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#i highly suggest checking all accounts
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if you feel like laughing-crying at the absurdity of the point we've reached with celebrity culture i highly suggest checking out the CelebJets twitter account. They use airport information to track down celeb flights and calculate their CO2 emmissions and it's the most insane shit I've ever seen
My favorites include:
Floyd Mayweather taking a flight from Las Vegas to... Las Vegas. Not even the opposite side of Las Vegas. Literally just from the south to the upper south. 1 ton of CO2 emitted
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[ID: Three tweets by CelebJets describing the flight. First one says "Floyd Mayweather's Jet Landed in Las Vegas, Nevada, US. Apx. flt. time 15 mins". It has, attached, a map that shows that the flight went from southernmost Las Vegas to central-south Las Vegas. The flight didn't go in a straight line, but did a circle around the region that seems to be about 8 times the distance between the two points. The second says: "Floyd Mayweather's Jet: approximately 121 gallons (458 liters), approximately 811 lbs (368 kg) of jet fuel used, approximately $816 cost of fuel, approximately 1 ton of CO2 emissions". The third one says, "Floyd Mayweather's Jet Took off from Las Vegas, Nevada, US". End ID]
Floyd Mayweather taking a flight from Las Vegas to Van Nuys, then back to Las Vegas, then to Van Nuys again, then to Las Vegas again, all in the span of 24 hours, emitting 15 tons of CO2 in the process
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[ID: Four threads, all dated from Jul 27th (except for the last one, which is dated Jul 28th) detailing his flights. All have maps showing the same itinerary, which seems to be done more or less in a straight line. The first one says: "Floyd Mayweather's Jet Landed in Van Nuys, California, US. Apx. flt. time 37 Mins. Floyd Mayweather's Jet 229 mile (199 NM) flight from LAS to VNY. Approximately 300 gallons (1,135 liters); approximately 2,009 lbs (911 kg) of jet fuel used; approximately $2,032 cost of fuel; approximately 3 tons of CO2 emissions." The second one says: "Floyd Mayweather's Jet Landed in Las Vegas, Nevada, US. Apx. flt. time 44 Mins. Floyd Mayweather's Jet 229 mile (199 NM) flight from VNY to LAS. Approximately 353 gallons (1,336 liters); approximately 2,365 lbs (1,073 kg) of jet fuel used; approximately $2,392 cost of fuel; approximately 4 tons of CO2 emissions." The third one says: "Floyd Mayweather's Jet Landed in Van Nuys, California, US. Apx. flt. time 43 Mins. Floyd Mayweather's Jet 229 mile (199 NM) flight from LAS to VNY. Approximately 346 gallons (1,309 liters); approximately 2,317 lbs (1,051 kg) of jet fuel used; approximately $2,330 cost of fuel; approximately 4 tons of CO2 emissions." The last one says: "Floyd Mayweather's Jet Landed in Las Vegas, Nevada, US. Apx. flt. time 41Mins. Floyd Mayweather's Jet 226 mile (196 NM) flight from VNY to HSH: approximately 333 gallons (1,262 liters); approximately 2,235 lbs (1,014 kg) of jet fuel used; approximately $2,247 cost of fuel; approximately 4 tons of CO2 emissions. End ID]
Tom Cruise taking a private jet to fly for 10 minutes
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[ID: "Tom Cruise's Challanger 300 Landed near Killarney, County Kerry, IE. Apx. flt. time 12 Mins. Tom Cruise's Challanger 300 44 mile (38 NM) flight from SNN to KIR. Approximately 64 gallons (241 liters); 428 lbs (194 kg) of jet fuel used; approximately $429 cost of fuel; approximately 0.6733 tons of CO2 emissions." End ID]
Kylie Jenner taking that personally and taking a 4 minutes long flight. That's right, not even 5 full minutes inside the jet
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[ID: Tweet describing the flight mentioned above. This time it doesn't have the stats, only the map, which shows a distance so small you can barely see its outline under the small airplane drawing that shows her current location. The flight was from Camarillo, California, to Van Nuys, California. It lasted 4 minutes. End ID]
Jay-Z taking a flight for a distance of 12 miles (19 kilometers). Gotta get that jet to go to the grocery store!
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[ID: "Puma/Jay-Z's Jet Landed in Teterboro, New Jersey, US. Apx. flt. time 18 Mins. Puma/Jay-Z's Jet 12 mile (11 NM) flight from EWR to TEB. Approximately 139 gallons (526 liters); approximately 932 lbs (423 kg) of jet fuel used; approximately $937 cost of fuel; approximately 1 tons of CO2 emissions." Again the line showing the distance in the map is so small the model airplane covers it entirely. End ID]
And last but not least, Kylie Jenner emitting 50 tons of CO2 in one single day
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[ID: "Kylie Jenner's Jet Landed in Milan, Lombardy, IT. Apx. flt. time 10 Hours 17 Mins. Kylie Jenner's Jet 6,053 mile (5,260 NM) flight from VNY to LIN. Approximately 4,737 gallons (17,933 liters); approximately 31,751 lbs (14,402 kg) of jet fuel used; approximately $31,978 cost of fuel; approximately 50 tons of CO2 emissions." End ID]
And these are just my personal faves from the last 10 days. There is so, so much more out there and it's just slightly less absurd than these
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bloodsbane · 1 month
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im seeing more folks migrate over to cohost in light of the Most Recent Tumbler Bullshittery and have already been asked for mine, so here it is!
i've had an account for a while so I also thought i'd offer some very quick bits of advice for the site:
cohost lets you make MULTIPLE PAGES under ONE ACCOUNT. it's a marriage of how tumblr lets you have sideblogs easily accessed via your main blog, but each page has its very own followers, bookmarked tags, etc., like when you have multiple twitter accounts. makes it super easy to make multiple pages for different things without needing to log out to switch, while also letting you totally customize what you see for each page you own
there's no algorithm at work on cohost at all so if you want people to follow you'll have to find them! i suggest dipping into tags for things you like as a starting point, or checking out the pages of people who make funny posts you see shared by friends you DO already follow
wrt tags, there are some Global Tags on cohost that are used by a majority of the site (ex. ArtistsOnCohost, The Cohost Global Feed, Adult Artists On Cohost) that might be useful as a starting point if you'd like to see a very broad range, but they're just big umbrellas. if you want something specific, check more specific tags!
the cohost tag and page search bar is your friend, it will show you all established tags including the word you search, as well as relevant pages for suggested following
i HIGHLY recommend bookmarking tags you have an interest in, there's an easy toggle at the top of your dashboard that lets you switch what you see from your Followed Accounts to Bookmarked Tags. your bookmarked tags are also listed on the side so you can check them individually
oh, also, click+Shift is how you quick reblog posts on there!
cohost has a nice system for placing content warnings on posts, and customizing what you do/don't see, so make sure you look into your settings and fiddle with it
i think that's really everything! i feel like most other stuff is easily intuited or explained by the site itself
last thing though: cohost is currently run by a very small handful of people. so if you'd really like to invest on an alternative to tumblr, if you try cohost out and like the feel of it, i'd highly suggest you consider buying cohost plus ($5 a month/$50 a year) and/or buy some of their merch. basically whatever you'd like to do to offer some financial support. i really enjoy cohost and bought a year's premium already.
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Tips for finding/writing a research paper? From a spoonie who's gone through 2 pages of suggestions their professor has rejected willing to pick anything at this point even if i'm stuck with it another 8 weeks
The first and best advice I can give you is go to this professor's office hours. What determines a good topic for a research paper is highly dependent on whatever the class is and the professor teaching it. This prof should be willing to work with you to guide you in the right direction.
If they've given you feedback on why your suggestions have been rejected, you need to keep those in mind when proposing something else. The process might not be about coming up with an entirely new idea, but tweaking a preexisting one so that it meets the parameters. Look at the syllabus and any assignment briefs the professor has given you to make sure you're hitting all of the requirements.
Additionally, if your disability is part of what's making this difficult, you might consider bringing that up. You don't have to disclose the exact nature of your disability, but if you can articulate the effect it's having on you (makes it difficult for me to do xyz) it might help this professor support you. A plan for completing this paper can include steps that would help you like accountability check ins or extended deadlines.
All of that being said, a good undergraduate level research paper needs two things: 1) an existing body of literature/source material, and 2) a hypothesis that can be applied to multiple pieces of media from that genre. From there, you need to show you can apply broad theoretical concepts to multiple sources, using analysis to construct an argument based on your hypothesis.
I would advise against just picking a topic to get it over with. Writing about something you're not at least a little bit interested in makes the process much harder. Interest also provides a sense of focus that can be vital for the analysis part of research—you need that focus to hone in on something and come up with ideas.
-Reid
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dresshistorynerd · 10 months
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I had the idea of writing about some historical queer figures I find interesting and drawing them for this pride month as a little project of mine. I will see how many I'll have time to do, I have in mind at least four other historical people, but knowing myself, I'm not holding my breath for all of them. Julie d'Aubigny she been one of my favorite historical figures for years so I decided to start with her.
Historical Queer Figures - Julie d'Aubigny
Julie d'Aubigny, also known as Mademoiselle Maupin and La Maupin, was a French opera singer and fencer in the late 1600s. She was infamous for having sapphic relationships, being aggressive and dramatic, having androgynous presentation by occasionally dressing in men's clothing in public and being a fencer and duelist. Trans and genderqueer readings of her are very possible, but because none of the accounts of her (at least those I've read) suggests she ever used any other than feminine first names or terms or she/her pronouns about herself, I will use she/her pronouns when talking about her.
The French court absolutely loved to gossip and people were constantly making up libel about the people they didn't like, and Julie had a lot of enemies and was very controversial figure. During the 18th and 19th centuries she was written about a lot in these highly sensationalized Encyclopedias, where the rumors from her lifetime got increasingly wilder and sensational. She was accused for example of seducing noble women in court balls, burning down a convent and murder. There's not much primary sources left or available from her actual lifetime so distinguishing truth from fiction is not an easy task in her case. Kaz Rowe did great job in their youtube video about her to try to actually find out where the stories of her life comes from. They go through some great context too about the rumor industry in the French court at the time so I highly recommend checking it out.
CW: very brief mentions of child sexual abuse and self-harming
The Timeline of Most Concrete Events
Let's first go through the things that have at least a bit more backing than a rumor started 100 years after her death. Julie d'Aubigny was born between 1670 and 1673. Her father was Gaston d'Aubigny, the secretary of Louis of Lorraine, count d’Armagnac, who was Master of Horses to King Loius XIV, and her mother is unknown. She was probably brought to the Versailles court in 1682, where she got a full education including academic subjects, riding and fencing, usually only thought for boys. She was married off to a Sieur de Maupin (first name unknown) probably around 1687, when she would have been 14 to 17 years old. He apparently got a position from a southern province as a tax collector. The stories about her claim she remained in Paris, but I don't think there's evidence of this, though what we do know of her adult life does suggest she was estranged from her husband and lived apart from him. Nevertheless, she did end up in Marseilles, where she first appeared on stage in Marseilles Opéra between 1687 and 1690. She didn't have education in music, but her good looks and beautiful voice landed her the role.
