#edit: why is it mostly the brits

[thekuraning]

i went to upload the zubat fangs chapter to my FFNet account since its the last fic im maintaining there and just for funzies i checked my stats for the month and i was like wow!! people are still coming to my profile!! look at all these hits/visits!! are they all for zubat fangs??

dear reader 90% of them were for slowpoke tails and koffing fumes for some reason

if ur one of my slowpoke tails and koffing fumes girlies i love you but also why do you put yourself through that. dont you knwo. that it is hot garbag

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 4/25/22

where the fuck were we

listening

Tongue by Rêve. i do not care for this latex aurra sing album art, but this instantly went on the "somebody come fuck this (GAY)" playlist. a fun danceable party bop about oral. other than a concerning line regarding "gamey like venison", what more can you ask for. spotify

Yeah Yeah Yeah by Blood Orchid. starts out with some very straightforward drums and then gets SLUDGY. this makes me want to sing along with the chorus with as much vocal fry as i can manage. i think the band is american, but the pronunciation of "yeah" is something i have only heard from posh brits? i think it works here. spotify

Praising You (feat. Fatboy Slim) by Rita Ora. this is somewhere between a cover and a reimagining? fun if you already know and like the original, fun if you don't. short, peppy, got me through a lot of mopping on saturday. spotify

reading

very long title by susan pinsky. checked this out mostly for any advice on moving, which was limited to two paragraphs that said "get rid of everything possible, the most efficient packing is not always the thing that will get you through a move in one piece, hire people to do everything for you if possible". this was unhelpful to me.

the author is not adhd, but is writing it out of the experience of having an adhd daughter and a ton of clients who probably had adhd. it feels like it is largely geared toward people who have a wife or child with adhd. while the version i read had been updated, it did feel very out of date at several points, especially with regards to calendaring/planning systems and (if possible) forcing everyone to call you at your home phone so you can check your wall calendar that you keep on your wall and not double book yourself. like what.

while i had independently derived some of the specific tips through great trial and error and much of the book simply did not apply to me, it did give some interesting background on why specific things (open storage, clear bins, open shelving, the concept of having one or two shelves free as a staging area in each place you have shelves) work with rather than against us.

i can see this being useful to someone who has recently been diagnosed as an adult, or is managing a family with multiple adhd/otherwise neurodivergent members, but i certainly wouldn't buy it. her big thing is Get The Fuck Rid Of Your Shit while not really providing a lot of pointers on how to go about that, so i could see how pairing this with one of marie kondo's books might be helpful? neither pinsky nor kondo really give a whole lot of advice on like "so you're an adult, here are things adults have in their house to make their lives easier" so perhaps a third unknown book might complete the perfect trilogy. idk man. im cranky her advice about moving was half a page.

Witches, Princesses, and Women at Arms, a collection of erotic lesbian fairytales edited by Sacchi Green. this was objectively fine. i skipped one completely bc it would have been a fucking hysterical short skit but did NOT translate to the page at all. as is ever the case with anthologies, some of them were decent, some of them not so much, almost none will stick in my brain even though there was some very nice butch representation. the one that does stick in my brain, Woodwitch by M. Birds about a princess trying to break a familial curse re: war, and a witch who follows the army, was memorable more for its leadup and acknowledgement of how a marching army works? like yeah! historically that is how armies move and camp and feed themselves huh, this is surprisingly well-researched for lesbian erotica!

the level of explicit erotica is...sort of on the same level as most modern f/f fic? this came out a good five years ago and people sure are having sex on the page, but there's a lot of metaphor and various other veiled imagery.

unfortunately, i want to read about women gettin absolutely nasty with it. i want to read about a pussy written with the same fervor as the average m/m cock in fanfic.

it's misogyny is what it is.

watching

rewatched For A Few Dollars More (1965, dr. Leone). in my heart he fucked that old man

You Can't Win Em All (1970, dir. Collinson) bc a very western-ish screenshot had me absolutely baffled about why a mauser was in a western. this is not a western, this is about some american mercenaries during the 1922 turkish civil war. this is not a very good movie (my main beef is that it spends twenty minutes trying to convince itself why its leads should work together, and the contrivance it lands on isn't particularly compelling or comprehendible after carting through us a whole bunch of other failed inciting incidents). this movie doesn't even manage enjoyably bad, but it sure is a spectacle of a war movie. great calvary columns riding through the prettiest goddamn landscapes you've ever seen. all forms of transportation are covered, including "armored train" and "trio of biplanes". my personal tolerance for exotic travelogue movies is fairly high, yours may not be.

if you want an actual cowboy western with different triple-crossing american mercenaries played by burt lancaster and gary cooper, Vera Cruz (1954, dir. Aldrich) is like a proto-revisionist western? quite a bit darker than i expected for 1) an american western made in 2) 1954

playing

sort of tied in with the making section-- i am deeply unhappy with how much time i am spending with fallou/t 4 bc it is not a game that makes me happy. however, the startup cost to finding a new game that makes me happy is pretty steep. so i spent some time on saturday flinging games into various folders, bc i forgot that was a thing steam lets you do now. maybe a different organizational system will fix me.

do not need to look at again: lots of demos and prologues from my old job, a couple things that aren't on steam anymore, some stuff that came in bundles that i'm not interested in, any strategy games.

done: my time with this game is at an end but i may want to return to a handy list to remind myself of what i have finished. lots of short indie experiences, wolfen/stein the new order, night in the woods, the portals, firewatch, things of this nature

old faithfuls: fnv, fo4, dishonored, sable bc i love simply zooming about.

hard bounce: this is mostly to make myself stop trying to click with hollow knight. i am never going to like fiddly platformers. and that's okay.

try again later: i'm deeply annoyed i'm not clicking with hardspace shipbreaker bc on paper it's the perfect fucking game for me. in practice even after fucking around with all the sensitivities it's still too fiddly for me. i need much, much more forgiving games with a shotgun-close-enough mentality.

making

important moving prep: cleaned out the storage unit that still had the dregs of my last move plus boxes from three grandparents and my mom. this took three full fuckin days bc it was extremely hot, i had to stop to cry a bunch, and a lot of goodwill trips.

the great thing about siblings is that if you've been caretaking a family heirloom that makes you feel weird due to your fractious relationship with the dead person in question, you can foist it off to a sibling who had a completely different less fractious relationship with the dead person in question.

once again i have failed to take a pic of the baby blanket in real daylight but we are slowly chugging along, halfway through repeat 6/10

[tsintotwo]

(Part 4/4)

(Earlier: Parts 1, 2, and 3)

Okay, finally getting to the 4th and last post talking about Tom Sturridge in his projects. There's not too much left to say as these are mostly cameos.

Vanity Fair (2004)- This was the first movie Tom was in as a grownup (edit: nope, this was the 2nd)- in period clothing (and looking like a million bucks, as you would suspect). Screentime: 2min. You can tell he's still finding his footing in all this. But he's got the it factor already.

Journey's End (2017)- Movie about Brit soldiers stuck in trenches waiting for death during WW2. Sam Claffin and Paul Bettany are in this and I recognized neither before seeing credits 🤦‍♀️ Anyway, Tom plays a bad soldier: drinks and girls are his forte, fighting- not so much. His character is in this movie to basically show the bone-chilling, hope-crushing, cruelly pointless side of wars. He uses his 3/4 scenes to drive that point home like a master. There's one super emotionally charged scene with Sam that sears into the mind- they both absolutely chew it up.

Song to Song (2017)- Tom being in this movie is just the most RANDOM thing in the world, guys. Song to Song is about the music industry and rockstar life, and Tom shows up for like 2mins to play Ryan Gosling's hometown farmland brother of all things??? Wut. 2 lines of dialogue. Cute hair, tho. Cute everything.

Hello Apartment (2018)- Slice-of-life short film about how we all leave our mark in the spaces we move through. Dakota Fanning made this and asked Tom to be in it- they've been friends since doing Effie Gray. Tom is MC's stormy bf- a bit of kissing, a bit of pouting, a bit of shouting. Worth it. (Aside: some STUNNING shots in this, kudos to Dakota). This is on youtube.

That's it, actually. Only movie of Tom's I haven't gotten to is Junkhearts (2011). It's on Amazon Prime for $4 which is worth it, but it seems like an intense movie and I'll take a break before trying to watch this one.

A significant part of Tom's career has been theater work. From what I've gathered, seems like he's done some phenomenal work there- both in UK and US. Got cool awards and noms. Of course, if your play isn't Hamilton, it doesn't get to be on any screen, so there's no way to see any of those now. The one I'm most gutted about is 1984 (2017) on Broadway. I love the og classic by George Orwell, and by all accounts this adaptation/interpretation was banging (AND controversial!). Tom playing a role like Winston Smith... I'd have loved it so fuckin much * screaming-into-pillow break*

How does Tom choose his projects?

"The first thing I’m drawn to is a piece of writing, to an author, to a director. Weirdly, it’s rarely a character. I want to work with people or with texts that push me and make me learn things that I think I can’t do. Because if I think I can do it, then I can’t surprise myself. And if I can’t surprise myself, then I’m definitely not going to surprise an audience." -Tom for Interview magazine, 2022

Why does he often do troubles characters?

