#if i say what i think my account will suspended 6 months

[cottagecoreismysaltlick]

Arlecchino’s story quest just revealed how old Lyney, Lynette, and Freminet are. (Spoiler kinda)

Tl;Dr: late 20s

“I wish Genshin would give us solid numbers for character ages!” Sometimes they do. And those numbers give us ages of other characters too, if you pay attention. And yeah, I know the Genshin community doesn’t like to read, but you don’t even have to do much reading for this.

And let me preface this. When you go through this much work to “justify” characters being adults some people will say it’s just “an excuse to sexualize minors”. No. This isn’t even about that.

This is about me being absolutely sick and tired with the teenagers with careers trope.

First of all, what we know:

Childe is the YOUNGEST of the Fatui Harbingers.

Childe woke up the whale when he was 14 years old, and that was 20 years ago. He is 34 years old.

Arlecchino became the Knave at 17 years old.

The Hearth siblings came to the house within a few months of Arlecchino gaining control.

Lyney and Lynette met a magician named Caesar who over 10 days, helped them hone their stage magic skills

Caesar died 10 years ago.

Toddlers can’t do street magic.

Honestly the last couple of points aren’t even needed, but they’re helpful to solidify this number. You’ll see.

Let’s do some basic Arlecchino math first.

Again, she’s canonically older than 34, but if you want her and the siblings to be as young as absolutely possible, we can start there. (Maybe she’s a few months older than Childe. Idk)

34-17=17

Absolute bare minimum, Arlecchino has been the knave, and the siblings have been in the house for 17 years.

And quite frankly, I don’t think the “kids” were embryos when they joined.

But now that we have a minimum, let’s get a maximum to cover our bases. I’m going to use the serial disappearances as a marker here, because given what we know about her she would definitely look into that sort of thing. So she can’t be much older than 37.

So, when did the siblings join the house?

First of all, let’s get a few facts from earlier involved. Cesar died 10 years ago. That means he died while they had already been in the house for 7-10 years (depending on Arlecchino’s age.)

And a widely overlooked fact that personally I think needs to be taken into account more often, is that TODDLERS CANT DO STREET MAGIC.

But I get it, this is an anime game. And for some crazy reason some fans are convinced that characters should be as young as they can possibly be.

So let’s be just, the most generous that I could possibly be here and say those kids right there are 6 years old (anime 6 year olds don’t act like real 6 year olds so I’ll give you that), and it’s been an EVENTFUL couple of months worth of mastering street magic, trauma, and joining the House of the Hearth.

6+7=13 13+10=23

So the absolute bare minimum you are being silly at this point age for the siblings is 23, and depending on how old you think Arlecchino is, up to 26.

Personally, I feel like Freminet can help us out here, but we’ll have to apply just a teensy tiny bit of real world logic if we want to get anywhere. So,

How old was Freminet when he was sent to the house?

Freminet was very close with his mother, he was incredibly skilled at fixing and building things, to the point where he would help bring in money for the family for a few years before he was dropped off at the house with the old Knave where he’d notice other children with depression who he’d seen kill themselves.

Now I ask you, does that sound like a toddler? If you’re going to look me in my eyes and try saying he was sent to the house at 5 or 6, when the earliest of memories are being DEVELOPED, you’re not just silly, you are high. There’s really only so much disbelief I can suspend here.

Let’s be generous and say he was 8 years old. You can still have your over developed anime 6 year old, but at least it gives a few years for him to have been tinkering and making happy little memories before the trauma.

Again, using the youngest possible Arlecchino age,

8+17=25

So baby brother Freminet is bare minimum 25 years old.

In conclusion, let’s use those concrete numbers here to make an age range for the House of Hearth siblings. (I could absolutely give you my personal head canon timeline, yes. Will I? Maybe if you ask nice. But this is about cold hard numbers)

You’re absolutely fucking kidding yourself here ages: 22 for Freminet and 23 for the twins.

Low end: 25 for Freminet and 26 for the twins.

Reasonable maximum (the oldest I think they could be in the flashback is 13) 32 for Freminet and 33 for the twins!!

#genshin impact #lyney and lynette #lyney #lynette #freminet #house of the hearth

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for locking an ex-friend out of a long-time gaming account?

[Context]

I (F16) had a friend, who we'll call V (F30s). We met on an online chat game, with the main focus being decorating rooms and playing mini-games with other players. She had been playing for well over ten years at that point, while I was still pretty new (about a year or two, in comparison). I had a pretty large friend group on that game, and when I met her, I kind of brought her into this group.

Several months (6+ ish) later, the group and I decided to create a knock-off room of some of the most popular rooms on the server. We had mostly all met in these popular rooms and just wanted one of our own for the friend group and others like us. This was largely my idea, along with my best friend, R (16M). R contributed the most in terms of financial support, and we both took on designing the room. Everyone else pitched in ideas, but were largely unhelpful in the grand scheme of things. V was the most unhelpful, as she would get pissy about small things that didnt go her way, even when she wasn't contributing to the creation of this room.

Eventually, the room was completed how R and I wanted it, with some input from the others. V did a 180 and was soooo happy with how everything turned out. Everything was back to normal with her.

Now, our room was not successful. We did not end up one of the popular ones. While a little disappointing, it was fine because we were still hanging out with our friends and having fun. About a month or two in, I got a message from R telling me to log on quick, bc the room was in disarray.

I logged in and people were telling me V had trashed it (all of us in the main group had complete access to the room, so could make changes as needed). While it wasn't "trashed" per se, it was a mess and it did take me a couple hours to fix everything.

Friends filled me in and told me V had apparently been secretly making her own room (another knock-off like ours, but worse) with a guy who had said some disgusting things about me, and several friends joined her in tarnishing ours before leaving to be with her.

This was an utter betrayal as I loved them all and had trusted them with something R and I worked very hard on for all of us. There was never any indication that V was unhappy with anything, as we spoke every day and she was always saying how much she loved our group and how we were definitely gonna be the most successful eventually and blah blah. I mean, I recognized that she was just saying what I wanted to hear, but still. I thought of her like a big sister.

[End Context]

A few days went by, and R and I were talking about everything that had happened. I was finally over the shock, and I was just angry. R said he wished there were some way we could get back at her. I remembered that V had given me her password months prior for an event she couldn't complete, and I had logged in and done it for her. I told him that she said it was the only password she'd ever used, since she was young, and I bet she hadn't changed it.

I was wrong, she HAD changed it, but she had also given me her email for the login information, so I tried the password on her email. I got in. So I changed her game password through her email and logged in.

She had been online, but this game would kick you off if someone else logged in while you were online, so I knew I had precious little time before she'd change the password back and I'd be kicked off.

So I went into her room, mass-banned everyone in there (including some of my former friends, one was the gross guy I hated), destroyed the room as much as possible, and then privated it so no one could enter (idk why I didn't just delete the room, wasn't thinking clearly ig). I then typed in as many censored words as I could so the auto-filter would flag her and get her account suspended.

Her account DID get suspended (and the game team was notorious for having the worst support ever. Once your account was suspended/banned, you almost never got it back), and I was auto-logged out. I logged back into my personal account, and R and I freaked out, just super giddy. V used an alt account to confront us, and ofc we denied having any involvement, but laughed at her anyways.

She did eventually (a month or two later) get her main account back, but before that she had lost all of her stuff, so she couldn't reopen her room. I was pretty satisfied with this, but some of the former friends who sided with her told me it had taken a toll on her mental health. I told them that all of their betrayals had taken a toll on MY mental health, so why should I be bothered, especially when I hadn't DONE anything (wink).

All in all, I felt justified, and she did eventually get her main account back, and I stopped playing not too long after that, but I'd still like to know what other people think.

AITA?

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

[bubblessunshinehoney]

Day 6- Anal with Ari Levinson

18 + only! NO MINOR INTERACT

Kinktober masterlist

A/N: hey guys, i have to repost all of my 18 days of Kinktober for now. Because my account got suspended last night. Many of you might have read them already, and maybe many more of you might read it for the first time. I'm not someone who asks for reblogs, likes are find by me. But for this one time...i would be very grateful if you could reblog it. To help me go back in the game. I'm sad that i lost all my works. But so grateful i wrote them on Word... Or i would have lost literally months of prepration.

So yeah, Hi again, i'm back, hopping to get back my first account.

TW: smut, anal, oral (reader receiving), ari is called daddy at some point. Reader was a virgin before him and tries stuff since then with him. ari levinson, the nom nom bear menace

People could describe you as quiet and shy. Not for Ari. Your boyfriend opened that shell long ago. Yes, you were still timid to talk about sex and stuff you wanted to try, especially with him. He knew so much, had done so much when you…well he was your first and for now…your last.

There’s something about Ari coming back from a run that makes you all giddy and aroused. You still don’t understand why seeing him all sweaty and breathing hard, makes you want to climb him like a tree… but today is not different, he came back ten minutes ago, and you’re wet. You sigh and continue preparing the dinner, but Ari has a better idea, make you squirm and bothered so you finally ask him what you’re dreading to ask for weeks now.

“Hey sweets”, he murmurs holding you gently from behind and kissing down your neck and shoulder. “H-he-hey Ari” you whisper, shiver running down your spin, clenching around nothing. “What are you cooking?” he asks, nipping at your earlobe. “Pa-pasta?”. He bites the crook of your neck gently, making you shudder. “I love your pasta”, he flushes himself against you and you can feel his cock…he’s not even hard but it’s there and… no, no you’re cooking, you can’t think of him trying to fit his dick in your….in your… gosh you can’t even say it in your head!

You’re fiddling with your shirt, well no… his shirt, but who cares? You’re trying to pay attention to the movie, but no, your mind is focus on his hands stroking your calfs, on his fingers massaging your ankles, his arms bulging…his face and his eyes that are looking at you? HE’S LOOKING AT YOU, you look away, back to the TV and he massages harder that point that make you melt with a quiet moan. “Ask me.”, he says. You blush “I have nothing to ask.” He arches a brow, fuck that makes you pussy throb. “Honey, you’re fiddling with your shirt, keep glaring at me and I’m sure if I go say hello to my pussy, she’s wet.” You whimper at that…his pussy. “Anal” you blurt out. “Yes?”. “Did you, do it?”. “To whom? Me or my partner.” You blush harder, this man he’s going to kill you. “Both?”

That’s how he explains to you everything, from his perspective of being pegged to fuck in the ass. You’re hot all over. “I want it. I want you to fuck my ass.” He kisses you hard, taking your breath away, making you straddle him. He becomes feral when you finally say what you want. Makes him so hard it hurts but fuck he loves you even more when you’re like that. His shy sweetheart of a girlfriend saying so awful words. The little sunshine of them all and his little slut. “Yeah, you want me to fuck that tight ass of yours?”. You moan a yes and squirms on his lap, feeling his hard on. “Put it in my ass, Ari”. “Oh kitten, you’re gonna make me cum like a teenager, remember the first time he fucked his tight little pussy?”. You nod and rocks your hips, rolling them on top of his crotch, stimulating yours. “Yeah, please, please I want you to fuck my virgin ass.” He growls. “Keep talking like that, my love, my dirty slut”.

