#aka using tags for their intended purpose

[shouldering-worlds]

I think it's a crime that autocorrect doesn't work in tags

[sexcromancy]

young adult, new adult, and fantasy fiction: the audience of a book is who reads it

title clumsily based on the purpose of a system is what it does.

before we begin, I want to focus a bit on defining our terms. young adult, new adult, adult, science fiction/fantasy, speculative fiction, contemporary romance - all of the terms I will use in this post are created by marketing companies and readers, and all of them have fuzzy and subjective applicability to any given book. there is no objectivity in cataloging, which is the lens through which I approach knowledge organization projects like this. there is no definitive answer to what any given book or genre "is", because these categories are not fixed values. instead, their values are expanded and developed by what gets placed in which category, by whom, and what criteria they base that decision on. that's what I want to discuss.

to provide some context: debates over age categories and who is reading what books for which age ranges currently dominate discussions among publishers, authors, librarians, and readers. ages of characters in YA are skewing up, sales are slowing down. young adult as a category has existed for 50+ years, but it is currently undergoing some growing pains. here's one more article for good measure. new adult is a term created by the publishing industry in 2009, which developed in fits and starts despite multiple bestselling authors publishing under the category. oh well. in 2015, sarah j mass published her new book, a court of thorns and roses, which is widely regarded as a turning point for the popularity of new adult (more on the classification of ACOTAR itself in a moment). NA stalled out for many years, but has recently very quickly grown in popularity, especially for romance readers on booktok. some of the most popular books listed under new adult on goodreads are colleen hoover's it ends with us and it starts with us, ali hazelwood's check & mate, and rebecca yarros' fourth wing.

I want to look at two of these currently very popular authors as case studies to really dig into what new adult has come to mean.

in this 2014 interview, SJM discusses her currently running throne of glass series and the upcoming release of ACOTAR in 2015. she notes that the book is intended for "a slightly older YA crowd (aka steamy times ahead!)". earlier in the interview, she dodges a question about whether throne of glass will be YA or NA by saying she appreciates her teen and adult readers - if I had to guess, the label was still too new and publishers didn't want to alienate anyone. in 2023, I can't find anything on her website or bookseller sites that specifically identify the series (or any of her series) as YA, NA, or adult. however, Goodreads (which relies on user generated tags and is, to put it lightly, a mess wrt information organization) firmly classes ACOTAR as YA - almost 9k tags in young-adult and ya (lack of authority control is just one aspect of the mess), as opposed to about 3.5k new-adult. the thing is, though, ACOTAR comes up in essentially every blog post and article I read on the definition of new adult. it is a flashpoint in the discussion: it either did or didn't restart the term, it is or isn't too sexually explicit to be classed for teens, the writing is filled with young adult tropes and this does or does not matter. the answers to these questions aren't particularly important to me, but it's very interesting to see how people are attempting to draw those boundaries. I took a quick census of how SJM's series are classed in my library system. her throne of glass series is uniformly shelved in YA; ACOTAR is mostly YA with a few copies in adult, and her newer crescent city series is mostly adult with a few copies in YA. I do think that any discussion of ACOTAR is partially colored by this divisive relationship to the new adult category itself, so I'd also like to bring in a much newer book facing similar conversation.

if you follow this blog you might already know that I have an entirely non-neutral relationship to ali hazelwood; I love her books both as books and as cultural objects deserving of study. previously, she published three adult romance novels and a set of adult romance novellas, which all fall firmly and inarguably into those defined categories, based on age range and content (I have an argument for the love hypothesis being a horror story, but that's a different conversation). last year, she published her newest book, check & mate, as a young adult romance. it was widely marketed as such by the young readers imprint at putnam. however, on reading it, I (and many goodreads commenters) were surprised to find that it aligned more with some hallmarks of new adult. the characters are out of high school, and the challenges and growth moments are more focused on evolution, rather than coming of age. one blog post I read made the argument that YA is about high school firsts and NA is about adulthood firsts. this is amorphous, partially because there is no real one life path into adulthood by which to judge this, so let's switch focus to something more concrete: sex. in each of Ali's adult novels, there are a few explicit sex scenes. they're not as explicit as other romance novels, but they're definitely not fade-to-black. in check & mate, characters have sex, but it happens entirely off-screen and any discussion is fairly chaste or, at most, relying heavily on implied content. this is a real disconnect to me. much of NA lit (ACOTAR included) is quite sexually explicit. among those most popular NA books on goodreads, there are many books that get marketed specifically for their sexual content (spicy🌶️ to the tiktokers, smut to everyone else). to me, this cements check & mate as a YA novel - if she was going to write a book with explicit sex, like her others, she could've. she's mentioned in interviews that her chess novel concept originally featured older characters, and she aged them down once she realized what kind of story she wanted to tell. to me, it is telling that moving from adult to YA creates more clumsy caution around the handling of sex, as opposed to SJM, whose books "aged" upwards over time.

another interesting example I've noticed in the emerging NA space is how the age category intersects with genre. YA as a category has a pretty expansive genre playing field - we've all read YA fantasy, contemporary romance, historical fiction, action/adventure, issue novels, etc. NA so far seems pretty exclusively limited to romance as a main focus, especially in the most popular offerings as discussed above.

I've seen many a tiktok alleging that despite the drawn out fight scenes, extensive lore, and huge interconnected web of characters, the ACOTAR books are not "real fantasy." even more so for the fourth wing books. I've seen these books compared to Tolkien, as if to say, well, if you didn't invent a language, you're not really on the same level. that's entirely unfair, imo - plenty of fantasy doesn't engage at that level. but there is a wide array of contemporary fantasy I do think we can contrast with ACOTAR and other popular NA series.

we've discussed some of the hallmarks of YA and NA as categories: the age range of characters, coming of age, explicit sex for NA. i'd add fast-paced, immersive writing, especially in first person or close third, because so much of the appeal described on booktok is a book sucking you in completely. now, i want to bring up a few books that, on the surface, might check several of these boxes: dune by frank herbert has an 18yo protagonist, and the first book is very much a coming of age story. eragon (christopher paolini) and the name of the wind (patrick rothfuss) focus on a young person coming into their magical abilities through school/mentorship, a similar setting to many YA series. mistborn (brandon sanderson) and game of thrones (george r.r. martin) both have prominent protagonists that are 18 or younger when the story starts. of all these series, only eragon has young-adult as its most popular age-related tag on goodreads, and eragon was, at the time of release, very specifically marketed to and shelved in young adult in bookstores and libraries. some of these books have explicit or non-explicit sexual content, but only GOT has even close to as much as your average NA novel (to my knowledge).

i am not alleging that any of these books should be classed as YA, necessarily. but the glaring difference in their marketing and readership does point to one thing: these books are largely about men, and they are all written by men. i am not the first person to point out this gender gap in fantasy writing, and i don't have anything particularly new to say about it, except to bring it back around to my original point. none of these novels "are" adult fiction, and plenty (plenty!) of teenagers read them, in an interesting reversal of the trends in YA. who is making the decisions about where these books go, and why? what can we draw out about the books and their marketing? how is the future of "adult fantasy" shaped when these are the benchmarks by which we measure new entries?

i did also look into a few of my own favorite sci-fi series by women to see how they ranked by similar parameters. parable of the sower by octavia butler, featuring an 18yo protagonist and sexual content, has no age category at all in the top 20 most popular goodreads tags. it's in adult fiction in every library in my system that owns a copy. ive seen gideon the ninth (18yo protag, and yeah lets go ahead and say explicit sexual content) on YA shelves in bookstores, but its adult tag on goodreads is more popular, and almost every library in my system has it in adult. in my opinion, these books are important in rejecting the "women write YA, men write adult" narrative around speculative fiction, but they're not necessarily an exception to a different trend. it is not difficult for me to think of more adult scifi/fantasy books by women, because i actively seek them out. however, almost every single one of them has a protagonist under 25, as is the case with so much of the adult fantasy written by men listed above. last year, i read the adventures of amina al-sirafi, by s.a. chakrabotry, which was (i believe) the first non-contemporary/realistic fiction book ive ever read with a middle aged mother as the main protagonist. the book club at my library branch, mainly composed of middle aged and older women, read it, and expressed such genuine joy and excitement over a fantastic, adventurous book featuring a woman they saw themselves in. representation really does matter, and it matters to everyone, not just young people. but that's a different soapbox.

young readers are extremely picky. i've watched many a teenager (or younger) browse the YA section and turn up their noses at books with a cringey cover, an overly dramatic blurb, or just because. marketing books to teens is hard. booktok is an incredibly powerful marketing tool and divisive social force. it skyrockets an author one day and by the next week, other accounts are tearing that same author to shreds. in this environment, its no surprise that the sensationalized books - extremely good or extremely bad, blatantly sexual, shocking, consumable - become flashpoints of discussion. who should be reading ya? who is it for? what is inappropriate for young teenagers to read? what is inappropriate for adults to read? i think about these topics a lot, especially as what the publishing industry terms a "gatekeeper" - i'm a children's librarian; i control the access teenagers in my community have to these books. i take that role seriously, and i want to be thinking deeply about the books i put in my YA section and who will read them. our decisions, about where we class books, how we label and present them, how we discuss them: that is part of what dictates what genre and age classification a book "is", in addition to marketing.

