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sobriquett · 1 year ago

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Dear Unsent Letters 2024 Author,

Thank you for thinking of writing for me for this year's Unsent Letters exchange!

I've requested all of these fandoms before (and probably reblogged many pretty gif sets) so if these ideas don't spark joy then please feel free to see what I've requested before. On the other hand, if you have your own idea before you've read any further, then please run with that. This letter -- and my letters can sometimes get long -- is here to help, not to hinder... I hope!

Please find below some loves, likes and DNWs, and then prompts by fandom (in alphabetical order!):

DNWs for All Fandoms

General Likes and Loves

Darkfic Likes

Smut Likes (and more power to you if you can use these in epistolary fic!)

1. Bridgerton (TV)

Letters during Anthony and Kate's engagement, or letters home from their honeymoon (which canonically lasts six months!)

What's in Colin and Penelope's correspondence during his summer in Greece?

2. Downton Abbey

Letters to and from the front during the war

Violet's correspondence with Edith and Rosamund while they are away "practicing their French"

3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë

Letters between Jane at Ferndean and Adele at school

How is the Thornfield fire reported in the press? Is the aborted wedding reported?

Does Jane ever write to Miss Temple for advice, or to keep in touch?

4. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell | UK TV

I would be delighted with either book or TV fic; I love both.

Articles about this unexpected marriage? Would there be a difference between reporting in Milton and reporting in London?

Along the same theme, what about Outsider POV on the relationship via letters, with family and friends writing to one another? How does Hannah write the news to Edith? Mrs Shaw, Edith, the Lennoxes? How does Frederick find and/or take the news?

Letters between Margaret and John during their engagement, or perhaps when they are obliged to be apart during their marriage.

An ONDB/Wikipedia article on John, Margaret, even Higgins, recapping their life and successes?

5. The West Wing

Copied from a past Unsent Letters letter:

I am extra specially excited about the idea of books and articles for this fandom, but it’s also the only one where emails/texts could be a thing here. So much possible fun! News articles, political blogs, email chains, text messages, speech transcripts, press briefing transcripts!

The assistants giving outsider POV on canonical events, with commentary/misunderstandings/D-plot drama?

Josh and Donna awkwardness or sweetness? I ship them, but can read it both in a “desperate pining” and “friendship/love” sort of way.

Donna keeps a diary.

Email chains, notes/memos in the office, fun reports? So many possibilities using the fandom.

They make a lot of reference to funny or awkward typos in the show; there may be some fun to have there, even in just a background sort of way. I have one of those will-spot-the-single-typo-on-a-menu-and-never-unsee-it sort of brains, so throw some in just for fun, I will see them and rejoice.

I am just excited for anything, and love all the characters dearly, and any others you choose to include. Equally, if you do go for one of the big group tags, please feel free to add or drop characters as you need to if it makes it work for you, I’m not precious, and it’s right here saved forever in my signup that it’s totally cool with me.

Otherwise:

Gaza angst

King Corn angst

Anything closely linked to an episode - I've seen this show enough times that I should be able to jump right in

Desperate pining, on either side

#dear author letter #bridgerton tv #downton abbey #jane eyre #north and south #the west wing

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bookofmirth · 4 years ago

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So I initially deleted this because I didn’t want to get into it, but I also think the question is genuine and I wanted to explain my thinking. CW for emotional and physical abuse and sexual assault.

I am tagging @silverlinedeyes because this ask concerns them and I don’t appreciate being vagued, whether it’s a blogger or someone answering an ask that mentions me. I try not to vague other people and I’m not perfect but... just getting this all out in the open.

So I can’t speak for everyone who was upset at the initial post comparing Ianthe and Gwyn. Personally, I kind-of grimaced and was mostly confused about what in the world they could possibly have in common and why such a comparison would be necessary. As people, they are fundamentally different. And to me, the comparison is incredibly thin. Eye color and priestesses? How many priestesses have that eye color? And to use that to connect them to a creature we’ve only read about in two sentences in the whole series, a creature we’ve never actually seen on page and know next to nothing about? Basically, the intention or purpose behind the comparison didn’t make sense to me.

Now I’ll be perfectly transparent - I didn’t read the whole post because I could tell that it wasn’t for me. I also didn’t go around vaguing it. It was mentioned in some asks that I got and I tried to limit my commentary on that post and focus on the comparisons I had made, intentionally. Because 1) I can’t speak from the position of a SA survivor, and those are the people that post concerned, and 2) I didn’t fully read it, and 3) I don’t want to vague people! This fandom is divided enough. I know I made a joke after acosf came out how we are all having separate, loud conversations in the same room and refusing to acknowledge the other conversations while somehow responding to one another. And it was kinda funny at first, but now it’s exhausting.

To me, comparing Ianthe, who is universally reviled as a r*pist, and Gwyn, who we know is a SA survivor, is unnecessary. That’s pretty much what it comes down to. Why do we need to do this? What is it telling us about any of the characters? About relationships? I know a lot of people found it anything from distasteful to downright offensive, and while I think that just about anything is fair game when it comes to fictional characters, I also personally think that the intention behind the comparison was confusing. I just personally don’t understand why we would need to talk about those characters in the same breath. What purpose does it serve? Someone who can speak from the position of a SA can please feel free to add on, if comfortable!

The reason that I compare Az and Tamlin is to analyze them as people, as characters, because I see a lot of similarities in who they are on a (currently) fundamental level - their anger, their loneliness, their attempts to restrain their destructive impulses. These are major parts of who they are as people and how they interact with the world. There were red flags present in acotar that I recognized from my personal life and that I can now see in Azriel. Frankly, it concerns me that people see Tamlin as a completely irredeemable villain, while not recognizing that Azriel shares some of the same personality traits.

Comparing a r*apist and a SA survivor is an unequal comparison. Emotional and physical abuse, on the other hand, tends to be generational. I’m not an expert on a professional or academic level, but I did a quick search on my university’s database, and found this from “Interrupting the Intergenerational Transmission of Violence”, and please note that these lines were the context or background - this article didn’t set out to prove these statements to be true, they are already commonly accepted knowledge and so their research was looking to solve the problem:

Children exposed to domestic violence are at increased risk for a wide range of emotional and behavioural disorders. Conduct disorder, in particular, may ultimately lead to the perpetration of further domestic violence in the next generation. Parental characteristics such as warmth and positive attributions may mitigate the risk for intergenerational transmission of violence.

I think that as a fandom, people really, really tend to mischaracterize Azriel. It bothers me. He’s not soft. I’m sorry, he’s just not. We have multiple examples of him being described, using words like “rage”, “cruel”, “temper”. One of the first posts I ever made in this fandom that got a lot of attention (over four years ago) was trying to correct these mischaracterizations. They keep happening.

There was an icy rage in Azriel I had never been able to thaw. In the centuries I’d known him, he’d said little about his life, those years in his father’s keep, locked in darkness. (ACOMAF)

One moment, Azriel was seated. The next, he’d blasted through Eris’s shield with a flare of blue light and tackled him backward, wood shattering beneath them. “Shit,” Cassian spat, and was instantly there— And met a wall of blue. Azriel had sealed them in, and as his scarred hands wrapped around Eris’s throat, Rhys said, “Enough.” (ACOWAR)

Az didn’t answer. I held his gaze, though. Held that ice-cold stare that still sometimes scared the shit out of me. (ACOFAS)

Az had a vicious competitive streak... quiet and cruel and utterly lethal. (ACOSF)

Azriel stiffened, an outright sign of temper (ACOSF)

These are just a few of the examples, but we can also think about acofas when he gets angry at dinner thinking about how his mother was treated as a servant, when he can’t handle being around people who are happy on Solstice. I could make a whole post but I’m kinda sick of talking about Azriel at this point.

I have experienced an emotionally abusive relationship much like feylin was. I made myself so small, for years, because this person’s anger and anxiety and grief took up so much space in the world. I felt like I had to overcompensate, to not make them feel jealous if I was having a good day, and to not take on my negative feelings if I had a bad day. So I just stopped feeling things. For years. It didn’t go well. I’m still dealing with the aftermath.

I have also witnessed physical domestic violence, as a child. I don’t think I need to explain further than that.

My fanfiction A Loveless Romantic deals heavily with the feylin abuse, and I only feel comfortable writing it because of my personal experiences. I’ve written posts about Nesta and alcohol and another post that I can’t currently find about why acotar is such a good book because it shows us all of those red flags for abuse before many people knew they were red flags. (If I can find it I’ll reblog.) My point is, when I go into analyses and metas like these, they aren’t just an exercise in “oh hey what if?!” It’s “here is my experience with this topic and so here’s how I read this with that background.”

The comparison between Azriel and Tamlin is deeply personal to me, and I didn’t exactly expect to have to disclose my personal history when making it, but when I see people vaguing about how the comparison “hurts people who have experienced abuse”, hi, OP knows exactly what she’s talking about on a personal level, thanks. So I’m going to keep talking about it, because I know what I’m talking about, and it bothers me that people can’t see it in fiction because I worry that they then won’t be able to see it IRL until it’s too late. I’m going to keep writing my “thinkpieces” because this is a topic I know a lot about, it’s important to me, and it’s something that I think a lot of people can and should learn more about.

