#because the fact that you have to have a large twitter following to get

[thegranddewru]

🤔

[sage-nebula]

I've watched pretty much all of Jenny Nicholson's videos (despite not being into most of the things she's into) for a variety of reasons, but one of the reasons I watch her content is because I think that she seems like a truly stand-up kind of person. Of course, given that she is a person creating content for YouTube, we're only allowed to see the version of herself that she wants us to see. I'm under no illusions about that. But the version of herself that she presents to us, the viewers, seems to be a person who is not only genuinely passionate about the things she discusses (and honest about why she'll hold back on discussing certain topics when fans of those topics can be awful about it), but also who considers the experiences of (for lack of a better phrase) the average person when it comes to the theme parks and other experiences that she reviews.

Three specific instances come to mind: one from the Evermore video, and then two from her most recent Star Wars hotel video. (Side note: she was so, so right that Disney marketing is stupid as hell for not letting influencers et cetera use the common names for things. The average person doesn't know what "Galactic Starcruiser" is, but will understand "Star Wars hotel." Get it together, Disney.)

In the Evermore video, Jenny talks about how she emailed Evermore Park ahead of her visit to try to get more information prior to her visit. Things like whether there was a dress code, what she could expect when she arrived there, information that should have been readily available on the website but wasn't. She mentions that she could have mentioned that she's an influencer and that she probably would have gotten a response (because they never emailed her back), but that she deliberately chose not to.

"So I did attempt to email ahead of my visit, trying to ask basic questions about the park and inquire about renting it out. When I did that, I was intentionally vague; I didn't link my channel, and I didn't use my primary email. And I sort of suspect that if I had done the whole influencer song and dance -- said my channel name, my subscriber count -- I might've had better access to the park, and perhaps even a better experience. But that wasn't the point. I didn't want to call ahead. I'm the mystery diner! I'm the undercover boss! If you can't deliver an equivalently good experience for all guests, that's on you and your business." [x]

Then, in the Star Wars hotel video, there were two instances in which Jenny had to reach out to Disney customer support for assistance, and received absolutely nothing in return. The first was when she paid for a photo taking service, but had absolutely no photos taken of her. When she reached out to Disney customer support for a refund, they refused to give her said deserved refund. The second instance was when she had purchased a large droid figure from the hotel, and had it shipped to her house via the Disney shipping service. The Disney shipping service inputted her address incorrectly (in fact I think she says they put in a completely different address altogether), so her droid was lost. Once again she reached out to Disney customer support to find out what she could do about this expensive item she had purchased, only to be told that they couldn't do anything to help her.

In both cases, Jenny took to twitter to post about how Disney was refusing to a.) issue her a refund for a service she paid for but never received, and b.) help her receive an item she'd paid for but never received. Both times, Disney reached out immediately, issued her the refund, and overnighted her lost item. Jenny correctly identifies that they only did this because she's an influencer with a large twitter following, and has this to say in the video:

"They didn't even ask for my phone number. Like someone at Disney just did the legwork to go into the database, look up my booking info, find my phone number and then call me within a day of the tweet going out. And the person who called me was really nice, and I'm thankful he cared to resolve it. BUT, I just always feel very cynical when I try to resolve issues through the appropriate channels available to all customers and nobody will help me until they find out I'm an 'influencer.' I spoke with several other guests who got [the photo taking service] and had the exact same problems as me, and they never got refunds." [x]

And

"But then after I tweeted about it on my twitter account with a lot of followers, Disney suddenly resolved it and they sent me a replacement. They actually overnighted it to me. And along with it they sent a lot of miscellaneous goodies which I really appreciated. So here again, I feel if this had happened to anyone without a lot of twitter followers, they would have had a significantly more frustrating experience." [x]

I feel that this post will probably read as giving Jenny kudos for doing the bare minimum. And I think that on some level, that's true. But it's true because nowadays, many influencers won't even do the bare minimum. They would have Disney immediately issue them a refund, or overnight the droid to them with the additional goodies, and then make posts gushing about how great Disney's customer service is, despite knowing full well that the (again for lack of a better term) average person who doesn't have a huge internet following would never receive that kind of support from Disney. Similarly with Evermore, most influencers would call ahead and flex their follower count to try to get a bespoke experience to then show on their channels. They wouldn't want the same experience everyone else gets. That won't generate good content, in their eyes, and besides, they're better than that. Don't you know who they are?

But Jenny, despite her follower counts, keeps it real. Yes, she appreciates that Disney did give her the deserved refund and did send her the droid + gifts. But she also points out, both times, that if she'd been a person without a large twitter following, they would not have done that, and people in the exact same position she was with the photo service didn't get their deserved refunds. With Evermore, she didn't call ahead because she DOES want the same experience everyone else gets. She wants to be able to give a genuine review. Whether that review is positive or negative is dependent on the business itself.

Again, this probably seems like giving Jenny kudos for the bare minimum of decency. And I agree that on some level it is. But I also think that, in today's day and age, we really don't get that with a lot of influencers, who are in it for the sponsorship money (and who get their egos way inflated), and so it's nice to have a reviewer / theme park influencer who is honest with her opinions, and who recognizes that yeah, Disney did give her special treatment, but that it shouldn't have been special treatment, that they should be helping all of their guests like this, through the normal channels that she tried using, and they are a shit company for not doing that.

I just really appreciate Jenny.

[phant0mth1ef]

band bakugou x band reader au headcanons!

- obviously the drummer, and he had a consistent bad habit of breaking his sticks when he would get frustrated or kept messing up during practice.

- secretly loved when his fans would scream his name at concerts but had to put up the bad boy persona.

- his jeans were definitely four sizes too big and were always ripped at the bottom from him consistently stepping on them throughout the day.

- didn’t have any sort of social medias, honestly he was just really a loser who happened to play drums for a super popular band.

- when you came in as a bassist, he didn’t think he’d get along with you at all despite the fact that you were friendly with everyone.

- he would always talk trash about the way you played and how you always had to retune your bass halfway through practice because “the problem’s never you, it’s always the tuning.”

- over time he did realize that it was actually the tuning and pretended to still be annoyed whenever you took forever to figure out the right tune.

- when you first met he secretly ran a hate page about you on twitter then pretended like it wasn’t him when you got a “from your contacts” message on the account.

- you didn’t care because to be honest you did the same exact thing and pretended you didn’t know who bakugousucks42792 was and why they had so many candids of him.

- broke his drums by hitting them too hard after you directly stumbled into his eyesight halfway through a concert, purposefully blocking him from seeing all his fans.

- cut the strings off your bass after you did that because if his instrument was broken, so was yours.

- eventually the rivalry turned into an enemies to lovers trope and he realized that he looked forward to your daily arguments, you obviously didn’t know that and still continued to fuck with him.

- on his bass / kick drum you stuck a large wad of chewing gum onto the part where the thing hits the drum and he had to delay the show to get it all off.

- changed his hate account to a stan account and his followers suddenly disappeared but his posts still blew up.

- finally asked you out at the end of one of your shows.

“thanks for coming out! ya’ really had nothin’ better to do hah? losers.”

“anyways. i’d like to take this time to say something to this idiot i know.”

“will you be my girlfriend?” he looked towards you where your bass hung off your frame.

you just stood there with your mouth open.

“….sure?”

and later that night, the topic ….sure? was trending on twitter.

[toxiccaves]

I think what a lot of tumblr-only people are missing about twitter failing, is that it was always a better website when it came to small businesses, instant world event news, fact checking, having users from all over the world, being a source for disaster relief information or warnings, and anything else to keep people up to date with going ons.

Sure, tumblr has many users from all over, but the website is still largely english biased and not nearly as widespread as twitter. I know a lot of news and knowledge comes in on here too. I've learned a lot and see a lot of donation posts in regards to world events, but its nothing like twitter unless you know who to follow. Not to mention, half the news I got here, was days later and from twitter to begin with.

Seeing that being taken away in favor of hate speech and enabling abusers (with the recent potential of getting rid of the block feature over there) and pushing blue user comments to the top (aka elon's weird fans), drowning out anyone else on popular posts, sucks! It sucks for the world and small businesses. because there's really no alternative to it right now.

The site's running rampant with spam and scammers and its becoming more and more unusable by the day. And some people think it's silly to be upset over it or "you shouldn't have all your eggs in one basket" well there only is one basket! This is literally people's livelihoods people seem to be making fun of anytime a change happens that breaks the site and people post all their socials.

