#(i'm trying to reach my target audience so hard)

[mimogutz]

Somebunny loves you...

[burstinn]

You accidentally sit on their face, And they actually enjoy it

HEADCANONS

Warnings and Notes:

All of these aren't serious hcs, I was high again and wanted to make this

I made this for funny

Slight nsfw

Gn reader, target audience is male

Haha face sitting

People mentioned:

Riptide (Tide), Soap, Gaz, Ghost, König, Makarov, Keegan, Horangi, Price, Krueger, Roach, Logan, Graves

You are tired, after agrueling training from a grouchy superior who had a bad day so he had to take it out on you and your comrades. You needed to sit down, badly. Your legs are about ready to give up.

Once you reach the common room, fucking finally. You pull out your phone to find something to watch, while you make your way to the sofa.

And you sit down, Before you felt something poking you, something.. Wrong. You immediately look down realizing you.. YOU SAY ON SOMEONE'S FACE

"OH MY GOD, I'M SO SORRY"

RIPTIDE

- He immediately sits up looking at you, well if his mask was off he would be confused at fuck

- "Sorry for huh??"

- Seems like you say on him while he slept

- "... ", "nothin"

- Weird, but okay.. He tells you go off while he layed back down to continue his eye rest

- Thank fucking god, Thank the holy stars he didn't catch you sittin on him

- BUT.. The holy stars didn't feel like saving you right now. Because apparently a rookie caught you accidentally sitting on Tide and told him after he woke up.. That fuckin snitch

- Now you have to face the embarrassment of Riptide confronting you about it the next day.

- Tide sounds upset as well while confronting you, how humiliating

- Well the thing that you don't know is. The thing is, he angry cause HE DIDN'T GET TO FEEL TO ASS ON HIS FACE. HE DIDN'T GET TO FEEL A PLUMP ASS SITTIN DOWN ON HIS FAAACE

- and by God would he find a way to let you sit on him.

SOAP

- Yknow.. You know how I write this man..

- He saw you walk in, distracted by your phone.. Obviously making your way to the couch while he sitting down.

- Then he got the bright idea.. To yknow.. Lay his head down to just... Idk stretch.. Totally

- He had the pleasure as well to watch your ass slowly sit down on his face, well for a few seconds anyway. Then you immediately get off his face. Sad life fr

- "huh? What's up why'd you get off?" "Your ass is nice to look at btw"

- " you saw me about to sit down on you and you didn't say anything?!"

- "A man gotta do to experience something new man.."

- You would hit him. But you would also get in trouble for that.

- he would joke the shit about it as well. He would tease the fuck outta you for the rest of the month for this.

- Bro won't even hide to shamefully ask you if you wanna sit on his face again ( in a joking way)

- (He's actually serious)

GAZ

- He was about to shut his eyes when he suddenly saw an outline of an ass about to sit on him.

- His eyes suddenly opened and he tried to get up but nah.. Too late bro you gotta feel the full plumpy moons first

- When you got up his eyes were wide and his face was red.

- "no.. It's okay.."

- he got off and left. Leaving you in your shame

- He had to leave to compose himself.. He found something new about himself and he isn't sure how to react

GHOST

- His eyes were closed.. Then he felled something soft on his face.

- Then a scream oh my god I'm sorry

- Oh.. Shit...

- He sits up, realizing you sat on his face.. He doesn't say anything.

- His face is fucking red under the mask. Your ass suddenly looked twice as big as before. Don't know how that works but go with it fr.

- He got hard, you noticed.

- "dude.. Sir..?.. Are you.."

- He just looks at you. He has that look in his eyes

- Cmon, yknow what you gotta do.. YOU KNOW

- SIT ON HIS FUCKING FACE RUAUAAAAGHHH

KÖNIG

- He wasn't expecting ass in his face, he thought he wouldn't enjoy something like face sitting but hey.. It's actually.. Nice?

- He doesn't say anything when you suddenly sit up embarrassingly trying too apologize

- He just nodded..

- He wanted you to sit on his face again so fucking badly..

- So badly he would lay down on literally anything sittable while you were in the room

- It was so fucking obvious it was almost funny

- You had to confront him about it. And he just.. Confessed, yeah, he wanted you to sit ok his face

- .... Cmon bro.. Be a man and sit on the guys face, Make his wish come trueeee

MAKAROV

- " sit back down"

- "excuse me? Sir.. No-"

- you better sit the fuck back down on his face

- He will literally pull a gun on you and force you to sit back down on his face

KEEGAN

- No fucking lie he literally took a fucking huge sniff

- You know because you fucking heard that comically loud sniff

- You had to cut your apology short to look at that dude in disbelief

- "Did you just fucking sniff my ass?!"

- Bro will literally look at you with a goofy ahh face and just look at you.. Not saying anything, not even a fuckin nod

- "you gonna sit back down on me or..?"

- He made you sit back down on his face

HORNAGI

-EHEHEHHAHAHAHAHAAHAAHAHAHAHAHEHRHEHEHHhahahahahaahHAHAAH

- He will literally squeeze your ass, then pull your legs and make you sit back down on his face

- Don't even try to fight. His hands are fucking locked down on your thighs to keep you stuck on his face

- He made you sit down on his face for so long, you were literally concerned if he was breathing

- if you ask him if he's alive, he would just squeeze your leg to show you. Yeah, he's good

- if you look behind you, He's hard.

PRICE

- would smile and assure you it's okay.

- Pats your back, for more assurance. But he literally wants to Pat your ass

- Bro would imagine what it would be if you sat on his face

- Naked. Yes, if you sat on his face naked.

- If you did his beard would tickle you.. Which was what he wanted fr

KRUEGER

- He would say something like in a very angry and demanding tone

- "Why'd you get off?"

- "huh?"

- "Sit.Back.down"

- You did

ROACH

- Yo.. He feelin something he never felt before. Haha lie he just found a new kink he would actually enjoy

- He would literally follow you around and tug your shirt and point at your ass then his face

- If you would say no, He would leave and come back a few minutes later and do the same thing

- He would do it until you say yes..

- He's very happy. He's a very happy bug

LOGAN WALKER

- Would scream at you

- because you made him discover something about himself

- He's angry because of that

- He would force you to run 15 laps because of that.

- Then when you suddenly tired, sweating yo legs shaking from how tired you are

- He would silently and gently ask you ( he would toss you over his shoulder and walk you off to his room and make you sit on him)

- He won't explain why he did that. He just wanted to

GRAVES

- Would look at you like 🤨

- Then be like 😐😒😏

- stands up and slaps your ass

- and asks you to sit on his face

Everyone mentioned

- You will face fuck them

- Do not fight me on this, they will make you face fuck them

[daisyychainssj]

I know the whole Richas and Tallulah conflict happened hours ago and it reached a resolution and stuff but I'm just now catching up with it so I'm gonna write out my feelings about it because I think the whole thing and the way everyone is interpreting it differently is really interesting. I'm probably going to end up saying things that people said like hours ago so sorry if it's a bit repetitive to read!

