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theangryjikooker · 10 months

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Hi, I've come across your blog recently and I must tell you that I love it since you're one of the few sane people in this fandom who appreciates the bond between the boys without overanalyzing often baseless and delusional theories.

Although I love their bond and think there is dating potential there, I'm also leaning towards the opinion that Jikook may be single nowadays. However, I'm also leaning towards the opinion that they MAY have had something in the past, possibly something casual like occasional hookups since I believe (sexual) attraction between the two does exist (emphasis on may since this is an assumption like everything else as we have a glimpse into the 1/1000 of their private lives), and this is based solely on two incidents - the hickey and the Rose Bowl one. The Rose Bowl one I can overlook, but the hickey one is difficult for me to put within the scope of pure friendship (especially when it comes to their/other memebers' reactions in the clip to the entire thing).

So my question is - how do you perceive these two events (and I'm sure you've already got this question, but as I'd already said, I've only come across your blog recently). :)

Have a great day!

Me: I’m going to take a break and stay on Twitter.

Also Me: No.

Listen, I can’t make up my mind. I like the idea of being able to say things that would have me nailed to a cross “out loud” without being burdened by other people’s sensitivities and not having to explain myself either, but now I have (5) social media accounts, and I am overwhelmed. I don’t want to talk about it lol. I’ll approve a few people eventually, but the less eyes the better.

Anyway, neither here nor there.

Hey, anon—thanks!

I don’t agree with you on whether they were once dating or fooling around, but it’s well-known here that I’ve never thought that at all. You do you; many others would agree with you, too.

My opinion on Rose Bowl and the “hickey” is that they could be looked at in two different ways. I really don’t care for what most Jkkrs think about them, but really the bottom line is that even if those two events were taken at face value and nothing deeper, it’s unique behavior either way.

Outliers exist in every aspect of life. There are generalizations that apply to a population, culture, generation, gender, sexuality, personality types, etc., but those generalizations will never apply to every single person. And it’s especially so in human behavior and social interaction.

Just because you or “most people” wouldn’t do [action] with a friend doesn’t mean that those people don’t exist. And sure, it would absolutely make sense that this generalization might apply to Jungkook and Jimin when they do something out of pocket, but they’re not only not the average Joes with a normal upbringing, the biggest factor is that RPS is inherently unusual, unsolicited, and toeing the line of disrespect. It’s why RPS is widely frowned upon. It comes with the territory of being in the public eye, but that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable or encouraged by those being shipped.

It’s the fact that they are real people, who never asked to be shipped in that way, that explains why I will never assume that anything they do or say means anything deeper than how it looks on the surface—or if, in the case of the “hickey,” Jimin says he was getting dizzy and bit Jungkook as retribution, then that’s really all it was (also, I can believe that, but I have an anecdotal experience that allows me to accept it as is).

The only time I’ll ever entertain narratives is if there’s legitimately no context for it or there’s a dissonance between the context and what’s actually happening; for example, the Feb 2021 live where Jungkook continues staring at Jimin long after he’s done talking or doing anything interesting. Yes, I’ll say that it’s a little suspect and explain why, but that’s generally as far as I’ll take it (and I think I’ve even tried to play devil’s advocate with it too, but it’s a little weak). But as I say all the time, these moments are incredibly few and far between.

In the case of Rose Bowl, Jimin was very obviously emotional and Jungkook was comforting him. I personally wouldn’t suck my friend’s ear, but as I had passively mentioned in a really old post, I watched this compilation of idols doing the same thing to one another, and I remember thinking at the time that the ear fixation among idols was baffling. I tried to find it again, but it doesn’t seem to exist anymore (it was a much older video that I found ~2 years ago). After seeing that, I was more convinced that Rose Bowl could’ve easily been a comfort thing—weird, but comforting.

I’ve had time to ruminate over it, and I can also see how that action might actually be grounding to someone.

Regarding these two events, I can understand why shippers would think they could indicate something deeper between Jikook. Where I start to have a problem is when shippers abuse their platform and start talking so assuredly for Jungkook and Jimin. Shippers are not omniscient, but they pretend to be and they talk like they are, and those are the ones I don’t respect at all.

Mind you, I’m not stopping anyone else from flouting those boundaries if that’s how you have your fun, but I won’t have anything nice to say about people who do this, and that’s just my opinion.

Anyway, thanks for the ask. This was longer than intended, but I am tagging this post for future reference so I never have to talk about it ever again. ✌🏻

#TAJ asks #curious anon #jikook #kookmin #jikook rose bowl #jikook hickey

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i-mybrunettelady · 2 years

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local soft nero is soft over old ocs

man finding your old writing (4+ years ago even!) and seeing what type of chars you used to make and how they relate to what you write now is wild. for context, i was an rper in certain asoiaf rp groups for years, though now my interest has shifted elsewhere and i don’t rp in that sense anymore (though i do enjoy gw2 rp from time to time! oasis and i hosting one soon!)

and like, so many good and usable ideas. father who lost his brother, his wife and his child in a very short period of time and who found refuge in religion and who now takes care of his late brother’s young kid. a woman who dethroned her father because he was an asshole to the whole family and because she believed she deserved his place and whose love life is just a shitshow. a bastard son of a noble who was trained since he was a kid to be a perfect knight but who wasn’t denied love by his extended family and who just wants to play music and make people happy and that somehow always gets him into shit (and falling for a charismatic women.) a young queen wants to show everyone she deserves to rule but doesn’t know who to rely on yet and how she deals with putting that trust in the wrong person.

there were a lot of long-haired sometimes silver-tongued, sometimes snarky pretty dudes but i can’t help a type. there were a lot of women in positions of power because we love to see it. like rereading some of these and seeing the rough forms of the building blocks of my current OCs is making me soft ngl, it was practice for what i’m writing now and if you ever find your old ocs and ideas, behold them gently and with great interest bc you might just find where you started and it’s always great fun!

plus, one of my most beloved stories of my own make came as a result of rp and coordination with some friends (bb dorian and his son lucien my beloveds)

there was no real point to this i guess beside me screaming WHERE DID BABY NERO GET SUCH GOOD IDEAS FROM and to remind y’all to cherish yours. they matter <3

#not gw2 #nero's random thoughts #granted the execution could've been better but i was running on a few months of a single campaign of sorts #i couldn't be as detailed as i would've liekd #liked***#but still! i saw beginnings of liv in my all time beloved ocs dorian #i saw a bit of el in a pretty politician erryk #there's a bit of nyra in the lady w/ the shitty love life #there's cass in the bastard son #helps me get a feel of how much better i've become since then #as an artist right #cherish your bb writing guys it's important #storytelling ramble

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cube-cumb3r · 3 years

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Retrospective analysis of the bedrock bros /rp

(TW for brief descriptions of abuse and mention of suicide.)

We need to reframe the discussion of bedrock bros. Usually it tends to boil down to an argument about who betrayed who, which often misses the point as to why it happened in the first place. I will make an effort to not be antagonistic towards Techno, even though I'm clearly biased in favor of Tommy, in looking back retrospectively at what would lead to the fallout during the Green Festival.

Firstly, it’s relevant to point out that at the time Tommy agreed to team up with Technoblade, Dream had isolated Tommy away from his friends in exile, he had been emotionally and physically abusing him for what is implied to be weeks, possibly months, and after finding out that Tommy had been hiding gear from him, Dream had blown up all of Tommy's items and the entirety of Logstedshire, telling him to "think about what he's done." which is what lead Tommy to finally attempt to escape his exile for good, after surviving a suicide attempt. After escaping, he found Technos house, stole food and gear out of his chests, and dug out a room under his house for shelter.

It’s also relevant to point out that at the time Techno discovers Tommy living under his house, he had just been captured by the butcher army of new L'manburg, a considerable amount of his tools, weapons and items had been taken by them, he'd been executed without trial, and he'd beaten Quackity in a bloody fight with only his pickaxe, then he'd escaped back to his home in the arctic with most, but not all, of his usual gear missing. and because of this, he had a plan to get his revenge on New L'manburg.

(By the way, the way their storylines perfectly got woven together completely seamlessly with Technos butcher army stream and Tommy’s team-up stream? Chefs kiss. This is peak Dream SMP writing for me.)

Techno discovers Tommy living in his floorboards and gives him an ultimatum, either Tommy allies himself with him and aids in the destruction of L’manburg and Techno offers to help Tommy get back the discs in return, or Tommy has to leave the premises. And throughout the discussion Tommy restates several times that doesn’t need Techno’s help to get back the discs, and he's planning to do it on his own.

The reason Tommy initially declines the offer multiple times is because he still holds a grudge against Technoblade for aiding in the second destruction of L’manburg, and he also holds a grudge on Tubbo's behalf for his firework execution. When Tommy declines the offer multiple times, Techno tells him to leave. Which he does! He wanders out into the snow, but Techno keeps pushing with his offer regardless.

Tommy: Y-you'll help me get back my discs if I team with you-

Techno: I'll help you get back your discs, Tommy.

Tommy: I won't help you but you'll help me. I don't wanna destroy L'manburg. [overlapping]

Techno:[overlapping] You'll help me destroy the government-

Tommy: I won't help you destroy the government, but you'll- you'll let me... [glances back at the house].

Techno: Tell-tell you what, we’ll do some minor terrorism from which the government can- [stuttering] you- you know what, Tommy? We-we’ll get the details on the way, we’ll get the details on the way, Tommy. Alright?

Tommy: Technoblade, I am a huge fan of minor terrorism.

Techno: That’s just what I wanna wanna hear. Tommy-

Tommy: Not major terrorism, though. No- I don’t, I don’t wanna take down no governments. [...]”

"Tommy Teams with Technoblade in Exile" (18:37-19:13) [link] (I also made a longer transcription of the conversation here)

Even though Tommy desperately needed protection as Dream without a doubt WOULD later come looking for him, he still initially declined, repeatedly. Yet Techno kept insisting even when Tommy told him no and even walked away. Therefore, it’s arguable that Tommy only agreed because Techno was willing to "compromise".

Later in the stream, when they’re together in the wither bunker, it's VERY obvious that Tommy is under the impression that Techno wasn’t planning to destroy L’manburg at all.

Tommy: What!? Ok-, look at me in the eyes, look at me in the eyes! We’re just getting the discs back, alright? We’re not-

Techno: Yeahhh.... [overlapping] We’re just- getting the discs back-

Tommy: [overlapping] -I don’t wanna take down no government, I do not wanna upset Tubbo! [overlapping]

Techno: -by any means necessary!

Tommy: [overlapping] No, no... No, no, no, no, no!-

Techno: [overlapping] By any means necessary!

Tommy: Not by any means- by-… Well, I guess by any means necessary. But not-

Techno: Yeahhh!

Tommy: [stutters] Technoblade, look at me, dead in the eyes.

Techno:

Tommy: Although they have wronged me, they have wronged me, it is because of Wilbur*, not because they chose to. We will not. Upset. L’manburg, and we will not. Upset. Tubbo.