And everyone from every country is talking about different websites they're considering, and its splitting up our connection to the world. And surely he knew who this was hurting with every decision.

[shankss-magnificent-ass]

Imagine tripping up Sir Crocodile

Crocodile: *arguing with the navigator over the route and holding up the entire expedition*

Navigator: *trying to talk him out of making them take a dangerous route*

You: *watching from a safe distance* Is it just me or is he being... I wanna say stubborn stupid?

Mihawk: the word you're looking for is belligerent, and he is indeed being belligerent.

Buggy: even I think he's being foolish.

You: wow, and coming from you, that's really saying something.

Buggy: can it

Mihawk: it's not like any of us can talk him out of this, that man is stubborn as hell.

You: well, I might have a way to make him forget about what he wants.

Buggy: you seem hesitant.

You: I've never used this method, I've just heard about it.

Mihawk: If it gets us back out to sea, then I'm all for you giving it a try.

Buggy: I second that

You: Alright *stand with your back to Mihawk and Buggy, and you lift your shirt, exposing your chest to Crocodile*

Crocodile: *gawks at you, dropping his cigar*

Navigator: There is a big storm going that way. We need to follow the log pose needle that points toward another island!

Crocodile: *having a mental error 404* Sure, let's do that.

Navigator: *throws his hands up,* thank the gods, finally.

Crocodile: *scowls at the man, then up at you*

You: *drops your shirt and turns back to Buggy and Mihawk and grins*

Buggy: Wow, I'm surprised that was so effective.

You: I'm not

Mihawk: why's that?

You: Because men are easy.

Mihawk: That's not true.

Buggy: Yes it is.

Crocodile: *realizes something is up with you three and comes over* The fuck?

You: nothing

Buggy: this one flashed you to get you to stop being a stubborn ass.

Crocodile: *his neck cracks when he slowly turns his head towards you, his gaze wide-eyed, angry, and unblinking.*

You: snitch *Smacks the back of Buggy's head, and books it to your room*

Crocodile: *follows, turning into sand to bypass your door,* when will you learn that this isn't an effective tactic to evade punishment.

You: fuck.

Crocodile: *uses his large body to cage you against the wall.* Hehe, I must admit that I'm surprised at you. I never would have thought you would be so bold as to expose yourself in the open and in front of people. And it's also impressive that you would successfully trick me, a feat very few have achieved. *Uses the dull part of his hook to tilt your chin up to look at him*

You: So you're not mad?

Crocodile: No, I'm quite pleased...soft drags his hook down your neck and over your collarbone, before looping it around your neck and forcing your head back to look at him* ... But that doesn't erase the fact you undermined me, and ruined a perfectly good cigar. So you're still getting punished.

You: *wincing at the feeling of the tip of his hook digging into the tender underside of your jaw. And you struggle to keep your balance because he's lifted you to your tippy-toes.*

Crocodile: But don't worry, I'll be gentle.

List of Up-and-coming works || Master list || Twitter

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[trafficblr-confessions]

I think people are getting a little too comfortable toeing the line between constructive criticism and being a hate-watcher.

Between the policing on how tasks should go and the flack the CCs have gotten for the changes of pace in the series, a lot of us have forgotten that the Life Series is NOT just another show like the ones you see on netflix or hulu, and when you publicly spread hate as a viewer you're not poking holes in corporations, but individual people just trying to have fun playing together.

Constructive critism or ideas or suggestions are all fine, but jesus christ, the lashback especially against Gem? The fact that she ended up tweeting about how stressed she felt about the upcoming sessions due to the amount of badmouthing fans have been doing, it makes me sick! This isn't a scripted, rule-abiding production, it's an improv series with a gimick that a bunch of friends play together on. Hell, wasn't it the rule breaking in the first season that made us all crazy for it to begin with?

It's especially disheartening with this being Gem's first full season, it makes me afraid she may not want to join back next time around.

And yes, I know, Gem and everyone else on the server are grown adults, they can manage their media as needed and it's inevitable people don't like their content and/or say hurtful things. The problem lies in when it's the actual viewers, the people following the series. Again, it's not like hate watching a professional production and leaving reviews that reflect it. It's just haunting people playing together to have fun, and quite frankly, it's dehumanizing. Recieving hate from just anyone is one thing, but receiving hate from regular fans? How do some of y'all genuinely not see how harmful that is?

If you don't like how the series is going, click off. Have mean shit to say about the people in it? Either share it in closed groups or not at all, not places where you Know the CCs can see it! It's different when you're on a largely fandom dominated space such as tumblr or discord, but going on more open platforms such as twitter and even reddit on some degree?

This isn't an issue with constructive criticism. This is an issue with borderline bullying the CCs because the series isn't going how certain fans want it to.

.

[markscherz]

Can I ask how you feel about your Tumblr fame?

I get the impression you just made this account for normal casual funsies reasons, but it kinda blew up by happenstance. If that's right, I'm curious if now you feel like it's kind of a more serious thing, where you have an opportunity to sorta act as a science communicator with a reach you otherwise might not?

Or maybe something else? You gonna see if you can somehow leverage your Tumblr fame to get research funding? Deputize us to harass polluters and developers destroying habitats? Crowdsource name ideas for new species?

It's a bit bizarre, in that it has very little real-world-ness to it. I showed my mother the ongoing tumblr celebrity poll, and she was like 'how many people could possibly be interested in frogs?', to which I replied 'well as of today about 46,000 and counting'.

I have always had an unhealthy relationship with fame. I spent most of my teen and young adult life fawning after it, as is I suppose very often the case.

More after the cut…

I always really wanted to be famous, but I was never really interested in changing who I was or what I represented in that pursuit. That is to say, I wanted to be known for what I was already doing, or for things that were already interesting for me, rather than things that might have much higher chances of success but require more effort or be less in line with the things that I am interested in.

I had my first brush with virality in 2012, when a poem I wrote went a little viral (largely thanks to StumbleUpon). I remember the rush of seeing how much attention it was getting, and staying up late to keep refreshing the page as the visitor numbers went up and up and up.

But not long after that, I had some closer encounters with fame and people becoming famous. That was extremely eye-opening. I witnessed first hand how strongly that can affect someone's life, for good and for bad. That experience also made me realise, quite jarringly, that famous people are still just people; that celebrity is something extrinsic to them; that they also wipe their own butts (if they are able); and that in many cases, it is a substantial inconvenience if not downright pain in the ass for them. I think this is why we see so many of the big celebrities having mental health crises or trying to live as much of their lives out of the public eye as possible.

That experience pretty much stifled my desire to achieve fame, and really changed my relationship with it. I should add that I could say much more on this topic, but nothing so coherent or insightful as John and Hank Green, who have given me so much clarity on this topic over the years through their thoughtful commentary on youtube and their podcasts.

Anyway, in spite of the fact that fame itself doesn't really appeal to me anymore, I do still have a problem wherein I quickly became addicted to the microdosing of euphoria associated with every reblog and like and follow. So I put huge efforts into social media in order to try to gain traction in the space that I felt I could really compete in—Very Niche SciComm™—and build up a following.

Tumblr was the first platform where I felt that really succeed; I managed to fight my way to a few thousand followers with a thick queue of regular posts about herpetology and other science. At that time, there was a great community building up in the rudimentary private messaging system—I am still friends with several other tumblr bloggers from that era (none of whom I have ever met in person). From that early time (2013), I think my most successful post was probably this one about germination of 32,000 year old seeds—a post that, as of today, has 836 notes, but at the time felt huge and exhilarating.

As I went through gradschool, I got more and more active on twitter, and less and less active on tumblr (by the time I wound down, I had about 8,000 followers on tumblr). This was partly because of the pornbot takeover on tumblr, which meant I basically could not go on the platform in public or at work, but also because the audience and interactions are just fundamentally different. Twitter had a different kind of vibe and energy than tumblr, and there were real SciComm experts there, who were doing it just completely differently. More importantly, I became more focussed on doing outreach aimed at colleagues, rather than non-experts.

Then, in 2017, I hit headlines for the first time. The description of Geckolepis megalepis made it big on social and traditional media, and I had my first experience with real media attention. I had a flurry of late-night phone-calls with journalists in the US. This was a different animal altogether than the few viral posts I had had until that point. It was extremely stressful, but exhilarating. Then in 2018, our chameleon fluorescence story made similar headlines, and in 2019 the Mini frogs, and in 2021 with gecko fluorescence and the smallest chameleon.