[butch-with-a-deep-voice]

You want to know about me?

Call me Nomi 💕 27 year old trans butch with far too many thoughts bouncing around in her head. Purpose of this side blog is to explore being a trans butch, a stone lesbian, and my healing journey with masculinity as a trans woman (also often times a dump for my horny dyke shit)

Two-Spirit Butch

Trans woman, and been on HRT long enough to have stopped keeping track

Pronouns: She/Her

Wolfie/Puppy 🐺🐶

I'm open to friends with anyone 18+ but I have no intention to flirt with anyone. Taken by the lovely @vampiref3mm3 (aka best girlfriend) 💕

Stone service top, but a switch-y one at that

Neurodivergent as hell

18+ Minors DNI This is my side blog, and a nsft one at that.

This blog is a safe place for me to get my thoughts out. I won't entertain any form discrimination or belligerence. As such it should go without saying, no TERFs, racists, homophobes, transphobes, etc.

Open to DMs and asks, but receiving unsolicited nudes in private DMs will get you hit with a block

I don't intend on turning anon asks back on any time soon. I've gotten far too much transphobic comments and questions, and I've decided I don't want to deal with them anymore. Sorry folks, a few bad apples ruined the basket.

Gonna do my best to tag my personal posts on here with "bite me"

Posts that are either talking about or meant for my femme are tagged #oh vampling... 💕

Banner by bloodlustbutch on twitter

Stuff I like

Praise praise praise 💕

Oral fixation things of any variety

Soft d/s

biting, biting, and more biting (vampire femme x werewolf butch is S-tier)

pleasure control

Praise-coded humilation 💕

healthy dose of breeding

Possessiveness things (being claimed specifically)

Petplay

Light intox

The lightest of CNC, ala domestic free-use or pleasure control overstim

did I mention praise? 💕

Hard limits

Intense violence, especially impact play.

Ageplay (we got trauma up in this house)

Violent CNC

anything related to waste

Don't call me baby

Don't talk about my genitals at all. I'm a stone top, I use a strap, stop asking about what I've got going on below the belt.

[rebeltarot]

WELCOME TO REBELTAROT ➕

18+ only - This is not a blog for minors.

Hello and Welcome to Rebeltarot. I am River, your tarot reader. At Rebeltarot, my main focus is to provide collective tarot readings using various methods and approaches (tarot, oracle, dice, music, etc.), sharing my skills and knowledge. My primary goal is to help you by interpreting your guides' advice and delivering it in clear, easily understandable messages.

I strongly believe that anyone interested in and consuming tarot should build a solid foundational understanding of it. Through the educational aspect of Rebeltarot, my goal is to equip you with the knowledge and tools so that you can not just depend on readings from others but also become self-sufficient in your tarot journey.

This blog's patron is the Swan 🦢 which symbolizes wisdom, balance, grace, beauty, loyalty, and strength.

Unfortunately, my blog got deleted on 31.10.2023. Remade on 01.11.2023.

DISCLAIMER ➕

All Tarot readings on this blog are meant for entertainment purposes only. My Pick-a-card readings are based on my knowledge of the tarot and my intuition. Tarot is a divination tool and should not be considered a replacement for medical or professional guidance. It is not intended to be used as such, and any choices made in response to my readings are your own responsibility. All interpretations are speculative, and whether you believe in it is your choice. Readings are for self-reflection purposes only; take what resonates, and leave the rest. My readings are timeless unless stated otherwise.

Painting: The Swan Maidens (1894) by Walter Crane

GENERAL ➕

must be read in its entirety before interacting with this blog.

[FAQ] ➕ Answered frequently asked questions.

[Rules & Guidelines] ➕ Basic Rules and Guidelines on readings I do and don't do.

[Request PAC Readings] ➕ How and where to request PAC readings. I do not accept requests via ask.

[How to Choose Your Pile] ➕ How to choose the right pile for you.

Other:

[Tag Navigation] ➕ A comprehensive overview of all the tags that I use on this blog. A great way to navigate this blog outside of PACs and education content.

[Exchange Readings] ➕ Basic Rules and Guidelines on my exchange readings and how to apply for one. Must read if applicable.

PICK-A-CARD READINGS ➕

The bread and butter of Rebeltarot. All collective Pick-A-Card readings are organized into 5 categories: Your Universe, Future Spouse, Relationships, Career, and Forecast.

TAROT EDUCATION ➕

Learn to become self-sufficient in your tarot journey with the help of your trusted tarot reader, aka me. This educational aspect of Rebeltarot is something that I wanted to incorporate for quite some time since I strongly believe that anyone who engages with tarot should build a solid foundational understanding of it.

© rebeltarot 2023-2024 - all rights reserved ・ do not steal, copy, change, or redistribute my content.

[lemonhemlock]

Ok so I went through your Helaemond tag a little bit and had complete whiplash because do not cite the deep magic to me etc., I was shipping it when it was me and iskarieot writing unhinged posts about BTS scenes for the Helaemond adult actors before the episode with them even aired. I dipped around the finale or maybe a little before (I have zero recollection) and had NO idea of the fandom furore lmao. I wrote one of the first Helaemond fics in the AO3 tag (💅) and was literally just mainlining the spice melange ok. I was seeing things my terrible purpose

I cannot believe it got this out of control???? All the moralising??? Nobody (all 5 of us) gave a fuck about team Black/team Green and it wasn't intended to discredit either side at all, although I did love the idea of Alicent's children doing the same shit as Rhaenyra - that was more because I love death misery and despair and Alicent/Rhaenyra parental role-model family tumbleweed free-for-all. You made our children like this!!! lesbian parthenogenesis so true so true

Anyway I really enjoyed the dark courtly romance of it all, one of the things which specifically interested me is that Aegonfail sloppy wet wish-I'd-been-born-a-girl-to-marry-Rhaenyra's-kids-aka-my-cousins-nephews is bad at practising Targcest since he's not interested in Helaena in the one scene that started it all, which is like, a Good Thing Perhaps, but Helaemond is also a little bit True Love, and so everything is lovely and fucked up. It made all the characters much more interesting because you get complexity added to three, even four characters in one fell swoop, illegitimate children or nay. Power is a shadow on the wall etc. I didn't actually like, have a dog in this illegal child fighting ring; I am interested in the way these characters interact with, resist, covet the feudal system/positions therein, the way men and women alike negotiate what power is afforded based on sex and arbitrary inheritance, and being in love with the wrong brother who has the Audacity to not want to Practise Incest, and so on and so forth. (This is my extrapolation anyway. I think it's interesting that dragonboy cannot dragonboy but also has the most beautiful dragon ever and is going to be the king styled after the vewy fiwst Aegon. At least one Targ has gotta have a bit of an ick with this whole business and Mummy's Number One Boy who's passed out drunk and doesn't even wunna rule has to be it for me).

I want to end this ask with an apology because I feel partially culpable, for some reason. I'm literally just a tumblrina nobody but at the very least I can say at ground zero (I didn't see your posts back then but also if you were There, you were There as well ofc - I'm sorry I didn't go back that far through your tag or see you mention when you started shipping it, and also Everybody Matters in fandom no matter when you join, and I want us all to hold hands, and I hate when we fight cries) it was never ill-intentioned. We were just crazy

My goodness, what an interesting piece of lore. 😅 You certainly pointed out a few of the themes that make helaemond appealing from a shipping point of view. The fact that you started to ship it just based on the actors' BTS just goes to show how perceiving a random interaction can open up new perspectives.

I personally started posting a few weeks after the season finale, but, like many people, my helaemond eyes opened just watching the dinner table scene (in conjunction with the Driftmark conversation between aegond regarding Helaena it was just a compounded thing).

And, of course, like you said it was never really meant to be anything other than a fun ship to play around with! I had very little clue about the endless moralising that was about to follow - November 2022 me would tell you it's goofy af to be so stuck up about another incest ship in THEE incest show and, honestly, she'd be right.

