#twitter has been imploding for months so i should try to get used to posting in other places again
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yknow what since i usually only ever do stuff like this on twitter im gonna do it here for once. give me characters to doodle. it will be in puyopuyo art style.
#mutual or not it doesnt matter as long as u are follow.#twitter has been imploding for months so i should try to get used to posting in other places again#rii rambles#also bleuuugh i got the tumblr sidebar update finally. hate it
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Love Down the Line: Chapter 10
The last thing Indie musician Emma Swan needs is a gigantic wrench thrown in the workings of her biggest tour to date weeks before its launch. When her backing guitarist that caused the problem says she has the perfect solution Emma is skeptical but left with little choice but to accept. Unfortunately she isn’t really prepared for said solution to be former Rock Star and leading man of Emma’s teenage fantasies, Killian Jones. With no other options and a month of performing across the country ahead of her Emma just hopes she doesn’t come to regret letting Killian onto her stage and into her life.
Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, AO3
~*CS*~
On the road between Oakland and Portland, May 27th
Emma felt the mattress dip slightly behind her. She curled in on herself but there wasn’t much room in the bunks of the bus for her to completely avoid whomever it was. It didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try though, stubbornly keeping her gaze fixed on the wall and not making a peep.
“I’m not going away until you tell me something,” Ruby sighed. She shifted and Emma felt her stretch out next to her, “You can’t avoid it forever. It might help to talk about it.”
“What’s there to say?” She asked dully. “It’s all over the internet.”
From the moment she’d stormed out of the office building she’d been hounded by paparazzi. Her Instagram was full of comments that ran the gamut from cussing her out for kicking Killian off the tour to cussing her out over the leaked, and very edited, audio from her ranting at Walsh. Will had informed her with an impressed grin that she’d been trending on Twitter for two days along with the hashtag MissHighandMighty. The only good thing that had happened was Regina was too busy putting out fires to rail at her in person over what she probably saw as her failings and shortcomings. Instead she’d received and ignored multiple texts that clearly communicated Regina’s increasing frustration with her. She’d blocked Killian’s number completely.
“You know that’s not what I meant,” Ruby chided. She paused, “He’s been calling me, asking what happened. I’ve been letting them go to voicemail, mostly because I don’t know if you want me to answer or what really happened actually, but even if I did I wouldn’t say anything. Chicks before dicks and all.”
Emma felt herself smile, her first real one in three days, “Yeah, but that’s how you like it. Dorothy okay with you being out here?”
“Eh-” she could feel Ruby’s shoulders lift behind her in a shrug, “She knew I’d be touring when we first hooked up. We just got a few extra weeks before it actually happened. She wasn’t too happy with the drop everything and catch a red eye to LA part of it all, though. We were about to go on a date, by the way, so thanks for that.”
“Sorry,” she whispered, feeling a bit guilty.
“You can make it up to us later,” Ruby said matter of factly. “Nice attempt at a deflection by the way.”
“Thought I’d try,” she muttered.
“And if I was Tink it might have worked but I’m not so it didn’t. Time to spill.”
She closed her eyes. It was just one of the many moments she’d been dreading since seemingly everything in her life had imploded. In a sort of grim twist of luck it was going to be one of the easier of the conversations she knew needed to happen. With a resigned sigh she opened her eyes and turned onto her back, though she kept her gaze trained on the underside of the bunk above her.
“How much did you know?” She asked, trying and failing to keep the accusation out of her voice. “Did Regina tell you I’d only go for it if you were the one to bring him in? Did he flirt and flatter his way into getting you to agree to helping him re-jumpstart his career through me?”
Ruby let out a harsh burst of air, clearly surprised by her question. She could almost feel the glare aimed at her but kept her eyes focused upward.
“If you really thought that you wouldn’t have made me fly all the way out here to replace him,” Ruby said harshly. Then she sighed, “I didn’t know what plans Regina had for him or his career but I did know that he’d signed with her. It’s why she didn’t put up a fight when I suggested he take my place on the tour. I thought you knew that.”
“No. I clearly didn’t,” she said shortly.
Ruby sighed again, “Okay, but to be fair it also wasn’t this big secret. He was just a substitute guitarist, you even told him that.”
“Yeah, well, he turned out to be more,” Emma muttered, hating the catch in her throat.
“Emma-” Ruby lifted herself up on her elbow and hovered over her, her eyes wide, “Did you fall for him?”
“No. We were just…”
She couldn’t force the words ‘having fun’ off her tongue. Instead she gave a one shoulder shrug, hoping Ruby would get the idea. That Ruby’s first instinct was dead on wasn’t something Emma wanted to dive into.
Ruby narrowed her eyes and studied her before smirking and flopping back down beside her, “Whatever you two were ‘just’ doing it definitely wasn’t ‘just’ fucking.”
Emma couldn’t help twitching at Ruby’s matter of fact statement. She hadn’t known that Ruby was a goddamn psychic. Looking over at her suspiciously she was annoyed to see Ruby looking like a cat that got the canary.
“What did Tink tell you?”
“Oh, it wasn’t Tink,” Ruby said with a sing-song tone, “Will has been complaining non-stop about having to share a room with Tink. Apparently glitter ruins a man’s reputation.”
“He’s with Belle, he shouldn’t be worrying about his reputation,” Emma grumbled. Then she sobered, “He’s not telling everyone about that is he?”
Ruby’s grin faded, “You know he wouldn’t do that.”
“I don’t know what anyone wouldn’t do anymore,” she whispered.
“Emma-” Ruby turned onto her side and grabbed her hand, squeezing it, “I’m on your side, always, but you haven’t even given Killian the chance to explain himself.”
She scoffed, “You haven’t heard what Walsh actually told me. He said that Regina was the one that told him to bring up Killian getting back into music. She had to have planned it all out with Killian at that goddamn lunch, gotten his okay to do it that way. There’s fucking pictures of them shaking on it right before Regina came to the studios.”
That had been the final blow. She had been in line at a grocery store the day after the disastrous interview, waiting to buy emergency Milk Duds and microwave popcorn. Killian had been calling and texting her with increased frequency and she’d ignored them all. Her phone had started buzzing in her hand again and in her fumbling to pull it out of her pocket she’d dropped the Milk Duds. When she’d bent to pick them up her gaze had caught on a tabloid with a blown up picture of Killian, Regina and Robin seated on the patio of a restaurant, the remains of their meal strewn across the table. Killian and Robin had been shaking hands while Regina looked on in satisfaction. Emma had dumped the candy and popcorn into a basket of french bread and fled the store, blocking Killian’s number as she did.
“There’s pictures of them sharing a meal,” Ruby said, being annoyingly pragmatic, “And that was a paparazzi shot, so you don’t know that they were plotting anything.”
“He never told me Regina was going to be there,” she said harshly. “I was almost willing to hear Killian out, eventually. He kept calling and texting and I thought maybe I should give him a chance to explain. Then I saw that fucking picture. I asked him what he was going to do that day and he lied straight to my face. He said he was hanging out with Robin and his son. No mention of Regina or lunch meetings or that he had even started recording again. He’s lied to me at least twice that I know of and I have no idea how many more he’s told me since we met.”
She was breathing heavily and as much as she wanted to yell, scream out her frustrations and heartbreak, she was all too aware of the others on the bus waiting for her to do just that. Tink and Will had been watching her closely for days and while deep down she knew they’d never blab to reporters or post anything on social media they also weren’t the ones she wanted to talk to. Ruby had been her friend the longest and should have been the perfect person to unload on but Emma still felt like a powder keg, ready to explode. With a heavy heart she realized that the one person she wanted to vent to was the one person she wanted absolutely nothing to do with.
“So you’re just going to ignore him? You never want to know what was really going on?” Ruby asked incredulously.
“I can find that out from Regina. She’s underhanded and does things on her own terms but she never lies about it. At least not when you ask her straight up,” she said bitterly.
“And don’t you think Killian would too?”
A week earlier she would have been absolutely sure how she would have answered. Instead she felt as though the rug had been pulled out from beneath her and she’d yet to find her footing.
“I’m just not ready to talk to him yet,” she hedged, knowing Ruby would keep at her like a dog with a bone. “Can we just… not talk about it at all anymore?”
“Okay,” Ruby acquiesced after a small pause where she’d merely looked at her, “but can I ask one more thing?”
Emma rolled her eyes and huffed, “Fine. What?”
“Were you happy?”
Her breath hitched in her throat and her heart clenched in her chest. She thought back to the couple of times that she’d woken up before him, able to look at him without a suggestive wag of his eyebrows or salacious twinkle in his eye. There were the nights they stayed up too late, either on the bus or in their room, talking about everything and nothing. He’d made soundchecks less of a chore as he joked around with Will or teased Tink about the romance novel that was always sitting on top of whatever flat surface was nearest. Then there’d been the moments when she’d look at him only to find him already watching her with a soft smile that she was helpless to return.