Her first appearances in the Paris Opéra are listed to 1690, so that is probably when she had her debut there. She became a very talked about figure and she gained both friends and enemies in the opera and the court. She performed in the Paris Opéra for probably four years, after which she went to Brussels, Bavaria, where she performed with the Opéra du Quai au Foin at least during 1697 and early 1698, after which she returned to France to perform again with the Paris Opéra.
It was the period when her career peaked and she got a lot of leading female roles. Those roles in French opera were at the time soprano roles, but Julie's natural voice range was lower, contralto. (There's a whole thing where at the time she was described as mezzo-soprano, but the music historian consensus is that her range matches contralto in modern terms as opera was sang on lower cords across the board at the time. (I understand nothing about music theory so I just hope I managed to explain this correctly)) She excelled in secondary female roles of goddesses and warrior women. For the leading roles she had to sing on higher notes than was natural to her and the naive and dainty personalities of those roles clashed with her own personality. Some later retellings of her life claim she performed male roles for female singers (which was common practice, and these roles were often those of young boys), but all known records of her roles are female roles. In 1702 on the leading composers of the Paris Opéra, André Campra, wrote her a leading lady role in Tamcréde, which is often credited to have the first leading female role for contralto. But her perhaps most famous role was as Médée in Medus, which was considered to be a very difficult role. Apparently the original leading singer had fallen ill before the debut so Julie was quickly trained in her stead, but succeeded well and got a lot of praise for the role.
In 1703 Julie started an affair with Madame la Marquise de Florensac, who was said to have been the most beautiful woman in France. This is the affair of hers of which there's most evidence. De Florensac was married and had children, but she was also rumored to have many affairs. Julie lived quietly together with her for two years. They were described by a contemporary to have lived in perfect harmony, always spending time together and only appearing in public when necessarily. Julie deputed in her last role in 1705 and ended her career after De Floransac died of sudden fever. Nothing concrete is known about the rest of her life, not even how or when she died, but she is usually speculated to have died in 1707.
Parsing History from Fantasy
Chronologically the rumor that places earliest in her life was that she had "an affair" with count d’Armagnac (age 46 at the time), before she got married in the same year so as a 14 to 17 year old. There doesn't seem to be any actual evidence of this and even if that really happened, it wouldn't have been an affair, it would have been grooming and sexual violence. Related to it is the rumor that the count arranged her marriage and sent her husband away, but kept her in the court with him. Then she "got bored" of the count and ran away with an assistant sword-master, Séranne, to southern France. They got money by performing fencing matches in fairs and taverns while they were traveling till they got to Marseilles, where she first appeared in opera.
The stories of her in this period are generally written in a super nasty tone, and she (as supposed 14 yo) is written as the seductress and the adult men are written as the victims of her fiery temper and fitfulness. All these stories seem pretty unlikely though. The rumor about the count seems (unfortunately) most possible, but accounts from 18th and 19th century about these early events in her life don't seem to be based on any information from her lifetime. I find it most likely that the writers in 18th and 19th centuries were filling out the blanks we don't know from her life and painting her as this (in their eyes) degenerate seductress from an early age. An alternative possible explanation could have been that she indeed accompanied her husband to south, perhaps near Marseilles, where she then performed with the Marseilles Opéra. Many sources claim though that she performed with her maiden name there, which would be odd if she was living with her husband. I don't know where that claim comes originally, but it could be false of course. Although the generally proposed year of her marriage could also be false, which would explain why she at first performed with her maiden name, and later in Paris and always after that with her husband's name. That would not explain how she ended up going to Marseilles though.
The next and perhaps the most infamous and coolest story of her sets somewhere shortly before 1690. In that story she fell in love with a girl in Marseilles and the girls parents sent her to a convent to avoid a scandal. Julie went to the convent with the premise of wanting to become a novice. They tried to frame the girl's death by putting a dead nun's body into the girls bed and setting it on fire and then went on the run for couple of months. While on the run Julie was sentenced to death in absentia, but after returning to Paris and rekindling her relationship with count d'Armagnac, he got the king to pardon her. As amazing as this story is, it's very likely not true. It seems quite unlikely that the 15 to 19 year old Julie would have done that, but even more unlikely that she'd just get all her charges dropped and these crimes wouldn't have hindered at all her career, which hadn't even properly begun yet. The first surviving description of this incident comes from a letter of her contemporary court lady, Madame Dunoyer, who was basically an early gossip columnist and despised her. Her story doesn't mention Julie at all, but talks about a nun, who tried to frame her own death in a similar manner to escape with her male lover (which still sounds very unlikely story). The first surviving description that attaches that story to Julie, comes year after her death from the very suspect writings of a known liar, Cardinal Debois, who did personally know and hate Julie. He claimed that Dumenil, who was an actor in Paris Opéra the same time as Julie, related him the story, while also acknowledging he probably did it because he too hated her. So very likely not a true story, but possibly something that was rumored during her lifetime already.
In the stories of her, after escaping from the convent and before going to Paris, she traveled again in male attire and met Louis Joseph d'Albert de Luynes von Grimberghen, commonly known as count d'Albert. He was an interesting character in his own right, roughly her age, and like her, his real story is a little hard to parse from the legend (though in his case, he was a nobleman so there's also a lot of actual records of his life). In the story though, he thought she was a man, they had some disagreement, a fight broke out, she won, injured him and nursed him back to health. And then they had a brief affair before d'Albert went to war again. They were lifelong friends, so this is not entirely made up. It's entirely possible they had a brief affair (and according to many stories an on and off type of affair that was re-kindled at many points in their lives) and there was rumors about it even in her lifetime, but the story of this first meeting seems to lack validity.
Next in her stories she met Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard, who was another famous singer and her contemporary, either right before or right after she arrived in Paris. They became lovers and after Thévenard auditioned and got accepted into the Paris Opéra, he helped to get Julie accepted too. It is true that as far as we know, they both debuted in 1690. They were also said to have been life long friends and again it's possible they were lovers at some point, but the details of their meeting are difficult to know.
There are many stories about her antics of both of her times in the Paris Opéra. In those stories she fought duels, assaulted Dumenil with a cane, robbed Dumenil, had fights with men after they insulted her or another women or harassed other women, tried to kill herself after her love was not reciprocated, threatened to shoot a duchess in the head, threatened to slit Cardinal Debois' throat, bit Thévenard in the ear on stage and had affairs with men and women. According to Cardinal Debois the feud between Dumenil and Julie started because Dumenil was interested in her but she rejected him. The Cardinal was a liar but it does sound pretty believable. So if it's true and he spread in retaliation a lie that she burned down a convent, her beating him up or beating him up, stealing his valuables and returning them to him by humiliating him in front of other actors, would align well with everything else told about her personality. Maybe her retaliation wasn't exactly as in the stories, but if the other things about Dumenil were true, I'm sure she retaliated in some way. Same applies to her threatening the Cardinal's life. He wrote about it, but he was a liar, but, but because he was a liar who lied about her, it sounds like something she might do. Madame Dunoyer wrote about her threatening the Duchess of Luxembourg apparently because of jealousy over count d'Albert. The duchess was d'Albert's mistress at one point and apparently he even fought a duel over her in 1700. So there is some validity to this rumor, though the circumstances were perfect to fabricate that kind of rumor. I haven't found as much backing to other rumors, but many of them sound possible or at least maybe rooted in some reality and exaggerated.
The rumored explanation for why she left the Paris Opéra around 1694 was that she went into a court ball in men's clothing, kissed a woman on the dance floor and got challenge to a duel by three noblemen. They went outside and she won, but because dueling was illegal, she had to flee to Bavaria, and later when she returned, she was supposedly pardoned by the king again. In the more sensational versions of the story she killed the noblemen. This whole story is very unlikely. Even count d'Albert was imprisoned for engaging in an illegal duel (the one in 1700). He got eventually pardoned, but he was a nobleman and basically a war hero. The first surviving accounts of this story come much after her dead and it sounds more like a very exaggerated version of the other stories of her. There's many more plausible reason why she would have left to Bavaria. If her contemporaries descriptions of her behavior were even half true, those could have been scandal enough. Or if the rumors of her burning down a convent were circling that time already, that alone could have been damaging enough to her career that she thought it best to leave for a while.
In Bavaria, she's rumored to have another scandal. She supposedly became lover of the Max Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, but she was too dramatic and after she stabbed herself with a real knife during a performance, the Elector decided she was too much, demanded her to leave Bavaria and gave her money for it. She supposedly threw the money to the feet of the messenger and left. The first surviving account of this story comes again from Madame Dunoyer, the details of which have changed, but were always quite exaggerated and unbelievable. Still the core events might be true, it's possible she was the Elector's lover for a while and it's also possible she stabbed herself on stage for real, being very dramatic as she was.
Was she queer?
There are enough accounts of her attraction and relationships with women from people who actually knew her, that I do find it very likely that she was sapphic. Cardinal Debois even implied she was exclusive interested in women or at least heavily preferred them, though other accounts by the people who knew her did talk about her attraction to men too. Her dressing in men's clothing is also mentioned enough times by her contemporaries that I do believe it. Because gender was so heavily tied to clothing and sexuality and fashion was less about what you wanted to wear and more about what you wanted others to think about you, I think she probably had some gender feelings. Even her aggressive and assertive behavior was very much seen as crossing gender boundaries. There's no more evidence of her feelings on gender than her androgynous presentation, so it's mostly speculation.
In conclusion, she was definitely a flavor of queer.
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Julie circa 1700 in opera costume.
The most notable source I used:
Julie D'Aubigny: the 17th Century Sapphic Swordfighting Opera Singer, video by Kaz Rowe - I mentioned this before but it bears repeating
Research page by Jim Burrows - This was great since there's gathered multiple sources on le Maupin, historical and more recent, some of which are hard to access fully otherwise
Julie d'Aubigny: La Maupin and Early French Opera, LAPL blog post - It repeats most of the rumors of questionable origin about her as truth, but the sections about her career, which have more backing than just rumors, are really helpful
Mademoiselle De Maupin; Biographical sketches & anecdotes, The Dublin University Magazine - One of those questionable biographies of her from 1854, really only good as a source of what the rumors were after her death
Chevalier, Louis-Joseph, prince de Grimberghen, essay by Neil Jeffares - Biography of count d'Albert, which includes a lot of unsourced rumors about both le Maupin and d'Albert, but recounts his life events in great detail, and references to each claim show which parts are sourced well
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vodika-vibes · 5 months
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Round 2 *ding ding ding*
Fives and "Try and get some sleep. I'll stay right here– I won't let anything happen to you, I swear."
Please and thank you, my love 💚💚💚
@the-bad-batch-baroness
Safe and Sound
Summary: When you are doing a favor for your father you stumble across a clone who's been drugged and is being hunted for a crime he didn't commit.
Pairing: ARC Trooper Fives x Reader (future)
Word Count: 2185
Warnings: None
Tagging: @trixie2023
A/N: This is a sort of prologue towards the last Fives x Reader fic I wrote.
Divider by Saradika
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“This is the place, Checkmate?” You ask as you regard the warehouses thoughtfully.
“Yes ma’am,” Checkmate, a clone formerly from the 91st, replies as he folds his arms over his chest, his sharp gaze flickering around the area, “By all accounts, the warehouses are up for auction within the next tenday.”