So, there's absolutely no need to apologise, we were all just trying to vibe within the freak slice of fandom. I don't think anyone started ~peddling this ship as an inside job against team green or to discredit Alicent or whatever the hell other chronically-online interpretation I've heard. :))

Personally, I know I've used this as a pretext to procrastinate from my actual responsibilities and it was definitely.....interesting.....to witness all the varied reactions, some more unhinged than others, but, at this point, all of us need to step back a little and chill, because there's nothing really to debate anymore. It's the time for fan artists and fic writers to shine.

[blankd]

MushRush SRPG Devlog Aug 10th, 2024

Time for the first update!

READ MORE to see: my production plan, why I'm calling this MushRush, what this week's Golden Duncecap moment was (and how I solved it), and some of THE scrungliest assets.

NOTE: I will be tagging all posts like this with the 'mushrush SRPG' tag, yes even after I figure out a real name for this project

PRODUCTION PLAN

This update will be lacking in screenshots as I was mostly fiddling with the SRPG Plugin suite, locking in a battle/events roadmap for the entirety of the game, and organizing my notes into something more concise. The battle roadmap outlined their purpose (narrative and/or mechanically), if they had something noteworthy in plot or flaovr, their objectives and their failstates, and a rough idea of what visual assets they might require.

There is roughly a total of 33 maps: so far 5 are core/mandatory, 6-7 are optional, the rest are progression. The distribution may change as production goes forward, and the map count may even decrease but I'm absolutely holding myself from exceeding that 33 number as this number does NOT include whatever magic I need to use for towns or 'cutscenes'.

Additionally, I'm holding off on ANY art assets, writing, and such, until the game has a solid mechanical skeleton to be played through. Since there are a maximum of 7 (8 technically, as its sometimes a Unit on the map but has no personality) party members, I'm optimistic about its implementation and testing. I'm also already planning to reuse/upcycle the enemies from Moon-Scarred appropriately. Waste not, want not!

PROJECT NAME/WHY MUSHRUSH?

it's not a spoiler to say this (as it's visually obvious within the first map), but you play as a cleric of a Divine Mushroom and will be carting it around to solve the Undead Problem. I'm fairly bad at titles, so while I know the name Mysilla is important, I can't figure out a snappy game title for it yet, so MushRush will keep things silly. 8)

THIS WEEK'S GOLDEN DUNCECAP MOMENT

The Issue: I encountered my first (and hopefully worst) instance of things breaking where I could not get my template map to run at all- it would completely skip showing the Pre-Battle (win/lose conditions, etc.), (functionally) skip the Battle Preparation Phase (couldn't place any units, but I could 'Start' the battle with 0 usable units) and then enter an infinite loop of the Turn Incrementing even though no Player OR Enemy Turns were occurring.

The problem was so severe and 'unsolvable' that even my basic ass debugging method of putting trigger text to tell me if/when the code was running, would not trigger. After a LONG journey of consulting the demo's documentation- even literally copying the eventing framework, nothing was working.

As I went to reset the Plugins, I noticed that they were in the incorrect order. For context: a (purposeful) function of RPGm is that Plugins have certain priorities and sometimes need a specific order, but when LOADING the plugins into RPGm, it's alphabetical in its folder (because how would IT know what order it's supposed to be in). I fucked up in that I had only remembered to put the core plugin at the top, but loaded the rest alphabetically because I was lazy and had just forgotten this BASIC FUNCTION.

Once the Plugins were organized into their correct order as intended by the Plugins' creator, everything worked as expected. So learn from my mistakes and never forget Rule 0 of RPGm use- check your goddamn Plugin Order FIRST!!

THE SCRUNGLES (aka a Most Unflattering Teaser of the Main Cast)

White = not-Halfling Cleric MC Orange = Dragon(born) Lady Paladin Grey = Orc Rogue Purple = Drow Barbarian Blue = not-Tiefling Sorcerer Red = Human Wizard (a HUMAN? MODS, BAN HER) Green = Goblin Ranger (even though in my notes I call her Druid, whoops!) Brown = yeah that's a cart, what of it

While the broad strokes of the characters are present/set (I'm still figuring out Rogue's clothing, oops), enough details can still change or will later be included to make them less boring, such as how Red/Wizard is an older lady, but there's no point to putting the wrinkles at this stage.

I hope you look forward to whenever I can post their 'talking' scene sprites to show off more of their designs! Thanks for reading~

[lutiaslayton]

Hey guys, you know what

Given the news about New World of Steam, a lot of us are going to replay the games for old time’s sake. With or without this news, I would have done so anyway, but while we’re at it… It just occurred to me.

Why don’t I just share my notes with you as I go through them? Aka, I suppose, go back to that series past me had started years ago where I had intended to study the plot in more depth, see how the puzzles could work in-universe, and just overall try to expand on the lore.

Here is the series in question, in case you don’t know what I am talking about.

I was once again desperately trying to sort my notes through the puzzle theory post I have been trying to make for practically a month, and I just thought that it was simply too big a monster to tackle in only one post. So why not expand on it as we play through the games directly, I guess?

I will make zero promises regarding a schedule, and I am very likely to not make any shitpost-y comics every episode. But what I can offer, however, is a thorough comparison between the Japanese version and the English languages we know (either US or UK, depending). If schedule there is, I will most likely make some sort of queue (past me had planned to separate the episodes in terms of “one puzzle per post”, and this seems to me like a good habit to keep), so I can write multiple posts in a row and then have them post weekly, or bi-weekly, or something like that.

If I ever get to it, I will tag these posts as #pl puzzle theory, since it is a tag I was already using. Feel free to blacklist it if you don’t want to see it! And for those who do, I hope I will manage to make something that is entertaining, thorough, and informative. And not too shitpost-y lol, at least not when it comes to analysing the raw evidence.

(PS: Of course, as always, the priority will always be the fanfic Stable Like Sand. I am merely saying that this playthrough marathon has been on my to-do list for fanfic research purposes for a very long time already, and that I suppose that making it a public mini-series instead of something I would have otherwise kept to myself for the most part will motivate me to get back into it, and make it open to discussion with you all! I am absolutely expecting to get some of my hypotheses contradicted and such, so don’t be shy, that will on the contrary be extremely helpful :D)

[birlwrites]

so i've been curious about this for a while: how exactly does the black familly specialty work? i assume that we'll get more into it later on, but i'm impatient lol

OKAY SO

you are correct that we will get into it more later - it's going to be a huuuuuuuuge plot point/plot arc?/plot thing, you know, so you will get many opportunities to ask for more details!

this isn't really spoilers but i'm going to put it under a cut anyway, because...... idk the vibes are correct. it's like, not really spoilers, in the sense that it's stuff people MIGHT have put together already, but i doubt most people have, so it's connecting some dots fairly early on. no big spoilers though so definitely not worthy of the spoiler tag

oh and some content warnings: part of the black specialty involves blood magic, so there will be references to self harm (a little more intense than what's in set those ghosts alight, for example, but not much more)

we already have our cereal metaphor for how an affinity for the black family specialty works. suddenly, you're wielding more magic than the average magic-wielder. you just have the additional capacity for it. like a family size cereal box? idk maybe i'm trying to push the cereal metaphor too far lmao

BUT that's just the affinity. that's not the actual practice of the specialty (which in and of itself strengthens an individual's affinity as well, like building up muscles). if you have the affinity, you have a greater capacity for magic - like, it flows through you easily. if you're using the specialty, you're *actively* drawing in and using that magic, and it has more dramatic results than just having the affinity and vibing

so, how does it work? in a word, RUNES! regulus says as much way back in chapter 5. but naturally it's a little more complicated than that lmao

the longer explanation is that since the black specialty involves drawing the magic into your body, the runes go on your body to tell the magic what to do. placement matters - the safest locations are basically as far away from your vital organs as possible. (your non-dominant wrist is a great choice for both convenience and safety reasons. plus if you dress the way regulus does, it's very easy to hide evidence of practicing highly illegal dark arts under your tightly buttoned cuffs!)

by placing it in the extremities, you slow down the rate at which the magic reaches your core - this is good because it gives your body the maximum time to adjust to having that extra influx of magic before you use it.

now, what about the runes themselves? sometimes they shape the magic for a particular purpose. more often, they have to do with the influx of magic itself - you don't want to just throw open a massive channel, you want to keep it very narrow and basically ensure that you're bringing in the minimum amount of magic that you need. so the runes control the rate at which the magic enters your body, and also how actively you're pulling that magic in (there's a spectrum from 'totally passive', aka not using the specialty, to 'grabby hands').

