#but on the other we understand it's more sensible not to believe everyone is going to come back to their character

[onadarklingplain]

No one is asking for it, but this is going to be a brief overview of the Albon Family Pets. These are the pets that live with Alex’s family in the UK and are the stars of the Albon_Pets instagram account, which is run by his mum & sisters. For clarity, there are no pets that live with Alex in Monaco.

The 30-image limit is going to be a bit of an issue for me here, as they currently have 15(ish) pets, but I’m going to do my best to make this as comprehensive as possible given the hellsite we're working with.

THE CATS: We’ll start up front with the overwhelming fact that they have twelve (or perhaps thirteen, please refer to note 1) cats. For a long time, the family had a moderately sensible level of pets (five cats, one dog, and a horse). But when Alex moved to Monaco in 2019, the situation got somewhat out of hand. Alex talked about how they acquired so many on a podcast earlier in the year: “We’ve always had a lot of animals, but it started to get a little excessive. I have four siblings, and my mum is definitely an animal person. When everyone started to go to Uni and I got into F1, bit by bit the house got more and more empty. I think to replace humans, she brought in animals and became a typical cat lady. “We started off with a bunch of cats. We had four to begin with: Armani, Gucci, Lucky and Prada. Then we got another one called Hugo Boss. There was a bit of synergy – you can understand why we chose the names. Then we got two more because the builders that came to our house had cats who had given birth, so we thought why not. They were called Duck and Goose. At that point, that’s seven cats and you can draw the line there. We don’t need more than that. But then, the same builders had another litter, and one of my sisters and my mum wanted one of them. Which I was very against because that’s too many. But then I came back from a race and they had taken four of the litter. I’m a cat person, but I’m not like that. The family has made me look crazy.” Alex Albon on The Fast and the Curious Podcast (episode posted 16 March 2023, 37:10). 

We’ll get into each of the cats individually below, in the assumed order that they joined the family. But first, an aside on nomenclature: As T.S. Eliot and the musical Cats taught us, the naming of cats is a difficult matter. I’ll leave you to study the 1998 recording of the song in your own time, but the main takeaway is that a cat must have three different names. As we’ll see, Alex’s family has clearly taken this advice to heart.

Initially, all of the cats were named after fashion designers, as Alex mentioned above. While some of the cats have retained this as their primary name (e.g., Gucci), most of them have acquired additional names over the years. As followers of the Albon_Pets instagram account will know, they all have assigned emojis, which I believe has led to the newer cats being primarily named after animals. Alex has said that his dad is allergic to cats, which is wild. Unclear if he was talking about his biological father or his stepfather, but I assume he’s talking about his stepfather as he lives with his mother and is therefore relevant. If he was, that’s truly insane to think about. There aren’t enough antihistamines in the world. 

Looky (Cavalli, Lucky, Lulu) - 👸🏼 Born 4 January (year uncertain)

Looky is Alex’s mum’s favourite cat and is a literal princess. Her emoji has a crown and everything.

Frooky (Prada, Princess Pea) - 🐰 (emoji shared with Bitbit and Lilly) Born 18 January (year uncertain) Frooky doesn’t appear in the stories as much as the other cats, so I assume she’s a bit shy. But apparently she loves to sing! 🎤

Gucci (Gucster) - 🐯 Born 12 December 2011, sibling to Moomoo

Moomoo (Armani) - 🦁 Born 12 December 2011, sibling to Gucci Moomoo and Gucci are almost identical, but Gucci has more white on his chin. Moomoo is the cat who congratulated George on his win (as seen above, please refer to Note 1) and is also one of two cats that George was able to name in the Twitch Quartet Quiz. He was also featured in the recent Albon Pets Singapore Merch promo. (Note 1: the emoji used for George in the above photo is not consistent with other George emoji usage. He is usually a brown bear, and Luca is the koala. Do better, Moomoo.)

Horsey (Stan, Hugo Boss) - 🐴 Born 11 May 2017

Horsey is the best one. Sorry to the other cats, but it’s true. He’s definitely Alex’s favourite cat, and he’s the one Alex kisses on his little head. Alex usually calls him Stan.

We're getting some more photos of Horsey and Alex now because Horsey is so important.

In the Twitch Quartert Quiz already discussed, Horsey was the other cat that George could name, and he listed him twice (by the names Horse and Stan). Horsey is absolutely the head of the household and is obsessed with Nandos. He also loves ham and hates Nutella pancakes (Zoe's favourite).

Duckie (Yves)- 🦆 Born 21 May 2021, sibling to Goosie Goosie (Ralph Lauren) - 🐥 Born 21 May 2021, sibling to Duckie Duckie and Goose seem to like climbing/sleeping on Alex, which is so valid of them. 

I'll be honest here and admit that I can't tell them apart and I'm not going to try.

Sasha (Sushi) - 🦋 Born 3 July 2019, joined the family in April 2022 She looks a lot like Horsey, but has longer fur. She isn’t often seen in group photos with the other cats, so I assume she’s a bit shy like Frooky. I'm not sure where she came from, as they seem to normally get kittens and not older cats, but she's very cute.

The Safari Kittens Siblings, all born 19 May 2022

The Safari Kittens have the same mum as Duck and Goose, and I can't tell them apart so I'm just going to list their names and emojis.

Blue Bear (Bottega) - 🐻‍❄️ (emoji stolen from Charles, discussed further below)  Gigi (Giraffe, Venta) - 🦒 Hippo (Hip Hip, Dior) - 🦛 Tiger (Tiggy, Tiktok, Chanel) - 🐆 They're super cute and also seem to love hanging out with Alex whenever he's home.

THE DOG:

Otter (Otto/Otti) - 🦦 Born 1 December 2022, came home in February 2023

As a running theme, he also seems to be obsessed with Alex, which again, is so relatable. At first it made Horsey super jealous, but don't worry Horsey, you're still Alex's best boy.

THE HORSES:

Tinky (Tinkerbell) - 🦄 Born 26 July 2020

Tinky is Bitbit’s pony and they were born on the same day and are the same age. Tinky is retired now.

Snow White - 🐟 Age and birthdate unknown Snow White came to join the zoo & keep Tinky company in May 2023 after the horse that Tinky shared a field with (Toby, not owed by the Albon family) died. Snow White also a retired pony.

PHEOBE AND QUEENIE - AN INVESTIGATION: Eagle-eyed followers of Albon_Pets might have spotted that in the captions of posts, two cats are often included in parentheses at the end, Phoebe 🐈‍⬛ & Queenie 🐈. 

If you’re like me, the first time you saw this you may have worried that the Albons actually had fourteen cats, a number that is truly unthinkable. However, as we never see Pheobe or Queenie on the grid or in their stories, their identity was unclear. After a thorough investigation of the available evidence, I can now reveal the truth.

Phoebe is an outside cat who lives with Tinky. While we have no official confirmation regarding Queenie’s identity, we can safely assume that she is another outside cat who the family presumably feeds and keeps an eye on. ETA 14/09/2023 - everyone rejoice, I found a photo of Queenie! Very fitting name, i would die for her, etc

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Alex’s family all also have emojis, as do the ‘cousins’ of the family and some of Alex’s teammates: His mum - 👵🏼 His dad - 👴🏼 Alex - 🐼 Zoe - 🐧 Alicia - 🐠 Chloe (Bitbit) - 🐰 (emoji shared with Frooky and Lily) Luca - 🐨 Lily - 🐰 (emoji shared with Frooky and Bitbit)

Cousin George - �� Cousin Nick Cassidy (Formula E driver) - 🐘 Cousin Charles - previously was 🐻‍❄️, before it was rudely stolen by Bear. No confirmation if he has since been allocated a new emoji.

Yuki has had different emojis, the seal 🦭 and the butterfly 🦋 (the butterfly is now used by Sasha) Nicky was given the dolphin emoji 🐬 Loga naturally has the eagle emoji 🦅 Williams Racing is the dino emoji 🦕 (i guess corporations are people?) In the captions of birthday posts, other emojis have been used for people who I assume are the partners of Alex's siblings. I don't know anything about them, and I won't be finding out, but I'm going to list them here to clarify that these are (presumably) people and not pets: Lorenzo - 🦥 Max - 🦘 Harrison - 🦓 Ella - 🐞

There are also some pets who have sadly gone over the rainbow bridge, including dogs Tino (aka Valentino/Dean), Rossi and Miguel (aka Michael) and a cat called Chicken (sibling to Duckie and Goosie). These pets are beyond the scope of this primer. 

THE CONCLUSION: As I can’t imagine this being actually useful to anyone, I hope you found this enjoyable and interesting. The Albon_Pets lore is bottomless, and I’ve gone as deep as I dare go. There’s definitely more information I could have included, but like. I got tired. That said, if you know how old Frooky and Looky are, I’d love to know so I can update the cat bios. 

ETA 6/4/2024 - NOTE 1: the number of albon cats is frequently reported (by alex) as thirteen (causing the author of this primer to lose her mind), and finally after much agony, the Instagram account provided clarity:

so if you see that they have thirteen cats, that's why!