!THIS IS ALL ABOUT THE CHARACTERS NOT THE CCS!

Richas POV - Okay so firstly, Richas' pov is probably the most complicated because he (obviously) has a much more complex relationship and understanding of the paintings. Not only do they cause him to be distressed because of how they're created but seeing it up on Philza's wall has just shown him that his pai Cellbit betrayed his trust. He didn't get rid of the paintings and instead has been just handing them out behind his back and I can't imagine how gut wrenching that must've been. Tallulah get's defensive about the painting and so she becomes the target of all of his hurt, frustration and fear. He is so worked up over this (understandably) and is getting increasingly frustrated because nobody is listening to him. He didn't agree to the "not be siblings anymore" ultimatum because he truly felt that way, I think he was just blinded by pure desperation. This poor kid NEEDS to be given the opportunity to sit down with someone and open up about this whole Romero Richas situation and he needs to be listened to and his fears taken seriously.

Tallulah POV - Now onto Tallulah's pov. For Tallulah this painting is a cute art piece of her papa phil and her brother Chayanne and suddenly her other brother is demanding that he take it back. Yes it's his painting but also she's a kid, in her eyes this painting was given to them and it's theirs now why would she give it back just so it can be destroyed? Also, Tallulah is the sweet egg! the kind egg! oh she's just so lovely and that's all there is to her!!!!! (sense my sarcasm here) sometimes when that is the way that someone presents themselves it's because they're scared that if they aren't that way they won't be liked/loved and people will leave if they're not prefect. This girl has abandonment issues on top of abandonment issues and Richas agreed to not be her sibling anymore over a painting. So this impacted her HARD. (we ofc know Richas didn't mean it but her character didn't) Tallulah acts out and (from her pov) stands her ground for once and now her brother doesn't want to be her brother anymore. I also think her throwing a tantrum and being a bratty made some of the audience even more shocked and dare I say frustrated at Tallulah behaving like this during this situation because that's not how they're used to her being. She was being stubborn and giving these intense ultimatums but she can be like this I think people just don't see it often because she only really lets her guards down in that way infront of Phil and Chayanne.

So now you have two extremely worked up kids who won't really listen to each other because their emotions are so heightened and that's to be expected! Children can not and should not be expected to regulate their emotions in the same way adults can.

Forever POV - His entire pov of the situation is very interesting to me. I see a lot of people criticising the way he handled this and to a certain extent I do agree. However, I think something that is being overlooked is that Forever perhaps wanting to make sure Tallulah was okay is because that is not his child. He only got permission literally yesterday to look after her after being previously denied. With Richas he can sit with him for HOURS afterwards if needed to try and talk through things. He has to drop Tallulah home in like an hour. It's very obvious to everyone on the island how close she is with Phil, she will tell him everything that happened during her time with the other parents. It makes sense, to me, for Forever to want to try and smooth the situation out as fast as he can and make everything okay. Do I think that makes the way he acted completely fine. No. but I don't think it makes zero sense for him to have acted that way. Also, him being Richas' pai means he's seen Richas have tantrums and be dramatic and bratty, he's never ever seen Tallulah do that so yeah he's going to panic and be like "oh shit I need to calm her down/make sure she's okay because this is unusual". I really do wish he had taken Richas' feelings and concerns more more seriously and hadn't just left him for a bit hopefully in the future he makes sure that he does that. It's a learning curve and he's learning to parent as he goes! He crash landed on an island and then got a child dropped into his lap to take care of so he's kinda just learning on the job.

BBH POV - I don't really have much to say here, I think bad handled the situation well given what he canonically knows about the Romero Richas situation (which is basically nothing) He encouraged Tallulah to talk things through with Richas and kept explaining how important their bond is and idk I just think BBH did a really good job.

Overall, I LOVE that the eggs are getting storylines with each other and are learning and growing. I'm so glad that Richas and Tallulah made up, they both need a warm hug and some hot chocolate or something after that whole ordeal. Little kids feeling big emotions for the first time is tough! but they did great <3

(I apologise if I missed anything important that happened between Richas and Forever when they were alone, I don't speak Portuguese but I tried my best based on the bits and pieces that the wonderful Portuguese speakers on here have translated!)

Anyway that's my long ass essay done! <3

[hero-israel]

I'm really trying not to panic.....but it's starting to feel more and more difficult to be openly Jewish and have a career in the arts. (I say this as an American Jew in the arts.) It feels like in ten years, if I don't basically commit to being a performatively self-hating Jew as hard as I can, I will have a fuck of a time finding an agent, collaborators, editors, etc -- all those things that make an actual career possible. Especially if I make literally any art about being Jewish. And what gets me is, I'm mixed race. Everyone is fucking desperate for me to perform the "less Jewish" (as they see it) part of me. It's complicated, people are still racist, but in many ways, they want this part. But if I discuss the other....it's not just that they're not interested/no one will pick it up. It's that now, it feels like it's putting a target on my back. Maybe no one will say "wow you filthy fucking Jew" out loud rn if I just make something about Jewish identity that totally sidesteps Israel, but 1. enough of them will think it, and 2. it means everyone will be hungry for ways to be like "oh? Jewish? okay so what are your thoughts on Israel? Are you okay with what's happening in Israel? Or are you a decent person???" Again, rn, maybe they won't say it....but I know people will think it. And enough will say it. And if I ever dare to discuss modern antisemitism in the most anodyne way, I will be completely suspect. The terrible irony is, I work in the comics industry. You know. That one that American Jews fucking built from the ground up.

I am so sorry you are going through that. It is prejudiced, tormenting, and unfair. And it's hard to think of anything I could say that would help. Are there Jewish peers in the industry you could reach out to - someone who could mentor you or at least who has a receptive agent already?

As you said, it is especially maddening to see shit like this happen in an industry that was invented by Jews. Though I guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise, since the increasingly antisemitic political Left borrows its entire worldview and moral vocabulary from Jewish history and persecution.

Even major comic companies have had recent scandals concerning antisemitic tropes, and as far as the "indie" comic scene, forget it, it's all Joe Sacco or Eli Valley or just acres and acres of snarky snot and clueless tourists finding Judaism alienating and weird or bashing it to rebel against their parents. Jewish people aren't allowed to just exist, we always owe the audience a moral reading at the end, and our deaths aren't necessarily bad if they send the right message.