"... I think what I’m attracted to is being able to explore a spectrum of emotion. It’s easier to find comedy in something sad than it is to find darkness in something funny. I can be all kinds of people when the darkness is there. Also, the first character I ever played onstage was a boy who murders all of his schoolmates [in Punk Rock]. I do think there’s something to be said by, “You get stuck in a gorge that you start with.” People have always gone, “Oh, yeah. He’s the fucked-up guy.” - same

Here's something about me: I love falling in love with men on silver screen. It's the only space where it's okay to be in love with a version of someone you made in your head because you're not going to know any other version. The only space you get to channel your feelings six ways to Sunday: write posts, write stories, draw, make any art- people will actually celebrate those (whereas try talking to your friend about a new irl crush for five days straight, on the sixth they'll smack you upside your head). The feelings are intense because these men are deliberately performing for you, the emotions forever unsullied because they're not gonna come hurt you (unless they're being cancelled lol). And they're all the finest specimens! So, yeah, I love it, and it happens periodically. What's rarer, tho, is that I get attracted to an actor's whole personality. I mean, like, all of these hot men are hella charming, and you can yassify almost anyone based on interview moments. But, idk, it doesn't always click with me, and I love a character, ship a couple, then move on. Tom, tho, is going to be one of those 2/3 permanent ones. I just find him interesting which to me, is the thing. (And also, he turned out to be one of those rare people in life who lets you know things about yourself that you didn't know before. Huh. Who knew?) And yeah, okay, he's very hot and insanely talented which started this whole intense phase but while this won't last, a genuine fondness and love will. He has a place in my heart forever. It's been such a good time discovering him that I'm legit grateful to the universe.

I'll do a bonus post with links to Tom interviews/vids/ stuff that are worth checking out. Until then, guys.

[popculturebuffet]

Thomas And Friends Retrospective: Thomas and the Magic Railroad Theatrical Cut (Commission for Lachie V)

Hello all you happy people and i'ts back on the train gang for more Thomas the Tank Engine

For those of you just joining us, a recap: For the past year and a half or so, i've been covering the first five seasons of thomas the tank engine on and off for @lachievpoststhings, who comissioned these as a fan of the franchise to get an outsider's perspective and hopefully get less jokes about Henry being walled up for always and always. Your free to jump in here and i'll have a post of the restrospective so far soon after this review's finished.

The basics are one day the good Reverend Bawldry, a longtime railway enthusist, made a bedtime story for his son about trains with human faces, kept making more as the kid loved them, and eventually turned these stories into a series of succesful books. Decades later in the 80's, up and coming exec Brit Alcroft seeked to adapt these books to screen and using amazing modelwork, velvety narration from Ringo Starr, George Carlin, Micheal Angelis and more across both ponds, Thomas became a massive success. While his US airings needed a wraparound, it got one in the superb shinging time station, your standard "kids learn lessons in a place" show, except this one has a magical tiny george carlin named Mr Conductor who shows up to give advice and schemer

This glorious large ham cooks up halfbaked schemes, is distrusted by children, and makes every episode better just by existing.

So with this success Brit Alcroftt decided to take her big IP to where all big properties go: the big screen. Luckily for her Barry London, head of Paramount at the time, had a daughter who loved Thomas and greenlight the picture in 1995 with a deal inked by 1996 and a script on the way. Unluckily, sometime after London left the studio and the project was canned because new studio heads are vindictive bastards. See how Final Space was canned after a studio change and goofy movie was given NO advertising after the exec pushing for it left. Thankfully after a false start elsewhere for Alcroftt, she decided to self fiance, finding that the Isle of Mann offered tax breaks. Helping was that London landed at another studio, destination films, so with their major backing and the isle of man cut the film was good to go.

So with that the film got underway and as far as I can tell it was MOSTLY smooth apart from a mishap with a James model.Post.. was a diffrent beast. The film had drastic changes done to it after a test screening caused Execs to panic: they changed most of the voice cast since the voices for most of the main cast were seen as "too old" and the one for one of the big bads, Disel 10 "too scary". That'd be bad enough.. but then they decided to ax an ENTIRE CHARACTER, PT Boomer, who served as a human antagonist.

Shockingly the excutives doing a power meddle did nothing to actually salvage the film: it bombed at the box office, closed the door on any future thomas films and ended Britt Alcroft's time at her own company.

So that leaves us with some questions: Was the film THAT bad? Was the original cut, which we now have thanks to a blu ray specail edition in workprint form, any better? Was their any salvaging this mess or was it always a silly engine? and why was schemer left out?

While i'll never be able to figure out that last question, the rest I hope to answer by tackling both cuts in their own reviews. I'm tackinlg the theatrical first as while it's the second cut, ti's the one most people have seen and i'm not watching the work print till the review of the theatrical cut is finished as i'm judging it as most people watching it would: this is the version that's most complete, wildly avaliable and that most people have seen, so I want to view it on that merit, albeit with the understanding it was cut up quite a bit, so I am giving it a little leeway.

So join me under the cut for the maddening mysteries of the theatrical cut of thomas the tank engine. I warn you the film your about to hear about is nigh incomprehinsible, quite mad, and has alec baldwin acting like h'es taken all the drugs in the world. You've been warned. Let's begin.

So since i've already covered behind the scene's let's jump into the mishmash of scenes hastily cut together then horrifyingcally stitched back together by the studio. Because "Plot" is being more generous than this cut deserves.

So the film follows the fate of two worlds: the world of Shining Time Station and the world of Sodor where thomas and friends live, the two ends of Mr. Conductor's universe. What does that mean?

I think it's supposed to be metaphorical like saying my world.. but having a magical being say that and say that about two parallel worlds is just confusing. Did he create Sodor? Did whatever race the mr conductors are did? This is more confusing than a film about stupid train children should be.

This is also the film's approach to it's world building as a whole: just throw something in that's confusing and hard to parse, never fully explalin it and walk on to the next bit of insanity. I'm not asking for through, complex world building from a Thomas the Tank Engine film, i'm just asking for a world where any of the magic you set up makes any sense.

The two shows this comes from don't have this problem. There is weird shit in both universes.. but both universes are consitent. Sodor is a british island, exists in the 1920's, and has a massive railway ran by Sir Topham "The Fat Controller" hat. The trains all have faces and are wholly sentient and are still treated entirely as trains. That's.. it. It's just the 30's but with sentient trains. It takes getting used to, they cause tons of accidents and weird shit happens.. but it's simple.

Shining time has more magic and what not but it's still consistent: Mr C is a magical entity of some kind with a vast family, he lives in shining time but can travel the multiverse and visits sodor frequently, bringing back it's stories for the kids he mentors. There's also magical puppets in the jukebox. Neither thing is explained, but we really don't need one and how both Mr. C and the PUppets operate is consitent.

The film.. is as consistent as a Warner BRos Discovery exec. The film just sloppily stiches a bunch of magical concepts and cliches together , expects you to just accept it and move on. The problem is unlike thomas and shinging time, it piles so shit on that you have no choice but to ask questions. And yes im aware i'm not the film's target demo.. but the film's target demo, younger children.. still deserve some respect. Shining Time and Thomas never fell like they think the audience is morons and you should never treat children like idiots just to justify your sloppy plotting. And chidlren aside..adults still had to take their kids to this. 5 year olds can't buy movie tickets.. well they can but the theater has to be pretty fucking neglegent. The adults who were kind enough to take their kids to see this didn't deserve to have a confusing mess shoved on them.

Speaking of a confusing mess let's get back to the film. The Film has two major storylines across the two worlds which quickly overlap:

ON earth curious city kid Lily Stone, played by Maura Wilson, is sent to vist her grampy burnett, played by Peter Fonda who to his credit takes the roll seriously. Burnett has an assitant/sidekick/local orphan boy named Mutt who, given the two minutes i've seen of the workprint, marries her in that cut but here is just kinda.. there so Peter Fonda can explain his train backstory: he was once the conductor of Lady, a magical train that could cross betwen worlds and i'm just going to go ahead and get this started

Things the Film Just Wants you To Accept: 2

Lady was injured by Disel 10 , played by Neil crone. I'll point out the original actors when I do the workprint if you were curious. He's an evil Diesel who has a grappling claw and a confusing world domination plan. Burnett's spent his life trying to fix Lady with no luck.

Meanwhile on Sodor, Sir Hatt is going on vacay so he asked Mr. Conductor to go watch his stupid train children for him while he's away. We have a new Mr. C in this film I assume, as while the film never explains it the series did expalin it's swapping mr c's with Ringo Starr's versoin being the cousin of his succesor, the george carlin one. So I assume this is also a cousin as Mr. C also has one he also hands his hat off to. More on that towards the end and more on the ocusin in a bit. Point is new mr. c is played by Alec Baldwin.. and baldwin spends the whole film acting like he's tripping balls. Baldwin is hamming it up so hard trying to be a chldren's character he comes off like Mr. C took enoguh coke before comming to sodor that he dosen't come down for TWO DAYS. Baldwin mostly acts hammily, hyderactively and goofily. It dosen't work on it's own as it's way too over the top even for this film and trying way to hard. It is however a nice jolt of hilaroius nonsense in a film that's mostly confusing nonsense.

Anyways Mr C soon has a problem :his sparkle, his magic dust, is running out. And apparently if it runs out , the magic of sodor and shining time both dies with him. Or something.

Things the Film Just Wants you To Accept: 3

He dosen't notice at first, being late while Thomas and Friends deal with normal business: Thomas is just a tad late, and Gordon, the biggest engine, is being a pompus asshole about it. Gordon is also played by Crone, who adlibbed msot of his lines for both Diesel 10 and Gordon, to the point one line later in the film is just gordon lapsing into a rant about how clever he is, how smaller engines can neve rbe useful, and how he's the best. He did it, he broke Gordon down to his bare essentials.

The two are soon confronted by Disel 10 who someone passed the background check and unveils his plan: he's going to find and kill lady, which will destroy all the magic in sodor and some how make him god emperor of all trains.

