#there are some awesome and hilarious people in the Renaissance

[this-daydream-is-dangerous-13]

At long last: a profile. Ish. An interview, anyway.

Here are some of my favourite parts:

In the past, Swift jokes, she toured “like a frat guy.” This time, she began training six months ahead of the first show. “Every day I would run on the treadmill, singing the entire set list out loud,” she said. “Fast for fast songs, and a jog or a fast walk for slow songs.” Her gym, Dogpound, created a program for her, incorporating strength, conditioning, and weights. “Then I had three months of dance training, because I wanted to get it in my bones,” she says. “I wanted to be so over-rehearsed that I could be silly with the fans, and not lose my train of thought.” She worked with choreographer Mandy Moore—recommended by her friend Emma Stone, who worked with Moore on La La Land—since, as Swift says, “Learning choreography is not my strong suit.” With the exception of Grammy night—which was “hilarious,” she says—she also stopped drinking. “Doing that show with a hangover,” she says ominously. “I don’t want to know that world.”

This photo with Benji is 😍:

Getting to this place of harmony with her past took work; there’s a dramatic irony, she explains, to the success of the tour. “It’s not lost on me that the two great catalysts for this happening were two horrendous things that happened to me,” Swift says, and this is where the story takes a turn. “The first was getting canceled within an inch of my life and sanity,” she says plainly. “The second was having my life’s work taken away from me by someone who hates me.”

More (awesome) anti-patriarchy stuff:

To Swift, the success of all three [female-led juggernauts this summer: Eras and Renaissance tours and Barbie] feels like an inflection point. “If we have to speak stereotypically about the feminine and the masculine,” she says, “women have been fed the message that what we naturally gravitate toward—” She has a few examples: “Girlhood, feelings, love, breakups, analyzing those feelings, talking about them nonstop, glitter, sequins! We’ve been taught that those things are more frivolous than the things that stereotypically gendered men gravitate toward, right?” Right, I say. “And what has existed since the dawn of time? A patriarchal society. What fuels a patriarchal society? Money, flow of revenue, the economy. So actually, if we’re going to look at this in the most cynical way possible, feminine ideas becoming lucrative means that more female art will get made. It’s extremely heartening.”

But then I think, Who am I to challenge it, if that’s how she felt? The point is: she felt canceled. She felt as if her career had been taken from her. Something in her had been lost, and she was grieving it. Maybe this is the real Taylor Swift effect: That she gives people, many of them women, particularly girls, who have been conditioned to accept dismissal, gaslighting, and mistreatment from a society that treats their emotions as inconsequential, permission to believe that their interior lives matter. That for your heart to break, whether it’s from being kicked off a tour or by the memory of a scarf still sitting in a drawer somewhere or because somebody else controls your life’s work, is a valid wound, and no, you’re not crazy for being upset about it, or for wanting your story to be told.

There is a LOT of good stuff there. Including some RepTV tidbits. Blondie continues to artfully craft the narrative.

Congrats to our beloved nearly 34-year old!

[edwardssnail]

whenever i see a twilight blog that i loved has been deactivated, it makes me so incredibly sad :(

#especially when I don’t know why or what happened to them #it makes me sad knowing we will probably never cross paths again :( #there are some awesome and hilarious people in the Renaissance #twilight #big sad #mine

[dreamersscape]

In Which I Attempt to Wreak Havoc Upon Panharmonium's Heart. Or Something.

Because I am an awesome friend, clearly, and possibly making people sad/verklempt is definitely an excellent way to (belatedly 😔 but I did start before the 15th!) celebrate Kakashi's birthday, right? ;)

I will admit up front that this is nowhere near as deftly structured and compiled as your Kakashi fanmix, @panharmonium, but that is precisely why I'm not even going to try to organize all these songs into individual playlists. Yet. Plus, I have a tendency to over-explain so this way I can better expound on why certain songs remind me of certain characters. Sorry that I sorta went a little... overboard?

Everything--except a few that aren't available on spotify, I'll link to them directly--can be listened to HERE.

What I'm Looking For - Brendan Benson | Kakashi → I may be a little biased with this one because it fits SO many of my favorite characters so well, somehow, but there's just something about the upbeat/tongue-in-cheek musical cues/delivery of lines such as 'I visit hell on a daily basis, and I see the sadness in all your faces' that just feels so Kakashi to me.

Happy Ending - MIKA | Kakashi → This is presumably a breakup song, but I enjoy it so much more in a non-romantic context (and the song itself isn't really boxed in with overtly romantic framing, so I appreciate that!). Anyway, some very important instructions IMO for listening to this with Kakashi in mind: everything before the bridge is about Kakashi up through his ANBU years, but when you get to the 'little bit of love' refrain, picture Kakashi meeting Tenzo, and then becoming Team 7's sensei, opening back up to Gai, adopting all the other leaf genin, assimilating Sai and Yamato into Team 7, and it keeps building with Kakashi gaining more and more loved ones to fill the hole in his heart, and then cry tears of joy with me! Just my personal suggestion. :D

Light - Sleeping At Last | Kakashi & Team 7 (/all his kids)

with every heartbeat I have left I will defend your every breath

→ I've seen this song used for ship vids and I'm all ????? about that because this is clearly a song about the love you have for your child! But I suppose if one of my favorite pastimes is aggressively re-interpreting love songs in non-romantic ways, I can't begrudge the opposite process... too much, lol.

Heroes - MIKA | Team Minato

your blood on me/and my blood on you/but to make you bleed/the only thing I wouldn't do/.../I wish there was a way/to give you a hand to hold/'cause you don't have to die in your glory/die, to never grow old

Long Lost Friends - Transit | Kakashi & Obito

how long/do you have to say that/this is not the person I used to know/you are not the person I used to know/.../because lately, you've been looking at me like you've seen a ghost/and isn't it obvious who's been missing who the most

→ What the heck! What the heck! What the heck! What the heck! What the heck!

Against the Voices - Switchfoot | Kakashi

'cause everybody knows/the hardest war to fight/is the fight to be yourself/when the voices try to turn you into someone else

Out of the Darkness - Matthew and the Atlas | Obito? Yamato? Kakashi? Itachi & Sasuke? Naruto & Kurama? → I'm a bit undecided about this one, or if I should just not worry about choosing one character and just let myself feel all the "inner darkness is not an innate characteristic, Danzo! They're just grieving/in a lot of pain, and they can find their way out of that dark place!" feels.

Save A Place - 1969 | Kakashi & Sasuke

so I'll keep away and save a place for you/and I'll only make the same mistakes as you/.../when all the blood all over your fingers is dried up/the pain will still linger

→ I'm not uber-confident in picking out really fitting Kakashi & Sasuke songs yet, but I hope this hits a lot of the right notes for you. :)

Thrive - Switchfoot | Kakashi

I'm always close, but I'm never enough/I'm always in line, but I'm never in love/I get so down, but I won't give up/I get so down, but I won't give up

→ See, it says right there that he's never in love! Not the crux of the song, and he's not always 'in line' either, but still! :)

Disarm - The Civil Wars | Kakashi & Obito

the years burn, burn, burn

→ I don't know how I keep collecting fictional relationships that work so well for this song, but literally every single line of this song hits so hard for these two?? Will never recover from this. (Also, I usually disregard when 'my love' pops up in the last line of the chorus, as the mood dictates. :) It's pretty incidental as is IMO.)

Renaissance - Paolo Buonvino & Skin | Sakumo & Obito & Kakashi & Naruto

let me show you one last time/let me show you one last sign/you can find it/I can't say that I can change the world/but if you let me, I can make another world for us/let me suffer all for you/make this vision all brand new/we can fight them/I can't say that I can win it all, [but] come with me and I will make my words stand tall

→ Okay, this is a very odd choice given that it's actually the theme song for a different show about the Italian renaissance (if you happen to see this, Mirjam, don't hate me!), but this could be IT! The "those who break the rules are scum, but those who would abandon their friends are worse than scum" anthem that's all about building a better world based on these principles! I really hope our sharing-a-brain talent translates to listening to this song in this way because I am feeling SOME KIND of way about this!

The Lament of Eustace Scrubb - The Oh Hellos | Kakashi → I really liked the song you chose from this album for your fanmix, so now I've feeling a tiny bit too on-the-nose with my choice, but I guess this is just a Kakashi album all around. 😆

Glass Heart Hymn - Paper Route | Kakashi(+ Obito) & Sasuke(+ Itachi)

memories as heavy as a stone/ I am empty, in my end you are my beginning

This Is Home - Switchfoot | Yamato & Kakashi (+ Team 7)

and now, after all my searching/after all my questions/I'm gonna call it home

→ All finding-where-you-belong songs are actually Yamato songs. True story!

Faust, Midas, & Myself - Switchfoot | Obito

you have one life left to leave/you have one life left to lead

→ Could this be any more perfect for Obito? It even has creepy-old-man!Madara!

Pluto - Sleeping At Last | Kakashi

Always Gold - Radical Face | Kakashi & Obito/Sasuke & Itachi/Naruto & Sasuke

all my life, I've never known where you've been/there were holes in you, the kind that I could not mend/and I heard you say, right when you left that day/does everything go away?/yeah, everything goes away/but I'm going to be here till forever/so just call when you're around

→ ...but mostly Kakashi & Obito because 'there were holes in you' 😭😭😭

Lemon Boy - Cavetown | Yamato & Kakashi → You already know the delights of this song of course, but I gots to be comprehensive. :)

Everywhere I Go - Lissie/cover by Sleeping At Last | Kakashi & Team Minato

danger will follow me now everywhere I go/angels will call on me and take me to my home/well, these tired eyes just want to remain closed

→ I chose the Sleeping At Last cover for maximum angst, 'cause sometimes it be like that.

Uneven Odds - Sleeping At Last | Kakashi

maybe your light is a seed, and the darkness the dirt, in spite of the uneven odds, beauty lifts from the earth

→ ...just like an earth style: mud wall :') Okay, okay, bad jokes aside, the seed metaphor of course makes me want to associate it with Tenzo, but this is clearly a Kakashi song!

Twenty-four - Switchfoot | Kakashi & Obito

life is not what I thought it was twenty-four hours ago/and I'm not who I thought I was twenty-four hours ago/still I'm singing spirit, take me up in arms with you/you're raising the dead in me/I wanna see miracles/to see the world change/wrestled the angel for more than a name/for more than a feeling, for more than a cause/I'm singing spirit, take me up in arms with you/and you're raising the dead in me

I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme) - John Rzeznik | Kakashi

and how can they say I never change?/they're the ones that stay the same/.../they can't tell me who to be/'cause I'm not what they see/.../and their words are just whispers/and lies that I'll never believe

→ Yeah, I might've accidentally imprinted on Treasure Planet as a 14 year old, and then someone made sure this song would forever live in my heart by making a fanvid of it with my favorite character from my robin hood show, but! He's still here!

See You Again - Wiz Khalifa (feat. Charlie Puth) | Kakashi & Obito/Team Minato

how can we not talk about family when family's all that we got?/everything I went through, you were standing there by my side/and now you gon' be with me for the last ride

→ I am being very unoriginal here, and there are in fact already fanvids made for these relationships set to this song (along with many others featuring different Naruto relationships), but I don't think I'll be able to rest until I translate the movie playing in my head whenever I hear this song now into an actually watchable format. After all, they have come a long way from where they began, and I intend to make that both as touching and ironically hilarious as possible!

Goodnight, Travel Well - The Killers | Kakashi → Admittedly, I got this idea from a magnificently crafted fanvid done for my robin hood show, but I genuinely think it would be really interesting to make something similar for Kakashi centered around the time he technically died but got better? I don't know how to explain it, but I think it fits quite well.

30 Lives - Imagine Dragons | Kakashi & all the people he's loved and lost → can be listened to here.

A Pound of Flesh - Radical Face | Kakashi

then today I wake up feeling easy/and find I'm on more familiar roads/I got a darkness wrapped inside me/but now it ain't so hard to let it go/so keep a candle burning in the window/I'm almost home

Hold Back The River - James Bay | Kakashi & life getting in the way of him being with his precious people (you may be sensing a pattern here) → @the road of life: Let! Kakashi! And his People! Hold! Each! Other!!! Also, 'tried to square not being there, but think that I should have been' is absolutely about Sasuke's defection and Kakashi adding it to his long list of undeserving self-recriminations.

The Fall - Imagine Dragons | Yamato & Kakashi → 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

Shadowman - K's Choice | could work equally well for Kakashi or Obito, I think

any time tomorrow a part of me will die/and a new one will be born/any time tomorrow/I'll get sick of asking why/sick of all the darkness I have worn/any time tomorrow/I will try to do what's right/making sense of all I can/any time tomorrow I'll pretend to see the light/I just might/.../and doesn't it make you sad?/to see so much love denied/see nothing but a shadowman inside

Paint - The Paper Kites | Kakashi & Team 7

still there's a wound and I'm moving slow/though it don't show, though it don't show/I've got a hole where nothing grows,/how little you know, how little you know

→ A song for just how much Team 7 doesn't know about their sensei.

Always Find Me Here - Transit | Kakashi → ...most likely at the memorial stone. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (why am I like this)

Taste - Sleeping At Last | Kakashi

it’s bittersweet, it’s poetry/a careful pruning of my dead leaves/it’s holy ground, a treasure chest/I'm on my knees and only scratch the surface/like fists unraveling, like glass unshattering/we’re breaking all the rules, we’re breaking bread again/we’re swallowing light ’til we’re fixed from the inside

Help - Hurts | Yamato & Kakashi

take my hand and lead the way/out of the darkness and into the light of the day/.../'cause I know what I've been missing/and I know that I should try/but there's hope in this admission/and there's freedom in your eyes/.../I can feel the darkness coming/and I'm afraid of myself/call my name and I'll come running/'cause I just need some help

→ NO ONE TOUCHE ME.

Your Soul - RHODES | A mish-mash of Kakashi & Tenzo and Rin & Obito & Kakashi and Gai & Kakashi vibes? → So like, 'oh you know when you're alone/I'm holding on and on and on and on/to your soul' reminded me of your 'when you're all alone...the only thing you really think about is dying' 'but when there are two of you...the only thing you can think about is surviving.' and now kakashi - who just saved his life - is asking him 'did you want to die' and yamato is saying 'no' there are two of them and yamato wants to SURVIVE. tags as well as Gai's steadfastness as a friend, and 'I just wanna hold your hand' made me think of Rin's "Well then, I'm just going to have to connect the two of you." while holding their hands, and the sunlight/'soul shine'/'your light' motif is just A Lot in this song!!

7 Years - Lukas Graham | Kakashi → Alright, yeah, there are already approximately a gazillion pre-existing Naruto AMVs for this song and even one or two focusing on Kakashi, but they don't capitalize on all the angst possibilities in many of the lyrics or reach the fluff potential of 'will I think the world is cold or will I have a lot of children who can warm me [when I'm old]' and I cannot abide that!

Putting The Dog To Sleep - The Antlers | Kakashi & Sasuke → Okay, on one hand, this song is One Big Oof. But I do like the (potentially odd) way I've conceptualized it for Kakashi & Sasuke? Like, the first half is Kakashi going through all the tragedies in his life and getting lost in ANBU, but then in the second half it transitions to him wanting to prevent Sasuke from having to be as alone as Kakashi once was and they can face life together? It makes me emotional!

