yet to live.
Critics of Franzenâs New Yorker piece on the climate apocalypse pointed out that the authorâs climate projections are seriously flawed and his conclusions perhaps even more so. After taking swipes at everyone, from the evil science-deniers on the right to the overly optimistic peddlers of the Green New Deal on the left, Franzen sees hopeful futures for community gardens and CSA programs, but not much else.
âIf your hope for the future depends on a wildly optimistic scenario,â he wrote, âwhat will you do ten years from now, when the scenario becomes unworkable even in theory? Give up on the planet entirely?â
What a patronizing way to address anyone who dares to dream. Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg hasnât documented her climate depression or dared adults to consider the impact of their personal choices just to piss off a bunch of man-baby conservatives. As a young person, sheâs more than justified in fearing for her future, but despite her anger and her sadness â because of her anger and her sadness â she still believes in something better. Why bother even trying otherwise?
Yes, living âwellâ â if weâre financially and physically able â benefits The Man. That doesnât change the fact that treating our bodies with respect and care might benefit us too.
Corrupt corporations and governments do hold the most blame, and the most significant obligations, when it comes to righting our course. But there is no easier way to shirk consumer responsibility â whether youâre eating beef, or flying a lot, or holding onto that unholy Amazon Prime subscription â than by self-soothing with the leftist adage that âthereâs no ethical consumption under capitalism.â
As Charlotte Shane recently wrote in a piece about Jonathan Safran Foerâs We Are the Weather (yet another collection of Big Climate Thoughts by yet another underqualified white guy), holding institutions accountable âcanât be a ploy to deïŹect attention from our own culpability ⊠No matter how otherwise constrained our circumstances, we can always choose each other, choose solidarity, choose effort. Every time we do, weâre making headway toward a new habit, a self-reinforcing orientation that alters the fabric of who we are and how we live.â
Is there anything in this world harder than trying to be both happy and good?
Iâve been listening to Lana Del Reyâs Norman Fucking Rockwell on repeat since the album dropped, which has put me in the perfect mood for my sad girl fall. But as much as Lana sings her beautiful, dreamy way through the depressing fog that is modern living, she still ends the album on somewhat of a high note. âHope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have,â she croons on the very last song. âBut I have it.â
May we all, Lana. May we all. â
Sahred From Source link Science
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This Is Us- The Show Thatâs Sweeping the Nation
tThere is no denying NBCâs This Is Us has become one of the biggest talks of television within the past year. Each episode leaves you with more questions than the last, and will make you more emotional than you believed possible from a TV series.Â
It seems that more and more television series being produced are based on zombies, superheros, fantasies, or sitcoms with an âAmerican Dreamâ family who donât know struggles beyond deciding who is going to walk the dog. We see families very frequently on television, but we are rarely exposed to the grueling everyday life issues that really happen to regular people.
This Is Us gives viewers the material that they may not be used to seeing on television, especially all in one series. Many different problems are thrown at the characters, and, although TVâs main purpose is to entertain, they handle them very realistically- the way that everyday people would react.
The show does not stray away from issues that may be troubling to talk about. In just one episode, viewers can be exposed to death, body shaming, slut shaming, racism, abandonment and drug and alcohol addiction. The things that happen to the characters are realistic and relatable, which is the reason why the show has such a strong following.Â
 In my opinion, the topic of body image reigns supreme when it comes to messages that can be taken away from the show. One of the main characters Kate, played by Chrissy Metz, is extremely overweight. Kate struggles with being bullied starting from when she is a little girl, and we watch her journey throughout each episode. We may have seen overweight characters on television before, but Metzâs performance is raw and strong. She represents all of the women who have been criticized for their weight, and we watch her character graceful deal with all of the hate she receives.
