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alarrytale · 8 months

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i don’t know, i feel like you want louis to become a mainstream average pop star instead of something that’s authentic and actually interesting. there’s plenty of women who adore rock/punk/alternative/metal/etc music, not only “macho” men. he clearly loves rock. also, the rich history of these genres and politics is incredible. so very interesting and oftentimes beautiful.

following his true sound instead of conforming and fitting into the perfect pop star image will always be better. tiktok is a cesspool and many artists have spoken out about how they’re forced to post snippets of their songs there or they’re threatened with not releasing them.

also something very important, there is plenty of history of the overlap between street wear, chavs and the queer community in northern england, where he is from. as someone who expresses their queerness in that same way, i find it very ignorant to imply that street wear = toxic masculinity.

art shouldn’t be reduced to commerciality and capitalism. art is so beyond that. as a fan, i want him to do something that’s true to himself, not yet another soulless mainstream album

as for getting rid of the grays… i rather see someone who’s not afraid of showing a real image of who they are instead of fitting in whatever beauty standards society has. people grow, people get gray hairs at young ages sometimes. i certainly don’t want him to feel ashamed of his beautiful gray hairs

i don’t know, this whole changing himself to fit in with the mainstream music industry seems unnecessary. i’d actually stop being a fan if he did, because what made me a fan is how his art is authentic and he actually does what he wants to do music wise, not what the industry labels popular

Hi, anon!

I've talked about this subject before. I think you need to take yourself out of the equation. Take me out too. It's not about what i want or what you want. It's about what i believe needs to happen in order to keep and grow his fanbase. Neither of us is fitting the target group he should be catering to. It's his current core fanbase and those 37 mill followers (potential fans) that needs to find him interesting, attractive and inspirational to buy his album and buy tickets to his show.

I've said before that i don't think L can afford to do what he wants and what he's passionate about. He's not in a position to. His label and touring company demands a certain amount of albums and concert tickets sold to make up for the investment and costs. He's got targets he needs to hit. The investors want profit. For continued investment they also need to see progress (more albums sold then the previous album, more tickets sold than the last tour etc.)

I think Louis' career is stagnating or on it's way over the hill. Afhf didn’t sell as well as previous year, his monthly listeners are declining, he had to cancel Asia because of bad sales and downgrade a venue because of low sales. Engagement in his fandom is low as well. Bg, yelling at fans, cancelling and downgrading shows, lack of professionalism and childish behaviour isn't doing him any favours.

So again, i don't think he can afford to do what he wants and likes. Fans aren’t responding to it well and he's got to do something to get himself back in fans favour. Where you see him wearing street wear and associates it with queer culture in Northern England, the gp sees an artist who wears wrinkled ill-fitting trackpants every show. Where you see grey hair and is proud of him for being himself, the gp sees a premature grey-haired older than his years artist. None of this is working in his favour.

So while i would love for him to be himself, authentic and explore niche genres and subcultures, that's not what his target group and most of the gp likes and wants. So i think he needs to compromise. Give the target group some of what they want, while testing the borders of how far he can push it towards what he wants. I think he's on his way to go a bit overboard. He's got an image problem among non-fans and some of it he can't do anything about. What he's currently doing now clearly isn't working like intended. There are things he can do to maintain and grow his fanbase. Some of it is fairly simple stuff. He must be willing to change in order to do so, and i'm not sure he is.

#his art is also far from authentic just saying #it's still a compromise and some of it is very exaggerated #anytime louis or louies uses the words authentic about him i cringe #he's got the most constructed and fake image and persona i've ever seen #louis image #solo louis #free advice

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tlbodine · 2 years

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Okay. I am on mobile on my lunch break so this is not going to be as robust or organized or beautiful as I’d like but it’s circling around in my head and I want to get it out and get some thoughts/perspective.

I think we are at a crossroads, as a society, about the role of art and commerce and intellectual property and how people get paid. And some of that is tied to an even bigger discussion about the economic model of capitalism in an increasingly post-scarcity world but. Just. To start with just our small corner of the problem.

There are three main ways you can make money: either you perform labor, or you sell a product/service, or you own a thing and charge others for the benefit of using it.

1 - if you do labor, the odds are good that you either are employed by someone in the owning things/selling things sector, or else you also own/sell the thing so you have multiple job roles

2 - owning property is only profitable if other people derive value from it they can’t get elsewhere for free

So, if you are an artist, how are you compensated?

1 - are you paid for your labor?

In my day job, I am paid for my labor. I write a certain number of articles for clients each week and I get paid the same regardless of how those articles perform or what money the firm brings in each week. (If we perform poorly enough I may lose my job, but this is measured in aggregate, not tied to my output).

But this is not how most creatives are paid. Publishers are not giving most of their writers a salary. Moreover, the number of hours it takes to write a single book are so high that it would need to be priced quite high to turn a profit - someone paying an author salary would need to sell a LOT of copies to make this a viable business plan (this does happen - see a lot of franchise work - but it’s unlikely with spec work where demand is not ensured).

2 - Are you paid for your product?

This is the self pub model, the pulp model. You get paid for selling units, so it’s in your interests to sell as many units as possible. In practice, this usually means writing and publishing a LOT because it’s often easier to get 1000 people to buy 10 things than it is to get 10,000 people to buy one thing.

In this model, piracy is disastrous because it cuts into your profits. (The counter argument is that pirates weren’t going to pay for it anyway so you’re not losing money, and the piracy could lead to more marketing by word of mouth - but do we have data to confirm whether that’s true?)

3 - are you paid for your rights?

In a property ownership model, you are paid for your rights - ie, you own the idea, and people pay you to create units that can be sold. This includes traditional publishing (you create the product, the publisher buys it from you in exchange for the profit of selling units) and ancillary publishing efforts (film adaptations etc) which also create units.

This is how the model currently primarily operates - the intellectual property model.

Okay. So here is where this gets muddy.

- Do fanworks infringe upon IP rights in a way that renders the property unprofitable? The argument is that fan works are themselves not for profit so they don’t compete with the original. But fanwork *is* still unpaid usage of IP, and we have examples of people who have used fandom as a launchpad for their own publishing careers. If you built your audience within a fandom, do you owe anything to the original creator?

- If we agree that a fanfic with its serial numbers filed off is fair game and thus not infringing on any rights/subject to payment to the IP rights holder, does the same hold true for AI trained on the IP? If you use a data set from a particular IP to train an AI that creates wholly original but undeniably similar work, are you infringing upon those rights and do you owe compensation to the IP holder?

I don’t know the answer to this but I think we need to figure it out, and fast.

There are other emerging models that I think bear consideration, too:

- the patronage (or subscription) model, which (can be) hybridizes the “labor” and “goods” option: you’re paid a specified salary by a collective of patrons who in exchange get an agreed upon product.

- the freemium model, where the product is free but you profit off various ancillary units (ie, merch, subscription) - currently popularized in podcasting. This is intriguing, but requires a substantial audience buy-in to turn a profit (or else a high margin, and there are questions at that point as to who else’s labor your profiting on)

There’s also the “advertising” model, or sponsorship, wherein you’re paid per impression by a marketing company - in effect turning the audience into the “units” being sold. See: YouTube.

So okay.

The question becomes.

As a consumer, which option becomes most palatable? What are you paying for when you buy a thing? If you are not willing to pay for a thing, and consume either pirated or fan work instead, are you OK with the effect this has on smaller creators? (Ie, Disney can survive piracy due to a higher volume of units and wider reach than a small time indie author). (If your argument is that you only pirate big corps, cool - but if you also consume fan work of big properties instead of paying for small original authors, that is also a choice that affects the market).

In my opinion I think we are at a place where there are more people who want to create art than there are people who want to pay for it, and a lot of people have found profit by marketing services to those creators instead. But it seems very suspicious to me that we could be in a place of such low demand while simultaneously seeing such enormous profits given to certain platforms. Because it sure seems like what’s happened is a handful of corporations bought up IP for pennies (because it’s still more money than individual creators can get selling their units)….and then turned around and are making enormous profits as the owners of exclusive platforms and franchises.

Creators are supposed to be in the property ownership game but they’ve lost it to mega corps.

Anyway. I don’t know if any of this is making sense. But it’s what I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.

#rambles #publishing #writeblr #thoughts

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musiconanironingboard · 4 months

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7 February 2024: England's Newest Hit Makers, The Rolling Stones. (2006 ABKCO reissue of 1964 London release)

Even though I've been sitting here for months with a stack of Rolling Stones Japanese mini LPs within arm's reach, it's another thing when I have to post and talk about them. I only meant to buy a couple of these things and I wound up with something nuts like 15 of them, with another 3 or 4 still on my wishlist. Ultimately they'll serve a good listening purpose, and I'm thrilled to have the cool Japanese format instead of some random modern reissue in digipaks or whatever, but my Stones fandom is not as intense as it would seem for a guy buying more than a dozen of these things. Had I not found incredible deals on all of them, this wouldn't have happened.