You hum thoughtfully, “And what’s your assessment?”
Checkmate is quiet for a moment as he looks around without leaving your side. His gaze lingers on a group of spice addicts for a moment, and he purses his lips, “It won’t be easy to keep the building secure, if you plan to use it for storage.”
“Hm…I agree.” You reply lightly, “What if we demolish the building and build something else.”
“Such as?”
“My brother is always looking for places to set up new clinics.” You reply with a light smile.
A small smile crosses Checkmate’s face, “He is an amazing man.”
“Careful Captain, you’re in danger of swooning.” You tease gently, and then you laugh when he bumps your shoulder with his own, “In any event, I didn’t see any clinics anywhere in the area.”
“Probably because there isn’t one.” Checkmate replies, “You know what businessmen are like.”
You shoot him an amused look.
“Businessmen who aren’t associated with Gryffin Industries.” Checkmate clarifies with a roll of his eyes, “Everyone knows that the people who run Gryffin are about as close to saints as mortals can be.”
You laugh again, “You think far, far too highly of my family.”
Checkmate glances at you out of the corner of his eye, “Your family takes vod’e who are no longer able to do their duty, like myself, and gives us jobs, medical attention, and a place to live. That puts you pretty damn close to sainthood to me and my vod’e.”
“It’s hardly-”
“Both of my legs were blown off, and you gave me prosthetics that helped me walk again. Pretty sure that makes you the Patron Saint of Lost Causes.” Checkmate interrupts with a grin.
“You’re awful.”
“Hm, maybe if you would pick a bodyguard, then I wouldn’t tease you so much.”
“Yes, you would.”
“Yes. I would. You’re baby sister coded.”
You pout at him, and then focus your attention back on the warehouse, “Putting a clinic here would help us win some goodwill with the lower levels,” You say lightly, “Plus we can hire a bunch of people, and piss off some very rich assholes at the same time-”
“What, exactly, did the rich and powerful do to your family to make you all so bitter against them?” Checkmate asks as he watches you buy the warehouse…and then another three just for good measure.
“People like that use their influence to hurt innocent people. And it’s disgusting.” You reply, “And…there. Gryffin Industries now owns about three blocks down here.”
“What are you going to do with three blocks worth of warehouses?” 
“A hospital, maybe? And a park, with a playground.” 
“I’ll just add another check in your ‘destined for Sainthood’ book.” Checkmate teases, and then he tenses, and a scowl crosses his face. “Incoming.”
You turn slightly, and see an irate man stalking over towards you.
“You,” He barks at you, and you arch a single brow, “You’re not supposed to be here.”
“Actually,” You reply pleasantly, “I own everything in a three block radius. Which means you are trespassing.”
“That’s-” He stops when you lift the badge marking you as one of the owners of Gryffin Industries, and his scowl deepens, “I am a General in the GAR-”
“Unless there are Separatists in my warehouses, I suggest you see yourself off my property. Before I call someone to do it for you.” You say pleasantly. 
“Someone tried to assassinate the Chancellor!”
“Which is a problem for the Guard, not the army.”
The General scowls and spins on his heels, “Fine. Then I’ll call the guard and they can search for him.”
“Do make sure they have a warrant, General.” You say to his back, and you hide your smile when he flinches. He shoots you a baleful look, and then stalks away, and you turn your head towards Checkmate, “Since when does the Army search for supposed criminals?”
“Since never.” He replies, “The warehouses are ours?”
“Yep.”
“Then let’s see what we just purchased.” 
The first warehouse is empty, save for dust and some empty crates. The same for the second warehouse.
But in the third warehouse the pair of you stumble on one of the clones sitting on the floor leaning against a crate. He’s gray and sweaty, and his hands are shaking. “He looks like he’s in the middle of spice withdrawals.” You murmur as you crouch next to him.
The clone, who had a 5 tattooed on his forehead, turns to look at you and seems to look through you rather than seeing you, and you frown and press your hand against his forehead.
“That’s not spice withdrawal,” Checkmate replies, “He’s been drugged. Look at his pupils.”
You frown thoughtfully, “We have spare armor in the speeder, right?”
“Yeah. I’ll go grab it and bring the speeder around.” He turns and hurries away, it won’t take him more than a few minutes to bring the speeder around.
You set your hand on the ill soldier’s shoulder, “It’s okay.” You whisper soothingly, “Everything’s going to be okay.”
Whatever he was drugged with seems to have stolen his ability to speak, as he doesn’t say anything. But he does whine low in his throat, and he slumps over against you, his head landing on your chest.
“It’s going to be okay.” You whisper soothingly as you stroke the top of his head, “Everything’s going to be fine.”
Checkmate returns only a moment later, and with his help you get the ill clone in a set of Gryffin Industries armor, which is much more streamlined that Clone armor, and is painted with dark teal and white accents. 
And then Checkmate carries him out to the speeder and you slide yourself into the backseat next to him. You call the family lawyer as soon as the speeder leaves the warehouse district, and when you hear the glee in her voice, you almost feel bad for the people who cross her.
Almost.
It takes two days for the drugs to leave the clone’s system, and another day after that before he’s actually able to walk and talk properly.
And so, here you are, four days after you found him in the warehouse, sitting at a roundtable meeting with the rest of your family, with the clone, Fives he introduced himself as, standing at the end of the table.
Your father’s smile in kind as he regards Fives, “Alright, young man. Take your time and say what you need to say.”
Fives takes a deep breath, and his hands settle behind his back as he stands at attention. And then he starts to talk.
He starts slowly, and then, when he realizes that everyone is listening and no one is interrupting him, he gains momentum.
He talks, non-stop, for an hour, and when he stops talking the room is completely silent. You lean back in your chair and rub the spot between your eyebrows.
Your father swears loudly, and you understand the sentiment. 
“I know you probably don’t believe me, but-” Fives says, sounding almost panicked.
“No, no. Lad, that’s not the problem.” Your grandfather says in his crisp accent, “The problem is that we do believe you.” He closes his eyes for a moment and then turns his attention to the table, “So, what do we do?”
“We can’t run at Palpatine directly,” Your cousin, the head of security, says from where he's sitting across from you, “He’s too powerful.”
“It’s also too risky,” You brother adds, “With the knowledge of what these chips are for…” He shakes his head.
“You’ve been removing them, right?” Your father asks.
“Of course.” He sounds offended, “Of course, I thought they were more like the Hutt explosive slave chips rather than free-will overwriting slave chips, so of course I’ve been removing them.”
“It’ll be easy enough to send the information to the battalion medics,” You say thoughtfully.
“How would they keep the surgeries a secret?” Your twin asks with a frown.
“They’d have to go slow.” Your brother murmurs, “No more than one or two at a time, and whenever someone is injured, or ill, they take the opportunity to remove the chip. I can reach out to the battalion medics.”
“And what about Palpatine?” Your grandfather asks.
“We can’t touch him until the men are no longer under his thumb.” Your cousin reminds, “For now, we need to pretend he’s no longer a threat.”
“I’ll think on that. For that matter, we’re going to need to make sure that not everyone knows everything. I’ll handle it.” Your father says, and then he pauses, “And what about Fives. He can’t return to the 501st, he has a price on his head.”
“I’ll take him.” You reply after a moment of thought, “You’ve all been hounding me about not having a bodyguard for ages now anyway.”
“Does that work for you, Fives?” Your father asks.
“Uh..yes sir.”
“Excellent.” He looks at his datapad, “Okay, I think that’s enough for now. Get him settled,” Your father says to you, “And make sure he gets proper armor.”
“I will.” You stand and walk over to Fives, “You can follow me.” He nods and turns to trail after you as you walk over to a hidden elevator and you press a button to activate it, “Until you get a proper helmet, we’ll be using the hidden passages and elevators.” You explain.
“That makes sense,” He replies, sounding deeply, deeply exhausted.
You smile at him soothingly as you step into the elevator, and you press one of the buttons. The elevator goes down seven levels, and then the door dings open and you lead him through a richly decorated hall, and you stop in front of a door, “This is my room.” And then you walk a single door down, “This is yours.”
You push the door open, and reveal a proper studio apartment. “This is all mine?”
“Yes. At the moment, nothing is stocked because I haven’t had a bodyguard since I was a child.” You explain, “I’ll make sure food is delivered, and you can use the datapad to order anything you might need.” You motion at the datapad on the counter, “Food, clothes, and hygiene items are included as part of your paycheck. Anything you want for fun, movies, books, games, you have to buy yourself. But that’s what the paycheck is for.” 
“That seems really generous.”
You shrug, “We can afford it. Armor and weapons will be supplied. My twin will get you set up with armor as soon as you’re feeling up to it. We have a paint room with the appropriate colors all in stock.”
“Alright.”
“The bedding is clean, so you’ll be able to sleep in here tonight, or whenever you want to sleep.” You motion towards the closet, “The laundry shoot is in there, generally laundry is returned the day after you put it in the shoot.”
“What’s that door?” Five asks, as he motions to a door on the opposite wall.
“Oh. Right.” You walk over to the door, and press the button to open it, “This door connects my room with yours. It can’t be locked on either side. You have to be able to get to me quickly as my bodyguard, but I also need to be able to get to you quickly for the same reason. The door can be left open, or shut, depending on our preferences.”
“Alright. Can we keep it open? I’m not used to sleeping alone.”
“Of course.” You press another button, and the door locks in the open position, “Any other questions?”
“No-” His sentence is broken by a yawn, “Sorry.”
“It’s fine.” You gently guide him towards the bed, “You should get some sleep.”
Fives hesitates, “I don’t know if I can. I keep thinking that someone is going to swoop in and kill me-”
You very gently sit him down on his bed, “Fives, try and get some sleep. I'll stay right here– I won't let anything happen to you, I swear.”
He hesitates for a moment longer, and then lays down on the soft bed. Fives tosses and turns for a bit, but after you grab his datapad and sit on the side of his bed, he settles a little bit.
He’s still not sleeping restfully, but he shifts and he slings his arms around you, clinging to you like you’re a stuffed animal, and he presses his face against your back, and you heave out a silent sigh of relief when his breathing becomes deep and even.
With Fives asleep, you decide to take the time to go through and place his food order. As well as ordering some clothes and the necessary hygiene things that he might need.
Everything’s going to be alright. You won’t stand for anything else.