#acotar #azriel #tamlin #cw abuse #acosf #ask #anon #i really need a moratorium on az #he no longer exists to me #nor tamlin #mor cassian nesta elain and lucien are the only characters to me

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chemicalpink · 4 years ago

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Hey, I hope you are doing good this was a thing that was wondering me so there are lot of bts future spouse /soulmate/twinflame videos being made on youtube and honestly everyone is being psychic like it has become a shitshow and what was previously just for curiosity fun and entertainment are becoming extremely emotionally invested in the topic especially for maknae line soulmate it would be interesting if the can do a tarot reading or your spiritual experience why is the future spouse saga turning ugly and does universe what us to know something through it !? Because it's becoming pretty crazy right now

Okay so I believe that yes, the spiritual part has a lot to do behind this occurrence, but I also think its roots lay on psicosocial matters and honestly I could go on for days about this but I’ll try to restrict it to a few points that you’ve mentioned

Why all of a sudden everyone seems to be tarot readers/astrologers/psychic?

The capitalism behind celebrities and how does that play a part in what is going on?

Are these people accurate at all?

How does energy shifting play a part in this?

Is the soulmate journey even something a third person would be able to note?

But first a Disclaimer: this opinion/rant is based on my experience with spirituality, I am obviously a mere mortal, so I do not hold the absolute truth. Spirituality is a constant learning process and it is open to discussion and interpretation of each person. I am also now a proud sociologist graduate that specialises in a lot of the stuff that has to do with what anon is asking, I’m a social behaviouralist applied to the entertainment industry as well but I’ll also provide my resources in the end.

A/N: Some of you might not yet be ready to read all of this, if I see ANY of you trying to start beef with me, even after the disclaimer, I'm gonna block you. If you want to talk more about it or want to discuss it further, DO SO OFF ANON. ISTG you’ve been warned, I’ve been working on this for the longest time, it even has resources to back all of it up! I’m so glad anon asked, I’m done being diplomatic on this topic (I know people that usually ask stuff are so respectful and i love you guys for it, this note is for those people that regularly jump on my asks to stir things up)

You guys are in for a whole academic article if you decide to read this

SO FUN AND EXCITINGGGG Let us start with behavioural economics as our base to understand the whole phenomenon, it's such a broad and kinda complex concept (especially since I’m trying to extrapolate it to this particular scenario) so let me do my best. It has a lot to do with trend following, although at least to me, it's unclear how exactly this content came to be (soulmate readings, channeling messages, etc) I am guessing it had something to do with an intersectionality between the general spirituality boom that we’ve met with during the pandemic and some person that just as any other marketable opportunity, saw a bridge between fandom life and this spiritual life (both prominent trends in the last two years or so) and honestly, it worked perfectly, whatever their initial intentions were, they threw out a new “product” and it kind of sold itself, two different trends coming together… turned into a behavioural game theory where if you played the part that allows your content to be consumed, you’ll get rewarded for it. In more simple words, tarot meets fandoms (alternatively, tarot meets BTS) is great as it is! but the fan behaviour (which we’ll talk about in a bit) positions the most private parts of the celebrities’ lives to be much more interesting than things that we are already able to see (personal experience, love readings do so much better than idk career readings and it all comes down to behavioural trends of perceiving ‘love’ as something very intimate)

Now, this is where we’ll begin to talk about capitalism as a whole, even in non-monetary systems like social media, where it takes more of a rewarding system via likes, views, reblogs, etc. The whole principle of us living in such a system is being aspirational, we see others profiting off of something, we might want to reach out and do the same so we can profit ourselves, which honestly, I think is what happened with the whole BTS soulmate readings boom, they get a lot of attention, and as a basic market law, as demand goes up and a few people that initially did these readings are no longer capable to satisfy the need of the people wanting to know all the tea, there are market opportunities for other people to do the same thing and increase the offer, although since this whole theory is behavioural, it is very context-dependant, which ends up not following the principle of the consumers being rational about how much and what content they consume, they just sort of consume all of it, regardless of whether the content creator is qualified to offer such content or not, which ultimately only adds onto a never ending cycle of more people claiming they are tarot readers/astrologers/psychics and fear nothing because this is the internet, you don't really have to enter any qualifications to be able to create content, whether someone is reliable in internet terms is basically all about how many likes they’ve got (which is why I always tell you guys to please consume content responsible).

When it comes to accuracy- I guess that’s the hardest part of all, we can’t just have pointers that would automatically tells us if someone’s craft is valid or not, since everyone’s craft is different all craft is valid to a certain extent (you can easily find scammers of course but that’s another story) what we can have are personal standards and deciding what content to consume or whose content to consume, but that’s entirely a personal decision and since so many people are invested in it- it seems really hard that these “market tendencies” might change any time soon. On that same note of accuracy, I really feel the need to talk about a major occurrence I’ve come across in this whole soulmate scene, minors. Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a minor and approaching spirituality (I was very much a minor when I started) but there’s a huge difference between just playing around and deciding to create content for the whole world to have access to. Of course I’m aware not all tarot readers in the BTS fandom are minors, and ARMY is very diverse and even if they were only minors it would be wrong to invalidate them, but we can’t ignore the statistics of it when touching this particular topic, according to 2020 data, 50,31% of ARMY are below 18 years old, and 42,59% are between 18-29 but why is this important? because the exact historical and economic moment we are living in mainly impacts these two age groups, thus making all 92,90% of ARMY a potential target to consuming or falling in a behavioural game theory of creating this content without them necessarily being qualified for it. But hey, why do you keep talking about the importance of being qualified? Glad you asked, creating spiritual content all comes down to one amazing term: accountability.

And this will explore two main phases of it, one applicable for that 50,31% that could potentially be drawn to create spiritual content and other for the 42,59% that could potentially be dragged to creating that content without much spiritual knowledge. For the first one, it has a lot to do with cognitive aspects, young people tend to do stuff without much further thought about how their actions impact other people, which, as they should, they are kids, they shouldn’t have to worry too much about emotional responsibility as us adults do, furthermore, they are in life stages where they can’t really comprehend many abstract concepts that we later learn in life, and spirituality is one of those concepts, so they tend to just have fun with it with no regards on how their content might impact other minors (this is where the whole feeding a false scenario that is potentially delusional in exchange of more views, likes comes into play) on a more spiritual level, they also aren’t able to comprehend the boundaries of the celebrities they’re reading for, us readers have to always be careful about the information we give out since it is not ours to give. As for the second group, some of this is still applicable since theorists consider a full cognitive maturity until 23 years of age, but since it is very intersectional itself, i would found it more to a spiritual responsibility, since they are young adults, and if they haven’t been spiritually guided as kids, they’re most probably eager to learn and just awakening yet to some of them the drive to this spirituality is content creation instead of inner work, so they get their hands on a tarot deck, might kind of read a few things, call it a day and start reading for BTS (note: not all of them, I’m aware)

As for the maknae line being the most sought out people with this content, I guess it kinda makes sense now that I’ve said all of the information above, maknae line is closest to the age group of 92,90% of ARMY, so they instantly become more marketable to this content creation and the whole Game Theory that we are seeing. With all that being said, and just adding a note coming from my own spiritual experience, soulmates in any form are a difficult topic for a third person to prode, which is why I, personally, tend to not touch that topic, love is one hell of a concept, especially since we all have different conceptions of love and interpersonal relationships. I do know for a fact that there’s only so far we can go in terms of fated connections, like with astrology, but even then, we would have to know their birth times exactly (so we can check for any indicator or a soulmate connection), and/or compare BTS with the rest of the world’s population in order to accurately tell if someone has a soulmate synastry/overlay/composite with them. Also, soulmate journeys are intimate and we are all just fans, what right do we even have to look for things that do not and will never belong to us?

This is why I’m always telling you guys to PLEASE consume content responsibly! Really! Us content consumers also have our part to play that can help us get more accurate, more drama-free content

REFERENCES (what? you thought I was joking? they’re in alphabetical order)

ARMYCENSUS 2020

Loewenstein, G., O’Donoghue, T., & Rabin, M. (2003). Projection bias in predicting future utility. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(4), 1209-1248.

March, J. G. (1978). Bounded rationality, ambiguity, and the engineering of choice. The Bell Journal of Economics, 9(2), 587-608.

Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion and motivation Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.

Mazar, N., Amir, O., & Ariely, D. (2008). The dishonesty of honest people: A theory of self-concept maintenance. Journal of Marketing Research, 45(6), 633-644.

Murphy, S. T., & Zajonc, R. B. (1993). Affect, cognition, and awareness: Affective priming with optimal and suboptimal stimulus exposures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 723-729.

Samson, A., & Voyer, B. (2014). Emergency purchasing situations: Implications for consumer decision-making. Journal of Economic Psychology, 44, 21-33.

Schwartz, B. (2004). The paradox of choice: Why more is less. New York: Ecco.

Shah, A. K., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2008). Heuristics made easy: an effort-reduction framework. Psychological Bulletin, 134(2), 207-222.

Thaler, R. H. (2015). Misbehaving: The making of behavioral economics. Allen Lane.