In no time, you’re naked on the bed, legs spreads, Ari between them, his broad shoulders keeping you open for him. “First, I will make my dear pussy sings and then I’m gonna open you up with my fingers and after that it’s gonna be my dick. You can handle it, don’t you my sweet dirty girl?” You nod eagerly, cupping your breasts. “Yes, Ari.” He grins devilishly at you, “when will you call me daddy in bed, my love.” You look at him and feel bold, so you answer: “maybe when my dick is in my ass”. He laughs and slaps your thighs. “You little minx” and he dives in, two fingers in your/his pussy and his mouth around your clit sucking it hard.

You moan, pinching your nipples and you cum so fast and so hard that you saw little black dots, you’re panting when he teases your asshole. “Yes, all relax, I will go in with no restraint.” You feel the cold lube and you arch your back, moaning his name. One finger, not too bad, doesn’t hurt…second finger, okay begins to be a bit tight but still pleasurable. The third finger you whimper. “Still good, my love?”. The sweetness of his voice makes you relax, and you nod. “Yes, still good, go on Ari, I want your dick, now!”. He chuckles, “You, dirty little eager slut…do you talk like that to your friends and family?” You groan annoyed. “Ariiii, no family or friends talk when you are three fingers deep inside me, please!”. He giggles, the bastard giggles and kisses your mound. “And when I’m ball deep inside you?”. “I may call you daddy, yes, now can you fuck my ass?”.

This time he laughs, puts a condom on and lube his dick and your ass again “deep breath, and play with your breasts while I caress my little pussy”. He pushes the tip in, and you moan…how can his tip feels bigger than three fingers? “I don’t know, you tell me, my love.” Fuck you said it out loud. “And that too, already cock drunk, my love.” You moan, fuck you can’t deal with him, and he calls you “my love”. You feel him push more, rubbing your folds and clit, while you massage your breasts. You feel too much, hear everything loudly, the squishing sound of the lube when he thrust in and out when he’s half in. You feel yourself throb under his fingers, you feel your pussy clench and so does your asshole. “Fuck you tighter here than my pussy… gosh I will love to fuck your ass.” You pant and mumble “so fuck my ass…Da-“you moan loudly when he push all inside your ass, you feel his balls slaps against your crack and you arch your back. “ARI!”. He leans in and grins above your face. “Who’s Ari...I’m daddy.” He kisses you and explore your mouth with his tongue. You’re panting even more when he steps back, you look into his cerulean eyes and say softly: “fuck my ass, daddy, please”. He growls: ”so polite my little slut”. And he thrusts slowly, fastening his pace when you loosen up and getting harder when you dig your nail in his forearm and becomes feral when you moan “Daddy” again and again, rocking your hips in time with his, touching your nipples, rubbing your clit and teasing your hole. “Fuck, my good dirty slut, yeah play with my pussy, make her feel good, make you feel good.” He takes one of your nipple in his mouth plays with it with his tongue, sucks on it and bites it gently. This was what you needed to cum hard, trembling and moaning loudly. You clench around your finger and his dick, he moans too, cumming with you then.

You feel a hand on your cheek, a thumb stroking under your eye and a sultry voice speaking softly to you. You blink and see his smiling face. “Ari?”, “oh well hello my love, welcome back.” You blink more and realises…you’re under the covers, in one of his shirt, and he’s holding you close. “Yeah, that was a hard orgasm there, made you black out a little. How are you feeling.” You think and blush, he smiles and kisses your forehead softly. “My sweet baby, my precious angel, you can tell me you know.” You nuzzle his neck. “Sore but good. Thank you, baby.”

taglist :

@navybrat817 @christywantspizza @buckyalpine @iloveprettyboysblog @ethreal-love @nailedbymandy

@captainsimagines @buckybarnesandmarvel @rogersandlightwood @sparkledfirecracker @barneswinterraven @hansensgirl @blades-and-heartbreak @runa-falls @chrisdrysdale

#kinktober #kinktober22 #kinktober 2022 #cloudy&bellaskinktober #clo&bellaskinktober #ari levinson #ari levison x reader #ari levinson fanfiction #ari levinson smut #ari levinson x y/n #ari levinson x female reader #red sea diving resort #the red sea diving resort #chris evans fandom #chris evans characters #signal boost

[atleast8courics]

i heard you were permabanned from reddit 4 times. kudos. what happened?

Hi I'm alive again after taking a lengthy mental health break from online activities.

"Permanently suspended for threatening violence" is the line that seemingly keeps showing up in my one account's inbox because reddit's dogshit "Anti-Evil Operations" isn't handled by humans until appeals are elevated. This means I got suspended twice before any others became "permanent". The first one, for 3 days, was for using slurs in a reddit chat for the 196 mods before we had a discord. It happened within MINUTES. I was using them as an example of what Automod was going to filter, and in no way would anyone human misinterpret what I was doing. The second one, for a week, was for a 6 1/2 year old comment concerning my brother, the way he died, and a Particularly Spicy Take™ about his killer (drunk driver) and how I wanted to kill her for a long time and still might if I ever saw her again. It sounds worse than it actually was. After that one I completely deleted my post history on reddit, because someone was clearly targeting me.

The first "perma" was for replying to someone saying "some people need a brickin'" with, and I'm paraphrasing myself here, "I'm a pacifist in the sense that I think wars are fucked up and should be avoided, but some people really need a punch in the mouth." Autoflagged on a keyword. Specifically, "punch", because reddit admins and AEO particularly have absolutely zero understanding of nuance or context. The second was for this meme:

Someone in the comments got in their feelings about the "violent commentary" and reported it. The mods of that sub elevated it on my behalf, because, obviously, in no way was I threatening anyone. Unbeknownst to me, they also shortlisted me to become a mod should I apply afterward. I did and am. When I got banned for that one I don't remember the exact appeal message I sent but I DO remember calling the admins "a bunch of fucking blind idiots." The third was actually for report abuse, which is interesting because I spent the better part of a few hours reporting comment after comment of transphobic dogshit about an open trans woman wrestler. I ended up reporting the post itself to the mods like "listen, a lot of people in these comment threads fucking SUCK" and I found out later that when the mods report a post for report abuse there is once again zero nuance or context considered from admins. :) The latest one is the funniest. It's been like two months. I told a tankie in their ban """""appeal"""" that their pussy stinks and to shut up. They reported me for harassment.

That was close to 3 PM. It got overturned by 4:30 PM.

At this rate I will be getting permabanned from reddit on this same account at a rate of five times every half hour.

#asks

[whattfamidoingwithmylife]

hi i haven’t posted in a while and ive been on here intermittently it’s nice to see that some people have found my account and liked my posts i genuinely didn’t think anyone would see these but here are some life updates

1) i never was able to afford my tuition and am taking time off while i work

2) i’m still seeing that guy i posted about months ago and jesus christ he’s fucking perfect i’m so in love with him also he doesn’t know about my tumblr though maybe one day we will go through it together but it’s cringe honestly anyway he is pretty dominant but doesn’t know much about bd/sm (again idk if tumblr will censor/suspend me) but he did agree to go to a local membership bd/sm place for education they have classes and seminars which is good because i want to be with someone educated before we engage in anything more than we have been doing but also let me brag real quick THIS MAN KNOWS WHAT HES DOING the shmex is so good oh my god it’s always double digit O’s and i love him so much he’s a biker and the helmet pix are so hot and the black compression shirt and grey sweat pants combo has me fighting for my life i always feel like i need my inhaler when i see him like that but i am so in love with this man i hope i spend the rest of my life with him genuinely i adore him and he treats me so well

3) i had previously mentioned avina st graves’ books i became friends with the author and am also a beta reader for her she has written more books and her writing has me in a choke hold the book skin of a sinner by avina st graves has scenes in it that i helped write and it’s so surreal to have my ideas in a book that so many people have read and are reading it’s insane

4) my life honestly fell apart for a bit but i wasn’t alone to pick up the pieces my boyfriend helped me i’ve spent most of my life alone and very independent so having someone in my life telling me to stop and not worry because he is going to take care of it and me is something i’ve never experienced before and it’s truly a blessing

5) i’m still disgustingly broke and spending all my money on books and paying bills

6) my father actually put me in a shit ton of debt that i didn’t know about until i started getting phone calls saying i owed debt collectors money and i am utterly fucked on that front

anyway that’s all i know so boring and again no one will probably see this but i sometimes find solace in writing these and posting them

#no one is going to see this but i post regardless #at this point this is a diary #updates on my life #avina st graves #boyfriend #biker boyfriend

[peekbackstage]

Thanks so much for sharing your perspective. I've found your posts very informative and appreciate your time and effort. I saw you mention something about XZ's team not doing a great job responding to the situation, though of course they aren't to blame for it. If you don't mind, would you share your thoughts on what a better response might have looked like, and what impact it might've had if they'd done things differently?

One of the things that stands out most to me is how unprepared XZ Studio was when dealing with a PR crisis. It seems to me like they most likely did not have a strong social media team at the time who would have been tracking any trends or conversations associated with XZ. (By the point at which 227 happened, XZ Studio had already been established for about five months.)

It is pretty standard to track your artist’s name and keep an eye on trending topics, especially to get in front any major issues. As 227 began to develop, had XZ Studio been tracking the development on social media, they could have potentially defused the situation very quickly when the big call to action first emerged from XZ fans to report a fanfic to the government. It was so out of hand, and there was no statement from either the company or the artist that it seemed as though both were complicit in allowing it to continue, which is precisely why so many antis emerged, incensed against XZ’s apparent lack of action to rein in his fans and guide them appropriately. 

Much of the backlash that occurred against XZ and his fans is because there was no initial response when the call to action first appeared - they could have essentially stopped it before it got too far and prevented AO3 and Lofter from getting banned. A simple statement from the artist and the management company to defuse everything could have potentially stopped the movement in its tracks, with the amount of influence XZ does have over his fans.

When things did go sideways, there still was no statement or even an apology from management or XZ, who was being criticized for the actions of his fans. Though it wasn’t his fault (technically), the ways in which his fans behave reflected poorly upon him as an artist and an influencer. Had he taken “responsibility” immediately and apologized, it might not have gone so far as a boycott against him that resulted in so many brands dropping him. 

What I think a better response would have looked like once 227 occurred would have been this:

1. Immediately issue a PR statement condemning the actions of the fans and take responsibility for not initially “guiding” fans properly. Apologize on behalf of the company, the fans, and the artist. Statement should also include a note that states the offending content is merely fiction and that there is no truth to the story. There is no reason to be upset over something that is not true or defamatory, as it is imaginary. (This would essentially be a coded statement denying a certain relationship to begin the process of dissociating and creating a different narrative.) 

2. Artist should issue a statement condemning the actions of the fans and apologizing as well. Call to action for any fans who might continue to act out to behave appropriately. Remind fans that fiction is not real, and to stop acting out against something that is imaginary. 

3. Meet with Weibo privately. Ask them to help with community management to ban accounts that are breaking their TOS. Do this very early on in the process. Also, invest a good deal of money to hire an entire social media management team or a company to heavily monitor Weibo and aggressively report accounts that are engaging in defamatory behavior and potentially breaking Weibo’s TOS. Take legal action against anyone who is actively breaking the law. 

4. Book an interview with a large media outlet or a well-known media personality. Allow and even encourage questions about the incident. Artist should condemn the actions of the fans who caused the incident and apologize to the public for their behavior. Artist should also say something like, “The story is fake/imaginary/fiction/not real.” (Saying something like that more or less demonstrates how dumb all of this is.) I am assuming that questions won’t be asked about AO3/Lofter being placed behind the Great Firewall due to China censorship. 

