#say what you will about the culture of the time but these artists knew how to draw burly shirtless men fighting small animals

[carionto]

The Revitalization League of Extinct Sports

Documentation!

Every culture and civilization creates mountains of records of all kinds, though sadly the ones that have the highest chance of surviving beyond the ages are also prone to retain the least amount of complete information.

Wear and tear of physical mediums is unavoidable, no matter the precautions and measures taken. Thus there are countless organizations and individuals dedicated to finding, preserving and restoring information that has been lost to time.

One such group aims to recover the lost art of athletics, physical competitions, and exercises of pure strength and speed. The results have been...

mixed.

Their primary sources of "inspiration" have been ancient print media depicting the lives of a subgroup of Humans called 'Alpha Males', though DNA analysis has yet to identify a consistent genetic code to substantiate their actual existence. Nevertheless, there are quite a few depictions from a limited spectrum of Human history of these Alphas engaged in a variety of dangerous activities.

Some speculate that it was a mutation that had a predisposition towards recklessness and so if these Alphas truly were a Human sub-variant at some point, their nature made them extinct within just the span of a few generations. However, their exploits have survived to this day and age, and the Revitalization League of Extinct Sports has replicated these, within reason, of course.

This particular display of strength and endurance, has been named "Naked and Ferocious". The goal of this activity, we speculate, was to showcase ones individual prowess against a seemingly inferior opponent of another species, but who had numbers on their side.

Events often seen in nature, where the goal is survival, are sometimes reintroduced by a society where such conflict has been eliminated to maintain some connection with their origins, to never forget the cruel reality that awaits should civilization collapse, or most commonly a simple showcase of strength for personal ego reasons.

The League, naturally, cannot offer one to fight actual living creatures, that would simply be too chaotic and dangerous for everyone involved. Plus laws exist, but only because to some the obvious problems are, apparently, not obvious. What they offer instead are robotic replicas, as lifelike as the real deal, but programmed to either not cause any harm, or if the participant signs a warrant, limited harm.

It's... quite popular among some crowds. Of Humans mostly. It can be a little, actually, a lot off-putting to see a bare chested Human crush a mechanical creature MADE OF METAL that kinda resembles some members of the Galactic Coalition.

Humans are incredibly terrifying, no matter what they do or if they even have access to their literal planet destroying machines or just their own bodies.

The creativity of destruction knows no bounds.

#humans are space orcs #humans are space australians #humans are space oddities #humans are deathworlders #humanity fuck yeah #carionto #i heard a podcast mention these Mens Life covers and had to look them up #say what you will about the culture of the time but these artists knew how to draw burly shirtless men fighting small animals

[fairuzfan]

I don’t ask this expecting you have THE answer or that there is one, but I follow a non Palestinian white man on insta (in addition to many Palestinian folks in diaspora and in Palestine) who mostly shares things from Palestinian ppl/sources.

He has several times criticized / shared criticism of charity dinners, music festivals etc raising funds for Gaza with the perspective of, it’s not appropriate to have a dance party or dinner while people are undergoing genocide, but also that in this moment, art isn’t resistance because there needs to be physical resistance, blockades of weapons, etc.

I’ve seen this echoed from some others especially critiquing white folks trying to claim “joy is resistance” right now, which makes sense to me, but i also wonder if it’s reductive to say art or music is not resistance because I feel like it can have a lot of power especially alongside social movements… was wondering if you had thoughts on this or perhaps knew where I could look to learn more.

Please ignore if this is too much, and thank you

I think things like writing and illustration and music feeds into the spirit of revolution and is necessary in that way. You have to energize the masses somehow, and to ensure that your message spreads as far as possible. A good way is to make art, or to sing a song, or write a story.

That's why Wisam Rafeedi wrote his book and different resistance factions make posters and videos — to spread their ideas and garner support among the masses.

It's not as important as putting yourself in immediate physical danger to incapacitate the colonial entity — but I think for Palestinians and other colonized peoples, they do need to make art to really process their thoughts. Of course there's a difference when a Palestinian in Palestine, a Palestinian in the diaspora, a nonPalestinian ally of color, and a NonPalestinian white ally do this. I won't deny that there's a nuance when it comes to this.

But writers who write about Palestinian Liberation historically have been assassinated because of how they participate in liberation actions and also spread ideas of liberation themselves. I don't know which white guy you're talking about but I feel like this is mostly a conversation that should be led by Palestinians if we're talking about Palestine because they understand the nuance of saying statements like "the only resistance is physical." I understand what he's saying to an extent but that does erase a lot of Palestinian resistance the past few decades by making sweeping statements like "art is not resistance" and kind of simplifies the issue at hand.

Charity dinners and galas and that stuff... I don't know what I think about them, I think that people are going to do it either way so my opinion doesn't really matter. Hey, if you're going to raise thousands of dollars for Palestine, I'm not going to stop you at all. I personally think you should try to avoid posting pictures and stuff like that from the gala itself if you're going to host one just out of courtesy.

I guess overall what I'm trying to say, art resistance becomes physical a lot of the time. I think its really reductive to say "art isn't resistance" and also personally insulting considering I have family members and friends who were journalists, creative writers, and artists and killed/targeted for their work.

Here's this article by Fargo Tbahkhi about the role of writing during a genocide that might be a good read. They also mention how Israeli propaganda (calling Palestinians "human animals"/"Amalek" as an example) is specifically a use of culture and writing to energize people to commit genocide. An especially poignant part that I completely agree with, and am trying to get at:

Palestine requires that we abandon this catharsis. Nobody should get out of our work feeling purged, clean. Nobody should live happily during the war. Our readers can feel that way when liberation is the precondition for our work, and not the dream. When it is the place we stand, and not the place we shake ourselves towards. In this way, what the long middle of revolution requires, what Palestine requires, is an approach to writing whose primary purpose is to gather others up with us, to generate within them an energy which their bodies cannot translate into anything but revolutionary movement. This is what Boal modeled for us in his theatrical experiments, which were dedicated to empowering audiences to act, to participate in a creative struggle to envision and embody alternatives. For Boal, theater was not revolution, but it was a rehearsal for the revolution, meant to gather communities together in that rehearsal. Creative work readies us for material work, by offering a space to try out strategies, think through contradictions, remind us of our own agency.  

#palestine

[hero-israel]

I think there needs to be a reckoning about how so many white (passing) American secular/nonpracticing antiZionist Jews can say "Not in my name, Israel doesn't speak for us!" and then think they can speak for Israel. How so many of them can have a limited familial connection to Israel, have such a disdain for Israelis, Israeli culture and society, and Israel as a concept, and then have the gall to act like their opinions matter?

I see their attitudes be described as fear, but to me it strikes me as more than just fear. A lot of them, I suspect, have incorporated antiZionism as a fundamental part of their Jewish identity. It's not just a disagreement, they're not just saving face. Take away the Goyim and talk to them privately and they still believe what they believe, and express it in the same way. They hate Israeli Jews.

And Israel is only going to become less Ashkenazi (aka less "white") as time marches forward. The bad faith hysterical Israel bashing and condescension is only going to look more and more like Orientalism, and frankly, racism.

I think it's very possible that calling something antisemitic can't just be a catchall term when this chicken comes home to roost. I think if there aren't already, there will be distinct forms of antisemitism, some that only Diaspora Jews face and some that only Israeli Jews face. And if this is true or will end up being true, it's pretty important that we not speak over each other's experiences. To do that we have to recognize these experiences and respect them. Do some Israeli Jews disrespect the Diaspora experience? Yes, from what I've seen. Is it nearly as vitriolic and is it growing nearly as quickly as the disrespect for the Israeli experience among antiZionist American Jews? Not even close.

All this divisive language to say: sometimes when Israelis say "so and so is antisemitic!" in the context of antiZionism, they're talking about themselves, their experiences, the stakes for them, and not Americans. So maybe we should all learn to stay in our lanes sometimes.

A lot of Israeli Jews disrespect, or at least are unable to grasp, diaspora existence, particularly when it comes to Americans. I can't even count the number of times I read Israelis say "Why are you American Jews so upset about Trump? Don't you see how good he's been for Israel?" Which is the worst damn argument a person could possibly use - it feeds into both left-wing and right-wing antisemitism, while ignoring that American Jews live HERE and are at risk from Trump's fascist cult and general lawlessness. And it is bad FOR EVERYBODY to have "pro-Israel" become the position of stroke-babbling grotesque racist criminals, and also for America to be too focused on anarchic decomposition and Yugoslav-style street warfare to be able to support Israel like it traditionally has.

And because turds of a feather flush together, Netanyahu wants ALAN DERSHOWITZ to be Israel's advocate if the ICJ case proceeds. I knew Netanyahu was a senile failure undermining all the strengths he had ever built for the country and this is just the shit cherry on top of the shit sundae. Alan Dershowitz is the ultimate stereotype of a Boomer who was kind of useful in the 1980s-90s and became awful and embarrassing now, Trump is surrounded by them (i.e. Rudy Giuliani). Your grandma in Florida remembers Alan Dershowitz for writing "Chutzpah" and being tough and quick-witted, and everybody under 40 knows Dershowitz as a Trump cultist and Epstein fuckbuddy. Big "Vladek Spiegelman can only compare his artist son to Walt Disney" energy. There are surely thousands of lawyers better-suited for the role, just off the top of my head I'd prefer Eugene Kontorovich and so should anyone who is more aware of the world as it actually is than how it was in 1994.

I say all that to parallel your original point, not to contradict it. Yes, the American Jews who performatively loathe Israel are by and large just an Extremely Online phenomenon of the most college-town bubble-protected, least observant, least affiliated, and least aware of non-Ashkenazim. It is not so hard for American Ashkenazim to stay protected from antisemitism as long as they totally unplug from their Jewish identity and any public-facing aspects of it. Can't be killed in a synagogue or JCC or kosher store if you never go in, head tap.

[tangibletechnomancy]

The (Personal) Is (Political)

~7 hours, Dall-E 3 via Bing Image Creator, generated under the Code of Ethics of Are We Art Yet?

Or, Dear Microsoft and OpenAI: Your Filters Can't Stop Me From Saying Things: An interactive exercise in why all art is political and game of Spot The Symbols

A rare piece I consider Fully Finished simply as a jpeg, though I may do something physical with it regardless. "Director commentary" below, but I strongly encourage you to go over this and analyze it yourself before clicking through, then see how much your reading aligns with my intent.

Elements I told the model to add and a brief (...or at least inexhaustive) overview of why:

Anime style and character figures - Frequently associated with commercial "low" art and consumer culture, in East Asia and the English-speaking world alike, albeit in different ways - justly or otherwise. There is frequently an element of racism to the denigration of anime styles in the west; nearly any American artist who has taken formal illustration classes can tell you a story of being told that anime style will only hinder them, that no one will hire them if they see anime, or even being graded more harshly and scrutinized for potential anime-esque elements if they like anime or imply that they may like anime - including just by being Asian and young. On the other hand, it is true that there is a commercial strategy of "slap an anime girl on it and it will sell". The passion fans feel for these characters is genuine - and it is very, very exploitable. In fact, this commercialization puts anime styles in particular in a very contentious position when it comes to AI discussions!

