#i’m probably gonna do something more english based

[the-irrelevant-trumpeter]

ugh i hate being in year 12 and having to think about what subjects to drop or pick up and what i want to do at uni

[theshippirate22]

I have a theory

listen up bitches (gender neutral) (affectionate) i’ve been cooking this for an incredibly long time and i’m very very excited to share it but it is gonna be long so i’m putting it under a cut

my theory is that there has been a new set of archetypes created by popular m/m media either in canon or coding and i would love if it was more widely recognized by a distinct name so here we go:

I present to you: The Mirrorball x Running Up That Hill Boyfriends™️ Theory

i need to preface this by saying that i am absolutely not an english major or expert but i have done so much analysis that i’m 98% positive i’m on to something here

so usually mlm ships- at least in my experience- get boiled down into typical Grumpy x Sunshine, Golden Retriever x Black Cat, or like. Babygirl x Badass. and i hate that because those are like really watered down hetero romance stereotypes and i think queer people deserve to get our own archetypes instead of trying to force queer characters into prepaid boxes but that’s a story for another day so:

basically, all content with widely accepted mlm ships (even if they are more in coding than in canon) has this pattern with the ship that fits into Mirrorball x Running Up That Hill

(name pending- open to suggestions)

Boyfriend No.1 of course is the epitome of Mirrorball by Taylor Swift (i know, i know. bear with me here). He’s constantly trying to prove himself and his worth and usually he’s driven to hide or overcome 1-3 specific and intense insecurities/character flaws. He often has innate loyalty to a system or person who has repeatedly abused/neglected/abandoned him and thinks that this treatment is a result of his own character rather than a reflection of the abuser. In relation to the plot and audience, this is the “more dangerous” of the two because he’s so desperate to hold onto the status quo that he’ll often act in a way that makes things more difficult for himself, often by leaving Boyfriend No. 2, sacrificing himself, or doing “the wrong thing.” He also commonly has an older male figure that is breathing down his neck constantly, haunting his perceived inadequacies, and fueling his self-loathing. He’s constantly mischaracterized because he’s either boiled down to “the silly one” or a visage of his trauma and the people that relate to love these characters are usually extremely sad people. Usually this character is also the “mean girl” of the couple.

Examples of the Mirrorball boyfriend: Dean Winchester, Aziraphale, Stede Bonnet, Lucius Spriggs, Sherlock Holmes, Eddie Munson, Mike Wheeler, Prince Rupert, etc.

Boyfriend No. 2 then, is the Running Up That Hill Boyfriend, based of course, on the song by the same name by the perfect Kate Bush. He’s the one that’s seen The Horrors™️ and gained a layer of cynicism that Mirrorball doesn’t have. He was once loyal to something that used/hurt him but he rejected it and used his newfound freedom to restructure his entire personality and reach his much higher potential. Usually, he has passed so far from having a few insecurities to perceiving himself as utterly worthless and unlovable but he’s so convinced that it doesn’t even haunt him, he just goes with it and usually comes off looking overly-confident or cocky. This is The Bitch (affectionate)™️. There’s probably a scene of him covered in blood. This is The Girls’ favorite blorbo and ultimate whump. He tends to be really good with kids and he’s the kind of character that would and often has to CLAW a life out for himself by his fingernails.

Examples of the Running Up That Hill Boyfriend: Castiel, Crowley, Ed Teach, Black Pete, John Watson, Steve Harrington, Will Byers, Prince Amir, etc.

unfortunately i haven’t seen a lot of popular queer stuff so if you can think of other mlm or mlm shaped characters that fit into these archetypes please please please tell me

i’m specifically curious about:

-Hannigram (Hannibal)

-Buddy (911) (@criminally-obsessed if you would mind weighing in but obviously no pressure)

-Lokius (Loki) (@henderdads same thing)

-Any of the marauders but specifically WolfStar

-Stucky (MCU)

-RWRB (i’m so sorry i don’t remember the guys’ names)

-Nick and Charlie (Heartstopper)

-What We Do In the Shadows has one I think?

-literally anyone else please and thank you 🙏🙏 love you all

if you want like explicit examples of each piece for a character lmk for sure because i could talk about this all day long

[telvess]

Record of Ragnarok Poseidon (relationship headcanons) 🔞

My first attempt in writing anything in… eternity. I’m not a native English speaker but trying to improve myself, sorry for all mistakes I've made. I didn’t write any major spoilers but used knowledge from manga. Also + still no clue how tumblr works.

Poseidon is such a adorable idiot.

SFW Not gonna lie, to catch his eye (not to mention eye-to-eye contact) there will be needed someone really specific. Someone similar to him in general, but unique in details. I think Poseidon is really good observant. Just because he’s indifferent to others, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t pay attention. He would notice nuances in behaviour, manners and gestures. His future s/o must be elegant, self-contained and pride. Maybe not in the haughty way but undoubtedly confident in her position as a goddess. Definitely not ‘damsel in distress’ type, she has to have guts to rule her sphere, protect her opinion and status. No other god or goddess shall stick their nose in her business. Unless they’re ready for harsh words or worse. In summary: a less extreme version of Poseidon. On the other hand, I don't think these qualities are enough to draw Poseidon's interest. It’s good base but potential s/o must get under his skin. Intentionally or no, she has to do or say something that would get his attention, and annoy him… He wasn't seeking her subtle chitchat, nor did he want to end up witnessing her fight! Congratulations, miss! You accidentally annoyed Tyrant of the Seas! Choose a burial place. Jokes aside, the best thing s/o can do here is ignore Poseidon. He thinks he wants that, but hey! Looks like he played himself. Now s/o annoys him even more and he cannot understand why. Such a useless bottom feeder and he can’t get over her?

She was like a sea: capricious and unpredictable in nature, always remained resistant to the expectations of others. But sea bend to his will like tamed puppy. He stamp his foot and it humbly part before him. That’s what he couldn’t stand - how little control he had over her, how unbearably free this woman was compared to other gods who ran away in terror as soon as he merely frowned.

Poseidon would catch himself thinking about her in the least expected moments. He used to almost never leave his realm, now suddenly is more present in social life. Still doesn’t care much, usually just staying in loneliness that nobody dare to disturb and observing from distant object of his contempt. As if nothing had changed, yet it did. Probably the only people that would notice he’s different will be Hermes and Hades. When first one won’t act on it nor share his observations, the eldest brother definitely won’t resist to make some ambiguous comments.

— Well that’s unusual of you, dear brother — said Hades. He toyed with his glass of wine, watching carefully Poseidon, who looked as unconcerned as ever. However he honoured him with one short glance. Hades couldn’t stop the corners of his lips to lift up. Did his little brother seem… disturbed? Or was that just his imagination? If Hades could pick one thing out of everything known in the universe that was unshakable and untouched by time or any other matter Poseidon would be his choice. Unaffected stability that did not leave any room for doubt and yet… something… someone push his stern brother out of his safe zone. Hades couldn’t wait to see what else the future may bring to them. He just hoped the intruder will be able to keep up with the challenge.

It will actually take a lot of time for Poseidon to realize that he isn’t annoyed with s/o but himself. Idea of being attached to another person is almost physically uncomfortable. It’s new and suspicious. The moment of understanding is the flash point of the relationship. At this point Poseidon would abandon distant admiration and start acting. He is still slightly annoyed but what’s more irritate him is the absent of that unbearable mouth of s/o. Poseidon would sit next to her or stand much closer at any events. At first she won't notice, but over time she'll start to connect the facts. She’s not dumb. Quiet neither. If she point it out, he may mock her.

— Why don't you just ask me to dance instead of deterring others? It would be a graceful way to start a relationship. Poseidon gave her almost cold look. — Such a audacity — his voice teetered on the verge of indifference - he thought so. She snorted. Her eyes weren’t darkened with anger, sparks of mirth still shone in them. Maybe even more after his refusal. Then she turned to face him and, with a subtle but promising smile, began to close the distance between them. Poseidon remained calm as she came within inches of him. He could feel the warm breath of hers, the smell of fresh air… — You know you want me — she whispered without hesitation. Something unbearably nagging was born in Poseidon’s belly. And that annoying heat under it… almost as someone wounded him. He frowned but didn’t move away. — How are you going to win me over if you can't stop fighting with yourself? — she asked innocently and didn't wait for an answer - just left him on the balcony.

Truth be told, Poseidon wasn’t made for small talks so s/o is doing most of the part and - to provoke a reaction - teasing him a bit. After a while, they both find the silence in their presence pleasant. Poseidon’s seduce tactic would mostly navigate around small gestures such as gifts. However he won’t send them like every normal suitor. If his s/o lives near the ocean or is often near it, she would probably find many beautiful pearls by chance. All of them in her favourites colours of course. Is she basking on the beach? The finest shells surround her. Is she admiring shoal of fish, coral reef or just the sound of the sea? There are no storms. And go on… It’s hard for Poseidon to overcome his pride and openly talk about his desire. When he finally bring himself to it, he’ll sound angry as if he’s doing something unworthy of him. Once s/o assures him that she wants to know more, Poseidon would relax.