Techno: [stutters] w-we’ll negotiate the finer details later, Tommy. We’ll negotiate the finer details later- [...]

*Tommy might’ve meant to say Dream here, seems more likely in this context. However, I can't say for certain.

"Tommy Teams with Technoblade in Exile" (22:40-23:14) [link]

That is why I don’t think you can make the argument that Tommy used Techno for his own gain, unless you’re implying that him seeking shelter any way he could get it when he needed it the most, knowing he’d never go through with the destruction of L’manburg, is somehow exploitative. And not only is that arguably a bad faith argument, it’s also inaccurate because Technoblade wasn’t upfront about their deal. He had even deliberately given Tommy the impression that they had compromised.

That being said, I wouldn’t at all imply that Technoblade only pressured Tommy into joining him for his own gain. In fact, he wouldn't gain much from allying with him because Tommy had very little to offer in the first place. Both in terms of both manpower and resources, or even as a strategist, especially not in the state he was in at the time. Therefore, it is more likely that Techno felt as if he were, albeit a bit reluctantly, taking Tommy under his wing.

It's also important to stress that Technoblade was not aware of the extent of torment Tommy had just experienced in exile, and was therefore not aware of how urgently Tommy actually needed shelter and protection. This is because Tommy could never bring himself to tell Techno, because at this point in time he had not had the time to process and make sense of what he had actually experienced. it was obvious he didn't even know how he felt about Dream, or realized he was a victim of abuse. The only thing he had told Techno before they allied was that he and Dream had, in his own words, "had an argument".

During their time together Techno did not only offer shelter, but also protection, food and armor to Tommy, he hid Tommy as best he could when Dream came around, and he listened as Tommy attempted to make sense of what had happened to him. obviously, Techno noticed that to a certain extent, Tommy had clearly developed some sort of severe trauma as well, and he calmed him down when Tommy had panic attacks. So it would be untrue to say that Techno didn't care at all.

But the fact still remains that their allyship and friendship was always conditional, and not even that, and I apologize if I come across as repetitive, Techno was never upfront about what those conditions actually were in the first place. And we could speculate that if Tommy had managed to tell him the extent of what had actually happened to him, or maybe Techno had just happened to like him a little bit more in the first place, maybe he would have offered shelter unconditionally. But nevertheless, these miscommunications (both the intentional ones and the unintentional ones) was what was gonna doom their allyship (and their friendship) from the start.

#technoblade #tommyinnit #dream smp #dreamwastaken #mcyt #lmk if i need to tag this as critical #i dont feel as if im being critical in my opinion im just explaining why their relationship fell apart the way it did #if ive gotten something wrong feel free to point it out to me btw #but idk #tw abuse #tw suidice #lor3 essays #dream smp analysis #pspspsps

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beauyasha-canon · 3 years

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The use of “Beauregard” vs “Beau”

Let’s start off with some disclaimers. All of this data was taken from the transcript search tool which is not perfect. I noticed a few errors after I made the chart, but we’ll get to that later. I’m not touching Matt’s usage for obvious reasons. I also did not go individual entries on Liam or Sam. I don’t have that amount of time. Anyways, onto the show.

Saving Ashley for the end, Talisen has used “Beauregard” the least. Molly didn’t use it at all and the first time Caduceus said it in character was in episode 95. He has one misattributed to him from episode 68, an out of character joke in 78, and another spell in 120. This tends to be a common theme in the characters who rarely use her name- its used only in combat. My assumption is that Matt referring to her as Beauregard rubs off on them.

Next up is Laura with 6 attributed. None of hers were mislabeled. 3 of them were ooc jokes (eps 47, 106, 112). The other three involved her title being mentioned. (Archivist in 78, then expositor in 78 and 87).

This is a second revelation: Beau is almost never called “Expositor Beau” (only twice, once by Marisha, once by Laura). It is almost always a variation of her full name (“Expositor Beauregard” has 11 mentions, “Expositor Beauregard Lionett” has 2, and “Expositor Lionett” has 6)

Then comes Travis with 10. One of them is mislabeled. 4 of them are out of character (13, 100,102,123; one being about the Beau/Yasha rap video). Episode 9 has him complementing “Beau” as a nickname. 71, 92 & 122 are all in casual conversation. 89 is an introduction. There isn’t much to say about his usage here.

For shits and giggles, Marisha has 38 “Beauregard'' attributions. 2 of them were mislabeled, 5 ooc, 4 from jokes, and 1 from when she was playing Caleb (More on that later). She introduces herself as Beauregard a grand total of 23 times. 8 of those times involved invoking the Cobalt Soul (4 pre expositor-ship, 4 after). Another 3 were from their morning check-ins on Rumblscusp.

Now for the fun ones. Liam has used “Beauregard” more than any other player and interestingly, more than he says “Beau” at a rate of almost 3 times as much. Marisha has noticed this enough that she had Caleb call her Beau when she was playing him. “Beauregard Lionett” was the name her parents gave her. I think Caleb’s view of family is the cause of this rp choice. Caleb sees the Mighty Nein as family. With both of them being humans, I believe he started to see Beau as a sister pretty early on. Him calling her “Beauregard” is a quiet acknowledgement of this. He’s saying “Hey, that name came from your family but, we’re your new family now”

Sam has a total of 63 “Beauregard” attributions. I think Veth uses “Beauregard” because Caleb does, but there’s also more. Even though she’s not necessarily a mom figure to the whole group, she is still, at heart, a mother. I think it could be a maternal instinct showing through. (Or, Sam is being Sam)

Now for the part that made me write this whole thing in the first place: Ashley. Ashley has the lowest amounts of mentions of Beau of the cast, but she was gone for a while, so that makes sense. But, most interestingly, she has used “Beauregard” once in the entire game. Now, you may be asking, “why is this so important?” The answer lies in the context. This takes place in episode 86 “The Cathedral”.

Now she says this out of character, but my point still stands. Yasha is under mind control, Matt has tasked her with fighting the rest of the Mighty Nein. Beau is, unfortunately, the closest. Ashley says, “I see Beauregard, and I am going to slowly start walking towards her, raging and reckless.” Mind control Yasha lacks the level of care and love for Beau that she normally has. A mirror of Caleb, Yasha sees the name “Beauregard” as a sign of the past she left behind, a part of her she doesn’t care about anymore.

In conclusion: Caleb calls Beau “Beauregard” because he sees her as family and Yasha never does because she sees her as separate from her past. Gay rights.

here’s my chart

#i have been thinking about this for months #beauregard lionett #expositor beauregard #mighty nein #empire siblings #beauyasha #(at the end but the most important part of it)#i guess i should do my homework now lmao #critical role

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ruby-whistler · 3 years

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a complete list of my writing and analysis

[ updated: 29/08/2021 ]

PSA's and the like:

- therapy vs. emotional support - on excusing c!tommy's actions because of ptsd - static vs. dynamic characters on the dream smp (outdated) - important things to keep in mind during analysis and discussions - characters aren't synonymous with their past actions - the dehumanization of c!dream in the dsmp fandom - tag your positive posts! / tag your crit! - welcome to dreblr - the unofficial guide

memes and joke posts:

- what freaks out the dream smp fandom - c!karl & c!dream my beloveds <3 - dream apologist vibes - scratch that no vibes send help - the "i'm you" c!ranboo bit is beginning to make a lot more sense - "fighting with words" and "talking with violence" on the smp - the fandom's both biased and hypocritical apparently - *casually hates on l'manberg again* - "why are you a dream apologist?" - "c!dream and techno are imminent threats" yeah sure- - the five stages of grief ft. ruby (3rd life smp ending) - hermits' vibes by ruby; the only trustworthy source of information /j - l'manberg weren't pacifists nor the victims in the war - ...so c!wilbur said c!dream apologists are partially right - it's "l'manberg" and i take no criticism - why are we here, just to suffer - why friend isn't in wilbur's limbo - look, i don't excuse c!dream's actions. ok maybe some of them- - c!everyone apologists are the best at analysis - apparently we have the most angst and hurt/comfort fanfic. Why - meme through the pain i want him back pls - dream apologists are an unstoppable force of nature - this is how endersmile happened, right - the only valid dsmp citizen meme - oh look i still follow booktubers - i want you all to suffer as much as i suffer dealing with you - i like c!dream for being horrible. fight me. // genuinely love him too - the l'manberg anti salt post - healing fics that remove a character's core trait are not good

creative essays and objective analysis:

- on villains, heroes, and the metanarrative of the dream smp - my perception of the dream smp story and the characters in it - putting ghostbur's death into context - an analysis of c!dream's motivation during the l'manberg war - on l'manberg and c!wilbur's "death of the author" - dehumanization and victim blaming of c!dream part one - please let people have feelings about minecraft rp - dehumanization and victim blaming of c!dream part two - the reasons for the dehumanization of c!dream - c!wilbur was sure as hell gonna be ambitious - c!dream cares about people so much he won't let them care back - why c!dream should (and probably will be) redeemed: an essay - short semi-factual analysis of the prison death scene - there's no redemption before healing - what happened to c!techno wasn't "peer pressure" (best post!) - a scene-by-scene analysis of the original disc war - on blaming characters for c!dream's neglect and abandonment - add-on to the previous point by me and @/simplepotatofarmer - l’manberg was nothing but something to sacrifice for [v. 2.0!] - metaphor on the nature of redemption in narratives - statement on c!dream, justification and sympathy - c!dream's actions aren't based on beliefs; they stem from mindsets - c!tommy didn't deserve exile and c!dream didn't deserve the prison - (c!)dream is afraid of death; a speculative essay - c!dream isn't selfish - c!dream cares even if it hurts him - saying c!dream / c!techno should've left l'manberg alone is naive - with c!techno, c!dream is allowed to be a person, above all else - c!dream isn't the "main villain" and he hasn't "hurt everyone" - saying c!dream never cared is a mischaracterization (by anon) - c!dream isn't manipulating c!ranboo, actually (collab post) - c!dream is very clearly hurt - his trauma isn't loud, but it's there - l'manberg was, without question, built on xenophobia - please listen to the writers of the story about the characters - roleplay is supposed to be collaborative, not pre-written - the dream smp also doesn't need a "lead writer" - the common misinterpretations of c!dream and why no one is right - final disc war analysis and why it makes no sense (by anon) - why i am so attached the c!dream's character - on healing, redemption, and forgiveness - c!dream killed c!tommy to prove he was worth keeping alive - the duel is an example of actions that speak louder than words - the themes of the story line up with c!techno's narrative - c!sam hurts c!dream out of hatred stemming from fear - c!dream in season one was an anti-hero - c!sapnap is a bad friend // and acts like a bad person // + el rapids - yes, morality is a sliding scale! ...they're still all in the grey area! - a c!dream redemption'd fit incredibly well with the story's themes - a pretty long list of loose ends in the dream smp's story - c!dream wasn't owed being cared about, but he was still alone - i love c!dream. he's important to me. and that's okay. - scar is so funny and entertaining and amazing i love watching him - there's a difference between "unrealiable narrator" and "liar" - don't cut the sharp edges off of characters - people have a "minecraft persona", which c!dream used to be - on c!dream's alleged obsession with c!tommy - colour coding in dsmp analysis - by coffee anon!