#i have no explaination for this #sometimes you just think about cats a lot and trip #albon pets #aa23 #F1 #sorry if you're just in the f1 tag and you see this #primer

[blackmosscupcakes]

I'm fascinated by how this arc of The Wizard the Witch and the Wild One has really flipped the narrative on who's in the right and wrong compared to the first arc, because the key thing is NONE OF THEM are acting differently than they did then--they're all acting incredibly true to character traits that were established from the get go--the only thing that's changed is the surroundings and the context of the backdrop around them.

Out in the world, among ordinary people, Suvi often came across as imperial-minded, deeply indoctrinated, and carrying a feeling of being superior to those who weren't of the citadel. Her feelings and actions were understandable, but the reaction of the audience was often to read her as being overly hostile to the other two and determined to cleave to the Citadel and the beliefs of her upbringing to a degree that was detrimental to their task.

Ame and Eursulon showed a willingness to go off half-cocked and act impulsively based on their feelings in the first arc just as they did in this latest episode, but in the context of the wider world this often came across as deep empathy with ordinary people and spirits and a sense of responsibility to deeper matters beyond the politics of humans. Sure, their actions were a bit reckless and had some negative consequences, but they were acting with their hearts and for the right reasons and everyone was down for Quest Fever!

And then last night we see exactly the same dynamic play out once again--Suvi trying to balance the needs of her adoptive mother and her home and the entire institution in which she grew up against the needs of her friends, while her friends run off and literally blow up the Citadel's shit in absolute defiance of everything Suvi was raised to believe. Now, standing there alone and reeling from a curse as her friends tear off leaving destruction in their wake, she seems understandably hurt, as well as obedient, measured, restrained, sensible, if perhaps a little too blindly trusting in Citadel processes*. And likewise, amidst the context of seeing how the Citadel runs and how generally well it's treated Ame and Eursulon, the two of them seemed reckless, ungrateful, disrespectful, and short-sighted with an unwillingness to play along with the realpolitik of going through the proper channels. Instead they (quite literally) burned important bridges and damaged Suvi's life in the process (though it's also understandable that in light of the revelations about Eursulon's sister they rightly felt unsafe even if Steel was understanding).

It's fascinating how incredibly similar the climactic sequences from these two arcs have been. The characters have followed their natures and it's led them down exactly the same path twice in a row. But the context surrounding their actions is VERY different this time, and each mirrors and recontextualizes the OTHER occurrence. People were largely on Ame and Eursulon's side last time, and they're largely seeing Suvi's side this time. It's been a really complex ethical and practical tangle to navigate both times (and good on Brennan for setting it up that way), but I feel like seeing the two together helps us understand and respond to ALL of the characters in a better way than just having one of these situations would have. It's been really cool to watch, and I've been absolutely loving reading all the thoughts and opinions from people on every side of it. It's already been some of the best fandom discussion I've seen about a TTRPG show.

*I read an interesting perspective from someone who believed they would have had to escape even if they'd trusted Steel, as she already went from "meet me at this time" to "give me more time to talk to the diviners" and they thought she would have continued to delay and delay in order to check all of the Citadel's bureaucratic boxes--I'm not sure whether that's what would have happened but it's an interesting possibility, and one that prevents Steel being used as basically a deus ex machina powerful ally any time they're in trouble.

#i just love all three of these characters so much #and i want them to be able to be friends and have everything work out and be on the same page 😭 #but their perspectives and ways of interacting with the world are so different that once things start getting complicated #they're always going to fall on different sides #and it's always going to break my heart ;_; #but man everyone involved in this is just SO talented #they're absolutely at the top of their game and it's paying off big time in the quality of this story #worlds beyond number #suvi kedberiket #suvirin kedberiket #ame wbn #eursulon #the wizard the witch and the wild one #wbn spoilers

[thisliminalspacedaydreams]

Do not confuse Enthusiasm with Entitlement.

Hello!

I’m relatively unknown in the fanfiction world which is great, but I’ve got some friends who are known, and I’ve got things to say, from an outsider perspective.

I’m a writer, but I’m also a reader. I participate in the fandom in the way I know how, which is through writing stories.

Here’s what fandom should be. It’s a village, called Fandom, and people all interact in the village in some way. Write, Art, Ideas, Comments, Reblogs, Kudos, Podfics, Bookbinding, Etc etc etc. It’s a Smurf village, because currency doesn’t exist, and everyone does what they can for the community to thrive, for fucking free. They offer gifts, and encouragement, and once a week we all gather round in the center of the village and scream about it in a very unhealthy way. Some people are more active than others, some like to be known, some prefer to remain anonymous, some watch from the sidelines and everything is done with care and a warm heart between our teeth.

There are pockets of that, which, great.

Here’s what fandom is, sometimes.

1/People elevating others to the point of God, sometimes dragging other writers down (for no reason, no one asked to be rated as the best fic writer of all time) to make a point. What is the point? Is there one?

2/People harassing writers for more things. Write an epilogue, write another chapter, write this and that. Writers aren’t your own personal AI machine to make what you want to write. A lot is blamed on age, and perhaps there is an element to it, but I believe it’s just decency. An 18 years old kid is capable of making sensible decisions, just like a 24 years old, just like a 14 years old. Your age doesn’t give you a passe-droit to be a dick to people you admire (!!!???!)

3/I won’t even touch on the subject of hate reading because that’s just straight up insanity.

But it’s just… hate and tantrums and anger breeds more hate and tantrums and anger. There isn’t a virtuous way out of that, and I’d love for people to…just, cater to a more positive experience for everyone.

When your fingers are typing rot on your computer, you are venomizing everything that it touches: the people who will read it AND the people who will respond to it.

So far, from what I have seen, this behaviour leads to only one thing: depressed writers/artists/etc who stop writing/drawing/etc, or pull their work, or take breaks, or retreat from the limelight because it is too much.

You are pushing too much.

Enthusiasm is wonderful. It’s a powerful tool and should be used, everyone on this fandom is posting because we looked at The Thing and thought, “yeah.” No one in the history of the world (I hope) has posted after thinking “that is straight up shit and I hate it with a passion.”

Enthusiasm does need to be curated in a healthy way. I understand that Fandom is for fans, but it is also by fans. No one here is better, everyone here is different.

Some writers have a voice that resonate with more people, or stories that resonate with more people, and that is perfectly fine, but, once again for the people in the back, do not confuse Enthusiasm with Entitlement.

In what universe, in what galaxy do you believe complaining about someone’s work will make them go “oh right, nevermind all the work I put into this thing I love, let me just do the thing a random stranger is asking me to do.”

Do not confuse Enthusiasm with Entitlement.

Maybe I sound like bitch, but by god, the shit I’ve heard from my “popular” friends the past few months is absolutely mad. Mad, people.

You are normal people, and SO ARE THEY.

They have lives and interests and they are people. Treat them as such.

Do not confuse Enthusiasm with Entitlement.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk, I hope everyone enjoys Le Mange Dieu et le Dévoreur de Mondes, which we wrote and enjoyed writing, and which does not mean other writers weren't doing their own thing and writing other stuff in the meantime, and I HOPE we can all start to have some fucking respect for the people who spend hoursdaysweeksmonths pouring over a project and posting it for fucking free, all at once, so it’s not stressful for the reader. YOU.

Because against all fucking odds, we actually care about our readers. When you’re being nice.

Thank you and good day from a Fandom Elder.

#fanfiction #fanficwriter #marauders #fandom #MDDM #jegulus fic #marauders fandom #let's be cool yeah?

[karniss-bg3]

Salute, Larian Studios

Heya folks! It’s been a while, I hope everyone is doing well. I’m breaking my hiatus to discuss the recent announcement made by Larian Studios on their steam development blog. I will add the link here for those who wish to read the blog in its entirety but be warned, there are patch seven spoilers within. I wish to focus on a particular section in the final three paragraphs of the document, which reads as follows:

“Being given the chance to develop a game set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe has been a dream come true for all of us. But as Swen recently confirmed, we won't be introducing any major new narrative content to the story of Baldur's Gate 3 or its origin characters and companions, nor will we be making expansions or Baldur’s Gate 4. As an independent studio since 1996, we value the freedom to follow our creativity wherever it leads. In this case, after six years in the Forgotten Realms and much discussion and rumination, we’ve decided to seize this opportunity to develop our own IPs. We’re currently working on two new projects and we couldn’t be more excited about what the future has in store. It’s still early days - we’ll tell you more about those later down the line. But know that even as our focus turns to these new games, the sensibilities that brought you Baldur’s Gate 3 are alive and well here at the Larian castle. We’re fueled by the very same fire in our bellies, one that drives us to create immersive experiences shaped by your choices, and we can’t wait for you to join us on this next adventure.”

