#but i guess there just has to be a long popular and easy to recommend kmjr fic out there

[virginmiri99]

Looking for new content? Here's a list of CCs I like while I procrastinate cleaning my room

I will go from most popular to least and maybe you'll find something you are interested in. Kinda long so I added read more.

DougDoug - needs no introduction as he is very popular, I recently started watching his videos because a student vouched for him and while I can see why kids will like his challenge videos, I also find his content very entertaining. Especially while you eat dinner. Big fan of his zelda content. Parkzer is an interesting side character.

Squeex - PLEASE. If you want to get into Squeex start with his beating every mario kart game video. It's a good introduction and you can go from there. Please.

Linkus7 - My favorite Zelda runner as of late, I consider him a part of a triangle consisting of PointCrow, Smallant, and him. Though, he is lesser known within the greater sphere of twitch. His randomizers are the most fun in my opinion. I try to save his recent vods when I can, as he doesnt save them anymore.

Sambucha - STOP he makes like lowkey mindless kids content videos but I'm like obsessed with him for some reason. One of my students forced me to watch his "beating the easiest world records" video and I was immediately enthralled. He makes content thats easy to listen to while you draw. But I'm sure you can do other things with it on in the background.

Sturniolo Triplets - Content that is popular with teen girls, but I'm still obsessed for some reason. I just love people who have a good relationship just hang out together. Podcast vibes. Nick is the funniest. CONS: Chris is a queerbaiter at heart, though he is in a youtube group with his brothers. Hmm. Cant be doing that here.

Stephanie Soo - Mukbang true crime girl. I loved her video in high school and I would always put on her videos while I was in painting II - III or drawing. Too bad I cant watch her anymore because too much true crime makes me too paranoid. If you like true crime shes an easy watch, keeps thing friendly and accessible. I love her and her husbands relationship.

Trin Lovell - Reviews movies and by far my favorite movie watcher on youtube. Her editing is really funny and quippy. She got popular from watching best and worse riverdale and glee episodes (shes a big glee fan). my favorite videos from her are where hands touch and skinamarink. I have gained many new phrases from her.

StephenPlays - Smaller youtuber whos been in the game for like fifteen years. He is very chill and does letsplays with his friends and wife. I recommend his twilight princess and mario kart play throughs (featuring his wife Mal).

Any Austin - one of my fav youtubers ever and I've been a fan of him for 11 years now. He basically shaped my humor as a kid and I recommend his eggbusters series to get started. He had a letsplay channel called Two People Playing Games with his friend Aysha that sadly disbanded as they became too busy in their lives to keep up with it. Austin has done a lot of content over the years and recently is getting big for is "calculating the unemployment level of ___" keep this on the DL but if you ever want any privated videos I know a guy.

The Fisher - MAGNET FISHING

People you may have heard of, but made never checked out! My vouch:

Drew Gooden - Obviously. Funniest commentary youtuber. If you haven't watched him what are you doing?

Jenny Nicholson - I got into beef with her in 2019 (i think) when everyone was making fun of her for being a Reylo and she blocked me. I still like her commentary videos. Especially for background noise. My acc she blocked me on was suspended.

Johnny's Communication Center -

Sinjin Drowning - theyre snakes and lowkey the azealia banks of I guess roblox content bc thats all they do anymore but I'll be damned if I'm not CACKLING at them. They have a trail of destroyed friendships as long as the empire state building behind them.

[akookminsupporter]

Hope this isn't taken negatively because I don't mean it as such.. But lately I've come to a conclusion that while I love all 7 of them (with a slightly more particular fondness for the two this blog is on) I'm kind of heavily interested in the artistic directions (career choices) of only 4 of them - jhope jimin rm suga (even though I'm not really a huge rap enthusiast) . Jungkook also used to be on that list but I've been feeling kind of jaded by some of the music choices he's been trying out recently.

Regarding 3d, I think it's an okay song but my main problem lies with Jack Harlow's rap verses.. They're very adjacent to being overtly misogynistic and objectifying. And it's just not something I thought I would hear in a bts member song. Anyway would like to hear your thoughts on the lyrics if you want to share!

If I may I would like to make a few comments on your two points.

On the first point or paragraph: This is totally understandable and something that has been said a lot in this second chapter and definitely has been said several times on this blog. It has been interesting to see the direction their solo projects have taken and how they have handled/planned them. I don't want to say too much yet because although Jungkook has released a few songs, he still hasn't released an album or EP yet and I want to wait and see if anything changes but for some time now I've been thinking that although I share the same taste in music/songs as Jungkook, i.e. the kind of songs he always listens to on Wlives or recommends, his musical direction in this solo stage doesn't exactly go with my musical tastes. I was expecting songs like Still With You or Delcalcomania and that doesn't seem to be the direction he wants to take and that's fine, it's completely my fault for having expectations about something I have no control over.

As for the second point or paragraph: The song is very much to the taste of today's young consumers, especially in markets such as the US. The lyrics of the song are… they don't offer much depth and that's what's in vogue, I think. I think the intention is just to have fun and come up with songs that are catchy, fun and easy to remember, I guess. Jack Harlow's part is… no. I remember a couple of years ago or was it last year? he was quite popular on social media and I never understood the hype, I think a lot of people loved him for his looks and I didn't understand why, I'd never heard a song from him I think and I was surprised that he's a rapper. For a long time, I thought he sang country music. His two verses, and I'm surprised it was 2, are too clichéd and cringy.

[ant80in3]

There this ship that still appear in a corner of my mind

Well, you'll see I don't have many arguments, I'm just sharing because I find this ship amusing and rather cute how I imagine it. Some time ago I did a fictional story where Ptilopsis and Executor were brought together, and I realized that these two could share a lot of things. It could be as a couple, but also as friends, so it's a win-win situation.

Anyway, we know that Executor has a bit of a problem with women. He's popular and shown as handsome, but quickly scares off potential partners because he's so bad at socializing. It's conceivable that Executor just doesn't give a damn about relationships, or that he thinks these dates are purely professional. I prefer to imagine that he's just too clumsy and doesn't understand why anyone would be interested in him. By his own admission, he has more difficulty understanding people than machines.

And that's where Ptilopsis comes in. The easy thing to do would be to talk about her chip, which would make her a "machine". But Ptilopsis herself says that she preferred to talk that way to be better understood, and this long before her accident. We don't have much information on Ptilopsis' romantic relationships or type of partner, so these two could fit perfectly together.

I think a relationship between these two would be very chaotic, at least from an outsider's point of view. They'd be hopelessly honest with each other in unnecessarily detailed sentences and all Rhodes would wonder how this duo works. On the other hand, I can't see Executor seeing Ptilopsis as a machine as some might think he does. I can even see him answering "Ptilopsis is 65% water, 16% protein, 7% minerals and few others. She's human" and having affection for someone he understands and understands him. Executor himself knows the feeling of having people call him a machine. He doesn't care, but I don't see why he would treat someone the same way. Ptilopsis would look after someone who can listen her, is both capable of listening to a doctor's recommendations and logical arguments, and at the same time a workaholic who could go against her recommendations if his mission required him to.

I imagine a relationship that's always unexpected, where they suddenly show affection for each other because… well, they felt like it, so why wouldn't they? Well, in this example, they probably wouldn't do it during working hours, because they respect the rules. Is my point visible? As they are already individually, they are the two "strange robots" from the outside, except to people who know them well. But in reality and when you get closer they're regular happy couple maybe unusual but totally normal. They wouldn't cope each other on this, they wouldn't care about others and just find each other and enjoy it. Also, more silly, did you realize they have matching colors ? Grey, black and orange ?

