#i doubt any westerners would see me as white lmao | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

blood-mocha-latte · 3 months

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~ miscellaneous tag game ~

tagged by the lovely @mutantmanifesto and @dontirrigateme <3

Favorite place in the world you’ve visited?

rough draw but munich! 'twas gorgeous and also where I got engaged

Something you’re proud of yourself for?

dragging my ass through college in two years and double majoring. nearly killed me but by god it's done

Favorite books?

the awakening by kate chopin - the woman in white by wilkie collins - all quiet on the western front by erich maria remarque - a tree grows in brooklyn by betty smith - letters from the 442nd by min masuda

Something that makes your heart happy when thinking about it?

mah wife (borat voice)

Favorite thing about your culture?

god what even is my culture. how unhinged would i sound if i said swamps and rigatoni

When did you join the HBO War fandom? What was the first show you watched?

joined about three years ago but not on tumblr, but watched the pacific first

Have you read any of Easy Company’s books? If so, which ones were your favorite?

no because i. have a reading list and they aren't up in the queue lmao

Favorite HBO War character and your favorite moment with them?

leckie. he’s like. webster if webster was a wet cat what’s not to love. favorite moment is all moments ever EXCEPT for the sex scenes because what kind of hallucinogen did i take to have to watch that

Do you make content for any fandoms, if so; what sort of content?

i write fic and am. a little consumed by it at all times. i also make edits but am going through a bit of a rut with that so for now only writing thank you

Favorite actor/actress and your favorite film of theirs?

eliza dushku for her wonderful performances in buffy the vampire slayer and angel (i'm gay. can you tell)

Favorite quote/s that you wish to share with others?

just this entire dick allen poem which is luztoye coded forever and ever

Random fact your mutuals/followers don’t know about you?

hm. idk. i once got bit by a raccoon in a bayou and had to get rabies shots for the next two weeks

If you’re a writer, do you need a beta reader (say yes so I can be your beta reader 🤭)?

i write everything by hand and then put in in the Computer which is like. a built in beta edit. and then mah wife (borat voice) betas for me because she's wonderful

Three things that make you smile?

mah wife (borat voice) (i'm predictable)

our air purifier (i’m old)

our vintage dog teapot

Any nicknames you like?

my name is three letters long like there's not a lot of leeway there. i went by adelasia for a while which is my middle name but like. that's it. does papera count

List some people you love to see around on tumblr!

@lamialamia is the pillar of my entire person at all times and genuinely one of the nicest people i’ve ever met. linh wrote this wonderful fic for the secret santa exchange, which i am currently reading and fawning over

@staud is easily one of the talented people in the entire hbo war fandom and has the fucking VISION for gifs and videos. most recent of which i’ve watched (and panicked about) being an incredible eugene sledge video. erin is also just fucking funny bro idk what to tell you

@mutantmanifesto is someone that is like. genuinely a celebrity to me. every time i see lenora’s drawings anywhere i have flashbacks like i’m in the louvre. also just a wonderful person with incredible taste

@ep6bastogne is on a tumblr hiatus right now but always deserves a shoutout. she did incredible edits of skinny sisk, eugene roe, ron speirs, and david webster for the secret santa exchange that changed my brain chemistry forever and is one of the warmest people i’ve ever talked to

@ewipandora is someone that i’m ALWAYS holding hands with <3. both a genuinely funny and wonderful person and has incredible taste in reblogs. ewi is currently doing a band of brothers ship series that i plan to Consume as soon as possible because i have no doubt that they’re incredible

@dcyllom is an incredibly underrated and kind part of my Dashboard Experience™ and is also just wonderful and one of my favorite Tumblr People :)

@educationalporpoises is a genius and an INCREDIBLE writer. zee was my secret santa gifter and this luztoye fic knocked it all the way out of the park and into the cemetery, which is how hard it slayed. also wins for best mutual handle

@almost-a-class-act is ridiculously supportive and kind, and a backbone of the hbo war fandom forever and always. sam’s also one of the best fucking writers to ever grace this earth, with the most recent thing i’ve read being this top notch luztoye fic <3

What would you do during a zombie apocalypse?

die. girl i work in an er i'd be the first to go

Favorite movie?

ladri di biciclette for all time favorite movie ever. a perfect movie

Do you like horror movies?

it depends entirely on the level of homoerotism that can be found in those movies. and also if matthew lillard is in it

Tagging:

everyone mentioned above as well as anyone who wants to do it since i have no clue who’s been tagged :)

#rie talks #tag games

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writingwithcolor · 3 years

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Jurassic period alien interacting with key cultures and historical figures in Middle East & Asia throughout history

@ketchupmaster400 said:

Hello, so my question is for a character I’ve been working on for quite a while but wasn’t sure about a few things. So basically at the beginning of the universe there was this for less being made up of dark matter and dark energy. Long story short it ends up on earth during the Jurassic Period. It has the ability to adapt and assimilate into other life animals except it’s hair is always black and it’s skin is always white and it’s eyes are always red. It lives like this going from animal to animal until it finally becomes human and gains true sentience and self awareness. As a human it lives within the Middle East and Asia wondering around trying to figure out its purpose and meaning. So what I initially wanted to do with it was have small interactions with the dark matter human and other native humans that kinda helped push humanity into the direction it is now. For example, Mehndhi came about when the dark matter human was drawing on their skin because it felt insecure about having such white skin compared to other people. And ancient Indians saw it and thought it was cool so they adopted it and developed it into Mehndi. Minor and small interactions though early history leading to grander events. Like they would be protecting Jerusalem and it’s people agains the Crusaders later on. I also had the idea of the the dark matter human later on interacting with the prophets Jesus Christ and Muhammad. With Jesus they couldn’t understand why he would sacrifice himself even though the people weren’t deserving. And then Jesus taught them that you have to put other before yourself and protecting people is life’s greatest reward. And then with the prophet Muhammad, I had the idea that their interaction was a simple conversation that mirrors the one he had with the angel Jibril, that lead to the principles of Islam. Now with these ideas I understand the great importance of how not to convey Islam and I’ve been doing reasearch, but I am white and I can understand how that may look trying to write about a different religion than my own. So I guess ultimate my question is, is this ok to do? Is it ok to have an alien creature interact with religious people and historical events as important as they were? Like I said I would try to be as accurate and as respectable as possible but I know that Islam can be a touchy subject and the last thing I would want is to disrespect anyone. The main reason I wanted the dark matter being in the Middle East was because I wanted to do something different because so much has been done with European and American stuff I wanted to explore the eastern side of the world because it’s very beau and very rich with so many cultures that I want to try and represent. I’m sorry for the long post but I wanted you guys to fully understand what my idea was. Thank you for your time and hope you stay safe.

Disclaimer:

The consensus from the moderators was that the proposed character and story is disrespectful from multiple cultural perspectives. However, we can’t ignore the reality that this is a commonly deployed trope in many popular science fiction/ thriller narratives. Stories that seek to take religious descriptions of events at face value from an areligious perspective particularly favor this approach. Thus, we have two responses:

Where we explain why we don’t believe this should be attempted.

Where we accept the possibility of our advice being ignored.

1) No - Why You Shouldn’t Do This:

Hi! I’ll give you the short answer first, and then the extended one.

Short answer: no, this is not okay.

Extended answer. I’ll divide it into three parts.

1) Prophet Muhammad as a character:

Almost every aspect of Islam, particularly Allah (and the Qur’an), the Prophet(s) and the companions at the time of Muhammad ﷺ, are strictly kept within the boundaries of real life/reality. I’ll assume this comes from a good place, and I can understand that from one side, but seriously, just avoid it. It is extremely disrespectful and something that is not even up to debate for Muslims to do, let alone for non-Muslims. Using Prophet Muhammad as a character will only bring you problems. There is no issue with mentioning the Prophet during his lifetime when talking about his attributes, personality, sayings or teachings, but in no way, we introduce fictional aspects in a domain that Muslims worked, and still work, hard to keep free from any doubtful event or incident. Let’s call it a closed period: we don’t add anything that was not actually there.

Reiterating then, don’t do this. There is a good reason why Muslims don’t have any pictures of Prophet Muhammad. We know nothing besides what history conveyed from him.

After this being said, there is another factor you missed – Jesus is also an important figure in Islam and his story from the Islamic perspective differs (a lot) from that of the Christian perspective. And given what you said in your ask, you would be taking the Christian narrative of Jesus. If it was okay to use Prophet Muhammad as a character (reminder: it’s not) and you have had your dark matter human interacting with the biblical Jesus, it will result in a complete mess; you would be conflating two religions.

2) Crusaders and Jerusalem:

You said this dark matter human will be defending Jerusalem against the Crusaders. At first, there is really no problem with this. However, ask yourself: is this interaction a result of your character meeting with both Jesus and Prophet Muhammed? If yes, please refer to the previous point. If not, or even if you just want to maintain this part of the story, your dark matter human can interact with the important historical figures of the time. For example, if you want a Muslim in your story, you can use Salah-Ad-Din Al-Ayoubi (Saladin in the latinized version) that took back Jerusalem during the Third Crusade. Particularly, this crusade has plenty of potential characters.

Also, featuring Muslim characters post Prophet Muhammad and his companions’ time, is completely fine, just do a thorough research.

3) Middle Eastern/South Asian settings and Orientalism:

The last point I want to remark is with the setting you chose for your story. Many times, when we explore the SWANA or South Asian regions it’s done through an orientalist lens. Nobody is really safe from falling into orientalism, not even the people from those regions. My suggestion is educating yourself in what orientalism is and how it’s still prevalent in today’s narrative. Research orientalism in entertainment, history... and every other area you can think of. Edward Said coined this term for the first time in history, so he is a good start. There are multiple articles online that touch this subject too. For further information, I defer to middle eastern mods.

- Asmaa

Racism and Pseudo-Archaeology:

A gigantic, unequivocal and absolute no to all of it, lmao.

I will stick to the bit about the proposed origin of mehendi in your WIP, it’s the arc I feel I’m qualified to speak on, Asmaa has pretty much touched upon the religious and orientalism complications.

Let me throw out one more word: pseudoarchaeology. That is, taking the cultural/spiritual/historical legacies of ancient civilizations, primarily when it involves people of colour, and crediting said legacies to be the handiwork of not just your average Outsider/White Saviour but aliens. I’ll need you to think carefully about this: why is it that in so much of media and literature pertaining to the so-called “conspiracy theories” dealing with any kind of extraterrestrial life, it’s always Non-Western civilizations like the Aztec, the ancient Egyptians, the Harappans etc who are targeted? Why is it that the achievements of the non West are so unbelievable that it’s more feasible to construct an idea of non-human, magical beings from another planet who just conveniently swooped in to build our monuments and teach us how to dress and what to believe in? If the answer makes you uncomfortable, it’s because it should: denying the Non-West agency of their own feats is not an innocent exercise in sci-fi worldbuilding, it comes loaded with implications of racial superiority and condescension towards the intellect and prowess of Non-European cultures.

Now, turning to specifics:

Contrary to what Sarah J. Maas might believe- mehendi designs are neither mundane, purely aesthetic tattoos nor can they be co-opted by random Western fantasy characters. While henna has existed as an art form in various cultures, I’m limiting my answer to the Indian context, (specifying since you mention ancient India). Mehendi is considered one of the tenets of the Solah Shringar- sixteen ceremonial adornments for Hindu brides, one for each phase of the moon, as sanctioned by the Vedic texts. The shade of the mehendi is a signifier for the strength of the matrimonial bond: the darker the former, the stronger the latter. Each of the adornments carries significant cosmological/religious symbolism for Hindus. To put it bluntly, when you claim this to be an invention of the aliens, you are basically taking a very sacred cultural and artistic motif of our religion and going “Well actually….extraterrestrials taught them all this.”