5. Dissociate from anything and everything that might allow others to continue associating the artist with the incident. In XZ’s case, that means dissociating from WYB, because he’s associated with said incident given the fact that this was all caused by a fanfic. Put a moratorium on kadians and any other potential “interactions” that would allow fans to continue to have “content” to discuss on Weibo. The point here is to change the narrative - this way antis won’t also have content they can use to criticize XZ.

6. While this is happening, call all brands and schedule meetings. Attempt to rescue the brand deals. For brands who are very unhappy, offer a contract revision to suspend the contract terms for a set amount of time (such as four months) to see if the issue blows over. (It’s better to put it on hold than it is to have to try and get a new brand deal, especially once the brand’s annual sponsorship monies have already been allocated for the year.)  

Potentially work with third party PR team to circulate rumors among XZ’s fanbase that he is losing brand deals to create urgency for a counter-campaign against antis trying to boycott XZ’s brands. If there are just as many people calling brands to support XZ as there are calling for a boycott, then it would potentially be a 50/50 toss up as to whether or not a brand deal manages to be saved. This might also lead to a surge of sales for all of XZ’s brands, which would then maybe demonstrate to the brands that XZ shouldn’t be dropped.

7. Track sentiment/feedback once all of the above has been completed. If all of the above didn’t help at all, create new action plan which might include withdrawing the artist from all activity for a set amount of time. 

So there you have it. Maybe a response like the above could have potentially ended up with a different outcome for XZ. Maybe it wouldn’t have helped at all and everything would have still been just as bad. We’ll never actually know. 

What I hope is that XZ now has a better team who can handle issues like this in the future, and that he will see a full recovery for his career this new year. If 2020 has proven anything to anyone watching, it’s that XZ’s consumer power is still massive, and that his popularity has not waned at all. The fact that he is still sweeping all the awards that require fans to vote, often winning by millions of votes, and the red sea that fans managed to put on for him during the Tencent awards are undeniable symbols of his enduring popularity.  

This kind of influence is staggeringly powerful - brands and media outlets that previously might have felt uncertain about XZ as an artist most likely will have positive sentiments towards him as a result. 

So, let’s hope that 2021 will be the best year for XZ. 

The future is full of possibilities and the sky above is endless.

Edit: @pepeyee Made it clear to me in the replies that I definitely did not clarify myself or my thoughts on all of the above well enough, so I will be writing a response to all of the above to further clarify some points so that there is no confusion about my stance here. 

#Anonymous #ask #xiao zhan #pr response #artist management #227 incident #xz studio #peek answers

[miguelo-hara]

i just hit 3k followers and i just want to say thank you all so much for following my silly little blog!!! im so happy i joined this community and made some amazing friends because of it 💖🥰 i cant thank ya'll enough, you all really helped my get through the past year <333 i've also noticed it's just good for me to have this creative outlet by gifmaking and it's so nice to see all the appreciation i get in return for it!!

I'm thinking about maybe doing a follower milestone event, if anyone is interested? please let me know!!

also, if anyone is interested, here's a little life update :)

luckily all my other colleagues were absolutely great people and fun to be with, and the work itself was alright too, eventhough i had different expectations from it. another fun thing about it is that i still get to go on a worktrip to SPAIN this weekend!! fortunately its just me and another colleague i like lol

I've basically just finished up my internship! honestly, i was kinda disappointed by it bc my boss (who was also my internship supervisor) turned out to be a dick and didn't have any of his shit together. no structure, very unclear tasks, EXTREMELY cheap, no overview of anything, doesn't deliver on promises, etc. he just doesn't know how to treat his employees and doesn't know how to run a company. if you can even call it a company, with him, two interns, a partimer, a freelancer and a permanent employee he hired way too late (A MONTH after his predecessor found another job and left. how can you put off finding a replacement for a month????). who also quit after 2 months, along with my fellow intern bc they found out just how bad it was lmao

i've kept my teacher up to date about all of this and fortunately she is aware of the circumstances and i'll still pass my internship, eventhough my boss gave me invalid negative feedback. so im glad at least schoolwise it all worked out, i just wish the work environment would've been better :/

so yeah im currently writing this from a hotel room (first hotel ive ever stayed at!! the bed is HUGE). i have an extremely early flight tomorrow, and get back very late sunday night. and then i have to be back at school at 10am the next day lmao rip me. but its worth it for a free trip to spain :)

i also moved out of the place i rented for my internship today, so this weekend has already been very stressfull lol. the place was alright to stay at for a few months, but very tiny and smelled like sewage every now and then so i'm happy to get out of there haha.

so yeah, busy weekend, lots of change again. i start my new semester on monday, i'm very excited to finally physically go to school again and see all my friends again! i'm also very excited to see what the minor i chose will be. basically i'm ready to start a new chapter and leave this one far behind (aside from my colleagues, I'd like to keep in contact with them!)

OH YEAH WAIT my tumblr account got suspended for a little while today too lol, because i was hoarding too many urls 😅 i had to delete them all to get it unsuspended, luckily i could save some of my favourites to my backup account. this really added on extra stress i really didn't need today, luckily i got it all sorted out lmao (i didn't realise i was hoarding about 40 urls 😬😬😬 so i guess it was bound to happen eventually 😅)

i have to wake up in like 6 hours so i'm going to sleep lol, i hope you found this little life update interesting haha <3

#.txt #shoutout to all my mutuals!! 😘 #also im so ready to never have to speak to my boss ever again 🥰

[practicalmagicintuitions]

To clarify, I am not a NV stan, I am not NV, I am not HC, I am pissed with HC for this whole thing, I am pro vaccine, I am vaccinated and not into conspiracy theories. However there are some things that really get to me:

- they broke COVID protocol. No they didn't. I have friends (definitely not wealthy) who have travelled to/from Europe into USA and viceversa and they followed procedure and were careful and did nothing wrong. Of course, wealthier people have more opportunities than others, but that's true across the board, not just in with COVID. And I see other celebs who have done MUCH worse than that.... hopping around yachts and all that. HC stayed cooped up in the English countryside, always wore a mask and still does and she was in LA.

- he went to Florida to party and lied about working. No, he went to Florida to shoot his MT stuff and to meet with her manager DG - she is headquartered there which is also probably why he as a house there. Chances are he went to LA as well in his private jet to do meetings and such. and in his downtime, just like every other human he went out for some coffee and drinks. Florida has lax rules, true, but I am 1000000000% certain he, she and his brother and family are all vaccinated, and therefore very very veeeeery unlikely to get sick or transmit the disease.

- all the photoshop/body double drama: have not heard it in a while thank God, but that's literally delusional to believe that.

- Natalie is actively doing all the work accepting/rejecting tags and even creating fake accounts to abuse her bullies. She surely has a keen eye on the whole thing, but it's his team managing her socials and I am fairly sure they are paying some people to run stan accounts for her + she must have some friends who are helping her out. i know other celebs have been caught anon'ing on lipstick alley and such so i am not saying definitely not, but definitely unlikely, no matter how uncool she is.

- she lied about her job. no she didn't. her linkedin does say she is a vp. not an executive director, but a vp she is (yes there is a rumor she has been suspended because of abusing staff, which would explain a lot). how she advanced in her career is a legitimate question, because of her escort website and her job at weinstein and frankly the fact she grew up in a broken home with a toxic af dad who probably taught her she is not loved and to get ahead you gotta use your body. so really, even if she might be enjoying mr cavill's physical attentions, i do not and will never envy her.

- dany is a demon = #freehenrycavill. henry is no britney spears. dany seems to suck some serious a** at her job and she is a body builder in a cult of bodybuilders and my personal opinion and that of many is that it is a very bad career choice for henry who has so much more going for him than being the next rock/cena/arnie. but he chose that, willingly. he has a strong emotional support system around him with all the brothers and the family etc (as opposed to say a tom cruise). but... he also has a massive eating disorder-like issue and being a bodybuilder only fuels body dysmorphia & co. so yes he is in 'danger' and DG is not good news at all, but he is an adult, a millionaire, a powerful actor and has free will and if anything the only reason why i take the time to write this is in the hope that some of this gets to him via the voices of many many fans and it helps him wake up. chances of that happening: 0.1%.

- random rant: it always creeped me out that henry says he doesn't like to read fiction and non fiction and sticks to fantasy because the other two genres make his heart hurt too much... but then he is also the staunchest lover of everything WAR... like that's a dangerous and contradictory mix dude.

thank you for coming to my ted talk.

1. Not true. I tried to find but tumblr is so weird so I cannot: I had a poat about the official lockdown timeline of the UK. Only essential traveling were allowed at that time when she presumably entered into the UK. And if they haven’t broke protocol why this was the only topic he hadn’t touched in his FO post (it was before blackface). If you are falsely accused of such a thing publicly on forums, mocked because of it and you are mot guilty of it, I think you want to clear the air as soon as you can. But he remained silent. Instead of he bullsh*tted so many things, protected DG, but never adressed this. This makes me obvious they are guilty of it because otherwise we se he has mo problem to speak up if something bothers him.

2. I think the FL thing more like sarcasm but everything he did as work could have been done in the UK or via zoom. And since he emphasized he is there for work I think the mocking understandable especially after point one above.

3. “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”

Agree. Truth is no body double or blackmail or anything. Maybe they were set up, this is not a crime but the trut is they are together whatever is this and there is no 2-3 NV impersonators. Just her and him.

4.I am not sure about that hia team is managing her SM but I can see they are paying stans. Like the one whose ask was accepted at the WitcherCon after NV has accepted tags from her for a month and this someone also friends with GG and the 🤡 No suspicious at all… (I don’t believe in coincidences so must be 💵)

5. I gave up to understand what is her title, work, how she got it and how hasn’t shw fired yet but what I know they pushed her as a WAY more important someone as she is in irl. And I consider this as a lie. Not from her but from his team because those articles were paid by them

6. Agree with his completely

7. fantasy is fiction , but I get the impression he doesn’t really read. I think he should have some non fiction and some classics, from authors who are not writing in english etc, so something that is not fantasy

Your welcome, sorry for the late answer

[cocoacatnip]

So Himchan is going to jail, or well..he was...but the court suspended his sentence to give him time to try to receive forgiveness or some bs. 🙄 I’m not entirely sure if that means he’ll be arrested if she decides not to forgive him or not, but pretty sure he isn’t going to be forgiven since according to an article on naver his lawyer has filed for an appeal. So not sure what will happen between now and whenever the appeal process is over. *sigh* This man seriously believes he’s done nothing wrong.

Anyway...I wanted to just...post about my feelings on this whole thing. I was honestly relieved when I saw he’d lost..and was sentenced. (Tho again there’s that whole suspension thing) It’s nice to finally have an answer, even though a declaration of innocence wouldn’t have changed my view on him much anyway. His “implied consent” defense is what made my mind up about the situation in the first place. Even if by some plot twist her story was debunked(since he only admitted to some of the touching and not to the extent she claimed), I’d still be looking at him like...”so you still didn’t have clear consent tho....”.

