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queenofthearchipelago · 1 year ago

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Long Rant about the Watcher Thing

The thing about what's happening with Watcher is that I'm a musician. I understand deeply the difficulties that come with an artist making their art and needing money and the relationship with the people that art is for. So I understand that Watcher needs money to pay their employees and maintain their business.

That said, they revealed that they have 25 employees (half of which are nepotism hires and friends from BuzzFeed) and that one episode of Ghost Files costs "hundreds of thousands of dollars." (Ghost Files being their most expensive show by bar, not their average spending habits per Watcher episode)

I understand from a few people I've seen who are in their Patreon that they make at least 100k per month from the patreon. And then there's the money they get from youtube itself from the views. And then there's the money they get from the ads.

Now I understand that Ryan said this decision came down to primarily 2 things: the ad companies were making them feel stifled with what they could do (which they don't explain how), and they want more money to be able to keep up a higher production quality.

I'm going to skip past the thing about the ads. They never specified how the ad companies were making them change their content in a way that made them feel unsatisfied. I can't speak or provide any opinions on why they want so badly to escape needing ad deals.

But I can talk about the higher production quality they speak of and that's specifically because Ryan said that they wanted to pay for a higher production quality FOR US. "For you guys."

We... we didn't ask for higher production. This is NOT a decision they need to make on our account. I understand and respect if they aren't creating on they level they want. But it's odd that they're speaking towards not being able to afford their current spending habits, as if this is something we asked them to do.

I've read a lot of comments about this and I agree with a lot of you that it's odd that this decision to switch to streaming coincides with the return of Worth It, a show that when produced by Steven, seems like it could easily cost just as much as Ghost Files to produce.

I understand why it feels like this is all Steven's fault. His vibes in the video today, compared to Ryan and Shane, made it seem like he was the most excited about it. It's Steven that has been highlighted multiple times as the business man, the one who makes the financial decisions. It's Steven's shows on Watcher that get canceled after one or two seasons, meanwhile Ryan and Shane's shows just keep going to 5 seasons and beyond.

Shane even said it explicitly, that there are "shows that didn't do as well on youtube, that might do better on a streaming service."

But most of the fans DO watch Watcher for Ryan and Shane, they always have. Steven's shows don't do as well. When Watcher brings in a new host and makes a new show for them, those shows do even worse.

I know this upsets Ryan, he's been very vocal about wanting Watcher to expand beyond himself and Shane. He wants his company to be successful regardless of whether he's in front of the camera or not.

But I feel like this step is trying to force it. Right now, this is still Ryan and Shane's channel. This is why we're here. The people haven't latched onto Steven as much, and the attempts to bring in new hosts have been unsuccessful.

There are lots of comments floating around about why Watcher didn't do what Rhett and Link did and open up youtube membership. Or why didn't they host more live events. Or why didn't they do more livestreams. These all could have been fantastic ideas that wouldn't betray the fans.

Because I do think they forgot that their fanbase is largely women in their 20s. People are right in bringing up the cost of living crisis, in bringing up how many subscription services we're already subscribed to. And my heart goes out to the international viewers who can't access the website at all in their country and the ones who can't afford it because Watcher forgot to consider the currency difference.

I feel that they have betrayed their fanbase. I remember when Watcher started and Ryan admitted he was scared no one would watch. And then we showed up for them because we loved them and what they did.

But now most of the fans can't or won't follow them where they're going. And I think Ryan might know this too from the way he said If this is goodbye, it's been fun.

I wish they would have tried other things before hard launching a streaming service. I wish they would have had a long game plan to get to the place they wanted to be as a company and as creatives.

I feel betrayed but I also don't want this company going bankrupt. If they go bankrupt, then we truly have lost them forever. I hope they take a look at the overwhelming backlash, at their falling subscriber numbers, and I hope they reconsider doing this.

#just a rant of my thoughts right now #watcher #steven lim #ryan bergara #shane medej #thoughtsfromthequeen

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peachatini · 1 month ago

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Sorry this is so long but I had a lot of thoughts.

A think piece about Choi San and Jeon Jungkook from BTS and the fanfic ideal of the alpha. I'm obsessed with all the similarities and differences between BTS & Ateez, guys.

The Alpha Misconception

Let’s talk about something that’s been on my mind: how fanfic tropes - even the ones we love - can sometimes mess with how we see real people. I’m thinking specifically about Jungkook from BTS and San from ATEEZ. I think they’ve got a lot in common in terms of how fans talk about them, but also some key differences that are worth noting.

Before we get into it, I want to make something clear: I’m pro fanfiction. I’m not here to judge anyone’s ships, fic preferences, or how you express love for your faves. This isn’t a “shipping is toxic” post. I’m a shipper and a fanfic writer of 25 years. It’s just a look at how certain archetypes and tropes can go from fun storytelling tools to something a little more limiting and even harmful when they get pushed onto real people too hard.

Also, I’m not pretending to speak for all of fandom. These are just thoughts based on what I’ve seen - if that means it’s a small slice of the internet, so be it. This is just one person’s take.

Backdrop that would be good to know:

A small section of BTS’ label Hybe’s internal audit was released in late 2024. It was a report widely condemned for the “petty” nature of some of the comments within. It basically confirmed what a lot of fans had long suspected: that companies pay very close attention to fan culture, and sometimes even feed into it on purpose.

It would be useful to know the people involved: BTS’ Jungkook and his most common ship partners Jimin and Taehyung and ATEEZ’ San, Yeosang and Wooyoung. But mainly focusing on Jungkook and San. The dynamics between them aren’t exact copies, but there are similar vibes and notable differences - especially in how fans ship them and assign roles based on appearance or energy.

Rough Male Pheromones

Rewind about ten months to an article published in W Korea. A review of the Jimin and Jungkook travel show Are You Sure?

The article is now deleted. The response from groups of people with enthusiasm for Jungkook was not great. Aside from factual inaccuracies, falsely attributed quotes and an overtly fanservice-y description of two friends on a trip, the “rough male pheromones” really stood out.

Simply put: Many people simply didn’t recognise that description of Jungkook.

And that dismay might stay in the BTS tumblr space if I wasn’t seeing a very slight reflection of this in Choi San.

Fanfic as Profit

Saying that companies might engineer fanfic dynamics and characters onto their idols felt like a conspiracy theory once upon a time. It’s been quite a familiar refrain for me in the BTS shipping space: Well why would they make it up? Why would they bother doing this? Why would they construct things? What do they gain from it?

But then Hybe’s report dropped, and it more or less confirmed four ideas:

They know fanfiction is powerful.

They create narratives designed for fans to latch onto.

They know fans love familiar BL-style dynamics - simple, digestible, romantic, TESTED.

They like to nurture the immersion of fans into the world and encourage the parasocial elements.

It really rewrote a lot of the thinking around what we're seeing. We’re not imagining things when we feel like certain “moments” between idols seem tailor-made for fans. A lot of it is intentional. That doesn’t mean the friendships aren’t real, but it does mean they’re being shaped into something marketable by using fanfic ideas. I don't think this was a huge secret uncovered. It was a pretty open secret but had it been laid out so plainly?

This is Hybe's CEO Bang Sihyuk in 2019 talking about a; fanfic and b; narratives to be developed based upon this.

Here is Bang Sihyuk talking about going beyond fanservice with Jimin and Jungkook in a PowerPoint presentation:

Here is an article about the Hybe report seemingly confirming a song by TXT - also a Hybe group - is based on a fanfic:

From the Hybe Report:

Mad Summer: a fanfiction that was released around early days of debut. Not sure if the writer is just being sneaky, but they only release the fanfiction for viewing occasionally so as to self-manage any issues that arise. Perhaps that’s why it became a total hit amongst the 4th generation fandoms. Last week, it began trending on X that they made it public again for the first time in a long while and [redacted]. … Thanks to the fanfiction, in the early days, fantasies about the Yeonjun X Beomgyu OTP grew too big. But the two bicker a lot in real life, and the members also have the vibe of cousins who spend the whole summer vacation together, so it wasn’t a good environment for OTP stans to be active.

Even if the song and music video were not a direct reference to the fanfic, Hybe are aware of and monitor fanfic trends and how those trends play out with the member narratives.

Here is Hybe monitoring fanfic trends:

And not just fanfic but how sexuality is represented. Here is Hybe commenting on New from The Boyz wearing a crop top.

Translations vary on this. It’s either:

So when New posted that photo screaming 'gayness', it triggered the outpour of 'queer-hate'. [...] overall, the 'queer image' that the fans wanted to see was not this 'teasing flirt' but more of the cute and little BL-story character.

The fandom wants queer members to be cute protagonists of the BL universe, not power players.

At worst, Hybe believe fans want the simplest version of gay people as BL archetypes and at best, they’re keeping tabs on how they should be presenting their members for widest appeal.

So we know Hybe are curiously married to fanfic presentations, utilising it to determine the direction of their narratives.

The easiest way to present this to an audience is to replicate tried and true popular fic dynamics for queer ships. You'd be hard pressed to find a fandom without an ABO dynamic AU or a Mafia Boss AU. They're popular in every fanfic sphere I've ever been in: A tsundere/seme/masc/sexually confident top with a deredere/uke/femme/innocent bottom. The binary ideas of top and bottom, cute and grouchy, masc and femme are not necessarily always reflective of real complicated bedroom dynamics between real queer couples but they are really simple to grab, easy to understand. Think about the reductive questions queer people are asked: Who's the woman? Who's the top? Who puts up shelves and who cooks? It's a very simplistic shorthand for queer.