#1/2 #continued in reblog!#don't rb this one!#this took hours

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kimabutch · 3 years

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I’ve already alluded to it plenty here, so: let me tell you about my friends’ TTRPG game.

So, almost two months ago, my friends @hgb94 and @nilim started what was supposed to be a oneshot of Ships That Pass, a two-person game about queer spaceships in love. Because they like to talk a lot (affectionate), they didn’t finish. So they played a second session, and still didn’t finish. And then, because they liked their characters, they started adding extra scenes and secondary characters. And then they started adding flashback scenes to create extra context for the characters. And then they threw out the rules entirely, and it became largely-improvised collaborative storytelling.

Oh, and they’d recorded it all from the beginning, so they started editing the present-day and flashback scenes together to create episodes, complete with music, soundscaping, and narrated scene introductions. Not for anyone but themselves, but, well, I did start listening.

But the story, friends, the story. It’s so good. It starts off simply: the Elysium (Ely), a luxury cruise ship and a bit of a prankster, meets the Scythe (Scy), a biomedical research ship and a stickler for rules, while both of them are near a plasma cloud. They start talking, and Ely’s sense of humour enchants Scy as much as Scy’s stories of the wonderful phenomena she studies enchant Ely. They start finding excuses to pass by each other. Scy introduces Ely to an ice storm. Ely starts writing poetry for Scy. They’re frankly adorable.

But things aren’t that simple. Both ships have close bonds with their captains and crew. Ely has been flying with her captain, Richard, a kind, gruff, and Tired man, for fifteen years; Scy’s been with her cool but Disaster captain Manon for less time, but they care for each other deeply. However, in this world, AI are seen as property — and dangerous property at that. Fifteen years ago, there was a brutal war fought over AI rights, where the colonialist Coalition used propaganda about “rogue AI” to justify invading other planets, and the rebels fought (and lost) to try to protect their ships and planets.

But that was fifteen years ago — it’s all “settled” now. Supposedly.

When one of Manon’s crew dies of illness, both she and Scy are brought in for psychological evaluations, and Manon’s suspiciously pro-AI and anti-MAN (Monitors of Artificial Norms) sentiments put her under further investigation by the MAN. They assign her an Agent, Oliver (Ollie), who comes on board to monitor both Scy and Manon.

Fortunately for them, Ollie’s a young but incredibly bright Agent on his first mission, and particularly sympathetic to AI. Doubly fortunate, he’s the protégé of Theresa Williams, a ruthless senior man Agent who’s been plotting undercover revenge against the MAN for over a decade because they reprogrammed her ship. Williams “recruited” Ollie out of university — that is, discovered Ollie had pro-AI views that might get him in trouble and then blackmailed his family so he’d join the MAN and be “protected.” She’s mentored him ever since, and despite her insistence that attachments are a weakness, she cares deeply for him.

Williams assigned Scy’s case file to Ollie after she noticed Scy & Ely’s anomalous flight patterns; she wants to help. She hopes no one else notices this dangerous pattern — particularly because Richard and Manon should not be meeting. See, while Richard and Manon know that Ely & Scy are in love, they don’t know who the other’s captain is.

Manon doesn’t know that Ely’s captain is Richard, her mother Elske’s lover, who was almost her stepfather — who was forcibly conscripted to the pro-Coalition side, while her mother fought and died for the rebels. Richard, who never contacted Manon after the war.

On the other hand, Richard doesn’t know that Scy’s captain is Manon, the daughter of the woman he loved; the woman who he saw die, for whom he punched out a Commanding Officer, for whom he was ready to die. Manon, whom Richard was forbidden by the MAN from contacting after the war, who was used as leverage for Richard’s silence about the war.

When they find out who the other is, well, that’s when things really start going to shit. Because Agents aside from Williams and Ollie have started noticing what’s going on, and that puts everyone in danger: Scy, Ely, Manon, Richard, Ollie, and Williams. To get out of this mess, the captains & ships will have to trust the rogue Agents, Manon will have to trust Richard, and they all will have to believe there’s a life outside of the MAN’s control.

And that’s about where I am in the story so far — I’m told it’s not even halfway done. I am literally bouncing with excitement for every single upcoming episode.

And like! The story is beautiful — it’s a queer romantic love story between spaceships yes, but also a queerplatonic love story between ships and captains, a story of love lost and found, of found families, of redemption, of healing, of learning to care and hope after trauma. And the characters, goddamn, I love every single one of them: Scy, sweet, reserved, a little naïve, a bit of a know-it-all but in the most loving way; Ely, hilarious, protective, and hopeful even after 200 years; Manon, simultaneously carefree and incredibly angry; Richard, weighed down by years of guilt but learning to be courageous; Ollie, who sees the best in everyone even after years of being told that it will only hurt him; and Williams, cold and ruthless and vengeful but really broken-hearted and more kind than she wants to admit.

And that’s not even mentioning the side characters; at this point, both players play over half a dozen characters each — some love-to-hate villains, some loveable goofs. And they play them so well, like, I’ve played with both my friends in the past and I know how good they are at role-play — but they’re still blowing me away with the strength of their RP in every single goddamn scene. And their shockingly good audio editing makes it feel… well, genuinely like a real podcast.

It’s just… amazing. I’m so proud and astounded by my friends, and feel so lucky that I get to sit in on (and write fanfic for, and create a fanvid for, and make a fanwiki for) this story. It’s really cool, and like. Wow. I have cool friends.

#ttrpgs #thanks for reading if you do :D :D :D #and Babs & Heather I hope you're ok with me spilling all your secrets here #my stuff #ships that pass

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mikaze-discord · 3 years

Text

Quartet Night: Love letters

Annnnnd these are the love letters written for Quartet Night!!!

Please enjoy under the cut~

REIJI KOTOBUKI

From Anon:

I've always been drawn to characters with complex (and fairly dark) personalities, so liking Rei-chan was honestly inevitable for me.

He looks like a very bright and cheerful character at first, which he is, but sometimes that part of him is a little misleading because, in actuality, he's a character that holds a lot of negative feelings about himself due to a past that he can't seem to move on from. He holds a lot of those feelings to himself because he doesn't want to burden anyone else with them. He's a reliable, cunning, and ultimately selfless character that chooses to shoulder a lot on his own out of his infinite care for others, and perhaps a secret sense of atonement, all hidden behind his bright demeanor and goofy smile, and it's endlessly interesting to me.

Besides the duality of his personality, he has a lot of other endearing quirks to love about him. He loves his mom a lot and is a mama's boy. His old-man jargon and catchphrases never fail to amuse (I still can't get over the way he says "my girl"). His obsession with anything even remotely British is something my APH England phase can relate to. His style of music brings a lot of pleasant feelings of nostalgia for me, and his pretty voice suits them a lot. And most of all he's just a very good boy overall. I rate 99999 out of 10 would love and support him and also maybe pay for his therapy because god knows he needs it. Happy anniversary!!

From another anon:

Would you like to hear a story? You do? Very well then, may this story be one you enjoy.

What do I like about Reiji kotobuki? A Lot of things actually!

Well, I've always really liked Reiji as a character as he seemed to be one of the more interesting characters to me, due to how complex he is with his backstory and general just personality.

I have always really enjoyed how Reiji just solves problems too? Like he is just such an outgoing person who deserves all the support!!!

Like the best word I can use for Reiji is just, unique. Everything about him is just so Reiji. From the way he talks, to his nicknames or even his texting style. Like have you seen how many people use emoticons when texting as Reiji? It's just so him.

I like his way of thinking too! I feel like some of the interactions in the games are just so interesting, just seeing Reiji’s point of view. How he deals with a sort of survivor’s guilt and all of that.

Personally, some of my most memorable roleplaying moments were watching a Reiji rper in action, like just seeing them interact and flow so seamlessly with the other characters was just so fascinating to wee baby rper me. Such a large part of playing Reiji is just how you flow with the people around you and comedic timing. I have so many funny moments where Reiji was just interacting with people and it was just so inspirational (?) like I couldn't stop the smile on my face. I had learnt alot from them. I still consider them my roleplaying senpai almost! I don't talk to them anymore but I really had an amazing time just seeing their spin on the character.

I don't find him to be a romantic partner towards me nor do I see any of the characters in that light, but I've always found Reiji as such a personal character. Not even just towards me, like even with other utapri stans. The most relatable character always seems to be Reiji.

I've always been pretty similar in many aspects to him and I often find myself relating to him in numerous ways like his vibe is just relatable! I have often found myself trying to make other people laugh and have fun that many times I'm spreading myself thin and feel unappreciated...Reiji really helped with that.

This is where i start getting into the really personal stuff LOL feel free to skip if you dont wanna hear the angsty backstory.

I had really come to love Reiji when I had just...hit a low. I had a group of friends who I enjoyed hanging out with and just talking to, but they weren't very good friends per say. I often had to schedule every activity we did and I spent days and nights trying to think of concepts that might be fun. They took it for granted.. I had spent 4 months trying to make a game for them, and they had constantly pushed back times that we would play it. Using excuses to not play it, without telling me out right what they did not like or even why. The site I used was later taken down without notice and thus I had lost all my progress. Later, they had mentioned how they would like to play it except that later ended up being two years later. I really wish I could've solved things with that friend group like Quartet Night did but that didn't happen. That is when I started seeing things Reiji’s way? Not to say that it was the same or similar scenario to Reiji but I had just associated it with him.

RANMARU KUROSAKI

From Anon:

Ran is such a fun character! He sounds like a "rough outside, soft inside" kind of character, but his roughness is more like an integral part of him and it's through it that he shows he cares rather than setting it aside. That's what made me want to rp him. I also like how he is such a strong guy who's always determined to do his best in everything he does despite so much having gone wrong in his past. And it's very satisfying to see him form bonds and start to trust people.

From @mikaze-san:

Originally, my favourite Utapri boy was Ai, and it had been the robot boy for several years upon entering the fandom. In fact, it only switched to Ranmaru sometime late last year but regardless, I would still die for this man. Part of the reason why I switched is because I’ve always been a fan of Suzuki Tatsuhisa and I have a huge bias towards any man who wears nail polish without fearing being “feminine” because fuck gender roles.

As someone who studies fashion, I think Ranmaru is very coordinated and confident when it comes to portraying himself that way. He knows he’s not very good at expressing his emotions and utilises his passion for rock and playing the bass to portray those feelings through his songs. It’s also incredibly inspiring to know that he bounces back from pretty much anything considering his backstory and the stuff he deals with in the game/anime.

But my main reason for loving Ranmaru so much stems from the fact that I admire him a lot and want to be more like him. For a long time last year, I got to roleplay as Ranmaru in a few Utapri groups and through those experiences, I gained a better understanding and appreciation of the characters that I wrote for. In some weird way, by highlighting his flaws, character progression and how he dealt with different emotions, I ended up providing insight into how I dealt with similar issues by looking at them from a 3rd person perspective.