There’s also the fact that this man was active while still in the middle of his trial... He actually tried to restart his career back in Dec. 2019. He ran off to japan and had a fanmeet, even was set to perform at a concert(didn’t happen because of covid), and tried to crowdfund a photobook. (With some ridiculous tier prices like one thousand usd ridiculous.) Then he was silent for awhile before posting an “apology” on Instagram and then becoming active again. I put apology in quotes because...Iunno...I found it sorta manipulative and he really just painted himself as a victim. I also think it was really misleading because so many fans didn’t even realize he was still on trial. Someone started a rumor that he had been cleared and that the female was suspected of blackmailing like 6 other people? It’s like they took the fact that he accused her of blackmail and twisted the story and blew it up and people were taking it as fact.

One thing that really makes me angry is the fact that while the other B.A.P members were trying to keep silent about him publicly and be distant from that situation, he just decided that he’d tell all his fans that they’re so close and hang out. These statements obv spread which put a giant target on the boys backs to receive hate. At one point the boys were all bombarded on social media with fans demanding they speak up about it. Zelo of course saw and spoke about his feelings.

I just don’t understand, if Himchan truly cared about the boys, how he could put them into a situation to receive hate. I don’t like the fact already that he was trying to start his solo career mid trial, I think it’s gross, but to try and drag the members down with him on top of that just infuriates me. Also! The victim, like imagine how she must have felt suffering through this long trial but seeing him out and about having fanmeets and releasing music like nothing happened. It’s such a slap on the face, it’s like he doesn’t care at all. I just really feel like we started to see Himchan’s true colors through all of this, a selfish person who cares for no one but himself.

To think even now that he’s been ruled guilty, he still has people that are blindly supporting him. Either refusing to believe he’s guilty...or the “I’m disappointed but I believe he can change and become a better person” camp. Look...I too would like to believe that he could learn and grow....but I don’t see how he’ll ever grow with the fans he has. They excuse everything he does and don’t hold him accountable at all. When he got a dui it was “oh it’s just a widdle mistake” or they blamed it on his mental health and just brushed it off. Now they’re doing the same. The only thing support has done for Himchan is make him believe he can get away with everything. I also...I just don’t believe he deserves to have a platform at this point. If he wants to grow and become better than let him do it away from the spotlight because the time for Himchan as a celebrity is over.

Like I said at the start though, he’s apparently filing for an appeal so doesn’t seem like he’s very remorseful. He believes he was in the right, and I hope my gut feeling is right and he’ll lose the appeal. The court said she had enough evidence against him so yea...still it’s another several months to a year waiting.

One thing I do wanna say though, the rest of B.A.P deserve love and support. I know some fans want to speculate on their personal feelings toward Himchan and criticize them for potentially not cutting him off immediately. I think it’s valid if you move on from them quietly(out of worry they may be friends bts) but I’ve seen some act like they’re just as guilty as Himchan which is wrong. I’ve seen people claim they support him, which is so far from the truth. It’s possible some members were still in contact with him at some point, but they have never promoted his activities or spoke up about his situation and tried to claim he wasn’t wrong. Honestly within the last year the boys have shown to just continually grow distant from him, despite him claiming otherwise. Also dear god Daehyun holding up 6 fingers as a hint for bap in a game of charades isn’t support. B.A.P had 6 members at debut it makes sense. You can acknowledge that a member was involved without actually supporting them in the present. I just felt the need to say that cause the poor boy had dumb people dragging him over it. 😩

It’s a little all over the place...but that’s my thoughts. I have some other opinions that I don’t feel like posting, but if anyone wants to discuss you can send me a message.

#Himchan #B.A.P

[allthislove]

TW: Su*c*de

I literally just got my account restricted for 6 days on Twitter because I defended Meghan Markle from Megyn Kelly. The real thing that happened is that the Twitter algorithm doesn’t allow you to make threats or tell someone to unalive themselves, so when I tweeted at MK that Meghan Markle “wanted to unalive herself”, in response to MK’s gross tweets about MM just wanting attention and wanting to be higher in position to the Queen (racist nonsense, really), the algorithm thought I was telling MK to khs. So, almost immediately after I sent that tweet it restricted my account for 7 days. I tried to appeal, but if you appeal, it can cause your account to be restricted for longer. So, basically, I can look at tweets and I can DM my mutuals, but I can’t tweet, retweet, or like anything.

And the thing that frustrates me is, this is not the first time Twitter has restricted my account for challenging racists. It’s literally always something arbitrary, too. Like, racists on Twitter can say something extremely racist unless it’s the n-word and they get to stay. Twitter will review their tweets and “find that they don’t violate the terms of service.”

But if I’m mean to a racist, if I call them a jealous hag and say “A BLACK WOMAN SAYS SHE WANTED TO UNALIVE HERSELF AND THIS IS YOUR RESPONSE?” (which is what my tweet said, roughty. IDK because it’s gone now.), immediately my account is restricted.

I’ve seen racists call Black people apes, call Asian people the c-word, openly say that Black people are stupid, lazy, other racist tropes, and 90% of the time when I report their tweets, they’re not taken down and the account isn’t restricted. The troll gets to keep trolling.

And like, it also isn’t fair that racists can harass BIPOC all over Twitter, but we can’t even call them “bitch” in response without getting restricted or suspended. Twitter is not built to protect Black people or other people of color. And we’re not allowed to protect ourselves, unless we’re nice about it. Which is just digital tone policing. I’m not allowed to get angry at a white woman dismissing the racist trauma a Black woman was subjected to for the past 4 years, but Megyn Kelly is allowed to continue spewing her thinly veiled racism under the guise of “Meghan Markle is entitled, a gold digger, and uppity.”

Meghan is a problem to people like that because she challenges their notions of white femininity being the gold standard, but that’s another post. 

They act like they’re supposed to be able to abuse her for years and she’s never supposed to say anything. She married one of the two most famous princes in the world, and they say she wants “attention” when she announces her pregnancy, or reveals that she’s expecting a girl. It’s thinly veiled racism. 

And like, I do think it was an algorithm mistake and I did appeal after I let them take the tweet down, because I don’t think I deserve to have my account restricted for 7 days for the accurate thing I said (and it initially said 12 hours, so I don’t know how it got to 7 days except I think they think I was telling Megyn Kelly to KHS when I was talking about Meghan Markle’s brush with suicidal ideation.) But, also, I’m really fucking frustrated because every time I start challenging racists, especially racist white women, directly, on Twitter, my account gets restricted soon after. 

Like, I shouldn’t have to politely suggest Megyn Kelly not say mean things about Meghan Markle. I should be able to be angry and respond with as much venom as she has. ALSO, they should have human mods to make sure that every time someone types “khs” or “kys”, they aren’t immediately suspended even if they aren’t communicating a threat or bullying. 

Like... I’m not a 12yo. I don’t tell people to kys. I don’t use unaliving as a threat. Especially in response to someone I like saying they felt like unaliving. I’ve had suicidal ideation myself, why would I wish that on anyone? It’s frustrating. 

If anything, Megyn Kelly was instigating someone to unalive themselves, by poking at someone who obviously had been in a dark place. 

I also have 0 respect for these media personalities who dogpile the “bad woman” of the month, because we literally just watched the Britney Spears doc and they did the same things to her when she was at her lowest (and similarly, had just had her boys). And worst of all, they did this same thing to Harry’s mother. I’m just... I’m not going to be nice to that hag after she’d do this. 

Separate post about white women and Meghan Markle, soon.

#harry and meghan #twitter #tw: suicide #tw: racism #tw: misogynoir

[dindjarindiaries]

20 Facts for 20 Years!

With today being my 20th birthday, I decided I’d finally take a deep breath, put on my grown-up pants, and tell you more about the writer you’ve been following! To do this, I’m going to give you 20 random facts about me, one for every year I’ve spent on this planet.

My name is Molly!

2. Today (March 26) is my 20th birthday.

3. I major in writing and communications.

4. I’ve been writing stories since I was 8 and I started writing fic for online audiences when I was 12.

5. I danced competitively for 12 years, having danced for a total of 14 years. Tap was my main genre!

6. I live in New York—but not the city.

7. I was raised on Star Wars to the point that I don’t ever remember watching it for the first time, I just always knew what it was and who the characters were. My dad is an even bigger fan than I am.

8. The Mandalorian was my first time watching Pedro Pascal act.

9. I really want to be a screenwriter one day, ideally with Lucasfilm but we all know how hard it’d be to swing that.

10. Speaking of which, I had the opportunity earlier this year to interview Christopher Yost (writer of Chapter 6: The Prisoner) about the screenwriting profession!

11. My twitter is @/dindjarjn and my url on here is inspired by a fandom-wide watch party I hosted under the hashtag DinDjarinDiaries.

12. This is the first time I’ve been in a movie/TV/actor fandom, as I’ve always been in music or dance fandoms.

13. My #1 artist on Spotify right now is Ludwig Göransson, aka the composer of The Mandalorian soundtracks.

14. Ariana Grande tweeted me once back in 2018 and then my account got suspended last year. Good times.

15. I made Martin Freeman laugh uncomfortably by accident because I yelled “New York represent!” at him whilst in London.

16. Pedro Pascal indirectly confirmed me as the ceo of arm. We’ll get to this again later.

17. In the beginning of 2019, I lived in London for about 3 or 4 months and I would do anything to go back to that lovely city.

18. Positivity is my number-one strength as proven by the Clifton StrengthsFinder and so making people happy has always been my number-one priority, hence my passion for writing.

19. I think I’ve watched The Mandalorian all the way through about 8.5 times now.

20. The best for last: Pedro Pascal responded to a video of me crying over him after I got my wisdom teeth out on twitter and told me that I say his name perfectly in every way. And I’m still in awe of it. (My display name said “ceo of arm,” hence making me confirmed by Pedro the ceo of arm.)

Oh, and just as a bonus, here’s a video of me dancing to a bunch of Pedro-related BOPS:

And that’s really it! Please feel free to invade my inbox with more questions or whatever else you please. Thank you for spending this special day with me! I love you all so much. The time and attention you give to my writing feeds my soul in a way you’ll never fully grasp.🤍

[burn-in-the-dawn]

"CURSED" Characters' Age Breakdown (per the book)

Squirrel: 10 years old

Iris: 11 years old

Pym: 16

Nimue: 16

Gawain: 23 (see discussion below)

Uther Pendragon: 26

Arthur: age unspecified, likely 25-26 (see discussion below)

Lancelot: age unspecified, presumably same age range as Gawain & Arthur & Uther (to be discussed in more detail at a later date)

Morgana: age unspecified, likely 21-24 (she's stated in the book by Arthur to be 2 years younger than him, but he's an unreliable narrator about his past so that might be unreliable as well...see discussion below)

DISCUSSION/Explanation of Questionable and/or Speculated Ages

Gawain: Okay, so, the book expressly states him to be "7 years older" than Nimue & have left Dewdenn "at age 14", specifying his departure as having been 9 years before the story itself takes place (Nimue is confirmed several times in the book to be 16 - almost 17). And despite the fact that actor Matt Stokoe (29-30 at time of filming) does not pull off passing for early-mid 20s the way his costars do (IRL he's a few years younger than Daniel Sharman who played The Weeping Monk / Lancelot & only two years older than Devon Terrell who played Arthur), that's something I'm willing to suspend my disbelief on & mentally compartmentalize as "world-weariness & war have taken a toll & 'aged' him beyond his years". In part because, looking back at some of his roles several years ago, the actor looked damn near 30 when he was 23. My own ex looked at age 24 (when I met him) older than Stokoe does now, I've got a friend who looked mid-30s at age 19, I have old photos of my mother at age 13 where she looked completely indistinguishable from her wedding pictures at 23 or her nursing school graduation pictures at 27 & I myself was consistently mistaken for my mid-20s by the time I was 14. The classic "Gawain" hairstyle also does him no favors; there's a scene very early on in his introduction, when he & Nimue are alone in one of the caverns discussing the Sword & Merlin, where he's freshly clean shaven with his hair pulled back away from his face in a ponytail & while he still doesn't look 23 he does look considerably younger than in any other scene in the series. (I genuinely think that production was just kind of oblivious - with 34 year old Daniel Sharman so easily passing for a decade younger - to the fact Matt Stokoe was not 'reading' early-mid 20s the way his costars do). But more pointedly, in the context of 'Cursed', Arthur's fear of loosing Nimue to Gawain is played out only as jealousy directed at a perceived rival for her affection. Regardless of which one's responses & behaviors to other situations present as mature vs childish, they very expressly interact with eachother behaviorally as rivals & contemporaries, NOT like a youth vs an older adult (in fact, Gawain behaves markedly immaturely around/toward Arthur - on pretty much every level - up until Moycraig). They even choreographed the majority of Gawain's/Arthur's postures & movements to mirror eachother from their 2nd scene together onward, to draw a cinematic visual parallel between them from the very beginning. I think if Gawain being considerably older had been an intentional/conscious change on the part of the show, the dynamic of their relationship wouldn't have been staged so specifically to mirror eachother to such an extent.

