#and usually end up tweeting or blogging about it also

[youreaclownnow]

Ppl: you don't seem autistic

Me, who has a highly specific every month routine revolving around 1 particular movie:

#i have a meter in my brain that measures CCA levels. when it gets low the routine kicks in automatically #this occurs every 3-5 weeks like clockwork ever since i first watched it #and my specific routine is this: go out for smoke or eat an edible ahead of time #make a comfort food of sorts it has to be a Safe Food i did it once with regular food and it just felt Wrong #get a massive helping of said food we eat like kings when we watch CCA #sit down and press play #proceed to eat lots of scrumptious food and watch the best movie ever #then afterwards #once the movie is done and yes we sit through the entirety of beyond the time #then go sit on the porch (yes it has to be the porch not the deck) #and have a smoke and think about the movie #and usually end up tweeting or blogging about it also #its so funny to me that i do this but i cannot seem to stop and its great entertainment so i will keep doing it

[jscwrites]

Please Follow this Backup Blog for Vendetta-IF

Hey guys, it's jsc, the author of Vendetta. I'm making this blog to backup all of the stuff I've posted over on the vendetta-if blog because I can't access my main account. Until I can access my account again, this will be the blog I'll use to interact with all of you and post updates. And in the worst case scenario, this will become the main blog.

So, please, follow this blog as I will be posting updates and answering asks like usual here. Also, for those who want to share their fanarts and other fanworks, please tag this blog too so I can see it. I'll also start reblogging some posts and asks from the Vendetta blog here in hopes of preserving them as much as I can. So, be prepared for a little blast from the past as we walk down the nostalgia road, I suppose.

I'm really sad because just earlier today, I checked my followers count and saw that we were 30 followers away from reaching 4K Followers in the main Vendetta blog, and I was thinking about what to do to celebrate it. Plus, there are also so many awesome fanarts and asks that I don't want to just be gone, which is why I'm making this blog to reblog all of them.

For those who are new and wondering what my story is all about, please check out the intro post I've reblogged. I might need to make another intro post in the future if I never get access back to my account, but for now, I hope it'll suffice.

IMPORTANT LINKS

[ORIGINAL INTRO POST]

[VENDETTA BLOG ARCHIVE]

[DEMO | Latest Chapter: 6 Part 1 | 272.8K words total] 

[FORUM] 

[PATREON] | [KO-FI]

[DISCORD]

CHARACTER RELATED MASTERPOSTS:

[CHARACTERS LIST]

[ARTBREEDER PORTRAITS] [ROs] [Other Pt. 1] [Viktor] [Other Pt. 2]

[CHARACTER PLAYLIST]

ADDITIONAL LINKS

[PUBLIC SIDE STORIES LIST]

[AO3 WRITTEN FANWORK] -> Currently 3 works

For those who are interested in what happened, I'll tell the details under the cut.

So, a few hours ago, I decided to open my iOS Tumblr app to check on notifications and stuff, as I usually do. But instead, I got hit with the Tumblr error messages over and over as it keeps trying to load in.

At first, I just thought it was my cellphone Internet connection, so I tried logging in on the desktop. At first, after I input all of my login credentials, the page loaded, but it brought me to the viewing page of my Vendetta blog as a non-user. I tried again, and this time, it said that my account got terminated. I never got any email from Tumblr about this, and it came as a shock because I just used my Tumblr earlier today to reblog some fanarts with no problem and I have never really used my account for other non-IF related stuff.

So, I scrambled to ask my members in Discord whether my Vendetta blog is still up, and thankfully it still is. But, my main account is somehow gone. The problem is, my Vendetta blog is actually a sideblog to my main account, jsclarissa.

As you can see here, when I tried searching for my main account, it says "Ghost blog! This blog does not exist." despite me having used that account to respond to comments and send asks to other authors before.

I have sent a support ticket to Tumblr support and also tweeted them on Twitter. I really hope they can give me my account back as I'm pretty sure this is some kind of technical issues on their end. I'm just worried about how long it would take them to respond and of course, the worst case scenario that it actually got terminated, so, I'm making this account.

Even if I got my account back, I'll still reblog stuff from the main blog here and maybe I can finally have a more personal blog where I can talk about stuff that is not really related to Vendetta.

#intro post #important announcement #writing update #if: vendetta #if vendetta #vendetta if #if game #if wip #dashingdon #choicescript #interactive fiction #interactive novel #interactive story #interactive games #cyoa #cyoa game #choice of games #hosted games

[showstopper35]

tbb band au

a/n: spontaneously decided I had to make this or I would die, so you’re welcome?

Hunter - Lead guitar, but he doesn’t sing. No, he’s just there to look pretty. The fangirls are utterly obsessed with him. He flings his sweaty headband into the crowd at the end of shows. Sometimes he plays so aggressively that his fingers start to bleed on his guitar. Most pro photos are of him, and he has the most tumblr fan blogs.

Wrecker - I think we all know he is the drummer. And he loves it. Has accidentally broken many a snare during practices and shows. He arrives on the stage first and loves to hype up the crowds. When the Bad Batch (the band name, I’m so creative) aren’t touring, he often volunteers to drum for other bands.

Echo - The Batch once opened for a band called the Dominos, who were more popular. After they broke up, Echo joined the Bad Batch as a keyboardist. He also provides backup vocals from time to time. He is usually the voice of reason if there is tension between the members.

Tech - I bet you thought he was going to be on keyboard, right? No. He plays the bass. I mean, have you seen his hands? He is terrible with the press and awkward with the fans, but when he gets on the stage and plays the bass lines, the crowd lives for him. He has a very dedicated cult following, and possibly the most fan edits on TikTok.

Crosshair - The lead singer and rhythm guitarist. His mysterious, bad-boy aura is why he was chosen as the singer. All of the boys can sing, but Cross was really the only one who put in the extra effort. With countless voice lessons and perfect pitch, he has a raw, anguished wail similar to Bono from U2. Outside of the stage, nobody knows anything about him. It’s intriguing, and attractive.

Omega - Omega started as their #1 groupie, and now she travels as a stagehand. Occasionally she is allowed onstage to play the most random of instruments. She has a Twitter account with a fake name that posts surprisingly accurate facts about the band and awful candid photos of the members. She also runs their TikTok.

Extras:

-fans of Bad Batch are known as “batchers”

-Cody is their manager under Kenobi Chords Records

-Howzer has a solo act and he has opened for them a couple times

-They once did a “Bad Batch reads thirst tweets” video

#the bad batch #tbb #star wars #sw #tcw #echo tbb #tbb hunter #crosshair the bad batch #tbb wrecker #tbb tech #tech the bad batch #tbb headcanons #tcw headcanons #bad batch headcanons #tbb au #bad batch au #sw au #star wars au

[bts-trans]

230218 Big Hit's Tweet

[네이버 포스트] 제이홉 생일에 제이홉 화보 비하인드? 완전 따봉,, 감동작렬~,, 방림이 센스 기절이지? (@ https://m.post.naver.com/viewer/postView.naver?volumeNo=35500077&memberNo=51325039) #BTS #방탄소년단 #jhope #제이홉 #정호석

[Naver Post] A behind-the-scenes post from j-hope’s photobook on j-hope’s birthday? Amazing,, an explosion of emotions~,, Bangbell knows what’s up right? (@ https://m.post.naver.com/viewer/postView.naver?volumeNo=35500077&memberNo=51325039)

#BTS #jhope #JungHoseok

Naver Post Translation

Keep reading for a plain text version of the blog post! Since tumblr has a picture limit for posts, please check out our twitter post or the HD version on our website for a version with all GIFs included!

[BTS] Me, Myself, and j-hope 비하인드 포스트

[BTS] Me, Myself, and j-hope Behind Post

아-하!

Hi-A!

(T/N: Stands for ‘Hi ARMY’, which is how Bangbell always starts these posts.)

아미들 안녕하세요?! 방림이 입니다. 제가 돌아왔습니다. (?)

Hello ARMYs?! It’s Bangbell. I’ve returned. (?)

티저 이미지부터 아미들의 머릿속을 물음표와 느낌표로 도배시켰던 2월 Special 8 Photo-Folio의 주인공이죠! Me, Myself and j-hope 'All New Hope' 의 비하인드 포스트로 찾아왔습니다 ! (박수) (함성)

From the very first teaser image that plastered questions marks and exclamation points all over ARMYs’ minds It’s the main character of the February Special 8 Photo-Folio! I’ve come to you with a behind-the-scenes post for Me, Myself and j-hope 'All New Hope'

(applause) (cheers)

호비호비 생일 떡밥 축복에 끝이 없네…. 아미들 지치지말고 달려보자고 (비장) ㄴ 아미들 : 오히려좋아

There’s no end to this blessing of birthday content for Hobi Hobi…. ARMYs, don’t get tired and keep running (solemn) ㄴ ARMYs : That’s fine with me

이번 화보는 쩨이호옵! 하면 떠오르는 밝고 스트릿한 이미지를 벗어나 제이홉만의 청순,,,섹시,,,아련,, 매력을 새롭게 어필한 화보라고 할 수 있는데요! 아미들도 그 매력,, 다양하게 느끼셨나요? ㄴ아미 : 네네네네네네네!!!!!!!

