#fictional article

[thelocalmuffin]

📢Breaking News!

Liliana is debuting as an idol in the @feidolzine! I wrote her article covering the crowds and a bit of her history before her big show!

Make sure to check out her upcoming performance along with the rest of the FE cast before 8/10! You can pick it up here!

[winters-tales]

Oh, the IRON-y!

Almost 100 years after the end of the war, with no further threats from the Fae, the public starts to question: is IRON really worth the taxpayer’s money?

September 2100 | By Yvette Lineham, Post-war correspondent

The Incursion Reaction Operations Network was originally founded in the immediate aftermath of the war to make up for a shortfall in military presence; the Fae may have left, but the breaches were still showing up, and it was almost unanimously agreed that such a group would be needed. Over the years, they’ve held bases of operations all over the country, but due to budget cuts over the years this has shrunk down to just twenty posts in total. With election season coming up, IRON is a hot-button topic, with some arguing for complete closure, and others arguing to continue the trend of closing things down gradually.

One has to wonder just how often a situation requiring their input occurs; is it often enough that we need the branch at all? Rachel Henson, MP for Derby where IRON’s central base of operations is, has some thoughts on that.

“The RNLI is essential, and a charity organisation,” she tells me between meetings. “They are there to fill the gaps the coastguard cannot, and we are very grateful to them for their volunteer work, especially as it’s just as dangerous as what IRON used to do.” Used to? “Yes, ‘used to.’ No more. Look, they were absolutely necessary in the aftermath of the war, there’s no denying that at all, but it’s been almost a century since the war ended, and there’s been absolutely no further incursions since then. I’d wager most of the calls they get are for perfectly ordinary animals that look a bit off in low light.”

David Raynor, formerly a Sergeant in the Armed Forces and now heading up IRON, disagrees when I mention Ms Henson’s thoughts on the matter.

“The Honourable Member is welcome to join me on a normal day’s work, and see just how many reports we get that are false positives,” he says between calls. “The thing is, it’s not just Fae we have to watch for. She’s absolutely right that there have been no incursions from Fae, but there are other things out there just waiting for a breach. They’re what we watch for more than anything - and they tend to work really hard at looking like ordinary animals.”

I ask what he means by that, and he responds by spinning in his chair and retrieving a binder stuffed full of pages. He flips through some of the entries before laying the pages open for me, and spins the binder so I can see.

“We call them veil-walkers,” he says. “ They’re the beasties that aren’t part of the Fae Wilds, but they’re not part of our world either. Most common one we get are these, and they are nasty. If I get a call for these, I need a full team of eight to take them down, and that’s getting harder and harder to justify the expenses for.”

The photograph he shows me is of a deer, looking perfectly ordinary, with a full head of antlers that any game hunter would kill to mount on their wall. He flips the page, and there are a series of photographs that seem to be taken in rapid succession; the deer looks at the camera, the deer is running towards the camera - and the final one, incredibly blurred and overexposed, shows the deer lunging forwards, mouth stretched wide, with teeth far sharper than any deer need.

It’s hard to know what to say in the face of such a sight. I didn’t have it in me to ask if the photographer made it out alive; if that deer was one of the bigger ones, then anyone would have a hard time beating it in a run.

“If we weren’t needed, we’d have been closed already,” the former Sergeant tells me quietly as he takes the binder back. Looking at the shelves, I noticed that it’s not the only binder, and each are numbered, 1 to 12. “Folks think we’re not needed because we’re good at what we do, but we’re a victim of our own success. If we’re there to deal with a breach successfully so nobody gets hurt, you all wonder what the point of us is. If we’re not there quick enough and someone does get hurt, you wonder what you’re even paying us for.”

His point is a sobering one - they’d likely be closed down far quicker if random civilians lost their lives on a regular basis. The fact that they’re still operational, albeit at a greatly reduced capacity, is living proof to how essential they are - and nothing short of a miracle that there haven’t already been casualties as a result of the reduced funding. For the time being, we should be grateful that IRON are there to keep things like this from getting in, so we can all sleep a little safer at night.

