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nevermindirah · 3 years

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#nile freeman #linguistics #TOG POC Love Fest #nileweek2021 #tog meta #tog #long post #mine #antiblackness #jewish things #hi i'm an antizionist jew no i don't really want to talk about it

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astranva · 4 years

Text

Dream With Me

Word Count: 3.8k

Warnings: Some explicit language? Not really though.

Category: Pure fluff!

Summary: One thing Harry loves about his girlfriend is her ability to make up the most interesting bedtime stories for him every night. How does it make her feel when he narrates one of her own to the world?

The one where Y/N makes up bedtime stories for Harry and he records one for the world to listen to.

When you tour the world, sing and prance on stages, write, model, play the guitar and piano, get interviewed, have people follow you everywhere, it’s safe to say that the best time to relax and let loose is when you sleep.

Harry enjoyed staying home with his girlfriend more than anything. Relaxed, chill days were his favorite; days when she’d be on the couch reading or on her laptop playing whatever video game she decided to try with people from online, he’d be lounging lazily beside her, his breath steady and calm when she’d run her fingers through his hair momentarily or when he’d be subconsciously playing with hers.

Days when their apartment would smell like pastries after she’d try baking something she saw on the television, or when it would smell like her favorite homecooked meal that Harry’s eyes would almost glimmer with happiness when she’d sneak and steal from the food he was cooking, watching her closing her eyes and a smile making its way to her face the moment she does, and he’d know that he has done a good job this time, again.

Harry loved the domestic life as much as he loved his job as an artist and entertainer. The euphoria he got the moment the crowd sang back to him, is one that he felt he achieved as well when he was with his girlfriend of 2 years when she’d be dancing to his songs in his clothes. The happiness he felt when someone would hug him and tell him that he means so much to them, is one he feels within just her smile in mornings or the soft, random kisses she’d give him. The bashfulness that would engulf him when someone would tell him that he’s good looking, was one that he felt when his girlfriend would tease him by wolf-whistling when he’d show her a new outfit or suit or just going anywhere really.

Don’t even get him started on how he feels with every single “I love you” she promises him because he was sure there would be no feeling close to what he feels when he hears those words from her, and especially her.

But there was something else about her, too, that nobody could give him but her – her stories.

Touring the world and doing what he does is hectic, of course, it is. It can be stressful, pressuring, and just plain tiring. So when he goes back home later than her after her job, and he goes straight into her arms, she knows he’s going to need a story to sleep better.

He’d nuzzle his head in her neck, smelling the scent of her shampoo with a whiff of her bodywash, his arms around her waist, hers around his neck, her hands moving to gently and lightly scratch his scalp.

“How was your day?” Harry would mumble, closing his eyes and letting her softly sway them in their place.

“Was alright,” she’d answer softly, “How was yours?”

And the sigh he’d release would be enough of an answer – tiring.

“Take a quick shower, yeah? Are you hungry?” She’d pull back to look at him, a soft smile on her lips as she asks him.

Harry would shake his head, “No, still feel too full from lunch.”

“Let me grab you an apple though. Lunch was a long time ago.” She’d pat his chest, “Go. How do we feel tonight? Do we feel like rescuing dwarfs or ending capitalism?” She’d grin, and it would instantly make him grin.

“Anything is fine. Just want to sleep with you beside me.”

On some days, they’d lie on their bed and she’d make up a story about how there were 3 dwarfs who lived in a mansion with everything miniature-sized and would climb each other and wear a coat and a fedora whilst outside. Why? “You can’t tell me you never wanted to try that, Harry!”

Then on other days, she’d tell a story about a boy named Harry with a rapidly growing fish in his backpack. Ring any bell? She remembers starting that series a long time ago with him, adding twists, comedy, and metaphors along the way until Harry decided to surprise her one day with an idea for his music video;

“Hey, baby, remember the fish in my backpack? We’re using that in Adore You! See you soon! Love you xx” he had texted.

Other days she’d make him think with the most random questions and assumptions.

“History is biased, Harry. When will the world stop considering Christopher Columbus a discoverer and instead take accountability for what he did to the natives of the land? What if Christopher never happened?”

And he’d be looking at her as she talked, one of her hands playing with his hair while the other moved all over the place for emphasis and to show how absolutely wonderful and amusing that mess of her mind was.

Some days, she’d be too tired. Drained from a day at her work, she’d be lazily playing with hair as her story was told in some sort of slurs.

“And then-And then they held hands, got on their horses and- no, they got on their skateboards,” she’d chuckle sleepily, “And they ran away. They didn’t have children because they didn’t want children and figured that the world was too ugly for that right now, so they adopted a blind dog and a deaf cat, and lived happily ever after.” She’d be out the moment she finishes, and Harry would be smiling at that and his heart thumping with love for her and love for how hard she has been trying to keep the ritual of a bedtime story alive, even when she was too sleepy and tired. It could be a 1-minute story and he’d feel better, and lighter.

It was one day when Harry went back home, turmoil evident and clear on his face. She noticed how tense his body was, how he clenched his jaw and saw him rubbing his temple as he took off his cardigan and was proven right when she put her laptop on the couch beside her and Harry took a breath before letting her know what happened;

“Fucking paparazzi. Do they think that’s an actual job?”

That day, he had showered and changed into one of her oversized hoodies (he was sure it used to belong to him) and shorts before joining her in their living room to find a tuna club sandwich waiting for him with a small cup of orange juice, his girlfriend under a blanket which she had retrieved when he was showering.

He told her all about the drama he faced that day over his tuna sandwich, giving her “thank you!”s every single time she agreed with him on how annoying they were.

“I get that people are different and that the economy is shit and everybody’s doing anything to get money but trying to trip me so they could get a photo? Why?” He rhetorically asked, shrugging.

“I agree, like,” her eyebrows furrowed as one of her arms reached out as if she was talking to somebody else but him, “Treat people with kindness, you assholes!”

And then there was a pause before Harry began to giggle, all the way to a loud laugh and struggling to catch his breath. She joined him, choosing to tackle him in a hug, hugging his head close to her chest before kissing his forehead, “Nobody is allowed to make you mad, you hear me, Styles? Now finish up, I think I know what to say tonight.”

She had taken a seat on Harry’s piano right after she uttered her last word, Harry turning his body around as he watched her with excitement and amusement. She cleared her throat, “This next song is dedicated to my mans,” Harry laughed, taking his phone in his hand and recording her as a keepsake, “It’s a song I worked very hard on. Stayed up all day and night.” She played offkey notes on the piano, “Harry, love,” she said slowly as she turned her head around to look at him, laughing when she found him recording her with the biggest grin on his face, “This one is for you.”

He had taught her how to play the Happy Birthday theme song on the piano when she joined him on tour once and began laughing when he heard her playing exactly that but with her own lyrics.

“Y/N makes me good stories, Y/N makes me good stories, Y/N makes me good stories,” she pressed the wrong key, letting out a tiny “oop” before continuing, “And she will make me sleep better toooonight.”

After, what she called a “skit”, they both brushed their teeth, did their night-time skincare routine, and were finally in bed.

Taking their usual position, Harry was on his side, looking at her with one arm draped around her waist. She was on her side, looking at him, one hand playing with his hair.

“Let’s try something different,” she suggested softly. “Close your eyes.”

Harry smiled at her, squinting teasingly which caused her to chuckle softly.

“Close your eyes, you baboon.”

So he did.

“Follow my instructions. Take a deep breath in,” she instructed, watching and hearing him follow her, “And then out. In.” He did as was said, “And out.”

Harry felt like almost sleeping from just how soft and gentle she was being, with the couple of deep breaths that he took, it felt like he could really feel how soothing the setting was; his hair played with, on clean sheets that smelled like the vanilla detergent they both loved mixed with her own scent, her presence beside him. It felt like heaven.

“Have you ever wondered what happens when you sleep?” She rhetorically asked, “Where you go, and what you feel; the places that you seek. When you start to drift away, your mind becomes a book,” she paused, “That writes itself then fades away before you wake to look.”

Harry almost swooned at what she said, embracing the calmness her words, voice, and overall presence radiated.

“Tonight, we’re going to think about anything you’d like.”

His mind instantly flashed to a scene that he had been dreaming and thinking too much about. The beach, him and his Y/N, wet with water and laughing before 3 kids were squealing and running around them. Call him a sap, but he saw a future with her and he loved kids.

“But let’s visualize some scenes. Clear your mind, love.” The hand which played with his hair stopped momentarily before he felt her knuckles softly caressing his temple and down to his cheek, making his reflexively smile which instantly put a smile on her face. “Let’s head to places more celestial.” She whispered.

“Imagine you’re there beneath the stars, which when you pause to think about it, actually, you are.” A sweet, gentle kiss followed her statement on his nose, watching him scrunch it with a wide smile and a hot face with a blush.

“You are, too.” He whispered, inching closer to her.

“Hush.” She said jokingly but blushed, before continuing the story which she had actually been thinking about for a while but saved for the right time.

She went on, describing sceneries for him and watching his lips tug into smiles as he listened to her, his face showing her different emotions despite having his eyes closed.

“Travel with me to moonlit valleys, blanketed with heather, the kind of landscape you and I could dream about forever.”

Harry was sure that if he wasn’t so sleepy, he’d be grabbing his journal to jot down everything she was saying and make it into a song, but he couldn’t cut their moment short. He didn’t have the heart to.

His Y/N continued, letting him relax more and more with every word she said.

He probably smiled the widest and felt like his heart would beat its way out of chest when she spelled out the word “love” to him, pecking different parts on his face with a kiss as she did.

“L,” she pecked his nose, “O,” she pecked one of his eyes and giggled when his face scrunched up in surprise, “V,” she pecked his temple, “E,” she pecked his cheek, “Love.” She kissed him softly and quickly.

And when she told him to think of “the ones he cherishes the most”, Harry couldn’t help but let out a low sigh of contentment as he imagined a garden with his family, friends and in between them, right under a spotlight, stood his Y/N in a flowy white floral dress, smiling so lovingly at him.

That night, Y/N watched Harry’s body get more relaxed by the minute, breath getting steadier until she realized that he had fallen asleep, his arm limp on her waist and his leg draped over hers.

“Goodnight.” She whispered.

He woke up before her the following morning, with a smile that proved that he, in fact, had a good and peaceful night's sleep. When he woke up, he realized that she was spooning him; one of her arms holding him tight, her leg over him, her head leaning against the back of his as he held her hand which was draped on his stomach.

Harry had to pause and reflect. Yesterday’s bedtime stories were probably one of her best and he was sure that if his Y/N decided to take that to the next level and write it down and read it to help ease those with a difficulty sleeping or anxiety, she would be helping out more people than she would imagine.

He stayed in his place for a while, scrolling through his phone and watching the previous night’s video without sound so that he wouldn’t disturb her. He watched how she laughed in that video, how domestically free and shamelessly herself she was, how she effortlessly managed to carry the weight of that day’s burdens off of his shoulders and throw it away.

Y/N woke up not long after and Harry felt it when he heard her let out a groan before she stretched, him instantly turning around to see her. “Good morning, beastie.” He joked as he always did to her in the morning.

“Morning, beauty.” She replied sleepily with a smile. “How was your sleep?”

“I’m certain that you’re a magician, Y/N. I’m sure of it.”

“Oh shoot. Caught.” She teased, wrapping herself around him by climbing and lying on top of him, feeling his arms wrap around her. “But really, how was it?”

“It was amazing. What was that last night?” He asked gently.

“What? You didn’t like it?”

“Like-Y/N, I loved it. That was some therapeutic shit right there.” His chest vibrated with chuckles, “Seriously. I think I want you to record that.”

Her eyebrows rose up and as did her head as she looked at him, “Really?”

“Yes!” He nodded eagerly.

“Wait, I have to show you something now that you mentioned it.” She grinned before climbing off of him and getting out of bed and walking towards her bedside table, mumbling about how she could’ve “shifted closer and gotten it without having to get out of bed.” She opened her drawer, taking out the notebook Mitch had gifted her for some reason last Christmas. It was a medium-sized notebook which had koalas on it with the title being “I’m 100% koalafied to become president!”

She sat beside Harry, who sat up and looked at her with both confusion and excitement as she shuffled through the pages.

“Here,” she stopped at one page, “That’s like, an outline? I don’t know what you call it. But I decided I’d write a bedtime story for you and that’s what I read to you yesterday.” She looked like a kid who had just won first place at a spelling-bee competition as she gave Harry her notebook.

His eyes fell on the title, “Dream with me.” He said softly.

“It’s cliché I know, forget about it.” She said bashfully, waving her hands around.

“No, it’s not,” Harry shook his head, “I did dream with you. Darling, this is incredible.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes!” Harry laughed excitedly, putting the notebook aside, “Write more, will you?” He asked softly as he opened his arms, letting her move to place herself on his lap and wrap her arms around him.

“Don’t treat me as if I’m a professional. You’re overfeeding my ego.” She joked.

“And why not? You are the best bedtime storyteller I have ever seen.” He said lowly.

“You think too highly of me, Harry.”

“Not too high,” He shook his head with a smug smile, “Just enough to appreciate how bloody talented you are.”

And that began a new ritual. It then became usual for Harry to find his girlfriend perched up anywhere, her koala notebook supported on a cushion on her lap as she wrote away stories which she told him every night, deciding on the perfect ones according to different times and moods.

One day, an idea popped in her head.

