#it's a terrible source of legit content

[velourfant]

on fanfiction, fic authors, and the (misplaced) expectation that fanfiction should be an extension of the source material rather than…fanfiction

forgive the negativity, i promise this won’t be a norm :)

i’ve been writing fic as a hobby since i was in elementary, first for the TMI series, then 1D (lol), then haikyuu, genshin, you name it. for the most part, writing has afforded me unique opportunities to connect with fandom, even if many of my earlier fics never saw the light of day.

while i’ve received a lot of love from the communities i do publish fics for, i’ve seen an uptick in entitled fic readers publicly bashing fanfics because authors “mischaracterize” characters from the source material.

then, i watched a tiktok about a renowned bakudeku fic:

*i’m not a diehard bakudeku or my hero fan, nor do i consume any fan content for the series, so if i’m missing something regarding the bakudeku fic, you’ll have to forgive my ignorance. the point i wanted to make extends beyond mha anyway.

…and realized this problem was not endemic to the fandoms i’m active in, but a larger sign of souring fandom etiquette.

i don’t care how entitled you think you are to reading “good” fic. voluntarily consuming someone’s work and then complaining about it because it doesn’t meet your “standards” is a terrible way to interact with fandom spaces. you’re allowed to have opinions within your circles. everyone does. but the moment you publicize hate so you can interaction farm + round up other entitled fic readers (who often don’t produce their own fic), you’re inviting negativity into a space that you have no right to police. what gives you the authority to criticize someone else’s labor of love?

to begin with, the expectation that every fic writer’s interpretation of the chars must perfectly align w the source material imposes a skill/time barrier on fan work creation, draining all the fun out of the creative process. even if someone knows in their head how x and y are characterized, the disconnect between your brain and the words you put on a page takes time to mitigate. writing is a skill honed with practice. in other words, it’s difficult to convey what you want with words. by expecting fic authors to faithfully abide by source material characterization instead of allowing them creative freedom to INTERPRET ART (because believe it or not, these chars are just another piece of art that can be analyzed from different angles) as they see fit, you’re limiting the pool of creators to one of the following:

1) fic authors who understood the source material characters “correctly” on first read

2) fic authors who didn’t initially, “correctly” understand the characters, but could reread the source material and capture them through thorough study

i’ve missed some nuances, sure, but doesn’t that sound ridiculous? because i think it sounds ridiculous.

a suggestion, if i may: how about you just don’t read a fic you don’t like instead of lobbing unrealistic expectations at people who share their work out of love for the source material? how about you create your own fic since you’re soooo confident that deku wouldn’t wear this or that? legit why don’t you try contributing to the space instead of clout chasing and driving fic authors out? if you have so much criticism, then please, by all means, bless us with your vision. only through creating will you see how difficult it is to abide by your standards.

and if you’re a fic author who criticizes other fic authors’ works, shame on you. everyone in the space is interpreting art. congrats on being able to map out “canon-compliant” scenes or dialogue. stop holding other people who aren’t quite there yet/have no interest in doing so to the same expectations.

[samisha99]

Online Chat Mod Dev Preview!

Legit NO IDEA what to call this but I wanted to share more stuff, here's a lot of videos of dev stuff I've been cooking for this mod, first of all... the chat in action!

Completely LOCAL functionality!

Every emote and sticker used gets printed in the chat, and even the system will figure out if it was directly meant for you and of course, for them too!

In this test, I was the only who had this mod in the lobby, so functionality wise its more like a QoL in thsi case, but I want to add more features to it, of course this video is super old (2 months ago) but not a lot has changed for this one in case anyone wondering.

(Apparently I cannot upload more than one vid, rip)

Many pingables and even mod support for the mod!

I've been working for the last few months to implement some modding features, allowing people to directly alternate this mod through two cases, inserting references for script names YOU made and adding the localization for those references to be used, causing the mod to print the right message!

Speaking of localization, this mod should be translatable, allowing it to be user friendly for people who have language barriers, while keeping or/and alternate the formatting.

As an example here's the localization file containing references that are used in this mod:

This system allows it to be very easy to implement, I'll explain further in a seperate guide, but to make it short, no coding, and the stuff that requires coding, is at best, a few lines!!!!

And that way it was made also allows you to support all the languages (even more btw, there's ways to mod more language packages), making the mod able to be used by people with language barriers.

Conclusion

If you weren't aware, 3 years ago, a mod like this was released, with the same idea of online communication, sadly, the mod was removed because the moderation in it was impossible, and showed that we have some interesting people in our community that are downright bad apples, some of those were exposed for terrible behavior to theft.

This is my attempt in returning this mod, completely moderated under YOU, with YOU knowing fully what is happening, with YOU interacting through cute and wholesome emotes, and pinging point of interests for others to see.

This is the Online Chat Project, also known as Online Communication and SSPingSystem in the source code because I am bad with names.

Thank you all if you read through all of this, I'm still getting the grasp of Tumblr, but I am ENJOYING the amount of possibilities you can do, I think I will getting to like this a lot.

Anyways, I'll see you all around, or when I post more of my content!

-Sami

[tomorrowusa]

China is stepping up its manipulation of US public opinion. It worked well for Putin in 2016 so why would Xi Jinping ignore the potential?

A Chinese marketing firm likely organized and promoted protests in Washington last year as part of a wide-ranging pro-Beijing influence campaign, according to new research. The Chinese firm also used a network of over 70 fake news websites to promote pro-China content in an example of the more aggressive efforts by pro-China operatives to influence US political debate in recent years, according to security firm Mandiant, which analyzed the activity. One of the protests was against a US government ban on goods produced in China’s Xinjiang region, where US officials have accused the Chinese government of systematic repression of the Uyghurs. The other protest was on the sidelines of a June conference on international religious freedom, Mandiant said. One of the protests only attracted roughly a dozen people but it showed the scope and ambition of the pro-China efforts. The hired protesters, who included self-proclaimed musicians and actors in the Washington, DC, area, apparently had no idea they were being enlisted in a pro-China influence campaign, the Mandiant researchers said. The campaign backed by the Chinese firm, Shanghai Haixun Technology Co., Ltd., is “intended to sow discord in US society,” Ryan Serabian, a senior analyst at Mandiant, told CNN.

Rent-a-protester is nothing new. There are companies like this one which will create a scene for you — for a price.

A bigger problem is the proliferation of bogus news sites. They often have names and branding which look like (but aren't identical) to those of legit news organizations.

It doesn't help matters that Google News is way lax about what it considers a "news" site.

Of course the most fertile ground for fake news sites is social media. Meta (Facebook, Instagram, etc.) is more interested in boosting activity than in accuracy of information. And Twitter (or whatever Elon is calling it today) these days has become a playpen for Nazis.

People need to SIMPLY STOP getting news from dubious social media sources.

There are plenty of respected sources for news. But it takes a bit more effort than just glancing at an unmoderated feed.

No source is 100% perfect; but a good news source will admit an error and then offer a correction.

Public broadcasters in liberal democracies are good sources. Even public broadcasters in some non-English speaking democracies may have English language content. Americans in particular need to get more news directly from reliable sources in other countries. It's a big world out there.

The corporatization and monopolization of local and regional newspapers in the US has been terrible news. However a lot of smaller excellent news sites have sprung up to fill the gap in local coverage in many municipalities.

So create your own news feed of legit sources – but keep it separate from strictly opinion sites.

If you do run across a dubious site pretending to be a news source, don't hesitate to call them out publicly. This "news site" may just be a propaganda boiler room operating in Shanghai or Saint Petersburg. It may seem like a game of whack-a-mole to some degree but keeping the lifespans of such sites short prevents them from building a base.

—··—— —··—— —··—— —··—— —··—— —··—— —··——

Speaking of China, apparently Foreign Minister Qin Gang has been purged.

China’s foreign minister Qin Gang ousted in surprise shake-up of Xi Jinping’s foreign policy leadership

[onenettvchannel]

FALSE: Australian Influencer 'ItsJackson' refusing himself to pay AUD1,033 fine for Illegally Cooking Steak in the Car [#OnlyOnOneNETnews]

GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND -- An Aussie social media influencer has claimed to have been potentially fined AUD1,033 (or PHP37,541 Philippine pesos) for illegally cooking a steak in the car. The social media photo was posted on his personal Instagram account (part of Meta Platforms Inc. [MPi]) this past weekend on January 20th, 2025 (Queensland local time). Our news team of OneNETnews verified the claims and looked into his independent social media background.

Instagram's "ItsJackson", known in real life online as 'Mr. Jackson O'Doherty' is a 30 y/o Aussie prankster and YouTuber. Situated in 'Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia', he has gained a massive following through his diverse content, pranks, video logs and challenges, yet has limits to offend him to commit a crime. With nearly 2.5 million IG followers and 2.6M YouTube subscribers (under Google's parent company 'Alphabet'), Jackson is known for his wildest lifestyle and frequent travels across Australia. According to SocialBlade analytics, his unofficial annual income is AUD872 to AUD8,700.

Upon our investigation with TEGNA, we found out that the infringement notice and AUD1,033 fine claimed by this aussie Instagram user who cooks a steak in a portable electric or liquified petroleum gas (LPG) stove top is completely FALSE. The Department of Transport and Main Roads (DTMR) in Queensland confirmed that the notice was a stunt and not an actual fine, as sources told local news outlet '7 News: Queensland'.