Certain popular pairings are reflective of these dynamics either by design - via constructed content or narrative - or by fortuitous circumstance to be capitalised on. In the case of San and Yeosang: the infamous WooSanSang live drama created a frisson to be explored.

This post about San and Yeosang really nails how these tropes show up: San as the protective, muscled one; Yeosang as the quiet, softer one.

Those same roles show up all the time in Jungkook/Jimin fic too but also very intensely in the Jimin/Jungkook shipping space.

Sidebar:

There’s a whole conversation to be had about how accurate the “innocent, seductive cutie who needs protecting” image really is when it comes to Jimin and Yeosang. They both have “cute” traits and are seen as sweet - but weak or helpless? Jimin is literally a black belt in, I think, a couple of martial arts. Still, he leans into the flirty-yet-adorable persona that fits neatly into the uke/seme dynamic. He’s quite committed to the role, often describing himself this way.

Yeosang, though? He’s never seemed fully comfortable with it. Let’s not forget his EPIC eyeroll at a fan who called him cute:

But yes, he’s whimsical and super pure and sweet. He’s the guy who doesn’t swear and draws his little aegyo character everywhere. But flirty? Not really. He doesn’t seem to court that kind of attention with any kind of regularity. He’s a soft-spoken, drone-loving, gamer-maths-nerd with a dry wit and, honestly, a suspiciously detailed knowledge of how to commit murder. So while the trope might suit Jimin, I’m not sure it was ever a natural fit for Yeosang.

And interestingly, we are witnessing the physical widening of Yeosang right now via his handy gains photos. That twink is PERISHING in real time:

I would talk more about Yeosang’s image but I think other people could do it better. And hey, look, Thirst did some excellent thinking about Yeosang and Wooyoung's image here.

Ok sidebar over.

The other pairings - Taekook and Woosan - don’t adhere to these ideals so strongly. Incidentally that would be our two could be real pairings. Thanks to @thirstkanaphan for that super handy shorthand phrase.

Taekook have similar characters and broadly similar physical appearance in terms of masculine presentation. Taehyung pre-military was physically slightly narrower but he does not have the femme qualities. They might be categorised as masc4masc vibes so the simple and easily comprehended lines around dominance/submission, alpha/omega, top/bottom are very fuzzy. Neither of them is playing the cutie to the tsundere, they both exhibit both traits.

And in the case of WooSan, the pieces have been in place but seemingly never overlapped. Early years Wooyoung was the sexy one, the seductive cutie Jimin replica:

With his best friend little twink San:

But by the time San had physically broadened to the point of being viable alpha material, Wooyoung seemed to have grown out of his designation. He’s now a bit more goth, a bit edgier and too steadfastly Wooyoung to play along with something that doesn’t feel real to him. See this quote from Wooyoung himself:

My personality is such that, when it comes to my convictions, not only do I not tip toe around my stance, I'm also unable to put on an act for the sake of presenting a certain outward appearance.

(Further interesting similarity in that Taehyung occupies this kind of unapologetically self-determined role within BTS. On the surface there's not a lot Wooyoung and Taehyung have in common but the more I learn, the more I realise there's a lot of similarity.)

Some things with WooSan remain fic-friendly: the brat/brat tamer dynamic is strong with those two, Wooyoung can still play the enticing sweetie and physically, Wooyoung is shorter and leaner than San so they present the visual ideal:

But crucially, every single time you think you have them pinned down, there’s a twist to them. Suddenly San is pouting and pushing buttons for attention, suddenly Wooyoung is attentive and dominant. There was a little fan story - that I cannot find the tweet for, sorry edit: FOUND IT - about San nearly tripping at Gayo Daejeon and going over to Wooyoung with a pout “I nearly tripped!” to be cooed at and loved on. The same event where Wooyoung gets San to check his hair looks nice. Those valued fic dynamics are so hard to hold onto in those two. The authenticity of them tends to override an overarching narrative. They just do their thing:

So now we’ve discussed the relative approaches to ships, to the actual point. It’s not really about ships at all. It’s all about a certain kind of shipping, whilst perfectly valid, and the box it inadvertently puts it’s main characters into: Our two “alphas” Jungkook and San.

The Golden Maknae and the Mountain

This is how we first meet Jeon Jungkook, maknae of BTS, at BTS 2013 debut. He is 15 years old and looks it too:

He grows up literally in front of Armys eyes. He has a vulnerability from his tender age, his huge bright eyes and babyface. He’s polite, he’s deferential, he bows low to his seniors. He adheres closely to age hierarchy, feeling it protects him from destroying relationships and making mistakes.

And he hates to make mistakes. He’s hard on himself, a perfectionist to a self-detrimental fault. He’s silly and he’s soft and cute. We watch him go through puberty hormones that make him a little all over the place with his feelings but that’s your little brother, right?

He’s a little duo with his best friend Taehyung. He’s the annoying little sibling to some of his hyungs, he’s the beloved baby to others.

Then he hits 19 (20 Korean age) in 2017 and performs a dance cover to Coming of Age Ceremony by Park Jiyoon. It’s a popular song for girl groups to perform when they come of age. It’s a little problematically sexual, honestly, with a bunch of lyrics about how a man waited for her to become old enough and now she is, he doesn’t have to wait anymore. It’s weird.

A new narrative emerges about Jungkook: He’s sporty; he’s a gym bunny; he can drink now; he can have opinions about kissing; he’s a MAN. He is now in a full time shipping narrative.

Jungkook is a workout aficionado since pre-debut but he had been discouraged from strength training to maintain a young teen appeal. He begins to work out. He gets tattoos too, a full sleeve that he begins in 2019. He rides a motorcycle.

By 2023 he looks like this:

And the transformation into the Seme-Alpha-Masc idea is complete.

Any Atiny reading will probably see the similarities between this and Choi San. San was 19, so a fair bit older than JK at debut in 2018 but he looks younger, just as innocent, like this:

He comes from a little island in the South called Namhae. The first ever idol from Namhae, in fact. There’s only a two year age range in Ateez, he’s the middle of five 99 liners. He has this sweet little voice still in the process of deepening. He’s excitable, youthful, playful, bubbly and he loves singing. He smiles a lot with these deep dimples. He collects plushies, can’t sleep without something to cuddle and he’s a scaredy cat. He’s a mischievous brother with some, a hyung to one, a joined-at-the-hip soulmate to another.

He’s quite self conscious about his skinny body. I’m unsure of whether he was prevented from working out but around 2021, he begins to bulk up. Just including this comparison picture because it makes me laugh:

In 2024, he looks like this:

Transformation complete. His name means Mountain and he looks like one.

I want to be clear: These two men made these choices for their own bodies. I don’t think for a second either of them was forced to become muscular. They clearly find mental wellbeing in exercise and conditioning their bodies. It’s a stress reliever, it’s a fun thing for them. We’re all for the muscles as their personal choice.

When it becomes a problem is when people treat them as if masculinity of the muscles are now their whole personality when the contrary very much still exists in them. I think it’s convenient for the company to lean into it but I don’t think the seeds they sow with a throwaway caption are easily controlled. It grows like weeds and seems to invade the fandom consciousness until the soft parts of them are always secondary to the mafia boss/northern duke.

Some of the negative portrayals of Jungkook in shipping spaces, in fandom spaces and in official content include:

He’s aggressive.

He’s rude.

He’s jealous to the point of toxicity.

He’s abusive.

He’s violent.

He’s an alcoholic.

He’s sulky.

Too competitive. Too toxic. Too Western for singing about sex. Too big for his boots. So ungrateful. Overgrown manchild. Stubborn. A Hongdae boy, a fuckboy. Pushy and sexually aggressive. Himbo.

Why is he so angry? Jungkook just punches me all the time. Jungkook scares me. Why is he so scary? If you get into a fight with Jungkook, he’ll definitely win.

After the airing of Are You Sure, a travelogue featuring Jungkook and Jimin (and Taehyung), a tumblr user genuinely began to accuse Jungkook of physically abusing Jimin because Jungkook had made this prototypical younger sibling gesture at him:

Around the time of NewJeans relationship with Hybe imploding, Jungkook posted to his instagram a fairly generic message of support to NewJeans, calling for companies to not use their young artists as pawns:

Because this message partially called out Hybe, a lot of Army were convinced he had been hacked. It simply wasn’t comprehensible to them that he would have the wherewithal to take a mature and noble stance about something and put his own reputation at risk in support of young female artists.

Hybe eventually confirmed that yes, Jungkook did make the post and what’s more made ANOTHER post along those lines and then the response flipped. Now he was ungrateful, biting the hand that fed him, foolish, immature, egotistical. There’s only two options for Jungkook here: He’s either oblivious and dumb or he’s ungrateful and childish.

Some of the ways Jungkook is written in the top 40 fanfics:

Mafia boss, Bad at feelings, asshole, manipulative, alcoholic, drug user, abusive, cheater, top, tsundere, playboy, rich, sad, protective, alpha.

Once again keen to point out that it is ok for these things to exist in fic and absolutely no judgement on the content thereof but it is concerning how often these fic ideas become shorthand.

It's not helped by the mainstream presentation of Jungkook pitched by Hybe content and some other members:

Jungkook's house in the BTS mobile game. All gym equipment.