— I want you to remind me every day how unbearable I am. How capricious… how impertinent… — she kissed his hand without taking her eyes off him and then put it to her cheek. Poseidon liked the cool touch of her skin — And still watch me with that quiet yet deep fascination.

Yeah, s/o has to make it official by saying out loud how she feels and Poseidon generously accept the offer…

NSFW For Poseidon to be in any relationship, especially romantic is almost impossible. He doesn’t get involved with others because, in his opinion, they’re not worth it. So nobody would force on him arranged marriage. He must be the one choosing that path. That’s why I don’t believe he would ever degenerating his s/o. The reason is simple - he would treat his wife with the same level of respect he treats Hades. Otherwise she wouldn’t be his wife; she cannot be someone less. I also don’t think he would praise her much, probably only when he’s in right mood she would hear complement here and there. His s/o must be good at reading his minimalistic facial expressions and body language. She may notice how his eyes widen in admiration, how he holds his breath for a moment or tightens the jaw muscles when feels really good. He’s not vocal; purrs or growls only on occasion. Poseidon has his moments where he shows desire for s/o. He won’t say it loud but won’t take his eyes off her as she undress in the evening. Yeah, she definitely gonna feel that burning look on her back. The only place where he become caring and warm is in bedroom, in private, far from servants’ eyes. These kind of moments are rare. Mostly because they both take their responsibilities seriously, which means they've been separated for a long time. Poseidon is calm, methodical lover. He’s detail-oriented - would leave no curve or plane untouched from his hands or tongue. He’ll enjoy every sound, shaking and blush s/o make, and act in accordance with the mentioned gestures. Poseidon prefers variants of missionary position to share eye contact though he wouldn’t say no to his s/o if she wants to ride him. In intimidating moment he enjoys challenging her to not close eyes when he thrusts deep into her. He starts with slow and almost annoyed pace that soon becomes raw and firm when they both chase their release. Afterward they usually lay in bed in silent, both satisfied and tired. Poseidon won’t say it loud but he really likes when his wife show him affections at that time. Slowly almost lazily massaging his chest, touching his neck and jaw, putting small kisses on his ear or cheek. Her tender words soft him. Poseidon doesn’t entirely return the favour but when she does all this to him, he caresses her back, pretending to be indifferent.

[riotlain]

Ghosts of Woodsboro Pt1

rewrite of a fic I wrote in literal freshman year that was ass

i hope this is better

The day you had lost sleep over had finally arrived. As you stood before Woodsboro High, looking at the bustle of students heading inside, you couldn’t help but feel slightly unease - and the weight of all those stares on your back. This was nothing new, of course, ever since you got your prosthetic, you’ve had people stare. But still, it was never easy to bear. Moving to a new school was already hard, but moving to another state all the way from New Jersey? That didn't help one bit.

Letting out an uneasy sigh, you begin your walk to the office to grab your schedule. That was the easy part. Now it was time to actually find your classes.

English was first.

You began your way to class, keeping your gaze forward to avoid looking at people’s faces. As you walked, a guy, and who you presumed to be his girlfriend, began walking next to you. The guy was tall and lanky while the girl was shorter with silky blonde hair.

“Hey, nice mask. Why’re you wearing it?” He asked bluntly. The girl shot him a look. “You can’t just ask that, Stu!” ‘Stu’ just laughed in response. “Did your face get burnt or something and it's all melted and gross?” He asked with exaggerated facial expressions to signify the melting. The girl elbowed him.

“Sorry about him. I'm Tatum, what's your name?” “Y/n.” You answered quickly. You weren't entirely interested in this Stu guy based on his first impression. Tatum seemed decent enough though.

The 3 of you continued walking to your class, before you finally arrived at English class.

“You have this class too, Y/n?” Tatem asked as you 2 walked in together. You just nodded and sat down in a free seat. The entire class felt like a blur, you were zoned out for the majority of it. It was probably because of how little sleep you got last night. It was like that until Tatem approached your desk holding a paper.

“You wanna work together?” The blonde asked, placing her hands on your desk. You stared at her for a moment, confused on what she meant, until you read the instructions on the sheet of paper.

“On the research paper?” You answered hesitantly before nodding. “Yea, sure. What do you have in mind?”

Tatum thought for a moment. “I’m not sure.. How about we brainstorm?” She said as she pulled up a seat and sat next to you. For the rest of class you 2 came up with various ideas. It ranged from animals, to space, to random interests you both had.

“What about ghosts?” You proposed. Tatum raised an eyebrow at you.

“You actually believe in that sorta stuff?” She asked with an unconvinced chuckle. You nod.

“I'm pretty sure my apartment is haunted. Not mine specifically but the complex is… We could check it out if you want.” You tried to sound nonchalant about it, doing a small shrug.

Tatum thought for a moment before nodding.

“Yea sure. Not for our project but it’d be cool to see ghosts.” She answered with an interested yet slightly skeptical look.

“Cool. I can drive you there after school.” You offered and she agreed.

The rest of school went by pretty normally and boringly. You mainly looked forward to ghost hunting after school, even if it sounded a little silly. Once the last bell rang, you began your way to the school’s entrance, spotting Tatum by Stu and 2 others.

“Hey Tatum, you ready to go?”

Before the blond could respond, Stu stepped in.

“Woah, just what are you two planning?” He stepped in. Tatum just rolled her eyes. “We’re just gonna be doing a project together.” She explained. You just nodded along.

As you and Tatum began your way to your apartment, Billy and Stu couldn't help but watch. You felt their eyes piercing the back of your head but you just thought it was about your appearance.

You couldn't be more wrong.

[maplewozapi]

Hello, I have a question, and probably a strange one. The short version: any tips on how do I and other writers should approach naming Lakota-based characters? Are there any good sources, that can be trusted?

The long version: so I'm making a story where one of characters comes from a nation based of Lakota. Since all main characters are dragon riders, I figured it wouldn't be odd for them to be one too. But I'm not sure how do I go about native people and dragons combination in terms of names. If I'm know what do I do with the rest of the crew but here I feel lost. There are not much sources online about Lakota naming convention avilable in my native language but I'm trying to do my best in what it comes about research. So recently I started digging in English. But not all online sourses seems to be relatable. So I decided I should better find a Lakota person and ask directly, regardless of how stupid I may look. Because one of the last things I want to do, is calling a character or their dragon "ten fighting bear asses" or something just as ridiculous (or, worse - offensive) by an accident.

Ok I’m gonna use this to talk about several things because time and time again I get asked this question over and over, and the out come is always the same, that there’s a deep rooted problem with how people write native people in fantasy. For one thing I’m not sure how you are even representing Lakota people in your story, and you are just going to call these characters Lakota names in English? Do they talk English? Then what does this nation of "Lakota inspired fantasy people" even look like? Are they backed dropped with elves and dwarfs? Why is it that not just Lakota but any native nation is a back drop for a fantasy world? Then there’s the fact that the Lakota tribes are made up of seven sub tribes and then itself is apart of a seven group tribe. You can’t just up root a REAL LIFE people and remove them from what makes them them. You aren’t the only one I have to talk about this with and I end up getting ghosted by the people asking for help because they end up realizing they can’t actually write this weird Frankenstein story of native people. It’s a lot more nuanced to writing about native people and it takes collaboration with people to make a genuine story. Idk if people disconnect us from our land and people just haven’t realized WE ARE NORTH AMERICA, SOUTH AMERICA, you just can’t take us away from our history, what we are apart of and then if you are including one tribe where’s the rest of them? I wanna bring up Xiran Jay Zhao videos because I really think it brings up this whole issue with nitpicking cultures and misrepresenting them. No hard feelings or anything but so many authors come to me for advice and their whole stories and works just crumble and fall apart because they just don’t understand and can’t, you’ll never have a native person perspective. I honestly think instead of forcing it and writing from bull shit you don’t know is a reliable source then maybe you should step back and learn about native people, support their writings, and enjoy their work and authenticity./gen

Here’s a great book focusing on dragon riders, completely from a Wampanoag perspective written by Wampanoag author.

I am so glad you have an interest in our culture and I have no hard feelings about misunderstandings./pos

[project-sekai-facts]

Your recent update made me wonder about something. I don’t know how much you know about this but wanted to try asking anyway. Hopefully this makes sense? Why would the English translation choose to censor things? I assume translations are being done in America where queer things are slowly becoming more accepted but is that a factor? Are the translators themselves changing certain things due to their own biases? I don’t know who they are and don’t want to assume anything about them, but I can’t help wondering if that’s part of the reason? Or is it because of something like, for example, sometimes movies or TV shows have certain content removed based on where it’s being aired, so is it something like that? Is the game being released in regions where queer content is banned or removed? Now that I wrote it, I feel like this is the most likely answer but what do you think? I basically just rambled in your ask my bad. Also, do you know if the Korean and/or Taiwan servers have censorship too?

oh there's more than just the Asahi thing and i have mentioned it in passing before but i'll cover it properly here. "the miles i fell in love with is so cool" -> "it was so cool! i guess that's miles for you" is definitely the biggest example though.