Arthur: Now, that being said, even though the book doesn't specify I strongly suspect book-Arthur himself to be canonically no younger than 25. Reason being, in the Arthuriana Tradition, Arthur unknowingly being a Pendragon bastard or secret offspring is one of the single most consistent themes throughout centuries of varying lore, hand in hand with the magic Sword, for his claim to the throne. And the book does have him expressly introduce Morgana as his younger half-sister, which not only suggests same mother with different father but also that despite Arthur having been raised by him they know he's not biologically Sir Tor's (although Arthur thinks of him as such). Now, 'Cursed' is obviously forgoing the traditional lore of Arthur being Uther's illegitimate son, because no matter how you slice it Uther's too young to have fathered him even if you aged show-Uther up a decade+ from the book's specified 26 years old & aged Arthur down a bit. But beyond that, they've thrown in the added touch of Uther himself - having been secretly switched at birth for Queen Lunette's still-born son - not in fact being the previous king's true-born heir. Once the Sword passes eventually to Arthur, even with legends about "he who wields the sword will be the true king", Man Blood society will require more than prophecy to recognize/legitimize a his rulership. Though strictly speculation, if I had to make a prediction about Book/Season 2, it would be on Merlin or someone else uncovering evidence that Arthur's actually the previous king's illegitimate biological son rather than his "father" Sir Tor's - conceived shortly before the old king's death sometime during Queen Lunette's pregnancy - at a guess that evidence coming from either Arthur's aunt or uncle. I figure that evidence will wind up being publicly recognized/acknowledged as part of the climax of a redemption/growth arch for Uther, naming Arthur his "brother/heir", prior to his own death - giving Arthur a legitimate claim on the Pendragon throne that supercedes Cumber's claim as a Pendragon cousin. If I'm right in that prediction, since the old King had died by the time Uther was born, Arthur can be no more than 9 months younger than 26 year old Uther, making him at least 25. (It's debated within the fandom that he doesn't look or act like the character is out of his late teens, but considering the actor himself is 28, I'm really not sure how that's defined? Appearance-wise he's got more chest hair on display with his doublet on than Lancelot does with shirt off & his immature avoidance of responsibility seems from the book to be more reflective of subconsciously modeling Tor's example than an age indicator but he's old enough he's spent several years already as a sword-for-hire mercenary. So, while I do allow my theory in his parentage & age is speculation which Book/Season 2 may prive me completely wrong able - not ratified canon - I do stand by that theory for my fic-verse; how old someone "looks" is really subjective & debatable, plus if "maturity level" was meant to be any kind of concrete age indicator in the Cursed-verse then King Uther wouldn't spend the entire series & book acting like a spoiled 6 year old.)

[The following doesn't change anything about how old I think Arthur himself is, but creates some potential flexibility regarding Morgana's age: When Arthur's reflecting on memories of childhood - even via internal monolog - he's consistently inconsistent regarding what age he claims to have been for key noted childhood events (at one point in his thoughts he recalls being 16 with his living mother away tending to a sick relative when Tor died, but later on in the book he reflects that he'd been 10 when Morgana was sent away to Yvoire Convent after he inherited all of Sir Tor's debt with presumably no living mother around to prevent it; alternatively, the show specified he was age 12 when Tor died & Morgana was sent away). At first I thought it was a total screw-up in the writing, but then I reread Morgana's repeated characterization of him as inconsistent & flighty & self-serving & utterly full of shit, paired with Arthur's own characterization of Tor (who again, I don't think was his biological father but was certainly his most formative male role-model) as quite literally talking out of his ass about his imaginary exploits pretty much 100% of the time & Arthur himself repeatedly bending the truth to get what he wants as an ingrained survival habit consistently seen via interaction with people like Bors & Druuna. Again, this is purely speculation, but I think it his written contradictory self-reflections were probably very much on purpose to intentionally establish him as a starting off a significantly "unreliable narrator" the same way he recalls Tor being, to the point of lying to himself rather than deal with painful memories or take accountability/responsibility for uncomfortable personal flaws & faults. I suspect that him overcoming that tendency that he learned from Tor's example - with actions like admitting to Nimue he was in the wrong going after the first man he ever killed (mistakenly believing him to be one of those responsible for Tor's death) shaming his father's memory & like coming back to fight with/for the Fey - are going to be a driving feature within his growth/redemption arch in Book/Season 2.]

Morgana: The book specifies Arthur telling Nimue that Morgana is 2 years his junior; however, he establishes himself as such an unreliable narrator that I feel like anything he says about him & Morgana that's not directly corroborated by Morgana herself is suspect, even their age difference, so I'll allow for the possibility of the age gap potentially being up to 4 years instead of 2. If my guess (see above) about Arthur's paternity - therefore his age - is correct, that puts Morgana herself somewhere between 21 -24. Per societal norms of the period, that actually puts her into "old maid" territory, but contextually to the historical era, she would have been able to get away with dodging societal pressure of being married off against her wishes by that age - up until leaving the abbey at least - because of having been at convent (in contrast to 16 year old Pym, who in both the book & the show says her mother's trying to force her into an unwanted marriage to "Stinky Aaron" the human fish-wife's son).

(note: I compiled this mostly as a quick reference citation I can direct myself or my fic readers back to for my 'canon' logic on the ages I've assigned characters in my stories. I went with the ages listed in the book for my fic-verse because of the express lack of clarification of most of them given in the show & am speculating on the others based on lore-related theory, so yes the potentially problematic age difference is present. I don't intend to villainize Arthur over having pursued her, partially because even though the readers know she's 16 there's nothing in the book & only one brief comment from Gawain in the show which isn't followed up on - Ector calling her a child doesn't count because he dismisses all of them as children - to indicate that Arthur knows she's that young & many contextual reasons for him to have assumed she was older. I apologize if that offends, but it's not meant as an endorsement of it; as the story outline/concept for this fic-verse stands I have no plans on romantically pairing Nimue with anyone & no plans for Pym so soon after Dof's death to be seriously looking at anyone in that capacity until much later in the story.)

[rinnnyxr]

-

About my day | Bold what is also true for you :

I woke up around 8AM.

I woke up without an alarm. I woke up nude.

I woke up and drank water immediately.

I checked my phone right when I woke up. I checked my TikTok notifications.

I checked my Facebook notifications.

I then checked my email.

I then went downstairs. I got dressed to go out.

I was in the passenger seat of the car today.

I wore a hat today.

I put concealer on.

I put foundation on.

I put on powder.

I used a beauty blender.

I didn’t brush my hair today.

I wore ugg boots.

I wore jeans.

I wore a zip-up.

I went out to breakfast.

I had 3 cups of coffee.

I had a glass of ice water.

I had pancakes.

I had a bagel.

^ with cream cheese.

I saw friends today.

I saw my boyfriend today.

I saw my goddaughter today.

I gave someone a hug.

I gave someone a kiss.

I pet a cat today.

I uploaded video.

I took a photo today.

I updated that photo to Instagram.

I’m currently listening to music. I’m currently on my laptop.

I’m currently in PJ’s. I’m currently surprisingly comfortable.

I took a shower.

I took a shower but not alone ;)

I have the heat on currently. I wore a bracelet today.

I wore a ring today.

I listened to the radio.

I listened to music on Apple Music.

I didn’t post a Facebook status today. I checked the fridge and saw nothing appetizing. I washed my face.

I used rose water spray on my face.

I used a face moisturizer.

I googled a celebrity. I had cheese and crackers.

I may take a nap soon.

I saw my mom today. I saw my sister today.

I thought about calling my dad today.

I’m not currently wearing socks.

I’m not alone in the room currently.

It’s windy out today. It hailed out today.

I’m really thirsty.

I’m too lazy to get up and get myself a drink right now.

I paid for something with cash today.

I thought about cleaning my room but didn’t…

I listened to God’s Plan by Drake today.

I didn’t blow-dry my hair today. I’m gonna play video games soon.

I’m going to take some more surveys after this. I drank something out of the carton today.

I’m not leaving the house for the rest of the day.

I can see my pet from where I am currently.

There is a TV to my right.

There are headphones to my left.

It’s Sunday today.

I have work tomorrow.

I got in a small argument today.

I told someone I loved them today.

-

1. had sex? 2. bought condoms? 3. gotten pregnant? 4. failed a class? 5. kissed a boy? 6. kissed a girl? 7. used a little paper bag for lunch? 8. had a job? 9. slipped on ice? 10. missed the school bus? 11. left the house without my wallet? 12. bullied someone on the internet? 13. sexted? 14. had sex in public? 15. played on a sports team? 16. smoked weed? 17. smoked cigarettes? 18. smoked a cigar? 19. drank alcohol? . 20. watched “The Breakfast Club”? 21. been overweight? 22. been underweight? 23. had an eating disorder? 24. been to a wedding? 25. made fun of someone for being fat? 26. been on the computer for 5 hours straight? 27. watched tv for 5 hours straight? 28. been late for work? 29. been late for school? 30. kissed in the rain? 31. showered with someone else? 32. failed my drivers test? 33. ran a mile in less than 10 minutes? 34. been outside my home country? 35. been on a road trip longer than 5 hours? 36. had lice? 37. gotten my heart broken? 38. had a credit card? 39. been to a professional sports game? 40. broken a bone? 41. been unhappy about my weight? 42. won a trophy? 43. cut myself? 44. had an STD? 45. got engaged? 46. been on a diet? 47. tried out to be on a tv show? 48. rode in a taxi? 49. been to prom? 50. played a drinking game? 51. stayed up for 24 hours or more? 52. been to a concert? 53. had a three-some? 54. had a crush on someone of the same sex? 55. been in a car accident? 56. had braces? 57. learned another language? 58. killed an animal?  59. been at a yard sale? 60. been to a Japanese steakhouse? 61. wore make up? 62. talked to someone via webcam? 63. lost my virginity before I was 16? 64. had my wisdom teeth taken out? 65. kissed someone a different race than myself? 66. snuck out of the house? 67. bought porn? 68. had a virus on my computer? 69. had oral sex? 70. dyed my hair? 71. gone skinny dipping? 72. graduated from college? 73. wore someone else’s clothes? 74. voted in a presidential election? 75. rode in an ambulance? 76. rode in a helicopter? 77. caught the stove on fire? 78. got in a verbal fight? 79. met someone famous? 80. been on vacation? 81. been on a boat? 82. been on an airplane? 83. broken something expensive? 84. had surgery? 85. kissed someone before I was 14? 86. beat a video game? 87. found something valuable on the ground? 88. made a survey? 89. stalked someone on a social network? 90. prank called someone? 91. spent over $100 shopping in one day? 92. been to a library outside of school? 93. cut my hair and hated it? 94. peed outside? 95. went fishing? 96. helped with charity? 97. taken a pregnancy test? 98. been rejected by a crush? 99. been suspended from school? 100.broken a mirror?