The memories only made the sting of his betrayal hurt all the more.
“I really, really was.”
For the first time since her world came crumbling down she let herself cry. She’d held herself together with nothing more than stubborn will and ignoring everything that didn’t have to do with the next show. As she curled into Ruby’s arms with heaving sobs she vaguely realized it might not have been the best strategy.
Slowly, and nearly a whole box of tissues later, Emma regained control of herself. Ruby was still curled around her, gently rubbing her back. She was vaguely aware that at some point Ruby had been whispering to her but she had no idea what she’d been saying. It didn’t matter much, not when just being there meant more to her than anything Ruby could have said.
“I’m sorry,” Emma murmured, her voice wavering and her nose sounding stuffed.
“Nothing to be sorry for,” Ruby said, tugging on a lock of her hair, “You’re just lucky this was a tour shirt you ruined with all your snot and tears.”
Emma snorted and pulled back but only got an inch away before Ruby crushed her back to her. She sighed in annoyance even though she hadn’t really wanted to leave the comfort of her embrace.
“You’re going to have to let me go eventually,” she said, even as she relaxed.
“Eh, there’s still a few hours until it’s absolutely necessary,” Ruby said, squeezing her harder.
“What if I have to pee?”
“Babe, you just cried out all of your bodily fluids. If anything you’ll need a Gatorade but I’ll just yell at Will until he brings it to us-” Ruby scoffed. Emma felt her tense slightly before she asked quietly, “Do you want me to block Killian’s number?”
Her knee jerk reaction was to say yes. She felt like she should want to cut Killian out of her life completely. To make him feel even a sliver of the hurt and uncertainty she was feeling. However there was something deep inside her that recoiled from that idea, that despite the hell she was going through she still cared enough about him to want to minimize his pain.
“No,” she sniffled, “He’s your friend too.”
“Not right now he’s not. I mean, I still think you should hear him out but maybe he kinda deserves the cold shoulder for a week or two.”
She shrugged, knowing that Ruby would probably ice Killian out for a month instead. Which, of course, meant that after that she would most likely put all her energy in encouraging him not to give up. Then Ruby would simultaneously be wearing her down to get her to call him. Even thinking about that probable future had her wanting to delete Killian’s number completely, if only to stave off the inevitable.
She fished her phone out from under the tangle of blankets. While she hadn’t turned it off completely she’d put it on silent and had pretty much ignored every text and email notification since the Walsh audio had leaked. Regina had told her she’d take care of it and Emma trusted her just enough to believe that she would.
After unlocking it she was greeted with the continued barrage of messages she’d been expecting. Unable to hold back her frustrated sigh she gave up the pretense of trying to hide what she was doing and pulled out of Ruby’s arms to prop herself up to deal with the never ending tidal wave of texts and emails. She could feel Ruby’s gaze over her shoulder but made no move to hide her screen, even in the best of times it was hard to keep her from snooping.
Scanning through the emails first she was glad to see that most of it was spam. A few were from Mary Margaret or David and she suspected that half the texts would be from them too. There was only one from Regina, though it had been sent at the beginning of the shit hitting the fan telling her to keep a low profile while everything was dealt with. With grim satisfaction she proceeded to delete the spam, glanced over the ones from Mary Margaret and David with a touch of guilt at their concern and her lack of communication with them.
The texts were another matter completely. She had been right in thinking that half were from Mary Margaret and David, reiterations of the support and concern from their emails but a touch more frantic as they progressed. After sending them a quick message that she was alive and would call them once they got to the hotel she grimaced at the ten unread messages from Regina. Having one message go unread from her was bad enough and Emma knew that when she finally responded Regina would probably reach through the phone and rip her heart out.
The first couple were innocuous, more warnings for her to lie low and to ignore whatever reporters might show up at her hotel or the venue. Several were updates on how things weren’t progressing with the fight against Walsh. Then there were the admonishments and disappointment at her continued insistence to keep Killian off the tour. The final text was a directive: Answer your goddamn phone, that had Emma wincing and noticing for the first time the little indicator that she had voicemails to listen to. Throwing Ruby a worried glance she tapped on the icon and prepared for the worst.
You have six new voice messages. To listen to your messages press one-
Message one:
“It doesn’t look like we’ll need to take legal action but be prepared for the possibility that we will. We also need to discuss the Jones fiasco.”
End of message. To erase this message press seven. To listen to your messages press one-
Message two:
“I don’t appreciate having to leave another voicemail along with the unanswered texts. Walsh has agreed to issue an apology and his employer is sending him on an unpaid leave of absence for a month. I would have preferred a firing but they will be generously donating to a charity of your choice and will be giving you final say in your future interviewers if we ever decide to return. We still need to discuss the Jones fiasco.”
End of message. To erase this message press seven. To listen to your messages press one-
Message three:
“Reviews for last night’s show could have been better. This wouldn’t have been an issue if Ms. Lucas had more than twenty-four hours notice to begin rehearsing. I am still waiting to hear what happened with Jones.”
End of message. To erase this message press seven. To listen to your messages press one-
Message four:
“Emma, sweetheart, I just want you to know that David and I both love you very much and we’re here for you. Call either of us back when you can.”
End of message. To erase this message press seven. To listen to your messages press one-
Message five:
“I am beginning to lose my patience with you, Miss Swan. You are not my only client and neither is Mr. Jones. I cannot do my job if you do not answer your phone.”
End of message. To erase this message press seven. To listen to your messages press one-
Message six:
“I will be flying up to Portland to discuss matters with you in person.”
End of message. To erase this message press-
Emma hung up and dropped her hand to her lap. She was screwed. Regina was a nightmare to deal with when she was irritated but still in a forgiving mood. In the last message she had sounded beyond pissed and was likely to be even more so by the time they were in the same room together. Especially since she had told her that she wasn’t intending to rejoin the tour until the final show in Vancouver.
“From the look on your face you probably didn’t hear any good news,” Ruby said cautiously.
“Sorta,” she murmured, “Walsh is going to publicly apologize but he’s really only getting a slap on the wrist as punishment.”
“Asshole,” Ruby snarled.
Humming her agreement she turned her phone over and over in her hands. She contemplated calling Regina to try and get some of the yelling that was bound to happen over with. The only problem was if Regina was meeting them in Portland then she was most likely on a flight and wouldn’t be able to answer her phone. There was no way she was going to play phone tag and end up pissing her off even more than she already was.
“There’s something else, isn’t there?” Ruby was watching her with narrowed eyes. “Is it Killian?”
“Blocked his number, remember?” She sighed tiredly. “I’m pretty sure Regina’s going to murder me when we get to Portland.”
“Regina’s going to be in Portland? I thought her royal ass wasn’t going to be around until Vancouver.”
“Well, looks like I’ve made her mad enough to change her plans.”
“Shit,” Ruby breathed, “Sucks to be you.”
She huffed out a half-amused laugh, “Thanks.”
“Welcome,” she chirped, gleefully. “So, you’ve got at least a few more hours left to live. Wanna see how much money we can take Will for?”
“Blackjack or Hold-Em?” She asked, already crawling over her to get out of the bunk.
“Hold-Em,” Ruby said with a devious grin, following her, “He has the most obvious tell I’ve ever seen. Someone should really tell him.”
A few hours, a couple of hundred miles and one pissed off Will Scarlet later the bus pulled up to their hotel in Portland. For the most part Emma was able to keep her mind off of everything that had been dragging her down. It helped that her focus had to stay on her cards while ensuring that Will’s boasting morphed into irritated grumbling until he’d finally thrown down his final hand in disgust and stomped off to his bunk a few more dollars poorer.
As she tallied up her half of the take she warily eyed the front entrance of the hotel. She’d almost convinced herself that Regina would have been waiting for her, pacing like a caged tiger, ready to strike. Instead she found herself looking at a couple of bored valet attendants and a few of the other guests entering and leaving, some slowing to gape at the bus as it came to a stop. To her great relief there were no reporters or paparazzi in sight, unlike their hotel in Oakland.
“I’ll let the front desk know we’re here,” Tink volunteered, popping out of her bunk like a jack in the box.
Before Emma could thank her she had already skipped down the stairs and was making her way into the hotel. Shaking her head at Tink’s boundless energy she stood herself, stretching out her road weary muscles. Just as she was about to move to gather up her stuff to take up to the room she caught sight of Regina striding out of the hotel’s entrance. The furious look on her face made Emma’s stomach drop to her toes.
“Uh, you guys should go,” she called out, keeping her eyes on the advancing Regina.