Seeing my name on the BBC News website and in the New York Times and National Geographic—those things have been the most surreal moments of near-fame I have experienced so far. The number of followers on social media is quite difficult to conceptualise, but seeing your own name in a media outlet that you consume regularly, or have grown up with, is more palpable.

In any case, I continued to run with twitter as my main platform for years, because I found the interaction with colleagues and other academics highly stimulating. In 2021, I even posted a twitter thread about a different species of frog from Madagascar every day for the full year. All this work was ultimately greeted with mediocre success; I just crested over 10,000 followers a few months before the Musth takeover. But then the platform became basically unusable. And in the fallout, I came back to tumblr, where, just by chance, I happened to find a post about the Mini frogs and reply to it and it went properly viral and now here we are. In the space of a year, I went from having 8000 followers to having >46,000.

How do I feel about that? It's bonkers. I think it is great that so many people are interested in hearing the Good News about frogs and other creatures. But I also feel like I am not really on the same playing field as most of the others in that poll mentioned above, in that I do not have any of the celebrity that several others have. And I know for a fact that there are fanblogs with far, far larger followings than I have. But perhaps that is the great thing about tumblr; that the playing field is somehow levelled…

What's the point of this ramble? Well, first I guess it is to outline that I have given fame a lot of thought over the years, and I have a long-standing and complicated relationship with it, and take it quite seriously. Second, to illustrate that I have been working on as a science communicator or person in outreach for many years—it has kind of been my social media brand since I started gradschool in 2013. And third, to kind of outline how we got here, because I often feel like you have to know where an arrow has come from in order to figure out which direction it will continue to fly.

You asked if I would somehow try to leverage my tumblr fame to get research funding—I already do that. In fact, my social media activity had a signfiicant role in landing me my current job, and will continue to help me achieve tenure. Outreach is an important part of my job, and funders like it too.

I would love to have the community-building power and tenacity of the brothers Green; Nerdfighteria has achieved some incredible things over the years, and the power of that community is now being seen at an unprecedented scale in their battle for equitable access for tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment. But I do not have that in me; this platform is the wrong one for community activation, and my community is still too small for that. Moreover, it is not organised or structured, in the way that I think effective deputisation would require.

As for the crowdsourcing of name ideas, that is currently off the table. I like to try to name things on my own or with my colleauges; it is a very good part of the process. And I have yet to hear a suggestion for a Mini species epithet that I had not already come up with myself, so I am not convinced that this would really augment the experience.

So for now, I hope that the main way I use the platform, and the power that comes with a few thousand followers, will be to spread the Good News about frogs and other wonderful animals, and the other kinds of science happening around us (and occasional other off-topic content). I hope that you are encouraged to explore the world around you, and to do your own reading to find out more about the subjects that interest you. And also I will continue to try to make meme-worthy content, because it does nice, if addictive, things in my brain when I get the clicks.

Thanks for asking, anon, and sorry for the Wall of Text.

[simp4wom3n]

Celebrity Crush

Pairing: Jenna Ortega x Reader

Requested: Yes/No ~ request @meimei-a

Summary: Y/N has been simping over Jenna for years. What happens when Y/N finally gets noticed by her celebrity crush. (Y/F/M = your favourite movie) ~ Word Count: 2,190 ~ Warnings: swearing

A/N: Hello everyone!! Idk why these keep getting longer and longer but hopefully you guys still like them. Obviously because they are longer they take longer to write but my schedule has loosened so I have more time to write so hopefully the next one will be finished soon <3

Part 1 ~ Part 2

“And here to promote her new movie, the newest star of Hollywood, the amazing, and beautiful, Y/N L/N everybody!!” Jimmy announces with his iconic smile plastered on his face, his hand gesturing towards you as you walk out. Dressed in an extravagant pantsuit and heels, you wave to the audience as you make your way towards your chair. You greet Jimmy as you sit down, taking a moment to take in your first late night show, sat across from Jimmy Fallon, in-front of a large audience, cameras covering you on all angles. Sure you had done press before but this was something else.

Whilst you are undeniably nervous, the excitement of another ‘I made it’ moment overshadows any of your anxiety as you finally face Jimmy as the cheers of the audience diminish. “Welcome Y/N it’s amazing to finally have you on the show. How are you feeling?” he starts with a warm smile, instantly calming your remaining nerves. “Thank you so much for having me. This is definitely a dream of mine so a little nervous.” you explain, earning a nod from Jimmy. “I’m used to being in the audience so it’s still sinking in” you add, gesturing and glancing towards the audience, still unable to grasp the fact that your here.

“Well you have definitely earned it, I mean your incredible.” he commented, earning a chorus of cheers from the audience. A tight lipped smile of appreciation crosses your face as you reply, “Thanks Jimmy thats mean a lot”. “Now… your new movie Y/F/M, am I right in saying its your first lead role in a blockbuster film?” “Yes it is” you reply with a nod. “Now I know they are really strict on what you can say but is there ANYTHING you can tell us.” he asks with genuine curiosity in his eyes.

Despite wanting to go on and on about the movie and reveal every little detail you can, your director says otherwise meaning you can’t say a thing. “I hate to break your heart Jimmy but my lips are glued shut. All I can say is I’m really proud of it” you answer solemnly, giving both Jimmy and the audience a small smile of apology. “It’s annoyingly ironic. Like I have to sell a movie without actually talking about it.” The solemn look on Jimmy’s face is quickly replaced with one of pure elation as he leans back in his chair, letting out his signature laugh, instantly bringing a smile to your face. 

He took a minute to settle down before he moved on, “I had a feeling this would happen so I prepared a little game for you” he started with a mischievous look on his face. You matched his energy, playfully glaring at him, “Ok…” you replied with concern earning a chuckle from the audience. “So I had my team go through your twitter and try to find any common topics you talk about” At the mention of your twitter account you could feel your cheeks warm as you realise where he is going with this.

“Oh god…”. Despite having a decent following, you essentially used your twitter as a dumping ground for all of your opinions on films, actors, food, basically everything. Which also meant you tweeted a lot, and I mean a lot, about your celebrity crush. The breathtaking Jenna Ortega. You practically worshipped her. Your initial film reviews of her performances soon turned into you straight up thirsting over her, so much so you had been asked about it before in previous interviews. It was impossible to deny so you would always openly admit your crush, quite passionately if you might add.

“And it would appear there is one VERY prominent subject” he continued, attempting to hold back a chuckle after seeing the mix of concern and acceptance on your face. “Mhm” you hum as you rest your head on your hand, waiting for him to just say it. “Jenna Ortega”. There it was. You closed your eyes attempting to compose yourself as a smile grew on your face just at the mention of her. “So I thought we could take a look at a few of the more recent ones and you could explain them to us all”, he finishes with a look of satisfaction, knowing he had struck gold. “Really trying to expose me aren’t you Jimmy.”, you chuckle as you straighten your posture and face the screen, “Your lucky I’m passionate about this.” you add causing Jimmy and the audience to laugh.

“Ok first one”. A screenshot of a tweet you posted in January 2022, the day that ‘The Fallout’ premiered for streaming, came up on the screen. It read ‘Just watched ‘The Fallout’ for the first time. Jenna Ortega everybody🧎🧎🧎’. You chuckled as you listened to Jimmy read it out to the audience. “I mean it’s pretty self explanatory” you start, reflecting back on that day. “I didn’t get the chance to see it beforehand so I had been waiting for it to come to a streaming service and when it did… OOO Jimmy you have no idea.” you explain whilst the audience bursts out laughing and you just shrug your shoulders. “What can I say. Not only was her performance Oscar worthy but DAMN she looked good doing it.” you fall back in you chair with a massive smile on your face whilst they all cheer and laugh around you. 

“Ok ok next one” Jimmy says through his laughter. A new screenshot of a tweet from a week or so later, right after you had seen ‘Scream 5’, appears on the screen reading, “I’m not one for horror, but did I just binge the entirety of the Scream saga to see ‘Scream 5’ with Jenna Ortega? Absolutely. P.S it was so worth it”, Jimmy read it out as you and the audience laughed whilst your hand hid your massive smile. “Lets just say I would do anything to be able to watch her.” you say with a smirk on your face as you try to suppress your giggle. “I actually really don’t like horror that much. I hate jump-scares with a passion. I was also praying the entire time that Jenna’s character didn’t die. That was basically all I cared about.”