-

2008 was a horrible year for me. Actually, it was the best. I’ve been on a cruise before. I like chemistry more than biology. I like taking surveys more than making them. I absolutely despise the color pink. I don’t have a significant other. I get all four seasons where I live. I only shop when I absolutely have the need to. I have an older brother. I have my driver’s license. I don’t want to have kids someday. I wear more jeans than skirts. I’d rather wear sneakers than high heels. I don’t go to church. I don’t like having my fringe in my face. I’m very much into heavy metal music. I own like, a hundred hoodies. I couldn’t draw to save my life. I’m a very good cook. I always have to look at the keyboard when I type. I’ve had surgery before. I don’t mind getting shots all that much. I’m not afraid of bugs. I love hot, hot weather! I have huge eyes and long lashes. I’m naturally very pale. I’m usually not very picky at all when it comes to food. My parents are divorced. I don’t like doing surveys, but I find myself doing them anyway. I’m addicted to Tumblr. I don’t have a Facebook account. I have perfect vision and don’t need glasses or contacts. I don’t wear makeup when I go out. I hate stores like Forever 21. I’m very much into sports. I don’t see what the big deal about photography is. Or fashion design. I don’t really appreciate art that much. Horror movies are my favorite. I don’t care if people cut in line in front of me. I don’t even remember the last time I put on a piece of jewelry. My hair is naturally straight. I support gay marriage. I have more friends online than I do in real life. My siblings are all older than I am. My significant other is younger than I am. I curse in almost every sentence I speak. I always get straight A’s in exams. I don’t know how to play any instrument. I only know how to speak one language. I don’t have my own personal blog. I’m allergic to something. I’ve been stung by a bee at least once in my life. This is the last survey I’m doing today. I have seen someone propose in public before. And they got rejected, poor bloke. I wonder if I will ever get proposed in public. Heck I don’t even know if I’ll ever get married. I know what a sake bomb is. I’ve tried it before. I’ve watched ‘Paris Hilton’s My New BFF’. ^ Ew, sad much? I think Paris Hilton is a brainless bitch. I celebrate Chinese New Year. I’m not Chinese or a tiny bit Asian at all. I have a step-sibling. I have a weak tolerance of alcohol. Are you kidding me? I can drink all night long! I want a new cell phone. I have my own bathroom. I sleep on a single bed. Nah, I have a King/Queen size bed! I think one night stands are no biggie. ^ Slut ^Prude I’ve been on a helicopter before. I’m actually afraid of heights. My date rented a limo to take me to prom. Pfft, I wish I had a date. I haven’t had my prom yet. I like clicking on advertisements. Pop-up ads are so old school. I recently took a bath. I never bother, I just take showers. My Christmas holidays were the bomb! Ugh, mine sucked like hell. I’d love to go to Japan one day. I’ve seen a ghost before. ^ I’d pee in my pants if I did. ^ No, I’d run and scream. I can write lyrics! I can, but I’m not very good at it. I would like to become a musician one day. I love finding things in sofa cracks. I know someone that’s trying very hard to fit in a stereotype. Every cup of water I drink equals to a trip to the toilet. I recently received my exam results. They were quite good! Nope, failed it all. It’s my boyfriend’s birthday today. He never gives me gifts. He buries me with them. I wish I had a boyfriend that actually spends money on me! I love him very much. The Beatles rock my world. Actually, a lot of classic rock bands rock my world. It takes me a really long while to get to sleep. I’m a personality quiz fiend. I am and have always been a night owl. I love reading Sarah Dessen books. My earphones are in my ears practically 24/7. I am an only child and that’s not because of any death. I hate school and everything else connected to it. I’ve never been in any romantic relationship. I have a lot of favorite names. And I plan to use those names on my kids. I’m reading a comic book right now. I’m listening to music right now. I memorize lyrics really easily. But memorizing stuff for school isn’t easy at all. Math is my worst enemy. I love bolding surveys. Nice and easy. I pick Guitar Hero over Rock Band. I really don’t mind being all alone.

[dispatchesfrom2020]

2020

What stories was I sleeping on?

So, what stories did I definitely miss before this project? Well, Atlantic Hurricanes and the Belarussian protests, for sure. Here are some of the other news I skipped out on during the year - or my recaps.

Ben Curtis/AP

1. Locusts Swarm 

An unusually wet 2019 led to swampy conditions across the Horn of Africa and western Asia - giving rise to a nearly biblical swarm of locusts. There are photographs where they literally seem to black-out the sun. The culprit? Climate change. The warming waters of the Indian ocean led to stormier weather - essentially more and bigger cyclones. It’s the worst outbreak of the crop-devouring pests in a quarter-century and it threatens food security across the region. The pandemic grinds international trade to a stop - obstructing many countries efforts to buy pesticides, equipment or bring in expert help to curb the infestation. Throughout the year, these swarms ballooned in size, stretching deep into Asia and across the Pacific ocean to Argentina and Brazil. An estimated 20 million people could face hunger and starvation and the UN’s World Food Program estimates that recovery could cost upwards of $9b USD in Africa alone.

Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

2. The Tigray War

For three decades the Tigray people held the balance of political and economic power in the country, tightly controlled through the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF), a Tigray nationalist party. In 2018 the Ethiopian election People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, led by Oromo Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, won control of the country’s government.

Animosities boiled over when the Tigray province persisted with the 2020 election, despite government orders to postpone voting until 2021 due to the coronavirus. Prime Minister Abiy cut off funding to Tigray, incising local leadership. In November 2020, youth militias affiliated with the TPLF killed six hundred villagers in the border town of Mai Kadra - and allegedly attacked Ethiopian military bases. 

The government responded by shelling the Tigray capital of Mekelle. Ethiopia’s armed forces quickly took control of the city and surrounding towns, with the militias retreating into the mountains where skirmishes have continued. 

With Tigrayan people facing violent retaliation - they have faced furloughs from jobs, had bank accounts suspended, faced arbitrary raids on their homes, and been refused permission to board airplanes or travel overseas. Many have faced direct violence, especially from non-Tigray militias.

The conflict has seen incursions from Eritrean forces. Abiy was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his work mending the relationship with Ethiopia’s former colony-turned-neighbour. They share a common enemy now - Tigray. Eritrean forces slaughtered church-goers at a religious festival in early December, killing children and elders indiscriminately. These shadow forces of Fano militias and Eritrean soldiers have committed war crimes - including extrajudicial killings and rape. They even looted the church that allegedly houses the Ark of the Covenant.

The Tigrayan refugees have only one option: Sudan. One journalist writes: “Several [Tigrayan refugees] told me that they saw dozens of bodies along the route as they fled their shops, homes and farms and took to the long road to the border... in stifling heat.”

The New York Times series on Tigray was helpful in understanding more about the conflict and its historical and ethnic contexts. But I have to say - I feel unclear about what comes next. Will guerilla warfare between the Tigray militias and Eritrean-Ethiopian forces continue? Will the country face international consequences for their move towards genocide? I guess 2021 will decide.

A SolarWinds banner hangs outside the New York Stock Exchange on the company’s IPO day in 2018 - Brendan McDermid/Reuters

3. The SolarWinds hack

I chose to write about icebergs rather than this story for a reason. I wholly do NOT understand cyber security. Like, at all. My eyes glaze over when somebody tries to explain Wikileaks to me. I tried. I really did - I read like three articles trying to parse the details and make sense of anything and here’s what I got:

Hackers - almost certainly Russian - got into the US government secure networks. For a lot of departments. For months. It’s really, really bad. The government has a pretty blasé response to the disaster. Trump blames China. Agencies are turning directly to Microsoft for answers rather than their own cyber security people. It’s a blazing hot mess.

I’m going to continue to not understand this one, sorry.

Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters

4. Civil Rights in 2020

The expansion of civil rights in Central/South America, with the legalization of abortion in Argentina in December and the introduction of gay marriage in Costa Rica in May, gave us something to celebrate in 2020. These new rights are the result of years - and decades - of organizing by activists in these two countries. 

Costa Rica is the sixth Latin-American country to legalize gay marriage. Argentina joins a short list of places in Latin America where abortion is fully legal - just Cuba, Guyana, Uruguay, and two Mexican states.

Some couples rushed to wed on the stroke of midnight - magistrates stayed up late into the night to marry couples. Marcos Castillo (L) and Rodrigo Campos (R) waited until the following morning - and celebrated with a masked kiss after their ceremony. 

Other notable moments in civil rights? New Zealand officially revoked their antiquated anti-abortion laws (which they’d been effectively ignoring for years anyway), Bhutan decriminalized homosexuality, Switzerland passed legislation that will allow people to change the gender on their government IDs, and Croatia struck down laws forbidding gay couples from fostering children. Albania banned gay conversion therapy - as did the Yukon, actually - and Barbados made discrimination on the basis of sexuality illegal.

Nicky Kuautonga/The Guardian

5. Oceania crushed the pandemic

Virtually all of the countries reported to be COVID-free during 2020 were Oceanic nations and island territories. Turkmenistan says they didn’t have any cases but they’re lyin’. -Tuvalu Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga, and Palau all ended the year with no cases, while Samoa and the Solomon Islands reported a few isolated cases in quarantine facilities as they re-opened the border to repatriate their citizens abroad. 

Some combination of strict travel restrictions, new hygiene rules, curfews, and early lockdowns kept most of these countries relatively untouched. While New Zealand and Australia experienced several flare-ups throughout the year, their targeted lockdowns helped eradicate community spread quickly each time, returning them to schools, workplaces and boozy brunches quickly.

Honourable mentions to Vietnam and Thailand - with 100 million and 70 million citizens apiece both have charted under 100 deaths to COVID - and Taiwan with only nine casualties.

Gulalay Amiri, a pomegranate farmer, surveys his slim haul. Fighting as worsened in many parts of Afghanistan after the United States announced they would withdraw from the country in 2021 - Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

6. War in Afghanistan

In March the United States signed a peace-deal with the Taliban, promising to withdraw troops by May of 2021. The War in Afghanistan has lasted 19 years - the longest war in American history and the majority of my lifetime.

I don’t know how to feel about it.

During peace talks the Taliban refused to commit to recognizing the country’s elected government, disavowing Al-Qaeda or protecting women’s rights. They support limited education for girls - only up to the sixth grade.