It is terrible that this rising prejudice is combining with the latent snotty attitudes that had already existed in the industry to add stumbling blocks to your career, and your sense of safety. I earnestly hope you can find trustworthy mentors and agents and that you are able to work around this.

[harbingersglory]

according to a random online quiz i'm a stem not a butch, but i am a fellow miko simp! 😌💞 also i'm feral over your hc of switch kafka or any switch woman switches have my heart, and ei being flustered and cute <3 my degrader ass would be trying so hard not to tease her for it though

out of curiosity, if you could date any genshin woman what would your top 3 be and why? 👀 (i'm gonna hazard a guess that ningguang might be on the list)

lesbians just gravitate towards miko its verifiable fact 99% of her fans are lesbians (source; me) good 2 know ive reached my target audience

if i had to pick ohh....yeah ningguang is definitely up there i love her so much. pretty femme whos a bit snarky oh i am weak in the knees. also massive pillow princess vibes which as a stone butch is just. chefs kiss. furina is probably my number one though i am a sucker for pathetic sopping wet cat women. she leans more towards masc to me but i have enough hands for butches and femmes sooo. i can fix her. i can make her worse too. also super self indulgent but zhongli..i see her as a woman* (*its complicated) but i am a yapper and shes a listener its made to be /j also im a monsterfucker obviously im gonna fuck the dragon. is that even a question.

[chirpsythismorning]

Hi!

I want to ask a question which is eating me since july:

What is the narratively propose of the line "I feel like my life started the day we found you in the woods" ?

Because I am losing my mind on this one. The worst is I don't think it won't came back in s5, not like the painting.

But this sentence makes the all "asking to be my friend is the best thing i did" business a lie! From Will's prospective.

How much Will's lie will affect Mike in s5 is widely discussed, but what will be the consequences of Mike's monologue for Will ?

(Ironically, I don't think Will knew he was lying, he genuinely thought that El loved Mike that much. he genuinely thought that El loved Mike as much as he do)

So what do you think?

Bye <3

I never really thought about it that way, but now that you say it, ouch.

I would definitely say from Will's perspective, Mike's monologue to El contradicted his monologue to him in the shed in s2, and so therefore Mike asking him to be his best friend wasn't the best thing he did...?

Yeah that's definitely going to be circled back to in some capacity.

Honestly, I think s5 is going to be very tragic. So many casual fans expect Will to have this horrible ending based on this trend they've had for Will's character thus far. I think to subvert this expectation a majority of the audience has, the Duffer's are going to go all out... They're going to humor those fans expectations a little bit, meaning they are going to make Will (and all of the characters quite frankly) experience so much pain, that it'll have even the most confident bylers questioning everyones happy ending. And that's what's going to make the ending so gratifying. You can't know joy unless you've known sorrow. Those of us who can soar to the highest heights can also plunge to the deepest depths. Don't mind this very relevant Anne with an E quote because the Duffers are anners.

This season upon season trend of the story sidelining Will, something even most casual viewers picked up on and critique as a bad thing... is literally setting Will up for a perfect ending. Because how would season upon season of a character losing again and again, be satisfying if it ended with him losing, again? Answer: it wouldn't be.

Will's dealt with the shit end of things for years, with s4 reaching new heights of making him feel like he deserves it.

All of this is going to come to a head in s5 with Vecna trying to get Will to join him. We already know that he wants to kill everyone else, except Will... and so, Will clearly isn't a target for him to literally kill or hurt technically, and yet Vecna will do what he has to in order to get Will to feel like he has no choice but to join him.

And I think this quote is going to play a part in Will's experiences over the last 3+ seasons finally being confronted head on in the story.

I also don't think Mike said that, knowing what it implied, otherwise he wouldn't have said it at all. Though I think both Will and El and maybe even Jonathan knew what it implied, and I'm sure it pissed them off a little bit. Like I know El was thinking Mike not only are you a bad boyfriend but your bad friend too because jesus!

This quote could honestly come to bite Mike's ass as well, because seeing Will at his lowest thinking no one cares, is going to make Mike feel responsible, because he's going to realize he played a role in part of Will having those negative feelings about himself in the first place. Actually thinking about what he said and how it made Will feel, and also rethinking other interactions between them, all while potentially finding out about Will's feelings/sexuality, that is going to destroy Mike honestly. Because this whole time they could have been together if he'd just not done those things.

Yes, Mike has made the effort to reconcile with Will in both s3-4 after their fights, but they've never truly confronted the problem. And that's all for a reason.

Because once they do confront the truth, it's going to be hard for them to not want to be together knowing they both feel the same.

But the reality is most stories don't operate like that because it's not satisfying, especially slow-burn romances.

When it comes to slow-burns, it's all about the miscommunication and the will they wont they and the balance of both parties feeling something while thinking the other couldn't feel the same.

But I think right now the story is sort of imbalanced in terms of clueing the audience in on Mike's feelings for Will, in comparison to clueing the audience in on Will's feelings for Mike.

And with s5 going back to s1-2 vibes, it's entirely likely s1-2 vibes Mike is making a return, so there is a good chance they're following through with how a slow-burn ship has to operate, meaning they are evening up the balance of those feelings to make their endgame feel worthy and satisfying.

I do think that quote from Mike's monologue will impact both of them in some capacity, because it also, like you said, questions the validity of Mike's monologue to Will in the shed. And so it needs to be confronted in a way that gives both Will and Mike closure.

And let's not forget about El. She was there the day she met Mike and Lucas and Dustin and she knows it wasn't love at first sight. I think she herself has had a similar understanding of their meeting as Mike does, where it wasn't fate, that they just got lucky basically and it worked out for them. And yet she had strong feelings for him that grew over time. And so him saying that even probably upset her a little bit, because she knew it wasn't true even from her take on things. And so why would it be true for Mike who has been incapable of saying i love you to her face, ever?

This rose-tinted lens on their relationship from the beginning by the people around them, society and most of all the audience, is what put them in this position in the first place. They need to acknowledge the truth with one another (without Will mediating) so that they can actually move on and grow and be friends in the way they truly want to be.

Season 5 is definitely going to be a wild ride from start to finish, and even if it feels hopeless in the beginning, it'll all be worth it. Trust!

[demonslayedher]

Things that ran through my head while watching this episode:

--Something I love about Uzui is that he strikes us as an extreme narcissist or somebody who just does random stuff and dramatic poses, but you can't even place him in that shallow of a box. He's a character who is hard to place at first because of his flamboyance and unconventional style, and part of the difficulty in making some gut decision about his character right away is because he defies stereotype. In every scene we get with Uzui, we dig deeper and deeper into what we erroneously might had assumed was a shallow box to place him in, but the box keeps going deeper and deeper--and the best part is, none of it is a front. What you see is indeed what you get.