I will admit, when I first read this I felt a tinge of disappointment. As someone who had a lot of hope in seeing some stories continued, Kar’niss especially, this feels like the once open door is now sealed shut permanently. To be entirely fair, I always looked at an expanded Kar’niss story with skeptical optimism; hope for the best but expect the worst. After all, Kar’niss was designed as a throw away plot device that had no real bearing on the over-all narrative. Most of what has been derived of the character is entirely fan driven and not based on anything confirmed by Larian as a whole. Furthermore, there were many fan favorites that had a larger base than our dear drider and chances are even if Larian did decide to do an expansion, Kar’niss still wouldn’t make the cut.

With that said, I respect Larian in their choice. To expand on other characters would cost a lot of money and time. To juggle that alongside making new games would be unrealistic, and I understand their point of view completely. We also don’t know what is going on behind the scenes which could’ve influenced their choices all the more. Over all this situation mirrors the old saying, “Don’t cry because it’s over, be happy that it happened.” I am happy, and grateful. Without Baldur’s Gate 3 this blog wouldn’t exist. All of the amazing interactions I’ve had over several months would’ve never occurred, nor would I have found the courage to publicly publish stories to the internet. While I don’t consider myself an awful writer, I never believed my work was good enough for those outside of my personal circle. To say that my confidence has blossomed over the last few months is an understatement, and I owe that to the fantastic support of those in the fandom as well as those close to me. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you.

With Larian closing up the BG3 shop after the next few patches the question becomes, what’s next? For me, I don’t know. Sadly I’ve been swamped lately and it’s not destined to slow down until the middle of May. By then I hope to have a sufficient breather so I can return to projects I’ve left on the back burner in the interim. The Kar’niss blog will remain in place along with all of the archived stories, theories, and miscellaneous posts that are present. I still have a few writing requests that have waited a lot longer than I anticipated, so forgive me for the delay. I may also make a new blog that is dedicated solely to writing and other fandoms of interest. When the time comes I’ll post it here and folks can follow it if they wish but I’ll understand if not. Regardless of what the future holds, I am very stoked with the experiences I’ve had within the Baldur’s Gate 3 fandom. I’m a painfully shy individual and I am not a spotlight seeker by any stretch of the imagination. This section of the internet allowed me to expand my horizons a bit proving that you can indeed teach an old writer new tricks.

I look forward to seeing what is in store for Larian Studios. So long as they stick to their passion for making good games and treating their customers like people instead of money cows to be milked, then I will support every game release that comes in the future. While I’m sad that the many questions I had about Kar’niss will go unanswered, at least the drider will live on through the stories, art and other creative works made by his fans. In that way he is eternal, as are all of the other characters we’ve grown to love over this journey.

I hope to return on a more regular basis soon. Until then drider army, take care of yourselves and thank you for your continued support.

#baldur's gate 3 #kar'niss #bg3 #karniss #drider #baldurs gate 3 #larian studios #steam #essay #writing #I've missed posting here #the chaos on my end should be over soon #I hope

[mxcat777]

So what if

Dream is sort of Shakespeare's patron, right? So would that make Shakespeare on of His™? And if so, would he reside in the Dreaming after his death instead of the Sunless Lands?

'cause if so. Consider.

He's still writing. (A lot)

He keeps up with modern literature, but keeps writing (at least mostly) in Early Modern English (that's it, right? Do I have my lit facts straight?). Imagine his recent plays littered with slang, disney references, (un)subtle references to shit that was based on his stuff that he either loves or hates, both are good.

He's kind of a favourite of Dream's. The same way Lucienne and Jessamy and The Corinthian are. He can get away with saying shit, because if he offends Dream he can turn around and start sprouting some poetry at that vain-ass bitch and all is forgiven. (In the worst cases it takes a new play about his royal majesty the Dream King and how generous and benevolent and regal he is)

Fishbowling happens, not sure what Will would do, the plot bunny didn't care.

Dream is back, all is well, he goes to the New Inn, Hob and Dream are now officially Friends.

They meet up more bc friends see each other more often than once a century. Oh yeah friends also know each others' names and such. So Dream tells Hob a bit about himself.

At some point he's like, hey hob u wanna see the dreaming?

Hob's like yES PLz??

Hob gets a tour, and from that point on usually gets the option at night to dream normally or visit the palace.

On one fateful night, Hob decides to take a stroll through the library, goes looking for Marlowe's shelf, because he kind of wonders what other stuff that genius would have written had he lived longer.

Only to (maybe literally) bump into, you guessed it, Will Bloody Shaxberd.

He stares.

Will goes 'hey'.

And then Hob goes somewhat feral.

(no he is not over it, sue him, he's allowed to hold a grudge.)

He goes off on a rant about, see, ofc ur still plagiarizing marlowe he was so much better i can't believe dream left me for you you useless twat you couldn't write shit without him so why did you get the fucking privilege of living with him and knowing him for fucking centuries i had to fight 600 years for his bloody name and i'm guessing you got it right that first meeting hm?

And Will goes oh shit it's you! And then cuts Hob off with a "you're so right! I was an absolute shit playwright before your friend helped me!"

And Hob is... Understandably lost. This was not how it went in his head.

And then Will continues, I was so nervous the time right after that meeting, I knew he was some sort of supernatural being, no clue what though, he's really not good at introductions, is he, so I sort of assumed you were too, and I was waiting for your revenge for stealing your date away, recently found out you're actually human, albeit immortal, and it was not a date, though, speaking of, have you sorted yourselves out yet?

And Hob, quite understandably even more baffled, sort of gapes for a bit.

Before very nervously denying anything of the sort.

Will just stares.

And goes, bruv, you weren't subtle then, still aren't now, spare everyone else the UST, please, for the love of god, you two need to fuck post haste.

And Hob is like, hahaha, eh, yeah, nope, fun seeing you, BYE.

So Will sighs. And goes to see Lucienne, as any sensible person would.

Lucienne sighs as well. At which point Will steps to Dream himself.

"My lord?" "Yes, William?" "Forgive my directness, but so as not to risk any misunderstandings, what exactly is your relationship with Hob Gadling?" "We are friends. Why do you ask? Is that not clear?" "Well, to be perfectly honest, m'lord, I assumed you were... Involved™." "We are not." "But you'd like to be though, right?" "You dare presume to know-" " I dare presume to know what attraction, romance, love, all that looks like, sire. I must do, after portraying it in my plays for over four centuries. After writing several hundreds of sonnets on the topic." "I-" "In my humble opinion, my lord, it is a good match. He understands you, you continue to fascinate each other, he can provide a safe place where you need not be monarch for a moment. And of course, you are quite obviously attracted to one another sexually." "WILLIAM SH-" "Oh calm down! I'm certainly not judging either of you!" "...he is attracted to me?" "..." "Is he?" "YES! Lord give me faith! Kiss him! Go to him and teleport the both of you onto a bed! Or if you want to be sappy go slow and bring him a rose, but please, for the love of the collective sanity, do something!" "But how do you know? What if you misunderstood? What if it is unwelcome? I cannot lose him!"

At which point Will turns around, leaves the throne room, goes back to the library and rant to Lucienne

"I swear I'm going to write a play about them, just to point out how stupid this is. I feel compelled to call it a tragedy, but I think it needs to have a happy ending, otherwise Lord Broodphius would get stuck on the but what if it does end in tragedy, so I suppose a comedy would be fitting, but then again, this is too painful to watch to qualify as a comedy. Tragic comedy? Comic tragedy? I'll figure it out..."

And Lucienne is like, if you'd like to perform it properly I'm sure there are a few dreams who would be more than willing to help out, take on a role.

Hob comes back to the Dreaming a few days later and finds Will up to his elbows in paper, reference books, thesauruses and rhyming dictionaries (handy things those), and empty mugs and the like.

Will looks up, somewhat manic, and is like, Hob! Great! Just the person I wanted to see! Would you help me, please?

Hob's like, sure? Kind of apprehensive, but he gave everything some thought and decided that as long as he could go on dunking on him, he could let go of most of his jealousy (cuz that's what is was, he's mature enough to admit)

Will goes, Awesome! Tell me about you and Morphius! How do you see him, what's your story, I only ever get bits and pieces from his lordship, so I'm in severe need of some context...

And Hob is somewhat suspicious, but he indulges him, and really, telling the story comes too easy, so he gets into it completely and doesn't even notice when he starts slipping into rants about Dream, about how beautiful, and magnificent, and misunderstood, and kind, and way-out-of-his-league-but-god-dammit-he-went-and-fell-in-love-with-the-bastard-anyway he is

And Will takes studious notes.

And then goes like, so some of the sonnets I've written were with you two in mind, you wanna give me some feedback? (Ahem, sonnet 24/29, some others work too, undoubtedly, but I am no Shakespeare expert, unfortunately)

And he does something similar with Dream, maybe citing Hob's dislike of him as the reason he wants to know more about him without having to bother him overly much, like, I want to set things right between us, but I need to know more about him to do that, will you help me, m'lord

And he does

And Will just sits back and takes notes as Dream also spirals into a passion fueled rant about Hob

And all those notes end up in the eventual play

Auditions for the roles happen when Dream and Hob are out on a Not Date™ in the Waking.