Dark-skinned boy with platinum and pink [and blue] hair - Racism and colorism! They're a thing, no matter how much the worst people in the world want you to think they're long over and "critical race theory" is the work of evil anti-American terrorists! I chose his appearance because I knew that unless I was incredibly lucky, I would have to fight with this model for multiple hours to get satisfactory results on this point in particular - and indeed I did. It was an interesting experience - what didn't surprise me was how much work it took me to get a skin color darker than medium-dark tan; what did surprise me was that the hair color was very difficult to get right. In anime art, for dark skin to be matched with light hair and eyes is common enough to be...pretty problematic. Bing Image Creator/Dall-E, on the other hand, swings completely in the opposite direction and struggles with the concept of giving dark-skinned characters any hair color OTHER than black, demanding pretty specific phrasing to get it right even 70% of the time. (I might cynically call this yet another illustration against the pervasive copy-paste myth...) There is also much to say about the hair texture and facial features - while I was pleased to see that more results than I expected gave me textured hair and/or box braids without me asking for it, those were still very much in the minority, and I never saw any deviation from the typical anime facial structures meant to illustrate Asian and white characters. Not even once!

Pink and blue color palette - Our subject is transgender. Bias self-check time: did you make that association as quickly as you would with a light-skinned character, or even Sylveon?

Long hair, cute clothes, lots of accessories - Styling while transmasc is a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation, doubly so if you're not white. In many locations, the medical establishment and mainstream attitude demands total conformity to the dominant culture's standard conventional masculinity, or else "revoking your man card" isn't just a joke meant to uphold the idea that men are "better" than women, but a very real threat. In many queer communities, especially online, transmascs are expected to always be cute femboys who love pink (while transfems are frequently degraded and seen as threats for being butch), and being Just Some Guy is viewed as inherently a sign of assimilationism at best and abusiveness at worst. It is an eternal tug-of-war where "cuteness" and ornamentation are both demanded and banned at the same time. Black and brown people are often hypermasculinized and denied the opportunity to even be "cute" in the first place, regardless of gender. Long hair and how gender is read into it is extremely culture-dependent; no matter what it means to you, if anything, the dominant culture wherever you are will read it as it likes.

Trophies and medals - For one, the trans sports Disk Horse has set feminism back by nearly 50 years; I'm barely a Real History-Remembering Adult and yet I clearly remember a time when the feminist claim about gender in sports was predominantly "hey, it's pretty fucked up that sports are segregated by sex rather than weight class or similar measures, especially when women's sports are usually paid much less and given weirdly oversexualized uniforms," but then a few loud living embodiments of turds in the punch bowl realized that might mean treating trans people fairly and now it's super common for self-proclaimed feminists - mostly white ones - to claim that the strongest woman will still never measure up to the weakest man and this is totally a feminist statement because they totally want to PROTECT women (with invasive medical screenings on girls as young as 12 to prove they're Really Women if they perform too well, of course). For two, Black and brown people are stereotyped as being innately more sporty, physically strong, and, again, Masculine(TM) than others, which frequently intersects with item 1...and if you think it only affects trans women, I am sorry my friend but it is so much worse and more extensive than you think.

Hearts - They mean many things. Love. Happiness. Cuteness. Social media engagement?

TikTok - A platform widely known and hated around these parts for its arcane and deeply regressive algorithm; I felt it deserved to be name/layout/logodropped for reasons that, if they're not clear already, should become so in the final paragraph.

Computers, cameras and cell phones - My initial specification was that one of the phones should be on Instagram and another on TikTok, which the model instead chose to interpret as putting a TikTok sticker on the laptop, but sure, okay. They're ubiquitous in the modern day, for better and for worse. For all the debate over whether phones and social media are Good For Us or Bad For Us, the fact of the matter is, they seem to be a net positive-to-neutral, whose impacts depend on the person - but they do still have major drawbacks. The internet is a platform for conspiracy theories and pseudoscience and dangerous hoaxes to spread farther than ever before. Social media culture leaves many people feeling like we're always being watched and every waking moment of our lives must be Perfect - and in some senses, we are always being watched these days. Digital privacy is eroding by the day, already being used to enforce all the most unjust laws on the books, which leads to-

Pigs - I wrote the prompt with the intention that it would just be a sticker on the laptop, but instead it chose to put them everywhere, and given that I wanted to make a somewhat stealthy statement about surveillance, especially of the marginalized...thanks for that, Dall-E! ;)

Alligators - A counter to the pigs; a short-lived antifascist symbol after...this.

Details I did not intend but love anyway:

The blue in the hair - I only prompted for platinum and pink in the hair, but the overall color palette description "bled" over here anyway, completing the trans flag, making it even more blatant, and thus even more effective as a bias self-check.

The Macbook - I only specified a laptop. Hilariously ironic, to me, that a service provided through Bing interpreted "laptop" as "Macbook" nearly every time. In my recent history, 22 out of 24 attempts show, specifically, a Macbook. Microsoft v. OpenAI divorce arc when? ;) But also, let us not forget Apple's role in the ever-worsening sanitization of the internet. A Macbook with a TikTok sticker (or, well, a Tiikok sticker - recognizable enough) - I can think of little more emblematic of one of the main things I was complaining about, and it was a happy accident. Or perhaps an unhappy one, considering what it may imply about Apple's grip on culture and communications.

Which brings me to my process:

Generated over ~7 hours with Dall-E 3 through Bing Image Creator - The most powerful free tool out there for txt2img these days, as well as a nightmare of filters and what may be the most disgustingly, cloyingly impersonal toxic positivity I've ever witnessed from a tool. It wants to be Art(TM), yet it wants to ban Politics(TM); two things which are very much incompatible - and so, I wanted to make A Controversial Statement using only the most unflaggable, innocuous elements imaginable, no matter how long it took.

All art is political. All life is political. All our "defaults" are cultural, and therefore political. Anything whatsoever can be a symbol.

If you want all art to be a substance-free "look at the pretty picture :)" - it doesn't matter how much you filter, buddy, you've got a big storm coming.

#ai art #generated art #dall-e 3 #bing image creator

[mellomaia]

One memory that I've come to recontextualize as a manifestation of infodumping now that I've self determined as autistic is how, when I was in 4th and 5th grade, I LOVED learning about animals. I could talk and talk and talk about animal facts. I would correct people immediately if they said things about animals that I knew to be false, thinking, "They wouldn't want to have misinformation about animals. I'm sure they'll appreciate the correction." If you said something like "blind as a bat" near me, you would hear about it. I found animals fascinating and it didn't occur to me that others didn't.

When I did learn that, it became harder to talk to others. As many have pointed out, infodumping is less about the subject of the infodump, and more about showing someone how much you like them and enjoy spending time with them by being willing to share your knowledge on something. So when I realized that infodumping was more likely to push others away or make them think I was weird, I was really lost and didn't know how to connect with others in a way that they would recognize as me trying to be their friend.

I often didn't understand the references others made or interests they had. Most of the times that I tried to be interested in something my classmates seemed to be interested in, it backfired. Once, for instance, I noticed others talking about music they liked. I thought about what music I liked, which wasn't that much because I didn't follow celebrity culture. I think most of the people I felt I was a fan of were people who had performed as the musical guest on All That at some point. I would think to myself, "Yes, now I have something to talk about them because I like music, and they like music." Then I would ask my parents for permission to buy CDs by artists whose music I enjoyed.

Then, I come to find out that the celebrities I happened to choose were ones that classmates thought were uncool. So then I didn't feel I could speak about this subject either, and I had to go back to the drawing board. It's not to say I never had any friends, but before undergrad, none of my friendships never lasted longer than 2 or 3 years back then. Not just because of this dynamic; other factors were involved, but still. It probably didn't help that I felt I couldn't be genuine, I'm sure. Feeling chastened against communicating about a subject I was passionate about made social interaction way harder than it needed to be.

Anyway, I don't have a much more complicated conclusion than, I think the world would be a much better place if it was socially acceptable to ask people what animal fact they learned recently and what their favorite animals were, instead of, like, the weather, and asking "how are you" when it's also not socially acceptable to say anything other than "fine," or maybe "tired."

#actually autistic #high blogging #memories #long post

[ffc1cb]

new art blog

the short version:

1. i made a new art blog: @cbge;

2. @ffc1cb will stay up as an archive.

the long version:

hi everyone. this announcement is somewhat late, since the blog in question has been up for a few months now, and i’ve already started posting art on it. the reason it took me so long to “reveal” it is because i’ve been trying to figure out whether a new blog is something i actually want, or if it's just me throwing darts at a board, trying to make myself feel better somehow.

i don’t know when precisely it all started, but ever since sometime last year i’ve been going through a hard time, both emotionally and creatively. i’m not sure whether being depressed is what made art harder, or art becoming harder is what made me depressed (a bit of both, i think), but lately, drawing has been a struggle. 

i’ve found myself having less and less energy for art, and this lack of energy resulted in poorer quality of drawings, which resulted in me feeling like i’m getting worse at it, despite my efforts. i knew i could make good art, art that i’m proud of - i’ve done so countless times before, - but somehow it felt like i just couldn’t anymore, like my hands forgot how to. nothing looked right. 

i’ve been trying to experiment. i’ve learned some new things, tried this and that - it was enlightening, to say the least, and even though i kind of liked how it looked, it made me feel a sense of displacement. i was at odds with myself, my art, and how i felt about it, when previously i was always in sync. i was making art, yes, and it looked nice, but it felt like it wasn’t mine.

i suppose part of it was also the growing lack of engagement, and i don’t mean likes and reblogs - i never particularly cared about those. they are all just numbers to me; dry and impersonal. what i’m talking about is actual, human interactions: personal thoughts in tags, asks, replies, etc. a conversation. 

i don’t mean to sound “old” or anything, but i remember when talking to artists online was more commonplace. my wife tells me it’s because the internet culture has changed over the years, that people have become more reclusive, less willing to be open with their thoughts, and she's probably right, but in my slump i find it hard to believe. somehow it feels like it’s my fault for being less “engaging”, for seeming unapproachable or perhaps intimidating. maybe it’s “just a skill issue”, maybe it’s because i have stopped churning out fanart for popular fandoms, maybe it’s because i refuse to torture myself emotionally by having an art account on twitter (i can’t fucking stand the place anymore; i still post nsfw art there, but only because it’s literally one of the only places on the internet that allows you to do so. i miss when you could post female presenting tits on tumblr).

i have always, ever since i started posting art on the internet back in 2012, done it for human connection. i wanted to talk to people, and have people talk to me. i wanted to inspire people with my art, and i wanted to bring them comfort. i wanted to elicit an emotional response, and have people tell me about it. it was one of the main reasons i drew in the first place; having lost that, i’ve been struggling to stay passionate about making art.

i miss being a small artist on the internet during the 2010s. i remember when i could make a post going, “hey everyone, how are you all doing today?” and it would not seem weird to people in the slightest. it is just me? does anyone else feel that way? am i too deep in my own head? the internet feels so unwelcoming nowadays, especially to artists. we are all just content machines; people scroll by our stuff, or maybe look at it for half a second and leave a like before scrolling away. i know it’s unfair to demand people’s attention, especially now when our lives are already so overwhelmed by everything - no one has the energy to pay closer attention; i myself am not immune to mindless scrolling. but it feels bad. i wish we were all sincere and enthusiastic again.

anyway (sorry for rambling. i hope i haven’t bored you to death), you might want to say, okay, but how is making a new art blog on a “dying” social platform going to help with any of that? the truth is, i don’t know. i just felt like i needed a change. 

i’ve been running this blog since 2016 (that’s almost 8 full years!). i feel incredibly attached to it, but at the same time, i feel it weighing me down. 

there are people who followed me years ago for one specific thing, still expecting me to post about said thing (i still find it mindboggling that some people follow artists for a specific fandom only, but that is a whole other matter for a whole other post that i will never write). a third, if not half, of my following are probably dead blogs. and with my current struggle with trying to regain the joy i once felt for making art, looking back at all the art i’ve done over the years makes me feel tired. i still love it all; it’s all very dear to me. i’m proud of it; looking at it makes me mourn my younger and more passionate self.

so i’ve decided to make a new blog, where i will let myself post whatever i want, in whatever stage of donness i feel like. maybe it will help me, somehow. maybe it won’t. but if you care about my art, if you want to keep following me on my artistic journey, i welcome you to join me there. similarly, feel free not to - no hard feelings.

thank you everyone for your support over the years; it matters a lot to me. i’m not planning to delete or private this blog; it will stay up, and i will still be reachable on here. i will still answer asks, if there will be any. i’m just not planning to post any art here anymore. this is it for my dear old friend ffc1cb.

i can be found in other places:

@cbge, as mentioned earlier,

@k0nstanta, an art blog dedicated solely to my wife and i’s ocs,

@inquisimail, a dragon age ask blog that has become my dragon age sideblog in general,

and multiple other blogs, none of which are art related, but feel free to ask, if you’re curious.

thank you very much for reading all of this. i hope you have a wonderful day.