Things the Film Just Wants you To Accept: 4

First he plans to kill all the trains and ambushes them at night. Mr C finds his magic isn't working which isn't good. His escape plan is as diabolical as it is horrifying: he's going to poor sugar in disel's gas tank.. by waving a bag of sugar at him

Things the Film just Wants You To Accept: 5

So Mr. C heads off on an epic quest to find his magic, facing off with goblins, a wall of hands, a bog of eternal stentch, chily down with the fire gang and the most dangerous foe of all, David Bowie's Crotch. And I just described Labyrinth because Mr. C's quest amounts to "Dick around looking for clues and get kidnapped by a train" and i'd rather be talking about Labyrinth again... so let's do. Having relistned to it thanks to my nephew putting it on a playlist while I was in the car, i"ve come to realize I was WAY too hard on chilli down. While the actual musical number hasn't aged great the actual music is a fucking banger, having a nice surreal feel, the best drug trip song that's ever drug trip songed. Good stuff.

So back to my neverending torment Mr. C has a nap/is barely concious after Disel nearly threw him off a bridge this time so he has a prophetic dream

Things the Film Just Wants You To Accept: 6

Yes apparently in this time Alec Baldwin is the Kwisatz Haderach

He sees a future where due to him being absent shining time has closed down. The kid are gone, Billy was replaced by a terrible actor, and Schemer is seemingly dead. Wait.. that all happened in the main timeline. How is he sure the interstellar jihad the end of shining time is something he can stop?

Well he isn't so he calls his cousin Mr C Junior for help. Sadly this dosen't mean we get Ringo Starr or George Carlin but instead Micheal E Rogers. While his agressive scottishness is charming, he can't save this character as Junior is just kinda annoying at best. He ALLGEDLY has an arc where he learns his lesson and becomes better.. but he's really just a dumbass who wastes all his uncle's dust and his own remaining dust. He's only here because SOMEONE has to bring lily to Sodor

So before we get to that, let's catch up on everyone else. Burnett's dog is apparently also injesting spike and thus makes sure LIly ends up at shining time and sees Junior briefly. She then gets settled in with grandpa bonds with Dodger, just kinda putters around and...

FATHER THE SLEEPER HAS AWAKENED okay so stupid train children next. For a Thomas the Tank Engine movie the engines.. really don't actually do much in the plot. It's something I didn't notice in the film itself as the cut tricks you into THINKING their doing more than they are, cutting to the engines every few scenes as thomas tries to find Mr Conductor and stop Disesel 10 and his two comedic minions I haven't mentiond till now , who Disel sends to find the magic railroad. They do. That's it.. that's all they've done all film.

So we instead get a bunch of scenes of Thomas saying he's going to do something then just.. I guess doing something. We get bits of James and Percy who were originally voiced by Micheal Angelis, but instead replaced to get younger voices.. and instead got voice actresses who didn't really try to make thems ound masculine, resulting in Gender Flip James and Percy. James in paticular sounds like a dikensian orphan. I will say Eddie Glenn does a really good job at thomas but he and Neil Crone are the only ones who really get their rolls right out of the voice cast. I don't doubt these va's are good nor judge them for this: they werne't given much to work with, with Crone given nothing to work with and simply improvising, and were likely given little time to prepare given the rushed production schedule for the recut.

The most Thom=as contributes is loosing a truck, that will be important later, and figuring out that Disel's after the buffers which somehow allow people to travel on the magic railroad.

Things This Film Just Wants you To Accept: I"m So Tired

He finds out too late but thanks to Junior who brought a child with him because fuck it, they find thomas' missing truck and thomas and Mara Wilson go back to reality. A bad model of Thomas the film expects us to think is anywhere near acceptable

Things This Film Just Wants You To Accept: Stupid Train Models are for Cattle and Loveplay.

We do get a clever solution to the lady thing.. even if we never really get Burnett's backstory as that was cut because reasons. Since they have Sodor coal Lily suggests using it and I like it: it's a symbol of lady being both of this world and sodor. It's kind of cool in af ilm tha'ts mostly just confusing.

So lady returns to sodor, though Mr. C still thinks he and other Mr C who was busy telling Sir Topham Hat to go fuck himself and nearly getting murdered, using the last of his magic to save james, are dying as they still need that sweet sweet smack. I mean sparkle.. which is magical smack so it's better.

Before they can fix the crisis though Disel 10 shows up and we get a hilaroiusly green screneed ifnal chase as Burnet taunts his nemisis the sentient train. The chase scene.. is hilarously, horribly modleed and fun to watch. lady naturally wins, Disel 10 is left in the sludge but apparently comes back, and it's a happy end as Mara Wilson mixes well atter and railroad shavings to somehow create magic dust.

Things This Film Just Wants You To Accept: LONG LIVE THE STUPID TRAIN CHILDREN

So Mr C pases the cap on to his nephew who decides after his near death experince to man up finishing his nonexistant character arc. Mara wilson and co return home, the day is saved and the film just sorta ends.

That's.. the theatrical cut of Thomas and the Magic Railroad and as you can tell I was not a fan. It's entertaining for the most part and delightfully insane but i't sincoherence makes it REALLY hard to enjoy a lot of the time. As a Thomas film Thomas is barely a facotr in the plot, and as a shining time station film only two characters returned

Only. Two. Characters. Returned. The new characters are all bland cyphers, likely due to the cut changing. They TRY, Mara Wilson may of done this for the vacation but like Sir Micheal Caine before her she'll still work hard for the paycheck, but ther'es just nothing to hold onto. This film is a mess and I only recommend it if you have some friends to riff with, as I did with @jess-the-vampire or are good and baked. I was not but I hope to get some weed for my anxiety some day, and on that day I might watch this film. Oh who am I kidding i'm watching David Lynch's Dune and we all know it. Possibly with that episode of Sex and the City where Kyle Mclaclhan plays tennis shirtless at night as a prequel. His two best performances together at last.

So yeah not a big fan of this one. Not the worst thing i've covered but a hell of a film to unpack.. so you can imagine i'm just... PLEASED. AS. PUNCH. to be covering the other cut. Will be it be better? Worse? at least comprehnsible? Will I keep doing Dune refrences because I really fucking loved Part 2? All this and more will be answered next time but for now

[scottysketches]

[20 Question Fic Writer Tag]

Tagged by the lovely @impossibleprincess35 <3

How many works do you have on AO3? Four! Most of my stories are still in the "needs severe editing" phase lol

What is your AO3 word count? 61,414

What fandoms do you write for? Well, I've become rather singularly obsessed with Star Wars: The Clone Wars right now, but I do also write for Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

What are your top five fics by kudos? Don't Dream It's Over - 60 The Last Resort of Good Men - 39 Thunder - 8 This Is The Beginning - 4

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I do! I'd respond more if my reaction wasn't just, "AAAAAAHHHH THANK YOU FOR READING MY SILLY LITTLE STORY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!"

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Not finished yet, but the angst is-a coming for This Is The Beginning, as it is basically my interpretation of the Legacy of the First Blade DLC for Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which is rife in angst.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? The Last Resort of Good Men. Ends with Dorian Pavus and my warrior/mage combo human Inquisitor getting together. I haven't actually read it in years, so I might end up going back and rewriting it if I find it to be not as good as I remember.

Do you get hate on fics? Not as far as I'm aware.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yep. Mostly romantic smut, but some of the stories that are stuck in the WIP folder have been a little... deranged.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? I have written crossovers in the past, but the fandoms would kind of work together anyway? I did start writing a crossover between Doctor Who and Downton Abbey, many many years ago, but never finished it because my favourite Who characters never appeared on screen again despite there being infinite potential to bring them into the fold again.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? No, but I fear it, especially with how sophisticated AI is bound to get before too long.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Not as far as I'm aware.

Have you ever cowritten a fic before? I was about to say no, but then I remembered way back in the day, before I discovered AO3 and was uploading primarily on fanfiction.net, I did kind of co-write a Sonic the Hedgehog story with my oldest Internet friend. Unfortunately, I haven't heard from them for years, and all their social media shows their last post as being from 2019, so I have no idea if they're even still alive? But I would really like to rewrite the story we started together all those years ago, now that I've improved.

What's your all-time favourite ship? Oh, God, are we really doing this? I have way too many to choose just one! But, if you have to force my hand, I'd have to say Ezio Auditore/Sofia Sartor (Assassin's Creed Revelations). I just love their dynamic and how their relationship develops, especially in the novelisation of the game.

What's a WIP you'd like to finish but doubt you ever will? *places a finger on your lips* Shh, they're all being finished!!

What are your writing strengths? Witty one-liners. If there's one thing us Brits are known for, it's our cracking sarcasm. Plus most of my formative years when it comes to my development of my writing abilities occurred during peak Downton Abbey era, with the incredible Dowager Countess of Grantham (portrayed by the one and only Dame Maggie Smith).

What are your writing weaknesses? Hmm... I'd have to say knowing when to break up a chapter. I can go on and on and on if you're willing to let me, but even I would struggle to read a 20-25k-word chapter in one go.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? Well, I've been including bits of Mando'a in Don't Dream It's Over, but that's with the Mando'a dictionary open in one tab and a Mando'a translator in another.

First fandom you wrote for? Er, that would either be Harry Potter or The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Favourite fic you've ever written? At the moment, Don't Dream It's Over! I pretty much have the entire story planned out already in my notes app on my phone, which I just reference from when I need to remind myself what's coming up next in the chapter I'm writing at the time.

I'm tagging @whereforartthoumisthios and @jelly-opal!!