Thaler, R. H. (2008). Mental accounting and consumer choice. Marketing Science, 27, 15-25.

Wood, W., & Neal, D. T. (2009). The habitual consumer. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 19, 579-592.

#i really said: thesis? wHERE #im sorry i jump at any given opportunity to rant #especially if it gives me an opportunity to share knowledge with you guys

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theshinobiway · 6 years ago

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The whole Lee being bald thing was just a mean hoax. It was never verified by any legit sources, just a bogus reddit post. There’s been plenty of those.

PSA: Rock Lee isn’t balding! I repeat, Rock Lee IS NOT BALDING! Here’s the Proof!

I knew that not watching Boruto would catch up with me eventually, so here’s me amending my previous statement: There’s no official confirmation that Rock Lee is actually balding in Boruto.

And BOY did I do a deep dive of the internet for this. Saddle up kids, I’m about to throw on my amateur detective hat and take you for a wild ride through the internet to end this rumor once and for all.

Warning: Long, picture-heavy post where I cross-examine multiple sources.

Part I: The situation!

Here’s a compilation of the screencaps from Boruto episode 58 that sparked a thousand rumors.

Looking at the top-left screencap, we can see a strange rendition of Lee’s hairline. Following this introduction, Boruto and Yurui begin their match. When Yurui unleashes his unnamed Bubblegum-Pop jutsu, Boruto is thrown back. Rock Lee then grabs his hair due to the heavy winds that emanate from the burst. Putting the two together, it looks vaguely like Rock Lee has a strange hairline that accompanies him frantically grabbing his own hair.

Part II: The “Sources”

Okay, I spent probably close to 4-5 hours scouring through different links and articles. Here’s a breakdown of the internet’s say on the matter:

The first major source is from a website called “Comicbook.com” It’s the website that was linked in multiple other copycat articles, blog posts, and forums, and was the first result for any Google search of “Rock Lee balding” (or variations thereof)

Okay, this isn’t so bad. I see that there are sources linked, so I should be able to logically follow the trail back to either an interview or the name of the “book” in question. First, let’s look at where these so-called linked ‘sources’ lead.

In any part of journalism, linking your sources is the most important step to ensure your audience that you cross-referenced with legitimate sourc-

aaaand YOU HAVE FAILED Journalism 101.

Hm. despite the fact that this is a Reddit post and not an actual link to ANY book whatsoever, the link’s dead. Deleted. Frankly, this whole search was an endless loop of dead ends, but I was deadset on getting to the bottom of this.

So thus far, I’ve got one lead that wasn’t solved: there’s a rumored “Book” out there somewhere, and it was referenced at “some point.” My first guess would have been a databook, but I’ve read those. Perhaps the one I read had a translation error?

Scrolling through the comments of this Reddit post, I came across this:

Important context clues here: It’s not stated in a Databook. That means Naruto’s Jin no Sho, the Fourth official databook, is NOT the source of the rumor. Also, I was able to find a scanlation of Rock Lee’s page for the very same book here:

Rock Lee’s balding also certainly wouldn’t mentioned in any of the previous databooks where Rock Lee was, y’know, a teenager. All four official databooks are off the table.

Secondly, the link posted by user “Hydrobolt” leads to a twitter post with the following:

No sources, no reference to a book, nothing. Except for a few screenshots of Boruto Episode 58. I’ll discuss these shots later, but this appeared to be yet ANOTHER dead end. (Also, this twitter thread has ZERO links or sources!)

I can see why the post was deleted by the mods, but this was troubling: Did this whole rumor start from ONE twitter post from a shipper (that had single-digit likes/reblogs?)

I didn’t think so. Even if this random tweet was picked up by a semi-popular media outlet, I still needed to answer the following questions:

What was the “book” that supposedly had Kishimoto’s confirmation? Did it exist, or was it a bluff?

Where could I find a scanlated (and hopefully English, though my husband speaks Japanese) version of the Rock Lee page?

Part III: The Search for the Non-Databook “Book”

Even if it wasn’t in a databook, there are multiple interviews and exo-textual sources that can be used to glean information about the characters. I knew I wasn’t looking for an interview–in part because the key was “book,” and also because Kishi has only given a set amount of serious interviews in the past, and most of those are available in translation. Thus, there might have been a storyboard, book, or some other source that was exclusively released that might hold this information.

The most promising lead was from a site called narutoforums.org

The original post:

Okay, first, there’s no actual link on “here”. That’s a major red flag, especially given that the post is currently only a year old (posted 7.27.18)

And it’s yet another dead end.

…Sigh.

But wait!

User “Platypus” mentions that the source was a ‘movie booklet that’s been out for three years.’ That’s a lead!

A movie booklet, huh? Here we go: Sometimes, highly-anticipated animated movies are released in Japan with exclusive manga chapters or other easter eggs, as well as other goodies.

So, let’s talk about this unnamed “Movie booklet” – Three years prior to 2018 would have marked the release of the Baruto movie in 2015. That means the booklet would have been this one: Zai no Sho

This was the most difficult piece to dig up information on. The booklet in question was only released in Japan and during the original premiere of the movie in 2015. I couldn’t initially find scalations, so I did the next best thing: Looking for a table of contents. Good ‘ol Naruto wiki was here to save the day.

Boom. It even has page numbers!

Now, I had a supposed book source and even the page numbers. All that was left to find a translation. After some deep digging, I found one—right here on Tumblr via user Emotionalrockfish.

This was the moment of truth! I opened the link for Rock Lee’s page and carefully read over the description…

Rock Lee

Tireless effort and ambition! With his hot-blooded passion, he guides a genin!!The leaf village’s pride, an expert of taijutsu. He possesses absolutely no skill for ninjutsu, but refines his taijutsu by exceeding the limits of effort with the gutsiness he inherited from his master, and does nothing but aim high. He and his son, Metal*, absolutely can’t miss their daily training!

*Metal Lee is shortened to just Metal here, so no, he’s not called Lee like his father.

(*Pterodactyl screeching*)

AND THERE IT IS: After a whole trail of vague suggestions and dead links, I‘d finally come to the final source material. And there’s nothing! Nothing there that even remotely mentions Lee’s baldness!

N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

Conclusion: RUMOR UNSUBSTANTIATED

Part IV: So where did this rumor all start? And what’s with “that” scene?

The Situation Unfolds: The whole situation is from Boruto, Episode 58: The Tournament Begins! The wind in this scene is shown to originate from Yurui’s jutsu.

The bubblegum pop emits a wind blast, throwing Boruto back. The very same blast tussles Lee’s hair.

It’s an obvious gag, but not about Lee: it’s meant to convey the sheer strength that emits from Yurui’s bubbles popping. This is a common trope in anime: Character emits a powerful attack, the audience sees/feels the “force” from the fallout wind.

The audience now knows that there are some stakes to Yurui unleashing his gum-based jutsu, because the force of the blast not only throws Boruto back, but can also reach a good distance away to where the proctor, Rock Lee, was standing.

Further Explanation: It’s also fairly obvious that Boruto (and Ikemoto’s style) deviate from Kishimoto’s, so we should expect some variation in character appearances outside of the expected “age-up” factor.

Here are some original renditions of Lee with his hair (flying) up and his younger self’s hairline:

In Part I, we see that Lee’s hair falls into a widow’s peak. Then, in concept art for the Naruto: The Last, we see a far less defined peak—in fact, the hairline is decidedly square-shaped.

Then, finally, in the Boruto animation, Lee’s hair is almost circular (but also shown from an extremely tilted perspective.)

So we see a distinct transition in the actual SHAPE of Lee’s hairline in conjunction with the evolution of SP/Kishi/Ikemoto’s style. A story written over at least 17 years and spanning over three different series has a change in style? More likely than you think.

Conclusion: It’s a change in the animation style and a throwaway gag aimed at emphasizing the fallout wind from Yurui’s jutsu. Nothing more.

I rest my case, Pumpkin OUT!

#Rock lee #rocklee #naruto #Boruto #boruto next generation #balding #bald #naruto shippuden #yurui #team gai #team guy #pumpkintalks #pumpkin talks #I SOLVED THE CASE

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anerdyfeminist · 5 years ago

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God some of the old Democrat establishment fuckers/Hillary stans on my FB feed are driving me up the GD WALL. Had to unfollow 2 such turds today. They genuinely don’t think that someone like me exists...someone who is VERY informed and extremely politically literate and who is actively and happily rejecting the Democratic establishment with my support of Bernie.

They full on think I’m a silly dummy who is being duped by Russia.

They truly believe that I don’t know (and enthusiastically support) the fact that Bernie doesn’t represent the party. The Democratic party can full on kiss my ass. But a 2 party system is codified into our political structures and there is actually no possible path forward for a predidential run on a 3rd party ticket. That just doesn’t exist, you fools, so the best someone like me can do right now is work within the system that exists and force the party further left in the process.

Let me say again: Voters as far left as me don’t have a choice and we get that. We are reluctant bedfellows with Dems. That doesn’t mean oldie moldie establishment schmucks can be so dismissive of us and act like Bernie is exploiting is or something. Fucking hell I’m over it.