This "ship" would bring changes for both characters, which is why I think it would also work if they became friends. I guess you can choose whether these two definitely can't be in a romantic relationship or you want to give them a chance.

Anyway that's all, thanks for reading my questionable thougts.

[jokertrap-ran]

[スタオケ] La Corda d'Oro Starlight Orchestra Mikado Ukiha Cast Story Chapter 5 Translation

*Starlight Orchestra Masterlist | Mikado Ukiha’s Personal Masterlist *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *Mikado's Route Tag will be #Ukiha’s Star *T/N: Protect Mikado's smile!!! Precious...

Ukiha: …The wind is starting to carry the scent of winter rather than autumn.

Ukiha: The season is about to change… and I suppose our surrounding environment will soon follow suit as well.

Ukiha: I wonder how many times we have already walked the streets of Gion together like this.

Ukiha: It is a place that sees little to no change. Are you not bored by it?

▷Choice: Not at all

Ukiha: I see. That is good then. Ukiha: I am all too familiar with the streetscape here, but I suppose it is still a new experience in your eyes. Ukiha: I am too used to these streets, so I am afraid it is no longer possible for me to enjoy them like before.

▷Choice: I just want to spend time with you, Mikado

Ukiha: How heartwarming. However, I doubt it would be fun to go around with me in this manner. Ukiha: Surely you would find more enjoyment wandering these streets with someone who is equally new to this place. Ukiha: Their reactions would be more candid, and I am sure it would make seeing new things all more exciting.

▷Choice: Then let’s go somewhere else next time

Ukiha: I do not mind. Will you do the honors of deciding our next destination? Ukiha: Nothing really stands out to me anymore since I have gotten used to these streets. Ukiha: People who are here to visit would know where all the good spots are. And I can show you around as long as you know the location.

Guy 1: Yikes, look at how long the queue is! I guess that's unavoidable, considering its popularity…

Girl 1: Let's join the queue since we're already here! The guidebook strongly recommends this place, so I really wanna try it!

Ukiha: …Are you curious about it too? The long queue is for the shop that is famous for its matcha.

Ukiha: They also serve parfaits in the store, but as you can see, they often have long queues due to how small the shop is.

Ukiha: You will not have to line up to enter the store if you purchase it as a takeaway at the counter. We can pop in for a look if you are interested.

☆ ━━━━━━━ ∘◦♬◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ☆

I bought a matcha soft-serve ice cream.

☆ ━━━━━━━ ∘◦♬◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ☆

Ukiha: …I never thought that the day would come when I would be one of those people.

Ukiha: The couples dotting the area along the river here, spaced evenly as they are, can be called a Kamogawa specialty.

Ukiha: I have looked down from this bridge before, but this is my first time experiencing things as they do.

▷Choice: Do we look like a couple?

Ukiha: Who knows? Perhaps we should try sitting in a fashion more befitting of couples. Ukiha: Like sitting closer… Ukiha: Hehe, you have gone all red. I might easily get the wrong idea, considering how easy it is to draw that reaction out of you.

▷Choice: It's a new experience, right?

Ukiha: Oh? Did our previous conversation cause you to worry about that? Ukiha: It is quite refreshing. Plus, this is also my first time sitting by the water while the wind is this cold. Ukiha: I never thought that I would ever get the chance to sit so close to another, just like this…

Ukiha: I know it is cold out here, but that ice cream is going to melt and go to waste if you do not start eating it.

Ukiha: It may not be the best season to enjoy it, but the taste never changes. I hope you enjoy it.

Ukiha: Oh, no need to worry about me. Seeing you enjoy it is more than enough for me.

At his prompting, I turned back to the matcha soft-serve— intact and unmelted…

Ukiha: …Eh?

A strong gust of wind suddenly came out of nowhere. Just what…

…The ice cream I was holding disappeared!!!

Ukiha: …Pfft- Ha! HAHAHAHA!!!

☆ ━━━━━━━ ∘◦♬◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ☆

Ukiha: Ahahahahaha! Oh dear, this is truly an unexpected turn of events!

Ukiha: Haha, it was a black kite. A black kite stole your ice cream!

Ukiha: Look over there. That was the black kite that stole the ice cream you were holding earlier!

Ukiha: Haha! Oh, what a masterpiece!

▷Choice: Laugh along with him

Ukiha: That was amazingly smooth of it! Hahaha, it happened in the blink of an eye!

▷Choice: Quit laughing so much

Ukiha: I cannot help it. I mean, the look you had on your face right after it happened was- Ahahaha!

☆ ━━━━━━━ ∘◦♬◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ☆

Ukiha: Ah… Aha… my stomach hurts from laughing so hard. I have heard rumors, but I had totally forgotten about it…

Ukiha: Rumor has it that there are black kites in Kamogawa, so it is advised not to bring food there.

Ukiha: That really came out of nowhere. Never would I have thought that we would actually experience it first-hand…

Ukiha: Your hair has gotten all mussed up.

Ukiha: Oh my… How long has it been since I last had such a good laugh?

Ukiha: You should have been the one enjoying your time here, but the tables were turned somewhere along the way, and I ended up being the one gleaning enjoyment from it all.

Ukiha: Since your ice cream is gone… Shall we head back?

Ukiha: How do you feel about dropping by my place? We may not have matcha ice cream on hand, but we should have some matcha-flavored dango.

Ukiha: It will be prepared alongside a hot pot of tea, of course. I… would not mind spending a little more time with you.

☆ ━━━━━━━ ∘◦♬Ukiha’s Star♬◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ☆

Previous Part: (Chapter 4) Next Part: (Chapter 6)

[sxfterhearts]

omg chat why is writing kinda hard???

ok so this is a bit of an aside (warning: this post is long) but @348kg and i talked about this and honestly writing fanfics is a way for us to express ourselves creatively while using our idols as inspo for our work. and it’s fun most of the time.. but like honestly, 70-80% of the time, writing is hard. it’s not easy, like… it’s actually quite hard work.

and i know everyone has seen posts of like “pls reblog instead of just silently reading” or “pls like at least to show your appreciation” etc etc etc and ur probs sick of hearing it but like, it’s so true???

writing is honestly hard. and for most of us fanfic writers.. im sure you know but we have lives outside of our blogs. we are students, or we work normal jobs, we have life responsibilities, we have problems to deal with, and yet somewhere in between our busy lives we manage to find the time to sit down and create these pieces of writing for you, the reader, to read.

and tbh, i don’t really know where im going with this? i just want to let you know this: a typical 1-2k words one-shot probably takes me around 2-3 hours to write (on average, on a good day - sometimes longer or shorter). but it takes you maybe 10-15 mins, at most 30 mins to read depending on your reading speed. isn’t the time gap a little wild 🫠 on a typical work day, i get home from work at about 6, i cook myself dinner and eat, i shower and clean up, and if i know im writing that night, i make sure to clear my schedule (ie no overtime, no phone calls to friends or parents etc) and i sit on my laptop and write from about 10ish to about midnight. then i pause and i edit, and set things up to get ready post (think: pictures, title, word count, writing the warnings, summary, doing the tags) and by the time i post, it’s probably 1am.

i breathe a sigh of relief because it feels good! it feels really good to release my labour of love (literally) out into the world. and honestly, you know who you are, but those of you who constantly read and reblog my work, i see u!! (Alexa play i see u by p1harmony) and those who leave comments or reviews in the tags, i also see u (that’s why i like to reblog and respond to your tags too)!! it honestly brings me so much joy when someone comes and talks to me about something i wrote and how it made them feel. or even when someone recommends a fic i wrote. all these things that are so little and take so little of your time actually mean so much to me and im sure other writers as well.

and so i guess what im trying to say to everyone is: if you are a fic reader, if you read any fics, i just want you to know that the fic you loved reading took the writer a lot of resources to write (brain power, creativity and importantly time). i hope this gives u an insight into the process of a writer/writing a fic because im hoping it might help with whether or not you decide to hit that like or reblog or comment button in the near future!!