#salt talks

[fob4ever]

pete on the tuna for toast podcast 3.2.23

link

he tries to play golf once a week.

pete and the host talk about golf for a bit (they lost me here)

talks about the album title: "the parentheses being around the "for"- there is a little bit of "so much stardust"- i think about it in the way like- and it's like the dumbest thing, but everybody is stardust- everyone's these different molecules and carbon, former stars, and i think about that when i think about how different everybody on the planet is. we're all kind of the same still. and there's some relief in that."

pete: "love from the other side going number one after 17 years of our first appearance on the chart is like, the most fall out boy way to do it of all time. couldn't have done it way more than the way we did do it."

pete mostly writes lyrics on paper and on the notes app. sometimes if he's driving he'll have whoever's the passenger write it down for him. he doesn't do voice notes because he doesn't "think in those terms".

when they were writing smfsd, they had friends telling them that they should just release swgd 2.0, that it was the perfect time for it, but pete thought that was wrong and that it was "exactly not the time for it". he didn't want to do a retread, and he feels that when artists try to recapture the early magic it's just not possible. he thinks about when fob/mcr/patd first got big, green day felt like the position fob is in now, how GD had been a band for 20 years and they made a record that pete felt was adjacent to what they were doing & reminded people why green day was so big & why they loved them, and thats what they were channelling during the writing of lftos/smfsd- how it can be adjacent to all the stuff that's happening, but it shouldnt be a retread and it shouldnt be chasing what is happening right now

pete's been watching the last of us :)

"with srar and mania, we were just surviving! there was a pop culture landscape not super friendly to bands [...] and now this is a chance where everything's cyclical, and we have a chance to lean in to being the band we were in a futuristic way."

talks about the early days of fob and how their dreams were always "one size too big" and how pete always has that and it "drives patrick a little crazy" but they "fuel each other in that regard"

interviewer: "is it healthy to still have that state of mind [despite fob's achievements and success]?" pete: "hmmm... what would my therapist say..........." girl..

pete's been trying to enjoy the journey more: "[the band] has been hanging out way more than we [used to], we've been going out to dinner, exploring cities together and i think it helped this record."

patrick doesnt live in LA anymore!

"this is the first record in a while that we were in the same room together, we hashed things out, we passed notebooks back and forth. [...] we're a band where we get into it with each other but we're also siloed off from each other, this was the first time in a while where there was no silos"

"any feelings of doing a throwback is a little stomach-churning for me" so true pete

pete retells the panic origin story of ryan making fun of fob lol

talks about taking panic under their wing and how there were only a couple of bands that took fob under their wing when they first started like less than jake and punchline, and how he always liked the spirit of that.. talks about the communal spirit & culture surrounding hiphop music: "why couldnt we do that?"

"to me, [decaydance] was like seinfeld, like, you never knew who was going to show up at the apartment on seinfeld- they all lived in the same building... and i always thought 'why couldn't there be a record label like that?'" that tweet thats like. why gabe saporta da bus driver 😭

#post the hangout pics.. NOW #sorry my recaps are so long! as much as possible i try not to paraphrase what they say/try to keep it as true to their og words as possible #recap

[joesalw]

This conversation about Taylor's downfall in 2016 and what led up to it, plus this lie that most criticism of female celebrities is just misogyny is really interesting to me because it's something I talk to people about in real life. There's this idea that in mainstream media people love to build female celebrities up and then rip them apart when they get successful, which don't get me wrong is absolutely true, but in some cases it's a little more complicated than that. There are times when certain celebrities brand and present themselves as "the ideal dream woman" of whatever period they're in, and then when the societal image of what "the ideal dream woman" shifts but the celebrity's image doesn't, the facade cracks.

I think a good example of this is Jennifer Lawrence. I was a teenager when the hunger games movies were coming out and was obsessed so I used to watch a lot of the interviews with the cast. Jlaw presentes herself very much as a "cool girl", she was the youngest of 2 older brothers so she was a "tomboy" that loves sports and drinking beers and shots. She also made it a big deal about how she doesn't diet and is constantly eating yet still has a slim body and doesn't know about designer clothes and is so above all this fame thing. Whilst all this was happening the Gone Girl monologue was gaining traction particularly the part about cool girls and how women alter their personality for men's consumption. Eventually people caught on about all the fictional women and celebrities that fall into the trope and were over it, yet jlaw kept up with the persona. Couple that with her continually working with David o Russell, the insensitivity to other cultures, the overexposure and people realising her acting ain't really all that, you have the general public getting sick of her and her having to take a break. She's sort of made a comeback now and people are just chalking her downfall to "misogyny".

I wasn't really following what Taylor was up to in the lead up to her crash because I'd gotten sick of her long before that and avoided her stuff like the plague, but I did see someone on Reddit talk about how her winning album of the year over Kendrick Lemar and then using her speech to shit on another prominent black hip hop artist over something that was a lie wasn't a good luck for her. Add in the racist undertones in shake it off and wildest dreams videos for good measure.

This time around I do think her not adapting to the political and societal change is going to be a major factor if (I hope) she has another downfall. Before I get to the next part I do have to say I'm from England (you may have heard of it but it is a very foreign country/s) so if I'm wrong about the American political atmosphere someone feel free to correct me. After the election of trump there was a whole knew political awakening and conversations happening, one of them being about how Hillary lost due to misogyny (not completely true) so there were conversations about patriarchy, sexism, double standards and all that. This was the perfect climate for Taylor to be able to swoop in and use all these buzzwords she's learnt and blame anything bad that happened to her on misogyny and made all of her problems into "women problems". You had her giving quotes like how women are only allowed to react or some shit and released "the man" (side note but does anyone else find the bridge to the song kind of racist? Especially the way she's constantly compared to black artists?). She was of course celebrated for all this and had successfully rebranded to politically conscious Taylor Swift.

I don't think she expected the political climate to shift so quickly once again. In 2020 we had those viral videos of white women calling the cops on black people and the conversations about how white women use their privilege and tears to harm others and get away with it. During BLM there were talks about how certain white women will present themselves as allies and progressive but still have friends and date people who are bigots showing their politics is skin deep *cough cough*. COVID had us talking about the disconnect from celebrities about the real world and how capitalism is just another plague that is killing us normal people. You had certain companies and people becoming billionaires during this time and this truly began the crumbling of the pedestal the rich and famous were on.

Flashforward to now, where there are multiple genocides happening in front of our eyes. A time where you can't open any social media site without seeing innocents being slaughtered in ways that fills you with a rage and sorrow I can't even put into words. A time where our world leaders are doing Jake shit like some Arab leaders or actively funding it like the UK and US. A large number of Americans are saying they won't vote for Biden next year, others are screaming if you do that we'll get a repeat of 2016. But people are rightfully pointing out that Hilary is also a war criminal and the DNC were told people are not going to vote for her so pick a different candidate, they didn't and lo and behold those people stuck to their word. Women being in power does nothing if they uphold the same system which is exactly what women like Taylor do.

So the women Taylor rebranded herself to is the exact kind of woman whos shit people are sick of. Her face literally being used as the face of the western media ignoring the atrocities happening to brown and black people and upholding the status quo is just poetic justice. Add in the absolute shallowness of that interview and the whole capitalism is okay when you're girl bossing and you've got people wondering who the fuck does she thinks she is.

There's obviously a lot more to any potential crash Taylor may have and this is all my observations that may be wrong, but I do find all this shit fascinating and I wish people smarter than me would look into it to see if I've got a point.

You’ve got a great point

#anti taylor swift #anti swifties #swifties dni

[colleendoran]

OK, so you are looking at a comic I did back in 1990 that changed my life in so many ways. Not the way you’re thinking of.

It taught me some very important lessons about the comics business, fame, and more importantly, how fame doesn’t rub off. And how having reasonable expectations will keep you centered and on the right path.

Many people don’t internalize this lesson. And now that our industry is no longer just Fandom Culture but is now Celebrity Culture, we see more and more creators with incredibly unrealistic expectations getting into comics, expecting the sun and moon to rise out of whatever they do, and being disappointed and frustrated when they don't.

I got occasional mainstream comics work in the early 1980’s, but I was still looking for my big break years later, especially since a major gig I was working on got shelved forever. I cannot even begin to tell you just how much being out of the eyes of the market for YEARS at a time while you work on a gig - and then the gig never coming out - can absolutely sink your brand.

Nowadays we have social media. Back then, you had no way to be seen if your work wasn’t being published. People forgot about you in about 15 minutes.

So when I got a gig working on Amazing Spider-Man, you bet I was thrilled. And even more thrilled when the darned thing sold like crazy. This issue of Amazing Spider-Man outsold previous Todd MacFarlane issues. And I knew Marvel was looking for a new artist. Huzzah! I outsold Todd! Maybe the new artist should be me!

You can imagine how pleased and excited I was to go to conventions and sign copies of a book that hundreds of thousands of fans bought. It was fun getting my first big lines of fans. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to push my other works to them as well.

But few Spider-Man fans were interested in my other books. They could not possibly care less about Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld, that’s for sure.

The Spider-Man glow was gone in no time. And Marvel picked Erik Larsen to be the regular artist.

I might as well have never worked on Spider-Man for all the long term good it did. Were it not for that one brief shining moment of royalty check (which was darned good,) it had no effect on my prospects.

While I got more work at Marvel, I was scrambling to make a living and took on too much, doing sub-par art that didn’t please anyone.

I realized pretty quickly that Spider-Man’s fans weren’t my fans. I might as well have been a spark plug on that issue. Fans lined up, got me to sign a book, and forgot about me the next day. 

(Yeah I know some people say they love that comic, but I often hear from people who tell me how much they hated my art back then and how much they grew to love it later. Thank you, I’ll take it.)

Anyway, it was all a very tough lesson. But I appreciate that I learned it early before I got to the point where I could never learn it.