Here’s the most recent BS I saw from the 2 worst offenders in my feed: Christine and Sara. Both think they are super progressive and in favor of social justice. Both are wealthy white women in their 60s who benefitted from killing the economy. Both connected to me on FB through knowing me in the context of my employment and hold informal power over me in that situation. (So save your “just unfriend them” comments please, it’s not a viable option.)

Also, let me add, don’t reblog this.

Exhibit 1: Christine

This first post is a quote from a linked article (that she’s shared a few times now since it was published in January.) The second comment (Lali’s) is another quote from it (strangely w/o any attribution or way to tell that, that OP then replies to in earnest...which confuses everyone as they later worked out in the comments.)

Here’s some more of Christine’s gems. Stuff like this has been fairly incessant since 2016. She deeply blames him for Hillary losing and kinda seems to have taken it personally.

Exhibit 2: Sara

Sara tries to be more stealth in her Bernie hate. She is much more likely to comment negatively on positive posts that others make about Bernie than making her own anti Bernie content, but I can’t find any of those examples at the moment so I’ll just go w/ this shit show from yesterday, about Nevada.

#DO. N0T. R3BL0G. thanks #mine

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self-isolating-mochi · 2 years ago

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I just read the Twitter thread attached to this post this morning and I'm reblogging this now to express how disgusted I am to learn that forcibly detransitioning people is something that is actually happening, and has probably in all likelihood been happening for quite some time now. Thank you to OP for linking that thread and to Bad Writing Takes for compiling all of that information together.

Specifically thankful for this section getting thrown in as an excellent example of the visceral and unwarranted hatred towards trans people. A stark reminder to contrast the painted pleasantries that want to deceive us into feeling, even for a brief moment, that the people who tell these lies are anything close to civilized. There is nothing civilized about the frank, perverse, and caustic hatred that seeks to eradicate trans people from existence. It is wanton. It is not stopping. And it is going to tear families, communities, and this country apart.

In doing some light research on forcibly detransitioning people I found this Anti-Trans Bill Tracker through Vice. There is so much information packed into the website, and there's a further reading section that has links to some articles that provide context for this targeted legislation.

I hope someone out there finds this useful. I hope all of you find yourselves safe and comfortable in your beds tonight. I will be taking this information to some people I know who work directly with trans youths in hopes that it will help them in their care for them. Best of luck to each and every one of you.

She ain't even subtle anymore lmao

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sugar-petals · 6 years ago

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Fic Research 101

A general guideline with various tips and tricks.

What for?

Even if you’re the type who can construct giant fantasy worlds out of thin literary air, research makes the difference and can bring you a lot of enjoyment once the story becomes its own universe. Expanding the horizon is 100% worth it. For beginners, advanced writers, and experts equally. Readers always notice and cherish that level of detail. Even Terry Pratchett preoccupied himself with geography, history, art, or science books. And anything else that would catch his eye, not worrying about whether it was considered cheesy, odd, or stale bread. It was simply for the sake of interest and passion. What I found noteworthy: He actually preferred it over reading stories of his genre (!) as not to reiterate things subconsciously, i.e., what other authors researched and repurposed. We saw the result: He built believable, unique worlds. It doesn’t mean that you have to eschew reading entirely or need to create a groundbreaking universe. It’s just important to be aware how habitual input shapes what knowledge we believe is possible to cover in our stories.

Where/How

Sometimes, it does depend on how you search, not where. The — often grammatical — quality of your search engine request determines the character of what you receive. My favorite trick is to look for “types of [research subject]”. That gives me a wide array of what exists, how it looks like, and also possible substitutions should something not work out. It’s also easy on non-native speakers because definitions will come your way like that.

Mentality also matters. You can approach it like an academic looking for data or a creator of imaginary worlds curious about what people do. It will reflect in your story, big time. So it’s important to keep your style in mind even when you look up menial things, either can work.

When

It can be fun to figure out what kind of researcher you are. Either the one taking in all information first. As in, watching a documentary and then creating a spin-off in your AU. Or the one researching while writing. The advanced form for those with a lot of time on their hands is doing both. It will boil down to how good your long-term VS short-term memory is.

Alienating VS Involving The Audience

A tricky question remains what readers will understand and how they can ease into stories with extensive research. In my eyes, even if there is something they are unfamiliar with, the appeal of the story is times higher when the author goes some extra miles or has notable immersive details as the cherry on top.

The real bad guy that you have to watch out for are complex highbrow words for embellishment that a) nobody has ever heard of b) can’t be logically understood by looking at the situation.

"The family prepared the gallimaufry” will deter readers times more than “Catherine the Great died aged 67″. Because Catherine the Great is self-explanatory and well-known, but nobody has an idea that gallimaufry is a fancy old synonym for ‘stew’. So rather go for Catherine the Great even if the gallimaufry might be period-typical and sounds hilarious. The rule of thumb is: If you give enough context so the reader doesn’t have to research endlessly themselves, you can pull it off, particularly with readers who are native speakers. It’s more difficult with non-native speakers, but I would trust them to look something up if the vocabulary is entirely foreign to them. If you’re in doubt about that, simply provide more background information and describe things viscerally, maybe with a simile or metaphor.

So, unless you put it in the title (that’s a different topic), peppering your story with super fancy words from 200 AD that only you know can make you come across as a show-off trying to be way above the audience, while appropriate research and context makes you look like an artist who loves making stories and gives their readers an experience. I know, long fancy words are tempting, but try to keep them at a minimum if possible. Particularly when your AU is not historical or doesn’t feature fantasy elements. If you do write fantasy and drop something like say Latin as in Harry Potter (the spells), it helps to have a character who inquires about the word from another person in the fic. You give the reader a self-insert for that situation to learn about it. The same goes for new terms you come up with.

About Learning

This one is a big deal. Definitely figure out what type of learner you are (visual, auditory, etc), and what types of intelligence you are good at (logical, musical, linguistic, etc). Once you know how you retain information best, the world is easier. Many authors see research as an unwanted chore just because they take in useful information the wrong way. We all are curious creatures, it just depends on how things are presented to us. Once we find our forte, research loses much of its exhaustion, fear, and pressure.

Beware of comparison with other writers here. E.g. spatial-logical talents will be good at worldbuilding, while kinesthetic-literary talents will write authentic eroticism and action. We all have our niche and modes of brain function, sometimes it’s good to stick to your gifts instead of competing out of envy — which brings us back to Terry Pratchett and reiteration. Mind you, do experiment, do consider various ways of learning, what I mean is that you can make a story work faster knowing your potential in several areas.

Research Topic Masterposts

Perhaps you’ve seen them, the ones helping you construct a realistic XYZ scene. I know the hype around them, the effort is impressive, definitely keep it on your radar. Still, a word of caution. It’s often something you reblog for reference because you see all the options in one place but never go back to it. It can derail your research process immensely, too. The reason: It appears randomly, not when you need it. Heading out to research via browser in the right moment often yields more fitting results and options. After all, the person making the masterpost linked you guides to topics of their preference, often their stories’ research process, which can be far away from yours. I’ve often run into linked articles that are either too advanced or straightforward, it’s a bit of a Russian roulette to find the right insight. Which the masterpost creator obviously can’t and doesn’t have to anticipate, by all means — the same principle applies to this post, you have to cherrypick what resonates.

The problem is that you can’t know how useful to you personally the links are at first glance when you just reblog for later reference. Combing through the links and visiting a bunch to see if it is any good takes forever compared to a 10 sec google search. Ironically, you’d think someone else, maybe a more experienced author, doing the work for you spares you effort and it’s convenient, but the opposite can be the case. Sometimes, you have to research from scratch and rely on your own gut. Should you still find a solid masterpost giving you precisely what you’re looking for, and you remember to go back to it — installing XKit helps with that, it has an archive function: Check the timestamp (also via XKit). If the post has been around for longer, many links might be dead so keep an eye on this.

Wikipedia

Staring at black font against white forever can be frustrating and repetitive. Hyperlinks can distract, it consumes time. In some cases, infographics give you a quicker, more colorful outline with equal amounts of sources. Important: Remember the mentality bit. For some, inspiration comes first. In that regard, infographics can help you out further by providing a visual idea in terms of worldbuilding. If you are the data type and do juggle references, it might be a better idea trying Google scholar to find journals. Tip: Read their abstracts (the summary at the start) to get a quick overview. And then you’re ready to go.

Handy Shortcuts

Disclaimer: Those are for Mac. For Windows: Use Ctrl instead of Cmd.

Cmd + F (search) finds the needle in a stack of hay. This one is essential.

Cmd + T (open new tab) saves time.

Cmd + Z (undo) — every writer’s lifesaver, oh my god.

Cmd + A (select all) helps for copy paste. Mind you, don’t plagiarize.

Cmd + N (open new web page) for a blank slate, all other tabs stay open.

Cmd + down arrow brings you to the bottom of the page.

1) Cmd + Shift + 3 gives you a fast screenshot of the whole screen. 2) Cmd + Shift + 4 lets you select a rectangular/square area to screenshot.

the screenshots will be saved on your desktop.