There are surprisingly many auditioning for Hob's role, and surprisingly little for Dream's

Until Will points out that Dream would probably be more offended by an unworthy portrayal of his Love that of himself, at which point some of the dreams bow out entirely, bc Will knows how vain their lord is, so they decide not to risk unmaking and tactically retreat

Will is in his fucking element, it's been way too long since he's properly directed a play!

Eventually Will comes up to the Mutually Pining Idiots like, hey m'lord, Hob, I've written a new play, and I've been working with some of the dreams to make it happen, do you want to see??

So they watch. They watch as two absolute fucking idiots stumble around each other, everyone on and off stage can see how stupidly in love they are except for them, and both start sweating profusely when they start recognizing their own words quoted back at them.

The end of the play is something of a direct call-out and a plea from the dreams to please just talk to each other, fuck and get married, preferably in that order, but they're not picky.

Then everyone leaves them alone for the Conversation that is most likely going to happen.

Will stays behing hiding unobtrusively in the shadows tho.

He's not about to let all his work go to waste if these idiots ty to play it off again. He will lock them in a broom closet if he has to, watch him.

They don't.

Luckily.

There are like three sentences total spoken. Then they're aggressively making out.

Will leaves the room very content about his matchmaking skills.

And hey! He got a good play out of it, if he does say so himself!

#the sandman #dream of the endless #dreamling #dream #hob gadling #the sandman netflix #centennial husbands #dream x hob #hob x dream #morpheus #morpheus x hob #hob x morpheus #will shaxberd #hob hates shakespeare #plot bunny #i say bunny #but at this point it's a hare #this got long #and way out of hand #honestly it just started with hib stumbling across shakespeare in the dreaming #and ranting to him #and will being surprisingly mature and such #then this happened #lucienne #and will #just sighing over these #idiots #together #mutual pining #idiots to lovers

[a-student-out-of-time]

Important PSA: bullying and harassment

//Hello again, everyone. I'm coming to you right now with an important announcement.

//Some of you may recall the epidemic of harassment that has plagued several blogs for the last few months, up to and including someone attempting to get @thenewfuture reported for mature content.

//Why? Because many of us have discussed that Hiyoko is a flawed character. Literally that is the only reason why, and it really struck a negative chord with someone.

//I saw many who dismissed this as a matter of multiple people, but this happened again and now we finally know who was behind it. A user calling themselves, ironically, anti-victim-blaming.

//A person whose harassment to my friend Poi has gone beyond just being upset that a character- a fictional character- is being held accountable for their actions. This went into a very concerning levels of delusion that make me believe this person is not well.

//I'm not going to deconstruct their arguments and why they're wrong, because I think we're all sensible enough to understand that comparing people on the internet not giving your favorite character a free pass on everything to the persecution of Native Americans is fucking insane.

//And when Poi blocked them, they proceeded to make more blogs JUST to keep at this.

//To bully and repeatedly harass people over that is on a whole other level. This is what happens when you take anyone not liking something you enjoy as a personal slight to its most logical extreme.

//Nobody here is victim-blaming and nobody here is projecting. We're talking about it because we are storytellers, and storytellers have to be willing to explore a character's flaws and how those affect the people around them. That has nothing to do with fans of that character.

//Whatever we talk about, whatever issues with our views on a character you might have, there's room for discussion. There's never room for bullying and harassment that goes up to actually falsely report someone's blog simply for not agreeing with you.

//And I'm also going to ask everyone who sees this, it is NOT your job to declare war on this person, so please DO NOT SPAM THEM OR ATTACK THEM. I will never endorse bullying under any circumstance and I don't want you on my blog if you do.

//I'm only bringing all this up because, for everyone's sake, block this person as soon as you can. I've already reported them for harassment. That's all you need to do. Do not spam them, do not harass them, do not attack them, just block them and report them.

//We can all be better than this.

#mod talks #a student out of time #psa #important

[eisforeidolon]

I feel fans should be able to interpret shows and characters any way they want but it really bothers me that shippers die on the hill of Dean is such a closeted bi sexual and Sam is the biggest heterosexual out there. I love these characters because they are extremely toxic and codependent on each other. The story would not be the same with out that. Why would anyone look to Supernatural to be their all time gay representation love story when it most obviously is not. it just blows my mind how out there Destiel shippers are and how much they truly hate this show and hate Dean without even realizing it. I need someone to figure out how we can get rid of them from this fandom...LOL

Yeah, IDGI either. Fandom is supposed to be about just having fun however you want with the building blocks from the canon + your imagination. It's not even the main point that they're hilariously bad at interpretation, project too hard onto the characters to even see them, can't understand context to save their lives, pointedly ignore a million things that directly contradict their agenda, and too much of their so-called proof is actually gross backwards stereotypes about sexuality and masculinity (neither of which they seem to understand very well at all). If they were just having fun with it, who the fuck cares? Sure, it's annoying, but a lot of fandom is annoying because it is so specifically tailored to things not everyone is gonna like. There are other canons with fans who are fine admitting they just like playing in the canon world but not the canon itself that much.

No, the problem is hellers are not content to just enjoy their non-canon interpretations in fandom. They feel entitled to flood any and every tag associated with the show, trying to demand their interpretations be considered indisputably canon fact because ... reasons ... and anyone who doesn't agree with them is A Bad Person because ... they say so. Their ship is the greatest love story (n)ever told, the best representation evar in media! It's the only important thing about SPN - and if they couldn't change the canon, they can change the fandom narrative! The fact there's actually no there there under their overblown thousands upon thousands of words of inept meta is why the very suggestion it's not canon, that someone doesn't see it as the greatest thing ever, that maybe Dean is actually just a heterosexual instead of putting on an elaborate performance of one or even that Sam might not be the straightest character ever written? Is taken as an attack upon their self-declared status as the real main audience. Which makes sense, because they never were. SPN was anything but subtle as to what its actual focal relationship was.

To some extent I get how they echo-chambered each other into believing their ship was/would be a thing in canon. If you just look at the size of the piles on piles of cherry-picked nonsense they accumulated over the years without actually engaging your brain to see how variously flimsy, out of context, or how many other more sensible interpretations there were for any of them? If you wanted to believe and surrounded yourself with others who did, too, and kept talking each other up, spending way more time doing that than watching the show? It's no wonder some of them ended up with really skewed expectations.

What I don't get is how they're still going this long after the show ended. SPN is over and there's no more 'Well, next season for sure!' to promise themselves. There are increasingly more stories out there now in a variety of media which are centering deliberately, openly LGBT+ characters and relationships they could invest in championing! Hell, just saying screw canon and burying themselves in writing their idea of "better" fanfic is a perfectly reasonable way to deal with disappointment, no matter how self-inflicted. Instead, they're still here making up elaborate conspiracies about how SPN was something other than what it blatantly obviously always was - because admitting they were wrong and the only thing they ever liked about it was their own OOC fanfic very, very loosely based off of it? Well, that's more than a bit embarrassing in light of how long they spent campaigning and how vehement they were about it totally being not just A Thing but The Most Important Thing Ever. So I don't know what would actually get them to move on, they clearly love being miserable and wrong and pretending to be martyrs over it far too much for me to comprehend.

#destihellers #fandom issues #faux social justice

[mmikmmik]

Starting ToQger and OOO is really satisfying because they both have such smart, well-executed worldbuilding. When you watch a lot of iterations of formulaic shows/franchises, you start to notice the craft, in a good way.

The whole thing in OOO where the main Rider can transform/get additional transformation modes by using Core Medals, which are literally part of the Greeed and can be stolen from them when they're injured, creates stakes within all the battles between the Greeed and OOO, and it immediately gives the other Greeed an intense personal beef with Ankh and OOO for fucking with their stuff. The audience doesn't fully understand the Core Medals yet, but we can see from Ankh's diminished state that they must be important. (I think this does have some danger of falling into the issue I had with Ex-Aid, where the plot stakes revolved around transformation items, so they kept taking fun toys away from the heroes with very little actual impact on things like character development or personal goals, but so far that's not happening.) In general, the show about desire is doing a great job giving the characters things they want and are believably motivated to fight for. Themes!

Meanwhile in ToQ they established that at this point, the regular MOTW Shadows can use their gimmicks to be threatening, but go down pretty easily once the ToQgers work out ways around those. But the Shadow Line leaders like General Schwarz are almost impossible to injure in direct combat, much less defeat. But the Rainbow Line trains are much more powerful than the Shadow Line trains! So it all comes together - the ToQgers aren't in constant danger and can relax in their daily lives because they're safe on a Rainbow Line train. General Schwarz focuses on military power, natch, so he's being smart and tactical by trying to soup up the Shadow Line trains (and also he fucking loves trains). The ToQgers must leave the safety of their trains to restore Dark Stations to normalcy, but the Shadow Line doesn't have Shadow Cell Phones to use to call backup (get on that, guys) so there's not a huge chance they'll encounter a Shadow Line leader there. The Dark Stations can't hold off the ToQgers, but the ToQgers don't automatically know where they are, so the other Shadow Line leaders can spam Dark Stations and collect darkness until the ToQgers trip over them and they aren't just completely wasting their time. Within the fun little Bright Colorful Imagination Trains vs Dark Spooky Steampunk Trains setting, everyone has sensible goals that they're pursuing rationally.

