#Community Forums on Radio

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Innovative Content Ideas for Engaging Community Radio Programs

Creating captivating and engaging content is the lifeblood of any Community Radio Station (CRS). It’s the magic that transforms your station from a simple broadcast into a beloved community staple. But what keeps listeners tuning in and, more importantly, feeling connected to your station? The answer lies in continuous innovation and deep community involvement. From educational programs to…

[caelum-in-the-avatarverse]

Fandom can do a little gatekeeping. As a treat.

So I finally decided to archive-lock my fics on AO3 last night. I’ve been considering it since the AI scrape last year, but the tipping point was this whole lore.fm debacle, coupled with some thoughts I’ve been thinking regarding Fandom These Days in general and Fandom As A Community in particular. So I wanna explain why I waited so long, why I locked my stuff up now, and why I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a-okay with making it harder for people to see my stories.

Lurkers really are great, tho

I’m a chronic lurker, and have been since I started hanging out on the internet as a teen in the 00s. These days it’s just cuz I don’t feel a need to socialize very often, but back then it was because I was shy and knew I was socially awkward. Even if I made an account, I’d spend months lurking on message boards or forums or Livejournals, watching other people interact and getting a feel for that particular community’s culture and etiquette before I finally started interacting myself. And y’know, that approach saved me a lot of embarrassment. Over the course of my lurking on any site, there was always some other person who’d clearly joined up five minutes after learning the place existed, barged in without a care for their behavior, and committed so many social faux pas that all the other users were immediately annoyed with them at best. I learned a lot observing those incidents. Lurk More is Rule 33 of the internet for very good reason.

Lurking isn’t bad or weird or creepy. It’s perfectly normal. I love lurking. It’s hard for me to not lurk - socializing takes a lot of energy out of me, even via text. (Heck it took 12 hours for me to write this post, I wish I was kidding--) Occasionally I’ll manage longer bouts of interaction - a few weeks posting here, almost a year chatting in a discord there - but I’m always gonna end up going radio silent for months at some point. I used to feel bad about it, but I’ve long since made peace with the fact that it’s just the way my brain works. I’m a chronic lurker, and in the long term nothing is going to change that.

The thing with being a chronic lurker is that you have to accept that you are not actually seen as part of the community you are lurking in. That’s not to say that lurkers are unimportant - lurkers actually are important, and they make up a large proportion of any online community - but it’s simple cause and effect. You may think of it as “your community”, but if you’ve never said a word, how is the community supposed to know you exist? If I lurked on someone’s LJ, and then that person suddenly friendslocked their blog, I knew that I had two choices: Either accept that I would never be able to read their posts again, or reach out to them and ask if I could be added to their friends list with the full understanding that I was a rando they might not decide to trust. I usually went with the first option, because my invisibility as a lurker was more important to me than talking to strangers on the internet.

Lurking is like sitting on a park bench, quietly people-watching and eavesdropping on the conversations other people are having around you. You’re in the park, but you’re not actively participating in anything happening there. You can see and hear things that you become very interested in! But if you don’t introduce yourself and become part of the conversation, you won’t be able to keep listening to it when those people walk away. When fandom migrated away from Livejournal, people moved to new platforms alongside their friends, but lurkers were often left behind. No one knew they existed, so they weren’t told where everyone else was going. To be seen as part of a fandom community, you need to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known, etc. etc.

There’s nothing wrong with lurking. There can actually be benefits to lurking, both for the lurkers and the communities they lurk in. It’s just another way to be in a fandom. But if that is how you exist in fandom--and remember, I say this as someone who often does exist that way in fandom--you need to remember that you’re on the outside looking in, and the curtains can always close.

I’ve always been super sympathetic to lurkers, because I am one. I know there’s a lot of people like me who just don’t socialize often. I know there’s plenty of reasons why someone might not make an account on the internet - maybe they’re nervous, maybe they’re young and their parents don’t allow them to, maybe they’re in a bad situation where someone is monitoring their activity, maybe they can only access the internet from public computer terminals. Heck, I’ve never even logged into AO3 on my phone--if I’m away from my computer I just read what’s publicly available. 

I know I have people lurking on my fics. I know my fics probably mean a lot to someone I don’t even know exists. I know this because there are plenty of fics I love whose writers don’t know I exist.

I love my commenters personally; I love my lurkers as an abstract concept. I know they’re there and I wish them well, and if they ever de-lurk I love them all the more.

So up until last year I never considered archive-locking my fic, because I get it. The AI scraping was upsetting, but I still hesitated because I was thinking of lurkers and guests and remembering what it felt like to be 15 and wondering if it’d be worth letting a stranger on the internet know I existed and asking to be added to their friends list just so I could reread a funny post they made once.

But the internet has changed a lot since the 00s, and fandom has changed with it. I’ve read some things and been doing some thinking about fandom-as-community over the last few years, and reading through the lore.fm drama made me decide that it’s time for me to set some boundaries.

I still love my lurkers, and I feel bad about leaving any guest commenters behind, especially if they’re in a situation where they can’t make an account for some reason. But from here on out, even my lurkers are going to have to do the bare minimum to read my fics--make an AO3 account.

Should we gatekeep fandom?

I’ve seen a few people ask this question, usually rhetorically, sometimes as a joke, always with a bit of seriousness. And I think…yeah, maybe we should. Except wait, no, not like that--

A decade ago, when people talked about fandom gatekeeping and why it was bad to do, it intersected with a lot of other things, mainly feminism and classism. The prevalent image of fandom gatekeeping was, like, a man learning that a woman likes Star Wars and haughtily demanding, “Oh, yeah? Well if you’re REALLY a fan, name ten EU novels” to belittle and dismiss her, expecting that a “real fan” would have the money and time to be familiar with the EU, and ignoring the fact that male movie-only fans were still considered fans. The thing being gatekept was the very definition of “being a fan” and people’s right to describe themselves as one.

That’s not what I mean when I say maybe fandom should gatekeep more. Anyone can call themselves a fan if they like something, that’s fine. But when it comes to the ability to enjoy the fanworks produced by the fandom community…that might be something worth gatekeeping.

See, back in the 00s, it was perfectly common for people to just…not go on the internet. Surfing the web was a thing, but it was just, like, a fun pastime. Not everyone did it. It wasn’t until the rise of social media that going online became a thing everyone and their grandmother did every day. Back then, going on the internet was just…a hobby.

So one of the first gates online fandom ever had was the simple fact that the entire world wasn’t here yet.

The entire world is here now. That gate has been demolished.

And it’s a lot easier to find us now. Even scattered across platforms, fandom is so centralized these days. It isn’t a network of dedicated webshrines and forums that you can only find via webrings anymore, it’s right there on all the big social media sites. AO3 didn’t set out to be the main fanfic website, but that’s definitely what it’s become. It’s easy for people to find us--and that includes people who don’t care about the community, and just want “content.”

Transformative fandom doesn’t like it when people see our fanworks as “content”. “Content” is a pretty broad term, but when fandom uses it we’re usually referring to creative works that are churned out by content creators to be consumed by an audience as quickly as possible as often as possible so that the content creator can generate revenue. This not-so-new normal has caused a massive shift in how people who are new to fandom view fanworks--instead of seeing fic or art as something a fellow fan made and shared with you, they see fanworks as products to be consumed.

Transformative fandom has, in general, always been a gift economy. We put time and effort into creating fanworks that we share with our fellow fans for free. We do this so we don’t get sued, but fandom as a whole actually gets a lot out of the gift economy. Offer your community a story, and in return you can get comments, build friendships, or inspire other people to write things that you might want to read. Readers are given the gift of free stories to read and enjoy, and while lurking is fine, they have the choice to engage with the writer and other readers by leaving comments or making reclists to help build the community.

And look, don’t get me wrong. People have never engaged with fanfic as much as fan writers wish they would. There has always been “no one comments anymore” wank. There have always been people who only comment to say “MORE!” or otherwise demand or guilt trip writers into posting the next chapter. But fandom has always agreed that those commenters are rude and annoying, and as those commenters navigate fandom they have the chance to learn proper community etiquette.

However, now it seems that a lot of the people who are consuming fanworks aren’t actually in the community. 

I won’t say “they aren’t real fans” because that’s silly; there’s lots of ways to be a fan. But there seem to be a lot of fans now who have no interest in fandom as a community, or in adhering to community etiquette, or in respecting the gift economy. They consume our fics, but they don’t appreciate fan labor. They want our “content”, but they don’t respect our control over our creations.

And even worse--they see us as a resource. We share our work for free, as a gift, but all they see is an open-source content farm waiting to be tapped into. We shared it for free, so clearly they can do whatever they want with it. Why should we care if they feed our work into AI training datasets, or copy/paste our unfinished stories into ChatGPT to get an ending, or charge people for an unnecessary third-party AO3 app, or sell fanbindings on etsy for a profit without the author’s permission, or turn our stories into poor imitations of podfics to be posted on other platforms without giving us credit or asking our consent, while also using it to lure in people they can datascrape for their Forbes 30 Under 30 company? 