“You already drained me dry and now you’re makin’ demands? I’ll go when I’m good and ready,” Will scoffed, his voice muted.
She felt Ruby come up behind her, “I’ll just wait for- oh. Will, let’s go!”
“What the bleedin’ hell for?” He growled, she heard him drop from his bunk and stomp towards them, “It’ll take Tink at least twenty minutes to get everythin’ all sorted out and since I’m bunkin’ with the crew, thanks to you and that wanker havin’ a row-”
“If your accommodations aren’t to your liking Mr. Scarlet-” Regina said icily as she ascended the stairs into the bus, “I can arrange for something more suitable, a Triple A recommended motel perhaps?”
Looking over at Will she saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed hard before grinning cheekily, “Ah, won’t be necessary, luv, seein’ as motels never have a decent bar. Shall we, Red?”
Ruby looked torn. Emma nodded, giving her the okay to leave even though she desperately wanted her to stay. Unfortunately she knew that Regina would lay into her no matter who was there to witness it. Regina had already made it clear that she was annoyed that Ruby had replaced Killian. If Ruby stuck around she’d most likely fight on Emma’s behalf and get sent back to Maine for her trouble. The last thing she wanted was to give Regina the opportunity to bring Killian back on.
Will had already left the bus and Ruby followed reluctantly, her gaze narrowed at Regina’s back until she disappeared out the door. Steeling herself Emma waited for the oncoming tirade.
“Have a seat Miss Swan,” Regina said icily, brushing past her and sitting down at the bus’ small table.
“A please would be nice,” she muttered, low enough to not be heard while doing as she was told.
Regina watched her silently. Emma fought against the urge to fidget, feeling a lot like she was an unruly student about to be reprimanded by the principal.
“Mr. Hoakley’s apology has been released-” Regina began without preamble, “His producer and the company have also issued their statements. Unfortunately, the edited audio is still being circulated despite the original recording and a transcript being released and you’re still trending negatively on Twitter. We haven’t seen any major drop in overall sales or requests for ticket refunds but there has been a dip. Enough of one that the label is insisting that you release a statement of your own.”
“What? I-”
“I am talking Miss Swan, you will only listen,” Regina said sharply. She paused, clearly waiting for her to try and argue. When she didn’t she continued, “I have already written the response which will be posted to your Instagram today along with a photo from the tour. You will also be doing a live session tomorrow morning to answer fan questions. The questions will be chosen and looked over beforehand to prevent any more mishaps. If everything goes well we should see a solid bounce back by the time we reach Vancouver.
“Now, concerning Mr. Jones-”
“I could have kicked him off the tour at any time, we put it in the fucking contract,” she said hotly, annoyed at having been dressed down and feeling defensive over the decision she still wasn’t sure about.
Regina’s brown eyes flashed, “Yes, which saved you from being dropped from the label entirely.”
“Wh-” Emma could feel the blood draining from her face, “What?”
“Despite what you may think you are not as indispensable to them as to take the liberties you already have. The fiasco with Mr. Hoakley was bad enough and while you were in the right the label saw your combativeness as a strike against you. Dropping Mr. Jones from the tour at the same time was a misstep that jeopardized both your careers. Yours more so than his.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? How is that fair?” She asked in disbelief, feeling irate heat crawling up her neck.
“It isn’t, but that’s how this industry works, Miss Swan,” Regina said flatly. “Mr. Jones is an established artist with a built in fan base and therefore guaranteed record sales. His past troubles are well documented and any misstep he could make wouldn’t come as a surprise even with his turnaround and the years spent in reclusivity. You, on the other hand, have only begun to bring in returns on the investments the label has made. Having Mr. Jones on the tour was his tacit endorsement of you and could have drawn a new demographic of listeners to your music. Instead you’ve made it appear as though you were doing him some great favor instead of the other way around.”
“I don’t need his or anyone’s help,” she growled. “I’ve already made it this far on my own.”
“You made it to open mic nights and small bookings at bars on your own. A world you are closer to returning to than you think,” Regina warned. “I suggest addressing how thankful you are that the label has been supporting you during this time. It’ll be a step towards getting back in their good graces.”
“This is ridiculous-” she threw up her arms in frustration, “I did nothing wrong and I’m getting punished for it.”
“Again, this is how things work and you are not the only one being reprimanded for your behavior,” Regina snapped.
She frowned, “What do you mean?”
“I have been in meetings and taking phone calls for the past three days fighting on solely your behalf-” for the first time Regina seemed to soften, a wry twist to her lips. “There is nothing worse than trying to convince a group of old, out of touch, decidedly male record executives to consider for a moment what a young woman in the industry has to deal with on a daily basis. Let alone trying to explain the capriciousness of social media trends. Regardless what you may think, I am on your side Emma.”
“Wait, I’m confused-” she sat back, crossing her arms over her chest, “You just spent the last fifteen minutes chewing me out.”
“And you spent the last three days ignoring my calls-” Regina said pointedly. “If you’d actually answered any of them I might have been more patient in explaining everything to you.”
“So if I’d answered you would have been less of a bitch?” She asked sardonically.
Regina pursed her lips and glared at her, “Seeing as I’m the one currently keeping your ass out of the fire I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”
“So, I post my statement and do an awkward live thingy to get things back on track,” she said in lieu of apologizing. There was no way in hell she was going to give Regina the satisfaction. “Anything else?”
“We still need to discuss what happened with Jones,” Regina said with a raised eyebrow, folding her hands together on the table.
“Jesus,” she muttered under her breath. Dropping her head back she sighed, “Do we really or can we pretend we did and go get drunk at the bar instead?”
There was a pregnant pause before Emma heard Regina shifting in her seat, as though she were uncomfortable. Curious she swung her head back down and was surprised to see an almost concerned look on Regina’s face. She must have let her confusion show because Regina rolled her eyes.
“We may not exactly be friends, Emma, but I do have your best interests at heart. What happened with Jones the day of the interview? You were eager to be done with the day and back with him as soon as possible, then a few hours later you dropped him from the tour and cut off all communication. As your manager I need to know if there’s going to be any issues in the future that can be quietly dealt with now-” the concerned look returned, “As someone who worries about you I want to know that he hasn’t done anything to hurt you.”
Emma burst into laughter, unable to help herself. She should have known that Regina would have no clue why she’d practically fallen apart. In Regina’s mind she was merely doing her job of getting her clients’ careers to the next level. It wouldn’t have occurred to her that she might have been the reason for it all going to shit.
Catching sight of Regina’s bewildered stare threw Emma into a fresh gale of laughter. As tears of mirth streamed down her face she fought to catch her breath and wondered almost idly if she’d finally lost her damn mind. Several minutes passed before she was finally able to get ahold of herself and look Regina in the eye.
“Are you quite finished?” Regina asked, clearly exasperated. At her nod she leaned forward, “Now, will you please tell me what it is I said that had you laughing like a madwoman?”
“Do you worry about me or my career?” She said instead of answering, quirking her lips in a wry smile. Regina’s brows drew down in consternation and Emma sighed, knowing they were only heading towards a fight, “Killian didn’t do anything. He got what he wanted out of touring with me so it was time for him to go. End of story.”
“That sounds more like the middle of the story-” Regina leaned forward, “Explain.”
“There’s nothing to explain,” she sighed, completely over the conversation. “Being on tour got him back in the saddle or taking that first giant leap or whatever. He’s working on new, amazing stuff with the hit-maker Robin Locksley, which is what you want from a new client. Right? So I let him go and we’re both moving onto bigger and better things. Everyone’s a winner. Can I please go get a drink now?”
Regina had slowly straightened in her seat during her small tirade. She was sitting rigidly, looking at her with an unreadable expression. After a moment she shook her head, Emma somehow felt it was in disappointment, and stood from the table.
“I’ll send you the statement to post and options for the photo to go along with it. The live Q and A needs to happen before nine tomorrow morning, I will be sending along the pre-approved questions as well. Stick to those and hopefully you’ll come out of this relatively unscathed.”
Emma stared up at her, almost annoyed she hadn’t pushed the Killian issue further, “Okay…”
“Have a good evening, Miss Swan.” With that Regina strode off. Emma watched her go, flabbergasted by the abrupt departure when Regina stopped at the top of the stairs leading off the bus and turned back, “Just so you know, Mr. Jones is refusing to do any work on the album the label has him on contract for. Mr. Locksley, a close, personal friend of his I believe, is having difficulties convincing him to even pretend to work on it to appease the label. He is perilously close to being in breach of contract with them and is refusing to answer my calls as I try to salvage what’s left of his career. But everyone's a winner, right?”