Alongside comments like: Why is he so angry? Jungkook just punches me all the time. Jungkook scares me. Why is he so scary? If you get into a fight with Jungkook, he’ll definitely win. Jungkook's muscles scare me.

Shipping edits of him as a sulky aggressive toxically jealous boyfriend, usually made up of slowed down clips of innocuous facial expressions, and even Taekook afficianados at war with Jikookers contribute with excessive edits of Jungkook fighting with Jimin to prove they don't even like each other when to ANYONE who has had a sibling this is perfectly normal playfighting. In the great ship war, Jungkook is consistently painted as the aggressive fuckboy.

While all facets of him are on display in this content, his silliness, his cuteness, those easy to grasp alpha archetypes tend to override. That's why the Spice Girls became so popular. Easy to cling to Posh Spice, Scary Spice, Baby Spice. It's good PR, it's fantastic marketing.

But it disregards so much of what Jungkook himself chooses to present.

He collects make up. He dances when he eats. He has a little bratz lipbalm. His purse is fluffy. He is just about the babygirlest it’s possible to be. He loves Hello Kitty dolls, gg choreo and skipping about the place:

He went full androgynous for Calvin Klein:

And more importantly, he’s uncommonly kind and polite as noted by anyone who meets him; he's a talented painter and artist and keen videographer and photographer; he works unbelievably hard, putting in the hours into his craft; he’s into gender free clothing and LGBT+ clothing brands; he is vocally sex positive; he’s not bound by macho expectation about never having feelings; he’s very silly and pure of heart. All of those things he was when he was younger and leaner are still there, softened by maturity and experience. That’s why Jungkook-aligned fans don’t recognise these negative portrayals of him… because overwhelmingly, the masculine muscle boy is the smallest part of him.

Is it a problem to think of him as a gym obsessed muscle bunny if that's your point of reference...? No.. maybe not. But in dehumanising him with this Hulk idea, it makes him an easy target for blame and criticism. There’s no benefit of the doubt, no will to defend him against unkind commentary. His shoulders are so broad, he can carry the weight, right? That becomes cruelty and robbing him of his identity.

And so perhaps I was more aware of what I was looking out for when it came to San. Maybe experience has made me cynical. I have noticed that generally Atiny are kinder to San than Army are to Jungkook - I think that comes from the fandom being a lot more aligned on ships and general approach and a lot of this perception comes from non-atiny seeing tiktok edits - but there’s little things I keep seeing creep in.

San is scary.

San is possessive.

San is too sexual.

San is too big with his movements.

San is forceful.

San is so moody and cold.

San is rude to fans.

But what do we really know about him?

He is a human cat. He took needle felting kit on tour with him. He studies English diligently. He loves strawberry cake and cats. He still sleeps with his plushy shiba inu. He makes plushies kiss, he makes legos kiss. He loves this kitty card.

And on a deeper level, the real principles that he lives by? He studied tattoo types and placements for his Warriors video to ensure he wasn’t going to inadvertently offend someone’s culture. He is a vocally feminist, trans inclusive, LGBT ally. He’s a gentleman and an empath. He is educated on disability and neurodivergence.

He, like Jungkook, is everything he has always been since debut, soft and sweet, but matured. And I think we should celebrate these things about them as much as we celebrate their masculine presentation.

The alpha thing only works at a surface level with these two. When you take the physical size and assign a bunch of characteristics to it, it feels a little like using San or Jungkook as avatars for a character that doesn’t ring true. Fancasting them as OCs… and then attributing that personality to a person it doesn’t belong to. And maybe that’s not so bad, they’re strangers to us after all… but when it starts to encroach on their liberty and their ability to be judged for who they actually are, it feels heavier.

Another sidebar: Any smart Atiny reading might be recognising that Mingi is arguably falling victim to this in a much more toxic way than San is. It's a much more pernicious issue of the treatment of perceived potential neurodiversity within this space. Traits shared by both Jungkook and Mingi has led to demonization of them in certain spaces and I'm sure it's as much a contributor to Jungkook's treatment as his physical form is. There's another essay to be had there, I'm sure. But for now, I am just working on the ideas I have more firm in my brain.

San is definitely getting off lighter than Jungkook did. I think this is because ultimately KQ aren’t as determined to trade reality for the fiction ideal, valuing the unique appeal of authenticity. Hybe are much more committed to story and narrative and construct. To me, there’s a sense that KQ throw things at the wall and if it sticks, it sticks. If it drops, it drops. Leave it and move on.

Hybe will go in with gorilla glue and duct tape and make it stick. Unfortunately there’s human collateral in that thinking.

So when the youtube channel says:

Remember Seonghwa saying:

#ateez meta #side quests: bts

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lucabyte · 1 year ago

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thinking about the very specific reading of isat i had during act 3 for the most part

anyway yeah ill ramble here about this. since it actually explains my headcanons for what the disappearing island wish was

disclaimer: taken as a whole this is way too allegorical for what i'd consider a holistic reading of isat, but it was part of my running theories at the time.

anyway my guess for the real-world equivalent of the island ended up being French Polynesia by the end of the game. I had initially thrown a dart at siffrin being greek wrt europe, sisyphus allusion, enjoyment of plays and seafairing-- but the moment that little guy started getting real weird about stars and specified they were from an island i switched my guess to him being polynesian. And then that reading only really strengthened from there (and i was pretty close, tbf!)

but yeah during act 3, especially the king plotline, i started thinking about the themes of cultural erasure + lack of identity that the game has and how that plays wrt vaugarde's extremely welcoming and diverse nature.

reading far too much into it but it made me wonder if they are the results of a fallen empire of some kind. somewhere that gathered people from across the globe (as empires are known to do) before dissolving into what seems to be a localised theocracy of some kind?

like. vaugarde is basically the Good End for an empire. Fully demilitarised (they barely have use for police to the point where the defenders are surprised by burglaries, and almost CERTAINLY have zero army), extremely diverse, not caring where one comes from.

(either that or they've been a socialist utopia like, forever? and thus just aquired migrants perpetually... but ka bue is characterised as harsher by odile in a lot of respects so one can assume its not that the whole planet is Niceys All The Time.)

this lines up pretty well with the um. Whole France Thing. Boy do they own a lot of islands still that they maybe shouldn't. Also lines up with bonnie's word-of-god french creole dialect. So Vaugarde as the welcoming, ideal form of former-colonialiser-nation is like. one i vibe with if we're gonna read too hard into the worldbuilding as presented.

Anyway all this to say I did for a time wonder if the Northern Island wish was 'For The Island To Be Safe'. Assuming this world to have any level of inter-country conflict-- Wish craft is powerful stuff, and a singular island might not be able to defend itself against those seeking to take it by force. Hiding the island from the world would protect it.

... though that felt like an unusually cruel read. The implication that cloistering away like that is a 'valid' strategy for a culture to be safe (albeit with the splash damage of hurting any diaspora).

Plus, wish craft is superbly powerful, with evidently its use on the island only becoming more widespread after it was discovered how to make it work Consistently.

(i work here under the assumption that Siffrin's growing cloak is imbued with wish craft, assumedly the same as the king's armour? Since there's no way that was created at that scale...)

So it almost makes more sense, to me, for the wish to be to 'Protect The World (universe) From Us' or to 'Keep The Universe Safe'.

Wish craft being so second nature to the Islanders (See: Siffrin, favour tree), that a wish that breaks the universe is almost inevitable were the knowledge to become widespread and ingrained.

This too is an oddly cruel read, that a culture's rituals can be dangerous to that degree, but ... ? Dunno. Like I said, reading it as hard allegory makes it fall apart somewhat. Symbols can mean many different things at once until you flatten them for direct analysis like this. I don't think it's quite so 1-to-1, and it's honestly slightly too 'no story only lore' for my tastes, so I did push a lot of this stuff out of my analytical mind once I started getting to the back and of act 3 and into act 4.

Anyway. Not the most coherent explanation in the world, but still some thoughts I had mid-game that i figure i should put somewhere at least, even if I don't think they are really what the game is going for.

As a bonus, the discussions on what the island wish were in this context also lead my friend @samhainian to speculation on the colour wish that i really enjoy. Which is....

The wish that removed colour from humans perception of the world being something along the lines of:

"I wish the world was simpler"

ergo, removing colour as an invocation of Nuiance VS Black and White Morality. The world is simpler, easier to understand.

I think it's a fun headcanon! I like it.

Well anyway. A work is more than the sum of its parts and dissecting something so sloppily as this often does it a disservice. So don't take my theorising as anything more than a general rundown of where my head was at mid-game before i had all the pieces. The emotional core of the story is far more where it's at for ISAT sooooo. [Shrugs and scampers away]

#isat #isat spoilers #decided to finally ramble about this since i thought these were obvious conclusions but few else are chatting about it in the tags so.#mostly because i wanted to voice that colour wish headcanon and idk where else to put it #anyway being pulled away to do stuff so. ill talk about the king & corbeux connection some other time maybe #lucabytetalks #long post

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detcobookclub · 29 days ago

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How is everyone faring with the first week of reading?

To add a little extra food for thought, here is the first entry in our Case Notes, a semi-regular (read: when Mod B has time) write-up of various bits of trivia, translation notes, and personal musings that we hope can spice up your reading!