Metzâs character, Kate, does not lose a dramatic amount of weight like people would hope to see in a television show. It doesnât have that type of âhappy ending,â but that is what makes the show so refreshing. Kate does try to lose weight, but she is also sending a message to viewers that you do not have to change for the wrong reasons. Her weight stays the same, but her mindset changes. She becomes more confident, and we should commend the show for staying true to that.Â
No matter how much success a series has, there are always going to be critics, so it is fair to recognize those who may not think as highly of the show. Some critics argue that a few aspects of the plot are predictable, and although I see their argument, This Is Us is anything but predictable. The characters are woven together by acts of fate, and the plot throws us curveballs more than one can imagine. In fact, it is hard to understand how a show can make you laugh and cry all at the same time. Even if the show did have some predictable moments, the acting makes them feel real.Â
It is hard to pinpoint one reason why a show could be so loved by its viewers. There are a lot of things that could contribute to a showâs huge fan base. This Is Us took the 2016-2017 television world on a wild ride, and we have the characters to thank for that. When you put Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia together, youâre bound to have success. But we can also give credit to the how the characters make those watching feel a deep connection. When the characters experience something, you should feel like you are experiencing it too. Thatâs when you know you have reached an audience, and that is exactly what this show does.Â
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What could I say? It was definitely the best runway on your Plasma after Sex and the City ended. Furthermore, the show was a little bit more interesting while the main rule in the characters code was treason. Yes, treason. That word made the future of Serena Van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick), Nathaniel Archibald (Chace Crawford), Lonely Boy a.k.a Daniel Humphrey (Pen Badgley), and Jenny (Taylor Momsen), the meanest gang to go with around Manhattan.
The truth is this show inspired in people not only  the desire of possession, as well as, having the best attires from the greatest minds in Fashion Design, with the only purpose of using them in the next soirée with their best friends or enemies. Undoubtedly, the show provoked even the desire of replicating the worst behaviour between teenagers, young adults and adults.
Maybe the fact of watching this bunch of kids doing illegal, irreverent and crazy things with parents taking care of the crazy damages caused a similar syndrome  of overexposed our lives. Behaviour, which had been atracting the attention and a counter position from multiple specialists between Psychologist, Sociologist, Marketers, Jouranlists and Media experts, as well as, celebrities and Royals explaining why we should do less to show our personal lives online considering the value of a good balance between our real persona and the one we showed each day on social media.
The most important character in Gossip Girl: ENVYÂ
âEnvyâŠsimilar to jealousy. Discontent towards someoneâs traits, status, abilities or rewards. The difference is the envious also desire the entity and cove itâ.
Of course, the show did not play only with overexposure but also, with envy. The program follow the rules stipulated by Marx and the Capitalist form of production, and how it created a role for each group in that society so, the drama begins when Serena Van der Woodsen decided to return to recover her place in Manhattan and a younger wannabe Jenny Humphrey decided to be more than just Lonely boysâ younger sibling, the nickname his brother had won in a website dedicated to spill rumours about relevant teenagers enrolled in Manhattanâs private schools.
In that way the fight begins, Blair Waldorf had conquered the role of Queen Bee, which has been like her dream come true since kindergarten so, the presence of Serena, no matter how much she loves her will affect her place in the social and Academic scenario. In the other side, we find Jenny Humphrey, she is not rich, popular or deep. She has talent, poise, character, she is a good sister and daughter (at this point) but she wants a breakthrough in the social scene and, without a last name, which sounds like you are using your black credit card to pay for anything; or an extraordinary talent, it would be almost impossible to make it.
The only option for her being good in what she does, designing and creating beautiful dresses, and finding good friends (networking) to establish the best outcome for her wishes. She is good in the first field, in the second, she definitely sucks. She had no idea how to manipulate in the first three or four seasons. Meanwhile Serena has everything and she really did not care about anything related to success. Giving an extra effort sounds like a valuable line for any sport team. For her, it is like just traveling to Europe to avoid contact with her friends, mistakes and troubles.