“Ok final ones” Jimmy states as he pulls up a tweet from only a few weeks ago from after you binged ‘Wednesday’ is one sitting. “Guys someone explain to me how Jenna played a literal psycho but was still incredibly attractive AND girlfriend material.” Jimmy read as he also pulled up another one from a few days ago, ”These bts photos from Wednesday… Someone take them away from me I need this girl as my girlfriend ASAP” you chuckle as he finishes reading them out. “I mean look I think we can all relate to a show being that much more enjoyable because an actor you love is it in right?” you question, looking at the audience who respond with nods and cheers “Right so when I saw that Jenna was playing Wednesday I legitimately counted down the days until it aired and I watched the entire show in one sitting” you finish with a laugh. “That first tweet was right after I finished it and the second one… I mean guys have you seen those photos how could I not be in love”

Meanwhile…

The Tonight Show was a show that Jenna frequently watched. She had been checking Instagram to see who would be appearing on the show when she stumbled across you. She noticed someone who she instantly found attractive, and their name sounded familiar although she wasn’t sure where from. ‘Y/N L/N…. where do I know you from’ she thought as she googled your name in an attempt to connect the dots. Browsing through your movies and tv shows, nothing seemed to trigger any realisation despite having seen some of them. ‘Weird’

Jenna set her phone aside, sat down on the couch, and took out her TV remote, turning it on and switching the station to start the show. Turning it on just as Jimmy announces you, she watches you walk out and her eyes widen slightly as her cheeks warm ever so slightly. You were gorgeous. She sat there speechless as she watched you smile and wave to the crowd, and she couldn’t help but smile with you as you sat in your chair.

If she was being completely honest with herself, she was entirely distracted by your beauty and hadn’t been listening to a majority of what was said, that was until she noticed you glaring at Jimmy. Snapping out of her trance, she listens to Jimmy explain the ‘game’ he wanted to play with you, something about looking through your twitter. ‘Wait have I seen her on twitter?’ Jenna briefly thought as he continued explaining. Her eyes shot open as she unexpectedly heard her name. ‘Wait what’, her ears immediately perking up, her attention now entirely on Jimmy.

As soon as the first tweet came on screen, Jenna’s mouth dropped open as she was suddenly hit with the realisation of where she had seen you before. She wasn’t one to frequent twitter, but whenever she did she would always notice a large amount of tags and tweets relating to you. The ones she had seen were just her being tagged in the comments of your tweets but she thought nothing of it and just presumed it was the fans messing around. She was obviously mistaken.

As you continued talking about your tweets and your love for her so openly on live tv, her cheeks burned as she sat there on her couch in pure disbelief. “How could I not be in love” is what you had said. That was all she needed to hear before she decided to binge almost all of your previous interviews, and to her surprise, and delight, you mentioned her in almost every one.

‘Holy shit’ she whispered as you wrapped up talking with Jimmy, saying your goodbyes and promoting your movie one last time. As she watched you stand she thought ‘fuck it’ as she reached for her phone, immediately opening instagram and going to her DMs.

Back at the studio…

You had just left the stage and were taking a moment to relax and think about how everything had gone. ‘I really just said that on live TV’ you thought to yourself as you chuckled and headed back to your dressing room to get changed and head home. The first thing you did was change out of your outfit because, despite how beautiful it makes you feel, your one and only real love—aside from Jenna—is an oversized t-shirt and sweatpants. Once you had changed you grabbed your phone off the table and took a glance at your notifications, the number of which multiplied significantly since before the show. ‘Oh wow ok’ you mumbled as you scrolled through them seeing if there were any of significance.

You were about to put your phone down before a DM notification caught your eye, your breath hitching as you read the name. ‘Holy shit no way’. It was from fucking Jenna Ortega. ‘What the actual fuck… oh my god ok’. Deciding to wait until you got home to answer it, so you don’t seem too unbearably desperate, you grabbed your things and walked briskly to your car. As you drive along the quiet streets late at night, your mind is racing as all you can think about is her. ‘Oh my god does that mean she watched the interview?’ ‘I can’t believe she actually knows who I am’ ‘How am I going to respond to this oh god’. 

When you finally arrived at your apartment, you hurriedly got out of the car and made it to your floor before you almost crashed through the door with excitement. Not bothering to do anything else, you instantly collapse onto your couch and open you instagram, saying ‘Fuck it’ and opening the DM. “Hey cutie” it started, instantly making you blush. “I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to reach out to you. I would love to get to know you better so I was wondering whether you wanted to maybe get dinner with me sometime this week?? Absolutely no pressure but I would love to meet you in person :)” You sat there speechless for a moment. Jenna Ortega, your celebrity crush, wants to go out with you?!? ‘This is too good to be true’ you thought as your fingers hovered over the keyboard. You eventually decided to just go for it, “Are you asking me out on a date?? ;)” you typed quickly and sent before you could start overthinking it. 

You were shocked when it was read in just a few seconds, and you waited eagerly for her reply “How could I not ask such a beautiful girl on a date <3”. Here you were, on what you thought would be a regular day of press, instead being asked to go on a date by your celebrity crush. This was an ‘I made it’ moment on a completely different scale.

Part 2

[sokkastyles]

I have a question, I know we know that shipping does not equal morality. And I get that, and I really like that. However, on my other blog, that should have been my main blog (yes I am that dumb). I have talked about Aang's non-consensual and criticized how Kataang is written, however, if you ship Kataang I won't come for your throat because that's not my style. I know the few misogynists/antis on here and on Twitter, and I don't want to let a few bad apples be my impression of a fandom, that's not fair, So now I'm side-eyeing myself over my past remarks. Likewise, I know shipping is not equal to morality, but I also want to criticize Kataang because of how flawed it is and how wrong that kiss was (and other things). I have no idea what I'm saying because at this point I'm rambling. What do you think?

Well, there is a difference between criticizing a ship and criticizing canon. I don't honestly care what people ship. I use the antikataang tag because I don't want to argue with people who do ship it, but that doesn't mean I won't be critical of what is in the show. I think expecting people not to engage critically with media is absolute nonsense. But there is a difference between engaging critically with the actual media and criticizing people's fanon or headcanons, which is where you get away from critically engaging with canon and move into the area of criticizing other people's opinions, which is how arguments start.

Like, there isn't really any actual concrete argument you can make to criticize zutara, because zutara does not exist in canon. It's all fanon and headcanons and speculation. And criticizing other people's opinions just makes you look like a dick.

You also have to take into account the intention behind something. The thing about the way Katara's relationship with Aang is presented is that we're supposed to root for Aang to get Katara, and every obstacle towards that end is just there to create dramatic tension for the male point of audience identification. That's the real problem with the noncon kiss, and people who are critical of it are right to point it out.

In contrast, when I say shipping isn't morality, I'm talking about people who write, let's say, dubcon zutara fics. Fanfiction as a genre is largely female-centered fantasy. Yes, even those lurid fics you're thinking of. People write and read these fics for completely different reasons and have completely different expectations than when watching a series like ATLA. Trying to say that someone can't criticize the way the show presents Aang kissing Katara after she said she was confused as a mistake to be glossed over (that is forgotten as soon as it happens) because they also happen to like reading darkfic is nonsense. There's also a long history of women's interests being policed that informs my views here, vs the fact that consent has only fairly recently become a conversation in mainstream media. You have only to look at the way the show itself portrays Katara having interests (especially in boys) outside of Aang as dark and dangerous to see this happening in ATLA itself. Or the way the creators got away with saying that zutara shippers are doomed to end up in abusive relationships while painting Aang as a typical Nice Guy stereotype who expects Katara to magically become his girlfriend (and gets angry when she doesn't) and seeing nothing wrong with it.

The thing is that zutara, if we look at the way it's written in canon as a metaphor for a romantic relationship, follows the same tradition of how fanfiction has historically existed as an exploration of romantic and sexual dynamics. Those conversations about consent are actually happening and being explored in fanfiction, even the dark stuff, whereas relationships that are presented as "wholesome" often push us to NOT have those conversations. So when I say shipping isn't morality, what I actually mean is that noncanon shipping and darkfic actually has more of a moral leg to stand on than uncritically engaging with relationships on the grounds that Aang is the hero so his goodness and worthiness to get the girl should just be assumed. Zuko has to work for his right to be in a relationship with Katara because he didn't start out from a place of goodness, and that, on its own, is very female centered because instead of starting out from the perspective of the male hero deserving a relationship by virtue of being the hero, we see the idea that a man has to work to gain a woman's respect and affection.

So it's not so much that I hate KA, but I hate the idea that we should engage in it uncritically. And that would be true even if it really was the most wholesome relationship in the world. The same thing cannot be true of zutara because even the darkest of darkfic are about women centering themselves in the narrative and engaging with power dynamics in ways that are subverting patriarchal norms about relationships by definition.