These will, of course, not be comprehensive in the slightest; there's FAR too much to cover to create something truly encompassing of something as old and long-running as Detective Conan. What you'll find written here are my own curated notes, some more obviously well known than others, so feel free to add on any bits and bobs you may know, whether it be in a reblog or in the tags!

Without any further ado, let's crack open the notebook.

1) Of The Times

File 1 of Detective Conan is named Heisei Holmes. Some six or so years ago, you may remember the big commotion when the Japanese emperor passed away, leading to the shift from Heisei to Reiwa. These terms are official calendar terms, used to mark imperial eras in the Japanese calendar.

That might make you assume they're largely ceremonial, but this is far from the case. These era names are in common use in nearly every facet of life in Japan, from government records to newspapers.

Speaking of which... early on in File 1, there just so happens to be a newspaper!

It's somewhat cut off, but there's enough of it there to read the date in the very top left corner: 平成六年一月十二日. Heisei 6, January 12.

The Heisei era covers the years 1989-2019, meaning Heisei 6 is 1994... so this newspaper is dated a week after the first chapter's release!

2) Names!!

Here we have the first of a string of trivia we'll likely see: character names! We're given a hint as to how Shinichi came up with his "Conan Edogawa" alias in the story, but there's plenty more characters outside of it that have interesting facets to their names. We've been introduced to four of our core characters in this first volume, so let's take a quick look at where their name inspiration comes from.

Shinichi Kudo: Believe it or not, this name is Vibes Based, with Gosho apparently admitting he chose the name largely based on how it sounded when spoken out loud. “Kudo” comes from Shunsaku Kudo, the main character of Tantei Monogatari, a 1979 Japanese TV series. Shinichi is from Shinichi Hoshi, a mid-20th century SF writer.

Ran Mouri: A snippet of sounds from the Japanese reading of Maurice Leblanc (モーリス・ルブラン). Mo-risu Ruburan.

Kogoro Mouri: Take Mouri from above, and combine it with the first name of Kogoro Akechi, a fictional private detective created by Edogawa Ranpo.

Hiroshi Agasa: “Agasa” is from Agatha Christie. “Hiroshi” is an alternate name reading of the noun 博士, hakase, which loosely means “professor.” His name is even written with the very same kanji!

But where names are concerned, we also have to consider Yoko Okino's intro case! As it turns out, each of the four case specific characters introduced in these chapters have names that share a common theme:

Yoko Okino: Oki (沖) can refer to the open sea.

Yuko Ikezawa: Ike (池) means lake.

Yamagishi: Gishi (岸), or kishi, refers to a shoreline.

Akiyoshi Fujie: E (江) refers to an inlet.

3) Detective Trivia

Another quick and easy one we'll probably see a lot.

When Shinichi tries to prove himself to Agasa, he refers to a meal the professor undoubtedly ate at the restaurant Columbo.

Columbo is a 1970s American crime drama that saw international success, being syndicated in more than 40 countries. In Japan, it aired throughout the 1970s and was one of the first foreign TV shows chosen for reairing after Nippon TV shifted their Wednesday night movie block to the “Friday Road Show” (the currently very popular Friday night movie block that has featured a number of Detective Conan movies) in 1985.

4) Japanese Language Quirks

For this first week, I've pulled two examples. The first is a little more cultural, while the second is a little more linguistic.

Aniki

Though we don't know their names yet at the time of this reading, there were two pretty obviously shady characters introduced in File 1 that subsequently pounded and poisoned our protag. Over the course of the chapter, the stockier of the two refers to the other with the term "aniki."

"Aniki" is from a subset of familial terms (in this case, "brother") that can be used to indicate certain societal or hierarchical relationships outside the scope of family. It's a particularly versatile one, but context is important here: their shady garb, and their shady behavior. The use, combined with these factors, immediately pegs them as either involved in or directly adjacent to organized crime. Though it can be a fairly soft term of endearment outside this context, when used IN this context it refers to a member worthy of respect who has the backing of their leader.

As a result, it's a term that's difficult to localize. It's less immediately hierarchical than "boss," but a little more formal and full of admiration than "bro."

Furigana

This is the very last panel of the volume in Japanese:

You might notice that the furigana, the much smaller text normally reserved for a pronunciation guide, also includes kanji... which seems to defeat the purpose.

This is a common practice in literary works that aims to double up the meaning of the printed word. When spoken, you'll often hear the smaller furigana text spoken instead. As it's the word that's spoken, you'll also often see it prioritized in translations, which may or may not leave some of the meaning lost in the process.

As such, a simple translation that wouldn't over-complicate things would use the phrase "real voice" (ホントの声) here, since that's the furigana. "[When that time comes, I'll let you hear] my real voice."

What this is functionally modifying, though, is the word 本音. If you've done any digging into Japanese culture, you may have seen honne discussed historically or culturally with the contrasting ideas of "honne and tatemae" - the idea that we provide a front (tatemae) to the world, while keeping our true motives (honne) hidden.

All that to say that when Shinichi thinks about letting Ran hear his "real voice," he's also insinuating that he'll simultaneously let her hear how he "really feels." A confession, perhaps?

5) MAGIC KAITO REAL?!

I know Magic Kaito isn't part of the reading homework yet, but I simply can't ignore these Easter eggs.

The first and most obvious reference is probably Tropical Land itself. The theme park that started it all in Detective Conan actually first appeared in Chapter 4 of Magic Kaito: "Kaitou Kid's Busy Day Off" (1987). If you've seen either the TMS adaptation or 1412, this episode was adapted in both.

The second super blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference is in File 6. While Agasa is rifling through his various gadgets in search of his new voice-changing bow tie, you can just barely see one of the tiny robots that chase after Kaito in Chapter 9 of Magic Kaito: "I Am The Master" (1988).

This chapter was NOT adapted for either anime, for reasons that will probably become immediately clear if you ever wanted to read it (early Magic Kaito is WILD).

6) Food For Thought: Sherlock Holmes

For Shinichi, the Sherlock Holmes influence can be discussed in both Doylist and Watsonian terms. In other words, it can be discussed both from without and within the story. There are many aspects that can be fun to discuss in both of these categories (his playing the violin), some that may lean closer to Watsonian (his justification for playing soccer), and still more that are probably a little more Doylist (a little crime can be forgiven if it's in service of a greater good...but this may also have some of Gosho's love of Arsene Lupin to thank as an inspiration).

In this moment, though, the most interesting (Doylist) discussion is the idea that Shinichi’s poisoning could be read as somewhat analogous to The Final Problem. This story is probably one of the most famous Sherlock Holmes stories, given it's the very story that killed Sherlock. It also introduces Professor James Moriarty, a crime lord who is very talented at making the deaths he orchestrates look like an accident and finding ways to physically distance himself from the deed.

Outside of Moriarty's talents resembling the way the drug used to poison Shinichi is said to leave no detectable trace in its victims, Gosho has also previously stated that Ran is Shinichi’s Watson. She, like Watson in The Final Problem, has been left behind while Shinichi went off to "die." But... at least Shinichi has told Ran he's alive instead of ghosting her for years like Sherlock did to Watson, right?

...That's a good thing, right?

#DetcoBookClub #Detective Conan #DCMK #Case Notes

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writinghextech · 3 months ago

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FAQ - Solving Equations

what is this tumblr for?

improving the general consensus of whatever J and V get up to in between pining and yearning in s1. The idea isn't to set up a canon that's right or wrong, just improve worldbuilding, or give writers a shortcut to writing hextech in a way that ~seems~ believable and lets the partners look ~Very Smart~.

who is invited to contribute?

anyone. send a post, send an ask. If you're a scientist and know what ~SCIENCE~ might look like day to day, feel free to send it in. If you have experience with safety and testing protocols that J and V probably ignore on the regular, tell us what you think. If you have an opinion about the height of the desks they should be bending each other over, send that in. If you have blacksmithing experience and want the record straight on exactly the kind of injuries Jayce needs Viktor to bandaid? Send. It. In.

what topics are you interested in?

literally anything you have experience with or speculation you have on Hextech. How do runes work? What are the little flappy things on the prototype in 1.03? Where do hexgems come from? What kinds of paperwork are they filling out? What ACTUALLY HAPPENS at a networking event?

you keep mentioning walla walla, what's that?

imagine that you are on stage and want to convincingly A) look like you're saying something and B) create a small amount of noise that gives the aural impression of a murmur. So you, an actor, might mutter something like "walla walla, peas and carrots" to project the vibe of conversation, without otherwise interrupting the meat of the story happening on stage.

In this context, it's about giving the set enough dressing and the characters enough to do to give the impression of ~SCIENCE~, and perhaps offer opportunities for characterization.

Are you making fun of writers who don't have subject matter expertise here?

No. We're all interested in the same thing (jayvik) and that happens in a specific context. Understanding that context offers opportunities for worldbuilding and characterization. Let's speculate and have fun together.

#arcane #arcane fic #jayvik

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simch84 · 22 days ago

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My acrylic portrait painting process.

A vaguely step-by-step showing of how I painted my recent study of Astarion's golden ear mods from Afterlife by @cweepa and @dumptruck. Check out their amazing cyberpunk fic here, my original post of this art here, and available Inprnt prints here.

My supplies for this piece:

--Golden brand fluid acrylic paint

--Golden brand acrylic mediums (specifically GAC 100, high-flow medium, and dry-time retarder)

--variety of brushes. Mostly for acrylics I use Royal & Langnickel Zen brushes

--a wet palette. Mine is a Game Envy Exemplar one but they're all basically the same

--random 5x7 canvas I already had, literally no idea what brand lol

Step One: Sketch and Tone!