First off, a minor thing. it doesn't really happen anymore but in the earlier translations they quite often use words other than partner, like "pals" and "buds", in the VBS story. Probably one of the best examples of this would be An and Kohane's 3rd kizuna title, which the JP name was often fan-translated as "Making each other better" or "Raising each other up", and is called "Two supportive pals" on EN. Which does have the same meaning but the "pals" seems so unneccesary when they could've used partners. The original text is Takameau futari, the first part means "to raise" or "to lift" and futari means "two people" or "a pair/couple". So it technically is a good enough translation but using pals when partners would be more accurate to canon just seems.. off.

I’m assuming their avoidance of the word partner is because it could easily be misinterpreted as romantic, but they seem to have moved on from that at this point.

There's also THE POWER OF UNITY where they switch out "love" (daisuki) for "cares about a lot" when KAITO is comparing the relationship between Arata and Souma to Akito and Toya. Daisuki literally means "likes a lot" so often you'll see people translate it as love, though likes a lot is still valid. "Cares about" is not a direct translation but definitely can still convey the same meaning, so again instance of valid localisation it just seems like an odd choice when using love would've conveyed the exact same meaning and been more true to the original.

Then you've got another instance of them not translating daisuki correctly in Dear Me, As I Was Back Then (sorry this one is a wiki screenshot my phone died). This is worse. Like I guess if you really want then it does have a close enough meaning to the original. Like I guess daisuki meaning "like a lot" or "love" could be localised as "you're the best" if you really wanted it too. But even then, the line before this is "I'm gonna show just how much I admire her!". Minori's shout of "I LOVE YOUUU" from the original would be way more fitting here. "You're the best" feels too casual and buddy-buddy - even if Minori didn't know Haruka at this point, Haruka still had a big impact on her life and imo "I love you" would be the best to use here.

There’s also this one from Walk on and on that removes one key thing. In the original, Toya says something more along the lines of “I was able to make this track because I want to continue to be a partner who can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you from now on and always”. This is a bit more similar to the Asahi incident in that they’ve restructured the sentence to make it two, adding in the thing about performing which isn’t even there originally, and replacing “korekara saki mo zutto” with “keep singing with you”. And “keep singing with you” still works, but it’s much more toned down, let’s say. You know what really is odd about this translation though? If the quote I put seems familiar, it’s because it’s also the name of Toya’s event card. Kinda odd they omitted that from the story then, huh? The thing is the translation of the card is very accurate so removing it from the story starts to seem intentional, especially when everything around it is accurately translated like with the Asahi incident. Also doing this removes the fact that the card name references the story so what the hell are you doing EN? It's the same sentence, if you can translate it correctly on the card you can translate it correctly in the story.

There's definitely more than this, this is just what came to mind first and I don't want to make this post too long.

These were certainly... choices. Especially with the ones that avoid translating daisuki as love because they do translate as that on other occasions, most frequently with An and Kohane. I'm assuming the reason they omitted it with the guys is because it's far harder to pass off guys saying that they love each other as platonic because societal expectations or whatever, but I'm actually surprised by the change to Dear Me because normally they're pretty good with Minori and Haruka usually. Like they've translated daisuki correctly for them before and leave in everything else that indicates Minori has a crush on Haruka, so why not this line?

I'm tempted to say that they just change the things that they think are too hard to safely pass off as platonic, but then again they left all of the unsubtle ship teasing in Buddy Funny Spend Time, which has a lot of focus on Minori and Haruka's relationship (and they even added in Haruka saying that Minori makes her heart tickle in her card story), so I'm genuinely not sure why they left that in but then changed one instance of Minori saying she loves Haruka which doesn't even have to be interpreted romantically. Like what is the limit here? An can say she's going on a date (with Kohane) and the WEG regulars can ask who she's been seeing, but Asahi can say he fell in love with Tsukasa's character and it gets removed. Both of them have romantic connotation. The only thing I can think of is that An's comes from a whole card story and event, but Asahi's is one line that's easy to remove. Same with Toya saying he wants to stay with Akito forever.

In other words, it's a mess and I don't think any of what I just wrote is coherent either.

Interpret all of this however you will at the end of the day it’s all just ship tease which is up to interpretation anyway. Except the Asahi thing. That one is a censor.

Oh and the KR and TW servers don’t do this.

[sygneth]

I am not even sure if I will be posting this (though, if you're reading this, I did), but, nevertheless, I have a few points about Jean that I have to make. He is no saint. He is an asshole and I’m not gonna pretend that he is not. But there is so much more to it. 

Let me start with the most obvious. He is said to have clinically diagnosed depression, with, apparently, no distinctive source, and, from what he says, we may assume he is under some sort of psychiatric supervision. 

He was diagnosed seven years ago. Diagnosed with depression, which probably means he’s been dealing with it for a good while longer, only at a certain moment he decided to seek help/had an attempt/any other circumstance that lead this man to get a diagnosis. He is now 34, seven years earlier he’d be 27. 

The reasons for such unspecified depression may be many, from some kind of a rare neurological defect causing one’s brain to be incapable of properly producing/transmitting/I’m-not-a-biologist-neither-is-English-my-first-language-so-I’m-not-gonna-dig-into-neurological-dysfunctions-further-but-you-get-the-point, serotonin, through a burnout, all the way to having other, undiagnosed disorders/illnesses as *checks Luiga’s tweets* Schizoid PD (I am not convinced that what Jean presents is a 100% textbook SPD example, rather SPD traits/behavior patterns? But I’m no specialist and even if I were, it’s hard to diagnose someone based on those few dialogue lines) and codependency tendencies. The doctors didn’t diagnose any other disorder, or at least he never mentions it, but looking at the world of Elysium, those disorders may not yet have been widely recognized, especially if not presenting themselves in the most typical ways/high-functioning. And Jean tends to be high functioning despite his issues. Yet, I assume that in Elysium, and Jamrock especially, the access and quality of psychological and psychiatric services are poor and probably limited. Not to mention education on the matter, which is probably low if not near none. (Just looking at how is alcoholism treated by *everyone* there, or the short mention of McCoy’s brother gives me a good 90’s/early 00s Eastern Europe vibe of mental issues/disabilities public awareness.)  Now, keep that in mind. 

Alright. Next up: a codependent, close relationship with an alcoholic. 

Jean’s relationship with Harry is an interesting one. I found this interesting research on codependency among spouses of alcoholics, that states codependency is related to, among others, SPD traits. (That’s an, uh, disclaimer? I was just curious how that two may coexist, but apparently, they do.) 

Back to the main thought. 

As someone who has been in a close, codependent relationship with a person who had problems with drinking, I can tell you something. It’s more than hard to get out of one. You see a person you care about do stupid, drunken, dangerous shit, you may be angry at them, you may be furious, yet you will still feel responsible for them in a way, and you will take that responsibility and try to get them out of the shit they got themselves into. I’ll say more, if that’s an actual relationship, you will feel social pressure that you are responsible for your partner’s behavior and you’re the one to take care of them. If it’s your work partner, then it’s highly probable you actually will be held responsible for their behavior, so you’re even more likely to clean up their mess. And when you help them out, because you care, because you feel like you should, because you don’t want to be “dicked” for it, maybe all of the above, they will be grateful and they will praise you and love you and even if you feel like this is not the right thing to do, you will do it again.

It takes a lot of work and self-awareness to get out of something like that healthily. And if you have some psychological knowledge, it also helps a lot, to understand how to deal with it. And the only way to do it, regardless healthy or not, is by setting boundaries. If you can healthily set them, and make the other person respect them, that’s very good. But if you have some other mental issues in addition to that, if you lack knowledge on how people’s behavior patterns work, on how exactly addictions work and that, you are maybe having some problems with generally understanding relationships between people, how and why they work, it’s very likely that you won’t be capable of setting those boundaries and enforce them to be respected. It’s very likely that one day, when something will happen and you will realize how toxic and unhealthy this relationship is for you, you will panic and you will start to do anything to get out of it, like a cat drowning in a well. That you will start acting cold, maybe even merciless from a certain perspective, maybe you won’t let yourself believe in their pleading and assurances of change, because you will know that letting yourself *feel* sympathy for the person you had this relationship with may lead to spiraling back into the wheel of codependency. Maybe you have already tried this, and letting yourself trust them only led you back to the point where you started and maybe this time, you don’t want it to end up this way.

And you know what? There is nothing wrong with trying to ensure your mental well-being. “Before approaching the casualty, always make sure the area is safe.” YES because if you’ll get hurt trying to help somebody, there will be one more person to help. The same applies to helping people get their life together. If you won’t have a good mindset to help them, if they will only drag you down, maybe the area isn’t safe? 

Moving on. 

Now, remember when I said that the level of social and psychological awareness seems very low in Elysium/Revachol/Jamrock? About that. 