(also, i think it’s a shame that as writers sometimes we have to compromise on what we actually want to write vs what to write to get more engagement, likes, rbs etc. personally i have been writing on tumblr since 2020 on and off so ive been on here for four years now and i have a good sense of what is a good formula for a “successful” fic - usually it’s smut, usually it’s for the most popular member in terms of fic reading, and usually it’s of a certain length posted around a certain time etc etc. but i guess i don’t rly care anymore bc im a kinda old tumblr writer who isn’t bothered about the notes as much as i am just grateful for the little comments people send me saying that what i wrote made them feel seen or resonated with them. cos i think that is priceless 🥹)

PS. in no way am i complaining about the engagement or lack thereof that i personally get, nor am i complaining about the mere fact that writing is hard bc yes i am aware that i wanted to write in the first place and so it was my decision haha

[leftistcrap]

Hi, dyou have any suggestions for theory to read? If considered my self a leftist for several years now, but bcuz of personal circumstances I’ve not read any theory. I’m a little self conscious about it and I’m not sure how to start, overly complicated writing and long obscure words make it very hard for me to pay attention and actually digest what I’m reading. I’m looking for nuance and a better understanding of the world I guess, I just really don’t have any idea where to go with that. I know it sounds silly but I’d also be interested in theory podcasts, if that’s a thing.

I don't know of any podcasts about theory. There are plenty of audiobooks out there though. If you want to start with the absolute basics, you can read The Communist Manifesto and from there you can read their other influential works, a good selection being found on the Marxists Internet Archive's "Beginner's Guide to Marxism" page.

https://www.marxists.org/subject/students/index.htm

They also have a great encyclopedia where you can look up definitions of the various terms used. That and any online dictionary can help a lot if you're having trouble with obscure words.

The entire library at marxists.org is filled with works from all sorts of left-wing traditions, not just Marxism. If you go to their index of authors, you can browse through and pick whoever seems interesting to you. They've marked authors they consider particularly important with stars, but you can choose whoever you want to read. For instance, Kropotkin doesn't have a star on this page, but his Conquest of Bread is a very popular and easy to read introduction to anarchist communism. There's also an audiobook section on their site, and you can often find audiobooks simply by searching Youtube, the Internet Archive, or Librivox.

For more modern writers, I would recommend in no particular order Angela Davis ("Are Prisons Obsolete?" is a great introduction to prison abolition), Frantz Fanon, Michael Parenti, Judith Butler, and David Graeber. And he's more of an analyst than a theorist, but Jason Hickel has done a lot of great work exposing the failures of modern capitalism and how economic institutions cover them up and downplay them.

Depending on your interests, you can also check out libcom.org which contains a lot of reading material from a left-libertarian perspective, bannedthought.net which has a lot of Marxist, Leninist, and Maoist texts, and theanarchistlibrary.org which is a repository for a wide variety of mostly self-published anarchist materials.

There's certainly more that I've forgotten, and people are welcome to share their own suggestions on this post.

[robotlesbianjavert]

do you have any horror manga recommendations? I've been reading them a lot lately

ooh that is a very very good question!! and honestly if you've been following me for a while you've probably seen my catalogue of horror manga lmao. as much as manga is my preferred medium compared to anime and ykno i have a casual fondness for horror, it actually takes me a while to work through new manga DX DX i do have a couple of stuff i can probably suggest, though.

(since you're actively seeking horror, i'm gonna take a guess and assume you're not really in need of any major trigger warnings, since a lot of these recs include gore/violence/sexuality/abuse/general skeeziness, or at least can anticipate that you're gonna run into unsavory stuff, but you can follow up and let me know if there is actually something i should take note of.)

One thing I find with horror manga (and horror in general, but manga especially) is a common big genre drift with things action or comedy or adventure or something. A lot of the well-known names on rec lists have horror elements rather than being primarily horror, or the horror influence ends up downplayed as the story goes on. but still excellent. If I have recs in the realm of "horror-lite/influenced", I'd say:

Kemono Jihen by Sho Aimoto, kid joins a detective agency in Tokyo meant to resolve supernatural incidents between "kemono" and humans.

Dandadan by Yukinobu Tatsu, a girl who believes in spirits & ghosts and a boy who believes in aliens become friends! And a lot of things happen because the creator assisted for Fujimoto of Chainsaw Man fame, so it has a lot of the same off-the-wall, irreverent humour. While it's not as tight or classy as CSM, it's still a fuckin fun romp with nice horror moments.

Both of those I actually need to catch up with, haha. I'll actually recommend Can You Just Die, My Darling? as well, although I'm not sure if you're the anon who recced it to me first. Much stronger on the horror & violence elements, but it's another one I still have to catch up on.

I'm trying to avoid the obvious recommendations that you can get off any list, like Junji Ito or idk. Tokyo Ghoul, Dorohedoro or something like that. But special shout out to Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. I'm most familiar with the 2006/07 anime series rather than the games (besides a couple of let's plays) and the manga, but I watched it with my sisters when I was young, LONG before I considered myself a horror fan, and I still consider those question arcs to have some of the best horror sequences ever experienced blind. Hugely influential.

In a similar vein to trying to avoid obvious recs, I know that Shuzo Oshime has gotten more popular as of late, but I've been working through Blood on the Tracks, which is about really insane mommy issues, so if you're cool with that!! You can also check out his other works that I haven't gotten to, but yeah I think he's

For probably my biggest recommendations though - the first one is a short-ish read, I think it was only one volume? The other two were excellent recommendations from my friends!

Helter Skelter by Kyoko Okazaki is about how fucked up the modelling & beauty industry is. There's also a movie adaptation that I haven't watched it.

Hikaru Ga Shinda Natsu (The Summer Hikaru Died) by Mokumokuren, a relatively new BL ongoing series about two friends who live in a rural village - except one of the friends had disappeared months ago in the mountains.

And my actual personal favourite recommendation, Kurosagi: Corpse Delivery Service. It's about a team of students at a Buddhist college who start a company to deliver corpses. They also solve murders along the way! This is a really great series and pretty easy to get into, I think - there's some ongoing plot, but a lot of the arcs are more episodic in nature. A lot of fun discussion on Japanese culture and views on death, it's funny, the gore and horror art are just great, it's just a cool unique series. The only thing is that while I believe it's completed, it's not fully translated in English - I think translations only go up to chapter ~89? So while there's story threads that are unanswered, the translations don't end on a cliffhanger at least.

I do have a "To Read" list compiled after going through some other rec lists / Youtube videos about horror manga. I can't speak to the quality of these yet, but they must have been intriguing enough for me to write them down. Here's a selection of them, not including general creators I wanted to check out:

Dai Dark by Q Hayashida of Dorohedoro fame

Doubt, Judge, and Secret by the guy who did the Higurashi manga.

Another

The Serial Killer is Laughing in the Rain

As the Gods Will

Jagaaan

The Horror Mansion

Fear Infection

Mushihime

Homunculus

Ichi the Killer

Mister Arashi's Amazing Freakshow

PTSD Radio

Dementia 21

Dark Hideout

Halloween Desetsu

The Quiz

Mantis Woman

Presents

If you've read any of those, or get to them before I do, or read any of the prior recs let me know your thoughts!! Always down to chat horror.

Aside from that. Well Digimon: Ghost Game was pretty fun when I was watching it. Had some spooky ooky moments. If you like Digimon o:

actually i'm going to use this opportunity to again reiterate how validated i was when horikoshi had that comment about how he'd like to try doing horror when one of my prominent thoughts when the MVA arc was running was how much potential the guy had as a horror artist and how it could really free him. my goddamn vision.