[tsukimara]

── FRIENDS? ──

⇢ ˗ˏˋ Chapter 2 ࿐ྂ

✎ Summary: You've lost most of your memory, and the world looks different than you remember. While looking for a new safe place, you come across an android which is the only one that doesn't want to attack you. Will he help you or will he prefer to work alone? [Cyberpunk AU]

✎ Warnings: Violence, swearing ⚠

✎ Art: thijikoy (On Twitter/X)

✎ Playlist :D

✎ || PREVIOUS || *ೃ༄ || NEXT || — MASTERLIST

You didn't move an inch, after all, you didn't want to be shot in the head. The silence was unpleasant, you felt cold as the wind blew and the rain started to fall harder. You would have run away except for the fact that you didn't even know where to go and the person behind you certainly knew the area better than you. Before you could think of anything, the person behind you started talking.

"Turn around." Not wanting to piss off the person, you turned around. He was a very tall boy with blue eyes, his ginger hair was wet from the rain and freckles dotted his face. His outfit was rather unusual, a large collar, a long red scarf with a galactic tip and a top jacket revealing his bodysuit (His appearance is shown at the bottom). You completely forgot that he was holding a gun in front of you.

You raised your hands automatically "Hey, hey, hey, can't we talk uhh calmly? If you put your gun away, it would be great." You noticed the confusion on his face as he put his gun back away. You didn't know he would listen.

"Who are you? I can't find your personal information anywhere." Now it was you who looked at him confused. How did he even check it? You tensed a little as he came closer to you and grabbed your arm, but he quickly withdrew his hand as he looked at you in shock.

"You are a human...?" You raised an eyebrow when he asked about it "Umm yeah?" When you said this, he started laughing. Poor guy must have gone crazy seeing all these machines.

"Scara won't believe me if I tell him this." He shook his head with a smile as he stopped laughing and looked at you. "My name is Tartaglia or Childe, call me whatever you want." He offered you his hand to shake, which you looked at a little suspiciously because he had recently held a gun in front of your face, but you sighed and shook his hand. "Y/N..."

Childe crossed his arms and glanced at the place you came from. "I'm surprised you made it out alive." When he understood what he said, he awkwardly combed his ginger hair, which was dripping with water. "It wasn't supposed to sound like that... but there's no time for that, we need to get going." He grabbed your wrist and started pulling you towards the lower stairs behind him. You stumbled slightly, his hand was as cold as ice, making you shiver. No normal person has such cold hands, so you immediately become suspicious again.

"Where are you taking me?" You asked as he let go of you to crouch down and open the hatch. You looked down only to see darkness, even if you sharpened your vision you wouldn't have seen anything. "There's no way I'm going down there."

"Believe me, it's much safer there than here. At least you won't be massacred there by those stupid machines." He said as he pulled a small flashlight from his pocket and started to climb down the ladder, not wanting to be left alone you followed him down. You had so many questions and so few answers, you wanted to deal with this yourself, but seeing how many robots were on the surface, you preferred not to risk your life. You didn't trust this guy, unfortunately there were no other options but to follow him, he would probably force you to go with him anyway.

There was a long tunnel at the bottom, it wasn't very big, but the darkness added to the atmosphere. Childe took something out of his pocket again, it was a small red glowing cube. He threw it on the ground and it formed into a flying skateboard? Noticing your shocked expression, Childe smiled and stood on the skateboard, offering his hand for you to get on.

"What? Is this the first time you've seen something like this?" You felt like he was teasing you, and you frowned as you looked at the skateboard again. Childe noticed your uncertainty so he grabbed you like a cat and set you in front of him. You stood stiffly, not wanting to fall on the cold concrete, you slowly turned your head towards him with an expression of "what the hell, man?" and he just chuckled.

"It would take forever for you to stand on that skateboard." After these words, the skateboard started moving and you reluctantly grabbed his jacket. If you could, you would punch him now, but you preferred not to smash your head on the concrete, so you sat quietly with a dissatisfied face.

"So what were you doing there?" Childe asked after a moment of silence to lighten the mood a bit and you scoffed. "I'd like to know too." You saw him raise an eyebrow but you just shook your head to let him know you didn't want to talk about it. You didn't know how long the ride would take because all you could see was the light from the flashlight and the skateboard.

The silence was slightly awkward so you decided that you would ask the question now. "So where are you taking me? You didn't answer me earlier." He glanced at you and then looked back at the road. "Ah yes, sorry, we're going to the city of Nexor, there's a hidden place where it's safe. The only problem is that we have to get there and it's not that easy." I nodded, showing that I was listening.

"Those androids you've probably seen are also guarding this city, but they look a little different. Let's just say they don't like us."

"Us?" I asked curiously. "Yes, me and my friends. We are a "Friendship team." You wanted to say something but you didn't want to hurt his feelings so you just stared at the road as if you hadn't heard a weird name of their group.

"They are nice... Most of them. We may be androids, but we have feelings." Your eyes widened when you heard this, that's why his hand was so cold but it felt like a human hand. You finally found yourself at the end of the tunnel, as you stepped off the skateboard you felt like your legs were shaking like jelly and your hair was definitely a mess. The skateboard turned back into a cube which Childe put in his pocket and climbed up the ladder.

When you both left, your eyes lit up with excitement as you looked at the city full of colors and new technology. There were no lamps, only neon LEDs that beautifully illuminated the city. While you were still admiring, suddenly your view was blocked by some cloth that landed on your head. As you took it off you noticed it was the scarf Childe was wearing so you turned to him to ask why he gave it to you.

"Why did you give this to me?" He also started taking off his jacket, leaving his arms completely exposed, and then he handed it to you. Is he making a hanger out of you? "If these androids see you, they will shoot you, so you need to cover yourself up a bit. We won't go to crowded places so that we won't be detected." He explained to you. You put on a jacket and a scarf so that it covered at least half of your face. His jacket was pleasant to wear and his soft scarf kept you warm in the process. Childe gave you a small smile and patted your head lightly. "Let's go."

You followed him to the alley, as always, the alleys were not very clean and there was garbage strewn everywhere. You noticed how the ginger-haired man walks carefully, looks around and checks to see if anyone is coming. You wonder why he helps you. You shook your head to stop thinking about it, you'd probably find out later.

Suddenly Childe pushed you against the brick wall, you looked sideways at him and he just put his finger to his lips to show you to be quiet. A robot about 218 cm (7.15 ft?) tall passed by the alley, it looks a bit similar to the ones you met in the hospital, but this one looked like it had more upgrades. It was black and white with some parts glowing blue, its head was a helmet with a screen in the middle and some black chains were hanging from it. Long arms on which you could probably see guns that were hidden. Its torso was quite small and the legs were thin from above and became a bit larger lower down. You also saw "3X0R 2371 - D" written on the back. Once it was gone, Childe let go of you and peered over the wall, looking around.

"Are these the robots you were talking about?"

"Yes, they are called Exors... Listen, we have a little problem." He announced and you looked where he was. There was another alley on the other side, but to get to it you would have to get past a crowd of androids. "We have to get there, unfortunately as you can see there are a lot of androids so stay close to me."

Walking quickly, you adjusted your scarf so that it covered your face at least a little, and you kept your head down so as not to stare at the androids. You were nervous so you squeezed your hands to calm yourself down a bit. You noticed how Childe tensed as one of the Exors passed by you, before you could even react you heard a gunshot behind you and you were pushed to the side. He was in front of you and quickly pulled out his gun, shooting at the screen of Exor who shot towards you.

Some androids started to panic and run away, you could barely see what was happening. Out of the corner of your eye you could see Childe wearing some strange mask, he kicked one of the Exors and shot the other one behind him. You would help him, but you didn't have any weapons on you and you didn't want to disturb him. While you were lost in your thoughts, you didn't notice one of these machines approaching you from behind, sticking out its hand to shoot at you.

Childe's eyes widened when he saw this and loudly shouted your name to warn you. You looked behind you and when you were about to run away, it was hit perfectly in the hand, but what you didn't expect was that after a while, half of it exploded and it fell down, unable to move anymore. Did Childe have any other weapons?

You wanted to look to the side to see who he shot when suddenly a motorbike passed by you. You squealed as at the same moment you felt one arm wrap around your torso and lift you up, making you land on the motorbike. You were fed up with everyone picking you up like a doll. You couldn't see what the person looked like because they were wearing a helmet and Childe was still fighting the Exors so it wasn't him. Are you about to get kidnapped? The unknown person made a sudden turn and crashed into the rest of the robots, helping Childe. Maybe you weren't kidnapped after all..