[libunityfan69]

why auscap.. whys he australian… i need to know this lore.. it keeps me up at night

glad u asked because im so insane but everyone* i talk to just accepts auscap without question and it hnngngh

so for a little backstory it started in september last year** when i went away with a family friend who had also watched centricide and i asked "wouldnt it be funny if ancap centricide was australian" and there wasnt a single thought behind our eyes when we unaimoiusly agreed yes that would be funny and que the next 2 or so months of being the most annoying headcanoner ever but hey it was fun.

at the same time i was in 9th grade english class in australia and our topic was poetry analysis of silly bogans pre/during the gold rush and the more we analysed the more i was like "hey this shits kinda like ancap centricide" because idk if you have ever been in an australian english/history class but theres a lot of talk about the "[white] australian identity" mainly around when brits began moving here outside of sendign their convicts and during ww1. and the australian identity is mostly centred around being somewhat anti authoritarian and while not technically based in capitalism it was about rich british people getting a taste of the bush and not shutting up ever

because of [white] australias history being in the convicts sent over from england theres an intrinsic sense of anti authoritarianism that was albiet a lot more common in the 19th and 20th centuries but i digress its still relevant idc because it was used in these little bushmen shit where they would idolise this life living outside the government at the time

so the poem that we used for the exam at the end of year 9 english unit 4, while i dont rember the name of the poem nor the writer, i do remember what it was about and what it was about was this guy writing for 6 fucking pages about the bush and how it was so cool and literally made for him he loves it so much and at the back of the pages there was a little biography of the author and you find out that this fucking guy hadnt stepped foot in australia before turning thirty, hes some rich fucking english bloke who came over for the gold rush and left almost immediatly after. the poem we were analysing came from a guy who had never even seen the bush !!! and idk i think thats pretty ancap core

and for a last round of background info from september-november 2021 i actually dmed jreg back n forth about it and ended up getting jrem to confirm auscap as real, and it was real for a whole month before the gender tier list stream on twitch where i asked and jre said that ideologies cant have nationalities um !!! thats not what u told me in dms !!!! also i didnt have any socials at the time that interacted with the centricide fandom apart from my discord so if u were in the authunity server i am NOT sorry for being so annoying about it

tl:dr white australian history is anarcho capitalist also i thought it would be funny

*everyone excludes ps, the owner of the athunity server, who hated auscap so much he banned the use of the word "australia" in the server, fuck you ps-and nankeen and riley, my australian buddies who actually inquired on auscaps existence yall r real ones (i havent talked to nankeen in 8 months)

**i say september because TECHNICALLY the headcanon + first dm to jreg happened in late spetember but i celebrate the anniversary on the 8th of october because that was when my sister edited the image of ancap and made auscap into something tangeble

[imtooobsessedwritingnow]

Introduction? Introduction!

Hi gays! You might know me as Kit, The Patron Saint Of Rusicals, CEO of Clovestiah, my IRL name which I’ve accidentally revealed to you or ‘purple neon drag race brit’ if you’re my beloved mutual Leo. Wanna see the normal me? Look over at @imtooobsessedrn, I’m sorry in advance. This is lil writing area, what could you expect to appear here?

Writing updates, writing rants, hcs and my fics! I mostly write whatever comes out of my tiny little capybara brain but y’know, we don’t know what the future holds…

… I’ll update this intro with fics once I actually start doing things…

Wanna know what ships I like? Look under the cut if you care…!

Clovestiah (obviously) - Clover Bish x Bestiah, wanna know why? I made the goddamn thing. (DRES3)

Margratraka - Margaret Y Ya x Matraka, that’s pretty self-explanatory. (DRMX1)

Jackae x Keke Kiki aka Vandergerd Musical Edition. The characters from Squirrel’s Trip. I’m the Patron Saint what can I say? (CDRS3)

Spluxx - Spice x Luxx Noir London (RPDRS15)

Malistress - Malaysia Babydoll Foxx x Mistress Isabelle Brooks (RPDRS15)

Rajinkx - Raja x Jinkx Monsoon (AS7)

Anarcia - Anetra x Marciax3 (RPDRS15)

[phantom-of-the-501st]

I've seen a few comments about the British slang in the show, and I kind of have mixed feelings on it (as a Brit). I'd say that I have the "traditional" British accent, but I come from an area with a fair bit of slang and Moon Knight is kind of... Half accurate?

Bollocks? 100%, used all the time. 10/10.

Innit? Used fairly frequently where I'm from, so doesn't bother me too much.

Doughnut? Love this. Definitely been called a doughnut/called people a doughnut on multiple occasions.

Bruv? This is the one that bothers me a bit. The people who do use it use it pretty frequently, which I think is why there's this idea that it's said all the time. In reality, you tend to hear it mostly in preteens/teens and much more rarely in adults (which is why Steven's use feels even more odd). It's not that it's never said, it's just that it's not said as often as people think.

Overall, I'm not too bothered by it, but saying bruv about three times in a minute is a little too cringey.

(Edit: Quick note to say that I obviously don't speak for all people from the UK and slang use/type of slang varies dramatically across the country).

[thessalian]

Thess vs Unfair Hashtags

Welcome to another edition of Translating British News, where someone who wasn’t born here but has to fucking live here gives a brief precis of various news items that might have leaked over into US media but mostly might be some very oblique Twitter hashtags. Today: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Hashtags include (and please bear with me; it hurts to type this) #ungratefulcow and #sendherback.

So, back in 2016, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (born in Tehran) wanted to see her mother, so her mother could see her daughter, then two. This necessitated a trip to Iran, on her Iranian passport. So Zaghari-Ratcliffe went to Iran visited her mother ... and then was arrested as a political prisoner for no apparent reason just before she boarded the flight home.

She was released last week, after about six years in an Iranian jail. And a lot of this is Johnson’s direct fault. No, he wasn’t in power back then. But his lack of attention to detail and saying whatever he thinks sounds good at the time literally hurt Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case. Because while she really was there just visiting her mother, and just about everyone backed her up on this, Johnson (who was Foreign Secretary back then) went on one of his spiels and said that she was “simply teaching people journalism”. Now, consider Iran and its Supreme Leader and consider how they’d feel about training journalists. He got his wires crossed and made Zaghari-Ratcliffe out to be a liar and a political dissident, and it was used as evidence against her. Johnson never corrected, retracted, or even apologised for this.

Not that the situation wasn’t complicated anyway, given as how Iran doesn’t recognise dual-citizenship the way the UK does and once she was arrested on Iranian soil, her UK citizenship meant squat to the people of Iran. There were trial releases and new charges against her that seemed to come up out of nowhere and honestly, I think they just liked having a bargaining chip. They did try requesting a prisoner swap with an Iranian prisoner in Australia awaiting extradition to the US, but nobody was having that.

Six years in an Iranian jail, and you want to know why she was released? Fixing a Conservative government fuck-up from 1971. See, if you hear someone talk about £400m? That’s an arms trade thing. It’s not talked about much, but the UK is surprisingly into arms trading for such a dinky-ass country (hell, every time I go to the Excel Centre for MCM Comic Con, there’s generally someone protesting the fact that arms deals go on there an awful lot). So in 1971, the then-Shah of Iran paid a lot of money for a variety of weapons. When the Shah’s regime fell, the Brits didn’t finish delivery. The new regime asked for a refund, and a legal battle ensued. That legal battle has been going on for decades. And funnily enough, when the UK finally agreed to pay some of that back? Suddenly Iran was willing to release Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

She came back to the UK on 16th March, the same day as the payment was agreed. And yesterday, after a bit of decompression time, she gave a statement to the press. Now, her husband was all gratitude. Six years without his wife, all his endless campaigning, the hunger strike, everything - he finally had her back and that was great.

Nazanin was not so generous, however. Six years. Five Foreign Secretaries. One of whom - the one who sunk a nail in the coffin of her defense - is currently the fucking Prime Minister. She should, she said, have been released years ago. She lost a huge chunk of her daughter’s childhood and she’s never getting that back. She’s been through absolute hell, her life has been like something out of Kafka for six years, the UK government has not been particularly helpful, and she’s justifiably pissed.

Which is why those awful hashtags. It honestly feels like the government finally arranged for Zaghari-Ratcliffes’ release just as a way to get some brownie points for “being nice to foreign people” in the wake of their horrible track record on immigration and asylum-seekers, and a lot of them feel betrayed by a woman who, while grateful that her ordeal is finally over, isn’t going to gush all over the Prime Minister whose unresearched, unretracted lie about her reason for being in Iran compounded this mess in the first place. And of course, consider Brexit and its knock-on effect of letting people get really loud about their racism and xenophobia. So when a woman of colour is anything less than simperingly, fawningly grateful that the government that fucked up her life has unfucked it only by unfucking a bigger Tory fuck-up from fifty years ago ... she’s called an “ungrateful cow” (and that’s honestly the nicest C-word used) and the cry goes out to “send her back”. Apparently if she can’t be grateful that someone got around to her plight, she doesn’t deserve the freedom and should be thrown right back in an Iranian jail. So people are blaming her and saying, “Everyone advised against travel to Iran, and you went anyway!” Which is funny from what appears to be the same section of the population who visited elderly relatives at the height of the pandemic and / or bitched about “My child needs to see their grandparents! This is too hard!”

Of course, those same people are doubting that Iranian jail was really hard for her, simply because she presented herself so well and so eloquently, and didn’t talk about her ordeal much. I mean, first of all, she’s in journalism - up until her detainment, worked as a project manager for Thomas Reuters’ London branch. Hell, her journalism background is why Johnson’s statement at the start of all this fucked her over so badly in the first place. So of course she’s going to present herself well. And granted she was released with a tracking anklet and her movements heavily monitored the last couple of years because of the pandemic, so there was probably at least some time to recover from straight-up detention. Also consider that she spent a lot of time in and out of courtrooms, let out on staged release only to be dragged back into court again on new charges and re-jailed. No, she wasn’t physically traumatised that anyone saw, but you try living through Kafka’s “The Trial” and see how you’re doing inside. She should not be obliged to be performative about her trauma to somehow ‘prove’ to the British people how hard her life has been the last six years ... but some of the British people feel entitled to her pain as well as to her gratitude.