[ota-division]

Kira's Thoughts on Toyama Division

Asato Rikiya

"I actually like Asato, or rather his produce. For those who don't know, my favorite food dish is tempura. It's pretty easy to make when you don't have any meat or seafood. So when I substitute that, I often use vegetables. And let me tell you, I don't know what Asato's family puts in their produce to make it taste so good, but other farms can't possibly compare!"

Yano Ietsuna

"Yano is... a nice guy, if a little emotional. I visited his workshop once to buy a gift for my boss, the Chief of Police, for his 60th birthday. He seemed to like desk tchotchkes so I visited some knick-knack stores for a good gift. Someone recommended Yano's workshop, so I stopped by and just started browsing his wares. I couldn't find anything good, so I started questioning him, asking him certain questions about some of the items on display." Kira scratches the back of her head, embarrassed.

"I guess I could have been a little more gentle or nicer to him, but he couldn't give me a straight answer, and I was getting frustrated, so he just started crying in the middle of our conversation. Luckily, his uncle came out and gave us both a hand, thankfully. I haven't been back there since, but maybe should I stop by and apologize to him, just to show that there are no hard feelings."

Kensaku Morimoto

"Kensaku..." Kira sighs and rubs the inside of her eyelids. "He's a guy that's obviously good at his job, no doubt about that. I often have to stop by his pharmacy to pick up some pills for Chinami and me. She needs medicine to help her with her eyes, and I... I often need night-aid pills to help me stay asleep at night. ...Don't ask, please."

"Anyway, I often stop by his pharmacy 'cause it's reputed to be one of the best, which it is. Like I said, Kensaku is a guy who is obviously quite good at his job." Kira then sighs. "I just really wish he'd stop trying to make me laugh every time I come into his shop. You think he would have gotten the hint the first time, but nooo. Ever since then, he's made it his mission to tell me every joke in his arsenal. So now, we have a bit of a competition going on."

"If he can succeed in making me laugh by the time the year is over, then I'll admit he's funny. But if he can't, then he has to swear to never tell me another joke as long as I'm in his vicinity. We shook on it, and that was that. He still hasn't made me laugh, but he's surprisingly strong-willed. I admire that."

ECO BooN

"These guys haven't been on the rap scene very long, but they're pretty popular. I think it's cause they represent the 'common man' stereotype. People can relate to them cause of that, I think. They haven't had any battles yet, but it'll be interesting to see who their first opponent is and how they do against them."

[covenlegacy]

I'm sorry that i make coven blog some exchange of messages with others but i don't want to talk via messages with anyone, including coven because I had very bad experience with it plus everyone would attack me then. So that's why I use this method here sending anon replies. I agree with you too, anon. I guess that when my opinion wasn't loaded with negative emotions, especially about JK, more people would understand and reply this way before. But I'm only human with emotions that got the best of me. But just like you said. It's exactly this way. I treat coven as confidant who's in this topic and knows about this general obession over JK between fans so that's why it's a relief to spill the tea. But people act offended like it was about them. Maybe it is. But generally many Army's react this way. Idk maybe they don't fight back in rl and that's why they look for fights online. I already said it's some projection from their side. I also fought with others online when I had stesssful day but now i try not to do this. You're right. I've been fucking fighting for four years to not to think about JK. I used to think it's being in love but it's just attraction and fascination that is difficult to get rid of. Sounds like karmic lesson. So imagine how annoying it is when after seeing only one shit on Tumblr like gifset, he haunts my thought for hours. I actually felt happy when I saw him on vlive, especially with Bam so it's good but I'd like to not to think about it later. Like really, not think about him that often and randomly. Maybe avoiding everything related to him would be good but I get recommendations and he's really everywhere so I'd need to delete all of my social medias then. But I guess there would be some hot topic on Tumblr one day or elsewhere and I'd randomly saw him anyway. I guess it will pass but it just takes long. I'm sure it's some karmic lesson and i still need to learn something. I hope that I'll meet my spouse soon. I'm curious if he's my type. I'm a bit worried because my 7th house in vedic is ruled by Mars and astrologers say it symbolizes domineering, agressive, sporty, competetive spouse. If someone who knows astrology well, could tell me something more about this placement, I'd be grateful.

I get that you're very hurt. And it's okay to like a celebrity like JK. He represents alot of things at the same time. He is one of a very few number of people who backs up being this popular. Talent, looks and a lot of things in one. He is very easy to admire.

Anon, I know how bad it feels when people who are supposed to be your strength end up being the exact opposite and that's why I think people should calm down. At the end of a shitty day all you perhaps want is someone who shares a little bit of sympathy and not just be in an attack mode. So whenever you are deeply sad you vent out by saying stuff about him because you know that it won't affect him. By your posts I know that you know that you don't see him in your life and that's also proof that you are not delusional.

Don't mind me saying this but I think you feel good when all his fans attack you so that you have somebody to say things to. By this kind of fight you can say things that perhaps you won't in real life to the people you have real problems with.

Coven is cute that way. She gets the gossip for the blog and still she protects you because she knows what you feel and it's a win for you both.

Your crush and obsession is not really that. It's just that you don't like that people like him have the scope and opportunity to do things that their heart desires whereas someone like you has to fight for the smallest things.

I don't hate your messages and you don't have to apologize for this behavior because we all lose it sometimes but we are all not surrounded by people who won't judge us like that or admire us deeply for being soft and vulnerable.

.

[postgamecontent]

'Touhou Genso Wanderer -FORESIGHT-' Switch Review

Regular readers will know that Shaun likes him a good Mystery Dungeon game. The Shiren games in particular tickle my fancy greatly, but I've enjoyed many a spin on the basic concept. The Touhou Genso Wanderer games have been some of my favorite Touhou games because of this, and we've now got a third game in the series on Switch. I wish I could call it the best one yet, but Foresight has a lot of problems specific to this installment that keep it from being all it could have been.

As is generally the case with Touhou Project games, the story here is a nigh-unintelligible mess to anyone who isn't already a fan of the characters and setting. So yes, if you're new to all of this, you might as well check out on the narrative immediately. Reimu is a powerful shrine maiden who gets called in to deal with all kinds of supernatural problems. She has a lot of friends from both sides of the proverbial line, and you'll be seeing most of the popular ones pop up here.

The story kicks off here with a future battle where Reimu is defeated, and then we head back in time to a more peaceful point. Reimu gets tricked by some fairies into doing a tutorial dungeon, and then she's soon called in to investigate some incidents. That's about all I can offer you. It's not amazing, and it mainly relies on you being excited to see your favorite characters showing up. But again, this is pretty typical for Touhou Project games. They're quite literally fan games, and the stories reflect that.

In terms of gameplay structure, this is a fully orthodox take on the Mystery Dungeon concept, right down to keeping most of the same control conventions. The one big twist is that you collect Danmaku Points that you can use to fire off a variety of ranged attacks, and as big twists go that isn't much. Consequences for failure are minimal, much like the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games. That doesn't mean this is easy, though. Indeed, one of the bigger problems with this game comes from the difficulty spikes at certain bosses. It's nothing you can resolve with good strategy. You just need to grind until you're strong enough to pass the test.

The tedious grinding really hurts this game over the long haul. The procedurally-generated dungeons aren't spicy enough to keep you entertained for all of this, and the enemies don't offer enough variety. There are only a handful of different types, and you'll quickly suss out what you need to do with each of them. The bosses often start showing up as regular enemies, but due to their level-check nature they rarely present much of a real threat by the time that happens. You don't get many of the interesting interactions that make the Shiren games so tense and exciting.