Due to the pandemic and how they were both staying safe and going out only when absolutely necessary, Y/N knew how chaotic and sad the world was. She knew some chaos needed to happen, knew that some chaos was revolutionary which is why she decided against staying home and silent and was with Harry during the BLM protests, knowing that something had to be done and that something wasn’t to sit and mope.

But everyone deserved the breather. Everyone deserved to let out a breath and to catch a good night's sleep.

It was when she stumbled upon a video on YouTube that was a 39-minute video of just Harry talking with rain in the background and she saw the comments from fans that she gasped and almost sprinted to Harry.

Harry, sitting in his recording and music room, was sat on a chair with his guitar, strumming and humming when his girlfriend barged in and began to ramble. “I’m sorry I didn’t knock but it’s so important! There are so many people we can help, or like, you can, and it’s super easy, you already have the equipment and ev-“

“Y/N!” His eyes widened as he called for her and put his guitar aside, “Honey, calm down. It’s okay. Let’s talk. Come here.” He held his arm out.

She blushed and began laughing quietly at herself as she seated herself on his lap, brushing back her hair. “Sorry, sorry, too excited.”

Harry smiled, “And I absolutely love it but I’m having just a liiittle bit of hard time understanding.”

She laughed before taking a deep breath and straightening her posture, “Alright. You know how awful everything has been? How-How busy and noisy the world has been for a while?” She asked and Harry nodded, “Well do you know that your fans have a video of you on YouTube with many interviews in there because they love your voice? And they added rain and everything, reduced noise.”

“Oh, wow.” He tried to conceal his blush by laughing.

“I know! You know how good your voice is so why don’t you give the world a little something?”

Harry furrowed his eyebrows, “I sing?”

“No, they know that. They have your songs and covers and everything but you talking?” She raised an eyebrow at him with a suggestive smile.

“Baby, I really don’t think I’m getting anything.”

“Read them something! A bedtime story.” She suggested with an excited smile and a gleeful tone.

“Like you do to me?” He asked, wanting to understand better.

“Yeah, exactly like that. You can upload it on your website or see if any app is willing to partner, whatever you want.”

“Do you think people would like that?” Harry asked again, wrapping his arms tighter around her to bring her closer as he looked up at her.

Y/N smiled and gently cupped his face, “They’ll absolutely adore it.”

Harry hummed, in thought. “Yeah well, I can’t do that on my own.”

She nodded, “You have connections. Jeff has connections, you can find a part-“

“No, love, I mean I can’t do it without you.” He grinned up at her, watching as her face then showed confusion, “Not without your beautiful, absolutely wonderful stories.”

Her eyes widened, her head tilted. “What? No. These are for you. Told you I’m no professional, Harry. I’m sure there are faaar better people.”

Harry rolled his eyes, “Nonsense. We do this together or we let people have trouble sleeping.”

“You manipulative piece of shit.” She shook her head with a smile, leaning her head back, Harry chuckling.

“Dream with me.” He said after a moment, “I can read Dream With Me.”

She looked at him for a moment, her smile widening before she nodded, leaning down to capture his lips in a kiss. “I love you.”

Remember what I said about the indescribable feeling he got when she said those three words? It was there.

And she felt it, too, when he replied with a promise of his – “I love you, too. So much.”

---

Harry had contacted Jeff, who had contacted some people before finally landing on a partnership with Calm. There were two conditions in this work;

Harry would record from his home.

He would be reading his girlfriend’s story.

Now imagine owning a company of that sort as Calm and having Harry Styles contact you with these two conditions. Yes.

It took a couple of days. In the comfort of their own home, Harry and Y/N had him record then they would tweak some stuff then they would listen and try again. They were aware that music would be added, and Y/N was way too excited to listen to the final product.

In his denim hat, black t-shirt, striped cream-colored pants, using his Vans as slippers – which Y/N always cringed at and told him that it would ruin his shoes – and the script in his hand, Y/N stood on the side, admiring. He had allowed his scruff to grow, which she definitely wasn’t complaining about. A bracelet she made him when they were only friends years ago on his wrist, its colors washed out from when he’d shower or swim with it. Headphones were on his head, but she knew he could hear her if she said anything.

When she took her phone out to take a picture, Harry’s eyes moved to her before moving back to the script with a smile.

“Maybe all the memories that we’ve gathered here tonight are all dreams now remembered or wishes in plain sight. No matter what, they’re with us now, for this night and forever. And every time we close our eyes, they’re yours and mine to treasure. Goodnight, and sleep well.”

Harry then turned to look at her, eyes gleaming with happiness and calmness, as her hands were clutched together against her chest, watching and listening.

“I love you.” He added.

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yourinstagram: Goodnight❤

#wellbeafinelime #AAA FIRST ONE! LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!#harry styles #dream with me #harry styles imagine #harry styles fluff #harry styles fluff imagine #harry styles one shot #fluff one shot #harry styles dream with me #harry styles fluff one shot #fluffy #harry styles social media au #harry styles social media imagine #harry styles instagram #social media au

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arabian-batboy · 5 years

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Do you have suggestion for an Arab actress that could play Talia in the big screen? So far she has been played by a white actress in The Dark Knight Rises and a Filipino actress in the show Arrow, meanwhile the fandom usually just fan-casts random Arab celebrities who probably can't even speak English and I just want to know if you know any English-speaking actress who are of Arab descent that could play her? Since that would be the most realistic choice

An actress of Arab descent that speaks English and can do Talia al Ghul justice if she played her? Say no more, here is my list.

1- Aiysha Hart

Might as well end the list before it starts, because this right here? This is the perfect Talia al Ghul. Aisha Hart is a 29 years old (as of 2020) Saudi-British actress, English is her native language (although she does have a British accent, but I’m sure she can hide that) and she has been acting for 7 years now with staring roles in BBC’s Atlantis and New Blood, as well as a bunch of other films. Honestly it doesn’t get better than this, you got the looks, the acting and most importantly the ethnicity right. If Talia is going to make an appearance in any DC films or shows, then I want this woman playing her.

With that being said, I understand that some people might have different opinions, so here are 5 other Arab women who could also play Talia al Ghul in a movie/show (all of them are actresses and all of them can speak English BTW)

2- Yasmine Al Massri

Another personal favorite, she’s a 41 years old (as of 2020) Egyptian-American actress. Even though she made her start in Arabic films, she has already starred in a number of American shows like the NBC’s show Crossbones and ABC’s series Quantico. Even though she speaks fluent English, she does have a bit of an accent, but I actually like her accent and it doesn’t make it hard to understand her at all. Even though she looks young for her age, I do think she’s pushing it a little bit, so if she’s gonna play Talia then it needs to be sometime soon.

3- Hiba Tawaji:

This is the most Talia-looking in my opinion, she’s a 32 years old (as of 2020) multi-lingual Lebanese singer and actress, her acting experience have been mostly on broadway rather than films, including playing Esmeralda in a French adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (where she had to sing and act in French for the entirety of the show) and watching her interviews, her English is just as good. She’s also an unbelievably good vocalist, so she could also sing on the soundtrack of the movie/show she’s gonna be in. My only concern is that I don’t know how a broadway actress would transition to films/shows, but aside from that she gets a thumb up from me.

4- Marie-Lou Nahhas:

She’s a 31 years old (as of 2020) Lebanese-American actress, I first discovered her on the Netflix show Orange Is The New Black and her acting was good enough, also her Egyptian accent on the show was really realistic to what an actual Egyptian Arabic would sound like even though she’s Lebanese-American and probably speaks in either Lebanese-Arabic or just English, so I guess she’s just that good at doing accents. I did try to find some interviews with her, but I couldn’t find anything, aside from OITNB and a couple other films/shows she surpassingly didn’t do much acting.

5- Ahed Kamal:

She’s a 39 years old (as of 2020) Saudi Arabian actress who stared in a number of American and British TV shows that got good reviews, including a series on Netflix and BBC called Collateral, she also speaks perfect English as far as I know (I can’t even tell if it’s her first language or not) to be completely honest this is the best picture I could find of her, otherwise her looks don’t really resemble how I personally imagine Talia to look like, but aside for that she checks the mark on everything else.

6- Sofia Boutella:

This one is like the opposite of number 3, her looks don’t scream Talia to me at all. She’s a 37 years old (as of 2020) Algerian-French actress who stared in the American blockbuster film The Mummy (2017) and she also played supporting roles in other big films like Star Trek (2016) and Atomic Blonde (2017), she probably has the most impressive resumé on this list and the fact that she does her own action scenes is a huge plus. I really don’t want to sound mean when I say this, but I just can’t get over how she looks, I mean she’s beautiful, but I really can’t see Talia when I look at her (and this is the best picture I could find of her), which is such a shame because everything else about her is perfect for this role.

#So there you go 6 beautiful talented English-speaking Arab Actresses #now there's no excuse to mess her ethnicity up when casting her #talia al ghul #Anonymous

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burnalltheoxers · 4 years

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Now that I have your attention, here are some ways that equestrians can actually respond to the racist nature of the sport and the United States. Reason I'm focusing on horse people specifically is because 1) the majority of people in my life who are staying silent on this issue are horse people and 2) there are suddenly so many brands saying that they're "listening" and "dedicated to making the industry more diverse". I'm glad Janet in marketing knows how to post a black square on Instagram. Next, let's try actually doing something. 1. Accept that your lack of action up until this point is appalling and damn near unforgivable. This post isn't meant to be a 10 step program in how not to be racist, but accountability needs to happen before anything else. I can count on my hands the number of times I've seen a non-White model in an equestrian catalog. It's four. That's how many times I've seen it. Brown skin did not just appear yesterday. Discussions about diversity and representation have been ongoing for years. Your refusal to divert from the status quo is an act of violence. 2. Collect sources that speak to these issues and how they relate to the sport. If you want to better understand what's happening, refer to the people it's happening to. I've spoken about my experiences on here before, but I cannot speak for everyone, especially those who come from different cultural backgrounds. The Young Black Equestrians podcast is a great place to start. I also love Black Reins, and they have exposed me to many new trainers and online resources. Use their interviews to gather information. You're probably going to hear things that make you uncomfortable. Humble yourself, and be empathetic. 3. Start a diversity and inclusion committee/task force/whatever to actually put that information to good use AND MAKE SURE THAT GROUP IS ACTUALLY DIVERSE. There needs to be a diverse, humble, creative, and receptive team that is dedicated fully to promoting diversity, inclusion, and equity in your company. Again, the conversations will get uncomfortable, but being uncomfortable is better than being murdered. 4. Establish and support programs that give funding to those who want to ride but do not have the financial means to do so. Anyone can be poor. There are poor people of every race. Those statements, however, do not discredit the fact that Native Americans, Black Americans, and Hispanic Americans face poverty at higher rates than other races in the United States. If an activity is only available to those with financial means, by default it is going to be very, very White. A great program to look into is the Compton Cowboys, and there are similar stables that specifically work with at risk youth. If you are a trainer with the ability to do so, look into starting a program like this. Scholarships and grants also need to be accessible to everyone, not just those who are already members of nationally recognized organizations. Don't lecture me about "hand outs." I actually care about poor people. 5. Stop equating racism with a lack of education, The South, Conservatives, and Western Riding. Doing this prevents you from holding yourself accountable for casual racism and micro aggression. Look at your own behavior. Look at your language. And then fix it. 6. Care about Black people, like, just half as much as y'all seem to care about horses. Stop sharing the post about the police horse that got hit with a brick. The horse was not the target. The horse is fine. The individual who hit the horse was arrested on sight, much faster than the cops who murdered George Floyd. And last I checked, George Zimmerman is a free man. You can also stop sharing false stories about the horse trailer that was surrounded in Tulsa. There were no horses in the trailer, despite a Facebook post stating that they were burned alive. No canisters were thrown into the trailer, despite another post saying the trailer was bombed. We live in the "fake news" era. Fact check hysterical stories before you share them rapidly.

BLM National Resource List

#me #articles #direct action #equestrian

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bl4cklabyrinth · 4 years

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ROCKIN’ON JAPAN December 2018 Interview Translation: Hiro talks about S･S･S

Disclaimer: Please do not retranslate my work into other languages, as my translation may not be accurate. I am no Japanese or English native.

The biggest thank you to Anna for helping me get the magazine clippings!

Photo from here.

The band has overcome its limits, and has given life to the masterpiece “S･S･S”

A solo interview with Hiro, where he shares his thoughts on finally getting to where he is now!

The rock band MY FIRST STORY has finally reached its full potential and came out with a simply amazing album.

Hiro has been making declarations for quite some time now – his thoughts towards his family, the meaning of his life, and the meaning behind his songs. At times they’ve been fired as a clear declaration of war and at other times as words of encouragement, but the truth is, until their last album “ANTITHESE”, those declarations naturally became a melody, a lyric, a song, against which MFS has always struggled alone.

However, this album is different. This album is solely dedicated to music. It’s just rock. It’s purely loud and piercingly melodious.

High quality, open, and very poppy music is being sought after. This is, so to speak, practically the first album they’ve made in which Hiro’s talent as a musician bloomed upward beautifully. It’s been 7 years since their debut, and it’s incredible how they were able to make it this far to get a chance at performing for 2 days at Yokohama Arena.

MFS and Hiro’s journey is finally approaching its quintessence from hereon. I talked at length with Hiro, who had made a breakthrough.

- How’s the band doing?