Currently, there’s going to be an inquiry into why we waited fifty years to pay the debt to Iran that resolved this. I don’t imagine anything will come of it, but in the meantime I can’t check Twitter without seeing #ungratefulcow and #sendherback. Honestly, checking the tags is worse because you find a whole bunch of people trying to spin this as an anti-Labour thing. They call the debt that was repaid “Labour’s debt”; ten seconds on Google and I found out that Edward Heath, a Tory, was PM in ‘71, and while there were a few Labour governments between then and now (Wilson succeeded by Callaghan 1974-1979, Blair / Brown 1997-2010), that debt still started with the Tories. And Wilson’s government only had a clear majority once. You try doing anything with a hung Parliament.

So that’s another bit of headline and Twitter hashtag demystified. This is my last day off before Easter week, so I’m going to try to enjoy it ... largely by staying away from the news.

[Edit: Oh gods, I’m going to have to do another one of these, since the other hashtag currently trending is #Labourlosingwomen, which is apparently to do with a bunch of TERFs screaming that Labour supporting a trans woman winning in a women’s sporting competition is “anti-women” and there’s that huge fucking transphobic streak in this country oh gods why do I have to live here?!? Oh, right - money.]

[saucylittlesmile]

Have you been watching On Edge? At first I had flashbacks to when they announced the VM reality show in 2013 and all I could think was, “is this a good idea before the Olympics?” (answer: no, not for winning gold, yes for raising media profile). I’ve enjoyed the first few episodes but, as an old time skating fan, I’m not sure whether it’s a great idea for H/D to focus on their personal lives with their SOs. Do you think that kind of thing matters anymore? Are we truly at a point where ice dancers no longer have to sell a faux-romance narrative? I would love for that to be true (and will grudgingly give P/C credit for helping that happen).

I am watching it. I don’t know if it is the editing choices or that not one team is the single focus or my relative lack of personal investment in anyone is the key, but I am enjoying it more than VM’s show (I suspect it’s a combination of all of those factors TBH).

I’m still a bigger fan of watching the skating related parts rather than the staged and awkward personal time, but that’s not unexpected. I do find the show has trouble deciding how much information to give to the viewers - some things they explain like we’ve never watched skating before (we skate two programs!) while other things they gloss over as though we ought to know (did they actually say why Nik’s citizenship was so important? we know here but does the person watching who doesn’t know there’s two programs know?).

Sorry, distracted. I don’t think that ice dance as a whole is beyond the typical man-woman interaction, on ice. Although there have been more success stories of teams portraying platonic stories in their skating as of late, it’s a difficult place to truly get to from a viewer’s perspective, especially with the long-term fans/judges, who have been conditioned to watch for it - I mean, it was only a generation ago that siblings chose to do sexy tangos because that was what was expected as a genre, when it was the compulsory pattern. Or why Tanith mysteriously didn’t exist for 2013/2014. Or why fans bemoan a lack of chemistry - but they aren’t talking about skating chemistry. Or why a low-level judge still thinks it’s okay to publicly discuss why Gui coming out would hurt them as a skating team. It’s ingrained in the sport and it will take time and continued success of teams portraying non-sexual, non-romantic programs for it to truly take as an acceptable option, and not to be seen as daring or revolutionary or as a cop-out for somehow being ‘unable’ to perform as though the possibility exists that they see also an off-ice couple.

Still, I don’t personally see it as an issue for H/D to say on the show they aren’t a couple - it’s not a secret, and they haven’t been a couple for many years while still choosing to portray one on ice, and it hasn’t hurt them (or at least, not that we know of). Of course, I also didn’t care that Scott was shown to be with Cassandra on their show - I just hated the way they went about it with the editing on their show. If Scott having a girlfriend seen on their show, was a detriment to their skating results due to perception from judges, then I’d really like the 2012/2013 and first half of 2014 explained to me. ;)

P/C, the Shibs, the Disco Brits, G/P (mostly aside from a couple of seasons) - they were/are all showing that there are a whole range of program styles that can be met with positive international results without relying on a traditional man/woman roles, and the sport is better for it.

[ephemeral-winter]

the year in books, 2021

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney (reread)

i am problematic and i am obsessed with ms rooney and i’m not apologizing for it

The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters, ed. Charlotte Mosley

can you believe i am [redacted] years into my mitford obsession and it took me until this year to read their letters? your honor, i love them

How to Speak Brit by Christopher J. Moore

my uncle bought me this after i got into grad school (in the uk) as a joke and i read it to be polite? why? 

Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony (reread)

!!!!! once again i heartily recommend both reading this and following @entertheaardvark

A Fine Old Conflict by Jessica Mitford

this is decca’s underread and underappreciated second memoir, and it is mostly about her time in the communist party in the us in the 50s and 60s. what a life! 

The Book of Night Women by Marlon James

i’m not including 99% of what i read for school this year because who has that kind of time, but i’m making an exception for this because holy shit. all the content warnings apply (novel is about a slave revolt in jamaica c. 1790), but holy shit. 

The Letters of Vita Sackville-West to Virginia  Woolf, edited by Louise DeSalvo and Mitchell A. Leaska

yeah i cried what about it

Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood

fuck she’s so funny

No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

this one was less funny

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

i learned a lot of new slang! but i suspect i am not the target audience

Saturday by Ian McEwan

lmao so my creative writing teacher this past spring told me to read this because she thought my story draft needed a sex scene and this novel apparently contains a great example of one? 1) my draft did not need a sex scene 2) the scenes here were not good and 3) i can source and read good erotica on my own, thanks

Codex by Lev Grossman (reread)

he wrote this before the magicians and it’s about video games and medieval manuscripts and has lovely descriptions of the tedium of archival librarianship so

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

i completely missed the twist in this and was so confused for the last 50 pages… idk if you like spies this might be good

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adam’s (reread)

i read this about every 3 years and every time i forget what happens in it, which is nice for me i guess? 

Antiquities by Cynthia Ozick

read for my bookclub with my grandmother. meh. 

The Heir Affair by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

well i AM a sucker for thinly-disguised retellings of the wills/kate saga what can i say

The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr

the best nonfiction i read this year

Whose Body by Dorothy L. Sayers

based on everything else about me i should have fell in love with peter wimsey years ago but i never got around to it and maybe i’m too jaded now but i just was not impressed? 

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (reread)

holds up imo! i watched the disney+ show and reread at the same time; book is better

The Magicians by Lev Grossman (reread)

i had a cold and wanted to stay in bed

Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik

oh wow another memoir of an american journalist in paris. tell me more about navigating french department stores for the first time, please, i find it so fascinating

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney (reread)

fuck did i really do this one TWICE in one year? i hate myself

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

brandon’s twitter is miles more interesting than this book but i guess i see why it got shortlisted for the booker. i guess. 

One Last Stop by Casey McQuinston

look it’s not my fault i needed something easy to pick up and put down while the kids i babysat this summer took their naps

Helena by Evelyn Waugh

i think i read this one in one sitting in the bath but other than that i could not tell you anything about it

Normal People by Sally Rooney (reread)

i’m clinically insane

The Past by Tessa Hadley

i actually liked this a lot! never read any hadley before but i might get into her now

Quartet by Jean Rhys

i think i prefer good morning midnight over this one

The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivasan

interesting stuff but i gotta ask: haha and then what? 

Beautiful World, Where Are You? by Sally Rooney

read this on the plane on my way to start grad school. i have no interest in rereading it

White Houses by Amy Bloom

FUCK this is so good. she captured the intimacy of eleanor and hicks so beautifully. goddamn

Matrix by Lauren Groff

i was supposed to love this especially since my mentor was the historical advisor and also i was present at the lecture that inspired it but uh…. twas not my ideal representation of a 12th cen nunnery

How to Be Both by Ali Smith

picked this up on my first day out of a stupid week of stupid isolation and whizzed through it! i am an ali smith stan now

Business as Usual by Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford

this reprint of a 1930s novel was charming! recommend

The Covent Garden Ladies by Hallie Rubenhold

very interesting history, but i prefer the tv show (harlots)

[theydontknowaboutusimagines]

The Set Up - Harry Styles One Shot

Requested: Hi!! An idea that I have is Reader interaction with Anne and Gemma that they are friends but her don't know Harry only that he is in a band so Gemma and Anne believe that reader it's perfect for Harry so they became matchmakers and could be funny situations where they are trying to get them be in a relationship and after some time they became sweethearts and later wife and husband.

**

“No, absolutely not,” Harry shook his head as he unlocked his first door while talking to his sister on the phone. 

“And why not?” She asked. “Mum and I think you two would really hit it off.” 

He sighed putting his bags down on the counter in the kitchen, “Because I don’t need my mum and my sister playing matchmaker in my love life. Besides, I’m going on tour in what two months? That’s not exactly the best time to start a relationship.” 

“Bollocks,” she rolled her eyes. “It’s plenty of time to get to know one another and then cross that bridge when it came to, it. Come on, Harry, it’s one date. Hell, you don’t even have to call it a date. Just meet her and see how it goes.” 

“Yeah, no,” he said. “Why are you pushing this so much, anyhow?” 

She sighed, “It’s been a bit since you’ve dated and my friend’s single, so-” 

“So, you think because we’re both single it’s like a match made in heaven?” He scoffed. 

“No, I just.. she’s lovely Harry,” she told him again. 

“You’re not going to let this go, are you?” He asked. 

“Nope,” she said. 

“Look, I’ll think about it, but no promises, alright?” He asked. “And if I decide the answer is no, you’ll drop it?” 

“Yes, yes,” she said. “I promise.” 

“Fine, I’ll think about it,” he said. 

**

“Hey, Y/N,” Gemma said as she sat down at the table in the coffee shop. 

“Hey, I went ahead and got our order,” you said. “Should be here soon.” 

“Thank you,” she smiled. 

“So, how’s your day going?” You asked. 

“Pretty great,” she said. “Yours?” 

“It’s going,” you laughed. “I’m happy to be out of the office and not looking at my computer screen.” 