For this photobook j-hope! sheds his usual bright, street-style image You can say that j-hope’s unique pure,,,sexy,,,sorrowful,, charms are shown off with a new kind of appeal in this photobook! Can ARMYs,, feel that charm in all these different ways? ㄴARMY : Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes!!!!!!!

또한 화보 이름이 ‘All New Hope’ 인 것 처럼 새로운 호비의 모습을 위해 포토작가님과 직접 미팅도 진행하며 적극적으로 의견을 내었다는 명불허전 Jㅔ이홉의 소식도 소소하게 전해드리면서!

Also just like the photobook’s name is ‘All New Hope’ there were whispers that J-Hope, who lives up to his name, personally met with the photobook designer to discuss the new Hobi’s appearance and actively gave his opinion!

그렇다면! 방림이가 준비한 비하인드 사진, 안볼수가 없겠죠! 지금 바로 구경하러 가보시죠!

So! There’s no way we can’t not look at the behind-the-scenes photos that Bangbell prepared! Let’s go take a look!

모르겠다.. 첫 사진부터 걍 기절이다 요정하라고 나만의 팅커벨 그런거 하라고 그냥

I don’t know.. I’m about to pass out just from the first photo Be a fairy Just be something like my own personal Tinkerbell

님… 왜 자꾸 저 꼬시는거예요..? 아니 이 사람이 먼저 그랬다니까요? 아니 이거 좀 놔봐요 저기요

Sir… why do you keep coming at me..? No this person did it first? No let go excuse me

다음 생에는 돌멩이로 태어나자 장점 : 호비가 쓰다듬어줌

In our next life let’s be reborn as stones Pros : Hobi will pet us

아니면 모니터로 태어날까 이렇게 사랑스럽게 쳐다봐주는데.. (울먹)

Or should I be born as a monitor He’s looking at it so lovingly.. (about to cry)

갑자기 등장한 블랙홉에 아미들 민심 술렁 -

The sudden appearance of black-hope is causing chaos among ARMYs

제이홉,, 뒤에 날개 잘숨겼��,, 보일까봐 조마조마 했는데,,,,

j-hope,, you hid your wings behind you well,, I was nervous that they’d be seen,,,,

후,,, ,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,, ,, 아미들 다들 긴장해라 큰거온다

Whew,,, ,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,, ,, ARMYs you should all be very nervous

Countdown

?

??

??????

??????????? ??? ????? ?????? 제이폼 홉 미쳤다 제이홉 폼 미쳤다 (ㅋㅋ) (좋아 자연스러웠어)

??????????? ??? ????? ?????? j-form’s hope is crazy j-hope’s form is crazy (haha) (Nice. That sounded totally natural)

님.. 님은 진짜….. 화보를 찍기 위해 태어난 사람 같으세요..

Sir.. Sir you’re so….. You’re like a person who was born to shoot for a photobook..

제이홉은 웜톤임? 쿨톤임?

Is j-hope warm tone? Cool tone?

아니면 내 인생을 이어나가줄 바톤임?

Or the baton that will carry on my life?

아니면 내가 정호석을 보면서 평생 닦아내지 못할 침샘 1톤임?

Or a ton of salivary glands that I can’t manage to wipe off as I look at Jung Hoseok?

아니면 내 인생의 달달한 메가톤임?

Or my life’s sweet megaton?

아니면 내가 평생 완주하지 못할 사랑의 마라톤임?

Or the marathon of love that I’ll never be able to finish?

아니면 내 인생에 뛰어든 행복 77톤임? ㄴ 그만

Or 77 tons of happiness that jumped into my life? ㄴ Stop

ㄴ킹치만 정호비가.. (물복임? 딱복임? 도 할라했는데 아깝네.. 방림이는 물복임.)

ㄴBut Jung Hobi.. (Is he a soft peach? A hard peach? I was going to do this too but it seems a waste.. Bangbell is a soft peach.)

역! 시! 나! 정호비가 정호비했다.

As! expected! Jung Hobi Jung Hobi-ed.

호비만의 새로운 모습이 가득담긴 Me, Myself and j-hope 'All New Hope' 잘 구경하셨나요? 아직 포토북을 못 받은 아미들은 방림이 포스트 보면서 조금만 기다려~ 기다려~!

Did you enjoy looking through Me, Myself and j-hope 'All New Hope' that’s full of Hobi’s unique new look? For all the ARMYs who haven’t gotten the photobook yet look through Bangbell’s post and wait~ wait~ just a bit longer!

남은 하루도 기분좋게 마무리 하길 바라요 아미들! (요즘 딸기가 그렇게 맛있ㅇ…) 감기조심 하고 우리는 다음에 또 만나요!

I hope you have a great rest of your day ARMYs! (Strawberries are really yummy these days…) Thank you and we’ll meet again soon!

아-뿅!

A-Poof!

(T/N: Short for “Bye ARMY! Poof!”, which is how Bangbell always ends these posts.)

[Note]

본 포스트는 BIGHIT MUSIC에서 직접 운영하는 포스트입니다.

This Naver Post is personally run by BIGHIT MUSIC.

[End Note]

Trans cr; Ali | Typeset cr; Archillea @ bts-trans © TAKE OUT WITH FULL CREDITS

#230218 #big hit #twitter #naver post #official #j-hope #hobi #hoseok #me myself and j-hope #what a great concept #bts #bangtan #bangbell #blogpost #photos

[watching-sam-and-dean-again]

Sam & Dean are, in fact, soulmates

It’s rant time again! (Sorry)

I saw an idiotic interesting take on Twitter last night where someone claimed that Sam and Dean aren’t soulmates, and that they couldn’t understand how anyone could interpret it that way (particularly referring to "Dark Side of the Moon"). And they actually wondered what show soulmate-truthers (my term) were watching.

Umm, the actual show?

I’ve paraphrased the comment slightly and replies slightly, and I’m not posting a pic of the actual post, because I’m going to try not do that on this blog, but also, this person is just like the others in the replies (and in fandom) who “interpret” the show a certain way because it suits their destiel narrative. They all drank the cool-aid, so why single one out? At the same time, this take shows so little media literacy that it pisses me off. Thus, the rant.

Please do read on if you’re interested.

One argument I saw under this tweet was that Dean needed to find a road to lead him to Sam, so it proves they weren’t in the same heaven.

Wrong.

If they weren’t in the same heaven, Dean wouldn’t have been able to find Sam. Period. We know this because Ash has to do a little spell thing in order for them to leave their heaven (“Winchester Land”) at all. They can’t just jump heavens on their own. We also see this in later seasons. People just don’t hop into each others’ heavens without some sort of help.

Another stupid argument I saw is that Sam and Dean can’t be soulmates because "they’re BROTHERS!”

Wrong Again!

While having a soulmate is often (maybe even most often) seen as a romantic trope, being soulmates is actually not inherently romantic. Let’s even just stay on the WB/CW level for this one for a minute. Dawson and Joey consider themselves soulmates in Dawson’s Creek, but they don’t make a good couple, they work better as friends, and they don’t end up together. While they aren’t entirely platonic, them being soulmates ultimately isn’t about romantic love either. Sorry, I stumbled onto a reactor watching this show lately, so it’s fresh in my mind. You could also make arguments for Xander and Willow, Joey and Phoebe, or Christina and Meredith (Grey’s Anatomy calls it “my person” being science-based, but it amounts to the same thing). Ultimately, being soulmates just means two people have an incredibly close bond, love each other dearly, understand each other on a deeper level than most, and often need each other. Despite what some hellers think, not all love and closeness is sexual or romantic. Finally, if someone sees being soulmates as having to be romantic, they should probably take it up with Kripke.

Anyway, let’s round this rant off at three flawed arguments with this one: people are “free” (passive aggressive) to interpret the episode how they “like,” but Sam and Dean bring soulmates is not actually supported by the episode.

Ugh!

Why the hell would the writers have Ash even mention soulmates in the scene at all, if it wasn’t to tell the audience (and the boys) something important about the characters? Knowing that soulmates share a heaven isn’t necessary to the plot at this moment (if they aren’t soulmates). We have been told people have individual heavens in most cases, so we don’t need to know the soulmate exception to generally understand how heaven works. But we do get this bit of exposition because 1) it tells us why Dean was able to find Sam on his own (with no spells, even though people don’t usually share a space), and 2) because it tells us the info that they are soulmates, bound together no matter what. It deepens their whole tangled up relationship, for better or worse. Is it a bit unusual for brothers to be soulmates? Yes! That’s the whole point. Sam and Dean are weird. This is not news. Where have these people been for the last 4.5 seasons??