I used to be very shy and was very shut off from friends and family, and due to this I’ve always admired people in my life or fictional characters that are so confident in being who they are. Ranmaru particularly struck that chord in me because his bluntness knows no end. He’s very opinionated and doesn’t fear confrontation, in most cases being the one to provoke it. He speaks his mind openly without being overly anxious of the consequences. This is something that I feel is especially relevant today with being your authentic/unapologetic self is such a trend.

It’s something I’ve also noticed with having met people in or outside of this fandom, the notion of idolising a fictional character containing traits that we want to see in ourselves. Which made me think about a lot of my favourite kinds of characters which at the end of the day all boil down to sharing one similar trait: Being a bitch.

And in Utapri, Ranmaru embodies that. So naturally it’s very easy for me to idolise him.

(Tldr: I like his bitchy attitude.)

AI MIKAZE

From Arashi:

It's hard to put into words why I love Ai Mikaze, perhaps it's because I'm subconsciously drawn to him, maybe it's because his hair and eyes are my favorite color, maybe it's because his voice is that of an angels, there are many reasons why I love him. I couldn't tell you a definite, "These one or two reasons are the entire reason I love him", but I'll try to sum it up.

I grew to love him by admiring his personality, his smile, his determination to reach his goals, everything about him made me happy. He's strict and a little scary at times, but when he sees people caring for him, he becomes happy and in a way, sentimental. He's not sure how to explain the way he feels, but he tries. I think I admire how he holds all the little things precious to his heart as he learns about them, and he wants to understand how to care for others and how they care for them in return. Even after six years, he still remains the most dear to me. I think that he now has a sentimental value to me, because even if I 'loved' another character more for a while, I will always come back to Ai. Ai deserves the world, and I'd give it to him if I could. He'll always be special to me, and I think that he very much deserves that.

From Maronda:

My love for Ai started after I found Shining Live by chance and started to play. At first I wasn't particularly attached to any of the characters and decided to go back and watch the anime to maybe remember some context other than who Starish was. When I got to the episode focused on Ai and his "secret" I was absolutely thrown off by it all. I ended up feeling like I had so many questions and I knew that the anime would give me little to no answers, so I frequently turned to rambling on the internet about it. Eventually, this fixation on weird things about him seemed to turn into a clear fondness for him, and friends made me realize just how much I liked him. Knowing the cold and often strange aspects of his personality was due to something out of his control was something I resonated with as someone on the autism spectrum. He reminded me of some of the ways I used to think and behave.

I also began to notice other things I loved about him. Things like how soothing I found his voice, the pleasant shade of light blue in his hair and eyes, how ridiculously pretty he is... but the best things are the endearing parts of his personality. Though he's somewhat harsh, he's still entirely genuine. His curiosity is absolutely precious and his occasional awkwardness in expressing emotion or understanding the emotions of others made me empathize with him. And if you look at the Ai in Shining Live and compare it to the Ai in the anime and games... he really has changed a lot and grown as a person. He now seems so much gentler and understanding, and he clearly values the friendships he has now too! I think he's a wonderful character and ever since friends of mine encouraged me to selfship I've essentially been in love with him, but it also makes me happy to see other people appreciate him for other reasons as well. He's just so lovable!

CAMUS

From @uta-no-fakku-sama:

At the very beginning of my UtaPri interest, Camus never really caught my attention. That is until he became my first My Only Prince UR. I’ve come to appreciate him a lot more ever since, and now he’s become my favorite QUARTET NIGHT member! Along the way, I learned more about him and realized he’s one of the more complicated characters to understand. Nonetheless, I absolutely adore him. I tend to tease and make fun of him a lot, but deep down I truly do like him a whole bunch!

From @/waddamaloooon on twt:

A little Camus appreciation post

(alternatively known as; how this guy managed to harshly take my heart and step on it like the gumin I am.)

Hello, this is Suikamaru, here to share a tiny story of why I, and eventually you, love Camus Rondo Cryzard.

At first glance, his looks appealed to me, but not his behavior (and ironically enough, his voice) so I didn't bat an eye on him. I've always been on a neutral leaning to dislike opinion on Camus, which is quite understandable because have you SEEN the way he acts. Unfathomable.

…..To a Young Suikamaru, that is.

I've grown, so naturally I've changed preferences regarding characters, ikemen, and who to stan and who to avoid like the plague. I will lie if I said that I expected to like that blonde confectionery devouring machine at any point of my life.

But it did happen so who are we fooling here.

It dawned on me that Camus is the type of character that you cannot appreciate unless you go in depth into his lore, backstory, and see him for who he really is. Because then everything else will make sense. And that never happened in my case until I started roleplaying as him.

I realized that he's not just a two faced, sweet toothed mean man. He's a perfectionist, someone who's always been raised since his childhood days to be nothing less than complete, who has locked on his heart and emotions to devote himself completely to the purpose given to him. He has the looks and brains for what though? He should be a little stupid honestly.

But his intelligence gave him the complexity that he just needed for his characteristics. Because as aforementioned, he's not someone to easily like or fall in love with. And I think that's quite rare in characters, and very much appreciated due to the fact it gives the fans a chance to not actually stay on a flat level of knowledge regarding their favorite characters.

I've slowly started to see myself in some aspects of him, which was the number one factor of liking him. Then came the Maeno magic when I realized Camus shares the same VA as another character that I love as well. (Hamelin, from SinoAlice.) From then, everything went downhill.

In a good way. I think..

Well, that is all from me, please read about this handsome man and appreciate his hard work both as an individual and as an idol. There is SO much to him that's p much overlooked and I'm getting broke from spending my money on his living expenses rent free in my head. Take him off my head.

#utapri #utanoprincesama #uta no prince sama #Reiji kotobuki #Kotobuki reiji #Ranmaru kurosaki #utapri camus #ai mikaze #mikaze ai #quartet night

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rpbetter · 3 years

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"writes dubcon therefore is a freak who should be bullied off the site" ho boy i'm fed up with people acting as if consenting adults writing [insert "problematic" fictional thing here] is the worst thing in the world. seen way too many people justifying harrassment of REAL PEOPLE by "they write thing that triggers me". ok, and? mute the tags or don't follow! "it triggers someone" is not a valid reason to ban a topic. piano music triggers me yet i don't go around demanding everyone stop playing the piano.

Anon, not only is everything you said absolutely valid, but also, thank you for demonstrating that triggers are incredibly varied and as such, we cannot predict everyone's triggers. Making the entire "point" of banning for possible triggers invalidated as hell.

We should be aware of things like the most commonly occurring phobias (things like arachnophobia and coulrophobia that are, additionally, easily triggered by imagery) and tag them. We should be aware of very obvious triggers, that are, again, easily set off by imagery, like blood, eye trauma, and depictions of domestic violence. And we should always read and be aware of our writing partners' stated triggers so that we can tag them appropriately or even decide that it isn't going to work because our muse, canon story, or interests are going to present an unfair situation in this partnership.

But triggers can be highly unusual, as well as activated differently (even at different times) for everyone. I'm not triggered by seeing hotel rooms in pictures or movies, I'm not triggered by writing scenes that take place in them, but I'm triggered to some degree by being in one. It's outrageous oversimplification to act like all triggers are the same, they all display the same way, they're all going to trigger someone on the same basis, everyone's going to react the same to their triggers. There is absolutely no way to prevent 100% of possible triggers for 100% of the population, 100% of the time.

Add to this that way too many people trivialize triggers by throwing around that term to justify the banning of something that makes them uncomfortable or that they take a personal, moral issue with. "I don't like this" and "I'm grossed out by this" and "this makes me feel uncomfortable" is not being triggered. It's just a good way to weaponize the better nature of other people so that they comply.

Most people legitimately do not want to trigger someone, especially if they have triggers and know what it's like. Just like no one wants to be accused of cruelty towards trauma survivors in general, or be designated a pedo, rape apologist, or fascist. They're all things to weaponize in order to isolate, shame, and control. And that's really fucking gross. These are serious, real things that have no business being trivialized to police content, win internet arguments, or garner popularity.

The potential for someone to be triggered isn't a reason to ban anything; we have tags, we have blacklist.

While I'll be the first to say that tumblr's blacklisting can be as shitty as everything else on the site, the primary issue with running into content you don't want to see comes down to two factors: no one tagging/tagging correctly and actively exposing yourself to that content. Going through people's properly done tags and blog warnings about their content in order to "call it out" is actively exposing yourself by choice. You actual walnuts.

Calling people on on their "problematic" content is bringing those topics to the attention of other people. That's the whole point of this gross behavior: look at the freak pedo abuse apologist I found, they write dubcon!! Don't look if you'll be triggered uwu

Buddy, pal, my guy...you just put that on blast for anyone to run across. Maybe their blacklist catches those words in your callout post, maybe it doesn't. Maybe they think you're a safe space because you promote yourself that way, so they click it anyway. Point is, you just willfully and irresponsibly exposed people because it's more important to you to demonize a rando on tumblr RPing something you take issue with. Good job!

Furthermore, dubcon itself is such a hilarious issue to take. Do they realize that isn't always sexual, or? Not? I'm thinking not. Funnily enough, one of the oldest posts I've been working on for this blog is about exactly this topic, the myriad situations that are dubious consent. That doesn't have to be sexual, and neither does it have to be intentionally predatory. You can come up with some amazing character development with a lot of muses in the RPC with dubcon because almost everyone's muse has some manner of trauma that might negate their perception of their own consent...and what do you do then? Is it removing more agency from that muse to shut them down, or is that always the better option? Can you separate your opinion as the mun from your muse's natural reactions? How does this impact the muses involved not just that moment but the next year?

Point is, dubcon isn't always some rapey situation. Even if it was, even if someone is writing it that way, it's literally not your business or your problem.

There's one mutual-in-law on my RP blog that really bothers me. They write things that I find fetishizing, incredibly rapey, all around shit that bothers me. I don't want to see it, some of the things they write makes my damn skin crawl. This person doesn't know it, we certainly don't speak and I don't think they like me very much, but I've repeatedly defended their right, specifically their right as a person with some long-term callouts on them, to write what they want to. I have them blocked and their urls blacklisted so I never have to see my mutual reblogging their threads. It's not a problem because I don't click "show anyway." Why would I, if it genuinely bothers me so much?

That's how you handle things that bother you; you use the tools available to not interact even by accident. Not by launching a morality crusade.

If any of us want to write what we enjoy, we have to allow others that same freedom. It's always a matter of time before this policing grows to include more and more topics, it's been used multiple times to get well-meaning people who don't fall into the general demographics to police queer, BIPOC, and other marginalized groups off of platforms. We've been fortunate in most of the RPC that it implodes on itself before it gets all the way there, but even so, you can see it.