Hiro: It’s been pretty good. For better or for worse, we haven’t been aggressive since Budokan. I think we’ve been able to maintain our pace without spiralling out of control.

- Would it be safe to assume that that vibe was reflected in this album?

Hiro: Actually, I think this is the album that came out the best. On the flipside, it felt like everyone was just completely following my lead for our last album “ANTITHESE” (laughs). While continuing the course of the previous album, it was through our egos then and our desire to “take it easy”, “ do things freely”, and “try out all sorts of things” that this album came about.

- “ANTITHESE” was made in such a way that it just drilled you down, drove you into a corner, and squeezed you dry. Was the process completely different this time?

Hiro: About 3 or 4 songs on this album have been around since we made “ANTITHESE”. The songs “M.A.D” and “REMEMBER” are two of those, and more came about when I discussed how I wanted to make more songs like them with the members. “ANTITHESE” came together nicely, and I thought it would be nice if we could develop it further with these two songs.

- So there was no talk of putting those two songs on “ANTITHESE”, huh.

Hiro: In my mind, those 14 songs are the full maximum, no more or less than that. I didn’t want to put anything extra. But I thought, “The songs are cool, I wanna release them. Maybe in the next album.”

- I see. Did you already have some sort of vision as to what you wanted the album to be like from that stage?

Hiro: I did. “ANTITHESE” is like a boy while this one’s like a young man, as if it got a bit more mature. There are a lot of minor details that went into it like chord progressions, riffs, melodies, and rhythms, but we made it wanting to convey a sense of indirectness or something like, “Ah, this is pretty cool” when listened to.

- That sounds great. It’s like an upgraded version of the band, like “MY FIRST STORY 2.0”.

Hiro: That’s right (laughs).

- I suppose you could make another album like “ANTITHESE”, but to return to that point in your life...?

Hiro: That’s pretty tough (laughs). Once you’ve spit it all out once, the things you want to say the second time around will definitely be different. I can’t make another album like that.

- I believe you struggled in order to put out the album “ANTITHESE”, but after doing so, did you feel something like, “I’ve wrung out everything I wanted to say, what do I do now?”

Hiro: I did, I did. Personality-wise, I can’t keep writing lyrics that only convey “hope”. There are a lot of other artists who can do just that and make it resonate with everyone, so when we realized that that wasn’t what we should be doing, we thought we had to write ourselves realistically the way we are now. It’s easier to get a bird’s eye view of the song’s world rather than the lyrics’, so I would say, “We made a song like this last time, let’s try to make it more stylish by adding a tension chord,” or have an idea in my head like, “We did this last time, maybe we should do this next time”. I honestly thought it’d be boring if we only put out songs like “ALONE” or “Fukagyaku”, and the songs themselves aren’t gonna die out anyway, so “ACCIDENT” was born. Sometimes it’s harder to figure out how to flesh things out from there (laughs).

- In terms of lyrics, what kind of changes have taken place since the end of “ANTITHESE” up to this point in time?

Hiro: Probably up until around “ALONE” and “ANTITHESE”, the lyrics had only been about me. But as you would expect, there isn’t much more to say (laughs). I’m not all hate. The lyrics I envision or write are of my ideal person. So it doesn’t mean that I live my life that way every day – of course I’ve betrayed myself countless times, and I’ve lied to myself as well, but you can’t see that part of me from the outside. Those who receive it as a song lyric always think that that’s all there is to it. Humans aren’t that strong – there are days when your mind is on the edge, and there are days when you feel like you’re not your usual self. Rather, I think it’s during times like that when people can relate to the lyrics. When I started writing with that in mind, I was surprised at how much I could write. I was so adamant about needing to write in that tone of voice, but I was able to remove that part of me after doing Budokan which made things a lot easier.

- The more you listen to it, the more you realize that the lyrics are very personal. You also feel a sense of living that you’ve never felt before.

Hiro: Yes. It’s important to show different sides of myself, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to write more in the future. I also look forward to what kinds of reactions I’ll get when I put out such things. It’s like, I didn’t cook anything super elaborate, I just tried making something out of what I had in the fridge. But I’ve been doing this for 7 years now, so I think I can make a pretty decent meal with what’s stocked in the refrigerator (laughs). You can do a lot of things with the nuance “as long as the dish is good”. I think that’s how the album came to be, in a good way.

- I think that’s a great change. For the longest time you’ve been setting up some sort of hurdle that goes, “How many people truly understand what I’m feeling here?” but that was taken away and now it’s just like, “If you like music, give it a listen”.

Hiro: That’s true. In a sense, I’ve finished what I wanted to do, so I thought I’d take a more casual approach to MY FIRST STORY. I’m now able to challenge all sorts of things I wasn’t able to do in the past. Conversely, I think the 5 years after Budokan will be even more difficult.

- In the days leading up to Budokan, MFS as well as Hiro were looking for a way to end things, or even a way of life in which things would personally end in the most beautiful way possible.

Hiro: Right. It’s still the same now, it’s never ending, but I definitely don’t want to continue doing this on an emotional level. So far, we’ve made it clear that we’re aiming for Tokyo Dome. I think it’d be tough for the people watching over us to support us if they didn’t know what we want to do, what we’re trying to achieve or what our goal is. We can’t keep running in the dark with no goal in sight, but we have to keep running regardless. By putting what lies ahead of me into words, I feel like it solidifies the path I should be taking. When we started the band, our goal was Budokan, but after finishing that, it became Tokyo Dome. This time, I wonder what will happen next after Tokyo Dome is over. Only then will we know what the future holds, but right now, I think Tokyo Dome will be the end of the road for MFS 2.0.

- Then after that, you might find something new again, or you might think, “It’s over”. You never really know, huh.

Hiro: Yeah. It’s like a plot with a clear introduction, development, twist, and conclusion. We’re called MY FIRST STORY after all, so if we don’t convince ourselves that we’re in a story with a beginning and end, we won’t be able to continue running ahead. I’m the type of person who can’t pull through unless I set a goal to run for 1 hour or 10 km. Because we decide on a location to aim towards, in a sense, we become able to keep moving forward.

- I see. That’s a good mode to be in.

Hiro: That’s right. It would be tough if I kept the same pace as I did moving towards Budokan (laughs). And even if I did go at the same pace, I don’t know if I’d be able to make it. If I thought about it all the way through until we got there, everyone else would be thinking about it too, so I thought it’d be better to stop fussing over it for a while. I’ve thought about it enough. So for now, at our own pace, we’re focusing on working with what we can sensibly come up with, what would be good for us to do, and what we’re capable of doing now. I believe it’s for the best.

- I really admire how Hiro, who was searching for his final destination, is now singing about wanting to continue on with MY FIRST STORY.

Hiro: Yeah. I as well as the members are excited for what lies ahead, not having to be bound to a certain rock band image or genre. Of course, the members and I definitely have our pride and things we want to maintain, but none of us have a “must do this” mentality. Because of this, I think there’ll be more opportunities to try things out in the future. With the addition of Kid’z, we’ve moved past Budokan, and I’m sure there’ll be even more in store from now on. The members have been getting along really well lately. We’ve been hanging out a lot, and when I taught them how to play poker, they all got hooked and played together until morning (laughs).

- For real? (laughs)

Hiro: When you spend time together outside band activities, your perceived values become the same, and the things that come out of that will be more different than how they’ve always been in the past. I think the ideas we’ve been putting out and reconciling with each other up to now are becoming more and more whole. If you don’t experience or feel the same things on a regular basis, you won’t be able to create much. I think we blend together really well right now, so I’m looking forward to the future.

- The first thing I noticed this time was your voice. The way you sang and the variations in your singing voice were really well done. It’s like, “There’s this drawer, and this drawer, and if you’d like, there’s this ceiling”. It kind of felt like that way of singing was finally unleashed.

Hiro: Really? Thank you. For me, it didn’t feel that way this time at all, I felt it more so when I made “ANTITHESE”. But just like the “even if you overthink things, there’s nothing much you can do” thing I mentioned earlier, if you think too much about it and then try to sing, that’s when you surprisingly become unable to sing. So now, instead of trying to sing without letting the pressure get to my head, I focus more on casually internalizing what I would think if I were the listener. Mainly thinking, “If I add a little touch here, would it sound weird,” or “I wonder if it isn’t bad”, I would’ve sung it rather quickly so I wouldn’t think too much about it.

- So it would be like you were just singing along to the music?

Hiro: Yeah. As if that’s just the way I wanted it to be.

- I’m sure there were a lot of variations in terms of music, so inevitably I’d assume there were variations in the songs as well.

Hiro: Ahh, I really wanted to make an album that wasn’t straightforward. Of course there are straightforward songs as well, but I wanted to throw in a few curve balls there too. Curves, sliders, forks, knuckles, all sorts of things were thrown together to make it work, and specifically having that in mind made things easy to understand when we were putting the songs in. It’s like, “No matter how you look at it, it’s this kind of song. Well then, let’s sing it that way”. It was easy to grasp for me as a listener and as a singer.

- If you listen to this album objectively, what do you think about your vocals?

Hiro: I’d tell myself, “You had a lot in mind when you were recording, huh.” However, I can definitely sing without an issue this time around, so I feel totally fine listening to myself now. I’m really jealous of people who can shake it off and say, “This is who I am”, because I can’t. But I was thinking, if I could push myself hard enough to be able to sing like that one day, I’d feel much better, or perhaps something new will be born within me from there. This album allowed me to experience that. Rather than having me in the song, it’s something I created, something I can present as a part of myself. This album shows the breadth of my own evolution and what lies ahead. It goes the same way for MFS as a whole, too. That’s why I’m really glad we tried making an album like this.

- You’d want to say, “It’s a masterpiece!” but I feel like it’s more so “There’s gonna be more masterpieces from now on”.

Hiro: That’s right. It’s like the meat in a course meal. And then it’s gonna be like, “We’re serving pasta after this,” “Eh, seriously!?” (laughs)

- Even the band members are playing very freely, huh.

Hiro: Yes. This time, I wasn’t present for the members’ recording sessions at all. They’d call me and ask, “What do we do here?” and I’d answer, “Eh? Anything goes” (laughs). Of course I knew the dates, but I wouldn’t go even if I was free (laughs). There’s nothing for me to do there even if I went, and we all have our own things we want to pursue and things we want to do with the songs. I didn’t think it was right for me to say how things should be done. Even my parts aren’t perfect, and I wouldn’t know what to say to the member in question if I wasn’t sure whether the part they worked on was done correctly or not, and I feel like telling them what to do would take out all the fun. Realizing that it’s better for me to listen objectively to a piece of work created through everyone’s efforts was a huge help. On top of that, I’m able to do the things I want to do – it’s already an ideal situation (laughs). I don’t care what they do, as long as they don’t commit a crime (laughs).

- Amazing. I never thought the day would come that I’d hear those words from you (laughs).

Hiro: Hahahaha, it’s true. We didn’t start out as friends. We just considered each other as fellow members when we started the band, always keeping one another in check with a great deal of care and a little bit of stress. However, even if Budokan was for me and for everyone listening, it was the members who understood me the best. From that point on, we didn’t really mind each other’s businesses anymore, and it became like, “Why don’t we just say what we want to say to each other, we’ve come this far after all?” They know their parts, and they know themselves better than anyone else, so there isn’t a whole lot to complain about anymore. Even if one of us would make a mistake at a show, we wouldn’t say, “Play it right” or anything like that anymore. They know what they’re doing, and they know that there’s nothing else to respond to such a comment other than “I’m sorry”. If doing so would immediately change things then go for it, but if they continue on without changing then just tell them off. They’re not the kind of dudes who don’t do anything, and on the contrary, it is me who gets his ass kicked more often than not, so I don’t really have anything to say to that. That’s about as good as it’s gonna get.

- That’s great. You’ve finally come this far, huh.

Hiro: Yeah. I’ve been feeling like I’ve gone rather far lately (laughs).

- Is it because you made this album?

Hiro: I think it’s more because we were able to appreciate each other more, or realize, “It’s okay to do this now”. As for the album, it was a piece of work that made me feel like I could see the future in more ways than one.

- Up until now, the band’s primary identity had been what Hiro squeezes out and screams about. In that case, it’s not so much about how you want people to hear you play, but more so about how you can bring your cries and messages forward.

Hiro: That’s a pretty hard task for the other members to do. But all of that is over. If that had been the case until now, I would have never said, “The members can do whatever they want” and this album would have never been released. Back then, I’d go, “Let’s do it like this here,” “The last chorus definitely goes after the bridge,” but it hasn’t been like that these days. Now we’d go ahead and say, “This is good,” “Interesting, interesting”. It’s like the kids who always had to ask permission from their mom have disappeared.

- “Young man” is a great metaphor in that sense as well (laughs).

Hiro: Mhm. It’s just like disciplining a child – just because you did it before doesn’t mean you’ll grow up that way, and saying too much isn’t a good thing either. We are all different people after all, and whether we’re lovers or family, we can’t understand each other 100% of the time, so we have to accept and trust each other more. I don’t really like it when people grow apart because of work. I want to make a team like the one in “Wild Speed”. We all get along really well, getting together in a garden to have a barbecue and stuff like that. It’s partly because we have such a good sense of team spirit that we’re able to do things indie. I wouldn’t be able to continue on unless I had a team with the same ambitions and the same passion to move forward. Seeing a lot of adults being considerate of me makes me feel better about myself (laughs). The members are the ones who understand “Let’s take it easy” the most. This may seem natural, but it’s super hard to do. And now that I’m able to do so, it feels great.