For that reason, even Blair Waldorf hate her; it is the origin of the best jokes you enjoyed during the show âA hippie millionaire and sex bomb being best friends with an overachiever, selfish heiressâ. Blair is in that way because her mother put pressure on her to be obsessed with perfection, even if she needs to do things far from good or perfect to achieve that position, or the choice goes against her true feelings like she almost did after her marriage to Prince Louis from Monaco. Once and again, the idea of running for a better life while you compared yourself and what you have with people around you. It is not the only element to create chaos but it increases the flame inside each character about having a sense of lack of value and congruence between what they do, love and care for, or doing anything else only for winning in a social and economic competition, where the most important value is getting more status and money.
In that sense, being friends is one of the most difficult tasks. Of course, it is fun for the viewers but for the people involved is only an endless and hopeless situation of backstabbing, blackmail, betrayal, which undoubtedly, ended in one simple word hate and distance. That was how the show begins, Blair was crying in front of a helicopter while she was trying to explain why she couldnât stay any longer in New York. Meanwhile Serena Van der Woodsen, the scandalsâ expert was to go to Connecticut because she was trying to clean her conscience after sleeping with Blairâs boyfriend behind her back. Of course, all these behaviour shouldnât or couldnât be experienced without dressing the best clothes designed by PRADA, Louis Vuitton, Dolce&Gabbana, Chanel, Versace, Balmain, Carolina Herrera, Ellie Saab, Oscar de la Renta, Narciso Rodriguez, Alannah Hill, Toni Maticevski, Vera Wang, among others, which was for some viewers the most pleasant element during the show.
 Watching people being mean in high fashion is not only tolerable, it could entertain you. However, at the end this group discovered once and again that sometimes, they were the only one, who really cares about the other, that effect provoked they come back to each other like magnets each season because it is possible that only those who live and experience the same upbringing and environment as you could understand your feelings, your mindset, your behaviour, your mistakes, your fears and your choices.
Having parents with enough money to help you go out of messy situations after they paid for the damages caused by the lack of empathy or betrayal their dearest descendants are involved with. Why do they do it? It could be the regular question from everyone, who consider parents should do a better job, however, these parents look sometimes even more lonely and messy than their children. At some point, the most interesting dialogue I found during the show was between Nate and Blair. He was trying to understand his role and the expectations of his family on him, he found confusing his luck and having all these privileges he hadnât ever asked for, however, at the end, he understood that there is no way to go out. If you were born an Archibald or a Waldorf, you only keep going with the structure your parents expected from you.
Scary, of course, I am pretty sure nobody wants a life designed step by step from their birth until they die. Even if the rewards sound so excited as exploring all the experiences of your life through money, social status, pleasure, hedonism and selfishness. In part, I need to be honest, the funniest thing was finding the charactersâ efforts to destroy the good behaviour of another character. That was the real goal in the crazy lives of this group of friends. Georgina going behind Serena; Blair was trying to do the same to Chuck; Jenny Humphrey is, perhaps, the biggest exception. She was the youngster and usually the character everyone tried to protect until she became the strongest considering the values previously mentioned.
To close the column, during six seasons I love the romance between Blair and Chuck, even when most of the adults I know expressed something like âThat is a toxic relation.â However, at the end, they changed, they grow up, they tried to do the best and not only for them, in that sense, perhaps for a TV show there was a good happy ending. Also, finding Serena was able to forgive Dan Humphrey after hurting her on purpose not once or twice but during ages, which sounds more like a S&M relation because Blair and Chuck knew perfectly how they are. Serena trusted in Dan since the beginning, without imagining how much despair for her he got inside of him. I wasnât glad she married Dan. For me she should get back with Nate but what can we do? In the original books Nate run away in a boat, leaving New York, because he didnât want to choose between the blonde and the brunette. Once and again, he is the real gentleman in shining armor.
     Gossip Girl: A decade later What could I say? It was definitely the best runway on your Plasma after Sex and the City ended.
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