Trust Me - The Fray | Kakashi & Obito

I found a friend, or should I say a foe?/said there's a few things you should know/we don't want you to see/we come, and we go/here today, gone tomorrow

→ There are a few lines that call Tenzo & Kakashi to mind, but mostly it's Obito & Kakashi.

The Lightning Strike (What If This Storm Ends?) - Snow Patrol | Kakashi → I had to, right? My mindscape is a little murky/scattered about what specifically I want to think about when I listen to this, but obviously it has to do with Kakashi in one way or another.

Kettering - The Antlers | Team Minato(???) → Honestly not sure if this will make any sense, but yeah, vague team minato vibes?

Swans - Unkle Bob | Kakashi & Obito/Rin/Minato/Kushina/Sakumo → They should be by his side always!!!

Looking Too Closely - Fink | Kakashi → I honestly feel rather ambivalent about this one too, but I can't deny 'truth is like blood underneath your fingernails/and you don't wanna hurt yourself, hurt yourself/looking too closely' always destroys me because... well, you know. I love suffering. :(

Souvenirs - Switchfoot | Kakashi & Obito & Rin

wolves - Switchfoot | Kakashi

snowfall for the battlefield/roses for the father's sons/see them red on the ground:/bleeding/when the revolution came/we were more than hungry men/we were hoping for more:/bleeding/end. begin again./all of my world is collision and spin/hope is a world that has yet to begin/awaken, oh sleeper/awaken, oh sleeper/a new day begins

→ I wanted a wolf-related song too. :)

PRODIGAL SOUL - Switchfoot | Obito, Itachi, & Sasuke; just all them wayward Uchiha boys

Coming Down - Dear Euphoria | kid!Kakashi & his relationships

the shell/that I wore/it wasn't for fun/it wasn't to make you/stick around/it was for survival/it was what I've learnt/it was for the sun/.../our love has grown/our love has flown

→ Another one I'm a little unsure of whether it makes sense outside of my head or not, but I like the vibes?

Ghosts That We Knew - Mumford & Sons | Kakashi & Yamato? → Hmm, can I maybe submit this as a Kakashi-&-Yamato-just-need-to-mske-it-through-this-war-so-they-can-have-a-bright-bright-future song?

All Is Well (It's Only Blood) - Radical Face | Kakashi → ...he said as he's bleeding out or after he's thrown himself in the line of fire protecting someone he thinks is a better person than himself...

Bleeding Out - Imagine Dragons | Kakashi

when the hour is nigh/and hopelessness is sinking in/and the wolves all cry/to fill the night with hollering/when your eyes are red/and emptiness is all you know/with the darkness fed/I will be your scarecrow/you tell me to hold on/oh, you tell me to hold on/but innocence is gone/and what was right is wrong

→ In a similar vein to the previous song. But goodness gracious! Were they NOT straight up describing Kakashi here?

Amaryllis - Shinedown | Yamato & Kakashi → Just tossing this one out there, not sure if it will make sense or if it's a reach... but I like it?

lost 'cause - Switchfoot | Kakashi & Sasuke

are we a lost cause?/or are we just lost 'cause/we won't be the future we refuse to see?/and if I'm your lost cause/it'll be your lost 'cause/you won't see me as I am, the possibility/that I'm not the enemy

→ 214 feels. (And before and after that, but yeah.)

Through the Ghost - Shinedown | Kakashi & Obito

so many silent sorrows/you never hear from again/and now that you've lost tomorrow/is yesterday still a friend?/.../everything that mattered is just/a city of dust/covering both of us/did you hide yourself away?/I can't see you anymore/.../did you hide yourself away?/are you living through the ghost?/did you finally find a place/above the shadows so the world will never know?/the world will never know you like I do ... like I still do

Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men | Kakashi → Just Kakashi having little chats with his ghosts, totally the most heartwarming way to conclude this section. 😅

Sleepyhead - Passion Pit | Kakashi → Just kidding! Here's a slightly less morbid song for the Most Tired Boy Of Them All.™ (Random aside: this was my customary song to listen to on my walks to 8AM organic chemistry classes; I found it strangely soothing! On a different occasion, after a particularly long day for her, one of my roommates didn't have the energy to make it to her bed but nevertheless requested a lullaby from us. So I obliged by playing this song for her, but she didn't seem to gain the same peace of mind from it as I did. 😄 I know it's not my place to propose anything like this, but it does amuse me to imagine bookends!Kakashi in these situations, even though it's not OChem classes he has to go to.)

General/Miscellaneous:

Rise Above It - Switchfoot | Ensemble

don't care what they're telling me/we can be what we want to be/.../just because it's law doesn't mean that it's fair/.../don't believe the system's on your side/.../the curse is spoken/the system's broken; rise above it

→ I mean, how could I not think about Naruto when this song also has the lines 'hear us sing tonight like the last night on earth/we will rise like the tide/like dead men coming back to life/we are rising, rising'? It's fun to be literal sometimes!

Doorways - Radical Face | Allllll the traumatized children → Someone has to put all those tragic childhood flashbacks to good use, after all.

Ghost Towns - Radical Face | take your pick of Itachi, Sasuke, or Post-Kannabi-Bridge!Obito

there's no comin' home/with a name like mine/I still think of you/but everyone knows/yeah everyone knows/if you care, let it go

Blinding Light - Switchfoot | Hey, Hiruzen? You may have coined the phrase, "children are the king" but I don't think you truly understand it... (insert Princess Bride joke here)

hey boy, don't believe them/we're the nation that eats our youth/.../still looking for the blinding light/still looking for the reason why/still looking for the sun to shine/all my life I've been living in the darkest night/still looking for the blinding light/to take me higher and higher

Brother's Blood - Kevin Devine | EVERYONE → ...but certainly so much you could do with Itachi & Sasuke, Obito & Kakashi, Shisui & Itachi, even Hashirama & Madara! Sakumo's teammates turning their backs on him and saying 'I don't know one thing about my brother's blood'?!?! There are SO MANY ideas I have for this song! It gives me chills and makes my brain scream.

We Need Each Other - Sanctus Real | Ensemble → Already mentioned this one to you, but I have to include it here for thoroughness' sake!

Whispering - Alex Clare | the Hidden Leaf's lost/ostracized children/orphans

who will care for the falling?/who will care for the falling leaves?

So this is probably a strange concept to come up with and apply to this song, but the 'whispering, whispering, whispering' parts brought Konaha's virulent gossiping/passing judgement about others and often kids they don't even know problem to mind, too, and yeah?

The World You Want - Switchfoot | Ensemble → If I were to make a fanvid set to this song, I would definitely keep a broad focus, but I can't deny that the lines 'you start to look like what you believe, you float through time like a stream, if the waters of time are made up by you and I, I could change the world for you, you change it for me' FOR SURE has strong Obito & Kakashi/Kakashi & Tenzo vibes.

Red Eyes - Switchfoot | Ensemble, but definitely many dashes of Uchihas 😄 → I would like to thank Masashi Kishimoto for creating a world where red eyes are a Thing of Importance so I can one day make a fanvid using this song in not just the tired or teary bloodshot-red eyes way, but in a very literal sense too.

TAKE MY FIRE - Switchfoot | The Will of Fire → 'Cause I think I'm sooooo clever. 😄

Above The Clouds Of Pompeii - Bear's Den | various parent & child relationships → This obviously derives from the not-caring-about-your-female-characters problem, but it always gets me that all the single parents in the Naruto universe are almost invariably the fathers! I guess sometimes you can safely guess that the mothers are still alive/exist, but either way we hardly ever get to see them. :/ The one exception I can think of right now is Kurenai, but maybe I'm forgetting another conspicuous single mother. Anyway, I don't know if this helps or hinders more a potential Naruto fanvid for this song, but regardless, it still gives me feelings?

Who We Are - Switchfoot | Ensemble → It just makes me inordinately happy that the chorus for this song starts with 'who we are (in the fever of our youth)', you know? :D

Brother - Kodaline | all the friendships we can stuff in here and then some → Quite a well known song I'm pretty sure, but I love how many dynamics one could showcase in a potential fanvid of this. And, not gonna lie, 'oh brother, we go deeper than the ink beneath the skin of our tattoos' deserves to be used in some sort of Tenzo 'n' Kakashi or Team Ro fan creation!

Special Bonus:

Shake It Out - Florence + The Machine | Kakashi & Obito → I'm not sure whether I would have realized how well this works for Kakashi & Obito on my own, funnily enough, but then I found this fanvid of it (containing only scenes you've seen naturally!) and it hit me like a ton of bricks. It's so well done!

#I do apologize for all the switchfoot/other repeated bands or artists #I wanted this to be really varied but switchfoot just has my number I guess? #I'd like to say I got it all out of my system now since I'll likely have to do a part two at some point #but that's not completely true *rubs back of head sheepishly* #also all the mentions of fanvid creation are just because I've always been a heavily visual learner/how I process stuff #--ironic given my visual disability-- #so I suppose when my brain gets attached to something that's in an auditory medium it still has to find a way to add in a visual component? #anyway I hope this 60+ songs behemoth of a playlist is not too overwhelming and that the musical styles are somewhat up your alley! #I swear I'm going to jump back into our Kakashi & Yamato conversations now! #turns out I really suck at multitasking sometimes /0\ #kakashi hatake #obito uchiha #team minato #kakashi 'n' obito #kakashi 'n' rin #kakashi 'n' tenzo #gai 'n' kakashi #sakumo hatake #naruto uzumaki #kakashi 'n' sasuke #kakashi 'n' sakumo #kakashi 'n' naruto #kakashi 'n' minato #Itachi 'n' Sasuke #itachi uchiha #itachi 'n' shisui #yamato #tenzo #sasuke uchiha #sakura haruno

[freelyglitterykryptonite]

Extensive lists of unproblematic youtubers, The Re-do

So when I published my first list, less than 2 weeks later the list got invalidated by someone on said list doing some very messed up stuff, and ive discovered some new channels. SO here is the Revised list of unproblematic youtubers 

(I know noone is totally unproblematic, we all have flaws. But these channels I have found are the *least* problematic that I can find.) 

First Off, Here is everyone from the first list who is still on it, 

Bailey Sarian Does Murder Mystery and Makeup Mondays where she talks about true crime stories and does her makeup

IAMTRAEH Does Natural hair horror stories and tutorials for Natural hair

Snitchery Does Tutorials on how to change up your look

SusieJTodd does Fashion videos on a plus sized body

Bernadette Banner a Vintage fashion youtuber with a voice of liquid gold

TT Bret mainly a cosplayer who is more active on Tumblr and Tik Tok but does occasionally post youtube videos

Safiya Nygaard Does bad makeup science and travel videos. She’s absolutely adorable and down to earth

Dollightful a Korean Based artist who repaints dolls into her own characters, She did all of Eevies evolutions

Sideways Delves into music theory and motifs in modern culture.

Imbrandonfarris just absolutely hilarious with the most adorable little girl. He eats bugs sometimes

Emmymadeinjapan Makes vintage recipes, tests vintage cooking tools, and Viral internet foods in a respectful and educated manner

NikkieTutorials one of the few Big beauty youtubers who isn’t stupid Shady I love her so much

Royalty Soaps She makes and sells handmade soaps and she’s adorable

TheEpicNate315 shockingly a video game youtuber, He makes informative videos about Skyrim and Fallout 4 Lore

Overly Sarcastic Productions Covers History, Literary tropes, and Mythology In a fun animated medium

You Suck At Cooking is what would happen if How to basic had a voiceover

Enchanterium another doll repaint artist

Jennelle Eliana A travel Vlogger who lives out of her van with her snake. Very informative

ThreadBanger cusses a lot but Rob and Corinne have one of the healthiest relationships on the platform. Rob also almost died a year ago and he’s back and better than ever (For some reason in the first list I had him listed as Todd? Ive been watching them for years so I dont know what thats about Whoops) 

MyFroggyStuff More doll art tutorials but this time they focus more on the dollhouse and smaller parts of a house awesome if you have kids who like dolls and crafting

Kristen Ryan Broadway fans rejoice! Kristen makes karaoke versions of popular songs but will sing every other part except the one you want to sing! She normally uploads multiple versions of the same songs so you have choices!

Rachel and Jun a Japan based married couple who talk about their life in japan and how they make their interracial relationship work

RRcherrypie I guess they would fall under ASMR youtuber but I just find the little toys they mess with really interesting

ellie Nicole a Beauty Vlogger who occasionally covers natural hair and her skincare routines

Mo Mo O'Brien a cosplayer and Larper who attends renaissance festivals among other things. Is possibly the cutest person on this planet?

호주사라 HojuSara Australian youtuber based In South Korea, She does Korean based vlogs.

Maven of the Eventide Covers Vampire lore in modern fiction and reviews vampire movies

Spill, the only tea channel you will find on this list. Lays out the facts and lets you come to your own conclusion in a respectful manner,

Mikaela Long, Does Beauty? Among other things

Philip DeFranco does daily news stories and is honestly one of the only ways I can consume the news without it feeling like its piling on top of me

And now here are all the new Additions: 

Wayward Seon is an art and gaming channel very near and dear to my heart. She’s up and coming and has the smooothest voice EVER

hannahleeduggan Is a diy channel who bought a cabin and has been building and renovating it 

Food Then Games is a gaming channel who does alot of Bioware and Dragon age videos, Her Dragon Age Modding tutorials have literally saved my games. 

Ghil Dirthalen This one is Kindve Niche, but I love Dragon Age lore since its one of my favorite games and she presents it in a really well thought out a prepared way. So if your a dragon age fan, I highly recommend her

l0user Does song edits that I have a really hard time decribing, stuff like 

“ WAP but you're in the church and someone has broken headphones “

Nerdforge does Nerdy, popculture crafts. Im a big fan of her bookbinding videos. 

Voicesofjake  The purest bean, He does voices and hair videosthat leave me rolling honestly 

Plumbella is a Sims youtuber who is just so funny and makes me laugh

Jasmine Chiswell Is a vintage youtuber and Marilyn Monroe lookalike who lives in one of Marilyn Monroe’s old houses. She did NOT deserve that ridiculous trend of mocking her voice. She is one of the sweetest people on the platform. 

Here it is, the updated version! I hope you all enjoy! 

#youtube #makeup #beauty #music #art #The Sims #True crime #vintage #gaming #problematic #unproblematic #fave #tea #doll art #doll repaint #broadway #fashion #kpop #cosplay #ASMR #travel #diy #beauty community #News #update #Part 2 #finally updated

[twilightofficial]

Thank you to @fuckmeyer @t-e-reynolds @emmettsmantiddies @leahclearwaterdefensesquad @emmettmc-heart-y @edwardseffervescentsnails and @vampireacademia for tagging me in the spread the love chain and for making me SOB 😭😭😭 (also if you guys think by tagging me I’m not gonna write some mushy shit about y’all then THINK AGAIN)

@kaquiche - The LOML!!!! I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to get call her my friend 😭 she’s so sweet and funny and all we do is hype eachother up it’s awesome! Literally just seeing her name pop up makes smile! No choice but to stan

@t-e-reynolds - ALWAYS ON GALAXY BRAIN MODE!! Can turn any crackship into something incredible! His writing? *chefs kiss* also an incredible friend and person! Also will single handedly turn the whole renaissance into fans of Julie and the Phantoms 😂

@su-angelvicioso - a QUEEN! I love her so much 😭 She is such a sweetheart and we are literally ALWAYS on the same page! Like we share a brain sometimes 😂 (also I s2g if one more person comes for her for being a Maria stan I will FIGHT them 🤬)

@scyllaramshorne - LAURA!!! She was the first friend I made in the fandom! And holy shit she is SO SMART! She told me about her thesis and it blew my mind! She’s also so incredibly nice! I love her 😭💕

@leahclearwaterdefensesquad - Kate!! We’ve never talked but I love you and will continue to admire you from afar because you’re literally so cool 🥺

@edwardseffervescentsnails - everyone is correct she IS the Seth of the fandom! A total sweetheart! Also she consistently made my day with random anon “finish the line” asks 😭 💜💕💜💕 where can I sign up to be your honorary big sister?