- You’ve truly made an incredible rock album. And it’s good that your methods can effectively be used to make more in the future.

Hiro: In fact, it’s been going so smoothly that it has become the focal point of our work process, so I don’t think it was difficult for anyone. Scheduling was pretty tough though. In August, I was singing at shows and recordings for 15 days in a row or something like that. Some of the songs didn’t have melodies or lyrics yet, and I was thinking, “Seriously, what are we gonna do!” but we had the same situation when we were making “ANTITHESE”, so I was like, “If you have the time to say ‘Oh no’ or ‘We’ll never finish’, then use that time to continue working instead” (laughs). Because of this, I’ve learned to believe in myself. The members were on a super tight schedule as well, but they would respond to requests from me like, “I want to change the first verse” or “Sorry, take it down a half-step”, so I was confident that everything was going to be okay. We may be in a hurry, but I no longer get worried or anxious.

- There were a lot of songs that used the words “white” and “black” this time. However, rather than black and white symbolizing “win or lose”, it was more of “There’s a part of me that’s pure white, and a part of me that’s pitch black”, providing a perspective that allows us to see both sides of you in the same light.

Hiro: That’s true. “ANTITHESE” was always about me, but that was completely overturned this time, now having different main characters for each song. Then, I wrote the lyrics, sang the songs, so there are many different stories of me in this album. Sometimes they’re of a similar hue, but still slightly different in shade. Of course, I didn’t write about colors that I didn’t have at all, so I was able to recreate the colors in my mind, or rather, sublimate them in the form of music.

- It’s like, “Sometimes it’s white, sometimes it’s black. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. But that’s just the way things are, right?”

Hiro: Yep. With this one album, we’re no longer limited to, “This is what I say in this song, so I have to keep saying this”. It’s like, “That isn’t always the case, you know. I’m only human” (laughs). Like, “Sometimes I feel that way, sometimes I don’t”. It doesn’t matter if they’re on the same album. I was able to reach that point in my life, so now I have a wide range to work with.

- That’s why Hiro’s melody-making skills are being opened up to the fullest.

Hiro: This time, I mostly worked upwards from the chorus. After breaking apart the original chorus, I’d go, “This one’s catchier”. I didn’t even stick to the general concept of the melody – I’d try to make one, but if I wasn’t 100% sold on it, I’d try to make 10 more, and then I’d go with what everyone said was good. The premise behind a melody is that it’s something you can hum along to when you suddenly hear it, so I didn’t want to change my approach of starting songs from there. Nowadays, people don’t say, “This song is good”. They say, “These lyrics are good”. Because of this, I want to create a catchy melody that’s easy to remember, one with a rebellious spirit, and at the moment, I think it’d be good if it were in Japanese. That being said, I want everyone to be able to say, “This melody is good”.

- I think it’s a really well-made album. I thought that the Hiro who’s been shouting out what’s inside his heart has made it this far (laughs).

Hiro: On the contrary, it’s exactly how I imagined it to be from the moment we started the band up to this point in time. Our pace and work are progressing as well with a margin of error of about 0.5 mm. Thing is, we’re gonna start with a completely clean slate from here on out, so we’re in a bit of a hurry (laughs). We’re kind of in a standstill right now, but if you’re asking me how I feel about the members or the music, I’d say, “Well, it’ll be okay”. From this point forward, I think we’re just gonna have to put ourselves out there. To be honest, we aren’t really sure ourselves either (laughs), but from now on, it’s not gonna be a story that was created – it’s gonna be a story that we create while walking forward.

#my first story #マイファス #print #2018 #yay #first full-length magazine interview translation #pats self on the back #am I ready to translate the Antithese interview though #oof #Hiro

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quickspinner · 5 years

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Hey Gorgeous - Under Your Skin 16

Once upon a time, he would have been over the moon excited for his daughter to bring a boyfriend to meet them. He’d have made them an elaborate, sweetheart themed meal, gotten out the good candles, decorated the table.

Tonight Tom was...okay with the meal he created, but he knew his heart hadn’t been it. He just couldn’t muster the enthusiasm he’d had before. He didn’t really understand why his amazing daughter had such bad luck with boys. They’d always seemed perfectly nice...he’d been particularly hopeful about the artist boy but that hadn’t lasted long at all.

He was tired of seeing Marinette’s heart broken and this new boy...well, Marinette certain had the happy glow of new love, but...a musician? That didn’t sound...stable. A rock musician, at that, a guitarist. Tom had seen enough Behind the Music interviews to be worried. Tom’s concern had been enough to make Sabine take him aside and remind him that Marinette was an adult now, that her choices were hers to make, including who she chose to date and what she chose to do with them (Tom hadn’t needed his brain to go that direction) and that it was okay to be worried but that they were going to smile and support Marinette and be kind to the boy she loved.

He was polite enough, Tom would give him that. Jittery, which he hadn’t expected. Tom took in every detail, black nails and dyed hair and pierced ears and the leather bracelets that he fiddled with constantly. The boy was clearly nervous, but his joking manner and casual way of addressing Marinette rubbed Tom the wrong way. Two courses in and Tom was only more worried than he had been in the beginning.

Luka’s eyes flicked to Tom and down to the table, picking at his food. Tom felt a trickle of irritation. Why didn’t the boy just eat his damn food. It was good food! Food that Tom had made and prepared for him. Well, for Marinette, but still. Ungrateful.

Tom felt Sabine kick him under the table and hastily smoothed the frown away from his face.

He tried, he really did. He tried to join in the conversation, to ask questions, to get to know the kid. But every time he spoke, Luka jumped, and his answers were confused and rushed. Shifty.

Tom didn’t like him.

“We’ll c-clear the table,” Marinette said shortly, and Tom jolted at the dark look she sent him. “Why d-don’t you go ssset up dessert in the living r-room where we can all b-be comfortable?”

“That sounds lovely, dear,” Sabine said, grabbing Tom’s arm and tugging sharply. He grudgingly followed her out to the living room, where she rounded on him. “You are scaring the tar out of that poor boy,” she hissed.

“I’m not doing anything,” Tom insisted.

“Papa.” Tom turned and cringed a bit at the look on Marinette’s face. She stood with her hands on her hips, her lips thin, and Tom knew they were in trouble.�� “You aren’t even g-giving him a ch-chance,” she growled. “W-why? B-because he d-doesn’t hide who he is? B-because he’s in a “s-s-soft” major? B-because he d-d-doesn’t c-come from mmoney? I d-didn’t think you w-w-would c-care about any of that. Wh-what is it?”

Tom looked at Sabine for help, but Sabine folded her arms and looked at him with a cocked eyebrow and Tom knew he was screwed.

“I’m sure he’s a perfectly nice boy,” he said desperately. “I just—I’m not sure he’s right for you. You deserve someone exceptional. Someone who won’t ask you to put your dreams on hold for his. I just...he doesn’t seem like your type, sweetheart.”

Marinette’s eyebrows lowered and her bottom lip pouted out and Tom took a step backwards, half-expecting some kind of ultimatum. For a moment, she just stood there and he could see she was fighting a block, and his heart plummeted into his stomach. She must really be upset. He wasn’t at all prepared for what she said next, nor the hurt, almost teary voice she said it in.

“He sssspeaks three languages,” she told him. She looked at Sabine. “One of th-them is his mmother’s n-native t-tongue.” She looked at Tom. “He’s on a full ssscholarship for his mmmusic. I’ve p-personally heard his p-professors call him a p-p-prodigy.” Tom’s eyebrows rose. “Yet he still works a day j-job and p-plays gigs on the w-weekends to help put his sssister through school and k-keep their appartment, plus he ssssells some of his original m-music. He’s sssold music to C-Clara Nightingale and t-two tv shows that I know of.” Tom gaped at her. “Yes, he’s f-f-focused on mmusic sssometimes to the exclusion of everything else, but who else d-do we know like that?” She glared at him, and then looked at Sabine.

“Ask him about t-traditional Chinese mmmusic,” she challenged, and then back at Tom. “Or Italian. Or any culture of mmmusic. T-talk to him about history and how it influenced the mmmusic that was mmade at the t-time.” She smiled wryly. “D-don’t ask him about Ssscottish m-music though, he’ll never ssstop. He’s as b-bad as Papa with his p-pastries.” Tom cracked a smile at that.

“He w-wanted to take out his earings and take the polish off his n-nails and I told him nnnnot to b-because he shouldn’t have to ch-change for us. He’s insecure and reserved and he h-hides it b-by t-t-talking big,” she said, her shoulders coming down a little. “H-he hasn’t sssaid so b-but I think his f-family nnever had m-much and he’s sself-conscious ab-bout it. P-people have mmmisunderstood him h-his whole life because he c-can’t relate outside of mmusic ssometimes. But he’s educated and sssmart and sssweet and thoughtful and k-kind, and I l-love him.” She blinked back sudden tears, and Tom felt like he’d swallowed a rock. “Sso p-please show him the P-papa I love, so he can be the L-luka I love in f-front of you.” She turned on her heel and went back into the kitchen.

Sabine sighed. “I warned you. I told you before he even got here that she was serious about him and you’d better keep an open mind.”

“I know, I know, I just...he just looks so…”

“Tom,” Sabine shook her head. “What do people say when they look at you? When they look at us? You’re better than this.” She shot him a glare that made him wither. “You’re better than your father.”

Suddenly a male voice rang out loudly from the kitchen, and both of them jumped. “So sing it back if you’re with me, I wanna hear how your heart speaks, while we’re young, while we’re young—”

Tom and Sabine looked at each other and then moved toward the kitchen, peeking in. Luka had Marinette in a waltz hold, swaying her around the kitchen, looking at her with absolute adoration. She giggled as he grabbed her around the waist, lifting her feet off the ground as he continued to sway with her. “And I’ve been so lost without you,” he sang, putting his forehead against hers. “And are you lost without me too, while we’re young, while we’re young—”

Sabine giggled, and Luka’s head snapped around to them, a blush spreading over his face as he set Marinette back on the floor. “Oh, um, we were just—she just looked a bit sad, and—I’m sorry, I was probably loud—”

Tom smiled slowly. “Finish up, kids,” he said, tone softer than it had been all evening as he slipped his arm around Sabine. “I have cookies in the living room for dessert.”

I can’t get this damn song out of my head, suffer with me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCcZJ7-5n5Y

@thethirdwheelfriend @mystery-5-5

#hey gorgeous #hey gorgeous 2 #campus delivery boy luka #miraculousladybug #miraculous ladybug #lukanette #i am lukanette trash i admit it #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #quickspins

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chirpycreations · 4 years

Text

How Villians Sleep At Night Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: This story will NOT be my usual happy, bit of violence sorta thing. It will contain some mature themes and language. I don't mean Undertale genocide mature either. I mean abuse, manipulation, depression, low-self-esteem and possibly suicidal thoughts (I'll clarify this list as I work on the story). This isn't something I'd let my 12-year-old sister read so if you're under 14 I probably wouldn't recommend it.

Alrighty, with that out the way, happy reading!

- - - - - - -- -

Cold, windy and cold. The light snow began its descent, its final journey, landing down on his nose and everything around. Drawn like a magnet, he felt his hand jump outwards, catching one of these fallen angels, only for it to dissipate in a matter of seconds.

He paused a few meters from the door, turning back to the tall building which loomed over him. He must look different from when he arrived. His body felt chocked by the bandages around him. Ribcage, vertebrae and skull, left arm laying lazily in a sling. It wasn’t just his recent addition of battle scars and bruises those. His clothes, or more accurately, now his clothes. Donated to him by a friend. They were too small, too tight, too familiar. Sleeves of the tired blue hoodie just surpassing his elbows, trousseaus mimicking shorts, and pink fluffy slipper which, judging by their size must have once belonged to his friends older brother.

The wind wrapped around him as if in a hug to congratulate, or was it to comfort? Both would be appropriate given the events that had passed.

Regardless of its intent, he pulled the scarf up to his nose, covering up the sensitive bone beneath. It was still raw from only having been recently reintroduced to the world that lies around it. A world much colder than the one he had known 4 weeks prior, and for more reasons than just the winter chill, gesturing its commiserations.

He found himself drawn out from these thoughts by the moaning of the snow behind. Crunch, crush, crumble. The snow settled under the weight of the oppressive foot.

He didn’t need to face its domineering owner to know who was approaching. The sigh of heavy boots and ragged breaths. He’d come to know them well.

“I am guessing you did not come to congratulate me on getting out of the Hospital?” His voice was coarse, rusted form lack of use over these last 4 weeks. Those in his defence, he had spent the last 3 weeks asleep and the option to practice such activities had not been appealing this last week, despite his visitors who had shown no such hesitation.

“That’d be correct.” The voice replied, his usual grim tone clouding over.

He could picture the cowboy standing there in the snow. His thick brown jacket, heavy boots and purple scarf, no doubt pulled up high like his own. Yellow beady eyes, peering through the falling snow. The only thing which could penetrate it was the scar running through his left socket. Two lines were torn deep into the bone like a knife through a cloth, jagged edges jumping out at those who dared ask the question; How?

He held onto these images just a little longer. He didn’t want to face him: Judge, jury and executioner. Didn’t want to break the illusion, see the bullet, the disappointment, hate and pity which followed in his final moment. Not now, not from him. Not a reminder of how far he’d fallen. How much he had failed everyone. Them. Himself. Not now, not yet.