I start with a sketch on scrap paper because trying to draw on stretched canvas with a pencil sucks and this lets me erase as much as I want. Once I spend forever and a day messing with pencil lines I ink it so it's clear what my final lines are (you can see here though even as I was inking it I changed my mind a few times. Art is a process lol) and then I use tracing paper and the graphite transfer method to transfer it to my toned canvas.

I always tone my canvases first with a solid color, even in cases like this where the base colors were pretty opaque (due to all the titanium white). It ensures that no white dots of canvas are showing through in the final piece. Also, any of tone that does show through the final paint layers help bring cohesion to the overall piece. It helps to not be staring at a white surface when you start, I think. Less intimidating.

In this case I painted the whole thing with Alizarin Crimson. For warm skin tones I typically use Burnt Sienna, but Astarion is cooler-toned.

Also, side note, the vibe of this color is already good for vampire.

Step Two: Base Colors

I follow my sketch and lay down flat areas of color. When I mix these I use as few pigments as possible so the colors don't get muddy, especially since we're going to be doing lots of thin translucent layers on top. This is one of the main reasons I love Golden fluid acrylics--great color payout and pigment load with many options for single-pigment colors.

The hair is two different mixtures of titanium white and carbon black (normally I wouldn't use straight black in portraiture but I wanted a really neutral grey base layer here), skin is titanium white with more alizarin crimson and a tiny touch of phthalo green (blue shade) to tone down the pinkness. Still pretty pink but whatever. Ear cuff is straight raw sienna. Ear lines are more alizarin crimson--those are just so my sketch isn't totally lost among the flat colors.

The hair chunks here are very gestural and only meant to get an idea for how the hair will lay. Some sections change a bit later on.

Step Three: Create Form and Depth

Here I start to build things up to start to look 3D as well as hone in where I want bits of hair to fall. At this point I am still using limited pigments but we're bringing in more colors. Payne's Grey in the hair so it's isn't so black-paint-flat. Violet oxide and Van Dyke Brown in the skin.

Here is also where I start to use some mediums. I add a bit of dry-time retarder to my colors and I keep everything on a wet palette so my mixes don't dry out. I do both on-palette mixing and on-canvas mixing at this step. Some blends are already pretty smooth but some are a little choppier. The skin here is still a little too pink for my liking but that's fine! Things will be toned later.

Step Four: Details

Now we're building up the details that will be fully seen in the final piece.

For the skin, I'm now doing mostly on-canvas blending. I will add some GAC-100 (basically clear acrylic paint base) to thin the colors a bit so they blend more. I put down two colors and then use a clean fluffy brush to blend at the edges. Kind of like eye shadow?? Idk. I didn't go to art school, y'all, that's just how I do it.

Once I have a good blended base, I then start adding a TON of layers of thinned paint. I combine a little bit of a color with a mix of GAC-100 and high-flow medium. This basically creates toning washes of color, similar to how you create solvent-based washes in oil painting. Some washes go across the whole skin area (like a wash of burnt sienna to make the whole thing less pink) or selective washes in specific areas (phthalo blue in the shadows, for example).

For the hair I used a striping brush and created layer upon layer of increasing light lines. I had the same pool of mixed grey (titanium white+payne's grey) and kept adding more white to that same pool as I built layer on layer of little strands. That way it was all the same color family but just lighter tints.

Note that brown crease line wouldn't normally be that dark or harsh if this were a normal ear but I wanted to make sure it stood up to all the little details I was about to paint on top.

Now, I meant to take at least one progress picture of the ear cuff, the little attachment tabs, and the scarring but I totally forgot (got ADHD hyperfocused for too many hours straight, whoops). But I added the final art below so you can look at it while I explain, at least.

I shaded the whole cuff and the attachment tabs first before adding any details. That way I could ensure that the shadows and highlights made sense and I didn't have to worry about covering any details. Also at this point I added that second little arch. I put a base layer of raw sienna down to make sure the hair there was fully covered and then shaded it like the rest.

The details were all unplanned and spur of the moment. I poured out some pyrrole red, cobalt teal, and burnt umber and just went to town with a tiny brush.

The scaring was done by first creating the shape with a similar white+crimson mixture to that first flat base layer we did at the beginning, then building up translucent washes of color and adding tiny shadows around the edges with Van Dyke Brown.

I also tweaked the shading on the skin just a tiny bit more (again, using only thin translucent washes of color) and added a few more little hair swoops using basically pure white to make them pop.

Final Step: Tone and Seal

Last step is simple. I added a couple drops of a blue shade (I think I used Anthraquinone blue?) to a bunch of GAC-100 and did two layers across the entire canvas. This seals everything together, helps add a little UV-protection and anti-yellowing protection, and most importantly very slightly tones the entire thing so that the colors meld well together. Sort of like putting a filter on a picture but irl. You just have to make sure the blue is VERY lightly tinted.

Final, Final Step: Forget the Sign the Damn Thing Because You Were Too Excited to Post it

Et voila! It was ready to scan. Note the progress photos look way warmer than the final scan due to the overhead lighting. Looking at it in person it looks way more like the final scan.

Thank you for getting to the end if you are still here. If people are interested I can post more of these process insights in the future!

#bg3 fanart #astarion ancunin #afterlife #astarion #painting #acrylic painting #my art #fanart #art process #how do I even tag this??

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girlfriendsofthegalaxy · 6 months ago

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tuesday again 1/7/2025

in which we embark upon a progamme of reading for our edification

listening

this was the first song of the year-- felt a little melancholy and a lot sleepy after watching the first movie of the year and this fit the vibe.

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reading

as a user, i think the magic link system is very annoying, but i also get that they don't want to fuck around with holding and protecting user data. they have been very firm but polite about various bells and whistles people want added to their site that do not contribute to their main goal of reporting various news beats. i DO really appreciate how they put in the time to create a private RSS feed for subscribers with the full text of all the articles so you don't have to log in with the magic link every time, or rather i will really appreciate this once i have a job and can subscribe.

i need to set myself a project and i keep forgetting i moved all this vintage gay and lesbian erotica from massachusetts down to texas with me, so we're going to read one a week until i get bored or we (heaven forbid) run out of gay or lesbian erotica.

the second purpose, and look, i hate the word normalized, but texas politicians are constantly working themselves into a screaming froth about protecting children from gay sex and gay books. i think we can look at various gay sex books each week in a calm and reasonable manner and ask the normal questions i try to ask of every work discussed in the tuesdayposts. since moving, my instinct is to be more stealth and less visibly gay, which is not the way i would like to live. this is the absolute babiest of baby steps since the tuesdayposts (to date) have never put me in any physical danger.

the main questions i will be trying to answer each week are:

is there anything cool about the physical object?

what's the author's deal?

did i like it/did it deliver on its premise?

the sex?

i don't know. chime in if there's some fifth thing you want regularly answered?

this is a 1997 british-printed perfect-bound paperback by The Gay Men's Press (a short history by one of the founders here). i'm not sure if this copy had ever been read, because i managed to break the spine in a very ugly way while trying to gently break the book in. this is either from a goodwill just over the border in ct or from bookends in florence (which you should go visit if you're ever in western ma, one of the few brick and mortar lesbian bookstores in the country).

not for me but i appreciate what it is and what it's trying to do. i have very rarely read something so clearly written by an author for an audience of themselves.

Growing up at a coaching inn on the Great North Road in the early 1700s, young Davy Gadd is enthralled by tales of the greatest of highwaymen, Claude Duval. Seeking his fortune in London, he is entangled in the machinations of Under City Marshal Charles Hitchin and the infamous Jonathan Wild, in their battle to divide up the spoils of the criminal underworld. At last, equipped with horse, pistols and velvet mask, he sets out as a Gentleman of the Road. But not before he has been loved by a Jacobite lord, dressed up by Lucinda and Aunty Mary, and been married at Mother Clap's Molly House. And at the end of the road, will he Pass into Legend, or does his fate lead to Tyburn tree, where so many glamorous adventurers have been hanged?

i think i would have enjoyed this book more if i were a gay man, really into daniel defoe, stuart restoration/early georgian england or very specific bits of historic london nightlife history. there are three hundred and sixty eight of god's own pages and we certainly do meander. it is a little bit of a slog in the dissatisfied middle portion of our hero Davy's young adulthood, but you are rewarded for sticking with it by all the important threads getting neatly tied off. it wraps up nicely if bittersweetly. the ending deals with community and vulnerability in a way that makes sense for a book written by a gay man in 1997. i wish i could explain my thoughts on this better. i think it is a perfectly fine ending that suits the book but again, overall, the book is not for me.

there is period-typical homophobia and gay bashing, but very little of it actually affects Davy. he is generally in fear for his life bc of some crime he committed unrelated to being gay. i think this is a pretty sensible way to make sure your historically accurate novel remains fairly historically accurate without being a fucking downer to write and read. on a related dealbreaker for many people, there is a good deal of phonetic dialect in this book, although it is mostly relegated to dialogue and slangy or shortened forms of words in dialogue spoken by people more connected to the criminal underclass.

i wrote all that and then i had to employ some stringent search techniques to find out anything about the author, who was not a very public person, and his feelings about homophobia vs historical accuracy. about three quarters of the way through this 1997 article about gay fiction from The Independent (interview conducted by letter!) we discover he also considers this a fine line to walk, and perhaps the only paragraph on the internet about his background

"The greatest influences on my writing to begin with were the swashbuckling films which I saw as a child in the Fifties," he says. "Errol Flynn and Stewart Grainger were particular heroes. Also around that time, John Buchan, whose Richard Hannay says, 'I have always had a boy's weakness for a yarn.' Later I acquired an English degree, and was influenced by medieval and Elizabethan literature, Thomas Hardy, Dickens, various historical novelists, Mary Renault and Daphne du Maurier."