Also, Ash looks directly at Sam and Dean after he drops the soulmate bomb. And each of them looks uncomfortable. The scene takes a beat here, a short one but it’s clear, so the audience can acknowledge this info. Why would the camera focus on the characters’ reactions if the soulmates line was a just a random little nugget of info? People hellers will write whole distractions on the significance of “parallels” between characters and “interpret” scenes using head-canons as support, but they can’t don’t want to understand that the camera lingering on the brothers when they learn information about themselves is significant? Also, it suggests in the script that Ash looks away from them to give them a minute to process this info. Why would he care if it didn’t pertain to them? (Hellers. Have. No. Media. Literacy.). Sam and Dean are soulmates. It’s canon.

Also, this is another episode but it adds confirmation. In 15x20, Dean feels Sam on the bridge in the new heaven before he sees or hears him. Thus. Soulmates!

#supernatural #sam and dean #spn meta #anti hellers #Sam and Dean are soulmates #my edits except for 1 #bad take rant

[ghoooooooooooooooost]

hi!! i have a friend whos really into pm and stuff and i know a lot about the games, never played them myself but pm is my fandom in law, what happened? saw your post about not playing it anymore, im just genuinely curious and uninformed

i don't think i have 1 singular post to explain the whole thing in depth but you can search the tag "project moon controversy" on my blog (or anywhere?) to see some longer posts; i'll summarize it for you from memory:

when the summer event for limbus was announced, incels from a site called dc inside harassed the cg artist for being a woman. they used multiple shit excuses, such as the female characters not getting swimsuits for the event (even though the cg artist was not responsible for that); then dug up several-year-old previously deleted tweets from the artist's personal acct to prove she was a feminist and thus should be fired (said tweets were retweets about things like peeping cameras in bathrooms being bad). they also made up lies about her

they went to projmoon's office, pm very quickly wrote a tweet claiming she was let go for breaking terms, and now she is no longer making the cgs. that first tweet took months for them to translate into english and japanese when usually messages are posted in all 3 languages at once

many problems have been cropping up from this including:

pm pretending they fired/ dismissed/ terminated the contract/ whatever wording they want to use; to protect her -- despite them stating in the initial message that it was because they thought she broke terms. they ended up putting her in a bad light

pm threatening to sue people who criticize them, including unions

the translation of the initial tweet that finally came out contradicted pm's other tweets; they say they took too long to translate them because they were “unaware of the controversy”. they did this right before tokyo game show

they now claim the artist decided to leave herself, but there's no proof that she wasn't pushed/forced to do this

they said they wouldn't use her art for canto 5 onwards but they're still reusing the cgs she illustrated even in canto 5

multiple other past employees including the artists for the comics wonderlab and leviathan came out to speak on mismanagement, mistreatment or a lack of protection from pm. wonderlab has since been taken down from pm's postype at that illustrator's request

many of the korean fanbase has left, including every kr artist i used to follow

the incels are still harassing people

limbus' player count is bleeding

the new cg art for canto 5 is... compare these (i'm worried that the artist left is now dealing with too big of a workload; they did a great job with ruina but it feels like they're being rushed now?)

(event cgs by the artist who's gone)

(canto 5 cgs)

and more

#asks #blood #long post

[joannechocolat]

The Final Chapter

A review – well, sort of – of Chris Fowler’s WORD MONKEY.

There are books that you never want to end. Sometimes it’s because of the thrilling plot; or the fantastic world of the story;  or that the central characters are so engaging that it’s hard to say goodbye. Whatever the reason, it has taken me a very long time to reach the end of my old friend’s final book. Not because it was dull – quite the reverse; it may be the finest, funniest, most sincere, the wisest thing he has ever written – but because I didn’t want to reach the final chapter.

This is the memoir Chris Fowler always spoke of writing. The first instalment, PAPERBOY, was the story of his childhood; a life dominated by books, films and comics in a working-class household where no-one understood his passion. The second chapter, FILM FREAK, was the account of a young, ambitious gay man at the start of his career, obsessed with the movies, desperately seeking work in a collapsing industry. The third, WORD MONKEY, was to be the story of a successful career in books, his advice to budding writers, his thoughts on the industry, all presented with the same joie-de-vivre, keen observation, hilarious wisdom and lightness of touch that characterized the previous two. And it is – it’s all those things, and more. More, because it’s also the tale of the final chapter in a life, the last pages of which I read in real time against the backdrop of the pandemic and everything that came with it, including Chris’ diagnosis with terminal cancer and his final, dazzling flare of creativity before the end.

Before I go on, some context. Chris and I were friends a long time – over 30 years, in fact. It began with a letter I wrote as a very new author, thanking him for my only review. From there it developed into a regular correspondence (I still have a stack of those letters, many of them detailing things that later appeared in the books, always funny and generous, and illustrated with little cartoons); and then a growing friendship. We were different in many ways, but we shared a love of books and films, and it was in Chris’ nature to help other writers whenever he could. He saw the rise of my career from teacher to bestselling novelist. He was there at my highest and lowest points. He found me my first proper agent. His company did the advertising campaign for the movie of CHOCOLAT. When he moved from Kentish Town to King’s Cross, I bought a pied-à-terre down the road, and we met up whenever I was in town, usually for a breakfast that would go on till lunchtime.

At the beginning of lockdown, both of us were diagnosed with cancer. They found mine early. His, too late. Over the next three years I tried to come to terms with his terminal diagnosis. I didn’t really believe in it; he was still so full of life, so upbeat, so creative. We corresponded by e-mail and text from our respective chemo chairs; he told me funny stories about his life and his doctors. When lockdown ended, we met up again for our usual breakfasts in King’s Cross. I think I expected to see a change; but he looked and sounded just the same; and he was still writing furiously. In December 2022 he finished editing his memoir; by then he was unable to leave the flat, and I went to see him at home for the last time. I didn’t know it would be the last time, of course, but it’s rare to know these things as they happen. He was getting frail by then, but mostly he was just the same; clever and funny and cheery and filled with stories and book recommendations and accounts of obscure European films that I absolutely had to watch. And he was still writing furiously; short stories, blog posts, tweets, even a new Bryant and May book (he joked that it would have to be a short one). I told him I loved him. He said it back. That was the last time I saw him, although our correspondence went on right up till the end, in March, just weeks from his 70th birthday.  

I still find it hard to believe he’s gone. His voice is still so clear in my mind. And I still see him all over King’s Cross; in bookshops and theatres and cinemas. In the comics and record shops we visited together; in countless breakfast places. And it’s here, in this book, the final chapter of a life well lived, a quite extraordinary life, crowned with achievements (which he typically downplays) and filled with humour and stories. It’s all here, and it’s wonderful, and it fills me with admiration at the talent of the writer, as well as the courage of a man who can take something as bleak as a terminal cancer diagnosis, and work it into something like this; a celebration; joyous, true and filled with unflinching insight.

I don’t know why I feel surprised. I always knew how good he was. But this is more than just a dazzling piece of writing. It’s a testament to the power of words; a reminder that through them, you can shine even beyond that darkness; that life is short, and love is long; and stories can live forever. This is why we write, after all; to push away the shadows. To connect with each other across the years. To celebrate what brings us joy; to prove that we are not alone. So read this book, and read the rest of this astonishing trilogy. And be inspired – as writers, as readers – by the boy who dreamed of the stars, and learned to live forever.

#writing #books #memoir

[9w1ft]

Hi 9. I hope you are well. Your blog has been a balm for my soul in dark times, read your comments full of confidence it's like fresh air.