This particular purchase comes from a lot of five that I bought from a dealer in Japan whose prices were irresistible. England's Newest Hitmakers is their debut American album; much like the Beatles, the Stones were subject to U.S. companies dismantling their album visions to concoct more product to sell. Reissue companies get to continue this, as both the U.S. and U.K. versions of Stones albums are still reissued to the present day. Perhaps the most insane outcome of my newfound interest in buying Stones albums I know I didn't even like the last time I examined them is I've decided I want both countries' versions of everything. Good lord.

Above we see the front and back covers of the album with its 2006 obi strip from the campaign launched that year called The Rolling Stones in the '60s.

Above we see the unadorned front and back album covers.

An interesting touch with this reissue is a one-sided insert that depicts the original U.K. version of the album cover. In the band's homeland, the album was just called The Rolling Stones and aside from a Decca Records logo the cover was wordless. The logo isn't part of this insert image.

Next we see the front page of the insert.

Next up is an image of the disc itself.

Next we have a funny little addition to this particular 2006 reissue campaign. Each release included a little trading card in a silver envelope. Because Japan values detail in their packaging, this envelope is resealable and you don't have to destroy it to get to the card inside. First we see the unsealed envelope, and then both sides of the card itself.

The cards included in this series all depict different Stones releases. This particular one shows the 1989 box set The Rolling Stone Singles Collection: The London Years. I got that set for Christmas in 1989 and it was the first time I'd heard most of the early Stones work. It was a bit of a cynical release as it came out almost simultaneously with the band's new album Steel Wheels, no doubt meant to cannibalize sales of the new material. 1989 was a big deal for the Stones as they went on an enormous tour that year and the buzz was hot. ABKCO was a shady label and their shadiness continued well after the Stones had moved on. The box looked like about five minutes was spent on designing it; the book that comes with the vinyl edition is an embarrassment. I've got no idea what other formats are like. But I digress. Considering the box's presence on this trading-card series, I presume it was also reissued in mini LP style in 2006. I have to admit I'd love a copy of that.

The back of each of these cards is an excerpt of the album art for the group's 1967 Their Satanic Majesties Request. Collect them all and you can arrange them like a puzzle to see the full album cover.

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ansicred · 1 year

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Art + Television

Art, like anyone else, loves his TV Shows... He just takes that passion for the medium into a whole new stratosphere, particularly with certain television shows and Sci-Fi.

His first love, obviously, is The Sooty Show. It was the first show he remembers ever watching and he's been a fan since the episode "Sooty's Clock Shop" (airing on October 16th 1966) when the original 'handler'/puppeteer for Sooty, Harry Corbett would appear on screen beside the mischievous little bear. In the 80s (during the story's setting), Art is still a huge fan of the show and enjoys Matthew being alongside Sooty, Sweep, and Soo just as much as he did Harry - by 2023, he's not watched much of the newer episodes of the show, preferring to watch older episodes and Sooty & Co., but he still appreciates them. His favourite of the puppets is, of course, Sooty himself and he's cemented this love of the character by having a tattoo of the bear's ears & nose on his left forearm. Art owns a lot of Sooty memorabilia/merchandise (especially by 2023) but his most prized possession is a Sooty hand-puppet that he was given to by Frank, James, and Tim on his 23rd birthday. He's since modified his Sooty into a little punk and uses him as a mascot on stage (and, occasionally, in music videos).

His second love is Doctor Who. It's another show that he has early memories of and his first Doctor was Patrick Troughton (the second) - his favourite Doctor, however, was Jon Pertwee (the third). It's a show that he's always admired the sets, costumes, and stories of, and would often be picturing himself on adventures through time & space with The Doctor and their companions. It saddens him that he can't watch the show as much as he would like because of the touring and work, but he'll go out and buy tapes when he's finally at home so he can catch up. By 2023, of course, he has access to the internet and streaming, so he will often spend off-time on tours glued to a tablet while he watches the show. Art's favourite Doctors from the nuwho revival are David Tennant (tenth/fourteenth), Peter Capaldi (twelfth), and Jodie Whittaker (thirteenth) and particularly enjoys the more comedic episodes. Like with The Sooty Show, Art's knowledge on the show is unrivalled and he has a huge collection of Doctor Who memorabilia/merchandise. His prized Who item is probably a TARDIS model he'd gotten for Christmas from James, which he (still) keeps on a mantelpiece in his living room.

Speaking of Sci-Fi... You can't grow up in the 60s and not be aware of Star Trek -- and Art is a huge Trekkie. He likes to see himself in Spock in particular, even if his bandmates would refer to him as the James T. Kirk of Odd Foxes, because he relates to Leonard Nimoy's portrayal of the character. If had known a) that he was autistic and b) what headcanoning was back in the day, Art probably would have headcanoned Spock as being autistic, based purely on the way he sees himself in that character. He may not be a housewife but Art does ship. In fact, it's the only show where he does anything remotely fandom-esque -- and his main ship is Spones because he likes their chemistry the most, and, well, Bones McCoy is his second favourite character. He doesn't have as much memorabilia for Trek as he does the other two, but he does own a modest (for him) collection, including a model of the original USS Enterprise given to him by Tim.

Although he has an exhaustive list of other favourites, particularly in the cult Sci-Fi genre, those three subjects are guaranteed to get Artie excited. James once said in a magazine interview that if someone needed to know anything about any of the three shows that Art was the "go-to" man for the information on them... Provided they were as patient as James is about Art's info-dumping about them, of course.

#ansicredocs #oddfoxesverse #artiefoxes #artiefoxeslore

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stellamarium · 2 years

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【Welcome to my self-ship/ yumejo blog】

She/ Her • Adult Hello! I’m Avi, and I almost never know what to say about myself! (’: I tend to jump from fandom to fandom, and thus add and remove F/Os in tandem. In addition to drawing art and writing stories with my self-ships, I also enjoy coding things out for them (ex. making fake sites for them, replicating in-game layouts (like “Obey Me” chats), etc.)

I tend to gravitate towards video games, particularly gacha games, so most of my F/Os tend to be from those media.

I love to work other people’s self-ships too, so if you would like to do a trade (art, writing, or coding in exchange for either art, writing, or anything else you’d like to try to offer), please do ask! Due to time constraints, I may not always accept, but I would love to work with your self-ships whenever the opportunity arises.

Before You Interact:

I don’t mind interactions with/ from minors, so long as a respectable distance is maintained between us.

Some posts may contain sensitive subject matter and will be tagged accordingly.

This is a SFW-only blog.

I’m a bit uncomfortable sharing romantic and queerplatonic F/Os but don’t mind talking about them with you. This means I’d be happy to gush about them with you, and you can gush to me about your relationship with them any time, but I would prefer not to see art/ writing of the two of you together and would rather that we both stay in our own respective private spaces alone with them in that regard. Sorry! ;;

Likes, reblogs, and replies are always welcome and appreciated on any and all of my posts!

I interact from @avi-stella

Links:

Follow me on Twitter

Ask me questions on Retrospring

Learn more about my self-insert/ ships on my self-ship site!

Commissions | I offer art, writing, and coding (static sites and/ or visual novels)

F/O List and Tags under cut:

Text Posts: (💫) [in my thoughts]

Vent Posts: (🌑) [into the void]

Answered Asks: (🌠) [make a wish]

Headcanons: (🌟) [twinkling stars]

F/O Letters: (💖) [in my heart]

Self-Insert: (🌙) [stars and moon]

Art: avistellart

Writing: avisteliterature

Last Updated: August 06, 2022

ROMANTIC

Alfonse (Fire Emblem Heroes) (👑) [ golden prince of my heart ]

Líf (Fire Emblem Heroes) (💀) [ even in death]

Louis Amamiya (Code Vein) (🩸) [ drinking in your love ]

Seox (Granblue Fantasy) (🦊) [ hidden behind your smile ]

Diluc Ragnvindr (Genshin Impact) (🔥) [ stars burn for us ]

Barbatos (Obey Me) (☕️) [ to serve and love ]

SilverAsh (Arknights) (❄️) [ warm in your heart ]

Zelos Wilder (Tales of Symphonia) (💖) [ my chosen one ]

QUEERPLATONIC

Sandalphon (Granblue Fantasy) (🪶) [ snarky coffee love ]

Jade Leech (Twisted Wonderland) (🐬) [ sweet and cunning ]

Floyd Leech (Twisted Wonderland) (🦈) [ bite and squeeze me ]

Lilia Vanrouge (Twisted Wonderland) (🦇) [ cutest love ]

PLATONIC

Leona Kingscholar (Twisted Wonderland) (🦁) [ let sleeping lions lie ]

Azul Ashengrotto (Twisted Wonderland) (🐙) [ buying friendships with money]

FAMILIAL

Deuce Spade (Twisted Wonderland) (♠️) [ we can change for the better ]

Camilla (Fire Emblem Heroes) (🌺) [ blooming flowers ]

Narmaya (Granblue Fantasy) ( 🦋 ) [ fluttering feelings ]

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weetlebeetle · 3 years

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Navigation

COMMISSION STATUS: OPEN!

MERCH STORE:

Re-open SEPTEMBER 15TH at 1 PM EST

Here is my carrd where you can find my other social media.