Fame isn’t transitive. It doesn’t rub off.

The public needs more than your proximity to something they know to transfer their attention to you and your work.

A lot of people got a taste of this in the early 1990’s. For a while, self-publishing was The Big Thing. I self published A Distant Soil and did well for some years, at one point making more than I could in mainstream comics, until the market crashed in 1996. A lot of creators thought if they just went to Image Comics, they’d all be millionaires.

That didn’t happen for almost all of them.

An old frenemy saw how well I was doing self publishing and assumed that if they just transferred their mainstream comics fan base to their creator owned work, they’d get rich.

But that didn’t happen. Their self-published work sold a fraction of what mine did. Their project died in the red. I never got my art back, including work from an unpublished future issue of the project. I remember being with this creator at a show and enduring their fury at how fans weren’t paying attention to them and their project. 

How could this happen? They were a star mainstream creator!

The mainstream cred did not transfer to the other work. The fans wanted the famous characters, not the indie project they were trying to push.

There was no point in explaining this either. I’d learned this lesson myself, but this person never learned it.

Most people never learn it.

How is it that I work on Famous This or with Famous Person and why am I not famous Too?

Because fame isn’t transitive.

I’ve worked on projects that got a lot (and I mean a lot) of buzz, but there are projects that didn’t necessarily set the world on fire that did more for me as an artist and for my finances than “big” projects did. 

Reign of the Zodiac and The Book of Lost Souls, both early/mid 2000’s comics with mediocre sales set me on a solid financial footing because they are two of the few regular monthly gigs I’ve done in all my years working in comics. That monthly paycheck paid more than the projects I’d done before them. The financial and emotional stability was beyond price. I loved everything about those projects. 

Except for their premature demise.

The one and only famous project that had a major transformative afterglow effect re: me and my work was Sandman. I met Neil Gaiman years before I worked on Sandman, before he was famous. I only worked on two issues. Many other artists were far more important to the project than me, of course. Then I went for nearly twenty years solid without working with Neil at all except on a pinup and short story adaptation of Troll Bridge that almost no one remembers. 

I started working with Neil again when he saw some art I did for a book for Tori Amos back in 2008. Tori Amos fans didn’t flock to my side when they saw it, yet another example of how Famous People Fame Doesn’t Rub Off. But I lavished time and attention on the project, did the art on spec with a completely new style and process, and showed it to Neil. I asked Neil if he’d take a chance at working with me again after lo, these many years and let me have a go again at adapting the story Troll Bridge that I’d botched in 1998. Neil said yes.

After The Book of Lost Souls got killed back in 2006, I could barely get arrested in comics and I wasn’t sure I had a future. I was shocked that Neil said yes. 

That Tori Amos job reestablished my working relationship with Neil and brought me to Dark Horse Comics, a publisher which had shown little prior interest in my stuff.

It took me years to complete Troll Bridge and during that time, Peter David contacted me to ask if I’d work on Stan Lee’s autobiography. That came out of the blue, and boy did I appreciate it. It sold like crazy, which was unexpected, really.

So I went from Not Being Able to Get Arrested in Comics in 2008, doing 1$ sketch cards and working for page rates I worked for in 1986, to Not Being Able to Remember What I am Doing Because I have Too Much To Do in 2022. I mean literally couldn’t remember I did a pinup for a gig back in February, and I not only forgot about it, I didn’t know it was published last June.

It looks like I had a super fast and fun run up if you’re just looking at my highlight reel. But it wasn’t. I’ve had peaks and valleys, (a few very fine peaks, the best being around 1993 and the other now), and sometimes the “big time” projects I thought would make my career held me back worse than the “small time” ones. “Big time” projects got shelved or came and went, quickly forgotten, and I said no to other projects while I was busy, and the one that got away ended up getting made into a multi-million dollar film franchise that would have set me up for life.

Ow.

If just being next to a famous person or working on a famous project was a guarantor of success, than I’d have been hugely successful every day of my adult life. 

That is not how it works.

Even the famous people are not as all that as you think, otherwise you wouldn’t see so many actors with haunted looks on their faces at conventions.

I met Neil before he was famous, but it took over thirty years for me to establish a solid working relationship with him.

Thirty. 

Years.

I’ve worked with famous wrestlers, actors, musicians, politicians, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, and on almost every single major licensed character there is. And I’m not super-famous or rich. I mean, I never wanted to be famous in the first place, but I’m not completely unknown in my field, and I’m not poor (anymore). Still, seriously, folks. I’m not going to movie premieres and living in Hollywood. 

I actually get asked about that, and I think it’s so funny.

I was watching some recent art auctions, and I was absolutely shocked to see original pages by an Eisner-nominated creator go for rock bottom prices, mainstream interiors at around $50 per page. I could not believe it. This artist is over 40 years old. I wonder if things will turn around for them.

Time will tell.

In the end, it’s not all about the people you’re standing next to. Or the character. Or the company. Or the award. And it's certainly not all about you.

Fans are here for you one minute, and forget about you tomorrow. Then you get $50 for your Eisner nominated art.

Art either takes off or it doesn’t. You either take off or you don’t. 

And then you can fly too close to the sun and fall.

Worse yet…you just fade and no one even notices that you crashed beautifully into the surf.

If people knew what the magic formula was, they’d be selling it and everyone would have what they want out of their art life.

But there is no magic formula. There just isn’t.

Everyone wants to be special to someone. Especially artists. Everything you create is special to you.

But it is extremely rare that what you create is as special to others as it is to you. Sometimes artists are just like everyone else. 

Here and gone.

Fame and success is not transitive. And they're not forever.

That’s the lesson.

I'm working on Good Omens right now. The Kickstarter pre-sign up news is here. No, it's not an icky newsletter, it will just let you know when the Kickstarter launches.

I have a Patreon. I'm funding the final volume of my space opera A DISTANT SOIL with it, but I won't be working on it again until Good Omens is complete. I have one of the most active and productive Patreons on the site.

I'm also on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram. Not too much though, they are distraction pits.

Make art because you love it. Because the rest...well, good luck. If it happens for you...it happens. And I hope it does.

#comics #neil gaiman #sandman #essays #comics industry #fame #spider man #tori amos

[generic-sonic-fan]

The Sonic Crew, 40 Years Later-

Just one of many possibilities, of course, but I challenged myself to imagine what Sonic's crew and Team Dark might look like when they're older. Long post beneath the cut:

Sonic

The one who changed the least

Still an absolute daredevil with a heart of gold

All that running and frequent injuries did a number on his knees and he started using knee braces and a cane/crutches in his late 20s

(it took him a while to be okay with this, but he's over that now)

(He can still run if needed, but he'll be hurting for a few days after.)

Gets his need for speed by racing cars, motorcycles, the Tornado, and by skydiving

Still LOVES helping people and spends a lot of time volunteering

Yes, he's still signing autographs

He's got a permanent home now, mostly to store the Tornado and his other vehicles. He took over Tails' workshop when the fox left for greener pastures and likes keeping the place fixed up.

He's been reading a lot more. Now that he's got a permanent place, his library collection is massive

He's just taking it one day at a time, man. Always has, always will

Tails

The one who changed the most

He owns a garage in the city now, with a sign on the door that says "Prower's inventions and tinker shop"

He always knew that he wanted to sell the things he made, but he had absolutely zero interest in the business side of things outside of running social media accounts

So he's gone indie! He's almost more of an artist and influencer than a world-class inventor, but don't let that fool you

He's still selling his patents to top companies and making a crapton of money

(he's the second most well-off of the friend group aside from Rouge.)

So how's he changed?

He's lost a lot of his childlike innocence, become increasingly more focused on people's perception of him and making online content

and ultimately, he chose technology over the outdoors

Sonic kinda knew that sort of thing was inevitable, but it still hurt when Tails decided to move to the big city and stop exercising as much

But he's very happy where he is and how he's living, and he and Sonic still catch up with each other frequently

Knuckles

Still guarding the Master Emerald!

But he's really learned how to do more with his life despite staying on one island for most of his time

Tails finally convinced him to install enough technology to keep him connected to the world below

Since then, Knuckles has become the number one expert on Echidna anthropology/archaeology in the world

He's written several books using speech-to-text technology

(it's been difficult work- he's not the best reader or writer, but he put the effort in and now he's a published author!)

When he's not writing or giving talks on Echidna culture over video call, he's still taking care of Angel Island, growing his own food, and making more discoveries about ancient Echidna culture. That much hasn't changed

Ever since the defeat of Eggman, he's more willing to take vacations off of Angel Island, but it's still a rare occurence

He usually notifies the friend group via group chat whenever he plans on coming down for a visit, often resulting in reunions

Amy

Amy absolutely "settled down" and opened the bakery she's always wanted to open

Unlike Tails, she LOVES the business side of things along with the actual baking

Her bakery is one of the most famous in the city she lives in now

She loves the thrill of commanding the kitchen staff and managing all the tasks that go into producing good pastries!

She also developed a love for children, and spoils any child in her vicinity rotten

And she has kids of her own, duh

She helps organize and moderate the group chat for the old friend group

And she loves coordinating visits/reunions

Her house is always open to anybody and everybody. She loves entertaining guests, especially if they're old friends

Her house is SO cute and homey it's almost overbearing

When her kids have kids she is going to be the sweetest grandma ever

Rouge

Already detailed in this post here!

Shadow

He's matured a lot, finally having enough wisdom to act as "the wise immortal"

He's become a nomad, sort of like how Sonic used to be, except he takes things at a much slower pace

(he retired from GUN and absolutely had a midlife crisis. this is the result)

He keeps diligent journals of every place he visits, food he tries, people he meets, and so on

He's picked up on Sonic's hobby of learning languages due to his travels

He's gotten much better at socializing with strangers but still prefers solitude

. . . but he still carries a phone on him and participates (albeit rarely) in the old friend group chat

(Rouge and Omega have him on speed dial, of course. He'll drop everything at their beck and call, even if it's a simple "I miss you")

He's gotten more interested in some more esoteric stuff that would've made his younger self cringe, like poetry and spirituality

The world knows him as a bit of cryptid, lol

Omega

Unlike Shadow, he's not retired!

He left GUN and became a freelance operator. Kind of a mercenary, except he has just a touch more discretion than that

(His version of a midlife crisis happened when he finally killed Eggman circa 30 or so years ago. Those were some messy, messy times, but since then he's made peace with his continued existence)

He is still Angry, of course, but he's a lot more chill than he used to be. Sometimes this throws Shadow for a loop.

His ego, though ever-present, has been tempered by age

Mostly because he kinda thinks his younger self was a bit cringe??

Mention the word "Meatbag" and he'll get stoically embarrassed about it

Anyways, he's also a nomad, traveling the world to do jobs and stopping by Tails' garage for repairs

He stops by Rouge's house often, and meets up with Shadow at least once a month

("YOU ARE THE FOOLISH ORGANICS THAT CONVINCED ME OF THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP. YOU ARE NOT GETTING RID OF ME SO EASILY.")