I would like to ask if recently or in the past, you have received unpleasant comments saying that we are wrong in what we believe in addition to adding insults, etc. How have you learned to deal with it and if at any point have they hurt you emotionally?

aw heyy thanks for saying that!

oh yeah over the years i’ve had my share of flack and insults in my inbox or maybe i’ve had an altercation here or there, and sometimes you can put a bandaid on and go about your day but usually it’s still a cut you can feel. i guess the tl;dr: would be, i think that over the years ive learned to find the right blend of environment and outlook that sets me up to have it hurt less. also i think being able to contextualize hate dismantles its power greatly.

the big thing that youve got to have the ability to laugh at yourself. this is such a wild situation to be in! embrace it. a little self deprecation goes a long way. if you let go of the need to be understood by everyone and you recognize how wild of a situation it is that we are in, and if you can laugh about it, it cures most things imo.

next you have to keep the context of the hate in mind. a lot of things i’ve had said to me just dont hurt because i know the people saying them just don’t understand what they’re talking about 😆 maybe this comes with time.. like maybe if you hang around long enough it will click, but people from different parts of the fandom are speaking from completely different languages of meaning and beliefs and so i’ll see a comment and just be like wow that’s so fascinating how this person got compelled to compose that and say it with their whole chest. couldn’t be me!

another thing is just, it has a lot to do with where we are at and what i believe or what other like minded people do. to us, we have kiiinda already reached a kaylor win condition. i know people would disagree and i get why, but to me, in the grand scheme of things, i don’t feel the need to argue or defend because we’re already there. we’ve already made it! all the rest is a bonus to me. and so what this outlook does is it makes any hate seem really really quaint. like don’t care if rude people don’t understand. why would they deserved to? 😆 they should stay right where they are.

i think hate can hurt more when you at a point where you are less confident of what you think or if you want to listen to everyone and make sense of everyone as a way to uphold ‘fairness’ or a sense of a greater community but, when you are around long enough and get a better sense of each groups’ different motivations, you come to realize that your good intentions to involve and convince everyone is a bit of a fool’s errand because at the tops of each group is a core that will never move from their position. in the end it’s just more about a personal journey, i think. and i think usually you pick a lane or a group and just stick to it and most of the drama feels different because when you stop feeling the need to litigate, hate becomes confrontation for confrontation’s sake, and then the hate stops being about you, and you can see it as a part of a bigger thing.

also one key thing… i think it’s eons easier to avoid everyday conflict on places like tumblr than on twitter. it’s easier to curate what you have on your blog and its not a very public facing platform so things are more quiet and don’t spread to the general public. this filters out a ton. and there’s less eyes on your stuff and like people can screenshot and bitch on their own space but it’s not a quote tweet so you don’t really have this sense if you’re being talked about. you can block and even block individual IP’s, or on the flip side you can monitor activity on statcounter and see patterns of where messages come from and it kind of dismantles the mystique of them. tumblr makes it a lot easier to just do your thing. it’s not always in your face. and i would have a different persona and talk differently if i was on a different platform.

and i think people in general are better at staying in their lane here than on other platforms. over the years we have all sort of found our pockets and in general we stay in them, i think! so the stuff i do get is just always worded and delivered in the same way so i know its from the same people so it’s a little bit like kramer popping in on any given episode of seinfeld. it’s just part of the routine at this point 😆

#sorry this got kinda long!

[souryogurt64]

hi sarah!! your knowledge / archivistry (def not a word) of fall out boy is so extensively impressive. i’ve just finished gray and have been reading about on tumblr to get a better understanding and found some of ur posts about it!! there was one where u mentioned that right before / around hiatus, pete had a very public meltdown and i was wondering if u could talk more about it, it’s one of those eras i know so little about it and am always curious to know more about

This is from my latest Panic essay---

“A VERY DARK CHAPTER”

But before I finish Ross’ post-Panic! arc, we need to check in with Pete Wentz again. Because at this point, he was still doing pretty bad. You may recall that when we last left off with FOB, it was late summer 2009, FOB had just released their final video, and Montgomery was practically screaming from the rooftops that a breakup was imminent.

Anyway, on October 4th, Fall Out Boy performed their last show, alongside Blink-182 in Madison Square Garden. Shortly afterwards, Wentz—fidgeting, choked up, and wearing a too-big suit—made a very unconvincing case to MTV that their greatest hits album Believers Never Die was not just “the label trying to push something out.” A month later, the band went on hiatus, something that Wentz was “very resistant to,” though Stump insisted it was necessary for the survival of FOB. Shortly after the announcement, Montgomery quoted Wentz,: “We're on a break that doesn't have a definite ending…[Fall Out Boy] was going to imminently implode.” Wentz took the hiatus hard; he later said he began abusing pills again, and that “I felt like a loser…I didn't see how I'd ever come out on the other side."

In the years following, Wentz’s mental health continued to worsen. Later that winter, Montgomery wrote that Wentz suffered severe and unexplained injuries to his face. While Montgomery implied his injuries occurred in Seattle, Kerrang! reported they happened at “a New York City nightclub” and he was “not at liberty to divulge” details. On Tumblr, Wentz suggested, “I was wasted. You should see the other guy,” and was advised by his lawyer to remove a post implying he had knocked a guy unconscious—and taken out a couple teeth. Kerrang reported that after the incident, Wentz was at “rock bottom,” “listless and drifting,” and desperate for an “outlet” for his emotions. 

While Montgomery’s article came in very late January, Wentz’s injuries had actually occurred in mid-late December, shortly after the one-year anniversary of Folie a Deux. Surrounding the anniversary, Wentz listed reasons why Folie had gone so wrong, including, “MTV basically evaporated on us.” Concerningly, he also reposted a famous quote about holding an–albeit metaphorical– gun in your mouth, and wrote (in part), “For what feels like forever, Fall Out Boy…was a part of everything I felt…. Without it now, I feel like I am unraveling.”

Then, on the morning of February 1st, Montgomery reported on several alarming posts from Wentz, which appeared to follow some kind of “decision” made by the band. Wentz tweeted that “[FOB] might happen without me,” and alluded to plans of dying young. In a separate blog post, Wentz said that in losing FOB, he “lost a part of [himself.]” Finally, as reported by Montgomery, Wentz “signed off [a final post] with a Latin phrase, ‘Acta est fabula,’ which translates loosely to, ‘The play is over.’” Montgomery–sounding desperate–wrote that, “e-mails to the members of Fall Out Boy, their label, Island Records, and their management team went unanswered,” a stark contrast to his usual line of merely “a spokesperson.” 

And just hours later, Stump conducted a prearranged interview with Spin. When asked about Wentz’s tweets, Stump gave a detailed response including, “Steven Tyler isn’t in Aerosmith anymore, but his gravestone will probably say something about Aerosmith. Whether we play again or not, I don’t know.” Though the band subsequently tried to play the whole scene off as no big deal, things looked more dire than ever. 

Speaking about this time period, Wentz told Kerrang, “It was hard to go from every waking hour thinking about the band to nothing. I needed to do something or I’d go totally crazy.” While he said this triggered electropop side project the Black Cards, the band wasn’t founded until six months later in July of 2010. Montgomery, though, wrote that Wentz “was actively searching for a new project to re-energize himself.” Subsequently, throughout the hiatus–possibly because of the incident–Wentz and "[his] friend" wrote Gray. Later, throughout 2011 and into 2012, the Black Cards released a number of songs online and ultimately an EP, entitled Use Your Disillusion.  

However, despite both of Wentz’s creative outlets, he continued to struggle. In February 2011, Simpson filed for divorce; TMZ reported this was due to Wentz’s “erratic behavior” and that Wentz “begged her not to leave.” Wentz told Howard Stern that following the divorce, he dropped to only 95 pounds; he also told Rolling Stone he began abusing Xanax and Klonopin, and suffered from paranoia so extreme he believed microphones were hidden in his home. 

Things with his former bandmates were not going well, either. Tumblr user @omegalomania outlined that in 2011, a member of the band performed on a diss track by an Illinois based hardcore band. Lyrics included, “You suck…It’s over…The band broke up…Get fucked.“ Stump provided guest vocals on another track on the album. Wentz later told RS, “Patrick was still my best friend…At the same time, I felt like he needed to get some of that Pete Wentz stink off of him.”  It’s beyond evident that–in the words of Andy Greene–this was “a very dark chapter for the band.” 

[zalrb]

Why don’t you think that Kevin Williamson gets the same criticism for the problematic aspects on the show as Julie Plec and Caroline Dries?

I was on Reddit and I saw a post that said the Kevin deserves the same treatment and he is also to blame for the racism and the Bonnie treatment and for the “Pro-Confederacy” but all the blame is always placed on Julie and Caroline?

I went through your posts and you tag “Anti Julie Plec” and “Anti Caroline Dries” but not “Anti Kevin Williamson.”

Why do you think that Kevin Williamson is not blamed for the problematic and even for the “Damon” of it all?

The person who posted that said it’s because Kevin Williamson can write a story whereas Julie and Caroline cannot.

I don't think it's that people don't hold him accountable, I think it's that JP and Caroline are simply named more. I agree that KW should be called out more by name especially considering what he did on Tell Me A Story

In terms of my tags, I started this blog near the end of season 6, which contextualizes a lot of my posts and frustrations in those posts because JP and Caroline Dries had been running the show for about three and a half seasons by this point and they were the ones who had the quotes and the interviews and the tweets about how they viewed Bonnie and about how Bonnie functioned in TVD or how they viewed Black women in general

DRIES:  We’re going to see Bonnie continue to try to adjust to life in the prison world.  She tried to have Christmas, and it just made things worse for her.  She’s going to have a birthday in the prison world, which is going to be worse.  She’s really going to hit rock bottom before she pulls herself up by the bootstraps and says, “You know what? Let me get out of here!”  She will finally find her way back, and it will come at the perfect time for our friends, who are in need of a friend rejuvenation and beautiful reunion.  So, she comes back and is emotionally scarred from it.