The department said while the post was quite funny, but this kind of behavior was too dangerous and alarming, which is more terribly illegal. The infringement notice was fabricated as part of a prank, which was quietly lifted by mistake. But the DTMR used this opportunity to remind the public about the dangers of distracted driving and road safety while stepping aside the wrong way of cooking on the go.

PHOTO COURTESY: Queensland Government via ItsJackson's IG PHOTO BACKGROUND PROVIDED BY: Tegna

SOURCE: *https://www.instagram.com/p/DFCeNsIBpuz/ *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zf9O6z69hc *https://thenerdstash.com/influencer-appears-to-cook-steak-while-driving-gets-fined-1000-a-rare-offense-well-done/ *https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14315547/Jackson-ODoherty-steak-driving-1000-fine-fake.html *https://socialblade.com/youtube/c/jackson_odoherty *https://www.legit.ng/ask-legit/biographies/1466314-jackson-odohertys-biography-age-height-girlfriend-net-worth/ and *https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/no-this-australian-man-wasnt-fined-for-cooking-a-steak-while-driving

-- OneNETnews Online Publication Team

[daemonandghostinc]

Location Wish List

Deamons and Ghosts Inc are located in Pennsylvania, meaning we have access to some of the best haunted locations in the United States. So many old and abandoned buildings around with lots of history and stories to tell.

Check out some sites our group would love to visit!

Centralia

The idea of getting to visit an entire abandoned town that inspired a video game is cool. I've heard that in brief breaks in the smoke, there have been shadow people. I would love to learn their stories. For me, finding spirits is about learning the past and telling their stories. I've lost so much in my life, but I'd want to be remembered still.

Centralia is dangerous, and the government rarely if ever lets people in, but it's still something that intrigues me deeply. Honestly, if we have to break in, I would. Not really. But definitely. I want to go at least once.

Alexei

The Seven Gates of Hell

According to myth, an asylum once stood on the grounds that burned down, and whichever patients didn't die in the fire were trapped and killed. In reality, a hurricane destroyed part of the road. The Seven Gates in the area were said to have been used to contain the patients, but are actually in place to keep trespassers out of the area.

Legend has it that anyone who walks through all seven gates will be teleported straight to hell. Scary? Yes. Terrible? Of course. But that doesn't stop me from wanting to test that theory at my earliest convenience. Alexei says we should leave it alone but who wouldn't want to prove that wrong? That's a crazy legend. Also the name is badass. The owners call the police a lot, but like, what if we just kinda snuck in?

Lily

Hotel Bethlehem

Supposedly the most haunted hotel in all of Pennsylvania and will likely be the only one we can legally enter on this list. The fact that we could get woken up by a ghost? Both infuriating and super legit. Plus, Lily says that we could actually talk to them there, and that'd make for some cool content.

Hazel

City Tavern

Partially burned down in the 1800s and rebuilt in the 1900s to preserve the history. There's rumors of a bride who passed away appearing to people both in photographs and real life. Supposedly, you can even ask to sit in the haunted section. I think it would be nice to go to a place where you can get haunted while you eat for once.

It's great to get out to the middle of no where every once in a while, but the eating picnic food or not eating at all is crazy, and honestly I don't think our group eats enough in general. It would be a great way to wind down while still making some content. I'd honestly be down to visit any haunted restaurants or taverns. Bring em on.

Sasha

Sources:

The 13 Most Haunted Places in Pennsylvania. (n.d.). Haunted Rooms America. https://www.hauntedrooms.com/pennsylvania/haunted-places

Philadelphia’s Most Haunted Locations. (2024, February 22). Haunted Rooms America. https://www.hauntedrooms.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/haunted-places

Editorofthewiki. (2009, August 25). Seven Gates of Hell. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Gates_of_Hell

Kitia. (2007, April 1). City Tavern. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=City_Tavern&action=history&dir=prev

[wolfencaticus]

Palestine

Not my usual post, but I figured this was important. So, I've gotten a couple of inbox messages recently from people claiming to be from Gaza asking for help/link sharing/etc. I will not be sharing these links in particular, because after looking into them it seemed they unfortunately were illegitimate profiles essentially running pity scams. Not entirely surprising considering my blog here is so tiny I doubt any legitimate people needing help would ask me to share their donation pages... But, y'know. That being said, I still wanted to take this as an opportunity to encourage people to do their research and consider donating to a vetted source to help the people of Palestine. There's a lot of unsavory folks taking advantage of the pain and suffering of others for their own benefit, and so I also just want to say please be very careful what content you share and interact with. I know there's been a bombardment of individuals on all manner of social medias begging for help, and it can be really easy to feel so terrible with it all that you try to help them all (whether it's actual donations, or just "boosting" various posts) But they aren't all legit. Not at this point, and it's only made a really awful situation even worse to not know who really needs help and who is just trying to scam money and support from the people who are stuck watching this suffering from afar. This was a longwinded way of basically saying: Be mindful, but there are still legitimate people out there that need help. Here's a link to one of the larger organizations I know of, but once again, do your own research, and take care 💙 https://irusa.org/middle-east/palestine/

[awed-frog]

Hi I'm in summer break and I wanted to teach myself about mythology, would u pls recommend me books to read, and I don't mean just Greek mythology;);) sorry if I bother u, have a great day!

Hi, that’s great to hear! I may be slightly biased here, but mythology is possibly the most interesting thing in the entire universe, so I’m very happy you’d like to learn something about it! Yay! 

So - what you can read depends on your age and - if you’re an adult - your current or past course of studies, because obviously some books are hard or boring or will assume that you already know a bunch of other stuff, but as a rule of the thumb, I’d say there’s always two ways you can go: primary and secondary sources (ie, texts written by people who belong to a certain culture and studies written about them).

Primary sources often have a bad rap - many teachers don’t even read them because they’re considered hard or weird or full of inappropriate content, but imo that’s exactly where you want to start. For Greek mythology, for instance, you’ll need to make your way through Homer and the theatre at some point; if you’re interested in other cultures, find out what their sacred or traditional texts are (for instance, the Veda for Hinduism and so on) and dive in. You can find most of them online (try Sacred Texts), but consider that a good translation will make a big difference in how much you’ll enjoy reading these books - if you have money, I strongly suggest you shop around for a modern translation and possibly some kind of annotated edition to help you navigate a culture you’re only starting to discover. And since there’s a very fine line between mythology and folklore, I encourage you to pick up other kinds of books as well, especially folk and fairy tales - you want to find things that have been collected by someone, not creative retellings or modern inventions. For instance, W. B. Yeats went around Ireland and wrote down the stories old people remembered from their childhood, and Italo Calvino did the same in Italy, so those are the kind of books that are going to help you get a better understanding of a civilisation’s mythology and religion.

As for your secondary sources, well - that’s a bit trickier, because usually good commentaries are written for an academic audience and have a tendency to be boring, complicated or both. I think you should probably start with Joseph Campbell - its books have their faults, but they’re still an excellent introduction in how this stuff works and played an important role in shaping our modern culture (for instance, they’re the reason we got Star Wars).

That said, it seems obvious but we can’t go far in mythology studies without knowing a culture inside and out. This implies having some knowledge of its customs and traditions, its history and its language - how much knowledge clearly depends on how much time you have on your hands and whether this is going to be a profession for you or not. Finding good history books that are both interesting to read and scientifically valid is not easy, and I don’t know enough about anything that’s not Classical Antiquity to guide you there. Think something like Mary Beard’s SPQR, though, or the Cambridge Companions series (generally speaking, the author must be associated with a well-known university and the book needs to belong to a publishing house that prints normal stuff, not demonology or Wicca or aunt Rosie’s theories on Atlantis). If you think that sounds like a lot, and you just want to have an idea of what’s going on without the commitment, Larry Gonick is the answer to all of your problems - he wrote a cartoon history of the universe that’s both accurate (I know for a fact it’s suggested reading for undergrads at Oxford) and hysterically funny (the man clearly sold his soul or something). Something else that’s easy reading but still packs in a lot of info are the Horrible Histories books, which can be a great way to get you started. Oh, and also consider books about people and why we are the way we are - that helps a lot to understand how mythology works and how it came to be. Two favourites of mine in this sense are Yuval Harari and Desmond Morris.

Finally, I’d say - as with anything, what helps is a lot of information from different sources, you know? So just be bold and hungry and enthusiastic - read novels, go to art exhibitions, watch documentaries and movies, walk around your country’s forests and mountains, dare to be alone and read poetry and fall in love - mythology is at the core of who we are as a species, and most of the things that surround you, including the experiences you can live within your heart, will get you closer to what it actually means and how it functions. 

(Just - don’t trust anyone excessively, because there’s no absolute truth on these matters, and you’ll be alright.)

[ronoken]

So, who wants a publishing story?

No one?

…Tough.

To preface, this was prompted by a post I saw about always making sure you read a contract before signing it. I wholeheartedly agree.

So, I write books. A roundabout result of writing books is I occasionally get to speak at conventions. When I do speak at conventions (which hasn’t been for a year. Thanks, covid), a standard question I get asked is about the benefits of self-publishing versus getting a contract. And yes, I fully realize that everyone’s experience in this is different, and I get that. Here’s mine.