In terms of Ayurveda (Traditional holistic South Asian medicine) , mehendi was used for its medicinal properties. It works as a cooling agent on the skin and helps to alleviate stress, particularly for the bride-to-be. Not really nice to think that aliens lent us the secrets of Ayurvedic science (pseudoarchaeology all over again).

I’m just not feeling this arc at all. The closest possible alternative I could see to this is the ancient Indian characters incorporating some specific stylistic motifs in their mehendi in acknowledgement to this entity, in the same vein of characters incorporating motifs of tribute into their armour or house insignia, but even so, I’m not sure how well that would play out. If you do go ahead with this idea, I cannot affirm that it will not receive backlash.

-Mimi

These articles might help:

Pseudoarchaeology and the Racism Behind Ancient Aliens

A History of Indian Henna (this studies mehendi origins mostly with reference to Mughal history)

Solah Shringar

2) Not Yes, But If Ignoring the Above:

I will be the dissenting voice of “Not No, But Here Are The Big Caveats.” Given that there is no way to make the story you want to tell palatable to certain interpretations of Islam and Christianity, here is my advice if the above arguments did not sufficiently deter you.

1. Admiration ≠ Research: It is not enough to just admire cultures for their richness and beauty. You need to actually do the research and learn about them to determine if the story you want to tell is a good fit for the values and principles these cultures prioritize. You need to understand the significance of historical figures and events to understand the issues with attributing the genesis of certain cultural accomplishments to an otherworldly influence. 1.

2. Give Less Offense When Possible and Think Empathetically: You should try to imagine the mindsets of those you will offend and think about to what degree you can soften or ameliorate certain aspects of your plot, the creature’s characteristics, and the creature’s interactions with historical figures to make your narrative more compatible. There is no point pretending that much of areligious science fiction is incompatible with monotheist, particularly non-henotheistic, religious interpretations as well as the cultural items and rituals derived from those religious interpretations. One can’t take “There is no god, just a lonely alien” and make that compatible with “There is god, and only in this particular circumstance.” Thus:

As stated above by Asmaa and Mimi, there is no escaping the reality the story you propose is offensive to some. Expect their outcry to be directed towards you. Can you tolerate that?

Think about how you would feel if someone made a story where key components of your interpretation of reality are singled out as false. How does this make you feel? Are you comfortable doing that to others?

3. Is Pseudoarchaeology Appropriate Here?: Mimi makes a good point about the racial biases of pseudoarchaeology. Pseudoarchaeology is a particular weakness of Western-centric atheist sci-fi. Your proposed story is the equivalent of a vaguely non-descript Maya/Aztec/Egyptian pyramid or Hindu/ Buddhist-esque statue being the source for a Resident Evil bio weapon/ Predator nest/ Assassin’s Creed Isu relic.

Is this how you wish to draw attention to these cultures you admire? While there is no denying their ubiquity in pop-culture, such plots trivialize broad swathes of non-white history and diminish the accomplishments of associated ethnic groups. The series listed above all lean heavily into these tropes either because the authors couldn’t bother to figure out something more creative or because they are intentionally telling a story the audience isn’t supposed to take seriously.*

More importantly, I detect a lot of sincerity in your ask, so I imagine such trivialization runs counter to your expressed desire to depict Eastern cultures in a positive and accurate manner.

4. Freedom to Write ≠ Freedom from Consequence: Once again, as a reminder, it’s not our job to reassure you as to whether or not what you are proposing is ok. Asmaa and Mimi have put a lot of effort into explaining who you will offend and why. We are here to provide context, but the person who bears the ultimate responsibility for how you choose to shape this narrative, particularly if you share this story with a wide audience, is you. Speaking as one writer to another, I personally do not have a strong opinion one way or the other, but I think it is important to be face reality head-on.

- Marika.

* This is likely why the AC series always includes that disclaimer stating the games are a product of a multicultural, inter-religious team and why they undermine Western cultures and Western religious interpretations as often (if not moreso) than those for their non-Western counterparts.

Note: Most WWC asks see ~ 5 hours of work from moderators before they go live. Even then, this ask took an unusually long amount of time in terms of research, emotional labor and discussion. If you found this ask (and others) useful, please consider tipping the moderators (link here), Asmaa (coming eventually) and Mimi (here). I also like money - Marika.

#alien character #historical fiction #science fiction #pseudoarchaeology #Middle-Eastern cultures #South-Asian cultures #Islam #writing with Islam #mehendi #cultural appropriation #areligious perspectives in writing #asks #WWC

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gonnahypatia · 3 years

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Ch.44 Review: OP is mad at Garden

(Analysis also posted on Wise HQ, feel free to chat with us over there! 🤍🖤🤍)

My my, we have a lot to unpack this week.

Again, forgive me if I say something that someone else has said, I usually work to bring something new/original to the discussion but since the hivemind is so strong it's possible we'll have the same ideas lmao''

First, I'd like to talk about our new mysterious character: The Shopkeeper.

I'm already missing Bluw's design because the assassin granny was just the best, but I can say that Endo's choice was very interesting this time. Since I'm not sure if the Shopkeeper has confirmed pronouns, I'll be using they/them when referring to them. What stands out to me about them at first is that they're, apparently, non-white and if I had to make bets, I'd say Endo wanted to code them as Indian/Middle-Eastern, considering the deep eyebags and the collar of the shirt. If we wanted to go even further, I'd dare to point out their garden doesn't look very Western to me. I don't have words to describe it well, but this garden has a more "busy", crowded and stuffy feeling when compared to western gardening styles, which usually have a lot of open areas with grass. Also, we can see that tower/turret thing at the background that has a more Indian architecture feel to it, so Idk, either Endo put a lot of depth into this character or I am reading too much into it as always lel'. If any Indian / Middle-Eastern folk can confirm or debunk my analysis of fictional gardens, please feel free to hit me up at the DMs~~

About Shopkeeper's opinion on Yor's marriage, I can't say I'm surprised about them not being 100% on board with it and how it affected her job, but it intrigues me how apparently (as Tare pointed out on Discord based on the Indonesian translation) Yor presented this as a real deal and not a scam marriage purely for hiding her Thorn Princess persona. If the Shopkeeper knew it wasn't real, they wouldn't be so worried about "testing" Yor as soon as they met, right? Maybe they're being overly cautious, who knows, but it fills me with all the sad/fluff feelings the thought that Yor presented her family as a real one to a person she shouldn't have to hide anything about, considering her job should be top priority. And talking about hiding stuff...

Garden is with the Mob... And I don't know what to say about it lol'

I had my theories they were still legal to some extent and part of a shadow government that had the official one as a puppet, but their involvement with the Mob makes things kinda tricky (we can also imagine the Gretcher organization is anti-Westalis as well but still...). In a way, I think I'm still right, otherwise I doubt Yor's manager at City Hall would be involved with this as well, so I still stand by my Legal Garden flag.

However, Yor's principles here also make me throw fire at my planning boards because sweetie, this is the f*cking Mafia. To what extent goes the gray morality of Garden and their underlings? Shopkeeper does say the Gretchers have controlled Ostania's underworld in "an honorable fashion". Just what does it mean? To shed the less blood possible? To not allow petty criminals go rampage? Or just eliminate every single enemy in the radar so now they finally managed their revenge in killing the male heirs? There's too much going on here, help.

I would also like to dedicate a minute to our new favorite milf.

God, I am going to simp for Olka hard, I bet on it. She's so pretty, just look at her! Also, sorry to rain on everyone's parade, but while I really crave some mothers bonding time between her and Yor, I have a feeling this lady will be very evil when the time comes. She shouldn't trust nobody at this point, so if there's a moment if she has to sell out Yor, even knowing she has a family of her own at the ship, I feel like she'll do it in a heartbeat, in a twisted way of showing how far a mother's love goes for their children. Again, guys, she's a Cool Mom, but she's also Mafia. Endo already has shown to not pity these gray characters with angsty pasts, so I can see this is as a good opportunity to stop this soft filter / romantization in Yor's lines of work and show what Garden really stands for.

Now, finally, the start of this chapter and arc: Yor.

Gosh, I'm worried. I'm worried for Yor and I'm worried about having too many feelings about a fictional character a.k.a Yor.

During all this time, we were under the impression Yor enjoyed her job due this sense of duty

towards her country, making it even with how it brought her a comfortable life when she was younger and had to care for Yuri. We could even point out that she enjoyed being the Thorn Princess so much she was willing to be part of a scam marriage to appear more normal and not call the attention of authorities.

However, now we see that's not all of it and apparently her worries about Yuri were the very main reason she took this life, to the point that now she realizes Yuri has a life of his own, she doesn't feel the need to do this kind of work anymore. Did she truly feel comfortable with it in the first place? The fact that she "needs to get her motivation" for it truly bugs me and makes me wonder how much of her mental state was sacrificed over these years until she got used to the killing. And while we're on the mood for angst, let's talk about a (not very plausible) scenario in which this is her last job and she manages to leave Garden. Then what is the point of their fake family? It appears to me her new most important matter is Loid and Anya and she wants to put them to safety by not being an assassin anymore, but it still worries me she'd feel out of place somehow, which is a shame because we can really see how she wants to spend real moments with them without worrying about work. Grrr, Endo better treat my girl right or else he'll get these online fists (9`へ´*)9

Well, that's all for this week, let's get our hopes up for the next chapter!! ❤️

#spy x family #sxf #yor briar #sxf meta

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purplesurveys · 3 years

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1151

survey by caitlinen

Clothes & body.

What color is your shirt? The one I’m currently wearing has some white, red, and black on it.

What length is your hair? Too long than how I want it to be; I just haven’t had the time to have it trimmed + Covid’s bad again so I can’t even go out of the house anymore. Anyway it’s already down to my boobs but I really want to have it cut all the way up to my neck again.

Do you have any broken bones currently? Nope, never happened.

Have you ever broken a bone? See above.

What color are your favorite pair of shoes? White, as are all my favorite pairs to wear.

What style are your favorite pair of pants? Denim, mom jeans.

Do you like shorts or jeans more? It’s definitely a lot comfier to wear shorts, but it’s frequently hard to find one that suits my style so I don’t own a lot of them.

Do your socks match more than not? I never wear socks anymore lol.

Do you like wearing hats? I would probably enjoy wearing them if I invested in them, but for the most part there’s a bunch of other stuff I’d rather spend my money on.

List the songs that come up on your iPod/mp3 shuffle: I’ll just put my Spotify on shuffle based on the last song I listened to:

1. Grow Up - Paramore

2. Simmer - Hayley Williams

3. Escape Route - Paramore

4. Pool - Paramore

5. Ain’t It Fun - Paramore (I guess I had my angry!Paramore playlist on last...I could swear I was recently playing BTS though, lmao. Oh well)

6. I’m Not Angry Anymore - Paramore

7. Playing God - Paramore

8. Moving On - Paramore

9. Forgiveness - Paramore

10. Rose-Colored Boy - Paramore

Favorite movie by genre:

Comedy: Not a big comedy buff but I do have a soft spot for White Chicks, hahaha. The jokes have so far never failed to make me laugh.

War: Gone With the Wind.

Horror: I’ll have to go with The Shining or the original Carrie for this. I can’t even tell you the last time I was able to watch The Shining all the way through; I always get disturbed enough to turn it off at a certain point. That alone makes it great for me.