You won't find much of note in the character building, either. There's a skill tree system in play here, but it's a very dull one. Mostly damage modifiers that are specific to an enemy type, and you'll pretty much have to waste resources doing a respec for each new area and boss to take advantage of their weakness. It's functional, and I guess it's better than nothing, but it's hard to get much of a fever going over damage modifiers.

Touhou Genso Wanderer -FORESIGHT- has some ideas, but the way it implements them makes for a far more tedious affair than its predecessors. You can find far better choices in this genre at the same price point, so unless you've fully exhausted those or are a huge Touhou fan, I can't really give this game much of a recommendation. It's not dreadful by any means, but it falls into just about every trap that can make a game like this feel tiresome rather than invigorating.

Score: 3/5

[translationandbetrayals]

Avatar the last airbender: a work of art

Avatar was the first animated series I saw, and I loved it.

  When I was older I saw it again and it gave me a unique nostalgia and I enjoyed it a lot. So far I've seen it three times and I still enjoy it. I could even say that it helped me during a difficult time in my life because of how much it teaches you about personal development in such a beautiful and entertaining way.

The first thing I would like to highlight is the incredible character development it has and the personalities of each one. It is very easy to connect with them and empathize or feel identified with them. Aang, the main character is just a boy who has a great responsibility on his shoulders and you fall in love with his way of being, it is not difficult that he becomes your best friend. And their friends and enemies also have a lot to highlight and love about them. The world we are shown is simply beautiful, with unique ecosystems and a very powerful spiritual background. Concepts such as Chi, Chakras, Yin and Yang, light and darkness are approached with respect and easy to understand for anyone, being extremely interesting and a good entry into this world

The plot for those who don't know is about four nations that should function as a whole, each having an element as a name. These would be the nation of water, earth, fire and air. Just as the intro of the series says; Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony, then everything changed when the fire nation attacked. Only the avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished.

Aang as we can guess, it is the new avatar, an airbender of only twelve(?) years old that has to save the world. Each nation is capable of controlling one element, those who can do so are known as masters, with Aang being a master of all four elements.

The series is clearly set in a world based on Asian cultures, being represented in each of the nations, as well as in the martial arts that are represented with the control of the elements. It pays tribute to these cultures in a complex and beautiful way at the same time, and shows real-world problems and history adapted for children, but still valued by multiple ages. I think it is an example of a perfect series for children but that can produce the same thing for all ages and educate in a different way.  It shows you action, friendship, misfortune, corruption, love, war, laughter, death, life, betrayal, sacrifice, among many other themes that we can enjoy in the same series and with a relatively short duration.

An example of the beauty of the series that I personally like a lot and would like to mention is the aspect of nature, especially the animals, which are all hybrids, mixtures of two different animals from reality. And when we watch the series we realize the importance of these and their relationship with humans. Just like the relationship with spirits.

In conclusion, being a series supposedly for children, I think it has nothing to envy other anime and more current popular series. Being my favorite series, I highly recommend it, it has a little bit of everything and it keeps getting better even though it's not that long, so if you give it a chance it won't disappoint you. I can't say the same for the legend of Korra...hahaha. Just a joke, if you like very much avatar you will still enjoy the legend of Korra, not in its entirety but there is a lot to enjoy if you are a fan.

  - Martin Peñaloza Guazzoni.

[this-is-where-i-hide-my-bullshit]

hey, im the anon that sent the (other) long ask. the stuff on your other blog is fun! and you can definitely see your improvement from then to now. I especially love your sculptures and the potion box you made is so cool.

I second what another anon said about adding lyrics, or maybe some story in the caption to make the art come alive. for example, drawing frank in some speedos would be hot, but adding 'he only goes swimming to stare at lifeguards all day' or something dumb like that turns the art into a character, instead of just frank in speedos. it adds personality to an otherwise flat 2d character. it leaves things to the imagination.

I understand the pressure that wanting to make money from your art puts on you - I want to make money from my writing one day, but I know that in the creative industry it's mostly about luck. I know you've tried Instagram, but have you tried other ways to broaden where you post/the audience you're trying to reach? try posting to twitter for a month, or try making progress posts on tiktok. I know it's shitty, but if you're serious about making money from it you have to throw a lot of shit at the wall and see what sticks. I think looking at what has been successful for you so far and replicating elements from those pieces would be helpful too - what did people say in the tags? what kind of blogs reblogged it? what are other 'popular' artists in the fandom doing?

I know it's so easy to get worn down, and it sounds like you're having a really hard time with this. I'm not your therapist, but I strongly recommend taking some time out of posting if it's affecting you a lot. draw some stuff that you have no intention of anyone else seeing, stuff that you want to keep all to yourself, and see how creating that makes you feel.

you ARE good enough, your art is truly incredible and you've clearly worked hard to get your skill level so high - maybe your posts just need tweaking, or maybe you just haven't found your audience yet. I wish you all the best, and I hope you take this all as constructive ❤️❤️

Thanks.

I don't know about Twitter for the mcr stuff, because the idea of Frank stumbling on all my drawings of him is terrifying. But maybe I could try it with my other stuff, if Twitter doesn't completely fall apart as a website. I've never actually posted on Twitter before so I'd have to learn how exactly it works. And how to avoid the kinda stuff I saw last time I tried checking out mcr stuff on Twitter.

My stuff that does the best seems to be the stuff with some sort of joke or punchline, but I don't know how to be funny on command. I didn't sit down and try to come up with silly ideas, the silly ideas just happened on their own and then I drew them. So if I'm going to try to do more of that then I need to learn how to be funny, without it looking like I'm trying to be funny. Also there's no guarantee that any joke will land, it's a gamble every time. But it at least gives people more motivation to hit reblog.

My problem with comedy is that to be marketable I'd need to be a silly birthday party clown, but I always end up as one of those sad black and white clowns.

I want to try new things, but also there's the fear of "what if this doesn't work? What if I try everything possible and still fail? What do I do then?"

People don't really say much of anything in the tags besides a vague "this is great!", if they even say anything at all. It's hard to guess what they liked about it, if there was even anything in particular they liked and they didn't just reblog it to be nice. It's usually the same few blogs that reblog my work, and I do appreciate it, but sometimes I wonder if I'm not really that good and that's why there isn't a lot of different blogs or blogs that don't already follow me who reblog my stuff.

The popular artists are all drawing Gerard, but I don't think that there's anything I could draw of just Gerard that hasn't already been done better by someone else. I drew Joan of arc Gerard but nobody was all that into it. Probably because I was trying to emulate a specific style from one of my favorite comics and I don't think I did that great of a job. But yeah I don't have any Gerard ideas for drawings, and I'm not a Gerard centric blog so anyone who follows me for that would be disappointed.

I've done little comics with multiple band members but I don't know if doing more of those would help or not. Maybe, but I'd have to come up with ideas. Also it's hard for me to draw Ray and Mikey without accidentally turning then into my brothers because they look similar.

I need to make my drawings less stiff and polished and I meed to be funnier. If that doesn't work then I'll officially be out of ideas.

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

Tbh I'm kinda surprised to read that so many people seem to think of Engage as a better entry than 3H in general. The most comments/reviews I saw were praising the gameplay but were often not so fond of the story and/or the characters, and many think it's a step down from 3H. IMO both games have their flaws, different ones at that. I'm not sure if you can even compare them that much bc I feel they focus on different things, with Engage more leaning towards combat and 3H more an storytelling [1]

[2] and lore. It certainly has more touching moments, especially AM was a real rollercoaster of emotions in part II. That being said I don't think the story or characters in Engage aren't nearly as bad as many make them out to be. It has some anime-cliche moments, is sometimes chaotic and feels a little rushed at some points. It's not mind-blowing or anything new, but it's ok. I do like that Alear is not the typical confident hero, though. Gameplay-wise I like both games but I do prefer the

[3] variety of maps in Engage. Overall I think they are both good games, even if I think Engage won't be as popular in fanworks as 3H still is, or at least not that long. But... even though it's completely off topic... the biggest surprise for me was how popular Griss, at least on AO3, compared to other characters. Wtf? lol but to each their own I guess :) Do you have any favorites or even ships from this game?