--

[foxwithakeyboard]

The Deer Masked Men.

I’m back in my home county of Essex for the weekend as I stay with my parents, and met up with a couple friends whom I went to Secondary School with. It was just a usual meet up, went out to the cinema then went bowling (honestly it’s getting a bit too pricey). During a walk in the afternoon, as the sun was setting into dusk, we passed by Howards Park. I used to sit there and read books in the…

[marzipanandminutiae]

in view of Netflix and a few other networks apparently announcing that they are no longer requiring actors to wear corsets/stays, but framing it as the ultimate in feminist allyship against an Oppressive Historical Torture-Garment (and presumably typing their press releases one-handed, if you catch my drift), I have a few things to say:

1. I presume they will also be condemning Spanx, dieting, weight loss surgery, obsessive exercise, breast or pectoral or ab implants, Flat Tummy Tea, editing actors’ bodies in post, etc. since this is all about promoting healthy body image. ...right?

2. Okay, this one is not tongue-in-cheek: if a costume designer forces you to wear massively uncomfortable stays or corsets and tells you your discomfort is an inherent feature of that garment type, they are lying. All the articles on this cited reports from actresses saying they threw up because of Regency stays or couldn’t eat in Edwardian corsets. And while  I’m sure some of that is giving interview audiences the sensationalism they want to hear, I believe them in general. 

Someone needs to tell them that that’s not normal.

I have worn corsets and stays a lot in my life. I know people who wear them as everyday support garments. And neither I nor anyone I know has been seriously hindered in normal activities by them. There are even photos and videos of women from corset-intensive eras climbing glaciers, playing sports, having snowball fights, doing manual labor...living their lives

 Sure, there have always been and will always be people who find corsets or stays inherently uncomfortable- that’s why it’s good to have many support garment options available for people who need them. And there have always been and will always be ill-made, ill-fitting, or extreme examples of the type- I’m not  saying corsets are always The Most Comfortable Thing Ever For Everyone, because that’s not universally true of any garment.

But these production companies have been hurting actresses under the guise of “historical accuracy,” and this latest pronouncement is just another attempt to shift the blame. 

Don’t let them get away with it.

EDIT: Apparently the Official nature of the source for this announcement is in question, but the gist of the post still stands, so I’m leaving it up. Will edit further if new developments arise.

[fernsproutxx]

GR96

@fusionspruntcityjournal

So how do you produce electricity with living plants? Simply by using the natural processes that already occur. In short: the plant produces organic matter via photosynthesis. Only part of this organic matter is then used for its own growth. The rest is excreted via the roots. Around the roots, bacteria feed on the organic matter and they release electrons. If you’re able to harvest the electrons into an electrode, you can couple the first electrode to a counter-electrode and build an electrical circuit, like in a battery. The electrons flow back into the natural system via the counter-electrode, so it’s completely circular. Because we use the natural processes around the plant, nature is not harmed. It works day and night, summer and winter. It only stops when the plant and its surroundings completely dry up or freeze over.

Sedum Oviferum

Sedum pachyphyllum is a ground-hugging succulent that spreads by rooting fallen stems and leaves. The succulent also goes by the names “Cerise Moonstones” or “Mauve Pebbles”. The short and stumpy round leaves have a light silvery-purple color; positioned at a right angles to the stem and curve upward, which in the wintertime, the tips of said leaves will turn into a notorious red.

Sedum Oviferum is a succulent that is very easy to grow and maintain. It is a resilient plant that can tolerate drought, moist and dry soils, and when given adequate exposure to sunlight and sufficient water, Cerise Moonstones will thrive outdoors. The Sedum Oviferum succulent grows at its best with regular exposure to sunlight. If Mauve Pebbles are planted in an area in a garden that gets plenty of sunlight per day, you will be rewarded with bright coloured leaves and flowers. In winter and early spring, Cerise Moonstones actively grow and produce blooms featuring red-orange petals and sepals that have the same pigmentation as the leaves. The flowers produced by Cerise Moonstones have a bell shape and a sugary fragrance.