Windows doesn’t have 2) but uses “Print Screen” for 1).

#writing corner #writing tips #writing advice #writing fics #fic writing #writing #research

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gayasinstupidpodcast · 6 years ago

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Howdy and goodmorning to every gay except the Bottoms for Pete Buttigieg account (too powerful. I’m scared)! In this episode Isaac and I talk about some of the various ways lgbt people are objectified/fetishized/tokenized by straight culture, and what that feels like (Not Good!). We talk about a lot of little, different things in this episode, so I put a lot of little, different things in our further reading section (my favorite one is the Power of Choosing Resilience article, TW for discussion of suicide). Please give us a listen, reblog, share this podcast with your friends, and give us a follow/subscribe if you feel so inclined!

*TW for meantion of r*pe in the context of y*oi 29:00-29:45*

You can find us on the Itunes Podcast App/Webpage at Gay As In Stupid Podcast! You can also find our episodes uploaded to Youtube and Soundcloud!

Further Reading:

Straight Girl on Girl: How Fetishizing Woman on Woman for Men Objectifies Women & Trivializes Lesbians

Just Because I’m Gay Doesn’t Mean I Want To Be Your Sidekick

Why Gay Guys Don’t Answer The Top Or Bottom Question

Being An Oversexualized Lesbian In A Horny Straight Man’s World

The Power of Choosing Resilience

LGBT Fiction Recs Under The Cut!

Aaron’s March 2019 Recs!

Evening Shadows An Indian film about a young man visiting home for the first time in four years and trying to come out to his mother, set against a backdrop of the supreme court’s decision on whether or not to decriminalize gay sex. There are lots of movies about LGBT people coming out to religious families, but what stood out to me and my boyfriend when we watched this movie was the little moments of humanity and sweetness throughout-the protagonist’s clear and full love for his boyfriend, who he lives with, their circle of supportive gay friends, and the affection and similarity between him and his mother.

Carry On, by Rainbow Rowell This is like. Probably on out of two books by straight authors about gay characters that I’ll ever recommend. It’s a beautiful love story, and a riveting fantasy-adventure (Harry Potter with a better system of magic and no houses). I love the way this author writes human connection, and the love her characters have for each other-whether romantic, platonic, or familial-always feels genuine.

Isaac’s March 2019 Recs!

Love Letters to Jane’s World A collection of some of the most notable comic strips from Jane’s World, which features the first lesbian main character to feature in mainstream newspapers, throughout the years. Written and illustrated by Paige Braddock, it’s a true and fun telling of a young lesbian making her clumsy way through her life with friends. I adore these comics, and Braddock’s humor; so if you want to follow something written about a lesbian, by a lesbian, I highly recommend!

Queens of Adventure Another DnD Podcast, but this time the players are a group of Drag Queens. I’m only a few episodes in, but the I’m enjoying it a lot so far; it’s nice to have LGBT content like this created by LGBT folk and being able to support them directly. They are committed to making their podcast and drag a diverse space; and they are pretty hilarious throughout their adventure.

#lgbt podcast #LGBT Creators #transgender #gay #lgbt #trans creators #gay creator #gay as in stupid podcast #Gay as in stupid

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theclaravoyant · 6 years ago

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Enjoying all your trans appreciation fan works and reblogs so much! I'm not sure if you'll know this but maybe some of your followers might? I have a character in an og work that's trans, but I identify as cis. Do you know of any writing blogs or spaces that could give me advice both on writing a trans character well and also on what plot lines I should or shouldn't give them?

Hi! I am so glad you are enjoying the works! Thanks for the ask, I will do my best to answer below the cut.

The first thing to think about is that everyone has different perspectives on what should be expected when writing experiences that aren’t necessarily your own, and what counts as ‘your own’ experiences. The number one piece of advice everyone gives is “do your research, listen to trans people” which is super important but I promise you, it will get confusing and possibly nervewracking trying to do it ‘right’ the more perspectives you hear. Yay. Just do your best and somebody somewhere will appreciate it; as with any writing and representation, remember that you will never be able to please everybody and as hard as that is, it’s just reality. You’re also not pleasing anybody by not writing trans characters at all, so you already can’t win. I will start off to say, as a nonbinary (trans) person, thank you for trying and for reaching out, and I hope others appreciate that effort too.

For me personally, I try to strike a balance which an author described once along the lines of “I can include [x people] in my stories, but I can’t write about being [x].” There are certain inner lives and experiences of people eg. from different cultures, different religions, different gender experiences etc than ourselves that we may never be able to fully capture, so we may be limited in the depths to which we can authentically explore their inner lives, BUT we can and should still include such characters. They may not necessarily be able to be our most main characters, due to these limitations in depth and authenticity, but we can still populate our world with them. I think this is where you should consider aiming if you aren’t already.

Finding this balance feeds into the sort of ‘stories you shouldn’t tell’ idea. The main three to avoid are all somewhat intertwined and they are:

- depression- voyeurism- guilt

Similarly to with a lot of same sex attracted characters, trans people tend to be most tired of our stories being about the Struggle, depression/suicide, abuse etc. It’s a valid consideration since it’s such a reality for many trans people, but it’s pretty much all the stories we have. (There’s also plenty of struggle for the parents coming to terms with things etc......... bit over that focus too tbh). This article calls it ‘the cis gaze’ and it dominates the current media landscape when it comes to trans stories; we’re getting more of them, but they’re all the same. Think of just about any mainstream trans story and then... try something else)

Also, a lot of trans stories still end up being kind of... voyeuristic? There’s a lot about transition, surgery, and especially body parts and sex, and it’s kinda objectifying and gross. There’s also the concept of deadname reveals - a deadname being usually the name assigned at birth, which falls out of use and can even be triggering when a person realises they are trans and/or transitions. I personally don’t mind the occasional deadname reveal and similar in stories, especially when the “trans people are inherently deceptive” trope is subverted, but seriously it is in SO MANY trans stories, usually as a Shocking Twist that doesn’t let trans people have a right to privacy of their backstories. Of course, there’s lots in any character’s backstory that is vulnerable to become a shocking twist, but with trans people it comes with added baggage of being outed against our will and being treated as inherently deceptive for trying to live our lives. There’s extra weight to shocking twists of a trans nature (whereas if the trans character’s shocking twist was, they were born in a different country or they’re actually an expert marksman or something, that’s got less baggage - you can still do twists! just be mindful of ones where transness of the character is the ‘punchline’ if you will). If you can avoid deadnaming altogether, I would recommend that, or at least or subvert it (eg, someone finds out deadname, doesn’t feel need to reveal this to the universe and/or helps keep it quiet) or discourage it (eg. only this character’s abusive parents deadname them).

The main thing with this is, don’t make the trans character feel guilty about being trans, or seem shady/deceptive or incomplete for being trans. Don’t frame it like it’s some terrible secret, or that they Must reveal that they are trans or else they’re lying to their friends/partner/etc. This is one of the reasons why deadname reveals are so problematic, whether they are done by another character (outing someone against their will... don’t make good guys do this) or by the character themselves out of a sense of obligation, fear, or shame.

DON’T, DO NOT HAVE TRANS VILLAINS PLEASE. I just don’t think we’re at a place yet where there’s enough balance for this to be equal. It tends to get at the whole “men disguise themselves as women to rape women” thing which is a big ew especially because real transphobes really exist and really think this.

Also, avoid “she used to be a dude” jokes or similar, especially when met with unimaginable horror/being a dealbreaker (sitcoms i’m looking at you)

Don’t worry though, there are a lot of things you CAN do to make good trans rep. A few things that I think are good are:

- if your character has physically or medically transitioned in some way, reference that; it doesn’t require mentions of genitals. maybe someone has to shave their face more often, take injections, wear or not wear a binder

- treat transition as an ongoing processes rather than a single cathartic moment

- maybe the character has an odd or unusual name, or goes by many names in different contexts

- maybe the character has a dark past that may include some of the above, but now they are living healthily and happily; this is more important than never having gone through the above

- the character is likely to be sensitive to misgendering (eg. if they are a man, being mistaken for a woman or described in feminine terms)

- give the character dreams and goals outside of transitioning

- explore and respect the diversity of trans experiences; it is not as straightforward as being ‘a man/woman trapped in a woman/man’s body’ (and while we’re at it, not every trans person aggressively hates or is traumatised by their body - if you want more on dysphoria I can definitely talk about that but this is getting a bit long so I’ll press on for now)

- involve the characters in loving romantic relationships; trans people, and especially trans women, tend to be really hypersexualised (even when seen as simultaneously repulsive), not as complete beings with love lives (and/or regular, healthy sex lives that aren’t inherently perverted pornographic messes). mixing this up is refreshing

- don’t only have one trans character. not saying that you have to think up a whole gaggle of trans folk in detail, make trans mainstream in your mythical society, or have 3/9 squad members be trans or something, but for example, maybe the trans character lives out of home with other trans characters, or maybe if they are feeling isolated from other trans people over the course of the story, they seek out an environment where other trans people are and all they need to mention is “I went down to [known queer hangout] the other day” or “this is my new friend, [new trans person]”. maybe a character finds out this character is trans and goes “oh yeah, like aunt such and such.” I know the struggle as a writer that comes with trying to do everything in depth and well and all, so something like this is a good way to signal that trans people aren’t alone in your world - which is something that many of us feel irl

- and above all, give them ‘normal’ character storylines that don’t revolve around them being trans, and then weave the transness through, rather than treating transness as their entire plot/point of being.