I think it's because a lot of reviews are explicitly interested in gameplay over story/characters. Usually it's the diehard fans who regularly post about FE content who have mixed feelings on it that are different between gameplay/story. I've definitely seen some fans talk about not enjoying the story as much as Houses', and those reviews who balance their reviews on gameplay/story seem to always be the ones YT regularly recommends to me since they post about FE so often.

Personally I don't think even the gameplay is extremely comparable because they have vastly different combat concepts. Generally I'd say the two games come down to personal preference. I don't think Engage's gameplay is particularly bad so much as it just isn't as fun for me. It's definitely a bit convoluted though, but so was Houses' (like, I rarely used gambits or battalions because of all the menus and I did just fine in gameplay without paying much attention to those).

Both of them honestly just also have too much to do outside of the main content. It's fine not to have it be totally linear, but it's not an experience like Fates where you get some bonuses really quick and get to take a break from the maps. In PoR you get a break and get to manage your units and go through conversations separate from supports and it's a really simple few menus that are easy to get through every chapter. Houses and Engage both have way too much going on outside of main battles and that exhausted me pretty fast. Too much to do, too many menus, too much going on in the maps... All that extra stuff is tiring for me and I just play the games very simply lol. Neither was better than the other for me, honestly.

The characters are a bit bland sometimes, but they're not like, horrendous lol. Some reviews seem to insist they're like, the worst thing FE has ever done with its characters. It wasn't that bad, but I do get bored of them sometimes (mainly because all their conversations have to do with the same things and you don't really learn much about the characters from them).

But then, like I've said before, as a hardcore AM fan, Sylvain and Felix were better in their supports than in the main story because they had a similar problem in the main story. All their lines were the same old stuff and it was tiring that they were clearly better characters than the main story dialogue would give them credit for. Houses definitely had a bit of a similar problem. Bernadetta and Marianne were also pretty one-note characters, though Marianne progressed a bit. Raphael was also very one note, and so was Caspar. See what I mean lol, Engage didn't start this trend. Houses, Fates and Awakening had similar problems, where most of its cast didn't have much depth.

I think Alear didn't have much of an effect on me because FE4 is my favorite game and FE5 is my fourth favorite, and both those games had lords with an extreme lack of confidence. FE5 forget it, my poor baby boy literally locked himself in a room because of a "bad decision" (i hate you august and you were dragon dad's biggest mistake im sorry dragon dad but it's true) that got someone killed and needed a whole paragraphs-long pep talk. He's my favorite lord next to Ike and Dimitri, because they're very outside of the traditional super kind, let's save everyone and be nice people forever, type of lord. They're all angry, revenge driven people, and also people who refuse to accept any kind of injustice and don't accept bullshit. They're very kind, but equally balanced imo. It's not like Marth who is just waaay too far on the sliding scale of kindness lol. Ike would feed a hungry homeless person (he did, canonically, pre-story and during the story) while stabbing some villain at the same exact time and being like 🤷 well you were a piece of shit. Good for my favorite lords because they'd all do that LOL. My scared baby boy will stab you in FE5, but in FE4 his promoted class allows him to wield all weapons in the game except holy weapons and dark magic, so he's a good contender for "do not piss off". :D

I'm probably the only person willing to defend the maps in Houses lol. Since it's a story from different perspectives but it's the same story, it makes sense to reuse the maps. Some of them are unique depending on if you visit that location in another route or not, but if the characters have to visit a certain location in the story, you get the same map so I don't actually mind that. It's not like FE8 where the split routes led the main characters on different paths to reunite (again lol), but a story that has the characters going through the same outlets to reach their destinations.

Somehow I'm not surprised by Griss being super popular since it's one of those whacky unexpected fandom things lol. He's unique at least, and I guess people probably find him very funny. Wouldn't be surprised if it's like a me-and-Jarod thing lol.

My favorite character overall is Alfred, and good for him for staying my favorite from his first trailer appearance to the end of the whole game lol. ALSO good for him for having the only one of two explicitly romantic endings, and you could even argue Kagetsu uses a lot of romantic terminology on the regular anyway so it comes off as more normal for him, versus having a character who isn't normally like that just toss platonic love out the window immediately and being the only one to do it!

Other than him I guess I'd say Diamant and Ivy are my other favorites, and Jean, Yunaka and Panette are below them. Good for Engage for giving me favorites who are equally male and female lol, usually my favorites are all male because the writing for women in fictional media generally just sucks.

Am I the only one who would consider Jean a favorite? Probably lol, nobody seems to like him. Poor boy.

Ships I'd say are Diamant/Alfred as my top one, Alfred/Alear as my equally top one (really I think it's the player pandering that might put it below Diamant/Alfred? It'd be a LOT cuter if it wasn't so player-directed), then some assorted ones would be Diamant/Ivy, a little bit Fogado/Yunaka, and a tiiiny bit Louis/Chloe. ...Oh also Emblem DimiClaude. >:D You weren't getting out of that one!

[lgchyoseop]

why does the past follow me

“forgetting exactly what you should remember”

...

tw: mentions of eating disorder, eating disordered thoughts

         he was sixteen then, it’d been six years, there was no reason for the past to still haunt him till this day, not when it had been so long. there was no good reason for it to still hurt him, for him to still think about it, she was gone, it was just a bad memory from the past. 

he’d been rather busy lately, a schedule much more packed than what he usually had. there was future dreams, the bootcamp, variety shows, apparently being a trainee at legacy included much more than just the usual training. it was not like the male was famous, his face was out there in the public, but he would still say he was far from being famous, he’d gotten recognized a few times, emphasis on the few. his mom lived far away, so he couldn’t just see her every day, and though his dad lived much closer, his dad was a successful and popular model, both of their schedules were often filled. at last though, the two males had finally found time to be with each other, both of them wearing a cap and mask, just to make sure not to get recognized, this was a father-son day after all, and they didn’t get a lot of those. they were on their way to ice-skate, miso talking lots, there was a lot of ‘gossip’ to catch up on. as they walk though, hyoseop stops as he feels a bit dizzy, there goes a few seconds before miso stops, he looks at the younger “are you fine?”. with a smile on his lips, hyoseop nods before taking the next step.

he faints.

waking up in the hospital wasn’t something he’d done in a while. after opening his eyes there doesn't go much more than a second before his father is over him, removing his own face-mask quickly, and it’s easy to tell the worry in his eyes. “what happened?” the younger male asks, “you fainted” is the response, and hyoseop has his guesses to why he fainted, but no answer does he wish to share with his dad. “the doctors said something about drinking too much water and eating too little food” but of course, the doctors were quicker than hyoseop himself, not a fair race when hyoseop was out of it while they weren’t. “i thought you were eating well? whenever i text you i ask if you’re eating well and you tell me yes―” “i am eating well, i promise” “why promise something, when there’s clear evidence you’re not speaking the truth?!” there’s a hidden anger in that voice. “go it through with me, what do you usually eat in a day?” “dad i―” “go it through with me!” deep breath. “what do you usually eat for breakfast?” “oatmeal i guess..” “okay, and lunch?” “i skip lunch” sigh. “dinner?” “chicken and vegetables” “and what else?” “that’s what i usually eat… chicken and vegetables every time” besides the time he doesn’t eat chicken and just sticks to the vegetables… “and for snacks?” “i don’t have snacks” silence. “you eat two meals a day, and nothing else? how are you expecting to live that way!” his tone becomes high, hyoseop looks at him “sorry, i’ll speak quieter”. “i have looks to maintain, i can’t eat things that are unhealthy, if i want to see progress with working out, i must think of what i eat too” “but that’s it! you barely eat!”.