@emmettsmantiddies - HOLLY!!! The Mike Newton appreciation post? ICONIC! Her moodboards? MAGNIFICENT! A truly necessary follow for the renaissance!

@vampireacademia - GORGEOUS! And SWEET! Checked up on me when my puppy was missing so will forever hold a little piece of my heart! 🥺🥺💕💕💕💕

@emmettmc-heart-y - a TOP NOTCH blog! I may have tried to play the Midnight Sun drinking game and oh boy that “take a shot when edward broods about being a monster” will get you drunk SO FAST 😂😂

@fuckmeyer - so sweet for starting this tag game 🥺🥺 the world is pretty crap rn but it’s people like them that want to spread positivity to make other people feel good that keep me going. 💜💜💜

@teamjacobthot - a fucking QUEEN!! I love dee’s blog so much 😭 she’s absolutely hilarious and I appreciate her so much! Also her fancams? Incredible! I can’t WAIT to read the Leah fic she’s working on because I just know it’s going to be good. Anything Dee touches turns to gold!

@that-crooked-smile - SO TALENTED! Like her editing skills are AMAZING! I LOVE her twilight muppet edits 😂 quality meme content 10/10 !!

@bellas-dumptruck-ass - if you aren’t following Elaine I don’t know what you’re doing with your life but GET IT TOGETHER cause you’re missing out!! She’s hilarious!! I STAN

I should probably end this here because I could literally go on and on and on about everyone in this corner of the fandom because you guys have all had such a positive impact on me. Y’all have brought me so much joy and I’ve made friends that I love so much and cherish with my whole ass heart that I never would have met otherwise. I sincerely love every single one of you 💜💜💜💜

#tagged #tag games #did I cry writing the last part? yes #is anyone surprised tho? probably not 😭

[timetravelingshark]

So what exactly is this "The Arcana" you keep reblogging stuff for and what's it about? I am curious.

Okay, so I haven’t played it too much yet (I’m only like a fourth of the way through Julian’s route and that’s it, RIP) but the gist of it is that it’s a visual novel where you can romance six different characters. It’s set in a fantasy world, primarily in the city-state of Vesuvia, which is based off of Renaissance Venice with some definite Middle Eastern and Indian influences as well. Tarot is an overarching theme in the stories: the main character, each love interest, and all of the supporting characters have different cards from the Major Arcana that represent them and give insight into their character. The Major Arcana has some pretty interesting forces at play within the world and greatly influence the story. There’s a chance of getting a good, aka Upright, ending, and a bad, aka Reversed, ending. It all depends on the choices that you make while playing.

The main plot is that your character, who is a magician in training (in this world, magicians can actually use magic and are considered very valuable) who is summoned to the palace by the Countess Nadia. She tasks you with finding out who exactly is responsible for the murder of her husband, Count Lucio, who was burned alive in his bed on his birthday three years ago. (What a way to go, yeesh.) The lead suspect is a man by the name of Julian Devorak, who was the head doctor for the palace and treated many Vesuvians during a horrific outbreak of plague within the city a few years ago. He confessed to the murder before disappearing, but his guilt may not be so set in stone..... You’re assisted in the investigation by your somewhat flighty but extremely talented and mysterious Master, Asra, and Portia, one of Countess Nadia’s most trusted servants. A few other very interesting figures pop up along the way, each giving their side of the story of Lucio’s death.

Along the way you meet a cast of amazing characters, all of whom have really awesome designs and fun, unique personalities. I’ll describe the love interests below the cut because holy SHIT I ended up writing way more than I originally thought and also while I haven’t played many routes this is what I’ve picked up from browsing the tags.

First: Asra Al-Nazar

Your Master and one of your dearest friends. Very enigmatic and a man of few words, and is definitely one of the more subdued and laid-back love interests. He tends to disappear for bits of time to places unknown and has a deep understanding of magic and the magical realm itself. He’s got History™ with many of the major players in the story and knows more than he lets on. He’s very Somft™ to the Apprentice and cares about them greatly. Just generally a very sweet if mysterious guy. Lotta people really like him and for good reason.

Countess Nadia

The widow of Count Lucio and the ruler of Vesuvia. She’s very poised and generally keeps a cool demeanor about everything. She’s a very competent ruler and loves her people. Has, hands down, some of the absolute BEST outfits in the game. Like this girl ALWAYS looks good, and like a wealthy aunt, is always willing to make her loved ones look good, too. Very intelligent and crafty, and loves horseback riding and music. Doesn’t care much about the class of a person, and rather their talent and character. However, like all people, she does have flaws. She holds grudges for a very long time and holds them with a white knuckle grip. She’s also extremely reserved and finds difficulty in trusting people, expressing herself, or making herself vulnerable. Like Asra, is very Somft™ with the Apprentice and is very easy to simp for. 

Julian Devorak

The man I’m currently simping for. And yes, you can smooch the accused murderer! He’s a very tall goth doctor who cares way too much and has a massive guilt complex that he hides under a mask of drama and suaveness. Very much a protector type and would do absolutely anything for the people he loves. This man tries not to worry the people around him but at the same time probably survives off of like an hour of sleep and caffeine and he really looks it. He likes being very smooth and cool but if you throw him off his game this boy gets FLUSTEREDDDDD it’s great and hilarious. Kind of has Flynn Rider vibes. Love him to bits. (Can you tell that he’s the only character whose route I’ve played so far???) He wants to find out who killed Lucio, and why. (Minor spoiler: he doesn’t know if he did it or not and would rather like to find out) Feels as though he’s failed everyone he loves and can swing between joy and melancholy very quickly. He’s also ridiculously self-sacrificing. Despite all this, very loveable.

Portia

Nadia’s most trusted servant and also my homegirl. Very sweet, bubbly, and snarky, but is also a total ride or die. Very loyal to Nadia, but will side with the Apprentice over her on certain issues. She knows pretty much everything that goes on in the castle and all the secret nooks and crannies. She lives in a little cottage in the middle of the palace gardens alongside her kitty, Pepi, where she has a huge garden full of fruits and vegetables and flowers. She’s definitely a cottagecore type girl. Also pretty adventurous and willing to go do crazy shit if need be. She’s rather secretive, though. Her personality is quite a bit like my own, which is probably why I don’t really have her on my to-romance list, but I’ll still do her route to satisfy the little completionist gremlin that is my brain.

Muriel

Count Lucio. Or at least, his ghost.

Ah, the BEEG BOI. At a whopping 6′10, he’s the tallest and most muscular of all of the love interests, so if you’re into that Muriel is absolutely your man. He’s very stoic and grumpy, and almost always has a furrowed brow, even when he’s happy. Very much a hermit and likes to keep away from civilization and society. Underneath it all, he’s very gentle towards the ones he loves and especially loves animals and nature, especially dogs and his beloved chickens. Seriously, this boy loves his chickens. When he smiles it’s absolutely adorable. Kind of afraid of his own strength but has no qualms about using it if necessary. Don’t piss him off, he’s scary when he’s angry. Like Nadia, holds a grudge for a long time and is again, very antisocial.

And lastly (and most surprisingly),

Ah, this trainwreck. He’s such an asshole, but such a loveable asshole. Full of himself and with a flair for the gaudy and dramatic, he’s one hell of a piece of work but with the Apprentice’s help becomes an actually good person. Despite his vanity, cruelty, and pettiness, when he decides he likes you, you’re one of his people and he’ll love you wholly and move the heavens and earth for you. Still kind of holds a flame for Nadia despite everything, which is actually really sweet, fight me. He’s kind of got a hero complex and runs headfirst into things without thinking and desperately needs someone to hold him back by the collar at all times because while not pure of heart, this man IS dumb of ass. His facial expressions and dramatics are absolutely hysterical and he’d rather die than admit it but he’s such an ugly crier and it’s hilarious and also very endearing. He’s also kind of in denial about being actually dead, and instead refers to his state as a ghost as being an “Oopsie” and that he’s “Just stuck >:(” He actually doesn’t know who killed him, but is determined to find out. Underneath his pomp and circumstance he’s actually pretty vulnerable and super lonely and could probably do with some hugs and actual human connection. As I said, he does become a good man, or at least a better man, but it takes work on both his end and yours. A pretty divisive route among fans. I’ve personally played the first two chapters of it and honestly I really love him. At the same time, I’m pretty sure if I met someone like him IRL I’d try to strangle him, so there’s that. He’d probably be into that though, the kinky bastard.

So yeah! There’s the main characters and a bit of the plot. Sorry for such an essay but I really wanted to explain all this since you were curious (^^;) I’d definitely recommend playing it, I've had a lot of fun! 

(Also, tip: the scenes that you can buy with coins are just little add ons and treats for the player- the game is very explicitly NOT pay to win and what matters when it comes to getting a good or bad ending is what non-paid dialogue options you choose while interacting with them.)

#the arcana #Anonymous #long post #long #Seriously tho anyone reading this PLAY THE ARCANA IT'S GREAT #ALL THE CHARACTERS ARE GREAT AND THE ART IS GORGEOUS AND ITS VERY WELL WRITTEN

[justkimberley]

HSMTMTS Thoughts Episode 7

Episode 1   Episode 2    Episode 3   Episode 4   Episode 5  Episode 6

This one is also kinda long (~2200 words)

Nini and Ricky doing a fantastic job harmonizing in Start of Something New

the dance routine around them is absolutely crazy and all over the place

So it seems that Seb is just their resident piano player (side note, who ended up getting Kelsey??)

Big Red with the flashlight trying so hard to keep it on the disco ball

EJ interrupting because of the bell. Does anyone really love Thanksgiving that much??

Also I always forget that American Thanksgiving is like a month later than Canadian Thanksgiving and I was hella confused for a second.

Ricky is so surprised that Nini is complimenting him

Ashlyn as Robotics Team captain! (side note Big Red gives her an impressed look after he overhears that she’s the captain)

Also: debate team, baking club, high priestess of the Renaissance Faire

We love a multifaceted lady

Miss Jenn/Mr. Mazzarra trying to have a ‘my horse is bigger than your horse’ banter except neither of them have the horses they claim to have

“With whoever could possibly love you,” lol ok Miss Jenn went for the head

“Late night party” - party starts at 8 that’s adorable

“Small group or…” “PARTY AT ASHLYN’S HOUSE!”

It’s really interesting learning about Nini’s Lola (? I think that’s how it’s spelled, which is what I believe Filipino people call their grandmother’s), and her story

I’m just really proud of Ricky’s Dad. Like he was in such a bad place 2-3 episodes ago and now he’s taking care of himself and Ricky (even if it isn’t a grandiose Thanksgiving) he’s trying and I think he’s doing great

“We roll hard” I just really love this line

“I suppose if you’re lonely, you could always just… randomly text my drama teacher,” “Too soon… RIck,” “... yeah okay”

That was pretty funny. Also, it seems like Ricky’s okay with his dad dating?

Ricky’s mom waiting for him to call

I don’t know how I feel about this to be honest. I feel like maybe she should have tried to call him first and then if he didn’t answer or want to talk to her, that she should wait for him to make the next move then.

EJ’s truth arc is very funny to me

Big Red and Ashlyn

“I promise not to steal your phone if you promise not to throw a basketball at my face,” “No, the only thing I’d ever throw at your face is a brighter spotlight cause, I like the way you sing

Oof they’re so cute, we love little crushes

Also this might be an unpopular opinion but y’all need to calm down about the whole ‘Ashlyn and Big Red are GAY and they only THINK theyy like each other’ thing. #1 It was never confirmed for them to be gay. #2 You can still have wlw and mlm head-cannons for them! Bi, Pan, and other multiple gender attraction oriented people exist, even if you forget about us sometimes.

They are a cute little pairing of people who are always looking out and taking care of other people. It’s okay for them to do things for themselves.

Ricky debating calling his mom, it took a lot of courage and then Todd picks up.

Hangs up immediately, it almost looked like he was going to have a panic attack. That would be so hard, such an extreme shift

I guess the reason he was more okay with his Dad dating was that his Dad was open and honest with him about it. Calling your Mom only to find out that she has a boyfriend that a. She never told you about b. He knows about you and c. is trusted enough to be left alone with her phone while she showers? Is a lot, and probably means that she started dating him before the split was official.

Ricky going to call Nini and then deciding against it. Why doesn’t he feel like he can talk to Big Red about this kind of stuff? Why does he always go to Nini first?

Gina shows up, those are good looking cupcakes

She made him a hat!

She looks so hesitant before she gives it to him!

Gina’s like ‘look dude, I know something’s wrong, spill the beans’

Ignore it and push through - I understand where she’s coming from but you really shouldn’t ignore your problems, it usually just makes them worse

“Do what makes you happy,” “... Give me that hat,”

Adorable, also do what makes you happy is good advice so we’re a little all over the map here

“That’s too big,” “I’ll grow into it,” (adorable)

Miss Jenn and Mr. Mazzarra’s whole interaction is hilarious.

Don’t burn down my shop! - holy shit, foreshadowing buddies

Ashlyn is so cute! She’s so happy when people compliment her

“I highly recommend not telling someone you love them for the first time on instagram” - yup! That’s what I said in the first one of these I did.

Carlos - “The party may begin!” - I totally thought he said “The party made me gay,” the first time I watched it so uhh yeah

Big Red is lactose intolerant

Carlos’ board game is amazing

“High School Musical the Choosical,” - fantastic name

Everyone is so accepting

Ashlyn and Big Red choosing to be on the same team

“South Side Knights -” “It’s the West High Nights,” “the West High Knights”

Ej is like a compulsive truther now. And it’s kind of hilarious

His face when he says “She laughed!” is hilarious and kind of adorable

“I gotta go join the party, and admit some terrible things, you ladies, catch up!” - I wish we got to see what he was admitting to, I find this whole thing quite funny

I’m glad that Emily and Nini got some reconciliation, I know Nini felt guilty even though it wasn’t her fault

That is not a good cockney accent

Why did Ricky enter alone when him and Gina walked together?

And he left her to open the door on her own with all those cupcakes?

“Buddies,” “We,”

Ricky and Gina both laughing about YouTube, cuties

Look, feelings are feelings and you can’t help what you feel, but pushing someone away and insisting to remain only friends means that you shouldn’t be upset when he makes a new friend

Mr. Mazzara and Miss Jenn

The plug socket is in the frame, more foreshadowing

“He won’t.. Not… fall” this show loves it’s double negatives huh? I don’t not love you, he won’t not fall etc.