"but kay, what about the sex?" my dear readers are probably crying out right now. i don't think this is a great book to jerk off to, even if you are a gay man and not a bisexual woman with the briefest passing familiarity about various periods of english history. davy fucks, a lot, don't get me wrong-- the fucks are not generally instrumental in driving the plot forward or delivering cool facts about london so they're all quite short, usually less than a page.

i don't know if including an example of a sex scene is interesting or useful information to anyone else but it feels strange Not to include it in a reading project about gay and lesbian erotica? gentle reader, i would love to hear your thoughts

watching

at about 11:30 PM on new year's eve i like to start a new-to-me black and white classic film to take me into the new year. this year's was Filibus (1915, dir. Roncoroni, widely available in various niceties of restoration)

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summary from wiki:

Filibus is a 1915 Italian silent adventure film directed by Mario Roncoroni and written by the future science fiction author Giovanni Bertinetti (it). It features Valeria Creti (fr) as the title character, a mysterious sky pirate who makes daring heists with her technologically advanced airship. When an esteemed detective sets out on her trail, she begins an elaborate game of cat and mouse with him, slipping between various male and female identities to romance the detective's sister and stage a midnight theft of a pair of valuable diamonds.

i found out about this film through the @hotvintagepoll scrungly poll, and i think Valeria Creti should have gone all the fuckin way. girl hobbyist detective/nobleman by day, gadget-loving gentleman thief by night. i support women's wrongs, and she causes so so many of them on purpose. there are some things that carbon date a film, like russian antagonists or gland problems, and this film is carbon dated by sleepwalking as a serious psychological event. she comes very close to taking a detective completely out of the policing game by drugging him and staging elaborate series of events to plant evidence that he did all her crimes while sleepwalking.

she LOVES being in boy mode and she's very good at it! it's never treated as a joke! she stages a rescue of the detective's sister in order to gain access to his house, but then the actual building of the relationship and courtship is completely on her own merits and charm!

this is a charming (if poorly paced for viewing all in one sitting) early gay serial film. if i saw this in the cinema in 1915 i would have been institutionalized for imitating filibus

playing

genshin is not feeling as jazzy or fun lately. i think i have two issues. one is that Fontaine, the last major nation's main questline was a truly delightfully crafted (and fair! we had all the pieces just not all the context) murder mystery with a lot of lore. this nation, Natlan, is functionally a sports anime. not that one genre is better or more complex than the other, it's just. different. and recalibrating my expectations has been a little wonky.

the second kind of weird calibration thing is the rate of additions to the world map. genshin runs on a six-week update cycle, where every six weeks you get something major and new to progress the game story. usually there are nine patches, starting at X.0 and going up to X.8. you iterate up a full number with major patches introducing a new land, so with the introduction of Natlan we started the 5.X patch cycle and left Fontaine's 4.X cycle behind.

this is important bc there's usually there's new and fun and exciting stuff and puzzles to solve and new challenges only when they add to the map. in the 5.X patch cycle, there have only been two map expansions: one in 5.0 introducing the land, and one addition about doubling the map in 5.2. 5.3 dropped last week, where the main storyline of the nation typically wraps itself up in the last map update and then we get to fuck around in bonus areas or seasonal events. for example, in the last three nations, so from updates 2.0-4.2, there are typically three big map updates in a row that unlock the entire base map of whatever country we're in, no new map content for a patch, a new bonus area related to whatever area we're in, another break, and then a seasonal map, and then three more updates with no new maps but new events or new battle modes. for natlan, we're essentially "behind" unlocking a chunk of the map.

let's go to the maps: the last nation Fontaine's first introduction in 4.0 (these are all from IGN, they are not to scale with each other):

the second update in 4.1:

the third and final main map update in 4.2:

introduction of natlan in 5.0 on the right (these two screenshots i took are to scale with each other), no underwater regions or major underground areas in this one:

no map update in 5.1. second major map update in 5.2 on the left here, still no major underwater or underground regions. we are currently in 5.3 with no map update, with maybe the third and final map update in 5.4?

again, the problem with No New Map is that typically in genshin you go to new places to unlock more of the story. we're "behind" a map update, if you will. they've kind of shoehorned new story into existing map, and shoehorned new bosses into the existing map, which is very strange and makes the nation feel so much smaller and more limited than other nations.

it feels a lot like part of the map update we got in 4.2, ochkanatlan, an abandoned island city somewhat removed from the rest of the map, was supposed to be the bonus area map, but they didn't have enough ready? the 4.2 update also felt very medium sized- at this point in Fontaine we'd unlocked the Fortress and Institute, which really blow the dragon city right off the island with regards to complexity of exploration and length of quests. it's not really anywhere near the complexity or length of the first desert map expansion in Sumeru, which was honestly a really crazy thing to drop all at once. i will not be putting more nation map screenshots up here bc of the image limit but the desert in sumeru is ENORMOUS and it has an equally enormous underground labyrinth!

not my favorite nation so far! a little bit of it is recency bias bc Fontaine was SO good and is overall my favorite, but it feels off lately. i don't know if the really punishing every six weeks updates are finally catching up to the parent company, or if they're really deep in preproduction for the next land (it Feels like they're going to split the next land into two different X.0 update cycles. there's a lot of chatter in game from NPCs about how different and weird the next port is compared to the rest of the country. i could easily see them building that out to two major updates like natlan and then saving the bulk of the country for the next X.0 update in another year).

making

bathrobe surgery under the armhole.

ive had this red/black/blue tattersall plaid in light cotton since high school, best guesstimate based on the tag style is early to mid sixties?

this thing is Solid. it is perhaps the most nicely constructed garment i own. every seam is a narrow, tidy french seam. the underside of the collar is lightly quilted to give it some body and make it stay down, and it has a facing over the top to make it look not quilted from the front. it has The best waist tie arrangement i've ever seen, with a tiny strap on the underside of the tie to permanently hold it to the belt loops but still give you a little bit of play.

it is so beloved that it's starting to completely wear through on the shoulders, and i have to think about how to patch it without losing any of the light breathable qualities i love it so much for.

#tuesday again #tuesday again no problem #hope you all like One Million Photos #twenty five hundred words Ha Ha!

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tvchi · 8 months ago

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TVCHIVERSE: Where Fandoms Collide and Stories Ignite

Hello All. This is the formal landing page of an amalgam of daydreams, fantasies, and imitations brought to you in story/fanfiction form.

Few ground rules.

Please talk back! If you like anything I've written, have a few questions about what may happen next, or even have a few suggestions on what you would like to see, PLEASE LIKE, REBLOG, and COMMENT!!! Your feedback helps me write when I don't feel like it, helps me know what specifically you liked about that particular story, and it helps me get an energy boost.

Please be respectful. I don't walk into your house and open your fridge, go through your mail, or answer your phones. Don't come in here, especially in the comments, bullying, criticizing (not critiquing), or just being mean-spirited overall. I will delete your comments and block you.

Please, don't steal. Not only is stealing ugly, but it's also beneath you. I don't mind people drawing information from my work. However, taking my work and direct concepts of it and passing it off as your own is stealing. That will get you called out and then blocked. With that being said: Do not copy or repost my work. Do not use my work to train AI.

Please be mindful. This is ADULT content ONLY. Minors, new adults, and young adults may be depicted, but this content is for ADULTS ONLY. 18+. Please head the trigger warnings attached to the beginning of each post. Please do not ignore those, it's impolite. We're are very mindful, very demure around here.

Please be patient. While it is an ultimate goal of mine, writing IS NOT my day job. My job is very demanding and high-stakes, and when I'm not doing that, I love to be outside drawing from real-life experiences, reading, or watching TV/Flim. While I am open to requests, please try and respect the turnaround time I have to put these stories out as well as the other ideas I've had. I chose to create this page to showcase my work and push myself to write almost every day. This is supposed to be fun, NOT stressful. I reserve the right to refuse, deny, or allow myself ample time regarding requests. So please... Don't piss me off.

Now that that is out of the way. I definitely want to give some shout outs to people who had encouraged me to write. Again many thanks to @megamindsecretlair , @thecapodomme , and @vivalaorgasm . Love yall. I'm back writing again cuz a writer writes. But I've never felt rushed or pushed by yall. Just nothing but encouragement, good vibes, and great inspo. Also shout out to the entire #TerryRichmondFanfaction #RebelRidgeFanction for waking your girl up. Especially @megamindsecretlair , @hotgrlcece, @sweettea-and-honeybutter !!!

OK....now I don't just write. Like many of you, I have many hobbies some of which include: Reading, Music/Music History, TV/Flim, Photography, and Fashion. So some of my tags are:

#TVCHIVERSE - the universe where all of my fanfictions live. I will also be posting my short prose and poetry here as well.