Welcome! You can call me Nebula. This blog is where I put all of my sfw art! All my NSFW stuff can be found on my Patreon. Though I might post previews that are risque.

If you would like to support me out my Ko-fi memberships or you can get the same benefits by subscribing to my Patreon

Here is a list of all my Patreon Exclusive stories!

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I sell prints of my art, you can buy them here

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My non-art/babbling tag: here

Asks:

Please don’t repost my art without asking me first

Feel free to use my fanart as icons/headers but please credit me somewhere

If you are going to send an ask about a ship I haven't posted about before, please censor out the vowels (using quiche as an example: q**ch*) just so it won't show up in the ship tags.

Specifics, what I'm working on, and more about me under the cut:

Fandoms I usually draw for:

Jjk, SNK, Jjba, Original content

Fandoms I am familiar with:

Chainsaw Man, The Boys, most Star Wars stufff, Choices (It Lives In the Woods is my all time favourite), The Arcana, Obey Me!, Hades, TVD (I only like Bonnie Bennett), TWD, Daredevil/The Punisher. There’s a few more but I’m forgetting them lol

Ships:

INFO: I am not comfortable with adult/minor ships or inc*st ships so if that is something you're looking for you are in the wrong place.

I'm fine with mature or ab*sive subject matter so long as it is approached with respect. I'm also in full support of self shipping and oc shipping. Live your truth.

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❤️🍨🐒 ZEEBO 🍨🐒❤️ (Zeke x Bo)

Some OCs:

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Kelsa, Thea, Solveig, Bo, Eloise, Cory, Ruthie, Kylie, Melony

#pinned post #dnt rb

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struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor · 2 years

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Do you think Hybe has a streak for ruining it's artists? The only thing they care about is milking their artists' fame and fandoms to get as much profit as they can. Every comeback of their top groups (BTS, TXT, Enhypen, Seventeen etc) is getting less and less exciting and memorable. It's like they only work hard to establish their artist for first few years and then just gradually start giving mediocre content but in a smart way. Ever since Hybe came into being and started expanding, it feels more like a capitalist business company rather than a musical one. I read someone saying how NU'EST and Gfriend disbanded after coming under Hybe when they were a fine working group, in the sense that Hybe "ruined" them (I don't know much about this topic so can't say anything). Does Hybe not really care about artistry?

Most musical companies, the big ones at least, are capitalist, and artistry may not even be on their list of priorities. First there's profit, then popularity, then impact, then awards... I don't even know, but big companies care about artistry as much as their audience does.

Artistic music videos, albums, and concepts can leave a lasting impression on an audience, greatly impact pop culture (like Beyoncé's Lemonade), and bring accolades and recognition to the artist. It can help rookie artists stand out too. TXT, in particular, had artsy concepts and an elaborate lore in the beginning of their career, which helped separate them from their peers, and, more importantly, from BTS. Because of this, they initially built a strong core fanbase, and were able to expand it considerably as their music became more mainstream and gp friendly. It paid off to be more artsy in the beginning, so now they can release trendier songs that reach a wider audience with the support of a very strong fanbase and an unique, artistic image to back it up - even if they haven't done anything truly unique or artistic in a while (though what is artistic or unique is up for debate; their Dream Chapters were very artsy, but I Know I Love You or Frost were also pretty unique in kpop).

As for BTS, Bang PD initially wanted a hip hop group, but then chose to create an idol group instead, precisely because he had a vision for who BTS could be - the voice of a generation, which is something quintessentially hip hop; but, to do so, he needed BTS to actually reach people (and, besides, he didn't want an unsuccessful group; quite the opposite, he needed the group to be successful). If you listen to BTS's rookie albums, they have a lot of easy listening songs as well as hip hop heavy ones (eg. I Like It, Just One Day, Coffee, plenty of songs in Dark & Wild, like Rain, Embarrassed, etc.). Most fans consider the HYYH series to be peak artistry for BTS, but that series made them popular for a reason - because it was more commercial than their initial sound. A lot of the lyrics, especially in the title tracks, were about love, and their image became softer, more approachable. HYYH is nostalgic, romantic, and dramatic like a coming of age movie - it's BTS's coming of age story and was marketed as such. The Wings album is pretty artistic, but, much like MOTS:7, lacks cohesiveness and not every song adheres to the album's concept; both albums are supposed to be artistic and philosophical but have plenty of commercial value (the most commercial value even). The LY series did incredibly well too, and it's valued for its artistry. Profit and artistry aren't incompatible. Picasso couldn't be more mainstream in the art world and his paintings sell for a lot of money.

Artistry is subjective and can be used to increase the marketability of a product, because people would rather buy a product that means something, that tells a story, that they can be proud of owning (like Picasso's paintings). So the goal is to balance artistry with commerciality. BTS's music could be even more artistic, but then it wouldn't sell as well.

I do think that, when it comes to BTS, a lot of their concepts are getting stale. But I think their variety content hasn't changed much, and I didn't like their styling in early eras. Hybe has realized BTS are at a point where they already stand out. They're known for their meaningful lyrics and creativity. Armys are proud of being Army because of it, and a lot of the gp knows BTS as true artists. Their artistry, their legacy is untouchable. They will forever be the voice of a generation. So Hybe doesn't need BTS to establish themselves as true artists anymore. They've done it already, and that's why BTS are legends. Their goal now is make BTS truly mainstream, so songs like Dynamite, with simple yet appealing lyrics and concept, are better for them. Crafting an approachable, yet somewhat unapproachable pop star image is good for them (which, imo, is why they now have individual IG accounts, are LV ambassadors, and can freely hang out with celebs). Ditching the MU storyline in most MVs, and creating distinct content for both Army and the GP, is better for them. I think there's an obvious reason why BTS are less artistic now, and it's the same reason why they were ever artistic to begin with - it's what they currently need the most.

I can't speak for Enhypen, or NU'EST or G-Friend, because I only casually listen to Enhypen and never felt they were particularly artistic (they are a bit, but in that typical Hybe way tbh, fake deep). I don't know exactly why G-Friend disbanded, but they peaked in popularity at HYBE and I don't think NU'EST were ever that big? Groups under Hybe have bigger sales and popularity, which is probably what the groups themselves care about... I also don't know enough about Seventeen, but I know Carats complain about Hybe. The bigger you are, the bigger the pressure to grow even bigger, so it becomes harder to think about artistry.

Furthermore, about artistry, BH created TXT to be artistic in the beginning, so it's only BTS who actually had a say in their art. And, still, most of BTS's artistry is down to BH - eg. RM was often told what to write, so he wrote lyrics that fit a certain theme or concept. BTS had a lot more creative freedom with BE, and are super proud of the album, but nothing about it is particularly artistic, nor did BTS intend for it to be. I think fans forget that the artistry they brag about is actually over 70% BH's doing...

So, yeah, it becomes difficult to discuss artistry. It's not black and white. Hybe does care the most about money, but it's always been this way. The difference now is that it's more profitable to be less artistic, whereas, before, BTS needed to become "true artists" in order to grow beyond the kpop label. BTS themselves definitely value artistry, but that's not just writing deep lyrics or having elaborate MVs. It's also perfecting their craft, devoting themselves completely to their music and performances. Despite what Army thinks (that BTS are more boring and less artistic now), I believe BTS enjoy the freedom of releasing music that the masses enjoy without worrying about concepts or deeper meanings. They can communicate simple messages of hope, love, and joy with the fans, and have fun on stage, without feeling the pressure to do something like WINGS again.

To answer your question, Hybe definitely cares about artistry, because they know, unlike most kpop companies, that artistry and messaging is what makes their groups stand out and what attracts large and devoted fanbases. But they also know that once a group's established itself, it pays to release trendy, accessible music without trying to create anything "new" - and their groups seem to feel this way as well. I think this is the case with BTS and TXT at least. I don't know about Seventeen...

Thanks for the ask! I hope I got my point across okay. Another point to consider is that, eventually, a group runs out of new concepts and ideas to try, so things become less exciting with time... I'm not trying to defend Hybe, but BH and Hybe are not that different. BH always cared for profit, but when BTS were small there was no such thing as easy money. They couldn't do the bare minimum and sell overpriced merch and albums; they had to make it worth people's money, and to stand out in a sea of rookie and established groups - so artistry and having a message was the only way to do it.

#ask #bts #txt #hybe #thanks for the ask

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hellothirteenhere · 4 years

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Jujutsu Kaisen x Harry Potter

I feel as though every fandom has that obligatory multichapter Harry Potter!AU. Of course, that’s not to say that our amazing writers hadn’t been writing fic within this universe. (For example, check out seadawnn’s ‘Conquest of Hearts’ - Wholesome™ Itafushi that makes me smile every time I read it.) But I’m interested in seeing how a full-blown Jujutsu Kaisen universe would be like in an alternate Harry Potter-setting. So! I’ve been thinking long and hard about how it would play out and here are my headcanons for our very own Golden Trio! Couldn’t quite place them definitively in their Hogwarts Houses, so I would love to hear your opinions on where each of them should go, as well as your own personal headcanons.