--A friend who knows me really well once called me an Uzui type. I was shook. Of all the Hashira, he was the one I had the least desire to emulate (I strive most to give off Shinobu vibes when I'm at work), but then when I remembered this scene when he introduces himself, I recalled, "wait, I have indeed struck that pose." And if you catch me leading a nerdy tour group, yes, that's me. Painfully so. I promise I've never punched anyone for not following directions, though.

--Speaking of that same friend (whom I dragged into watching KnY), this episode has personal signficance to me because it aired when we had our first reunion in years, and not even an hour had passed before she underwent a small tragedy. It had the perfect timing for airing after she'd made some fragile peace with the situation, and it had us laughing and laughing to nurse away the pain. Could not had asked for better timing.

--I want that painting of The God of Festivities lording over the Kamaboko boys as a wallpaper for my computer. I love that while Zenitsu is constantly Tsukkomi-ing the others in his head for how more and more ridiculous they all are, Uzui just does it outloud straight to Inosuke's face. Uzui and Zenitsu are like two same ends of a magnet, repelling each other because they are the same in so many ways. I would like to see that grow to have enough of a friendship someday that they could talk about how they perceive other people's sounds and stuff like that, but I also find it so unlikely that they'd ever reach that contemplative level of conversation any time soon.

--That's so cute that Sumi & Naho are both clinging to Aoi. They're so relieved to keep her!

--Some of my favorite filler in this whole anime is the scene of Uzui and the boys checking out Yoshiwara. Not only does it establish the setting, but the boys are adorable and in-character, it gives Tanjiro (and the audience) a clear understanding of how this town works, and frankly, it's hilarious and adorable. Uzui has already had it with these boys before they start ticking him off even more while he's trying to explain the mission details.

--Makio, Hinatsuru, and Suma really are capable, as it was after they entered that they were able to narrow the suspicious locations down to three establishments. That makes me suspect that they slipped around more like maids from place to place, or just as Kunoichi who could blend in, before specifically infiltrating those targets as women who can be more entwined with the inner-workings. But the two things that get me are that they became Oiran so fast (what remarkable talents did they show off? Were they sold as being top property from other flower districts outside of Tokyo or something??? How long were they on this mission?? I have to assume being Oiran (and therefore more prohibitively expensive) made them less occupied by taking common customers), but also, WHY WERE THEY USING THEIR REAL NAMES????

--I love the off-key violins played in Sumiko's background

--Speaking of BGM, the one played behind Zenko as the screen fades to black and we get Zenitsu's angry thoughts towards Uzui is similar to the BGM played as his inner-space was infiltrated on the train and he started going gardener on the guy.

--Inoko picking up the ends of the kimono to walk faster, hahahahaha

--Again, loving the set-up to the Yoshiwara setting, from Koinatsu's footsteps to the dialect used by the yarite who bought Inoko--she feels like someone who has totally been doing this since the Edo period, though that might be a stretch. Also, after Inoko is dragged down the hall, there's the girl carrying a tray of food who stares after her a long time, then finally blinks. I love that Ufotable takes their time with things like this. Also!! I love that Neesan who sees promise in Zenko.

--According to Kimetsu Radio commentary, Hanae-san and the others were directed against doing falsetto voices so as to keep the boys recognizable (especially since it is harped over and over again how the three of them were chosen for how they'd be distinctive against each other). The directions for Sumiko were to do it as a "refreshing" tone of the Tanjiro voice.

--This is making me think back to how much fun I had with the activities at the TOEI movie studio's event in their Yoshiwara set, where you could carrying stuff like Sumiko or pose with the shamisen like Zenko. The shamisen kept getting broken. XD I posted photos here, but unfortunately what I thought would be a crafty way of getting way more than 10 photos on a single post backfired and they're only reasonably visible on mobile. Sigh.)

--Awww, Sumiko kept the candy from Koinatsu-oiran! If Tanjiro slipped that in his sleeve, I wonder what he did with that later? I'll bet his first thought was wanting to let Nezuko taste it. Also, I didn't buy it, but I liked that this was a piece of merchandise available at a traveling Ufotable gallery.

--So that outer layer Warabihime-oiran wears has a black pattern I can't recognize, but it reminds me of zoomed-in snake scales. It looks even more like that in the manga. Gyutaro reference!?!??!

--This low-lighting is doing all kinds of favors for Inoko's delicate features and bright eyes.

--I love the imagery of the ending theme, especially that tender shot of the Kamuro from the various Okiya being out in the sunshine, laughing and playing together, simply as the young girls they are. It's so freeing, especially considering the life they've been sold into and the harsher work which awaits them in the future. The beautiful oddity of those bolts of kimono fabric flying around provides such a moment of respite for everyone in that den of darkness.

[bluegekk0]

bit of a ramble incoming, feel free to ignore. i'll put it under a read more thing in case it gets long

i think i've reached a point where i made such a specific image of the au characters in my head that i can't enjoy them outside of it anymore. like, it's really hard for me to separate the two, if i hear "grimm" i think of the au grimm, it's hard to think of him outside of the au context. idk if i'm making sense

but weirdly enough i'm kind of glad that's the case? i can definitely feel my interest in the game and especially fan content slipping away, and i would've likely moved on to something else by now. but i love the au, i love it so much, i still think about it daily and all of the lore and personalities i made for these characters keeps me going

i guess feeling uncomfortable with some ships or headcanons because of how strongly i associate the characters with my versions is something i just have to live with. usually it's not bad, it's quite easy to ignore it since i don't specifically go looking for hk fanart and fanfics these days. i guess what bothers me the most is when people leave that kinda stuff under my art. y'know the usual pk discourse and jokes kind of comments especially. it's unavoidable, and i can't blame people for not knowing all of the lore of my au, but i think that's the most irritating and upsetting part of all of this. it's the reason why i stopped posting as much art in some spaces, all the jokes about pk killing children real get old, and a bit upsetting whenever they're targeted at fpk (since the whole thing is so much more nuanced in the au)

in some ways i also feel like i alienated myself a little. i'm so deep in the grimm x fpk rabbit hole that i don't have much in common with people who stick to wyrmroot. hell, the way i wrote wl in the au kind of makes me dislike her (as a person, that is. i still think she's a cool character, i just made her a bit of a shitty person since i kinda like her as the more unpleasant of the two. the cold and uncaring tree being), and i feel like a lot of those people wouldn't like what i've done with it. same goes for hornet and all the headcanons and interpretations where she hates her father. i see where those come from, but i kind of feel like an outlier with how i portray her in the au. and of course there's fpk himself. i don't have to tell you how much he differs from your usual pk interpretations. but he means so much to me that i genuinely can't see him any other way

that being said, i love the au too much to stop because of any of this, and the fact that there are people who enjoy it gives me another reason to keep going. it's my comfort au, and i'm so, so glad i can share that feeling with you all, and reveal more about it as i write it. i've never been so invested in anything before, not to this extent, so it makes me so happy that there is an audience that supports it. i love you guys so much, you have no idea. i can't thank you enough

honestly i don't know what point i'm trying to make here. i just wanted to put it into words, i suppose. i may have already mentioned some of this before, but it's still constantly on my mind and i wanted to get it out of my system. but again, thank you guys for still being here. it means so much to me