“Ok but the center of gravity is off,” YES to different kinds of intelligence being helpful in fields other than the main one people associate them with

Carlos thinking people are going to keep judging him and the theater people being as accepting as possible

EJ is a gleek

What I’ve Been Looking For to the rhythm of Get Your Head in the Game is hard! (Catch me on the piano later trying to figure it out lol)

It just turns into a terrible rap

EJ - “That was terrible,” Seb -  “I’m so happy”

EJ vs. Ricky - “without laughing… or killing each other,”

This is a good parallel to the basketball scene, once again they get kind of aggressive, but this time they also joke around and no one gets hurt

Also I would love to see them become friends, I mean they both need to grow a little before that happens, but I have hopes

They missed the ‘neeee howww’ part of it, I really wanted to hear them do the high voices

EJ’s little “mehh” that sounds like a duck kills me everytime

Gina and Nini awkwarddd

“I do have high hopes for a junior year at East High” oof babey :(

“It must be nice sometimes though, right?” - nini does not understand

This actually gives us an insight as to why they don’t understand each other. Nini would love nothing more than to start a new life with no drama and Gina would love nothing more than to have a life that lasts longer than a couple months before being restarted.

Gina/Nini apology very exciting, hopefully they can actually become friends

“It’s all good,” from Nini seemed disingenuous, I don’t know if it’s because of the Wonderstudy thing or the Ricky thing. 

The sleepover thing I was so worried that it would be a mean spirited thing but I’m so glad it wasn’t

Nini sits on Ricky’s lap when she goes back to the game room and I don’t know if it’s intentional or not but it’s kind of like she’s trying to lay her claim back on Ricky.

Gina looks so happy when a. Carlos calls her in and b. the happy dance about the sleepover! (why’d they have to ruin the happiness??)

Mr. Mazarra returning the favour

“It’s beautiful,” “Math often is,” dudde I feel you I fucking love math

“I cannot stress to you enough how uncomfortable that would make me feel,”

“You know what we should do?” “Break off eye contact sometime soon?”

I’m dying

“It’s about a robot!” this is… pretty adorable. She just wants to make a genuine connection with him

Also are they going to do a romance route with these two? Because I can see them setting it up but also imagine if they just become like… best friends? I feel like they’d be unstoppable.

Musical Choosical Handbook of Rulesicals

“I thought you had never actually played this with people-” “Honey not today of all days,”

Carlos and Seb are the only couple with no bad drama and I’m living for it (please let them just stay happy)

Oops! I knew that jersey question… also it’s definitely the answer Big Red would now because he’s only watched the movie with no words (at his allergists office)

“And do people usually talk like that?” “No they do not.” - gold

EJ the compulsive cheater and also compulsive truther makes a comeback (I seriously find this so funny I don’t know why)

“I love to pop and lock and jam and break,” oh GIna

She’s so happy about winning

Not realistic, you know that the second she called her mom at least someone would be like “pass the weed,” (you know because friends are awesome and also terrible)

“Can you take me off speaker”

Some people are like ‘oh no is she in trouble?’

I kind of hate that it looks like Nini looks sort of happy about Gina’s mom asking her to take her off speaker - I really don’t want Nini to turn into a catty person.

Ricky is concerned

Why did her mom tell her this right now? She should have waited until the next morning, like that wouldn’t have hurt anyone and it would have let them form stronger bonds. And Gina would have had her first sleepover and also they might form strong enough bonds to try and stay in contact with her

Ricky is worried for her, he’s like, ‘You made me feel better, so I’ll go make you feel better’

Nini’s looking upset that Ricky’s being emotionally aware for once? Like dude, he’s grown up a lot since BEFORE summer break? That’s like six months ago I think at this point?

Ricky just wants to help Gina feel better because she made him feel better

She doesn’t understand that they can stay friends even if she leaves and I just :(

“Please don’t do that” he’s so overwhelmed

“My mom moved out two weeks ago and she’s already got a new boyfriend, sound familiar?” Oooh low blow Ricky bud.

“Really don’t need advice from a .. buddy right now,”

Ok but then who does Ricky want advice from? I’m so confused. This boy needs to get a better support system and learn how to use it. Romantic relationships should not be your only outlet for your problems.

Red and Ashlyn

“I hope Gina’s gonna be okay,” - Big Red is so sweet!

They’re so cute

“Hey Big Red? Don’t forget your dip,” - oh she was so going to ask him out and then lost the nerve

Write something for yourself.

It’s a hard thing to do, dude. It’s also hard to let yourself feel so vulnerable, even if it’s only you that’s going to hear it

Gina packing, I feel so sad for her, she’s finally made some good friends and now she has to leave again. She kept the badge! :( 

EJ losing followers and being cancelled, at least we know why now

It seems like a lot of EJ’s self worth comes from how others think of him. So losing followers is probably a pretty big hit. I wonder if he’ll keep going with his whole truth thing when it has these consequences or if he’ll just go back to what he was doing before. I hope that he has a positive arc but, will it go downhill from here? I hope not.

Ricky about to apologise to Nini (why did he erase it, he probably should have sent that) - side note: their conversation before was them asking each other if they were going to the party

It’s interesting that Nini had pictures of EJ and Ricky up still

Gina’s crying face is making me cry

“Hey mom, it’s me, I miss you so much,” tears

Nini hanging up pictures of her grandma and the musical. She’s really trying to move forward from boys huh?

Is nini going to apply to the theater school??

Electrical fire???????? WHy??

#hsmtmts #hsmtmts spoilers #episode 7 #kimberleysthoughts #mypost #kimberleyreacts #feel free to come yell into the void with me about this show #the void is always open #(the void is the name of my askbox lol)

[beanenigma]

MAKE THEM FAT, YOU COWARDS!

A small guide to writing fat characters, by @beanenigma​

As a writer and an illustrator simultaneously, I have the incredible privilege of being a spy for both sides and comparing the community of both hobbies/jobs all in the comfort of my blog. And for a while I have been seeing something that makes me very happy: an effort from the artists to include bigger body sizes in their art - me included. But, on the other hand, I don’t see the same effort in the books I read except for tokens who don’t make that much of a difference to the plot and are only there for certain effects. . 

And even then, the only purpose them being fat serves is them being underestimated, weak, bullied or made fun of. So, with 20 years of being fat in my belt and having suffered through a lot of enraging fat representation in fiction, I compiled this list of things I would like you to remember when writing fat characters:

If you’re character is fat, call them fat 

Have other characters refer to them as fat. Have them refer to each other as fat. Fat is not a bad word… Unless you use it as a bad word. Going around the bush makes it feel like it’s something that should be hidden instead of a natural feature of your character, like being tall or blond. 

Getting thin is not the ultimate victory

 Nothing makes a fat reader feel worse about themselves than this narrative. Not everyone can or wants to get thin. And getting thin won’t fix all of their problems. Especially the emotional trauma of being told (and constantly reminded) the way you are naturally is unfit for life.

Also, getting thin shouldn’t be the only thing on their minds all the time. They should have hobbies and friends and other worries. And if losing weight is the only thing they can think about and plan for, they are probably sick and they need professional help. Eating disorders are real even if we don’t talk that much about them anymore. So keep watch on your characters if you didn’t intend them to be sick. 

Society? B*tch, please

Don’t blame SOCIETY. Society is an abstract concept made of people. People tell fat people shitty things and write shitty things in magazines and purposefully don’t hire them for TV and movies, not “society”. Name the enemy. We know who it is. 

FAT ≠ UNHEALTHY or UGLY

Fatness is not all the same. We are not all thin children that got fed McDonalds and somehow ended up like this. Some people have different metabolisms, genetic components, thyroid disorders, etc, but otherwise are perfectly healthy.

When writing AUs, science and historical fiction, remember in other times, fat had different social meanings. In renaissance Italy for example, the giocondas represented the wealth of the emerging bourgeoisie. Our ideas of fat are very conditioned to our place and time - that doesn’t make them the absolute truth.  

You don’t have to have one designated fat character. 

Make more! Make two! A hundred. Make secondary characters. Background characters. They are not points outside the curve, something that is wrong and should be handled like hot potatoes. They’re a large part of the world’s population (in 2013, there was an estimate of 2.1 billion obese people in the world). 

Choose the right bod! 

Like I said before, not all fat bodies are the same. The artists can help you with these and doctors can too, as well as women’s magazines (surprisingly). Choose your prefered body type keeping your universe and backstory in mind. also, personal choice, let’s normalize stretch marks, they’re so pretty and every girl has them, mention those awesome stripes please? 

Finally, fat characters are characters like any other - that also happen to be fat. They can and should have wishes, dreams, hobbies and relationships. The reader should be able to remember something else about them other than “fat”. Make them human. Please. 

Now, with that being said, being fat can be a great plot device as a physical obstacle towards some objectives. So here’s other obstacles for you fat character that would definitely be more interesting than what’s currently out there: 

Self-esteem issues

Not that we haven’t seen this before in media, but it’s normally caused by constant teasing and bullying. But the thing is that just like it happens to a lot of people with noticeable features, we are painfully aware of our weight at all times. There is really no need for someone to come up to us at our face and say “I hate you because you’re fat”, because we feel that constantly in everything that we do in society. Not that everyone lets themselves be taken by these kinds of stuff - I know some kickass models who couldn’t be more happy to have the body they have - but these things tend to collect a price on our self-esteem (big or small). So keeping that in mind might help not clutter your narrative with unnecessary violence. 

Medical negligence

I know fatphobia is a word people have a hard time believing is real (and I know it sounds weird), but it’s a real thing that happens. Just while writing this, I asked two friends and they both said that they had their concerns ignored by doctors that claimed their ailments would all be fixed once they lost weight. Both me and my mother had that happen to us as well. 

Not to say that weight can’t cause sickness (because it does), but people know their bodies and they know when something is wrong. Personally, I would find it hilarious if a fat superhero went to a doctor to try and find out what their powers mean, for example, and got out with the recommendation of a nutritionist. That’s some relatable content right there.  

Exercising is hard

I know. I know, it’s hard for everyone. But there’s a reason people tie weights to their limbs to carry around when exercising. It makes it harder. We’re carrying a lot more weight on our bones. Muscles get tired easily (and hurt after). Backbones are under a lot of pressure; feet are tortured; speed is decreased. So honestly, no need to trip on the way. Your fat character can run just as well as everyone else on the team, they’ll just get tired faster. Which is great potential for showing physical strength on their part, keeping up with them without showing discomfort. 

AGAIN, REMEMBER: Being fat not always equals being unhealthy. Not all fat people will struggle with exercise. You must decide what’s the case of your character. 

There are sports in which broader body types might be ideal - wrestling, for example - but they could also perform others and be good at it. And if you disagree, I’ll eat you. 

Clothes won’t fit/places don’t have their size

We all remember Mean Girls, when Regina gains weight and the lady tells her she should go shopping elsewhere. Sh*t’s funny, right? Not really. 

But this issue can go further than regular frustration during shopping. What if they want to be a cheerleader and there’s no money to get her uniform (despite them making the team and everyone else getting one their size?). Or, what if, as a superhero, they can’t find the right measures for a uniform that suits them? Or the right mold for knight armor? Or the right size of space suit to go out of the ship in a crisis? It makes you feel unwelcome, unfit, too much, even when people are doing their dang best to help. 

It’s a great opportunity for showing the perseverance of your character or introducing that awesome supportive character who understands. Still on the topic of clothes that won’t fit, here’s the places where normally there are issues:

Thighs and butt (mainly) 

Breasts (for inverted triangle girls, it’s common to have tight clothes at the boobs and loose lower). 

Arms (sometimes they fit but you can’t stretch your arms ahead or up without having the shirt going up)

Waist (and not necessarily belly; when things have a very slim waist, it gets crumpled and what’s down is projected by the belly.

Belly (if you really must)

Chairs are not suitable

Chairs don’t have to break to be mortifying to sit in. Personally, stools are terrible because my thighs go bananas over them. Swallow them whole, and I feel unstable. Some chairs simply won’t be comfortable because parts of me are not on top of them. Having to have someone bring you a special chair is humiliating. 

What if the spaceship was built for slender species? How about the conquerer queen who, upon looking at the pathetic small throne of the territory she just took over, splits it in how with her mighty swords while her new subjects watch in horror as she destroys millennia of history? 

So with those tools, I trust you will not be a coward and give us a thought the next time you’re thinking of your cast of characters next time.

Feel free to reblog this with your own aditions and follow me for similar content! 

#writing #writing advice #writeblr #new writeblr #fat #fatphobia #writer #writing tips #new writers #writing inspiration #fiction #creative writing #writers #writers on tumblr

[letsgetthisblood]

let’s make one thing very clear about the twilight renaissance: it is not for outside consumption

you wanna hang out and have fun and talk about the cullens? cool! welcome! we’re happy to have you here. you wanna point out questionable aspects of smeyer’s world and her viewpoints so we can engage with the story more critically and not reinforce toxic ideas? awesome. thanks for helping us learn and grow. you wanna nostalgically shame-love a piece of media from your childhood that you don’t think is good anymore but still holds personal value? us too!! 

you want to quietly watch and enjoy the memes in good faith without actively participating? fab. you want to show your friends who aren’t into twilight some funny memes that you genuinely love bc you want to share the positivity with someone you care about? great!

all good faith participation in the renaissance is welcome

what is absolutely NOT acceptable is taking the content YOU deem worthy and putting it elsewhere in order to earn Internet Points. 

that means: reblogging a twilight meme you think is funny with tags like “i hate twilight but...” “i can’t believe twilight is back, y’all bitches are crazy but i laughed” or otherwise making disparaging comments about the fandom, or somehow implying that twilight is some awful, shameful girly thing that should be destroyed except for This One Worthy Piece of Content that’s allowed to stay, because you declared it so

that means: reblogging/sharing twilight content from 2018/19 in order to make fun of or shame the people who made it

that means: distancing yourself from the fandom but trying to look funny and original by posting renaissance content on different platforms without credit or permission

yeah, we see you, Buzzfeed. And you, Ranker. 

The twilight renaissance is not here for you to profit off of, financially or socially. It is not here for you to exploit. You guys all did plenty of that a decade ago. 

The twilight renaissance is a smallish group of hilarious, mostly gay, mostly women, who were mocked mercilessly for their harmless interest in a popular piece of media when they were actual children. This is us, grown up, refusing to feel shame over something that brings us joy, rejecting the invasive sexism that made twilight so popular to hate in the first place, and engaging critically with a piece of media that was a transformative part of our lives. To everyone’s shock, we’ve managed to create a fairly positive, self-aware and constructively critical, fun, welcoming, queer friendly space out of something that reeked of toxicity a few years ago. 

if you’re not here to respect and appreciate that, then

 leave us the fuck alone 

EDIT: hey, I’ve edited this post to take out the stuff about Julia/Facebook. This was not meant to be a callout post about her specifically but rather a real critique about the ways in which people are interacting with the fandom. It’s still not cool to repost people’s content without credit, but obviously context matters and the situation could’ve been handled better. 

#twilight #tts #twilight renaissance #twilight in 2019 #twilight saga #twilight revival #the twilight saga #lets get this blood

[aarontalksmusic-blog]

A Top 30 Horror Movies

This is Halloween! This is Halloween! There are a lot of awesome horror movies, but I picked just 30 that qualify as my favorites. 