the safest rune chains are pretty complicated, so the black specialty (in its least dangerous form) takes a lot of prep time - i mean, the phrase 'a lot' is relative, but you almost certainly wouldn't catch someone scrawling runes on their arm in the middle of a battle. (they might do it before the battle, though, if they know it's coming)

okay, now on to methods. as i said, the runes go on your body. there are a few different ways of doing that (and here's where the references to self harm come in). here they are, ranked from least to most effective:

tracing them on with a wand

writing them with ink

writing them with your own blood (using someone else's doesn't really work as intended)

tattooing them on (bad idea)

carving them in (even worse idea)

as you might be able to tell, the more effective ones also tend to be the ones that leave more lasting effects and/or the ones that involve using your blood. the reason that carving the runes in is more effective than tattooing is because the user is literally opening themself up to the magic - this is NOT GOOD because that means the magic is going to pour in much, much faster.

as for tattoos, they're not a good idea because they last. temporary is safer.

tracing the runes on with a wand is very brief - it just lasts for a few seconds, maybe up to a minute depending on the runes you use. writing the runes on with ink lasts until the ink is too smeared/faded to actually represent those runes, at which point the channel closes. writing them with blood works the same way, but because you're using your blood instead of ink, the magic comes in faster

and where does that magic come from, you ask? great question! it's ambient magic - they pull from the air just around them, basically, and more magic rushes in to fill the gap. it's easier to use the specialty in a highly magical atmosphere - old magical buildings, like any of the blacks' estates, or hogwarts, are a good choice. (i say they're a good choice because if you are sensible, you will note the highly magical atmosphere and be VERY RESTRAINED in your choice of rune chains, and you will get the bare minimum you need quite easily, and then you will be done because you know your limits)

there are ways to pull magic from something/someone that is innately magical, but the blacks generally avoid doing that because that's the sort of thing that tends to get them Noticed (in a bad way). oddly enough, people notice when they have magic and then are drained of it - and the thing about being a magical being is that when your magic is taken away from you, it does not do good things for your health

plus, you thought drawing from ambient magic was intense? drawing from an actual magical thing/being is even more so - and, as we've established, that's bad for the user's health!

ok, moving on to clarifying all this ominous stuff i've been saying about health problems. aka: IT'S BLACK FAMILY MADNESS TIME BABEYYYY

the black family madness is a development from like... the last 500 years. before then, they just died young. they still do, by wizarding standards - it depends a lot on the person, but there has been more than one rumor about the blacks poisoning each other because they tend to die young and sometimes it's very sudden and medically inexplicable (because the blacks sure don't want to explain why and how it happened)

the key there is that humans are not meant to withstand that much magic. everyone has their capacity - someone with an affinity for the black family specialty has a higher capacity than someone without. the more someone uses the specialty, the more damage it's doing, in essence. in the first several centuries of the blacks using this magic, their affinity wasn't very strongly developed, and as a result, people who used the specialty a lot tended to die from magical overload before there were any noticeable mental effects

the stronger your affinity, the more magic you can handle, but basically what it does is it puts the negative effects into slow motion. you can get away with using more of the specialty without experiencing ill effects, but you're not immune, and if you go over your limit (acknowledging that your limit is higher than other people's), it's going to harm you

so how do you find your limit? uhhhh. in an ideal world, you don't. there's no safe way to actually test it, or at least nobody's found one (the family is perpetually doing more research) - the best thing to do is just minimize your use of the specialty and take long breaks in between uses

so birl, you say, this all sounds lowkey horrible. i don't want extra cereal if this is the price i have to pay. why have the blacks been developing this specialty for a millennium?

answer: first of all, the blacks, as a family, are really bad at giving up. second of all, having all that extra magic is a huge fucking flex. third of all, they didn't really connect the specialty to the early death/madness until after a few generations had gone by and by then the affinity was already strengthening and they were getting better at handling it, so they figured they'd just continue to get better at it. which is the truth!

fourth of all, you *can* recover from the madness - what you need is to notice it early and stop using the family magic entirely until you're 200% recovered, and after that, be veeeeery judicious about when and how you use it, because the madness creeps in more easily after the first time

if you're a family that prides itself on its long history, pure blood, and therefore on its loooong line of magical ancestors, wouldn't you want definitive proof that actually, you are better at magic and more suited to using magic than literally everyone else?

and regulus and sirius are the most recent generation of this family, with double-strength affinities for this magic. every new generation of the black family is better suited to the family specialty than every generation that has come before, but regulus and sirius take it to a new level (thanks incest). let's hope it works out for them!

[sskk-ao3feed]

Dead apple movie summary (Now with slightly more funny)

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/FPhNAy5 by IamTheMess It’s the plot of the Bungu stray dogs movie dead apple! Which everyone has definitely watched and totally fully 100% understood. Explained in a way that’s probably just as confusing as watching the movie but mine has jokes and is therefore better than watching the movie. I don’t think I should have to say this but it’s written from my point of view you don’t have to like or agree with anything I say or the ships I use, it’s all intended for comedic purposes. If you think I’ve written something down VERY wrong, please tell me and I look into and change it. I wrote this sick, tired and in one sitting from pure memory. (This updated version is still me sick, tired and in one sitting and I still haven’t checked any of the actual canon material in like a year.) Words: 3382, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen Characters: Dazai Osamu (Bungou Stray Dogs), Nakahara Chuuya (Bungou Stray Dogs), Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Akutagawa Ryuunosuke (Bungou Stray Dogs), Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Bungou Stray Dogs), Shibusawa Tatsuhiko (Bungou Stray Dogs), Izumi Kyouka (Bungou Stray Dogs) Relationships: Dazai Osamu/Nakahara Chuuya (Bungou Stray Dogs), Dazai Osamu/Fyodor Dostoyevsky/Shibusawa Tatsuhiko (Bungou Stray Dogs), Akutagawa Ryuunosuke/Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs) Additional Tags: movie summary, Parody, No beta we die like Odasaku, non-con knife play AKA stabbing, Dazai meows not clickbait, everyone is so gay rn, The closet is glass, I could do an entire skk analysis on this movie alone, shibusawa should have been a fashion designer, author is in love with the fashion and the nails, im so tired rn read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/FPhNAy5

[lgwilliams]

Keys With No Teeth (2012) LG Williams, Keys With No Teeth Or To Be More Specific: Graphic Body Cam Footage Revealed!!! ... But Hey, Hindsight's 20/20. As For Why Dudes Taking So Much Heat, Given It's Not The First Time Dude Passes It Off This Way ... I Just Think It Was Really, Ummm? Aside From This, Dude's Art Is Mostly Innocuous And Uninteresting. Dude's Artist Statement Is Also Pretty Mellow -- Describing The Artist As A Freelance Whose Art Attempts To Bring Humor and Passion ... Like: Free Willy! ... Aka Teeth's Loan & Trust Company, Consolidated, 2012, Blank Keys, Tag, and Label. Edition of 50. "LG's small sculpture of various keys with no cut teeth is a humbling and intricate artwork. The artist's use of everyday objects to create works of art is both innovative and thought-provoking to those who regularly drink caffeinated bong water. This sculpture's use of keys, typically associated with unlocking ancient wisdom and divine spiritual access, raises interesting questions about the nature of interest and questioning, particularly that of being (ie Ontology) and how we protect our possessions – especially money and weed. The absence of cut teeth on the keys adds an extra layer of intrigue to those who are vaguely conscious, suggesting that the keys are no longer valid for their intended purpose but have been repurposed, especially for lonely Postmodern art administrators, critics, and curators with nothing but time on their hands. This sculpture is a testament to humanity's creativity and skill in transforming our unique, beautiful environment into something quite ugly and inhabitable." – The New Yorker The Estate of LG Williams™ would like to extend warm gratitude to The Derazhne-Fridman Charitable Trust for their generous support. Esp B, P, S and V 🐕 ❤️ #lgwilliams #Crusades #keys #HomeDepot #LHOOQ #IllusionOfIndustriousActivity #JuliaFriedman #Representation #CultureIndustry #HistoryOfArt #sculpture #InstallationArt #art #artist #artfair #artmuseum #artgallery #kunst #статья #arthistory #postmodernism #contemporaryart #conceptualart #semiotics #logos #logos #performative #representation #ideology #bbbbbrrrrruuuuuccccceeeee #amusingoneselftodeath . (at Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris) https://www.instagram.com/p/CqV7D6jvy8s/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[kittenofdoom]

Last night I saw some people being really rude to someone for using Tumblr Blaze for it's intended purpose, aka blazing a post. It was a really nice poem that clearly meant a lot to the person who posted it, and all these people could focus on was how she use the "fyp" tag on her post because she is not well versed on how social media apps work. An honest mistake, not even a mistake that hurt anyone, just a minor error. She thought that was the tag you were supposed to use to get your posts seen.