It starts with things that produce a visceral reaction in the great majority of people, positions this with a repeatedly condemned idea presented as solid fact that fiction is reality, and you've got the start of something awful. Today it's something you don't like, maybe even something that triggers you, so you either support it or you quietly allow it to happen. Who needs to write that "freak shit" anyway, can't they just be gross privately? Six months from now, it's something "problematic" that you enjoy like violence that's canon-typical for your muse, or your OTP because they're gay and that's fetishizing, they're cis male and female but one or both is bi and that's bad representation, or they canonically have a rocky relationship so that's romanticizing toxic/abusive relationships.

If you can't care for any other reason, you really should care about how it is going to impact you sooner or later. In an environment like this, you can stay in your space, put warnings on your blog, and tag properly and you're still going to get a callout if the wrong person finds your blog. Just takes a single person with more time, energy, and skewed ideas of justice than they have reading comprehension or common sense.

Again, I cannot encourage people enough to give warnings, but it's difficult to ignore why those warnings are slipping; they're a way to be found, designated as a Problem, and called out. Look, it's another reason why callouts actually make things worse, not better! People put that shit in their rules so you can avoid content, they're being responsible and interested in promoting a safe RPC. Let them do it, damn.

You can't tag everything, and if you've never experienced what a giant series of repetitive tags is like on a screenreader you probably should before you tag seven paragraphs of possible issues. You can tag for visuals, you can tag for the obvious things, and you can tag for what's in the rules you agreed to when you followed/followed back. But you should also warn people that you write "dark topics" on the tin, and expand on that in your rules for specific things like graphic violence, toxic relationships, dubon, and addiction.

That's how responsible adults, not over-aged children, make better decisions about their mental health and general comfort. Not by appointing themselves the watchdogs of the damn RPC, here to protect you whether you want to be or not, find that incredibly insulting or not when you're in one of their categories of people who must be protected, by forcibly banning Problematic Everything. Problematic, of course, being entirely in the eye of the content police.

It's fiction. No one and nothing real was harmed. It's great that you are so invested in the fictional world and people that make you happy, but take a fucking big step back into reality. The real people you're harming with your bullshit had every right to peaceably exist. If what they're writing is triggering to you, stay. away. from. it.

Without any coincidence whatsoever, that's how you get from the base-point of Problematic Material to Problematic Mun. Yeah, it's just fiction, it's just RP, but I also took something out of context OOC or was upset by their tone on their own blog or couldn't exercise the minimal adult logic to remove myself from their presence OOC as well. So, now, you've got OOC behavior being added to the callout, if it wasn't already. Everyone is now ableist, transphobic, racist, and a misogynist because it lends that visceral reaction to the callout and ups the game from just being "y'all so gross you aged up a cartoon character to ship" to "this is REAL and it won't be tolerated! OP is actually a pedophile, they told a sexual joke in a discord server with a minor present and I have the receipts!"

What are the most storied callouts in the entire RPC? I'm absolutely certain the same names came to mind no matter what fandoms you're in, and one of them was "Matt." Another was probably "Ares/Snow". They're all successful and keep being brought up out of the closet anytime people are bored enough because their primary punch is the mun themselves being a predatory threat to the community. The mun is verified to be a bad person. Well, of course, that's got to be repeated, it worked. (Even if it did not, at all, work and only made it harder for people to avoid any of these muns.)

Are there people in the RPC who are legitimately a problem? Absolutely, yes. We're all supposed to be adults, however. Part of being an adult is having and acting upon one's agency. If someone is coercing you into things you are not comfortable with, shut it down. If you have difficulties being certain of those situations, run it by a trusted, honest friend or available, impartial source in the RPC for a second opinion. If you can't handle any manner of confrontation, there really are situations in which it's perfectly alright to block someone without any discussion. It's just the internet, you're in control of your space. Own it.

Minors are a whole other can of fucked up worms I'm not even getting into right now except to say that because a minor exists in a space they were told to stay out of does not mean we ban all topics inappropriate for their consumption.

tl;dr: banning shit doesn't work anyway, the whole idea is predicated upon some incredibly problematic takes IRL, and no, there's no justification for it outside of intense personal problems with one's own importance. That energy would be infinitely better spent volunteering one's time to help real people in crisis or after surviving one, or even oneself in developing some healthier approaches and thought patterns.

#hey what if we all start saying we're triggered by callout culture is that bannable then lmao #vespertine #drama cw #bsnf #callout culture #tumblr rpc #rp problems #also thank you again anon I hope you're having a great day!

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miqojak · 3 years

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I love reading about your character and I love seeing Jak's posts pop up on my dash. I know you don't need ME to say this since you handled that Anon like the trashbag they are but, please don't take anyone's hidden, cowardly, unsolicited advice/opinion to heart. People who do that sort of stuff are generally miserable sorts. I thoroughly enjoy Jak. Please never stop writing her! Keep being awesome 🖤

Thank you. It has, actually, been a rough week with having a stomach bug, plus my chronic back/neck pain and new physical therapy exercises, and just how drained it's left me...for about half a heartbeat I was...confused and angry, but really, I know they're wrong. And I won't deny that Jak isn't for everyone, but the line they quoted (they even left in the bit about if people are hurt OOC by IC antics...) exists because I've dealt with several people taking IC into OOC and being genuinely offended as a person by what happens IC. More often than not, another character thinks it'll be funny to provoke her, despite my 'Be careful, she holds nothing back' being made clear OOC, up front); and so like a dog (jackal? heh) when provoked, she bites. I'm tired of people being nasty OOC, or being genuinely hurt as a person, when Jak says a mean thing to a character IC. When Snape said a mean thing to Harry, did everyone reading the book/watching the movie take it as a personal slight? No. RP is the same. It's fake. It's playing dolls on the internet. That's why that line is plastered everywhere - because playing a dark character needs to come with warnings. I know plenty of people don't want dark RP, or they can't help but feel that hurt their OC feels resonate, and don't want to feel that, or play it out. I do, though - and in my decade+ of RP, I've known plenty of others who do, too. In my first year on Jak, that insult would have hit hard. I questioned myself alot about what others wanted to see in this community, given most of what I saw was fluff and romance and slice of life (REMINDER: there's nothing wrong with those!!), but I didn't want that for Jak - and making an OC is about you and your happiness...not others'. I didn't want the typical anime catgirl. I like villains. I like dark, morally ambiguous characters (Are they going to send hate mail to SE about Emet Selch next??). I like people who do bad things for reasons they think make sense, that they think are for the best, and so on. Jak likewise has legitimate medical reasons that I know (but she doesn't) for why she acts like she does. She also has valid emotions about being oppressed as a refugee/having spent her youth in Garlean Auschwitz that have left her hateful. She's a deeply nuanced person with valid reasons for who/how she is beneath the surface, and anyone that's ever read anything on this blog knows that there's more going on - like you! I appreciate the interest others have, even if RPing with me isn't necessarily what they want. Part of my lack of RP this year is on me and my battle with my physical health...sitting for too long KILLS my spine; and also on me in fact, worrying about reaching out *as* a darker character *because* of people like this. It helps if LFRP posts mention what they're looking for in RP, because again - not everyone wants my kind of RP. I like chocolate, they like vanilla, and the world isn't going to end because of that. Despite what this inane anon seems to think...though I don't believe they do think, or they'd realize that verbally harassing a real person is far worse than anything a fictional character has ever done in any medium. THANKS FOR BEING AWESOME sorry I rambled. I just boggle at someone taking my 'don't take IC into OOC' and 'be careful, I play a spicy character' line out of context to try and shame me. Maybe they need it all spelled out to comprehend how stupid they look.

#thank you thank you #sure it isn't great to get hate on an already stressful week #but it didn't make a lick of sense #so mostly I'm just kinda laughing at how poorly approached and 'thought out' it was #still pretty sad that people take the time out of their day to attack a complete stranger over playing pretend on the internet #are we 8 year olds on the playground? I'm not allowed to play pretend that way?

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tickle-bugs · 3 years

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I had two people ask for some advice on starting up/running a blog, so I thought I’d make a little post for anyone else looking for advice! There’s no one right way to run a blog and I am by no means an expert. This is just a compilation of some of the things I’ve learned :)

Feel free to add advice to this!

- The first thing is something I cannot stress enough. Write for yourself first. You will be absolutely miserable if you’re only writing for attention. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s so incredibly important. If you don’t like a prompt, fandom, or scenario? You don’t have to write for it! A personal example: I’m a theatre kid and total musical nerd. I could probably write some compelling Dear Evan Hansen or Hamilton headcanons if I wanted to, but I don’t. That’s fine! I’m allowed to say I won’t write for it and deny prompts/requests for those fandoms.

- Set boundaries. This is a very mixed community with all sorts of creators and participants with hands in different baskets. Don’t want minors to interact? Put minors DNI in your bio. SFW only? Put it in the bio. No RP? Bio. This goes for private conversations/askbox/other interactions as well. If someone comes into your askbox/dms and says something that makes you uncomfy, shut it down.

- My advice is more geared towards writing than art or video, but I suppose you could apply this advice as well. Make what makes you happy! If you’re only in one fandom, feel free to stay there and make content for it. Multi-fandom? Excellent! Completely non-fandom? Epic! Make the content that you want to see and the content that makes you happy to create, especially if you’re in a more niche fandom/area.

- Organization. ...I’ll admit this one is more of a personal pet peeve than something urgent, but it is something that people positively respond to. If you have some sort of consistency/organization to your blog, it’ll make it easier and more enjoyable for people to navigate. Make a fandom list/indicate your fandoms somehow (mostly for prompt purposes. people can’t read your mind, so it’s important to tell them what you will write for and what you won’t, however you want to do that)!

Make a masterpost/link your fic tag! Use a fic tag of some kind. Give your fics summaries and leave a little bit of the fic above the ‘read more’ to intrigue folks (look at #my fics and my masterpost for basic examples of how I do this, if you need!). Use read mores. Please use read mores (if you can, idk if they’re on mobile. regardless no one wants to encounter a three thousand word block of text on their dash). (No seriously though, organize your blog, even if it’s super simple. literally just a ‘mine’ or ‘my fics’ or ‘[pseud] writes’ and a fandom tag. It’ll make it easier for people to find your stuff and support you)

- Practice general internetiquette. Please remember that the people in this community are real people with feelings, boundaries, and lives outside of the blog that they run. Be genuine and people will respond to you! Don’t manipulate people into likes/reblogs/attention. No one wants to be on the other end of that. Being in this community isn’t a transaction or a mosh pit, it’s an experience.

- Be ever-so-liberal with the block button. Someone’s user makes you uncomfortable? They give you bad vibes? They’re a minor/older than you and you don’t want them interacting with your content? You don’t wanna see their blog for some reason? Block em. This goes for anons too. That’s what the button is for. Don’t feel guilty for using it. Use it.

- How you write is 100% a personal choice and not really something that I can give advice on, but embrace your style! take prompts if you want, or don’t. Write oneshots, series, drabbles, or novels. Write romantic, or don’t. Etc. Change things up if you feel like it. Do what you want. Your blog, your style, your rules.