Subterranean Clover

Trifolium subterraneum is also known as the subterranean clover (often shortened to sub clover), or subterranean trefoil. The plant's name comes from its underground seed development, a characteristic not possessed by other clovers. It can thrive in poor-quality soil where other clovers cannot survive.

This species is self-fertilizing, unlike most legume forage crops such as alfalfa and other clovers, which are pollinated by insects, especially honeybees. It is also grown in places where the extreme ranges of soil type and quality, rainfall, and temperature make the variable tolerances of sub clover especially useful.

Functionality

GR96 are powered by any plant of choosing on their back pod (the one we are going to discuss has a giant Sedum Oviferum and multiple sub clovers to operate) which is held in place by five strong suction cups. They’re manufactured for community gardens (strictly only one per garden), but they can also be bought by high class citizens for private properties, though at a way bigger cost since they’re financed by the city.

They can use their hands as scissors, shovels, and for watering (hence the big forearms, for storing the water), the latter which they do by dipping their hands in a bucket, opening the valve on their forearms so they can fill them up and releasing the water from the pinholes on their palms. Their “eyes” are actually a screen that can show plenty expressions, but the two circles above that peripheral screen are the real environmental sensors. They also have the same sensors on their ankles for inspecting the lower plants and ground without the need of kneeling, and their feet are shaped in a way so that weight is evenly distributed, lowering the chances of damaging a plant if they were to step on it. The ear like protrusions are small solar panels, used as backup energy (they don’t have any communication properties). Their speaker aka their “voice” is the mohawk-like structure on the top (which also has their series barcode 128 on the lower back), but when they speak there are these strips at the sides of the face mask that light up with the volume. The mask (non removable) has a set of pipes that are used for analyzing the air quality and humidity of the area surrounding them.

[susieandhobbes]

The SydCarmy backlash is so Boring

It's many other things besides, but primarily, it's so fucking BORING.

There's a very specific kind of irrational anger that comes with ships featuring a Black women x a leading white boy of the month and every sorry excuse for why it's definitely not racist is so played out

"What's wrong with a platonic friendship between men and women?! We need more non-romantic representation"

Yawn

"There just isn't any chemistry"

Cliche

"I just think she's too good for him actually. She's so strong/independent/amazing, she deserves better"

mhm if you say so

"What if she/he were gay instead? I think this would be a great time for more LGBT rep :)"

Yep, convenient

"It's definitely not a race thing because I ship her with this white person!" (A side character who is either a derivative of the lead, poorly written, or has minimal screentime)

Oh indeed

"I ship her with this Black person!" (Often times the only other Black person in the show or movie, no matter how little they interact or how little interest she has in him, in a violent case of "pair the spares")

Sigh

I can pick any popular swirl ship dating back to fucking 10 and Martha in 2007 and find 50-11 variations of the same excuses. Truly, I'd rather y'all just say you don't want Black women's hands on your fav white men but I'm pretty sure like 85-95% of the people aren't even self-aware enough to realize that that is their issue. So until then, can we at least switch up the damn script?

[70sscifiart]

I have an interview out on Crime Reads about my new art book Worlds Beyond Time!

Check it out here for a conversation on Galileo magazine, the artist-author relationship, cover art trends, and more.

[ofswanlake]

BTS’ JUNGKOOK TAKES LEGAL ACTION AGAINST MALICIOUS COMMENTS FOLLOWING DATING NEWS WITH BLACKPINK’S NARI

˗ˏˋ ꒰ ҉ ꒱ ˎˊ˗ ୭̥⋆*｡ published january 2, 2024 ╱ written by parklily

THIS IS FICTION.

BTS’ Jungkook is taking legal action against malicious comments.

Yesterday, Big Hit Music and YG Entertainment confirmed dating rumors between Jungkook and BLACKPINK’s Nari.