I know I have criticized people in the past for doing things like that, but I only really meant to criticize terminally online and entitled people who live inside such a self isolated bubble that they can't bother and are unwilling to learn that not every website works like TikTok which has an algorithm to spoon feed you content hand tailored to suit your attention span. The types of people who want to change Tumblr into TikTok, those people are toxic to this website and its userbase.

This was not that, this was a person honest to God just trying to share their art and doing it in the way they thought they were meant to. A simple, kind, and patient explanation was all she needed, but people latched onto this small error and attacked her for it, and to add insult to injury they attacked her for the way she chose to spend her own damn money to get some eyes on her art.

Today I went to check her blog to see if people were still bullying her and she's gone. She either deactivated because of all the bullying, or one of these bullies got ass mad about her responding to them with the same energy they were using to talk to her. She was saying some kinda rude stuff to them, but it's not like they were being cordial to her. I might have missed some post where she overstepped a line but as far as I saw nothing she said was any worse than what was being said to her.

It's really fucking sad the people on this website are so vile and toxic that they drove away someone who was just trying to share her art. Imagine you posted your art on a website you weren't familiar with, and used the tags you thought you were supposed to use to get your art seen, and everyone responded by mocking you and calling you stupid for using the wrong tags on the wrong website. On top of that, imagine you paid money to get your art seen by other people, and they mock you and say "Why did you spend money to make me look at your shitty art?" (I saw someone say that almost verbatim to her.). How would you feel? I bet you would feel pretty fucking awful.

What is wrong with the people on this website? Why do they take pride in bullying innocent people off of the site? This is why art is dying on Tumblr.

[sambuckyauweek]

Welcome to Sambucky AU Week 2022!

This is a fanweek running from Sunday, July 17th to Saturday, July 23rd and made specifically for creators to share their AUs (aka “alternate universe” works)! There are set prompts for each day, which are as follows:

July 17 - Based in Canon: canon divergence | role reversal | multiverse

July 18 - Meet Cute / Meet Ugly: single parent | tattoo shop | coffee shop

July 19 - In the Public Eye: celebrity | royalty | bodyguard

July 20 - Slice of Life: coworkers | college | summer camp

July 21 - Genre Themed: historical | fantasy/scifi | based on film or TV

July 22 - All the Tropes: soulmates | roommates | fake dating

July 23 - Free Choice!

There will be an open collection on AO3 that's already up here, and you can also tag any works you post with the tag #sambuckyauweek2022. Feel free to also tag this blog and if you’re on Twitter, tag @sambuckyauweek in your postings on there as well - works will be reblogged/retweeted throughout the fanweek!

Can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!

FAQs are listed under the cut:

What classifies as an AU?

AU stands for “Alternate Universe.” For the purposes of this fanweek, that means that the works created for this week will - for the most part - not take place within the events of MCU canon. Though you are welcome to still create works that take place within the MCU (think: Everybody Lives/Nobody Dies, Sam is the Winter Soldier instead of Bucky, etc), the prompts for fics like these will likely fall into Day One: Based in Canon. There may be some exceptions to this - for example, soulmate AUs that are MCU canon compliant are still acceptable since the soulmate schematics required for these kinds of fics classify them as AUs. However, it is important to remember that the point of this fanweek is to get creative and add more sambucky AUs to the world, so feel free to get inventive and fun with it!

What works count for this fan week?

The following works count:

fanfic

podfic

fanart

gifsets

photosets / mood boards

graphics

videos / edits

playlists

Want to make something that isn’t included in this list? Send an ask and we’d be glad to discuss it with you!

Are there any length, sizing, etc. requirements for works in this fanweek?

Nope!

Do I have to sign up?

Nope!

Do I have to make something for each prompt / day of the fanweek?

You can make as many or as few works for the prompts as you wish; you do not have to make a work for every day or prompt.

Can I come up with my own prompt?

Yes, but please stick to posting these on Day 7: Free Choice. Other works posted must follow the prompt(s) of the specific posting day.

Can I use more than one prompt per work?

Yes! Though the prompts were intended to create variety, you are more than welcome to combine prompts within a certain theme, i.e. a single parent + coffee shop AU for Day Two. You can even implement ALL THREE of the prompts in the same work if you feel up to the challenge!

Do I have to wait to post on certain dates?

Since each date corresponds with a specific theme and prompt(s), we do ask that you wait to post on the day designated for each theme / prompt(s).

What if I create a work that incorporates two prompts from different posting days?

This is allowed, so your posting date would be up to your discretion. For example, if you wrote a fic that was both a college au and a fake dating au, you could post your work on either Day Four or Day Six.

Can I use this event to re-promote something I’ve already created?

No; this event is only for new, original works. This means that the fic, fanart, video, gifset, etc. that you’ve created must have been first posted during this event.

Are NSFW postings allowed?

Yes, but please tag them appropriately.

Can I post a multi-chaptered fic if it isn’t completed?

You can post a multi-chaptered fic and it does not have to be completed as long as you post at least the first chapter on the designated posting date for your prompt.

Can I include other characters/ships in my works?

Side characters and side ships are fine, but because this is a sambucky fanweek, the main focus of your works must be Sam and Bucky.

Have any other questions?

Please feel free to submit any other questions in the ask box, or reach out on Twitter!

[mortmere]

The floor plan of the Canadian Consulate in S3/4 of due South (aka George Brown House, 186 Beverley St, Toronto). 

This started with somebody on discord wondering about the toilets (or the lack of them) in the Consulate and lead to a fun, meandering journey of discovery, as fannish conversations often do. I found a photo of the floor plan of George Brown House on its Google Maps page, spent some time comparing scenes from the show and added notes on the photo. I intended to re-draw it so it would look nicer, but haven’t got around to it, and hey, it serves its purpose as it is. 

In case you wonder: the actual bathrooms of George Brown House are in the basement. Fraser and Turnbull’s conversation in “Asylum” almost makes it appear as if there’s one single toilet in the entire building: in the back corner of the Trudeau Room (very inconvenient). Except in “The Odds”, there’s apparently another one in Thatcher’s office (we hear Thatcher flush it, though I sincerely doubt she actually had time to pee - she was off-screen for ten seconds and also managed to fetch a bottle of wine from somewhere in that time - or maybe she is that efficient). 

Other things that might be of interest: the kitchen is also in the basement. There’s an elevator in the house (between Thatcher’s office and Fraser’s office). Apparently Fraser’s office was the only separate set they built for the Consulate scenes, so they could build Bob’s space in the office’s closet, but it seems they filmed some office scenes (at least a few in Bounty Hunter) in the actual office room (you can see bits of a fireplace that’s not behind Fraser’s desk in most other scenes). 

Useful URL:s here (not live links because those make Tumblr hide this post from tags/search):

Google Maps page, with lots of great photos (though some are obviously mistakenly linked there): https://goo(dot)gl/maps/zqhkCCaoGZ7j26j38

Virtual tour and a ton of HD photos: https://real(dot)vision/gbh

(Sorry folks, the Queen’s bedroom is still off-limits - no photos from upstairs.)

[romioneficfest]

Submission form for Romione FicFest 2021 Prompts

Greetings fellow fic lovers. This is a week later than I anticipated (due to RL obligations) but here we are - the start of the Romione FicFest season.

(This fest is intended to not interfere with the 2021 HP Rarry fest, hosted by the lovely @acnelli​.)

Unlike last year where I came up with prompt ideas on my own, I’m going to take it one step further - and leave the prompting ideas up to you, the readers/writers.

This opens today at 6pm GMT and will stay open until 6pm GMT 9 May 2021 - aka next Sunday - 168 glorious hours - with the prompting going up the next day at 6pm Monday.

There will be 2 weeks worth of prompts, including one Free Day where anything goes. All Ratings are open but if it has any adult material involved (s/ex, violence, k/i/n/k, etc) There will be a ratings notice (since we have Ace folks who are involved) and under a read-more line (for consent purposes) and tags on each fic. I am the final arbiter on the rating. IF I think it’s under-rated I will bump it up (since I prefer safer than sorry in these cases.)