Romance: If we’re talking full-on romance and not romcom, probably The Vow. That and Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Rom-Com: The Proposal, Love Actually, Roman Holiday, Funny Face, and Two for the Road.

Animated: Toy Story.

Drama: Revolutionary Road, without a doubt. Room and The Reader are great as well.

Foreign: I mean...all English-language movies are foreign to me lmao so I guess I’ll go with my all-time favorite? Two for the Road.

Suspense: Eh, not really a fan. I guess I’ll go with Gone Girl.

Musical: Even more so not a fan, but I do love My Fair Lady. I remember being super excited to view La La Land thinking it would just have some songs squished in between scenes, so I was disappointed when the first scene was literally a song number.

Documentary: Jiro Dreams of Sushi was life-changing. I’m glad one of my home ec teachers introduced us to the full docu in one of our classes.

Sports: Not a fan.

Religious: The Exorcist, if we can stretch what ‘religious’ means hahahaha

Family: Let’s just go with Toy Story again.

Holiday: It’s A Wonderful Life, and Love Actually again!

Black and White: Not really a genre lol, but Roman Holiday.

Historical: Schindler’s List. I guess Steve Jobs can also kinda technically count as historical even though it covers a super modern period. The screenplay in that movie was *chef’s kiss*

Based On True Events: Spotlight.

Classic: Gone with the Wind.

Book to Screen: Revolutionary Road, though I’ve never read the book.

Adult animated: Anomalisa.

Thriller: Misery.

Western: Ew hahahaha bye

Food:

How do you like your pizza? Very simple. The less toppings the better,

Do you put parmesean cheese on pasta? If there’s some available, yeah.

What is your ideal salad? With chunks of tuna sashimi and spicy mayo.

Which is your favorite kind of macaroni & cheese? Isn’t macaroni and cheese just...that? Hahaha I’m not aware of any other kinds of it; I don’t get to have mac and cheese a lot.

Which juice is your favorite? I find some of the more exotic ones actually taste nice and don’t taste too overpowering, like guyabano.

What do you dip your french fries in? Mayonnaise, or any kind of sauce that has mayo mixed in it.

Which is your favorite kind of pie? I usually gravitate towards savory ones; doesn’t matter what kind.

Milk chocolate, dark chocolate or white chocolate? Milk > white > dark.

How do you take your coffee? Creamy and milky.

Crab legs, shrimp, or lobster tail? Crab or lobster. Not the biggest fan of shrimp and I’d honestly pass on it if I could, but if it were the only seafood being served I wouldn’t mind getting one or two. But generally, the flavor doesn’t do much for me and I hate that they’re usually too small hahaha.

Steak medium rare or well done? Ultra rare.

If you said well done you can see yourself out. Lmao damn, I love steak but I’m not a gatekeeper...

Do you grow any of your own food? No, never really tried doing so.

If you do, which is your favorite to eat?

Name 4 foreign dishes you want to try. Can’t really name exact names of dishes off the top of my head, but some cuisines I have yet to try and would love to are African (in general), Brazilian, Sri Lankan, and Swedish.

Do you like guacamole? It’s fine. Not super common here, and I wouldn’t seek it out even if I were despeately hungry.

What is your go to snack? Corndogs or spicy tuna salad.

Do you prefer mustard or cheese on a soft pretzel? Cheese. Hate mustard.

Do you like oysters? Looooooooove them, but they’re kinda expensive so I don’t get to have them a lot. I usually settle for mussels.

How do you eat them? I’m down for any kind of oyster dish.

What kind of pasta is your favorite? Fettuccine.

Favorite alcoholic beverage, if you're of age? Long Island Iced Tea or some kind of fruity, sweet cocktail.

Favorite cold beverage? Cold water or soju.

Favorite type of junk food? Pizza always.

What could you eat every single day? Literally spicy tuna salad. I wish I could have one right now :(((

What food do you hate the most? Fruits or raisins.

Are you a good cook? Hahahaha, not at all. If I’m having a craving I usually have to have it ordered for delivery.

What is your favorite thing to make?

How do you eat oreos? I never eat the actual cookies because I had them a million times as a kid and now I’m sick of them. I do love Oreo-flavored stuff, like milkshakes and cheesecakes.

#survey #surveys

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kinkymagnus · 3 years

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Hi! Love your stories!! <3

I just wanna start with I am not transphobic (I know it sounds cliche...) but I am just curious about fanfic authors who write Magnus as trans.

Most of the time I shy away from trans!Magnus fics because for me its hard to picture it when he is male and when I try to read a fic I will get thrown off once I read sex scenes. I love your stories of sub!Magnus (let's be real there is no other kind <3).

I am always afraid to ask (hence the anon ask) cause most of the time anyone who loves trans!Magnus will get really defensive and start getting really mean when it's a general question or opinion and I just wanted to get your take on it.

hm ok. well. i really don’t love the wording of this question. but i like to try and take questions like this that i think are more borne of ignorance than malice and like, engage with them. i don’t think i’m morally obligated to, though, and people you may have said something like this to and reacted negatively, well, i don’t blame them at all. i’m not exactly feeling sunshine and roses about it, either.

under the cut bc this is long

first: starting with “i’m not transphobic, but--” isn’t cliche, it’s a sign of someone knowing they’re about to say something transphobic. or trying to excuse themselves and distance themselves from any blame. and so on. it’s not like “oh everyone says that” it’s “i read that and immediately know i’m about to put up with some bullSHIT.” like, the fact you put that little disclaimer there means you KNOW IT NEEDS ONE.

second: “it is hard to picture if when he is male” hm. ok. so. right here you’re assuming trans men =/= male. magnus having a vagina = not man. that’s very much being transphobic.

but let’s give the benefit of the doubt. let’s say you didn’t mean it like that. you might be confused just because you’re so used to cis male magnus, it feels off when someone suddenly describes something that doesn’t fit what you’re used to. it’s like when i read a fic and it mentions magnus’s dick or whatever, and i’m always surprised, and find it hard to picture, because at this point, i’m so used to trans magnus that way i write it. or it might be even something like...

ok, here’s a weirdly specific example. i read the alex rider books as a kid, and there’s a character who is described as white and red-headed. in the recent tv adaptation, she’s a black woman with long dark curls. i’ve never been good at imagining characters in my head when its just books, so the imagery i’ve attached to this character is the tv show version of her. so now, if i go back and reread the books or read fanfiction for alex rider, every time they mention her red hair or something that makes it clear she’s not black, i’m a little startled, before i remember, oh yeah, originally, she was a redheaded white chick.

so let’s say that’s more the feeling you’re getting: you’re so used to cis magnus, seeing trans magnus is a little moment of surprise.

........so what?

your options here are:

don’t read it and be quiet if it bothers you so much

keep reading and deal with the surprise i mean is it really that bad to have a momentary “oh yeah lol” moment? and you might even stop being surprised eventually if you get used to it lmao

i don’t think it’s a big deal to be a bit thrown off when you remember that this person’s version of magnus doesn’t have a dick or whatever. but that’s kind of something to keep to yourself. read it or don’t, but there’s nothing wrong with it. it’s not weird, it doesn’t make magnus less male, and if you don’t like it, don’t read it.

also, you say “i’m afraid to ask” but come to think of it, you haven’t actually.... asked a question. just “like your fics. im not transphobic BUT... trans magnus is weird because i can forget he’s supposed to be trans until the sex scenes, and then it throws me off because he’s supposed to be Male. it’s weird. i love sub magnus. i’m afraid to ask because trans magnus fans are mean and defensive when you say lightly transphobic things. what’s your take?”

i mean, is the question the whole “i’m curious about fic authors wrote magnus as trans”? like, what about us? most of us are trans and we love magnus???? idk what you want to know buddy? why people would EVER headcanon magnus as not cis? like, there are lots of reasons for that one being he literally could not possibly be our definition of the western cis male given that he was born like 4+ centuries ago on an entirely different continent . like, really, if you want to know why we headcanon him as trans i’m sure you could read through our blogs and find a bunch of shit

and anyway it’s like, ok, 1. trans magnus isn’t just about the sex, but that’s a lesser issue.

2. again, no question being asked here beyond a general “what’s your take on this” (this being....”trans magnus weird”? or “trans magnus fic authors...thots?”?)

3. finally to get tho the last part of hmm yikes wording is the “anyone who loves trans!Magnus will get really defensive and start getting really mean”. the word choice here sure does say a lot.

“defensive” and “mean”. if you’re going up to them and saying “trans magnus confuses me during sex scenes because he’s male!” then yeah, people might get a little upset. and defensive? either a) implies you’re on the offensive, or b) implies they’re like, guilty somehow, they’re being defensive and cagey.

like, coming out with some casual transphobia or whatever and then playing the victim when people are offended and react....not cool

and just... look. calling someone out for being transphobic isn’t being mean or a bully. and no one’s saying you have to like trans magnus, no one’s holding a gun to your head and making you read our posts and fics. but if you’re going to read our posts and fics, don’t be a dick about it.

and genuinely, like, i know i’ve focused on the bad here, but like, thank you, i’m glad you like my stories, and hell yeah sub magnus rights. and i don’t think you’re like a bad person or someone trying to be malicious and hateful or something, but like.... my dude PLEASE think about this shit and how you’re wording things like. jesus

i think the highlights here are

yes trans man = man

man with vagina = still a man

trans magnus having sex via a cis man’s penis in his vagina = gay sex between two males

people might get defensive or “mean” if you say things to them that are kinda transphobic and that’s understandable. they aren’t aggressors or your enemies for reacting like this.

no one is forcing you to like or read trans magnus content, it’s okay if you don’t, but if so just don’t, you don’t gotta say anything just don’t read it

there are lots of reasons someone might headcanon magnus as trans

and headcanoning him as trans isn’t weird, gross, or wrong in any way

honestly headcanoning him as cis makes less sense but that’s another talk

also saying “im not transphobic but--” doesn’t absolve you of any transphobia following it

#long post #tw transphobia #sigh....anon.......#im very tired

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shesawriter39049 · 5 years

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BTS -HS-HEADCONS

(Slightly NSFW ) ..JUST A LIL

Mkay ..disclaimer this is all in good FUN, I’m also a fellow 94 liner, so if the boys were in the US, we would’ve been in HS together!

This is Obv very Westernized and I’m writing this as if they aren’t the art school AU’s people typically write

(EDITED 8/5/2020)

Jimin-

-A whole thot thot, I mean don’t get me wrong he’s a total sweetheart but he’s still a walking thirst trap, no cap, no filter! He’s kinda ”famous” on social media(Prob like 15-20k) Snap, IG, FB, you name it...for some reason he always seems to work out shirtless. LOVES to take pics so you KNOW he worked out shirtless!

-Please don’t let any form of R&B play at a party...It’s a wrap, what you tryin to see? Some grind work? A little hip roll action? You want a lap dance? Tongue out and all! The Asian alllll the black girls girls love(Obviously not just black girls but lets be real..it takes a certain...appeal..and Jimin has it!)

- Gives off that whole “My dad owns, about 5 nail salons and beauty supplies in the hood” kinda vibe! (Meaning hes comfortable around different walks of life,he doesn't feel out of place easily, hes the type of person that everybody can gravitate towards) The boy has swag and he knows it…got everybody from Megan to Brian thirsty as all hell!

-Will win best hair his senior year..without a doubt, well if he doesn't fry it first!... Looks like a walking Pantene commercial, yes, more so because he can’t go two seconds without running his fingers through his scalp!