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allamericansbitch · 7 months
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The drama about Taylor using a private plane is over done like she has to use it and maybe has had to use it less since she lost the overseas boyfriend but it's like a must and I will be critical of Taylor and her art and her fans for lots of things but I can forgive the private jet and thought it was odd she even reponded to the allegations
the private jet article was riddled with false claims and was so highly misrepresentative. like just for the rundown because this pisses me off so much
it got all it's 'evidence' from a random celebrity jet account on twitter
the article used language that suggested it was naming taylor as the biggest user of private jets out of all celebrities but it wasnt, it actually only claimed her as the biggest user out of the small pool of celebrities they could find the information about... so there's probably a shit ton of celebrities that use it way more but they just didnt find anything about.
the numbers they said she used were found to be literally impossible. she would have to be flying nonstop 24/7, no time to refuel or even land/takeoff.
the authors previous work includes a bunch of political propaganda and anti-vax rhetoric so... not a person basing anything on fact really...
the timing of that article was weird to me and this is less of a fact and more of an opinion... but remember a few days before that very well researched article about how the kardashians use their private plans to fly within california and to simply go the grocery store... and then everyone was mad about that until a random article from an author and wesite no one heard of made that article about taylor... idk seems weird to me. like a distraction of the kardashian mess.
anyway heres a link to a lot of this information that called the article into question
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stelladess · 1 month
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I feel a bit annoyed by people saying Firefly is the star rail version of Kallen. As a fan of both characters I feel they got next to nothing in common whatsoever. They dont look similar, they arnt similar people, they dont have similar backgrounds or motives... there is just nothing really. It feels like reducing them to Stelle/Caelus girlfriend (this one is supported by the story but I feel like much of what makes Firefly and this ship interesting gets overlooked, admittedly some of it assumes the theory about Firefly being SAM is true and some lore knowledge about SAM but even without taking that into account Firefly is a great character in her own right) and Otto´s girlfriend (which, as a huge Otto fan, I will say, of course has its own issues and I do not like the romantic interpretation with them, the previous era versions of them are different people and dont count for this imo and there is no evidence at all Kallen of the current era was into Otto and also Kolosten heavily suggests it wasnt even a romance thing for Otto either) I highly recommend people read the prequel comic focused on Kallen, its when Kallen is younger then when we see her in flashbacks, set before meeting Sakura (i highly recommend also checking out that whole story at some point even if it can be a bit awkwardly time gated in game and slightly confusing) in HI3 so her personality/demeanor is a bit different from how she was by then (she is a lot more naive for one) but I think its still a good introduction to see why Kallen is a good character and a good showcase of how she isnt like Firefly at all and doesnt require sitting trough all of Kolosten and several side stuff in game to get to, so its a convenient starting place to see if you want to see more about Kallen. Which I hope anyone reading this ends up wanting to but even if not thats fine and is why I recommend starting here since its an easy read with very nice art and a fairly self contained story. Also if you dont play HI3 and am just curious on Kallen because of what other people are saying. Elan Palatinus: https://manga.honkaiimpact3.com/book/ Some spoilers for Penacony mentioned below here....
Firefly I dont wanna go too deep into character analysis here cause some of it relies heavily on an unproven theory, ill probably write about her more later though. But either way I feel like she is a very well written character, her desire to indulge in some escapism to get a break from her harsh reality with her terminal illness, her determination to find the watchmaker´s legacy despite the risk, her clearly having gotten a lot of experience dealing with dangerous situations despite seemingly wanting to just live a normal happy life, she hasnt been in the game very long (yet, the boss that "killed" her whole gimmick is that you can free the souls it claims so im not so sure she is actually gone, also you can see a Firefly leave her body before she dissolves shortly before Sam shows up...) but she is already very strongly characterized even with her limited screentime. If the theory that she is Sam is also true then it would add an extra layer to her closeness with Stelle in that some lore about Sam suggests Sam was artifically created for the purpose of fighting against the swarm, so she likely would relate to Stelle on account of the whole... being made to fullfill a purpose thing. As a stellaron hunter in this case she would also know about that quite likely so I like the theory. Idunno I just feel frustrated how characters often feel like they get boiled down to just their archetype or role (and sometimes not even any of those but just completely unrecognizable) when they are actually very interesting and well written characters. I want people to appreciate the writing that went into these amazing characters, not just these two but also many other examples but I wont ramble on here. So I strongly recommend people read more about them if at all curious, altough be careful since there are tons of leaks and spoilers in general going around regarding anything Penacony related, so with Firefly it might be best to wait a bit if spoilers are a concern.
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theresattrpgforthat · 8 months
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Hello! Do you have any recommendations for ttrpgs like Kentucky Route Zero?
THEME: Kentucky Route Zero
Hello, I looked up Kentucky Route Zero for the first time thanks to your ask and I understand why you’d want to find a game that replicates it to some degree. Let’s establish what elements of KRZ I’m focusing on when providing recommendations.
The game is modern, and feels transient in some way.
The game offers a subtle or unsubtle critique of capitalism.
The game allows for magical realism, in that odd things are accepted by the characters as fact, or disregarded entirely. This is used to draw attention to the strange and might even highlight abuses of power.
The game allows you to contribute to the lore, but characters still feel to some extent that their choices won’t take them where they want to go.
Now, the games I’ve got for you don’t necessarily have all of these elements written in, but I’m suggesting them as avenues that are more likely to point you in this direction.
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Over the Edge, by Atlas Games.
During your stay with us, please remember that Liberty is Job One, Disarmament Means Peace, It's Polite to Speak English, and, of course, Paranormal Activity is perfectly legal.Thank you for your consent.
The Edge is the weirdest city in the world. Get into trouble. Question your place in the crazed multiverse. Transcend mortal limits. Join a cult. Fight a baboon. Along the way, you might find out who really controls humanity. Unless, of course, you've been working for Them all along.
Over the Edge describes itself as an alternate reality; there are otherworldly entities, large conspiracies, psychic powers, etc. Characters follow “Hollywood” reality: they exist at the culmination of plot-relevant world elements, interacting directly with the conspiracies existing underneath the surface. You are playing a typical protagonist. This means that while playing this game, you are likely to run into pulp-action territory, which might not be exactly what we’re going for here, but what I think this game might really do well is place you in a setting where things are just a little bit off from normal. One of the pieces of art in the Quickstart is of a lady walking her pet hyena: that tells me that we’re probably going to have hefty amounts of Magical Realism in this game.
Midnight Roads, for World of Darkness, by White Wolf.
The roads are lovely, dark and deep…
There are things in the world that no laws account for – things that bestow blessings no man remembers or curses for slights long past. But the things, they do not forget. They wait for the right hand to fall upon them, the right eyes to see their glory, the right heart to recognize their power.
World of Darkness is a long-standing horror roleplaying game originally published by White Wolf. Currently the system Midnight Roads is built for is actually obsolete - having been replaced by the newer Chronicles of Darkness - but the advice and guidance in Midnight Roads is still solid. It focuses on tying real-world fears to supernatural phenomena, and includes a number of example antagonists that make the blank stretches of open road across the United States feel alien and terrifying. Even if you don’t run a game in this system, I highly recommend checking out the supplement for inspiration.
Apocalypse Roadtrip, by Mynar Lenahan.
Apocalypse Roadtrip is a 34-page Forged In The Dark game for 2-5 players about normal people finding their way after the world has ended. Navigating their way past roaming Kaiju, military bombings, otherworldly cryptids, UFO fleets, and other survivors (friendly and not), the characters work hard to achieve their goals and, ultimately, make some changes in their world.
This game is great if you’re looking for that perpetual on-the-road feeling, for transient characters who don’t have a good place to call home. It’s less about the horrors of late-stage capitalism, and is more suited to stories that embrace oddness, especially in a settings where Kaiju, cryptids, and aliens all exist.
If you want to make the weirdness normalized, push the timeline forward from what is established in the book, to a point where all of these events have become old hat for folks - if the aliens and cryptids aren’t weird or strange, perhaps what is weird is how one specific Cryptid keeps entering the chicken coop and doesn’t seem to eat any of the chickens. Or perhaps the government has confiscated a piece of alien technology, but the business owner who found it isn’t acting the same anymore. Your characters will probably find themselves doing odd jobs as the move from one place to another - whether or not they uncover a larger story is probably up to you.
Absurdia, by Quinn Majeski.
Absurdia is an absurdist modern fantasy roleplaying game about the inane hilarity and understated horror of everyday life. Inspired by works of absurd humor, surreal horror, and literary nonsense like Welcome to Night Vale, Alice in Wonderland, Gravity Falls, and the Twilight Zone, Absurdia is an opportunity to indulge in the surreal and outlandish while subverting the absurdity of modern society.
This game takes place in a strange and surreal town of your own making. It's Powered by the Apocalypse, which means much of the direction of the story will unfold as you play, with staggered successes on anything that requires you to roll - this means that any given action is likely to give you a little bit of what you're looking for while also providing obstacles that you didn't expect. It's also well primed for a magical realist kind of atmosphere, since the abnormal and supernatural might be part of the everyday, such as it is for the residents of Night Vale. The designer, Quinn, is excellent at running games that always keep the play group on their toes, and I expect this game designed by them is much the same.
Liminal Horror (and supplements), by Goblin Archives
Liminal Horror brings adaptable modern horror to TTRPGs. It is a rules-lite, fail forward system that leverages creative problem solving in order to create memorable experiences at the table. Players act as 'investigators' navigating a modern world full of terrible and unknowable horrors.
I’m recommending Liminal Horror not just because it does an excellent job of building suspense and making your characters feel less-than-powerful, but also because it’s got a lot of modules and add-ons that help you customize your game. Swineheart Motel, by Kill Jester, is a cosmic horror adventure set in a roadside motel. Tunnels in White, by MeatCastle GameWare, places an old corporation front and centre as a suspicious entity disappearing locals. The Bloom, by Goblin Archives, is about a small town that is hiding something, and seems to be losing people at an alarming rate. You can also tweak the premise of the game if you want to make your characters indentured to their employer, or freelancers just trying to make ends meet.
If you want to see more Liminal Horror options, you can check out the Tales from The Void, a game jam for Liminal Horror modules!
Hopes & Dreams by Fari RPGS (René-Pier Deshaies).
Hopes & Dreams is a rules-lite tabletop role-playing game where you play as young adults who want to make a difference in a world that won’t let them. Government officials are corrupted, your leaders are broken, and the future looks bleak.  Play in this original grunge industrial fantasy setting where you and your friends haven’t abandoned hope yet. You still have dreams of what life could be, and are willing to fight for it.
Hopes & Dreams has a lot of potential to give you a taste of Kentucky Route Zero, in the hopefulness present as a mechanic. Dreams & Nightmares are goals and tracks that hit off at a certain point and are guaranteed to shift the story in what might feel like moments that your character can’t control. Fill your Dream? The world changes for the better. Fill your Nightmare? The world changes for the worse. The original game is industrial fantasy but I can see you using the SRD to make a game that is cyberpunk, modern dystopia, or an alternative Kentucky where Consolidated Power is buying up your debt so that they can get free labour.
If you want to get a bit of a peek into the bones of Hopes & Dreams from the point of view of the designer, you can check out this review by Junk History, which includes an interview with René-Pier Deshaies.
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ofduskanddreams · 8 months
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How I download fics and give them covers before sending them to my Kindle.
Hi all, I've been considering making a post about this for a while and now seems as good a time as any. I'm not an expert, and there is more than one way you can do this; I'm just going to show you my process using "Call It What You Want To" by @separatist-apologist as an example. [This will only work on computers FYI.]
Part One — Getting Started
Download Calibre (it's free.) Calibre for PC. Calibre for Mac. They also have it for Linux but idk if that's still relevant.
Follow the program's setup instructions, and then those for wirelessly connecting Calibre with your Kindle account. Alternatively, you can connect your Kindle/e-reader to your computer with a cable and transfer files manually or download the file to your hard drive and share it another way. I highly recommend taking a few extra minutes to set up the wireless sharing as I think it's far more convenient.
Create a folder in which to store fanfiction downloads so that you can be an organized human.
Part Two — The Fanfiction
Find the fic you want to download on ao3 and click it so that you're on the fic's first page.