And sure, people have been doing shady things with other people’s fanworks since forever. Art theft and reposting has always been a big problem. Fanfic is harder to flat-out repost, but I’ve heard of unauthorized fic translations getting posted without crediting the original author. Once in…I think the 2010s? I read a post by a woman who had gone to some sort of local bookselling event, only to find that the man selling “his” novel had actually self-published her fanfic. (Wish I could find that one again, I don’t even remember where I read it.)

But aside from that third example, the thing is…as awful as fanart/writing theft is, back in the day, the main thing a thief would gain from it was clout. Clout that should rightfully go to the creators who gifted their work in the first place, yeah, but still. Just clout. People will do a lot of hurtful things for clout, but fandom clout means nothing outside of fandom. Fandom clout is not enough to incentivize the sort of wide-scale pillaging we’re seeing from community outsiders today.

Money, on the other hand… Well, fandom’s just a giant, untapped content farm, isn’t it? Think of how much revenue all that content could generate.

Lurkers are a normal and even beneficial part of any online community. Maybe one day they’ll de-lurk and easily slide into place beside their fellow fans because they already know the etiquette. Maybe they’re active in another community, and they can spread information from the community they lurk in to the community they’re active in. At the very least, they silently observe, and even if they’re not active community members, they understand the community.

Fans who see fanworks as “content” don’t belong in the same category as lurkers. They’re tourists. 

While reading through the initial Reddit thread on the lore.fm situation, I found this comment:

[ID: Reddit User Cabbitowo says: ... So in anime fandoms we have a word called tourist and essentially it means a fan of a few anime and doesn't care about anime tropes and actively criticizes them. This is kind of how fandoms on tiktok feel. They're touring fanfics and fanart and actively criticizes tropes that have been in the fandom since the 60s. They want to be in a fandom but they don't want to engage in fandom 

OP totallymandy responds: Just entered back into Reddit after a long day to see this most recent reply. And as a fellow anime fan this making me laugh so much since it’s true! But it sorta hurts too when the reality sets in. Modern fandom is so entitled and bratty and you’d think it’s the minors only but that’s not even true, my age-mates and older seem to be like that. They want to eat their cake and complain all whilst bringing nothing to the potluck… :/ END ID]

-

“Tourist” is an apt name for this sort of fan. They don’t want to be part of our community, and they don’t have to be in order to come into our spaces and consume our work. Even if they don’t steal our work themselves, they feel so entitled to it that they’re fine with ignoring our wishes and letting other people take it to make AI “podfics” for them to listen to (there are a lot of comments on lore.fm’s shutdown announcement video from people telling them to just ignore the writers and do it anyway). They’ll use AI to generate an ending to an unfinished fic because they don’t care about seeing “the ending this writer would have given to the story they were telling”, they just want “an ending”. For these tourist fans, the ends justify the means, and their end goal is content for them to consume, with no care for the community that created it for them in the first place.

I don’t think this is confined to a specific age group. This isn’t “13-year-olds on Wattpad” or “Zoomers on TikTok” or whatever pointless generation war we’re in now. This is coming from people who are new to fandom, whose main experience with creative works on the internet is this new content culture and who don’t understand fandom as a community. That description can be true of someone from any age group.

It’s so easy to find fandom these days. It is, in fact, too easy. Newcomers face no hurdles or challenges that would encourage them to lurk and observe a bit before engaging, and it’s easy for people who would otherwise move on and leave us alone to start making trouble. From tourist fans to content entrepreneurs to random people who just want to gawk, it’s so easy for people who don’t care about the fandom community to reap all of its fruits. 

So when I say maybe fandom should start gatekeeping a bit, I’m referring to the fact that we barely even have a gate anymore. Everyone is on the internet now; the entire world can find us, and they don’t need to bother learning community etiquette when they do. Before, we were protected by the fact that fandom was considered weird and most people didn’t look at it twice. Now, fandom is pretty mainstream. People who never would’ve bothered with it before are now comfortable strolling in like they own the place. They have no regard for the fandom community, they don’t understand it, and they don’t want to. They want to treat it just like the rest of the content they consume online.

And then they’re surprised when those of us who understand fandom culture get upset. Fanworks have existed far longer than the algorithmic internet’s content. Fanworks existed long before the internet. We’ve lived like this for ages and we like it.

So if someone can’t be bothered to respect fandom as a community, I don’t see why I should give them easy access to my fics.

Think of it like a garden gate

When I interact with commenters on my fic, I have this sense of hospitality.

The comment section is my front porch. The fic is my garden. I created my garden because I really wanted to, and I’m proud of it, and I’m happy to share it with other people. 

Lots of people enjoy looking at my garden. Many walk through without saying anything. Some stop to leave kudos. Some recommend my garden to their friends. And some people take the time to stop by my front porch and let me know what a beautiful garden it is and how much they’ve enjoyed it. 

Any fic writer can tell you that getting comments is an incredible feeling. I always try to answer all my comments. I don’t always manage it, but my fics’ comment sections are the one place that I manage to consistently socialize in fandom. When I respond to a comment, it feels like I’m pouring out a glass of lemonade to share with this lovely commenter on my front porch, a thank you for their thank you. We take a moment to admire my garden together, and then I see them out. The next time they drop by, I recognize them and am happy to pour another glass of lemonade.

My garden has always been open and easy to access. No fences, no walls. You just have to know where to find it. Fandom in general was once protected by its own obscurity, an out-of-the-way town that showed up on maps but was usually ignored.

But now there’s a highway that makes it easy to get to, and we have all these out-of-towner tourists coming in to gawk and steal our lawn ornaments and wonder if they can use the place to make themselves some money.

I don’t care to have those types trampling over my garden and eating all my vegetables and digging up my flowers to repot and sell, so I’ve put up a wall. It has a gate that visitors can get through if they just take the time to open it.

Admittedly, it’s a small obstacle. But when I share my fics, I share them as a gift with my fellow fans, the ones who understand that fandom is a community, even if they’re lurkers. As for tourist fans and entrepreneurs who see fic as content, who have no qualms ignoring the writer’s wishes, who refuse to respect or understand the fandom community…well, they’re not the people I mean to share my fic with, so I have no issues locking them out. If they want access to my stories, they’ll have to do the bare minimum to become a community member and join the AO3 invite queue.

And y’know, I’ve said a lot about fandom and community here, and I just want to say, I hope it’s not intimidating. When I was younger, talk about The Fandom Community made me feel insecure, and I didn’t think I’d ever manage to be active enough in fandom spaces to be counted as A Member Of The Community. But you don’t have to be a social butterfly to participate in fandom. I’ll always and forever be a chronic lurker, I reblog more than I post, I rarely manage to comment on fic, and I go radio silent for months at a time--but I write and post fanfiction. That’s my contribution.

Do you write, draw, vid, gif, or otherwise create? Congrats, you're a community member.

Do you leave comments? Congrats, you're a community member.

Do you curate reclists? Congrats, you're a community member.

Do you maintain a fandom blog or fuckyeah blog? Congrats, you're a community member.

Do you provide a space for other fans to convene in? Congrats, you're a community member.

Do you regularly send asks (off anon so people know who you are)? Congrats, you're a community member.

Do you have fandom friends who you interact with? Congrats, you're a community member.

There’s lots of ways to be a fan. Just make sure to respect and appreciate your fellow fans and the work they put in for you to enjoy and the gift economy fandom culture that keeps this community going.

[lackadaisycats]

Miss Tracy, do u have any advice on researching a specific time period?

(also I know u probably won't see this, but I love your art and you are awesome)

Look for books about the time period, but also books written contemporaneous to the time period, whether fiction or non-fiction. Check used book stores for out of print gems at good prices.

If photography was a technology that existed in the time period you're researching, look for photos of people doing everyday things. Take in the context, the geography, the economic situation. Look at how they're dressed and what their clothes say about them.

Newspaper archives. Sometimes newspapers of the past are free to browse. Sometimes you have to pay for access. Old shopping catalogue collections - if they exist for your time period - are great too.

Documentary films about time periods, or specific events in a given time period can be useful, even if only for a broad overview.

Museum exhibits - helpful whether you're looking for famous paintings or artifacts of past civilizations in a world renowned institution, or trying to dig up something impossibly unique in an oddity denture museum in some forgotten place in the Midwest. If you can't go in person, check online. You can find museums with vintage clothing or household appliance collections from even a few decades ago. Some museums have extensive, searchable online collections too. Take the Metropolitan Museum for instance.

If you can visit historical sites relevant to your area of interest, do it! Do those little guided walking tours. Do the ghost tours even - they're often fairly history-centric with some paranormal folklore for added spice. Sometimes they get you access to places you otherwise can't enter. Check historical societies local to cities or towns of interest.

If you need information about something deeply specific, check the internet for communities that form around that deeply specific topic. I've found tidbits of useful info searching around old forum posts from radio enthusiasts, Model T owners, and people who collect old telephone booths. (Granted, it's getting harder to search for this kind of stuff nowadays.)