So, several years ago, I wrote a book. I put a solid year into it and did numerous rewrites, edits, etc. with three wonderful editors and boom. Book. Done. And then, like many who are impatient or who don’t want to run the risk of rejection, I self-published my first novel.

And to my great shock, I actually sold some copies.

Quick aside. I’m not famous. At. Fucking. All. Some is not millions. Some is several thousand at best. And that’s over YEARS. I am not widely known and I do not claim to be. At all.

So yeah, like, I didn’t sell a million or anything, but I was moving over 100 copies a month when I was putting in the marketing work. Not too shabby. I was hustling on Twitter, FB marketing, Google ad marketing, working the review sites, doing interviews, everything I could. And it actually worked. I can honestly say the number of copies I moved a month directly correlated with how hard I pushed. And when I pushed, I pushed damn hard. I even got to a point where a reviewer who became an editor for DC would routinely provide public reviews for my books, and I was doing a superhero series. Not gonna lie- it was fucking rad.

Anyway, after a couple years of doing this, putting out a second novel which sold okay, a bunch of novellas, and so on, I received an offer out of the blue to have my work officially picked up. For realsies.

Admittedly, I was over the moon about this. I was being contacted by an unsolicited source! AND THEY HAD MONEY!

Now, my work wasn’t Shakespeare. I knew that. They did, too. They offered me a nice little starting sum. Not a lot, but holy shit it was FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS UP FRONT. One of my editors reads my Tumblr and I don’t think I’ve ever told them how much it was. It was 5k. To start. Not a lot, publishing-wise, but that’s because the work was already done. See, most publishers will give you more, but the catch is it’s considered a down payment for more books in a series. They pay you to write future novels, and then they expect you to pay it back. I already had a shit ton of content out, so I essentially skipped that step. Which tells me that publishers really don’t expect to have to actually pay you much, but that’s another post.

To my editor- sorry I never said the exact amount. It felt weird, but it’s been years, so it’s not as weird? I dunno. That logic train made sense as I was writing this.

So, 5k upfront, and then 50% of all sales thereafter, and they would handle EVERYTHING. Marketing, scheduling tours, covers, putting me in stores, the lot. Considering how much time, money, and effort these things took, this was not a terrible deal, but there was a catch.

My story would officially no longer be mine.

Oh, my name would be on it, and I’d write it, but from there on out, the publishing house would have 100% control over how it was marketed, where it went, and so on. If they wanted to option it, I would have zero say and zero rights, meaning they could take it and do fuck-all, and I would be left with nothing. Per the contract, they could even go so far as to issue me a cease and desist on my own work and hire a new person to take over. I was signing away everything in my universe if I said yes.

So, despite the allure of having things offered to me like a legit marketing team, book tours, and money (such as it was), I said no thank you.

Now, it didn’t hurt that I’d already made 5k in sales by that point. I knew my worth and how to push to keep it that way, if I so chose. Also, it helped that I was in an okay place when that offer came in. I could look at it and say, “well, that sure would be nice, but I don’t need it.” A lot of talented writers aren’t in that space, and the offer of several months rent or money for food as well as REALLY-REAL PUBLISHING can be hella tempting. And I get it, for some folks, the deals work out alright. And for some they don’t. And I sure as Hell am not going to judge. Seriously, I still have vivid nightmares about working 60+ hours a week and not being able to afford baby formula. Hell, if they had offered that to me just one year earlier, I would have been forced to take it. At that stage of life, 5k would have been life changing. I was just starting to hit the OK section of life, and only barely. Money when you need it is fucking awesome, and sometimes, you take what you can get.

But if you are a writer? And you’re in a place where it’s not life and death? Read the damn contract. Every single time. Make good and sure you know what you’re getting into and ask yourself, is it worth it to you? If it is, awesome. Again, not gonna judge, and every situation is different.

In my specific case though, it was choosing a nice bit of cash over something I had slaved for years over. I couldn’t do it. I still can’t. It’s the one property I’ll never let go of because when I wrote it, I didn’t even know if I could write a book. It proved to me that yes, I really could, and that was worth more than I can put into words.

TLDR: Read your contracts. Make choices good for you. Some things are worth more than money.

[shijiujun]

Danmei Bookstore Masterpost - Where to Buy Your Usual Books

Heya guys! Okay so I get these questions really often - where to get digital or physical copies for danmei; there are plenty of guides for the digital copies so I’m just going to briefly mention other guides that have been done up and focus mostly on which “legit” bookstores you can get your simplified, traditional Chinese danmeis :DDDD And some familiar terms you might see. 

This list includes only links to the Chinese sources - With the exception of one bookstore, I’m clueless on if there are actually official EN translated sources. It’s not entirely exhaustive but it’ll probably help you to discern real from fake stores! 

---

Common Terms:

预售 yu shou — Pre-order; most danmei books published are usually pre-order when the listing is first announced, quite rarely do I see immediate sales

通版 tong ban — In stock; you’ll see this most often with traditional Chinese (Taiwan) prints, that are usually limited edition or available only during pre-order periods and are sold again after the pre-orders are all fulfilled

陆商 lu shang — Chinese bookstores

北美 bei mei — Literally translated is North America i.e. Via Lactea, the only store that currently sells uncensored Chinese and translated EN danmei for selected titles (see below)

无删(减) wu shan (jian) — Uncensored, no deleted parts

---

Why buy from China bookstores? They’re cheap, come with tons of freebies that vary from store to store. Pre-orders usually take about 2-3 months to deliver, but the content is censored. Still good to get for the artwork and freebies though! The ones below, unless otherwise stated, can be found on their Taobao official stores. Usually when a notable title is published, ALL of them will list the new title with varying freebies.

✅ 博库网 Boku Wang

One of China’s biggest general bookstores; they don’t take in every single danmei that comes to publish, only the major ones (e.g. Sha Po Lang, 2ha), but when they do, their freebies are out of this world XD

✅ 锦瑟闻香 Jinse 

One of the more reliable bookstores in terms of choice of artists and freebies. Recently I think Jinse got into an agreement with Chang Pei, one of the danmei online publishing sites, to make official danmei merch for certain titles. Got into a bit of trouble if I recall with the bigger artists for Sha Po Lang for using their art (with permission) but erasing the artist’s watermark (without permission) and had to scrap their initial plans 2 days before the book PO went live, but other than that, has been okay. Takes on every danmei set to publish in China

✅ 快乐图书 Kuaile

A hit and miss, but for major titles they’ve managed to get quite good artists and freebies made.

✅ 源创 Yuan Chuang

Also another hit and miss, more known for hilariously missing the mark entirely i.e. unable to get any artists to offer their art to them for book prints, but they’ve gotten real good at it recently. And their weibo admin is hilarious, users poke fun at the store for missing out on freebies but all in fun. 

✅ 天宇图书 Tian Yu

Mostly sells without freebies and art, only the book itself and its intended gifts inside. Helpful for when you don’t have space anymore for freebies or don’t like the freebies and just wanna have the book itself.

✅ 磨铁 Mo Tie

A really small bookstore but shines from time to time e.g. their print for 2ha.

✅ 翰联图书 Han Lian

Hit and miss as well, more hits than misses for artwork and freebies! Takes on every danmei set to publish in China

✅ 新华文轩网 Wen Xuan

Used to be more hit than misses, nowadays it’s mostly misses XD They’re still pretty reputable and is also a general bookstore, but their artwork/freebies recently have been terrible!!! Takes on every danmei set to publish in China

✅ 新视角 Xinshijiao

MY GODDAMN FAVE!!!! I don’t know how XSJ does it but they NEVER miss when it comes to art and freebies. They either get the best or second best always!!! Packaging is great, customer service is great~ Takes on every danmei set to publish in China

✅ 心诺 Xin Nuo

Had one of the nicer Sha Po Lang print box cases, but has a history of stealing art without permission for their freebies.

✅ 风入松 Feng Ru Song

This store does either the super big name prints or the super small ones, never the in between, hilariously, but their gifts are also pretty good when they do!! Feels a lot like an indie type of bookstore 

✅ 酷威 Ku Wei

Only does gifts for super big prints, otherwise they just sell books normally on its own.

✅ MANCOOL (China Address Only)

A bookstore accessible only on WeChat! They’re pretty cool; they don’t do prints for all danmei that come to publish in China in the pipeline, but they usually work in conjunction with one or two bookstores as mentioned above. They have their own freebies/gifts, and because they’re on WeChat, they sometimes to extra gifts via online games on gachapon!!!!

✅ 萝卜 Luo Bo

OOOMPPPPPHHHH okay Luo Bo is NOT an official bookstore or danmei seller, but their reputation is REALLYYYY GOOOOD. Their unofficial stores on Taobao and Weidian (China only) basically sell limited in stocks from Taiwan, so if you missed out on the Taiwan preorder, you CAN camp and wait for their notice and listing to buy them. Well-known in the Chinese danmei community for selling authentic/rare ones!

✅ 诚品 Eslite

Functions like Books TW, sells any Taiwanese danmei print if there’s stock e.g. TGCF or anything from Pinsin. General bookstore, ships internationally BUT if I recall, slightly more complicated to buy on Eslite than on Books TW as you have to input your passport number.