#30 - The Conjuring

So this movie isn’t perfect. The last 20-30 minutes kinda turn into a mess as the demon gets more confrontational. But, the first 90 minutes are a near perfect slow build of tension and smart visual storytelling. All the actors do a good job, even the kids. This movie has insured I never play Hide and Clap.

#29 - Paranormal Activity 2

In my opinion superior to the (still pretty good) original, PA2 moves faster than its predecessor and uses the audience’s curiosity against them in interesting ways. You’re always looking to the edges of the screen for something or someone out of place, and as the movie progresses, that curiosity rattles the nerves more and more.

#28 - The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

One of the only modern horror remakes that improves and expands on the original. The Hills Have Eyes hit when I was a junior in high school. It is gleefully gorey and deranged. People die in awful ways, and the protagonist (seen above) spends most of the last half hour drenched in blood. It’s a lot of fun if you’re into that sort of thing.

#27 - Event Horizon

Space Horror is a hard genre to get right. Event Horizon knocks it out of the park by getting the slow build right. There are gruesome and bloody images from time to time, but the majority of the movie is built on tension and dread. Having Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne leading the cast adds some dramatic weight to the proceedings.

#26 - The VVitch

The GOAT 17th Century rural horror movie. This movie gets real weird and leaves a lot up to the audience’s imagination. The less said about it the better if you haven’t seen it. But, even for the 2010s renaissance of horror, this one stands out.

#25 - Hereditary

This is a list of my favorite horror movies, not the scariest. If it were “scariest” this would be top 10, maybe top 5. The second half of this movie is some of the most uncomfortable and relentlessly horrifying storytelling I’ve ever seen. Across just two feature films, Director Ari Aster has proved himself a master of the horror genre. We’re all worse off for it.

#24 - Return of the Living Dead

The first movie on this list that is more funny than scary, Return of the Living Dead is laugh out loud hilarious at times. Somehow, it still manages to be a more effective zombie movie than most serious ones. Great punk rock soundtrack and highly quotable, this is great for people who scare a little too easily.

#23 - Friday the 13th Part 2

Basically improving on the original in every way, Friday the 13th Part 2 is iconic even without Jason’s hockey mask making an appearance. The killer instead keeps a lumpy bag over his head the whole time. The movie lets you know early on that its going to be ridiculous, when the Part 2 logo literally smashes through the Friday the 13th title card. Great representation of the slasher genre.

#22 - Suspiria (2018)

I’m a sucker for lore in movies, and Suspiria is full to the brim with details that expand on the world. Led by great performances from Tilda Swinton and Dakota Johnson, the movie is highly intelligent and occasionally brutally violent. The fact that the director’s prior movie was “Call Me By Your Name” shows that he’s a talented filmmaker no matter the genre.

#21 - Halloween (1978)

Michael Myers is iconic. The music is iconic. Jamie Lee Curtis is an all-time great horror leading lady. Halloween is a must watch for horror genre fans. 

#20 - Get Out

This movie is so well written it won an Oscar. Get Out is both hilarious and brutally tense. The acting is awesome across the board. Who knew Jordan Peele would use his comedy talent to make a career in scary movies? 

#19 - Shaun of the Dead

A classic comedy filled with so many jokes that it takes about 3 watches to catch them all. Not scary in the least, but uniquely playful in the genre. Also made Simon Pegg a star. Nothing but greatness here.

#18 - The Descent

I’ll always remember my first watch of this movie. It slaps you in the face with trauma in the first 5 minutes. Then spends three quarters of an hour building tension and claustrophobia before suddenly becoming a solid monster feature. Though it fizzles a little at the end with some wtf moments, the first 3/4ths are very effecting.

#17 - Nightmare on Elm Street

Nightmare on Elm Street is just a cool as hell idea for a horror movie. It takes the occasional predictability of Halloween or Friday the 13th and flips it. The kills are inventive and visually interesting, the effects are very cool, and you get to see Johnny Depp get brutally murdered. win-win-win.

#16 - Saw

Saw came out at a perfect age for me. Seeing this movie at 16 was a great experience. Even as the sequels got worse and worse, the whodunnit nature of the original held up. People were literally drowning in gore by Saw 3, but this is a solid movie that knows when to tone things down. Great watch.

#15 - Evil Dead 2

By turns hilarious and unsettling, watching Evil Dead 2 allows the viewer to marvel at the special effects done on a shoestring budget. Bruce Campbell is an absurd and talented physical actor, and singlehandedly carries this movie into the hall of fame.

#14 - IT Chapter 1

Chopping the 1,000 page Stephen King book in half allowed the first half of the IT saga to thrive. Bill Skarsgard is a fantastic Pennywise, and the child actors all do well. A slightly repetitive series of scares keeps this one from perfection (and would be the downfall of Part 2), but its still an amazing peak of the genre.

#13 - Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Fast zombies. Zack Snyder directing before his head got too big. Hilarious musical cues. Apocalyptic imagery. This movie is one of the best of the zombie genre.

#12 - Fright Night (1985)

One of the most simply fun movies on this list, Fright Night is straight out of the mid 80s. It never takes itself too seriously, but it still has some good scares sprinkled in. An essential vampire movie, and the remake with Colin Farrell wasn’t half bad either.

#11 - The Omen (1976)

One of my early favorites, The Omen is another lore filled film that gradually ramps up the twists until the dramatic finale. Probably one of the least scary films on my list, its built on Gregory Peck being a great actor and a few pretty messed up deaths.

#10 - An American Werewolf in London

Another favorite from childhood, this is the best the werewolf genre has to offer. Made by John Landis who also did Animal House and Blues Brothers, American Werewolf balances 80s level of gore with award winning special effects and clever music (every song featured has moon in the title).

#9 - It Follows

One of the newest (and most original) movies on the list, It Follows is one of a kind. It’s terrifying, has great cinematography and halfway through the movie you have absolutely no clue how it will end. Must see.

#8 - Midsommar

This is absolute newest film on the list, and one I’m anxious to rewatch. Midsommar sets itself apart by being 95% in broad daylight and providing a wealth of backstory to the “bad guys”. Also Florence Pugh shows that she is an amazingly skilled actress, particularly in the final 10 minutes.

#7 - The Exorcist

^That guy is scary. He’s also only in the movie for like 3 seconds. Obviously this is a classic. If you haven’t seen it and like horror at all, it will still amaze you, almost 50 years later. I would’ve loved to be a fly on the wall when it was in theaters watching people lose their minds. Still a masterpiece of the genre.

#6 - The Blair Witch Project

I watched The Blair Witch Project for the first time alone in my room at age...I believe 14. That was a mistake. While the mistakes of the hikers become a bit hilarious on multiple rewatches, the night scenes are still tense af. The last 15 minutes are uniquely terror-inducing. Everybody’s seen this one, but if you haven’t, maybe watch it with the lights on?

#5 - The Evil Dead (2013)

This movie is one of the most intense and relentless horror movies ever. Nail guns, rusty knives, a turkey carver, a chainsaw, a machete: people get literally ripped apart in this movie. But, here’s the thing, its really really fun to watch. You’ll be out of breath when its over, but still.

#4 - Cabin in the Woods

Cabin in the Woods isn’t THAT scary. It flirts with scary. It has some shocking and frightening moments But mostly its a shitload of fun that plays on every trope of the horror genre. It also has one of my favorite final moments of any film on this list.

#3 - The Thing

Underappreciated upon its release, The Thing has become the standard by which body horror is measured. Its delightfully paranoid and lets the audience sit and think as gruesome deaths pile up. 

#2 - Alien

One of the first movies to terrify me, Alien is one of the greatest horror movies ever made. The monster design is iconic. The kills and set pieces are one of a kind. It has a kick ass female heroine played by Sigourney Weaver. What more do you want?

and finally

#1 - The Shining

YEAHHHHHHH Here’s a brief list of iconic Shining scenes: - An elevator full of blood - The old woman in room 237 - All work and no play make Jack a dull boy - The snowy hedge maze - Here’s Johnny - Danny’s vision of the twins - The house of horrors finale featuring the man in bear costume featured above and of course - REDRUM This movie is a masterpiece, made by one of the greatest directors of all time, starring one of the greatest actors of all time and based on one of the scariest books by the defining horror author of our time. Its damn near perfect.

[polyadvice]

Does Zinnia play D&D?

As a reminder, I’m celebrating 1,000 posts by taking a break from polyamory related questions and taking questions about literally anything else. Submit your non-polyam questions here! You can blacklist the tag “1kcelebration” if you don’t want non-polyamory-related posts on your dash.

Have you ever played Dungeons & Dragons? What's your opinion of the game and subculture surrounding it? If you could be any fantasy character, what race and/or class would you choose?

Ooh, I have such Feelings about D&D. Starting around age nine, I got really into online forum roleplaying, which was a lot like D&D minus any of the stats, numbers, etc. I was huge into this hobby and by the time I was in middle school I would spend hours and hours on the family computer writing these elaborate characters and stories.

My parents hated this, and were always on me to “get out of the house” and “make friends,” two things I found quite difficult to do. There was, however, a board game and tabletop roleplaying store within walking distance of my house, and I very much wanted to be allowed to go hang out there and play Dungeons & Dragons. I was also a huge fan of the comic Something*Positive, which includes a lot of D&D stuff. Unfortunately for both me and my parents, my mom believed in the absurd urban legend that D&D made kids kill themselves. (Hilariously, this bizarre fear mongering stemmed from Evangelical Christianity, a community and an ideology my mom hated with a passion - but she somehow caught wind of their nonsense, stripped of the context that would have led her to reject it, and she fully believed that letting me play D&D would have been dangerous.)

I still have some resentment about this, because kid-me would have absolutely loved D&D, and would have been amazing at it. I have a knack for character improv and worldbuilding, and I would have likely “found my community.” I was a sad and lonely kid, and it would have been amazing for me. I also would have gotten into it when my brain was more malleable and I was better able to internalize the complicated structure and rules of the game. I’d be absolutely kick-ass at it as an adult now that the milieu is very pro-D&D. But, alas, I was dealt different cards.

As an adult, I decided to finally get into it. I’ve played Pathfinder, D&D, and VTM systems. I love the narrative and character and worldbuilding parts, but I still can’t get a good grip on all the fiddly bits. I frequently end up with complete ‘weenie’ characters because I don’t care enough to actually make use of the skills and powers I could have. I find combat in D&D excruciatingly boring and I’m not interested in maximizing my ability to do anything combat related. I like the idea of magic but playing a spellcasting character overwhelms me with all the crap to keep track of. I spend far more time writing out an elaborate backstory and personality for my character than fussing about the character sheet. This is probably because of the forum roleplaying I cut my teeth on, and because I don’t have years of practice or a nostalgic connection to the actual D&D system. Playing with hardcore or experienced D&D players is usually frustrating for me and for them.

But I still love everything else - the maps, the characters, the dice, the mini figurines, the art. I actually like DMing more than being a PC, because I get to make up towns and shops and stories and NPCs, and I can decline to fuss about things I don’t find interesting. I’ve been slowly working on my own tabletop RP system with its own world, its own character creation and its own magic system. The goals are to be narrative-driven, heavy on character and light on combat, and to give the players incentive to explore the world and flexibility to be creative with their magic. I’m lucky enough to have a partner who’s also interested in game design, so it’s been a fun project to do with him.

I do have to state for the record that I still love and adore forum RPing, though the community/culture of the hobby has gone through some changes in the last few years that are leaving me feeling a bit Eternal-September-ed. I also strongly recommend simpler, “one-page” style RPGs like Lasers and Feelings and related ‘hacks’ thereof. These sorts of games have a much lower barrier to entry and can be amazing for people who might otherwise feel overwhelmed or left out by more complex systems (like the youth I work with!) I have written some pre-made ‘modules’ and ‘kits’ for L&F and really love running games with it. Tabletop roleplaying can be amazingly powerful as a therapeutic tool. It’s being used to help young people develop confidence and social skills, it’s popular in prisons, it’s just awesome.

As for the “subculture surrounding” the game, I feel kind of the same way a lot of us ‘older nerds’ feel seeing this renaissance. It’s awesome seeing this cool, fun thing get more respect and recognition, but it’s also bittersweet to see something that had always been for “outsiders” suddenly be taken up by people who have never been on the outside. I got bullied mercilessly for loving high fantasy books and movies by the same types of people who go nuts for Game of Thrones these days, and this feels a bit similar. There’s an “in crowd” for D&D now, with the famous podcasters and all that, and while I don’t begrudge anyone their entertainment or success, it feels complicated for me personally, especially since part of me feels robbed of an early “in.” But, it does mean lots of Etsy sellers and other folks making super cool custom dice, minifigs, and other cool stuff, so that’s neat. In all, I’d say that although I might have some complicated personal feelings about D&D and its culture, in general, it’s pretty great.

If I could be any fantasy character, I would be a Halfling Druid. Even before I got into D&D, I was a huge Lord of the Rings fan, and I’ve always known I was meant to be a Hobbit. I’m a homebody who loves cozy spaces, good food, running around barefoot, and chillin with my friends near a creek, maybe hitting that pipeweed. I love animals and nature and it would be awesome to have an animal companion, be able to communicate with them, or shift into an animal shape that would let me scamper, swim, or fly. I can’t imagine a more perfect life for me.

[leilas-digital-scrapbook-blog]

Giving Love a Bad Name – Confessions of a Fanfiction Writer

I know we’re supposed to blog about our major projects this week and I promise I will get to that soon, but I’d like to go off book for a moment to address something that’s been bugging me since last Thursday’s class. As someone who’s always tried to engage with fandom in as creative a way as possible, I hoped a class on user generated content would offer a fresher perspective than the usual amount of prejudice and self-righteous superiority that sadly seem to accompany the subject of fanfiction even amongst people that make stories and their passion for it their bread and butter.

Guess I should have known better.

In the world of professional writers, fanfiction is still a filthy word. It sums up everything that’s wrong with the people you’re sharing your stories with: the obsessiveness, the entitlement, the disregard for boundaries, the penchant for making everything about sex. Worse, gay sex, as unspeakably dirty as it’s hilarious. Be warned, writers: if you make it big, your stories will inevitably become a free-for-all at the mercy of those people. A worse fate than even George R. R. Martin could wish on his own characters.

I’m used to seeing the world of fanfiction belittled and disparaged, of course, and I’m the first to admit that the community is often its own worst enemy. But for some reason it still hurt a little to sit in class and listen to people I’ve come to like and respect during these past few months buy into every bad stereotype associated with the form. Not because I felt called out (though yes, I do write fanfiction from time to time, and I happen to quite enjoy reading it too), but because of the underlying assumptions that 1. something that’s not 100% original cannot be art, it’s a violence in fact, especially if it twists someone else’s creation into something it was never meant to be (in this case, queer representation); and 2. there’s something wrong with creating exclusively out of love, without ever expecting to be paid for it. And I have Strong Opinions on that.

So let’s talk about fanfiction.

Actually, scratch that, let’s talk about my favorite subject – yours truly. As you may have gathered by now, I love fanfiction. A whole fangirly lot. My gateway drug into it was my obsession with Lost about 10 years ago and its pesky habit of offing every character I was foolish enough to get attached to. But lo! Someone was keeping them alive through their stories! I felt blessed. I got to spend more time in a world I loved, and I stopped flirting with the idea of giving up on the show every time another character I liked bit the dust. Everybody won.