-KING of subtle shade...knows all the tea but acts like he doesn't as he slowly sips his Starbucks. The type to honestly forget he’s told 3 different girls they could wear his jersey/Letterman jacket! Until they all text him Thursday night ....

-A jock that’s cool with everybody! The type to cuss out his fellow athletes that are total dick wads and bully people... I feel like he’d be a damn good running back, he has the right height a muscle build up for it.

-Owns a pair of buffs, don't lie to yourself you know you could see it too...wears skinny jeans with Timberland's 😒, still wears 3878374 rings. Believe it or not he gives me like Tilly’s/Zumiez/PacSun vibes!

-Drives a red obnoxiously loud scat pack that’s tinted way past the legal shade! He drifts on the weekends. Jimin would be your local plug IDC,IDC,IDC...LOL I said what I said, got a whole eighter hiding in a fake bottle of orange juice!

- Just flirting his way through high school living his best life… will fuck someone up if need be, has a slight temper, sassy as hell, can roll his eyes with the best of them. ”Would it be ...too extra if I changed outfits and dates during the dance?..Serious question guys! ”

- He’d be the one that all the girls say gives the best head ...I mean..those lips..that tongue..HELLO! Stroke game on point...I feel like he’d have no filter when it comes to talking about sex publicly. No shame, loves to tease you, at the worst times, down to sneak off to the bathroom, or the janitors closet! Will bend you over behind the bleachers after they win a football game...if your down...gang, gang!

Namjoon-

-An Asian with light skin tendencies ...the one that low key may think he’s black (I’m joking!! lmao,,,maybe)

-He’s that one person that legitimately everyone likes...no matter how hard you may try..you just can’t dislike him!

-He actually is class president!

-Hangs out with all the basketball players and has the freshest Jordans..but can’t hoop! He’s on the school newspaper..writes the sports column...is still that free spirit telling you to live your best damn life.

-Either looks like he’s going to a business meeting or like he just picked out damn near everything from Champs there’s no in between!

-Makes and sells beats on the side, would also have a strong social media presence! He’s be the type to have a ton of followers on Sound Cloud and Spotify!

-The type to try and talk is way into and or around everything “I understand hats are against the wardrobe but I’m just trying to express myself and I think it’s right to give everybody self expression” Wears glasses, though none of us really know if he needs them forreal forreal…. Wears a snowman on his wrist (A big iced out watch).

-Drives a white BMW 430, puts cones around his car in the parking lot..Yoongi and Jimin kick the cones...faithfully..everyday!

-Don’t let his niceness fool you, will cook your ass in the blink of an eye if need be! Prefers a good verbal situation though, the king of a good word battle will have you all types of trying to check the dictionary to understand what he just said! Got you standing there like a misplaced student in honors English…

- If shit get’s physical well..we can’t let the president fight soo...he’ll call Yoongi or Jimin to handle it for him…. Because...well his Jay’s are brand new..and only 10 other people have them...sooooo..OR maybe it’s lowkey because he can’t fight all that well...baby’s not coordinate OKAY!? Don’t @ me!

-Oophfff daddy long leg! Lmao nah but you know he’d be the one...the one that every girl says he’s packin..and he is...He’d be little more reserved..and modest when it comes to his skills but he’s damn sure not shy! Would deff skip lunch, for a quickey at the park..yes the park.....would leave for lunch in a suit...come back in some joggers....real subtel....

Yoongi -

-The unexpected jock ...the one who can kick your entire ass in basketball, one of the stars on the team! Shooting Guard, has a championship ring from every year he’s played!

-Picks and chooses when he wants to be social. Just judge his mood based on his face that day!

-DJ’s every party and school event. Often gets into trouble for not playing the clean versions of songs!

-He’s on the morning broadcast with Jimin and Jin...also forgets to censor himself. I.E “Peter Pan opened last night and it sucked actual ass!”

-Lowkey highkey funny AF, king of sarcasm and one liners!

-Purposely owns an old school Chevelle instead of a new car, also drifts on the weekends.

- Lives in like the flyest loungewear...joggers, hoodies,Jays..doesn't look like he tried but still looks bomb AF.

-Another one that will creep up on you when it comes to his skill in bed, the one that girls say there surprised with how passionate and attentive he is! In contrast to how hard his exterior can be, the type to take his time and make sure your more than satisfied….

-Always, ALWAYS has his headphones in, lives and breathes music! He raps on the side, competes in underground competitions, and win’s without even trying! Refuses to ever participle in the schools talent show because he can’t swear therefore they are hindering his creative flow!

-Constantly looks like he’d rather cut his own testie off than be “here” right now.

-Will walk out if you don't let him go to the bathroom when he feels like it, actually he’ll just walk out period…”Yoongi where are you going!?” .

“Oh I need another espresso shot before I sit through this extremely falsely sugarcoated reality of how Columbus “discovered” a place that was already there!”

Jimin: “Aww man, sit down I got you! I was just about to have Pizza Hut sent to the office, you wanna add into my postmates order!!?”

😩😂😂😂...I canttttt ..maybe I’ll do the other four!? Again all in good fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I often wonder what the boys would be like if they were born in the states. Then I realize the lack of filter they’d all have especially JIMIN and I’m grateful for the cultural differences that come with them being Korean born !

UPDATE- 7/29...I think I might turn these headcons into a lil sum sum...writing these reminded me that I actually enjoyed HS (For me my “shitty” period was like elementray and part of middle school) But I made HS my bitch, and had so much damn fun lol !

7/30- PART 1

#jimin #jimin smut #jimin headcanon #namjoon #namjoon smut #namjoon headcanon #yoongi #yoongi smut #yoongi headcon #bts #bts smut #bts high school au #bts au #bts headcon #kpop headcons #jimin hs #park jimin #kim namjoon #min yoongi

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etiennedatiwa · 5 years

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Deconstruction: the journey of a year long process of discovering myself.

Wassup. For those who don’t know, my name is Tiwa and this is my first serious blog post. Let me introduce myself. I’m a 21 year old Nigerian-British boy from London and I’m about to finish my Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering. I’m an avid book reader and I also love video games, hip hop and pop culture. It’s nice to meet you.

Now that’s out of the way, I want to get straight to the point of this blog post. I’m gonna be describing how things have been going for me faith wise over the last year or so. Deconstruction. That’s an interesting word. It can be defined in various different ways. Here’s a definition: “A philosophical movement and theory of literary criticism that questions traditional assumptions about certainty, identity, and truth.” In a sense, it involves questioning traditional beliefs that you have grown up with and questioning the values that have basically shaped your entire identity.

I grew up in a Pentecostal African church. There was a big emphasis on dancing, singing and prophecy. We believed in the manifestations of spiritual gifts, i.e. the speaking and interpretation of tongues, prophecy, healing etc. We believed in the moving of the Holy Spirit and I would see people fall down in their seats, scream, shake etc. When I think about it, I was always slightly creeped out by the screaming lmao. Growing up, everything was very much black and white for me. We believed in the strict interpretation of the bible, we had long church services (why are 3+ hours service a thing? That’s a nightmare for this VERY introverted boy.) It was pretty much the same thing when I entered university minus the long services. I went to an Evangelical church and I loved serving on the worship team, I loved helping around when I could.

But…. there was a lot of emotional turmoil that I was dealing with. Firstly, being one of the only black people (especially young adults) was very isolating. I felt like an outsider because of the cultural differences of being an ethnic minority. Then over time issues of race began to come up. I’d never experienced any racism growing up in South London as I was raised amongst diverse groups of people. Coming to Middlesbrough, my eyes were opened and I was so shocked. But, that’s a story for another time. I realised I had assimilated to mainstream church culture.

I got saved (the moment you accept Jesus into your life as we do in Pentecostalism) when I was 16 back in 2013 and I experienced so much joy. I’d never experienced so much love like the way Jesus had and still loves me. I’ve had struggles obviously, but I’ve grown as a person. My Christianity was very much black and white and I never realised until last year (2018) how much of a bubble I lived in.

Therein lies my issue with Evangelicalism. The literal strict interpretation of the Bible causes more harm than good and it has done so much harm to women through the Purity culture (think “I Kissed Dating Goodbye”), the lack of social justice and to simply “preach the gospel”. I’d been raised in fundamentalism and my whole world shattered when I began to read about the experiences of LGBT Christians who were raised in strict Evangelical families. It started last summer when I read “Undivided” which is a memoir of Vicky Beeching detailing her experience growing up as a lesbian within mainstream church culture. She was a popular worship leader who came out a few years ago and she ended up losing everything… all because she decided to stop hiding who she truly was. It was a tough read and it completely changed how I saw my faith.

The Evangelical Church’s lack of empathy when it came to social justice and the way it treated the LGBT community. Not to mention the obsession with evangelism in the way of hellfire preaching, sales pitch evangelism etc. I’m an introvert and the whole going out and speaking to people about Jesus is scary. I prefer developing good relationships and having conversations about faith naturally as the relationship develops. I realised I no longer fit in to church culture. I’ve always felt like an outsider. I never fit in amongst the other guys at school who were sporty, I preferred to read instead. I get along with girls much better than I do with guys. I never quite fit in in my own Nigerian community. I was an anomaly.

Everything changed for me. I saw how problematic Evangelicalism was and I could no longer subscribe to many of the Christian beliefs I had grown up with. I’m no longer a fundamentalist. Unlearning so much toxic theology has been painful. I wasn’t sure what I would have left. But I’m thankful for two of my best friends who are Catholic who went through similar journeys as they transitioned away from Protestantism. They introduced me to the Coptic Orthodox book of Prayers known as the Agpeya and Church Fathers and these have changed my spiritual life. I finally became comfortable with being myself. Western Christianity wasn’t the ONLY way to do Christianity and I was overjoyed because I could never live up to the Evangelical standard. I realise there’s nothing wrong with having doubts and questioning and these keep us open to the revelations of God. An album that helped me during my deconstruction and reconstruction phase was “I: the Arrow” by rapper Andy Mineo which describes his own journey through doubt in his faith.

I still haven’t figured everything out yet, but I’m okay with that. I’m still somewhat a Pentecostal but I’m free from all the toxic and anxiety inducing rules Western Christianty caused me. As Andy Mineo said on “…Lost”: when I get above those clouds, I know that’s the Sun’s Out. I’ll be alright. I’m free to be Tiwa.

#faith deconstruction beingfree reconstruction

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ehentha · 5 years

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Maldives Twitter VS Francesca Borri

Imagine getting harrassed on twitter by a bunch of people you claimed didn’t know english or have smart phones 😂

— ‎ބ̸̤̯̍̏ު̵̩͔̬͑͝ރ̴̢̝͓̅ަ̶̜̌͊ކ̴̱̮̚ަ̶̹̱̥̽ށ̸̘͒ި̵̻̘̍̆͗❓🎈 (@Burakashi) January 27, 2019

*smartphone 😫🔫

The Maldives is one of the most oppressive countries in the world. It has a constitution that makes the lives of non-Muslim and LGBT Maldivians illegal. This makes life incredibly difficult for any progressive Muslims that want to bring about reforms as well as saying anything against extremist sheikhs will get you labled an apostate. Progressive Muslims like @moyameehaa (Ahmed Rizwan / Rilwan) and @yaamyn (Yameen Rasheed) who have spoken out for Maldivian minorities, progressive Islam, and secularism have been taken away from us. Sheikhs are not safe either, as one of the only moderately progressive sheikhs, Afrasheem Ali, was also brutally murdered in 2012.