✅ Animate TW (Taiwan Address only)

Sells selected, popular danmei and BL works from China, Taiwan, Korea and more! Also sells merch. Recently more known for selling the TGCF Traditional TW prints.

✅ 博客来 Books TW

Ships internationally! My to-go for usual danmei prints or those from Pinsin that are not on pre-order. Shipping goes by DHL ($20 to SG for like 5-6 books), get it within the same week. Easy-to-use interface when checking out, just a tad bit more checkout pages than necessary but ain’t complaining. General bookstore in Taiwan, the biggest online one.

✅ 平心 Pinsin

OUR FAVE DANMEI PUBLISHER FROM TAIWAN!!! Super reliable, has a functioning site, knows how to configure landing pages for big pre-orders, has clear instructions in English on how to buy etc. Always makes deadlines for prints, and plenty of stock most of the time!!!

✅ 墨扉 Mo Fei

Known for uncensored version of Nan Chan and other nice titles - Site looks okay to use so far (much better than others tbh), but they do POs like once every two months or something! Takes about 6 months or more to print a book after preorder but acceptable so far

✅ 威向 Wei Xiang 

I’m actually super impressed with the range Wei Xiang has! They carry plenty of danmei books, old and new, known and unknown, and while their login account needs like some updates, their cart has the least number of pages I’ve seen amongst all the TW bookstores so far, easy check out too!

✅ 葭霏 Jia Fei 

GOD where do I start with Jia Fei. They’re notorious for taking 10,000 years to produce one book (*ahem* 2ha) and their customer service sucks. Their website is prehistoric, and you have to email or call in via Facebook to make any sort of orders via a third party argh IDEK. They’re terrible with updates after PO as well, the only saving grace is that they do take on some of the popular titles, which honestly is shite for international customers especially. Of course once you get the hang of it, it’s fine, or if you get the items through a GO, but yeah.... I’d take any other bookstore ANYTIME.

✅ 壹乐 Yi Le

So Yi Le is one of the newer players in the industry (since 2019) and only recently started to produce danmei regularly! They’ve got good covers, they select good titles, but their website is useless - You have to be on Weibo for updates XD

There are a few more lesser known ones like 顶狄社 Ding Di, 出格文化 Chu Ge, 槐安 Huai An etc., but the above are the more recognizable ones!

✅ Via Lactea (Canada)

Recently, this would be one of my favourite bookstores. They’re located in Canada of all places and sell BOTH uncensored Chinese and official, translated EN danmeis - but for selected titles only. I’m not sure how they managed to cut a deal BUT in terms of niche/small danmei prints, Via Lactea is possibly your best bet.

It has great covers, super aesthetic and artistic ones. Nothing is censored, and it comes with plenty of freebies as well, including some new epilogues or extras. They function like a China bookstore but with much better resources, and they take on smaller name danmeis!! 

Local shipping in Canada is cheap, and expensive anywhere else, BUT if you ship back to China to your warehouse or proxy, shipping is FREE, and you only have to pay for China warehouse/proxy to yourself.

They don’t have a huge team, so they contract translators to translate danmei, currently the speed seems to be two titles per year, and they’re also venturing into ebook versions, in both Chinese and EN.

✅ Cam Phong (Vietnam)

Vietnam’s main publisher of danmei, has done 2ha, TGCF and other notable titles so far! Their local artists do the covers really, really well!! Freebies are amazing too

✅ Clover Book (Thailand)

Thailand’s main publisher of danmei, has done 2ha and other notable titles, and also some smaller danmeis too!

✅ B Lab (Korea)

Sort of a new player for danmei prints, and they only do selected big prints e.g. TGCF and 2ha! 

✅ JJWXC 晋江

This one needs no explanation I think. Biggest online danmei, baihe and yanqing novels. Here’s how to support your fave authors at a low, affordable price.

✅ Gongzicp 长佩

The other well-known danmei online platform. While JJWXC has a bulk of all danmeis, Chang Pei actually has like 40% of danmei novels I think? Which is quite a lot. If it’s not on JJWXC, 90% chance it’s on Chang Pei

✅ Bilibili Manhua

Downloadable from App store or just read on desktop. First 30 chapters+ are usually free then they start charging, but it’s easy to get credits via App store or Play store.

✅ Bilibili Comics (EN)

Usually one or a few chapters behind the original Chinese version.

✅ Kuaikan Manhua

If it’s not on Bilibili Manhua, it’s on Kuaikan, for sure. Works the same way as Bilibili manhua!

[fictionkinfessions]

can you tag hetalia posts with racism?the entire show is racist caricatures.

I'm aware of the source enough to know this is a legit complaint and I do empathize but this is entirely unreasonable of you. No, I will not.

That's a terrible idea that

1) dilutes the usage of content warning tags to the point they're entirely unusable for everyone and

2) sets the precedent of expecting me, the single person running this account, to know every single major content warning for every source out there and

3) it assumes every single confession is canon which may not even be true and yeah this is minuscule in the face of something like racism it's one of the many things that would contribute to absolute confusion on the confessor's and other people's parts, and

4) if I really did tag CWs for everything within any given source, the post tags could be multiple inches long. [Anyone see that homestuck content warning google doc back in the day? Fifty or so pages, iirc. Even excising the miscellaneous text explaining the content warnings, that's a lot to tag for by default]

Please block the source tags instead for your personal account. I suggest including the *fictive, *copinglink, and *introject tags. Also, did you want me to tag it ubiquitously? I don't tag anything but confessions with source tags, but I can make a note to tag everything. By default, I don't do this because it would excessively spam the general search index for tags.

And again, lastly, I get it. I've seen the many criticism and call out and blacklist posts about the source. I agree it's tasteless, problematic content akin to AoT and that Ghost Stories anime that tumblr passes clips around. You're not wrong. But it's not feasible for everyone who uses content warning tags.

Connie / mod party cat

[mangakamen]

The Ghost of Persona 5′s terrible criticism past and current

Honestly, I think this something that I need to get off my chest since I’m known as the guy who responded to that almost 5 hour video from Cvit - Persona 5: Style over Substance. I want to talk about why I decided to respond to the guy, some of the background details, and even talk about stuff that’s happening today with this (yeah, it is). Get ready for a long post. And as a Side note, this isn’t a post for me to paint a target on people or call to arms - I’m just getting this off my chest after about 2 years

Now, if for whatever reason you don’t know what I’m talking about, let me get a couple links - I understand that you’re looking at about 9 hours worth of content, but I’m not expecting you to watch it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGzS4KtItEo

Now, what I wanna talk about is how petty some people are. Like, to give context, Cvit’s video came out in August 2019 - My video series started on June 2020 - almost a year later. One thing I want to point out before I was developing this video series I had avoided Cvit’s video - Not because I can’t stand criticism of things I like, but rather because... It’s almost 5 hours long.

Like, I know that this was the beginning of the youtube meme of overly long criticism videos with a snarky narrator who acts like their opinion is the be all end all - Ironic I know considering where my Youtube’s content has been going as of late, but hey, It’s been 3 years.

No, what really caught my attention was that I was seeing a ton of weird criticisms being spread across twitter, tumblr and reddit.

So, I started to look, and found that some people had cited Cvit’s video - Now, I’m not one to instantly believe that someone is outright making arguments in bad faith, and not to mention, the game of Telephone is a thing so maybe there was context that I was missing.

So, I decided to live tweet my reactions to it.

It started off with me simply disagreeing with his takes with the subjectivity of how music can affect a person’s enjoyment if used too much - That’s nothing big and depends on the person, as well as how much you play in a single sitting of a game.

BUT THEN... He talked about the english dub of the game, and used the Persona Problems site:

For those who don’t know, this is a website that was created to catalogue the issues with the English Translation of Persona 5 - All well and good, right?

Well...

While there are some examples that do indeed highlight issues (He’s a scum being a prime example) they have just as many terrible examples.

Here’s one such excerpt

Now with that, you might be thinking two things 1) God that’s a bad screenshot, and 2) Seems like a legit criticism to me.

Well, let me tell ya, there’s more than meets the eye here - most notably the context and characters.

For those who have played the game, know that this scene involve Futaba, she’s the character saying the lines. Futaba is a recovering shut-in and is flustered about being with the protag  on Valentine’s day - She’s stumbling over her words and is not sure what to do in this situation - Also, she’s a teenager.

I’m not saying that Persona 5′s translation is perfect, but this site will often remove context from scenes and just look at the lines in a vacuum, which is dishonest if you ask me. And naturally, this extended to Cvit - Who just took the webiste at face value and slapped it in his video as if it were a completely reliable source. Hell, I doubt he even read the source other than one example;

But it was then that I decided to make an actual video on the matter - But I didn’t want to talk about all near 5 hours of Cvit’s video, so I made a general complaints video - and it ws to be the ONLY video I had planned at the time to talk about Cvit’s.

THAT WAS UNTIL I GOT A FLOOD OF COMMENTS SAYING THAT I TOOK HIM OUT OF CONTEXT.

There were a ton more, but this was one of the many.

It was because I had gotten a mob of comments, e-mails and tweets @’d at me telling me how flawed my video was because “I Nitpicked’ or “I took Cvit out of context”.

So, that’s why you have 6 videos - each going after a specific portion of Cvit’s video - And one large combination video. Because people just wouldn’t shut up and wouldn’t stop harassing me about it.