Even more than as a fan, though, I appreciated the world of possibilities that fanfiction opened up to me as a non-native speaker. I come from a small town in the north of Italy; the access I had to foreign books in their original language was limited, and if I wanted to read something in English I’d have to spend quite a lot of money on one of the very few novels (usually chunky airport bookshop thrillers or housewife romances – not exactly my preferred genres) that shared a single shelf in the bookstore with German, French, Spanish titles. But fanfiction was free, accessible, and there was so much of it. If I didn’t like a story, all I needed to do was move on to the next. Suddenly there was an infinite library of engaging stories to help me make my English better. True, they didn’t all read like a published novel would – there’s a lot of unpolished, error-plagued, stream-of-consciousness-y material out there. But there are also so, so many beautifully written works, and believe me, even for a non-native speaker it’s very easy to spot the difference.

Fanfiction also gave me the chance and motivation to practice my English writing in a way school never could have done. I’ve been writing my own stories since I could hold a pen, but I didn’t dare write in English until I was a fanfiction-loving teenager. It was a marketing decision, really – my first foray into writing fanfiction was for a fandom so small that I wouldn’t be surprised to find out I’m the only Italian representative, so if I wanted any kind of feedback on my work I’d have to suck it up and try my hand at writing in a language that didn’t come natural to me. I would never argue that the feedback I got on my works made me a better writer – contrary to popular opinion, the fanfiction community is made up of the nicest, most supportive people, and alas, you’ll never get a comment on everything you did wrong with your structure or even just pointing out common grammar mistakes from them (though I was lucky enough to have someone explain to me how dialogue punctuation works differently in English than in Italian, so I guess something can be learned even from the Internet). It did motivate me to keep writing, though, and that made me a better writer. If you think I’m being too dramatic, dishing out this monster of a post nobody asked for just to declare my eternal devotion to fanfiction, it’s because it’s personal to me. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been told that I write in English as well as native speakers, and fanfiction is a big part of why that’s true. I doubt I would even be in this course if it wasn’t for it.

And then, of course, there’s the gay thing. I’m not going to argue about how heteronormativity sucks and representation matters because I’m sure everyone’s as sick of talking about it as I am, but please try to understand how it felt for a gay person like me, used to be depicted in media as a plot device or token secondary-character representation if at all, to be able to step into a world where queerness was the default for once. Where queer protagonists had meaningful queer love stories and queer friends and got to save the world from the Apocalypse too. Or to fight the Empire or go to Hogwarts or everything else fictional straight people have had a right to do since the dawn of storytelling in addition to romancing the hottie of their choice. I’m not asking you to feel as passionately about it, of course, but (especially if you’re straight) you might try and empathize the next time you think a fanart of two boys kissing is something deserving of your amused contempt.

I hope I’m not coming across as the person that screams “homophobe” at everyone who disagrees with her because I guarantee that’s not what I’m trying to do here, but I think the general distaste for slash says a lot about the way our society sees heterosexual relationships as love and homosexual relationships as sex. Yes, there’s a lot of gay porn in the world of fanfiction. But you know what you’re most likely to find? Romance. Not in the saucy literary sense of the word, but in its simpler, most literal acceptation. Fanfiction is just one more way for humans to express themselves, after all, and love has always been front and center in our art. Love, not sex – even if it’s gay. In fact, explicit material doesn’t even make up the majority of what you’ll find on a fanfiction website. Don’t worry, I don’t want anyone to taint their souls by visiting one of those dens of iniquity so I pulled some stats myself. Here’s the number of works for each rating in three of the most popular fandoms on Archive Of Our Own, the current go-to website for the fanfiction community (sorry Fanfiction.net) – Harry Potter, Supernatural and the Marvel Cinematic Universe as of 9/3/2019:

Even counting both Mature and Explicit works as straight-up porn (which I don’t think is quite fair, but that’s a discussion for another day), they only make up less than 1/3 of the material. Kinda disappointing, for a medium that’s supposed to be all about filthy graphic gay sex. Imagine if only one in three musicals actually featured singing and dancing, or superheroes weren’t in the majority of superhero movies. They’re lucky fanfiction is shared for free, or I’d be screaming for my money back.

Maybe I’ve just been brainwashed by SJWs, though, and this has nothing to do with my being an immigrant or a lesbian. Maybe my inability to see what’s so bad about appropriating someone else’s intellectual property for your own amusement is a cultural thing. I apologize – as mentioned, I’m Italian, and we all know Ancient Roman culture was basically just a ripoff of everything those inventive Greeks came up with. It’s in our blood. Hell, our 2€ coin, the biggest, has the face of Dante Alighieri on it, a writer most famous for having written 14.000+ verses of self-insert real-person-fic in which the girl he fancied as a teenager, his favorite author, and God himself all fall over themselves to tell him how awesome he is and he gets to prophesy an eternity in Hell for his political enemies. Talk about wish-fulfilling entitlement. Not to mention all those creatively arid Renaissance “artists” celebrated for stealing characters from the Bible and Greek mythology (seriously, the fact that Greece hasn’t unleashed an army of lawyers on us yet is nothing short of a miracle) and putting them in their cheesy paintings. Other countries can rely on a much stronger moral backbone and endless imagination – I’m sure Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe, those creative geniuses at Disney and countless others never had to resort to something as cheap and despicable as borrowing other people’s characters to tell the stories they wanted to tell.

Either way, I can’t help it – I see the prospect of creating something that will resonate with people so strongly that they’ll make it a part of themselves, that it’ll compel them to make more art, to reach out and connect with other fans, as something incredibly beautiful rather than scary. Maybe this is my usual naiveté speaking, and I will come to eat my words. It’s certainly disturbing that a bunch of entitled fans bullied the Mass Effect developers into changing the series’ ending, and sending actors explicit fanart of themselves is straight-up harassment, but is fanfiction really the problem here? Or is it social network culture, with its power to destroy all barriers and foster hive mind? To give resentment a platform to spread and be heard? I promise that the average fanfiction writer wouldn’t campaign to get an ending changed. They’d just roll up their sleeves and write a better one themselves.

#my thoughts #aka leila goes off about her life story #user generated content #fanfiction #fandom #tmi alert

[d-criss-news]

In a brilliant moment of serendipity, Darren Criss discovered he had been Emmy-nominated as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for The Assassination of Gianni Versace at an airport branch of Planet Hollywood. “We were sitting there looking at the most Hollywood thing we could. That just tickled me to no end,” regales the former Glee star, who played Kurt Hummel’s love interest, Blaine Anderson, in the musical comedy television show.

At the time, Darren was on his way to a gig in Aspen, Colorado. “The Emmy nominations were coming out at 8.30am and the flight was leaving at 9.45am and we – me, my fiancée, my manager, publicist, basically the work family – all wanted to go and watch it together, somewhere I would be close enough so that when it was announced I could run over to the gate.”

The punchline came while sitting there waiting for the nominations to be revealed: his Glee version of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” also started to play on the speakers. Looking around to see if perhaps one of the servers had clocked him and was being “cute”, because it was quite a bizarre coincidence, he realised that nope, “this is 8.30am in the international terminal and nobody gives a shit about my version of ‘Teenage Dream’,” he laughs. “But we just couldn’t fucking believe it, like what a crazy auspicious moment! But it was a nice little story.”

By now, it’s one that will have its ending fully wrapped up: the Emmys took place on September 17 in LA, which is where Darren is now on the other end of the phone. For context, it’s one of those intensely hot end-of-July days that everyone in London is complaining about. For Darren it’s a day of playing “Mr Octopus” as he puts it. “Today is insane. When you have ‘free time’, it’s actually more hectic because in the absence of stuff that you’re obligated to do you immediately see everything you’ve neglected a lot more clearly.”

In his perky twang, he gives me “the shorthand” of this: Elsie Fest to organise for autumn, the New York show-tune themed festival he founded; music to work on for Computer Games, the band he started with his brother; marketing for the new piano bar he and his fiancée, Mia Swier, have opened; projects he can’t talk about but is excited about; a wedding to plan “at some point” next year; work on the house; and that general life admin that creeps up on all of us. “Hey, we all got stuff,” he chimes.

And among all of this, he casually slips in: “I’m also reading scripts and trying to get another acting job if I can get one.” Which can’t help but make me laugh. If he can get one? Because, let’s be honest, regardless of the Emmys outcome (a big congratulations if you bagged it and if not, you were robbed!), his portrayal of Andrew Cunanan, as well as a stellar career to date (he replaced Daniel Radcliffe in How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying on Broadway to great success, is the mind behind A Very Potter Musicaland has starred in Hedwig and the Angry Inch), shouldn’t make that too hard. But it’s “cute” – as he would say – to know he doesn’t rest on his laurels.

Darren was terrifying and intriguing in his role as Cunanan, the serial killer who murdered four men before ending his violent spree with fashion designer Gianni Versace in FX’s American Crime Story retelling of the real-life event in Miami in 1997. When it aired earlier this year, I didn’t know anyone who wasn’t watching it. If you weren’t binge-streaming it, you were glued to BBC2 desperate for next week’s instalment to watch the unfolding plot of a story that in many ways is little known, certainly on the Cunanan front.

“A lot of it is pretty shrouded in mystery. There are two groups of people who have been particularly aware of the Cunanan story. Filipinos in my life all know someone who knew him,” says Darren, who, hailing from San Francisco, is also half Filipino, as was Cunanan. “And true crime addicts.” “The story itself, which is endlessly fascinating, is not only interesting but has significant social weight and things to be discussed and topics that I think are important. It goes on and on and on,” he enthuses. “The role is incredibly nuanced and varied and complex, which is something that actors wake up in the morning for.”

Where the first series spotlights The People v. OJ Simpson, a trial that arguably most people in the world – certainly in the US – are familiar with, the Versace murder, while shocking and awful (the designer himself being a significant cultural icon and his death a huge loss to the fashion industry) lent itself to more questions than answers. Which from Darren’s point of view gave him a certain amount of free rein. “You’re not stacked against people’s expectations of an impersonation of somebody. I think that helped audiences; it really gave me and our story a blank slate.”

It’s true. As a viewer, I couldn’t help but find my feelings and point of view change as the narrative revealed Cunanan’s own backstory. “That, to me, is the most heartening thing; that’s the most encouraging thing you could say – that’s the goal.”

His performance has been described as career-defining but it’s not the first time he’s had such an accolade aimed in his direction. Yet you can’t help but think that this one, Emmy nomination aside, might just be the one to carry a little more weight, such was the grit and darkness that came with it and played out by someone we’re more used to associating with the tween spark of Glee.

It seems, therefore, an apt time to ask what his fantasy role would be. “Oh man. I have a pretty wild imagination but I’d like to think that my brain isn’t good enough to imagine the part I’d want,” he says. “And, also, fantasies evolve throughout your life based on whatever situation you find yourself in.” American Crime Story, certainly, he says is the kind of role he’d been working and waiting his whole life to play – which is not to say he dreamt of being a serial killer! “Let’s keep turning left, turning hard rights and hard lefts as much as possible, as long as the story is good. The name of the game for me is variety and versatility. If every time I do a role we have people say that’s a real departure from the last thing that would be awesome.”

Darren got the acting bug – or “storytelling” bug as he prefers to call it – at a young age. He was a child at the heart of the Disney Renaissance era and Robin Williams lived locally in his native San Francisco. One day, when seeing Aladdin at the cinema (“I can’t even tell you how many times I went to go see it,”) and realising that the Genie was voiced by Williams, his eureka moment came.

“You know when you’re a kid and you have dreams of being something and they seem kind of far off from you unless there’s somebody you can see do it?” he offers. “I remember very distinctly watching this Genie bring so much joy to the people around me… and I wanted in on that, I wanted to be the Genie. But once you realise you can’t necessarily do that and I found out the voice of the genie was Robin Williams, I was like that’s the guy, that’s the famous guy that lives in our city! I can do that and so he was really a massive inspiration for me.”

So, too, was Peter Coyote, another San Francisco-based actor, whom Darren in fact cold-called to find out what he should do to be an actor. He subsequently enrolled at the American Conservatory Theater’s Young Conservatory Programme before studying drama at college. A keen violinist, music and acting had always worked in constant tandem. “So that’s why it’s so hilarious to me that by the time I got Glee I’d already been doing this my whole life,” he says.

At the time of the Gianni Versace murder, Darren was 10 years old. “I did [remember it] in a sort of vague sense of pop cultural event. Obviously, Versace is a massive international figure so I was aware that he was murdered.” It wasn’t until much later in 2011, when his Hollywood lifestyle led him to the world of high fashion, that the dots joined.

“We were on tour for Glee and I popped down to Milan to go to this Versace fashion show, which was an amazing event and you’re there with Donatella and there in the house, the estate of the Versace family.” On a tour of it, Darren recalls seeing beautiful home pieces and fashion works. “There were a lot of things from his personal collection and [the steward] of course was saying ‘Well this was made after Gianni’s murder in 1997.’ It codified in my brain. He was taken away a little too early.”

For ACS producer Ryan Murphy, it was Darren who codified in the brain. The Glee co-creator had long had him in mind for the part. “People like Ryan have had their eye on the Cunanan story for a long time and we had worked closely in a few capacities.” Darren just had to play the waiting game. “I honestly said just let me know when you want to do this because obviously it would be a huge opportunity for me and I think it would be an incredible story but I don’t really have the keys for that car, man. You’re the driver, let me know when you want to pick me up!” Three years later and that proverbial beep came.

In real life, Darren has to be one of the most modest and upbeat people, armed with an always-look-on-the-bright-side-of-life attitude. You imagine he’s not all that good at sitting still, hence his potentially self-inflicted to-do list, which you also get the feeling is built from passion not pain. “I just feel so grateful at every turn of my career; if you’re able to do anything and that there’s any definition at all is a huge win so I’ll take it where I can get it,” he says referring to the praise he’s received in playing Cunanan, one he’s also quick to bring back down to earth with a very grounding analogy. “Every moment of your life is defining. The fact that I decided to have granola this morning defines the rest of the way my digestive system works…” he laughs. He has quite the way with words.

This too is helpful in a Hollywood landscape right now that, post-Weinstein and post-Trump, has found itself in troubling times. “What a big, big topic,” he begins. “It’s the Wild West right now, truly, there are so many things that I think it’s not necessarily Hollywood figuring itself out, it’s our whole society figuring it out as represented by Hollywood. It kind of gets the brunt of it because of its exposure and its influence,” he explains. “There are a lot of good things happening in it for people who have been marginalised and we’re setting new standards for ourselves that we should have set a long time ago, and in that sense it’s really good. But there are unfortunately other things that are happening where it’s hard to draw the line of what’s right and wrong and a lot of questions are being asked that we’ve never asked ourselves before about what’s appropriate.”

Social media, too, he thinks plays a significant role, moving faster than we are able to keep up with. “There’s a lot of things that are falling by the wayside as a result of that. I’m making very vague comments but yeah it’s very tricky,” he concludes before diplomatically topic-shifting to his own lack of social media usage. Firstly, because he’s a private person. And secondly, unlike so many people, he does realise the responsibility that comes with publishing a post. “Even when Twitter started and people would post joke-stuff and I would say ‘Woah, woah, that’s out there forever, are you sure? I think you think only I’m seeing this,’.” He says he’s always been uneasy with the idea of this kind of ‘stuff’ existing in perpetuity.