“"Bonnie will continue to be a loyal friend to Damon and a very supportive person for him to lean on as he goes through the drama of the second half of the season,“ she explained. “But their relationship will also face its own obstacles down the road. Bonnie and Stefan are grounding forces in Damon’s life. So for him to put his relationship with Bonnie at stake would have really, really bad consequences for Damon, for sure.”

“She’s been empowered by her best friend Elena to kind of follow her… to become this stronger woman that she’s become, but also take on the role of being Damon’s moral compass,” Dries says. “With Elena sidelined, Bonnie’s worried: ‘Is Damon going to go off his rocker? Do I need to keep an eye on him?’ Then there’s Damon, who’s obviously grieving the loss of the love of his life, and the big question is, ‘Is he going to become the monster that we saw in Season 1, the real villain of the show?’”

Like Damon, Bonnie is now doing what she wants. “And so, she’ll kind of get involved in Alaric’s storyline a little bit,” Dries says. “But as she’s working with Alaric and helping him through the grief of losing Jo, Bonnie starts to get herself embroiled in a little bit of a love story. And so, that’s been very fun to watch unfold.”

so they took up most of my ire in relation to Bonnie's treatment (it should also be noted and I've said this before, if I say Julie/JP or Caroline, I mean JP and co. or Caroline Dries and co., which is meant to encapsulate the entire writers room because one person did accuse me of blaming everything on JP or Caroline when they themselves didn't write a specific episode and I had to be like I refer to their names as an encapsulation of the writers/show/EPs in general). If I tagged KW it was usually in relation to a Stelena post and KW was SE's biggest champion, which was why I didn't put anti KW in the tag (I'm not saying I haven't tagged KW in Bonnie posts or posts that talk about the antiblack treatment of the show but I know I specifically tag KW for SE posts) and some of that still carries over.

Plus, Bonnie's treatment was always terrible but in the seasons KW was actively involved, her treatment was better -- not good but better -- which isn't to let him off the hook but I think in relation to what she goes through from season 4 onwards combined with the tweets and the posts and things like Julie explaining that Kat begged her not to kill Bonnie off, JP and Caroline are the names that automatically come to mind for people.

[wiltedmiracle]

IMPORTSNT POST // DONT SCROLL WITHOUT READING // REPOST

This is not like my usual posts but I thought if i have a few thousand followers i have to use my blog to talk about what is happening in my country right now. Y'all don't know me, I'm from Iran, In Iran girls HAVE to wear hijab from the age of 7 (yes, SEVEN) otherwise we won't be able to get an education, we can't go out of our houses, we literally can't do anything, and it's not just for muslims, EVEN IF YOU'RE A CHRISTIAN OR JEW IN IRAN YOU HAVE TO WEAR HIJAB AND STUDY QURAN IN SCHOOLS CAUSE ITS THE LAW.

PLEASE KEEP READING AND LET ME TELL YOU WHAT HAS HAPPEND

This Friday Mahsa Amini a 22 year old women from Saqqez, Kudristan was captured and beaten by “Morality Police” of Iran while she was on a family vacation in Tehran for violating dress code laws of compulsory hijab. The severe injuries made to Mahsa’s head caused her to slip into a coma and pass away. These allegations were repudiated by the Iranian government who announced Mahsa was already suffering from heart issues, a statement which her family members denied immediately. Her doctors also denied them but the government hushed them immediately.

What is Morality Police? They're a group of ruthless people that drive around in cities of Iran and arrest girls and women for not wearing hijab "properly", but arresting them isn't the end of it all. after being arrested women are taken down to their stations, most of the times they get beaten because they refuse to wear how they don't believe in. After that these scared women have to spend hours in small trrefiyng rooms without any food or comfortable place to rest in. Some of these women come out with truamatic expericense, some get beaten up, some have stated that they got raped and more..

People have tried to fight these laws for more than 40 years but our government is a dictatorship that keeps killing it's own people just to keep its own power. We keep losing friends and family members because we protest for what's right, we're protesting for basic human rights.

Right now we're in the streets fighting, fighting with out biggest enemy, our government, they've ruined so many lives for almost 50 years and it's enough; but we need help, our government's way of dealing with this situation is 2 things:

Shooting at us, beating and killing us (TW // BLOOD & POLICE BRUTALITY)

2. Shutting down out our internet

Over the past 4 day the hashtag #مهسا_امینی (Mahsa Amini in Farsi) has been tweeted over 26 million times, it has broke records and cought the world's attention. So many celebrities have talked about Mahsa on their social medias including Halsy, Cardi B, Misha Collins, Florence Pugh, Bebe Rexha and so many more.. but we've slowly losing internet inside iran, so we're asking for help from people around the world.

Use thehashags that are important right now on twitter: #مهسا_امینی #MahsaAmini #OpIran

keep the world focused on whats happeing to women and PEOPLE IN IRAN.

WE ARE TRYING SO HARD. WE NEED HELP. OUR REGIME HAS ALLIES IN YOUR COUNTRIES. THAT'S WHY IRANIANS ARE ALSO PROTESTING IN SO MANY WESTERN COUNTRIES RIGHT NOW, WE WANT YOUR LEADERS TO HEAR US TOO. HELP US.

I would also like to add that Anonymous hacktivist group has joined us in this movement, they've hacked lots of official government websites and cctvs to help the protester so that should tell you that this is REAL AND SERIOUS.

once again Use thehashags that are important right now on twitter: #مهسا_امینی #MahsaAmini #OpIran

tweet sources: @yoonieshope on twitter

#Anonymous #iran protests #iran #mahsa amini #مهسا امینی #feminist #feminism #opiran

[mappinglasirena]

La Sirena's Registry

Before season 3 aired, I promised I would make a post about La Sirena's registry if and when it was canonized during the final season of Star Trek: Picard. Now that the finale has aired and we are unlikely to ever see this little speed freighter on our tv screens again, I think it's high time I elaborate on this issue.

Mild spoilers for early season 3 of Star Trek: Picard below!

What are we talking about here?

Back in May 2022, after season 2 wrapped up, the official Star Trek twitter account made a post about some of the ships shown in the season finale.

As you can see, they added additional information about the ships, including names, classes, and registry numbers. For La Sirena, they listed her as "S.S. La Sirena NAR-93131".

The "S.S."-prefix and registry number were repeated by, among others, production designer Dave Blass, who said he was asked to come up with a registry number for season 3 and/or promo purposes, and they have since been listed on Sirena's Memory Alpha page and also showed up in the season 3 Instagram promos run by Paramount+ (which I briefly talked about here).

However, I have been holding off on changing any of my posts on this blog or the way I talk about La Sirena to reflect this new information, because I was waiting to see if it would actually get confirmed in canon. (In Star Trek, generally only things shown on screen during the aired shows and movies are considered canon. The many books and technical manuals, any deleted scenes, official promo-materials, tweets, Q&As, interviews, or other messages from the showrunners, writers, or production staff are usually relegated to beta canon).

Now that the show has officially ended, I can say with some confidence: we never got confirmation that La Sirena has a registry number, let alone what that number might be.

(Follow me below the cut for a (very long) exploration of registry numbers in Star Trek and why I think La Sirena remains without one.)

What is a registry number?

Most Trekkies are probably very familiar with the typical starship registry numbers we find throughought the shows and movies. They're blazoned across the hull and are often seen in official information or even used as identification in dialogue.

Here the classic example: the U.S.S. Enterprise which has the registry "NCC-1701", with various letters added for all later reincarnations of the famous flagship.

While it is never discussed in detail anywhere in canon (unless I have missed something crucial), these registries are unique identifiers given to the ships. They are created and kept on file by the organization that has registered the ship in question (e.g. Starfleet for the Enterprises, the Klingon Empire for Imperial ships, the UFP for civilian vessels, etc.).

The prefixes before the ship name are an indication of this affiliation. Where in the real world, a ship operated by the UK's royal navy might be called "HMS Shipname" for "His/Her Majesty's Ship", in Trek world, we have Starfleet using "USS" for "United [Federation] Star Ship"/"United Space Ship", or the Klingon "IKS" prefix for "Imperial Klingon Ship."

(Like this beauty. Though I don't think we ever see official registry markings on the hulls of Klingon ships.)

Similarly, the registry number has a specific format depending on the institution issuing it. For Starfleet, the most common in the 24th century was "NCC" followed by a number, though others were possible (e.g. "NA" for the fully-automated Starships like the U.S.S. Aledo from Lower Decks.