Above the box of metadata (ratings, warning, tags, etc.) on the far right click the "download" option. When prompted to select a file type, choose "MOBI."
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Note: Though ao3 has an "EPUB" option I've noticed a bug that removes the chapter navigation from the fic when downloading the EPUB directly from ao3. If you enjoy the "x minutes left in this chapter/book" feature on your e-reader, you will want to download "MOBI" and we will be converting it later in Calibre.
Save the file to the folder you created.
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Launch Calibre if it isn't already running.
In Calibre, click "add books" on the toolbar at the top of the screen.
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Navigate to the folder you saved the fic in, select the fic, then click "open." Calibre will import the MOBI file to your library.
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Now as you can see, "Call It What You Want To" already has a cover when we imported it to the library. That is because the cover image is embedded in the fic on the archive. Some fics will already have covers embedded such as this one.
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Calibre is not a genius. If there are multiple images in the fic it will usually take the first one and default it to the cover. In the next section, I will go over how to add/change the cover of a fic in Calibre and how I like to create them.
Note: Even if the fic doesn't have embedded images, covers may have been made by readers and linked to the fic either in the notes or related works sections so it's worth checking if a cover already exists. If a fic is popular enough, a Google search of the fic's title + "cover" or "cover art" will show you if there have been covers already created for it.
Part Three — Making The Cover (I use Canva)
On the Canva homepage click "create a design" then select the "custom size" option. Canva does have a book cover template but I've found that it's awkwardly tall compared to the default size for Kindle books so I make my own.
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I set the dimensions of the design to be 1024 pixels wide, and 1600 pixels tall, then click "create new design."
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This is where you can get creative, make whatever you want. These basic steps are shown in a gif at the bottom of the section:
One: Choose a background image (you'll want to make sure it's a high enough quality that it won't be pixelated.) I used an image I had already uploaded into Canva, but you can use whatever you would like.
Two: On the sidebar, select "elements" and then "rectangle."
Three: Make sure the rectangle covers the whole design, then change the color. I like using the colors from the photo that Canva suggests and then making them a darker shade. Once you have the color that you want, reduce the transparency of the rectangle to anywhere between 40-50%. (This step ensures that the text we put on top of the image is easily legible, play around with it a bit.)
Four: On the sidebar, select "text" and then "add a text box." Then type in the author's username and change the font, the color, and the size until you like it. Repeat the same steps for the fic's title. I like to center the title on the page and put the author toward the bottom but that's just my preference.
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Once your cover looks the way you want it to, click "share" at the top right and follow the steps to download the file as a PNG. I usually just save the image to my desktop so I can grab it easily once I'm in Calibre.
Part Four — Adding the Cover in Calibre
In your Calibre library, hover over the fic and right-click. Then hover over "edit metadata" and click "edit metadata individually."
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On the "edit metadata" screen, find the section that says "change cover" and click "browse."
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When the file upload dialog box appears, navigate to the PNG you just saved from Canva, select it, and click "open." This will add your cover to the fic. You can use these same steps to add any cover image that you've saved to your computer.
Make sure to click "ok" at the bottom of the screen to save your new cover and navigate back to the library page.
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Part Five — Converting to EPUB
In your Calibre library, select the fic and then click "convert books" on the toolbar. At the top right of the converting screen, set the "output format" to "EPUB."
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Now, the following steps are unnecessary little things I do to make my reading experience more seamless.
Click "Look & Feel" on the left sidebar. Under the "fonts" tab, I embed the "Georgia" font family. I do this because I prefer reading in Georgia which is not a default option on my PaperWhite*. I have my Calibre conversion settings in place to do this automatically. You can embed any font that you have on your computer.
*It might just be me, but when opening a downloaded fic (following the methods in this post) for the first time on my Kindle the font is always weird. The trick to fix it is to go and change the font from whatever is selected (Baskerville in my case) to "publisher's font" and then I've found that switching it back to "Baskerville" on the font selection screen activates the embedded Georgia... even though it will say that it's Baskerville? Idk why this is, I just wanted to let you know how I fix it.
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Calibre defaults to a justified text alignment unless you change the default settings. This appears as "original" in the alignment options. The random too-large spaces between words of a justified alignment give me the ick so to make everything left aligned, I stay on the "look & feel" page but move to the "text" tab where I can change the alignment.
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Staying on "look & feel," move to the "layout" tab. To ensure even paragraph spacing regardless of how it appeared on the archive, I select both the "remove spaces between paragraphs" and "insert blank line between paragraphs" options.
On this page, you can also change the indent size of the first line of every paragraph (highlighted pink,) and the size of the blank lines Calibre will insert between paragraphs upon conversion (highlighted green.) I set the indent to 0.0 and leave the line size 0.5 which is the default.
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The last thing I do is go to "EPUB output" on the left sidebar and check the box labeled "insert inline table of contents." This just means that Calibre will add a table of contents to the beginning of the EPUB. (By default it puts the TOC at the end which I don't like.)
When everything is set as you'd like it, click "ok" on the bottom right and Calibre will convert the MOBI file you downloaded from ao3 to an EPUB containing the settings we just changed. Both file types will appear in your library when you click on the fic and scroll within the right-side window. I usually delete the MOBI format after I have the EPUB because I don't need it any longer.
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And you've done it! Now all you have to do is either right-click and share it to your Kindle, or you can "save to disk" and download the EPUB file to transfer to your e-reader by a method of your choosing.
I hope someone finds this marginally helpful. In truth, I was just bored so I made this post but in light of the recent DDoS attacks against ao3, I think everyone should look into downloading their favorites so that you're never left out in the cold again.
Happy fanfic downloading <3
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areyougonnabe · 1 year
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How would you suggest people get started learning about polar expeditions? I read Frozen in Time but I'm at a loss of where to go now 😭 any suggestions?
Hi!!! It depends on which era you're interested in!!
For Victorian exploration including the FE, I always recommend Erebus by Michael Palin, William Battersby's Fitzjames biography, and Barrow's Boys by Fergus Fleming. Now, all of those books have their flaws as many nerds (like me) will tell you, but they are all great starting points and will introduce you to the cast of characters/run of events of that era. Once you've advanced a bit, you could check out Dave Woodman's Unraveling the Franklin Mystery for an intensely detailed look at Inuit testimony; The Spectral Arctic by Shane McCorristine for an academic exploration of ghosts and clairvoyance in Victorian exploration; or Finding Franklin by Russell Potter for an overview of the search expeditions up to the present day. Michael Smith's Crozier biography is also a solid read. (EDIT: I forgot The Man Who Ate His Boots by Anthony Brandt if you want to know more about Franklin himself and his earlier expeditions!)
If you're more interested in the late Victorian/Edwardian era, commonly referred to under the "Heroic Age" umbrella, you have a lot of potential starting points....
That era could be said to have begun in 1897 with the Belgica expedition, one of the most chaotic and insane expeditions of all time. Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton is a RIDE of a book (more like FRATHOUSE at the end of the earth, amirite) and will get you started with two of my favorite figures of the age: it was the polar origin story of Roald Amundsen, and where he met a pre-pole controversy Frederick Cook (HIS SOULMATE).
For more Amundsen after the Belgica, I really liked The Last Viking by Stephen Brown. You could also check out Roland Huntford's biography buuut this blog is a No Roland Zone so I am hesitant to recommend him, even though re: Amundsen he's more legit than elsewhere.
The Worst Journey In The World is a classic for a reason: a really beautiful and detailed first-person account of Scott's last expedition that is a pillar of travel writing and the foundation for much of the historiography that came after. However, you could also start with A First Rate Tragedy by Diana Preston (which I haven't read yet but comes highly recommended) or even Cherry's biography by Sara Wheeler which is really excellent. OH and the graphic novel version of Worst Journey just released its first volume which is a WONDERFUL introduction to the story! Buy it here and support the artist!
I've also really enjoyed all of the other first-person accounts I've read, many of which are free & in the public domain: With Scott: The Silver Lining by T. Griffith Taylor and The Great White South by Herbert Ponting are super interesting and give you a taste of what it was like to really be there.
For Shackleton, definitely start with Endurance by Alfred Lansing and go from there. Shackleton's Forgotten Expedition is a good second step & will get you background on him and Scott (& Wilson). I have had Shackleton: A Life In Poetry by Jim Mayer recommended to me as well but haven't read it yet. After that, Frank Worsley (captain of the Endurance) wrote two books which are great supplements: Shackleton's Boat Journey and another one just called Endurance. And Caroline Alexander's The Endurance is really good too but it's a coffee table book with nice pictures, so grab a hard copy!
And last but CERTAINLY not least, I May Be Some Time by Francis Spufford is the be-all and end-all of polar exploration nonfiction, IMO. I'm just finishing a reread right now actually—I first read it post-Franklin obsession but pre-Scott obsession and honestly, it's an entirely different book once you're crazy about the Heroic Age, so while I have recommended it in the past for people just getting started, and still do, at this point I also kind of want to tell people to maybe wait until you've already reached a certain level of derangement to dive into it.
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abarbaricyalp · 2 months
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do you have any advice for a new writer trying to post on ao3 I want my stories to be noticed (also thanks for not leaving -- so many writers are gone now)
*Looks at my recent hits counts* I'm not sure I'm the best reference for this 😅
I think there are two aspects to getting engagement on fan works:
1: There is the actual work you put into posting your fics. This includes tags, cross posting, and self promotion.
Tags: Make sure you are tagging what is relevant to your fic. AO3 doesn't run on an algorithm, so the way people find your fics is primarily through searches. There is an excellent post on tumblr somewhere that discusses how to accurately tag your work, and I highly suggest starting there! (Post here) Also when tagging, I would suggest considering what YOU would search if you were looking for a fic like this. Quite often, I've found that the tag I was looking for isn't on AO3 yet. Don't be afraid to type in the specific trope or AU you are writing. Look at other tags to get a feel for the structure of the tag, but other than that, have fun.
Also, it may seem counterintuitive, but don't over-tag, by which I mean tagging a bunch of tropes or characters or ships that aren't in your story. It's a fast way to have people disregard your fic instantly, or even mute your name on AO3. Especially in smaller fandoms, I totally get the desire to tag a bigger ship, but it just makes more trouble for you in the long run.
Similarly, on tumblr, keep tags tight. I tend to only tag ship, character (name and superhero name), show/ movie, franchise, and the challenge I'm answering if I am. I know other people tag the actors of the characters. I don't because I know when I go into an actor's tag, I don't want to see fic (of their characters or them either) but that's entirely up to you. But don't tag characters or shows etc that have nothing to do with your fic. This is just courtesy in fandom spaces.
Cross-posting: I admit, I can be kind of bad about cross-posting, but I do find that it helps drive engagement when I do buckle down and get it done. Cross-posting is publishing or promoting a fic on multiple platforms. For instance, I use AO3 AND tumblr. On tumblr fic posts,I link to the AO3 (if there is one, I'm pretty bad about publishing shorter things on here only) And when I publish the fic on AO3, I'm supposed to be linking back to my tumblr. This helps more people see your fic and it grows your community when people are able to follow you on various platforms and spread your fic and kudos around. If you have fan accounts elsewhere and you're comfortable with it, feel free to promote there as well. Also check any discord or group servers you may be on for rules about promoting or channels meant exactly for that.