[outpost51]

I'm still trying to imagine having 49 types of magic in one wip lol

Go nuts you say? 😏

6. COURAGE - What's the last word you had to google the definition of?

19. FEAR - What is your greatest fear as a writer?

31. LUST - Who is your hottest OC?

42. SOUL - What is your favourite WIP?

45. STRENGTH - What kind of scene are you best at?

49 Questions

starlit ilysm you matched the FUCK out of my energy

6. COURAGE - What's the last word you had to google the definition of?

wastrel, apparently! cannot for the life of me figure out....where i used it. hold on. OHO I NEVER POSTED IT HEY YOU WANT SOME ANGST I'LL SHOVE IT AT THE END

19. FEAR - What is your greatest fear as a writer?

despite overcoming the "i write for myself, and other people enjoying it is a nice bonus" fear (with a not-so-insignificant amount of emotional battle scars at the end), i can't seem to shake "but what if they hate it?"

31. LUST - Who is your hottest OC?

this is so hard (lol) just because i write erotica and therefore i design ocs that are (supposed to be) hot, but i think it's a toss-up between kadmos, rima, and zadimus?

42. SOUL - What is your favourite WIP?

hhhhhhhhh this changes from week to week tbh. right now, between a rock and a hard place is fighting me tooth and nail, so it's in the naughty box. helix? helix.

45. STRENGTH - What kind of scene are you best at?

fighting and ✨spice✨. those are the ones my friends go most feral over, and they're my target audience c:

anyway have some wlw grief-pining and some very yummy (subjective) waterlogged ghost imagery that takes place between chapters 2 and 3 of stellar parallax.

with mood music, natch.

★・・・・・・★

bitter bright wings.

this thing, all things, devours.

mature || 430 words || c/w: implied sexual content, vague gore?

Hannah didn’t sleep. Not since first contact, not since whatever other atrocities they’d had her commit in the name of exploration, expansion, extermination. As her physician, Dr. Chakwas felt the compulsion to nag her about it, offer sleep aids, ensure she got enough rest to properly harass General Arterius, or whatever it was she did in those meetings.

As her friend — nothing more, no-fuss, it had become her mantra, the thing that helped her sleep at night — Karin was perfectly content to settle for cold skin and trembling limbs wrapping around her and stealing a bit of peace in what narrow time frame they had left before wake-up calls started rolling out. Sometimes that cold took a bit more than no-fuss to chase it away; on those nights, she didn’t settle for anything, not until they were both breathless and laughing and the wake-up call had rang sometime between round three and round seven. They had better things to count, after all, as they drug them out of each other one-by-one.

It was another one of those nights, then, she thought as those cold limbs squeezed tight around her waist. “One day I’m just going to sedate you,” she scolded lightly.

A rush of frigid saline swilled over her back in response.

Karin spun violently in the embrace, already reaching for the phone’s blinking emergency call button — the deep, dark green eyes she once thought she could spend hours gazing into, that held an ever-raging storm like Jupiter’s Great Spot, had clouded over, turning them a milky jade.

Amazing how Hannah was still recognizable beneath all the discoloration and bloat one acquired when dropped into a watery grave. “Help her,” she rasped.

Her mouth opened to ask who, exactly, Hannah wanted her to help, but something jerked her out of bed and dashed her onto the floor.

“Dr. Chakwas!”

If Pressly’s shouting hadn’t managed to wake her from the nightmare, falling out of her chair certainly had. “Someone better be dying,” she grumbled, barely making an effort to rise.

“Shepard.”

That name had always given her wings, hadn’t it? “What happened to John?”

“The commander is fine.” A sneer twisted up Pressly’s features. “It’s his wastrel of a sister causing problems again.”

Karin’s jaw creaked with the effort of holding herself back. She’d taken an oath to do no harm. “Well, what are you standing here for?” she barked. “Clear a path.” Punching him wouldn’t help Jane, she told herself.

She imagined Hannah knocking his lights out instead as she snapped on a fresh pair of gloves.

[philcoulsonismyhero]

Okay, so I need to expand my convention stall print selection as a matter of vague urgency because my current stuff is reaching the end of its useful lifespan (the joys of a small con scene and a lot of familiar faces in the customers who've already bought all they're going to buy), so

The current mile long to-draw list for the sake of creating some accountability (bolded are the most immediate priority):

Kirk, Spock, probably also McCoy

The rest of the Trek captains from the shows I've watched (Picard, Sisko, Janeway, Archer, Pike, Burnham?? I haven't gotten far enough in Discovery for her to be captain yet but I'm assuming she is eventually)

Assorted other popular Trek characters, eventually (if you've got suggestions, Please let me know, there's 500 of these people and narrowing it down is hard)

Luke, Leia, Han

I Really can't be bothered but I know Maul, Dooku, Sidious and Vader would be popular so eventually I'm just going to have to suck it up and draw some characters I hate

Something clone troopers (I have it on good authority that there's basically no merch for clone fans)

Torchwood team (portraits, like the Doctors print I've already got)

14th and 15th Doctor (or whatever they're called) to update Doctors print

NuWho companions? At least Rose, Martha, Donna, Amy, Clara, Bill

9th Doctor, Rose and Jack group shot

Something Hot Fuzz

Something Kingsman (Eggsy and Galahad, probably)

Something Pacific Rim (currently thinking maybe three somethings? Newt & Hermann, Mako & Raleigh, Pentecost and the cancelling the apocalypse line)

Judge Dredd and Anderson from Dredd

All nine of the Fellowship of the Ring, brown paper, which is going to take forever but should be worth it because they're all popular and also I love them all, probably eventually also Eowyn and Faramir and Bilbo

The daft local in-joke Nazghul thing (there's this mounted statue of Wellington in Glasgow that always has a traffic cone on its head so I'm redrawing it as a Nazghul because I think that's funny)

Something Firefly

Roy Kent, because I've got a Ted Lasso and he's the main character people are always asking after

Something DnD movie?

And probably a dozen other things but that's enough for now

I'm trying to mainly stick to old, established fandoms and movies/series that I genuinely like that are cult-classic-y enough that they're consistently popular, because I'm fed up of how quickly The Current Popular Thing fades these days. I've done well out of drawing stuff that'll appeal to the Queer Cartoon-Watching Teens, but they're a fickle audience and getting less reliable so time to target the staple fandoms instead.