You know what else I see, looking at the Harry-Jean-Dora-Kim situation? A bunch of people with self-awareness in terms of emotion, and emotional development of teenagers, but problems of grown-up people. And they are not to blame, the system is to blame. Harry seems to be very self-conscious and connected to his emotions, yet for six years he couldn’t find a healthy way to get over a heartbreak. He has tendencies to act violently, to randomly drunk-phone his ex to harass her (I mean come on, he was asking her if she is naked), not to mention a tone of other things. 

What happens here to Jean, is his situationship/best friend, whom yeah, he decided to ‘have a break’ with, immediately gets over it, and starts to go out with someone else. Taking, that this man has probably understanding of his emotions on a level of a high-schooler, he WILL be salty. He will be mad at Harry and he will be salty towards Kim when he sees them in Whirling. (Not to mention that it’s probably how they just roll in the precinct, and I’m quite sure that Harry’s and Jean’s relationship has been japing on and teasing each other, and as long as they both knew how it works, it was all good, compare: this post. So yes, Jean will be angry with Harry and he will act like an offended drama queen partially because that is just how their relationship dynamics probably looked like for the last two (at least!) years, and partially because he is an offended 16-year-old drama queen, whose bestie told her to fuck off and found a new (boy)friend. 

Is it good, that grown-up men have the emotional capabilities of high schoolers? No. Should we blame them, or the fact that their system seemingly doesn’t provide any prevention, doesn’t promote awareness, or offer any proper healthcare for that matter? I’ll leave that to you.

To add to all this, yes, the RCM’s fucked up system, hierarchy, and mentality don’t help. Yes, it would be better for both Harry and Jean and probably Kim too, taking for his PTSD, to get the fuck out of there and live peaceful lives. But you know, changing your whole lifestyle isn’t easy. Understanding that maybe it’s better to leave now and that it doesn’t mean you’ve “wasted” your years is a process, a long and hard one. I had to learn this. My close ones had to learn this. Some of them still didn’t, especially, that where I come from, there is this CEE culture of not letting yourself fail with peace of mind. You got to do everything the best you can, you gotta do it 120%, and if not, you’re a rotten piece of shit. Looking at how Harry treats himself, Revachol seems to have this in common with Central-Eastern Europe as well. 

Another thing, we don’t even know what Kim or Jean did before they joined the RCM, and Harry was a gym teacher. Thinking that it is easy to just switch your job in, again, a place with a CEE mentality, is a huge mistake. At the age of 40-odd years especially. In the 90s, especially. We don’t even know if Jean or Kim have any other education on their account, besides being cops, so changing professions would mean additional education, and for Harry, how many places, realistically, would take in a 45-year-old gym teacher?

I generally see that many people seem to forget/not understand how CE European mentality works, and it shows. I am glad that we live in a world where awareness of things such as homophobia, ableism, misogyny and else is common knowledge. But it wasn’t here, not even those 15 years ago. I remember people using names of dysfunctions and disabilities as slurs. Grown up people. I remember my classmates and my friend calling each other faggots or laughing at each other for not being gender-affirmative enough. Half of us turned out to be queer, and nobody had a problem with that, because in those times this kind of language wasn’t necessarily indicating someone’s worldview, it was just a bad habit, a very common one. I am more than happy, really, that we got rid of this kind of narrative and are more aware of the weight of a spoken word now. But when talking about past or settings that resemble this past, let’s please not forget that it DID look different and take that into consideration. Please. 

Remembering what we derived from and what a great progress as a society we did is important, as it shows the way we managed to walk, but also reminds us of what people had to deal with. And is a warning, because now we’re probably still all doing things that in 30 years will be so, so wrong. 

So concluding this ridiculously long consciousness stream, I love you, DE fandom. Now, I have an interview to watch (probably not anymore) and a comic page to draw (as always). I’ll leave you with this here.

[iamoutofideas]

got asked to explain my theory on queer isolation in rural areas so I’m gonna try & keep it short so that won’t make my brain hurt me.

so firstly this is based off my own lived experience as well as just listening to other people over the years, this isn’t me saying I’m right & you should believe me but more of something that could be explored deeper to find out whether it’s true or not, don’t treat this as concrete evidence.

so I can’t speak for other countries but in the english speaking capitalist west everything is a commodity, although rich people’s wealth basically involves them just making up a number, it’s based on material objects (ie. money), & that money exists in physical form in a place on earth (offshore bank accounts, etc.). I’m gonna be focusing on australia because that’s where I live

much like where wealth is hoarded to one person, socialisation is hoarded to specific parts of a country, in my case, sydney and melbourne (& by extension just about every other capital city except for maybe darwin), there’s also some outliers to this (northern rivers, gold coast, newcastle) but primarily it’s the same across the land. in order for these cities to exist to be as large as they are, other areas need to be sparse; I mean that’s just how population works, right? if there’s more people in one place there’s gonna be less in others. but with more people in place a there’s more consumers to sell things to & if there’s less in place b then why bother? there’s no money to be made out of them, just charge them more because there’s less, & this trickles in to just about everything, including clubs, raves, coffee meetups, picnics, orgies, you name it. you have to pay to be part of it & because there’s less of a market it costs exponentially more to bring that sort of stuff out to rural areas, if you’re willing to even try, & that’s even before we even discuss cishet social stigma that permeates here, in fact the stigma is created because no one has access to the actual gatherings themselves but only have access right wing media like sky news.

as the timeline of capitalism continues these markets become more condensed as more & more people are convinced to move just to find social contact, instead of just moving to the city you now have to move to a specific part of the city (a part that hasn’t had its public transport gutted in the previous century) & you have to go to a specific handful of buildings for socialisation, not just wherever you & your friends want, the cops will get mad at you for that. with this condensing the rural areas are left more & more barren. a personal example of this is in my lifetime I remembered bush doofs being a common thing in my area, but as time wore on they slowly got pushed out by cops (& angry middle aged people) until they stopped altogether around 2016. jobs are also more widely available in the city which makes the decision a no brainer for anyone let alone queer people.

but if you thought for a moment about how community even works you’d probably realise that maybe staying to help would be a good idea, but you’d be stuck with your parents, just about every person my age is here because they got dragged along with their parents or their parents gave them a job at their company, no one chooses to live here. why would you? there’s all the sex & drugs you could ever want in the city! why throw all of that away? the parents that moved here have come to do the “settle down” portion of life or as I call it, the “die like a sick dog” part of life. they come here because they want this place to be quiet, or nowadays they just buy a holiday house & leave it empty, if they hear anyone trying to do anything remotely exciting they shut it down. & this is pertaining to rich nimby people who can actually afford to buy houses & “investment properties”, not poor people, the middle class here are people who bought their houses 30 years ago at the very least & the number of those people are dwindling fast. so if you do live here you’re stuck under your parents thumb & all in all this makes a potent cocktail for suicide. you’d like to either leave or at least try & make the town you’re in more livable but it’s not gonna happen as long as the cogs of the capitalist machine keep turning.

to try sum it all up socialisation under capitalism is a sold commodity & because of more people being in one area & less being in another, we are not it’s target audience.

I think that’s all of it, there’s a part I probably forgot to explain but I can’t think of it right now, if anyone has any sources that either prove or disprove this theory please feel free to drop the links.

[dkniade]

“欲买桂花同载酒” / Zhongli’s osmanthus wine idle line

(Disclaimer: I don’t know that much about syntax, so I apologize for the wildly inaccurate syntax trees. I made the mistake of warming up with something that’s not English prose haha… I’ll be focusing on the meaning of the line and its hanzi characters, so the syntax is only there to help me explain some things.)

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“欲买桂花同载酒”…

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This line is from the Chinese songci (宋词, a form of traditional Chinese poetry) 《唐多令·芦叶满汀洲》，by 刘过 (Liu Guo). It’s the one referenced in Zhongli’s osmanthus wine idle line in Chinese. (By the way, it does not directly mean “Osmanthus wine tastes the same as I remember”, but more on that later.)

载 (zai3) as a verb could have the meaning of “to carry (something)(with a vehicle)”. For example, “这车可载三箱酒。” = “This car can carry three crates of wine.”

And since the rest of the songci talks about a harbour scene with boats, 载 could indeed be seen as a verb in the poem’s context, and the vehicle is implied to be a boat. So in the context of the songci, this line could be understood in English prose as “[I] wish to buy some osmanthus and ride [a boat] along with some wine.”

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However, despite the songci’s context, none of these hanzi characters in the line itself directly mean “boat”. While looking at it closer today, the syntactic structure felt a little strange to me even though I’m not familiar with Chinese songci syntax.

It turns out 载 has multiple meanings. 载, pronounced with the fourth tone (zai4), as a preposition used in pairs (in modern Chinese), could mean “simultaneously” or “at the same time”. For example, 载笑载哭 should probably mean “laughing at crying at the same time” or “laughing while crying”…

Also, the original songci doesn’t follow the osmanthus line with a section about old friends, but instead the idea of old friends is actually mentioned two lines prior. For the bolded sections, I’m doing a modern English translation, referencing the modern Chinese translation from the Gushiwen website here, but note that the original songci uses the poetic Chinese wenyan (文言) syntax.