Yuuji Itadori | Gryffindor/Hufflepuff (5th Year)

Ok, so here's the thing: typical shonen protagonist conventions tells me to put Yuuji Itadori in Gryffindor. And it makes complete sense! We see that he's brave - fucking demon possesses you and all you say is "What are you doing with my body?"?. But he's also willing to admit when he gets scared, like when he first faced a Special Grade. GryffindorJock!Itadori who is the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team is a mental image I'm not willing to let go of anytime soon. However, Yuuji is also an incredibly kind individual who just wants to save other people. Hufflepuff!Yuuji is that guy who is popular with everyone at Hogwarts, he cooks meatballs in the kitchens at midnight as he talks to the house elves as though they were close friends, and he would definitely take a curse or two in order to save his friends if the situation calls for it.

Background

Yuuji grew up as a mostly normal kid. Sure, there had been strange (almost magical, somehow) instances here or there but he was an energetic enough child that it never really occurred to him to dwell on them for too long.

As long as he could remember, it was just him and his grandfather. Supposedly, Yuuji had an older brother. But for some reasons that his grandfather refuse to tell him; he had to go away when Yuuji had been very young. He doesn’t even remember what his older brother looked like. But then again, Yuuji can’t even remember what their parents had been like - so he doesn’t really feel as though there was anything lacking in his upbringing. After all, how can you miss something you never had?

On his eleventh birthday, his grandfather solemnly sits Yuuji down and tells him that he was a wizard. He was a “Pureblood” - and potentially very powerful - wizard. His grandfather had been born a squib but he had known enough to explain to Yuuji the basics of the world that his parents had once belonged to.

Imagine: “Yer a wizard, Yuuji.” “….Sweet.”

His grandfather then hands him two things:

First, a letter from some Hog-Wash-Hagwarts?? Warthog? School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that he was to attend. His parents had gone there as well to learn magic.

Second, a long, sturdy piece of polished wood. When grandfather had taken it out of its box, Yuuji had looked at the wand skeptically - almost a hundred percent sure that the entire thing was one huge joke. But his grandfather was no prankster, after all, because as soon as his fingertips touched its surface, he felt a warm glow rush into his fingertips.

According to his grandfather, the wand had been his mother’s, passed on to his grandfather for safekeeping after she had died all those years ago.

When asked about the whereabouts of his father’s wand, his grandfather’s face turned dark. It was with Yuuji’s older brother, he said. His older brother who had also been attending the same school that he would be.

Headcanons

Itadori is one of the best Defense Against the Dark Arts students of their year. He also gets great grades for Charms and, much to everyone’s surprise, Potions. A Chaotic Good™ through-and-through, Itadori tends to forget to follow the very strict instructions that Potions Master Kento Nanami wrote at the blackboard, and yet despite eyeballing the ingredients, his Potion turns out great every time. HOW? No one knows.

His dorm room is filled with Muggle posters - it just feels too weird to have a magical poster of a tall woman with a big ass greeting him every time he woke up or entered his dorm room. He learned the hard way that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing when Todo gifted him a moving poster of Jennifer Lawrence.

He tries his best to collect Chocolate Frog cards, bless his heart - but he always tend to lose them in the journey between Hogwarts and his home every summer. Little does he know that Kugisaki and Toge pilfer the ultra-rare ones that he somehow manages to pull in a semi-regular basis.

Megumi Fushiguro | Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw (5th Year)

Primarily, I want Ravenclaw!Megumi Fushiguro as an aesthetic. We already know that he likes to read non-fiction books in his spare time (babes, i love you but that is nerd behavior), and he's shown that he's very sharp and intuitive when it comes to battles. He is also very knowledgeable about the Jujutsu World. Also, pretty boy looks damn good in blue. I can just imagine Megumi as the quiet, brooding Ravenclaw who is somehow friends with every insane person in Hogwarts. However, Hufflepuff!Megumi embodies who he is as a character. He's loyal to his friends and family, selfless when it comes to protecting the others, and he's willing to work hard behind the scenes even if he doesn't get recognition for it. We also saw how Megumi was willing to be the sacrifice bunt if it meant that Kugisaki had the chance to move forward during the baseball scene.

Background

Megumi came from an aristocratic Pureblood family, the Ancient and Most Noble House of Zenin. An extremely powerful wizarding family rumored to be distant relatives of Salazar Slytherin himself. Only - his father Toji had been born a Squib who married his mother just to spite his conservative family. Much to his surprise, however, Megumi was born not only an incredibly talented wizard but also the first parseltongue of the Zenin family in years.

Professor Gojo - back when he was still an Auror and not the DADA instructor at Hogwarts - came to the Fushiguro family household after he had apprehended Fushiguro Toji or, as the wizarding world commonly knows him as: the Sorcerer Killer. Much to his surprise, he doesn't find Toji's wife nor his stepdaughter - instead, he finds tiny Megumi talking to his pet garden snake, Orochi. He ended up taking Megumi under his wing, letting him live at the Gojo family’s home and later taking him to Diagon Alley a week before he started in Hogwarts.

Gojo buying Megumi his pet owl, Nue.

No, YOU’RE crying.

Of course, the Zenin family kick up a fuss about custody. It's only Gojo's status as the strongest wizard alive - as well as his well-placed threat to make the knowledge that the notorious Sorcerer Killer had once been a Zenin known to the wizarding world - that keeps them quiet.

Headcanons

Megumi's best subject is Care of Magical Creatures - though he’s also great at Defense Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration. Students are, by school regulations, only really allowed one (1) pet (an owl/cat/toad). And legally, Megumi has his horned owl, Nue. It is, however, an open secret within the Hogwarts community that Megumi Fushiguro walks around the castle with his pet snake Orochi wrapped around his wrist under his cloak. No one questions that Megumi arrives at Hogsmeade, conveniently trailed by the same black and white dogs every weekend. His roommates learn to turn their heads the other way when the bunnies under Megumi’s bed escape their cage.

He used the expansion charm in order to house his ever-growing collection of pets. Imagine Newt Scamander’s suitcase but, instead of a large sprawling space, it’s a cozy room filled with books and pets and pet paraphernalia.

He’s not competitive enough to play Quidditch, but he attends every game to support his friends. He also attends their practices sometimes but just sits at the pitch to read his book, do homework, or take a nap.

Half-Veela!Megumi make brain go brrrrr

Kugisaki Nobara| Slytherin/Gryffindor (5th Year)

Out of everyone, I had the hardest time placing the Kugisaki. I feel as though Slytherin!Kugisaki is the girl who dropped everything in order to go live in the city - the girl who was willing to do anything, even join a career with a high possibility of dying, just to follow her dreams. She is unapologetic about being herself, highly resourceful, and is one luxurious queen. But Kugisaki is also incredibly brave - unafraid to stand up for the girl who was being ostracized by everyone in their part of the countryside. I implore you to imagine Gryffindor!Kugisaki pulling the Sword of Gryffindor out of the Sorting Hat in order to save other people.

Background

Kugisaki is a Muggleborn who used to live in the quiet countryside. She’s an incredibly talented witch who started showing signs of magic at an early age - something that had frightened her, especially because it was clear that it also frightened her parents. She tried to suppress her abilities, trying to fit into society for a while - that is, until a girl named Saori moved in from the city.

Saori had been a Pureblood witch who had grown up in the Wizarding World. She had been the first person told Kugisaki that her magic was a blessing instead of a freak of nature or something that she had to hide. Saori talked to Kugisaki about the wonders of their world that she would one day get to take part in. She told Kugisaki about Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and all these wonderful places that she would get to go to.

However, because they were a Pureblood family, Saori and her family did not know how to integrate within the Muggle community. Not too long after their arrival, horrible rumors about their family started spreading - that they were cultists, satan worshippers, etc. Eventually, they decided to move away from the country. Before leaving, Saori made Kugisaki promise to find each other one day and to never turn back on who she truly is.

When Kugisaki first received her letter from Professor Shoko Ieiri who mysteriously appeared in their doorstop the night of her eleventh birthday, the professor explained to her parents about magic and the wizarding - only, Kugisaki was only half listening.

Unlike her parents, she wasn’t surprised one bit - it was only a matter of time, after all, and she was finally going to get to go to Hogwarts. Surely, Saori had already graduated by the time she entered but it was definitely one step closer to finding her childhood friend.

Headcanons

Kugisaki has pretty good grades all around - but she is definitely known as the best in their year at Charms. She also has great grades at Defense Against the Dark Arts. She and Yuuji definitely almost failed History of Magic, though. They have too much energy to just sit quietly and take notes in class - especially one taught by a ghost.

Every store owner in Hogsmeade knows Kugisaki by name - and by extention, they know Yuuji and Megumi too. She has long since mastered the art of dragging her friends all around the shops and still not paying a single Knut by the end of their Hogsmeade visit. At the end of every visit, Yuuji and Megumi swears that it would be the last time and yet, every visit, she still manages to wrangle both of them into coming with her

In Potions, Kugisaki is a force to be reckoned with. Her cauldron always appeared to be on the verge of exploding and yet, somehow, a supernatural force (or by the sheer strength of her own willpower) seem to keep her from completely fucking up every time.