"Quick!" Childe quickly shot down the last one and jumped on the motorbike behind the person. As you set off, you looked out and saw the rest of the Exors gathering, but they couldn't catch you anymore. You sighed with relief, it was a stressful action but luckily everything went quite smoothly.

"You're blocking my view." You heard this person talking to you so you went back to your previous pose so as not to disturb them. "Sorry.."

You turned into different places to avoid being detected until you finally reached a dead end when suddenly the wall moved, opening a passage. You swear you'll go crazy soon. Once you were inside, the bright light blinded you slightly, so you narrowed your eyes slightly. The person got off their motorbike and immediately went to Childe to hit him in the back of the head.

"Hey! What was that for?" He started rubbing the back of his head "What for? WHAT FOR?! Are you fucking crazy?! First of all, you left without telling anyone, secondly, you exposed yourself and thirdly, you brought a fucking human! How fucking stupid are you?!" You were still sitting awkwardly on the motorbike, listening to them argue.

"Look, I couldn't leave them there. They would die there!" Childe gave you an apologetic look and you shook your head to show him you didn't mind. "Yeah? Great! Now they will take your place because I will fucking push you into the shredder!" Wow, this person sure had a little aggression problem. "You always say that and you've never pushed me in there before." This seemed to piss the person off more and they grabbed Childe by the collar to get him down to their level.

"You'll end up there soon because your bullshit is starting to overheat my circuits!" You heard a light chuckle behind you, which scared you a little, next to you was a boy with platinum blond and a orange-red streak. He had a gentle smile as he looked at the two.

"Don't worry about them, Childe and Scara are always arguing like this." He looked at you "My name is Kazuha, welcome to our group "Antares."

✎ || PREVIOUS || *ೃ༄ || NEXT || — MASTERLIST

✎ Childe has no colors, but I will probably show him in full one day (There will also be a drawing of Scaramouche soon :D)

✎ I made a playlist, I hope you like it! I also put the link in the masterlist.

✎ Have a good night/day!

(⁠つ⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)⁠つ TAGLIST — @sl-vega , @veekoko , @magica-ren , @averagehuman-notsuspicious , @theyluvkatt , @himariilove

[vidavalor]

Hello!

This is random but I remembered your posts regarding The Situation with NG’s involvement in Good Omens when one of my followers on Twitter tweeted a screen cap of an old conversation on bluesky where Neil sorta confirms Amazon had pulled back his influence on production from S1 so there’s a lot of truth in what you said

Hope you’re doing great! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Hi there! 💕 Hope you're doing great yourself. I usually offer snacks but this is a large sherry or Talisker topic so *gets the glasses*...

That's interesting info-- thank you for sharing it. Like I was saying in that original post, I don't know any of that for sure but that was definitely the impression I was getting. One of the several reasons I was getting that impression was due to other, equally unprofessional posts like the one you're talking about here that speak to already-existing conflict with Amazon long before this particular Situation became publicly known.

I'm not sure why he'd be trying to fight the studio publicly like that if there's not something happening behind the scenes. It's just unprofessional. I was shocked when I saw posts like that because it's not like he was being a whistleblower to egregious behavior or something-- he was bitching about his boss and the budgets to fans on Tumblr. It feels like he was trying to use the fanbase as a shield to keep himself from being fired, as a way of saying "you can't get rid of me-- I will tell my fans you are the issue and they will believe me and not you and I have a million of them-- just look at my little Tumblr thing. You'll lose money if you don't back me."

You know what kind of guy does shit like that? The same kind that tells young women that no one is going to believe them because he's a famous, award-winning writer and they're nobody.

If you don't mind, I'm going to use your ask here for a moment to add a bit to what I was saying about Good Omens being a through-and-through Pratchett novel because I think it's important to remember that this story has another author here. I've had some people ask me to expound on that a bit. So, for anyone interested, this is what I mean when I say that Good Omens is a Pratchett novel:

As most of you probably know, most of the posts I write about Good Omens have to do with the use of language in the story. The diction in Good Omens is extremely specific. Its quirky word choice, its "gayer than a monkey on nitrous oxide"- type of wordplay? It's funny on the surface level and it's a whole other level of funny when you dig a bit deeper. The cleverness there is familiar to Pratchett readers, as it's part of the distinctive style of his other novels. As a writer who is a bit obsessed with etymology myself, I spotted his love for it right away in his writing. It's in every. single. one. of his books that I have read and I have read quite a few.

The exact same thing is in Good Omens. It's a really specific way of writing where word-related jokes are the vehicle for the humor and etymology-based diction choices are chosen with great precision and inform the piece on every level. Pratchett's signature style of writing came from the fact that he used etymology as a tool to help him convey the messages in his writing. The thematic connections he was making were supported by the complex histories of the key words around which he was forming his stories.

For example, there's a meta one of you asked me to write about the halo in S2 and, when you look at the etymology of the word, as we're going to do in that meta, you'll see that halo comes from discus and discus is the root of discussion, the root of the word desk, and the ancient sport that is like ring toss. It was also the name of a threshing floor for oxen, which ties both to dancing and to the threshold of a door, like the bookshop entry. By the time we get through looking at this one, key word of halo, we're going to have taken this whole trip-- through other discs-- the magic ring trick, record albums, Velvet Underground cds, etc., through what it means to dance to the ox ribs to what it means to have (or not have) a desk to what it means to talk through your frozen peas to what's up with the invitations into the bookshop. Good Omens is not random. Everything is very specifically chosen to work together to serve an overall story that is structured around using the etymology of words to underpin its meaning.

This is just one example and it's the same thing in the novel and S1. Much of the S2 stuff connects back to S1 & the novel. It's a story that loves words and it's a story that is threaded together, thematically, through being told by using very specific words and their histories. Good Omens is written like a Pratchett novel and feels like a Pratchett novel because it centers word history in exactly the same way as Pratchett does in his other novels.

You know where that halo thru-line that connects everything came from?

Discworld. It comes from Terry Pratchett's Discworld.

The same, core themes in his books are being explored, just in a slightly different way, in Good Omens and, often, using the same words in the exploration.

Because that's the thing-- all of these posts I'm writing about wordplay in Good Omens? I could, if I wanted to, also be writing them about any one of Pratchett's other novels, and a lot-- and I mean a lot-- of the specific words being used in a big way in Good Omens actually overlap with Pratchett's other books.

One of you has been waiting patiently for me to write about Mrs. Sandwich and the seamstress-themed language happening in the show and, to do that? We're going to not only talk about her and what she stands for in Good Omens but we're going to talk about the etymology jokes Pratchett was making with The Seamstress Guild in Discworld. Mrs. Sandwich might have been new in S2 but seamstress language is not-- it's baked into Crowley & Aziraphale's speak back in the novel and, as you'll see, there are instances of it in S1 and the novel that only become more apparent once you know to look for them after S2.

When NG said that, back in the day, he and Pratchett decided that Aziraphale should have a halo that was like a ring toss-- no.

Pratchett decided that.

The idea comes from the wordplay that is literally *in the title* of his own book series. Aziraphale's halo is related to why Pratchett's series is the Discworld. It's the same ideas. NG has fuck all to do with it.

Think about how I was just saying that all this love of etymology that is in Good Omens is also throughout Pratchett's books and is the driver of his word choice in all of them.

Now? Ask yourself who came up with Crowley and Aziraphale's secret language. Whose idea was it that it be so punny and etymology-based?

Probably the guy who wrote all of those etymology-based, other books.

Who invented the rules for that language?

Probably the guy who wrote all of those etymology-based other books.

If Pratchett wrote basically nothing but intentionally, lovingly, word-nerdy books... and if Good Omens is, soup-to-nuts, a love letter to etymology to a point that its main characters have a secret language built around it, then Terry Pratchett is who really wrote Good Omens. He's the true author of the book.

There are even interviews that show they had much different takes on how the process for the book happened. Pratchett, in one of the ones I read, said he wrote more than 2/3rds of the books straight up on his own and that he'd have phone calls with NG before NG wrote his bits of it and something politely vague to the effective of 'editing over' when writing the next chapter. In the same paragraph where he said he wrote more than 2/3rds of the book, he also said with all that discussion happening "who can say" who really wrote what-- yeah, exactly. It sounded a bit like NG needed the phone call to be told what to write on his end and then Pratchett edited it/rewrote bits of it before he wrote the next bit.