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“黄鹤断矶头，故人今在否？旧江山浑是新愁。欲买桂花同载酒，终不似，少年游。”

“故人今在否？” = “Are [my] old friends still alive in this moment?”

“欲买桂花同载酒” = “[I] wish to buy some osmanthus and ride [a boat] along with some wine.”

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It’s pretty cool that Genshin Impact alluded to the friends idea present in the poem too. Also, both Liu Guo’s songci poem and Zhongli’s line use the term 故人 (gu4ren2) to mean “old friend(s)”.

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Meaning, Zhongli’s poetic-sounding Chinese idle line “欲买桂花同载酒…只可惜故人，何日再见呢？” is closer to “I wish to buy some osmanthus and also some wine… But as for those old friends, when would I meet them again?” in modern English with the game’s context (without taking into account that the real poem alluded to here is about boating). (This is a rough translation that follows the overall sentence structure in Chinese a little closer.)

Thus Genshin Impact’s English localization of “Osmanthus wine tastes the same as I remember… But where are those who share the memory?” might actually be okay in terms of meaning even if it lacks the nuance from the poetic reference. Well, I would’ve liked the first part (the songci) to be localized in Shakespearean English, and the second part to be in modern English, since the difference in syntax and tone still stands out a lot in Chinese… In an English localization, if a character who usually speaks in English prose suddenly quotes something in Shakespearean English, it’s easier to pick up on the fact that it might be a line of poetry ‘cause of the contrast, I believe.

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Somewhat unrelated, but in terms of poetic structure, it seems the entire poem in Chinese has an usually strict rhyming scheme, rhyming nine out of the twelve ending sounds together (roughly speaking. Not gonna go into the phonology of it haha)

Usually Chinese songci have a more diverse (?) rhyming scheme. E.g. “水调歌头•明月几时有” by 苏轼 (Su Shi), which miiight be the base inspiration for Liyue’s general storyline and cast

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In the end… Zhongli quotes a line of songci with seven hanzi/syllables. It’s a wild guess but maybe it refers to the original Seven Archons?

欲买桂花同载酒…只可惜故人，何日再见呢…

[rriavian]

Do you consider Morpheus' Corinthian and Daniel's Corinthian two different persons ( i mean nightmares ha ha) playing the same role? To be more clear- do you consider them like Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker and Tom Holland's Peter Parker?Or do you consider them as the uprated version of same software? Like Corinthian 1 is Windows 10 and Corinthian 2 is Windows 11?

I am asking about your interpretation. Not necessarily it has to be based on canon.

PS. Not sure if I should write my own interpretation here. But anyway, I am gonna write it.

For me, Morpheus and Daniel are completely different personifications. Like- yes they are both doctors/pilots/teachers/bankers-whatever really. But they are different persons. Doing the same job doesn’t make them the same person.

On the other hand, My understanding of Corinthian is completely opposite of "Dream 1 and Dream 2". No matter how different Corinthian and Remade Corinthian are- they are the " same personification" to me. It's like same person getting a second chance to life after coming back from coma state. I am personally not too eager to use "Cori 1 Cori 2". For me, they are both the same " Cori".

L

Sorry for my English if it's too incoherent.

Oh you love to make me think don’t you! I think my interpretation is still in flux; I’ve not read the comics, or seen a lot of super spoiler-y panels bar a few of the big ones, and the show is also still quite far off this storyline. 

I suppose the truth is that the existence of the second Corinthian is a narrative element I struggle with, because to me it’s not very satisfying. I enjoyed how the show handled Dream making Gault a dream, because it was very clearly a cosmetic change, but with the Corinthian it feels like it would be a lot more. The idea of recreating isn’t an easy one (doesn’t feel like a great match for the themes of the story either), as it just seems like a very simplistic way to get a character to change without them actually growing. And this change is entirely against the characters will/doesn’t even involve the Corinthian doing anything at all.

Which is quite chilling given how his rebellion was very much a quest for agency.

The idea of the Corinthian rebelling, spending 100 years sticking to his choices, and then being unmade only to be recreated with everything suddenly being fine, with all the reasons he had to do what he did seemingly gone/resolved, just doesn’t feel very satisfying to me. 

I’m still holding off on a full judgement until I’ve reached that point in the narrative, but there has to be some trajectory for me to really get on board. What did Dream alter in that moment of recreation? If it’s a new character with the old one’s face/name/memories but apparently none of their motivations then why should I care? And if there was a reason for not just making a completely new character as Dream’s second attempt at a masterpiece then what was that reason because I’d love to know what that is!

It’s probably because I’m not there yet in the story, but right now I don’t see it, and so I’m not sold on it.

Perhaps everything was somehow resolved while the Corinthian was unmade. Perhaps all he needed was a really good nap. Perhaps he got therapy while chilling as a skull. Joking aside—and finally looping round to actually answering your question—I think there has to be continuity between the first and second Corinthian because, unlike Dream, he’s not really the combination of two distinct identities. Well, in a way he could be, Dream not so much remaking him as giving him something more, not cutting out but adding a balancing factor. Upgrading the software to use your turn of phrase :) 

I think that’s the interpretation I go with in Transmutation, and that fic was essentially me exploring what the complexity of identity could mean. It’s the interpretation I go to for Dream as well. Also—just to reference a spoiler I have seen from the comics—the panel of the second Corinthian choking Loki out when looking for Daniel?

Listen: that’s the same nightmare for sure.

[crowsyart]

I don’t know if I’m gonna but I might toy with the idea of witches using the words wif(adult female) and wur(adult male) to refer to breeding age females and ‘males’, maybe using quaen (or queen) to refer to pregnant witches or cult/coven leaders (I think I might make coven/cult leaders have the title of mother or something similar depending idk yet, I know lady is used as a title for Medusa and Arachne, but I think it’s more of an honorific for an older/more powerful witch/wanting to show respect rather than something specific)

I know I want the word sire and carrier in reference to the actual breeding process but outside of that in a cultural setting the other words might be used in reference to a witch’s age, like a gender pronoun but age based(?) id need a word for a young witch too though for they don’t have a gender yet, man used to mean all people so I could do that because it would be sticking with the old English theme but it would get confusing as we use man nowadays, I’ll probably do more research for that. And young witches aren’t considered people until they can transform as well, so I will probably need two words for that if I pursue this

Maybe young witches aren’t referred to/recognized until a certain age(that being when they can transform fully into their animal) so they lack those referring words entirely? But the transformation ability happens long before witches become sexually mature, so there would be a period in which they’d probably need to have another way to refer to them besides their name

Witches don’t name their children the children are named when they reach transformation age(and start to attend ceremonies) and maaba chooses the first name while they’ll choose the last/take on a family name if they’re from a family(though most families being wiped out makes this rare)

A ‘family’ in witch culture is also something different than the human idea of a family, covens and cults are the most similar they have to it, major ‘families’ (Gorgons, etc) usually would have a matriarch and a group of non witch servants, (usually women, often originally sacrifices especially in European areas), with the servants acting as wet nurses for the heir or heirs. This is not in style anymore, and most witches tend to be more solitary, not owning servants or having ‘families’, the words such as ‘sister’ or ‘mother’ are human loan words, and biologically witches will not mate with blood(or adopted) relatives, as they can recognize the magical signature that marks them as related.

Covens are considered a newer trend, and considered something for ‘weaker’ witches, as they all raise their young together instead of abandoning the egg to hatch by itself (or if the witch had mated with a human woman, then they would give birth to the witch child). Witches are polygamous, but some who are closer to human culture may settle down with one or more ‘mates’ and take them as partners. This is generally seen as odd.

[splatsvilles-fashionista]

Little details you might have missed in the Splatoon 3 Direct

I meant to get this out pretty soon after the Direct, but I came down with a cold like a couple of hours after it aired which knocked me out for most of the weekend. Additionally, I had a lot of stuff that I noticed in the Direct that got elaborated upon in the official website, meaning that I posted them in the post about instead. I also omitted all weapon kits, as I posted that as a separate post.

As a result, a lot of what I’m about to bring up might be things you’ve already seen or heard of elsewhere. I’ll make this post regardless, just in case it has something any of you haven’t heard before!

- We’re actually gonna start off in the Japanese version of the Direct, because this detail is hidden in the English version:

Here’s the overview of Hammerhead Bridge, but wait a minute, what is that in the distance?

Why, that’s the NILS statue!

The reason this isn’t visible in the English Direct is that the “Hammerhead Bridge” title card is so long that it covers up most of the statue for the entirety of the shot.

- Next, a neat little detail about the Splatana Wiper: If you one-shot an opponent with a close-ranged charged swipe, you get the direct hit sound effect, just like Blasters do.