No one is doing things Just Because. No one is bizarrely ignoring a huge massive problem for themselves that recurs in every episode. There's not really any "well, it's not clear why they're doing this, but there's no plot holes or anything and I can think of a few potential explanations so I won't worry about it". We love to see it.

#we're not far in so ooo has lots of time to disappoint me (though i'm not expecting it) #i already know toq is perfect though

[alagaesia-headcanons]

A few times I've expressed how I feel like the later parts of the series really screw over Orrin and treat his character poorly. And I've seen some other people say similar things. But for a long while know, I've been conflicted about how exactly the books disservices him. Because, since writing this character analysis of him, I found that I don't disagree with the actual things he says and does. Like I mentioned there, I think the way his composure crumbles and how he becomes more aggressive and unreasonable makes a lot of sense in the context of what he's going through. He's lost everyone and he turns to drinking as anger and fear eat away at him. I think it works as a character arc, albeit a very sad one. And yet, I still get the feeling of the books doing wrong by Orrin and I've been trying to wrap my mind around why.

I was rereading the scene where Orrin wants to send an envoy to Uru'baen and Roran demands that he doesn't. Initially, I felt like this was one of the few moments where it does feel out of character for him, simply for the story to paint him in an exaggeratedly bad light. But I tried to reason out in what way it maybe could be in character (because I live for that). And it clicked into place. Orrin says it right there! "'But they can see us,' protested Orrin. 'We're camped right outside their walls. It would be... rude not to send an envoy to state our position. You are both commoners; I would not expect you to understand. Royalty demands certain courtesies, even if we are at war.'"

The issue at hand here is that Roran is arguing that sending an envoy to Galbatorix might provoke him to attack them. What Orrin is saying is that, as opposed to Roran and Jormundur, he knows what a king would expect to deal with when under attack, which includes envoys. If it would be perceived as rude and disrespectful to not send one, that insult could just as well be provoke Galbatorix into attacking. It makes perfect sense that, if Orrin sees this as a courtesy a king would feel entitled to, he believes it would be dangerous to risk slighting Galbatorix by failing to do it. Roran tells him, "'I won't let you endanger the rest of us just to satisfy your royal... pride.'" But it seems infinitely more likely that Orrin is attempting to satisfy Galbatorix's royal pride. I do think that not sending an envoy is a bit more sensible because, as Roran says, Galbatorix was born a commoner and likely has his own expectations (though what he goes on to say has flaws), but Orrin is still raising a very fair point by arguing that they should send one. And honestly, given what we see of Galbatorix, I don't think there was any danger of an envoy provoking him either.

But the more important thing about that realization that struck me is that I read that section at least 6 times before it occurred to me. I read it over and over while thinking "Orrin's argument doesn't make any sense, I don't know why he's saying this" before realizing it actually makes perfect sense. And it's because I believe that the true way that the series disservices Orrin's character is through the bias of the other characters and their narrations. This exchange is written in Roran's POV and it's riddled with his derision towards Orrin, his insistence that he's wrong, that he'll get them killed, and his overall very low opinion of him which colors how he sees all of Orrin's acts. And Jormundur shares his distaste and expresses his own.

Out of curiosity, I cut everything but the dialogue (sans 2 irrelevant lines) to see how it would read. It's very different; it shows how Orrin is reasonable at the start and how unwarranted Roran's combative and brazenly insulting response is. It really changes this scene from "Roran heroically saving everyone from the fallout of Orrin's stupid, careless choice," and reveals that it's just an argument- unhelpful and devolving where they both end up making inappropriate mistakes, one after the other.

Of course, there are real issues with Orrin's actions, in this case namely that his very wound up fear and frustration make him intensely volatile, enough that he tries to attack Roran here. That is egregious. But then that's compounded upon by all these other "flaws" perceived by the other characters in such an exaggerated way to the point of being fabricated. Roran sees him as dangerously stupid and vainglorious for wanting to send an envoy, despite putting absolutely no effort into learning his reason. It's just real rich that Roran then thinks, "Orrin was like a yearling mule: stubborn, overconfident, and all too willing to kick you in the gut if you gave him the opportunity." Lmao! Bitch look in the mirror, that's literally you!!!

This kind of depiction epitomizes Orrin's presence through the entire series. Every single POV characters has reason to be against him, starting with Nasuada. As a result of both of their respective positions, she sees him as a potential threat and obstacle to her goals. Through his connection to her, Eragon sees him the same way and Saphira follows suit. And Roran adopts the opinion of his cousin and his commander. So all of the POV characters are adverse to Orrin, but also, so is every single background character.

There is no one to offer or even contemplate a differing opinion in the face of the main characters' unilateral distaste. Once, literally once do we see Orrin talking to another Surdan. He gets a single line in the scene where Nasuada is appointed leader of their combined forces. Never again. We never see him interact with anyone not predisposed against him. None of his advisors, his soldiers, his friends. Every moment of Orrin's life involving the people who'd have a basis to get along with, or even like him go unseen by the entire story. And on the other side, that also means we never get to see how Orrin would interact with anyone without an incentive to work against him. So the narrative's bias against Orrin goes completely uninterrupted and unchallenged. It shows itself virtually every time he's present.

That is why the series feels so unfair towards Orrin, because in order to understand his actual intentions, it demands that the reader consider a perspective that the story refuses to ever provide. It requires ignoring perspectives that narrate everything and then giving a great deal of focus to Orrin's actions in isolation. It sets him up to be misunderstood and disliked because the easiest way to read his story is to follow along with the misunderstanding and dislike all the other characters express. The books actively obscure the true nature of Orrin's character.

#eragon #inheritance cycle #orrin #ic analysis #i stumbled into all of this while looking for one little detail for a joke post lmao #lost in the sauce jfc #ill fight to the death for orrin #i would have given anything for a scene of orrin with one of his friends or literally anyone from surda #nasuada and the rest of the vardens leadership are just so weirdly combative with him #like damn his support is the only reason ur group exists u dont have to treat him like he'll ruin everything if u so much as let him breath #another similarity between orrin and murtagh fdhsdshk: every other character treats them like shit #(this post was brought to you by! ~rorans god awful conflict management skills~)

[ultimateloserboy]

i said i would make this post, so here i am. here is the red guy analysis, starting with this qna answer from baker terry. i talked about this question before, it was “whos your favorite to write for?” and after a bit of debate the answer ended up being red guy for pretty much everyone. i mentioned that, but i left out this answer specifically because of how significant it is. im gonna go on a bit of a tangent here, but i promise itll come back around and make sense

this is what ive been saying about red guy!! hes been going through a constant character arc that never reaches its completion because he is torn down again and again. “hes sensible and together until he isnt” is such a good description, because he might be the MOST normal character but he isnt truly normal. not really. thats very important.

i think red guy is a realistic character, a very human character, and the thing about people is that we’re not as normal as we think. there are differences about all of us that don’t quite fit, and some of us moreso than others, but that is the true normal. true normal is to not be normal. that is what red guy represents to me. we relate to him and think he is sensible because he is, but that doesnt mean hes free of oddness altogether. thats what makes him even more relatable.

but he doesnt realize this, hes riddled with insecurity, and THATS what makes him the way he is. he doesnt quite fit anywhere. hes out of place in his own world, and hes out of place in every other world as well. he doesnt enjoy the house, and he tries to run, but even when he runs he doesnt like what he finds outside. he’ll never find a place where he perfectly fits. he’ll try, but he’ll fail.

but thats another thing. because he doesnt fit anywhere as he is, he usually tries to fit in instead. the characters around him (the fax machine thingy, the trash can, lily and todney) they all tell him that theres something wrong with him and the way he lives, that he could be better, that all he has to do is listen to them and he’ll be normal and respected. and so he does. he listens to them and tries his best to be happy with it. hell tell himself that hes normal and everyone loves him now. that weird people are below him, that nothing is wrong with him because hes perfect. he wont believe it, he’ll be unhappy playing pretend, but at least hes better than everyone else now. at least hes the most normal one. at least hes normal, right?

but then he’ll end up back home, and things will go differently tomorrow. there could be a day where hes waltzing around in clothes, masking who he is and pretending to like it. but then there could be a day where hes coming to terms, where he looks in the mirror and he doesnt care much what others think anymore. where he’ll say “im not supposed to wear clothes, this is the way i look” finally sticking up for himself. he’ll start being kinder, to others and himself. he’ll start being more honest, more open, more loving. he’ll still be as average and monotone as ever, but he’ll be slightly different. he’ll be happier with himself as he is, he’ll ACTUALLY like himself instead of just pretending.