-----------

Be careful of AI trash, whether it's generative images, text descriptions, or entire articles. Don't rely much on film or television for accuracy. Some things are more interested in being accurate than others, but there's almost always some artistic license taken. If you're trying to be particularly accurate about something, triple check it for confirmation. Misinformation has had a way of spreading like insidious mildew even before AI started disseminating it with delusory authority.

Lastly, if you don't enjoy doing this kind of historical research like a weird little detective-creature, consider loosening up on the 'historical' aspect of your writing. It's okay to not focus on historicity in your fiction. But if you're going to dive in whole-hog on history, bear in mind it's an ongoing, often time-consuming adventure in information-finding.

(Thank you for the kind words!)

[sunonyoreface]

He Knows - Simon "Ghost" Riley Pt. 24

An: This is it!

Word count: 2134

Warnings: none :)

The curtains in my living room window look different than I remember them last. Like someone moved them ever so slightly to see a better angle of my driveway. I sit here now, the car in park, but still humming with life because half of me believes if I turn it off now, I’ll foreshadow my own death.

The other half of me considers the advice from an online therapy forum I read a few weeks ago. Advice I doubt is from a real medical professional or has been proven to be true. Advice that should be prescribed in person and by a real therapist: The chances of a “once in a lifetime” event happening more than once in your life are so slim it isn’t worth worrying about it happening again.

Sometimes it’s enough to ease my mind, but not tonight.

However, with a deep breath and a certain heaviness settling on my shoulders, I twist the fob and observe the silence that falls over the car as the radio shuts off and the cool air vanishes.

By all means it’s a beautiful evening. The sun is setting and a sweet floral breeze brushes the hair off my shoulders. It’s an early start to the season with the crocuses done blooming and the lilacs having already started. The house I rent is in a small southern town occupied mostly by the elderly and a few young families who wanted to escape city life. Children are expected to be home right around now. It’s a safe community where most people are comfortable occasionally forgetting to lock their doors, or they simply don’t bother to begin with. I will never be one of those people. There’s a reason I had to change my name and move halfway across the country. Once you enter the protection program, there is no forgetting to lock your doors.

My hand clenches around the switchblade as I step through the side door. Inside, it’s quiet and the room takes on the golden hour’s warm glow. I walk through the house, sparing a quick glance inside each mostly empty room. Nothing stands out.

As I approach the kitchen, the tension in my back starts to ease. The bag drops off my shoulders and onto the table. I set the knife on the vinyl countertop and flick the kettle on. See? Nothing to worry about. It’s nice enough to take my drink out on the back porch and watch the rest of the sunset.

My attention switches once again to the vibrant sky out the window before I tear myself from the sight for a tea bag and a mug. The rumble of the water grows, yet when I hear the click indicating it should shut off, it doesn’t. It hasn’t even boiled yet. My breath catches in my chest as I freeze in my tracks, still facing the pantry. That wasn’t the kettle at all. It wasn’t the fan in the room over or some other appliance coming to life. That distinct sound, that click, belongs to one thing and one thing only. That was the safety taken off a handgun.

My knife is out of reach, still on the counter. I glance for anything I could use to defend myself in the pantry, but there’s nothing but boxes of cereal and cans of soup.

“I figured this would happen at some point,” I say to the figure in the corner of my eye, pointing the gun. “You people don’t tend to leave loose ends.”

“We don’t,” the dreadfully familiar voice confirms. I was hoping to never hear from him again. Especially not in these circumstances. His tone holds the same seriousness as the last time we spoke, after my father’s death. He told me then that I’d be lucky to never see him again.

I’m still not sure I understand what that means. Maybe I’m about to find out. For some reason, I don’t feel nervous. I’m ready to accept my fate.

Nothing’s felt real the last several months. My life has been stuck in limbo and despite my futile attempts, I’ve been unable to find any sort of meaning. Everything feels hopeless in the grander scheme of things. So if he’s come to take my life, I might even welcome it.

“Good thing you’re not a loose end,” Captain Price spares a small smile as he steps out further from the corner. Had I passed him on the street, I don’t know that I’d recognize him. From his worn jeans to his black windbreaker, the man completely blends in as a civilian.

“Put the gun away and I’ll try to believe you,” Price tilts his head to consider, then nods. The weapon slides easily back into its holster. It’s not like he’d need it anyway. I’m not exactly a formidable opponent.

“Fair enough,” his attention drifts to the box of Earl Grey in my hands. “Are you making tea?”

“Want a cup?” I offer, sliding the lid off the box.

“I would. It was a long trip to get here,” I know what he’s talking about. The few hundred people that live here, chose this place because its hours away from any of the neighbouring cities. People come here to get away from the city life. It has the bare necessities and that’s all they need.

“It’s a long trip to anywhere down here,” my voice feels empty. Void of the passion and desperation that once fueled every decision. Steaming water covers the teabags and fills the cups. “Milk or sugar?”

“Black is fine, thanks,” Price grunts as he settles into a chair at the kitchen table. In the time I’ve been here, I’ve used the table maybe twice. “Do you like it? The peace and quiet?” he muses.

“It’s different than New York,” I hesitantly offer as I set the cups down and take the seat across from him.

“Ah, but do you like it?” Our eyes meet and he knows the answer. “I didn’t think you would. You took well to the chaos of our world. Despite having no former training, you adapted in a way that most couldn’t,” I didn’t realize Price paid that much attention to me. I always assumed he was too preoccupied with the rats and the Russians.

The sweet tea dampens my dry mouth. I take a second sip to buy myself more time. What kind of answer is he looking for? Why is he here of all places? “I always like the business of New York. I guess that’s one thing I found similar between it and 141,” he ponders my response for a moment and a heavy silence blankets the room.

“Do you miss it?” his question feels redundant. Price has had the time and practice to become more patient than I will ever be.

“Yes – look as much fun as I’m having here, you know with you breaking into my house, pointing a gun at me, and drinking my tea. Why the hell are you here, Captain?”

“I’m here to offer you a job,” I blink. A job? There’s no way they want to hire me after what I did. How can they possibly look over the fact that I killed one of their highest-ranking prisoners before they could get any information from him?

“What kind of job?”

“Well I was thinking in our translations department,” Price says. “You’re fluent and have prior experience in this setting. And your history with the Ultranationalists gives you an edge. You also held your own incredibly well last time with no formal training. Give it a couple of months and you will become incredibly valuable to our team.”

Once the shock wears off, I’m almost flattered by his last comment. That’s high praise coming from Price. However, I’m also slightly amused. There’s no way he genuinely expects me to say yes. Does he really believe I’d just drop everything and work for 141? Surely not.

Yet, what is there to drop? My admin job at the town office and the zero friends I’ve made since moving to this place? The only people I talk to are those I work with and they aren’t allowed to know any real information about me or I risk exposing my true identity.  Everyone I once knew back home is off-limits. If they knew I was alive, I would be in even more danger than I was before. Even my mother doesn’t know of my existence. I was dead to her as soon as I killed my father. She would never want to talk to me again. She might even give up my location to the Ultranationalists herself.

Then there’s how I left things with Ghost. The last time I saw him, I was in a pool of my father’s blood. I don’t want to think about how much trouble he got in from letting that happen.

“I don’t know that your head interrogator wants anything to do with me,” I say assuming he doesn’t know Ghost willingly gave me the knife I used to kill my father.

“Whys that?” he says with raised brows as though he’s clueless. Price plays the role well, however he’s anything but.

“I lied to him and used him to get to my father. I’m a thief and a murderer.”

“Those were extreme circumstances, y/n.”

“If I work for you there will always be extreme circumstances,” I respond. “What makes you think you can trust me anyway? I betrayed you all.”

Price shifts in his chair. He takes a moment and gets a real good look at me, like he’s making sure. The shadows around his face have changed slightly. The sun’s gone now, but a fading blue hue falls over the horizon.

The windows are closed, but even if they were cracked, you wouldn’t hear any outside noise. This town is uncomfortably quiet. The wood creaks as Price leans forward again. “Time after time, y/n, you had almost every opportunity to betray us. There were the interviews, the ambush, the rats, the exchange, and even the death of your father. His killing was not a betrayal. None of the information he had would have made a difference,” Price’s list stirs unsettling memories. He notices and adds, “The only betrayal was that of a father to a daughter. You deserved better: loyalty, trust, truth, to be wanted.”

That last word finally cracks something in me. My heart falters and I take a sip of tea in an attempt to hide the effect of his words.

“Yeah, well…” the words trail off. I’ve got nothing else to say.

Something scuffs along the floor in a room over. Had there been any other noise I wouldn’t have noticed it. The sound was unmistakably human. Like someone was leaning against the wall and could no longer wait. I thought I cleared the rooms, but I was already wrong once. Nothing else follows for almost a minute until the floorboards whisper at the edge of the room. My head turns just as the shadow emerges around the dim corner.