It comes off sounding like this book was like a partnered school project where Pratchett was the diligent one who did all the work himself so it would get done and be actually good and then assigned a bit of it to NG to do that he then had to go and fix so they'd get a decent grade. I wasn't there so I don't know but that's a bit like what the Pratchett interviews about it sound like to me and I'm much more inclined to believe Pratchett's view on their process than I am NG's take.

All I know is that Good Omens was successful when it was first published and any even moderately successful book makes publishing houses jump up and say "MORE NOW" and if you were those publishing houses? And you had a popular project with two writers? And one of the writers became tragically ill? You know what you'd do?

You'd eventually ask the other writer to finish the series.

It is known that a trilogy was planned from the start, which makes sense because most books are planned that way. You actually have to rough outline the entire story arc and then divide it amongst the books first. The story already existed in full when Pratchett began to get sick. Never-- in over two decades-- did anyone ever go to NG and ask him to both honor Pratchett and make them some cash by writing the rest of the trilogy?

Not even with how popular this book is?

That seems pretty suspicious to me.

Like a 'they know NG didn't really write it' kind of suspicious.

When both the publishing houses and the tv studios seem to be doing handstands to minimize his involvement with it, I'm thinking it's not too wild to infer there that it's because he never really wrote much, if any of it, in the first place.

More to the point? They know he's incapable of emulating it.

Because he's no Terry Pratchett.

[helly-watermelonsmellinfellon]

Recently, through Twitter, I have become aware of the fact that modern American parents have been very ignorant of their parental duties when it comes to their children. Parents are banding together to complain about the schools their children attend because their kids are getting bad grades in class, or they're getting detentions for doing bad consistently, or they're being held back because they're just not at the same level as their peers.

There was an entire thread of some woman whining about how the school was failing her kid, because his English class grade was so bad. There were thousands of comments agreeing and various reposts with anecdotes from other parents with similar experiences.

"My 26 y/o son can't even write a check for God's sake!"

And one single person finally replied with, "Do you guys not teach your kids anything at home before they start going to school?" Which then spawned people with actual common sense questioning the level of involvement these people had in the lives of their kids.

This is what led to a large surge of people complaining about how it's the school's job to teach them everything and they did their job just keeping them alive.

Now, I don't want to be mean, but it's gonna come across that way.

Parents are lazy these days.

When I was a child, my Nana and mom had me learning with Hooked on Phonics before I entered pre-K. I was 3 years old and already sounding out words that rhymed. I was practicing how quickly I could say them in under 30 seconds so I could progress to the next lesson.

mat hat sat that cat vat pat bat fat lat rat brat

etc...

When I was in pre-K(4 years old), they had a single, really old computer that had a bunch of Winnie the Pooh CD-ROM games. Because I always got my work done faster than everybody else, they let me use the computer because I could actually read and follow Pooh's instructions, and it kept me busy.

And when I entered kindergarten for the first time, I was really surprised to see that Hooked on Phonics was actually part of my curriculum and I was already very well ahead of everyone else. My mom and Nana took traching me very seriously. They not only read to me, but they would also get me Madeline books and cassette tapes from the children's library downtown. And then I would listen to the cassettes telling the story while reading the book at the same time to get used to the words.

At three years old, I was helping out in the kitchen, learning all of the different kitchen utensils and types of measurement. My mom often went between English, French and American Sign Language at random times so I picked up a lot of stuff that way. We never had a computer in the house for the first 12 years of my life, but I did have an old keyboard to learn how to type. Nana gave me basic piano lessons for a couple years. Mom taught me how to hem my clothes because she would buy me bigger clothes, hem them to size, and then let them out as I grew. Hell, Sperm Donor taught me how to write a check when I was 8. He was also a Financial Adviser, so I got a lot of lessons on money management, investments, and 401Ks and shit.

All these incredibly simple things ended up benefiting me later on, because I was so far ahead of all of the other students that it consistently put me at odds with them. I was better at reading, cooking, sewing, music, languages, etc... I was allowed time to do whatever I wanted while the rest of them had to catch up.

There is a lot more to being a parent than just making sure your kid eats three meals a day and doesn't die in a stupid way. And it seems like a lot of parents these days have completely forgotten that they have a duty to their kids beyond the feeding and clothing thing.

Certain things SHOULD be taught in schools, like how to balance a checkbook. But if it's clear that the school won't cover it, why aren't YOU doing something about that? And why do so many parents have no clue what the hell their kids are even getting up to in school? Why don't y'all get involved in your kid's lives?

[adiluv-moved]

❥ 𝐈𝐃𝐎𝐋 𝐎𝐁𝐒𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐌𝐎𝐔𝐂𝐇𝐄. ˚⊹꒷

717 words, modern au, obsessive fan behavior, reader is not traveler, not edited.

superfan scaramouche who is absolutely infatuated with you. he's been one of your group's day one fans, his stan account going back even before y'all had blown up in popularity. and you? you've been his bias from the very start, too ꒰a fact he doesn't even attempt to hide꒱—obsession growing all the more rampant with time.

superfan scaramouche who collects all of your merchandise, whether it be official or fan-made. hauls have become a necessary part of his lifestyle, long having adopted the habit of shelling out thousands of mora every month in order to add to his ever-growing collection of albums, photocards, and posters. the wood of his shelves are practically curving beneath the weight of everything, trashcan overflowing from all the packaging he throws out after unboxing everything.

superfan scaramouche who streams these unboxings to his loyal follower-base, the sharp tongue he's become infamous for always being undermined by the adoring smile on his face as he flaunts everything. the sheer extent of his collection has made him a well-known name amongst your fans, merch creators often sending him their newest design ideas and samples for feedback.

he's harsh in his critiques, unhesitating as he point out even the slightest flaws to his audience—especially so when it comes to designs with you. in his mind, if they're going to portray you, then they'd best do it right. other members of your group's fanbase do call him out for this behavior, though he counters saying that creators are already well aware of his temperament when send him anything.

superfan scaramouche who uses his position and wealth as the son of an inazuman politician in order to fund this lifestyle of his, although ei is oftentimes left unimpressed with his dedication to you. as such, she'll occasionally attempt to lecture him about his spending habits, but her words often fall on dear ears as he continues reaching out for his credit card the second your group's official twitter teases at a new release. honestly? the only thing that she manages to accomplish during these 'interventions' is tiring her throat out.

superfan scaramouche who rakes in extra money by capitalizing on his appearance, aware that some of his followers are only really interested with his account because of his breathtaking features. so long as the donations are large enough, he has zero problem flirting with his audience, immediately setting the money he gains from them aside to be spent on you. ironically enough, he can't help but find his admirers pathetic for thirsting over a man that hardly even knows them... despite having the exact same attachment to you.

superfan scaramouche who will get into fights online over your name. anybody who attempts to insult you—even as an off-handed remark—are met with a barrage of harassment from his ꒰many꒱ burner accounts. every aspect of their online persona is scrutinized, attempts to expose his identity met with ever harsher abuse. nearly all of his victims have had to deactivate just for the sake of being left alone, a fact he doesn't feel bad for in the slightest.

superfan scaramouche who attends every. single. one. of your group's events without fail, always making sure to come prepared with gifts and merch for you to autograph. covered in head to toe in bagging clothing, a baseball cap on his head, and a mask to obscure the bottom half of his face—you can't help but feel a little apprehensive when he makes a beeline straight towards you, though your inhibitions are quickly forgotten when the both of you start chatting.

superfan scaramouche who appears totally innocent and unassuming during your conversation, compliments almost falling off his tongue as he sings your praises. he'll comment on the smallest details within your mvs, choreography, outfits—claiming it a shame that you aren't as popular as some of the other members within your group. you eagerly sign the photocard he presents you, telling him to have a nice day before he leaves. it's the only thing he posts about for a week straight.

unbeknownst to you, he records the entire interaction, watching it compulsively to fuel his delusions—convincing himself that you're madly in love with him. needless to say, the charges on his credit card only increase in size afterwards.

i have a taglist, which you can sign up for here!

[ingravinoveritas]

I personally think its disgusting of what she posted yet again its all about her and she the reason why micheal keeps trending 4th day oh please he was trending for days before she came in the picture. And for someone who has no career and basically living off her parter who works so hard and been ill with virus the last few days and haven't been able to perform and she post this. Taking the credit for something that has nothing to do with her. He very grateful that she keep him grounded what that suppose to mean ? He was doing better before she came in the picture since he been with her his career have been slowed a little and she probably the reason for it

What do u say ?