And then there's also the other list which is stuff that's mostly for my own entertainment but will probably do decently well, just not enough to be a priority right now:

A few more RWBY characters on coloured paper to expand that set (at least Penny, Nora, Ren, Jaune, Oscar)

A DCTV Flash and Reverse Flash pair of prints on red and yellow paper respectively

Something Rivers of London

An updated set of brown paper FMA art

Arcane stuff (will be higher priority when the next season is closer, but for now no one is paying it any attention)

The trio from The Marvels

Eda, Luz, King and Hooty group shot (this one should probably be on the other list, but it's down here for now because I've already got Owl House prints and right now I need to go for breadth of fandoms rather than expanding within what I've already got)

That Captain America set of four with limit colours idea that I've had for ages (Steve, Bucky, Sam, Peggy)

More brown paper Jedi (current top of the list are Aayla Secura, Shaak Ti)

A print of the main duo from The Untamed (got badges already)

Etc etc

Can you see why I never get anything done, too-many-choices choice paralysis is A Nightmare

The current plan is to start with the Star Trek stuff, because that's going to be portraits and I can do those in my sleep. If I can get Kirk and Spock done, that's a solid start. The Torchwood team print is also small portraits, so that's potentially doable as well, and a good shout for my next event since it's an 18+ evening con so the audience will be a bit different to usual. (I'm intrigued about this con, I don't know how it's going to go, but the idea of an adults-only event where artists can sell All their stuff rather than sticking to kid-friendly is a good one even if that's not going to affect my own stock at all. Shame it's the same weekend and in the same city as a big established con that I got wait-listed for which I'm still mad about because I Kinda Need The Money, but what can you do.)

I've got that con the weekend after next which means I've got until Monday night at the latest to get things finished if I want them with the print shop by Tuesday morning. Then I can work on the two extra Doctors and maybe some companions, because those will be badges and I make those myself. And that's as far in the future as it's worth thinking right now, let's just take this a couple of weeks at a time and maybe my brain will stop stalling over having too much to do and no way to narrow it down

[rabbivole]

ongoing roadtrip problem i'm having: draw distance in source engine levels is an attribute of the map. you can adjust it to be shorter with 'r_farz [# of units]' in console; you can't adjust it to be longer. this is presumably for several reasons. one is that i assume developers wanted hl2 to look the same for everybody (particularly the coast levels) and either hoped or knew their level of optimization would make it work. the other is that generally, if you're making a nice realistic-looking map that's large and open, you're going to have a gentle fog in a color that matches your skybox, and you're going to cut your draw distance wherever that fog reaches total occlusion. because you may as well not draw anything that won't be seen. this gets used all over the place in l4d, where it's supposed to be moody anyway. so your draw distance is intimately tied to your map environment settings, so it may as well be one of those environment settings

the problem is that a lot of people make the draw distance in their garrysmod maps SUPER TIGHT. like, so tight that it's hard to take nice pictures of them. i see this most often in roleplay maps. rp maps are usually big and open and detailed in a way that source really wasn't designed for, and the target audience is largely children- many of them in less wealthy countries- with potato PCs. so the easiest way to ensure that the target audience can actually run the fucking map is to set a really tiny draw distance. this makes sense, but it's an attribute of the map, so i- as a weirdly fixated adult with a big dick video card trying to take fancy pictures- have no way to uncap it. i can turn my antialiasing up to the Fuck You settings but i'm stuck with whatever draw distance the author chose. i've had to discard some maps from my slush pile just because the draw distance is unworkable for showing the exteriors, and the exteriors are kind of the only notable part

there's a fun workaround i see occasionally. your 3d skybox gets drawn at the back clipping plane, so some maps will create a 'low detail' version of the entire level and put it in the skybox overlapping actual geometry. (technically you do this anyway for certain kinds of skyboxes, if it needs to line up exactly where your playable area ends; you copy the large geometry of your entire map and scale it by 1/16 and put it in your skybox as a reference. you just delete or hide it afterwards because it will look terrible and possibly have off-grid vertices that won't survive a compile unaltered.) if they do it right it's relatively seamless. this does look better than fog 20 feet in front of you. unfortunately it still kind of looks like ass

another consequence of '20 years later, people are using this game engine in ways that were not foreseen even slightly' i guess

[anjumbai]

Deep Work by Cal Newport - Thoughts

"I'll live the focused life, because it's the best kind there is." - Winfred Gallagher

Rating: very useful out of 10

I knew I heard the name Cal Newport somewhere before. It turns out he wrote that book named "How to Become a Straight A-student"; which I read back in 2021. Although I did not finish it, it was filled with a lot of practicality and very useful instructions. And this book, while focusing more on the fact that why going deep is necessary, is also filled with equal amount of well-explained examples.

The book argues why you should not drown in shallow activities which yield little to no impact on your life, but rather spend more time going deep and practicing deep work. Deep work refers to the practice of committing to a work with intense focus, reducing all sorts of distractions while you're going at it. While I approached this to learn more bout student life and the uses of deep work, it turned out to target knowledge workers more. But that wouldn't stop me from extracting something from the book now, would it? Well anyways, I won't go into much details about the book. I sometimes forget that I'm writing about my thoughts and not on a critical review of how the book is structured or anything like that.

So what did I like about the book? The fact that it advised you to quit social media. I liked how he said if you wanna do something different, if you wanna be able to focus more and get distracted less, you should be harder to reach. You shouldn't be available just by one email, or be just one instagram notification away. And I liked how he said that most people would argue that "I'm connected with my friends over there etc etc" and how it does have some validity, he names it the "any benefit" approach. Which means if something provides you with even just one benefit, you'll cling to it despite the overwhelming difference of the damages it can cause.

I agree with him on this part and being difficult to reach has now proven to be a good part of my life. I love it. You can even say I liked this because he mentioned something I already do. Which is true. I worked for it, so some recognition from an inanimate object feels nice.

He also states how deep work should be practiced on a daily basis. Which gives natural idiots like me hope cause even though I might be an idiot, I can still practice something daily without much issue ( thanks to atomic habits ). And like James Clear said, habits build up like compound interests do. I liked the book. I disliked some of it for the overwhelming office related examples but perhaps I should've understood students aren't the key target audience in this book. As he already has a rather amazing book for students. Check it out, I'd say.

A common argument that comes up would be that- I don't need to read a whole damn book to learn basic stuff like this. True. You don't. You can just learn em by scrolling through your Instagram food, or YouTube; maybe if you try hard enough you can resist clicking on that youtube short too. I'd still advise reading the book. It teaches you to practice something on a long term basis, and each chapter happens to have something new instead of all of it one, so you can gradually learn and apply. That's how self-help books work for me. You read and apply, learn something new, apply again. This book might encourage some to become delusional. Just reading self-help books don't take you particularly anywhere. So if this is your 14th self-help book, maybe seek therapy. Or you can ignore me, which is the natural order.