Should I have ignored them? Maybe, but if I did, then people wouldn’t actually listen to the parts where Cvit removes context, interjects fake context, ignores Japanese culture (funny since he praises Yakuza which is Japanese) and outright lying about the game. (But hey, I guess Pyramids aren’t tombs now?)

I think what got me more was that you had prominent youtubers, like Foxcade, defending his video.

Ironically dismissing the complaints that Cvit almost practically started this whole “hating persona 5″ and how so many people referenced his video or used his points against the game in debates that I saw online.

I do not regret making my videos, the only regret was that I wish I had better audio balancing at the time, and if I ever decide to go back to remaking that long ass video - I’d gladly re-record every single line I made.

But now we get to today. And for some bloody, gat-damn reason, the fact that I responded to Cvit is used against me, and painting me as a Persona 5 fanboy who thinks the series can do no wrong.

Then again, this is also a problem with LIS fanbase because I dared to criticize the game franchise they love. In addition, I’ve been critical of the Persona franchise in the past:

Especially Persona 5.

But hey, why bother actually looking to see if this is true if some random reddit user claims this, then it must be true?

And for some reason, these same people leave out the fact that I only responded to Cvit’s persona video (his almost 5 hour long video). Ignoring the fact that in my videos on Cvit that I proved that he actively removed context and used faulty sources. Ignore that I criticized the Persona games in the past.

I must be a terrible person.

This is the latest in times where this has been used to dismiss my points, and it ignores SO much context of the videos in question and doesn’t actually provide any legit examples or evidence. Part of the reason why I did this on Tumblr (and will link on Twitter later) was because I can provide screenshots in a single post to prove that what I’m saying has some level of evidence backing it up.

This is part of the reason why I distance myself from fandoms - There’s so much toxicity and slander that It’s no wonder people hate fans of popular things. Even when you’re trying to defend the thing you like, if you’re unliked by these people, they will outright lie and mischaracterize you as a terrible person - Evidence backing them up be damned.

And ironically enough, it’s the same damn problem that Cvit had in his video on persona 5 - “ I don’t think I have to tell you this, but if you’re actively removing context from the scenes in order to make your point, then your point is dishonest and casts doubt on your other points too. And frankly, that’s a terrible thing to do: “

But unfortunately, this is the internet - And people don’t actually care about context or trying to be nice - They only care about instant gratification and being ‘right’, whether or not they have evidence. “Just trust me bro”.

And it utterly disgusts me that I’m being attacked for simply pointing out flaws in a highly regarded - And yes, people still see Cvit’s video as a good source of Persona 5 criticism - video and proving it. Sorry that it has to take a lot of time for me to respond to a near 5 hour video where I give proper context and explain in detail why Cvit’s points are wrong and why I think it’s in poor taste to insult the developers of the game based upon that terrible inaccuracies.

Hell, I’ve even been harassed by these kinds of people.

I thank you for your time reading this, and hope you have a good day.

[aphrodite1288]

May I ask approximately how often those ig/twt sasaeng infos end up being true?

Like is it a credible source of info? (I hate saying it like this, it sound terribly invasive so I really don't keep up with all of this) I've always thought that sasaengs did not share much their informations for free because it's like a business for them so it's seems suspicious to reveal something so big just like that right? That's what I always read, was I misinformed? Sasaengs do that now?

They only share very famous info, such as comebacks' concepts &dates, which color each member died their hair for the cb. How many songs in the album, leaked demo versions of the songs or leaked dance,if a member is dating or not (not who they date they mostly suspect an idol dating when they see them buying couple things at stores and going out very often they claim they're dating, most if the times sasaengs don't know who the idol is dating exactly) and very famous scandals such as drugs, molestation, alcoholic members, idols being threatened, fights among some idols or in the same group, big scandals like "The Sun nightclub" and sex trafficking and stuff like that...things that everyone knows in korea, things u can't hide. These things were never a secret everyone knows of them. So they share those.

But to know who is dating who? it's very hard ! idols tend to be very very careful, extremely disguised that you can't tell who they are! they never hangout or go on dates outside!à they always do it at home or rent extreme private places far away from korea, far from the famous spots idols frequently meet up at,unless the couple don't care if they're outed so they go on dates freely never disguised and they don't care if they get discovered such as "SNSD's Sooyoung and her amazing boyfriend cute romantic pics that dispatch blessed us with, or the lead couple from descendants of the sun etc...other than that it's almost impossible to catch idols dating they know the tactics of paparazzi and sasaengs and their moves and where they always go to snap pics so idols are more tricky and smarter than what y'all think, it's almost very hard for them to get caught as their guards are always up!)

Something else those stoopid sasaengs pages tend to do, is they share old pics of fake couples and claim they're Jenkai or taennie (taehyung of bts and Jenn ship) or liskook blah blah... To gain followed and to scam shippers and get their money, that's why if u follow those Sasaeng pages they always ask you to move to their new accounts, they constantly making new accounts coz they scam people and get reported so they ask their followers to move to their new accounts and they tend to bring other sasaeng pages down and calling each other fake, I have witnessed many many sasaengs pages bringing e/o down and calling e/o fake and they mostly share the same content and claim it as theirs, I've witnessed many beefs and I laughed my ass off really.

Upon my dear Kaisooists's REQUEST: I've bought from them infos to test them when they said they had Kyungsoo and jongin's girlfriends pics, but when I bought the news and pics they only sent me few pics of a random girl claiming she is Ji's girlfriend and and pic of Ksoo with an old woman( she was a movie producer) when they went for a coffee ☕ to discuss some scenarios suggestions! And I've had those pics long time ago back in 2016 but they're using them now to claim it's Ksoo and his new GF while I've seen the Pics I'm 2016! 🤦🏿‍♀️. The other pics were of a couple a man who's short and looks like Ksoo and his GF, and i discovered that those pics they sent were the rumored FAKE pics dispatch used to claim Ksoo is dating Sojin of the girlgroup "Girl's Day" which no one believed coz that was clearly not ksoo and it was proven later it was her friend/boyfriend, and he doesn't look nothing like Ksoo and he was a chubby short man and Ksoo back then in 2013 was skinny and with a small figure so it was clearly not Soo, also why would a 1 year old rookie Kyungsoo date his SUNBAENIM who's 7years older than him (in age she is 1986 liner) 🤦🏿‍♀️ I mean there's nothing wrong with age gap when it comes to love but for a shy rookie who's under a dating ban and who only debuted a year ago???? That's a NO NO, he was still young to affect his and his members' career by a reckless dating scandal, when he broke up with the love of his life just to debut in SM so clearly he cares about his career. And the pics of Sojin and the other guy whom they claimed was Ksoo are all over internet. It was a flop coz no one believed that stoopid dating scandal dispatch posted to cover up some shit happened back in 2014 when a lot of disasters happened in the industry with the members leaving and death of many other people in the industry, Taeyong's scandal (NCT's), Goohara's rape and sex tapes, Boom's früh scandal, Ladies'code's death caused by a sasaeng, etc...

Anyway I discovered they were a scam, i bought from them to test them upon my fellow kaisooists'requests who asked me in private and begged me to go test those sasaengs whom are so famous and claim to know everything..Thus, I found out I was right, coz they sent me old shit or fake couples who look like Kyungsoo and Ji with some random girls whom they claimed were their gfs.

One famous Sasaeng asked me to pay 100$ To get Ji's new girlfriend's pic, but when I asked her for previews she sent me pics of random girls in Internet, I told her how am I supposed to know if she's Ji's girlfriend or Donald Trump's girlfriend??? She said " well I know she is his girlfriend", I told her " okay prove it??? Do u have pics of Ji with her?", she said "No! Only her !" I told her "and how am I gonna know that she's his GF?? I will pay you 100$ You have to give me legit shit!! That's motherfucking 100$ Sis????!!" She said "I JUST KNOW AND YOU HAVE TO TRUST ME , IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME LEAVE MY ACCOUNT AND UNFOLLOW ME"

I wasn't even following her so she blocked me.💁🏿‍♀️ Actually many of them blocked me, when I tested their korean to know if they really are korean or live in S.K, by asking my friend who speaks korean. I found out they weren't even korean...and they don't even know how to read korean. And they blocked me right away.

And that's only one of the many stories with those fake ass sasaengs whom I tested and found out were basic lying bitches doing it for followers and clout & CASH 🤑💰 and claiming things from their own imagination. 💁🏿‍♀️

But Hey! ofc they do know some things and as I said before above! They know the very famous things such as upcoming idols' or actors' projects, movies, dramas, Comeback dates and concepts etc... Which they use as a proof to gain y'all's trust! But what y'all don't know is that those things aren't even secret, they're news everyone of y'all can find if u join korean kakao talk groups or Kpop amino groups or just naver posts for those who know korean of y'all. It's not magical.

And if anyone gonna come here giving lecture as to why I bought news about Kadi and that I'm a privacy invader and blah blah, I'm just gonna tell you "don't waste your time writing your comment coz 1) I don't read comments so I'll probably never see it, 2) I don't give a flying fuck about your opinion, so calma" .

Hope i answered your ask.