Self-promoting: this is pretty similar to the above. Because AO3 doesn't have an algorithm, it's kind of up to you to keep interest alive in your fics, especially if you want eyes on it for the first several days afterwards. I know it feels embarrassing to reblog your own fic posts all the time, but it's impossible to tell who may have seen or not seen that you posted a new fic. I don't have any set times for this, personally. I try to catch what I consider active times on tumblr, but that's entirely subjective. It's just trial and error, really. Secondly, don't be embarrassed to recommend your own fics (I'm kind of bad at this) If someone is looking for recs on a specific trope or AU and you know you have just the fic, tell them! Unfortunately, you have to be your own biggest cheerleader when it comes to your own art because no one knows and loves it as much as you do. It feels awkward and I know I get embarrassed if people aren't reccing my fics on their own, but you really are your biggest advocate. Fandom is kind of a popularity contest sometimes 🤷‍♀️ Hype your own self up
2: Now that the technical stuff is done, let's move on to the community aspect of fic posting. (This is not really what you asked for, but i think it's more important sometimes than the actual tags and AO3 procedures) Curating a community and making friends is HUGE as far as readership goes. Especially in smaller fandoms (I assume this is about Sambucky fics/fandom) community is everything. Being a name people recognize and trust is important to regular readership.
Building community: don't be afraid to interact with other writers on this platform or others! The Sambucky fandom has this delightful habit of playfully creating headcanons and ficlets based off of text posts. The Daily Sambucky Fluff Diary project is so much fun and so interactive. I have honestly never been in such a fun, supportive group as the sambucky writers on tumblr. I highly suggest playing in this sandbox and getting familiar with other writers. We hype each other up all the time.
Understanding the rules of play: this is kind of an addendum, but the sambucky fandom is rightfully protective over Sam and his portrayal in fics, as well as Bucky. Reading fics, community interaction posts, and even the rules laid out in various challenges (like the bingos that are hosted at various times) will really help you get a sense of how to respectfully tell stories with Sam and Bucky without being racist, ableist, or disregarding to these characters. Quite often Sam (and Bucky, and especially Sambucky) is only there to prop up other characters. This is something the fandom will (again, rightfully) push back on and avoid. I highly suggest looking at the rules that are laid out in the Sambucky Library's bingo rounds to get an idea of the sandbox rules.
Engagement: the sambucky fandom is small, so we don't really have big organized events like Bangs or Reverse Bangs. However, we do have lots of fun, smaller challenges, namely the bingos! There is also Samtember, the Anniversary Challenge (I don't think that's what we called it) and various prompt week challenges, including an AU week (and we like birthdays here). I highly suggest following @ sambuckylibrary to keep apprised of challenges and prompts. Filling out these prompts when you can and want is a great way to break into the fandom and get engagement with your fics. They are all very low stakes and the reward is new fics, friends, and interaction!
I would also suggest joining a discord server, if that is something you're interested in. (I personally am not in any, but that's because I don't like making new accounts on things, not because I don't want to be part of the fun) This is a great place to interact with other fans, promote your fics, get new recs, and generally reap the fun of fandom in a more condensed space, rather than the entirety of AO3 or tumblr.
One last thing to keep in mind: you've already pointed out that fan fic/art/engagement is decreased in our fandom. This will be reflected in your hits/kudos/comments, especially if you're coming from a bigger fandom. Don't let this discourage you. In fact, I really suggest not looking at stats as much as possible. The wealth of engagement in this fandom will be seen in your relationships and interactions with other fans, not in skyrocketing numbers. Allegedly, Cap4 and Thunderbolts come out in 2025 and our guys look to have an episode in the next season of What-If, but without new content, interest will lag and numerical engagement with it. Just keep this in mind as you begin/ continue your journey into the fandom.
That's a lot of words to say: tag properly, make friends, and have fun ❤️🤍💙❤️🩶🖤🪽🐺
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hwaightme · 1 year
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Your fan, Wooyoung (part 1)
(part 2) (your fan ml)
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🍰 pairing: wooyoung x baker!/cafeowner!reader 🍰 genre: romance, fluff, social media vibes, very soft 🍰 summary: a bulletpoint-style wordstream of what it would be like if wooyoung was stanning you 🍰 wordcount: 4.0k 🍰 warnings/tags: maybe language, a tad suggestive, ateez chaotic energy, wooyoung what are you watching boi, e-girls mention with yunho hints, time to vacuum the lawn to catch gossip, ateez wingmen, wooyoung falls fast, reader and wooyoung are both flirts, cooking, baking, mention of food/eating, lmk if anything else! 🍰 a/n: Hello everyone!!! HAPPY RELEASE OF HALAZIA (omg 10M+ views on YT!!!) and SPIN OFF: FROM THE WITNESS <3 and a Happy New Year!!!! (at least, very very soon :)) here is the next part of the Your fan, ___ series, for Wooyoung!!! Hope you enjoy, big hugs and all reblogs, asks and likes appreciated <3
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The first time Wooyoung 'met' you, was through his For You Page on TikTok.
He had his own private account for quite some time, watching mainly various dance trends, various food creators and cooking tips, in preparation for this Korean Chef certification.
Yes it was not actually practice or real revision, and probably way out of what he was supposed to be looking into, but scrolling through the specially curated videos was way more... addictive.
And during one such scrolling session, whilst sitting in a styling chair before a fansign event, he stumbled across one of your videos. Better yet, this particular video did not even feature your face, only your hands moving ingredients.
And your mellifluous voice, sweeter than the strawberry shortcake you were making.
As Wooyoung raised the phone to his ear to catch the audio better, he was taken aback when he heard a quiet, lofi version of one of his group's songs serving as background music to you.
NOW you were DEFINITELY on his radar. Bringing his phone almost to his nose, he clicked onto your account. You were full of surprises - you had a very large following, and an extensive selection of videos, with some of them definitely having gone viral.
There were baking videos, coffee-making content... there were some tours of a cafe... then another... And after looking through a little further, he stumbled upon a video of... you.
You, beaming into the camera as you were making an announcement about a new cafe of yours opening. Clicking away, he checked for any descriptions, and sure enough, he found a link to an about you page, that turned out to be an official site for your cafe chain, "dream-ity", now in five locations, with five locations around the Seoul National Capital Area.
If he had to choose a word to describe how he saw you from first impression, it would probably be 'soft'. A walking ray of sunshine as a person.
He went back to the video announcement, rewatching it. As he was drifting off into dreamland, barely controlling his heart eyes, his stylist peeked at the screen, nodding as she recognised the person on the screen.
"Oh you are watching Y/N?"
"Yes! Just found her, actually, do you know her?"
"Oh yeah! She is super famous on TikTok actually, and recently started a YouTube channel with more vlog-style content. If you are into... it, I highly recommend." she explained with a wink, giving a lock of Wooyoung's hair one final spray before tapping his shoulders to announce that she was done.
"Okay, thank you~" he sing-songed, hopping from his chair, spinning around to take a look at the word completed once more.
He returned to his screen, and smiled at himself, making a note to look you up later. As Wooyoung was called up to make final preparations for the signing, he tapped follow on your account, and liked the announcement video.
The second time he 'met' you, was when he had finally gotten the chance to simply laze on the couch at the dorms, laptop on his stomach, chin pressed flat against his chest.
He was feeling the need for some comfort, and remembered the suggestion of his stylist to find you on YouTube. Just searching up 'dream-ity' was enough. And there it was. Your channel. Your videos. You. A lot of you. Smiling, baking, focused as you did the perfect matcha pour to complete a latte, paired with an elegant matcha crepe cake.
Your concentrated face instantly became Wooyoung's favourite, his heart melting as you piped the most intricate flowers onto a layered cake.
He caught himself. Caught the woah. Since when was he, the master of sexy performance, so SOFT?
He decided to take a step back for a bit. Convince himself that it was just another creator, just another person out there doing their thing and-
Oh no you were good. You were really good at what you did. So good in fact, that you were a certified patisserie chef who had competed, and WON trophies before. All that, and you appeared to be humbleness itself.
Just out there, in your cafe(s), having the time of your life explaining step by step how to get puff pastry just right. Quoting 'The Great British Bake Off' was one of your favourite things apparently, so naturally Wooyoung noted that down on his phone. As one totally did if they were just 'admiring skill'.
On hour two of watching your content, he started picking up on your micro habits.
The way in which you brushed your hair out of your face with your lower arm, wrist bent ever so slightly so as to not get flour on your face.
How you bit your lip just a little as you were balancing a loaded tray of goodies while taking them to bake in the oven.
How your eyes practically shined as you delved into the history of a given dessert or bake or literally anything. Like in one of your non-baking videos, you were happily babbling away about various aesthetically pleasing cafes you visited while on holiday in Busan.
Wooyoung was on a train to paradise when a wild San appeared and got him in a headlock. Letting out a high-pitched yelp he slammed the laptop shut and attempted to fight his friend off, failing miserably.
"Oooooooh, Woo, so naughty, are you watching porn in the dorms? In broad daylight?"
"No what the hell San, I have enough of you walking around the dorms naked."
"So now I am your wet dream material?"
"Yes baby, now come and give us a kiss~" Wooyoung pouted and finally was able to scare San off as he began to make aggressive smooching noises in his ear.
"OKAY MAN I GOT IT NOW SPILL THE TEA."
"What tea?" Wooyoung played coy, twirling a lock of hair around his finger and gazing off to the side.
"Ahem, to quote the legends, 'bro who got you smiling like that?'" San flung himself onto the sofa, nearly knocking his friend and the laptop off, making Wooyoung fly towards it in a panic.
The commotion also brought forth a curious pair of ears, Seonghwa stepping out into the corridor with a lint roller and a rag in hand, making it a point that apparently, exactly right now was the best time to start cleaning a specific spot of the corridor. Hongjoong also did the unthinkable and JOINED Seonghwa in cleaning, albeit a lot less enthusiastically, moving a dry rag back and forth with his foot, arms crossed.
Soon enough Wooyoung noticed that, thanks to San's very gossip-promising question, the rest of the members were also suddenly making their respective appearances and occupying themselves with menial or highly questionable tasks.
Yunho and Jongho had made a beeline for the kitchen, with the former browsing the top shelves of all the cabinets, opening each door with the speed of a sloth, and the latter pouring the tallest glass of water that was in the house, moving in slow motion.
Mingi opened his door wide open, and after peering out to check that nothing had been revealed yet, lied back down on his bed, but continuously raising his head as if repositioning an antenna.
But Yeosang was what did it for Wooyoung. He sauntered, across the entire living room, with the world's most unperturbed expression on his face, and sat down right in front of him on the floor, staring into his soul, and commanding:
"Spill."
Wooyoung was frozen still bent down from managing to catch the laptop before it fell. There was no getting out of this. It was either he said it all, or it would be 7 and hostage makes one team.
"So, there is this one TikToker right-"
"You say what now?" San interjected, as Wooyoung swore he head Jongho spit out a bit of the water as he tried to stifle a laugh.
"NO it's not like the buss it thing, we're long past that."
"Uh-huh, as if..." Seonghwa mumbled to himself, rolling his eyes.