Regina didn’t wait for her to answer, stepping down off the bus without any further acknowledgement. Emma sat there with a growing sense of unease, staring blankly at the spot that Regina had been standing. The part of her that hadn’t wanted to see Killian in pain was trying to twist Regina’s words into lies, make everything she’d said another ploy to boost sales or something, anything to keep her mind clear of the idea that Killian was sabotaging himself for her. Yet the longer she sat there the more her unease grew, knowing that what Regina had said was exactly something that Killian would do.
Antsy she got up from the table and paced between it and her bunk. She no longer wanted a drink, just the thought of drowning her sorrows and problems had her remembering Killian’s hard fought for sobriety to face his own issues head on. With each pass she made in the small space she teetered back and forth between believing Regina and vilifying her, both of which would have her making decisions she wasn’t ready to make.
Groaning in frustration she dove into her bunk, wanting nothing more than to hide away there and hope that everything would just fix itself. Her self pitying was interrupted by a phone buzzing at her hip. Reaching underneath her she pulled it out, expecting to see her old, battered but still functional phone and instead found her fingers wrapped around Ruby’s practically new iPhone in its protective red case. Surprised that she’d left it behind Emma flipped the phone over to see who was calling. When she saw Killian’s name on the screen she nearly threw it across the bus.
She eyed the still buzzing phone like it was a snake about to strike. There were a million reasons for her to ignore it, to let it go to voicemail and have Ruby give her the gist of the message. There was only one reason for her to answer and it was that that had her swiping up and pressing the phone to her ear before she could think better of it.
“Thank god,” Killian sighed in relief, the sound shooting straight to Emma’s heart, “Ruby, lass, I don’t know what’s going on and I won’t ask but please, just tell me that Emma’s alright. I’ll stop calling, anything, I just... please, I just need to know.”
Her breath had backed up in her throat at the plea in Killian’s voice. He also sounded exhausted, his accent dragging across the words much like they had when they’d stayed up too late, nose to nose talking the night away. The memory had her breath hiccuping out of her in a half sob.
“What’s wrong? Is it Emma? Ruby, is she okay?”
His panicked questions had her biting her cheek to get a hold of herself. She closed her eyes and gripped the phone as though her life depended on it.
“I’m okay, Killian.”
“Swan?” He breathed and she could hear his unfolding hope in the single word, “Love, is that you?”
“It’s me,” she whispered.
“Swan, Emma, I…” he huffed in either frustration or disbelief she wasn’t sure, “Dammit, love, I had so many things I wanted to say and now I can’t think of a single thing.”
She took in a shuddering breath, “Just tell me why.”
“Why? Why what?”
“Why didn’t you just tell me that you were trying to get your big comeback? That’s all this was, wasn’t it? You could have just told me that. You didn’t have to lie to me,” she had tried to keep her tone even, unaffected, but had ended on a growl nonetheless.
“I never lied,” he said vehemently. She scoffed and he made a strangled noise, “Emma, listen to me, when have I lied? Yes, I admit, being on the tour may have begun as a stepping off point but it became more than that. We became more than that.”
“A lie by omission is still a lie, Killian,” she said emphatically. She couldn’t focus on how heartfelt he’d sounded when talking about them, not when he’d also confirmed everything she’d been worrying about. “It’s not like it matters anyway, you got what you want. Your name’s back out there, people are interested. Congrats on the record contract by the way.”
“None of that bloody matters to me,” he snapped. “If you’d just listen-”
“No,” she said, cutting him off, “You had your chance to explain when you first auditioned.”
“Emma-” his voice cracked, “please.”
“I- I can’t take the chance that I’m wrong about you-” her voice wavered, tears lodged in her throat, “I’m sorry.”
She cut off the call but not before she heard him say her name once more. The phone immediately began buzzing in her hand but she swiped to ignore the call, quickly shutting off the phone completely to resist the temptation to answer. She then curled into a ball and gave into her tears.
#captain swan#captain swan fan fiction#captain swan ff#captain swan fan fic#captain swan fanfic#cs ff#cs fan fic#cs fanfic#ouat ff#my writing
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Haven DVD Commentaries: 4.08 - Crush
Commentary with Speed Weed (yes, that is actually his name), writer for the episode and Shernold Edwards, writer for the next episode
[As we see Duke burying Wade] SW: “This was the very first day of filming for this episode and I thought Eric just knocked this out of the park.”
They really dug a hole in the ground for Eric to roll a dummy into. The location is near their production office in Chester.
Both commentators agree on the cuteness/adorableness of Emma Lahana as Jennifer.
SW talks about the deleted scene of Nathan and Audrey waking up together; it’s on the DVD, it’s also online. “Since 4.07 ended with them jumping into each other’s arms we wanted to open with that, but it got cut basically for length. Because of the big emotional scene at the end of the episode (which also takes places in Audrey’s apartment), we wanted to have space for that to breathe.”
SE: “Don’t be upset about that though fans, because I try to throw in them making out wherever I possibly can.”
[As Duke is telling Jennifer in the Herald that he’s leaving town] SW: “I just love what Eric did here. He’s an actor who when you push his character to the edge he really performs well. We get him to this place where because he’s killed his brother he decides he should leave town, and I just love this moment of performance. And actors tell me that when you’re acting against someone who’s really solid it makes it all the more special, and to have Emma on the other side of it was great.”
[As Duke first sees the effects of the pressure Trouble in the road] SW: “We had originally scripted that the effects of this pressure Trouble were to be seen as an advancing sea-green wave. For a variety of reasons we decided not to do it that was but that mean production had to make all of these things implode because of the growing pressure .. and just hats off to the production team who created all these things with a pressure differential and got them to crush like that.”
SE: “In case you haven’t figured it out already, Speed’s the science guy.”
SE: “It’s true. I spend about 10 years writing science magazine articles for Discover Magazine, National Geographic, popular science.” And as this is the first commentary he’s ever done he just wants to take the opportunity to say “Speed Weed is my name; Weed is my family last name, and Speed is not my legal name but is a nickname my parents gave me the day I was born. I’ve had it my entire life and I’ve never used any other name.”
[As we see the decompression chamber that Duke and Jack put Vince and Dave into] SW: “So they built that. [*surprise from Shernold*] Our fantastic art department headed by Jennifer Stewart built that out of metal and wood and cardboard and it looks so good and so real. And they did it in a way that you can shoot the inside and the outside.”
SE: “It looks really good! They even dirtied up the windows.”
It was set up at a location called North West Cove, and is about 300 yards from the Grey Gull [the location in reality that is, not in the story].
[As we see Duke argue with Audrey and Nathan on their way to speak to Vince and Dave outside the compression chamber] SW: “This is one of my favourite scenes in this episode because I love it when you get your main characters hot at each other. And they are really hot here and they have reason to be. The challenge as we designed these epsiodes is to make sure that things are grounded and real and people have real emotional core as to why they feel the way they feel and argue the way they argue. By the way the light up there is phemnomenal. This scene was at sun set and the light was gorgeous.
They have a selection of questions soliticted via Twitter and pick one out of a hat; “I’d love to know the reactions of some of the actors when they learned what their characters were doing next.”
SW: “This is a really good question, but the truth is the actors read the scripts when they get them; alone at their houses or in their trailers. And I would love to be a fly on the brain, if you will, to know what their first thoughts are. Because they are the people who inhabit these characters and it’s our job to make sure that we take them in interesting and suprising directions and yet ones that are also emotionally grounded. And we have actors that care about their characters and they push back on us if they don’t feel that what they’re doing is justified…. And they’re fiercely protective of their characters in a really great way. So I wish I could answer that first moment of what they feel like when they react.” And he talks about the process of shooting, about how for the 7 days they’re shooting one episode they will also be prepping the next one - and so that’s the point where actors get to talk to the writers and make any comments. “And more often than not it’s just a case of having a conversation and coming to an understanding. On this particular episode I don’t remember any reactions other than, ‘That’s great!’”
Another question from Twitter; “How long had William’s existence been plotted?”
SW: “So, we had never imagined that whoever created the Troubles acted alone. So in a sense, William has been around for a very long time. I will say that the specificity of William came about in the very early stages of our designing season 4 (which would have been January 2013 when I first joined the show).
They both talk about the actor playing Aiden (lead on a Canadian show called The Listener that Shernold worked on) and what a good job he did and how he had no prep; they only got to talk to him once he was on set in costume already. And about what a great job the director for the episode did, how he is great at bringing out performances from the actors.
The horseshoe crabs with human eyes that Jennifer sees where built by the production team using a real horseshoe crab carapace (which curiously enough are all over the place in Maine but don’t exist in Nova Scotia, so they had to buy one from afar). And they painted human eyes on it and mounted it on a little remote control car.
Another Twitter question; “Since you were new to writing for Haven last season, what did it take to up to speed with the series?”