[inqorporeal]

Gonna start by saying that I find the current structure of monetization testing to be a terrible fucking concept. The people most likely to use it are the ones who are already struggling, who have noticed that simply putting out a virtual tip jar doesn't really do much (mine exists; I get maybe one Ko-fi tip a year, if any at all), but the simple fact is that social media platforms currently treat users and content creators like commodities rather than customers. They won't add any feature that doesn't financially benefit them. Tumblr users are often poor; some are kids, a lot of us have suffered job losses and financial troubles and evictions over the last year and a half. We're not a good source of the revenue a platform like Tumblr genuinely does need in order to stay functional. This is a terrible platform for monetization.

Other people have already mentioned how fan content being monetized opens up vulnerable creators to being DMCA'd into oblivion; it's why AO3 begs people to stop linking to Patreon from their AO3 content, and why other fan sites undergo content purges. There's the additional bitter irony of them introducing this concept only after purging the legit SWers from the platform. We see what you did there.

So let's talk about spread for a moment. Tumblr posts that get loads of attention rely on spread, on being reblogged over and over from mutuals to followers to strangers. The spread maps look like a fungal root system. Wouldn't it be nice to get some return on that popularity? Damn right it would. But paywalling posts isn't the best way to do that: the spread will either stonewall at the limit of people who are willing to pay for it, throttling its potential popularity and revenue... or we get a new type of reposting, where someone ganks the whole post and then reshares it without the paywall. Spread continues as normal, the original poster gets nothing from it. This already happens with paywalled news articles; shit, I've done that, myself. It's not a new concept; this is what's inevitably going to happen.

This feels kind of like the new owners are making an attempt to make as much back on their investment as they can (their percentage cut of each subscription isn't minimal) whilst driving the platform into the graveyard of the internet.

[ghost-of-a-vulture]

Some anti: so anyway ur a terrible human being and i really hope you fuckin die because you watch dream omg ur a racist ableist transphobic peice of shit you killed my mother i hope you fuckin die <3 anyway im better than you because i have good interests and watch anime and hang out with my friends you fuckin loser<3 go burn <3

Me, an autistic trans pansexual 13 year old with legit no fuckin friends who watches Wilbur, tommy, Ranboo and Slimecicle and Hermitcraft just trying to talk about my interests: i watch like 3 dsmp members and its not Dream or Schlatt, and every time someone says the dsmp is problematic they never back up those claims, and the one Google doc ive seen just has "they played among us with pewdiepie a few times" and..... posts with links to George fylode [im sorry i cannot spell].... and all the other sources have [they have since apologized] under them so... like can i have some links? Like genuinely if they did something horrible and wrong that i just. Haven't realized im willing to help you point that out but maybe don't trash ppl because of the fucking youtubers they watch-

Anti: fuck you fuck you wdym you want an explanation with actual resources you're so blind omg go die you fuckin bastard

Me: bro you can just. Block dsmp tags and you don't have to see them. Or just Block me.

Anti: noo noo i can't Block the tags then who will i make fun of??? The entire internet has to stop posting about things that i think are problematic based on something i saw from a friend with no sources and ive never seen the content in my life!!!!!

Me:

.....

If you're gonna throw a fit, how about i block you and we go our separate ways. I don't have any concrete evidence to support your claims and im genuinely just trying to enjoy my interests, my life is already stressful and this really helps okay? Im sorry you're upset.

Anti: fuckyoufuckyoufuckyou

[aerugonian]

I don’t know if you’ve answered or talked about this before but I’m wondering if you have any chracters that you don’t like and if that will shine through in your fics.

Like I’m mostly wondering about your opinion on Izuku, bakugou, nedzu, naruto, sasuke and sakura.

Sorry if this is random but I think it’s interesting to ask people their opinions on different characters.

It’s a fun question! I’ll say outright that I don’t hate/have any strong dislike of any of the characters you listed, if that’s a concern. I have no interest in bashing any of them, but the way they’re talked about in any of my fics will vary depending on the POV character. If the POV character dislikes them or disagrees with them, they may be critical or harsh towards the other character regardless of my personal opinion. That’s true for characters I like, too. 

I don’t really have any strong opinion on Izuku. I think he’s fun, he’s a fitting protagonist for BNHA, and I can see the appeal of his character for a lot of people! But he’s not really the sort of character I’m drawn towards, so I don’t really seek out content for him. 

Bakugou is a fascinating character to me - I really disliked him when I first started reading the manga, but he’s grown a lot on me. That being said, his behavior in the earlier parts of the manga is pretty atrocious and he has a lot to learn. I do know he gets a lot of growth, though, which I think is awesome! 

Nedzu is an enigma to me. I don’t feel strongly about him in any direction, but I’m also not completely caught up in the source material so my opinion may change in the future. He’s entertaining though lol 

Naruto is, once again, a protagonist I can see a lot of appeal in but personally don’t feel drawn towards lmao. I think I just tend to like side characters more than protagonists. I don’t really enjoy him in canon but I still get annoyed when people bash him - he had a lot of legit reasons he behaved the way he did and he was literally twelve when things started! Give the guy some grace and understanding 😭 (I vibe with his love of ramen, though) 

I have really mixed feelings on Sasuke. He needed some serious help and an intervention LONG before it actually happened, but he also did some terrible things that he should take responsibility for. It’s been a long time since I read the entirety of canon so I’d have to refresh my memory, but I liked his potential and was saddened by a lot of his choices. 

I’m not really a Sakura fan but also don’t like Sakura-bashing. She’s not really the sort of character that appeals to me I guess, and I don’t seek out Sakura-centric content, but it makes me happy to see there’s a lot of love for her in the fandom at this point! I like it when she’s given a chance to shine/develop and get serious about her career, and to become three-dimensional outside of her romantic interest in Sasuke. 

Characters I do strongly dislike: Danzou, canon Orochimaru (some fanon versions are okay lmao but that list is short), Endeavor and Mineta. Possibly some others but those are my big ones. They just really, really get on my nerves and I don’t like seeing them most of the time. 

[dystopian-penguin]

Is this a real life story? Is this a fic concept? Who knows 🤷

But here’s a very long account of... something.

This isn't a gay disaster story. It's a gay sad ending story. It's a gay "self-homophobia is very real and realistic” story, and not in the "gay panic is kinda cute" way.

It all started 14 years ago (yes that long), when I was still deeply in the HP fandom and even more deep into reading James/Lilly fics in ff.net all day long. For the first time in my entire life I decided to sort by “all works” and not just “completed”. I know it might sound super silly, and even a bit cliche considering this is tumblr and we live and breath fics, but that single decision literally changed the course of my life. And unlike what I usually do, I am not exaggerating. I found this one fic that must have had, like, 20 chapters and almost 100k words and dived into it without looking for rocks in the bottom. Long story short: the last posted chapter ended on a huuuuuge cliffhanger, like the very next moment after the kiss, and it left me completely destroyed.

So I did what I always do, what I am known on tumblr and my small social circle in here to do: I went to scream at the author.

But I wasn’t content to just scream in the comment section, oh no. For all I knew the bitch wouldn’t even see it, the last update had been from like 8 months previously. So I stalked her ff.net profile and found her MSN email. Yes, the story is THAT old.

My literal first words to her must have been something akin to “OH MY GOD I HATE YOU SO MUCH”, which yay for the beautiful poetic irony that the universe crafts at times. She took it in stride because, let’s face it, a shitton of people had already greeted her like that by then. And we started talking, and it was easy and fun. We had a lot in common, more or less the same type of interests, the usual you’d expect if I had met her on tumblr even. We must have talked like 3 hours straight on that first day, and I left feeling pretty good cause I had made a new friend. Not only that, but right off the bat I admired her so much. Not only because she was talented as fuck (imagine writing a 100k unfinished fic at only 15 y/o), but also because the more I talked to her the more I could see just how fucking cultured she was and how intelligent and ect. She came from a wealthy family and such a different reality from me. She had been abroad, in fact she usually travelled abroad with her family like twice a year, she was fluent in english even then (at that point I was I intermediate at best), not to mention german because her family was german. She was 15 (a year older than me back then) and trilingual and could write wonderfully and I was fascinated by her instantly.

Something else worth of note was that her profile pic on the day we met had been set to a close-up of a blue eye. I must have asked on that very same day whose eye was that because damn if it hasn’t been the prettiest blue I’ve ever seen. I mean, I hadn’t told her that, but I was curious enough to ask. And as everyone and their grandmother might have guessed by now, it was hers.

Somehow (and I truly don’t know HOW), we got into the habit of talking every day, or at least very close to it. I got to know about her daily life, just one state south from where I live and sooooo much colder than what I had ever experienced. She went to a swiss school, fully bilingual, was the first in her year in the IB program which for the love of crap I didn’t even know it existed back then. Might not ever have known if I never met her. Eventually we exchanged phone numbers, and back then SMS messages were like 1,50 bucks for inter-state ones. Our mothers were not happy.

Around a year and a half went by this way. She became my best friend, my rock. We both had a shitton of problems in your high school lives and in our family lives, and we were so relieved to know there was someone out there we could share those with. In the meantime she ended up breaking up with her boyfriend, ironically just a few months before I had my very first kiss. When she broke up with her boyfriend she was absolutely devastated (they had been together almost a year or so), and relied on me a lot back then. Which I was more than happy to support because for the first time in my life I felt like I belonged somewhere. I felt like I was actually part of someone’s life. I didn’t feel like I ever bothered her, like I was ever intruding in her life. I felt like I was truly part of her world, like she actually remembered my existence when I was not around, and at now-16 years of age that had literally been the first time I had felt that. I never had a true friend before her. Not sure I ever did after her either.