“An editing day?” She asked. 

“Yep,” you nodded. 

“Well, I’m happy to pull you away,” she smiled. 

“I know, it’s been ages since we’ve see each other,” you said. 

The waiter brought over your teas and sandwiches and you both smiled a thank you to him. 

“Which brings me to my next question,” she said. 

“Okay...” you laughed. 

“You’re going to the Brit Awards, right?” She asked. 

You nodded, “I got assigned this year, yes.” 

“Well, my mum and I will be there with my brother, so maybe we’ll see you there,” she said. 

“And by we, you mean your brother, right?” You sighed. 

“Perhaps,” she said. “He will be there.” 

“Do you remember the last time you tried to set me up with someone?” You asked. 

“Okay, look that was a bad example, but not my brother,” she said. “At least, meet him, talk to him, and see if there’s any sort of spark.” 

“Oh my god,” you groaned. “Okay, not to sound shallow or anything, but like hasn’t your brother mostly dated like other famous people... so like I’m not exactly famous.” 

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that,” she said. “Just give it a chance.” 

“Does he know you’re trying to set him up with someone?” You asked. 

“Yes,”she nodded. 

“Did he agree to it?” you asked raising your eyebrow. 

“Not... yet,” she said. 

“See! This is already going to be a shit show,” you groaned. “Do you know how embarrassing it will be to show up and he not want to meet me.” 

“Yeah, well that’s going to happen,” she said. “I promise.” 

“How about this,” you started. “Since we’re going to be in the same place already, I’ll meet him, but not as in oh, I might want to date you meet him, but in a he’s my best friend’s brother way.” 

“Works for me,” she said. 

You rolled your eyes taking a bite of your sandwich. 

**

Harry was getting ready for the Brit Awards when his mother walked in, “Hey Mum,” he smiled. 

“You look very handsome,” she smiled. “I’m so proud of you. No matter what happens tonight.” 

“Thanks, Mum,” he smiled. 

“So, I know this probably isn’t the time, but I know Gemma mentioned to you about her friend-” 

“Not you too,” he groaned. 

“I know, I know,” she said. “No one wants their family to set them up with someone, but I’d really think you’d like her sweetheart.” 

“Am I that pathetic?” He mumbled. 

“No, of course not,” she said. “It’s just... she’s lovely and someone I could see you with.” 

“Look, I told Gemma I would think about it,” he said. “And I have, but I’ve not decided one way or the other. I promise when I do, I’ll let both of you know.” 

“Okay,” she smiled squeezing his hands. 

**

Award shows were always fun, but also very hectic. You were a writer for a very popular indie music website, magazine, and podcast. So, you were selected to attend the Brit Awards for coverage of the night. You were wearing a gorgeous purple velvet suit with a black sweetheart corset top underneath with matching boots. Your hair was pulled into a side bun with braids and a few strands of hair framing your face. 

Even though you were technically part of the press, you weren’t there to interview any of the artists, that was someone else on your team, so you were able to walk the red carpet. Just as you finished up, your jaw aching from smiling so much, you heard the loudest screams you’ve ever heard in your life. You looked behind you and saw someone that looked familiar getting out of a car and making their way down the carpet. 

You knew, you knew who it was, but their name didn’t come to mind. You simply shrugged it off and headed to your table for the night. You were sat at a table in the back with other people from radio stations and music things. The show was still scheduled to start in about a half hour, but you went ahead and poured yourself a drink. 

You thought back to Gemma and wondering where they would be sitting. You felt a little weird approaching their table if you did find them because you knew the whole setup thing would happen and well, that was the last thing you wanted. It wasn’t that you were entirely imposed to the idea to having some set you up, it’s that you felt like you were a bit of a loser for lack of a better word. 

Were you that pathetic or undateable to where you would need someone else to find you a date? And how embarrassing was it that this person would be someone famous, who could literally date whoever they wanted. After your lunch with Gemma, you may have went back to your office and googled her brother. 

It’s not like you didn’t know who Harry Styles was exactly, you worked in the music industry, so of course you did. Plus, you were a bit of a One Direction fan, and you did enjoy his music, but you never really looked into him as a person. So, when you did your search, of course, different women had been linked to him in the past. You knew not all of them were people he dated, but you were sure some of them where. 

You’re not exactly the most insecure person, but seeing that most of his exes were beautiful models, made you a little unsure of yourself. So, now at the thought of running into him and Gemma trying to hook you up, you found yourself downing another drink. 

**

Gemma was sat at the table with Anne and Harry’s team. Harry had gone off to get ready for his performance, now that the show had started. Gemma kept looking at her phone and scanning the crowd trying to see if she could find you. It was quite hard given the lighting situation and the fact that there were hundreds of people scattered around at tables. 

“Who are you looking for, Gem?” Anne asked. 

“Y/N’s here,” she smirked. 

“Wait? Really?” Anne perked up. 

“Yeah, it was her turn to cover the Brit’s,” she answered. 

“Oh, how wonderful,” she smiled. “She’s doing really well, isn’t it.” 

“Yeah, she’s doing great,” she smiled. 

“I talked to Harry about meeting her again this afternoon, but he still hasn’t decided,” Anne sighed. “Maybe we shouldn’t do anything tonight. I don’t want to force anything on the two of them.” 

“Actually, I was thinking that tonight would be perfect,” Gemma said. 

“And why is that?” Anne asked. 

“Because, if the two of them just happened to meet tonight, it wouldn’t feel like it was a setup-persay,” she said. 

“Does Y/N know about it?” Anne asked. 

“I did mention it to her, but she said she would simply meet him because he’s my brother and not as someone to potentially date,” Gemma said. 

“Hm, I don’t know, honey,” she said. “I don’t want to ruin his big night.” 

“We won’t,” Gemma said. “It’ll be fine.” 

“I’ll guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” Anne said taking a sip of her wine.

**

You were slowly working on your third drink when the lights went down and the host introduced Harry Styles. Your head perked up knowing this was the man Gemma wanted you to meet. You told yourself to watch this performance as you would any of the ones from that night, as a music professional who would be writing about it the next day. However, as the performance lingered on, you sort of found yourself feeling a little different. 

You were certain it was just the alcohol that was now coursing through your veins, but deep down you knew it was most likely something else. 

“Damn you, Gemma,” you mumbled to yourself. 

Halfway through the show, you needed to use the restroom, conveniently Gemma was there waiting in the line. 

“Well look at you Ms. fancy pants,” she smirked when you walked over. 

“I could say the same for you,” you smirked. 

“So, what do you think?” She asked. 

“Are you really asking me what I think you’re asking me?” You groaned. 

“Yes,” she said. “I am, now where are you sitting?” 

“In the very back,” you laughed. “I’m not exactly high up on the guest list.” 

“Well, consider yourself moved up,” she smirked. “We’ve got an empty seat at our table.” 

“Oh, no, isn’t that like rude? Besides it’s not your table,” you said. 

“Well, who’s being the rude one now,” she scoffed. 

You laughed, “But yeah, there’s no way I could impose.” 

“You wouldn’t be,” she said. “Besides, Mum’s the one who told me to invite you and you don’t say so no to Mum.” 

“Oh, god,” you laughed shaking your head. “Fine, good thing I brought everything with me.” 

Once the two of you were finished, you followed her back to the table. Nerves started to take over and you were starting to feel awkward at just showing up, but at least the show was almost over for the most part, so you wouldn’t be imposing for long. 

When you approached the table, it was during one of the performances, so most everyone was standing up. Anne saw you and Gemma approaching and you could see the look on her face even in the dark lighting. 

“Y/N!” She smiled wrapping you in a hug, “Gem, told me you were here.” 

“Yeah, I pulled the lucky straw,” you joked. 

“You look beautiful,” she smiled. 

“Thank you, so do you,” you smiled. 

“I told Y/N, she could join us,” Gemma smirked. “And I didn’t really give her a choice to say no.” 

“I uh, hope you don’t mind,” you said. 

“Not at all,” she smiled, “Now, come here,” she said taking your hand. 

When the performance was over, you sat next to Anne, cross the table from Harry and Gemma. You saw Gemma smirk as she took sip of her drink causing you to shake your head. The rest of the table sat down and you could tell all their eyes went straight to you with a bit of confusion. 

**

Harry noticed you before you noticed him. He saw Gemma heading over to the table with someone, even in the dark lighting and the crowd up people standing up, he could tell that whoever it was, was beautiful. It took him by surprise to see his mother embrace you in the way that she did and that’s when he realized who it was. 

The girl his mother and sister wanted to set him up with. He should be annoyed, he should angry, but he felt neither of those things. When the performance was over and everyone sat back down, he saw you fill the empty seat next to his mother. He could tell the rest of his team was highly confused at the new addition at the table, so he quickly intervened. 

“Um, everyone this is a friend of my sisters,” he said. “Right, Gemma?” 

“Right, baby brother,” she smirked. “This is Y/N. She works for The Mixtape, you know that music blog turned magazine turned podcast? I saw her in the Loo and asked her to join us.” 

“Uh, hi,” you blushed with an awkward wave. “Sorry to uh.. impose, but Gemma insisted.” 

“No, its uh, fine,” Harry said smiling over to you. “Would you like a drink?” 

“Sure,” you said. 

He poured you a drink into the empty glass, handing it to Gemma, who handed it to you. You could see her smirking at him and him giving her a bit of a look. You sipped your drink as you watched the remainder of the show. At the end, whenever everyone had gotten up and started to make conversation and make their way out of the venue. 

“So, Y/N, what are you doing now?” Gemma asked. “Going to any after parties?” 

“Depends would you call sitting on my couch with a tub of ice cream and my computer an afterparty?” you joked. 

“Or you could join us,” Harry coughed. “Um, Gemma usually comes for a bit and don’t want to be rude.” 