- Now, let’s talk about two things I noticed with the Reefslider. The first is that it seems to have some invincibility frames during parts of its animations, as we can see the octoling in the video stand right in the line of fire of a Hydra Splatling and be perfectly fine. I can’t imagine it having full invincibility for the entire duration of the Special, but it is probably invincible during the final slide.

Another neat thing we see much later in the Direct, in the Splatfest section, is that it seems you can stop prematurely if you want to, as this octoling detonates about halfway through the duration of the Special.

- Let’s have a bit of a Salmon Run-down, as I have several things to discuss here. The first of which is that it seems there are now more than four Specials you can randomly be assigned.

The initial Salmon Run next Wave trailer showed that two of them are the Crab Tank and Killer Wail 5.1, but the Direct also showed several more!

Booyah Bomb, Inkjet, Reefslider, Triple Inkstrike, and Wave Breaker are all shown off very clearly, being the Specials held by some of the players in the clip.

Next up let’s talk about the [[Big Shot]].

More specifically, it seems that after you’ve defeated the big guy itself, you’re able to use its machine yourself to fire Golden Eggs! We’re not shown the specifics of where they land, but based on the initial clip it seems the Big Shot might always aim somewhere in the vicinity of the Egg Basket, and the same will likely be true for the eggs fired by players as well.

Next, lets talk about a choice of wording. When introducing the Cohozuna, the narrator calls it “one of the King Salmonids”.

“ONE”.

This likely implies that there are several other King Salmonids they’ve yet to show us. How exciting! If I can dream for a moment I think it’d be really cool if we got to fight ω-3, the Salmonid band, piloting a giant mech, DJ Octavio-style. That probably won’t happen, but hey, might as well dream big.

Now, let’s move onto my next segment, the Single-Player section. There’s a fair amount to cover here, so let’s start off with something easy.

Aw, hey, Splashdown, we thought you were dead.

Splashdown is back, but likely only in Single Player. We haven’t seen it on any weapon kits, and that is probably because it is thoroughly outclassed by Reefslider, which seems to have designed to replace it. Single Player, however, need not follow those rules at all, so anything goes. Additionally, the player is shown actually gaining Special Charge the old-fashioned way, by turfing.

There is something odd going on here, however. Pay attention to all the UI elements in the screenshot above.

Now look at this one. Noticing anything?

This second screenshot does not have the Sub Weapon wheel (if you can call it that) shown in the earlier clip. In fact, it is only shown in the first clip, where Agent 3 is wearing their uniform. That’s not the only difference, though.

We also seem to have both Hero Mode AND Octo Expansion-style end-of-level gates. Again, we only see the Zapfish in the first clip.

And hey, hold on a moment. One of the notable differences in these clips is that Agent 3 seems to wearing different clothes in them.

We actually SEE when they lose the uniform at the very end of that section of the Direct! I think this means that the Single Player campaign is actually split into two distinct sections, one more like Hero Mode and one more like Octo Expansion. How very intriguing.

That said, I am just about finished now, so to leave you off on something else that is very intriguing, let’s think back to this clip:

Now, is it just me, or do these things, up close, look a lot like moray eels?

Now, do we know anyone that is associated with eels?

Hmm. Food for thought.

[gamerwoo]

hansol: the lovers playlist

characters: hansol x female reader 

genre/warnings: idol au, best friends to strangers, getting over a ‘breakup’, angst, implied alcohol, a lot of implied sex but nothing explicitly happens

word count: 906

summary: thanks for the memories even though they weren't so great; he tastes like you only sweeter

tag list: @anissanightyoung​ @aceofvernons​ @mythicalamphitrite​ @caratluvie​ @juliettechokilo​ @liemwantstosleep​ @rubyreduji​ @ohchangyu​ @mingyublues​ @kamalymaly​ ​ @minluvly​ @honeyylin​ @miki-chi​ @heemingyu​ @noraehey​ @awkwardnesshabitat​ @floweryjessy​ @woozarts​ @anothershorthuman​ @shuabby1994​ @vernxnsfool​ @ti--red​ @etaerealboy​ @plants-w0rld​ (if you’d like to be added to the tag list, please fill out this form!!!)

a/n: things in bold italics are song lyrics and things written in plain bold are in english

previous song | next song | back to playlist

Standing at the bar of another night club at an afterparty for some movie because you had a friend of a friend of a friend, your eyes scanned the celebrities and socialites, a drink in one hand and the other resting on the bar, barely touching Taehyung’s elbow that was rested on it. The music was loud enough that you felt the base in your bones. The club was playing English songs because the movie was half in English or something like that -- Taehyung explained it to you on the way because you didn’t actually go to the premier of said movie.

‘I’m gonna make you bend and break...’

Soey leaned into you, asking in your ear, “So, what do you think?”

Jackson Wang was arguably the best and worst thing to happen to you. Having a one-night-stand sparked something in you. It was the only time you didn’t think about Hansol, and the only time you actually felt good about yourself. You felt almost...powerful. It was a nice feeling, having somebody want to be with you like that -- even if the next morning he explained his intentions, said his apologies over breakfast, and sent you on your way with no hard feelings, of course.

You needed more. You needed that attention and that moment of not thinking about Hansol or the situation in general.

Thus began a very, very weird phase in your life.

Was sleeping around foreign to the industry? Absolutely not. But you had to be sneaky about it, and boy, did you learn how to do that quickly. It seemed like every other night, you were either in someone else’s bed, or you were bringing someone home. On one hand, at least you were charming enough to pull. It made you feel good about yourself.

On the other, you felt kind of gross for it.

If anyone were to ask you how someone in the industry was in bed, you could probably answer for a decent amount of them -- and your members often did. Gossip wasn’t lost on the 12 of you just because you were idols. They always wanted a rundown of your escapades.

But Taehyung was aware of what you were doing, too. He obviously knew you’d slept with Jackson the night Namjoon introduced you, and Soey obviously told him everything that you’d said -- he also now knew far more about Yeonjun than he’d like to know.

But he also knew that Soey thought maybe this was good for you -- others might disagree, but she liked that you were back to being more like your old self rather than hiding away and sulking. So he decided to maybe enable you a little bit by bringing you and Soey as his ‘dates’ to this party he was invited to by one of his actor friends.

“I think it’s weird they’re playing Fall Out Boy,” you replied before sipping your drink.

You could see some attendees were dancing on the dancefloor, or yelling the lyrics. You normally would be, but earlier that day, Hansol had posted a photo-dump on Instagram and decided to include a photo of him, Mingyu, Soonyoung, and...you. And he even tagged you in it. The caption was just a heart, which was simple. But it was still enough to send you back to that weird indifferent feeling.

‘Who does he think he is?’

“Do you want another drink?” she offered, wondering if you just needed to loosen up a bit more.

You kept trying to remind yourself that you were better than that. That you didn’t need him. That you were wanted by other people, so why did it matter if Hansol didn’t want you?

‘If that’s the worst you got, better put your fingers back to the keys.’

The entire clubs seemed to being jumping and yelling as the chorus hit, and as fun as it seemed, you continued to stand by and sip your drink, just watching the crowd.

You’d already had people come up to introduce themselves, saying they were a big fan or offering you a drink, or even both. But none of them caught your eye. Most of them were minor American celebrities who thought they were better than they were -- like someone you’d seen only on Tiktok, or something along those lines. Some of them were much older than you and made you uncomfortable -- Taehyung always managed to step in and deflect for you. But some were cute and seemed nice enough, but...

‘I'm looking forward to the future but my eyesight is going bad; and this crystal ball.’

“I think she wants a change of scenery,” Taehyung commented. “I thought this party would be cooler than it is, but... It’s kind of boring.”

Neither of them were right, though.

After seeing that post, you wanted to get back at Hansol. You wanted him to really get the hint that you didn’t care and you didn’t want his friendship back. You wanted to find someone that would hurt him like he hurt you. You needed someone in his circle, or at least close enough to it. Because he had no idea that you were moving on now, and you needed him to know.

‘It's always cloudy except for when you look into the past.’

“Actually,” you finally spoke up, “a change of scenery might be nice. Mind if I invite some friends?”

‘One night stand...’

[mangle-my-mind]

Todd Haynes on Velvet Goldmine and Fandom (and Gender, and Yaoi, and Slash Fic)

Source: "Something that is Dangerous and Arousing and Transgressive: An Interview with Todd Haynes," Julia Leyda.

Edits and emphases my own :) The whole interview is fascinating, and while I kept most of the Velvet Goldmine stuff in this post, there are more bits to read about it, as well as conversation around Todd Haynes' other films. This is gonna be a really long post, with screencaps throughout, so find it below the cut!

JL: You've done several movies that are very clearly woman's films, but the movie that I am most fascinated with in terms of gender is Velvet Goldmine, which is not usually interpreted in that context.

TH: No, except it's probably gotten the strongest female fan base of any of my films. And what's wonderful for me is to see new generations of young women, even as we think we progress as a society and there are new options available to each new generation that seem to be catering to that market more acutely, still Velvet Goldmine offers that market something that they’re not getting elsewhere. I always love it when girls come up to me at festivals and that’s the one, that’s the movie that really turned them around.