“ah excuse me?” they both look at the owner of the voice quickly, “we’d like to keep hyoseop for at least until tomorrow” it’s a nurse, or doctor, or whatever. “he’ll stay here as long as he needs” hyoseop’s look turns to his dad, “i’ll be going home today”. “ah but… we wouldn’t recommend that” “you’re staying here!” “i’m an adult, you don’t get to make that choice” and out he swings his legs, ready to already leave. “why can’t you stay? just until you’re better” the anger is gone, it’s more sadness or maybe confusion now. “i’m fine, and besides, i have to return, i don’t wish to tell legacy i won’t be there for reasons that are dumb, i have things to do beside laying in a bed” like working out. 

six years, and the things she’d told him then was still haunting him, no matter how much he denied it. 

“you should really think about what you’re eating”

“it’ll be easier getting a job if you’re pretty”

“it’s not just important that it is healthy, it should look healthy too”

what is he, if he’s not handsome and fit? he lacks in every skill, he can’t lack in this too.

[dksw0rld]

Tried and True Manifestation Techniques

As I stated before, I have quite a lot of success with manifesting because I do not overthink it. I don’t look for results because they’re already here, everything I desire is already mine because I asked for it! I just know that the order I placed with the universe is being fulfilled faster than you can even say Amazon. 

With all that being said, manifestation should be fun! Not this long and stressful process where everything has to be perfect. Although I’ve gotten quite good at not needing manifestation techniques to manifest, I still sometimes use them depending on what I’m manifesting and how I feel like manifesting it! So, I thought I’d share some of my tried and true manifesting techniques that have helped me call in my manifestations over the years.

1. Subliminals 

I love subliminals. They are quite effective for me because it helps me align with the belief that whatever I want is coming to me, especially when I listen to them at night. I just turn on my subliminal playlist before I go to bed and let them do their thing, knowing that when I wake up my desire is here. I usually listen to my own recordings of my voice because in my research I learned that your subconscious recognizes your own voice much quicker than a stranger’s voices saying affirmations. When I awake I am always in the energy of my desire.

2. Music + Visualization

I am absolutely in love with music, I love going on Pinterest and Spotify to discover different playlists people make so I can discover new music and update my playlists. I just love music, it raises my vibration like no other. Music is an extremely fun way to manifest for me. I make a playlist based on the feeling of whatever it is I want to manifest and I’ll listen to it, imagining I have whatever it is I’m desiring. EX.) When I was working on my self confidence I made a “VS Angel Playlist” filled with music about being gorgeous and confident and I’d envision myself embodying that energy while listening to the playlist! Music lifts your vibrations while also helping you embody whatever it is you want. Genius, I’m telling ya!

3. The Mirror Technique

This one isn’t as popular or very heard of but I swear by this method. If you don’t know what the mirror technique is, it’s basically looking at yourself in the mirror and embodying the energy you want to attract through your words, thoughts and body language. By embodying this type of energy, you can tap into your subconscious and amplify the high vibrational feelings that are in alignment with our desire. I use the mirror technique a little differently than the traditional way, I guess I more do mirror scrying than anything. I do the traditional mirror technique and then once I have embodied a positive energy, I switch to thinking about my desire. After a few minutes, the mirror and everything around me starts to blur and all I see is whatever I am thinking about and visualizing while still being in the embodiment of positive energy. If you don’t know what the mirror technique is I highly recommend you look into it and try it!

4. Visualization

I’m 100% a daydreamer. I love to daydream about everything I want to accomplish and everything I want to happen so this comes very easy to me. When I visualize for manifestation, I always set the intention that what I’m visualizing will come into my life and then I sit and just let my mind run wild. I love visualization because when do it we don’t limit our minds as much, we let loose a lot more - which reduces any potential blockages. Try to embody the energy of visualizing with no blockages into your life every day.

5. Guided Meditations

As some of you know because I have told you in private messaging, guided meditation is a tried and true way to manifest for me. It helps my mind stay focused on my manifestation for a certain amount of time which gives your desire a lot of energy and momentum. I mainly like to use this method when I’m finding it hard for my mind and/or energy to focus on my desire. I don’t have a specific guru I use for guided meditations, I just go on YouTube and type in whatever my desire is guided meditation and scroll through until I find one I feel drawn to.

6. Just Knowing

I saved the best for last! If you follow me then you know that knowing is my most tried and true method of all. It took me some time to reach this point I’m not going to lie but once I did...maaann the manifestations flew in! Just knowing came from me changing what this community calls “self concept” (I don’t really call it anything, I just regard it as your confidence in yourself and your abilities if anything), meditation and keeping a higher state of vibration. Just knowing requires daily upkeep and effort. I meditate, I do activities that raise my vibration, I connect with my higher self and spirit guides, I axed all negativity out of my life, I never partake in any low vibrational anything - if I do run into some form of negativity in my life then I take the necessary steps to cleanse myself, my aura and my energy. I journal to understand myself on a deeper level. I also watch what my mental  diet is - I don’t watch or listen to anything that has to do with demons, the devil, serial killers, etc. Basically I try my best to be as aligned with the universe as I can be while having unwavering confidence in myself and my abilities. When you do this, you are much more connected and then manifestation becomes less of placing your order with the universe and more going to the store to get your manifestation. It’s amazing!

Hopefully this post helped you discover a new way to manifest but more than anything I hope I inspired you to start your journey into developing your “self concept”. That is the most effective and most beneficial way to achieve all of your desires. It truly changes your life! Good luck on your journey and as always, message me with any questions or guidance!

Much love, 

DK

[nevermindirah]

Do you have any thoughts on the use of AAVE for Nile (or lack thereof) in TOG fanfiction? I've been reading some Book of Nile fic and some writers seem to write her as a Millennial™ (using words like "fave" and "woke") but never acknowledge her Blackness in her patterns of speech. I know we don't see her use as much AAVE in the films, but I would argue she's in situations where code-switching would be valued (first in a "professional" environment in the army, then around a group of non-Black strangers).

Hi anon! I have many thoughts on this and I'm honored you asked me! But I should start by saying I'm white and any thoughts Black fans and especially Black American fans have on this that they want to share would be beyond lovely. (I'm not gonna tag anybody bc that feels rude but please add onto this post if any of y'all see this and want to!)

The main reason I personally avoid AAVE for Nile in my own fics is because I'm not Black. But Nile-centric fics by Black writers tend to avoid using much of it too, at least from what I've noticed/understood, and my guess is it's largely for the reason you mention, that she's in situations that encourage code-switching.

In movie canon Nile is highly competent at tailoring her language to each situation she finds herself in. This fantastic linguistics analysis meta shows how skillfully Nile chooses her vocabulary and grammar to meet her goals with different conversation partners in different contexts. In comics canon Nile had a bunch of different civilian jobs before joining the Marines, so she would've had experience code-switching in the ways that made sense for all those different contexts as well as the Marines and her family and high school and wherever else she spent her time before we met her. And now she's spending her time with a handful of immortals none of whom are native English speakers and a fellow Black American but one with a Queen's English UK accent whose professional experience is in the CIA where high-status code-switching is often an absolute must for success or even survival.