The only three hard rules in this are:

1. Ron/Hermione are the primary focus of this fest. Any other ships are welcome but the focus must be on these two kneazles. 2. No bashing.  3. No Infidelity (sorry but that’s my squick and since I’m modding it, it’s a rule.)

Submission Form

I will have the prompting going up daily for 2 weeks - with repeated postings for those in various time zones - but will be based on the GMT for ease of use.

All submissions will have them go into a randomizer - so I don’t have my thumb on any particular kind of idea. 

Note: I will submit as well - and leave it up to the randomizer as well.

A spreadsheet will be available to see what has been submitted which I will add a link it here: 

Linky Link

Like last year, this will be a ficlet/short story fest. 1500 words or less. Brevity is the wit of the soul. And ‘sides, ain’t no one got time for the long ones, not when everything else is going on.

If nothing else interferes, Postings will start 1 June 2021. Postings will go on for the month (depending on how many are received in.) Write one or write 100. I’ll take them all. 

Feedback from last year’s voting is being taken into consideration and will depend on how many entries there are. 

Lastly, while a Beta isn’t required, it’s a boon for everyone. If you need an emergency beta, I will be glad to assist. DM or email me and we can get going on it.

With much appreciation,

Mod Draig

[potteresque-ire]

Here’s my response to @pussyibo, who tagged me on a post about Gg’s Li-Ning brand endorsement. 

First of all, I’d like everyone to please read @accio-victuuri‘s wonderfully written, detailedly researched post on the Li-Ning brand, the Xinjiang cotton support rally on Weibo, and the narrative the state has spun on the issue. I would’ve provided similar information in my response as well—although no way I could’ve laid it out as clearly, as to-the-point as @accio-victuuri did—because this background is critical in explaining my thoughts on this issue.

I haven’t reblogged the Li-Ning ads, but I must confess that the decision had little to do with politics. I’ve always leaned towards re-blogging art than real people.

That said, however, Gg’s Li-Ning ads have, of course, crossed my dash. And I’d be honest and say this as well: I haven’t really found them—or by extension, the idea that Gg was endorsing the brand—offensive, precisely for the reasons @accio-victuuri laid out. Li-Ning is a legend in China; a highly decorated olympic gymnast, he was the national pride chosen to be the final torch-bearer and torch-lighter for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. His company, established in 1990, was among the first Chinese brands with name-recognition overseas and has won high-profile international sponsorships—rare achievements among Chinese-owned enterprises, even to this day. 

Based on Li Ning’s identity and his company being a National Brand, I’d be more surprise if the Li-Ning brand doesn’t use homegrown, “patriotic” cotton, before even considering the practical reasons—Xinjiang cotton being a domestic product that eliminates the costs of shipping, tariffs etc; that it’s of such superior quality that international brands touted its use—a reversal of the usual downplaying of their products’ Chinese origin, due to the common associations of “Made in China”=“Bootleg”,“awful quality”; that makes up ~20% of worldwide cotton production—ie. most Chinese families are probably already using products with cotton from the region (blankets, for example). 

From that perspective, therefore, I’ve viewed the endorsement as little more than a case of a high-profile Chinese celebrity endorsing a high-profile Chinese brand, named after a national hero and targeted towards the local market. I breathed a little sigh of relief for Gg, admittedly—imagine if his new endorsement over those same few days had been for a brand under the Better Cotton Initiative; he would’ve been flayed alive, if the antis’ words were knives.

(And who said they aren’t?)

As such, I also haven’t considered the Li-Ning brand as “morally inferior” to Gg or Dd, or, the other way around, that Gg or Dd are “morally superior” to the Li-Ning brand. I haven’t considered drawing a moral ruler along this axis. I either believe they’re all doing what their sociopolitical environment has taught them, guided them, demanded them to do, or I don’t. Li Ning (the person and the brand), Gg, and Dd all have a celebrity status attached to them. They’ve all flourished in that one sociopolitical environment—that one they also call home.  

Ultimately, Gg and Dd belong to China. They’re the product of the country, its all powerful, all controlling regime. No one can be isolated from their backgrounds—my background colours every word I say here; likewise, there’s no place I can draw a line and separate Gg and Dd from the Communist Red behind them. I wouldn’t have posted about China’s sociopolitical environment, researched on it as a GgDd fan otherwise. 

I either walk away from them all, or I don’t. I either stay a fan, or I don’t. The latter is my choice. Every minute.

Have there been instances in which news about Gg and Dd make me especially uncomfortable? Yes. Photos of Gg in PLA (People’s Liberation Army; Chinese army) uniform for AT, or Dd in police uniform for BAH, for TTXS still give me stomach churns every time I see them. A violent squeeze of the heart.

Visceral reactions that come from, I suppose, the amyglada. More organic, primitive than thought. 

I’ve seen those uniforms in RL action—uniforms worn by those who’re truly responsible for the labor camps and mass surveillance, the torture, the unreported deaths, the disappearances; uniforms Gg and Dd have expressed support outside their drama, their host roles:

Translation: #I support Hong Kong Police too# (On red banner) “I support HK police. You can beat me up now.” What a shame for Hong Kong.

(Dd reblogged the same post originated from People’s Daily, the State-Controlled Newspaper).

I’m going to go on a quick detour and provide the backstory of this red little box, this piece of propaganda that is much more blatant than a clothing ad. I’ll explain why in a bit.

Here’s an article that explained the incident from which the quote was drawn, that occurred on 8/13/2019 during the Hong Kong Protest and the airing of The Untamed. Essentially, a Chinese state media reporter was suspected to be a spy among the protestors after taking photos, refusing to show his press pass (he was found to have one but not his own), and possessing a “I love HK Police” shirt; he was tied to the luggage cart and beaten up. The reporter said the quote in the red little box; he suffered mild injuries and was soon discharged by the hospital.  What was the background of this story, however? Why did the protestors beat up someone who could be from the press—who, regardless of their affiliation, protestors know should be protected? The protests began in June, 2019. Hong Kong had had another large scale protest in between September to November, 2014 (aka the “Umbrella Revolution”). Spies had always been an issue. Why didn’t a spy beating happen earlier?

Here’s an English-subbed documentary (warning: violence) that offers insight of the background—the fear and fury of the protestors. The subject is what is now known as 721 Yuen Long incident, or the evening Hong Kongers—even those who had not been involved, who had been unsure about the protests—lost their trust of the Hong Kong Police, once known as “Asia’s finest”.

That evening went like this. On 7/21/2019, the local mafia violently attacked the passengers of a late night train in Yuen Long station—passengers who weren‘t protestors (who wore black)—while the police ignored the multiple emergency calls from locals who’d spotted something suspicious, and didn’t show up on the scene while the beatings occurred. Evidences, which the documentary detailed, pointed to the Hong Kong Police, and the government that backed it, endorsing the beatings, therefore working with the local mafia to deal with the protests. 

By 8/13/2019, therefore, protestors were convinced that their opposition wasn’t beyond using very low blows to get their way. One could argue that they overreacted to the spy-reporter; the Western media, who had long trusted HKers to know what they were doing, expressed its disappointment, and the protestors soon apologised. The Chinese propaganda machine, of course, jumped at the chance of casting the protestors as bad people, and the online rally on Weibo ensued (It lasted for at least three days; Gg and Dd reblogged post about HK between 8/14/2019-8/16/2019).

That was, briefly, the story behind Gg and Dd’s Weibo reblog.

Why did I make a detour and write up this story? Because I’ve actually posted blatant propaganda on my blog—the Weibo post, with its red little box. However, does it still feel like propaganda with the story?

Therefore, I haven’t, and don’t plan on pressuring anyone to stop posting and re-blogging specific pieces of GgDd information—be it an ad as in this scenario, or propaganda material from films, series, government/state-controlled media announcements etc. That I believe everyone should set their own boundaries, be their own judge of what they’d like to share on their own blog aside, I think—and this is where my opinion may deviate from many—“canceling” falsehoods often isn’t the best way to deal with them. 

This opinion is likely, again, coloured by my background.

My observations have been this: “cancelling” is effective only if the cancelling force is, overall, significantly stronger than the force being cancelled. In the scenario that prompted this post, making Gg’s Li-Ning ads disappear from the dash is only possible if there are more fans who ignore the ads than those who post and reblog them. “Canceling” is therefore a competition of headcount, with tactics for sidekick—the side with more people, and people who are good at disseminating information, decides the outcome: whether the intended-to-be-cancelled material go viral within the fandom, or whether they die out.

I’d like to highlight this word: headcount.