The judge let another ragged breath escaped into the wind, then spoke again, his voice still harsh, “We need to talk.”

He almost laughed: Predictable.

He’d imagined this meeting over the last week, dreaded it.

Each time he imagined this outcome, each time only worse. The path so far smiled in his favour, but was it actually kindness? Or the sympathy of fate while deciding which hand to deal him next?

“I expected you would say that. Maybe somewhere a little warmer? I know a suitable spot.”

- - - -

The change of scenery was nice. He had seen too much white: White walls, white snow, white dust. It all blended together after a while. Instead, the calm beat of rain sang out drowning these thoughts; drip, drop, plop. The soft squelch of moss beneath his shoes and cool blue glow of flora. A welcomed change.

He sat on the lone bench, once home to an abandoned quiche to which he believed was adopted by Frisk some months earlier during their last run. A last bid to make their wrongs right? He couldn’t help the bitter smile that came with the thought. They had been the same all along, hadn’t they?

“Alright, let's get this shit over with. I’ve got better things to be doing than dealing with the fucking mess ya’ve made me, bless yar heart.”

The judge; to whom he’d come to know as Apollo, Wayne or his more commonly called name: Justice, over the last 5 months was the same as always. Grumpy, ill-tempered and foul-mouthed. Not knowing better, you’d think it was any other ordinary day. Paperwork, lack of sleep or maybe Squirrel might have contributed to the slight dip in mood, but otherwise, you wouldn’t think different. He knew different. He knew it was his fault.

Justice had taken to standing in front of him. He’d pulled out a dictaphone, notepad and pen. Bad cop, good cop? No, there was only one of him. He didn’t see Sarge or Chara, so obviously he’d been decided as an ‘easy’ case to deal with. Even so, it didn’t feel much like an interrogation. For anyone else, Justice would tower over them like a mighty dictator, interjecting fear and obedience. Then like a master surgeon he would dissect them for his answers. For him, however, the same was hard to say. Even while slouching, his lanky body continued to meekly rise above the judge, even if by only a few centimetres.

The situation felt a little... uncomfortable, but not more than that.

The dictaphone clanks as Justice sat it down on the bench. A bone finger reached out and pressed ‘Record’.

That's it then. No more hiding, no more delays. The inedible was always going to happen. He could only stall for so long.

“Interview #597883. Interviewing S-"

“Hoshi”

His interruption was met with silence, annoyance and confusion. For this story, he is ‘Hoshi’.

Was.

“...Interviewing ‘Hoshi’.” Justice finished his annoyance still very present. Strike one, maybe?

“For future review, this interview will be documented. All information discussed will be kept confidential and on a need ta know bases with only those holding clearance.” The note pad was empty. Did he really know all this off the top of his head? How long had he been doing this?

“You will answer all questions given to you, with nothin’ but the truth and will not withhold any information regardless of its contents. Should ya be found to be lying or withholding anything, then all evidence for your case will be rendered void. Do you understand?”

Tap,

Tap.

Hoshi rushed into an answered upon noticing the impatient pen's rhythm upon the paper. “Yes...s-sir.”

“Justice'll do.”

The silence was his reply, a slight nod of the head.

“Look, I ain’t gonna sugar coat this for ya. You’re in some deep shit here and really fucked up. I don’t think I have ‘ta tell ya how serious the charges you’re looking at are.” He paused, taking a breath, or was it a sigh?

“Endangering the life of a Creator & leaking sensitive information regarding the Bar & it’s Patrons to an unknown 3rd party is pretty fuckin’ serious, and should’a already contributed to 4 accounts of sansicide on you’re head if it wasn’t for sheer fucking luck.”

“That being said,” He added after a moment,

“You did speak out about it and put your life on the line to take the brunt of the consequences (, even if a little late).” He mumbled the latter half, scowling down on the words as if their existence in that order should sentence them to a fate far worse than his own.

“While try’na throw your life away is fucking dumb and won’t fix what you’ve done...myself, Z-Stars and other agreed ya deserve a chance. As well as the numerous vouches towards your character we received, evidence collected would suggest possible fowl play to some extent. Whether this is true or not, I intend to find out.”

How had he gotten here? Everything was going so well. Everything was going according to plan. It was simple enough. Fool proof. 'Hoshi proof', Shadow had even teased him often enough. If any common fool could do it, he would be fine. He couldn't fail.

But still...

- - - - -

"Que se passera-t-il si cela ne fonctionne pas?"

("What shall happen if this does not work?") He asked. He'd felt the fear call at him through the fog of his mind. It's worrying pleas, he could barely make them out, but it seemed logical to respond to them. By responding to them, they would leave. He'd be alone again with the fog. The nothingness. It had grown on him, the emptiness inside.

"Je suppose que ça dépend de la façon beaucoup don't vous voulez rentrer à la maison, n'est-ce pas?"

("I guess it depends on how much you want to get home, doesn't it?") His Shadow replied, in broken french.

Unlike him, his Shadow wasn't native to his tongue. Despite this, however, Shadow had insisted they use his tongue to communicate. His language was less common than English. It meant they had more privacy, 3.29 times more to be precise, and as a bonus, their target also didn't speak it.

"Tu t'inquiètes trop. Je serai là si tu gâches. Maintenant préparez-vous, ça ne devrait pas être trop long maintenant."

("You worry too much. I'll be there if you mess up. Now get ready, it shouldn't be too long now.") Where was he now then? Why wasn't he by his side? Whispering flattery... advice... encouragement...like he'd always done. Telling him how stupid and pathetic he was, how he couldn't do anything, wouldn't be anything.

Apart of him wished he could tell him he was right... again.

"D-d'accord. Merci mon amie."

("O-ok. Thank you my friend.")

- - - - -

A hand waved in front of him, ending its journey with a flick on his nose. He blinked hard twice looking up and meeting the angry gaze. Ah right, he was still here.

“You’ve got one chance ‘Hoshi’. The truth or I can make a start on locking yar ass up for eternity so I can get some brain bleach and drink the rest of this fucking nightmare away.”

"..."

“Choice’s yar’s really, but ya should know a lot’a folks stepped forward to vouch for ya. It’d be a shame to reject their forgiveness ‘cause it ain’t often you make friends like ‘em who’re willing ta stick by your side no matter what.”

It took a moment for Hoshi to find the right words. He’d know his decision since he’d first awakened.

“Where would you like me to start?”

A weight placed its self upon his shoulder: a hand. It stayed for a moment, lifting and coming back down with a pat. The judge had a smile projected onto his face, it couldn’t have been his own. In all the time he’d know him, he’d never truly smiled (unless sarcastic of course). Maybe he was seeing things? After all his left eye was still tucked away under bandages, deemed too damaged to face the elements.

“That’s the spirit, boy.” No, the smile was real.

He let his eye drift upwards, meeting Justice's almost unnatural gaze. Too kind and gentle, too out of character. If anything, the uncanny expression on his face made him feel even more uncomfortable than the whole integration.

The weight removed it’s self completely,

“The begging. Include all the details ya can remember. We need ta know who we’re fuckin’ deal with cause whoever these folks are, they’ve already made it pretty fuckin’ obvious they mean business.”

“I-I...I am sorry.”

“I know.”

They remained in silence for a minute, nothing more could be said: The damage has been done. All they could do now was pick up the pieces and hope there was enough glue left to save the situation from shattering further.

“Let’s make a start kid, somehow I doubt this’ll be quick.” He flipped his pen around. It stood at attention, ready to follow his every command.

“O-ok.”

This is it, then: the true story.

It was so long ago, so many things had happened since then. Could he even remember how it started? How it happen? But then again, the better question was how much would he let himself remember? He’d tried so hard to bury it, pretend the illusion was real, fight back the pain, the tears, late at night when white lies clawed at him. Slowly digging themselves up from the shallow graves he’d hastily buried them in.

He preferred the illusion. It had a happy ending.

Was going to, at least...

Was heading that way before the events of one month ago.

The incident.

His ultimate failure.

His betrayal...

He smiled meekly, he...he was a terrible person. He knew that much was certin. No.

A mess, not a person. A mess of lies, illusions and shredded memories. That was a different story, however. Maybe he would get to tell that story one day too. But till then... this is the story of Hoshi, Sans.

His story.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Cover & Chapter 1 art

[TOSD] How Villians Sleep At Night by me

Justice Sans by Vangold

#justice #sans #undertale #undertaleau #hoshi #story #litrature #storywritting #waterfall #past #incident #6monthdeal #creatorandcreation #talesofstardust

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ill-be-istj-if-no-one-else-is · 4 years

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1. Hello there, Em. I’m curious about my type since it’s been hard for me to do it myself. I know that I posted more than 8 asks before, but I think I manage to cut it, now. Anyway, I should start by saying that I care about the opinions of other. I really want to get along with everyone, so I often try my hardest to be polite with everyone, do every requests and commands that are given to me, make jokes to relieve everyone emotion, basically anything to make other feel at ease. As the result, I

2. often keep opinions that seems too different, such as when one of my classmate caught faking signature and got punished severely. Almost every classmates make fun of her, but I feel bad about her. I consider myself as cheerful and enthusiastic person because I think the way I present myself seems to exude energetic spirit to other and several people said that I’m quite naive and childish. I also notice that despite my enthusiasm and willingness to socialize, I’m not the most socially capable

3. person out there because sometimes I stumble midway during talking, not listening correctly to what others say, and blurt jokes that seems to be offensive. Those shortcomings may make me an easy target of bullying to other, but I don’t really care as long they don’t outright hate me. I initially want to study psychology because I want to help those who’re mentally ill so they can live a better life, but after reading about how many research in psychology that the results are falsified and how

4. useless some of the methods to help the mentally ill are, I’m becoming hesitant of my plan to become a mental health worker and think that maybe I should just become a lecturer so I can teach the future generation about the right methods to help other. That’s some overview of my personality, now onto more specific things about me. One of my classmate says that I have curiosity and concern that is “pure” and unique, like that one time when it was raining in campus and we were waiting for our

5. turn to be interviewed for class meeting, I saw the bird flying despite the rain and ask him, “Why does the bird keep on flying even when it’s rain?”, when I asked him at the library about how to help the classmate I mentioned above so she can be accepted in the class, and when I asked him why the people in my country like to wear jeans despite the tropical climate (even though it’s a question that my father asked to me first).

6. So, that’s all about me. I hope it’s enough for typing, sorry if the grammar doesn’t seems good, sorry again for sending you more than 8 asks before, and thank you for taking your time to read this.

---------

Hi,

I appreciate you editing this down. I still recommend reading the FAQ in full and since I am guessing English is not your first language, I don’t mind clarification questions - in fact those would be helpful to me to know how to better phrase things in a way that’s more accessible. Some of this is still not really relevant. In particular, and I cover this further on, it’s much more important to talk about how you are and not what others say about you. As we can see here, sometimes what others say about you is going to be a matter of their opinion that I might not share and since it’s purely someone else’s opinion of you, it’s not useful information.

Wanting to make others feel at ease and specifically making a lot of effort or even going out of your way to do so is often indicative of the Ti - Fe (I think most mature people try to put others at ease when they can, but Fi-Te users are a lot more willing to deal with the fact that sometimes they just won’t get along with someone and are less concerned with being liked by all). I’m not entirely sure which is first yet; your tendency to say offensive things by accident seems more like high Ti, but that’s about it.

Based on your thoughts about mental illness, I am leaning more towards intuition; it is (pun not intended) fundamentally counterintuitive to most sensors to believe that drawing back and becoming a teacher will cause more change in a process than actually practicing in the field and enacting change there. With that said since you talk about classmates my guess is that you’re also fairly young and sometimes idealism like that can come from inexperience.

I have no idea what’s going on with the bird anecdote, to be honest; I understand what happened but have no idea why or how it’s relevant and I can’t really draw any conclusions from it. I think that I don’t particularly understand or agree with what your classmate is thinking; the only real conclusion is further evidence for the Ti-Fe axis given the emphasis on how you are told you are by others vs. how you see yourself.

There’s nothing that explicitly makes me think of Ne vs. Ni in the content here. I do find your style is a little more indicative of Ni to me, and also of introversion, but writing style can be hard to type from, particularly if it’s not someone’s native language. As is I can see evidence for either INFJ or INTP but it’s pretty shaky.

#mbti #infj #intp #loydbeacon

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kanasmusings · 5 years

Text

[Translation] StarMyu Season 3 Kao Kai - Character Q & A - Part 1

Yay~! More Q & A with the new StarMyu cast! I do love translating these because it gives us a glimpse on how the characters are~ It is a fun way to get to know the new generation Kao Council, isn’t it~? I’ll start with Shiki and Fuyusawa because the Tumblr format is really limiting me with all these changes and having all five of them would just be too heavy of a post orz

※ Please don’t re-post and re-translate this interview under any circumstances. If you want to translate it to your native language, the kanji is readily available in the anime official website.

Anyways, full interviews under the cut, enjoy~!

[Shiki Toma Q & A]

1.) Please introduce yourself.

- Ayanagi Academy Musical Department, 3rd year. I’m Shiki Toma, nice to meet you.

2.) What first impression do people usually have of you?

- I wonder now… If I’m going to guess, there’s really not that much of an impression to get when I’m in the general public. To the point that I once had a teacher tell me he didn’t notice my existence until I stood on stage.

3.) But really, it’s?