“Yeah, come on, it’ll be fun,” Gemma smiled. “I don’t stay more than an hour, so that leaves plenty of time for your ice cream.” 

“I already feel bad enough for dropping in on your table, I don't want to be a tag along,” you said. 

“No, it’s fine, really,” Harry said. 

You bit your lip, “Hm, okay, if you don’t mind.” 

“Not at all,” he smiled. 

**

When you arrived to the after party, you were once again feeling out of place. Given your job, you’ve been surrounded by famous people before and attending afterparties, but you had been invited personally. That night you were invited, but only on a technicality. You were with Gemma getting  drink at the bar while Harry was mingling with everyone. 

“So, what do you think,” she smirked. 

“I know what you’re doing,” you said. 

“Look, I’m just the person introducing the two of you, the rest is up to you and him,” she said. 

“Well, seeing as how we’ve barely spoken a word to each other, you’re little matching making set up isn’t working,” you said. 

“We’ll see,” she smirked. “Come on, let’s go dance.” 

You laughed as she pulled you over to the dance floor. You were holding your drink as you dance, singing along to the song blaring through the speakers. Most people drinking and chatting, but there were also a few of you dancing. You knew after parties are usually more for mingling and setting up business ventures, but you were able to just have fun with your friend. 

After a few songs, you were a sweaty mess, so you went to grab a water at the bar, taking off your blazer, revealing the top underneath. While you were waiting on your water, a man came over and started chatting with you. 

“You look like you’re having a great time,” he smiled. 

“Uh, yeah,” you laughed. “Although, Velvet isn’t exactly made for the dance floor.” 

“I bet,” he laughed. “I’m Alex.” 

“Y/N,” you smiled. 

“So, what brings you here?” He asked. 

“Oh, I’m with a friend,” you said. 

Meanwhile, Harry had finally found his sister after talking with a few people he needed to see. He’d hate to admit it, but he was disappointed when he saw you weren’t with her. 

“If you’re looking for Y/N, she’s at the bar,” Gemma smirked. 

“I’m not looking for her,” he said. 

“Hm, the look of disappointment on your face says differently,” she said. 

Harry rolled his eyes, taking a sip of his drink before turning his gaze in the direction of the bar. Annoyance it his face when he saw you talking with someone, not just someone, but another guy. 

“Adoring from afar is going to get you nowhere,” Gemma said. “I did my part, now it’s your turn.” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Harry said. 

“Look, it’s obvious that you’re attracted to her. I mean she’s gorgeous, but did you ever think why Mum and I wanted you to meet her?” Gemma asked. 

“Because you think I’m lonely and can’t find my own dates?” He rolled his eyes.” 

“No, because if there’s any such thing as two people who are perfect for each other its you and Y/N,” she said. “Both of you love music, hell you two are borderline obsessed with it, actually. Two, you both would do anything and everything for your family and friends. Three, both of you have that weird sense of humor and throw puns into normal conversations whenever you can. And four, when it comes to the opposites you two have, they complement each other well,” she added. “Plus, she’s been through shit with her ex and she deserves to be with someone who is perfect for her,” she said. 

Harry sighed running his hands through his hair, “I don’t know what you want me to do? Yes, she’s beautiful, but I-I don’t know about this.”

“Harry, I’m not telling you to date her or forcing you, even if it may seem that way, I’m just leading you to the water, it’s still your decision on whether you drink up,” she said. 

**

Let me know what you think! :) 

[imanativeofswlondondahling]

Hiding in Plain Sight (1)- Tom Holland X Reader

Word Count-1792

A/N: This was inspired by this wonderful post by @starsholland. Without it this would not be happening. This will be a multi part fic, but I don’t know how many chapters or when it will be posted so if you’d like to be tagged let me know:)  Welcome to Tom being undercover on Tumblr. Quick notes- Y/T/B = Your Tumblr Blog, Y/A is your age :)

“You’re not going to make me go undercover on Tumblr are you?” Tom asks as they hook up the mike to his white t-shirt. “I’ve heard dangerous things about that site.”

“No, no. We’re sticking to Reddit, Twitter, Youtube. Maybe some Quora and IMDB.” The redheaded assistant sitting across from him states as she places the GQ laptop across from him. Tom sees Harrison’s shoulders silently moving up and down, laughing at the idea of him having to go undercover on the site that he had been telling horror stories of for weeks leading up to this interview. “If any of these don’t sound good to you, we can skip them.”

“No, those sound fine.” Tom says. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

“Camera A ready?” She asks the camera man sitting diagonally from where she is. In response she gets a nod. “Tom when you’re ready say something like I’m Tom Holland and I’m going undercover on the internet to answer your questions. It’s actually me. Something like that.”

From across the room Harrison watches as Tom flows through the questions easily, hoping from site to site with better technical luck than he normally has. He can guess that some of the answers will be giffed and blasted around social media within minutes of this interview going live. It would shock him if it didn’t.

“Check it out mate.” On his screen flashes Tom saying I drink tea darling over and over again. “Your fans love it. Which is good, seeing how upset a lot of them are over the Disney/Sony thing.”

“Where is this?”

“Your favorite site.”

“Instagram?”

“Tumblr.” Tom rolls his eyes and falls back into the couch.

“Why are you even on there?”

“Why aren’t you? So many fangirls, so little time.” Tom shoots a dirty look at Harrison. “But in all seriousness, there’s a lot of great reactions and gifs that you can only find on Tumblr. You should check it out.” Tom reaches for Harrison’s computer but he pulls away. “Make your own account. It costs nothing.”

“Ugh, fine.” Pulling his phone out of his pocket, downloads the app and creates an account. Expecting one of the fangirls to have already have taken his common username, he’s surprised to be able to fill out the form with tomholland2013 as his username. Will that seem too much like him? Who knows. It’s not like he’s planning to actually use this site. He just using it to see what Harrison wants him to see. “What do I look up?”

“Just search the hashtag Tom Holland and look under recent for the most recent stuff. Most of it is your undercover interview. Or you can look under the Tom Holland top posts and see what your fans are obsessed with.” Tom is on the main page and sees a suggestion of blogs. A lot of them have his name intertwined in them with his picture as the profile picture. Guess it wouldn’t hurt to follow some blogs while he’s on here? 

The first one he follows is @starsholland who seems to write fanfictions about him but also shares a lot of marvel pictures. By clicking follow it brings up a lot of suggested blogs to follow. He clicks on @tonguetiedholland and sees another fanfiction writer but also a lot of posts between them and other bloggers. “Is this site just fanfiction?”

“No, there’s pictures and edits and stuff too. Why? You only interested in the fanfiction?”

“I only seem to find fanfictions.” Tom replies as he clicks on a blog called @tomhollandsstan, finding a mix of fanfictions, pictures and conversations. However his eyes scroll through one of the fics and find something much more raunchy than he anticipated finding. “Holy hell. What are they writing all of this about?”

“Reading something steamy Tommy?” Harrison teases. Tom feels his face flush with the embarrassment of knowing that there are girls and guys out there picturing stuff like this with him as the main feature. 

“I’m getting off this site. It’s bloody porn.”

“No wait, you’ve just stumbled down the wrong path. Let me send you some blogs to look at.” Harrison pulls up some of the ones that are mostly pictures and reactions. “What’s your tumblr handle? I’ll send them to you?”

“Tomholland2013.”

“Really? It wasn’t taken?”

“Nope.”

“See how long it stays secretive.”

“I don’t plan on using it.” Tom says as he hits follow on some of the other blogs that Harrison sent him, including one that was @Y/T/B. He found himself scrolling through it a little more in depth than he had with any of the other pages he had been on. The posts and your reactions were more what he expected of tumblr. Glee filled, but not thirsty. Hitting follow was a no brainer.

Across the country, your phone lights up as you get a notification from Tumblr. You’re about to swipe it away, since your day is currently going down hill as the recipes you’re in the middle of trying out are turning into pinterest fails. Also you should have checked before you started baking a cake that you had powdered sugar to make frosting, so you’ll have to do another pinterest deep dive for a frosting recipe since you can’t use your tried and true recipe.

However, the name on the notification catches your eye- Tomholland2013 has followed you. Wow someone finally snatched the name. There had been jokes around the fandom for months that someone should snag the name so Tom could have it whenever or if-ever he decided to join tumblr. But it seems someone has decided to be Tom. Whoever it is though seems to enjoy your posts because they’re liking your posts in succession. While your stand mixer whirls, you open to their blog and see there’s nothing there. Not even a banner or an icon photo. They must be a super new blog. You back out of their blog and almost back out of the app when you see a message from this Tom Holland wanna be.

From: Tomholland2013

I really like all your edits of Tom. Can I use one as my profile pic? X

You pause for a second before replying. This person wasn’t the first to ask to use one of your edits as a profile picture. Why does this feel different though? It has to just be because of the name. You click to reply to the ask.

I’m so surprised someone finally took the name. Me and @imanativeofswlondondahling had a bet going on for how long it was going to stay open in case Tom wanted it. Anyway, feel free to use my edits, or if you have a favorite picture of Tom, send it my way and I’ll make an edit for you.

You hit send on the ask before you can change your mind and then you turn back to your cake- which has probably been overwhipped now.

“Do I have a favorite picture of Tom?” Tom mumbles to himself as he reads over your reply. He’d love to see something that was made for him, but that means finding a picture of himself that he wants edited. “Harrison, com’ere mate. Take a selfie with me.”

“What’s this for?” Harrison asks before posing. @Y/T/B wouldn’t know this was just a selfie. You’d probably think he just did a Google deep dive.