SW: “This is my first genre show. Prior to writing for this, I wrote for police procedurals and political shows largely, and this is my first sci-fi/fantasy show and I have to say I’m so excited that this is the show I landed in on because if I’d landed on a zombie show or a vampire show or something like that, you have maybe five rules that you have to follow. This show tests you so hard as an intelligent human being because every week we reinvent the wheel. We invent the rules of the day. And so to answer the question, it took me a long time. And the writing staff here was incredibly welcoming to a guy who didn’t have a lot of genre experience. Honestly, in this room a lot of pitches start something like this; ‘Do you remember in the third reel of the second resident evil movie….?’ and I’m totally lost with that kind of thing. I look around the table and everyone else is nodding like they know exactly what’s going on and I have no clue whatsoever. But it’s such a warm and familial room… and I guess the nice thing is that you can make up your rules with every episode. So we were very specific with the pressure rules of this and we spent a long time on the paranoia rules of episode 4.09.”
SE: “What is Duke doing with that flip phone? You know he wants to press some buttons.”
SW: “Duke only has like, steampunk phones.”
[As Duke and Nathan argue after talking with Jack] SW: “Oh here comes the punch, I’m so excited for this punch.”
SE: “He is so good looking.”
SW: “We have actors who largely do their own stunts. There!”
SE: “Oooh that was good!”
SW: “Yep. And so the way they do that is, they will shoot two versions of that. They will go full speed to the moment where the fist hits the face, and they freeze. And as they freeze, the AD calls make up and make up runs in and puts the blood on Duke’s fist and Nathan’s chin and they continue through the action. And then in post you marry it together so you have a full sweep of the fist going through.”
SE: “How often do they forget to pull the punch though? Do they smack him for real?”
SW: “Well, on that they were perfect. He moved his fist really fast, and stopped it immediately as he touched Lucas Bryant’s chin. They’re good at that..”
[As Duke pulls up in the van with the deep sea diving equipment inside] SW: “There’s a moment here I wanted to shout out to about Eric Balfour’s physicality … Oh here it is, so I hope this ends up on the blooper reel; in one take, as Duke got out of this Dominion Diving van - we’re at the top of a giant hill in Lunenberg here - he forgot to put the parking brake on and the van started rolling downhill and honestly all of us thought that this van was going to go 200 feet vertically downhill and kill someone. And Eric Balfour god bless him, got in that van and stopped it in a way I don’t think any other actor could have.”
SW: “OK so the suits; these are real, deep sea, pressure diving suits. They were provided to us by a deep sea salvage company near Halifax called Dominion Diving. It was part of our agreement that we got to use their van and show their name in the take. So for most of this, unless you can see the actor’s face, these are actually the Dominion Diving guys walking in their own suits. And they are really heavy suits because they’re meant to be used under water where they’re neutrally boyant, but on land … All I can tell you is Eric and Lucas spent the better part of a day in those suits and if they put them on for 10 minutes they were sweating like hell. And the same is true of Emily and god bless her because she did a great job and she had a baby just a few months before and she was totally game getting in these suits and doing all this stuff and it was very physically challenging.”
Another Twitter question; “Since it was the same day from one episode to the next (8 and 9) how much time is spent discussing the transition?”
SE: “We have to plan that, we have to make it realistic. And I thought it was particularly clever with these two episodes because there’s the drama of the shot going off in 8 and then rolled it back in 9 to see what actually happened… So yes, to answer the question we do plan - hopefully effectively - between transitions like this.”
SW: “It is very tempting in these shows to not have a nighttime and a session of sleep pass. And there are differing opinions (both in this writers’ room and writers’ rooms in general) to not slow down the drama by having a day pass. One feeling is that you have to be true to reality; you can’t have a 26 hour daylight day. The other feeling is; most people don’t notice. And in the tension between those two; you get what you get. It’s a great question because it means that people are really paying attention.”
[As Duke and Nathan get their helmets off] SW: “You can see here how sweaty these guys are and in this take they haven’t had the suits on for very long; they’re just super heavy. And those guys loved that. They had so much fun in those suits; it was such a departure for them.”
SE [About Duke]: He is /so/ good looking. I guess we know which team I’m on. Actually, I am neither waffle nor pancake, I am team Shuke because if Duke was real character there would be no competition. He would be like ‘Shernold, where’ve you been all my life?’ And I would be like, ‘I’m right here, what took you so long?’”
SW: “Have you told Eric that?”
SE: “It’s Duke. Not Eric. Eric and I have a friendship that’s based on professionalism and respect and fun. But if there was a Duke-Duke, like a /real/ Duke...”
[As we see Jennifer inside the Rouge] SW: “Oh here it comes … this scene. Duke’s changed his mind. So as this is being shot [Duke kissing Jennifer] I’m sitting about where the kitchen is and this was really hot. I’ll just say it; it was hot. These two had a chemistry for sure.”
SE: “And she is adorable.”
[As we see Audrey and Nathan in her apartment] SE: “I can’t say enough about how great these two are in this scene.The truth is our actors love - they’ve have fun with the suits and all that, but when they get to do what we call a two-hander and just play the emotion (especially something that’s built up over three seasons) and dig deep into how their characters feel about each other, I do think I’m not speaking out of turn when I say that this is one of their favourite things to do. And it seemed like this, they treated it like a short play, and they get to run it through without stopping. And I think that’s when we see them at their best.”
SW: “There were lot of questions about this scene from the Twitterverse and someone asked a very smart question about how the actors prepped for that scene.” So this conversation where they are coming to the decision that maybe Audrey should shoot Nathan, is cut into three or four scenes in the edit, but on the day they shot it through all in one go. “And I really want to take my hat off to the director and to Emily and Lucas, because, we live in a world where supernatural things don’t happen …”
SE: “That we know of.”
SW: “... people don’t have to shoot their one true love in order to end supernatural Troubles. And yet for this scene to work, it has to be real and grounded, and you have to decide that the greater good and the best thing is that you have to kill your one true love. And they (the actors) knew that’s a tall order; it’s not easy. And they took this so seriously. And I was so affected watching this. And we didn’t do a huge amount of sizes because we knew we wanted to be close in this - by that I mean how close is the camera on the actors. If I remember correctly the director was thinking that they might want to break them up and shoot them bit by bit,” so that Emily could do multiple takes at the emotional level 1, then move to the next level for multiple takes, then stay at the final level for multiple takes, “but god bless her Emily decided to do the whole rise and the whole arc of it time after time, take after take. And I can’t really answer the question because when they were at home two days before this I don’t know how they prepared for it. But I do know that when they showed up on set that day they were ready. Both for the lovey-dovey scene at the beginning of the episode [which was shot directly before this] and for the awfulness of this scene at the end of the episode. The emotional difficulty of it.”
SE: “And I would gues that these two - they’re such terrific friends too and their families are close everything - would pick up the phone and talk to each other about it, or that they would get on set and just be in the moment.”
[As Duke, Jennifer, Vince and Dave are talking at the bottom of the steps outside the Gull] SE: “Quick point of local interest; John Dunsworth who plays Dave, you can almost see it in that shot of Duke, his family owns like a hundred acres of coastal land right next to the Grey Gull. And at lunch on this day, he took me to his private dock and out on a boat ride around the cove and it was one of my most memorable experiences from my time up there I really enjoyed it.”
SE: “He’s so much fun.”
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So uhhhh I drew a lot of RWBY this year... only two of these are non RWBY and tbh I could have just as easily put something RWBY for June
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Retrospective under the cut bc it’s LONG
RETROSPECTIVE
January: First piece of the year! I still like this piece and I think it shows how much I improved from the original version of it. Also I just like looking at it bc it's soft content of my rare pair. I do think I made the rose look photorealistic which looks... bad esp with all the other more stylized flowers, and I got lazy with the bleeding hearts by just drawing one set and flipping them. Emerald's hair also could look better.
February: I made this around GNG week, which was a fun, good time, long before the server imploded on itself. I got really lazy with the backgrounds, obviously, but I do like the poses in this one, tho it helped that I based it off of screenshots from Young Justice. I also just really like how Merc looks in this one.
March: March wasn't a very prolific month for art, I don't think I produced much besides this and one comic piece for GNG week. I'm not sure why exactly, I can't find any specific reason why I would be unproductive that month. I'm gonna just assume I was drained from work all the time and didn't have the energy to put out good art, and also I was getting into a slump bc all my art was starting to look same-y. This piece isn't very good, but I chose it because I did it without a reference, and at this point that was going out of my comfort zone. It's obviously not super dynamic, but at the very least you can tell I intended there to be motion to it.