“We want you, y/n,” Simon Riley’s coarse voice fills the room. When our eyes meet, I forget how to breathe. My joints stiffen and my feet turn to lead. His demanding presence completely fills the room and even in civilian clothes, Ghost looks like he belongs on a battlefield.

For a moment it truly feels like I am looking at a ghost, at someone who was as good as dead to me. Someone who, an hour ago, I would have guaranteed I would never see or hear of again.

All the memories I’d been trying to forget over these past months begin to surface. I remember the heat of his rough hands on my skin and the pressure of his arms wrapped around me. The brush of his breath past my ears and down my neck. The stability he provided when my whole world was collapsing around me. The way he risked his life for mine countless times. The way he trusted me to make the ultimate decision when it came to my father and my future. He has always wanted me. He has always chosen me. Now, it's my turn to choose.

Nothing has been the same after learning about the Ultranationalists. It’s impossible to be happy when you know the truth. Part of me feels responsible for the horrible things my father has done. I also know I will never be content here. I can’t keep hiding, but I can help. I can work to remedy the evil that has corrupted my family.

“Do you want tea?”

The end, for now. Thank you for the kind words and support throughout this story. If you are a returning reader, thank you for your patience.

[nrdmssgs]

Prazdnik (part 1)

Masterlist

Part 2

Pairing: Nikto x reader Fluff. This guy can't let himself just start a happy life, but its all fluff. AN: I swear, I don't have a single idea, how this happened, but I woke up with the strongest itch to comfort Nikto today. Summary: you are trying to express your gratitude and comfort your colleague in a not-so-conventional way.

You figured out, that Nikto is not a big fan of communicating with others, when he was off duty. You asked him to teach you how to pick locks without extra noise. And so he did - he spent much time and effort between missions to make sure, you know your ways around different types of locks. But every time, you tried to thank him after yet another lesson - he stood up and left the room. As awkward as it looked from the outside, it never seemed to bother him.

He never joined your little group celebrations. Of course, others too sometimes passed them due to various reasons, but Nikto never came. At first, you thought, he just had a full life outside the work and had no time for his colleagues, but soon you noticed, he rarely left the base, even when he had such an opportunity.

On a rare occasion, he was ok with you siting beside him in the armory, as he took care of his gear. Although every time, you approached him, Nikto 'greeted' you with 'is it going to be a question about lock picking or some more of your nonsense?'. 'Nonsense' was you asking him little, not too intimate questions about his life and culture. You just wanted to find out, what makes this man smile, what, if anything at all, brings him peace and comforts him.

Nikto never overshared, but little by little he opened up. He seemed especially at ease, when he told you something about his childhood: little children games, they played with other kids from the neighborhood, his favorite radio-shows from back then, celebrations, they used to have. You couldn't be a hundred percent sure because of his mask - but you thought, his eyes seemed softer at these moments.

There was only one way to find out for sure, if those memories really made him as happy, as you thought. And it also provided you with a way to thank him for his help. So you sank into studying endless forums and videos, to make a surprise. After weeks of preparing (after all, you didn't have that much spare time between the missions, trainings and paper work) you gave a final look to your private room and sighed. It would either humiliate you till the end of times, or bring a smile on his face. So... worth a risk.

"I taught you for almost half a year... only for you to not be able to pick the simplest lock? And where could you possibly lose a key to your own room?" Nikto grumbles, following you down an empty corridor. He was clearly not happy with you interrupting his first calm evening after the mission, and it made you regret your idea in advance.

He opens your door with such ease, as if he was holding not a picklock, but your key. You await any reaction on what he sees inside your room, but Nikto turns away and starts walking back, not even peeking inside.

"Wait! I have to show you something! Its important!" You grab him by the sleeve in desperation and drag back.

Nikto freezes on your threshold, finally seeing, what is exactly going on in your room. He looks back at you in confusion.

"What's this all about? Is it some joke?" He carefully rounds up a large sheet of craft paper laid out on the floor. A sheet, that you painted for almost a week, occasionally looking at photographs of festive tables from Russia.

"Its a surprise. I know, celebrations are not your thing really and you dont celebrate Christmas. But I thought that maybe, just maybe, youll be willing to celebrate something from your childhood with me. This is... skatert`*" You feel awkward. It's a good thing, your room is lit up only with a few candles (one covered with a peeling grater, because he told him, thats how they used to make a fancy lamp out of practically nothing). This way he won't see blush on your face.

He descends on the floor, and moves away a few plates and tangerines, you placed on the paper to be able to properly read, what you've written in the middle of your improvised festive table. You are ready to die of shame then and there, but he reaches out an open palm to you.

"Give me a pen. There is a mistake. 'S novym godom*' goes with 'M' at the end." You can't believe your ears, but pull out a pen from the pocket.

Nikto takes it, but doesn't proceed to correct your writing - he still looks you in the eyes.

"Sadis`, nauchu tebya, kak pravil`no*." You don't understand a single word, put he pats the empty space beside him and you sit down.

"So, what's about all this with a New Year in October?" You almost see amused wrinkles in the corners of his eyes, as if Nikto is smiling. But his question still comes out in a cautious tone.

"Well... Consider this a rehearsal. I wanted to give you your favorite holiday, but I probably made the wrong salad, and the tablecloth is not the same as in your childhood, and instead of champagne we will have tea and instead of a TV... a box with a hole and painted buttons. So you can tell me what to fix, and I'll work on the 'Novyy God 2.0' till the end of December."

Nikto turns to you fully and tilts his head to the side. "You're saying, this is supposed to resemble an Olivier salad?"

"I know, it looks all wrong, but hear me out!" You move a plate with your interpretation of Russian festive food to him. "It tastes much better than it looks! Try!"

He hesitates for a minute, then another. Then he moves the candles further away, so his face remains in the darkness and unfastens the straps holding his mask in place. On one hand you don't mean to make him uncomfortable with your stare, but on the other you genuinely care for his initial reaction to what you've cooked, so you glance at him briefly. You can still see the outlines of scarred skin, but everything you care for is a tiny shadow of a smile, you notice on his lips.

"Kak ty... ok, this tastes much better than it looks." For the first time you hear some unmasked joy in his voice.

For some time, the room falls into a comfortable silence. The candlelight flickers, casting vague shadows on both of you. You rejoice simply at the opportunity to sit quietly next to him and enjoy the moment, while munching on what you've prepared - even if the table is not real, and there are still two and a half months before the holiday. Nikto traces the flowers, you painted on paper with his fingers.

"You even made a TV... What for?" His voice, much softer and quieter than usual, sounds somewhere above your ear. While eating, you moved a bit closer to him and Nikto didn't seem to protest.

"Oh, that's the best part! I remember you telling me, that you used to listen to New Year greetings from the president on radio and television. So today I will work as a president... I don’t know, president of our base."

"My fucking god, you serious?" Nikto almost choked on yet another spoon of salad.

You didn't give yourself time to develop any shame or cringe and proceeded to the big box with a square cut out hole. If you are disgracing yourself for this man to have some good memories of today - you are going all the way down.

"Ok, I have a little speech here. Please bear with the shittiest version of Russian, you've ever heard..."

When you begin to hesitatingly and slowly read the congratulations, Nikto presses his fist to his face and quietly shakes in silent laughter. As you end and proceed to back to your place - he can't hold back his chuckles. It’s so unusual to see this man relaxed, maybe even happy.

"Idi syuda, prezident ty moy*." He motions for you to come over and allows you to sit down and lean against his shoulder, adjusting you so, that his face stays out of your sight. You press yourself against his side, enjoying the unexpected but warm gesture. Who knows, if there ever will be one more time, when you can feel his soft human nature?

But soon his body tenses, his hand, almost covering your shoulders, retreats.

"We don't do this stuff in Russia." Nikto gestures up, and you don't get it right away, what does he mean. But then you see, what exactly he noticed, and curse under your breath. You absolutely forgot a branch of dry eucalyptus that you hung from the ceiling of your room so that it always smells nice.

"No-no-no, Nikto! It's not, what you think, I never meant to-"

"Good thing, of course, you didn't." He jerks away and reaches for his mask. And at this moment a strange, almost crazy idea appears in your head.

"Nikto? How do you do it in Russia?" He freezes with a mask in his hands, his eyes piercing you, as if he tries to read you mind.

"...how we do what?"

"How you... steal a kiss to find out if you have chances? We have this silly thing with a mistletoe. And how do you guys do that?"

He seems to stop breathing. You see his intense gray-blue eyes, studying you, as if this was the first time, he ever saw you. What you make out are his features right now as Nikto hides his face beneath the shadow of his mask.

"We ask. Sometimes, just go for it. There is one tradition, that can be potentially used for this purpose, but..."

"Show me!" Words leave your mouth sooner than you manage to fully understand, what you are asking for.

He hesitates, looking at you, then at the candles. Then he tears off a piece of paper laid out on the floor and divides it in half. Nikto hands one half to you.