First they came for the bloggers, and I did not speak out Because I was not a blogger. Then they came for irreligious, and I did not speak out Because I was not laadheenee. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.

— Mohamed Shuraih (@MohamedShuraih) January 27, 2019

The greatest battlefield in the war for the hearts and minds of Maldivians is the internet. Bloggers like Hilath Rasheed have been the targets of escalating campaigns of harassment and death threats. In 2012, Hilath himself barely survived his neck being slashed. This was after years of attacks against people deemed laadheenee.

Maldivian extremists have used the internet for their terror and propaganda activities. One of the earliest Maldivian extremist groups, of which Rilwan was an ex-member, called “dot” or “dotu” literally got it’s name from “dot com”. Right now there are dozens of terrorist recruitment facebook and twitter pages, telegram, whatsapp, and viber groups, and websites brainwashing Maldivians with extremist propaganda.

He made a list of “dhivehi kaafarun”. We reported his account and now he’s changed the name to “Dhivehi atheists”. But here is proof of the original name https://t.co/WvbfkKbMp1

— ‎ބ̸̤̯̍̏ު̵̩͔̬͑͝ރ̴̢̝͓̅ަ̶̜̌͊ކ̴̱̮̚ަ̶̹̱̥̽ށ̸̘͒ި̵̻̘̍̆͗❓🎈 (@Burakashi) June 16, 2018

Their latest efforts including making a list of Dhivehi Kaafarun (Maldivian infidels) on twitter (which twitter support refused to remove, the account is still active), and a telegram group called “MV Murtad Watch” (Maldives apostate watch). This has also not been removed despite even making the local news.

Maldivian extremists are free to spread hate on the internet. Especially if they use Dhivehi, a language that cannot be automatically translated. This means that the support staff of these platforms often don’t even know how to recognise hate and fear speech when it is written in Dhivehi.

Murtad Watch MV is still active on @telegram. They claim to not be making death threats.But they state multiple times the verdict for apostasy is death. After which they list pictures, names & personal info of alleged apostates. Calling stoning cruel is enough to get labeled one. pic.twitter.com/hqcOXAI0fb

— ‎ބ̸̤̯̍̏ު̵̩͔̬͑͝ރ̴̢̝͓̅ަ̶̜̌͊ކ̴̱̮̚ަ̶̹̱̥̽ށ̸̘͒ި̵̻̘̍̆͗❓🎈 (@Burakashi) January 27, 2019

murtad watch is like "these people are apostates & apostates should be killed. here are their personal info. BY THE WAY THIS IS NOT A THREAT" that's a death threat. why would police do anything? when these groups commit murder police's job has always been to cover up the murder

— 🎈Thihen Vany (@basneyheemaa) January 27, 2019

I hope I have set the scene for you. An intolerant constitution that outright bans thinking and freedom of conscience. Extremists getting away with murder, and using technology as a means of oppression in a highly connected and tech literate society while the multi-million dollar companies that run them turn a blind eye.

It’s so fucking insulting that Maldivians have to fear for their lives because of goddamn @telegram groups, but meanwhile there’s western experts writing books claiming we go gaga at the sight of an iPhone. I wish these terrorists didn’t use phones, would make our lives easier 🤬

— ‎ބ̸̤̯̍̏ު̵̩͔̬͑͝ރ̴̢̝͓̅ަ̶̜̌͊ކ̴̱̮̚ަ̶̹̱̥̽ށ̸̘͒ި̵̻̘̍̆͗❓🎈 (@Burakashi) January 27, 2019

#NowReading Destination Paradise - Among the jihadists of the Maldives pic.twitter.com/6y4E5BYQf5

— Nash (@NashNasheed) January 21, 2019

Enter Francesca Borri with the radical insight that there is only one bookstore in Male’, all the while seeming to imply that most Maldivians don’t know English.

This book was published in 2017. It is factually incorrect. There’s only an Islamic bookstore? 🤦🏻‍♀️ This author is delusional. pic.twitter.com/ngPcG5yRhY

— Nash (@NashNasheed) January 26, 2019

And that there is no local cuisine.

Page 39. “I think that the Maldives are the only country in the world where there is no local cuisine”. Okay. Now this is going too far 😡

— Nash (@NashNasheed) January 26, 2019

And that Maldivians are amazed by smartphones.

Page 53. “A text arrives and my phone lights up... there’s an ooh of general amazement because it’s an iphone and no one has ever seen an iphone here”. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Seriously @francescaborri? Starting to doubt that you were even in Male’. Btw. Tweet sent from my iphone.

— Nash (@NashNasheed) January 26, 2019

“While the rest of the world watched the Olympics, in the Maldives most people watched the battle of Aleppo. And rooted for al-Qaeda”. What? Which channel on medianet was the battle of Aleppo broadcasted on? pic.twitter.com/wSaOPpQKRR

— Nash (@NashNasheed) January 21, 2019

But perhaps most insulting is the fact that we’d give a damn about the Olympics when we could be watching football. Also how the heck do you reckon people cut up the “Battle of Aleppo” for broadcast television? Do you think they had an HBO style miniseries?

Hey @francescaborri what medieval technology do you think this Maldivian terrorist group used to post this to Facebook? A 🥥 ? Can you help decipher the strange language they’ve used to threaten my life? I’m sending this via economy pigeon. May it reach you safely. Pls send halp. pic.twitter.com/wNvYbd06kZ

— ‎ބ̸̤̯̍̏ު̵̩͔̬͑͝ރ̴̢̝͓̅ަ̶̜̌͊ކ̴̱̮̚ަ̶̹̱̥̽ށ̸̘͒ި̵̻̘̍̆͗❓🎈 (@Burakashi) January 27, 2019

You get the picture. A hastily strung together piece of orientalist trash that makes the situation worse for people suffering because of Maldivian extremists. The last thing progressive Muslim, non-Muslim, and LGBT Maldivians need is more misinformation out there. Especially not from someone with a savior complex.

How can you trust anything written in this book when it features so many blatant fabrications? Fabrications deliberately worded to make Maldivians sound like backwards people rife with extremism who can’t read and are technology inept.

98% of our population had internet access five years ago. We have one of the highest tech proliferation and device per capita stats in the world. This isn't lazy research, this is outright malicious https://t.co/slgUtYcoYe

— Naailu🎈 (@kudanai) January 27, 2019

Well I’ll have you know us Maldivians are backwards people who are incredibly tech literate. And we can read too, to the shock of the author who is currently at the receiving end of the wrath of Maldives twitter.

Finally in bookstores. pic.twitter.com/ujRIg867gI

— francesca borri (@francescaborri) November 13, 2018

Here are some of the funniest and most insightful tweets directed at this latest savior who thought they could turn a profit on the suffering of the global south. These are the words of Maldivians speaking about their own country. Listen to them.

Lmao loving how conservatives and liberals are uniting against the mostly false portrayal of our country by @francescaborri . Nobody can trash-talk Maldivians except us amirite? 🇲🇻

— 🎈Nora Nazeer ✨ (@NoraNazeer) January 27, 2019

When western "journalists" parachute in to a South Asian country and assume they know everything and that they are always right. A Frenchman, who did the same, told me after visiting Maldives that Borri "took a lot of liberty" when writing her book. As in, she made up stories. https://t.co/wnBPUZgoi1

— Junayd 🇲🇻 (@mjunayd) January 27, 2019

But you could see how it perpetuates an idea of Maldivians that’s quite patronizing, even to the extent of orientalism, right? I mean, I do agree that extremism is at a critical stage here, but surely that could have been said without this inaccurate depiction of the rest?

— Aryj (@Arrryj) January 27, 2019

So tell me, how did you come up with this shit? 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻 I graduated in an IGSE Cambridge examination back in 2008...from my island. Got an A in English. Even starting primary school, I had access to books from authors like Enid Blyton, R.L Stein and Louis Cooper... 🤦🏼‍♀️

— ShinyShine (@ShinyShine18) January 27, 2019

Might want search Google Maps for "bookshop" next time. This book is a blatant lie at this point. Even given the benefits of the doubt, this book falls short of acceptable. Tldr: Riddled with lies for dramatic purposes. pic.twitter.com/TXycTvAzqC

— A. A. Nawaz 🎈❓ (@aanawazu) January 27, 2019

When someone from the global north decides to do a book about one of the smallest countries in the global south without much research and one that won't easily be scrutinised for the factual inaccuracies, with sweeping generalisations, this happens. Awesome thread btw https://t.co/0TKA9KmHV4

— Ahmed Tholal🎈 (@Tholman_79) January 27, 2019

Whats an iPhone? Im tweeting on my iCoconut https://t.co/RPYxQKUFDR

— Faafa🎈 (@psychofart) January 27, 2019

Actually it’s Dhonmeeha: *whips out iPhone 6S* Mordis meeha : *whips out iPhone XS Max, iPad Pro, the New Mac book Air DJI Mavic pro, DJI Osmo and 2 GoPro Hero* https://t.co/nK3ux1I7VZ

— Simbro (@aachym) January 27, 2019

(“Dhon meehaa” literally means “fair skinned person”. It is the word used by Maldivians for “white people”. And it’s true, turn a Maldivian upside down and shake them little. The contents of an Apple Store will fall out).

the "worst parts" in the book are absolute lies. are we as maldivians not entitled to be upset over them? ignore them and move along? these are "facts" written by a "journalist" in a published book. https://t.co/2mFKGEw7hn

— ˗ˏˋ 𝑅𝒾𝒻𝑔𝒶 ˎˊ˗ (@MRifgaR) January 27, 2019

for the record i'm still a bit confused about your reviews @dbosley80 but ok. at least you made it clear that you don't recommend this book by @francescaborri pic.twitter.com/DUpatyXurX

— ˗ˏˋ 𝑅𝒾𝒻𝑔𝒶 ˎˊ˗ (@MRifgaR) January 27, 2019

Love it when white people feel the need to exaggerate and look down on an entire country and reduce their entire culture and history to what they came across in a day or two lol. pic.twitter.com/olIe8jDGoj

— Alhaaves NulaaFA (@ShafaRameez) January 27, 2019

I think the verdict of this would end up like, i condemn thee @francescaborri to 1 year of internship at Divehi Bahuge Academy 😅 so that by the time she's done there she can translate this godforsaken book to Divehi so us natives could actually learn about ourselves

— Aishath Ibahath (@AishathIbahath) January 27, 2019

Just had garudhiya, baiy, theluli faiy and theluli mas. The height of Italian cuisine!

— Junayd 🇲🇻 (@mjunayd) January 27, 2019

In Maldives we have no local cuisine to the point that when we attempted to make that shit, we sucked so much that we left it to cook for days and that is how we had rihaakuru and now we just eat that

— thikujja stan account (@ahunafu) January 27, 2019

If @francescaborri did her research properly she'd know about the dissent against extremists from Maldivians. Specially in our twitter community. I for one didn't applaud them as heroes. https://t.co/358lReKjMq

— 🎈Nora Nazeer ✨ (@NoraNazeer) January 27, 2019

At the end of the picture that sentence, is that saying the minority that speak English is rich and WHITE????

— Sharlight❓🎈 (@sjaufar) January 27, 2019

Shame these important interviews are in an a book with so many lies in it @francescaborri https://t.co/GeHpH5BU0m

— amani naseem 🎈 (@amaninaseem) January 27, 2019

Francesca Borri Vaguthu 🤝 Jaanalizam

— Threefish 🎈❓ (@three3fish) January 27, 2019

(vaguthu [“time” lol] is a Maldivian tabloid rag that primarily posts moral panic inducing “journalism” about Maldivian minorities).