#sonic the hedgehog #miles tails prower #knuckles the echidna #amy rose #shadow the hedgehog #e-123 omega #weird post! but it wouldn't leave my mind #I've been tinkering with this post since I answered that original ask with Rouge #idk man. as an adult fan it's kind of nice to imagine where they all end up

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

aita for informing someone that a meme was made by a problematic person?

i (18F) attend this youth group run by and for queer people to meet other queer people my age. this means that the other members are usually well versed in memes and internet culture. yesterday at the group i heard someone (18 ish? NB) constantly referencing the dj crazy times tiktoks and i immediately felt uncomfortable. i had recently learned that the creator had made a handful of tiktoks purely making fun of kids with autistic traits titled "kids who are no fun" (ive seen the proof i promise im not pulling this out of my ass) and as an autistic person myself it pissed me off that he can still gain support despite that.

i also know the person who was referencing the tiktoks and showing them to other people is autistic. i didnt want to be confrontational or judgemental, i just wanted to let them know what they were supporting. i tried to hold off saying anything because i didnt want to potentially harsh the vibes at the youth group but this person kept referencing the meme over and over and it was upsetting me.

i went up to them and asked if it was okay if i shared potentially upsetting news to which i realized i said that in front of the group and everyone was staring at us. (which luckily wasn't many but still frightening) then i informed them about the other content that dj crazy times makes as non-aggressively and non-confrontationally as i could. to which they replied "well, im autistic and i like it so im gonna keep enjoying his music" (not paraphrasing)

i backed off because i knew arguing wouldn't do anything productive or respectful. i basically said "yeah haha i just wanted to let you know" and then nitpicked the conversation in my head the rest of the night. it upset me how someone could still support someone after learning something like that especially when you're the one affected, but i suppose it could be a separating art from the artist type of deal.

anyway, i worry that i pulled a dick move by doing that especially in front of everyone. if i were to redo the conversation i wouldve brought them aside and told him that the meme made me personally uncomfortable for those reasons and just asked them to stop referencing it around me. but thats not what happened unfortunately.

so tumblr, aita ?

for info: as far as i know the videos are not deleted or held accountable for. if anyone knows if he's changed his ways please tell me 👍

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

[procrastinatingsoicanreadfanfics]

Vikings and their eras

Summary: what era would vikigns be in if they weren't in their own

Notes: I did a lot of text for this one, bc I loved thinking about this!! There are some pretty popular characters missing (Ragnar, Sigurd, Athelstan) where I just couldn’t imagine a certain era for them. Thank you so much for your request :)))))) Some of these eras aren’t wonderful or filled with positivity but that doesn’t mean these characters wouldn’t thrive.

tagged: @majesticwren @obsessiveformiyatwins @leithdragon @demon-of-the-ancient-world @alicedopey, @ivarlover @levithestripper @batmandallyboy @akayxo09 @vrtualfairy (hmu to be added!)

based on this request | masterlist | requests are OPEN!

Lagertha

Lagertha would thrive well in times of crises and war (lmao). The black death, WW1 or 2, or long periods of war/famine/sickness is where Lagertha does well. Think about her what you will, but she brings people together, manages them, and takes care of them. She’s a natural leader, and a fighter, so she’s able to protect her community.

We’ve seen examples of this in the series, think during the sickness in Kattegat, or when she takes over and completely builds up Hedeby. People tend to trust her, and especially women look up to/feel safe around her. When disaster strikes, she would be able to save/take care of them.

Aslaug

I had to think about this for a really long time because I think that Aslaug fits so well into the era the show is set in, however, I finally decided on the 1920s. Even as a feminine woman in Viking Scandinavia, she had a lot of authority over herself and knew how to grow a business (Kattegat) when Hirst wasn’t feeling sexist.

In the 1920s, she’d live in a big city, maybe Berlin or New York, and she’d own some sort of speakeasy. I’d love to think that her speakeasy would be a place for the very few pagans of the city to meet up in secret, and she herself would still be a norse pagan, völva, etc. Also, she’d dip her toes into wild jewellery design (think Schiaparelli). Definitely someone who attracts artists and would be considered a muse.

Rollo

Middle Medieval Ages for sure. He thrives being a knight because he’s a manipulative little hoe that I can’t stand. Gets to do his performative heroism during tourneys and woo women only to leave them all alone.

Rollo is not a good person, esp. towards women. He constantly gets into trouble with the church and with fathers whose daughters he ‘dishonors’. Definitely needs a wife like Gisla to slap some sense into him. I think that eventually (mid forties) he’d start to mature. Also, having children would help him become a better person (I think they should have put that into a show).

Bjorn

Bjorn thrives well in the late 2000s to early 2010s, when travel blogs were on the rise. He’s one of the early influencers, and travels the world together with Halfdan. This only works bc cancel culture isn’t real yet. Bjorn would say some stupid shit and get hounded for it let’s be real. Nonetheless, there is always some rumour about him and Halfdan being a thing (they would be if they both didn’t constantly say ‘that’s gay’).

Alternatively, Bjorn might make a good colonizer (can I say that?), but it’s not like he isn’t that already.

Ubbe

Ubbe would thrive during the late medieval ages (defo not the Renaissance though). He’s the type of man who would enjoy the idea of the charming knight. I think Ubbe would definitely enjoy the idea of quests/saving damsels in distress/having the arranged-marriage-turned-lovestory (he’s a booktok girly tbh).

This doesn’t mean that all of this is totally pure. Ubbe gets some shit twisted in canon as well (ESPECIALLY concerning Margrethe). Maybe his first war was something crusade-like, and he went into it thinking of heroic acts and blabla and then got fucked up by battle and gore. Also has a religion and Madonna/whore complex problem.

Hvitserk

In the show, Hvitserk was always seeking sense/purpose while also struggling with balance, which is why I think he would thrive in the 1970s. This is THE era for protests and social change. Climate change, feminism and sexuality all became important topics. Going to protests would be able to give him a sense of change, and I think it would be liberating for him as well, to be able to free himself of his restraints by changing something.

I’ll go into communes a little more for Helga, but I think Hvitserk would thrive in an early commune a lot. He needs to have people around him taking care of his mental health, and this would be great for his mental health. Yes, therapy helps a lot of people, but I think if Hvitserk lived in our time, he would think that talk therapy is stupid, and completely close himself off to it. This guy just needs a lot of love, okay?

Also, he needs to smoke some 70s weed every once in a while.

Ivar

Just like Hvitserk, Ivar would thrive during the 1970s. However, this is for completely different reasons and also means that no one else gets to thrive. I chose the 1970s because it’s THE serial killer decade.

That honestly sounds terrible but we all know it’s true.

Ivar would be bitter about being discriminated/not being able to fully take part in society/not getting any women and that would turn him homicidal. He definitely overcomplicated his killings and does shitty bloodeagles to get some cool name but all he gets is like “the Viking killer” or something and he’s so mad about that he reveals himself on his deathbed to change his title. It doesn’t work.

Floki

Floki just wants to be where Helga is, but he would not thrive in the 2020s. I think he’d get in arguments with Helga about vaccinations. However, I want Floki to be in the 2010s/2020s with Helga. He definitely has some kind of hallucination-related mental illness at the least. I think that especially the season where he acted out against Helga (season 4?) shows that his mental health was making him harmful towards others and probably towards himself.

I can’t diagnose Floki, but I think we can all see that he might have some kind of bipolar disorder/mania disorder on top of a schizophrenia. He needs some kind of meds, and he needs someone to help him taking them.

Helga

This is very specific, but Helga would do AMAZING during the early era of Covid (like March 2020). Yes, she’s a very social person, but I do believe that Helga would be part of a quite isolated commune if she lived during modern times, and even during that time be isolated with Floki.

I would like to think that the commune could be self-sufficient and Helga just gets to go ham making banana bread and care packages. She thrives in this time where she doesn’t really have to go to work (even though she loves being a kindergartener too) and gets to take care of the people in her commune, and even further than that from the comfort of her own home.

Astrid

This woman thrives where no one else does, and that is toxic 2020s twitter. All she does is tweet, get cancelled, tweet, get popular, repeat. She’s so so annoying and bullies a bunch of people who don’t deserve to be bullied. Is most definitely blocked by trump, hailey Bieber and the Kardashians at least.

Makes a living by selling feetpics.

Ecbert

Ecbert thrives in the 1980s. Now. Hear me out. Ecbert in neon Zumba clothes. There, that’s my reason.

I’m just kidding, there’s more. I’m not old enough to fully understand most of the decades I’m talking about in here but the 1980s, it seems, were this extremely colorful and wild decade. Literally everywhere, color just kind of seemed to explode, and I think Ecbert would thrive in this kind of chaotic atmosphere.

(are there people in their forties or older on this post that can verify?)

Aelswith

I’m really sad that we didn’t go into Aelswith more in the show, but I firmly believe that Aelswith would make an amazing Sufragette. Thinking back to her time on the show, she was always very firm in standing her ground, more so than Judith or even Lagertha in some ways (especially in the sense that she was SO YOUNG). She directed and strengthened Alfred, and I think during season 6, she used a beartrap to defend her baby?

Anyway, I imagine her as a rich/aristocratic lady in London who definitely steers the household while Alfred brings the money in (he likes art) and she decides that, if she puts in the work in the house, she should be able to decide over the country that house is in as well.

#history vikings #request #vikings #ivar #hvitserk #ivar x reader #ivar the boneless #ubbe #lagertha x reader #ubbe x reader #hvitserk x reader #aelswith #rollo #aslaug #floki #vikings ivar #ivar ragnarsson x reader #rollo x reader

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

Thinking about JK and seven's success in the context of Taylor's recent streams bomb is fascinating. Yes her numbers are crazy but let's think about it - everyone on social media is talking about her and the album and they have been for weeks. I was listening to a political podcast and they signed off with the guy saying he's going to listen to the album ahead of time to make sure it's ok for his 5 year old daughter to listen to. She's literally a household name - even in households like mine where my parents do not keep up with with western artists. Yeah a lot of her numbers are stacked because of versions and payola and every platform pushing the hell out of her BUT STILL - there's something behind that push. People are tuned in! Everyone who's tuned into the cultural zeitgeist knew TTPD was coming. Same with Olivia Rodrigo - yes she has an aura of industry plantness - getting pushed right out of the gate and becoming a darling of critics everywhere for your debut album doesn't just happen. But again, her albums are GOOD. The songs are well written and she was clearly deeply involved in every step of the way. Everyone knows driving license and the story behind it. Payola as a concept is annoying especially when so many deserving artists get ignored because they don't have it but it's undeniable that after artists like TS and OR get all this payola, their songs become the moment. Everyone's buzzing about them and listening to their albums.

What is seven? It's numbers are at TS and OR levels right? If you think about it seven debuted with more streams than djo's end of the beginning did and it's charted higher for longer. But which song launched who as a solo artist to the GP that Hybe desperately wants? A song with numbers at that level but what is the ground level reality of its popularity? The most telling thing is that after that completely insane debut seven had, if it was really such a great song that everyone incl the GP had tuned in for, those people should've at least checked golden out. That is the point. That was scooters strategy. Have seven become the next baby or driving license and capture the GP interest so it sustains for the rest of his debut.

The point is that people will compare his numbers to other kpop acts but he didn't get a kpop debut. He got the kind of debut and platform push TS and OR get. So his numbers are good at a kpop level but did it achieve the objective? I have to imagine the objective was that JK became the next JB or the next OR or....as Hybe keeps trying to do, it was for him to become the next BTS. No, Hybe can keep trying to push a particular narrative because JK is their sunk cost fallacy, but inspite of goldens streams and sales eclipsing others, his debut was not successful.