- I don’t really like standing out in my daily activities. If possible, I want to work outside of center stage as much as I can. Irinatsu even laughed at me and asked why I became an actor in the first place.

4.) What are you confident in?

- That I can sleep anywhere.

5.) What are your weaknesses?

- I knew that I had to work when I got into the Kao Council but really, it is a bit troublesome. I’d be taking a nap for a while and it’d be annoying to go back to class afterwards.

6.) What was your nickname in middle school?

- I didn’t have friends who could call me by nicknames. [Shiki] is pretty easy to remember and say, isn’t it?

7.) What’s your favourite way to travel?

- Train, maybe. I kind of like that rocking feeling. If it was allowed, I’d like to lie down and sleep on a seat in a train car with no other people around.

8.) What was usually written on your report cards?

- “He’s serious in class but, he sometimes skips them, too.” Doesn’t that statement make “serious” lose its meaning? (laughs)

9.) What’s one thing you absolutely can’t forgive?

- Not allowing yourself to forgive something will only make it hard for you so, I don’t have anything in particular.

10.) What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?

- Sleep again. Just kidding~

11.) What’s your favourite food?

- I’m not really that interested in food. I usually eat energy bars. Long, vertical things are convenient because they’re easy to eat. Oh, I also eat sweet things here and there. But, I can’t handle xylitol gum.

12.) How do you spend your days off?

- Right now, I… can’t really rest much now, can I? (laughs)

13.) What is one bad point about yourself?

- My outlook is narrow. I am aware that I’m not versatile and can only focus on things one at a time. I’m the type who does things the way I said I will do them so, I always admire Fuyusawa who can think of different ways [to do things].

14.) What’s your favourite place?

- The school’s clock tower or a rooftop during good weather. The Kao Council’s meeting room is… It’s very large that I can’t calm down inside it.

15.) How do you relieve your stress?

- Sleep.

16.) What’s the thing you want to do the most right now?

- In the meantime, the current mission for Ayanagi Festival is a success. We have to make sure the 1st years’ stage ends safely too and, we have lots of things to do for the Opening Ceremony as well…

17.) What subjects are you good at?

- Practical skill subjects. Japanese.

18.) What subjects are you bad at?

- I don’t have one I’m particularly bad at but, if I had to choose, it would be science, maybe? I get so tense halfway through an experiment.

19.) Sleep or eat, which one can you not live without?

- Sleep.

20.) Any parting words?

- There are a lot of places that I still cannot reach but, to make up for it, the rest of the Kao Council are very reliable people. Forget about me and just go greet everyone else.

OMAKE:

21.) What’s your favourite drink?

- If it’s something I can buy then, it’s juice. I can’t handle coffee or tea much.

22.) Are you skilful with your hands?

- I guess I’m so-so.

23.) Favourite weather?

- For spring --> sunny. For summer --> rainy. For autumn --> sunny. For winter --> snowy.

»»————-　★　————-««

[Fuyusawa Ryo Interview]

1.) Please introduce yourself.

- Ayanagi Academy Musical Department, 3rd year. I’m Fuyusawa Ryo from the Kao Council, nice to meet you.

2.) What first impression do people usually have of you?

- When I was younger I was usually called weak. But, as I got taller, I got called scary. It’s a bit of a pressuring feeling.

3.) But really, it’s?

- I don’t think I’m particularly weak. I guess the “scary” one is more accurate.

4.) What are you confident in?

- As a performer and as a member of the Kao Council, it won’t do if I go out and meet anyone without confidence, would it now?

5.) What are your weaknesses?

- I won’t call it a weakness but, if it’s something I can’t handle then, it’s “mochi”. You’re thinking that it’s something weird, aren’t you? When I was a kid, I was particularly bad at chewing things. The feeling of having something left stuck in your mouth was weird so I grew to dislike it.

6.) What was your nickname in middle school?

- I was the student council president when I was in third year so, I was often called “President” or “Prez”.

7.) What’s your favourite way to travel?

- I travelled a lot when I was a child so, I feel most at ease inside a car.

8.) What was usually written on your report cards?

- It is a bit weird saying this myself but, I have never gotten a bad report before. “Excellent,” “Serious”. I was a very boring honor student.

9.) What’s one thing you absolutely can’t forgive?

- Right now, the Kao Council is busy with preparing for the Ayanagi Festival. I guess I can’t forgive people who hold us back. Please do deliver that message to Takafumi (Chiaki).

10.) What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?

- Prepare to go to school. I’m the type who likes to prepare in the morning rather than the night before.

11.) What’s your favourite food?

- I’m a light vegetarian who still eats eggs and dairy products. I recently found a good vegan restaurant so I’ve been eating there a lot lately.

12.) How do you spend your days off?

- I don’t really go out much. I’m busy with Council work on weekdays after all. I use my holidays to study and better myself.

13.) What is one bad point about yourself?

- It would make one miserable if asked about what’s bad about themselves, right? I will not partake in this question.

14.) What’s your favourite place?

- … My own room, probably.

15.) How do you relieve your stress?

- After leaving the dorms, I usually listen to music that I like in my own room or relax with a good book. When I was in the dorms, I had a roommate so I couldn’t vent my stress out too much (laughs).

16.) What’s the thing you want to do the most right now?

- Of course, it’s doing more with our Kao Council. Failure will not be tolerated.

17.) What subjects are you good at?

- I don’t have much subjects that I’m bad at.

18.) What subjects are you bad at?

- I do not like home economics at all. It’s all full of food I couldn’t eat.

19.) Sleep or eat, which one can you not live without?

- Sleep. I’m a short sleeper so time really doesn’t bother me but, if I don’t rest properly, it would make me feel a bit sick.

20.) Any parting words?

- The Kao Council’s slogan for this term is “reformation”. Ayanagi is an academy that boasts itself in having a good tradition and history but, change is necessary in order to evolve. We might get stalled a bit in the beginning but, I believe that you will listen to us. I look forward to working with you.

OMAKE:

21.) What’s your favourite drink?

- Carrot or tomato or any kind of vegetable juice.

22.) Are you skilful with your hands?

- I’m pretty clumsy.

23.) Favourite weather?

- Cloudy.

»»————-　★　————-««

※ Please don’t re-post and re-translate this interview under any circumstances. If you want to translate it to your native language, the kanji is readily available in the anime official website.

If you enjoyed this, please consider buying me a ko-fi here to support my work! It’ll be a really big help. (o^▽^o)Thank you!!

#starmyu #high school star musical #kao council #shiki toma #fuyusawa ryo #starmyu translations #interview translations #my translations #it is so fun translating fuyusawa's dialogues XDD #it kinda reminds me of the way eigo speaks and y'all know i love eigo lol

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rikka-zine · 5 years

Text

Teaching Global Science Fiction in Tokyo: An Interview with Dr. Pau Pitarch Fernandez (part 2)

3. Global SF class at Waseda University

PPF My first year teaching at Waseda University, I offered this class, calling it just "Japanese SF". And nobody signed up. Can you believe that!?

ーーNO I CAN'T.

ーーCongrats!

PPF I was thinking about how to set up the course. My training is always to look at the history. In my other literature classes, like I had a Mystery Fiction class that I also taught last year. In that one, I started with Edogawa Rampo and the last reading is Confessions by Minato Kanae. We had some Edogawa Rampo, we had some Tani Jouji, we had “Fingerprints” by Satou Haruo. They read “The Devil's Disciple” by Hamao Shiro. I wanted to have them read Points and Lines by Matsumoto Seicho too, but it was too long.

That class, I had conceptualized through a historical narrative from the genre’s origins, the Golden Age, Henkaku (*2 It means unorthodox, alternative, more innovative mystery. 変格), Shakai-ha (*3 Social, political mystery. 社会派), Iya-Misu (*4 Disturbing mystery. イヤミス = 嫌なミステリの略). But I thought that would not work for Science Fiction. The genre is so vast and so rich, it is impossible to do something like that in 15 sessions. It is impossible to give them a full history. Maybe if I chose only classic, English-language, male authors' SF, I could put together something that could pass for that. But that is boring, and I didn’t want to do it. I wanted to put as much East Asian SF as possible. I also wanted to have a sense of this wide feel. So I chose to go with a thematic sequence, rather than a historical one.

We started for instance with Utopia and there we read Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" and "Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick. Then for Dystopia, we read “A Record of Nonchalant” by Satou Haruo. You know that one?

ーーI know the name but only the name.

PPF Oh, you should read it. It is a short story from 1929. And it is basically cyberpunk without information technology.

It is a world where the social class is represented through depth. If you are very poor, you live very far down. If you are rich, you live high up. It is a story of a character who wakes up at the bottom of society and slowly starts climbing up.

I think he wrote it as a kind of satire. If you read reviews from the time, people were comparing it to Kappa by Akutagawa. So I think people read it as Aestheticism, or a kind of Swiftian satire. There are some ironic references to proletarian literature or the Shin-Kankakuha (*5 新感覚派 is a literary group means “new impressions”). The social criticism is very clear. But at a certain point in the story, the main character is given the option of turning into a plant, a human-vegetable hybrid.

ーーWhat.

PPF That seems to allow him to access the higher classes. "Thanks to having me turned into a plant!" Then he ends up living at the top. When I was reading, I was like, "this is cyberpunk." He doesn't know IT and he could not think of computer networks. But this idea of hybridizing the human and something else in order to advance, and sacrificing the human side... All that reflection about what it means to be human, when does one stop being human, etc. I think it is a fascinating story. He never wrote anything like it again. I think it was like a test, some kind of experiment he was not really happy with. But it is really interesting considering it is from 1929. It is very nice and crazy.

Together with “A Record of Nonchalant,” they read "Folding Beijing" by Hao JingFang. In the class I tried to help them think of genre and abstract terms like Utopia. All these connections to like religious ideas, or political ideas in utopian socialism. Once I got them thinking in those terms then they started seeing a lot in these texts. Especially the utopias. I think, at first reading, they may seem boring. But then every utopia has its dark side and once they started thinking about that, arguing, analyzing it... It was great to see how their image of the text was really changing. They saw a lot of depth and complexity there.

I think once we moved to Dystopia, it was easy to relate because it is such a common genre in YA fiction. Everybody has read The Hunger Games. So they could definitely relate to that part. But I don't think they had stopped to think about all the moral complexity behind it, and it was really interesting to see them go through those texts thematically. If I had done the historical thing, we would have read Satou Haruo at the beginning and “Folding Beijing” at the end. It would have taken a long time to connect them. But bringing them together with the utopian texts was very interesting. I think it works better for science fiction if I had them thematically. Because students are already familiar with the main patterns.

Another unit that I had was on Exploration and there they read "The Women Men Don't See" by James Tiptree Jr. And they also read a story by Nnedi Okorafor's "From the Lost Diary of TreeFrong7". That one appeared on Clarkesworld Magazine. What I did before we started talking about Tiptree's was have them think about fiction they knew about exploration. Indiana Jones or all those classics from the colonial 19th century. A white hero going into the unknown and discovering the natives and fighting the bad ones, converting the good ones, you know, that kind of very paternalistic approach.

ーーLike Avatar?

PPF That's a good example.

So once they were thinking in those terms and then they went back to really thinking about what they had read. They started seeing how Tiptree is writing on top of this tradition of the white male explorer hero. And she is totally subverting it with the narrator at that point. "That's why we get this narrator". Everybody hated him, and they said "I hate this story, I do not like this guy." That is the point! You are not supposed to like this guy. Because this guy, he thinks that he is that kind of hero, and you want to look for a hero in that mold in the story, but there isn’t one. All you have is these women who just want to get out of here.

I think it worked really well to activate that kind of imagery that the students already have in their heads. Then they could understand why Tiptree (who also had that imagery) was writing on top of or against it. She knew that you would activate those images, and she prepared her twist accordingly. You get all the shocking moments.

Do you remember the end of the story? These aliens appear and the woman who is the main female character asks the aliens to take them away from Earth. “I can't stand it anymore. I’ll just live anywhere else but here. I hate this place.”

At the beginning, one of the students said "Well, I did not get why we need the aliens. Oppression, sexism is bad. You can tell that story without the aliens.” But then we were reading through it and thinking about how the aliens worked in the text, how would the story change without them. Then I think the students realized SF allows you to move the stakes to this cosmic level, huge scale. You are not talking only about the woman having had a terrible life. You are not only talking about all women of her generation having a terrible life even. You are talking about womankind in the cosmic sense.

This is not a problem of now, or the next ten years, or the last 100 years. It is so entrenched in this male/female oppressive relation, that this character has no other option but to leave the planet. In any other genre, you would need a hugely dramatic speech about why this is so transcendental. In SF, you just need aliens. When the aliens are there, she just needs to say "I don't care where you take me, I just want to be out of the planet. Just take me, take me please."

You already get that cosmic sense. "Wow. This woman is ready to leave the planet. This is really bad and entrenched. There is no easy solution. Because if there were, she would try it. But she could not. It is too big for this woman to deal with. So she has to leave the planet.”

SF is not just about "Okay, Let's put robots here and let's put a spaceship there.” What I like about it (and this is something that you cannot find in any other genre) is that it opens up this space for its themes to have this huge impact because you are talking about whole planets, talking about whole species, and talking about the universe. This cosmic scale that makes it really powerful.