“Here you need to write your deepest wish. Don't show it to anyone.” Your wish fits into one short word. He does the same with his piece of paper and surprisingly his wish also looks short.

“Now you need to burn the wish over your glass, so that the ashes fall into the champagne.”

You do as he tells, watching ashes falling into a cup of tea, while he lights up his piece with the nearest candle.

"Now you drink. And then you must kiss somebody, otherwise, the wish never comes true." His voice is barely audible, as if Nikto talks to himself. You drink your tea, not paying attention to the smoky burnt paper taste. When you move closer to him - he doesn't pull you away. But as your face leans closer to his, he sighs apologetically, covers your forehead with his hand and presses his lips against it.

It's not even a kiss, but the strangest caress, you've ever felt. Niktos breath smells of ash and a tangerine, he was eating previously. A celebration, with a drop of sorrow. A happiest moment, that is never allowed. A feast in the middle of a battleground. That's him - that is Nikto.

"Prazdnik moy...*" He whispers and stays like this for a few moments. But then he stands up and disappears behind the door of your room with a quite "I'm sorry."

At the bottom of his mug there is still a piece of unburned paper. Two barely readable letters: "o" and "u" are still there. And if you ever notice them - you will understand, that you two share a wish.

*skatert` (here and next Russian) - a table cloth

*S novym godom - Happy New Year

*Sadis`, nauchu tebya, kak pravil`no - come sit here, I’ll teach you how to do it right

*Idi syuda, prezident ty moy - come here, my president

*Prazdnik moy - my holiday (used as a pet name here. rare one, but possible)

[daisiesonafield-blog]

Fire Aid Benefit Concert For California Wildfire Relief

tldr:

When & where: Kia Forum and Intuit Dome on Jan 30 at 6pm PT. Tickets: onsale Jan 22 at noon PT via Ticketmaster. Your ticket is only valid for the venue you select at the time of purchase. Streaming: on several online platforms, movie theaters and radio stations. Line up: see artists listed above. Plus more artists being announced in the coming days.

Two venues. One night. Your favorite artists coming together for music & solidarity. Shows start at 6pm. Tickets go on sale January 22nd at noon. Stay tuned for more artist announcements in the coming days.

Hosted by Live Nation with AEG Presents and the Azoff family, FireAid will raise money for rebuilding communities devastated by wildfires and supporting efforts to prevent future fire disasters throughout Southern California. Music industry mogul Irving Azoff is producing the concert with Live Nation and AEG Presents. The Eagles, Azoff’s longtime management clients, announced on Wednesday that they’d donated $2.5 million for the concert. American Express, Intuit, and UBS are among the sponsors of the show.

Tickets go on sale Wednesday, Jan. 22 at noon PT via Ticketmaster.

FireAid will be broadcast by select AMC Theatres, Apple Music and the Apple TV app, Max, iHeartRadio, KTLA+, Netflix/Tudum, Paramount+, Prime Video and the Amazon Music Channel on Twitch, SiriusXM, Spotify, SoundCloud, Veeps and YouTube.

The broadcast will motivate viewers across the platforms to submit donations to aid the victims of the wildfires. iHeartRadio will broadcast the show live to more than 860 radio stations across the United States.

FireAid will air days before the Grammy Awards are set to take place at the Crypto.com Arena in Downtown L.A on February 2. The Recording Academy announced Wednesday that it would be shrinking its event lineup for the week leading up to the awards to focus on fundraising efforts. Several other organizations are also hosting smaller benefit concerts to aid wildfire victims.

The FireAid Benefit concert will begin at 6PM PST on January 30th. The concert will be split between the Kia Forum and the Intuit Dome, both starting at the same time. Tickets are only valid for the venue that you selected when you purchased your ticket(s). They are not valid for both venues.

Sources: Deadline, Fireaidla.org, Rolling Stone

[wraheathcliff]

The Lawyer

Ms. Nubbin existed to dance. Not in gilded halls or on a glittered stage but under the wall of disdain and forum of lies which adorned the Silvermoon justice system. Past the heroic, hypocritical idealization of its eager street enforcers, knights, military ambitions and nepo leaders lay a web of vile lawyers and nobles keeping the pockets of magistrates filled and the peasants in check.

Luckily for Nubbin, she was no peasant. But she was no full-blooded elf, nor was she even alive. This should have made it impossible to work in the city, let alone argue and WIN in the courts. So her success in getting Heathcliff’s revolting fortune protected from taxes, fees, fines and general outrage gave her a particular reputation. For being a fucking crafty bitch.

Her methods weren’t always clear, but the results always were. She just waited until they got emotional, dropped their pants in front of the courtroom. Especially if they started moralizing. How stupid the righteous were to preach and scream and banter about their own judgements. Who gives a shit with that approach? Morals were merely perspective, and she was happy to awkwardly expose any bias to unlucky people on the stand for jurors just waiting for their next lunch break. 

And she made headlines. Whenever a case involving the rights and crimes of those accused to be among the “wretched” —a word she has fiercely condemned as unreasonably cruel and biased— came into focus, there she was, ready to defend and present far more juicy dirt on the supposed victims than her wrongfully accused client. 

Was it crimes fueled by an arcane addiction or did a medical condition long ignored by healers finally result in tragedy for all? Did a gang of criminals steal and terrorize a caravan of shipments from Pandaria or was that peach just too juicy to resist in a community starved for healthy alternatives while magistrates ate off tits and golden banquet tables? Here, try this one, take a bite. She’ll have a whole crate delivered privately to your home before you bring down that gavel. 

Her advertising was a cringe fest of pithy cliches and gaudy promises, yet it yielded results. 

"Better Summon Nubbin - they got NUBBIN on you!”

In addition to the atrocious graphic design, photos of her most notable connections crowded the wall of her office. Smiling handshakes and proud grins from the famous to the formidable. This and way too many action shots of hawkstriders she was constantly betting on, the only real hole in her pocket and favorite weakness. That and killer suits, all hand-tailored to her specifications to deliver maximum results. 

She was glued to a radio broadcast of today's heated race, pacing and smoking up a storm in her office when she heard a knock on the door. It was probably “her”. Heathcliff warned Nubbins by crow with a hastily written note, instructing her to spare no expense on the escort and to expect her unannounced arrival. Fucking crows. She hated how they always shat on her balcony. At least his pay was worth the shit she cleaned up for him, both in and out of the courtroom.

She hoped he gambled right on this one, unlike the fucking strider with a sprained toe hemorrhaging all her money as she listened impatiently. But it wouldn’t be the first wheel she greased, and she was looking forward to making this one move. Heathcliff’s plan was stupid, but money doesn’t have to be smart. Only she needed to be.  

(Art by coax 콕스)

@lillandyrshadowglade

[gaotoko-archive]

Hello everybirdie!! I've finally posted in the lost media wiki forums about hatoful Boyfriend! I hope we can come together and find everything! I've also made a discord all about archiving everything hb related. I'd like to make a full comprehensive archive of all hb media, I'll be posting things I find/translate on this blog and in a Google drive. If you have any leads please let me know💖

[stirdrawsandreblaws]

anti-fascist toolkit advice copypasted from heardislandgov on bsky (lightly edited for clarity by me):

Comms: Uniden SDS100 radio (Can pick up 90% of scrambled ICE and Fed, local police comms) Teargas: Mira CM-IO1 or MSA respirators. (Any activated charcoal filters work ok on teargas) Handcuffs: Gall Handcuff key Zip tie: Scarib tactical cutter on keychain, or watch how to break on knees if tied in front Trackers: AirTags work fine. Before protesting, slip under insole in shoe, or hide in wearable medical device (wear cheap heart rate strap with it hidden) Note: some feds now use “DM” (yellow smoke) instead of teargas/CS which induces vomiting and will beat some charcoal and carbon, but 3M 60928 Organic Vapor/Acid Gas filters work great and are readily available. Also, steel toe boots are great for kicking back smoke and gas cans

images from the original thread, with alt text from the thread (where available):

additional thread update:

All riot enforcement units operate as a unified “mesh”. Anything that comes out from stores behind them, blocks unified front line march, or isolates components, will stop them in their tracks. They operate on visual contact, and will not advance if they lose accountability for even a minute. this seal has been in an Incident command post. The more agencies, the looser the comms get. Use the Scanners on phones, use community chat forums, update the whole town. Police units plan rotations, protestors don’t. Plan time chunks and backups to sustain visibility. Rest.

[lgbtqiamuslimpedia]

Boyah

Boyah (plural: Boyat) was subcultural identity of AFAB non-binary,tomboy,demi girl & trans-masculine folks of Persian Gulf. Boyat are asigned female at birth,but express gender atypical behaviour. The origin of this queer subculture is unclear, some boyat claimed that it was started through online forums & groups. [citation needed]

Boyah subculture was more visible in Gulf states (including Kuwait,Oman,Saudi Arabia,UAE,Bahrain). Boyah identity may fall under the modern Transgender and Non-binary umbrella. However some people may considered them as people of forth gender.