BeaterNobaraBeaterNobaraBeaterNobaraBeaterNobara

COMING UP

Slytherin!Sukuna Ryoumen

Ex-Auror-turned-DADA-Professor!Gojo

Potions-Master-not-Professor!Nanami

Slytherin!Maki Zenin

Ravenclaw!Inumaki Toge

Hufflepuff!Panda

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annetteblog · 4 years

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Intro & My take on KM

Hi!

I’m new around here so it’s supposed to be (not so short) introduction, since I don’t know how to start a blog heh. I hope to sprinkle my 0.5 cents into the KM conversation and maybe to bring a new perspective from someone, who is not a part of the typical English-speaking West.

Who /the hell/ Am I?

(please, consider it to be said with NJ’s voice from Intro: Persona :D)

I was born in Siberia (it’s in the Asian part of Russia), currently live in the European part of the country while studying at a Uni (European in terms of geography, not in terms of everything else i’m definitely not shading rn lolllll). English is not my first language, I’ve just kind of learnt it to some extent. Due to this it takes me more time to write a post; and I may (and will) make some grammatical & other mistakes. Plus I’m lazy AND busy with Uni, so I won’t even promise to be consistent in posting smth lol. But I thought I need more practice in terms of writing in English, so here I am, actually scribbling something. This feels weird, because I’ve been around stan Tumblr since 2015, but never ever interacted, just read.

How I ended up around Jikook/Kookmin (and BTS) & My (long&messy) take on this matter

Although I had heard of BTS before, I became an Army only in October 2018. I had kinda avoided them, because you know... boybands.... sing songs about romantic love and how they love girls.......... (+I had been around Twitter when 1D been at their peak and I remember a quite toxic community of fans, whom always had scared me). Shortly, hello stereotypes. Obviously, after I got engaged I felt terribly sorry that I had been sleeping on them, but what is done cannot be undone.

Someone I knew back then reposted one of their MVs and I, during my sad hours of procrastination, decided to watch it. Then I saw their live performance with the same song. And I thought “wow these guys can sing and dance and the music is kinda cool, i need to check this out maybe??”

Then a funny thing happened. One of the next videos I watched (the same person had it added to their page) was a 2016 BangtanBomb where JM and JK practiced their Coming of Age dance.

Do you know this moment with Gina from the 1st episode of Brooklyn 9-9:

Well, that was precisely me after I watched it. I don’t even know how to explain this, it was kind of a gut feeling? Whatever you call it, I started to get suspicious and couldn’t even explain to myself why. /actually now a do have questions to this vid and the main one - why does everyone cringe that much? if it’s a girly choreo than they had done some “girly” moves before. why is there such strong reaction??/

I started to get deeper and went to some ru-shipper communities. Shipping culture among Russian speaking fans is... well, weird to some extent, but I maybe address this topic some time later. You need to consider that (as far as you probably know) Russia is quite homophonic country and sadly is not the greatest place for LGBTQ+ community at the moment. The non-frienly influential attitudes hanging in the society + the general shippers’ weirdness = the result is not that nice honestly.

I struggled for some time in order to find more mature people (not just in terms of age but in general sanity), failed, ended up with some EXTREMELY toxic ru-fans of TK, which was/is the most popular pairing here, spent among them like 15 minutes and ran away horrified. After that I didn’t even try to engage with shippers or believers or whatever of any pair and just decided to enjoy the music and the content (which is a great idea, highly recommend!)

After a couple of days I discovered that JK makes videos. I love video, films and visual art so I immediately found them on YT, saw the titles with names of different cities from all over the world and was like “Oh that must be so cool, he’s visited so many outstanding places I’ve never been to, so I really need to watch it! I shall enjoy some beautyyy”. Then I clicked on GCFt.

Well, what can I say. I did enjoy some beauty, but not the type I had initially anticipated. The biggest clickbait in my entire life. JK should be proud of himself.

/as I said - the beauty/

I had already known Troy back then and I known the song’s lyrics so it would not be an underestimation to say - the video just blew my mind. I was like - hold on is this real? seriously?? no really really????? he manage to get away with something THAT obvious?????? dude how

As a person who edited videos AND is not a native English speaker, I don’t buy the explanation “oh he mustve didnt get the lyrics lmao”. You just don’t do that. You don’t. DON’T. You google and translate every shit you don’t understand, every word and idiom you’ve never encountered, because otherwise the possibility of an epic failure is very likely. You wouldn’t want to give your mum a video as a birthday present and then discover that you used a song with WAP-ish lyrics, right? (well maybe that would be okay in your family, I don’t judge, but that’s not the case for people I know). So don’t you dare to degrade JK’s intellectual capacities; such assumption is really offensive. He is a smart boii, he knows exactly what he’s doing in terms of his art.

So I was shocked, but decided to look for the context - maybe I missed some previous events regarding this Tokyo thing (another great idea - always check the context). Well, apparently I didn’t, because the whole narrative with the trip for two, lovely selfies etc. made my poor brain lowkey explode. (I still don’t buy the rings theory thing though)

But I didn’t give up lol! I’m a bit stubborn and it’s very hard to convince me in anything, so I decided to search for more context, more of their interactions, moreeee. Remember, the late October 2018, there were no swan lakes, RB, and even MMA18 hadn’t happened yet.

This time I ended up watching content in more or less consistent way, and when I saw all of these scenes with affectionate JM and a cool badass i-don’t-care-about-anyone-i’m-a-manly-man-with-no-feelings-whatsoever JK, I just hysterically laughed.

Homophobic Russia, remember? I recognized this. Growing up here being LGBT myself, taught me the same type behaviour during my high school days. When a girl I kinda liked but didn’t what to admit it to myself was nice to me or (oh god) flirted with me, I did something similar. It’s like a huge panic mode. Being an introvert doesn’t help either. The funniest thing is that you may not entirely realise what exactly is going on in terms of your own feelings, especially at that age (16-18ish). In my personal case, I thought I liked her but as a friend, only later to realise that well not as a friend oops :DDD The second thing (already not so funny) is that you actually consciously or unconsciously try to avoid the subject as much as possible, as long as possible and pretend that nothing is going on. We’re just bros. Stop doing this stupid gayish thing and don’t look at me like that, you’re annoying. If you ever do this again I (gently) kick you. I’m straighter than a straight line in my math textbook. IDK, but probably that’s your brain is somehow trying to protect you. Again, in my case&position I knew that the consequences for any non-straight person being outed would be bad (TW not to the point of being killed bad, but to the point of being excluded from a big part of society). So for me it was a mixture of the internalized homophobia + lack of self reflection + just being a bit emotionally slow + very! straight community around. Shit happens, I was a teenager and made my share of mistakes, but that experience helps me to recognize the same pattern of behaviour up to this day.

So coming back to KM, because the post is already waaay too long and I just ramble. It’s been 2+ years for me being a part of this fandom, and what can I say... Things become more intense and eventful with every year passing by ;) Funny how I felt that vibe from the 2016 dance practice video. Seeing the Black Swan performance a week ago almost had me choked, no joking. They are amazing.

Pure Art

However, and I would like to emphasize that, I do not incline that KM are 100% romantically involved and/or gay or whatever. I tend to treat people with respect and not to make too much assumptions about their private life. That’s not my business. However, I’m also not a fan of heteronormativity, so I’m just sitting here and observe everything that’s going on putting some distance and not forgetting being generally polite and critical thinking. But if they are just straightest besties please give them an Oscar before Grammy

Anyways, I hope this blog won’t kick the bucket from the very start and I will post something every now and then. You can always ask me questions about some BTS/Jikook related stuff or something about Russia and a Russian view on mass culture topics, since I’m pretty sure some of you have very stereotypical view of what is going on here :) However, do note that I’ve never been to America or Europe, therefore I may not be aware of something verrrry obvious to you or just have a completely different experience.

P.S. And yeah, I’m used to say Jikook, since it’s the name which is used much more frequently in Russian. i like it better and what will u do haha

#jikook #kookmin #what am i even doing here #i'm gonna regret this #long post

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vanityloves · 4 years

Photo

Hello! I’m a trans nonbinary artist, opening up commissions for a bit while I look for a job! I’m open to most things, so please feel free to ask questions! Slots are now first come, first serve!

I'm not extremely experienced with fully shaded pieces, so we can always discuss prices ^^; !

All information is below the cut or right here on my carrd, where there are more examples! Please check my art tag (#shits and doodles) if you’d like to see more as well!

Please rb if you can’t buy! I’d really appreciate it!

Rules/TOS | Commission Prices | Queue | Art Tag | Twitter

Please keep in mind that my art is a bit inconsistent and always changing since I'm still figuring out my style/still learning!

I have the right to refuse any order if I do not feel comfortable drawing it or feel as though I can not give you the product you desire

Payment is upfront, however, if there is a queue, you may pay when your slot is closer!

I will only start your commission after payment!

ONLY YOU or I can use YOUR commission. You are not allowed to use anyone else's without mine or the commissioners' consent.

You are NOT allowed to use your commission for commercial purposes unless we speak of this beforehand nor sell/redistribute my art work (using it as an icon/pfp/header/etc is more than ok!)