“Need a profile picture. For my blog.” Tom teases, before clicking back to his messages on tumblr. There has to be a way to send a direct message instead of an ask like he did before. He had been planning to use an edit you had done of him saying I drink tea darling, but he wasn’t going to toss up having a custom made icon. After fiddling around on the app for a few minutes Tom finally figures out how to send a message and sends the picture he had snapped with Harrison a few minutes earlier. He tacks on a quick message asking her to do whatever she wants with the picture and to take as long as she wants and or needs. After hitting send, he clicks back to your blog's main page, trying to learn more about you.

At the top of your page, simply stated, it reads Y/N, Y/A, Tom Holland Fan. Well that does tell him you’re around his age, so that makes him feel less like a creeper. He wants to know everything he can about you, but all he can find through scrolling is mainly, well him. He can’t explain why, but there’s a sort of pull towards you from what he can find in your messages to other people and responding to anon messages, you seem like someone he’d want to be friends with. You have a great sense of humor and make jokes as often as you can in your messages. 

“Haz, can I turn on notifications for, like a certain blog?” Tom calls across the living room.

“Thought you weren’t going to use it.”

“There’s a couple blogs I like.”

“Sure, let me show you.” Tom passes his phone over and watches as Harrison turns on notifications for your blog. “Oh she’s great. Her reactions when news is posted is great.” A notification pops up on your screen. “Apparently she just posted.”

A cake maker I am not destined to be. Gordon Ramsay will make an idiot sandwich out of me.

A picture of a very sad looking cake appears under her text. “Maybe she should stick to making edits.” Harrison jokes. 

“Mate, that’s rude.”

“But it’s not wrong. Plus it’s not like yours would look much better.”

“Mine would be worse.” Taking his phone back, he clicks on the comment bubble and types out: looks better than anything I would make X His inbox dings a couple moments later. 

How have I never seen this photo of Harrison and Tom? Did it get posted while I was attempting to bake?

I think it’s an old photo. Found it on my phone. X And technically that’s not a lie.

Well I’ll hop on that edit. Any colors you prefer?

Blue or Red would be good I guess. X

I’ll get right on that. What’s with all the x’s?

Oh it’s a European thing. It’s just how we sign off texts and messagesX

If it’s annoying I can try and not do it?X

It’s fine. Just didn’t know why it was there. 

Do you think Tom does it?

Oh most definitely. What kind of Brit would he be if he didn’t?X

Well I’ll go get on the edit, hopefully I’ll have it done in the next day or so

No hurryX

Thanks againX

[muffinrecord]

I'm currently writing a post for r/HobbyDrama (a subreddit where people discuss, well, hobby drama) on the downfall of Magia Record NA. Is there anything you think I should add? I'm writing about the unrest that led up to the announcement (such as #NATempo and constant limited banners), the failure of Gallery Mode, and the devs' refusal to refund money.

I was wondering if anyone write anything there! Oh man. Where to start?

First off, someone did a short summary of the drama here, in one of the weekly scuffles threads. I commented on this don’t judge me pls.

I think some things to mention might be that MagiReco NA had a lot going wrong for it, right off the bat. It was region locked (so folks outside of North America had to use VPNS and/or cracked APKs to play*) and the pacing was very fast, which put a lot of potential players off. If you want an example of the pacing, then even I, an unemployed fuckwad, would have to frantically play to clear shops. The game’s release also had very little in the way of advertisements-- a lot of folks didn’t realize the game had even started until several months had passed. 

(*Edit from a helpful anon: As a Brit, I just want to clarify that we did not need a VPN to open the game/start an account to play on NA! (Nor JP, actually.) We only needed the VPN to download the game from Google Play in the first place. Once we had it, we could ditch the VPN if we so wished.”)

But not all was bad. The Devs did actually listen to the playerbase early on! After lots of whining, the devs implemented a change to daily missions after the Kazumi event, which gave us extra mirrors coins and AP pots to compensate for the faster pace. The Devs also handled The Great Rainbow Orb bug with a lot of class (didn’t ban anyone for taking advantage of it, gave magia stones to good players, ect). In fact, around this time last year we had a special event made for us (Thanksgiving) (which had its own drama lol), Black Friday Sales, and the announcement of NA-exclusive Ashley Taylor. 

That being said, I think November was also the time when things started to go wrong. You can see the list of events here, but we got “FM Kamihama” on November 5th, when folks were expecting it to occur in April (since it was an April Fools event, and since the game would keep events locked to their respectively holidays) . After that, we had another limited banner-- this time it was “Magia Clash!”, which no one expected this early. I mean, a lot of folks weren’t even sure if we’d get it since it was a crossover, but no one thought it’d be out so soon. You can see @leafbladie‘s post here about it as an example. We had jokes about NA Tempo before, but November is when we really started to ramp up on the unpredictability of the tempo, and not just the speed.

Additionally, other strange stuff was afoot. Mayu’s event, “Wait You Got it Wrong” was done out of order and finally started November 25th, which was really late in the schedule compared to when Mayu came out for JP. I wonder if they did that as a breathing period so we could spend more money for the upcoming limited events? 

Then when December started, we had the clusterfuck of Holy Mami and Holy Alina being released back to back. Unfortunately I don’t have screenshots of the google doc, but back then we were all religiously watching it to see what was datamined. Here’s a link to a post I made on it (not great). Something hilarious of note here is that these fools scheduled two back to back limited Christmas banners for December... But they ended on the 24th. On Christmas Day we had a Homura uncap + training event. :’)

Edit: also, I forgot, but Holy Alina was released so early that they had to lock her personal story since it would have spoiled plot stuff. And on this vein, they also had to edit Magia Clash since it had spoiler characters in it. However... I think Magia Clash was way overtuned for us, because it was made for a more mature playerbase with better characters than what we all had.

The back-to-back New Years events were less controversial as we all were kind of expecting it to happen because of Christmas. But I don’t think we expected the absolute flurry of limited banners about to head our way.

Another fuckery thing they did was have all of the limited spinoff banners rerun on February 3rd to February 9th. Why is this important? Well, fucking Madokami was released on February 25th. Sneaky bastards. And speaking of which, no one was expecting her then. Some folks thought she’d be out for Christmas, then it was mostly thought that she’d be out for our first anniversary (a few folks thought she’d be out for Thanksgiving to take advantage of Black Friday sales, but they were less common).

Another note for the weird AF NA tempo would be the time they did the opposite of speed and extended an unlimited event-- for Sayuki Steps Up. It was longer for us than it was for JP! I still don’t know what was up with that. 

Uhh let’s see here... Our One Year Anniversary was missing so much stuff (rerun of previous limited banners, chance to buy missing costumes, costume stories for example) that a lot of people, including myself, believed that they were going to do an Anniversary Part Two on JP’s anniversary date. So much so that we were all confused as fuck when “A New Beginning,” the game’s second anniversary event, came and ended before the JP anniversary even started. When Hanna’s banner came out, there were still folks convinced that we’d get something special for the JP anniversary (also: this is when Iroha’s Birthday is said to occur). But they didn’t do shit. They didn’t acknowledge it in game, and the most we got was a brief shoutout on twitter that was likely automated. 

Going back to “A New Beginning,” we were missing a whole half of the event. There was supposed to be a series of days where you’d get login stories. We never got that-- fans had to translate it and upload it to youtube for us to see it for ourselves. 

There was also the Bonus Ticket Campaign for the 400th anniversary-- lots of missing memoria were added to the game at that time. These memoria are unlimited on JP, but they were limited for us, and the devs didn’t tell us that. We all assumed that they would be unlimited for us too, until they were gone.

Another thing to note would be the revenue. Now, these aren’t entirely accurate I think, but they were of note: I think the worst dip for revenue occurred during the “See You Tomorrow” event, and you can see the reddit discussion for it here.

Regarding money, this game allowed you to still spend magia stones after the shutdown announcement. There was a scheduled time for when they’d no longer let you buy stuff, but it was still tacky and gross.

What else to note...

I think that’s about all I can think of at this moment, but feel free to reach out if you need anything else. I wasn’t always good about reblogging others’ content during the November - April time period, but I might have some reblogs of memes and other coping mechanisms we all came up with at that time. I can look for them so you don’t need to search this wretched blog by yourself :’)

[thegeminisage]

ooh 1 6 24 ❤️ -bma

BRIT MARLING ANON...what a timely appearance, i rewatched like all of her movies the other day and i'm rewatching the oa with a buddy. it's brit marling hours on this blog so hi!!!

1: Is writing cathartic or stressful for you?

cathartic for sure. it’s literally my very most favorite thing to do. i think there’s an element of catharsis in every single fic i’ve ever written - not just internally for the characters but also for me. i love fic because it’s like lol i can write about this extremely personal shit in public and show it to 1000s of people and still no one will ever know unless they like. Know Me. so yes writing is super cathartic. editing on the other hand....................... 🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪

6: What are some topics you will never write about?

i answered this one here and mostly the answer is “nothing, unless i’m just not interested in the subject” - i do have a better answer now which is that i used to think i would never write about (the fallout of) rape/sexual assault because i was not confident in the ability of the internet in general not to be horrible about it. but i’ve written fics where that sort of thing was LIGHTLY touched on a few times and it’s mostly been ok. part of the reason i’m so nervous about triptych 3 is that that’s going to be in there a little more and i’m like. sweating bullets lmao.

24: Which fic of yours do you wish people would ask about more? Why?

DEFINITELY @cambionverse - my pride and joy! cally and i work so hard on it and we still have, generously, a dozen readers whomst i all know personally <3 and not that i don’t adore them, i just wish it had the kind of audience that some of my more popular stuff generates because i think it’s maybe the best thing i’ve ever worked on. runner up is my teen wolf fics, which i didn’t talk about on here when i was writing them (i made a side blog) bc at the time i had minors following me. so they’re not as popular as they might have been if i had blogged about them here instead. initially i was going to publish them anonymously because they’re Weird but i’m actually really proud of them!

[fic ask game]