Which means that the answer to the next question requires some serious thought. Who would make for his fantasy dinner party guests? British comedian Eddie Izzard (because Darren is a big Anglophile); if we could roll back time, Sammy Davis Jr, “who the world knows as a great entertainer but he was also an insane dancer and musician”; Nat King Cole for the same reasons; and, his number one choice, Howard Ashman, the lyricist and dramaturge behind the previously mentioned Disney renaissance (aka Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast). “I’ve always admired his craftsmanship and he’s someone I’ve always thought, if I had a dinner, I’d really like to have a chat with. All of my heroes are the people who were hyphenates,” says Darren, which makes sense because he’s just the same. One small suggestion: hold the fantasy dinner party at Planet Hollywood. That would make a nice story.

#darren criss #hunger magazine #acs versace #press #nov 2018

[kingofthewilderwest]

Hey just so you know your art is really shitty. I am talking about the one you did about book hiccup.

Oh you sweet, sweet summer chiiiiild!!!

I was drawing “shit” like this when I was sixteen - ten years ago! Ten years ago, and I could draw like this!

So why would I care what someone thinks of a small, five minute, no-erase doodle of mine? ^.^ 

Honestly, I’m in the middle of an artistic euphoria phase right now. Like, I’m legit having so much fun with visual arts - more than I have for years - and I’m delighted. Thank you so much for giving me the chance to talk about this latest exciting experience in my life! Maybe this’ll inspire some others as well? Art has been a highlight of the last few months, and even getting going on the topic now, chatting with you, is getting me happy and inspired and ready to tear out the next sheet of paper for a new bout of creativity. I’m trying my best not to start drawing NOW because of the topic you’ve brought up!

I’m working on proportions and muscle groups and more dynamic poses and figuring out digital art and testing new traditional art mediums and it’s just been a BLAST of creativity and exploration. I’m trying to figure out new styles for myself, branching WAY beyond my childhood focus of photorealism, into everything down to anime-style personalities. I’ve even checked out 3D modeling, dudes! I’m planning on exploring with cityscapes and character design and shape and color and... guys... guys... it’s literally such an exciting time for me right now. 

Art is AMAZING fun!!! What a blessing it is to create something wholly new, with the stamp of our personality, out of complete nothingness? I turned the nothingness of a piece of paper into my personality and a work of creativity. DUDE THAT IS SO AWESOME!!! Humans are so amazing in our ability to endlessly create. I think creating is one of the greatest powers and blessings our species has to offer.

Being a visual artist by hobby isn’t about improving. It isn’t even about being good. It’s about having fun. My wonderful dragon-loving friends, don’t for a second think that your artwork needs to be to some sort of quality, because it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter. If you want to improve, that’s awesome, and I’m rooting for you to have some exciting experiences of self-discovery and growth. That can be an exciting time, to go through growth, and it’s well-worth your commendable, diligent efforts. But it’s also 100% fair if you go into a hobby without desiring to improve. You don’t need to improve - you’re not in some competition where your rent’s pay hinges on drawing - you just need to enjoy yourself. There is nothing shameful about “shitty” art - it’s in fact one of the coolest things you can do, because it engages your mind and your creativity and your own unique stamp of human beauty that no other soul can give. And if you share it, you’re sharing a part of yourself, and we get to see the beautiful treasure you and your mind are!

Some of my favorite things I’ve ever seen are stick people. DRAW your stick people! Do it all!!!

I’m so thankful for everyone who shares their art on tumblr in the fandom community. Not just the people who do polished digital work, but everyone. People who are starting to figure out what a tablet is. People who haven’t touched a colored pencil in ten years. People who draw five minute scratches. People who spend thirty-seven hours on a painting. You contribute to the world of fandom, the beautiful world of fandom. Together we celebrate what it is we mutually love about our fandoms, and make this a community in which creativity and celebration and positivity is resplendent. It’s because of people like you - ALL of you - that you build this incredible environment.

I’m in the middle of a phase where I think I’m going to be making rapid advances in my artwork soon. Maybe if there’s something really cool I’ll share it with ya’ll! There’s a 50% chance I might be getting a new art tablet soon, which will unfetter all the struggles I’ve had with digital art preventing me from improving there. And there’s so many ideas I have! Guys, there’s so many ideas! So much art to put down and explore and hgghghghhhh! I’m excited.

Of course this is all on top of my other hobbies. I love being a jack of all trades and master of none. Every day’s something new to explore. I’m a conlanger and I make my own languages. I’m a creative writer and I’m planning on charging deep into a single original novel that I hope I can publish. I’m a chronic worldbuilder who loves thinking about everything from the geographic history of the world to the culture’s technology to what the cities look like to the individual culture’s elements - be it gestures, taboo language, courting rituals, what have you! I’m a music composer and I even got a Bachelor’s of Music in Composition; I’ve learned how to play over a dozen instruments; I’m itching to make covers and suites of material I love. I used to make gifs and I still miss it - maybe I’ll get back into the swing of it sometime? I made one AMV and maybe I’ll make another - I’ve always loved video editing (I did Lego stop motion stuff in the junior high, after all). And of course I want to keep writing fandom meta for all the stories that have touched my heart, be it Fullmetal Alchemist or How to Train Your Dragon or Voltron: Legendary Defender or Mass Effect or anything else. I’m hoping that I’ll get some good bursts of activity on cosplay, too! I need to work on my sewing - 2019 shall be the perfect year for it, don’t you think?

Life’s so exciting and rich and beautiful. There’s so much creativity to be had. So much to do. So much to explore.

And who gives a flipping rat’s fart if I’m not The Best(TM) of the universe? XD That’s not the true reason to create ANYTHING!

I’ve got a fuckton of weaknesses in my artistic pursuits and that doesn’t make me an ounce less awesome. Having weaknesses makes my artistic life BETTER. I honestly believe it; they make me happy. I’m excited that I have weaknesses in my visual arts abilities because it means I’m going through this period of growth. Where would be my fun if I were perfect already? I’m having a blast not because my art is perfect, but because it’s IMPERFECT. I both like what I can do already and I know ALL the areas where it needs improving - allowing me new areas to dive further and reach new goals. It’s giving me life goals, trajectory, and celebrations every time I draw something new and better than what I made last month. 

A childish, petty, and honestly rather uncreative insult isn’t going to make me blink. I know how amazing I am. I’m a powerhouse, powerfully creative, Renaissance man level talented bonfire who can do everything from advanced level linguistic scientific study to composing contemporary classical art music. I know what my strengths are and what my weaknesses are. I’ve got great weaknesses, and that’s totally chill!

I’m sorry, friend, but the only thing your message does is show how much of a naive child you are. You ignorantly think that a laughably uninteresting, child-level insult is going to affect an adult who is confident and grown in themselves. You don’t know your audience. Even if you were right that my art is shit - which it’s not - it doesn’t matter to me. My identity is more than one cute doodle with Hiccup and Toothless. It’s a shame because I’m sure you have so much positive beauty you could contribute to this world. Why waste your time with this, when it literally could not be more of a waste of your time?

What positive creativity have you done?

I encourage us all to contribute to the beauty of our community. Let’s take this moment to be an inspiration point. Let’s create together. Let’s give people reasons to smile. Let’s share posts we love and talk about why we love them. Let’s draw and write and sing and dance our way through what we love. Let’s give positive feedback on the fanfiction people wrote for us for free. Let’s send compliments to one another - that’s a legitimate form of creation and it’s one of the best. Let’s let our personalities sparkle. Kindness is so awesome. You all are so awesome.

I’m so thankful to live in a community like this, where every day I’m bombarded with incredible magic - the magic you all have created.

As for my Hiccup drawing, the HTTYD book community has a cool event going on celebrating the Twelve Days of Doomsday. I encourage you all to participate and enjoy Cressida Cowell’s works with me!!!

Who knows? Maybe I’ll have time for a few more Hiccup doodles in the next dozen days!

#blabbing Haddock #long post #ask #ask me #awesome anonymous friend #troll #httyd fandom #let's make hate mail backfire into inspiration!!!!! #we rock fandom #we rock #you all rock #and you're all beautiful! #I love your creativity and it's such a blessing to be here #Anonymous

[mfackenthal]

150 Follower Spotlight: @blackcatkita!

What follows is the transcript of the very first episode ever of “The MFackenthal show.”  Imagine the set of “The Ellen Degeneres Show.” Emojis have been used to help show facial expressions and to give this transcript greater depth.

Hello everyone and thank you for that warm welcome!  This show is a dream come true.  When Ellen saw me interview @simplyaiden-blog  and asked me to create a show, I almost fainted.  No one pinch me as I don’t want to learn this is just a dream. 

We have an amazing show for you today.  Please join me in welcoming @blackcatkita to the stage! 

MFack:  Jen, I am so glad you are here!  I have loved your work for a while now and I am so glad you are willing to join me on stage for my first episode of “The MFackenthal show.”

Jen:  Megs, thanks for having me!

MFack: So your name is Jen and your MC is often named Jennifer … now, I name all of my MC’s Megs …

Jen: Yep! I name all of them a derivative of my own name. Those based in high school are Jenny, because that’s what I went by. College aged ones are Jen. TRR is the only one I use Jennifer, because its more proper. 😁

Once I start writing for more series I will have to think up new names. It will be too confusing to have them all with the same name!

MFack:  I understand, though have you met the blogger @lizeboredom? All her MCs are named Minah and she's just made it a running joke.  You should reach out to her and tell her how awesome my show is – I’d love to have her on as a guest.  (wink)

But back to you, where are you from?

Jen: I'm from Milwaukee, WI, USA.  I’m still in the Milwaukee area but now I live in a nearby suburb.

MFack: and what do you do when you're not writing?

Jen: Oh, not much! I work a lot but when I'm not I'm usually playing the app, reading, or writing.

I’m a master level manicurist at a full-service salon and spa.

MFack: Whoa, that's awesome.

Jen: (Laughs) It is?

MFack: (Laughs) Well, I guess you'd have to tell me.  I'm thinking it's a lot of work, but that you'd also get a discount on some great spa services.

Jen: I don’t pay anything for hair or spa services. Most of the time we don’t even tip each other, just trade. And I get half off products, so that’s nice. I actually started doing it because it was flexible, and I could do it while I finished college. I never did go back because, honestly, I love what I do! I’ve been doing it for 15 years and some of my clients have been with me the whole time. They aren’t just clients, I consider them friends as well. I’m booked at 87-95%, I love my coworkers, the owner is awesome, it’s a great place to work and its insane to me how much I make doing nails. I always say I don't really work there, I just go there to hang out with my friends and they pay me for it.

MFack: Awh - so it is AWESOME!

Jen: It is 😁 Usually people don’t have that reaction is all. I’m not a surgeon or anything but I do make people feel good about themselves. Sometimes I feel like a therapist.  

MFack: In many ways, I'm sure you are a therapist.

So, what brought you to the choices fandom?

Jen: I honestly don’t remember why I downloaded the app in the first place. I played “The Crown and the Flame” and was hooked! I held out on purchasing diamonds until “The Royal Romance” and “Endless Summer.” I’ve now fallen completely off the deep end. Like hundreds of dollars into the abyss. Now I unlock everything in my favorite stories!

MFack:  Me too! "What's a few dollars here or there," my mind asks ... and then the other part of me says, "if only it was a few dollars … don't ask that question ... "

Jen: I look at it like this: it entertains me for hours every day. I work for a living, I deserve those diamond scenes! (whispering) and outfits!

MFack:  Who’s work in the fandom did you read first?

Jen: I think it was @captainkingliam, closely followed by @violetflipflops and @ladynevrakis (who have since changed their handles to @sgt-peppers-coffee-club and @i-dream-so-i-write) I absolutely adore @captainkingliam’s "In Another World" AU and @violetflipflops and @ladynevrakis' Kenna/Diavolos fics are life!

MFack: Yes! I love Diavolos! (Whispering) Here’s a little secret: I almost cried the other day when the former @ladynevrakis said she's pretty much done writing for Kenna/Diavolos!

Jen: NOOO! I didn't see that! I was already #teamDiavolos before I read her stuff but if I hadn’t been she certainly would have swayed me!

But, Megs, can I ask a question of you now?

MFack:  (Looking at Jen quizzically) I guess ….

Jen: Well, I saw that you’re reading all of my masterlist, including earlier stuff 🙈

MFack:  Yup! I'm calling it "research" (wink) Don't worry, I'll catch up ASAP!

Jen:  Well, I feel like I hit my stride in part 4 of Consequence of Secret and every time I write it gets a little better. I may rewrite those first 3 someday. We are our own worst critics though.

MFack:  Indeed! That's why I'm not a writer - I can't do the rewrite parts. Once I write it and read it for "editing" I hit publish and deal with my consequences of my many errors …

I'm remember chapter 4 and I love that Chance shames Liam. ;)

Jen:  Oh yeah, well then I have to ask, which chapter of “The Consequence of Secrets” was your favorite?

MFack: I think maybe chapter 9 is my current favorite. I get to hate new characters and things don't quite go as planned in that chapter, Olivia is delightful in her Olivia way - the writing is just soooo good! I love the chapter more when we realize that Liam's perspective is inaccurate.

Jen: Yes! Liam is so blind, and he doesn’t even know it. Spoiler alert: Shit goes down in chapter 11b.

MFack:  Ahhhh!  I can’t wait! I want to ask about that, but I know half my audience hates spoilers so let me ask my next question.  Have you read all of the choices books?

Jen: Yes! I replay my favorites all. the. time.

Megs:  What's your favorite?

Jen: Hmm ... I will go with The Royal Romance, followed by Lovehacks and The Crown and the Flame. I am really enjoying Perfect Match and Bloodbound too, just not enough to break into the top 3.

MFack:  While I agree with you about Lovehacks, I know it's not a Tumblr favorite.

Jen:  I don’t know why it gets so much hate. I think it’s hilarious and Mark is a perfect cinnamon roll of a man!

MFack:  I don't know why either!  Of course, as all my viewers will learn, I love anything that hints to the TV show Friends.

Okay, so seeing as The Royal Romance is your favorite, who is your favorite character from that universe?

Jen:  How can you make me choose?! I love them all! Liam is obviously a favorite of mine. There’s so much more to him than just "the sweet and romantic love interest." He’s been brought up to be the stoic king and he is, but he’s also a man with conviction who really does want the best for his people and his country. That being said, he isn’t afraid to fight for what’s important to him and he goes for what he wants in life even if that means going against what others think. Then there’s Maxwell. He’s the happy go lucky go to guy for a good time but he’s really the most supportive friend you could ever want. He will do anything for his friends, even bring a random commoner he just met to compete for his friend’s hand because he saw something in the two of them. All that said - I'm choosing the MC for the win! She's fearless, loyal (at least how I play her lol) assertive, kind, funny, generous, selfless etc. etc.

MFack: Going back to your work, what's your writing process?

Jen:  Uhh … I don’t know if I have one! An idea pops into my head and I start writing … I'm one of those fortunate people who retains information, so I don't usually have an outline when I start.  I kind of just know where I want the story to go. I do have a file of "fic ideas" but it’s full of simple like statements: "the Lovehacks gang at the renaissance faire" or "Red Carpet Diaries/The Royal Romance crossover." Consequence of Secrets is a little different, of course. The entire series started with the words "It's killing me to see you with him," and it quickly took on a life of its own. I know how each part starts and ends, and what I want to accomplish within that chapter. My goal is to have all of my fics line up together in a timeline that makes sense.