With the few civilian ships we have seen over the course of the 24th-century Trek series, the most common prefix/registry combination has been "S.S. Shipname" (presumably for "Star Ship"), and a registry number beginning with "NAR".

(See for example the "S.S. Mariposa, NAR-7678" from TNG's "Up the Long Ladder".)

At first glance, it would make sense for La Sirena to follow this pattern. However there is a snag.

To Register or not To Register?

We learn in season 1 that La Sirena is an unregistered vessel. Rios is an "off the books" pilot and the fact that his ship is not registered is mentioned more than once.

However, at no point in any of the series (as far as I'm aware, and please, correct me if I'm wrong) do we get a clear explanation of what this entails in the Star Trek universe.

On its face, I would think "unregistered" means that La Sirena is not listed in any of the official registries that exist throughout the spaces where Rios operates his vessel. She's not registered with the UFP, the Romulan Free State, any merchant association, or any other organziation that might keep such a database. In order to be truly independent (and capable of doing a lot of shady dealings), Rios has kept Sirena out of any and all official records.

But if that is the case, that would mean there is no institution who could have conferred an official registry onto the ship. If "NAR-93131" were the ships registry, by definition, that would have to be listed in some kind of official register. Which would defeat the purpose of being off-the-books in the first place.

"But wouldn't the ship need a registry any time it docked at a port or came into contact with other ships?"

Presumably, yes. The point of registries is to make ships trackable and accountable. So, if you rocked up to a Starfleet-run spacestation and didn't have an official-sounding registry to broadcast, you would probably be in a lot of trouble. But there are many ways around this.

A determined off-the-books pilot (especially one with an extremely capable hacker-friend like Raffi Musiker) could have any number of fake registries (think: fake licence plates), official papers that are just out of date (e.g. stolen from a recently decommissioned ship) and a good story about currently being in the process of renewing them, funds set aside to bribe port officials in places farther from the centre of the Federation, where money still runs the economy... There are many ways around the obstacles presented by not having an official registry, and it seems very likely Rios would have chosen one of those.

Now, as I see it, there are three in-universe ways to bring in the "NAR-93131" registry.

The first possibility is that it's the designation the ship used to have, before Rios (or a previous owner) took her over and let the registration lapse. We don't know anything about the age of the ship in canon (in beta canon, she is fairly old), so it's possible she was fully integrated into a registered organization before she went rogue. In that case, Rios might even keep the registry around to have handy in case of interstellar bureaucracy mishaps.

Alternatively, this might be one of the fake registries Rios uses commonly when he encounters any kind of authority who will be likely to ask for his ship's identification.

In both of those cases, however, it likely wouldn't be a permanent feature of La Sirena. If you consistently use a fake registry, even if there is no record of it in any official database, it will eventually become associated with your ship and trackable across jurisdictions and time, which is the opposite of what you want to achieve by remaining unregistered.

The third possibility is that some time after Season 1, someone registered La Sirena with the UFP and "NAR-93131" is the number that was assigned to her then. I can't speculate about whether that was the production team's intended explanation (not least because from some of the comments I've read from them, it seemed to me like the connection between "this ship is unregistered" and "this ship does not have a fixed registry" might have gotten a bit muddled on their end), but it's definitely a possibility.

However, I am also not convinced by this explanation. While Sirena does rise to more prominence in the immediate aftermath of the Coppelius incident (she is ferrying around the Newly Great Jean-Luc Picard, after all), I'm not sure Rios would have agreed to register her before he joined Starfleet. Then Seven of Nine takes over the ship for work with the Fenris Rangers, and while I disagree with season 3's characterization of the Rangers as "pirates" ("vigilantes" or "non-state actors" seems more apt imo), I still think they would either not bother too much with having their ships properly registered or might even prefer the more stealthy approach of unregistered ships.

Finally, Sirena ends up with Raffi Musiker, who is using her for undercover work in Starfleet Intelligence. Once again, it could go either way. Raffi's cover story is that she's out of Starfleet, and while it would probably not raise any eyebrows for her to have a properly registered ship, I also think leaving the ship unregistered might have been useful to add to her outlaw persona.

As it stands, I think you can make good arguments for both, La Sirena being registered at some point during the run of Star Trek: Picard and her being kept unregistered and off the books for use in various semi-legal and/or covert activities.

One thing is clear, however: We never got any on-screen confirmation of her being registered, let alone the "official" name "S.S. La Sirena NAR-93131".

(NB: There is a minute chance a reference to the registry number might be somewhere in all of this information:

but since effectively none of it is legible and the two or three docs talking about Raffi's assignment (Operation Daybreak) seem to be highly redacted, I will go with: It's never actually confirmed.)

Why does any of this matter?

Honestly? It doesn't. If it brings you joy to have a registry number to associate with this ship, I'd say go ahead and live your bliss.

This is really just a petty and very personal gripe of mine. I liked that La Sirena wasn't a Starfleet ship with the usual bells and whistles (registry number, dedication plaque, etc.). She was an oddball, run by a captain who, while emotionally still deeply connected to Starfleet, was also on the outside and preferred it that way. Season 1 offered a look at parts of the Star Trek universe we never really got to see before, and that felt fresh and exciting.

To me, personally, giving Sirena a registry number (without any character-driven explanation for how she got it or who decided to register her and why) felt like it erased a part of her identity. It changed her from a scrappy underdog operating in the grey areas and along the edges of the Federation to just another quasi-Starfleet ship of the line.

Is that a highly personal pet peeve and completely blowing things out of proportion? Yes. Yes, it very much is. Which is why I won't ever fault anyone for choosing to adopt the headcanon/fanon/beta canon of this registry and running with it.

But if anyone ever wonders why I continue to call her simply "La Sirena" and talk about her as an unregistered vessel, now you know ;)

#star trek picard #la sirena #registry #sirena's history #beta canon #long post #welcome to 'the author's personal pet peeves hour' 🙈 #though i tried to keep the peevishness to a minimum and stick to more nutritious information as much as possible #also: i still worry that i might have overlooked some detail in season 3 that actually *does* canonize the registry #but i've looked through what little we see of sirena in the show (all four episodes that she appeared in) several times #and i'm fairly sure it's not in there #but please correct me if i'm wrong

[saffronapplemanga]

Let’s Talk Manga Demographics!

Colleen from Colleen's Manga Recs asked me to weigh in when someone had questions regarding manga demographics, so I made a Twitter thread. I figured I'd make a post here too since this topic has many misconceptions—and this is a manga blog after all.

Links to my other manga posts here

Link to my thread on Twitter. I could talk about demographics for hours but I tried to keep it concise and just address the question. I'm going to compare Japan and America because that's what I'm most familiar with.

The tweet I replied to was this:

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First off, there are various factors that go into why a publisher labels a manga a certain way (combination of art style, story content, etc). There’s also a difference between how publishers in Japan and abroad do things.

Shoujosei/shounen/seinen categorization obviously is a Japanese thing. In America, there’s different but sometimes similar labels (young adult, for example) but it’s not a one-to-one. Overseas publishers probably have more leeway on how they market things because of this. It’s a different market from Japan. EN publishers use imprints and this is meant to replace JP publishers using magazines (also printed on vols). In America, bookstores arrange manga by alphabetical order, no regard for demographics. That was so weird to me the first time I saw it.

Normally EN manga have imprints, but in Japan it's the magazine it's published in.

Even EN novels are organized in categories and then alphabetical order (by title or author). In Japan, it’s organized by demographic > magazine/publisher > then alphabetical order. Same for ebooks.

You’ll have the shounen section, but Jump titles are labeled on the shelf, and Square Enix titles are grouped together, then arranged by alphabetical order. This goes for both new and used. Even when there’s a separate table for new releases, they tend to group them this way.

To the left, I can see signs that say “seinen comics”, and the publishers “Shueisha”, “Shogakukan”, and “Kodansha” in the back. New releases are usually end-caps. The blue sign says “New Release Comics”. They tend to keep the demos together for these too.

Selling bundles of used series is common, so you can see in these pictures, the one on the left has signs on the shelves that say “Kodansha seinen comics”. Right pic is my local bookoff. It’s not explicitly labeled, but they grouped all the shoujo bundles on the same shelf.

Left: “shoujo comics/lady’s comics” (Josei is often referred to as “lady’s comics” in Japan). “BL-lady’s comics”. Right: the shelves are labeled “Champion”, “Sunday”, “Magazine”, “Jump” which are all shounen magazines.

Colleen had asked me about this for their video (my comment at the 32:04 mark, but watch the whole vid because it’s good!) I wouldn’t be surprised if the thing with Renta JP in the vid was similar to physical bookstores too, because of marketing.

We stan Colleen🫡

Since the magazines are sold in Japan and not just the tankobon volumes, readers there are likely more familiar with what series are published together under what demographic and what makes them fall under that demographic.