- Numbers matter. Don’t let them define you. This is a bit of a harder one to explain, but I will try. I often say that I don’t care about numbers, and I really don’t, but that’s not to say that I don’t see them and they have zero effect on me. I absolutely notice and am bummed if a fic doesn’t get notes, or at least the notes that I was expecting. That is entirely normal and okay to experience. What isn’t okay, though, is creating for the sake of getting notes/numbers/attention (re: write for yourself first, internetiquette). If you find yourself relying on tumblr for gratification and a reward, I implore you to take a break. I’m not your therapist or your parent, I’m not gonna tell you what to do, but when you make things only for the sake of notes, people notice. Celebrate your milestones. Know that it’s okay to be bummed about low notes/celebrate getting plenty. Just make sure that you don’t depend on the numbers for your happiness, or you will be miserable.

- You’re (probably) doing this for free. You are providing people content: a service. Produce as much or as little as you’re comfy with, but always remember that. No one is entitled to what you make. If someone asks you for headcanons, sends a prompt when prompts are closed, etc, and you don’t feel like fulfilling it? You have no obligation to do that. Getting commissioned is another story entirely, but as long as you’re making free content, you have zero obligation to do anything for anyone and certainly no time constraints. It can take me months to finish prompts, and that’s okay. I do them when I do them and I fill them how I want to. If my prompts are closed, I deny new ones until I’m ready to accept them. Make yourself happy first.

- How you interact with others is up to you! It’s generally considered good practice to like/reblog your mutuals fics/art, but this is not necessarily a hard and fast rule. I veeeeeery rarely reblog fics for fandoms that I’m not in, even from my mutuals. What you can do to show your support (and you should try and show support somehow. No one is in competition. Everyone’s in your boat, whether they have no followers or 1k) is send an ask/reply to the post/leave tags to let the author know you liked it. Like the fic and don’t reblog it, if you don’t want to. Just make sure you show your mutuals (and others in general!) roughly the same support they show you, however you decide to do that. Treat others how you want to be treated, as cheesy as it sounds :)

- Don’t repost content that isn’t yours without express permission from the original creator, and credit them appropriately. If you see a cute piece of tickle art and the artist doesn’t want it reposted? Don’t repost it. Don’t post fics/videos/gifs that aren’t yours (obviously if it’s like a scene from a movie/a clip on youtube that’s different, but don’t take credit for things you didn’t make, including ideas). Can’t tell you how frustrating it is to have work stolen from you. Don’t be that person. ‘Credit to original artist’ and ‘credit unknown’ is total bullshit btw. Link/tag the creator in the original post and make it clear you don’t own the content. Best practice is to ask the original creator if they’re okay with reposting, work inspired by or connected to theirs, etc. This goes doubly for saving/downloading someone’s fics.

- It is not illegal for a minor to have normal, nonsexual, healthy friendships with people older than them. There’s a weird attitude that minors have nothing of value to offer adults besides a relationship/sex, which is...not true? Minors are thinking, living human beings with feelings, thoughts, and opinions. You can talk to them like normal people, because they are. Just obviously don’t talk about/introduce sex or endanger them. Minors don’t bring up sex/activities you’re underage for with an adult. IDK this isn’t a seminar just...don’t be weird. Adults can offer great life experience, support systems, and the basic joys and needs of human connection. Minors can too. Mind your business unless someone’s actually in danger. The next point is a caveat, though:

- If you’re a minor, don’t interact with NSFW blogs/blogs with ‘Minors DNI’, NSFW blogs don’t interact with minors, etc etc. Not your parent or whatever but this is pretty common sense and it’s for everyone’s safety, but especially the NSFW person. internettiquette!

- If you use your TK blog as a side blog (meaning you have another blog as your main blog, not two separate accounts) and don’t want your main exposed, that is up to you. I recommend not liking posts. Also, follow people that you trust. These actions route through your main blog and your main will show up in the notes. You can reblog from a sideblog. If you want to send an ask “as your tk blog”, send an anon and sign it somehow, like ‘hey :) // @/tickle-bugs’. It should tag you in the post so you get a notification when it’s answered!

- Find your people! As an anxious person this one has been hard for me, so I know it’s hard for a lot of people. Fandom is literally a community of shared interest. Peachy and I have an iron bond almost two years later and we met talking over shared interests. You can absolutely find your people here. If someone makes you happy, strike up a conversation! Send an ask! You never know what doors it might open or whose day you might improve :)

- If you were an anon/lurker on someone’s blog and they inspired you to write/submit/start your own, sign your messages!! the common form that I see is either an emoji or [noun/context of the ask]!anon (prodigal!anon (i miss u every day), butterfly!anon, etc.) Let us know how to find and support you!! Those messages produce good brain juice.

- The big finale: Have fun. If you’re not having fun here, maybe you could tweak something to make things enjoyable. Running a blog is like driving a car. Keep your hands on the wheel, respectfully indicate your intentions (flashing lights optional), and be safe. Poebody’s nerfect, y’know. If you make a mistake, course correct. I’m by no means perfect. Your favs aren’t either. Just do your best and have a good time :)

@rosytickles and the anon in my inbox, I hope this helps! Thank you for asking me, I’m very honored that you value my opinon/experience/advice. I apologize if I come off as preachy or aggressive, I envisioned grabbing my younger self by the lapels and shaking me vigorously while I wrote this. Probably a bad idea.

Anywho, hope it helps. Anyone with questions, additions, or comments, my askbox is open! Just be constructive, is all I ask.

#bug speaks #advice tag #sorry again if this sounds preachy or aggressive at any point i literally wrote it like i was grabbing younger me by the lapels #these are all things i learned through experience/observation i promise im not talking out of my ass here #the largest obstacle to maintaining a blog is how you view your happiness in relation to it. talked about it above but yeah.#also like i said: not a professional and not your parent. just giving friendly advice sine i was directly asked for it.#might add more to this if I think of more #my askbox and dms are open for questions/comments/additions just pls be respectful and constructive #other tfb community members feel free to add to this!

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ungrateful-cyborg · 3 years

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😡, ♫, ▲ (I'm a bit late but here ya go :P Mun memes thingie.)

😡 : Worse role play-related encounter and what advice you would give to others to avoid similar situations

I’ve been thinking about this since I saw your question (don’t worry about lateness, I’m always happy to receive asks!) and I don’t actually have anything awful to talk about. I did find something though, and they’re forum-based because I haven’t had bad experiences in the FFXIV rpc.

A weird-but-not-terrible rp-related encounter I’ve had is a partner who was probably more invested in my character than me. We had had discussed shipping her muse and mine but I told her from the beginning that it’d take a long time in game before they’d get there. She somehow tried to literally cram several months of character development into our first thread. Ellipses in time included.

Another one happened years prior. I was running a forum and someone created a character that was supposed to be my muse’s daughter without even asking me first. I still have no idea who did that. And for context: my character was 18yo at the time and you couldn’t play a character under the age of 13. Not sure how they thought time worked but we clearly didn’t agree on that.

Now that I think about it, that’s also when I discovered after googling the very same muse’s name that somebody was rping him somewhere else. Or had been since that other forum was closed already. I didn’t even get upset because I was too busy marveling at the fact that people apparently liked my muse enough to be seriously weird about it.

That’s the worst I could think of that’s not community management related. I speak up my mind pretty fast, more or less always had even when terribly anxious, so I don’t really have traumas I could mention. At least not related to your question.

But if I only had one advice to give, that’s be it. If you’re upset and truly care about something, speak up your mind. If you find that you don’t really care, take a step back. Sometimes it’s just not worth getting angry over it. Sometimes it is. Nobody besides you can know how much it affects you on the spot but if you find that you need to get it off your chest, then say your piece. Better do it crying or trembling like a leaf than not at all.

♫ : Are there parts of your own personality that you reflect onto your character? How do they work?

I don’t believe you can create a character without putting some of you in them, even when they’re absolute trash. It can be hard to connect to them sometimes, especially in the beginning, but you can’t write a character well without relating to them somehow imo. It doesn’t have to be a direct translation though.

As for how it works...

Sometimes it’s personality traits. Sometimes it’s common experience (or close enough). Sometimes it’s very specific feelings. Sometimes it’s common beliefs. To me all of this constitutes who you are but I never give them everything at once. Sometimes I don’t give them anything at all, I just discover along the way what we have in common.

The farthest away from me would be Hanae though. It took me some time to understand more than superficially how she feels about the outside world.

▲ : What sort of information do you like to see on someone’s role play page that helps you determine whether or not you would want to write with them?

tone

consistency

lore-compliance

rules and boundaries

My absolute preference would be two to three short paragraphs that tell me what’s (to be) known about the character and how they present themself. That’s it. I don’t care much about hooks, how many sisters they have or what they look like beyond the unusual. A list of generic traits tells me nothing about how their mun understands it. But written paragraphs? They set up a tone.

They also let me know how the writer conveys a message, give me an idea of how lore-strict they are and how many characters are put into one. If it goes all over the place, I know from the get-go that we’re not a good match. And I like a measure of realism or at least internal logic in muses and threads.

Also rules and boundaries for obvious reasons I think x) Though I’ll add that even if on paper we’re compatible, if the tone is condescending or aggressive, I’m gonna nope out so fast you’ll wonder if I was even there in the first place. And probably unfollow because passive-aggressive people are just disasters in waiting.

Thanks for the ask @bek-sc! I hope it still makes sense because I rewrote that wall of text so many times I’m sure a few sentences are chimeras at this point

#The More You Know #answered; OOC #tbh for the three examples I gave #I've always been more confused that upset about it #but the first one is the reason why I'm now crystal clear about the fact that nothing is set in stone #and if it doesn't work #it doesn't work #long post

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langernameohnebedeutung · 4 years

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Is it bad to have an accent ? I’m studying English at uni and all my teachers say I have to work on my accent and adopt an RP or GA accent because having an accent is bad and terrible . I have a pretty thick French accent and I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to correct it and it’s making me feel very self-conscious so I almost never talk , which affect my performance in class .

Seeeee..........the thing is, there is this ideal. This gold-standard: The accent-free foreigner. (And if you do have an accent it better be from a rich white country and it better be barely noticeable and you won’t mind if someone is creepy about it) And many learners ascribe to that ideal as well. And honestly, it doesn’t go anywhere, as far as I’m concerned. There are just very little professions where you will profit from not having an accent outside of people being happy about it. There is no practical gain. Unless you want to become an actor or a spy or the Queen’s professional doppelgänger.

So, to make this short, it’s not bad to have an accent as far as I’m concerned and your teachers sound like dicks tbh.

We often complain about native-speakers who are rude about people’s accents or mistakes when they only know one language themselves. But I think it’s time to address that: ESL-speakers do it too - in fact, I would say that especially among people from countries where fluency in English is expected for the younger generation, it is very common to lash out against people from the same community who have a thicker accent when they speak English and to make fun of them. And that’s just as rude as when a native speaker does it or when you make fun of anyone else for doing something you excel at.