This isn’t the most favourable kind of competition to participate in, therefore, if the potential opposition belongs to the populous country in the world, its members, people who may have participated in fan circles, which are essentially fan armies who’ve been used to organising, battling on social media for their idols. I’ve previously set up a hypothetical scenario, in which Dd’s supertopic members were encouraged by their government to scale the Great Firewall to Twitter, spread their support of Xinjiang cotton—a scenario that is not totally unrealistic, given that the Chinese government has previously mobilised fans for propaganda purpose. 

We’ll use this thought experiment again ~ please bear in mind, once more, that this is SJD; a figment of our imagination.

Since we’re talking about Li-Ning brand, let’s add Gg’s supertopic members to the mix. The total supertopics member count is 6.11 + 8.34 = 14.45 million, as of today (2021/04/04). 

Let’s say, only a tiny, tiny percent—0.01% of them are mobilised; that’s 1,400 people.

Is it possible to cancel the voices, the retweets of 1,400 in Gg and Dd’s i-fandom? Cut down another 90%, reduce the opposition headcount to 140. Is it possible?

There are also overseas Chinese who do not intend to spread propaganda, but believe in the story and have no qualms disseminating the information. There are also fans who wish to remove politics from fandom and pass all information along.

Here lies the frustration of those who’ve tried to raise their voice of concerns re: the policies and practices of the Chinese government on social media; and this is why I mentioned that my background informed my opinion. On social media, where headcount and whoever shouts the loudest, retweet etc the most wins the exposure game, it’s nearly impossible to win against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s propaganda machine, if the party chooses to have the machine running. 

Their side has so many people.

One more RL example: here’s a scholarly article detailing how Diba (帝吧), an old, popular online forum in China with 20 million members, mobilised, collectively scaled the Firewall and engaged in a cyberattack of the Facebook page of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen on January 20, 2016 — the day of President Tsai Ing-wen’s first inauguration; they left a total of 26,000 comments against Taiwan independence, using Simplified Chinese (which China uses) for their font instead of Traditional Chinese (which Taiwan and Hong Kong uses)—ie, the commenters didn’t even pretend to be not from China. They were proud and open about their "Expedition”.

(China’s state-controlled tabloid Global Times—yes, the same one involved in the Hong Kong airport incident above—”concluded the campaign was a “fun normal incident” that showcased young people’s passion for politics”)

Is it possible to try to cancel something of that scale? Is it realistic?

Personally, therefore, I’ve always advocated for “immunisation”: rather than protecting a fact by wiping out its associated lies—the idea behind “cancelling” a message, not having it show up on the dash—I prefer to do so by allowing it to be visibly challenged, until observers are no longer easily swayed by falsehoods. I used Gg and Dd’s Weibo reblog re: Hong Kong police as an example—is the red little box propaganda, a challenge to the protests? Yes. Is it information that I deeply disagree with, something I wish I’ll never see again? Also yes. But by providing context to it, I’m hoping to turn it into a vaccine—something mimicking the virus, the potentially viral piece of information, but doesn’t function the same way anymore. 

Hopefully, this vaccine will also encourage stop-and-think moments that boost future immunity; hopefully, with a few more boosters, questions will come automatically with such red little boxes reappear— questions about the context, the purpose, the message. 

Questions like these, for this incident: why did the State media make this incident the “Gotcha” moment in the Hong Kong Protests, important enough for People’s Daily to make a rally-starting meme? Why was the reporter, Fu Guohao hailed as a hero, when he’d just got ... beaten up? 

What did People’s Daily, and the government behind it, want people to find when the red little box popped up everywhere on Weibo, including the Weibo of the fastest rising stars from the hit summer TV series? What belief could be expected to be instilled into the audience with this photo, published by China’s state TV station (CGTN), of the reporter tied up to a luggage cart and surrounded by black-cladded protestors?

Who looked like the strong, evil side? The meek, good side? Why, finally, was the tag about the Hong Kong Police, when the conflict was between the protestors and an alleged Chinese state media reporter?

By then, Hong Kongers were already suspicious that the Hong Kong Police had been infiltrated by China’s law enforcement arm, from hints from the different dialects the police used, how they handled the protestors etc. It was the start the final break down of Hong Kong’s autonomy. Their suspicions were not wrong. Now, with the National Security Law having taken effect since July 2020, Hong Kong’s transformation into a police state is well under way.

What does the tag #I support Hong Kong Police too# mean now?

[Please excuse my using many examples from HK because 1) I’m familiar with the details; and 2) it’s the only instance in recent history in which the outside world can see, with relative clarity, a large-scale protest against the Chinese government and its outcome.]

Here’s my humble wish: next time, when a government-sponsored memes like this get translated and posted, be it originally reblogged by Gg, Dd, or other c-ent stars, be it on Twitter or Tumblr, the vaccinated, immunised will pause and wonder: What’s the story? What’s being told inside the Great Firewall, and outside? 

If this happens, red little boxes on my blog, unpleasant as they are, are 100% worth it.

The Li-Ning ads are therefore worth it too, IMO, if they spark a conversation, a dissemination of facts and perspectives. To me, the latter is especially precious in this fandom, where significant language and cultural barriers exist.  Fans who move Gg and Dd’s news and candies from Weibo are the pillars of this fandom. Sieving through that website is hard, translations harder; it’s unfair and unrealistic to ask them to also be the background knowledge deliverers. 

I’ve tried to do a small part, but I’m ... slow. Very, very slow. However, even if the background isn’t available, I’ve found being careful, skeptical about the information is already a very good thing. At heart, this is no different from the lessons from media literacy here, except there are even more falsehoods and half-truths to wade through given the country of origin of Gg and Dd’s material, and trustworthy sources are not always available. Li-Ning brand is an example that things do not need to be blatant propaganda to carry a pro-CCP message. 

What can i-fans do then about the Xinjiang cotton situation, if competing against the Chinese government propaganda machine on social media appears to be a losing game?

My thoughts are these, at the moment. First, please consider not dwelling on the competition, especially within fandom. Remember: getting several fewer fans to buy Li-Ning brand isn’t going to change the big picture.

Instead, if this is an area of activism you choose to participate in—please consider channeling your effort to watching the companies in your country. Put pressure on sustainability & good practice certification companies like Better Cotton Initiative, make sure they don’t, can’t have it both ways. Xinjiang cotton is either certified or it isn’t. There’re suspicions of forced labor on its production or there aren’t. The answer should be a simple yes or no, not whether the office is in Geneva or in Shanghai.

This is an answer that we, as consumers, have the right to know. Transparency in China isn’t for us to demand; we can, however, demand transparency in our own country. Remember too: it makes a far, far greater difference for one international company to re-consider its cotton source, than for one fandom to do the same. 

Meanwhile, and again, this is my humble opinion—please do whatever you’re comfortable with, that is within your ability, to fortify your stance. Should you choose to speak out online, you’ll likely meet opposition. Responses on current events from the Chinese Foreign Ministry (you can also find the spokespeople on Twitter) can offer a glimpse of the counterarguments you may meet. How will you answer them? Here’s a clip of one of the spokespeople arguing that the US used to use black slavery to pick cotton in the past. If you’re American and this is presented to you—what would you say? (Does mistakes by one country in the past mean mistakes by another country in the present is automatically acceptable?) The opposition may also use vicious words, the most extreme of which is probably “racist”. If someone call you racist—if many Twitter users scream racist!!!!!!!! at you at the same time for your critique—can you stand firm? 

[The pro-CCP camp has been taking advantage of the West’s effort to move forward from its racist past to stop any criticism of the Chinese government. It already knows the easiest way to silence the criticisms is to call whoever makes them racist.]

[If everyone fears the racist allegation, allows the conflation of Chinese government and Chinese people to take root, will there be more or less anti-Asian sentiments in the long run?]

[I’ve been called racist by writing these metas.] 

The last thing I’d like to say is this: please be kind to your fellow fans who’ve kept mum, or been hesitant about making their stance known. Some may be closely connected to China, others may not be in a psychological / health space to deal with the politics. Also, and here’s my default way of looking at this: I disagree with the idea that anyone owes anyone else a declaration of their political beliefs. I can’t imagine this issue to be an easy thing to think about for many Gg and Dd fans, myself most definitely included ~ as a (former) Hong Konger, a uniformed Gg or Dd gives me an unpleasant visceral response, but at the same time, it also means I’m used to accepting, even genuinely liking people on the other side of this political ... Grand Canyon. I can imagine the conflict, the pain this issue may have caused some fans who’re not accustomed to the latter, as being a fan, IMO, is never purely logical ~ and I mean that in the best of ways. 