I listened to a few podcasts by the Daily on the ground in Afghanistan with the current government’s security forces. Many of the young soldiers they interviewed were so young they’d never lived in a country governed by the Taliban - and they fiercely oppose the idea. It also appears that the Afghan government were often excluded from peace talks, finding out details of the American meetings with the Taliban through international news reports and Taliban statements on social media. 

Since the Taliban’s deal with the United States, Taliban bombings and attacks have continued, targeting both security forces and civilians. The Afghan government has pointed the finger at the Taliban for mass shooting at a maternity ward in Kabul that killed 24 women and infants. “They came for the mothers”, said horrified eyewitnesses.

For almost two decades, the western world has supported the ‘new’ Afghanistan - but it feels very fragile. Will a withdrawal lead those people that assisted coalition forces vulnerable to retaliation? It feels likely. The fighting between the Taliban and the Afghan government has been fierce - and come with high civilian casualties. The year is punctuated, nearly monthly, with news of new attacks in Afghanistan.

It reminds me of the end of the Vietnam war. America withdrew and two years later the south was retaken by the North. In the final days of the Vietnam war the United States evacuated around 150,000 civilians who had worked with American on the ground. Nearly a million others left the country by boat, seeking asylum at refugee camps in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese people who had collaborated with the US-backed South were sent to re-education camps where they were sometimes tortured or starved. Is this what Afghanistan will look like? 

There’s no 'good’ solution - and for now the future of the war in Afgahnistan feels very opaque. I think I under-reported stories in the region as a result - it feels too complex to boil down into daily recaps.

Bobi Wine, 38, was detained by police for allegedly breaking COVID-19 restrictions while campaigning in Uganda’s upcoming presidential election - Abubaker Lubowa/Reuters

8. Ugandan election protests

Western media doesn’t seem to place a lot of importance on reporting in Africa - but what little attention they had for the continent focused on the anti-SARS protests in Nigeria throughout the fall. The attention on police violence in America raised the profile of these demonstrations - and the brutality of the government’s response, shooting at dozens of peaceful marchers gathered at the Lekki toll bridge.

But they were far from the only protests in Africa.

As Uganda prepared for an election early in 2021, the government forcefully cracked down on youthful dissidents - like presidential hopefuls Bobi Wine and Patrick Amuriat who were detained by police during the final campaign pushes in November. 

Wine, a young musician, has been arrested numerous times since he announced his candidacy. One occasion police beat Wine so badly he temporarily lost his vision - they also killed his driver. They raided his offices, confiscating election materials, and arrested supporters. His bodyguard will later be killed after being struck by a military truck while helping an injured reporter escape tear-gas during December protests.

Police record 56 casualties as they violently put down the large-scale protests - though human rights group have suggested the real number could be dramatically higher. 

Ariana Quesada holds a photo of her father, Benito. He died after an outbreak at the Cargill meat-packing plant where he worked. She filed a complaint with the RCMP, asking them to investigate conditions at the plant - Justin Pennell/CBC

9. Meat packing plants become coronavirus hotspots

Meat processing plants become super-spreaders - these often rurally-located factories see massive outbreaks across the United States and Canada. Their floors are crowded with employees working elbow-to-elbow, forced to shout over the loud din of machinery. The refrigeration - necessary for keeping the meat unspoiled - may allow the virus to live longer in the air.

By September of 2020, nearly 500 meat-processing plants had reported at least one case of COVID in the United States. And 203 had died. 

At a Tyson Foods factory in Waterloo, Iowa, staff allege that management placed bets on how many workers would become sick - and die. Supervisors began avoiding the floor, relegating their responsibilities to untrained workers. 

The plant reluctantly closed - by the time they re-opened two weeks later over a third of their 2,800 workforce had tested positive. Five workers died - including Isidro Fernandez, whose family is leading a lawsuit against the company.

In Canada, Cargill faces a similar lawsuit after an enormous outbreak in their High River facility that resulted in three deaths - two employees and one staffer’s 71-year-old father. They were: Hiep Bui, Armando Sallegue, and Benito Quesada. The company offered a $500 “responsibility” bonus for workers who didn’t miss any shifts - and discouraged employees from reporting any flu-like symptoms. Many of the factory’s workers are temporary foreign workers or new Canadians. 

10. The Nazca Lines

I forgot about this and am shoehorning it in now, but Peruvian archaeologists discovered another ancient line drawing in the desert outside of Lima - this time in the shape of a kitty cat.

Of all the archaeology finds this year - remains at Pompeii, a mammoth graveyard in Mexico, and a wealth of sarcophagi in Egypt - this is my favourite.

#2020 recap #2020 in depth

[solomon-kyla]

The Eruption of Mount Pinatubo

Mount Pinatubo, a volcano, located in western Luzon, Philippines, erupted in 1991 (for the first time in 600 years) and caused widespread devastation. Mount Pinatubo is located about 55 miles (90 km) northwest of Manila and rose to a height of about 4,800 feet (1,460 m) before its eruption.

After two months of emissions and small explosions, a series of major explosions began on June 12. These explosions reached a peak on June 14-16, producing a column of ash and smoke more than 19 miles (30 km) high, with rock debris falling the same distance from the volcano. The resulting heavy ashfalls left about 100,000 people homeless, forced thousands more to flee the area, and caused 300 deaths.

Effects on agriculture:

Many reforestation projects were destroyed in the eruption, with a total area of 150 km2 (58 sq. mi; 37,000 acres) valued at 125 million pesos destroyed. Agriculture was heavily disrupted, with 800 km2 (310 sq. mi; 200,000 acres) of rice-growing farmland destroyed, and almost 800,000 head of livestock and poultry killed, destroying the livelihoods of thousands of farmers. The cost to the agriculture of eruption effects was estimated to be 1.5 billion pesos.

Many farmers near Pinatubo began growing crops such as peanuts, cassava, and sweet potatoes, which are quick-ripening and could be harvested before the threat of lahar floods during the late summer rainy season.

Local economic and social effects:

In total, 364 communities and 2.1 million people were affected by the eruption, with livelihoods and houses being damaged and destroyed. More than 8,000 houses were destroyed, and a further 73,000 were damaged. In addition to the severe damage sustained by these communities, roads and communications were damaged or destroyed by pyroclastic surges and lahar floods throughout the areas surrounding the volcano. Total losses in 1991 and 1992 alone were estimated at 10.6 and 1.2 billion pesos respectively, including damage to public infrastructure estimated at 3.8 billion pesos (c. US$92 million, or $173 million today, adjusted for inflation). School classes for thousands of children were temporarily suspended by the destruction of schools in the eruption.

The eruption of Pinatubo severely hampered the economic development of the surrounding areas. The gross regional domestic product of the Pinatubo area accounted for about 10% of the total Philippine gross domestic product. The GRDP had been growing at 5% annually before the eruption but fell by more than 3% from 1990 to 1991. In 1991, damage to crops and property was estimated at $374 million (or $702 million today), to which continuing lahar floods added a further $69 million (or $126 million today) in 1992. In total, 42 percent of the cropland around the volcano was affected by more lahar floods, dealing a severe blow to the agricultural economy in the region.

What To Do Before, During, And After Volcanic Eruption:

BEFORE THE EXPLOSION:

Evacuate immediately if you live or are staying within the radius of affected areas. Long before the explosion, affected areas would have been given a warning to evacuate the premises by local government units.

Stay tuned to national news and your local community’s channels to be on top of the situation and stay informed with local safety plans and evacuation areas. Whether it’s through local radio, TV news, or official social channels of news outlets, make sure that you’re getting reliable information from trusted sources and not potentially dangerous misinformation from hoax accounts.

Charge your electronics. Keep your mobile devices and power banks charged in case of power interruptions.

Prepare a go-bag in case of evacuation. This should include:

A mask per person (N95 or makeshift)

Copies of personal documents

Phone and powerbank

Flashlights and batteries or candles and matches

3 gallons of potable water per person

3 days worth of non-perishable food

Hygiene and sanitation items

First aid kit and maintenance medication

Extra cash

     5. Know disaster hotlines and other emergency hotlines

National Emergency Hotline: 911

Philippine National Police: 117

PHIVOLCs – [phone] to 79

Philippine Red Cross – 143 or [phone]

Bureau of Fire Protection – [phone]

National Disaster Risk Reduction And Management Council (NDRRMC) – [phone] to 65 local 100

DURING A VOLCANIC ERUPTION

Use an N95 dust mask to protect yourself from pulmo-respiratory injuries and diseases. If these are unavailable, use a damp handkerchief or makeshift one from an old t-shirt.

Protect your skin and eyes with proper clothing and glasses or goggles. Ashfall is sharp and abrasive, so don't rub if any comes into contact with your skin or eyes.

Secure your pets inside your home. Fine, volcanic ash is harmful for them too.

If you are outside, seek cover immediately in case of rock or ash falls.

If you are inside, stay tuned to the news to keep informed of recent developments. Close all doors and windows. Dampen curtains to keep fine particles from coming through.

If you are driving a vehicle, pull over and stop if there is a heavy ashfall.

Cover food and water containers to avoid contamination with ash.

Wash all utensils thoroughly before eating. Fine ash particles may have settled on them.

Stay away from rivers or streams to avoid lahar flow.

AFTER THE ERUPTION

Do not leave your home or indoor shelters until notified by the local government that it is safe to do so. Evacuate to safer grounds only when notified.

Keep a watchful eye on your kids or loved ones who may be tempted to go out to see what's going on outside.

Wear protection. Use masks, glasses/goggles, long sleeves, pants, and shoes when clearing out ash to protect your lungs, skin and eyes.

Clean your gutters and roof with water after clearing out the ash to prevent corrosion.

Wait for further announcements from LGUs or national news related to the volcanic eruption.

Stay safe everyone!

People’s Memories During the Eruption:

It was the birthday of my wife when Mt. Pinatubo erupted in 1991. We were busy preparing for the scheduled dinner party. We had just begun preparations when darkness came, making us think it was already 6 pm, causing us great worry. I turned on the TV to check out the PBA game. Only then did we find that it was only around 11 am. The party started on time. The men were at the open terrace with wine and pulutan, kilawin, roasted pig, and chicken, among others. By almost 9 pm, we were wondering why all the parked cars were now painted white? We found out that all the cars were covered with ashfall. When we went back to our table, all the pulutan was also covered with ashfall. We had to finish the party early. Twenty years have passed and I still have my ashfall collection, taken from the rooftop of my car. - Joe Nacilla

I would say that the Mt. Pinatubo eruption was the closest Manila ever was to having snowfall, but instead of snow, we experienced volcanic ash. I remember coming that night from my date with my ex-girlfriend, now my wife, when I felt something in my hair. It had ash, as in large amounts of ash, turning my hair literally gray. The next day, I picked her up at UST after her nursing board exam, and commuted around Manila (which looked like a desert covered with volcanic ash) to what we call our “Ash Day Date”. We celebrate that day every year, up to now, as it happens to be our engagement day. To many, the eruption might have been tragic, but for me and my wife, it was the start of a relationship now sealed in marriage for 20 long years. -  Bong Nebrija

As long as I see remnants of our house in Bacolor, Pampanga with only the second floor and the attic showing, the bad memories of Pinatubo will forever be etched in my mind. What once was a very beautiful house with a wide garden full of ornamental plants, and an orchard is now old and neglected. It is where I spent my childhood days. Nowadays, the people of Bacolor live elsewhere in different parts, many in resettlement areas, others in nearby provinces, and some abroad, but on some occasions, many still try to visit their roots. The Pinatubo eruption erased our town from the map. -  Rose Leobrera

It has been 20 years since Mount Pinatubo erupted. Time sure flies. Everyone woke up one morning surprised to see everything covered by fine white sand, which was difficult to wash off. For a time, there was panic-buying in the supermarkets. Then, news of the devastation trickled in through the media. The eruption was so extensive that the dust from Pinatubo caused the world temperature to drop. Thousands perished, and the government continues to waste billions on dikes and dredging, despite recommendations from experts to just move the affected residents to another place. -  Robert Young Jr.