"No really!" Wooyoung was getting fired up, enjoying the attention that he now had. Standing up on the couch, he began gesturing with the laptop as though he was a lecturer.
"Anyways. It is very wholesome. It is a baking and cafe account. Really aesthetically pleasing. The creator also has a YouTube channel, and she-"
"Ah so it IS a SHE!!!!" San clapped his hands together, as if celebrating a discovery.
"Yes, ha-ha fun-ny. Anyways, literally all of her content is amazing. So I have been watching it."
"For the past two hours." Yunho commented, finally shutting all the cupboards
"Dude and you like e-girls!" Wooyoung retorted.
"HEY that was totally uncalled for and so not true!"
"choke me like you hate me BUT YOU LOVE ME-" Mingi began a dramatic rendition of a well known song, progressively getting louder, as Yunho flew across the apartment and into his room, with a battle cry of "IT'S TIME TO STOP", ready for violence.
"Ah never would I think to see the day that my trouble child would like a wholesome, down to earth girl."
"She's a badass." Wooyoung smirked, at Hongjoong, who's expression immediately fell. "She literally owns baking competitions and five cafes. Basically a girl boss in the best way possible."
"That is one heck of a badass... like... Shiber level badass." Yeosang mused, eliciting a round of laughter from the other members.
After twisting his hands and forcing him to show them some of your videos, Wooyoung had been tasked with a mission to go to your cafe under penalty of cleaning the dorms under Seonghwa's supervision, using the eldest member's method.
He agreed initially, for the excitement of it and because, come on, he was the king of flirting and performances. How many killing points in choreography were his? But as a day turned into a week, and then two, and he was still merely a viewer who was liking all of your content, the challenge was hanging over his head like a guillotine.
The members ceaselessly taunted him with the Cleaning Contract, with Seonghwa taking particular pleasure in describing intricate routines for how he would want the smallest segment of the apartment cleaned, emphasising that if something were to be done even a tiny bit wrong, Wooyoung would be redoing the entire thing.
Finally, one sunny day the fear tactics worked, and officially done with his member's attacks, Wooyoung got up extra early, dressed up to the 10s, only to cover it with something more inconspicuous, and completed the look with truly anonymous cap and mask.
While on the way to one of your cafes, he wanted to slap himself. Firstly, what in the world was he doing, travelling to an unchecked location way before its opening time, and how did he even know that this was the cafe you were going to be at?
Way to go. He was a planner extraordinaire. But seeing as he had nothing else to do, might as well have some fun and go "you-scouting".
To his disappointment, the first location definitely did not have you anywhere in sight, so like the wind he ran back to the metro, praying that no one was going to recognise him along his journey.
Whilst catching his breath, he looked up at the 'dream-ity' logo on the second storefront, muttering a colourful collection of vocabulary under his breath - again, you were nowhere in sight.
A brief panic washed over him as he thought - what if you had been in the back of the cafe, or had just come in? And he was already on his way to his third spot - his final, considering that it was already way past opening time, and slowly becoming a risk for him.
Goyang-si, his home city. He prayed that it would not let him down, being able to house his chaos for so long.
By grace of everything good in the world, as he was ambling towards the cafe, part of him already having given up, and laughing at his boyish determination, he looked up and there you were.
Laughing with a co-worker about something or other, them being indoors, and you outside, watering some potted plants.
It felt like a dream - suddenly Wooyoung understood why you named the cafe how you did.
He checked the street for any passers by. None. Your cafe - no one except the people working. He checked his phone - destiny decided it was his day today: this particular outlet was one that opened the latest out of all, and actually he had managed to arrive half an hour early.
Before you saw him he stealthily turned the corner, and checked himself in the window of an empty car. Removing some of the clothing items to look more like his stylish, dandy self, removing his mask, and readjusting the cap to let some of his flaming red locks show and frame his face, he was ready to impress.
With the swagger that he would have on the stage, he stepped out of hiding, and took course right to your cafe. Your co worker had left you alone to finish tending to the flowers.
Wooyoung stood a bit away behind you, thinking of just how cool he would be when you beat him to it with a simple:
"Sorry, we're not open yet."
And you had not even turned to look at him. His jaw dropped. Well that was a healthy dose of reality. He bit his lip, not quite sure how to proceed.
He hummed, pensive and tried:
"Well I was hoping you could make an exception?"
"And what makes you- oh." As you turned, you were in for a shock of your life.
There he was. In person. Your bias. Of all people.
You contemplated slapping yourself but that would just be the strangest first impression. Deep breaths, deep breaths. You probably looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Quick, say something-
"If you don't mind helping with a couple of things."
Again, you were dying inside. Was that really the best thing you could say? Well, at least it was quick.
Wooyoung found your reaction adorable, and the quip even more so. Judging by your initial reaction, it was safe for him to confirm that you definitely knew who he was, but your daring offer just drew him in. He wanted to see what other buttons he could press, and how you were off camera. Off his phone or laptop screen.
"With pleasure. Are you making your signature mille-feuille today?" He asked, and sent a wink your way.
Oh. Oh he watched your content. Oh he knew what you liked to make.
"I think it needs a taste test, want a bite?" You responded, your voice dropping unintentionally low.
Well today you learned that your mouth was disconnected from your mind. And that Wooyoung seemed to be quite giddy about that.
"Exactly what I've been craving, sweetheart."
Wooyoung was burning up, and was grateful that his ears were covered by his cap, though his face was probably starting to match his hair. You probably thought he was too forward, or too pushy or too much-
"Then come on in sugar, and take some chairs down from the tables while you're at it." You instructed, beaming at him.
He could get used to this. Quickly. Like a sugar rush.
So he visited. And visited again. And again. Not caring a single bit that he had to wake up at a strange hour instead of getting more sleep. Not caring that he had to take his tired body all the way to the cafe in Goyang-si. He loved these quiet hours of the morning with you.
And definitely appreciated that you told your employees to arrive after official opening hours. So that you could just spend time together and talk about everything.
On that first day when he went back, which was much later than he had initially planned, he had attempted to cover up the rendezvous he blurted that he was visiting his family. But that did not slide, since San was immediately threatening him by pointing at his phone and boasting his ability to phone Wooyoung's entire family tree, and Seonghwa simply opened the door of the closet that housed the vacuum cleaner.
Truthfully, had he just told them that he succeeded in finding you, speaking to you and even getting your number, the evening would have been much less 'eventful', as the members ended up simply patting him on the back, giving him a round of applause in true ATEEZ sarcastic fashion, and labelling him as "lover boy" and "hopeless romantic". Not that he minded at all - actually Wooyoung felt it had a nice ring to it, and showed these traits with pride.
Quickly enough it had also permeated into his numerous K-Pop Idol Profiles on social media, when during a couple of interviews his members poked fun at him by hinting that he was as such, testing him as to what kind of excuses and stories he would make up to not reveal his connection to you for safety. He now apparently liked romance kdramas, which was questionable, but was the best he could think of in the spur of the moment.
With both of you being public figures, you had made it your top priority to ensure that no one intruded into what was only made for two. At first, you thought that Wooyoung would crack at a certain point, perhaps by accident, but as it turned out he was a LOT more responsible and considerate than his demeanour would suggest.
Even when he had simply sent you flowers to the door, he did not include any information that could in any way guide someone to you and him, instead ordering a series of emojis printed on a card that only you would be able to decrypt.
As you got to know each other better, you had grown more comfortable and began to delve into each other's deeper backgrounds, including how you came to be who you were, what fears and hopes you had, the list went on.
You had revealed to him that initially you had been lined up to be trained as a chef in traditional Korean Cuisine, to follow in the footsteps of your father. Although you could appreciate the art, and to appease your father had indeed trained for a short while, you soon realised that you could not bear being in the exact same line of work as him.
You did not want to be known simply as his daughter. As a shadow that was 'still learning, and had a long way to go', as he had informed you after you spent a 12 hour day working at his Michelin star restaurant.
The constant reprimands and harshness eventually made you crack and so you turned to your safe haven - baking and dessert making. While your father had seen only the one side of you that he wanted to shape, you had concealed your efforts to work part time when you could, to go to night classes, slowly but surely building up to an actual degree.
Once you had 'quiet quit' your Korean cuisine path and had proof under your belt that you could succeed in the 'sweeter side of life' , things became easier. You allowed yourself to just do the bare minimum, could not care less if your father did not praise you, and became much more liberal with your schedule - to make more time for creating a future that you actually wanted.
When your father had finally found out about what he had called your 'betrayal', you were prepared, and without much else to say simply gave him a 90 degree bow and sped off to Busan, where you had gotten to know an affluent professional, from whom you had further learned.
Fast forward some time later, and you had found yourself on an exchange programme in France - the loneliest time in your life, but it definitely raised you to the next level, and upon your return, 'dream-ity' was only a month away from being launched.
And now, well, you had built your own happiness, were continuously expanding business and experimenting, did masterclasses and ran popular social media accounts, with no plans to stop.
Wooyoung could only stare at you in admiration. This kind of perseverance and passion was something that he valued deeply and strived for for himself, and to see it in you was simply stunning.
He thought back to his initial impression of you, and realised how wrong he had been when labelling you just as a 'happy-go-lucky' girl who just existed in a soft alternative universe and just baked cakes all day. No, there was always something new to learn about you, from your life to your beautiful mind.
Wooyoung had become a fan of yours because he was interested in exploring something he could not do and make. He had stayed when he had heard how in love you were with what you did. And now, he fell in deep because of how well he understood you and respected you, and you did the same for him.
You two were passionate people, no doubt about that. Maybe at first one might think you two could cause a wildfire. But the maturity and level-headedness you had promoted in one another was worthy of respect.
At least when it was just you two.
Because the members were at their wits' end. He had gotten even louder, even more flamboyant, and made every effort to be the funniest guy in the room which, to be fair, did work phenomenally during quite a few of their events. But when that translated to auto-pilot loved up chaos mode in the dorms... it was a hurricane.
So they banished him out of the dorms until he came back with you being officially his girlfriend. And boy was he in trouble. It was nearing closing time for you, and it was much busier out. Thankfully, you had a back door, and let him through it, so he was safe. He waited for you until the cafe was shut, and ended up inspecting a photo of you and your father that you had up on a wall. For some reason, he looked very familiar.
When he finally figured it out, he was in for the shock of a lifetime. As his face went pale, and he was not responding to you, you got more and more concerned that Wooyoung fell ill, but all cleared up when he raised his own phone, with a photo to show you.
In the photo was him in a line chef's outfit, standing right next to your father. You and Wooyoung erupted into maniacal laughter until tears were threatening to roll down your cheeks and your ribs hurt.
"So I really took the traditional route here and met your father before I met you huh?"
That day you had to thank your father for the most unexpected thing. For the fact that somehow, by learning this interesting crossover, this provoked Wooyoung to ask you out officially (he was never going to tell about how he had a whole troop at home ready to unleash guerrilla tactics). You had poked fun at him that it was because he actually wanted to date your dad, but Wooyoung kissed you in exchange for your silence, so it was a done deal.
It was already quite late at night when Wooyoung finally thought it was necessary for him to come back, but little did either of you know, the future held a lot more obstacles than you could have imagined, with a photo of Wooyoung leaving the cafe past closing hours rapidly making rounds on social media the very next day.