Passion is the magic ingredient that separates a fan and a consumer. It’s also what makes choices difficult, when conclusions from logic, political stance included, conflict with it. Some make the hard choices quickly; some, slowly. Some make them in one go; some, piece by piece. Some never make them, let time be the decision maker.

As Dd said so famously and wisely, about the conflict between passion and logic: 愛就是這樣，沒有辦法 Love is like that. Nothing can be done.

The only common denominator is this: we’re all made to love.

❤️.💛.💚.

[heresathreebee]

Brackish And Briny Waters (three)

[Ralph Lamont X Female Reader]

Summary: Spend the weekend painting the house with your husband. Previous Masterlist Next

Tags: 17+ | 1.6k words | Painting a house together, aka domestic stuff, oral sex (female receiving), unprotected sex, pulling out, vague mention of rats.

AN: part 4 is gonna get angsty I just finished it

Anything involving greens was a heavy battle between you two, as Ralph seemed to have some kind of vendetta against them. The more blue you got, the less you fought and you eventually settled on a cool tone to use for the laundry room with a compromise to paint floral accents in a forest green tone along the edges of the back wall. You did find an exact replica of one of the original wallpapers in your second bedroom which you wanted to move to the living room. 

Colors selected and purchased, you went home starving and managed to scrape together some left overs with a side of rice to fuel you to start on the real work. You also bought brown paper to cover the solar room window holes until you can finish that room as its own project. 

Ralph rolls up his sleeves and puts on his bleach stained lounge pants to help. You lay down tarp and use up 3 rolls of tape to cover the kitchen and the dining room. Every window and door is wide open as you set your record player to play some 'whistle while you work' type of albums. And whistle he does that husband of yours, enjoying your company and shaking his hips dramatically to make you laugh. You two haven't had this much fun in so long it feels like. 

The summer citrus color you chose for the kitchen was really working for you. Ralph intended to put the wallpaper up in the other room to get 'double the work done' but still you find him working the same wall just to be close to you. You talk about missing that classic NYC pizza and dinner tomorrow and Ralph promises to ask his colleagues about any music shops in the area. 

You take a nap on the porch swing to get away from the paint fumes, an iced tea almost slipping from your hand. When dinner time comes, you cook while he details the removal of the old wallpaper from the dining room to work tomorrow. He's rambling about using a third coat on the living room paint and you don't think it's necessary but you know he'll agree with you come morning. 

"Come eat Ralph Vincent," you scold him for getting paint on the door frame but all is forgiven when he sweeps you into a hungry kiss. 

"I'd rather eat you right now." 

Ralph's flirtations are interrupted by his own ractious growling stomach and you laugh at him as you shove a plate into his hand. You eat together by the window in the living room. While it hasn't been painted yet, you have moved the furniture to the middle of the room and the fumes from the kitchen and dining room are still very strong. You hope it doesn't affect your sleep tonight (or hope it puts you down like a dose of melatonin). 

"Floyd's got a boat," Ralph tells you. "Says he takes it out on the water almost every day. Asked if I wanted to join him." 

"And are you?" You spin another forkful of angel hair spaghetti on your plate. 

Ralph slurps his like a child. "Am I what." 

"Are you going to join him on his boat?" You speak slowly and patronizingly. Ralph pinches your breast and almost makes you drop your plate. "No. I hate boats. I hate water. I don't want to be trapped for hours out there listening to him talk about paintings and philosophers, at least at work I can walk away." 

You chuckle. "I think Floyd sounds very interesting. What do you have against him?" 

"Nothing," he protests, "he talks too much. He's loquacious– that's what Justine calls him, and she's one to talk. If you must know, he's actually my favorite– he knows when to keep his nose out of my business." 

Dishes are made slightly more difficult with Ralph hanging off your shoulders. He peppers kisses up and down your neck, even finds a hickey from the morning that's started to fade and he remarks you. You dig your dripping fingers into his hair when he finds that spot on your neck and gives it some much needed attention. 

"Ralphie, baby, please," you whisper, "I could use your help with these." 

Dishes are done in record time and suddenly you're being whisked away to your bedroom (not that you were complaining). This room has the wallpaper that you had no intention to change aside from a fresh upgrade. Ralph takes your hand to spin you around and back you into your shared room all the way to the edge of the bed. Along the way he plants kisses from your hairline to your collarbone before he lets you fall atop the thick quilted bedspread. 

He gazes at you with a warm expression. The soft "my girl" he whisperes makes your heart swell. 

You expect him to pick up your legs and pull you by your knees to the outside of his hips (want him to even), but Ralph has other ideas it seems. It's not until his head is between your legs that you realize what he's up to (or rather down to). You gasp a lung full of air and grab him by the hair of his head. 

"Jesus," you sigh. 

Your husband's rumbling laughter causes your thighs to twitch. "Say my name, I'm the one doing all the work." 

"Yeah but you love– aha!" His beard brushes your inner thighs and leaves a delightful burning sensation in the deepest part of your soul. "Fuck…" 

You pull his hair harder and feel the soft locks stretch in your bloodless grasp. You can feel that immortal coil wind tighter and tighter inside you as Ralph devours you. You start chanting his name, the pitch of your voice beginning to crescendo the closer you get to that fire cracker ending. Ralph doubles his efforts, eager to have you fall apart on his tongue and fingers. 

He's more than making it up to you tonight. 

When you come, your body curls in on itself and your thighs lock around his head, effectively deafening him. You have no idea if he can hear the scream that rips from your body but you can't either as your eyes rolls back in ecstasy. 

You relax onto the bed and feel it dip with an additional weight to your side. You slide into Ralph's easy embrace, his dry hand coming up to hold you to him and just rest for a bit. 

"Fuck," you say huskily, "you're really good at that…" 

Ralph kisses you in answer, trying to deepen the connection but you have to twist away to catch your breath. Instead he plants lingering, sweet kisses on your neck, your cheek, your hair. His hand caresses your back in circles until you're nearly asleep from the motion. 

You flinch when you feel his nose brush against yours. "Baby… don't fall asleep." He sounds so sweet until his voice darkens and he says, "I'm not done with you yet." 

You lose track of time and all you can feel is Ralph Lamont. You're both covered in a sheen of sweat and his hips rock leisurely into yours. You don't know who grabbed who but your hands are tangled together and refuse to let go. Ralph's breath dusts over your neck, cool in contrast to the fire of his physical form pressed against you. You want to come again but you let him draw it out, let him love you tonight. 

"Ralph." You whisper in his ear, begging with no pressure to change pace. You're happy if he's happy and he is very content to keep thrusting into you to his peak and slow down, never stopping but always making you want more. Your man kisses you flush on the mouth and adjusts his position. His thrusts change. They grow from hypotonic and shallow to a little hard and more purposeful. You moan at the feeling, your legs locking around his hips to draw him deeper despite your exhaustion. 

Your orgasm washes over you nice and gentle, nothing like the force of the first time. You're conscious enough to lock your ankles around Ralph's hips, but it still doesn't prevent him from slipping his flushed and reddened cock out and finishing on your stomach as he always intended. You feel a strange tickle of disappointment as you come down from your high but push it to the back of your mind for later. 

Some way, somehow, Ralph still has enough strength to clean you both up and tuck you into bed. He curls around your body despite the near unbearable heat and falls fast asleep, his soft snores right behind your ear lulling you under the tide of sleep. 

DAY FOUR

"Morning." 

Your Saturday is awash of more painting and moving furniture with Ralph. He made coffee and eggs and brought it to you in bed, then dragged you down to look at the frayed wires on the clothes dryer machine. 

"Might be rodents," you muse. "I'll get some traps on Monday and find my soldering iron." 

"We'll get traps tonight," your husband countered, scratching his chin, "the sooner the better." 

You finish removing the old wallpaper in the living room and carefully put up the new one with little fuss. The kitchen still smells of paint but it's dry (it had better be, you left the windows open all night and it's freezing in here) so you put the kitchen utensils and appliances back and remove the protective tape and brown paper. Ralph is proud of the precision work done in the corners and edges, patting himself on the back and yours. 

"We did good babe," he said, "by this time next week, we'll have the whole house done!" 

You laugh at his optimism. There were still cobwebs to dust, cracks to spackle, floors to polish, windows to replace. This was the very reason he picked this place… 

To keep you busy. To keep your mind from wandering to those dark places that linger in your past. 

At least it was working.

Tagging people who might like to know: @werwulfy @hoodoo12 @escape-your-grape @go-commander-kim @fundamentally-lazy @mimiscappinisideblog do y'all wanna be here? If not lemme know please 😅 DM me