Maldives has no local cuisine?!? I wasn't bothered when the author called us all extremists cause that's just typical white people racist fear mongering but NO LOCAL CUISINE?? Ive half a mind to make a thread about local cuisine & tag the author in it. https://t.co/QrpE3QPBcP

— Faafa🎈 (@psychofart) January 27, 2019

just because I am so offended I am going to write my whole masters thesis on Maldivian food

— Malsa Maaz (@malsamaaz) January 27, 2019

So fiction writers, here's a heads up. @7StoriesPress are very fond of fiction, specially investigative parody works. Ask franny @francescaborri she had the easiest of rides with that "Maldives in a Parallel Universe" work she did.

— Naif Naeem (@nAAYf) January 27, 2019

People like @francescaborri is what is wrong in the literary world, creating fake news with half truths to earn a buck. And also publishers, bookstores etc who support to push this garbage onto mainstream. Shame. https://t.co/Vi53939fLG

— p3st (@p3st) January 27, 2019

I read what was available on google because I’m not going to give a racist money - and yes, @francescaborri you’re racist.

— くたばれ🎈 (@hoshiyoshii) January 27, 2019

I’m tweeting from my iphone while I’m eating ‘Rihaakuru ‘ u know.., local cuisine. 😎 After finishing my food, I’m going to the ‘book store’ next to my house with English Arabic n international language books. 🖕🏼that’s for u 😉

— Jen (@jennasym) January 27, 2019

Hello uncultured jihadi Maldivians without bookstores tweeting using rocks and smoke signals or whatever, If you have a moment, please do send a messenger pigeon with your thoughts about @francescaborri’s book to google DOT com review What’s what? Click https://t.co/822PDLTTgR https://t.co/uR1UpoAFkm

— insaan🎈❔ (@pikomonster) January 27, 2019

people are saying @francescaborri makes sense despite exaggerating some stuff. but i think her “exaggerations” demonstrate an extremely skewed, clearly orientalist perspective which entirely rescinds her entire narrative. she lacks any coherent context. what a silly woman

— xiena saeed 🎈 (@dorinbakedbeans) January 27, 2019

Thanks @francescaborri. The roasting you're receiving is really entertaining. The tweets coming from iPhones are especially tasty. Almost as tasty as our cuisine, and now I'm craving some rihaakuru dhiya. Ta Ta, gonna go have some while I keep up with this roasting.

— Nomura-sama has slain Nabith (@nabithahmed) January 27, 2019

What an ignorant writer @francescaborri is! Our school system is based on the English language since decades ago—almost every Maldivian can converse in English. Many physical+online bookstores in Male. I own an iPhone. Tweet at me and I will send you recipe for Rihaakuru Dhiya https://t.co/TA773n5PgQ

— Maahil🌺❤️🍃 (@MaahilMohamed) January 27, 2019

How long was the research period to write this book? 😂 #localtweetingfromiphone

— Azza Rushdy (@UGLY_Y) January 27, 2019

Its from a parallel dimension...on Earth 51, maldives is like that 🤪 tuna has run out of the oceans and no more rihaakuru and palms sold to dubai hence no coconut for mashuni...

— p3st (@p3st) January 27, 2019

Your portrayal of maldives as backwards and having little or no indentity of its own (except the one you try so hard to force on your readers) is proof that you wrote this on hearsay and some internet research done whilst sitting on your ass at home.

— Ahusan (aka.Jack / Pusheen) (@awhosun) January 27, 2019

Hi @francescaborri, there are about 4 main bookstores with multiple outlets in Malé and many independent ones that stock many titles in English. This tweet was kindly translated to English by a member of the minority and sent from my garudhiya baiythashi. https://t.co/iSloEziYl1

— 🌞 (@izznzz) January 27, 2019

According to the author Maldives is the only country in the world with no local cuisine. So @francescaborri should I stop researching for my PhD on, guess what, LOCAL MALDIVIAN CUISINE? Shameful. https://t.co/7gntvUeCeV

— Mo S. (@moshen81) January 27, 2019

We have many qualified people capable of producing an accurate assessment of radicalisation in Raajje that @francescaborri so spectacularly failed at. If one good thing comes of this, can it be that? Or is it only the dhon meehaa who can talk abt it w/out fearing for their lives?

— Azka (@Azka__Anees) January 27, 2019

Nothing brings Maldivians together like a good roast.

Thank you @francescaborri. It's really nice to see you get roasted by a whole country, everyone together.

— Emaz (@emaaaz) January 27, 2019

#twitter

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hogsteeth-archive · 6 years

Text

alright then i answered one of them oc questions things for both versions of ira bc like. why wouldnt i. first answer is 1976 58y/o rhodesian ira, second answer is 201x 16y/o houstonian ira. i just wanted to figure out how different they really are. questions from here. if readmores still dont work on mobile im sorry lmao

what are some things they have strong opinions about?

he has sort of a cioranian attitude to the value of life, like, hes one of them “theres always reason to kill a man, theres no way to justify his living” types. he doesnt believe in nationalism per se but he does believe in war, hes literally a mercenary, and hed probably get along just fine with someone like mike hoare, but hes not one for unnecessary cruelty. hes kind to who he considers innocent. if he was alive today i can see him getting grouped w/ like, anti-natalists, right-wing “primitivists,” people who browse /fo/, people who think theyll thrive in the post-apocalypse even though they cant even spin yarn, people who dont understand fallout, you know, those types, but i like to think his attitude wrt civ is closer to perlmans or, well, mine. its a good thing he doesnt live in internet times. he thinks technology makes people complacent and weak and hes fallen into the trap of the “noble savage” myth; sign of the times. he could just as easily live off the grid in like, alberta, but he chose to stay in southern africa bc of his colonial attitudes & fetishization of the “less developed.” (sidenote, if youre like, new here n reading this for some reason, yea i write like really really bad characters were talking irredeemably evil here, just like, know that im aware of that.) also he detests hippies for both bad and good reasons ⸻ not much, really, hes an opportunist, a hedonist, hes selfish, goes w/ the flow. he thinks denying yourself pleasure for no reason is microfascism — not in those words — and while he doesnt think that selfishness leads to a bettering of overall society, hes no randian, he feels justified in what he does. hes uh, a mercenary in spirit and ive always intended to have him join the marines n later work for a pmc but were nowhere near there yet

what traits do they like in other people? what traits do they not like?

he likes people (men, that is) that are exactly like him. he likes Narrator bc hes just as quiet, as patient, as stubborn, as antisocial (using that the right way here, i like, know about psychology), as violent, as old-timey-ly masculine as he is. he can tolerate clade (his former accountant) bc she keeps to herself and shes loyal to a fault, but he doesnt go out of his way to like, actually talk to her. he likes will bc he reminds him of what he was like as a child living with his matabele mother. ⸻ he hates everything he perceives as weakness, but hes not all that open about that, i think hes not even 100% aware thats what it is. he needs to be talked back to. he lacks compassion, doesnt know how to deal w/ anyone whos less resilient and abrasive than himself.

do they have a significant other? if so, who?

i mean, theres Narrator — thats kinda what this whole thing is about. but theyll never think of each other that way. its complicated. theyre uh… closer to being marlow and kurtz than to being boyfriends. idk how to explain it. its bad. ⸻ hes fake-dating millah for appearances and secretly seeing jack, im not sure about the details either so im not getting into that, but hes eventually gonna meet will; ive written their first encounter like ten different ways and i still dont really know what i wanna do w/ them........ also Complicated

whats their friend group like? what role do they play (leader, mom friend, etc.)?

he lives in a hut he built w/ his bare hands on the edge of the kalahari. his friends are one horse and one vaalboskat. ⸻ he uses his friends but they use him too. hes reasonably popular bc hes athletic n wealthy, but i think the only one of his friends who really truly sees thru his act is millah, and bc he doesnt take her seriously as a threat, she has more control over him than he realizes.

do they care about their physical appearance? whats their routine like?

nah ⸻ not really. he showers too often and his hairs kinda dry but other than that hes like. Normal. idk i dont care about these things

do they have any physical or mental disabilities?

i dont think so ⸻ he has adhd

what would they die for? kill for?

oh hes not picky. he joined the military at 17, hes made peace w/ the prospect of dying. hes been more uncomfortable w/ the thought of growing old, actually. and again, hes literally a mercenary. not a big deal to him. ⸻ i dont think hes selfless enough to die for anyone. hed kill to protect the people he cares about, but thats more just bc hes possessive. im sure thats gonna come up eventually. i cant really write shit w/o weaving murder in somewhere.

do they have any magical powers or abilities? if its a realistic world, what religion do they follow?

absolutely the fuck not i hate magic. hes not religious, actually feels a little intimidated by religion. in one version of his story he spends his 50s on east nusa tenggara where he doesnt live far from a church, and he makes peace w/ the concept of god thanks to the influence of catholic-raised Narrator, but i doubt hell ever actually step foot into a church, or temple, or mosque, or what-have-you. hes internalized some things during his upbringing though that he doesnt classify as religious. little superstitions. he likes to keep objects that may be used for divination around his house, but he never touches them. ⸻ not religious, but if he had to pick, like to pretend, hed say baptist.

do they celebrate any holidays? how do they celebrate?

nah ⸻ like, the regular american ones. hell welcome any excuse to drink and to socialize, and id say his favorite holiday is the 4th of july, really just bc he likes warm weather and theres not a lot else you can celebrate in the middle of summer. hes not attached to the significance of any holidays. hes not crazy about christmas but he likes his family well enough and hell go along w/ it all, just to have sth to do. hes not good w/ time off.

if they were the protagonist in any book series, what series would they choose? alternatively: what would be their favorite book?

he doesnt really read but hed feel right at home inside heart of darkness or maybe the thin red line. or maybe sth by mccarthy ⸻ hes 16 he hasnt read jack shit. i wanna say deleuze would probably resonate w/ him bc hes a total self-insert but i really dont know. i try to keep the intertextuality way low bc i hate that shit in most fiction, so like, i try not to think too much about other books here

do they have any vices?

uh he drinks and he occasionally smokes opium but compared to most of my characters hes pretty okay wrt that ⸻ yea like… all of them. already said hes a hedonist make of that what u will

do they play any instruments?

nope ⸻ violin but he hasnt been practicing a lot lately

what would their favorite ride at an amusement park be?

hes never been to one ⸻ i feel like hed be into sth really lame… like you know that video by jenny nicholson, top ten lame things to do at disney world? sth like that. like hed go just to get a specific food item or to admire the infrastructure

what animal would they say best represents them?

hyena 100%. the spotted kind. id say tortoise also but hed find that insulting ⸻ id say hyena but hed be reluctant to answer that bc hes a Youth and he knows what a furry is

how do they act when theyre drunk?

vulnerable. little more talkative. he talks to himself (or the cat, rather) sometimes ⸻ more abrasive/tactless/impulsive. he talks w/ his whole body and feels like moving/running bc, again, self-insert

which era of history would they most like to live in?

the old west, like early to mid-19th century, maybe late 18th. that or like the really olden days, like mid-paleolithic ⸻ idk maybe like ten or twenty years earlier. i think he fits the 21st century pretty well. hes a curious person though and if he had a time machine hed go Everywhere at least once

whats their favorite food?