April: This also wasn't a very prolific month for art, not as bad as March, but for the same reasons. I was also really starting to feel burnout from the RWBY fandom, specifically wasps and conflict within the GNG server. This was also when the Art vs the Artist meme was popular, and I realized I didn't want to do that meme because my art was too similar and boring, which also brought me down a peg. Though I put out a few good chibis in April, I chose my Mercury redesign bc I was really proud of it. I could never get the Emerald redesign to mesh quite right, but I can say I'm really proud of how Mercury's came out.
May: May had me bounce out of my art slump and in full force trying to expand my skills! Specifically exploring painting. Although May was about as prolific as April, what I did create I put a lot into. It was difficult to pick between this and my app of Edison, because I'm really proud of both, but in the end I went with this commission of Mercury because I pushed myself to try and use an interesting perspective for the piece instead of my usual stand still and face the camera pose. Because I pushed myself out of my comfort zone, this was one of the best things I made all year, and may be my favorite piece of the year.
June: TIME TO STRESS OUT ABOUT CONNECTICON! So if you follow me on twitter, you might have noticed I made a lot of posts at the beginning of the year low key throwing shade at myself for drawing my oc's instead of more "important" art. Well, that important art that I was procrastinating was con merch, and con was the second week of July, so I really had to get my ass in gear to finish merch on time (spoiler, I didn't finish a lot of it on time). This piece and July's piece are both posters I made for Connecticon, and while I like July's much better, that doesn't mean I find this piece bad. I really should have known that no one at con would realize it was a goonies reference tho -_-; I also lost a lot of love for this piece after season 6 of Voltron, which I watched while I was about 60% of the way through this piece, so I had to force myself to finish it.
July: I love this piece!!!! Don't get me wrong, I know it has flaws, but look at it! The lines are so crisp, the colors look good, Roman and Merc's expressions are mwuah chefs kiss, and I just love all of them!!! ... except for Neo. I really didn't do her justice in this piece, her hair is too fluffy, her head is way to oversized to the point that she looks like a bobblehead, and her eyes are too close together. Really if you take out Neo's head that whole problem goes away. I also love all the tiny details I put in this one, from emerald's chaps to roman's rose to Neo's lace parasol. You can tell I was way more passionate about this piece than I was about the Voltron piece.
August: pretty sure this is when I quit my job cashiering, and thank god bc customers suck. If I was going off of sheer popularity, Chibi Pyrrha would have taken this slot no contest, and while I love chibi Pyrrha, I don't think it was the best of the month. I chose this little princess and the pauper au doodle because I tried a year ago to draw these two dancing, and it looked like dog shit. It was flat and ugly. But this has motion to it, and even looking at it now makes me feel warm and happy inside. It's just a good cute drawing of my otp.
September: My piece for the RWBY tarot project! I have a lot of mixed emotions about this one. on the one hand, I love how mercury looks, his expression, the lighting, the visceral gore from his legs (ESPECIALLY THE VISCERAL GORE ON HIS LEGS) and the hands of the undead, all look stunning and I don't think I could be more happy with how they turned out.
And then we get to the background. The caduceus isn't the worst thing ever, but it's severely lacking in quality compared to the rendering on mercury in front of it, and a lot of it is clearly pixellated from me trying to stretch and squash it just right. And the fire is a hot (no pun intended) mess. It's flat, incoherent, and doesn't lead the eye anywhere. It's a shame too because I wanted to do more with it, but I a) didn't have enough time or patience to figure out what I needed to do to fix it and b) didn't want to go outside of my comfort level, so I gave up and decided to be satisfied with what I had.
October: October was another good month for art, I made a turnaround sheet for Moss, painted a full body (and slightly lewd) Rudy, and made a decent attempt at inktober. Ok, so I got like 2 days in, but I improved a lot on inking from last year!
Fun fact! this piece was originally going to be fan art of Lindsay Jones, but after I did some thumbnails to figure out a pose, I thought it would suit White Diamond better, and I could also sell it as merch. I love this piece. I think I captured the sinister mood well, and conveyed the story I wanted to without any dialogue (at least the notes on Tumblr make me assume I did a decent job, lotta people really wigged out lol) I really worked hard to get the lighting right on this one, and I think it shows. My absolutely favorite thing about this piece funnily enough, is Amethyst. I think I just did a great job drawing her and I'm proud of myself ok. Stevens bubble and my trouble figuring out how to get WD's leg just right are the only things that I dislike about this piece, but I might go back and fix those.
November: IM SO PROUD OF THIS COMMISSION!!!!!! I worked so god damn hard on this chef's kiss poifect, and it really shows. I started using a new brush at this point, the Ojing series on Clip Studio Paint, which I recommend and have been using a lot since. I've also been using this shading technique since drawing this. I love how it sort of fades out but it's still really crisp. I also love all the little details that give this piece character, like her shoes and the stripes on her jacket. This piece really takes a lot of the stuff I learned over the year and combines it into one piece, and I could not be prouder of it. I have absolutely no problems with this one, though I do find the weapon a bit plain, but it's what the client described.
December: AND NOW IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!!! I had been working on this piece since August, going back to it every now and then and getting frustrated. I'm really glad I came back to it and finally finished it, since I love this pair and I put a lot of effort into it back in August. However, I'm also really glad I completely overhauled a lot of it, specifically the flowers. Though I'm not 100% happy with the mums in this one, they look a thousand times better than the mums I had originally sketched back in August, and were part of the reason I had such a hard time finishing this for months. I also thought it would be nice to end the year on the same note it started; with a flower couple. I've definitely learned a lot since January, and I hope to continue growing in 2019!
2019 GOALS!
Work on backgrounds for the love of god
Draw more stuff that isn't RWBY
Perspective
Make more speed paints and post more to youtube in general
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I, J, and N for the meme please!
I.) Has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?
It’s not always a case of “stop liking” a fandom as it sometimes is “refuse to engage in the fandom to begin with.” For instance, I didn’t watch Steven Universe for the longest time partly because its fandom’s reputation preceded it and I didn’t want to be involved in that nonsense. To this day, even though I do watch and enjoy the show now, I don’t involve myself with the fandom. I don’t really produce content for it, and if I do I’m incredibly reluctant to put it in the tags. I don’t want to get involved in (sometimes literally) violent discourse. I’m not here for that. Similarly, had I known that some of the nonsense I saw floating around about voice actors being attacked on twitter came from the Voltron fandom, I can assure you that I would never have watched VLD. I only watched it on impulse because I was bored and Netflix was throwing it in my face (since season two had just premiered) to begin with; had I known about its reputation, I would have chosen to do something else. But I didn’t, and so I walked into the Voltron fandom like:
I don’t think I should have to explain the issues I have with the Voltron fandom. After everything that’s happened, that should be self-explanatory.
That said, I would like to say that I don’t think it’s fair to accuse tumblr of this, specifically. Don’t get me wrong, I do think that there are many aspects of tumblr that have made all around horrid, atrocious behavior far easier than it was in the past, as well as more commonplace. I think part of that has to do with certain aspects of the site functionality (such as the inability to reblog-lock posts, or keep them only within your mutuals, et cetera), but some of it also has to do with the culture on this website that encourages people to share very personal information about themselves, which makes things like doxing far easier than it was in the past. But even though I do think that tumblr has played a part in allowing horrid fandom behavior to grow, it’s not the only modern social media site that does this. For as much as people wanted to flee to twitter when tumblr started imploding on itself like a dying star, twitter cultivates the very same toxic fan behavior that so many deride tumblr for. In fact, in some ways it cultivates even more of it since it broadcasts more information about your activity (e.g. Likes and Follows are public information), and it’s far easier to get a hold of voice actors, content creators, and so on on twitter than it is on tumblr. So while the overall attitude and behaviors of certain fandoms have certainly put me off, it’s not just behavior on tumblr that has done that. Twitter’s guilty, too.
But anyway, if we want to talk about fandoms that haven’t warded me off because of violent behavior, then the last one I have to name would be the Miraculous Ladybug fandom. I do still enjoy the show as a silly, shallow thing to pass the time with (or meme about) whenever a new episode comes out, but the fact that the fandom is a constant outpouring of negativity and hatred toward both the show and its creators is a definite turn off. I simply cannot understand why so many people---many of whom are adults---are wasting their time watching a children’s cartoon that they vehemently hate. At this point I don’t even care if the excuse is “I used to like it” or “I like the fan content.” If all you like is fan content, then only pay attention to fan content. Stop wasting your time on something you despise. Not just for those like me who don’t care to hear the constant bitching, but also for yourself, because being that negative all the time and ingesting something that you hate is going to do nothing but worsen your own mental and emotional health. Just go find a show you actually like and watch that instead. It’s not hard.