Atomic Habits and Deep Work, both happen to be helpful in their own ways. But I'd prefer Atomic Habits over this, due to how much more practical the first one is. But if you really wanna understand the need of deep work and eventually apply it in your life, or maybe you lack focus like me- try it out. It has boosted my focus span. Or maybe the fact that I don't really have much to do daily is what made my focus span increase but hey, nobody is looking into that.

Next read: The Subtle Art of not giving a damn about the books title. (or grammar)

[devils-pirate-crew]

"Jack!"

The owner of the tavern perks up immediately, waving Jack over from where he stands behind the bar counter polishing glasses. He seems not to be expecting the pirate to vault over the counter, capturing him in a giant bear hug; the tavern owner stumbles back, grinning, as he wraps his arms around Jack.

"Quinn!" Jack repeats, laughing. "How're mom and dad holding up?"

Quinn sucks in a breath, letting Jack go and waving to Dawson and Luke, who've stepped inside The Electric Eel. The sign above the door sways a moment longer before stalling. He smiles widely at Luke, who nods awkwardly back, clearly also excited to be here by how he shuffles over to join his brothers, albeit on the other side of the counter. Dawson tags along, stooping to collect the letters that Jack had dropped.

"Mom's doing well, as always," Quinn reaches past Jack, setting down the stein, and pointedly avoiding the other half of the question. "Business is going strong. Thunderbolt came by a few months ago and she scammed Stammer so hard," he chuckles. "Made ten times the profit on some jewelry and fabric he thought was useless."

"Speaking of," Luke segues. "Anyone here now?"

Quinn nods. "Two, matter fact. Sensibility docked at the Cove last week." He rolls his eyes. "You wanna know what's up with them?"

"Fuck yeah," Jack cheers, finally realizing he should get on the right side of the counter and jumping back over to take a seat. As it's still early, not many people are there - only a few career drunks loitering in the corners. Luke quietly perches on a stool next to him; Dawson scoops up the last of the letters and tucks them into his coat, sitting on Luke's other side.

"Okay," Quinn begins, already collecting a few glasses and putting them under a keg whose tap he opens. "So Chabot's been the captain of Sensibility since Karlsson fucked off and retired to Pacifico, right?" At the nods of his audience, he continues, "Turns out Chabby hasn't been doing too hot. Past few years, Sensibility hasn't been able to land a big target. So they voted him out!"

"No," Dawson finds himself gasping along with the Hughes brothers. None of them seem to pay him much mind, more concerned with the gossip at hand.

"Yes!" Quinn smiles with schadenfreude. "They said he was too much of a coward and voted him out! And you know who they elected their new captain?"

"No idea," Jack admits. He closes his eyes, deep in thought. "Hamonic? Giroux? Didn't Giroux captain Viceroy back in the day?"

"Maybe him," Dawson agrees.

"Neither." Quinn grins wider, placing the full beer steins in front of the pirates. "Brady fucking Tkachuk."

"No fucking way," Jack blinks, taking a swig.

"Yes fucking way," Quinn nods.

Jack whistles, banging a fist on the table. "God damn!"

"You said there were two ships?" Luke questions, ignoring his brother's whooping and hollering at the news.

"...Santé's here too," Quinn admits.

At this, Jack seems to light up even more. "Cole's here?"

"Oh my God, I'm going to get a headache - " Quinn groans.

"Cole's here! Holy shit, Quinner! If Trevor were here too, the whole gang would be together!" Jack absolutely beams at this thought. "God, I hope Old Mallard shows her face..."

"I think I'd rather die," Luke mumbles, taking a long sip of his beer and resting his head on the counter, exchanging a horrified look with Quinn.

Dawson leans back, looking at the beverage in front of him. He closes his eyes, trying to focus on the Voices that speak in his ears and the rising headache taking over his brain. As Jack chatters on about Cole and Trevor, and The Electric Eel bustles around them, Dawson figures that now would be a good time to drain the pressure - if any of the Voices decide that now is a good time to speak, that is.

[oonajaeadira]

You make a really great point. Like for example, I specifically disclose its a female reader in most of my fics but provide no other physical disclosures. I absolutely try to make it inclusive, but almost none of us can say we never do those things. Especially with reader inserts, we typically imagine ourselves to varying degrees and so things slip in, like physical acts of running through your hair, or inferences to a reader who may not be thin, because accident or not, most of us will include descriptors beacuse its natural to do.

I don't subscribe to coming across reader attributes that arent matching to yourself and getting angry about it, beacuse most of them aren't done in malice or to be exclusionary. You are right that if you claim the reader has no descriptions then you should be more careful about how you write it, but when screw ups happen, people need to remember that we make mistakes and gently pointing it out so we can fix it and learn from it will ALWAYS be better then storming into the writers inbox with hateful rhetoric.

I think theres a tendancy to turn annoyance into outrage and claim that it comes from an negative place on the writers side when thats not true. We write readers to be inclusive, but if small mentions of things we may not even have noticed we wrote will upset someone so greatly, maybe they need to take some time away from reading fics and learn how to cope with that frustration, rather than taking it out on the writer. If I dont give any specifications about the reader one way or the other, it doesnt mean Im only targeting one type of person, it means I am trying to be as broad as possible and when there is a standout factor that matters more than others, I'll point it out beforehand (i.e female reader, plus size reader ect)

We as writers truly do our best to be inclusive but it will never be perfect, and I think the fandom needs to take a step back and rethink the tendancy to attack for small upsets to an aggressive degree as if they are ill intended. I just agreed with your take a lot beacuse sometimes writers in this fandom arent given the benefit of the doubt.

I agree with you. Nobody does this out of malice. And, *laughing at myself* I'm going to be honest here.

Sometimes I'm just frustrated because I have an instinct to reach out and help the author do better so their fic is better received.

In my day job, I assist new producers/writers/makers of theater. I help run an organization that helps put new work out into the public eye and we actually run marketing workshops. And one of the big things we teach new producers is how to correctly market their work.

If you promise something and don't deliver, or you pull a bait and switch, your audience may get upset because of that unmet expectation, and then you know what happens? Negative reviews.

The #1 way to please an audience (besides putting out stellar content), is to set up promises you can keep and fulfill any expectations you set before them.

So half of my frustration often sits not in that "hey, you offended me by not including me" it's in that "oof, this is bad practices for your art and you should not be setting up promises you can't keep" pet peeve of mine.