ah thats. complicated actually i have a whole list of foods that remind me of Narrator but ive never gotten around to making one for ira. hm. he likes poultry, like ostrich. white fish. dry/salty foods. sour fruit. breadfruit. fatty dark meats, blood sausage. hes not picky though, hell live on pap and water if he has to. ⸻ i genuinely dont know. im not used to the contemporary western setting yet like… pop tarts exist in the same world as he does and im not comfortable w/ that yet. like, branded food articles wrapped in plastic. thats so weird to me. i guess he likes (american) pizza w/ greens on it, like spinach? and seafood. sour candies, maybe, i dont think he has much of a sweet tooth. he puts salt n butter on potatoes and cottage cheese on pancakes.

what songs remind you of them?

conveniently theres a whole playlist rite here

whats their favorite season and why?

dry season. he doesnt like cloudy/foggy weather bc it makes him feel trapped when he cant see as far. ⸻ summer. i honest to god think people liking cold weather is a conspiracy like im not sure thats even biologically possible. like summer is the obvious answer here

which d&d class would they play as?

nah we dont do nerd shit round these parts

whats their favorite expletive?

he like, barely talks ⸻ nothin weird thats for sure, we campaign for simple straight-forward language in this house. having a Favorite is inherently at odds w/ that. bad question

whats their favorite candle scent?

no scented candles in the desert ⸻ sth fruity but not sweet, like mixed berries, sth red or purple

how do they feel about death?

he doesnt ⸻ hed feel cheated by life if he died young. he has a lot to see and do and itd like, bum him out not to get to do that but hes not afraid of death

do they collect anything? whats their most prized possession?

he lives pretty austerely but he does keep little rocks and gems and bones and pieces of wood n such. also coins from all the countries hes been to bc hes a simple old man. i wanna say his most prized possession is his hogs tooth bc he does value the marines a lot still. its where he first met Narrator :-) ⸻ he really appreciates gifts people give him, things that remind him of people. jack carved him an eagle once

do they play any sports?

no ⸻ nothing too organized. i dont think hes on any school teams bc idk if he has the time but that might change. he does run/hunt/fish/shoot

what one place do they really want to visit and why?

he likes deserts, wide open spaces. hes been to the kalahari n namib but not the gobi/sahara/simpson etc, so, those. no ice deserts though those scare him ⸻ polynesia/southeast asia, just tropical places in general. bc theyre nice what do you want me to tell you. tropics good

what languages do they speak?

northern ndebele, afrikaans, english (w/ various influences), some vietnamese ⸻ english, some cajun french, some spanish

what are some items they always carry? what weapon do they favor using if they exist in a world where weapons are necessary?

hes got his fal obviously and he does always carry a knife, just to be safe. more out of habit than actual necessity (not to imply rural areas were safe in the late 70s, but he lives in the literal wilderness, hes not much of a target. stays away from roads and all that.) ⸻ man hes really not as classy as i want him to be :/ he probably has like, a glock 17 w/ ten thousand pointless modifications n some uglyass stipling pattern. hes a little bit paranoid + irresponsible n carries all kinds of shit he doesnt need, mostly way too much cash

which emoji would they use the most?

no ⸻ he doesnt have a phone, hell maybe use a burner if he has to. this is an anti-phone household

what fantasy race would they be? if they already are one, pick a different one.

absolutely not

do they want to start a family? if they already have one, describe it.

no ⸻ no

what stereotypical high school clique would they fit into?

hed swing between the jrotc kids n the stoners honestly, but still mostly keep to himself ⸻ hes like, too much of a jock for the Delinquents, too much of a Delinquent for the jocks. hes really only popular bc hes rich-ish n blessed w/ good looks, and by association w/ millah

whats one thing that they dont need do they waste the most money on?

he doesnt ⸻ everything. hes really wasteful. he buys more food than he can eat, clothes he never wears, etc etc, hes terrible

what kind of shoes do they wear?

combat boots or just traditional sandals. the terrain around his house is mostly grass and flat boulders so he goes barefoot a lot ⸻ regular tennis shoes, nothin too fashionable bc he cant be bothered to keep up w/ trends, but usually clean n new. hiking boots when hes not w/ his regular friend group

do they believe in ghosts, aliens, and the occult in general?

really dont like how aliens are always grouped in w/ esoteric shit bc like, thats like asking if you believe in atoms honestly. no shit “aliens” exist thats like not up for debate. both iræ would agree w/ me here. 70s ira doesnt believe in like, Ghosts per se, but he has some vague concept of spirits that he got from his mother. he sees/feels them when hes half asleep. ⸻ 2010s ira doesnt believe in jack shit

which deadly sin do they most correspond to? which heavenly virtue?

nooo cardinal sins dont work that way theyre not hogwarts houses. its so much more complicated than that thats impossible

if you had to choose one tarot card to represent them, what would it be?

hmmm four of swords? knight of coins? eight of cups? this is hard ⸻ seven of swords? nine of cups? the devil? i dont know

what do they consider to be their best quality? what actually is their best quality?

his strength, which is really just his callousness and lack of convictions. and uh. i guess his independence ⸻ same here for the first part. and. maybe his loyalty? i dont consider loyalty a good thing personally idk

what do they consider to be their worst quality? what actually is their worst quality?

his lack of social skills maybe? he doesnt need them too often of course but like, the first time Narrator showed up at his doorstep he was genuinely nervous and that did fill him w/ some semblance of shame and in his eyes he should be good at everything, so like. that. really its his lack of conviction and his timidness/avoidance of the world ⸻ his dependence on others/lack of discipline. really its his lack of compassion, like, obviously

#ira #ricky pwease come online

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socially-introverted-blog · 4 years

Text

Love is Blind

A terrible reality show, really

But brought up a lot of things about love, relationships, and commitment that made me feel so lucky to have you.

Some topics:

1. Grand gestures of love

2. In-laws

3. Communication

4. Financial debt

5. Consistency

1. Grand gestures of love

I think when you have a childish perception of love, you only think about the big things. You think about the grand gesture that PROVED their love, emulated their willingness to be creative, go the extra mile, etc. And while it’s the stereotypical image of a visible display of affection, I find myself cringing at a lot of the grand gestures on the show. Grand gestures are really nice, no doubt about it. But I’ll never forget how the little things that add up over the years just remain as the pillars to the foundation of the love. I remember the flowers and the moon card along with the color pencils. I remember the candlelit dinner on the rooftop of our AirBnB in Taiwan. I remember the (multiple) celebrations at Spanish restaurants where you eat soggy rice (paella) with me. I love them all. But those big moments only serve to highlight the little things that you do all. the. time. You always go the extra mile for me. You’ll always. Always. Go the extra mile. The color pencils and card and flowers were all just reiterated proof that you go the extra mile (A Powerwolf pillar btw). The grand gesture is just another version of it. The part I remember most about the candlelit dinner is how you paid attention to the two options we had: one by the city lights or one where we could hear our conversation better. You’re attentive to those details. You know those details and you remember what they mean to me. Your grand gesture shows you care, even to the tiniest detail. Your compassion for others shines through when you remember my stories and take me to places that create nostalgia for me (only me too! since you’ve never experienced Spain). And you live through those moments with me. To see me happy, to see me beam over things that don’t make you necessarily beam (wet rice and overpriced salads). You put others before yourself. 100% of the time.

2. In-Laws

I think something that intimidates me about marriage and commitment is the terrible reputation society has for in-laws. They tell me on the Western side that it’s just you and your partner, the in-laws you can only see when necessary. The Eastern side tells me that you marry all of them. They’re there forever. They are a part of every decision of your life. And while I can tell myself I take on the Western mentality of thinking, I know myself well enough that I could never ever forsake a family member, not unless I truly believed they were a terrible human being. I extend my love to everyone the same way. What you love is something I extend my love to as well. What I appreciate from the show is the topic that in the end, it’s just you and your partner. The extended family is just an additional cherry on top. So if you have great, supportive extended family members, that’s great! If you don’t, you have each other. My mom told me this and I believe her 1000%: If you have to come to a decision that puts you in a place where you choose your family or your spouse, you choose your spouse. Because that’s who you married. Not your mom or your dad. Not their expectations of you. Your spouse, whom you’ve placed all of your trust and loyalty in (not blindly of course, especially if there’s the red flags lmao). But truly, it’s you and your spouse. When everyone else is gone, it’s you who lifts me up and whom I would give anything for. “Would you be willing to give up everything in your life for them?” That’s how you know you’re ready to take that step to marriage.

3. Communication

Of course, reality TV shows have the dumbest drama... but this show was cool in that it showed a “Reunion” episode where you actually saw many of the issues in the show reach their deneuoment. I actually really appreciate seeing how immature arguments and inadequate self-reflection led to horribly disagreements. I felt like I could see outside of myself. There’s one couple that were explosively passionate with their ups and downs. She described her self as “self-sabotaging” and DING DING DING! Guess who I related to? She concluded that you have to be okay with your flaws. You have to see them for what they are and accept them. If you don’t accept them, how can you expect someone to accept them? You’ll always be fighting them, even if your partner loves you unconditionally for them. You can’t base their acceptance of your flaws for your reasoning to quell those self-doubt momentarily. YOU need to accept them. 100%. And when your ideas of yourself and that of your partner’s aligns, you will be at peace with yourself. I’m actually glad that we’ve argued. And I’m glad that you always take my hand afterwards. I hold my breath most of the time, thinking: “This is it, what I’ve done is the thing that’ll push him over the edge, this is where it ends” and you are NEVER thinking those thoughts. You’re just feeling upset at the moment. You can be upset and that can be normal. It does not mean my actions that make you upset will lead to our downfall and pain and hurt. It’s just a normal feeling. Keeping you happy 100% of the time and banking that 1-5% of the time that I don’t make you happy on you deciding you’ve had enough of me is just my own image of my self-worth. I am worth more than my ability to make you happy 100% of the time. That will not be possible. And my acceptance of that will make me stronger, which will just lead me closer to how you have and always have viewed me. I will align with the way you see me. Each argument is another opportunity to test my strength.

4. Financial Debt

One of the women on the show had 20k in credit card debt... And damn, that sounds like such a foreign concept to me. I know my family’s got debt. But I find that responsibility to have your immediate debt like credit cards is a no-brainer. School debt, mortgage debt, etc. can wait for longer of course, but no way in HELL will I ever let myself get to that point of irresponsibility. I spoke with mom and Travis about how I would rather skimp on wedding things than to go so far into debt just for one magical moment. I’d much rather live for much longer, stress free days with less financial worry than to have the wedding of my dreams. I could have that in my actual dreams, in paintings, in Photoshop, as a random party years later when I can afford it. But no way would I bank all my happiness on one day. What actually makes me feel so secure about that is the fact that you make me feel loved every day. Every day feels like it’s this partnership. The wedding day just ties our lives legally together hahaha. But before and after it, this is what we’ve got. It doesn’t and shouldn’t change (besides the growing and changing together). But I’m okay. I’m okay without the “magical” wedding. A dress, a legal person to marry us, a $20 white dress. If we can’t afford it, I’d rather we invest in our every day. I’d deal with the offended great cousins later. I just want you, me, and the legalization of the promises we already made when we decided to do this together. I enjoy a lot of the finer things in life. But I would give up everything to enjoy life with you for longer. (I’ve slept on bamboo mats on the ground and have taken dumps next to 10 cockroaches. I may have a terrible immune system and probably die without medical insurance lmao but. I think I can endure a lot.)