#TVCHIsTunes - When I write, I usually write to music. My Spotify is riddled with so many playlists and mixes that I should honestly go to DJ school already. Anyway, I'll share tunes that I've been obsessed with here. #TVCHIsRunway - where fashion and fashion history live. Archival posts get reblogged. Occasional showcase some of my own fits and style. #TVCHIsLibrary - Posting and reblogging some great books that I've read as well as great Fanfics I’ve come across on here. May even do some reviews. Also will be posting some things from my TBR to see whether yall have read it or not and your thoughts about it before I read. (No spoilers, if you can avoid it) #TVCHIsTV - I ultimately want to become a screenwriter yall. For real. I hope to learn from all forms of media, and the easiest for me to start out with is poetry, prose, and novels. However, I do want to be in the writers' rooms. So, with this tag, I'll post my favorite TV shows and films, speak about why I like them, and dissect plot, narratives, and scriptwriting.

#TVCHIsGallery - This tag will be me reblogging or posting art that I think is gorgeous regardless of the subject matter.

#JustTVCHI- Sheer randomness

Alright. Down to the goood shit! As I continue to write, I will be updating this landing page to include all the one-off fics/stories as well as the series that I create. I'm in the process of starting two different series at the same time, resuming another, and writing one-off stories. There's A LOT going on. Be on the look out.

The Rhythm of You: Aldis

Echoes of Intrigue: Prt 1

Echoes of Intrigue: Prt 2

Veiled Intentions: The Hunt, 1 Veiled Intentions: The Hunt, 2 Veiled Intentions: The Hunt, 3 Veiled Intentions: Adrian Veiled Intentions: The Catch, 1

The Challenge: About Loss The Challenge: About Him The Challenge: About a Challenge

The Three Of Us

My story is simple...

Anxiety

Fighting Flowers

Perceiving Genuine

Decoding Honesty

Take This Cup

Unititled

Salvage The Bones- Essay

Instructions on how to get on the tag list

Thank you all in advance for welcoming me into fandom and holding space for me here. I hope to build community with each and every one of you. Please expect me under your content as well.

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ingravinoveritas · 6 months ago

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amagnificentobsession replied to your post “Hi there! Please, I'm struggling to remember where…”

As long as I’ve been following you, you were the only one for a long, long time that used those hashtags. Until we fell in love with them and started using them ourselves 🥰

@amagnificentobsession Aww, that is so lovely! Thank you for saying that. I never expected anyone to use my tags, in all honesty, because I really just made and started using them for me, to describe how Michael and David made me feel. So it surprised the heck out of me to suddenly see the tags listed under "Popular tags," because as you said, for years it was just me using them. But I'm happy to know that you and others enjoy them so much. ❤️

There is something else that has surprised me, though, which is the selective outrage that has recently cropped up over these tags (specifically the #soft scottish hipster gigolo tag). It's strange because I can't remember any such outrage happening over David calling himself a whore on several occasions:

...Or more egregiously, over Georgia calling David a "pimp" in an Instagram post four years ago:

"Whore," "gigolo," and "pimp" are different words, but all of them describe roles involved with sex work. I would assume that the people who have raised objections to my tag would be just as appalled by Georgia's tag here, and that they'd wonder how someone who claims to love David could call him something like that and show such a lack of respect. Surely, it wouldn't make much sense to be so offended over my tag, yet completely fine with Georgia's. Especially given that, of the three terms mentioned, a "pimp" is someone who controls and exploits others for monetary gain, and is notably violent in a way the other two are not.

Or--hear me out--it's possible that David is not saying that he is actually a whore/has sex for money, and Georgia is not saying that David is actually a pimp. It's possible that I am not saying David is actually a gigolo, and that what Georgia and I are both referring to is the vibe that David is giving off and that all of this, including my #soft scottish hipster gigolo tag, is hyperbole, and not meant to be taken literally.

(It's also possible that none of the aforementioned outrage has anything to do with actually caring about David and is instead about hating one specific person for having an opinion you don't agree with and creating loud rage bait just to get others to hate them with you. But I digress...)

In any case, I know a lot of folks have understood my tags and where they are coming from, and--for whatever reason--have elected to use them on their own posts, and I'm very glad for that. And if folks don't like the tags and don't want to use them, that is okay, too. I appreciate your kind words very much and am glad we're all here loving these two gorgeous men together...❤️

#amagnificentobsession #reply post #david tennant #soft scottish hipster gigolo #i would also think it would be easier to block the tags than to harass and trash others for using them #but apparently not #i can't even with this nonsense #especially because i've always talked about seeing our faves as human beings #and giving that grace even to those i dislike #and yet #people can be awful sometimes #but then people can be wonderful too #thank you all you lovely people for being here #fandom woes #thoughts #discourse

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novaandmali · 1 year ago

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ARTISTS WANTED!

We’re making a new book filled with pulpy sci-fi illustrations based on classic artworks (pre-1800), and, as always, LGBT and POC inclusive <3

Applications open March 25th at noon - the application will NOT be available before that time and will be removed after apps close. HUGE shout out to @ Nukeillustrate for this absolutely stunning piece, lovingly borrowed from “And They Were Monsters.”

The application will NOT be available until that date - we will post it here, instagram (nova_mali), bluesky, and tumblr (novaandmali). The application will be open for five days (March 29th) or until we hit 1000 applications. Please be sure to set an alarm and get your application in ASAP - we will not be able to take any applications through email, dms, or after they close.

A tentative schedule:

Results emailed by April 3rd - everyone will get an email! Sketch due May 15 Final work due June 15 Kickstarter runs July 1-31

We are looking for 50-60 artists (who MUST be 18+ years old by April 3) to join us to create a piece of digital art and/or merch. Traditional art is also accepted if scanned/photographed at a professional level.

We're looking specifically to increase the diversity of our artists, both in regards to race and gender - we want to be including all kinds of voices. Same thing with our art - we're looking to increase the variety of cultures, body types, and disabilities represented.

This is a PAID job. We’ve paid in the range of 200-300 for similar projects in the past, based on a set contract amount plus anything left over after production and shipping, split between everyone. Example: $150 in the contract and $100 extra per artist share. The additional amount will depend on how successful the Kickstarter campaign is.

I’ll post more later this week but first and foremost, get ready to go looking for interesting classical art to re-do into pulpy sci-fi! Your app will ask you what you’re thinking about creating. This is not a final answer but we want to know what vibe, what era, etc what you’re thinking about.

We’re asking for art pieces that are pre-1800. I want you to really get digging and find some epic cool old stuff, particularly from more women artists and artists of color. Non-Western art is very very much included in our scope of work - we can’t wait to see your ideas!

I know older art tends to have weird people or weird perspectives - that doesn't need to translate to your final art. Just get funky with where you're finding inspiration! We will discuss this in more detail once we’ve hired everyone.

We really want to play with the idea of taking something very very old and make it very very futuristic - it should be funky and fun, and of course full of delightfully gay art <3

I’ll post exactly what questions the app will entail later this week.

The application will include things like: a link to your portfolio (instagram and twitter are NOT accepted as a portfolio) and an idea of what art pieces you’re thinking about and how to transform them.

We also ask for a short artist bio, like twitter style - short and sweet. Please don’t talk down about yourself or your skills - talk yourself up! Make me excited to see your art!!

About us: we’re two non-binary lesbians who really love cats and gay art. We’ve enjoyed our work as a queer publishing house and can’t wait to do more! Some of our previous works include classics but make it gay, And They Were Monsters, and Cover Me Queer.

Check out our work at www.novaandmali.com .

#scifiart #scifiedit #art history #lgbtq books #lgbt art

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verdantlights · 4 months ago

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I need my personal space, honestly.

Sona!Zen Intimacy levels with as many sonas as I can think of that I have created lore with. <3 If your sona isn't here, please don't take offense! Also, sona!zen's feelings about your sona do not reflect how I feel about you IRL, ofc mwah ily all

Nadohan @alien-til-i-stage - 65% "They're clingy and way too comfortable with the segyein for me. I can tolerate them mostly because I know they at least have a good heart." Noir @alien-til-i-stage - n/a "Supposedly the brother I remind Nad of. I just hope they don't use me to cope with his death."

Star @starry-skiez - 95% "He's my brother and I love him dearly. That's all there really is to it, aha."

Daian @apple8ees - 85% "I'm... I don't have the heart to tell him a few things. He's my sworn little brother and I just want to protect him."

Plip @awaggaa - 15% "They're strange as hell and I love it, 10/10."

Kay @imperfectnothing - 60% "He's odd. He's good to Daian and that's fine to me, I guess. He's hiding way more than he lets on, though."

Aoki @lookatmysillies - 40% "He's odd, too. Especially when you put him next to Kay. They're both weird. I can't make out anything about Aoki specifically just because he's generally off-putting."

June @heyojuno - 0% "He makes me sick and feverish any time I'm near him and my heart starts palpitating. I just get nauseous... he makes my stomach hurt..." (he has a crush on him, he just cant tell LMAO)

Ish @chevalperd - 70% "I have no reason to dislike her, but we're still not too close. She's incredibly nice, and I don't want to get attached to that, if I were to be close, she'd be around the same as Daian, an 85%."

Mercury @soulful-roses - 50% "There's something about them. We have similar mindsets and yet we're so incredibly different. They're interesting for sure, but we're not close and I have no intention of getting closer."