It is irony because people can and will bring up his numbers in relation to Jimin or Tae or lesserafim or whoever and act like JK is doing amazing but I'm telling you now that the reason JK's debut makes me so angry is because if Jimin had had that world cup stage for a solo debut, that humongous deal wouldn't have just been a footnote of cool places BTS have performed at. It would have been a noteworthy performance. We have ten years of his solo stage to prove that. It's this wasted potential that gets me so heated up about JK because of all the opportunities he got. Compare the payola put in versus results gotten and the mediocrity is staggering considering what I mentioned other artists have achieved with that payola level in my first paragraph. The only reason I think about JK is because of this - it drives me mad.

Sorry this got...long and ranty 😭

i must've said this last year already but yes, he had a bigger debut and numbers (after debut) compared to other kpop or korean acts, but he was really nowhere people like Taylor or Harry, to whom everyone compared him to. Let's not even talk about Michael Jackson and how hard they tried that he'd be namedropped alongside Jungkook.

The most important difference to me is that people RESPECT Taylor. They respect Harry, and they respect Michael even so many years after his death. Soloist Jungkook doesn't have that respect. BTS might've gotten really close to have it, but not them as soloists. Part of it might be because he's korean, sure; but more than anything, he doesn't have people's respect because he has not earned it. Period. He hasn't done anything that would gain him people's respect or admiration.

Taylor had a moment where she lost people's respect too - she went completely MIA, didn't show her face in public for years, she was the laugh of the town. Granted, a lot of it was pushed by this insane, psychopathic hate culture and spurred on by Kanye West and Kim Kardashian simply because they're people who just like to get involved in shit. Taylor's never really had a scandal (she's actually a really sweet girl and so incredibly smart too), but because they -the Kardashians/Wests- thought it was fun to hate on her, they did it and everyone jumped on the bandwagon because if there's something people on the internet lack, that's a personality of their own.

Now she's regained all the success and people's affection she had before that, and ten thousands times more. The haters moved on, found jobs probably, Kim Kardashian isn't even that "big" anymore, nobody talks about her and Kanye is an unmedicated man roaming around with seemingly no direction whatsoever. Taylor came out of that being in a great space in her personal life, had spent a couple of years inside her home with someone who loved her, wrote and release lover and everyone flocked to it.

Then came folklore and evermore, which were the albums that really did it for her; those albums are crazy good and so different from everything else everybody was putting out that moment. Many people who'd previously thought she was too bubblegum pop, or that her songs were silly, changed their mind, started taking her seriously as a writer/singer and became fans after listening to folklore and evermore; and those people stayed. Those people are still listening to her music. This isn't something I see on the internet, but I went to her concert last November and everyone I talked to had become a fan in 2019 or after.

But she also knows how fickle it all is, and she's talked about it. Is she wrong for wanting to protect what she's worked all her life to build?

She's a business woman, it's true. And many "stans" on the internet hate that, for some reason that I really don't understand. Because taking the reins in their own careers is the only way people are able to survive in music, literally. I don't remember where she said it, but it was Beyonce precisely who said once that she didn't have a seat at the table, so instead she built her own table. That's Taylor, too. Not because Taylor was underprivileged or anything, and but in the business sense. These women don't become billionaires because they "only do music", there's millions of people out there, doing music on the streets. They become billionaires because they're doing business too.

Most people don't want others to be successful, or at the very least they aren't really hoping and praying you'll do well. Mostly they just don't care. And I've said this a lot of times in relation to BTS too - that all the members were looking out for themselves and their own solo careers and that was it. I've said before that Jimin is not a business man, and I don't expect him to ever be one, but I also wish for him to have at least one person standing by him and his decisions. It'd be great to believe doing arts today is all glitter and parties, but it's a business as much as being a wall street guy is.

Maybe it's so overwhelming to me because I've been a Taylor fan since 2008 right before fearless came out, but people really don't get how unprecedented her career is. I was 13 in 2008, the year my sister was born. Now, it's 2024 my sister is 16 and she's a Taylor fan. Without me even intervening, mind you, because we don't live together. We went to the concert because she wanted to go.

How many people can you say they had a career in music 20 years ago and not only are they still at it, but they're getting bigger with each passing year? Because I honestly couldn't name you one single person apart from Taylor.

Maybe I could say BTS if they were active right now, but that it's yet to be seen because the fandom did go downhill after butter. PTD wasn't as successful as butter or dynamite were, and let me not even mention the group songs that came after because that was embarrassing for them.

Also, another point but men rarely -if ever- bring anything new to the table. Armys, especially those who like Jungkook or Yoongi, are the epitome of hypocrisy because what has Jungkook done that's spectacular? Be shirtless? Please.

His songs were mid, the singing was mid, the dancing was below mid. They really are in no position to speak and shouldn't be taken seriously. And this takes me back to the respect thing and how he really didn't do anything to gain it.

For some reason I'm also thinking of Lana del Rey who was literally BEGGING people to listen to her album, and even said that she'd hoped her album would go viral and not that photo of her working in some fast food place. You have loser gays on twitter going lana this lana that, but they don't really respect her either.

This is something I've said before, too; but time really is the only proof of how "impactful" an artist is. Olivia's had a great run so far, but will people remember her or talk about her 10 years down the line? Is she still gonna be relevant? Is BTS still gonna be revelant? Is Jungkook gonna be relevant? Great debuts are great and all, but in the end it doesn't make an artist, as well as a bad debut doesn't break one either. I've also said this about Jimin before; that if he still wants to have a solo career after military, the only way to go should be up. This Taylor type of career where you get bigger with each release is literally everyone's dream and it actually proves that whatever you've been doing until that moment has worked and people can't get enough of you.

[moss-bride]

The lie of human kindness

Ren Hana x fem artist reader

1/3 chapters

She's covered in paint and hates the crusted splashes it left on her skin.

The garage her neighbors so kindly allowed her to use is a bit tight but she can't complain. This is the first time she's had a space outside her bedroom.

No. Not when there are so many artists out there that empty the living room of their dingy apartments to make their works.

She needs to make a trip to the hardware store to buy paint thinner and rounded tip brushes. She writes down her supplies on a notepad when her phone rings, the screen flashes to that familiar name. It causes a burst of nervous enthusiasm

to her most constant buyer.

She answers. "Mr Fox! What did you think of the photos I emailed you? Would you like to change anything? I'm finished with the base so by this Thursday will be your last chance to make edits." she's babbling. Something that happens often in their conversations

"No, it's coming out perfectly! " the smooth voice replies. He continually has nothing but compliments for her work. It makes her a little worried he's too afraid to give her criticism. 

Which is silly because a person wouldn't spend as much as he did on a work that isn't perfect. Right? 

In her doubt, she almost doesn't hear his next words. "I was wondering if you'd like to accompany me to a gala."

"Me?" she's speechless for a moment. Unsure of what to say. "I…" The schedule in her notepad is empty as it's been since first started. Between work and … Work, time for clubbing is rare and she finds she hates the loud noise of clubs unlike some women her age.

She doesn't have to flip the page to know her time slot is open. Yet she hesitates. Having one on one time with Mr. Fox as his partner at a party with people she doesn't know is a daunting thing to consider.

"I'd love to go, Mr Fox but I don't exactly have proper clothes for a fancy party."

"I'll send you some!" he chirps. Ever the supportive fan. There goes her one reason. He often reminded her of a favorite uncle

She's honored that he would consider her so promising at her craft that he would show her off to acquaintances. Reminds herself that these are rich friends that could potentially commission and buy. 

This is an amazing opportunity to network. She shouldn't be so wary! nonetheless, her heart frets in her chest. She chews her lip. "I don't know if I'm comfortable being in your debt like that."

"Don't sweat it. Consider it an investment for how big a splash I envision you'll make for the scene." 

The easy grin of his is palpable through the phone.

he's always talking about culture, movements, and postmodernism. "Just knowing I'll be part of fostering such an artist is enough." she knew he would say something like that.

She doesn't know how to respond. Another thing that happens frequently between the two of them. Her eyes stare out the garage window. "I-"

Mr. Fox refuses to take the beginning of her stuttered refusal. "Perfect! I'll send someone to pick you up. Bye-bye." The tone rings and she's staring at the ended phone call in shock.

She shouldn't be upset with Mr. Fox,  oftentimes he was the lone benefactor to her works and he's a kind man. There's no malice to his intentions, in fact, he's looking out for her by doing this.

Yes, there are skeevy men, people in general, in the art world that take advantage of others. She has heard of their predatory moves from forums and community posts. 

But Mr. Fox was not one of them. She is fortunate to have met him so early in her career. An enthusiastic client is hard to come by.

 

On the day of the gala, a black expensive model car is sent to wait for her on the street, while she is climbing down the stairs, embarrassed to sit on the spotless leather seats inside. Neighbors gawk as she climbs in with her plain day clothes. Some wave as she leaves.

The ride to Mr. Fox's home is long. Perfect to recite her manners.

She printed out business cards and brought her satchel, a big green bag full of 'sketches' (finished works made to seem effortless), and her necessities. Keys, wallet, wipes for her glasses, and chapstick. She rustles through the items to make sure she has everything before the car starts driving.

Slowly she watches the apartments become brighter, luxury apartments, then comes a bit of suburbia, then the gated ones, the big mansions with obnoxious features and long driveways. 

These people love their privacy.

When they arrive she's almost asleep, forehead pressed against the window. The driver wakes her. 

The front of his home is as beautiful as she imagined. Not the ugly McMansions that she saw on the way but an elegant building with manicured trees and a welcoming structure. Not too showy and with the right amount of architecture to give taste. 

Clutching her bag protectively over herself she gathers her courage and follows the butler.

There are people in uniform doing chores around the place. Maids and servers that work for him. Gosh, even their professional uniforms make her feel underdressed. They scurry to put together any final preparations for the party. White tablecloths are set

No one's here yet. She might be a little earlier than expected.

When Mr Fox emerges from the upper doorway she breathes a sigh of relief and allows her shoulders to lax. He calls her name and warmly greets her. A smile displaying his sharp canine. "Ready for the big day?"

She gives a shaky confirmation in an attempt to appear confident but he sees through it and chuckles. Clasping a hand on her shoulder as they walk into one of the wings.

"You can get dressed here."

She looks around the well-furnished room. There's a bathroom connected to the far side. A spacious bed and draped on top, wrapped in plastic must be her dress.

"I'll be out in a minute."

He makes no motion to leave, she thinks that he is scanning her body from top to bottom. It makes her face heat.

She laughs. "I'm fine Mr Fox, you can go now."

He stands there for a moment then clears his throat and adjusts his tie. "Of course!"

He's about to shut the door when he pauses and motions her close. "Before I leave…." He snatched the lenses off her face. "You won't be needing these."

"My glasses?" she's unsure about him taking them. Everything is blurry, her eyesight is poor, barely above the legal limit to be considered blind.

He sighs. "There. Much better."

"I don't have contacts on…" but he already shut the door. A small click sounds. She should call him back and ask for them more firmly…. 

Instead, she lets the issue go. Later she'll explain how important they are and ask for them back.

The dress that Mr. Fox had handed her feels airy. Light as a feather and lacking the weight of material. She takes a bit of it in her hand and squints to her best ability trying to test if it's see-through. But that's just her right? It must be the draft. It is a bit cold.