On the personal note: You can only do something about accent if you speak and if you’re getting berated for the way you speak and that keeps you from speaking - then you’re not going to improve. It’s fair for a teacher to point out how to pronounce a word or to point out if someone’s grammar is wrong - but I study English too and while we had to stick to a specific variety when writing (either American or British), we were never told how to speak beyond pointing out mistakes in classes that were about language proficiency. And most people do improve over time, simply because their studies expose them to a lot of spoken English. I would meet people from my first semesters again in higher semesters and note how they have become more fluent and made less mistakes. Personally, I would try speaking to at least the lecturers you think might react decently about it that you’re working on it (whether you are or not) and that for that you need to speak and right now this kind of feed-back is making you more anxious about speaking and whether they would mine focusing their criticism on more structural aspects of your speaking.

As far as accents or being “accent-free” is concerned-

I don’t even think it’s something that all speakers should aspire to. And even if someone’s end goal is to speak perfect RP or GA, that should be their personal goal. Many people uphold this strange notion of purity when it comes to people learning a language where everyone should aspire to be “accent-free” or “sound like a native-speaker”. And I guess it makes sense if you’re teaching someone how to speak that language as a beginner. It makes sense to show them how to pronounce words and how sounds work in that language. If you have a person sitting in front of you who doesn’t speak English, it makes sense to stick to one version instead of saying “wa-t-er” in one lesson and “wadder” in the next or “caahn’t” in one sentence and “cèèn’t”in the next. It gives them a certain structure, helps them tell one variety from the other and to avoid confusion. Not to mention that if someone wants to study English they are expected to write their papers and essays in one variety of English so it makes sense that they know the general rules of telling them apart or recognizing or recognising how a word would be spelt or spelled.

But when you finally become more fluent, you still have an accent and you still might not be perfect recognising one variety from the other. There are people who live in a foreign country for the majority of their lives but you can still tell where they come from.

But the question is...who cares?

Don’t get me wrong, if someone wants to put their effort into learning a specific variety perfectly, I don’t see anything wrong with it and if they accomplish that - it’s quite some feat and it’s cool. Commendable. But the truth is that we all have accents. Even in our native languages, we speak in a regional accent, we probably have specific slang-words that are particular to some group. Age, class, sex, gender, education, interests - there are thousands of factors that determine the way we speak. And it’s the same for native English speakers. There are hundreds of versions to speak English.

I actually once took part in a public speaking class and the woman who held that class was a logopaedics trainer. And she could tell by the way people spoke and moved their mouth while speaking whether they used to wear braces, which parent they had a closer relationship with and other things. The way we speak - and the way we aspire to speak - is an important aspect of our personality and who we are and where we come from and personally, I don’t see the value of erasing that. It’s like a hand-writing and no one would tell you to alter your handwriting until you write in Times New Roman or Arial.

The thing is, when Anglos complain that they don’t understand a Scottish person or an Irish person or some other regional dialect, that is because that person grew up speaking a particular variety of English in a specific community. But for someone who isn’t a native speaker, they learn English in a community with a different native language - which means we simply speak that language with them (unless it’s for practice or a joke). I learnt English in a German school among kids with German accents and German language-habits - and teachers who had the same accent and the same habits and one who pronounced “wipe” as “whip”. And you probably learnt it in a French-speaking school among kids with French accents and French language-habits. So there is practically no way for any of us to leave school without speaking in that respective accent. But unlike a Scottish person or an Irish person, we didn’t speak that variety of English with our peers. We spoke our our native language. And I think that’s the difference for most people - that one group has a native community to fall back on and the other doesn’t, so the second one should aspire to imitating a native-speaker instead of adding another variety to the mix.

Also you’re just as likely to speak English with people from any other European country (who also have their own accent and speaking-habits) as with a native speaker, so it’s not like you’re only going to be exposed to people who light you the way to a native accent. I remember when I made this post about “Euro-English” and people from absolutely random countries with different native languages all commented with: “No this is definitely how we speak, this is definitely our variety of English!” - meaning there are also a lot of unifying factors there too, based on our language families and cultural similarities - and how many people are there speaking like that? Hundreds of millions, probably.

Someone once pointed out to me that there are more Germans who speak English than there are Canadians. And you can do that maths for a lot of countries: There are more Norwegians or Swiss people who speak English than people from the Republic of Ireland. There are more French people who speak English than there are Australians. That means with the exception of Americans, we outnumber people from the countries these “ideal” accents come from. And in fact, how many British people speak RP? How many Americans speak GA? And that’s just looking at western countries. There are so many varieties of English spread around the globe due to colonialism. It’s ridiculous to expect the entire world to sound like the Queen. In the end, each version is their own variety and just because it doesn’t have a native community to fall back on, I think it’s harmful to treat it as something only worth of erasing when a person’s English skills are a factor in professional success and social standing even in the community they come from.

English is the current lingua franca - a language that non-native speakers communicate in. And as I said, it makes sense to teach it in a specific way and to teach it the dialects that exist - because if everyone would just make up their own version of English, we wouldn’t understand each other and might as well not have bothered learning English in the first place. But you don’t need to have a cut-glass accent to accomplish that or aspire to have one.

And this brings me to what I think should be the central question:

What do you want to use your English for?

See, I did mention that if you want to become a British spy or play a British role as an actor or be the Queen’s bodyguard slash doppelgänger (a film I would watch) - then it would probably pay off to master a specific native accent as well as possible. (That said, there are enough British actors who get roles as Americans and vice-versa who don’t fool anyone and there are a lot of skills other than a specific accent that you would need to master each one).

But those are jobs where you actively have to shed your own identity. That’s the point. You have to pretend to be a native speaker. But that’s not what you do in every-day life. In fact, most people you will interact with will probably know you’re French from the social context you are in or because it comes up in conversation, so beyond being a neat party trick, I don’t see what purpose having an RP or GA accent has here.

Of course, you might want to become a teacher, in which case, it would be important to have a specific pronunciation - but also all English teachers I had had German accents and I wouldn’t say that they would have been a million times better at teaching if they hadn’t had that - it’s far more important to know how to teach, to understand the grammar and vocabulary and to help your students to improve themselves and to understand why people speak the way they do.

You might want to be a journalist - if your interview-partner understands you and you can write in English, it’s fulfilling its purpose. If you want to work in a specific field - for example become a doctor in an English-speaking country - it’s important that your patients understand you and that you know your medical terms, but you don’t need Received Pronunciation. If you want to go into tourism, a bit of a foreign accent might actually come across as more authentic and desirable.

So I think the central question is whether the English you speak right now serves its purpose for what you want it to - or if it is at odds with what you want to do with it.

If your accent wouldn’t pose a problem for you, then my profeschionel opinion is to fuck ‘em haters. Do what you like. If you want to work on your accent: Do it. If you don’t: Don’t.

But...if you feel like the way you speak English now would cause you difficulties in your job or every-day life later on - then I think the best thing to do would be to look into the specific skills you need and to invest your energy into acquiring these skills. Whether that is a specific jargon specific to one field or translate very quickly - or whether you really need to learn RP or GA. If you take a professional interpreter for example, many of them do lean to a specific variety, but have accents. It can’t be so heavy that it’s difficult to understand them, but their work requires skills beyond having a specific pronunciation.

So erm...those where just my 2 cents on accents.

If you do want to change something about your accent - maybe even just to get your teachers off your case - I recommend listening to native speakers and particular, sticking to one variety you prefer. If you are already fluent and you understand them, your brain is very quick to pick up on dialects. (You know the thing where you watch someone speak in a specific dialect and for a while after you find yourself saying things in that dialect? The brain is very fast too do that and it also works in English, even if you don’t internalise it immediately and it feels artificial at first). Also don’t be afraid of speaking to yourself to practice. Obviously, speaking to others is important (and if you’re self-conscious or you are worried about your teacher commenting on it, maybe try asking a friend or sibling or someone to speak English with you or see if you can find a learning buddy) but I think talking to oneself can also be helpful. Because you are not trying to get a point across as you would in a conversation or have to focus on the words you are saying. You can focus on your accent and the way you speak and I think that is an important aspect when it comes to accents: Knowing your accent. Being aware of the way you pronounce words. You know the thing where you try pronouncing a word but you can never quite get there - much less if you’re trying to speak quickly or in a sentence? - It really helps to pay attention to the differences between the way you say it and a native speaker says it. Also if there is word you don’t know or that you aren’t used to hearing out loud and you encounter it in the wild like a video or a film - it really helps to stop it and to pronounce it to yourself.

But generally, you cannot change the way you speak over night, even if you do it. It’s something that takes time and effort and it might never work completely. So really, I would focus on what you want to accomplish with your English and what future use you see for it - and focus on your strength as well, the things you’re good at. And in the short-term, I would try convincing the teachers that you are working on it but that their current course of action is actually making it more difficult for you.

#nonfandom #languages #Anonymous

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jebazzled · 3 years

Text

SOOO the Drama: Making it Work with Tragic Backstories

Hi everyone, how are we doing? It’s been a while since my last unsolicited tutorial. Is everyone eating well? Is everyone drinking water? Dressing warmly if it’s cold wherever you live?

Today we’ll be talking about tragic backstories, and how to use them rather than abuse them.

This tutorial will mention a number of triggers, though not with great detail - more in the interest of providing context.

Specific triggers mentioned: abandonment, verbal abuse, child neglect, car accident, transphobia, animal death, cheating, bullying, parental death

In the rp community we often joke about loving to put our characters through hell - about really running them ragged - making ourselves weepy. For a lot of us, writing Heavy Emotional Content is a lot more fun than fluff, or characters who are happy, fulfilled, and well-adjusted. I’m literally planning to kill off one of my characters in the next couple of weeks. I get it.

But there’s also a fair amount of discourse in the rp community about what is pejoratively called “trauma porn.” It’s discourse that is warranted! Because while we love fictional drama, the truth is that sometimes...

well, sometimes it can be too much, can’t it?

Here’s the thing about trauma: a tragic backstory does not a well-developed character make. Too often, too many of us lean on these traumatic histories as a crutch towards building a character, without meaningfully exploring that trauma with any depth. The truth is, in fiction, tragedy only builds character when when you do. And tragedy is far from the only way to create a nuanced character.

In this tutorial, we will examine common approaches to character backstories, alternatives to tragedy-as-a-default, and figure out how to have your cake (the feels) and eat it too (with purpose.)

BUILD-A-BACKSTORY

In my experience, the most common approach to writing a freestyle application is writing a chronological history (you can read my app guides, including thots on alternative styles of freestyle, here). Ain’t nothing wrong with that! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

It’s an approach that makes sense, as it forces you to fill in the blanks to answer the question: why is my character Like That? And often, as writers, our first instinct is to provide the saddest answer possible.

“Why is Susie so clingy?”

Her parents abandoned her at a fire station when she was an infant, and rather than being raised in foster care, she grew up at the fire station. But the entire company that raised her died while fighting a wildfire, and she is certain that any time anyone walks away from her, they will never come back.

“Why is Brent such a misogynist?”

His mother never wanted him and told him so every day of his youth. When he hit puberty, she stopped speaking to him entirely, and the day he turned eighteen, she changed the locks while he was at school.

“Why is Lichen such a high-achieving go-getter?”