but happiness doesn’t last in a house like theirs. his memory loss will rip away at the realizations he has. he’ll go right back to being bitter and miserable. i dont believe the house is in a timeloop, i hate that theory with a burning passion, but thats besides the point. timeloop or not, he’ll be built up, and then the next day he’ll be knocked back down. he never reaches a point where hes fully happy and i doubt he ever will. i doubt any of them ever will. it makes me so sad, but at least he gets close enough.

in conclusion, duck and yellow guy are very nonsensical and complicated characters, but red guy is too, just in a calmer and more easy-to-understand sense. just because hes the regular, human kind of complicated does not mean he isnt worth analyzing. i wish people would see him as more complex instead of just “relatable depressed tumblr sexyman” like if yall paid attention youd realize that yes, he pulls off the suit, but hes miserable in it. it’s literally him masking. i wish people paid more attention to these things. no shame if you dont, hes supposed to be a more chilled out character compared to the other two, so its natural that people wouldnt think as hard about him. but hes not as smart and reasonable as yall give him credit for, he is until he isnt.

or, if we want to go with the gayer conclusion:

hes YOUR babygirl because hes hot in a suit, but hes MY babygirl because he thinks electricity is magic. because hes an embarrassment to everyone around him. because he doesnt like wasting food or making a mess. because all he wants is a family, and he already has one, but its not normal or functional enough for him. because he smiles more often than everyone thinks. because hes actually kind of an asshole but duck outshines him in that department. because hes selfish and yet he dislikes himself. because he is complicated in the most human way, with a little bit of an inhuman thought here and there. because i am in love with him im just going insane now i need to shut this shit down. ive gotten my point across. goodbye, i love you ! (leaves you a spherical internet device which i created)

#dhmis #dhmis red guy #red guy #dont hug me im scared #dhmis analysis #dhmis tv show #red guy dhmis #dhmis fandom

[akookminsupporter]

I honestly don’t care too much about the whole jk 🚬 thing, just like I didn’t care with V nor with Suga. I can not like something and still love/like and respect the people who chooses to do those things. Like me not liking the idea of vaping and my sisters doing it — you do you I guess 🤷🏻‍♀️. Also, don’t know why people are so surprised about the fact and the possibility of him and any other member/idol smoking, because just like drinking is very popular in Korea, as far as I know smoking rates are kinda high too. So yes I was surprised at first, for reasons like the ones you’ve mentioned (his voice, health and smell sensibility), but overall I was like “oh, okay so he does that too”. We also need to remember and understand that even if we see it on footage and/or by hearing them talk about it —still we will never know the pressure, exhaustion and stress they go under on a daily basis, and because of that, it is never our place to judge how they choose to enjoy and release themselves, specially if it’s not affecting/hurting anyone. Now, the only thing that intrigues me about this whole thing is why now are we being bombarded with so much… idk a good word so I’m just gonna name it “crude/sensible/private moments” of them (all of them in a way). Like the V and Jennie video, I just don’t see how 10 years in the industry have been so relatively “smooth”, but now in this second chapter it feels like we have had one revelation after another ? I’m not saying it’s planned, but I also don’t think it’s entirely coincidental, specially with how the members (like RM and JK in recent lives) have been expressing themselves and slowly removing/breaking the “idol standard” frame.

Let's talk a bit about the last part of your message.

I think I mentioned in one of the Asks I posted a couple of hours ago, that I think the reason we are seeing more of the guys' private lives is because fans are not respecting those moments like they used to. I don't think it's because the guys are now doing this or that, I want to believe that no one is naive enough to believe that before those 7 men stayed at home doing nothing, apart from working. Now the lack of content has caused many to look for any way to find out about them. And now they are quicker to justify why a video or photo etc. spreads much faster. Many don't care about the guys and respecting their private lives, many care about feeding the parasocial relationship they have created with them. Or feeding that obsession. That addiction; because what's the point of knowing what they do in their spare time if we're supposed to be fans of their music and variety content?

"specially with how the members (like RM and JK in recent lives) have been expressing themselves and slowly removing/breaking the “idol standard” frame."

As for this part, I think it's because they really understand the power they have, not just in Korea but in the industry in general. I don't know much about other kpop groups but it's clear to me that no other group has the power that bts has. And it's important to clarify that I'm not talking about popularity, that's something different although no one has the popularity that bts has but in this case, I'm talking about power. Of influence.

Although there are some groups that are quite popular globally they don't have the power and influence that bts has and this is proven by the participations that bts has had in important stages outside of music. Yes, those appearances are also due to the popularity of the group but mostly due to the power and influence they have. Even if that influence was only on their fandom, that would be huge because bts fandom is huge and that's something that I think everyone with full knowledge of the facts recognises.

And BTS knows it. The members know it. They are positioned enough in the industry and society I think, to shake up the status quo - once again - of what it is to be an Idol. A kpop artist and even a Korean artist. I think that also applies to their relationship with the fandom. Joon and jungkook particularly, they're more vocal in expressing what they don't like, in calling out the fandom for doing or saying something they don't agree with and that's important. I think they've understood that the image that we had of them and that maybe they were projecting was a little bit unrealistic and in this new stage of their careers, they're trying to be more honest or honest enough. Real.

#anon #ask #bts fan opinions #rosie's thoughts

[dearweirdme]

I actually think a lot of Taekookers believe it was him in the video, all of the accounts I follow do. Not long after the video went public there was a Twitter space meeting of Taekookers, and some big accounts hosting it and everyone believed it was him and discussed the whole circus starting from that point. No one was using that to drag him, but I've seen so many people try to argue the other side act like it's insulting to him to even suggest he would participate. Well if someone thinks that, that's their problem to work through. If him participating is a show of bad character to you, YOU work through why you think that. Because I don't, and none of the people I know who believe it was him in the video think that. It's a media play. It's a business deal. There is some pretty compelling evidence the companies already had a plan worked up for this particular fake couple years ago. The Paris walk was actually pulled off brilliantly, and then the whole thing got really weird from there and now we know just sort of fizzled out with some "insider" leaking break-up news with Jennie re-signed and Tae enlisting. But if the purpose was to get people talking (they stirred the pot whenever there was some other big news), and to closet Tae it did its job. The walk was also really the extent of Tae's involvement and he seemed uninterested in giving anything more than the bare minimum needed. Taekook_lives who has been mentioned in the comments on posts about this today released a video not long after the Paris video "debunking" it, but she jumped on the "cosplayer" who tried to claim the whole thing immediately. That "cosplayer" was Akio. They run an Instagram account that is still spreading rumors about Tae. I didn't understand why Taekookers were rushing to hype that account up because I looked at it back in May and they were saying they had been hired to film that video to make Tae's other Parisian ex-girlfriend jealous. It was obvious bs. Taekook_lives is an au writer and has almost every sensible Taekooker on Twitter blocked, she's been around for years and there is plenty of misinformation in her videos. If it wasn't clear, I believe it's Tae in that video. I'll allow for the possibility it was filmed some other time, but his manager is wearing the same clothing he was at the airport when they departed from SK. I believe the Elle magazine was the March issue so it would have had to be sometime between March and May, which is funny because of that Taennope account who tweeted in March that a May Paris date was confirmed. Tae is obviously not happy about anything going on there. The walk next to the river is painfully awkward, very robotic from him. He's not even looking at her. It was obviously a set-up. So they only got blurry video of them together, and I noticed Jennie was actually pretty careful and turning her face away from the cam. Then the only HD pictures we get are of them walking separately with their managers wearing the exact same clothing. It's brilliant, and almost every het K-pop shipper uses the same trick. Maybe they learned a little something from them. Anyway I am glad it's over, and I hope Tae knows that he's got so many supporters who love him and are by his side in all this.

Hi anon!

Yeah, I agree. To me it’s logical that it’s Tae.. celebs and their companies just don’t hire stand-ins for these things. It looks like Tae and Jennie to me.. posture, body language, everything. They had opportunity (timing wise). And they had a clear goal. So I’m really not doubting it.

Taekook-lives and all other accounts (including mine) are all fan accounts. We all deal with the same images and info we just all might differ in interpretation. I never go blindly on any account ‘s opinion, because when watching analysis vids I often come across things I personally disagree with. So when someone says to me “this account says that” or ‘twitter says this” I take that with me, but I still make my own judgements. I might be wrong at times, others might be wrong at times, we all can be right at times.. but there’s no-one out there who probably got it all right.

#fandom shenanigans #taennope

[mostlikelytofangirl]

Honestly one of my favourite things about ruoyao is how unhinged a ship it is! Like okay WRH and MY are fundamentally different people but they fit together very nicely! WRH is very capricious and MY knows how to deal with capricious people, WRH seems to be one of the few people in the entire novel to elevate people purely on merit (see: MY, WZL, WQ) and thag drives me nuts!

Like are you serious??? The unhinged megalomaniac is better at recognising and rewarding talent than everyone here??? Says a lot about the jianghu. In the same vein, he seems like the one person that would 100% respect his mom, without being awkward about it because he doesn't give two craps about social conventions or propriety

The same way I don't think MY's kindness is a facade, I don't think his cruelty in WRH's court is one either! MY can be very unhinged and cruel himself when he's pushed to it! (see: JGS's death)

There's also the fact WRH treated him better than anyone until that point (except for LXC) and like, obviously MY was playing a role in Qinshang, but it wasn't a role necessarily antithetical to his character!