There are some more articles here and here, I have heard this is good, and there is more and more coming out lately (eg this tag) which may help you from here. I am happy to give further advice or detail if you like, but I hope this is a good starting point for you!

#writing #writing trans characters #trans characters #asks #replies #Anonymous #ask me stuff

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h-styles-babes · 8 years ago

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No Control | Chapter Seventeen

Summary:

Micky Bennett: college student, loyal friend, aspiring nurse, One Direction fan, Harry Styles enthusiast. Her best friend, Trevor, wins tickets to a show in New Jersey with meet and greet passes. Micky expects a quick photo op with the boys and a great night at the concert with her best friend. What she gets a whole lot more than she bargained for.

To read previous chapters, you can go here.

*Please feel free to reblog and send feedback. It’s much appreciated :)*

*Gif is not mine.*

SEVENTEEN

The Coopers stick around well into the evening, playing a game of croquet in the yard that Robin set up after we all ate. The adults all play while the younger crowd sits back and laughs as the intoxicated parents bumble around, trying to knock the other balls off course. Harry keeps me in his lap all day, hands roaming over my jeans and up under my shirt to touch my bare skin when he can. Around the time the sun starts to go down, I can feel him begin to get restless, shifting in the seat constantly. Jen hasn’t really taken her eyes off us the entire day, so I think it’s in discomfort of having her practically stare at us, until he whispers in my ear.

“I need to have you, pet,” he says, lips grazing against my earlobe. He pulls me closer against him, and I can feel his erection press into my bum, making him hiss at the contact. “Think we can sneak away for a bit while everyone’s preoccupied out here?”

I glance around, taking note that Gemma’s on her phone, taking pictures of the game on Snapchat, laughing as her mum stumbles over her own feet for no reason. They’re all well entertained and not at all paying attention to Harry and me, except for Jen.

“In your mum’s home, Harry?” I ask, unsure if this is a good idea.

“It’s turning me on more thinking about it, angel,” he admits, teeth nipping at my ear now. “Never had anyone there before.”

“The sneaking around and the possibility of getting caught turns you on, doesn’t it?” I guess.

“Absolutely.”

I don’t really have to think about it; I just hop off his lap and grab ahold of his hand, helping him out of the lounger and letting him lead the way inside. I haven’t made it past the first floor all day, so I have no idea where his bedroom is. He leads me up the stairs and down the hall to the very last door on the right. I’m actually quite thankful that his bedroom is so far, hoping that maybe it’ll make it less likely for anyone to hear anything that might come from his room.

“Strip for me,” he demands, shutting and locking the door behind us. When he turns back to me, there’s a look in his eye that makes me shiver and heats me from the inside out all at the same time.

I smirk and let my fingers untie the material at the bottom of my shirt. “Anything for you, daddy.”

Harry and I leave early the next morning for the three hour drive to London. We stay just long enough to have a cuppa with Anne and Robin, and I thank them profusely for having me and welcoming me into their home for the day.

“It was wonderful to meet you, darling,” Anne insists, reaching over from where she’s sat across from me to grab my hand. “Anyone that Harry is so comfortable with and enjoys so much is more than welcome in our home.”

I can feel the blush rising on my face as Harry smiles at me, looking very content and a little blissed out, if I’m quite honest. The sex the night before was amazing, but I don’t think it warranted this level of relaxation twelve hours later. I smile back at him shyly.

The weather has gotten a bit nippy, so I’ve dressed in jeans, one of my favorite tees, and a black and pink Valentino bomber jacket that is much too expensive. The jacket, as well as the black Coach ankle boots I’m wearing were gifts from Trevor that resulted in his father not being able to see him on holidays. Whenever that happens, his dad wires him more money that usually results in shopping trips from Trevor. And since his own closet is to the point of nearly bursting, he takes it upon himself to make sure I’m well dressed, too. In the beginning, I flat out refused to accept any of the designer things he always bought, but he eventually wore me down, saying it’s what friends are for and he likes being able to do something nice with the guilt money that his dad’s always sending him.

“Like that jacket,” Harry compliments as we merge onto the highway. I look down at the bird and flower design and run my fingers over the slick satin. “It was a gift from Trevor. Valentino and I don’t even want to know how much it cost him.” I cringe just thinking about it.

“Valentino?” Harry asks. He glances over and looks at the jacket, rocking his head back in forth in contemplation. “Probably about three thousand pounds.” I gape. “That’s nearly four thousand dollars.”

Harry shrugs. “It’s Valentino, love. Shit’s not cheap.” He pulls at the jacket he’s wearing, a brown leather thing a pocket at each breast and diamond shaped cutouts. “Saint Laurent. About twenty-five hundred pounds.”

“Oh God,” I breathe out. “I don’t even want to know how much those damn button down shirts you wear cost. Could probably pay for my entire wardrobe with three of them.”

He chuckles and glances over at me, pushing his sunnies up into his hair as the sun goes behind the clouds. “Probably. I only wear them when I know I’m gonna be out, though. I don’t wear them to just lounge about the house.”

“Oh, that’s a relief,” I mutter sarcastically. I take a look at what he’s wearing now. He’s got on a tunic style grey shirt underneath with some buttons that go until about mid-chest, all unbuttoned of course. It looks like he could have bought it for thirty quid at TopShop, or it could be a ridiculously expensive article from Gucci or something equally over the top.

“Also Saint Laurent,” he quickly tells me, seeing me eyeing the shirt.

“Are we going out today, then?” I ask. I’ve seen him in a regular t-shirts before that I know were bought in the package because I could see the Hanes label on the neck, but I’ve only seen him wear those to lounge around in.

“Gonna stop by my house first, and then I have some mates who want to go to lunch, if that’s alright?” He looks over at me, a look of slight concern on his face, like he thinks I’ll nix his plans for the day, even though he’s probably had these plans a week out. I’m not his girlfriend and I’m not in the business of telling him what he can and cannot do, so I just shrug and nod.

“Fine by me. When do you think you’ll be back?” I ask. It’s been awhile since I’ve been to London, so I’m sure I can find something to do if I venture out on my own while he catches up with friends. There’s a medical museum in the area that I’d like to visit, now that I’m thinking about it.

His eyebrows shoot up on his head. “What? You’re not gonna come with me?”

I furrow my brows in confusion. “You want me to come with you? To meet your mates?”

“Well…” he gives me a look like that was obvious, “yeah. I want them to meet you. I wasn’t gonna bring you to London and then abandon you as soon as we got there. All my plans for the next few days now include you.”

“Oh,” is all I can say for a few moments as I realize Harry actually wants me to tag along with him. “Well, okay. Where are we going, then?”

“Just an Indian place in Covent Gardens,” he assures. “Might go out to do a bit of walking afterward.”

I look down at what I’m wearing again, taking in my plain jeans and the shirt I did get from TopShop for thirty quid. It’s just a white tee with the words “Females of the Future” in black block letters on the front. I look nowhere near acceptable to be standing beside Harry Styles, much less having lunch with him and his undoubtedly famous friends. The expensive-as-hell jacket I’m wearing is not a very good facade for what I’m wearing underneath. “Should I change?”

“No. I like your shirt. And your ass looks good in those jeans.” He smirks over at me.

I glare at him. “Yeah, and they were a bitch to get on this morning, thanks to you.” The bruises that had finally begun to fade from my bum were replaced with a vengeance last night.

“Weren’t complaining about it when I gave them to you, were you, princess?” Harry asks rhetorically. “Actually, I quite vividly recall you begging for them.”

“The term ‘princess’ is forever ruined for me. I’m gonna get turned on any time anyone says it in any context, now.”

Harry laughs, a loud barking laugh that I love hearing out of him, because it’s something he can’t control and it’s absolutely adorable how embarrassed he gets by it. “How do you think I feel about ‘daddy?’ I’m never gonna be able to have kids. They’ll have to call me by my first name or something.”

We tease each other back and forth for the remainder of the drive into London. We don’t ever pass through central London, but we eventually get towards a residential area near Hampstead Heath, and Harry slows the car down. We pass by a few little family-owned shoppes before he turns into the beginning of a driveway, closed off by a barn door style gate set into a brick wall that surrounds his property and butts up to his white house. He presses a button that he keeps on his visor like a garage door opener and the door begins to slide open, revealing Harry’s yard and the backs of the houses his is next to.

Harry’s house is large, but not overly so. It’s three stories, from what I can ascertain, and it’s got lots of little square windows. It’s big for a house in London, or the UK in general, but it’s about the normal size of a home in America. Harry pulls his car in and parks it just inside the wall, waiting for the gate to close before getting out. He quickly comes to my side to help me out, and I’m hit by the humidity and coolness of London. We live further from the coast, so we don’t get much of the mugginess, but I can nearly smell the water here.