Lichen was born with glass bones and paper skin. Every morning they break their legs, and every afternoon they break their arms. At night, they lie awake in agony until their heart attacks put them to sleep.

Feels like a lot, doesn’t it? I may have done a little exaggeration, but - not a lot, frankly.

Especially if other characters on a site are loaded with tragic histories, it can be hard not to equate a certificate from the school of hard knocks with a Pulitzer. You want something juicy to write about, yes? And this is all so juicy!

But here’s the rub: often, these histories will never come up again outside of an application, or will not be practically dev’d out beyond shock value. Susie will never be reminded of Frank, the fireman who taught her to ride a bike. Brent will focus his sexist comments on objectifying women’s bodies rather than degrading their personalities and motives, which were the issues with his mother. Someone who didn’t read Lichen’s app would have no clue that they have had a total horror show of a life.

If you are writing a tragic backstory that doesn’t have a continual impact on your character, you are writing trauma porn, and it is doing nothing for your character.

This doesn’t mean that your characters should be fully and constantly occupied with memories of their trauma - in fact, constant introspection is an easy way to stall threads (per my “why aren’t people writing with me?” guide here) - but it does mean that if your answer to the question, “why is my character Like That” is a compelling one, it is one that a reader should be able to answer even if they haven’t read your app, if they’ve read a few of your threads or other writing.

This is a careful balance, of course, but think of your characters the way you think of yourself! For example: probably the most Potentially Dramatic thing about my personal life is that my older sister is developmentally disabled, and I am one of her legal guardians. When my parents die, I will inherit my older sister, and will uproot my life from wherever I am living at the time to move back to my hometown and make sure she is taken care of and happy. This is not something that I constantly think about, but it is difficult to know me for any meaningful length of time and not be aware that I have a developmentally disabled sister, as I mention her in passing, think about her when her favorite music comes up on Spotify, and tell people to donate to her favorite charity, Special Olympics.

If I were writing an app of myself as a character and spent a good portion of the app untangling my relationship with my sister, and then never mentioned her in any of my thread posts, then is she really important to my character? Or was I flexing her for depth?

Do you see what I am getting at here? If it matters, it will come up more than once. If it only comes up once, and it’s in your app, you should think of something to explain your character’s personality and motivations that is perhas a little less loaded.

BUT WITHOUT THE SADS, HOW DO?

The good news is: you absolutely do not need a tragic backstory to write a nuanced character! Again - think of your characters the way you think of yourself, or of other real people. While everyone has gone through heavy things in their lives from time to time, chances are that your life does not resemble that of a soap opera protagonist. And aren’t you a multifaceted person, full of depth and life? Aren’t you someone whose story is worth telling, even if it feels like your life is pretty ordinary?

After all, it’s not the past that makes a character - it’s the present, their current voice, actions, and missteps. That is where you want the real juice to be, because that is the shit you’re writing!

Some potential “everyday histories” for our above cast of characters:

“Why is Susie so clingy?”

In elementary and middle school, Susie was bullied on and off - a few weeks spent hanging out with the in-crowd, followed by a month as a social pariah. She could never understand why. When she moved to a different state for high school, she attached herself like a barnacle to the clique the Tulips, and has made it her goal not to let herself get shaken back to the outskirts this time.

This isn’t as dramatic as Susie’s earlier backstory - in fact, it could apply to any number of people, being passed between friend groups for years on end. But again: your character doesn’t need a one-of-a-kind daytime talk show-worthy backstory to have a unique and compelling history and voice!

“Why is Brent such a misogynist?”

Brent’s mother never wanted children, and made it pretty clear to him throughout his youth. His father, though, as always there for him - including when his mother walked out and never came back, after cheating on Mr. Brent’s Dad for years. From then on, Brent and his dad only had each other - and their bitterness towards the woman who wronged them.

This still gives you some family drama - unloving mother, and some adultery - but having Brent be raised by someone who has their own beef with women eliminates the shock value of locking your son out merely for being a boy. Also, this take acknowledges misogyny as a learned behavior.

“Why is Lichen such a high-achieving go-getter?”

When their parents divorced, Lichen only came out to their mother as nonbinary, and presents a fully different persona when they are with their father. Being in the top 5% of their high school class and being a national champion Lincoln-Douglas debater is the only thing Lichen and (deadname) have in common.

I acknowledge that Lichen’s previous story was a meme. The above story could be made much more intense (for example, if Lichen’s father were a member of the Westboro Baptist Church and then Lichen’s supportive mother dies in a freak accident and Lichen, unable to hide their true identity, is imprisoned in their father’s basement until they pretend to have seen the error of their ways and identify as cis again) but the above gives plenty to chew on!

While drama and trauma can be satisfying to write, there is plenty of drama to be found in the everyday. Building a well-rounded character is much less about what happened to them and much more about what they are doing, thinking, and feeling now.

That said,

TIPS & TRICKS FOR WRITING TRAGIQUE CHARACTERS

Don’t go overboard. If it is not going to come up ever again after the app: leave it out.

Impact is about the character, not the reader. If it was important enough to leave in the app, it should have an identifiable impact on your character. The main purpose cannot have been to shock the reader.

It’s not meaningful JUST because it happened. If someone can follow your character’s story for any extended amount of time and not realize that, say, your character’s mother died in a boating accident, then it isn’t actually important that your character’s mother died in a boating accident, and you should let her live.

If ALL of your characters have a heavily dramatic backstory, ALL of your heavily dramatic backstories lose their meaning. Dramatic backstories are fun but they should not be a constant: they will begin to feel cheap and lazy.

Your character does not need to dwell on their tragic backstory! While a character should acknowledge their history, a character does not need to realize that their backstory is meant to be tragic. For example, Sally might have been raised by her Aunt Agatha after her parents disappeared in a hot air balloon when she was a baby. Rather than being sad about her missing parents, Sally might think of them as total strangers and of Agatha as her sole parental figure - and her sadness might be for Agatha, who does miss Mr. and Ms. Pumpernickel.

And that’s literally all she wrote! I hope you find this helpful when you’re writing your characters - tragic or otherwise - and developing their plotlines. The world is not made of trauma and fluff alone, friends. Go forth and contain multitudes!

#rp guides #resources #writing resources #rp writing #applications #character development

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he-tea-lia · 4 years

Text

you guys are the pnly place i feel comfy simping and i only feel comfy simping also when i am drunk. sry if im annoying and sry for typos. i wish alice were real i really wanna hug eher right now. *hugs* alice pls if u r out ther ei love you i wanna hug you. i wanna hug her. i wanna hug. there is a girl i like who i went on two dates with like sometime in 2019 and then i ghosted her out of fear that she didn’t like me and also my phone broke so i lost her number 1/?

but apparently her mom talked to my mom (they r friends that’s how we met) and she still likes me but the last time we talked was last year when i was in hs and now i am in college (still local tho) and shej is a senior in hs and legal (18) but idk it might still be awkward. not to sex no just to go on a date agian and maybe kiss. ive never kissed before and i really wanna do that. maybe also sex evenetually but not now that would be too fast i think. she does cosplay apparently 2/?

( id id not know this it never came up in coversation)and maybe if i ask her to cosplay alice? she reminds me a lot of alice but she is real and has short hair that is dyed a rly cute pink. she is a bit more bubbly (which is ok with me i like that) and also not english. i like her personality and her looks a lot she is rly sweet and i wanna hug her and maybe we could cosplay alice and sakura thogether? is it bad that i compair her to my waifu? would i be cheating on alice if i went on 3/?

another date with her? would she be offended my comparing her to alice? she is real and real girls have many different parts of their personality but she looks so much like alice i wanna kiss hert. we also have many ofthe same politcs which is also good. she used to wear contacts but now she wears glasses and they look like alice’s glasses asdfghjkl. she is not even that big into hetalia but she said she watched the last two seasons and thought it was funny. i feel bad for comparing her 4/?

i like her evn if she didnt look like alice but the fact that she does makes me like her more. does that make me a bad person? should i tell her that or just never mention it ever because it could make things awkward. she is more normie than me (i like this about her) and find my sperging to be cute ( she said so on our second date evn though i talked through the movie i made her laugh a bunch). i am not good with talking about feelings

and am actually very shy but i feel comfy around her enough to talk and i think i can flirt but all my flirting is learned from media like anbime and manga and books and fic and doujinshi. still, since it has been over a year since we last talked and trying to reconnect could be awkward? i am not good at being the first to text or texting back. this is an issue also in my rps and i lie and say i have a busy work schedule (i do not) when i accidentally ghost an rp partner. sad. many such cases. lol

basically can anyone give me advice on if i should ask my mom to ask her mom for her number again (///-_-/// embarrasing yes i am an adult who relies on my momn for everything (including getting dates apparently). pls no judgement) and if i should ask her out? how do we even have a date with coronachan? how long should i wait until i bring up cosplaying my waifu? should i never bring it up? am i bad for comparing her to alice? pls help idk how to feel my mom told me today that her mom said that she mentioned me

and wanted to know how i was doing i am doing good just rly sad an in love with a body pillow that is still in the mail. if i date a real girl does this fix my lonelyness? if corona is gone and the cons open next year maybe we could go to a con? is a con date a good idea or really stupid (not counting corona just like in general without corona)?

——

okay. there’s a lot to discuss here and it’s past midnight and i’m quite tired but i’ll see what i can do.

first: i don’t know what the age difference between you is, but if you can legally drink and she can’t, i feel like there’s a bit of an imbalance there? not because of the drinking itself; more because it marks you as legally more adult than her, if that makes sense.

second: you are not a bad person for liking someone who reminds you of a fictional character. however, i think it’s important to remember this girl and alice are not one and the same, and you’d need to be very aware of that were you to date. i can’t say either way whether she’d be offended at the comparison, but from what you’ve said, i think you’d have to be quite careful to remind both her and you that it’s her you’re dating and that you like her for her, not for how she reminds you of alice. as to whether you tell her or not really depends on both her and you – i don’t know her at all, so i can’t say whether she’d be flattered or not. maybe if you framed it in the context of her reminding you of a character you love rather than alice herself? god i don’t know haha

trying to reconnect could be awkward, yes. that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, though – awkwardness isn’t necessarily a sign of a mistake, especially if you haven’t spoken for a while. having said that, though, maybe take it slow – don’t necessarily jump straight into another date, perhaps just text or something and see how that goes.

re: cosplaying – i mean. that isn’t something you want to bring up straight away. i think you’d need to be in a pretty steady relationship for that, though i don’t know.

for dates – maybe a zoom/discord/skype/whatever video call? it’s not remotely the same as seeing someone irl but it’s a kind of temporary solution, i guess. for dates once rona fucks off, i mean – once again, it’s really up to both you and her. if you both want to go to a con, then sure, do a con date! it’s only a bad idea if one of you isn’t into the idea.

i think i’ve covered everything – or at least the most important parts – so tl;dr eeeehhhh maybe?

#long post #mod spruce #fuckin. agony aunt over here #submission #i continue not to have submitted this wtf tumblr sort your life out #alice anon

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