If they switched up what a manga is labeled as in the bookstore versus the magazine, that would muddle things and confuse readers. I can imagine they’d want readers shopping for one title to see their other titles next to it so they buy it. It’s all a part of their brand. But since the magazines aren’t sold outside Japan and the market is different, foreign publishers take liberties. Sometimes I wonder if they should’ve even used JP demos tbh.

Then the same Twitter user asked a follow up that led to more relevant stuff that I hadn't initially mentioned in the thread:

I picked up Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu from my local bookstore back when vol.1 first came out and if I’m not mistaken, it was in the shounen/seinen section. Renta JP has it under “lady’s comics”.

I’m not 100% if this is the reason or not, but BL and horror have a lot of history with shoujosei, so they labeled it as such. In brick and mortar shops, like I said, the publisher would want their titles together so people buy more of their stuff. Online, ebooks don’t have a physical shelf they’re on so the way you’re searching for it is different so perhaps they changed the label for online searches for what gets the most hits. Horimiya is also labeled shoujo on Renta and I’ve seen it in the shoujo section at bookoff, but I don’t think I’ve seen it in shoujo at new bookstores.

It's from a shounen magazine and I still consider it a shounen because of multiple reasons (like art, story style, etc.)

Again, they might be playing around with the labels to optimize marketing for digital versus brick and mortar.

I call this ✨gerrymandering but for comics✨ LOL and there's a reason I used the word "gerrymandering" as it's basically the bullshitting of demographics and it's not a word that has a positive connotation.

But yeah, I hope this was informative!

#manga discussion #漫画 #demographics #manga #shoujo #shounen #seinen #josei #コミックス

[footballffbarbiex]

Ok so I've had some thoughts bouncing around in my head since last night's game and Barcelona fans getting annoyed and blocking me (lol). But the thing that they and "pro João Félix" fans/blogs don't understand is that Atleti fans never started out this way with their feelings towards Félix. 

We were excited to have him here and welcomed him with open arms. He's our highest ever bought player and something like that doesn't happen for nothing. Of course, I still think Atleti were desperate to prove that they didn't need Griezmann after his departure (though he's proven that the only person who can replace Antoine Griezmann at Atlético Madrid is, well Antoine Griezmann) and that's why they spent the fee they gained from AG's departure on JF. I didn't think he was worth that amount of money though and I still don't. 

They saw a kid who had a good season at his club and saw potential, potential that I also thought he had. I, like many, many other Atleti fans, was excited for him to come and see what he could bring and at first he succeeded. He had a style that was nice to see and it was easy to see why so many young fans wore his name on their backs because they had hope of him becoming something big there. 

He wasn't, like Griezmann has said recently, consistent but when JF did score, he did it well and it left fans thinking "ok if this is how he is at the start of his Atleti adventure, what will he be like?" Sadly, we saw what he was like. He became more inconsistent, he became frustrated when he couldn't score (which is completely understandable because players in his position want to score) but it was his behaviour and attitude which changed following this. 

He seemed to go through a rough spell, even after winning the LaLiga title where he still hadn't shown what he was capable of to have merited that amount of money being parted with with only 10 goals scored throughout the whole season and maybe his injuries were contributing to that too. Fans were asking the same question but still wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. He was young and still settling into the club and their football style and it wasn't something you would pick up overnight and adapt. 

But it didn't warrant him throwing things in frustration when he was subbed whether it was a bib, a water bottle or throwing himself into the sub bench seat. It didn't warrant him storming off down the tunnel when he was subbed. It didn’t warrant him refusing to go to the travelling fans end and applaud them along with the other players, simply because the match had not gone either his or the teams way. It didn't warrant him liking anti Simeone tweets purely because he was no longer getting started - something which a lot of his usual starter players also experienced; it wasn't just a João issue. Simeone wasn't targeting him. He wasn't bullying him. He was doing what any coach would. 

Past players such as Trippier have said that Simeone would die for his team and his club and the players would do so for him. He wants them to succeed, he wants them to do well and to literally go to war for him on that pitch and it shows - Atleti have the reputation they have for a reason (but have the least amount of fouls in LaLiga so far, so make of that what you will for the leagues most dangerous club 👀). 

But if you're not giving your all on the pitch, you are going to be subbed off. You're not started and you're made to prove yourself in training. I refer to Griezmann a few times in this post because he is Cholo's favourite, and there's no point in denying it. They have such a unique and wholesome relationship and I won't pretend that it doesn't exist. But even at the start of Antoine coming to Atleti, Simeone also handed his future favourite boy his ass and said "what are you doing? You need to be selfish. You can't be passing the ball, you're supposed to be scoring. You need to adapt." Yes it pissed off Antoine, he's famously said this, he went home and sulked and moped about but then he went back to training and did as he was asked and became their star boy. 

I understand the hatred that Atlético Madrid fans had towards Antoine when he was poached by Barcelona the years before he actually went. I understood why they continued to despise him when he left and why he was heckled when he came back. But he has proven that he belongs there. He's fought for his place in their eyes again. He knew the only way to make it an easy transition back to Atlético Madrid was through the fans.

But João Félix hasn't done that. He went to Chelsea and immediately dissed the fans. He made comments about how Chelsea already had a chant for him when in all the years of being at the Madrid team, they never did. He continued to like anti Atleti and anti Cholo posts on twitter and hint that he couldn't wait to get out from under his parent club. He was burning the bridge he was standing on and didn't realise the full consequences. 

All we, as a fans, heard was how Simeone wasn't allowing him to play the football that he wanted and I'm not sure if people realise this or not but you don't change a club's system to match one player who has not proven he even wants to be there. We continued to hear about how he did well under other managers before crumbling back to the way he was when he was under Simeone. He didn't work out under Simeone, Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Frank Lampard and he's now faltering under Xavi - who, if you believe the rumours, didn't even want to sign João in the first place but was made to accept it by Laporta. It’s also worth noting that while Mauricio Pochettino was never his manager, his performance hadn’t impressed the new Chelsea coach enough to include him in his plans for the upcoming season which is why he was returned after the brief loan spell. This many head coaches cannot be wrong, can they? Or is this still just a Simeone issue?

But if he was doing this at Chelsea, that was nothing compared to what happened when he came back. His tactic changed. He upped it completely and alienated himself between his teammates and the fans further. I watched footage as he threw his clothing down and walked off, expecting the kit staff to pick up after him when other players were handing it to the staff or putting it into the boxes. He continued to run his mouth and then brought in his dad - almost for protection - because of the hostile environment that he had created. 

For many fans, they were open to the idea of having him back, hoping that he would, like Griezmann, have his redemption arc and actually enter his prime under us. But his return was stale and his disinterest to be there was clear after citing that he wished to play for his dream club Barcelona. But the real turning point for a lot of fans, was watching how João played on his phone and was distracted and animated during a minutes silence for a death within the club’s family. This was a total lack of respect to the club which, understandably, did not go down well. 

Last night was an explosion that has been simmering to a boiling point and everyone knew it was coming. But if Chelsea's behaviour was burning a bridge, then last night João was standing on the top of a building destined to be destroyed by explosives and he was pressing the detonation button with a grin. There is no way back for him now with his parent club. Any salvaging that could have taken place to mend the wounds that he has created is now out of the picture. If he comes back, he'll be lucky to even see the bench. 

And it's not just Atlético Madrid fans who think he has been consistently underwhelming, but press have done so too. Even recently he has learnt headlines such as

with articles stating 

The Portuguese playmaker has stalled at Barca and is still looking for the right place to revive his faltering career. Barca was supposed to be another new chance. Instead, he has endured the same troubles that have followed him for four years. And now, facing his parent club - in the shirt of his current employers - Felix once again looks like an expensive talent failing to live up to expectations. Felix's career has been defined by its inconsistency, an immense talent enjoying moments of undeniable class, followed by long stretches of underperformance - especially for a player who was so good as a teenager.

Felix has struggled for consistency. He has still been on the ball a lot, but those goals and assists that defined his first two weeks in Catalunya have dried up. He went 13 games without scoring, and has just seven goal contributions this year.

For long stretches, he has looked every bit the same immensely talented yet ineffective entity of the past few years. Call it another false dawn. But Barca aren't the first team to struggle here. There is, indeed, a pattern about Felix's career. A new season comes, as does a fast start - a few goals here, a highlight-reel assist there. The hype grows, the storylines are written. And then comes the regression, the weeks of mediocrity, before the cycle begins again.