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Hi, it’s me, a BIPOC creator ready to talk about Tom
I’m going to preface this in saying that I was really hoping that Tom would listen to the people who were genuinely disappointed in him and wanted him to do better. I want to highlight that people were expressing their own past history with right wing grooming towards racist ideologies, dog whistles, and downplaying of Black and Indigenous suffering during the peak of the situation on top of all the hurt that comes with another trans person not understanding how bad their internalized transphobia is. In light of Tom deleting his tumblr, changing the L4L twitter username and privating both that account and the main one in question….I have some points as a disappointed ex-fan that I hope extends to other communities.
First and foremost; I would like to be clear and transparent:
I was one of the POC creators that asked QLP from Florescent Red Studios to echo my feelings at the time. I work a lot, I try and vividly express this and didn’t have the energy at the time to address this despite having a lot of words that I have gratefully seen echoed through the situation as it has developed. A few of them have carried over from seeing devs being harassed from a separate situation over the past year that I have a lot of words on. If you’re the perpetrators of that event I highly suggest you apologize and work on yourselves, but that’s an issue for another time.
To be honest, I will always be disappointed in people like Tom who hide these sort of hateful views, but…sometimes I can’t say I’m not surprised. I want to give people the benefit of the doubt, because, in all honesty, I love this community we’ve built despite the drawbacks that come with making something new out of nothing and wanting to support other people. I can say for certain that a lot of us were the weird kids, and it’s more than amazing to have that safety in community, but I can’t ignore that there are some issues.
We’re still people despite being online, people who sometimes can be more busy than usual. Tone is hard to pick up on and sometimes it’s hard to fully communicate how you feel, but immediately jumping into hatred and defensive mode is never the way to go, and there should be room for open discussion when people are hurt and still trying to make space to educate others. There should be space for open discussions because we have this mediation tool that we can walk away from and come back to when we look at it objectively and not emotionally.
Tom, if you see this, I want to ask you if you actually fucking care at all about me and what a lot of people in the BIPOC community went through/are currently going through in the hands of conservatives that have groomed you into their ideology. I want to ask you if you really know about the actual fetishization we face if it isn’t straight up murder, misogyny/misogynoir, etc? Because it sounds to me like you were a tourist and I’ve strictly only been to either sides of the coast because you will never catch me in the South in this country unless I am in severely Black populated cities. And even then you’d never fucking catch me in the South.
It’s hard for me to touch on the grooming topic further because I’m a victim of multiple instances of CSA….I don’t believe in just pointing at one community, I think every community should keep themselves in check when it comes to shaming and ousting out p*dos and N*zis at the least- because again, they shouldn’t fucking be tolerated.
I will echo this sentiment: if you don’t condone what you’re writing about, you shouldn’t be condoning or perpetuating worse actions in a community full of BIPOC, disabled, marginalized, etc fans in real life.
On the note of BIPOC, please…please actually learn about our history and struggles. Whether it’s taking a history course, watching BIPOC educators….it’s something I think people should really learn about. It’s painful, it’s hard, but it’s what we have to live with everyday and don’t have the energy to remind people of all the time because of how draining it is.
I will be clear, I’m expressing my disappointment. I don’t want any harassment towards anyone, you shouldn’t be lowering yourself to that level.
But- I’m fucking tired and am urging people to do better. Please.
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Note
Yo i suggest putting “eyestrain” in your tags- certain people with epilepsy / photosensitivity or overall sensitivity TO these colours. I stumbled upon your account randomly and even then it was a little overstimulating for me- cannot imagine someone with photosensitivity. Especially ones with red, given the wavelength shape. But all of them are considerably harmful and cause physical pain. I understand you are named “Highly-Saturated-Painter” but sometimes given the feeds, it can pop up randomly on other peoples’ feeds. I highly suggest going to check out PhotosensitiveDespair (think that’s their user) they are run by a bunch of folk who have conditions mentioned above. I’m not affiliated with them, i just find their content extremely educational. Adding the eyestrain tag, allows for people to have blocked the tag to avoid the content to avoid the possible harm / death that can be caused by photosensitivity but mainly epilepsy. Thank you.
Sincerely, A disabled person <3
oh sorry
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nagaruru · 10 months
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How to get into The Idolmaster SideM!
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have you ever thought to yourself, man, I would love to get into a really cool male idol franchise with characters of a large range of ages and banger songs with themes of always having another chance to find yourself? no? not that specific? well, either way, I'd like to introduce you to the idolmaster sidem, the male branch of the idolmaster franchise!
if you've ever wondered how to get into sidem, or have never heard of it but I've made you curious, feel free to read more!
alright, let's get into it!
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my first suggestion would be to watch the anime! it used to be on crunchyroll, but isn't anymore, but you can absolutely find it on any of your favourite...alternative anime viewing websites, if you get me. through the anime, you get to see the beginnings of 315pro, as well as hear more about the origin stories of some of the idol groups there! not all of the units are in the anime, but if you're interested in the units dramatic stars, jupiter, w, highxjoker, sem, and beit, I would highly recommend it for an in depth look at them! not only do you get to see the origins of each unit mentioned, but you also get to see how they all grow alongside one another, helping 315 productions to truly come to thrive!
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after watching the main anime, i'd recommend checking out wakeatte mini! wakemini is a series of shorts starring all of the idols in 315pro, including ones not featured in the original anime! the only unit that is not there is c.first, as this series was made before they were introduced. the series also has three original songs from it, themed around the attribute types physical, intelli, and mental! all idols have their own type they fall under.
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after watching the anime, i would recommend checking out miraheze wiki for magazines, or short comics, of the characters you like! the introduction magazines are a quick and easy way to learn more about individual idols, and there are magazines for sidemoba events as well. though, if you're curious about more, i would also recommend using project imas, as it is the most up to date resource for idolmaster content! there are very well written descriptions of all the idols in 315pro, as well as other branches of the idolmaster franchise, located there!
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regarding ingame story content, the sidem community has a lot of dedicated and hardworking translators helping the three games that sidem has had become more accessible to english speakers! this is the big translation document! i would also recommend, if you have a twitter account, to check out the hashtag SideMTL. SideMTL is a tag used by translators, and is also a place for you to find shorter form content, such as text conversations, phone calls, or birthday episodes.
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also, i'd recommend saisuta subs on youtube! saisuta subs is a channel dedicated to uploading translations from the latest game, saisuta! all of saisuta's content is fully voiced, so having something like this exist is a really great asset! thank you to all of the subbers, recorders, and of course, translators that make this all possible!
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speaking of translations, if you're curious about the origin of the first male character in idolmaster, ryo akizuki of the sidem unit f-lags, he got his start in the ds game dearly stars! dearly stars is being translated by cait, and I highly recommend checking it out! ryo also has a manga version of the story, neue green, that you can check out on your favourite totally official manga reading websites!
and, of course, if you're interested in the amount of great music that sidem has, all of it is unregionlocked and up on streaming services like spotify! sometimes it takes a bit for newer songs to be added, as bamco likes to wait to increase cd sales, but they'll be added after a little bit! until then, you can usually find them floating around somewhere.
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finally, I would like to recommend looking into lives! the seiyuu are a major part of the appeal of sidem. some are well known, some are not, but all are loved! they are all really talented voice actors and performers, so please give them a watch sometime! pictured above is only a fraction of the many seiyuu that we have! while I can't tell you where exactly to find the lives... a lot of them can be found on certain... websites...... they're floating around out there! if you would like to purchase tickets to a live, usually they are able to be streamed using the website stagecrowd! 8th live is coming up this year, so get ready!!!
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thank you so much for reading, as well as for (hopefully!) having an interest in sidem! the fandom is full of wonderful people, and we'd be so glad to have you!
we may be going through a rough patch right now, due to decisions by higher ups (sidem is a very successful franchise, but higher ups aren't treating it with respect, is a short explanation i can give), but sidem fans are full of love for their favourite idols, and they will be more than happy to share their love of these idols with anyone interested! i for one am always up for telling everyone about how much I love kuro, lol.
thank you again for looking at this guide ! i hope this inspires new people to check out sidem as a branch! sidem is truly 315 (saikou)!!!!!!!!!!!
signed,
a guy who ranked t10 two years in a row for kuro kiyosumi in saisuta's yearly character ranking event (im proud, let me brag!!!!!!)
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offtorivendell · 2 years
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She was … doing something, learning something.
Elain stood between Nuala and Cerridwen at the long worktable. All three of them covered in flour. Some sort of doughy mess on the surface before them.
The two handmaiden-spies instantly bowed to Rhys, and Elain—
There was a slight sparkle in her brown eyes.
As if she’d been enjoying herself with them.
Nuala swallowed hard. “The lady said she was hungry, so we went to make her something. But—she said she wanted to learn how, so …” Hands wreathed in shadows lifted in a helpless gesture, flour drifting off them like veils of snow. “We’re making bread.”
Elain was glancing between all of us, and as her eyes began to shutter, I gave her a broad smile and said, “I hope it’ll be done soon—I’m starved.”
Elain offered a faint smile in return and nodded.
She was hungry. She was … doing something. Learning something.
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Working with theclever.crow was an absolute joy, and something I've been wanting to do for a while. Thank you, Katie, from the bottom of my heart; for taking my ideas, adding your own, and then bringing our vision of Elain and her (as yet hypothetical) powers to life in this gorgeous piece of art. Your passion for both Elain and your work is clear as Night. Please show Katie some love on IG! 🖤
Characters belong to @sjmaas ACOTAR series.
This piece is for Day 1 of @elainarcheronweek - Powers.
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Throughout the ACOTAR series, Elain Archeron has demonstrated a love of learning. Beginning in book one, Feyre noted both her love of gardening - it made her come alive - and intention to learn how to grow vegetables, which continued in book three, where learning to cook and bake brought a sparkle to her eye, all the way through to book four, where - though she spent a lot of time in the background - Elain showed her desire to contribute to the search for the Dread Trove by dusting off the powers she hasn't used since ACOWAR (as far as we know).
I've always thought that Elain becoming either a potions mistress or apothecary would neatly marry her desire for knowledge with her love of gardening and baking/cooking. We already know Elain is a Seer - and Amren suggested the possibility of at least one other power in ACOSF - so, given her strong associations with life/rebirth and light, as well as her status as a Cauldron-Made faerie, I wouldn't be surprised if she could give her plants and potions a bit of a boost when required, and that her brews may be highly sought after from all around Prythian.
As a bonus, there are some Easter Eggs hidden in this art - as nods to both Elain's potential powers and future plot - and I'll reblog with all the details once people have had a chance to have a guess themselves. Katie outdid herself here, so please look carefully, and let us know what you can See!
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This piece of art is dedicated to everyone who loves Elain, and who values her different sort of strength, whether you see yourself in her or not. 🖤
Please do not repost this art! If you want to find it on Instagram or Twitter, check out theclever.crow and the Elain Week accounts respectively.
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Easter Egg Spoilers... coming soon.
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Further reading on Elain and her possible future with potions or witchy powers if you're interested...
Elain has a secret garden full of useful plants that she uses for potions (a headcanon).
Can Elain Make plants/have powers of growth, or does she have a link to the Mother?
Could Elain be a witch?
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