Sexuality

Boyat folk's sexuality can be confusing in various cultural contexts. Most of the Boyat had intimate and romantic relationships with cis-girls in their past life, but they do not consider themselves as homosexual.

The term Boyah itself does not mean lesbian in arabic.In later life many Boyat had to pursue a heterosexual marriage & had children.Because marriage is a obligatory in local arabic customs.In addition to this, some boyah were androsexual & interested in boys only.

Culture & Lifestyle

Trans-masculine/tomboys/AFAB non-binary/AFAB genderpunk took the “Boyah” cultural identity in their early adolescence. On the otherhand, some boyat took the male role to challenge societal gender norms and stereotypes in Arabic Gulf States.

In general, a boyah is characterized by no make-up, no feminine expressions, no feminine name,feminine pronouns.In boyah subculture, Boyat community may use a massive masculine watches.Boyat people worn loose-fitting male cloth with a touch of the military, vibrantly coloured dresses,shirts and boyah jeans(which are baggy with big prints all over them). Since the age of internet Arab's boyat community started informal groups,online forums.

Most of the boyat have to lead double lives because gulf states has strict cultural gender roles especially for womxn.Many of them are forced to get married.In general Boyah phenomena is considered a disgrace to an arab family's honour.Additionally atypical gender expression is seems to be indecent and deviant in GCC states.Many boyat face stigma for not adhering with rigid patriarchal gender roles.

After leaving home, many undergo a radical transformation,changing their clothes at school/college or a friend's house.While in transition ,they run no real risk of being caught because,while in public, Emirates women are required to wear the national dress - a long black over-garment called an abaya, which makes it easier to switch roles without drawing attention.

Media

In general, Gulf media portrays queerness in negetive ways. A Boyah named Abeer appeared on the Saudi TV Show “Ya Hala” where he/ze said that he/ze was attracted to women while still at school. He/Ze had a complete love relationship with a classmate for a long time. Another person named Hamood joined a show of Radio Sawa where he/ze explained ze was rebelling against social (gender) norms and his/zee family’s restrictions through this boyah phenomena.

On a national television of UAE, a boyah named Bandar openly spoke about his queer relationship with another girl and expressed the desire to marry her and have children with her through IVF. His statement on Abu Dhabi's national television shocked the whole nation.

Decline of Boyah Culture

In the Persian Gulf region, boyah identity became very controversial since 2007. In 2007, the Kuwaiti parliament amended Article 198 of the country’s penal code so that anyone “imitating the opposite sex in any way” could face up to a year in jail and/or a fine of 1,000 dinars ($3,500). A further problem was that the law made no attempt to define “imitating the opposite sex” So it was basically left to the discretion of the police. Within a couple of weeks at least 14 people had been arrested in Kuwait City & thrown into prison. Boyat made their debut as a public concern in 2008 when Dubai police denounced cross-dressing - its chief, Dahi Khalfan Tamim, called on the Ministry of Social Affairs to find out how widespread the practice is and what causes it.

In 2009, Dubai launched a public campaign under the slogan "Excuse Me, I am a Girl", which cautioned against “masculine” behaviour among AFAB queers & tomboys and aimed to steer them towards "femininity". The impetus for this was a moral panic which swept through several Gulf states at that time, regarding the Boyah phenomena. 2 months after announcing the campaign the police persecuted 40 people (for their gender atypical expression), imprisoned them for 3 years in jail.In addition, trans-masculine/trans males,trans women,gender-queers were also shamed & abused by the UAE's police team.

Public Attitudes

Many conservative patriarchal arab people see a greater danger in the Boyah subcultural practices; they fear it can become permanent and cause great distress for the women and their families.

Psychiatrist Yousef Abou Allaban says, "It can go extreme, where they change their sex and have an operation.'' Saudi journalist Yousef Al-Qafari said in an interview on Radio Sawa that family disintegration and lack of true love have led women to act like a man. Al-Qafari said education was the best way to tackle this phenomenon.He called on the Ministry of Education to take up this role.

Social worker Nadia Naseer said, “Families play an essential role in such cases. Families should monitor their female members, especially when they start acting like men by cutting their hair short, wearing men’s clothing, or refusing to wear women’s accessories”. She also said, when a girl or woman does this,she is looking for attention & sending a message that she is a boyah.

Saudi writer Randa Alsheikh, in one of her columns, said that she attended a social gathering where she saw a group of females who appeared almost completely like men.“I would not be exaggerating if I say I could not tell the difference between them and men,” she wrote.She said that they looked, talked and walked like men & “even worse” some appeared to be in their 40s. We need to quickly address this phenomenon to contain these girls so that they are able to build good families and a healthy society,”

[boombox-fuckboy]

Hey, @t0tally-n0t-3m0, figured this might be easier to read as a post. Here's 24 pods with nonbinary lead characters to get you started. There's more out there, so if anyone wants to add on, go for it.

Additional Postage Required: (Sci-Fi) Adventures of an interstellar courier who starts to get glimpses of the past from their packages.

Anamnesis (on the Tin Can Audio feed): (Mystery, Weird Fiction) Someone wakes in a temple in an empty town with no memory. Short, really nice sound design.

Badlands Cola: (Mystery, Supernatural & Horror elements) big city PI Sunny is hired to find information on a rural cult leader, and is drawn into a world of strange radio, horse enthusiasts, and dinosaur bones.

The Dead Letter Office of Somewhere, Ohio (one of two leads, you'll meet them halfway in): (Supernatural, Weird) Two workers for an Ohio dead letter office read the strange confiscated mail their organisation collects, and do some follow up investigation.

either: (Weird Fiction, Sci-Fi, Romance) An explosion at a duck factory sends a pet robot to another reality, connecting two very different (but both lonely) people.

Hello From The Hallowoods: (Supernatural Horror) A dramatic entity beyond your comprehension visits your nightmares to tell stories of the people (in varying degrees of human and alive) that inhabit the strange, deadly, and beautiful Hallowoods.

Inn Between: (Fantasy, Adventure) Ever wondered what the party gets up to at the tavern between D&D sessions? (Not a tabletop).

Jar of Rebuke: (Supernatural, Horror elements) An unkillable amnesiac scientist (they die, just have a hard time staying dead) investigates weird entities, makes friends, and eats a lot of tasty food in the strange town he lives in.

Khôra Podcast: (Sci-Fi, Adventure) Somewhere between inspired by and adapted from greek mythology, a space adventure following four mythological figures on their search for the golden fleece.

Less is Morgue: (Comedy, Horror elements) A ghoul and a ghost host a podcast about whatever they please in the ghoul's mom's basement, and manage to get off topic anyway.

Light Hearts: (Slice-of-Life, Supernatural elements) Three friends run a lightly haunted queer café. Upbeat and wholesome.

The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity, and Mortality: (Weird Fiction, Supernatural, Horror elements) A friendly AI tour guide leads you on a tour of the Mistholme Museum, explaining the strange and often alternatural story behind each item. (To be clear, the nb lead is an AI with no concept of gender, but the creator is NB also and it is far from the only nb character.)

Monstrous Agonies: (Advice, Supernatural) An interpersonal advice show for supernatural entities and other people living liminally in the modern world.

ROGUEMAKER: (Sci-fi, Whodunnit) A commercial space flight explodes and passengers are left isolated in the escape pods, only connected for minutes at a time and unsure what happened, or why.

Second Star to the Left: (Sci-Fi) Audio logs of a colonist sent to a new world and her communications with the minder in charge of keeping her alive.

Sidequesting: (Fantasy) A wholesome podcast following Rion, an adventurer with a difference: they only do sidequests.

SINKHOLE: (Sci-fi, Weird Fiction) Forum posts from a data restoration community in a near future where the human brain is its own computer and one city hosts a massive void.

Skyjacks: Courier's Call: (Tabletop, Fantasy) Three young postal workers aboard a skyship go on various adventures. Kid-friendly but enjoyable for all ages.

The Starport Inn: (Supernatural, Mystery) An FBI agent sent to a rural town to solve a disappearance finds they've walked into something much stranger.

The Supernatural Protection Agency: (Supernatural) Call logs for a helpline that aims to solve the supernatural problems plaguing your life.

Tell No Tales: (Supernatural, Horror elements) Leo Quinn, secretary to the man in charge of the world's leading ghost removal service, interviews various ghosts in an attempt to create a device capable of actually recording them, in the hopes of taking down the company they work for.

Trial and Error: (Sci-Fi) Interviews with various AI as a scientist attempts to make sense of spontaneous machine sentience.

Under the Electric Stars: (Sci-Fi) A courier's failed heist to help their AI friend/navigator pulls them into a world of crime organisations and unethical science.