Harry holds my hand and carries both of our bags over his shoulders as he shows me into his house. The door he leads me through takes us directly into a modernly furnished sitting room, but I can definitely tell that only a man lives here with it’s sharp lines and neutral colors. It smells like Harry, though, even though he hasn’t been here in awhile, the cinnamon smell of his parents’ house permeating here as well.

“This is the sitting room, and through there is a family room,” he says, beginning a tour. He points to our left where an archway leads to a more cozy, intimate looking room is decorated with photos and warm colors. He pulls me toward a hallways and motions to the right. “That’s the kitchen, and straight ahead is the gym.” He has me follow him up a flight of stairs to the next floor. When we get to the landing, he points left first. “Bedroom I turned into a studio.” Points ahead. “Guest room.” Points to the right. “Extra room I have nothing to do with. No idea what to do with it, honestly. It’s a bit small.” We turn and head up to the final story, which only has the landing and two doors on it. “That door leads to the rooftop patio. Nice to go out there at night.” He takes hold of my hand again and pulls me through the remaining door. “And this is the master bedroom.”

His room looks cozy, with the warm colors and the dark wood of his furniture. It’s manly but also warm and very him. There’s artwork on the walls and a binder on his dresser that looks to be chuck full of something. The room is massive, and the bed in the center is a four poster with lots of pillows and fluffy looking grey bedding. He’s got a telly set up on the wall opposite the bed as well as a small entertainment center that holds a DVD player and a game console. There’s sliding doors that I assume lead to his bathroom, and, judging by the square footage I know is left on this story, it’s massive.

Harry sets our bags down on a leather seat that runs the length of his bed at its foot, then turns and pulls me against him, his hands resting on my hips. He leans down and presses his forehead to mine, our noses touching.

“I’m glad you came with me,” he tells me, his voice barely above a whisper. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be right now, Harry,” I admit.

Harry presses his lips to mine, delicately cradling my face in his hands. We kiss leisurely and without intent of this going anywhere else. We’re just enjoying the feeling of having each other.

He pulls away when his phone starts ringing in his pocket. He pulls it out and answers it without hesitation.

“Hello?” He listens intently as the person on the other end speaks. “Alright, we’ll be there in twenty.” Harry’s about to hang up when the other person hurries to tell him something, which makes Harry curl his lip up in annoyance. “Couldn’t have sat inside?” Another pause. “Fine. No, it’s fine. We’ll deal with it.” He hangs up the phone without preamble and sighs. “We’re sitting outside, so just be prepared. Shouldn’t be too bad, since no ones knows I’m in London, but it probably won’t take them very long to figure it out.”

“Hey,” I say, grabbing onto his hands and giving them a reassuring squeeze. “I’m not afraid of some silly pictures, Harry. My face is already out there and it hasn’t been that big of a deal.”

He purses his lips to the side as his thumbs stroke over my knuckles. “I know, I just wish I could keep you to myself.”

I smile reassuringly. “I’m all yours, H. No one can take that away form us. We’ll figure it out, remember?”

Harry smiles and kisses me one more time. “Yeah, we will. Just don’t be afraid to tell me if this all gets to be too much, yeah? Your comfort is my priority while you’re with me.”

“I can handle it, Harry. Promise.” I stand on my tip toes and peace him on his nose, making him scrunch it up with a goofy little grin. “Now c’mon. Don’t want to keep anyone waiting.”

Harry parks his car in a lot a few blocks from where we’re set to eat. He twines his fingers with mine immediately, keeping me close to him as we begin to walk the streets of London. He pulls our hands up to his face as we wait at a crosswalk, kissing the back of mine and smiling at me.

“You’re okay with the PDA?” I ask, slightly surprised. It’s one thing to be out together, but it’s an entirely different thing to have him be so openly affectionate in a non-platonic way. The photos of us in New York were pushing it, but there’s nothing about his gesture now that would leave room for question.

“Can’t let the media rule my life,” he explains as we begin to walk. “My fucking life. I’ll love on who I please and not give a shit about who sees. You’re my girl, Mick. Not gonna let fans or paps ruin that.”

My heart swells at his sweet words and his disregard for anyone else’s opinions. I’m not sure his management would feel the same way, but I don’t really care about them. Harry’ll be rid of them in a few month’s time anyway, so there’s not much they can do about it. His fans are a whole other monster, though. But they’re a hurdle no matter what he does, so I’m sure he’s pretty over it by now.

We walk up to chic-looking Indian restaurant that has a few tables outside, right next to a Jamie Oliver’s and a few other places. There’s a group of three already sat at a table, but they seem to be the only ones. It’s only a little before noon, so I’m sure the restaurant has only recently opened for the day. Harry slings his arm around my shoulders as we get closer, and I wrap an arm around his waist so we can walk together comfortably.

The group’s faces become clear as we approach, and I balk a little at who I see. Sat at the table are none other than Nick Grimshaw and a couple of his and Harry’s mutual friends.

“Is that Cara Delevingne and Rita Ora?” I ask, hearing the own trepidation in my voice. Nick I was expecting, because he and Harry are close, and I can handle him seeing as we’ve spoken on the phone before, but Cara and Rita are on another plane. They’re both completely gorgeous and I’m intimidated to be even within twenty metres of them.

“Yeah,” Harry answers casually with a shrug. Then I think he realizes that I’m not also a famous individual and looks down at me. “You alright, princess?”

“Yeah, just gonna be constantly judging myself against a gorgeous model and a beautiful singer. No big deal.”

Harry laughs and presses a kiss to my temple. “They’re just as weird as I am. You’ll get used to them. Plus, you’re every bit as stunning as both of them.”

There’s a hostess outside who’s eyes widen when she sees Harry and moves to greet him, but he just waves her off with a polite smile. “’S alright. We’re right here,” he tells her, gesturing to the people sitting at the table.

The sole man turns his head round over his shoulder and lights up with a big smile when he spots Harry.

“Baby Harold!” he greets, getting up from his seat to sling his arms around Harry in a hug. “How kind of you to join us. Who’s your friend?” Grammy looks me up and down, his grin never leaving his face.

“Grim, this is Micky. Believe you met on the phone last week.”

Grimmy’s eyes bug out a bit as he looks at me, his grin widening. “The famous Micky. You’re just as stunning as your voice suggested.” He doesn’t hesitate in pulling me into a hug as well, lingering like we’ve known each other for years instead of a two minute phone call and the previous thirty seconds. “Come, sit. Tell me all the dirt you’ve gotten from Harold in the last week. I need more blackmail material.”

I laugh as Harry pulls out a seat for me. As he sets himself down he gestures at the two other women at our table. “Mick, this is Cara and Rita. Guys, this is Micky Bennett.”

Both of them smile at me warmly and greet me kindly.

“Nice to meet you guys,” I say, tamping down the anxiety I feel building in my chest. I’ve had the biggest crush on Cara since I found out who she was, and Rita is so gorgeous and she’s got a great voice, and I feel so insignificant amongst all the pretty faces at the table.

I can feel myself getting hot, so I unzip my jacket and remove it to rest it over the back of the chair. Harry’s reaches under the table and sets his hand on my thigh, offering me comfort when I’m sure he can see I’m a bit overwhelmed.

“Oh, my God,” Nick bursts, hands braced on the table from where he’s sat at the head. He’s gawking down at my shirt, and I’m not sure what he’s on about until he says, “I’m sorry, but you’ve got the best pair of tits I’ve seen. No offense, Cara. Yours are great, but Micky is killing it right now.”

She shakes her head with a shrug. “No, you’re right, they’re great,” she says, looking over my chest. “Like the shirt, too. I’ve got one in red print.”

Harry and Rita laugh at my obvious astonishment at this chain of events. I’m not sure what it is about gay men and my breasts, but I just kind of roll with it at this point. Trevor has a weird thing for them, and apparently Nick has now joined that wagon.

“Uh…thanks?” I mutter, glancing down at myself. They don’t look particularly perky today or anything, though they do kind of pull at the material of my shirt in a way that very obviously shows I’m not wearing a bra. Having worn one for the entirety of the day before reminded me how much I hate them, so I made sure I would not be wearing one today.

“Alright, enough staring at my girl’s chest,” Harry announces. “Let’s order; I’m starving.”

I don’t miss how the other three at the table raise their eyebrows at each other with Harry’s declaration.

EIGHTEEN

#harry styles #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles imagine #one direction #No Control

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reyintherain · 8 years ago

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(This is kind of part 3 of my Vanity Fair related post-gate thoughts)

Naturally and unfortunately, these recent news stirred some fandom drama, and while much has been said about some fans being overly eager to defend and present their views and interpretations, to put it mildly, I wanted to share my two cents too on this story and a larger picture. As I was writing the previous bit on the Vanity Fair coverage, that post gradually grew into something larger, and to keep things clear I moved it to a separate post. Not that anyone would probably care, but here it is, thoughts and lessons from my experience and observations in this fandom so far, Reylo fandom in particular.