Fics featuring Nile are charged with extrapolating from that to how it might show up in her use of language that she's coping with a traumatic separation from her family and her career and pretty much everything she's ever known and now she needs to be able to make herself understood to people who seem to care about her and each other but are super duper in crisis, three (soon to be four) of whom predate Modern English entirely and the only one who's anywhere near her contemporary she's not supposed to talk to for a century. All of these people are telling her that pretty much any contact with any mortals poses an existential threat to her and the rest of the group. How the FUCK is she supposed to cope with that, like, generally? And would it be a more effective way for her to cope if she talked to Andy Joe and Nicky using the speech patterns that she used to use with her mom and brother, to at least retain that part of her identity even if it means having to do a lot of explaining, or would it meet her needs better to prioritize Andy Joe and Nicky understanding what she means with her words over using the particular words and grammar forms she used with her family?

I've seen several fics, both Nile-centric / BoN and otherwise, explore this a little bit in how/whether Nile uses Millennial™ speak. It's often a theme in Nile texting Booker despite the exile because of the popular headcanon that he as The Tech Guy is the only other immortal who understands memes. But Nile's much-younger-than-Booker mom probably uses Boomer and/or Gen X memes and Andy has been adapting to new communication styles for forever as evidenced by her canon high level of fluency with standard-American-accented English.

Which brings us back to people avoiding AAVE because they're not Black and they don't want to make mistakes (or they're not Black and they don't want to get yelled at for making mistakes, though I think many people overestimate how much they'll get yelled at while underestimating how much these mistakes can hurt). I can imagine some Black fans hold back from using much AAVE in fic because they don't want to share in-group stuff with white people who are likely to then adopt and ruin it, as white people so often do with Black cultural stuff. Some links about this including a great Khadija Mbowe video. I'm saying this gently, anon, because you might not know: woke, an example you cited as Millennial™ speak, is AAVE, and that's gotten erased by so many white people appropriating it and using it incorrectly online.

And also there's the part where fandom is a hobby and you never know when you're reading a fic that's the very first thing someone's ever written outside of a school assignment. This cultural considerations of language shit takes a level of effort and skill that not everybody puts into every fic, or even could if they wanted to because they haven't had time to build their skills yet. It's definitely easier for non-Black fans to project our millennial feels onto Nile than to do the layers of research and self-reflection it requires to depict what Blackness might mean to Nile, and it's not surprising that often people sharing their hobby creations on the internet have gone the easier route. There's not even necessarily shame in doing what's easier. It's just frustrating and often hurtful when structural white supremacy means that 3-dimensional Black characters are rare in media and thoughtful explorations of them in fandom are seen by the majority of fans as not-easy to make and therefore Nile Freeman, the main character in The Old Guard (2020) dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood, has the least fic and meta and art made about her of our 5 main immortals.

I've been active in different fandoms off and on for twenty years and I barely managed to write 5,000 words about Sam Wilson across multiple different fics in the 7 years since I fell in love with him. There's an alchemy to which characters we connect with, and on top of that which characters we connect with in a way that causes us to create stuff about them. Something about Nile Freeman finally tipped me over the edge from a voracious reader to a voracious writer. It's not for me to judge which characters speak to other individuals to the level of creating content about them, but I do think it's important for us to notice, and then work to fight, the pattern where across this fandom as a whole Nile gets way less content, and way less depth in so much of the content that's in theory about her, than any of these other characters.

Anyway, back to language. My two long fics feature Nile with several Black friends — Copley and OCs and cameos from other media — but all of those characters except Alec Hardison from Leverage aren't American. It's very possible I'm guilty of stereotyping Black British speech patterns in I See Your Eyes Seek a Distant Shore. I watched hours and hours of Black haircare YouTube videos in the research for that fic and I modeled my OCs' speech patterns on what I heard from some of those YouTubers as well as what I've heard people like John Boyega and Idris Elba saying in interviews, but the thing about doing your best is you still might fuck up.

I'm slowly making progress on my WIP where Nile and Sam Wilson are cousins, and what ways of talking with a family member might be authentic for Nile is a major question I need to figure out. For that, I'm largely modeling my writing choices on how I hear my Black friends and colleagues talking to each other. I haven't overheard colleagues talking in an office in a long-ass time, but back when that was a thing, I remember seeing a ton of nuance in the different ways many of my Black colleagues would talk to each other. Different people have different personalities! And backgrounds! And priorities! A few jobs ago my department was about 1/3 Black and we worked closely with Obama administration staff many of whom were Black and there was SO MUCH VARIETY in how Black people talked to each other, about work and workplace-appropriate personal stuff, where I and other white coworkers could hear. There are a few work friends in particular who I have in my head when I'm trying to imagine how Sam and Nile might talk to each other. From the outside looking in, God DAMN is shit complicated, intellectually and interpersonally and spiritually, for Black people who are devoting their professional lives to public service in the United States.

One more aspect of this that I have big thoughts on but I need to take extra care in talking about is the idea of acknowledging Nile's Blackness in her patterns of speech. There's no one right way to be Black, and Nile's a fictional character created by a white dude but there are plenty of real-life Black Americans who don't use much or even any AAVE, for reasons that are complicated because of white supremacy. (Highly highly recommend this video by Shanspeare on the harms of the Oreo stereotype.)

Something that's not the same but has enough similarity that I think it's worth talking about is my personal experience with authenticity and American Jewish speech patterns. My Jewish family members don't talk like they're in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and I've known lots of people who do talk that way (or the millennial version of it), some of whom have questioned my Jewishness because I don't talk that way. That hurts me. Sometimes when another Jew tells me some shit like "I've never heard a Jew say y'all'd've," I can respond with "well now you have asshole, bless your Yankee-ass heart," because the myth of Dixie is a racist lie but I will totally call white Northerners Yankees when they're being shitty to me for being Southern, and this particular Jew fucking revels in using "bless your heart" with maximum polite aggression, especially with said Yankees. But sometimes I don't have it in me to say anything and it just quietly hurts having an important part of me disbelieved by someone who shares that important part of me. The sting isn't quite the same when non-Jews disbelieve or discount my Jewishness, but that hurts too.

Who counts as authentically Jewish is a messy in-group conversation and it doesn't really make sense to explain it all here. Who counts as authentically Jewish is a matter of legal status for immigration, citizenship, and civil rights in Israel, and it's my number 2 reason after horrific treatment of Palestinians that I'm antizionist. But outside that extremely high-stakes legal situation, it can just feel really shitty to not be recognized as One Of Us, especially by your own people.

It can also feel really shitty to be The Only One of Your Kind in a group, even if that group is an immortal chosen family who all loves each other dearly. Sometimes especially in a situation like that where you know those people love you but there are certain things they don't get about you and will never quite be able to. I'm definitely projecting at least a little bit of my "lonely Jew who will be alone again for yet another Jewish holiday" stuff onto Nile when at the end of I See Your Eyes Seek a Distant Shore she's thinking about being the only Black immortal and moving away from the community she'd built with a mostly-Black group of mortals in that fic. Maybe that tracks, or maybe that's fucked up of me.

Basically, this got very long but it's complicated, writing about experiences that aren't your own takes skill which in turn takes time and practice to build, writing about experiences not your own that our society maligns can cause a lot of harm if done badly, it can also cause a lot of harm when a large enough portion of a fandom just decides to nope out of something that's difficult and risky because then there's just not much content about a character who deserves just a shit ton of loving and nuanced content, people are individuals and two people who come from the exact same cultural context might show that influence in all kinds of different ways, identity is complicated, language is complicated, writing is hard, and empathy and humility and doing our best aren't a guarantee of avoiding harm but they do go a long way in helping people create thoughtful content about a character as awesome and powerful and kind and messy and scared and curious and WORTHY as Nile Freeman.