It's really fun to explore the whirlwind of emotion MY was dealing with at that point! The power, the rush of WRH's respect and care, so on!

I've read every ruoyao dynamic under the sun (wen-gongzi, wen-furen, codependency, sexy torture times, etc.) And they drive me crazy!!!! Have you seen manhua WRH's reaction to being killed? He doesn't look like he's angry and wants to rage and kill! He looks confused and devastated like he doesn't understand why his talented Yao'er would do this!

It's about the potential. Like yeah WRH is basically a cartoon villain in the books but he's so fun to toy with with the little info we have! One thing that I like to believe about him is that he 100% adores his family! Hurt WX or WC or MY? He'll skin you. He was probably about to shatter baxia and have MY skin NMJ when he died

AAAAHHHH You get me!!!

YES! They are different ppl but they align so well with each other! As you said WRH is the kind to do whatever the hell he wants, and one thing MY is great at is accommodating, and he has no issues with that so long as his own needs are met too, and woULD YOU LOOK AT HOW HE ACTUALLY GOT RECOGNIZED!

And WZL! I forgot about him, but YES, that dude not only got accepted in the sect, he even was given the Wen name! LIKE PLS WRH was going around collecting talented rejects :')

Oh, I totally agree with your assessment of MY. I believe he was an inherently good person, but he was more than capable of cruelty. He probably had to exaggerate a bit in Qishan, but he definitely had what it took already, that cold blood is just something you can't fake, no matter how good an actor. And you know, that's what I love about Wen Yao, that he could be fully himself like that, he didn't have to hide his "dark" side nor pretend to be better to not hurt others' sensibilities bc, as good as he may have been at his core, he was not all about pure righteousness. He understood nuance and the need for harsh measures, and only with the Wen was it properly appreciated (but not exploited and abused like JGS did)

There are so many flavors to the ship indeed! I mean, you are still not going to get the healthiest pairing out of ruoyao lol, but you can get some wonderful codependence or the ever so delicious "I'm horrible to everybody but never to you" dynamics :'D

Ahhh the manhua!! I made this post some time ago PRECISELY bc I was going insane over how crushed WRH was when he discovered his Yao'er betraying him! He wasn't angry, he just couldn't understand why T-T

Lol he's a wonderful cartoon villain XD. It's about his potential as well, how we can have fun with the bits and pieces of info bc those are actually telling. And I do agree that he cared about his family, even if he wasn't aware of how he came off to them (aka that one donghua scene with WC kneeling), bc we would have been told otherwise since this is the Horrible Fathers novel :P. Also iirc, the whole "torture of NMJ right in front of him" thing was bc he killed WX, sooooo...

#replies #wen ruohan #meng yao #jin guangyao #ruoyao #mdzs #am I a bit (a lot) delulu? Yes #am I having too much fun with this? Also yes #I'm actually going rabid over them and I'm overjoyed at being validated with my niche rareship :')

[akallabeth-joie]

The Blue Castle, Chapter 42

Barney is BAAAAACK! Took him long enough

“Redfern had not said anything of the kind, but Uncle Benjamin thought he was that sort of a fellow. Valancy knew he was.” When you’re being a self-serving jerk and manipulating people, but inadvertently get something right and help people instead...

“Rubbing his hands and chuckling, he retreated to the kitchen...” Ok, Uncle Benjamin’s attempt to be a scheming mastermind is just hilarious. As his conundrums are not.

“She wore an ugly old brown-and-blue gingham, having left all her pretty dresses in the Blue Castle.” The same brown gingham she put on in chapter 2, or was this just her old wardrobe staple? Obviously the pretty dresses belong in the happier life of the blue castle and can have no place on Elm Street, but, what was Barney supposed to do with them? How did he find this apparent contradiction between her not packing (she means to come back? she’s not actually moving out?) with her note to the contrary? I’m also now reflecting on Valancy’s luggage. We know she took a trunk and satchel with her to Roaring Abel’s when she first left Elm Street. I can’t find that she explicitly packs or brings anything with her to the Blue Castle (and all her clothes mentioned thereafter, except perhaps for the pair of ‘sensible shoes’, are pretty new things she’s bought for herself), though it would seem out of character for her to just leave her old clothes for Abel to deal with. At the same time, she doesn’t want to clutter up her blue castle, so why would she bring things she doesn’t want there? Perhaps she discarded her unwanted old things after she married and started wearing pretty clothes (and/or the older things wore out over the course of the year). At any rate, she apparently left some old clothes at Elm Street. [Not sure where I was going with this ramble.]

I understand why Barney’s upset she was missing, but I will point out that he was the one who stayed away all day until midnight.

Shaking Valancy is just not cool, and this incident is the one problem I have with Barney.

“Valancy,” he said quietly, “Father couldn’t have told you everything because he didn’t know it. Will you let me tell you—everything?” More exposition time! I like how LMM gave Barney and his father such different perspectives that they can both tell the same story and Valancy gets completely opposite conclusions from it.

It’s sort of weird that everyone Barney meets seems to be determined to tease him for how he’s rich. He mentions the toadies (as well as Ethel), but I want there to be a group of social misfits he can band together with and make friends.

“ I had to believe you loved me—really loved me—not my father’s millions. There was no other reason why you should want to marry a penniless devil with my supposed record. And I was sorry for you. Oh, yes, I don’t deny I married you because I was sorry for you. And then—I found you the best and jolliest and dearest little pal and chum a fellow ever had. Witty—loyal—sweet. You made me believe again in the reality of friendship and love.“ I’m glad these two found eachother, but I also think they’d both benefit from some therapy.

Oof, the conflict between low-self-esteem and implicitly accusing someone of lying to you.

“You darling!” she said. “You do mean it! You do really love me! You wouldn’t be so enraged if you didn’t.” ....I guess? They sort of lost me here. Just kiss and make up already.

“Dear little Doss! He would send for his lawyer right away and alter his will again. Doss should be his sole heiress. To her that had should certainly be given. Mrs. Frederick, returning to her comfortable belief in an overruling Providence, got out the family Bible and made an entry under “Marriages.” Mrs. Stirling and Uncle Benjamin finally do something nice for Valancy, but I’m awarding no points since they’ve doing it for selfish reasons, and won’t actually help Valancy (she’s financially secure now and doesn’t need his money; she’s loved and accepted by Barney and doesn’t need her mother’s grudging approval for it).

No Stirling Scoreboard update, because I don’t think their actions here have any actual effect on Valancy, and are done for purely selfish reasons.

#the blue castle #blue castle book club #we're almost done #this has been a fun read through

[robcognitivepersonality]

The truth bearing of Fe dominant

Remember this about functions: If you lead by the dominant function, you are led by the inferior function.

ENFJs and ESFJs are driven by their Introverted Thinking (Ti), and they use Extraverted Feeling (Fe) as the means to express Ti. That makes them logically driven people. This is different from other Fe's of other types. They interact with the world via Fe based on their Ti laws and principles. They seek the truth, live by the truth, promote the truth. They can live so logically and objectively they're willing to ignore their own feelings and opinions. They see feedback from others are more objective (read more valuable).

We've always heard how Ti is like having this one single truth or theory of everything. Ti-domimants like to build and model their own, Fe-dominants promote it. Truth sets people free, the world is better off if we understand more about it. They can even be evangelical about that. Harmony is when everyone's unified by that one Ti truth—for everyone to agree on something and fall in line.

The typical descriptions of ENFJs and ESFJs are sensing other people's emotions. But again, Fe is just the means to promote Ti. Many of us picture them as social people pleasers when they’re actually ego managers enforcing logical rules and convincing others to follow them. So one way to reword that is typically ENFJs and ESFJs have learned to be good with people and emotions in order to find sensible ways to instill truth in people. Fe is the utility and creativity to inform emotional human beings.

A practical example is being a teacher teaching math in grade school. Arithmetic is irrefutable truth in the practical sense, and we're better off knowing about it. Some of us might *feel* discouraged when we don't get it, and the Fe-dominant teacher can help us sort our feelings around and help us better intake the information.

But it’s not like Fe-dominants figured everything out nor have the necessary knowledge to make themselves useful in the first place. They study. A lot. That’s what Ti Oppositional means—To proactively research and acquire knowledge for Fe to shape the world. The best teachers make the best students. Learn to follow before you lead. More than any other type, Fe-dominants put a lot of pressure on themselves to ensure they’re in the position of knowing what they’re doing. If they were insecure about one thing, it’d be losing that credibility. There’s motivation to go beyond competence, and be the embodiment of excellence.

Competence is meeting performance expectations, excellence is putting a face on it.

So that introduces many ways an Fe-dominant can be:

The more extraverted ones can get into more combative situations where people may not agree with their Ti. They'll try to hammer in and talk some logical sense into them.