Please do not color over or alter my art (making aesthetic edits for yourself is ok!)

I will make up to 3 minor adjustments to your piece, after I may charge $1+ depending on the change

Commissions may take up to a month depending on the queue and may be subject to change depending on personal life! Please do not hesitate to contact me if you'd like an update!

If i take longer than a month and would like a refund, please let me know!

Rules

I will only work if visual references are provided, this is to insure the best results for your piece!

Please feel free to provide a written description of their looks/characteristics/traits/ personality etc!

Have a general pose or theme/mood in mind, I do best when provided a visual of a pose.

I may post the commission on multiple platforms or use as examples in the future, if you are not comfortable with this please let me know in advance! Otherwise, if you'd like me to tag you please let know as well (i post on tumblr, instagram and twitter)

Will Draw

self ships

oc/canon

real people/portraits

humanoids (ex: horns, cat ears, etc are ok)

any fandom, just ask!

Will Not Draw

nsfw

minor/adult ships

ships of real people

anything political

mecha/armor/etc

non-human designs (not good at em, but pls ask if you're confused!)

furries (im not good at it ;; )

hazbin hotel/viziepop related things

camp camp

ships i do not feel comfortable with!

Contact / Payment

Payment is upfront, however if there is a queue, you may pay when your slot is closer!

Payment is through PayPal or CashApp.

Please dm me here (vanityloves), twitter (MURDOCWIFE), instagram (tf2chef) or my discord if we are close! OR email me at [email protected] (please provide your name and what tier you are interested in [ex: 2 colored lineart half bodies] )

if you have any questions and I'll get back to you as soon as possible! If you have me on any other medias, feel free to message me there as well!

Queue

https://tf2chef.carrd.co/#queue

#commissions open #shits and doodles #commission boost #commission prices #commissions #rbs are appreciated!#self insert #oc #self ship #ok to rb

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faeriegirl · 4 years

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💖Zoe’s Commissions! 💖

MORE SPECIALS LISTED AT THE BOTTOM OF MY REGULAR RATES <3

For every ko-fi I receive, I will draw a quick sketch of the donater’s choice! If you send me a ko-fi, please contact me and let me know what you would like me to sketch! Buy me a coffee here!

my commission rates are as follows:

busts:

sketch: $15

lineart: $20

lineart + simple color (2-4 unshaded colors): $30

lineart + color: $35

add $15 for each additional character

waist up:

sketch: $20

lineart: $25

lineart + simple color (2-4 unshaded colors): $40

lineart + color: $50

add $25 for each additional character

full body:

sketch: $25

lineart: $35

lineart + simple color (2-3 unshaded colors): $50

lineart + color: $65

add $50 for each additional character

full illustrations:

Price must be discussed upon request. Expect illustrations with full backgrounds to start around $100

💖SPECIALS💖

$20 chibi bust icons!

$30 full body chibis!

AND 15% DISCOUNT ON SPECIFIC FANDOM ART:

Madohomu / Homumado (PMMM)

Shuake / Akeshu (Persona 5)

Sailor Moon

OMORI

My personal OCS

i will draw:

ocs

fanart

ship art

animals + mythical creatures + pokemon etc

anthro / furry (i have less experience with them but i’m completely open to making art of it)

landscape, scenery (prices will need to be discussed)

i wont draw:

honestly i’ll attempt whatever you want!! i’ll work based on how fairly i feel i am paid for my work! if it’s outside of my expertise i will make an effort, but please understand that I will charge extra for excessive changes or details!

nsfw - however you must be over 18 to commission it, and i reserve the right to say no if I don’t like the subject

More notes:

In most of my drawings i’ll usually add a simple background of some kind, unless directed otherwise. references are always appreciated and if there is something specific you want feel free to tell me so! any and all details are appreciated!

If you have something in particular you’d like me to draw that isn’t discussed in this post, please feel free to ask and i’ll be glad to clarify price ranges and so on.

I’m also happy to design characters, create an adoptable, or make icons if it is of interest! prices can be discussed with me further if you’d like this.

I will need the fee for paypal included in the final payment!

I will not draw or provide any content until I’m paid in full!

I will accept partial payment ONLY if the artwork costs $100 or more. In this case, I will accept half of the payment up front, and the remainder must be received BEFORE I complete any finalised art or provide ANY files beyond sketch phase of approval.

When I am commissioned, I will be in regular contact and update with progress images, to discuss satisfaction with the artwork and if changes are necessary. Please keep in mind that if excessive changes are requested, I will also request additional payment. I generally work with the three strike rule in these situations: after the 3rd request,

I will do my absolute best to get commissioned content to you as quickly as possible!! I am not the type to leave a task unfinished!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via DMs on shiningcelebi, faeriegirl, or on my twitter @plutopri

if you want my email, please ask and I will provide!

I currently have 3 slots open for commissions! If I manage to fill them up I’ll close them until I’m finished with all of them<3

My paypal is paypal.me/ZoeStabile, please send all payments there unless using kofi

Please contact me with any questions or concerns! I’ll adjust this page or make a new page if and when it is necessary! Thank you for your time!

P.S.

You can also purchase my merch on Etsy!

I also have a patreon! I provide my sketch files, coloring pages, monthly reward sketches and more!

#artists on tumblr #commissions #commissions open #commission information #etsy #patreon #ko-fi #artists on etsy #artists on patreon #original #art #fanart #cute #kawaii #anime #manga

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f0xfordcomma · 3 years

Note

Hi. I'm sending this to writers who've written things I really liked. What turns you off a fic that you started reading and liking? What is it that happens for you that makes you say Nope, done with this and never come back to it? Looking for feedback but don't want to attach my name. Thanks.

Hi anon!

First of all, thank you so much for reaching out! I can't believe you've read and liked my stuff, that means so so much! <3 <3

This is a tricky question to answer because I think that it really depends on a lot of factors for me:

I'd say first and foremost, when searching for a fic, there are certain ships I generally gravitate towards (kataang, maiko, sukka, the lovesquare in miraculous ladybug) but I also really really enjoy reading gen and fics that dive more deeply into character analysis. In that vein, I think a big thing for me is making sure that the characters are, well, *in character.* I like canon ships because they just make sense to me and seeing my faves with non-canonical partners just feels OOC and I have a hard time buying in to the story, even if in every other aspect, it is well-written.

This, as with most things in fandom, can be pretty subjective though. The way I interpret a character might be different than the way someone else does, and they have every right to interpret the characters as such. I may not see Azula as REALLY being a 400 ft tall purple platypus-bear with pink horns and silver wings, but I am not going to disparage anyone their reading of her in that way (but I probably will click away from it if I stumble across it.)

Another thing that I do have a hard time with once I've started a fic is the tone of the writing and the grammatical style. If its a shorter fic that I like the concept of, I can still get pretty invested and see it through to the end, even if its not the most well-written. I really want to give all fic writers, regardless of skill level, the benefit of having their stories read so that they can continue to grow as writers.

Sometimes, though, especially with longer fics that I am going to be spending more time reading, if in the first couple of chapters I have a hard time following the writing style, I will click away. I read fic, in large part, for escapism and immersion and I sometimes have a hard time getting immersed in a world that I want to take a red pen to.

The awesome thing about fandom, though, is that everyone (in my experience) is really friendly and we all just want to encourage one another in our creative endeavors. Beta readers are an awesome feature of fandom and I would absolutely encourage anyone who is nervous about posting a fic or just wants a second set of eyes on their work to seek out a beta reader. It's easy to have your eyes glaze over when you're looking at the words you've written and read over dozens of times. A fresh perspective can not only catch mistakes and improve clarity, it's also a great way to build a stronger friendship with someone in fandom you may have been wanting to get to know better!

On that note, too, as I have gotten more involved with fandom, and as my irl life has gotten a bit busier, I find that I am generally a lot more likely to spend my designated fic reading time on reading a fic that one of my friends has written. So! I know its super duper scary (I cringe at how nervous I was when I first joined fandom) but don't be afraid to reach out to people or participate in a fandom event. (I didn't find my foothold in fandom until I wrote for Kataang week this past summer, and now I've found some phenomenal friends and my favorite writers!) The way that fic fosters community is such a beautiful thing. At the end of the day, we're all a bunch of big ol' dorks just out here making art about ~blorbo from our shows.~ Not so intimidating, when you think about it, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Ultimately, keep making what makes you happy. Imo its way more important to write what you love than to worry about the number of hits or comments you get on a fic (although man oh man is that stuff a cherry on top!) I believe that your passion for what you do will show in the work you create, so keep it up anon!

And genuinely, don't hesitate to reach out again for more advice/ beta-ing/ to rec your own fics/ general banshee noises about your favorite characters or an HC that makes you happy. I live for that kind of stuff.