Underwear 

Oh gosh. He really considered everything for this night. Mr Fox is nothing if not thorough but She doesn't need it. Her own underwear will be fine. And this level of planning is a bit unsettling.

she notices how delicate the garments are. Expensive. Did he put a lot of thought into her underwear?! She shakes that thought away. Feeling ashamed for associating it as creepy.

Slipping the dress over her head she struggles for it to settle around her chest.

The dress doesn't fit with the padding of her bra. She should have worn a strapless adhesive for tonight instead of a pushup. 

With much consideration she forgoes the bra since the gown is long and flowing, It should cover everything. There's a shawl to go along with the outfit and she's insanely grateful.

Next, she turns to the vanity. Huffing an exasperated breath at her smudged image. 

Everything's so smeared. Edges bleed into each other. 

On the desk, there are blobs of what must be a hairbrush and makeup. All new and unused. She does her best in thirty minutes and is blind as a bat. Utilizing muscle memory to do most of the work. She chooses to leave her hair down instead of clipped back from her face as it usually is when working. 

With that the effect is nerve-wracking. She feels like an entirely different person. A real Cinderella moment.

A knock sounds and they announce that people have begun to arrive.

"I'll be out in a minute!" she can't see the result. She'll trust Mr. Fox to inform her if her makeup is uneven.

Deep breaths. The lightness of the material makes her anxious again. However, they are waiting for her outside. She can't disappoint.

She slides into the heels and opens the door. Peeking out the hall. "Mr. Fox?"

No sign of the slight redhead. Instead, his bodyguards stand outside. Two of them as a unit. One is a big bald man to the left and a shorter, blond to the right. Hard lines of straight shoulders with no-nonsense

She smiles at them. "Nice to meet you."

They offer polite greetings but little else. She learns their names are Rhino and Roo. They sound like fake names, silly nicknames likely, but she doesn't want to make them uncomfortable by asking for real names. 

They have been so nice in guiding her.

The cool wind brushes her legs as she walks down the stairs, sliding her hand on the wood railing. It's like a scene from a movie!

She hears him before she can see him. At the bottom of the stairs waiting for her to descend.

His words make her feel naked. There's an underlying heat to them. "You look ravishing." her heart hammers at the thought of what his expression looks like now. Maybe it's a good thing she can't see because his face would leave her a stuttering mess.

"It's a beautiful dress." she bashfully gazes at a corner. The heels add height to her, making him four inches shorter but she never minded being taller. She stays at his side, enjoying the smell of his cologne. He's so warm. "You're very handsome yourself ." His suit is a deep burgundy with black accents. Lapels clean cut and hugging the waist.

Fox's voice resonates with a playfulness she hasn't had the pleasure of noticing before. "Are you flirting with me?"

She rears her head back and says, embarrassed. "Of course not. I don't mix business with pleasure." He chuckles at that.

He wants to be the exception.

A guest comes up to them with a steady tap of no doubt expensive shoes. "Fox, who is this gorgeous lady you are keeping to yourself?"

Mr. Fox introduces them. " She's the creator of paintings you see on my walls."

This man is blond with deeply tanned skin. If she had to guess he's a corporate type. "Fox here talks quite a bit about your talents."

The older man grins over the rim of a glass as she shoots him a look. He's all 'I told you so.' 

Her art unnerved most people and to discuss it so openly 

Human suffering plain to the eye. They only see that pain. Not the beauty in their panicked stares. White straining, turning pink with shocks of red worms until they become bloodshot. 

She paints that freedom. A study of human anatomy to remind everyone what they are. What will come.

Death is her inspiration, there is beauty in the midst of suffering angelic or from hell.

"Deserved flattery. Your images are visceral. Gut-wrenching." god the flattened is too much, she could get used to being complimented. "I did not expect such a sweet lady would be behind this gruesome work."

She laughed. "Never judge a book by its cover."

Talks and talks about a variety of things that go on in her life, and acts amazed at the news of his vacation to Jamaica. Then other guests join their conversation. Mr Fox is marching her from one acquaintance to the next and she knows she should be writing down names and information. Telling when she's open to commissions. Yet, all she could register is Mr. Fox beside her and his chuckling puffs when she says something funny.

She tries her best to be funny to hear it again and again.

An endless stream of beautiful guests that are interested in her work and admire it is refreshing to be around. The shame and secrecy of having to skip around the subject of her art gets tiring 

Hiding her muse is tiring, Death and the human form is the subject of her imagining and here they are celebrated.

When the evening is getting late he walks her to a patio, brushing past breezy curtains of red. The cool wind is a godsend on her hair.

He hands her a glass of wine and cups his own elegantly. He's so at home among the fortune and excess. She wishes at that moment for her phone, the way he looks is a divine masculine aura. He could be on the cover of a men's magazine.

"To our partnership."

She takes the offered cup and sips. Smiling softly at him as the burst of flavorful red wine spreads on her tongue.

He's gazing at her in the dark, illuminated by the orange glow of the light from one side and the soft pale of the moon on the other. "What is it?" 

His eyes must be keener than hers to see in the shadowy night. Does he notice her flushed shoulders and nervous tick? She's woozy from the drink already.

"I'm lucky to have met you, Mr. Fox." She tucks a strand behind her ear and is about to do the same to her other ear when she feels the warm pad of his thumb tuck it for her.

A polished claw gently scrapes her scalp.

Even with her blurry vision, the flaming orange flicker to his eyes catches her own. She tilts her head into the touch.

"My family and friends think what I draw is terrible. Satanic and devil worshiping, even." she gives a sardonic laugh. "I couldn't ever show them my sketchbook. No one wants to order family portraits from a gore artist. I didn't have anyone. But you…and the people here …understand."

Her admission gets her a sharp glimpse of teeth. A pearly fang. "Horror and shock are things to be celebrated, people scare easily on such subjects."

She's breathless as his nail slides against her brow. 'Exactly." 

She tries to take a step to him and she stumbles in the heels. Falling forward. His grip tightens on her arm. Without it, she would have face-planted. She laughs. "I don't feel very stable." without another thought she shucks them off, her bare feet flat on the floor.

"It's alright." he supports her with a surprising amount of strength. She wraps her arms around his waist and buries her face into his neck. Without her heels, she's back to being two inches taller than him. Chest to chest. 

She doesn't know she is being drugged. He can feel her pebbled breasts

"What happened to not mixing business with pleasure?" it's a husky whisper

She leans into his palm and closes her eyes. "You're not business. You're my friend." her only friend in this city. Her arms pull him closer for a hug. She pours her gratitude into her grasping arms, squeezing hard. Her friend…Who supports her and makes her feel appreciated.

It's easy to kiss him. She's intoxicated and forgetful of how intimidating his aura can be. The pit of nervous butterflies that she gets at meeting his eyes is gone, replaced by her need to share how much she feels for him. Laying three pecks on his lips after. The tenderness of each peck overwhelms him.

He's unresponsive. Horrified, she attempts to step away, about to utter an apology. Yet his hands refuse to let her go.

"I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable," she says in a sudden moment of shame.

"Shh. Let's get you home." he tightens his jacket at her neck. It's laughable really, her shoulders are a bit ticker and it fits over almost like a shawl. 

"I want to stay with you," she mumbles against his skin. She kisses him again and this time he opens his mouth. With the first touch of tongues, she made a sound filled with need.

His breath is ragged and hot on her bruised lips.

"That's not a good idea…"

He's struggling with a decision she's not privy to. Muttering silent words in displeasure, smoothing his hair down with a right hand. She tries to hear what he's saying but her wine-drunk brain can't zero in on his meaning. Is he alright?

"Please, Fox." She both does and doesn't know what she's asking for

He pushes her away and she tumbles into the arms of Roo. For a slight figure, he has surprising strength.

She wants to dive back into his arms but the blond holds her still. Mr. Fox turns away. A growl threatened his words. "Go home."

#ao3 fanfic #x reader #fanfic #the price of flesh #ren hana #dead dove fic

[writtenfangirl]

Hi- may i ask for an angsty one with Steve x reader x Bucky: Reader was a kindhearted person they cared for equally, no words could explain the way she made them feel... During a mission together, things go bad, and they end up dangling in a rope on top of a cliff. Steve in one end, holding on to both his best friend and... her. As both Steve and Bucky are struggling to maintain their common hold, reader sees the end of the rope holding them all, tearing up because of their common weight. She was not gonna be the one to make Steve choose, so she cuts of her end of the rope. Silently she falls into to freezing rapids far below...

Falling

I really hope I did your request justice! I didn't incorporate the rope since I felt like it would be more angsty without it.

It's a pretty short fic with only 2,173 words

“It’s an easy mission. In and out.”

Y/N let out a derisive snort. “Every time you say ‘It’s an easy mission,’ the mission almost always ends up going to shit.” 

“Easy on the language, Y/N,” Natasha smirked. “Steve doesn’t like that kind of talk.”

Bucky’s brows furrowed deeply into his forehead. “Steve? Not swearing? Since when?”

Tony’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Rogers, is there something you’re not telling us?”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Can we all just focus, please?”

“Steve swears like a sailor. Where did you get the impression that he’s some kind of saint?” Bucky said as he ignored Steve and turned his attention to Tony and Nat, who were wearing matching smirks.

“Well there was this one time where Tony dropped one to many f-bombs and Steve scolded him for it.” Y/N quipped.

“Who knew Capsicle swore like a sailor,” Tony said, almost in wonder. “Is there anything else we don’t know about him?”

Nat’s smile could only be described as insolent. “He has a birthmark on his left butt cheek.”

“Romanoff!”

“Or was it the right?”

“Nat!”

“It’s the left,” Bucky said with his own teasing smile.

“I’m not even going to ask how any of you knew that.” Tony said with a mischievous grin.

Y/N couldn’t stop her own widening smirk. “You know in some cultures, birthmarks on a person’s ass is considered bad luck. Maybe we should dump Steve’s bad luck ass somewhere so our mission might actually be easy. I’m willing to trade Nat for Steve, Tony. What do you say?”

“And get all that bad juju? Like hell.”

“There will be no changing of teams. Nat and Tony will go in and Bucky, Y/N and I will stay out,” Steve said, his voice firm and commanding respect.

Y/N release a sigh so dramatic, it could have won her an Oscar. “You’re no fun, Rogers.” 

Steve simply rolled his eyes. “We can have fun after the mission.”

Y/N’s smirk turned downright devious at Steve’s words. “What kind of fun, Rogers?” She wiggled her eyebrows seductively, causing Steve to roll his eyes hard. It didn’t hide his reddening cheeks though, nor did it hide his almost bashful smile. 

Y/N tended to have that effect on people. She could put people at ease as easily as she could send them into overdrive. She had one of those magnetic personalities that had everyone gravitating towards her. It’s what made her such a good con artist. Her cheeky and, usually, flirty demeanor meant that she could get out of almost any situation unscathed without having to dig into her well of magic. 

Most significant others would have had their jealousy alarm constantly blaring in their heads with the way Y/N acted around other people. She had a dangerous habit of constantly flirting with other people even in situations that definitely do not call for it so it was a good thing Bucky wasn’t like most people. 

Because when Y/N was with Bucky, she was different. Gone was the confident, cocky persona that had men and women falling at her feet. In front of him usually stood someone that was vulnerable, sweet and almost shy. That was the real Y/N, the one that only Bucky knew and that was the side of her that mattered. 

The side of her he loved the most. 

And that was all he could think about as he dangled from the side of the cliff. 