On easter 2008 we finally convinced our moms to let us meet. Her family had a whole goddamn country house with a huge plot of land, so it was decided I was gonna visit her first. So I got semi-sedated and got into my first plane ride EVER, and for those of you that are reading this and know me (although I doubt anyone is reading at all), you know how terrified of planes I am. You know how BIG of a gesture it is for me to get into a fucking plane for the first time in my life for a person.

I already knew she was pretty. I mean, we had talked on the webcam a couple of times before (just a few times because the internet back then was really terrible). The blue eyes I mentioned, and the most fucking beautiful silky blonde hair you’ve ever seen. But when I saw her the first time on that airport it still took my breath away. Even more, what truly surprised me, was the huge smile she gave as soon as she saw me out of the gate and she rushed to hug me. I was paralyzed. I mean yes I was happy and hugged her back, which was a huge deal because back then I was not touchy feely at all (and she was VERY). But I was paralyzed. Because I had never in my entire 16 years of age seen anyone smile that big or that brightly at seeing me. Hell, I suppose I had never seen anyone smile that brightly at all. As the day progressed she was so legit happy that I was there, and I could never fully wrap my head around it. We drove to her house and her mom took the long way just so they could show me all the interesting spots in her city, and she shared tidbits of her daily life that I still didn’t know, despite us being so close, because those are the things you only learn by actually being next to the person irl. Later on she introduced me to her two best friends in school, and we all decided to watch a horror movie.

Yes, it’s THAT cliche.

Now, you see, I’m absolutely fucking impervious to horror movies. Yes I get jumpscared just as much as anyone else, but I don’t get scared. So I was sitting there a bit lowkey bored, narrating the entire plot of the movie and what would happen a few scenes before it did because the movie was just that easy to guess. And she had taken complete ownership of my left arm the entire time, being half super scared and half impressed I could guess every single thing on the plot. Later on she apologized for not letting go of my arm because she knew I wasn’t as touchy feely as she was, and I was once again taken aback because I come from a ridiculously touchy-feely country and NO ONE ever apologizes for it or respects my boundaries on it.

The next day we wake up bright and early to go to her ranch-thingy. She slept on top of me on the car almost all the way there. I must have woken up like a whole hour before her but didn’t move at all.

I’m a city slick. I’m a huge city slick, through and through. Which means I am both fascinated and absolutely terrified on any plot of grass bigger than a garden. And her country house was fucking amazing. I had only experienced the true freedom of being in nature a few times in my life, and she made sure to show me every nook and crane of the forest surrounding it. Because yes it was a forest and not a jungle like where I lived, and that made it all the more magical.

But the truly one magical thing in the entire 4-days weekend was the stars. You see, I am absolutely in love with the stars. It’s stupid to say something like this when I was retelling the greatest love story of my life, but the stars are my one true love. I got my first telescope when I was five years old. My mother cannot for the life of her explain where I got this obsession from. She always said I was already born that way. So I find myself for the first time in my life with the least amount of light pollution I’ve ever been subject to in my entire life (even nowadays). For the first time in my life I has actually been able to see the Milky Way with my own two eyes. And what made everything even more impressive was that it was a full moon, and the night sky still looked as incredible as it’s supposed to look. Honestly it might have been a great contender to the beauty of her blue eyes.

The moment I remember the most is us laying down on some beach towels (no idea why they had those in the countryside), stargazing for hours at end. By then we were two full states to the south of mine, so I believe the technical definition of what I was feeling is fucking freezing my inexistent balls off. I had gotten dressed in just some jeans and a tshirt way before the sun set, and I was dammed if I was gonna interrupt our stargazing to go put on some decent clothes. I remember her asking a few times if I was cold, and I also remember myself lying through my teeth saying I had gotten used to it by then. Blatant lies, my nipples could cut through fucking glass at the moment. But I wasn’t gonna interrupt it because it was just the two of us on a grassy clearing, her family was at least 200m away and we couldn't even hear them anymore and it was just us and the stars and her hands were so close to mine that I could feel the heat (the only source of it for my beach-town ass I suppose). It was the perfect fucking moment. The moment most people dream of having their entire lives. I have no idea how long we stayed there, but it was a few hours for sure. Her mom had to call us back inside, and nothing broke my heart more. We talked about anything and everything. I told her what I knew of astronomy and I could see for the first time I was fascinating her with knowledge. Because I had always felt and will always feel like a peasant in the presence of a princess when it comes to her. With how cultured and educated and just fucking smart she always had been. But as I told her of the constellations (sometimes grabbing her hand to point to the stars and make her spot them better), and proclaimed my love for the night sky, she listened. She listened and I had never felt heard before in my life. She listened and I felt I had managed to make her fall in love with the stars a little bit by just talking about them.

She listened and I felt I had managed to make myself fall in love in her a little bit by just seeing the way she looked at me as I talked.

All good things come to an end and time had come for me to go back home. I will never forget how she hugged me goodbye on that same airport. Where I had seen the brightest smile on my life and now I could see she was holding back tears for me. Because I was leaving. I was important enough in someone’s life that they were about to cry because I wasn’t going to be around anymore. She way she whispered “I’m gonna miss you so much” on my ear, on such a low note I am sure it was just so her mother wouldn’t hear her, and her voice will haunt me for the rest of my life. She told me a few days later that she did cry on her way to school that morning.

After this it was near impossible to not be with her at all times. We texted constantly, and used to talk like 2 whole hours on the phone before bed. Once again I must remind you this was 2008 so it was no cheap business. Her mother started to try to separate us a bit, insisting she didn’t contact me as much, even tho I was sure the one who could not afford those phone bills, not her. It all culminated on what was ironically (or perhaps planned by her mother?) brazilian Valentine’s day (we are the only country in the world that celebrates in on St. Anthony’s day, which is June 12th). It was the first day in almost two years we didn’t talk at all, because of how much her mother had nagged her about it. The next day we talked as if we had been separated by a war for a decade.

I’m gonna take a break here to let everyone know that no, I did not think I was in love with her back then. I don’t think she knew either, but it’s hard to tell.

Her mother planned her entire july winter break to the minute just so she could spend the least amount of time in my house as possible. We got 5 days instead of the previous 4. But her mother came up with a ridiculous amount of trips for the family. She visit 3 different countries (and a whole different state inside her own country) within 30 fucking days. That’s how bad it had gotten then. Our SMSs had to be cut down to just two or three a day because of it.

But it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter because when she arrived at my house (her family had insisted in meeting mine before letting her stay) I was able to see from three floors up how brightly she had smiled at seeing me again.

I’ll make this part short: we stayed cooped inside blankets the entire time, playing on my PS2. It was so ridiculous that my mom, maaaany years later, told me she usually left the house for hours at time just to give us an opportunity of finally doing something about our very obvious feelings. Unlike the trip we took to her ranch, this one was filled with 3am deep existencial talks. And unlike the other trip, we spent the whole time sleeping on the same bed. Not a whole lot happened other than us dancing around the obvious feelings and how to deal with being so close to each other.

Nothing beside the very last morning together. I remember always waking up after her, because that’s just how we were. I remember she was already up, reading this book in fucking german of all things. It had been the first day of the entire week we had a meager ray of sunshine. And the way my window and ourselves were positioned, the sun was shinning directly on her. I woke up to the vision of an angel. I had never seen hair in such a warm bright color. I had never seen eyes that were the living embodiment of a spring afternoon sky. I woke up and her propped up on a couple of pillows, reading under the weak morning sun was the first thing I saw. It was the first thing I saw and I could swear I was still dreaming.

Because for the first time in all this, I could not contain and muffle the voice inside my head that was screaming: I want to wake up next to this every single day for the rest of my life.

It was the last time I woke up next to her for the rest of my life.

To my credit I did shake off my daze from the sight quite fast. I had gotten so good to drowning out these feelings that I was great at putting my poker face back up. We talked, we had breakfast, we let ourselves feel a bit sad about her leaving.

Then, just about half an hour before we actually had to go shower to take her to the station, it happened. The one moment that made me feel confident this all wasn’t just in my head. It all wasn’t just wishful thinking of a lonely pathetic girl who got way too bullied in high school.

We were having an impromptu pillow fight cause why not. That’s how girls who are secretly in love handle their feelings after all. It’s universal I think. And, well, on the overall 9 days we spent together irl I never actually beat her once because I’m just that much of a noddle. But this one fight we were both in bed, with weak footing and etc. You can see where this is going.

So on a scene to rival any anime, or that one gif of girls playing handball that fall on top of each other, she fell on top of me. Well, did she fall? I don’t know. For all I know, she planned.

And we had the moment. The gaze. Those few indescribable seconds of your life that you’re always gonna remember like yesterday, no matter how old you get. She had each of my hands pinned to the side of my head, and at first I thought we were still fighting so I just struggled and laughed and was saying stuff like “get off me ya psycho!”. But then I looked up. I looked up and.

And then I felt it. I felt everything her eyes were telling me. She wasn’t playing with me anymore. She was staring at me as if she already knew it was going to be the last time. She was staring at me as if it was a love story because it was. She was staring at me as if her entire existence, as if the whole oxygen on the earth itself depending on my presence.