Hope my rambling was helpful!! Thanks again for the ask :)

#foxford answers #ask #anon #fic writing #writing advice #fandom discourse #foxford writes

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happylittledrabbles · 3 years

Text

The Marriage Pact, Chapter 1

Fandom: Sk8 the Infinity

Pairing: Kojiro Nanjo x Kaoru Sakurayashiki

Rating: Mature (non-graphic smut)

Genre: Enemies to lovers, fluff and angst

Chapter Word Count: 3K

AO3

—

Kojiro gets an email from The Marriage Pact at his university, a survey that promises to match him to his soulmate based on in-depth questioning and statistics. He doesn't believe in soulmates (or love, really) but signs up anyway, putting both women and men down for the sake of the "joke." He gets paired with Kaoru Sakurayashiki, and they immediately get off to a rocky start—one involving a bruised cheek and a broken nose.

They decide to avoid each other, but when Kojiro spots Kaoru with skate club president Ainosuke in a suggestive manner, he feels something that he shouldn't feel in relation to a stranger—and a man on top of that—he met twice: jealousy.

Classic enemies to lovers with some angst peppered in, all wrapped in a fluffy happy ending bow.

—

Kojiro scoffed at the idea of marriage. He thought the idea of being tied down for the rest of his life was repulsive and could never imagine himself doing it. After all, that would mean not admiring a beautiful woman just because he had a wife. What guy would ever subject himself to that?

This reasoning only made it even more baffling to Kojiro that Hiromi suggested he should join the newfangled “marriage pact” that was floating from mouth to mouth across campus.

“I’m just saying, you should try it,” Hiromi said one day with a shrug. He elbowed Kojiro straight in the ribs, causing the man to double over and clutch his side. “Maybe you can meet the damsel in distress you’ve been reading about in those books next to your bed.”

Damn. Kojiro had Hiromi over far too often for him to notice his romance book. Alright, alright, so what if he read romance books as a guilty pleasure? That didn’t mean he actually wanted a romance, nevermind even liked the idea of romance. Romance was far too polished, too unrealistic. Falling in love always seemed so sweet and perfect and as if everything in the person’s life would fall into place just because some attractive loner walked into their lives. It always had to be an attractive loner, too.

In Kojiro’s experience, falling in love was anything but. It was like fighting in the trenches, like skydiving with a parachute, like tearing a hangnail too far and now it stings like a sonavabitch every time you use hand sanitizer. Hooking up with no strings attached was so much easier, so much better than ever considering getting into a relationship and being disappointed at every turn.

Then why did Kojiro find himself opening the link to The Marriage Pact in his email and staring at the blank form, debating whether to fill it out?

And then why did he actually fill it out?

The world may never know.

****

“Wait, so you actually filled it out?” Hiromi asked far too loudly, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. A few people in the dining hall turned their heads curiously to see what all the fuss was about, making Kojiro turn his head in embarrassment and cup his head over his eyes to hide his face.

It wasn’t as if it was hard.

“Would you rather be left at the altar or leave somebody at the altar?”

Leave somebody at the altar, obviously. He would never let somebody make a fool out of him by leaving him up there with false hope until the last minute.

“Are you smarter than most people at your university?”

Chyeah, duh.

“The purpose of college is to find yourself.”

No, he was buying this culinary arts degree. Maybe he’d learn something new about himself, but that pretty piece of paper would get him into any Michelin-star kitchen in the world, not his amazing personality or by flaunting his banging body.

He mumbled, “Say it louder, why don’t you.” When he saw Hiromi inhaling to do the exact thing Kojiro told him sarcastically not to do, the green-haired man scrambled to reach forward and slap a hand over the redhead’s mouth.

“Do you not understand sarcasm?” he whispered harshly before sitting back in his chair. He loved his best friend, but sometimes, talking to Hiromi was exhausting. “Yeah, I did. So what? It’s not like anything is going to come of it. One of the questions on the form asked what you were looking for in this experiment. I put that I was only looking for something casual. If they message me and say that they’re looking for a relationship, then I will gladly say, ‘Aw, that’s too bad. Well, good luck on your search!’ Easy peasy.”

Kojiro snickered to himself, satisfied with the plan he came up with. He justified his filling out of the survey by telling himself that he just liked answering questions about himself (which wasn’t necessarily untrue) and thought it would be interesting to see if their data collecting would prove accurate. He doubted that a bunch of computer science majors who had zero human interaction outside of cutesy anime girls in those video games would know how to pair two people together, so he had very low expectations.

However, Hiromi didn’t seem to find his theory as comedic. In fact, he looked constipated.

“What, Hiromi? You good?” Kojiro asked, cocking his head.

Hiromi’s head snapped up, a guilty expression crossing his face. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed thickly, pulling at the collar of his crewneck. “Erm, well, I—uh.” He cleared his throat. “’They?’”

Kojiro raised a brow. “What?”

“You said ‘they.’ As in, gender-neutral.” Hiromi could be an idiot, but he was incredibly perceptive when he wanted to be. And it never worked in Kojiro’s favor. “Did you put both guys and women on the form as preferences?”

Kojiro stiffened and suddenly found eye contact too difficult to hold, his gaze dropping to the worn-down wood dining table. He grabbed a fork and twirled pasta around it absentmindedly, having no plan to eat it since his appetite had since left his body. He had no idea why the subject made him so uncomfortable. It was a joke.

“I thought it’d be funny if I put both. You know, so I get more variety and can see how they’d pair me with a guy. Not that I’d care, of course. Not that, uh, that’s bad, either. I know you and Shokichi are cool. And, you know, other gay guys. Um—” Every single sentence that was coming out of his mouth was digging him another meter into the hole, and there was no way in hell that he was going to be coming out unscathed.

However, instead of Hiromi tearing him a new one, he chuckled. Then he burst out into laughter, slamming the table with his fist, sending their tableware clattering and causing even more attention to be drawn to the strange man laughing and the other strange man trying to calm him down.

“Oh, boy,” Hiromi sighed after a while of him ignoring Kojiro’s attempts at diffusing the situation, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. “Damn, I really needed that after my macro exam. Thanks, Kojiro. I owe you one.”

He popped a fry into his mouth and washed it down with apple juice, which Kojiro used to think was the most abhorrent combination of foods on the planet, but Hiromi quickly proved him wrong by eating lasagna and proceeding to drink it with chocolate milk. He had since become desensitized to Hiromi’s questionable food choices.

“But seriously,” Hiromi said, giving his friend a hard stare. “If you ever need to tell me something, you know you have my full support.” He winked and stood up, taking his plate and cup to the dishwasher station.

“I’m—I’m not gay!” Kojiro shouted after him, and this time, the attention drawn to their table was not because of his boisterous friend.

He quietly went back to finishing his food, which didn’t take long due to his loss of appetite, and quickly went back to his dorm to escape the shame he felt. However, a certain shame still stuck with him even when the prying eyes of his peers had long gone. Why did he feel the need to defend himself so viciously against the idea of being gay? It was becoming a regular—normal—thing on campus to hear somebody refer to a same-sex romantic partner. So why then did he feel something foreign move in his stomach whenever that topic came up?

He decided to bury himself in microeconomics homework, which always took his mind off difficult things he didn’t want to think about since it made him want to kill himself instead.

****

The Marriage Pact’s buzz continued on in the background, with Kojiro blissfully having forgotten about the damned thing. It seemed as if any mention of it went straight over his head, and Hiromi never mentioned it again. He didn’t have a reason to since he already had a boyfriend, even though there was an option to use the pact to meet a friend. Although, he doubted anybody was actually doing that.

The pact only entered his mind again when he got an email from The Marriage Pact’s team, revealing the initials of his potential soulmate. Kojiro laughed at the word, but when he opened the email, his smile disappeared.

Hello, everyone! Pardon the long wait—we still have more women than men in the dating pool! While we get that sorted out, please enjoy a hint as to who the love of your life may be:

K. S.

Do with that what you will—we'll be in touch with more details soon.

The initials K.S. haunted Kojiro’s every waking hour since the email came out. Every person in his class was now a potential suspect. Naturally—naturally—Kojiro’s eyes fell on the women first, trying to remember their names, and when he couldn’t, went into the class groups to see who was registered for the class. Every time he’d see somebody with the first name starting with K, he felt a little fainter in the head. However, every single time without fail, no S would complete the initial. He’d see a pretty woman pass him in the halls and wonder what her name was and if she was his potential soulmate. He wouldn’t mind having a soulmate and buying into the torture that is romance if it meant his girlfriend was hot.

The following update email, still emblazoned with those damn initials, said that the results would come on Friday night. Kojiro was on pins and needles the entire week and flubbed every single class participation, his professors on more than one occasion catching him daydreaming instead of answering the questions on the board with his clicker. Even Hiromi noticed, who was too busy trying to get Shokichi to relax about any code errors since he was one of the programmers behind The Marriage Pact.

“It keeps spitting out an error message every time I put in a new code!” he cried before hiding his face in his arms on the dining hall table when they went to go grab lunch one day. “I swear, I’m going to delete the entire thing and start from scratch. This time with Python instead of Javascript. It’s archaic what they’re making us do, Hiromi.” He groaned as Hiromi sighed and rubbed his back reassuringly, giving Kojiro a knowing glance.

“Why don’t we go to the woodshop after your last class so you can blow off some steam? Fixing stuff always makes you feel better,” Hiromi suggested, raising a hand to Kojiro to enlist his help. “Your skateboard needs fixing after that last race, right?” When Kojiro didn’t reply immediately, Hiromi repeated through gritted teeth and a hard stare, “Right?”