On January 2, 2024, Big Hit Music announced that legal action would be taken against malicious comments regarding Jungkook and Nari’s relationship.

The statement reads as follows:

Hello, this is Big Hit Entertainment,

Following the news about BTS’ Jungkook’s private life, we and the singer earnestly requested for warm respect to be shown, but offensive comments with malicious intentions including those with false information and slander against the singer and his private life have been found online.

These severely violate personality rights, and we are informing you that we will take strong civil and criminal action through a legal representative.

Big Hit continues to collect evidence by closely monitoring malicious postings, as well as reporting and deleting such content. We ask that you make continued use of our hotline (protect@bighitcorp.com) to report any cases of abuse.

Source (1) (2)

. . . VIEW COMMENTS

[ +3848, -938 ] Comments against Nari, too? He must’ve asked them to protect her too… T_T Yah, Jungkook, why must you be so perfect? Nari, you’re so lucky!!!

[ +3624, -738 ] Now that’s a real man.

[ +3097, -991 ] this pairing is crazy i KNOW toxic stans are pissed and this makes them even more mad

[ +2848, -422 ] They’re grown adults, leave them alone.

[ +2139, -394 ] bet they’ll end up breaking up just like jennie and kai

[ +1723, -212 ] date me instead jungkook

[aclickbaittitle]

What do Fiction Podcasts have to say about the future?

Whenever you write a story set years from now, how you construct the world around it creates a new way to see the future, a fictional image to a reality we could be headed towards.

Fiction podcasts love to play within the sci-fi genre, and the thousands of audio dramas they have given us new pictures of what our world could look like in the next century (or a few years closer).

In this article I want to analyze the settings in the following shows: Hello from the Hallowoods, Desperado and The Strange Case of Starship Iris.

Hello From the Hallowoods

Hello From the Hallowoods welcomes us to a world ravaged by black rains and capitalism’s greed. After a natural (but man-made) disaster involving acid rain and flooding the world’s successions gave birth to two different types of beings: those who prefer to dream in a company’s “Prime Dream” and those who stay awake to continue living.

Even though the world is post-apocalyptic on paper, it never feels like it. Rather it is enchanted, there are woods where gods, revenants, devils, giants and zombies fall in love with themselves and with each other, places where community is found.

This, I attribute this to the fact that most characters don’t lament a nebulous “end of the world”, since this is the world they have always been living in and they are going to make the best of it: find family, friends, lovers, build homes and destroy bigots.

You leave the world of Hello From the Hallowoods knowing that even a doomed world is worthy of being awake for.

Desperado Podcast

Desperado Podcast also takes us to a world that was looted, but this time mainly by religious colonialism. 

Neo-colionalism has made itself tangible through genocides and direct targeting to believers that worship other than the “Old man in the Sky”.  In its first episode a community in México which revere La Catrina (a goddess in the show inspired by a popular figure in mexican art) is wiped out by the crusaders. 

From there our protagonist Elio is the sole survivor of his people, however all is not lost as he teams up with Talia (the chosen of Baron Samedi) and Shinji (whom I believe is a death kami?).

Elio now literally carries the memories of his community as the vessel for her goddess. Likewise in Desperado, the magic of the characters is the legacy their ancestors gave them, and it is what keeps them alive in the violent world. 

Though if we are ever to worry that our protagonist could fall into its clutches, the structure of the world soothes our preoccupations. You see, it is the characters within the story that are narrating their own experiences to the audience so we know that after all the pain, they ended up safe.

What Desperado tells us about the future is that, even with the ongoing genocides, white-washing of our culture, and neo-colonialism in general we will end up victorious in the end, and that our history will be forever within our memory.

The Strange Case of Starship Iris

The Strange Case of Starship Iris, is the most sci-fi audio drama out of the bunch. It follows the crew of the Rumour, a smuggler's ship, as they try to uncover the dark secrets of the Federation and evade persecution.

As with the other two properties, the future is not an easy world, but our characters are making the most of it.