It was a Saturday and I was at the office till 3 in the afternoon. When I got out of the building, it was almost dark. People on the street were covering their heads with handkerchieves. When I got to the street, I felt wet sand hitting me. The following days, we watched over television the devastating effect of lahar, burying some Zambales and Pampanga towns, with many people with their livestock and homes being carried away by lahar flood. Soon, many natives (Aetas) were lining up city streets, begging for food and shelter. -  Germi Sison

What I’ve learned:

The thing that I've learned from this eruption is we should always be aware and prepared at all times. We don't have an idea of what will happen in the future. At least if we are aware and prepare, we can get through to all calamities.

Resources and References:

https://www.britannica.com/science/volcanism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_eruption_of_Mount_Pinatubo

https://coins.ph/blog/what-to-do-volcanic-eruption-tips/

https://www.philstar.com/inbox-world/2011/06/23/698683/what-are-your-memories-1991-mt-pinatubo-eruption

[satonthelotuspier]

For day 6 & 7 of Wangxian week I present the first WangXian POV for Soulmate’s Regret AU feat Mobster LWJ and Cop WWX.

Prompt palettes for the days are: 

Day 6 – Sacrifices – Devotion – Role Reversal AU

Day 7 – Passion – Marriage – Soulmate AU

Yes, I went with six prompts because why do 3 when you can do 6?

CW Mild spice at the very end.

“So we should just be OK with the fact he’s married to one of the biggest fucking gangsters in Shanghai, should we?” Su She demanded, knocking his shoulder against Wei Wuxian’s. And really, if he didn’t hear this at least once a month, Wei Wuxian would be fucking livid about now.

He did though, and so did his colleagues.

“Soulmate Covenant says you can’t be held accountable for or discriminated against because of who your spouse is. He moved out of organised crime when they met to avoid conflicts of interest. And Nie Mingjue would never ask him to get involved in a case that could be linked to the Lans. I’ve no idea why you’re being a dick, Su-xiong” Luo “Mian Mian” Qingyang said in irritation. Because everyone had had enough of his constant sniping this month. “And besides, watch your mouth, or you’ll end up with a law suit for defamation, if there was any proof, anywhere, of the Lans being the biggest fucking gangsters in Shanghai they’d be behind bars already”

“Fuck off, why are you pretending? They’re up to their necks in the criminal underworld, but heaven forbid we admit it. If it wasn’t for pretty boy here and his mouthy brother being the Lans’…” Su She trailed off at the unnatural silence that had suddenly taken over the group.

“Yes? Please do continue, what would you like to call us, before I knock every tooth you own, or ever will own, down your throat? Nothing? Can I help you with your sentence? Bitches, maybe? Whores? Cock-sluts? Or maybe the term you were looking for was lawfully wedded husbands?” the newly arrived Jiang Cheng asked in his frigidly cold voice, the one that said he was three seconds away from nuclear detonation.

Wei Wuxian sighed, trust his fucking hotheaded brother to turn up just in time to exacerbate the situation.

Su She seemed to find his spine then, either he didn’t think Jiang Cheng was perfectly willing to get himself suspended for punching another officer, or he just didn’t care.

If it was the first, he definitely didn’t know Jiang Cheng.

“Well, it’s fucking odd that everyone knows the Lans are behind half of the criminal enterprise in this city, but there’s no proof anywhere. Odd, when they have sleepers in OC and homicide. Sounds to me like someone’s feeding information to them”

Wei Wuxian leapt forward to catch Jiang Cheng’s fist before it could connect. Mian Mian was at his other side, holding him back.

“He’s not worth losing a week’s pay over, Jiang Cheng” he said soothingly. But Jiang Cheng was livid. He had the motivation Wei Wuxian didn’t over the issue.

He was the man who had sacrificed his marriage for his principles, (in name, if not legality) and to have his commitment to his career questioned would twist the knife into a never-healing wound.

“You pretend you’re all high and mighty, pretend you’re so pure and special because you supposedly “walked away” from your husband when you found out who he really was, which apparently isn’t a criminal, but everyone knows you still bend over when he tells you to, fucking hypocrite”

At the point he was released Jiang Cheng realised there was no need to continue to attack Su She, because Wei Wuxian’s fist had already put him on the floor.

***

Jiang Cheng tutted for the fifth time on the drive to Wei Wuxian’s place. “Why did you have to go and do something as dumb as that, Wei Wuxian?” he eventually broke the silence.

“Are you seriously reaming me for doing something you would have done two minutes earlier if I hadn’t had a hold of you?”

“Yes?” Jiang Cheng said in annoyance.

“I see, you just want to be the only one of us with the reputation for being a hothead, a bit of a maverick, am I right?”

Praise be, but Jiang Cheng actually cracked a smile. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Jiang Cheng smile. At least one that wasn’t half-sarcasm, half-wolf about to attack.

“I’m mad because you punched that asshat because of what he said about me, not what he said about you” Jiang Cheng told him, shooting him a look before returning his gaze to the road.

“He’s just a homophobic, jealous asshole, you shouldn’t have let him get to you” Wei Wuxian said as they pulled up at the gates of his house and Jiang Cheng leaned over to punch the buzzer. They were waved through as the gate guard recognised them.

“Big same, bro. But you shouldn’t have to put up with that kind of shit at work, whether it gets to you or not. Not when you sacrificed the job you loved, and the career you were blazing, for the man you fell for. The Soulmate Covenant exists for a reason, and Su She just put a nice big black cross next to his record, I’ll make sure Nie-da-ge hears the full story. And don’t get in trouble on my behalf again, Wei Wuxian, especially not when what he says is true. I can get into my own trouble, honestly” he pulled up on the drive.

“Shut up, Jiang Cheng. I lost it because he was twisting the knife. He shouldn’t talk about what he doesn’t know about. None of them know how walking away from Xichen-ge almost killed you, how choosing your career over your husband was the hardest thing you ever did, but you did it to keep to your principles. No way does he get to stick the knife into you over that”

There was a half smile, as Jiang Cheng leaned over him to open the car door, “Go on, fuck off, get back to that husband you’re so devoted to” he mocked.

“Want to stay for dinner?” Wei Wuxian half took the hint and unfastened his seatbelt.

“No, I’m good, thanks”

“You know Lan Zhan doesn’t blame you for leaving Lan Xichen, don’t you? He wouldn't mind you coming to dinner. He loves his brother, but he knows Xichen-ge lied to you from the beginning”

“Withheld the truth” Jiang Cheng corrected automatically. At Wei Wuxian’s raised eyebrows he shrugged. “I’m fine, I’m going to go and get a drink instead”

“Fine, be antisocial, I don’t care. But really, come to dinner next week, I might need the company to stop me going crazy on suspension”

“Nie-da-ge isn’t going to let it last that long, I can assure you. But OK, I’ll consider it. Now go and see your husband”

Wei Wuxian nodded once and jumped out, slamming the door behind him.

***

Lan Wangji was in his study when Wei Wuxian went to find him. As a courtesy he knocked loudly on the door before he heard Lan Wangji call his name.

They were very careful to ensure full privacy existed between them in terms of their chosen careers, Lan Wangji didn’t want to drag Wei Wuxian into his business, and Wei Wuxian didn’t want to be dragged into it. What he didn’t know he couldn’t feel guilty about knowing.

Jiang Cheng hadn’t been wrong, he’d loved his job in organised crime, and they were an amazing team, but, unlike Jiang Cheng, he’d walked into the relationship with Lan Wangji, his soulmate, the person who the snow leopard on his hip was meant to signify, with open eyes.

He’d known who, and what, Lan Wangji was, and he had loved him so much he chose to marry him anyway. Jiang Cheng had mockingly used the word devoted, but it wasn’t a lie. They were devoted to each other.

He pushed into the study at the acknowledgement it was safe for him to do so, and was met half way by Lan Wangji who wrapped him up in his arms as they reached each other.

“I need this” Wei Wuxian murmured after a few minutes, propping his chin on Lan Wangji’s shoulder.

“Tough day, Wei Ying?” he asked softly and Wei Wuxian nodded.

“Well, actually, I suppose not. I’m suspended though”

Lan Wangji pulled back a little to frown at him, concern in his light amber eyes.

“Just an argument with an asshole who was ragging Jiang Cheng, and me. There are always people who think we’re feeding you information”

Lan Wangji’s frown deepened, but Wei Wuxian poked him between the brows, “Turn that frown upside down, Lan Zhan. It doesn’t bother me, my conscience is completely clear on the issue, I don’t mess in your business and you don’t mess in mind”

Lan Wangji nodded after a few seconds consideration. Wei Wuxian knew he was contemplating annihilation for anyone who dared upset him, but he was calm and sensible enough to let Wei Wuxian deal with it in his own way.

“I don’t want anything getting back to Lan Xichen though, promise me?”

If Lan Xichen heard anyone had been disrespecting Jiang Cheng they couldn’t always guess how he’d react; it would enrage Lan Xichen, who would try to control the situation, or Jiang Cheng, who would then be pissed off at everyone.

“Mn, fine” Lan Wangji agreed; “If Wei Ying buys my silence, that is” Wei Wuxian’s eyes opened in surprised amusement. He knew Lan Wangji only teased, of course, something his husband had learned slowly during their marriage.

“Your pirate’s heart is showing again, husband” Wei Wuxian mocked gently, and Lan Wangji nodded, his pale eyes crinkling a little, which was his understated equivalent of a grin.

“Mn” Lan Wangji allowed himself to be backed up to the desk, as his hips his the edge Wei Wuxian stopped, cupped his face gently, pressed a soft kiss at the corner of his lips before capturing his mouth in a full, passionate. He put pressure on Lan Wangji’s shoulders, and his husband complied and allowed himself to be pushed backwards against the surface of the desk.

When he could delay breathing no longer, Wei Wuxian pulled back a little, admiring the hungry look on his husband’s perfectly formed face; one which was likely mirrored on his own.

“Tell me, Lan Zhan, what will buy your silence?” he asked as he he began to tug gently at the waistband of Lan Wangji’s tailored pants.

“I want you to fuck me, Wei Ying” the vulgar words on Lan Wangji’s tongue sent a shiver down his spine and caused his hips to cant up into the v between Lan Wangji’s thighs, which were bracketed at either side of his waist. They both shuddered at the contact.

“As my husband commands” Wei Wuxian agreed, his voice thick.

#wangxian #lan wangji #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #the untamed #the untamed fanfic #mdzs #mdzs fanfic #mo dao zu shi fanfic #mo dao zu shi #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #established relationship #swearing #Shay's stuff