While João may have only been 19 and still a child when Atleti came knocking, his agent certainly was not. In a way, I also blame Mendes for this. Many people have stated that agents do not give a shit about their clients because all they see is dollar signs when they get a whiff of talent and I think that he was hoping that João would be the next Ronaldo. While João may not have known fully about what it means to sign for the likes of the Madrid club, or what it’s like to be faced with their fans, his agent absolutely did and as long as he’s getting paid, he’ll continue to throw João to the wolves or allow him to implode as he’s doing now. 

Atlético Madrid fans may be throwing gasoline on him but he's the one that's holding the match. 

#im not here to argue with anyone over this so I won't entertain it but I just need people to understand #that it's not come from nowhere. it's not something that's happened simply bc he wants out #it's so much more than that. and obviously I can't speak for everyone but from what I've seen from others #including those who aren't even atleti fans - it's a popular set of opinions stated in here

[lultimagoccia]

get to know the mun ! very long post, under readmore.

name / alias. castoro.

are you over 18 ? yes. no.

WRITING.

are you selective about who you write with ? no (anyone.) semi (most people.) yes (some people.) highly (few people.) private.

are you selective about who you follow ? no (anyone.) semi (most people.) yes (some people.) highly (few people.)

if your muse is canon, how much do you adhere to canon ? not at all. a little. some. mostly. strictly. not applicable.

see this one feels like an ' it's complicated ' because i do try to use the information presented in the game / comics / old lore doc / cut dialog sequences / ic tweets / concept art as the groundwork of my portrayal, but i don't like. treat pepp like a video game / cartoon character? i know a big part of pt is the game mechanics so i incorporate those as much as i can, but it's not a thing i lean into a lot

what post lengths do you write ? one - liners. single - para. multi - para. novella. all of the aforementioned.

do you use icons and/or gifs ? no. gifs. icons. yes. sometimes.

do you write on other platforms ? no. yes.

my discord is available to people i write with!

what level of plots do you write ? unplotted. open - ended plots. semi - plotted. fully plotted epics. all of the aforementioned.

i generally prefer to have an idea to work off of and MAYBE some details that'll happen along the way. but overall i like when things happen organically, in whatever way feels right to the story.

how quickly do you usually respond to threads ? very slow (more than a month.) slow (3 - 4 weeks.) average (1 - 2 weeks.) fast (less than one week.) very fast (less than three days.) depends on my motivation, this can make it range from days to weeks.

really varies as of late due to varying levels of energy / motivation.

what types of themes do you like ? adventure. romance. fluff. angst. violence. tragedy. domestic. family. all of the aforementioned.

i like stuff that is very emotionally charged, happy or sad or angry, WHATEVER. make me FEEL, man, i am ready for it. also just love sitting two characters down and letting them talk. some really interesting stuff can emerge from two muses just hashing out their perspectives and seeing what happens.

what genres do you like? high fantasy. supernatural. science fiction. historical. horror. comedy. romantic. drama. action. smut. adventure. espionage. all of the aforementioned.

are there any themes you’re uncomfortable writing on your blog ? (not triggers) no. yes. it depends.

cheating / infidelity has always been a big no for me. also not mega comfortable writing about child death / extreme harm to children. it just makes me really upset.

do you have any triggers ? how do you request it tagged ?

the topic of miscarriages / pregnancy loss can be triggering for me, but i doubt that's gonna come up like much at all.

SHIPPING.

what types of relationships are you open to ? romantic. platonic. familial. other. all of the aforementioned.

what types of pre - established relationships are you open to ? romantic. platonic. familial. other. all of the aforementioned.

all i ask is that we talk about it first. i've had people write muses intended to be mine's kid that presumed my muse was a radically different kind of parent than i would've written them as, so ... i'd kinnnda prefer to plot that sort of stuff out first now.

do you have otps ? no. chemistry only. yes.

i basically ship pepp with all the canon pt characters, with my favorites being pepp / noisette, pepp / gustavo, and pepp / fake ( only when fake is written as being fully cognitively mature, not as an animal or childlike ). for sugary spire, i like pizzano / pizzelle.

do you have notps ? no. yes.

for pt, not really no. there's ships i'm a little picky about how they're written, such as pepp / anton and pepp / pizzahead, but like i said i ship pepp with All.

what is your muse’s sexual orientation ? heterosexual. bisexual. pansexual. homosexual. demisexual. asexual. still trying to figure it out. depends on the muse you’re asking.

what is your muse’s romantic orientation ? heteroromantic. biromantic. homoromantic. panromantic. demiromantic. aromantic. still trying to figure it out. depends on the muse you’re asking.

are you comfortable writing smut ? no. selectively. yes.

i gotta know you at least a lil bit, because i'm a shy weenie about things like that.

how early in a relationship do you ship romantically ? autoship. during plotting. after a couple ic interactions. several ic interactions. slow burn. plot dependent. never.

are you open to toxic ships ? no. selectively. yes. i am not sure.

are you open to problematic ships ? no. selectively. yes. i am not sure.

are you open to polyshipping ? no. selectively. yes. i am not sure.

are you an exclusive shipper ? never. sometimes. yes. i would be open to discuss it.

does crack shipping ever happen ? nope. yes. depends.

all ships i do are serious ships. all of them. does not matter how jokingly it is suggested, i will make it real.

tagged. i stole it.

tagging. @crvptd, @phonypizza, @pizzadoff

#;out for delivery [ ooc ] #;meme response

[alarrytale]

Just want to start saying that I love your blog and the way you are always very respectful of everyones opinions even if you disagree with them. I would just like to say that I find a bit strange how we still don't have an official confirmation of Hussell. I have been expecting to open twitter for some days now to a tweet like "Harry Styles and Taylor Russell are dating according to People Magazine" but nothing. They are already on the holding hands stage and we still don't have a confirmation. I have also noticed that most important media sites like entertainment news, e news, people magazine and most others don't seem very interested on this relationship and they are usually super interested on posting everything about Harry's dating life. Only Daily Maily keeps posting about it. Also none of those magazines have posted anything about them being seen holding hands. Why do you think they aren't talking about this stunt as much as they usually do with the others? It's because they aren't getting pap photos? And why do you think any of those magazines aren't getting fed an exclusive to announce that they are dating? What is HSHQ goal with this? They are barely getting any attention with this stunt outside of fandom. I love data because I might have my opinion, but the numbers don't lie, so I looked at the stats from google trends from both Harry's and Taylor's name and they barely rised with this stunt. If you compare the rise of searches from Taylor's name and with Olivia back in the day the difference is huge. For example, if you compare how much their searches rised on the first month of stunt, that I'm considering January 2021 for Olivia and August this year for Taylor, Taylor's google searches went up 5 TIMES LESS the amount Olivia's did during the same period. And I also looked if this stunt is getting people more interested in looking up Harry's name, but NO. Harry's searches have been constantly declining since the end of tour and you would expect when they do something stunt wise there would be a rise of searches on that day or the following day, but once again it's just not happening. I just looked up the day the first pics of them holding hands were posted and there wasn't an increase on searches, it basically didn't change anything from the days before. Actually, the only rise of searches of Harry's name that I can point on google since the end of tour is the day we first saw the olivia tattoo, in which there was a rise of searches of Harry's tattoos in general, and when Billy Porter made those comments about the Vogue Cover. So I ask, what are they even achiving with this stunt as of right now if this is not reaching people outside of Harries? Is this small publicity they are achiving, according to the stats, worth it? If this is to promote Loewe, well, poor Loewe, they better pray there are a lot of Harries out there with enough money to spend thousands on their clothes, because if they are expecting to influence anyone outside of fandom with his, oh well... And because I always finish everything I start, I went to look if Loewe had a rise in searches but as expected the number of searches didn't increase for the brand, they have been stable for the last 6 months with no increases.... I mean I obviously don't have access to their sales data and hope for their sake that there sales have been increasing bit I guess by looking at those google stats that it might just not be the case...

Anon, thank you! Also you data nerding like that is making me 😍

I think we haven't gotten a statement of confirmation yet because it's early days and they are playing the long game. They might be gauging the reception in the fandom and gp to decide their next approach. They might want to be careful about it. Feeding deuxmoi and the tabloids will come soon enough, if that's where were heading.

Also, they love the 'are they, aren’t they' phase, because it creates a lot of talk (or should do), so confirming too soon would go against their goals - to make people talk and drum up engagement. I think part of the disinterest is because of fandom being stunt fatigued, and she not being a-list yet (hold your horses, TR defenders). We also know nothing about who she is as a person. Holivia was two a-listers (three if you count the added drama with jason), and media naturally took more interest in that. Also that whole thing was a car crash waiting to happen and fandom, even the gp, were waiting with bated breath for the car to hit the wall. So i don't really think it's comparable. It's more comparable to the vs models he's dated or c*mille.

I think they will switch gears if they really want to make an impact and we will see a change in the media interest. On the other hand it might still be kept this low key. We can only hope.

#long post #holivia for ts #hussell for ts #harry image