Airin @apriciticreveries - 35% "...They're distant, but they seem to be a good person. They're just a little off."

August @junebluues - 0.1% "He's fucking hilarious. I stole his song and made it better. Karma's a bitch."

Azrael @4listr - 0% "Get this gay shit off my feed and stop touching me."

Erichii @regulusisapainter - 50% "He's hiding something. He's chill but there's... it's like he knows something, or has a plan for something."

Neli @friedclownshrimp - 70% "She's kinda the same as Ish. She's super sweet and bubbly, but she's not someone I want to get involved with or attached to. She's also... incredibly young?? Like damn..."

Para @solei-eclipse - 0% "...They scare me."

Gam @gamcub - 0% "Who?"

Toon @nottoonedin - 75% "She's a diva! Slay."

Vant @ivanttakethis - 60% "She's chill. Not close to her, but she's a vibe."

MJ @subzeromoron - 15% "I don't know anything except what they look like, so they're fine?"

Yun @yunoftheclouds - 15% "Same thing as MJ, I don't know them very well except for their looks, so I can't give an answer."

Akane @aakaneeee - 50% "Oh she's pretty cool. I really like her piercings and wish I could have some similar."

#zen's alnst oc lore/notes/logs #alien stage #alnst #alnst oc #alnst ocs #alien stage oc #alien stage ocs #alnst sona season #alien stage sona season #alnst sona #alien stage sona #sona season #im not fucking tagging every listed character since i pinged everyone LMAO /lhsilly

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wardensantoineandevka · 4 months ago

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We're back so soon after the Campaign 3 finale, huh. Divergence! I don't have a whole clever run-up here, but I do have a bingo card: 33 items, grab a card here.

Admittedly, this isn't a very interesting card because, unsurprisingly, it's hard to create a call list when you have no idea what the deal is! We're a little early today, so I might add a couple more squares before the opening title rolls. I'll make a post if I do.

So far, the only note is that "elemental first word" doesn't need to be a literal classical element, something like "darkness" or whatever would count. You've all seen Calamity and Downfall, you know the vibe.

elemental first word

Prime worshiper

Betrayer worshiper

PC remembers pre-Calamity

Barbarian, Fighter, Rogue, or Monk

Bard, Warlock, or Sorcerer

Paladin or Cleric

Wizard or Artificer

Druid or Ranger

Multiclass

Level 1

Level 2 - 4

Level 5 - 10

Level 11 - 16

Level 17 - 20

Issylra

Wildemount

Tal'Dorei

Marquet

Shattered Teeth

Vasselheim mention

Ghor Dranas mention

any flying city mention

specific Prime mention

specific Betrayer mention

initiative

no initiative

Arcana check

Charisma skill check

History check

Insight check

Religion check

Stealth check

#Critical Role #CritRole bingo #ExU Divergence #Exandria Unlimited: Divergence

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psychopomp-namine · 2 months ago

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made a few character playlists for link click. I don't want to fiddle with these anymore, so I'm releasing these to the ether.

disclaimer that this is my personal interpretation of the characters blah blah blah, you know the drill. the songs are arranged in a very particular order and are meant to be listened to in that order (though it's not like I can do anything if you listen on shuffle lol)

got you swimming with the sharks: a li tianchen (and li tianxi) playlist

this was a home, once: a li tianxi (and li tianchen) playlist

destiny is just my game: a liu xiao playlist

the hunter and the beast: a xiaochen playlist

surge with a bloody storm: a vein playlist

commentary under the cut:

got you swimming with the sharks: a li tianchen (and li tianxi) playlist. it's half about tianchen's personal misery and half about his thoughts on tianxi and his mother. very much an "angry at the world and grieving about it" playlist. this is definitely the one I'm most satisfied with. it roughly follows the season 2 "story arc" in song form. particular song choices I liked:

i like the devil by purity ring is about liu lan (tianchen's mother)

brother, sister by echosmith and two birds by regina spektor are about the twins

this town, your grave by innerpartysystem is tianchen at his lowest and how he sees himself, imo

sit next to me by foster the people and something to believe in by the young giants are about liu xiao

this was a home, once: a li tianxi (and li tianchen) playlist. this is more of an off-shoot of the previous playlist. I came across too many songs where I thought, "hmmm this is more about tianxi than tianchen, so it doesn't quite fit in the tianchen playlist" so. I made a playlist for tianxi as well. also, I couldn't find a tianxi playlist, which is sad. she should get one of her own. also, apologies, there are so many paramore songs in this one. I promise they all fit. particular song choices:

multiplication by alpine and speaking a dead language by joy williams are tianxi's relationship with communication and the events in her life that affect it. the latter song has tower of babel metaphors

good as gold by the click five is about the twins when they were younger. I like to imagine that the two birds in this song are the same two birds in two birds by regina spektor in tianchen's playlist.

emergency by paramore was written about divorce iirc (or at least, a parents' failing marriage). so, yeah.

seeing red by alpine and snake eyes by mumford & sons are my pick for her thoughts on red eyes tianchen

big man, little dignity by paramore. could be about how tianxi sees qian jin, or liu xiao. take your pick

we're getting to the liu xiao playlist. I'm sorry but this is going to be an essay on its own.

destiny is just my game: a liu xiao playlist. I had an interesting experience choosing songs for liu xiao. I feel like it's easy to create a "god complex"-y kind of playlist for him because of the mastermind/manipulator vibes and how a lot of songs about that subject can come across, but I honestly don't think he's that kind of character? hopefully that's not how the playlist makes him out to be. liu xiao, imo, does things for a specific purpose and not "for the thrill of it" — the thrill is just a happy consequence that he personally enjoys. some song choices:

apple tree by AURORA conveys what I think is liu xiao's actual worldview, or something close to it. we don't really know his motivations yet in canon though; I'd love to know what others think is a good song that represents his worldview. this is my personal pick

a mask of my own face by lemon demon (I know, I know, I'm sorry I put a lemon demon song here, just like a hundred playlists before me). hm, the thing is, liu xiao has secrets but it's not like he personally tries that hard too hide them, imo. remember when he asked xia fei if he wanted to know his plans and xia fei just didn't want to know? just because the narrative doesn't want the audience to know doesn't mean liu xiao himself is painstakingly trying to hide his motivations from everyone. at the same time, who even is liu xiao the person anyway? as much as he pulls strings from the shadows, I wouldn't say he hides in the dark so much as he "hides in plain sight" sometimes (him purposefully bumping into cheng xiaoshi comes to mind). anyway, so this song is all about that aspect of him

figure it out by versaemerge. kinda headcanon territory. okay, so I was thinking about liu xiao's heartbeat ability and how it makes it easy for him to figure people out. but given that he likes how xia fei is an open book, I think he does appreciate sincerity and not having to figure people out, either because it's rare to find authenticity like that, or maybe it's just easier for him. it made me wonder... what do you think a younger version of liu xiao experienced as someone who could hear heartbeats, while others couldn't hear his? it ties back to his whole thing about wanting to make uncertain things certain. I think he has a potentially interesting relationship with sincerity/truth (his own, and others') because of his ability to hear heartbeats (or rather, everyone else lacking such an ability). kinda related to the previous idea as well. "can't see why you won't figure me out"

hotel by holly henry is liu xiao coming back to pick up tianchen.

the hunter and the beast: a xiaochen playlist, though it's really more about the hunter and beast metaphor/dynamic than anything else

puppet loosely strung by the correspondents. complicated thoughts tianchen might have about liu xiao

howl by florence + machine. a beast can be prey, but can also be predator. your pet can still bite you; they just choose not to, or have no desire to (yet?)

wolves without teeth by of monsters and men. kind of a response to howl. it doesn't matter that a wolf chases you if it has no teeth. and I like how the song goes from "and I run from wolves" to "and you can follow me." like, the idea of turning a "chase" to a "command to follow" is super neat to me. anyway, this song and howl together is THE xiaochen dynamic to me.

turn it off by paramore. "and the worst part is before it gets any better, we're headed for a cliff. and in the freefall I will realize I'm better off when I hit the bottom"

surge with a bloody storm: a vein playlist. kinda surprised that I decided to make one, because I don't think I'm confident in my understanding of vein. I'm still honestly figuring him out, and I guess this exercise is yet another attempt at doing that. I wanted to explore the idea of him being a leader (polite business guy topside but mafia boss kind of character underside) and his potential propensity for hedonism (including cannibalism). not much vf vibes here, sorry to say. vein's playlist is quite straightforward and probably is vibey enough that you can listen on shuffle lol (this is arranged in a particular order, but it doesn't matter as much like with the other four)

gloomtown brats by idkhow and and fairly local by twenty one pilots are more about his public face as chinatown empire mafia boss side. tbh a lot of the songs here are about this side of him lol

blood in the wine by AURORA and consume by chase atlantic are the hedonistic cannibalism songs. fun fact: the japanese audio at the beginning of consume is the line rize says to kaneki in tokyo ghoul (cannibalism manga). so I've always just associated that song with cannibalism

could I have put sodikken here for the cannibalism songs? sure. but I decided not to.

#mine musings #link click #liveblogging link click #my playlists #i promise cxs is still my favorite character. i also know he probably has a bunch of playlists already #meanwhile. i couldn't find a tianxi playlist :(#also i'm sorry these are like. if you have the same music tastes as i do you won't discover new music here lol #lx notes #<- because i ended up writing an essay for him. AGAIN

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