The Weird: (Tabletop, Supernatural, Comedy, Horror elements) The two staff members at The Department of the Weird travel America in their shitty Ford Fiesta to investigate various strange happenings

[felassan]

post from Dragon Age: Dreadwolf developer Luke B. (Game Systems Director for Dragon Age) on the unofficial BioWare forum:

"Hype! As someone who has been working on 'the next dragon age' since the beginning of 2016 I am beyond excited! What I'm really looking forward to, on top of seeing everyone's reactions to the game, is when we're allowed to talk about the specifics - hit me up a little after the launch and I will talk mechanics and math for daaaaays. Until then I'll be mostly radio silent...but if you harass the community managers enough they'll hopefully get me in front of a camera earlier 😉" [source]

[vikkirosko]

Wait, so you so you were doing sally face now? Sally face boys with a reader from Russia? Or South Park?

Headcanons From Russia

🎮 Sal Fisher x Reader 🎸

You and Sal met when you and your family moved into a new apartment. He went to meet you and immediately heard an unfamiliar language. Your parents didn't speak English, which surprised him. The door was opened to him by you, his age, who greeted him with a friendly smile and greeting with an accent

You were originally from Russia and you moved because of your parents' work. Sal knew what it was like to be in a new city, even though he moved from another state, not another country, but he decided to help you adapt. He introduced you to his friends and you began to spend time together often. Sometimes Sal helped you with English, because you continued to learn the language even after moving

Sal enjoyed spending time with you. You were happy to talk about how you lived in Russia and how life there was different from what Sal was used to. You weren't afraid of him because of his prosthesis, you noticed it only at your first meeting, and then treated it as if it was normal, even though it took your parents a while to get used to it, but Sal was grateful to you for not dwelling on it

Sal was glad that you moved to their city, because if it wasn't so, then you would never have met. Despite the fact that it was difficult for you to get used to some things, but you tried, and he was ready to help you until you feel at home in a new city

🎨 Larry Johnson x Reader 🎶

You and Larry met at school. You were a new student who had recently moved to Nockfell and you had to get used to a new city, a new school and new classmates. You spoke with an accent and Larry wondered where you came from. He came up to you at recess and talked to you, which made you smile. You were glad to have the opportunity to meet new people and told him that you and your family moved from Russia quite recently. This surprised Larry, but he was interested in getting to know you better

You and Larry began to communicate often and you began to spend a lot of time in the apartment where he lived with his mother. It didn't bother you that this apartment was in the basement. He noticed that there wasn't much that could confuse you. You didn't tense up when you saw the police radio in his room, you weren't afraid when you were walking together on the fifth floor, and when he told you ghost stories, you told him stories from your childhood that surprised Larry

You were the one who suggested Larry to date. You weren't the one who beat around the bush for a long time, so you preferred to tell him directly about your feelings, but even after you started dating, little changed in your relationship. You still got into various adventures and spent time with his friends, who gladly accepted you into their company. Several times Larry drew you, which caused a blush on your cheeks. It seemed nice to him, because something frightening did not cause you strong emotions, but something cute confused and caused a smile on your lips

Sometimes Larry thought about how you could live together when you get older. It was his little secret that he didn't tell even to his best friend Sal. He did not know what was waiting for you in the future and did not want to entertain false hopes for himself and you, but your future together was what he secretly aspired to from everyone

👓 Todd Morrison x Reader 📚

You and Todd met on the Internet when you were living in Russia. You both spent a lot of time on the forum and soon after meeting there began to communicate. You knew English well and you discussed a lot. Todd didn't tell you, but he was sorry that you wouldn't be able to meet in person in the next few years. He was sure of this until you wrote to him that your father had been offered a new job and you were moving to America, and not somewhere else, but to Nockfell

Todd hurried to you when he saw your family's car pull up to the house. Your parents were surprised when they found out that you had a friend who lived not only in the same city with you, but even in the same house, but they were glad that you wouldn't feel lonely, and Todd was glad that now you could communicate in the real world

You and Todd have started spending a lot of time together both at home and at school. You often came to the apartment where his family lived. Larry often began to joke about the fact that you are dating, but you hide it from others. At first, you took it as simple jokes, until you actually started dating, which Todd directly told his friends. Todd really liked you, with all your little oddities. When something annoyed you, you started speaking in Russian, what you ate sometimes seemed strange to him, as well as some everyday things that you considered ordinary, but it didn't bother him

Some of your classmates didn't understand how you could be together, because you were completely different, but Todd had a different opinion. You really didn't look alike, but that didn't stop you from communicating, liking each other and being in a relationship. It was these differences that balanced you and made your relationship calmer and more comfortable

[gyumibear]

ᯓᡣ𐭩 STUPID CUPID !! park wonbin smau

pairing: campus crush!wonbin x journalist!reader

genre: smau + written. romcom. suggestive. love spell au. college au. angst. "strangers" to lovers.

synopsis: after your latest forum fails miserably, you're almost out of an extracurricular! that is, until a mysterious account going by the name "cupid" brings you just the thing you need to fix your reputation: park wonbin, radio show host and your longtime crush. with the help of cupid, wonbin suddenly falls head over heels in love with you! you'd expect this to be a good thing right? but no! everyone's starting to notice how strange wonbin's acting and now it's up to you to figure out how and if you can get wonbin back to normal before anyone finds out what you've done. especially because "cupid" has disappeared... stupid cupid.

series masterlist | profiles: hate91.1

wonbin — 02, third year student majoring in communications, the host and face of hate91.1, has almost gotten expelled like three times for his digital footprint, eunseok's roommate. hate91.1 — also known as the broadcasting/radio club, has pulled in lots of listeners off wonbin's voice alone. has a lot of sway in the school's student body. discusses news, movies and other forms of entertainment: but mostly to hate on things.

eunseok — 01, fourth year student majoring in english creative writing, also a member of the journalism club, but stepped down as president last year to help with hate91.1, wonbin's roommate shotaro — 00, last year student majoring in visual media, current president of the radio club, highly popular around school because of his kindness, talent and looks, sungchan's roommate sungchan — 01, last year student majoring in pre-medical studies, vice-president of the radio club, graduating early because of his pre-med program, not selling his username, shotaro's roommate

taglist ── open! (14/50): @seunghancore @pxnklover @glorism @nujeskz @soheendo @starwonb1n @miyawwn @yoursyuno @akemiixx01 @i03jae @bebubilu @film-sea @saranghoeforanton @https-yeonjun

[bekolxeram]

Hi! I have 2.5 questions I was wondering about while thinking of a possible 802/803 disaster. Could you help clear a few things up for me?

If a plane were unable to land for some reason, how could it be brought down to earth without crashing?

Upon landing, a plane has to decelerate. Hypothetically, could there be a failure of some kind that would prevent the airplane from slowing down before it reaches the end of the runway? If so, are there any ways to help slow it down?

I’m sure there are plenty of answers available on the Internet, but I was hoping to get some more nuanced insights from you. If you don’t feel like answering, though, please don’t feel any pressure to respond. I can wait a few weeks before I find out what they came up with. 😅

Thank you! I love answering asks like this!

Full disclosure, I'm not a pilot, just an enthusiast. Everything I know about aviation is based on observation, years of consuming content about the industry and lurking on pilot forums. Please correct me if any professional happens to come across my posts.

This is NOT an argumentative piece against other theories or predictions for S8, just an opportunity to be curious about flying, maybe learn a cool thing or two. (Yes, on my part too.) If you don't care for this, please do not read further and block the tag #aviation realism.

To answer your first question, it depends on why landing is deemed riskier than staying airborne in that particular case.

If something happens to the flight crew, incapacitating both pilots, it actually would go pretty much like Airport 1975. Now, I have to point out how improbable this scenario is. The pilots in a flight crew are not allowed to be served the same crew meal on board in case of food-borne illness, some airlines even advise them against sharing a meal at the same restaurant shortly before a flight. Let's say there's some spy movies level sabotage taking out both pilots without damaging the aircraft or harming the passenger, the cabin crew would enter the cockpit and try to revive the pilots with oxygen and remove them from flight control, just as they're trained to. You don't want someone passed out against the yoke or control column and pushing the nose of the plane down. Then, the cabin crew would ask for medical professionals amongst the passengers, but they'd likely avoid openly requesting assistance with the flying itself unless absolutely necessary. A panicked cabin never helps surviving a serious aviation accident.

There was a Southwest flight last year with its captain fainted mid-flight. A member of the cabin crew should've stayed in the cockpit with the remaining pilot according to protocol, but an off-duty airliner pilot in full uniform commuting to his place of work was spotted, so the cabin crew invited him to help out with radio communication in the fight deck.

If both pilots in the cockpit are totally incapacitated and no one else is qualified to fly an airliner on board, the cabin crew would probably take over radio communication with ATC and ask for further instructions. Even if that particular airline doesn't train their cabin crew to operate the radio, they can always call their airline for help via onboard wifi or satellite phone. Exactly like what Nancy the stewardess does in Airport 1975.

The cabin crew would never ask a random passenger into the cockpit and fly the plane. Also, we unfortunately live in the post-9/11 world, where the cockpit door is locked during flight. Only the pilots in the cockpit and the cabin crew with a secret code can open the door, which is bullet proof. Except when there's a breach in the cabin section of the fuselage, resulting in an explosive decompression, the cockpit door would fly open by itself to balance out the pressure difference.