Having been first a passive observer since c. February 2016, and later a modest contributor (and still much of an observer, go-with-the-flow-discover-artwork-and-gifs type of blogger), one of the first things I noticed was the ways some fans were treating and plainly attacking other fans for what they disagreed with them. That was the first instance of learning about antis and what they do, and seeing the consequences of their actions, up to the point that some people felt the need to deactivate their blogs and presumably leave this site (for good or for a while, doesn’t matter). Literally almost every blog that I visited and followed that created or reblogged Reylo related content, be it art, thoughts, meta, or fanfiction seemed to have been under attack. Sadly, that wasn’t a big surprise as the Internet is notorious for many examples of cyber-bullying, gatekeeping, and a place to be an asshole under a comfy blanket of anonymity and lack of societal norms that act as guidelines for what’s okay and what’s not when it comes to interactions with others in real life.

Taking obsession with a fictitious fairy-tale to the extreme and making it life is nothing wrong with, as well as liking or disliking some aspects of it and its interpretation. If only some fans were a bit more sensitive, mature, and respectful when it comes to discussion around everyone’s favourite saga and characters. Seeing people getting attacked for their views and interpretations based on what is clearly given in the photos/articles, as well as media’s poor choice of words when it comes to shipping - e.g. recent Vanity Fair’s article referring to Reylo and Stormpilot as fantasies, fanfiction, imagined things - is unfortunate and shows less pleasant corners of the fandom and geek culture, big or small: ugly and toxic when it comes to fans attacking and bullying other fans or dismissive and even condescending attitude when it comes to talking about shipping culture and a phenomena of engaging in characters’ dynamics and relationships.

These past couple days are probably the first time since I’ve been actively (following) in the fandom on Tumblr that I saw the drama and, not one, but whole two gates unfold right before my eyes as the hell broke loose (thanks, Vanity Fair) (I remember watching things like #ashgate but it seemed to stir controversy among Reylo shippers, rather than send them tons of ants love, but I might be wrong). While I wasn’t personally attacked, I felt no better for seeing other blogs and posts get dragged down. It’s ridiculous to think some people take time in shaming and attacking others while claiming they despise the topic at hand themselves, yet actively post about it, send messages and stuff. Really, what’s their fucking problem, and why the fuck they feel entitled to push their opinions and preferences on others, seek them out and attack them, because they are not.

Since starting this blog, I got some ant* love letters too. No really, I was like, wow, I’m being recognized in this community haha. But really it’s not funny at all. I did engage once into conversation which led to nowhere and just got me more insults. And - confession time - I regret the way it sounded when I said how can they accuse me of supporting abuse because I like Reylo (which isn’t an abusive ship) when they themselves like Anakin who is canonically abusive and a murderer. It’s not what I said about that person liking Anakin that bothers me, but rather how I said that, as if getting back at them. The thing is I myself consider Anakin’s tragic fall as one of my favourite parts about the prequels, and I really like Revenge of the Sith. Not that I support Anakin’s murderous acts, but I understand where they come from, and enjoy the tragedy of the story which is quite beautiful. While I was upset and frustrated at them attacking me, and I was trying to have a sensible conversation, and was trying to point out incoherence and hypocrisy in the argument of that person, that part about Anakin came a bit off. Not my proudest moment, though I may overthink about it and make a bigger deal out if it than it really is, but in all honesty, I could’ve phrased it better. I’ve learned my lesson to be better than that and not to get back to someone. Some people might say, well that’s simply self defense, and I heard some people saying that the the best way to put some back into their place when they’re being aggressive to you is to reply in their language i.e. in their way. I don’t agree with that, and believe there are other, more civil and polite ways to deal with those kind of things. Because replying by getting back to someone is being no better than them, and can actually achieve the opposite, and let the fire rage on (unless that’s what you want, but that’s another story).

Another lesson from that interaction was that, unfortunately, sometimes there is no point in engaging in one-sided conversations when the other side is doing nothing but insulting and attacking, not listening, and not willing to have an intelligent discussion. It’s not even a conversation but rather a full-on verbal attack where one side - the attacking side - is speaking to attack only, and listening only to pick words out of context, manipulate and twist their meaning, and then reply using your own twisted out-of-context words as further proof how dumb and disgusting you are. That's disrespectful, immature, and toxic, and I have no further wish to ever engage in such conversations. Hence, the last, but not least lesson - block them all.

Now, no one should be attacking and getting attacked like that to begin with, but the reality is that those things happen, unfortunately, and yes it’s unfair that the burden of keeping oneself safe and one’s well-being sane falls onto them, but fortunately, an option to block exists, and can really help. It’s not a solution that addresses the root of the problem, and might not be applicable in all cases, but it’s quite an effective tool which can help rid of ants and make overall fandom experience happier. Because if not for fun, why else do this? It’s about taking control into your hands (when possible), and saying no I don’t want to engage into that, I want my fandom/shipping experience what I want it to be - fun and enjoyable.

As for those who feel the urge to jump and acutely disagree with anything and anyone that differ from them and their reading, there are polite and respectful ways to engage in discussion. Being open, listening, doing some introspective work, considering others, and considering why we all are in this fandom - for our love of the same thing - should be really a routine. The ways we engage might be different, what we take away, who we identify with, how we interpret canon material - all of that can and should be approached from different angles, and shouldn’t be a problem at all. Instead of ripping the fandom apart - embracing multiple facets of it, having fun - but not at the expense of others, - and celebrating (analyzing, and over-analyzing, and criticizing) all things Star Wars is the way to be.

#the last jedi #vanity fair #tlj #romancegate #boobgate #reylo #star wars #sw fandom #tlj gates #pre ep VIII #*#my post #i'm writing way more than i should've considering how much time it takes #but i really felt like saying it #even though no one cares #my blog my posts

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arabianhorse · 7 years ago

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For context on what’s going on with Tumblr at the moment.

Reddit user mzbear best described the situation, so I’ll leave their description here:

“Tumblr management is incompetent.

When they remove child porn images, they tend to leave the original posts and their accompanied notes intact. So, basically, they're leaving up lots of these "Hey, we removed illegal material that was here, but please click below to see 200 more blogs that might have what you're interested in". They are essentially accomplices to distribution of child porn.

The child porn pictures often get reblogged over a thousand times before they are removed, which can take a week or even months. There are a lot of child porn images that have been on the platform for several months, even though numerous users (but not all of them!) reblogging the illegal image have been banned. Even worse, banned users just recreate their accounts, sometimes incrementing a number in end of the account name. Those numbers eventually reach double digits, they just keep coming back.

There are also "beacon" images that don't get removed at all, since they only contain text in the image such as "reblog if you want to have sex with children". Using these, pedophiles can easily find hundreds of other pedophile blogs and reconnect back to the grid after they are forced to recreate their account. Some of the beacons have existed for several years.

The pedophiles on tumblr are fearless. There are people taking selfies of themselves, showing their face, and then showing them jacking off to child porn that's on their computer screen. There are people openly trading their phone numbers to connect in Whatsapp to trade images there, and although the international numbers I've seen have mostly been China, Vietnam, Mexico, Brazil, and other similar places a bit further away from the western civilization, there are users from Europe and USA posting their phonenumbers on those beacon posts. There are posts about "pedo pride" and the whole thing is outright crazy. There are thousands of active pedophiles on tumblr. THOUSANDS.

And what does Tumblr administration do? They nuke all the NSFW. I'm not entirely sure whether this will truly eradicate the child porn from Tumblr, considering the nature of the tumblr pedophile community. We'll see.

What they should've done? First of all, they should've made reporting cleaner. There's no obvious way to find the reporting functionality at all if all you do on tumblr is following others. Their help center has zero results for "child porn" or "illegal", and when you finally find the help page for reporting content, it informs you that you need to click the "SHARE" button on the child porn images to report illegal content. Not kidding. Who the hell designed this system? I don't know about you, but I'm sure as hell NOT clicking SHARE on any child porn image, even when I know it opens a popup where I can choose to report it.

Second, they should delete deeper. Most importantly, they should delete the posts when they delete the associated images. Pedophiles are delighted to see empty frames of pictures that have been removed for violating rules, because it allows them to find new blogs that reblogged the illegal content in question. Many of those blogs are still going to be completely intact. It's also not uncommon to see child porn images with several thousand notes and almost everyone involved with it banned, but the picture intact. Seriously, if half of the users reblogging a certain image are already banned, maybe they need to review that image to see if it has to be deleted.

Third, they should ban people who hit "like" on illegal images. A large number of pedophiles do not reblog anything, they instead hit the like-button which keeps their content a bit more "stealth" from the masses. Other pedophiles can still find the material by browsing the liked-by lists. Apparently accounts that like illegal content won't get banned that easily, either, which is utterly ridiculous.

There are many other things they could do, from verifying users with SMS to building better tools for exploring the site (to bring the things that hide in darkness into the light). All of the effective measures, however, require quite a bunch of work. Banning NSFW is just a policy change and isn't expensive to enforce, although it might be expensive in terms of users lost.

PS. Oops, ended up writing a wall of text. I've been meaning to write a larger article about this situation for a while now, but if this move ends up killing the child porn communities on tumblr then maybe I won't have to. I have so much to say about this, but ultimately it stems up to a single thing: Tumblr management is incompetent and grossly negligent in handling content removal.”

Source

#text #tumblr #tumblr staff #text post #reddit

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