Kojiro got the hint—was slapped in the face with it, in fact—and nodded emphatically, leaning forward to tap Shokichi on the arm to get his attention. “I’ll give you my skateboard after your last class. It ends at twelve, right? I need some upgrades, too. Can you fit me with some badass orange wheels? Like, with flames?”

Shokichi sniffled as he raised his head, running a hand through his hair as he nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I think I can do that.” He sniffled again as he turned to Hiromi. “Can we watch The Princess Bride if you don’t have too much work tonight?”

“Of course, baby,” Hiromi cooed, slipping his hands into Shokichi’s and patting the back of his boyfriend’s hand soothingly. “We’ll do anything you want to do.”

“Anything?” A small smirk crossed Shokichi’s lips, immediately causing Hiromi to break out into a horrid blush and leaving him a stuttering mess.

“Alright, I think that’s my cue to leave,” Kojiro said as he pushed off the table to stand, grabbing his plate.

“If you leave now, you’re homophobic,” Shokichi joked, pointing at Kojiro accusatorily.

Kojiro laughed and rolled his eyes as he turned his back to the two men, giving them a curt wave. “Call me homophobic, then. I’ll catch you guys later when you’re not having mind sex in front of me.”

“W-we weren’t—!” Hiromi exclaimed, but Kojiro was already out the dining hall doors before the redhead could finish his lame excuse.

The fall weather was setting in, a chill characteristic only to October settling on his cheeks and shading his nose in a pretty pink tint. He inhaled slowly and deeply, taking in the smell of the tricolor leaves, those stubborn green spots still holding on even in mid-October, and the crisp evening air. However, his moment of solitude was interrupted by a body stumbling into his back. He barely moved an inch, but the act still annoyed him, but when he turned to look at who it was, a head of hair as pink as his nose swept past him, the person scuttling away like a cockroach in a kitchen when somebody turned on the lights.

“Hey, learn some manners!” he shouted, rubbing his lower back even though he barely felt anything from the unpleasant encounter. He harrumphed to himself and went on his way; however, he stopped when the scent of lavender drifted by his nose. He looked around—there weren’t any lavender plants near him. He turned his head to where the rude person was speed walking away from him and frowned. Could it be—?

Strange to think somebody so nasty could smell so sweet.

***

It was the special day, and Kojiro had never been such as nervous wreck as he was that day, not even at the most important beef of his life. His palms were clammy from his morning classes to the afternoon to the point that the woman next to him frowned in disgust when she saw the wet handprint he left behind on the lab table. His nervousness made him more nervous—why was he so nervous anyway? If things went south, he could always just ghost the person. The woman. If things went well, he got himself a new soulmate. Win-win situation. Then why did it feel like it was life or death?

“So did Shokichi sort out all the code stuff?” he asked as he and Hiromi walked to the library.

“Yeah, thankfully,” Hiromi replied. “He was pulling his hair out over this whole pact thing. I think he really overinvested himself in this. It’s just a stupid show of coding and statistics to cause a stir on campus and get a few funny sexual tension or weird hookup stories on the college meme account before it dies down.” Hiromi caught himself from saying anything else, giving Kojiro a pointed stare. “Don’t tell him I said any of that.”

Kojiro zipped his mouth shut and threw out the invisible key with a smirk. “Your secret’s safe with me.” They fell into step with each other, silence setting in. Kojiro opened the door for Hiromi as they got in line for the library café, and he stuffed his hands in his pockets to prevent them from getting clammy. Didn’t work. He shifted his weight from foot to foot as they got closer to the register, trying to focus on the menus and read the names of the drinks instead of thinking about the fact that his stomach was so tight, he couldn’t imagine a drop of food or drink entering it.

“Hey.” Hiromi’s voice thankfully broke him out of his thoughts, but the look of worry on his face made Kojiro even more nervous. “What’s wrong? You okay?”

Kojiro sighed and swept a hand through his hair. “So you really think that this thing won’t work?”

Hiromi didn’t respond right away. He stared at his friend for what felt like forever. He could have teased Kojiro about him actually caring about romance and finding a soulmate after what felt like years of rejecting the notion, but the ball of anxiety that had consumed his friend was no laughing matter. He turned to face the register and shrugged.

“I mean, statistics don’t consider human feelings. Just because you like the same color as the other person doesn’t mean you’re set for life.”

Kojiro let out a sigh. Of relief? Of disappointment? Both the men would never know. “Right, yeah. You’re right. It’s stupid.”

Hiromi turned to face his friend again, a resolute frown on his lips. “But statistics are used in dating apps for a reason. Maybe humans aren’t too abstract for math after all. I think we’re pretty simple.” He ordered two coffees, walking over to the counter and grabbing one to hand to his friend.

Kojiro laughed and shook his head. “Maybe you’re simple.”

Hiromi punched Kojiro’s arm. “Hey.” He shook the coffee in Kojiro’s face. “This is for you to stop being so tense all the time. You’ll need it. Now take it before I down both in front of you because you’re being an ass.”

The coffee did the exact opposite of making Kojiro less tense. In fact, it made him so jittery, all his notes were basically illegible. It wasn’t as if his notes would be logical anyway. He was just copying sentences that seemed important from the reading but didn’t actually process any of the information the closer to the release of the email it got. Five minutes left and—

PING!

Kojiro flipped over in his chair, his chair falling backward and his head bouncing off the carpet. That hardly mattered, and he barely felt any pain as he scrambled to his bed to grab his phone, checking his email. There was, in fact, an email in his inbox.

From: The Marriage Pact Team…

He grunted from frustration as his fat thumbs clicked everywhere but the email, but once he opened it, his heart dropped.

Dear Kojiro,

Your optimal Marriage Pact match is:

Kaoru Sakurayashiki

Your match is in the 93% percentile of possible matches. Their contact information is below.

A…guy?

No…no, it could be a woman with a very masculine name. Right?

His phone slipped from his hands and thumped on the carpet, his hands the driest they had been in twenty-four hours.

***

The next morning, when he was in a better state of mind and with enough prompting from Hiromi, he mustered up the courage to send an email to K.S. (he still didn’t have enough courage to say the full name). It was basic, with a borderline professional tone. He didn’t want K.S. to think any funny business would be happening. The only way he was justifying sending the email was because he thought he could make a new friend (since that was a possibility on the form after all, even though it’s called The Marriage Pact—confusing, yes). His only friends were Hiromi and some guys in the skateboarding club. New additions were always welcome. To his friend group.

Hi,

My name is Kojiro. You already know that, though.

We matched on The Marriage Pact. Below is my contact info. Text me and we can figure out a time to meet up.

-K.N.

“I mean, it sounds like you’re talking to your boss, but whatever,” Hiromi said before handing Kojiro back his phone. “Let’s see if he bites.” He took a bite of his sandwich, watching his friend carefully. “And if he bites…?”

“Then I have a new bro,” Kojiro replied a little too quickly. He cleared his throat and continued typing on his laptop, although this time faster and harder than before. “If he’s looking for something else, I’ll just reject him. Easy peasy.”

Hiromi stared at his friend before lowering his eyes to his sandwich. “Easy peasy,” he repeated under his breath before taking another bite.

It was another two hours, the sun beginning to set behind the university buildings, before Kojiro’s phone pinged with a text from an unknown number.

Hi. It’s Kaoru. I received your email. Would you like to walk through the sculpture gardens sometime this evening?

Well, he certainly returned the professional tone. He wasted no time with pointless exclamation marks and conversation. The corner of Kojiro’s lip quirked up just a tad at the text until he realized that he was smiling at a text message. He added Kaoru’s number under the contact name K.S. with the company name Marriage Pact, just to make things clear that the contact was only a placeholder until they figured things out.

Unlike the days leading up to The Marriage Pact’s announcement email, the evening rolled by quickly. Kojiro dressed casually: a tight black T-shirt (although it wasn’t his fault it was form-fitting—all his shirts were), a windbreaker, and jeans. However, even though it looked casual, the planning was anything but. He stared at his closet for what felt like an eternity until he wondered why he was so worried about getting gussied up.

He shoved his hands deep into his windbreaker pockets as he swayed to generate some heat in the chilly night. Every shadow and movement in the garden caused him to turn to see if it was K.S., but alas, it was either a squirrel or a couple who had the same idea as Kaoru for a date night spot.

“Kojiro?”

The soft voice surprised him more than a yell would, his shoulders hiking up to his ears as he slowly turned around. The smell of lavender hit him before the striking pink hair did. Before he could put two-and-two together, Kaoru interrupted him by pulling a face of pure disgust, his nose scrunching as if he got hit with a whiff of sewage.

“Oh, it’s you.”

#sk8 the infinity #skate the infinity #sk8 adam #sk8 joe #sk8 kojiro #sk8 kaoru #sk8 cherry #sk8 matcha blossom #matcha blossom #sakurayashiki kaoru #joe sk8 #sk8 fanfic #sk8 fic rec #sk8 fandom #sk8 jerry

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