In a post-war galaxy, the crew of the Rumour is smuggling space-ship parts, medicine, and erotic magazines until they find a help alarm coming from the Starship Iris and rescue biologist Violet Liu. From there they are involved in a mystery which, if the truth comes to life, they could be charged with treason against the Intergalactic Republic. 

Throughout the two seasons of the podcast, Violet Liu and company heal together the scars that the war and its result: the Intergalactic Republic left them. They fight against the government not only through robberies, infiltration, and coordinated efforts with rebel groups but also by eating latkes, drinking, singing shanties, and getting gay jewish married.

To conclude

if queer podcasts are telling us something about the future, it is that it may be equally messed up as the present but that queer, disabled people of color will exist beyond the end of the world and that even in the bleakest of futures we will continue to love and thrive.

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Obessed with Ryan’s referencing Mayan culture in his interview in connection with Catholicism and Latino culture.

Because Mayan culture and much of pre colonisation South American culture had a much more open and accepting view on homosexuality (that is not to say homophobia didn’t exist).

Indeed homosexual acts often formed part of Mayan religious rituals and public sexual ceremonies were commonplace which included queer eroticism and sexual display. And Mayan Shaman often performed homosexual acts as part of their communing with the spirit world and the healing treatments they provided people.

It isn’t until the Spanish conquest and the imposing of catholic values that we see things change - sodomy was used as justification for the enslaving, subjugation and slaughter of indigenous peoples.

So yeah - Ryan choosing to bring up the Mayan culture (specifically as other SA cultures such as the Mexica were less tolerant) and the as a part of discovering one’s roots and who you are is so very interesting! It’s just adding another layer to the likelyhood of Eddie’s unrepression and gay awakening being a big part of his arc in season 8.

[fob4ever]

pete, 2004

[noknowshame]

the summary of the monkees' movie head (1968) is easily in the top ten most jerkable wikipedia articles

[iwrite-xo]

-- Healing sucks ass.

" I don’t think people truly understand what healing feels like until they’ve gone through it themselves. "

⋆✦•┈๑⋅⋯ ⋯⋅๑┈•✦

Why am I crying at 2 PM simply because I happened to come across a meme they would have loved? Seriously, what kind of fool am I to miss and long for someone who is perfectly fine without me in their life? The worst part is that, at the end of the day, my heart somehow manages to hold on to love for that particular person. I gave up trying to understand my heart a long time ago. Despite attempting to lead with my brain and remain logical, my heart ends up winning arguments 90% of the time, if not 100%.

Whether it be friendships or even romantic interests, it always ends in heartbreak. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the character development I go through later on. That’s a whole other topic to write about, but in short, I feel like a brand-new person.

It’s comparable to a snake shedding its old skin to unveil its striking new pattern, but significantly healthier. I completely understand that life is a constant cycle filled with new experiences and eventually learning to let them go once they’ve served their purpose. But the pain that comes with it? The hurt you have to endure for months on end, wondering when it will finally cease?

I don’t think people truly understand what healing feels like until they’ve gone through it themselves. The constant overthinking about whether or not I made the right choice by letting them go for my own sanity. The urge to reach out to them overpowers any rational thinking. When you finally reach out and things don’t turn out as you wished, you can feel your heart shatter. It’s as if the universe confirms that your time with them has truly ended.

The feeling of your heart constricting in agony due to the heavy realization that you might never encounter them again. The constant replaying of past memories and desperately wishing you could relive them one more time before they slip away. The random breakdowns and confusion as to why that is, especially when you’ve finally been doing okay. The entire journey of it all is this huge pit of never-ending suffering, and at times, it feels impossible to even get out of bed.

So in case you needed to hear this today, healing isn’t linear. It never is and never will be. You will have to go through hell and back with the anguish that comes along with it. It is okay to feel helpless and realize that, despite healing not being an easy journey, it somehow always ends up being one you can reminisce about down the road. Remember, you will never heal by going back to what broke you. Never.

please do support me by reblogging! Thank you!! <33 hope you enjoyed!