The more introverted ones are rather private with what they believe in, they might see Ti as principles to live by on a personal level. And would only share their thoughts if those around are willing to listen.

The more anxious ones feel like they believe in something that people might disagree on and might get volatile about, so they keep it to themselves.

The more agreeable ones tend to operate safely with information that everyone already agrees with. Everyone likes humor, everyone likes music for example.

There are infinitely more, these are just what I can come with. Just remember that there's a catch with Ti, in that it's actually quite subjective. But ENFJs and ESFJs can get too caught up with it thinking it's objective and that people should look at it as such.

#esfj #enfj #introverted thinking #extroverted feeling

[fakesurprise]

The Interview

The thing is, stories only lie. You grow up hearing them, and they’re lies. Even when you’re ordered to believe them, that doesn’t make them true. Everyone said: you do not go after this one. You do not interfere in his affairs. Do. Nothing.

But the town of Bellvine treated us like kings. Like gods. We got the shit done that the police couldn’t. We did the things the gangs couldn’t. Yeah, we were scary. But we’d earned that fear. We’re made it a weapon. We kept problems away because our bite beat any bark. Because we did whatever we had to, and we kept our town safe.

Try to bring in a Wal-Mart? First your pets go missing. Maybe a friend or two. A few accidents. A wrecked vehicle. Keep pushing, and pretty soon your family is begging you to stop because it turns out that a megastore isn’t the same as having all your limbs. Funny, that. Amazing how little profits start mattering when things get physical and real. Once a suit stops insulating you from the world you learn the lessons the world teaches.

Some of them fight back. Most of the assholes know to run. We’re not good people, but we kept the town safe so that other people could be good. We did the necessary evils, so that no one else had to. We drew the lines in the sand. We burned down homes, salted lawns, and sacrificed our own before anyone else. Then he arrived.

He didn’t have a suit. He wasn’t much of anything. A background character in a drab world, fitting right in to crowds and dull offices. Only Bellvine changed. He walked and things changed. People got something in their step. Things shifted. Balances. Beliefs. The other minor gangs melted away. Even our signs vanished from the shops we protected, and no one knew how. A few people realized it was him. They’re not here anymore.

There are arrangements. Alliances. Intel. So we asked, and were told: he’s called Honcho, sometimes. He has other names. He’s a wandering magician. You do not mess with him. These weren’t requests, but orders. Magicians we’d heard of; the world isn’t so big that secrets aren’t known to people who get things done. But we didn’t take orders, and he was just a person. Even so; first vehicle stalled. Second missed. He didn’t even notice the third that tried to run him down.

The fourth one took, because it was dropped on him. A woman with him shoved him, but not far enough. Somehow, she didn’t get hit and he was alive and aware, shaking his head to clear it. Lucky sonofa – but luck only goes so far, when everyone else has clubs. Took longer than it should have to beat him unconscious. The woman was easier. She tried to intimidate us, and that doesn’t work. Not in Bellvine.

We shoved them into holding cells under the old refinery. (It went bankrupt before our time: we would have kept it going.) The doc gave them drugs, and I was having a beer while Daryl and Karen and Li kept watch. That’s the thing about power: you only have it so long as you keep fighting for it. But you become more than a ‘gang’ when you learn what you’re really fighting for. Friends. Family. The town. Only thing that matters is what you live for. Because that’s the thing you’d die for. Simple as. We kept the town safe, and we kept it whole.

I was considering whether to ask to see my kid. Wife is still scared of me, said this was the ‘wrong crowd’ and she didn’t know me anymore. Judge said I can see my kid whenever I want: the judges know what’s best for everyone. Well. They learn to. Unless they want their bread buttered with pain. But I was waiting for her to understand. I think that’s why I saw him first.

The kid was eleven. Barefoot, with bright pink jeans, a rope belt, Hawaiian top and a frilly hat. I saw him, blinked. And I figured he was with the magician and his weird friend who thought she was scary, because his clothing was sensible a moment later: dark jeans, t-shirt. Still barefoot as he walked towards me.

“Can I help you?” I said, in my best, ‘get lost or else’ tone. Never let them see you are scared.

“I don’t think so. Charlie and Honcho are here, and they should be at the hotel. But the hotel exploded in an oops, and I’d like to know why?”

“Kid. You’re in a story you want no part of. Go away, get back to your family, and I’ll pretend I didn’t see you.”

I don’t know if the kid even heard me. His head was cocked to the side oddly, as if listening to someone else. “You people hurt Honcho.”

He didn’t move, but every instinct screamed at me to run. “East door, hostile,” I screamed instead.

Because Karen was on the roof, and she’d never made it into the army but they’d have wept with joy if she had. The kid stumbled. Blinked.

“Wow! Your bullets really want to shoot me,” he said, and dropped four from his right hand. His face shifted, and he blinked again, face oddly blank. “Nope. Not doing that.”

And he walked toward me, slowly. Li came around the corner and she had her knives out. I’d seen those make government agents bleed, and the boy just caught one, almost absently.

“Oh! I get it now. You think you’re strong.” And he walked forward, still slow. Casual. Li threw another blade, digging out a gun. I was frozen in shock. I’d never been frozen in shock in my life: I’d seen some shit, and done a fair bit more. It’s why I was in when so many others were out.

But something about the boy’s face scared me. Like he was angry, but not in any way I could understand. Like he should have looked like something, and was trying not to and it made no sense at all.

He snapped his fingers, and I heard Karen make a noise I’d never heard from any throat.

I looked up. The sky wasn’t. For a moment it was – there was something other where the sky should be, and it took Karen someplace that wasn’t a place at all. Li went to run, and hit the ground with a moan, twitching as if something heavy has fallen on her. It sounded like a car, but there wasn’t one near her.

I think Daryl tried to run, but I don’t know.

The boy turned to me. “You have keys, so you can open the door and take me to Charlie and Honcho.”

I reached down the front of my pocket, for the gun beside my keys, and came out with the keys. I didn’t mean to, but I did.

I opened the door, and the boy followed me down the stairs. I knew the way in the dark: I don’t think he even noticed it was dark.

I opened the cell with the woman in it. She stood up, staring at the boy behind me. “Jay?”

“You were hurt. So I am here to help,” the boy said, precise and distinct.

“Okay,” the woman said, and she walked past me. I didn’t mean to let her. She didn’t do anything weird, but she was past me and beside the boy, not quite touching him.

I moved to the next cell, and this one the woman opened with a quick, harsh gesture. Doing a thing, tight and controlled.

The ‘magician’ was inside. I hadn’t brought him down. I didn’t know who had. But he’d been bound to a wall, and there was blood, and it looked like a room from a bad video game, with weird symbols on the walls and body.

The boy stepped forward. Stopped. “They put him outside his body, and if we disrupt it –.”

The boy turned to me, then. His expression was terrifyingly calm. “You’re going to use the keys, unchain the wandering magician and bring him into this hallway.”

“The Bellvine Ravagers don’t –.”

“You do many things. I see that, right now. You hurt many people, trying to pretend it’s not hurt. Thinking strength like that makes you powerful, because other people bow to you. And then you use it on people who can’t harm you, and think that makes you stronger still. No one is made better by being made weak, but that is all you and yours have done. You could win hearts, but instead you glory in breaking spirits.”

The woman was still beside the boy, her eyes wide. Gaze focused on him, and not on the magician.

“The thing about power,” the boy said, softer, “is that those who wield it suffer from it, even as their victims do. And so many try and find ways around that. But that is a concern for those who use power. Not for those who are power.”

“Jay –.”

“You are going to free Honcho and bring him into the hallway, or you won’t see your family again because they will have never been,” the boy said. “But you will still remember them even if they’re not. I don’t want to be the kind of being that does that. So please do this?”

And I did it. I got the magician out, and the magician blinked and stood a moment later, unhurt and unharmed.

“Jay,” he said, soft too.

“I’m not quite Jay right now,” the boy said.

“You aged a week,” the woman said, and her calm was barbed wire.

“Oh!” The boy blinked, and somehow was just a boy of eleven again and just that.

“Did I grow?” he asked in an excited tone.

“In some way we’d rather you didn’t,” the woman said. “We can discuss it at the hotel when you fix it?”

“I can do that!” The boy vanished with the woman.

The man turned to me.

“How long have you known Jay?” he asked. There was no calm: his voice was a demand.

“Four minutes and twelve seconds,” came out of me against my will.

“And in all that time, you never saw Jay smile.” He stepped back. “There is nothing even I can do to you that is as terrible as that truth, and I want to hurt you very much right now for hurting Jay.”

I think he was going to say other things, but the shadows became a door and he walked into them without looking back at me.

I don’t know what happened to the rest of the Ravagers. I’ve never heard of you Black Chamber people. No one stopped me from leaving the town. No one – no one stops me from doing anything, but it never seems to matter. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know what that boy was.

I don’t know what he didn’t do.

I haven’t gone home. I’m not sure I have anything like that anymore.

#writing #prose #magician series