Another text I really liked to teach was "Final Exam" by Megan Arkenberg. It is basically an apocalyptic story but told through multiple choice questions. That one was really refreshing for the students, because they had never seen a story told in that fashion. Again, it activated all these images that they already know, like all the apocalyptic Armageddon stories. It is a good sample for the wide variety of SF. I would love to have time to watch Gojira, and read I am Legend with them, but we don't have that kind of time. But thanks to a story like this you can bring it all into class discussion.

I want the students to ask themselves: “What do I know about this already?” Once they have activated that knowledge, if they come back to think about the story they can see that double layering. I tried to find texts for the syllabus that would allow us to have this multi-layered reading. I think that is very unique to SF. I mean, maybe every genre has it. Maybe I should not say unique. But I think it is very striking and very rich, how every science fictional text shares in all this repertoire of images.

On the other hand, that can make stories very formulaic. One of the criticisms that I you often hear is “science fiction is formulaic, always repeating the same patterns.” I’ll concede that is a possibility, if you don't do it right. But if you do it right, the fact that you have this repertoire gives you this richness, that's amazing.

Every time I start a science fiction book I am thinking of all my science fiction knowledge and activating it. Okay, this is a galactic empire. Maybe it’s an evil empire and there’s a rebellion, but sometimes it's subverted and the story brings you to think "Oh, wait! Maybe the rebellion is not that nice. Why was I thinking..."

So how the genre has this potential to always keep you on your toes, while going back to this shared knowledge. I think that's fascinating about science fiction. It makes it very rich and stunning. I'm definitely not buying this criticism of genre fiction as very repetitive. If you read bad examples, it can be repetitive. But people who are good like Megan Arkenberg...she does such an amazing job, using all these references and then making something so fresh. I think it definitely opened my students’ eyes to the possibilities of SF.

ーーThank you very much.

*Dr Pitarch-Fernandez has never attended to any Japanese SF events. He has been busy for taking care of his children now. But he said that he would like to attend one day in the future.

He told that “We can’t meet Greg Egan in any conventions in the US or even in Australia. But in the case of Tobi Hirotaka, we can meet him. So why not try a chance?” (Tobi regularly attends Un-Con, a local SF con in Shimane prefecture and occasionally attends other conventions in Japan.)

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jmlascar · 6 years

Text

If you find this part of the writing process daunting, here are some steps that could make it more intuitive. I’ll include examples from an old deleted scene that never went beyond a rough idea.

1. Write a script.

At this point, you don’t have to care about grammar, dialogue tags, or even proper punctuation. This is about making the dialogue natural, so you’ll want: what they say, and what they do. That’s it. Picture the scene, the characters. You’ll want to hear them talking, to see them smirking.

If you’ve ever had a fake argument in the shower or pretended you’re being interviewed by a talk show host, good. This is the imagination you want to summon here. And don’t worry yet if all the characters end up sounding like you — we’ve got the next step for that.

Example:

Emily: What happened between you two?

Philip: (silence, and inner thoughts about what did happen between them)

E, sighs: Remember when we were children? Peter adored you. Even as a baby, always following you around... If memory serves, you were the one giving him the cold shoulder, back then.

P: I was a kid. I was jealous.

E: Jealous of what? That he had better eyelashes than you?

P: He did have killer eyelashes. Still does. No wonder he got that dead girl pregnant.

E: (sighs again, and shakes her head. She’s disappointed but not surprised.)

2. Making the voices unique.

We’re keeping it a script, but now’s the time to care about who the characters are, and how that affects their voice. Consider:

How literate are they? Did they go to school? How long? Are they a native speaker? Do they read a lot? Characters with less formal education will make more grammar mistakes, and will mostly use common words.

What slang do they use (or lack thereof)? Do they curse? If so, how? This will be affected by their social class, the people they look up to, how much they care about sounding “proper”, “polite”, and your world building.

What personal quirks do they have? What’s their sense of humour like? Do they have a speech impediment? Do they talk in rambly, never-ending sentences, or are they a person of few words? Do they have a tendency to smirk, sigh, roll their eyes, quirk an eyebrow?

Who are they talking to? Friend or foe? Superior, subordinate, or equal? How long have they known them? What do they call each other?

These are questions you should ask yourself when you first write a character’s voice, and they’re good to keep in mind throughout, though there’ll come a point when it’ll just come naturally to you. For Emily and Philip, I wrote that script at a time when I was somewhat acquainted with them, but not fully — so I’ve got a few changes to do.

Example:

E: What happened between you two?

P: (silence, and inner thoughts about what did happen between them)

E, sighs: Do you remember when we were children? Peter adored you. Even as a baby, I always saw him following you around... If memory serves, you were the one giving him the cold shoulder, back then.

P: I was just a dumb kid. I was jealous.

E: For Twins’ sake, Philip, jealous of what? That he had better eyelashes than you?

P: Hey, he did have killer eyelashes. Still does. No wonder he got that dead girl knocked up.

E: (sighs again, and shakes her head)

3. Making it literate.

Now’s the time to make it look like prose. Punctuation in dialogue can be tricky, so here are some refreshers: [ 1 ] [ 2 ]

Do not be afraid to use:

“said”

“said” with an adverb

more elaborate synonyms (“exclaimed”, “muttered”, etc.)

action tags (”he smiled”, “she quirked an eyebrow”.)

no tag at all

➤ What’s important is to use each of these sparingly and only when appropriate.

“Said” is an invisible word, good to use when the person speaking needs to be clarified, but there is nothing else to add to the dialogue. If the speaker’s identity is obvious, you can drop “said” and put no tag at all.

When the character does something that is not explicit from their words alone, it’s time to use adverbs, synonyms, and action tags.

A rule of thumb is to use synonyms only when they describe your character’s tone exactly (this will avoid melodrama or an “I’ve just bought myself a shiny thesaurus” feel). In other cases or in addition that, you can use adverbs to describe tone, and action tags to describe facial expressions and body language.

Example:

Emily studied him carefully. "What happened between you two?"

Philip looked to the sky, saying nothing. After twenty years of silence, did she really expect an answer now? Probably not. Possibly, she hoped he might let a word slip — a snippet, a hint, some crumb to help her understand that summer when everything had changed.

Had Peter told the truth, Philip wouldn’t have denied it. He was long past the time for denial, would have accepted whatever punishment was coming his way. But his brother had buried himself in obstinate silence and, guilty as he was, Philip did not have the selflessness to hand himself over. It was not a matter of moral, or righteousness. Only survival.

Philip was good at surviving.

Emily sighed. When she spoke again, her voice had grown tired, quiet and distant. "Do you remember when we were children? Peter adored you. Even as a baby, I always saw him following you around... If memory serves, you were the one giving him the cold shoulder, back then."

"I was just a dumb kid. I was jealous."

"For Twins’ sake, Philip, jealous of what?” she snapped. “That he had better eyelashes than you?"

"Hey, he did have killer eyelashes," he laughed, gladly latching onto her sarcasm. "Still does. No wonder he got that dead girl knocked up."

Emily let out a deeper sigh, and shook her head. Exhaustion wrinkled her brow, and there might have been disappointment in it, too. But there was no surprise. By now, she must have known not to expect anything else.

4. Polish.

Read your dialogue out loud. Put intention into it, as if you were an actor. Does anything sound weird? If so, you should reword it.

Stay mindful of point of view. (If applicable.) The descriptions of your p.o.v character’s voice should centre on inwards sensations, whereas those of others should only be outwards perception (five senses).

Keep track of pace. A fast back and forth should have few tags and little to no inner thoughts. On the other hand, a long silence is well conveyed by a paragraph or two of introspection.

Be careful with epithets. “The young man”, “the dark-haired woman”, etc. These should not be used just to avoid repeating the character’s name, for they will grab the reader’s attention needlessly and can get jarring. Use them when you want to highlight a particular side of a character (”the soldier”, “his baby brother”) or when your p.o.v character does not know their name (”the tall stranger”)

Edit, edit, edit!

Hope this helped!

WIP page | book recs | book reviews

#writeblr #writing #writing tips #writing advice #dialogue

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queenborhapreaderships · 6 years

Note

Hi! Can you do a ship with me and one of the band boys?! I’m brazilian, half french, half native american. I look a lot like a brazilian native, but with lighter skin tone. I always use a side swept fringe, either with long or short hair. My eyes are really dark brown, so much that you can’t see my pupils without shedding a light on them. I’m goofy, the mom friend™️ and love kids. I love languages and speak 4 of them and teach English. I have 5 tattoos, all about things that matter a lot to me

Hello! Sure!

I ship you with Rami! You’re friends with all of the boys though, you work behind the scenes in their agency so you’re involved in practically everything they do. You’re by their sides whether it be doing press or at awards shows. Nobody has any arguments against this at all because you fit in so well, you’re practically a part of their little family at this point. Your position if mainly working with Rami, so you spend a bit more time with him than the rest of the boys and while they’re a bit jealous because they love goofing off as a group, they totally think the two of you will end up together. It’s like a set thing, they’ve put money on it and everything.

You definitely felt something different when you were around him, he’s just unlike anybody you had ever met. He’s so humble yet passionate at the same time and you admire him a lot. You wouldn’t dare ask him to hang out or anything outside of work, despite how much you’d love to because you are ever the professional. This belief is challenged though quite sooner than expected. Little do you know, he feels the exact same way about you. He’s in awe of your work ethic and if he’s being honest, it inspires him to be better every day.

He doesn’t want to miss his shot, so one day after a long interview he pulls you outside to talk. You’re instantly worried, not because he’s pulled you aside, it’s relatively normal for the two of you to go off and spend time in your own world. You’re worried because he’s got this look on his face you’ve never seen before. He almost looks nervous? You ask him and he reassures you that he’s okay and everything is alright, he’s just got something to ask you. He takes a deep breath and swallows a lump in his throat and finally spits it out.

You know that this is something you want, you never thought it would happen though. He’s like a big-time actor and he’s got girls dangling on him wherever he goes. He can sense the hesitation in your eyes and he makes sure to let you know that he’s being absolutely genuine. There’s nobody else he’d rather be with. Nobody gets him quite like you do, he can’t just sit for hours and hours and talk about life and culture and humanity like he can with you. The two of you have an unspoken connection and he wants to take the steps to start to make it spoken. Your thoughts of unprofessionalism vanish and you imagine the path before you, the potential for happiness for the both of you. You realize you’d be doing yourself and him a disservice to not at least give this a shot. You flash him a smile and he takes that as a yes and wraps his arms around your waist, pulling you in close and goddamn, it feels like coming home.

#rami malek x reader #rami malek imagine #borhap cast ships #rami malek reader insert #violetpond

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tequilajones · 6 years

Text

been reading a lot of unpopular opinions so I’m gonna add my own

This is mainly about KPOP since that’s the thing I have the most to talk about at the moment. While I’m not dishing out direct shade like “So-and-so is a hoe”, some opinions might be a bit controversial but I’m being 100% honest. If you have any questions and/or comments, just message me and if you’re mature about it, I’ll gladly reply.

Idols need to be treated like people, especially from the fans that are supposed to support them.

What really pisses me off is when a fanbase turn against an idol or group over something trivial and stupid such as someone’s bias is in a relationship, that an idol smoked weed once, an idol is part of the LGBT community or whatever. Point is, that’s their life. Nobody’s perfect and there’s a good chance you never had even the slightest bit of a chance to be with your bias. Thinking an idol has to be this perfect angel who’s saving themself for you is childish at best and completely selfish at worst. Another example is the whole Bambam/Wakanda salute scandal. I personally don’t understand that. Granted, I’m white. But still, if someone can please explain to me why only black people can do the salute from a movie, that would be appreciated. Anyway, back to what I was saying. As long as the idol in question isn’t hurting themselves or the people around them, then let them be themselves. The image their company promotes them as is only that, an image, a facade. On that note, people who are rude and act entitled towards kpop idols are assholes and nobody can tell me otherwise. You all need to chill the fuck out.

Fanwars are just a childish waste of time and effort.

“X is better than Y!” “No! Y is better than X!” How old do these two people sound? This type of conversation belongs on a playground. Everyone is allowed to like who they like and dislike who they dislike. You can still get along. My friend likes Seventeen and I’m not a fan of their music, but I like EXO and they don’t. Does that mean we’re now sworn enemies and have to have a debate every time we see each other? No, we just talk about the groups we both like or we let each other talk about one group’s updates and just say “oh, neat”. That’s it. Simple. Welcome to adulthood.

Nobody gives a shit if you’re an ARMY, stop commenting “ARMY here” or “Stan BTS” on everything, kpop related content or not.

It’s annoying as fuck. I could read the comment section of something that has nothing to do with kpop,nor South Korea and especially nothing to do with BTS and at least 25% of the comments are “ARMY here, gotta talk about BTS cuz god forbid people forget that one of the most famous kpop groups exists for a minute!” This is why people think ARMYs are annoying children. It needs to stop. Yes, I ignore them plenty of times but seriously, is stating that you’re an ARMY in a buzzfeed unsolved comment section really necessary? I mean come on. If anything, you’re discouraging people from even checking out kpop, since you give us all a bad rep.

If you ask where your bias is on vlive, you’re an entitled asshole and need to stop.

Combining my points about annoying fans and rudeness, you CHOSE to watch that vlive, if your bias isn’t there, they’re not there. Stop asking the idols there where their bandmates are, they probably don’t even know and it’s rude as fuck. Just watch a different vlive or go on Tumblr and look up #yourbias’name on Tumblr or Instagram or whatever. Simple as that. It’s like your friends skyping you but asking to see your sibling or partner instead.