[goldenstarprincesses]

Alfred: An academically smart and intelligent man that probably has multiple college degrees on top of his formal colonial aristocratic English education

Also Alfred: Stunned into tragic silence in the 1940s when finding out the trojan horse story was just a legend

[37sommz-archive]

✼. THRU SPACE 'N TIME | EXORDIUM.

NOW PLAYING: michaela sommers signs with alfa romeo. ✼. view:⠀masterlist⠀⸻⠀join the taglist⠀⸻⠀request.

✼. OCTOBER 12, 2018 — Michaela Sommers has secured a one-year contract at Alfa Romeo that will see her make her Formula One debut during the 2019 season.

The 18-year-old Australian is currently racing in the Formula Two Championship and is set to be the presumed champion, a title secured after the Grand Prix in Sochi. Sommers' signing comes with a piece of historical significance. As a signed driver, guaranteed a drive in F1, she would be the first woman to compete in a Grand Prix in the 21st century, only the second after Lella Lombardi.

Despite a slew of negative press surrounding a particularly tense response to a journalist's "misogynistic" question at the beginning of the season, Sommers has turned out a stunning season for Prema Racing. Having led the Drivers' Championship since the Austrian Grand Prix in July, many have questioned why the signing has come so late considering the Australian's dominance. In a short message posted to her Twitter in August, Sommers called for fans to cease speculation as she was "carefully considering all options that best align with [her] goals and priorities".

"There is no question Michaela will secure an F1 seat for the 2019 season," said Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner during a press conference in Spa after the driver secured another double win. The Brit continued, "The real question is the personalities at play. She's got a lion of a manager behind her, and some opinions of her own. So, she will drive, but where and how long? That remains to be seen."

The principal's comments were brushed off by Sommers who joked, "We still listen to Christian Horner?" in the media pen at Monza the following weekend. The response drew amused chuckles from George Russell and Alex Albon - both of whom have yet to secure F1 seats for 2019 - as well as members of the media.

Newly appointed Alfa Romeo Racing team boss, Fred Vasseur, is more than pleased with the signing stating, "It is always good to add a new driver to the lineup. Mickey is so eager to learn and we are positive she will produce good results with the senior guidance of Raikonnen - who she has worked with previously as a Ferrari Reserve."

While many have taken to social media to voice their support for the signing, others have questioned the timing of the historic moment. Feminist commentators have even stated that the FIA and Alfa Romeo officials should be "ashamed" of the amount of time it took to sign another woman to an F1 seat. Another point of controversy lies in an alleged clause of Sommers' contract in which the Australian is prohibited from making any "political statements that may cause agitation amongst patrons of the sport".

✹.⠀⠀،،⠀COMMENTS.

anonymous commenter: girl on the grid, we won!!!

anonymous commenter: the lengths this sport will go to in order to appease the woke leftist feminists never fails to disappoint me. shame on the fia and alfa romeo for succumbing to the pressure.

anonymous reply: mate what? she's leading the f2 championship with one race left and it's not close lmfao

anonymous commenter: proud of her for taking the high road on that horner comment. next time i need them in the boxing ring though. peace and love

anonymous commenter: foaming at the mouth to know what j*s verstappen thinks about this

✼. taglist:⠀

@cha-hot @certifiedlesbianbaddie @nichmeddar

@d3kstar @thewannabewriter @hwalllllllelujah

@pamacs-macs @thearchieves @doodlehunz

@lavisenri @evie-119 @bxdbxtxh

@seaweed-orchid @glitterquadricorn @ginghampearlsnsweettea

@alliwantisadonut @hiireadstuff @emilyval1

@scarlettwidow3000 @anotherblackreader @sv5beehives

@mynameisangeloflife @tellybearryyyy

[star-trek-dumb-comics]

I legit just spent 2 and a half hours reading memory alpha articles it's so good I just love accumulating knowledge that is objectively completely useless