J.) Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr:
Hmm . . . maybe Undertale? Not the fandom so much, but about a month after the game came out I saw some people talking about it (not even describing it, but just mentioning it), and when I looked it up out of curiosity I saw that it was a very inexpensive game on Steam, so I decided to try it. I wouldn’t say that Undertale was “all over” tumblr at this point, but tumblr was at least the first place I heard about it, and the curiosity I had from hearing about it was what inspired me to check it out.
And actually, it’s probably a good thing that it wasn’t “all over” tumblr yet at that point, because usually when there’s a deluge of posts about a fandom I’m not currently in, I tend to . . . tumblr savior them to clear up my dash so it’s easier for me to get to without having to go through ten pages in a row of something I don’t presently care about, haha. (Which is also why I use my queue so much; I might reblog a few things in a row of the same fandom, but I also queue a lot because I don’t want to exhaust people and prematurely put them off something I love.)
N.) Your favorite fandom (for the people; not the thing you fangirl over).
ANIMORPHS, hands down.
The Animorphs fandom is tiny, but brilliant. There are no ship wars, no death threats, no doxing. There is discussion and debate at times, but the discussion and debate I’ve seen has been thoughtful and nuanced. There’s actually a pretty long post with lots of contributors in the Animorphs fandom where everyone is strongly debating which world leaders were in a room the Animorphs barreled through (in morph, of course) during one of the books, and the last comment on the thread is about how while other fandoms tear themselves apart with shipping wars, Animorphs fandom has discussions like this, and it’s great. The AUs are great and creative, and while of course there is some Problematic™ content (some people don’t always consider the consent issues between yeerks and their hosts, for instance), for the most part everything is so chill and lovely. It makes having to put up with the internet at large making stupid jokes about the book covers worth it.
So yeah, I love the Animorphs fandom. It’s little, and overlooked, but good. Still good. ♥
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December End of the Year Media Madness!
It’s a new month and a new year! And what a crazy month it was what with Tumblr imploding and all. But I’ll still throw this on here just because I’ll be on this site until it literally boots me out. But I do have a twitter now…@metalandmagi where I’m also barely active at all.
Anyway, why make top 10 lists for the entire year when I can just ramble about all the media I consumed this month? There’s only a marginal amount of holiday things on here by my standards!
November media
Movies!
Give me some credit there’s only four Christmas movies on here.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?: A documentary about Mr. Rogers starting with the birth of the television show to his death. This is the fluffiest most heartwarming thing I could have possibly picked to watch on Christmas, and I encourage everyone, even people who hate documentaries and/or never grew up with Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, to watch it. There’s a lot of important messages about acceptance, dealing with tragedy, and mental health that people can learn from and feel good about. Not to mention how he completely revolutionized children’s television. So yeah, he was awesome.10/10
Spider-man Into the Spider-verse: When a rip between dimensions is opened, a bunch of different spider themed superheroes from every comic fan’s wet dreams all get together to close it. Guys I’m not that big of a Spider-man fan, but dang this movie was a ton of fun. I came for the amazing visual effects and stayed for the amazing...everything else. The music, the performances, and the story were all top notch. Also I now have a new favorite Nick Cage role. If you thought the trailer made the animation look interesting, it was just the tip of the iceberg because it is the most visually interesting movie I’ve seen in the last three years. I strongly suggest any fan of animation...or even any fan of great stories and movies in general go see it even if you’re not that big on Spider-Man. Now I’m demanding a Spider-verse Aunt May movie because I have so many questions! And the post credits scene was the best out of any Marvel movie. Period. 10,000/10
The Wiz (2015 musical): I should start making a section for musicals or plays instead of just lumping it in with the movies. It’s the Wizard of Oz...but cool. I’ve never seen any iteration of The Wiz and it seems like I’m constantly hearing about it. So I watched the 2015 version of the 1975 Broadway musical that NBC aired. And yeah it’s good. There were some great performances. But I wasn’t very impressed with the songs themselves, and it’s not really the same without a dog along for the ride, but whatever. 7.5/10
Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle: The surprisingly fun reboot/sequel thing of Jumanji where four teenagers get stuck in a video game that follows every “stuck in a video game” trope you can imagine but actually does it well. It’s a sweet, funny romp through the jungle with some great comedic performances. I really don’t have much to say about it except that this movie is better than it has any right to be. 8/10
The Christmas Chronicles: Two children stow away on Kurt Russell’s, I mean Santa’s sleigh and go on a dangerous, balls to the wall adventure throughout Chicago trying to save Christmas or something. After everyone started talking about how crazy this Netflix movie is I had to watch it to verify if it is indeed as wild as they said. And yes...yes it is. It is so laughably ridiculous and questionable that it’s impossible to actually hate. The elves are some unholy mixture of minions and gremlins, one of the children is a literal felon that no one is concerned about, and Kurt Russell is super into the role but has some sort of thing about fat-shaming Santa. I just...have so many questions! But it was certainly a trip, so I’d have to recommend it just so you too can witness the insanity. -10 “savvy, straight-talking St. Nicks”/10
Arthur Christmas: No, it’s not a Christmas special related to the aardvark cartoon! This is the 2011 animated movie that no one remembers exists. Santa’s clumsy but enthusiastic son Arthur must deliver a forgotten present in less than two hours while the rest of his family deals with some Arrested Development style family drama. This is by far the most underrated Christmas movie of all time; even I didn’t realize it was actually good until I watched it for the first time in 2016! The fun road-trip style plot and the entertaining characters were victims of bad marketing. Arthur is hilariously endearing, and there was so much heart and effort put into it that I can find new things to notice every time I watch it. Not to mention the amazingly animated opening spy sequence! And also Mrs. Claus is secretly a total badass and Bryony the elf is the coolest female character in a Christmas movie ever. The movie’s message of old vs new is nothing we haven’t seen before, but I really don’t care because at the heart of it all, it’s about making people happy on Christmas. If you’re like me and just assumed this movie would suck...or didn’t know it exists, please give it a chance. It’s not perfect, but it’s worth seeing. 9/10
Neo Yokio Pink Christmas: Yes, it’s the Christmas special for Neo Yokio. No I cannot accurately describe it with mere words. There’s a rich bachelor gift exchange, demon possession, and pompous French aunts slinging insults at each other. It is unironically my favorite holiday episode of a show ever, and to me it’s the best Christmas special ever made. I thought I was prepared for the absolute bat-shit ride I would go on, but no...I wasn’t even close. At this point I don’t know if it’s written like this on purpose or if some divine twist of fate made the executives believe this is truly brilliant television. Either way, it is a masterpiece in its own right. There’s even a somewhat intriguing plot and a message about gift giving and capitalism under all the crazy! If you haven’t jumped down the rabbit hole yet, I implore you to watch the insanity that is Neo Yokio and follow it up with Pink Christmas because it will truly make your holiday season. 100,000 demon DNA drugs out of 100,000!
Die Hard: Nothing says Christmas like terrorists taking over a skyscraper and Bruce Willis having to take them all down by himself. Yeah...so I’ve never seen Die Hard before, but this is one of those movies that is so famous that I felt like I’d already absorbed everything important through cultural osmosis. And even though it’s pretty good, I would have liked it better if I didn’t know what was going to happen. My only real complaint is that I think it goes on way too long. More than anything it just made me sad to remember that Alan Rickman is gone. And it bothers me so much that John McClane goes through this building that’s under construction WITHOUT SHOES! 8/10
Books!
The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis: The 4th/6th book in the Chronicles of Narnia, in which Eustace Scrubb and his classmate Jill Pole go to the underworld to find King Caspian’s long lost son. Even though my children- the Pevensies aren’t in it, I actually think this book is my favorite of the series so far. Jill and Eustace are both sassy enough to play off each other, Puddleglum absolutely hilarious, and the book actually has a clear cut plot! It reads much more like a Greek myth than a children’s fairy tale since there aren’t nearly as many of Lewis’s trademark author interjections, and you know...it’s a literal journey to the underworld. And can I just say that it’s super refreshing to have an author write two main characters WITH ZERO ROMANTIC INTENTIONS! Especially since they’re freaking children! Now I just wish Disney had continued the movies even more! 9/10
Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare: I’m going to do this with only minor spoilers. It’s the final book in The Dark Artifices trilogy. Will Emma and Julian break the parabatai bond? Will the reflection of the modern day American government- I mean the Cohort/ the Clave fuck up the relationships between Shadowhunters and Downworlders forever? You’ll have to suffer like the rest of us to find out! In my opinion, 99% of this book is amazing, but in the last 50 pages there are some...bullshit ways of solving problems. Like everything that went down with the Cohort in Idris. Not to mention we’ve been so invested in the parabatai curse and how Julian and Emma’s bond would go down and...let’s just say the resolution was way too easy. And if you thought Clare’s other finales were jam packed, you ain't seen nothin’ yet. My copy is 880 pages and there was still more stuff that I wanted to happen...like any sort of scene between Dru and Ash...or an ending between Kit and Ty that doesn’t make me want to cry (the Wicked Powers is going to be brutal). But the rest of that 99% is mind-blowing! There’s so much good I can say that it mostly outranks anything I didn’t like...I mean we finally got a Malec wedding and a proper polyamorous relationship for the Angel’s sake! It may be my least favorite of her finales by default but it was still a fun ride! 9/10
TV shows!