JL: I’m interested in how you use the trope of playing with dolls in Superstar and Velvet Goldmine as a way to figure gender, embodiment, desire, identification. You said in an interview that playing with dolls is what you’re doing in Velvet Goldmine, using it as a metaphor for the filmmaking process, to play with the characters of the idols more than making an actual biopic about bisexual pop stars. So what about the female characters in Velvet Goldmine? Fans, rock and roll girls like Mandy — talk a bit about them.

TH: Interesting question... I don’t know if [the role of the rock-n-roll girl and the role of Angela Bowie in glam] relates directly to doll-playing except that it really might be the last time that you see an active female figure freely utilizing artificial terms of self-expression and persona in an unembarrassed, unabashed, almost radical way. That was in a way the fascinating counterpart to the more aloof, silent, objectified figure that Bowie assumed as Ziggy Stardust. Of course, there was also that hardcore influence from the American music that he loved — the Stooges, the MC5, and the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed — as the final ingredient to give it that kind of duality, the cross between English musical traditions and this American hardcore, a direct assault. He needed both of those, but there was still a kind of passivity and object-ness of that figure that seemed more quiet, and more comfortable being an image, an idealized beautiful façade that people could project onto; whereas Angela Bowie was active, pulling the strings and moving the levers — in that way, I think, making him up so that he was the doll that she was playing with. So a lot of that energy and that fire and fearlessness I think could be attributed to her.

JL: In the doll-playing scene in Velvet Goldmine, the girls are like Mandy, manipulating them and fantasizing about them. So that trope of little girls playing with dolls scene really gets at the way the movie is about bisexuality and a kind of less bordered sexual identity, that is based in play, in fantasy —

TH: — is fluid, is mutable, is conducive to all kinds of voices and all kinds of players pulling the strings. But one thing that Velvet Goldmine kind of misses is how strongly and passionately young women were the driving desiring consumers of this very unique moment in popular culture history. That has continued, too: the androgynous male object is something that still attracts a really passionate, active female spectatorship. That’s so fascinating to me, and you can see it played out in so many different ways: the tradition of the Japanese comics of the ’70s, what’s it called again?

JL: The subgenre of manga with the boy lovers and its girl fans, yaoi.

TH: Exactly. The boy lovers and the girl fans, really directed at girl consumers, and it’s this androgynous, starry-eyed princes and pretty boys who have sparkly eyes for each other.

JL: I wondered if you were aware of yaoi or not. When I was working on a conference paper about the girl fans in Velvet Goldmine some of my colleagues said, Hey that’s just like yaoi! And I said, Wow, it really is, but I have no idea if that’s part of what he was thinking or if it’s just a coincidental, cross-cultural parallel.

TH: It was a tangent that I learned about in the process of research, but I don’t remember when exactly. I was certainly aware of how there was a particular Japanese following with a passionate attachment to the Bowie phenomenon, glam rock, T. Rex; Japan made up a major part of their market. But I think it’s an interesting counter-argument to the classic Laura Mulvey idea of a limited female spectatorship and if anything it only further underscores — although I think this is all embedded in that, and though I haven’t read those articles in some years — that marginalized subjects, such as gay subjects and women, have to find a more dexterous and nuanced way of reading culture and finding their way into all kinds of content that is not designed for them. I think there’s this ability to transform and to enter into all kinds of different subject positions of which this is one amazing and fascinating example: the glam rock thing with young girls’ driving interest in it.

JL: When I was a teenager I was a huge Bowie fan, and my mother was confused because I was always trying to look like Bowie; she would say, “You’re attracted to him, you have a crush on him, why do you want to look like him? When I was younger I loved Jean-Paul Belmondo, but I didn’t want to look like him.” But in the ’70s, and in my case the ’80s, and still today I think, girls of all sexual orientations experience that overlapping between desire and identification — it’s there in the Arthur character, too, but I’m thinking of in the opening sequence with the glam girls rampaging.

TH: Right, they’re absolutely rampaging, terrorizing the town in utter desire. And we all know that the passion that we see displayed there, the intensely sexual display of female spectatorship probably started with Valentino, Sinatra, the Beatles, and Elvis.

JL: It’s almost hysterical.

TH: Yes. There was in these cases an androgynous, feminine element to the actual performance; in a way, just for the star to be up on stage, just to be objectified, is to arguably be feminized. These artists in their unique and shaded ways capitalized on that, and the result among female spectators is something that society is still startled by: that radical emotional response that it engenders... Each generation has its own variant on that. It does call into question all sorts of assumptions about opposites attracting, the whole simplistic reductive ideas of what drives desire —

JL: — and the borders of identity.

TH: Yes, and the female subjects, spectators, consumers, maybe because they’ve had to learn how to occupy different subject positions in dominant patriarchal culture, have revealed the ways that desiring has narcissistic or self-reflexive aspects. On the other hand, maybe male spectatorship has just been so much more catered to and delineated in solid terms, and thus hasn’t been able to explore the margins as thoroughly, but women and gay people and African Americans, for example, all have to find different ways of entering mainstream cultural production.

JL: I love that the girls with the dolls in Velvet Goldmine are storytellers, they are controlling the narrative, in a sense, and that you say that that’s what you were doing as a director.

TH: I think that’s how we all begin to externalize our desires: through storytelling. Dolls are a tool that lends itself to that; they are supposedly made for little girls, and I loved dolls when I was a kid. The Barbie doll became a multiply useful subject in the Karen Carpenter film, and that was the internal nod that I was making in Velvet Goldmine, but it was so relevant it didn’t feel like a detour or a private joke — it felt like it was getting to the core of the intense effect that is felt by these kinds of characters in popular culture. That free-floating desire in the little boy-romance that the little girls are constructing is about as sweet and tender as anything in the film.

JL: That kind of storytelling, the freedom in play, helps the characters, but also the rest of us, decide who we are and how we want to tell our own stories.

TH: It’s the story and the engine of the film. It is really the fan’s point of view — the Arthur character, obviously — but it’s really the theme and the whole motor of it. I always knew I wasn’t really interested in getting inside the closed doors of these famous subjects and that’s why a fictionalization of this unique period made sense. We all already fictionalize and fill in and fantasize. And we see it too in the whole slash fiction phenomenon, which I didn’t even know about until Velvet Goldmine, and in which Velvet Goldmine has itself become a category.

JL: That’s the cool thing about Velvet Goldmine — it is itself a sort of slash fiction, and there’s this ongoing spin-off slash fiction community carrying the stories forward — it’s a perfect loop.

TH: Yes. To ignite that little flame that makes people want to respond actively and creatively and participate. It reminds me of a girl… I was scared of Bowie when I was in junior high school, and I remember I was aware of him, but it was all just too freaky. There was a girl in a lip sync show in seventh grade who picked his song “Changes.” She was this beautiful girl and she imitated him, as many girls did, right, because he was so pretty... [S]he just did the perfect lightning bolt like Aladdin Sane, and she got her hair just right — I forgot if she wore a wig. But she performed “Changes,” and I remember hearing and thinking, “Oh, this isn’t so scary . . .” because I expected it to be really hardcore music and I would be put off by it. But it was so pretty.

JL: So she turned you on to Bowie.

TH: She really helped...

JL: I’m trying not to let my brain explode with that idea! I remember that scene in Velvet Goldmine where they’re reporting on the news, saying something like, “Girls everywhere are wearing glitter makeup,” and that conveyed the society’s sense of fear, of what are all those girls up to? The idea that they’re going to need to be controlled again somehow because they’re getting a little too weird or too powerful.

TH: The glitter girls, as they were sometimes called, especially the LA version of the glitter girls, that’s another thing I really remember from junior high. As I read later when I studied this period, they were a force to be reckoned with — extremely precocious, among some of the youngest, most adventurous and not violent, but persevering, fearless, active fans. They peopled the Rodney Bingenheimer English Club on Sunset Boulevard —

JL: Like the Runaways.

TH: Yes, they gave birth to the Runaways. I think it was one of those girls who ended up in Roman Polanski’s house, who was fifteen or however old she was, but that’s why it’s very hard to examine that infringement outside of its cultural context and what was happening at the time in Los Angeles. Glitter girls scared the shit out of me when I was a kid — they were tough, and girls were already ahead of boys at that age, but they were miles ahead. It was intense. I can absolutely picture those kinds of girls, and they were intense, in their platform shoes and glitter makeup.

JL: With Arthur, I thought you did such a great job developing that character as a kind of giddy, exuberant, awkward young guy. You’ve said that Velvet Goldmine was your most affirmative film, even though the ’80s scenes are so dark, it provides the character of Arthur with this memory to cherish even in the middle of the awful ’80s.

TH: Totally. I don’t know if there’s a more joyful moment in any of my movies than that little passage that I’ve been showing as a clip in a couple of festivals and retrospectives of Arthur getting the record, and making his brother agree to lend him the money taking it home, opening it up, and that cherished —

JL: Fetishized!