Oh, boy. I saw this a little while ago, and all I could think was that the bar is so low at this point--like halfway between the fourth and fifth circles of Hell--and this still somehow falls short.

I know there has been a lot of talk about the t-shirt Anna is wearing (which was a gift from a fan at the stage door of Nye), but for me, the t-shirt is the least concerning part of all this. It's a reference to a quote from Staged (it's the title of a season 1 episode, in fact), and I am sure Michael found it funny. The only problem is that without the context of why it's a joke, it actually just isn't that funny. And it sets the stage for everything else that is happening.

Which brings me to the caption she wrote, which was what primarily caught my attention. The reason Michael is currently trending on Twitter (X, whatever we're calling it) is because of the overwhelmingly positive response to The Assembly, which aired last Friday night. He is receiving a tremendous amount of praise for being on the show, how he spoke to the interviewers, and the respectful and joyous atmosphere that was cultivated on the show. And rather than allude to any of that--not to mention Michael being sick recently, or the trip they went on to Disneyland Paris--Anna made Michael trending on Twitter about her.

That is what stands out to me the most. The idea of "keeping him grounded" that is coming across more like kicking someone when he is already down. That he somehow needs that, and that she would have us believe he is "grateful" to her for, what...comparing him to a loud bird? Repeatedly making fun of his looks and interests without a shred of respect or affection behind it? I'm also confused by the implication (and the irony) that Michael somehow has a large ego that needs to be kept in check when she is the one coming across as self-involved in this Insta story. So, yes. I'm at a bit of loss here.

I just keep thinking of the things she could have said instead. How she could have uplifted Michael, wished him well on returning to the stage tonight after several days' absence, said how she was glad to have spent time with him or taken care of him while he was ill. Just something that would give him a reason to hold his head high. But I guess it might just be easier to convince herself/everyone else that he is smiling if his head is hanging down instead.

I am just glad Michael is out performing again tonight and getting to be on stage and do the thing he truly loves to do. But those are my thoughts, and I'd be glad to hear from my followers about what you think, regardless of whether you agree or disagree...

[southofeerie]

modern west wing social media hcs

i feel like charlie would have the most normal social media acct and following, like maybe an instagram where he posts pictures of himself (mostly for family), and like a twitter where he occasionally retweets his friends or bartlet. he likes making fun of other people (especially senior staff) for being too stuck to their devices, and a large online presence would take away that ability

CJ’s twitter is less incendiary than she’d like, since she’s the face of the bartlet administration, and so a lot of it is discussing policy or clarifying briefings. she does retweet a lot of good edu sites or interesting articles she finds. she herself trends a lot, she’s pretty famous online as a political icon ala AOC or bernie sanders, and she gets a lot of edits made online from press conferences (which she enjoys bragging abt to the other staff, while making fun of them for being out-of-touch). CJ also has a private instagram that hogan had her make, but she only posts extremely blurry pictures of coffee and her goldfish with captions like “hogan said to post to remind people that im alive”. toby always replies with “sending the pictures to MOMA. breathtaking” and danny replies with “breaking news. press secretary reveals she is still alive. more at 7”.

leo does not have social media because he still has a flip phone and a brick laptop. he says he prefers hearing bad news out loud or reading it on physical paper, but really, he just can’t figure out how to work it. im talking types “google” into google, then types “hello find me a map of the united states of america” in the search bar. margaret tried to help but seeing him type google into google physically pained her

josh is banned from twitter (after he pissed off three midwestern states, basket weavers, and most hollywood producers in the first week in office). cj regularly checks to make sure he hasn’t made a new account. he has a public instagram, but cj looks over captions before he posts (he once tried to ask the president for permission to get a new account but the president sided with cj). most of his posts are about encouraging people to vote or be more politically active. he is also not allowed to reply to comments on the instagram, so he reads them out loud in a mocking voice to donna. unbeknownst to him, there is a white house deputy chief of staff twitter page run by donna (with cj’s permission) that discusses white house initiatives and shares fun anecdotes abt day to day work. anytime someone tells josh they love his twitter account he assumes they mean instagram, and nobody tells him until bartlet is two years out of office

donna, like charlie, has an instagram mostly for her family back home, but also has a twitter where she talks about tv shows she likes and her hobbies, that has a decent following. she might have a tumblr but again it would be abt tv shows and hobbies she has

toby is on goodreads and instagram (but only to leave sarcastic comments on his friends’ posts). he hates twitter’s word count limit and how it’s owned by elon musk, and rants abt it often. he leaves lengthy reviews on any political commentary article in the comments section. this has been brought up in the briefing room, to the point where cj has a recording of herself saying “toby ziegler’s online rants are not indicative of president bartlet’s views. if you have any questions please direct them to ziegler himself”

president bartlet has facebook </3. there’s a white house twitter page run by an intern, but he’s not involved with that. he posts fun facts about national parks or ancient latin novels, but each fact starts with something like “joshua lyman, 🧍‍♂️deputy chief of staff, 🇺🇸doesn’t understand the true beauty of yellowstone national park 🙄🏞🏜🤦‍♂️”. most people think it’s a parody account and cj doesn’t want to correct them

abbey does not have facebook, despite her husbands insistence that it’s better than twitter. on the rare occasions she uses her account it’s mostly to discuss important medical breakthroughs and her daughter’s work

sam has a really popular instagram, where he posts selfies and pretty pictures of the white house and captions like “having a great day at work today!” or “white house at sunset.. gorgeous”. he posts on his story a lot, and comes off as very relatable to the public. he’s cj’s dream social media user

will bailey runs campaign social medias pretty well but his own twitter account is mostly for promoting the campaigns. occasionally he retweets stuff his friends post, or tweets out funny jokes he hears.

margaret is tumblr famous, but never posts abt her job. her posts regularly wind up on other sites. she hasn’t told anybody and doesn’t plan to

[hlficlibrary]

suggest fanfics where theyre both in diffrent bands

Here are some fics that fit what you're looking for...

Remember Me Fondly by kiddle / @bluejeanlouis

“You’ve told the beginning of the story so many times. I want to hear the end.” Louis laughed, scratching at his chin. “I can’t say I really know when the end happened.” “How about the tour of ninety-five?” “Alright.” Louis took a deep breath. “But it took a few steps to get there. What would you like to know?” Penny cleared her throat. “How did you first meet Harry Styles?” Grunge legends Fearless Doe topped the rock charts in the ‘90s, but they spent the decade kicking Smudge off their heels. From lawsuits to jaw-dropping scandals and a surprising joint world tour, the two bands share a complicated history.

Twenty-five years later, frontmen Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles are finally ready to sit down and tell the world their two sides of the same story.

Truth may vary.

Want you more than a melody by Dome_28_afavour

'He takes a step back from Louis, undoing one button on his already half-undone blue shirt and revealing a tattoo-littered torso.

Louis is about to ask him just who gave him permission to undress, when he follows the line of Harry's ringed fingers to where they graze over his own stomach. Just under a large butterfly tattoo on his sternum is a word in bold type: 'LOUIS'.

Harry has a tattoo of Louis' name. They have matching tattoos. What in the everliving fuck.

Louis takes a deep breath, trying for a measured response. It takes him what feels like a few eternities to speak.

"We've got matching tattoos. Of each other's names." He deadpans. "And we've only met once."

Harry grins. "Well, I wouldn't say that. At points last night I was pretty sure we'd met in other dimensions."

What does that even mean? What the fuck does that even mean?

Louis has a tattoo on his neck, and it's of this freak's name. Insanely attractive freak, sure. A freak he had a one night stand with. But a freak nonetheless...'

Or, the one where Harry and Louis are in rival bands and get drunken matching tattoos, and Liam is Zayn's new bandmate who is definitely straight, except when they're alone.

These Violent Delights (Have Violent Ends) by sweetharry

Of course, about a week after their disastrous first encounter, the massive twitter feud exploded, dividing their groups; which lead Harry to assume that Louis Tomlinson hated him and only remembers him from one uncomfortable eye-fucking experience in a public toilet. But now, he’s here and Harry forgets about all of that. He forgets the fact that for some god forsaken reason he found Zayn more attractive in pictures, because right now Louis Tomlinson is standing in front of him glowing like the sun, and Harry’s heart beating is out of his chest.

rival band au where against all odds louis and harry find themselves falling in love. (feat. Zayn, Niall and Liam, as the Benvolio, Mercutio and Nurse of Louis and Harry's epic shakespeare-worthy love story).