Idols don’t HAVE to learn English.

Would it be convenient if they did? Yes, as an american who doesn’t speak Korean, English speaking idols would be great. But that’s the idol’s choice. While I am grateful for the idols that took the time to learn an admittedly difficult language, if I would need google translate to talk to my bias, should we ever meet, then that’s perfectly fine. I can watch their interviews with subtitles, that’s why they’re there. Learning a language is not easy, even if it’s similar to your native tongue. I taught myself german to talk to a hot german guy who transferred to my school. Now German has many similar roots and is similar grammatically to English, but it was still a pain in the fucking ass. I had to learn new vocabulary, learn how to pronounce new letters, practice conversations and as a high school student, I didn’t have a lot of time, energy or patience for it. Now imagine a Korean kpop idol having to go through this. They would have to take time out of their immensely busy schedule (I’ve heard, at times they only have 2-3 hours of free time just so that they can sleep) to learn a whole new alphabet, learn a grammar that even confuses native speakers sometimes and so on. If you’re really tired of using subtitles and think learning a new language is easy, then just learn korean. Boom, now you won’t need subtitles.

Korean bands are incredibly underrated and it’s sad.

Bands like FT Island, CNblue, N.Flying, Day6 and Royal Pirates have all been slept on too much, and it’s for the thing they all have in common. They all play instruments instead of dance. Doesn’t mean it’s any less good, but still. It can be a refreshing change in sound from the usual electronic sound of most kpop songs. I just wish it got more recognition.

Dark/Sexy concepts > cute concepts

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t completely hate cute concepts (I do like Twice after all and post ooh-ahh, it’s been cute after cute after cute). Personally, before I got into kpop I was mainly in the rock/metal scene and I’m more used to seeing dark, bloody and anything but cute concepts. The fact I’m a horror fan doesn’t really help me like cute concepts that much. Now for sexy concepts, I like how for women, it can be about women taking control of their sexuality and embracing it, while with men...I’m just hella gay. What I like about dark concepts are about how they explore humanity’s worst kept secrets, gothic aesthetics (I personally identify as a punk but goths are pretty damn fab) and I personally think dark concepts are more creative than cute concepts. What I don’t like about cute concepts are how they usually portray the same thing basically, either a bunch of friends hanging out or a bunch of people competing for someone’s affection, how cliche they are and why would I want to see a bunch of 20-30-year-olds pretending to be kids? (Though genuinely childish idols aren’t so bad). Groups that do cute concepts well do try to make it unique (Twice Cheer Up) and have the idols act their age (Girls Generation Party).

I get more excited about my underrated faves winning awards than my popular bias groups.

I am happy when Big Bang, Girls Generation or EXO win awards, but you can almost kind of expect them to win. Now if a group like Nu’est or Ukiss won a daesang, I would be celebrating as if the Rangers got the Stanley Cup (I’m an ice hockey fan from NY). I’m sorry EXO, you may have gotten me a boyfriend (he and I met on EXO amino), but if B1A4 is nominated, I’m voting for them.

Now, for my most controversial opinion...

BTS is overrated

I don’t completely hate them. I’m not a fan of their music and I don’t think any of the members are that good looking. They’re not terrible, I’ll give them that, I actually think they’re okay. But the hype they’re getting, it’s like everyone thinks BTS is the greatest music group of all time. They’re just average in my opinion. But any time I see anything KPOP related, there’s always gonna be BTS either in the comment section, in social media posts, in video/vine compilations and every fucking where else on the internet. I think it’s ridiculous how popular they are, I mean EXO’s very popular too but their references tend to stay in the kpop sphere and usually reserved for when EXO is relevant. When I tell kpop fans I don’t like BTS, 9/10 times, they are the pearl-clutching level of shocked.

#kpop #unpopular opinion #unpopularkpop

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psychicanchortimemachine · 3 years

Text

Equivalent Experiences: Thinking Equivalently

Constructing identical expertise could mean dynamical the means you think that regarding development and style, and potentially reevaluating your existing work. during this article, we’ll address common accessibility problems, and the way to best set about up them thus everybody will effortlessly access your content. This is the second of two articles on the topic of how digital.This is the second of two articles on the subject of however digital accessibility is enlightened by equivalency. Previously, we've got learned concerning the underlying biases that inform digital product creation, what identical expertise isn’t, the combination effects of inaccessible style and code, and powerful motivating forces for doing higher.

In this article, I will be able to discuss learning the way to embrace identical, comprehensive mentality. I will be able to additionally offer sensible, sturdy ways that to enhance your internet sites and web apps by providing solutions to common, everyday barriers cited by the individuals I interviewed. Setting a standard Setting a regular The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG ) outlines in conscientious detail a way to craft accessible digital experiences. whereas a protracted and dense document, it's unbelievably comprehensive — to the purpose wherever it’s been written as a global commonplace. For over ten years, we’ve had a globally arranged, canonical definition of what constitutes as usable. Can we?If you would like a bit facilitate constructing the initial mental framework the WCAG gets at, an issue I perpetually raise myself once creating one thing is, “How would i exploit this if…” It’s an issue that gets you to examine all the biases that may be moving you within the moment.

Examples might be:How would I use this if...o ...I can’t see the screen?o ...I can’t move my arms?o ...I’m sensitive to flashing and strobing animation?o ...English isn’t my primary language?o ...I have a limited budget for bandwidth?o ...I’ve set a large default type size?o ...and so on.

Introduction

If you’re looking for a more approachable resource for how to dig into what the WCAG covers, the "

Inclusive Design Principles

" would be a great place to start. The seven principles it describes all map back to "

WCAG success criterion

Its considered best if we learn from people who are actually using it.

You don’t need to apply my words in this. Below there are some basic problems Wayfinding

Headings

Heading elements are incredibly important for maintaining an equivalent, accessible experience.

When made with talent and care, heading parts enable screen reader users to quickly verify the contents of a page or read and navigate to content relevant to their interests. This is often resembling however somebody may quickly flit around, scrolling till one thing that appears pertinent comes into read.

Justin Yarbrough

voices poorly-authored heading elements as a concern, and he’s not alone.

WebAIM’s screen reader survey

cites headings because the most vital thanks to realize data. This survey is well-worth being attentive to, because it provides valuable insight into however disabled individuals really use helpful technology.

Landmarks

An addition to heading parts, in a different way to work out the structure and layout are

landmarks

. Landmarks are roles implicitly delineated by HTML(markup language sectioning parts), wont to facilitate describe the composition of the most page or read areas.

Here’s what Justin has to say:“If I’m just trying to find the main content, I’ll first try the Q JAWS shortcut key to see if a main region’s set up. If not, I’m just more or less stuck trying to scan the page to find it arrowing through the page.”

Much as however we'd use a layer cluster name of “primary nav” in our style file, or a category name of c-nav-primary in our CSS, it’s vital we tend to conjointly use a nav sectioning component to explain our main website navigation (as well as the other navigation the page or read contains). Doing thus ensures intent is carried all the approach through from conception, to implementation, to use. a similar notion carries through for the opposite hypertext markup language sectioning parts that make landmarks for helpful technology.

Labeled Controls

Brian Moore

tells us about “form fields with no label or at least one that isn’t programmatically associated so it doesn’t read anything.”It’s another

frustratingly common problem

Providing a legitimate for/id attribute pairing creates a programmatic association between type inputs and also the label that describes what it will. And after I say label, I mean the label part. Not a clickable div, a placeholder, aria-label, or another brittle and/or distraught answer. label components square measure a tried-and-true answer that enjoys wide and deep support for accessibility. In addition, a label part mustn't be employed by itself, say for a label on a diagram. This might sound counter-intuitive initially, however please bear with us.In addition, a label element should not be used by itself, say for a label on a diagram. This might seem counter-intuitive at first, but please bear with me.

<label for="your-name">Your name</label> <input type="text" id="your-name" name="your-name" autocomplete="name">  <label for="eye">Cornea</label> <label for="eye">Pupil</label> <label for="eye">Lens</label> <label for="eye">Retina</label> <label for="eye">Optic Nerve</label> <img id="eye" alt="A diagram of the human eye." src="parts-of-the-eye.png" />

The same varieties of helpful technology that permit} an individual jump to headings and landmarks additionally allow them to leap to input labels. Attributable to this, there's the expectation that once a "label" component is gift, there's additionally a corresponding input it's related to. Alternative Descriptions

If you've got low or no vision, and/or have problem understanding a picture, HTML’s ALT attribute (and not the title attribute) provides a mechanism to know what the image is there for. a similar principle applies for providing captions for video and audio content like podcasts.

Kenny Hitt

, mentions that when …someone posts something on Twitter, if it’s just an unlabeled image; I don’t even take the time to participate in the conversation. When you start every conversation by asking what’s in the picture, it really derails things.”

Up until last week

, the only way for Twitter to

provide alternative descriptions for its images

was to enable an option buried away in the subsection of a preference menu. Compare this to a platform like

Mastodon

, where the feature is enabled by default. Soren Hamby, mentions garment worker, a preferred podcast app. “The on boarding was plenty of themed graphics, however the altitude text for everyone was ‘unselected’ and for identical image with a analyzeit had been chosen. I believe it might be affordable for them to mention ‘sci-fi genre selected’ […] it’s such a tiny low factor however it makes all the distinction.Ensuring that alternate description content is succinct and descriptive is simply as vital as as well as the flexibility to feature it.

Daniel Göransson, a developer for Axess research laboratory, includes a nice article on a way to write them effectively. Robust, accessible options may also be a part of analysis criteria, in addition as an excellent methodology for building client loyalty.

Soren mentions that they're “often the deciding issue, particularly between services.” above all; they cite Netflix’s audio descriptions. Aria

One topic Daniel Göransson’s article on different descriptions mentions is to not over-describe things. This includes info like that it's a picture, WHO the creative person is, and keyword stuffing.The same principle applies for Accessible made net Applications (ARIA). ARIA may be a set of attributes designed to increase hypertext mark-up language to fill within the gaps between interactive content and helpful technology.

Brian explains: “There looks to be a perception that a lot of ARIA fixes accessibility and it will facilitate, however an excessive amount of either reads wrong things or simply talks approach an excessive amount of. If on screen text of 1 or 2 words is nice enough for everybody else, it's ok for screen reader users too. we tend to don’t want whole sentence or 2 descriptions of buttons or links i.e. ‘link privacy policy’ is way higher than one thing like ‘this link can open our privacy policy, this link can open during a new window’ once the on screen link text is ‘privacy policy.’”Provided that you utilize the acceptable native hypertext mark-up language part, helpful technology can handle all of that for you. Do more, additional robustly, with less effort? Sounds nice to me!

Unlike most of hypertext markup language, CSS, and JS, the success of enforced ARIA is discourse, variable, and mostly invisible. In spite of this, we have a tendency to appear to be slathering ARIA onto everything while not bothering to envision not providing it truly works, however additionally what the those that truly use it think about it. Support for ARIA is fragmented across operational systems, browsers, and helpful technology offerings, all their individual versions, and each potential permutation of all 3. Simply put, writing ARIA and trusting it'll work as meant isn’t enough. If misconfigured and/or over-applied, ARIA will break. it's going to not report actual practicality, announce the incorrect practicality, and (accurately or inaccurately) over-describe practicality. Obviously, these experiences aren’t equivalent. Representation matters. to induce a far better understanding of however the ARIA code you wrote truly works, i like to recommend hiring folks to inform you.

Here are four such services that do specifically that:·

Accessible360

AccessWorks (by Knowbility)

Fable Tech Labs

Perkins School For The Blind

Contrast

Color Contrast

Color distinction is another common issue, one whose severity usually appears to be downplayed. If I may wager a guess, it’s as a result of it’s straightforward to forget that alternative people’s vision may well be totally different than your own.

Regardless, it's a priority that affects a large swath of the world population, and that we ought to treat the difficulty with the seriousness it deserves.

The Click-Away Pound Survey tells US that out of the highest problems Janus-faced by users with access wants, distinction and legibility weighs in because the fifth most important issue.

On high of that, it's enhanced as a priority, going from four hundred and forty yards of respondents in 2016 to fifty fifth in 2019.

We board an age wherever there’s additional color distinction checking resources than I will count. Product like Stark will facilitate designers audit their styles before it's translated into code.

Tools like Eightshape’s distinction Grid and Atul Varma’s Accessible color palette builder allow you to craft your style systems with sturdy, accessible color mixtures out of the gate.

The somewhat ironic issue regarding color distinction is however, ah, visible it's. whereas a number of the previous accessibility problems area unit invisible—hidden away because the underlying code—contrast could be a pretty easy issue.Mostly, distinction could be a binary state of affairs, therein you either will or cannot see content.

So, following time you check your web site or webapp with an automatic accessibility checker like Deque’s axe, don’t be thus fast to downplay the colour distinction errors it reports.

High Contrast

There square measure technology solutions for things wherever even satisfactory color distinction ratios isn’t sufficient—namely, inverted colours mode and High distinction Mode. Several participants I interviewed mentioned victimization these show modes throughout their daily laptop use. Provided you employ linguistics markup language, each of those modes don’t want a lot of effort on the event finish of things to figure well. The vital bit is to visualize out what you’re building in these 2 modes to create certain everything is functioning as meant. Striving For Perfection To quote

Léonie Watson

,“Accessibility doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to be a little bit better than yesterday.”

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