MFack: What's your favorite/least favorite thing about Tumblr?

Jen:  My favorite thing is the fandom itself! It amazes me how kind and supportive everyone is. Also, there are so many incredible writers here it's insane!

My least favorite thing? Not getting notifications and when tags don’t work.

MFack: Ugh, the tags are driving me crazy!  But I don’t want to go on a tangent, so instead tell me what is your favorite piece of your own work?

Jen:  I love how fun “How to Please a Woman” is but my favorite is “Consequence of Secrets” starting with part 4 and up. It has required a lot of research - Paris hotels, legal advice (from a real-life lawyer) and ... other things I can’t reveal at this time 😁. The characters are flawed, but still lovable. It really challenges me as a writer and I hope I convey how torn they all are. I want people to be mad at them, but still understand where they are coming from... if that makes sense.

MFack:  Well, if you want me to be mad at Liam, you're definitely succeeding … I do understand him though, so I think you can call it all a big success!

Now, for the question everyone wants to know ... do you like Pineapple on your pizza?

Jen: (laughing) I will dabble with pineapple on occasion but it’s not a topping I would choose often.

MFack:  Alright, it’s time to dish.  Tell us an "embarrassing story" … Something unique or cheesy about yourself.

Jen: (shaking her head but smiling) An embarrassing story huh? I'm so laid back my sister says I'm half dead so it’s REALLY hard to embarrass me.

Some "unique" things though ... Let’s see, I have a "Nerdary".  It’s our 3rd bedroom - filled with bookshelves, funko pops and harry potter memorabilia such as wands, time turner, golden snitch etc. Oh! Also, I sing in the car, with no shame, and if someone looks at me I sing to them! It’s especially fun when it’s the soundtrack to “Galavant” or “Grease 2” 😂

MFack:  Y’know, I love to sing.  Will you sing with me?

Jen:  Of course!

MFack and Jenn sing “Do it for our Country” from Grease 2:  

“America is calling, let's care enough to give our very best.

For if we give our very best,

I know that we will more than pass the test.

If I could have three wishes, I'd wish that you'd live free,

I'd wish for amber waves of grain from sea to shining sea.

Yeah, let's do it for our country, the red, white, and the blue.

It's Uncle Sam who's asking, so your mother will approve.

Tomorrow I'll be fighting, and I'll win this war for you.

Let's do it for our country, our country wants us to.

Bullets are exploding, they'll soon be at the door,

Give something to America you never gave before.

Yeah, let's do it for our country, the red, white, and the blue,

If the President were standin' here, I'm sure he would approve.

I'll be a mighty soldier before this night is through.

Let's do it for our country, our country wants us to.

(Spoken)

Just think about it -- it would be like as if we were doing it for the Statue of Liberty, or the Grand Canyon, or the New York Yankees... it would be like as if we were doing it for... Disneyland!

Yeah, let's do it for our country, the red, white, and the blue,

It's not a lot to ask of us, our parents will approve.

I'll be a mighty soldier, before this night is through.

Let's do it for our country, (spoken) we owe it to our country.

Let's do it for our country, our country wants us to.”

MFack:  (Laughing) Well, on that note … Jen, what do you want to say to your adoring fans?

Jen:  Thank you so much for your love and support! You all make me smile every day and I'm so happy you enjoy my work! It's all of you that keeps me going!

MFack:  That’s our show – thanks for coming everyone!  Have a GREAT night! We’ll see you next time (when MFackenthal has 200 followers) on “The MFackenthal Show!”

#Mfackenthal spotlights Blackcatkita #blackcatkita #mfackenthal has 150 followers #mfackenthal promotes

[haunting-kind-of-high]

Vampire!Roman headcanons

So, this is part of my Being Human AU, based on the awesome show Being Human. This one focusses mainly on Roman and a bit on his relationships with the others. 

This turned out much longer than I originally intended oml

Warnings: Mentions of blood, death, the plague, that's it, I think

He was bitten when he was around 20

It happened at night, when Roman was alone in his chambers

It’s a miracle the intruder snuck into his room, but it’s a vampire we’re talking about so what’s more miraculous?

After that, he just… disappeared

He travelled across England at first

But there were too many memories, and after a few decades it got painful

So many people died

And then the Plague came and even more people died

He just had to get out

So he did

And he travelled the world after that, watching how society changes

He would stay somewhere for a while and then leave if staying got too risky

Either because he went a little too far with his blood-drinking needs, or because too many people close to him had died

Sometimes he’d leave if all his friends were dead, and staying around just hurt him too much

He was in Rome when the Renaissance started and he still loves every memory he made there

Seeing the world changing like that… it was fantastic

Loves ancient mythologies

He probably knew a lot of famous painters let’s be real

I also really like the thought of him knowing Hal (an awesome vampire in the show who’s cool)

Maybe he was the one who recruited Hal? I’m not sure if it fits in the show’s canon though

He has at least heard of him because every vampire has

Roman is a hella gay vamp

Goes to pride every year he’s able to

Is so happy pride exists because he needed that when he was a young 100 vamp

Rome was probably one of the best periods of his life and he never wanted to leave

But after a while, when everyone he knew was dead and he couldn’t stand to be there for much longer

So he continued his travels

He travelled through Europe and Asia

Somewhere in the 1880s/1890s he briefly joined the Old Ones

The Old Ones are a group of vampires who are… well… pretty old

They’re also super powerful, immune to religious symbols, and they’ve got more cool perks

But Roman wasn’t too fond of their way of living, so he left them and returned to England in 1915 to fight in the war

After the war, he went to America

He didn’t want to stay in England anymore

Too many painful memories

That was when he decided he wanted to stop drinking blood

Or try at least, because it is fucking hard

And he started to remember the people he killed and he couldn’t stop thinking about it and he hated it, but he hated blood more, even though he needed it so much

At first, he went to New York first and travelled a bit

He met Logan in 2011

It was in Michigan somewhere

He saved Logan from being beaten up by asshole vampires but that’s a story for another day

They weren’t super close at first, but Roman helped Logan find his way in the supernatural world, Logan helped Roman find his way in the modern world, and they grew pretty close

Logan tried to help Roman with his resolution to stop drinking blood but he didn’t know how to help

Roman appreciated the help though

After a pretty bad relapse, Roman decided he had to move and Logan insisted on going along, even though Roman protested this

But Logan didn’t give up so they moved in together

They moved to Florida

Once they moved into their house, he really had to get used to Patton being around, but he warmed up to the ghost pretty quickly

It was strange, though

He has a lot of nightmares

About the night he was turned into a vampire, about the people he killed, about the wars he fought

It’s not unusual for him to wake up in the middle of the night, convinced he is in the middle of a war, or back in medieval England

At first, Patton tried his best to comfort Roman. He didn’t need to sleep anyways

But it was difficult because Patton had no idea what it was like, and Roman hardly told anything about his nightmares

Roman liked having someone around at night, though

When Virgil moved in, he grew more open about his dreams

He wasn’t planning on it, but he plans on spending the rest of his life with Virgil and he can’t exactly hide his nightmares for all of eternity

And once he does, he’s glad he opened up to Virgil

Virge seems to know exactly what to do to help him out and his presence is a comfort

Sometimes, Roman will wake up thinking he is in the middle ages and he will be disoriented for a while, before Virgil reminds him that it’s 2018 and everything is fine

Roman is so intrigued by modern technology

I mean, phones can fit entire portraits in them, and it takes just a few seconds to make?

You can contact someone on the other side of the world in mere seconds?

Witchcraft, that’s got to be it

Smartphones don’t always work well for him, because his touch is pretty cold but that doesn’t stop him

Huge space geek

Believed the moon landing was fake for a little over 50 years, though

He just couldn’t believe that something was out there and that people can walk on that something

Still in denial about it

But Logan knows

In fact, he was the one who told Roman it was real

He still teases Ro about it every now and again

But yeah space geek Ro

Can't believe there are things out there other than small dots of light

Gets defensive when people make flat Earth memes because he believed that for ages

“I mean, it’s not that unbelievable, right? You can’t see that it’s round, what else are we supposed to believe? How were we supposed to know it was round?”

Every time he brings it up, the others reassure him that it's a joke and it's not meant to ridicule him or whatever

Still forgets the concept of round Earth sometimes

Same with the heliocentric model

"You can see the sun moving! How can it move across the sky if it isn't actually moving? It doesn’t make any sense!"

He has had a lot of discussions about this with Logan

Still doesn’t understand it

Loves Candy Crush

“It is so colourful and cute! How does one come up with this ingenious design?”

The others don’t tell him that there are tons of other games like it

He texts like parents

You know, using correct grammar, lots of emojis

I’m looking forwards to the movie *tons of emojis but for some reason I couldn't get them to work*.

He used to start every text he sent with a “hello (…),” or something similar and he used to end them with a signature thing

But the other convinced him that everyone knew it was him sending the texts and that it was only more effort for him

So he stopped that

The emojis and correct grammar still stand tho

Ok.

Virgil and Patton still haven’t convinced him to give up the ‘Ok.’

It’s agony

He is adorably naïve when it comes to spam and phishing mails

He’s lucky the others are there to stop him from clicking the damn link

“But it says right here that I still have to pay-”

“That’s a lie, darling, they just want your money.”

“But-”

“Just delete the mail.”

Always goes to Logan when he has a problem with technology

Constantly mixes up the slang he learned across the ages

“Don’t flip your wig, Lo! Everything is going to be fine.”

“I had a gas tonight, guys.”

But no one knows what it means

The fifties slang are his favourite. They’re just so fun.

He also uses medieval words a lot, as that is what he grew up with

Keeps calling water Adam’s ale

One time Logan got hurt and he requested an ‘acopon’

No one knew what he meant and it took him ages to explain because he couldn’t come up with the modern equivalent of the word (which would be a plaster)

Sometimes he’ll be stuck in like medieval language for an entire day and no one will understand what he’s saying

Like, it sounds kind of familiar, but not familiar enough to be sure of the meaning

It’s really frustrating to all of them

Also misuses modern slang a lot

“Would you look at the weather outside? It is so bright, and not a single cloud! How wonderfully lit!”

“I… I’m not sure lit means what you think it does, buddy.”

It is hilarious

When he starts dating Virgil, he finds out about Vine and because Virgil loves vines so much, he starts watching them too so he can understand the references and surprise Virge by making references himself

But he gets them wrong a lot too

One day, Logan and Patton are talking in the kitchen

Roman just looks at them and turns to Virgil with a

“And they were roommates”

Virgil almost chokes on his drink

“Oh my god, they were roommates”

Roman’s favourite vine is the croissant one

“I could have dropped my croissant” becomes his thing

It’s cute, but it starts getting annoying when he says it to everything

The others just let him be, he is a 700-year old dork, he needs this

He is upset he doesn’t show up on camera, because otherwise, he’d be all over vine

He had so many great ideas for vines

He has definitely seen some of his old stuff in museums

“Oh my goodness, my old sword!”

For a 700+-year old vampire, he doesn’t know when to chill

But he just gets excited when he sees his stuff

At one point in his life, he has definitely seen an old portrait of him in a museum

And someone definitely saw him looking at it

And they definitely saw the resemblance

And they definitely told Roman about it

He just nodded and told the person that his friends told him about it too

Wishes he could just steal the portrait because it makes him look so good and handsome

He thought about it, but quickly realized that telling staff of the museum that “he wants this portrait because it is him” would sound just a tad… weird

He’s really upset about it

Gets really nostalgic a lot

He has experienced so many things and seen so many amazing things

Met so many people

He misses them a lot

It just hurts to know that you’ll outlive most people you will meet in your life

He has always tried not to get too attached to people because they’re going to die anyways

But somewhere along the way, he let this attitude go

One way or another, he always grew to like a few people

He likes to tell his friends about what he remembers of his travels and experiences

Especially Logan, cause that man is a fucking history nerd

Roman loves Logan so much, because he’s so smart

They have the best conversations

A lot of them are about some event in history, or about modern-day society, cause that still confuses Roman

Loves cartoons

They’re just so cute and so amazing and sweet

He and Patton watch a lot of them together

As a ghost, Patton doesn’t need to sleep, so sometimes they will stay up until four am binge-watching some cartoon

Virgil and Logan try to tell them to stop – especially Roman

But it doesn’t work

Roman is very protective over Logan, because he is the only mortal of their group

Of course, he and Virgil can still die, but there’s a smaller risk of it happening

Patton is already dead

But Logan can still die

And Roman wants to keep Logan around as long as possible

So every time something even remotely dangerous happens around Logan, Roman is there to safe him.

Can’t have their favourite werewolf die

He is scared to lose Logan, but he knows it is inevitable

He just wished it would be different

Roman has quite a few of vampire contacts – they need to work together in order to avoid being discovered, after all

I mean it would be weird to have a passport that says you were born in 1296

So there are vampires to take care of that

Roman knows quite a lot of them personally and they always question his scent

It’s blood-like, as it is supposed to be, but there is a hint of dog

Roman mostly says that it’s because he has a dog, but there are a few people who know he doesn’t have a dog

There’s one or two who know about Logan and they don’t understand him

Why would a vampire be friends with a werewolf? That is unheard of

Roman is also friends with a few vampires who like to organize dog fights

Where a werewolf – during full moon – is caged with a human, who has a knife. At the end of the night, just one survives

And Roman lives in constant fear that one day, they will go after Logan for their sick forms of entertainment

Roman has seen a few dog fights when he was younger, and it is absolutely horrible

He doesn’t want Logan to have to go through that

And then there’s the risk of Logan dying, which makes it even worse

He thought about asking them to not capture Logan, but he feared that they would do it on purpose, just to spite him

So Roman thought of a system

If Logan was ever out and vampires came up to him, he would call Roman, but not say anything

Roman is in his emergency contacts, so that works well

And if Roman heard what was going on, he would track Logan’s phone to see where he was going – taking a few wooden stakes with him – and save his friend

There’s no way he would allow them to put Logan through something as horrible as a dog fight

Sometimes, the age difference between him and Virgil is quite… difficult

They’re both from different generations, obviously, and their experiences are just totally different

They try their best to understand the other, but it’s difficult sometimes

Virgil doesn’t know what it’s like to fight in a war, to see your best friends dying, to wander the earth, knowing that you will never die. He doesn’t know what it’s like to see half your city dying to the Plague

Virgil tries

But he just doesn’t understand

But it’s fine, because Roman loves him and they will have an eternity together to understand each other

He really loves Virgil a lot dude

On multiple occasions, he’s written Virgil a super romantic love letter

You know, one of those extra ones

Super extra

Lots of “my love”, “my darling”, lots of romance

But it’s cute

Virgil has kept every one of those letters

Roman listens to classical music a lot

But he also sort of likes rock

Nothing too heavy though

He can handle most genres though, but rock and classical music are some of his faves

Tries to headbang

But he can’t do it

Virgil says it’s because he’s to old for that crap

Roman doesn’t believe him

He’s young at heart how dare Virgil

Yeah Roman is v cute

#sanders sides #sanders sides headcanon #roman sanders #logan sanders #virgil sanders #patton sanders #mercy's hc