She was staring at me like I has never been looked at before, or since. Even with a 3-years long relationship I had muuuch later on. No one had never, or will ever, look at me the way she looked at me.

And I froze. I froze because I had no idea what else to do. I froze because inside my head back then this was still wrong. Girls should not kiss. Girls should never kiss.

It was wrong.

It was so wrong, but nothing, not a single piece of bigot ramble ever uttered in history would make me feel more scared than losing my best friend. Nothing in the world scared me more than losing her.

Could I cross this boundary? Did she want to? Or was it just a spur on the moment thing?

But then she stared at my lips and I could not help but lick my own. Out of instinct, out of craving, out of love.

To the risk of getting an angry mob to my house right now, no, we did not kiss.

In fact, I dont quite remember the next few seconds at all. It had been single the most intense moment in my life at this point. It is still one of the most intense moments I’ve ever experienced. I completely blanked out of how I actually got pulled out of it and back into the land of living. Next thing I know we are sitting on opposite sides of the bed, trying to move away from the awkwardness. We did manage, in a couple of minutes. and things went back to normal between us.

But things would never be back to normal within me.

I’m gonna take a pause here to point out I’m bisexual. So like every bisexual, I am a very confused person. Cause you see, the moment you figure out you're bisexual it’s so much more confusing than figuring out you're fully homosexual. Because in the moment, things don’t just click. Things dont just start to magically make sense. I was 16 and I had absolutely liked guys before. Was it with this intensity? No because I was fucking 16. She was the first person I was been truly in love with. But I know it in my soul that if she was a dude I would love her with the exact same intensity. This particular discourse took me another three years to solve, but I digress.

And then she left.

She left and, like I said, her mother had programed her entire july milimetrically so we could be as far apart as possible. She left my house straight back to her ranch, not even her own house, And they have no internet there, so no MSN. Just a single 30-minutes phone call a day, for the 4 days after we had spent the entire week cooped up in bed inside blankets and playing lame-ass RPGs. And then right after that she left for germany for two full weeks. But before that particular trip, she did manage to get home. She got home to a letter of her grandma that read...

Well to be honest I cannot tell you what it read exactly. Because she was extremely vague about it when telling me. But it was enough to destroy her. It was enough to make her think that her grandma would not want anything to do with her anymore and it was based off somewhat new events. It doesn’t take a fucking genius to figure out the full contents of the letter. Her family is from the brazilian Bible Belt. But back then, at 16, confused as fuck, and already preemptively heartbroken, I legit had no idea what it said. She was vague and I didn’t want to pry. I just wanted to make her stop crying. I just wanted to put that beautiful smile back in her face but on that day I could feel her slipping away for the first time.

The rest of the story takes place in just a bit under two months. Maybe 6 weeks at most.

She goes to germany and finds a boyfriend, as one does. She leeches on this boy like a lifeline, but never stops texting me our 3 international texts we were allowed daily. In fact, the first thing she did after kissing him was pulling off her phone as texting me.

You can imagine how well this guy takes it.

Now, she goes back to brasil and this guy actually lives somewhat close to her. It’s a doable relationship. Once they both have access to internet and MSN again, and she is fast to introduce us, so happy that both of the most important people in her life are meeting. Even tho they had been together for like 3 weeks at this point.

I’m ok with it because, well, I still hadn’t figured myself out. I know no one will believe this, but I honestly did not feel jealousy. In fact, it was almost relief. Relief that I would not need to look into my feelings any further than I had back in july. I was happy for her. She seemed genuinely happy with this guy, and so was I.

And then Independence Day weekend comes and hell starts to... well, not break loose, but certainly get weaker on the seams. In here Independence Day is on September 7th, but both on my city and hers there's a city holiday on the 8th. On that year it ended up getting us a 4-day weekend again, and obviously I thought I was the one who was gonna be invited to visit her. I has been counting on it, planning for it.

Two weeks or so before that she informs me that she wants to invite her boyfriend over instead of it, which is like. Ok. Fair. But for the first time in this entire story I felt jealousy. Because that ranch, those stars, that sky... it was our place. I did not wanna share those experiences I had with her with anyone else. But I kept quiet of course, because how could I not? I tell her “yeah it’s a bit upsetting because I was hopping we could see each other, but I am genuinely happy you get to spend time with him!”

She ghosts me in that week.

To this day, 12 years and 2 months later, I do not know why. I do not know how. I know her grandma called again when she learned the boyfriend was gonna come over and not me, but that’s all.

She ghosted me before ghosting was even a thing. So I had no other social parameter to deal with the situation. I will never forget the absolutely heart wrenching pain I felt when I figured out she had blocked me on MSN. It’s indescribable.

It’s indescribable because she was the first person I felt like actually gave a flying fuck if I lived of died, if I was happy or if I cried. And she had up and decided to fucking cut me out her life without a single fucking word of explanation. One night everything was fine, we even had a group chat with her boyfriend. The next day she is gone forever. I don’t know, nor I think I will ever learn what triggered it. What was the last fucking draw, the last fucking prejudiced word directed at her that made her do it.

My world had been full of color, full of life, and even if literally everyone around me in real life would be so much happier if I didn’t exist (back then I DID NOT get along with my mother), she had seemed this entire time to be so much happier with me around. She was the one person who liked my existence. And literally overnight, I wake up and my world is empty. My world is empty and my air is missing and I don’t fucking know why.

It’s been 12 years and I still don’t know why.

Her boyfriend harassed me a bit back on orkut. Like, I have no idea why. It was unprompted. But it does give you a big fucking clue does it now?

I haven’t gotten a single word from her ever again. I know she’s alive, that’s not the fucking point of the story. I know because I tried to contact her again through every fucking means possible. I even sent her a letter of all things for fuck’s sake. When facebook came along I found her there too and sent her a message. Once 3 years after the fact, and then again 6 years after the fact. That was the last time I tried contacting her.

I cannot say I was “faithful”, so to speak. I cannot say she has been the only thing in my mind. I cannot say that I have not loved again, because I have. I had a serious 3-year relationship, as I mentioned. I had actual gay disasters stories in between. She has not remained the foremost thing in my mind. She has not remained my one true love. There were times where I spent months without thinking about her. Even silly crushes are enough to stray my thoughts away, to stray my heart away

But what worth are those times if I always go back to thinking of her as soon as I see myself without someone? What worth are those times where she is not in my mind, if she had never left my heart to begin with?

What worth is forgetting about her at times when she is my default setting?

I know what you're thinking. “you’re not in love with her, you’re in love with the idea of what could have been”. And you’re absolutely right. I know you are. I’m fully aware of it, of the implications of it, not only on my love life but my mental health.

But she has been the single most influential person in my life. She was the one that got me to writing. She was the one who made face my mother and have The Talk we needed for fucking 16 years about who my father was. Fuck, she is the sole responsible for setting my life on that path, and all the domino effect of events that happened because of the decision of talking to my mother about it. She was the one that made me figure out I was bisexual. Not a lesbian, definitively not straight, but not gay either. Bisexual, out and proud.

She was my first love.

She was my first love and she is the one that makes me give some credit to the saying “at the end of your life you will see you’ve fallen in love with the same person over and over again”.

She was my first love and she makes me go fucking crazy enough to give the whole “soulmates” concept a decent thought, because this cannot have been natural. Loneliness cannot explain the entire thing. It cannot explain how ridiculously drawn I was to her right away. Attraction doesn’t explain it either. It cannot explain how insanely synced up I’ve always felt to her. How insanely connected.

I’m not gonna lie, I loved my ex. Truly and deeply. They were the only person to ever treat me respect, and I felt almost as connected to them as I did to her. Almost.

If we are getting technical, I felt, like, 95% synced up with them. Which is more than the vast majority of humankind can only dream of feeling.

But it was not 100%.

There has only been one person in my life that I have felt 100% connected with. One person in my life I have not been able to shake away, have not been able to get over. Oh I have moved on. I have moved on and moved back in and then moved on again. Many times, over and over.

But I have not gotten over you. I will never get over you. What happened. How it ended. You were my biggest heartbreak. You were my biggest love story, and I didn’t even get to live it.

You make me so illogical that I sincerely hope there is a next life out there. One we can meet, sit down, and talk.

I’m sure you are a completely different person right now. I am a completely different person too. And it is insane, it is illogical, and it is immature to think that these two completely different people would still have any vestige of a thing in common like we did as kids. Because we were kids. We were kids and now we are both adults, and have a single damn thing changed?

A whole fuckton of them changed. Seasons changed. Years changed. The entire fucking world changed. I have changed more than you can possible imagine a person would in 12 years.

But you being the default setting of my heart has not changed. No matter how “unfaithful” I’ve been to you. No matter how much I will keep on living not being attached to you. No matter how much I know at some point I will forget you, forget this feeling, and bask into the pleasure of a new love. No matter how much at some point I will surely think “wow, what a crazy bitch I was back then, with all these feelings for a random girl who certainly doesn’t even remember I exist”.

And that’s one of my biggest fears you see. Cause for me you are half the fucking book. For me you’re the constant element that comes back when sea is calm and things are ok.

And I fear that to you I was nothing more than a line, maybe a throwaway paragraph in your life.