Continuing on the Airport 1975 theme, what if there's some significant damage to the cockpit, injuring even killing the flight crew? Well, modern airliners are built to be quite resilient. There were 2 different incidents involving a broken cockpit windshield and a partially sucked out pilot in the past, and they both managed to land safely with no serious injuries. The more recent Sichuan Airlines one was even flying over the high mountains of the Tibetan plateau, with multiple automated system, including autopilot, damaged by the rapid decompression and were inoperable. To completely incapacitate the whole flight crew, there has to be much more severe damages to the flight deck, but at the same time, not severe enough to make the whole plane uncontrollable and fall straight out of the sky.

Which brings me to your next question.

A passenger airliner has many components to decelerate the plane for a smooth and safe landing, namely the flaps to slow down the plane during descent and provide extra lift to keep it afloat at low speed, then once it hits the ground, spoilers to disrupt airflow, reverse thrust to turn the thrust backwards and good old brakes to stop the momentum by friction. So if keeping the plane in the sky is preferable to landing it as soon as possible, it could be due to issues with the aforementioned systems.

It can be a landing gear problem, maybe one or more gears fail to lock, or the whole thing completely fail to deploy. That would not be ideal, but modern airliners are designed to withstand a gear-up belly landing. The pilots might want to circle over the airfield to attempt troubleshooting and burn off fuel to reduce the weight of the aircraft first, but it can be done, and it has been done, quite a few times.

(Please be aware, laying firefighting foam on the runway in anticipation for a gear up/gear malfunction landing is no longer recommended. Studies show it doesn't really help with slowing down the plane, and it can take away valuable resources if the aircraft does catch on fire.)

In case of the nose gear wheel being locked in a horizontal position, rendering gear retraction impossible, like JetBlue 292 I mentioned before, it would be a significantly larger threat, but it's likely to be fine regardless. (That didn't stop the LAFD from mobilizing over 100 firefighters all over the city to LAX on standby anyway.)

If any of the other systems used to reduce an aircraft's speed on approach is inoperable (flaps, spoilers, thrust reverser, brakes), you may need a longer runway to stop the plane in time, but airliner pilots are still well trained for any of those situations. Just last week, there was a Virgin Atlantic A350 at LAX landing without thrust reversers due to a hydraulic problem. Yes, a lot of ARFF trucks were deployed. Yes, the brakes got a bit smoking hot, but it was landed alright.

So if you think you may have issues slowing down a plane on landing, just declare a mayday, look for the longest runway nearby with optimal weather, no rain or ice making the runway slippery, minimum crosswind blowing the plane sideways, and preferably strong head wind to help blow the plane backwards, enhancing braking performance.

You may ask, what if multiple deceleration systems or even all of them fail? It's highly unlikely, because there are 3 independent hydraulic systems in an airliner, and basic flight control can be achieved with just one.

There have only been 2 total hydraulic failure landing attempts I can think of so far, United 232 and the 2003 DHL attempted shootdown in Baghdad (JAL123 doesn't count, it lost its whole tail). The United one unfortunately crashed at the last moment, even with the help of a flight instructor onboard, but still, half of the passengers survived a statistically unsurvivable accident. The DHL A300 landing was much more successful. After a surface-to-air missile hit the left wing of the aircraft, it caught fire and all 3 hydraulic systems were lost, rendering the plane uncontrollable by usual means. The flight crew ended up steering the aircraft by differential engine thrusts, just like in the United 232 accident, and managed to land back at Baghdad International Airport after overshooting the runway and stopped at an area just outside of the airfield, filled with landmines. (Military personnel guided the flight crew to safety.)

The point is, well trained commercial airliner pilots have many tricks up their sleeves to stop their plane even in the most dire situation. On the other hand, modern airliners have so many automated systems in place that even a total amateur can land them with sufficient guidance from flight instructors on the ground. Tom Scott landed a 737 in a simulator with the help of a certified airline flight instructor for instant.

But if the show decides to combine the two in true disaster movie fashion, I can see how difficult it would be to land the plane safely. Hypothetically, the plane is not expected to be able to stop before the end of the runway, and the people in the pilot seats don't have any better idea, what can be done?

We can perhaps learn from aircraft carriers. Their runways are short, because well, they're ships, in the middle of the ocean, so to prevent fighter jets from overshooting and ending up in the drink, there is a mechanical system called arresting gear to physically catch the aircraft. Military aircrafts usually have a hook in the back to catch arresting cables when landing. It's not quite possible for a commercial airliner making an emergency landing, but there's also the barricade method, seen in Airport '79, with a sort of strong but elastic net erected at the end of the runway.

A lot of US civilian airports in real life actually have a kind of arrestor system installed to prevent catastrophic runway excursion, it's called the engineered materials arrestor system (EMAS). It's basically a kind of soft and energetically absorbent material laid down at the end of the runway. If an aircraft overshoots the runway and hit the EMAS, its landing gear wheels would sink into the material, and halting the aircraft pretty quickly. The landing gear might break off, the passengers might have a pretty tough ride, but it's better than slamming into something solid.

If we completely throw reality out of the way, I say we can't control the weather, the length and the incline of the runway, but we can control the wind. This will probably get me excommunicated from the avgeek community, but I say we put a giant 4 engine airliner at the end of the runway and just jet blast that baby, create the head wind it needs.

Oh, and you know we now have someone working on a big production, hit TV show? I say get a bunch of industrial strength giant fans for special effects and blow the plane backwards.

[mallgawths]

Please "enjoy" this long, rambling, text post about all the toxic parts of being an early 2000s mall goth that's been sitting in my drafts for weeks.

I’m keeping this blog to be nostalgic for the years 1999-2004, but holy shit “mall goth” was such an insult back then, it meant you were a poser who just bought your outfit at Hot Topic.

Listening to Evanescence was a social death sentence and for posers, Emo meant “indie rock” about suicide and breakups, no one had heard of MCR yet and when they eventually did, it was for 14 year old posers. Marilyn Manson was corny and decidedly “not goth”, Blink 182 was for tweens who just discovered Avril Lavigne or for gross frat boys. All pop punk was for tweens and gross frat boys, if you liked them before the genre got big, too bad, but you could say they’re sell outs and you only like their older stuff. Nine Inch Nails wasn’t industrial because it was on the radio. If anyone had heard of an industrial band, they were too mainstream to be industrial. Wumpscut was for try hards trying to prove how industrial they were, some Skinny Puppy was ok, but only their oldest stuff, KMFDM was basically mainstream rock. Kittie was acceptable if you were a girl, all that 90s girl metal was fine actually, but probably only if you were a girl. Korn was for middle schoolers.

“Cringe” wasn’t really a word, but “poser” was, and if you spelled it “poseur”, you were trying too hard and obviously a poser yourself. If you said you hated preps, you were a poser. You were generally allowed to like one or two mainstream pop bands, but it couldn’t be anything current, and you had to be kind of ironic about it.

We used to call goths who we thought were beneath us “gawfs” or “goffiks” (side note: this is why it drives me crazy when people say they think My Immoral isn’t a troll, because saying “goffik” was like a huge “I’m actually a goth, making fun of worse goths on the internet” dogwhistle). These were, of course, all online because we only knew other mall goths in real life, and we all generally stuck together even if we didn’t like each other. We denied being goth if anyone called us such, because we knew we weren’t good enough at being goth to call ourselves goth. “Scene” meant any kind of alternative scene for a little bit, and when it finally mean big haired screamo, they were obviously posers, and they didn’t want to be called goth and we didn’t want other people to call them goths anyways.

The only acceptable goth music that was like real goth goth was either really unknown local stuff, stuff from the 90s that you had to have already been liking since the 90s, and like the iconic 80s goth bands. But not really The Cure, everyone liked The Cure, so you couldn’t just like them alone. But it couldn’t just be iconic 80s goth, because then everyone would be suspicious if you were a poser because everyone knew you were like just a baby when those songs came out.

We all shopped at Hot Topic because it was the only place to buy black clothes. But admitting your clothes were from Hot Topic was so embarrassing. Because everyone knew we should be buying from expensive indie designers online, or thrifting, or sewing our own clothes, or being more creative. So much goth style was vinyl fetish and BDSM stuff. If you were even vaguely goth people just assumed you were into that, or you pretended you were, even if you were like 14, which is really kind of fucked up?????

You could break all these rules if you were pretty and did good makeup. But maybe the rules were totally different for your friend group, there was no social media, this was even before MySpace, the internet was dialup and you only has access to it a little bit in the evenings or in the weekends. So there was no larger community to check up on. Just some forums full of completely anonymous people.

It’s weird seeing gen z use “mall goth” as a neutral description of an aesthetic, and actively calling themselves that. I’m intensely nostalgic for it, but still instinctively cringe when I see someone call themselves that and I think “No! Don’t say that! They’ll know you’re trying!”

Anyways, these are the toxic parts that came along with being a self loathing teen goth in like 2002.