At the same time, as someone that's been making art for a long time, I still make the mistakes I warn new producers about. And as a fic writer I KNOW I've done these things. I am--as I believe everyone is from time to time--a raging hypocrite!

But. I think we're living in an age where any infraction is treated as a life-or-death situation and people can get really shouty about their criticisms. I understand that it's hard to see there's an individual behind the blog/counter/whatever and that emotions can us all feel like shouting at one person means everyone who should hear it will hear it. No.

And by that same token, it's easy to believe that everyone who comes to you with shouty, mean anons is attacking you and only you when in fact, they are just hurting and want someone to know it and fix it all.

That's why I wanted to clarify my post and say more here too. I think it's worth looking at myself and trying to see WHY I'm frustrated and where it comes from. And that any time I've been frustrated with an author that promises what they can't deliver, it's not a life and death situation. They're not doing it to personally offend me. They have learning and growing to do. I have learning and growing to do.

Gentleness is key. We should--as the post that's been circling lately says--approach every situation as if best intentions are meant. And be gentle with each other.

[literaticat]

Very little of what was mentioned in my marketing plan on the publicity side ever materialized, especially not on the scale they were talking. Is there any way for me to determine why that is? I know that a lot of it comes down to luck and it doesn't necessarily mean someone dropped the ball or that all of the major outlets hate my book, but I also don't understand why my publisher talked such a big game if it wasn't likely they could deliver on any of it.

It's hard for me to say, based on the zero actual info I have and not being part of the process, seeing the plan, sitting in on the calls, etc. But (and forgive me if you know all this already), I can just say generally:

"Marketing" means things that they PAY for. Those things are often somewhat invisible to you from the outside, because in the book world MOST marketing efforts are really geared toward booksellers/librarians/gatekeepers rather than the general public.

Examples of marketing: ARCs / eARCs, sending ARCs or finished copies to specific "bigmouths", offering retailers a special discount if they buy x-number of copies or a display, "swag" creation, ads in trade publications such as PW, Edelweiss and Shelf Awareness newsletters, promoting at Winter Institute (big bookseller conference), regional bookselling conferences, and ALA (big librarian conference), wining and dining librarians, etc. There's a wide variety of things that fall into the marketing bucket, but what they all have in common is, they cost money and the publisher wants to spend that money in the wisest way they can.

(That's why they focus on booksellers/librarians/gatekeepers -- because if one buyer for a library system or a book chain buys, say, 100 books, has them on display, talks them up to patrons and customers and classrooms, etc etc -- and then checks out or sells them to the public and orders more, that's a better bang for their buck than trying to reach a hundred individual people randomly who don't have the power to reach lots of other people. Each ONE bookseller or librarian might be able to reach hundreds of people. A dozen booksellers or librarians might reach THOUSANDS of people. And so on.)

"Publicity" means earned media -- it doesn't cost money, but it's a LOT harder to get. The publicist pitches your book to a variety of media sources -- that could be anything from reviews in the newspaper to interviews in a magazine to keynoting a conference to a special feature on Good Morning America. The problem is, of course -- all those outlets have A MILLION publicists pitching them things, and they are in full control over who and what they actually cover. So they are mostly probably going to cover, frankly, things that they think their audience will be most interested in. Which often translates to "people they have already heard of" or "people with a quite resonant and unusual story to tell" or "people who are writing something incredibly timely" or "people whose thing has gone viral" -- or something like that. Basically, they want the clicks.

Unfortunately most "regular" books probably won't fall into those buckets. So of COURSE the publicist has to try -- but the hit rate is likely kinda low for MOST books. I'm guessing the publicity plan said something like "targeted outreach to major media, local media and trade review outlets (NYT, WaPo, LA Times, Newsweek, Sacramento Bee, NPR, PW, Kirkus, etc)" -- well OK. But all media is stretched thin, and even trade journals like PW and Kirkus are trending toward reviewing less and reviewing later than in the past...

So if the publicist pitched to, say, 100 places and only four decided to cover the book -- that doesn't mean she didn't do her job. She still had to write to those 100 people. (Nor does it mean the Sacramento Bee hates you -- they just only had room for 5 reviews and had 100 books to choose from).

ALL OF THAT TO SAY: I guess the publisher "talks a big game" in their publicity and marketing plan because they are so often accused of "doing LITERALLY NOTHING" to promote people's books -- because so much of the work they DO actually do is rather invisible. So they want to show, like, no, look, we ARE doing things.

(Do those things matter or move the needle? Eh. Sometimes. Mostly not, but sometimes. Are they doing them? Yep.)

[struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor]

I watched vcha's debut mv and the songs they've released so far (go getter is catchy after a second listen but that's it) and I don't understand the strategy behind their direction. I realize that I'm older than what must be their target demographic but even the younger teens that I know wouldn't tune in for this - the lyrics are often too cringey and western audiences have never been that big a fan of cutesy concepts. When people throw a lot of resources at something like this, I always figure they must know something I don't and have some reason to think that this will have broader appeal than I'm seeing, but the title track they put out is just ok. Like it doesn't hurt me to listen to it, but there's nothing interesting about it and I don't see anything that would make it trend-worthy as a way to bring attention to the song. All of the choices behind this group are so confusing and it makes me question the idea of these global groups bc I assume the intention is to appeal to the west but idk who they're listening to when strategizing how to do that

Hi!

Honestly, I've only heard their debut song, but I can't say I understand their strategy either. I thought the song was pretty cringe. I kept thinking maybe pre-teens would like it. Teenage girls like powerful women because that's who they want to be - it's why they like Blackpink and Taylor Swift. Teenagers don't find other teenagers making childish music cool. I like Sneakers, Boys Like You, Teddy Bear, The Feels, etc. so Girls of the Year could grow on me, but fun, cute, and a bit childish kpop is different from the try hard concept they did. I don't know, their aim is clearly the West so debuting with this is just not it. Those girls aren't Blackpink. I'm not sure who in the West likes that kind of music.

I don't get international groups in general. A lot of people know of kpop now and expect kpop to be made by Asian idols. Introducing international idols and making songs in English does not make a group more GP friendly, just harder to market, since they're not what people expect kpop to be, but they aren't what people like to see in pop either. Kpop stans don't seem very interested in these groups and neither does the West. To be very, very honest, adding white girls to a kpop group makes kpop lose what makes it "exotic" to locals. All groups cater to the West atp, so if a kpop group's entire concept is being kpop, but for the West, that's literally what a lot of groups already do? The idols having different nationalities likely doesn't help much reach those different countries.

I don't know... There's something extremely unappealing and weird to me about international groups, and I don't know if I'm just being a racist Koreaboo or if there's something legitimate there. Just full disclosure. I admit my prejudice.

Thanks for the ask! I agree with you!