5. Consistency

One of the couples don’t get married because the girl was not consistent in her love. The guy loved her soooooooooo much. And he actually said no at the altar just because she showed commitment just that one day and he couldn’t be sure if he would be signing his future away to someone who would be hot and cold like that all the time. Thank freaking God that you are who you are. I never doubt you. I could never doubt who you are. From the day I called you “Steven” to today, you’ve grown and changed a lot. But who you are-- the type of loyalty, self-sacrifice, commitment, hard work, compassion-- you’ve never wavered. Even if you tried to fight it, even at your worst. You would never purposefully go against those values (maybe just be discouraged if you feel you lost those values). I believe in you. I believe you to be the person I’m going to be with until I grow old.

The show hasn’t changed any of these feelings, by the way. I knew them, I just don’t think I’ve ever really written it out for you. I don’t feel especially different after watching this show, just inspired to write to you. I want you to feel loved. And I want to express the love I feel from you every day.

Austin, marriage may be far away (I know I said I’d be okay with just us two and a legal person to marry us but I don’t prefer it lmao), but man, I always look forward to it. Every day I just wake up excited because I have something I want to work for. I want to be self-assured, confident, successful, and I want to build the life I see for us together.

I’m in the daydreaming sequence right now ahaha... I’m letting myself have it. Since I know I mention it like... every day. I don’t want it to not become special one day. But man-- formulating the plan to get there... That’s the next step.

Every day is Day 1, I learned from Powerwolf. Building myself up to be a strong and more self-assured, confident person is my goal. I believe it’ll lead me to my success. It will lead me to the financial security. It will lead me to my dreams for you and me. It will lead me closer to what you’ve always wanted for me and what I’ve always felt was out of reach for myself: To see myself the way you see me.

No question at all, you’re the one for me. I’ll never give up on this task. I’m going to make our dreams come true.

I love you!

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purplelines · 7 years

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EXO'rDIUM in LA

A FAR BETTER EXPERIENCE THAN EXO’LUXION, THANK GOD.

In case y’all forgot, or just didn’t know, i had GA for Exo’luxion, and it was absolute hell. For Exo’rdium, however, I chose to get a seat, and it was a complete daydream.

Once I got inside. I’m not sure if it was The Forum’s fault, or mmt’s, but the organization was terrible. I didn’t suffer too much because of it, but I know a lot of people with GA tix did.

So Exo opens with Mama, naturally. Lit af. My sister and I just about lost our minds, lmao. I can’t remember if there any pyrotechnics(?) at Exo’luxion? BUT THERE DEFINITELY WERE AT EXO’RDIUM. LIT. It made Mama so so so much more intense than I’ve ever seen it.

But even without the fire, the performance was A1. Like, as I was watching, I was thinking about how its been five years since Exo debuted, and about five years since I saw them perform that song for the first time at Smtown, and. They’ve improved so much. They were never bad, ofc, but their stage presence is so much better? I said this last year too, but they’ve improved even more since then!!!

After Mama was Monster and BITCH!!!! Let me tell you, Monster is MY FUCKING SHIT. It’s probably tied with Love Me Right for my fave Exo title track. The song and the dance, are everything. Like, this performance is what I was most excited for going into this concert. AND I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED. MY MANS’ DANCE BREAK. BYUN FUCKING BAEKHYUN. Had me so fucked up, holy shit. AND THEN. THE RAP. THEY SHOT FIREWORKS RIGHT ON THE BEAT. I WAS LIVING.

Third was Wolf. I know how a lot of people feel about Wolf, but. Wolf is also my shit. I unironically love it, and always have. Its either actually in a three way tie with LMR and Monster, or #3 after them. I LOVE WOLF. I have love/hate relationship with the way asian exo-l’s put so much effort into actually knowing the fanchants, while us western fans just. “CHOGIWAAA.” Because I’m not kidding, legit everyone in the arena screamed chogiwa with chanyeol, lmao.

I’ve had GA every time I’ve seen Exo since Wolf came out, and they always perform it before they come out to the extended stage (i think? I genuinely don’t remember much from Exo’luxion. It was such an awful night for me, I’ve honestly repressed the memory), so this was my first time actually getting a good view of it. 10/10. And I love the remix. It’s stunning.

I have no concept of the order the rest of the songs were performed in, so this will probably be horrifically out of order. I’m sorry.

I DID NOT TAKE MY EYES OF OF BAEKHYUN FOR THE ENTIRETY OF ARTIFICIAL LOVE. It’s another song I was very excited to witness live. OBVIOUSLY. I just about died.

The acoustic medley was lovely. Call Me Baby was fun. Like, really fun. It was really fun to sing along with them. My Lady was !!!! I’d never seen it live and? It’s fucking My Lady. Everyone around me started losing my minds when they started singing it. Remember how I said us american’s are pretty shit at fanchants? Since we can’t do them, we just kind of sing along? Like we sing along to the whole song. We, or at least everyone in my section, sang the entirety of My Lady with Exo. MY FAVORITE PART THOUGH, was Moonlight. Moonlight is breathtakingly beautiful. One of my favorite Exo songs of all time. Singing that along with Exo, and just hearing live in general tbh, was really special to me.

EVERYTHING? PARK CHANYEOL DID? WAS LIT? AS FUCK? HIS RAPS? GO OFF. HIS GUITAR SOLO? WENT OFF. Like, he’s at the bottom of my Exo bias list, but he got me GOING at Exo’rdium. Holy fuck.

I’ve seen Exo perfom 365 three times now, but it still always makes me so happy :’-) its such a happy song. Our seats were the second furthest right side section, and Baekhyun brought his cute lil self over to the part of the stage closest to us for a while during 365. He’s such a cute little bean.

LIGHTSABER IS ANOTHER ONE OF MY FAVE EXO SONGS. STAR WARS IS MY SHIT. EXO IS MY SHIT. SO HOW COULD LIGHTSABER NOT BE MY SHIT. IT WENT OFF. I was SO excited to see it live. I was row one, and when I heard Vader’s breathing, my physical reaction was so intense!!! I almost threw myself over the rail in front of me, lmao. IT WAS LIT.

Love Me Right is always a joy to watch. “Shawty imma party til the sundown” was almost as lit as “chogiwa” haha. Sehun’s lines are very popular for singing along in general actually.

I got super emo during Lucky. Thinking about the lyrics got me all soft and gross. So lucky to be your love, I am. ♥

Most of the recording I did was through snapchat, so most of my “fancams” are only 10 seconds long. And I made a point to get baekhyun’s “my babe” during playboy, and my fucking sister, at the top of her lungs, in the most disgusting tone, decided to sing along. It’s fucking hilarious, but it ruined my video. But, I heard it irl, so whatever.

During Tender Love, Sehun came over to the part of the stage Baekhyun came to during 365 and was even cuter. OH SEHUN WAS THE CUTEST LIL THING ALL NIGHT. LIKE the first thing out of his mouth after he introduced himself at the beginning of the night was “I missed you.” ;-; ♥

I’m not sure if I’ve said it here, but I’ve gone off about it on twitter several times over the years, but Exo love us so fucking much y’all. So fucking much. Don’t ever doubt it, even for a second. They adore us. Truly. You can see it in their eyes, and hear it in the way they talk to us. I’ve seen live on five different occasions, from in the pit to the back corner of the nosebleeds, and they’ve never failed to make me feel loved.

Especially, LA, and L.A., exo-l’s apparently. :’-) Suho said it was his fave place in the whole world (other than home, ofc). And Xiuminnie said that since they’ve come to los angeles so many times, they feel really comfortable with us! ;A; And you could tell. You could feel it. The boys were so happy and cute and playful throughout the concert. Like they truly seemed to be having as much fun as we were. And when it was over, they didn’t want to leave. They literally tried to stall the end of the concert for as long as possible. But even as they were leaving, they were all skipping and singing and dancing still. They were seriously so happy that night, guys. It makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside.

And when Suho, I think, mentioned that they were going home after the concert, Baekhyun pouted!! It was super super cute.

Since I was in a side section, I could lowkey partially see backstage and!!! the members would peek out and wave at us!!! IT WAS THE CUTEST THING, OMF.

THEY LOVE US SO MUCH, I CAN’T SAY IT ENOUGH. Like, Baekhyun even even expressed his concern for fans in the pit during the first ment. Not to be biased but bbh loves exo-l so much I could go on for days.

WE SANG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BAEKHYUN. It took a few tries to get it right, but in the end, we finally did it. That was a big deal for me. Baekhyun is so so so special to me, and I’m so glad I was able to be there and do that for him. I can’t even put it into words. Also? The timing of Exo’s L.A. concerts is fantastic. Last year I literally got to spend Valentine’s Day with them? This year it was a couple days after my birthday and a couple days before Baekhyun’s? I LOVE THIS CONCEPT.

Even though Yixing wasn’t there, again, everyone made sure to give him plenty of love when he showed up in the vcrs. The screams for him were so loud. I hope to god he finally gets to come back next time. I miss my boyfriend, lmao.

The silver ocean was beautiful. Since I was in the pit last year, I didn’t actually get to look at it. But this year I did, and I bought my first, ever in the history of me being a kpop fan, lightstick, so I was actually a part of it too!

THIS VCR IS MY FAVORITE THING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. IT’S SO CUTE. SO PURE. SO FUN. SO HAPPY. I ADORE IT.

There’s always that one member, in every kpop group I’ve ever seen, that is fucking magnetic on stage. In my Exo’luxion fanaccount, I lied. My Pinocchio ass was like “idk who it is in Exo,” knowing damn well its Jongdae. I even said “tonight it was Jongdae!” BITCH IT’S ALWAYS JONGDAE, WTF DO U MEAN. It was Jongdae at Smtown, I had moments with him at kcon 2013 too, it was him at Exo’luxion, and it was sure as shit him at Exo’rdium too. THE BOY GLOWS. I LOVE HIM. I was too far back to confirm this, but at the end, during angel, he (and everyone else) took time to wave and say goodbye to everyone they could see. I’m talking each section, and everyone they could see in them. And I was front row of my section, and wearing white, so? I think I’d be easier to spot than someone in row 15 and in black, u feel? Anyway Jongdae spent a while, like, actually kind of a long time, waving to my section, and I’d like to think he looked at me. It looked like he did, and I started jumping when he waved “at me” and then he started jumping too? Idk. But it was cute as fuck, and I love him.

Kyungsoo like? forgot? the choreography to one song. I don’t remember which, but it was really cute lmao. He was also the token In-N-Out enthusiast haha.

FUCK THIS IS WHY I NEED TO WRITE MY FANACCOUNTS THE NIGHT OFF I FORGET LITTLE DETAILS. Baekhyun said something about it not mattering whether we dance cutely or erotically, as long as we dance, or something? haha. He also mentioned that since it was the last stop, he was giving more energy than normal. Jongin also said that because of our energy, it was impossible to feel tired.

Chanyeol put on a Deadpool mask and then put on an owl mask over it and was just being... Chanyeol, lmao. And Suho was so done with him, lmao. “Are you crazy?”

This concert was so fun. The atmosphere was so light and happy. I legit did not stop smiling the whole night. I felt like an idiot, because I know half the time it was a dopey ass, awestruck smile. But the whole thing was just? Surreal. I love Exo so much. They’re the only artist/s, kpop or otherwise, that I’ve supported since day one. Sehun and Jongin are only a year older than me. I’ve seen them every time they’ve come to L.A. (except for when exo-m came in 2014). Like, I’ve literally been growing up with these boys for the last five years. And I’m just... so thankful that I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of this journey. And so proud of everything they’ve accomplished. I love Exo with all my heart. ♥

#exo #fanaccount #personal #why am i always so late #lets pretend its because i like to marinate in my memories for a few days before i write about them #sounds much better than i'm just lazy af #exordium in la

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