TH: — fetishized record. And then he leaves the house, stashing his coat and just prancing proudly with his badges down the street with the song playing, and yet still being met with this higher echelon of socially superior kids who look down on him, and the pretty boy who scowls at him for his presumption to even be in their company. But still I think every kid has some version of that: his awkwardness, his passion, his vulnerability, and his strength, too, are all embodied in that ability to fall in love.

That beautiful sequence ends with him turning the page one more time to the page with the image of Curt and Brian kissing. And I remember feeling that, a kind of recoiling, confusion — like it’s tapping something exact, absolutely precise, but just too many membranes down to be able to be freed up, able to be voiced or affirmed. But it’s something you’re bookmarking for the future, that feeling you’re going to return to when you have a little more strength, a little more perspective. It’s touching something that you know you’re going to have to get back to because it’s something that is dangerous and arousing and transgressive. Christian's performance is so amazing because that sequence starts with him in the classroom, where he really looks all of a sudden like he’s fourteen years old, with his ruddy cheeks —

JL: — and his really bad bangs. I identified with him utterly and painfully in that scene. And his flailing dancing scene. My God, that character is so beautiful.

TH: He did such a beautiful job. He really was so committed and so profoundly inside that guy. I remember when we wrapped and he put away the Arthur clothes and he came back and said, “I just put away the Arthur clothes and cried a little bit.” And I don’t know if I cried but I sure felt like I could’ve. I think despite all the beautiful, fancy guys in that movie, I think my heart belonged to Arthur.

JL: Of course, because Arthur’s us.

TH: He is.

JL: When he takes that coat off and starts walking down the street it’s just: yes! We were all there. I like the way that film gives a few different positions over to that kind of fandom: audience member, fan, young person who’s still working things out, still trying to figure out who they are, and who they want, and who they want to be. The girls as well as Arthur.

TH: It’s also why the whole package of bisexuality, a kind of performative, made-up, dressed-up sense of identity and self, and coupled with this sense of being extraterrestrial, speaks so directly to adolescent instability and to that moment of uncertainty. It couldn’t have been a more total package for the mutability of that time, touching all the nerves and also the freedoms that dressing up allows you, and imagining different kinds of love objects that aren’t necessarily the ones you’re supposed to have. But even that is blurry, unfixed.

JL: Tommy Stone’s star image shows the other side of that dressing-up, right? If you can change yourself that radically, you can also change yourself into a horrible, plastic thing.

TH: Right, and a kind of converse example. The female fan who comes up to Arthur in that final scene at the bar who is so ecstatic about Tommy Stone because that’s all that generation has. That’s what they got — it’s not their fault that the same desire, the same need for something special is expressed, but it’s just not radical, or progressive, or culture-changing. But it’s what they’ve got, and I didn’t want to blame them because they are part of a culture that had to clamp down around categories once again, resume control of those categories that were seeping into each other so surprisingly for a brief time.

JL: Exactly. That limited world that she inhabits and Arthur’s wistful smile as he gives her the press pass, seeing her giddiness.

TH: Just as the emerald pin is the ultimate token of passing on heritages and opportunities or insights or ways of radically inverting a person’s destined experience. That’s how that scene is framed with him passing on the press pass to her and Curt passing on the pin to Arthur. There’s a nice sense of camaraderie among generations and different stations.

[rassicas]

Ohmygosh thank you for such a thorough answer! I loved reading that! First of all I want to thank you for all the amazing stuff you do and generally remind you that you are awesome. Secondly, a few follow-up questions because some things you mentioned particularly intrigued me:

1. What exactly are the problem with “what if lil judd?” The Judds are some of the most central figures in inkfish society so I imagine it’s quite possible they’d have enough weight to throw around to establish a small, shady business on the downlow. I’m sure that there are several problems, I just can’t think of any at present.

2. What do you mean by “though the english localization foolishly carried that motive into the finale of his story when it didn't make sense to do so?” I confess I’m probably just parsing that paragraph wrong, but wasn’t “that motive” his original mammalization plan? He was never MOTIVATED by profit, right? I don’t remember him mentioning profit motives in ROTM.

3. I’m really intrigued by this “O.R.C.A secretly working against Grizz” idea, and agree that ROTM was… weird and doesn’t really make sense taken at face value. Can you elaborate?

sure they'd have the power in the inkling world, what bugs me is the timeline for lil judd. by grizzco's reveal in april 2017, it seemed it was a business that was already well established in the inkling world. salmon roe/power eggs have been stated to be an important energy source, egg collection sites were in place, the grizzco building was there, and it already had a training video that looked like it was filmed like 30 years ago. lil judd was first revealed in. late 2016 i think? he was JUST born months prior. and grizz's plan was certainly in motion for a good long time before he even started the business. for the sake of the timeline itd make more sense to me that judd, not lil judd, was who grizz got in contact with... and maybe lied about his motives in the process since something like 'woah judd is evil all along!!' and not just Neutral feels pretty out of character imo. dont get me started on how grizz's entire motivations were based on him not seeing a single other mammal and him feeling isolated from that, and then the fact there are 2 other sapient mammals surviving on earth is conveniently left out. splatoon team either purposely obfuscating something there, or if not then that seems like a weird shitty writing decision

2. on top of the plethora of added-in business puns, doesnt get more blatant than this:

again, JP version makes no mention of profits and grizz's tone is more serious over all. 3. im gonna plug @ardnin's video because he explains this idea quite well!

[labellefleur-sauvage]

I am obsessed with ‘The Highland Fox and The English Rose’ please I have questions:

What inspired you to write this?

Do you know how talented and incredible you are?

Have you seen outlander by chance?

(Spoiler question): In meters, how big is Laid! Lucien? Or are we to find out with Miss Elain?

If you would like….could you share a little snippet of any part of the series? (You can every share deleted scenes—I am in love)

What does your research process look like?

Feel free to answer this ask after the series has ended! Hope you’re doing well! Please forgive my enthusiasm.

First of all, do you know how insanely sweet and amazing you are??

This is such a lovely comment that absolutely made my day!! I love your enthusiasm! I apologize for the delay but I’ve been steadily working on this ask, because I want to give it the attention it deserves.

(More under the cut, including a very brief snippet from the next chapter, because idk how to write succinctly)

Honestly, my only inspiration for this fic was general vibes😂 I’ve been reading a lot of historical romances lately, and in my American mind, Scotland is such a romanticized area of the world that is still recognizable to readers that I thought it would be fun to explore. And selfishly, I thought that Lucien would look hot in a kilt and wanted to write about that.

I’ve seen a few episodes of Outlander, but I’m more familiar with the books (at least the first two or three). I didn’t realize until very recently that maybe SJM based Lucien somewhat off of Outlander’s main man, Jamie Fraser, but I feel very smug for picking up what SJM was throwing down.

Hmm, how big is Lucien (what parts do you mean😏😏??) I imagine him tall but not excessively so—maybe 1.87 or 1.88 meters (around 6’ to 6’1 for the Americans). I headcanon Elain more on the shorter side, so Lucien doesn’t need to be huge to get that size difference we all know and love (unless you meant his dick, in that case Elain will definitely learn sooner rather than later)

My research is never ending. I start with large ideas and concepts (Scotland in the 17-18th centuries, looking over clan maps, etc.) then narrow it down as topics come up (in canon Lucien has a metal eye, but those have never really existed in our world, so when were glass eyes invented and accessible to the public? What did people in the Highlands eat and wear? Were pencils around during this time period, or was everyone writing with ink and quills?) and so on. I don’t have access anymore to Jstor for academic articles so I’m mainly confined to articles and blogs online. For those, I try to look to see if the author lists their sources for the article—if they do, I generally consider it a good enough source. It’s even better if I’m able to find a good primary source, like paintings and pamphlets, to describe something.

All that being said, if something I want to write isn’t quite historically accurate but the vibes are sexy, I’m probably gonna go with whats fun and sexy. I’m doing this for myself and for free and I’m not being graded—who cares if the colors in someone’s kilt isn’t accurate because there’s no native plants that color the people would have used as dye?

Thank you again for your support and enthusiasm and all your lovely comments on my fic! Truly, seeing people get excited over this makes me so happy and is keeping me so motivated!

Finally, a little snippet from the next chapter…

Lucien woke, as he had every morning since the day after his wedding, hard as his dirk.

Sighing, he threw his quilt off his heated body and leaned up on his elbows to stare at his cock, a slight frown as on lips. He had hoped his body would have gotten the hint by now that it wasn't going to have any company other than his hand for a while. Apparently, his little tryst with Elain last night had convinced it otherwise.

He looked over to his window. The window was slightly ajar, and the thin, gauzy curtains framing the glass fluttered softly as the gentle breeze brought the earthy scent of the loch into Lucien’s room. The sun was out with hardly a cloud spoiling the bright blue sky overhead. It was going to be a beautiful day, and he really needed to get out of bed and begin his long list of tasks.

That could wait a few minutes, though.