A jolt of deja vu hit him. He’s seen this film and he knew how it ended, with his body falling down an icy ravine. He could see it so clearly in his mind’s eye. He’d dangled from the side of a moving train at the side of a mountain that was packed with snow, his best friend’s face dangling in front of him, panic alighting his eyes as he desperately tried to reach Bucky. He knows how this story ends and Bucky knew it would end in the death of James Buchanan Barnes. After all, his first fall killed Bucky only to give rise to the Winter Soldier. 

Except, somehow it was different now. Because now, Steve’s hand was clutching around Bucky’s tightly. He saw the fierce determination in Steve’s blue eyes, saw the promises Steve was practically making to himself in his head. Steve wasn’t going to let Bucky fall again, not after the way he lost him the first time. And Bucky would have felt safe, had it not been for the person dangling beside him, her own small hand grasped tightly around Steve’s hand. 

For a heart stopping moment, Bucky thought Y/N was dead. Her skin was pale, a large gash opened at the edge of her forehead. Her torso was covered in blood too and Bucky could feel his heart drop as he saw the giant slice on Y/N’s shoulder, the ligaments tearing as Y/N strained to  keep holding on to Steve. 

Bucky didn’t know how she could possibly still be holding on but she was gritting her teeth, sweat rolling down her soot-covered head. 

Bucky couldn’t even register the pain in his own body. It was a small mercy that it was his vibranium arm Steve was holding on to. At least he didn’t feel pain there. But he sure felt pain everywhere else. 

He’d been shot around the stomach twice with one of the bullets grazing his side while the other was deeply lodged in his body. He could feel the blood oozing from the wound, dripping slowly down his leg. He’d been stabbed too. Between his shoulder blades and with the way his body was straining to grip Steve’s hand, the pain was so unbearable, it would have made a normal person pass out from shock.

“Hold on!” Steve said, an edge of panic in his voice, delirium coating his eyes. His bottom lip was busted open and though Bucky couldn’t see Steve’s body, his usually clean blond hair was red with blood. Did he have a head trauma?

“Easy mission my ass, Steve,” Y/N managed to say. Her words came out breathy, sandwiched between pained wheezes. “Nothing easy about that.”

She was right. 

The mission had gone to complete and utter shit. There had been a battle, a fierce one, one that had Y/N’s well of magic drying and from what Bucky knew, he had had only ever seen that happen once, in the battle with Thanos and alien army. The battle had left Y/N so exhausted, she was in a coma for a full week. 

Even now, Bucky could see the strain of exhaustion in her face. If they weren’t in such a precarious position, Y/N would have surely collapsed by now.

“Y/N, don’t,” Steve said, his voice deepening into a warning.

Y/N simply stared at him blankly. She glanced at Bucky from the corner of her eye and the sinking feeling in Bucky’s stomach deepened. Y/N was about to do something none of them were going to like and judging from the distressed look in Steve’s face, it was going to decide their fate.

“It’s the only way,” Y/N panted, a steely resolve slipping between her eyes. “Steve, you know it and I know it.”

Steve’s distress was becoming palpable. It turned into a bitter, tangy thing that lodged itself in his throat.

Steve didn’t want to choose. It wasn’t fair. He was holding on to his two best friends. The one that has been with him since his childhood and the other one that’s been with him since he first woke up in the ice. It wasn’t fair that he had to choose between them. It wasn’t fair.

He willed his body to work, to lift up the two people that meant the world to him but he couldn’t. His body was exhausted, his hands were beginning to tremble at the sheer weight of their bodies but his mind was a wild race horse.

This couldn’t be it.

This couldn’t be how this ended.

“Nat! Tony! Please help me!” Steve screamed but it was useless. Wherever their teammates where, they were too far away to hear them and with the previous energy surge, their comms had been fried. They were completely and utterly alone.

“Steve, it’s okay,” Y/N reassured with a rueful smile. “It’s really okay.”

“Y/N, don’t you dare!” Bucky ground out. “I might survive this fall. I’m a super soldier. You can’t, not without your powers.”

“I am not going to let you,” a fierce, determined gleam entered through Y/N’s eyes. “I’ve got one blast of magic left and if I time this right, if I do this correctly, you’ll both survive.”

“But you won’t,” Bucky snapped, his eyes shining in anger. “And I’ll be damned if you think that I would let the woman I love die when there’s something I can do to help her.”

“There isn’t anything you can do, Bucky! We’re wasting time arguing and Steve can’t hold on forever.” Y/N snapped, a protective gleaming coloring her eyes a lurid purple as she turned to Steve. “Steve, if you even think about letting Bucky go, I will never forgive you. Do you understand me? I will never forgive you!”

Steve felt like a child and he could scarcely remember the last time he felt this way. All the negative emotions within him surged through his body and the distress that had lodged itself in his throat turned into a sob. His arms were straining against the weight, crying in pain along with him. He willed his arms to move, to do something, but they were as tired as he was.

“I-I can’t,” Steve panted. His vision was blurring with tears and he watched a drop fell on Y/N’s cheek.

“I know,” Y/N said, her expression shifting into one of calmness. “It’s going to be okay.”

“No, it’s not.” Bucky said, his tone becoming more and more agitated. “Don’t you dare let go, Y/N!”

“Who knew your birthmark would lead us to this much bad luck, Steve?” Y/N said, her smile a slash of white against the dark soot that marred her face. 

“Y/N, please.” Steve’s tear hit Bucky’s face, leaving a trail of pale colored skin as it washed away the soot in Bucky’s own face. He was pleading with her now, praying to whatever gods could hear him that his best friend, wouldn’t sacrifice herself for him, for them.

“I love you, boys. Don’t you ever forget that.” 

Y/N was going to die and there was nothing Steve could do about it. 

“Y/N, NO!” Bucky was yell now, his voice turning into a harsh scream that Steve would never forget. This was the sound or a broken man losing something he thought he didn’t deserve to have but would never let go of. Tears were welling up in his own blue eyes, slipping down his face in a slow waterfall. “Y/N! NO! PLEASE, DON’T!”

Time seemed to slow down all at once. Steve’s grip on Y/N was slipping. He could feel the muscles of his arm, the bones in his hand protesting from the strain. He could almost hear his heart beating in his chest, the sound echoing in his ears. He felt Y/N’s grip on his hand loosen before she went slack and in the second it took for Steve to draw his next breath, Y/N slipped from his grasp, plunging to the icy depths below.

He shut his eyes. He knew Y/N went down with a smile on her face and it would be a smile that would haunt his dreams forever.

Steve could feel a gush of strength fill him and he knew it was Y/N’s magic saving them both. He pulled Bucky up, his best friend releasing a feral scream that Steve would never forget, “Y/N! NO!”

Bucky stuggled against him as soon as his feet touched the solid ground but no matter how tired his body was, Steve wouldn’t let go of him. His arms tightened around his best friend’s body as Bucky screamed and strained against his grip. Bucky’s scream was haunting, his body racking with sobs as he screamed Y/N’s name over and over again.

Bucky elbowed Steve in the gut and broke out of his hold. Steve grunted as the pain blossomed in his torso, his eyes swimming in tears and nausea. He was exhausted and the pounding in his skull only exasperated his condition. He watched as Bucky scrambled to the edge of the cliff, searching the icy water for any sign of Y/N’s body but Steve knew he would never find her. The current was too strong, the height too high. Y/N could have survived that fall on her best day but this was far from her best day.

She was dead.

And it was all Steve’s fault.

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[bananaofswifts]

Peek into the eclectic wardrobe of one of the world’s most popular singer-songwriters at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD)’s latest exhibit, Taylor Swift: Storyteller, opening Saturday at Columbus Circle.

The retrospective showcases decades of Swift’s costumes, props, jewelry and other visual elements from the 12-time Grammy Award-winning musician’s prolific career, including the highly recognizable ballerina and cheerleader ensembles from 2014’s Shake it Off , the gem-adorned one-piece from 2022’s Bejeweled and the striking Nicole + Felicia red wedding dress from 2021’s I Bet You Think About Me — all selected by MAD’s Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Craft, and Design Alexandra Schwartz.

Swift’s team reached out to Alexandra after seeing the work done by fellow curator Elissa Auther with artist Machine Dazzle on his Queer Maximalism exhibit, but she admits that she wasn’t intimately familiar with Swift’s catalog prior to working on Storyteller. “I knew her big hits, but I didn’t know her work all that well,” Alexandra told W42ST. “I have learned a lot in this process — it’s been fascinating getting to see how she’s developed as an artist and in addition to her songwriting, learn that she’s such a brilliant business person who has navigated combining that songwriting and artistry with being this incredibly successful performer.”

After working on 2022’s Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art at MAD, the curator had a robust working framework with which to tackle Swift’s large catalog of designs. “In Garmenting, we were coming at it from the perspective of artists rather than designers,” said Alexandra. “I teach part-time at the Fashion Institute of Technology and I got to know fashion history and theory and learned about curating fashion through that exhibit’s experience.” She added, “I’m fascinated by how clothes are part of our culture — not just in terms of the choices that we make about what we wear, but what they mean on a broader societal level and what they say about contemporary culture.”

Swift’s reputation for integrating visual storytelling into her music videos, red carpet appearances and concerts was an inspiration and Alexandra found plenty of symbolic messaging in the songwriter’s clothing choices. ​”She creates an entire world through her work,” said Alexandra. “Her videos are these very complete thought-out worlds she’s created and her performances are as well — her garments and her costumes are a huge part of that. She’s very, very intentional about what she wears in performance, how those garments help to tell a story.”

For Swift, “the element of fantasy is really important and enticing and fun — but what’s been interesting in working on this show is that she really does see all of her different creative endeavors: the videos, the design, the costumes, as a part of her songwriting and her storytelling craft as a songwriter,” said Alexandra.

Swift also loves to leave hidden messages for her notoriously eagle-eyed fanbase.”She’s famous for her Easter eggs,” said Alexandra, “and it is very interesting how she’ll refer back to other times in her career and her storytelling through her songs.” She added, “One thing that I find interesting about her, and she’s talked about this herself, is that she is very aware that as a performer, and especially as a female performer she has to always change her image to capture people’s attentions, keep them interested and keep them thinking about her music in a different way. I think a lot of her costumes and her videos show that sort of self-awareness.”

Swift’s tendency to keep fans guessing extends to her choices in designer, added Alexandra. “There are quite a few costumes by Jessica Jones, who works with many different performers,” she said, “but what she wears in performance varies. Some costumes are by couture fashion designers, like the Versace and Marchesa, but then she’ll wear faux fur jacket by Free People mixed with Louis Vuitton boots — it’s interesting to see how she combines things.”

After studying the singer’s catalog and costumes, Alexandra gained a newfound appreciation for Swift’s creative process and impact on global audiences. “Seeing the craftmanship of the costumes is incredible,” she said, “It’s a treat to see all the embroidering and decoration and beading on these pieces up close.”

As Taylor Swift: Storyteller readies for opening, Alexandra can’t wait to welcome passionate Swifties to the exhibit. “It’s going to be fascinating to see,” she replied. “It’s been great already to see the buzz about it and hear about people who are planning to come to New York to see the exhibit. I’ve just gotten to know the Swiftie community in the last couple of months and it’s intense!” she laughed. “It’s very exciting that so many fans are going to be here and I really hope they enjoy it!”

#taylor swift