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018): An elite soldier finds a sword that can transform her into a super buff magical girl who helps princesses take down the forces of evil. It’s a reboot of the 1980s cartoon, and holy crap it’s AMAZING! I have a whole new group of children to adopt, each episode is entertaining in its own way, and there’s so...many...good...ships! And it gives Steven Universe a run for its money with the care that went into making every character a different kind of warrior, which I love because the cast is 99% female. My only real complaint is that I never warmed up to Catra because she wasn’t particularly sympathetic to me from the beginning. But I understand why some people love her. If you love well crafted adventurous character driven cartoons and haven’t watched it yet WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? 10/10
Nailed It Holiday: Yes, my favorite baking show (and by that I mean the only baking show I watch) has a holiday season out on Netflix, in which newbie bakers are tasked with making incredibly professional desserts with a very short time limit. And whoever makes the best treat gets 10,000 dollars. I’ve talked about this show before in my June media madness, and I don’t know what it is but I’m so addicted to it. 10/10
Brooklyn nine-nine (season 5): Come on we all know the cop sitcom. It’s the best sitcom. Just in general it’s the best. Great characters that subvert expectations, great humor, and a lot of heart. I’ve known that this show is supposed to be amazing for years, but I only started watching it a few months ago. And since I couldn’t find season 5 anywhere...I got a Hulu subscription just to watch it before season 6 comes out. That’s how good this show is. 10/10
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (season 2): Our favorite underdog comedian is back, and she’s slowly gaining popularity and doing...stuff. Like going on tour. And hanging out with Zachary Levi. Yes, this season is great, but my problem with this series is that every character aside from Midge and Susie are the fucking worst, especially the parents. Midge’s parents suck, Joel’s parents suck, Midge and Joel are appropriately neglectful parents for the time period...I could go on. And it’s not even in a funny way; like it’s just disgusting to watch these power dynamics. Not to mention how old the comedic bits for the parents get (how many times can we hear about Joel needing to date or Midge needing to get married?!) Yes, I realize that we’re supposed to be annoyed AND YES I realize that this is a product of culture and how society was, but none of the parents have any redeeming qualities. In episode one, we’re led to believe that Midge’s parents will grow and change through the season and they never do! At least there are moments where Joel can kind of be redeeming and expand on his actual character before he reverts back to being an asshole. Anyway, my thoughts are pretty much the same as the first season. It’s funny and interesting to watch, but it can be ridiculously frustrating when you hate almost all the characters! 8/10
Fuller House (season 4): Yes I do watch the ridiculous Netflix reboot of Full House. And yes, it is absolutely terrible! I really really hate it! But will I stop watching it? Let’s just say you can pry this pile of garbage from my cold dead hands. I don’t know if I’d call this a guilty pleasure or a hate watch type of show... it’s certainly not so bad it’s good territory like Neo Yokio...but Full House was pretty much my entire childhood. And yes, the original show is also not great. I loved it as a kid, and it was my first real exposure to a non-traditional family in live action, but yeah it doesn’t age well. What I’m trying to say is...I have no good reason for watching this.
I don’t mean to say that there’s nothing good about it, especially this season. They really back off on the more cringe-worthy catch phrases, Stephanie being aware of how stupid the writing is and constantly pointing it out is actually funny, their Christmas episode was surprisingly genuine, and they impressed me by actually make two female characters try and work through their difficulties instead of pitting them against each other for laughs. It has its moments, just like the original but definitely not enough to make up for the worst of it. Maybe this generation of children will like it the way lots of my generation used to like Full House...but yeah it’s awful, I hate it so much. -1 missing Tanner child out of 3
Voltron Legendary Defender (season 8) SPOILERS: It’s the final season of Netflix’s Voltron, and boy it was...something. I didn’t want to make this a big rant/defense of the show...but I feel like I have to highlight some things because this fandom is a shithole that refuses to see the good in anything.
There is so much good and so much...not good I can say about it, so here’s a couple things. I know this show didn’t go the direction anyone wanted, but that doesn’t make it bad. In addition to the stunning fight scenes and music, the performances this season were just amazing! I literally wanted to cry every other episode even though sometimes I didn’t know why the fuck something was happening. I don’t know how I feel about Honerva’s plan. I understand her motivation, but I was constantly questioning how we got from point A to point B... so yeah the plot and writing could be...weird at times. Also everyone seemed to have super pointy chins this season...
Spoiler alert: Not many of us wanted Lance and Allura to happen, but I truly believe it wasn’t done in a half assed way. At the very least, I appreciate that they had a genuine bond that developed over so many seasons. BECAUSE YES IT DID! Anyone who says they had no development or that it felt forced never paid attention. I wanted it to stay platonic; I wanted Klance to happen, but...I can’t be too mad at the writers because they at least tried. I still believe that Klance was endgame and the creators were forced to change the outcome of the show later on. AND YES LANCE DID GET A CHARACTER ARC! It may not have been the one we wanted to see, but I’m baffled that people think Lance living with his family, surrounded by people he loves-which is what he wanted all along- is not a happy ending. I just wish his relationship with Keith wasn’t pretty much ignored all season. But I believe Allura is his past that taught him to genuinely love and Keith is his future who will make Lance his “first choice”. And I’m not even gonna try to explain how I feel about Shiro and Allura’s endings because everything I feel is so complicated and layered. There is good and there is bad.
TLDR: This show teaches us that we’re stronger together, and I think the “fandom” completely missed the point because they do nothing but tear others down and refuse to look at things from other perspectives. YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO NOT LIKE IT, BUT YOU DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO TAKE AWAY OTHER PEOPLE’S ENJOYMENT AND BE A DICK ABOUT IT. It may not have been everything I wanted, but I’m glad I went on this ride. Besides, there are canonically infinite realities so there’s got to be a reality where all your dreams for the show come true. As a season, I’d say it’s a 7.5/10.
Honorable Mentions
I watched Avengers: Infinity War again. And yes it’s still great.
I’m watching Superstore because when another sitcom comes on before The Good Place, why not? Also since I finished season 5 of Brooklyn 99 I had to use my Hulu subscription for something.
Camp Camp has a holiday episode...so naturally I watched it...several times. Please watch Camp Camp.
Hellsing Ultimate Abridged finally ended, and I feel obligated to shout this out because, hey when you put out one episode a year it’s a big accomplishment to finish it!
Super Smash Bros Ultimate is finally here!!!!!!!!!!!
ALL THE WINTER ANIME IS ENDING!!! They were all so amazing! So shout out to Iroduku-The world in colors, Bloom into You, Hinomaru Sumo, Dakaichi, Banana Fish, Jingai no Yomen, Golden Kamuy, Skull-faced Bookseller Honda-san, Tsurune, AND RUN WITH THE WIND even though they’re not finished yet.
#media madness#long post#the wiz#jumanji#neo yokio pink christmas#die hard#into the spider verse#arthur christmas#the christmas chronicles#wont you be my neighbor#Avengers infinity war#The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel#marvel#she ra netflix#she ra and the princesses of power#nailed it#voltron#voltron legendary defender#voltron season 8#fuller house#brooklyn 99#superstore#queen of air and darkness#qoaad#the silver chair#the chronicles of narnia
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Riverdale Needs To Solve Its Villain Problem
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This Riverdale review contains spoilers.
Riverdale Season 5 Episode 19
“So, Riverdale lives to fight another day…”
With an episode title like “Riverdale R.I.P.,” it would be understandable if you went into this season finale expecting some massive game-changing event to occur that would cause Riverdale to completely reinvent itself.
No such luck.
For there was no “we have to go back” mindfuck, no exploding Gus Fring, just more of the same wheel-spinning in which characters behaved the way they always do. Friends, it’s really getting exhausting.
Over the course of five seasons to date, the series has proven that it works great on an episodic level but falls apart when analyzed as a whole entity. Indeed, fans coming off of last week’s stellar musical episode came into the finale expecting chaos ranging from Pop’s being decimated to Cheryl being burned at the stake for her religious dabbling. To be fair both of these events occurred, sorta. Pop’s was burnt up, but not badly enough that Jug couldn’t make a hamburger for Tabitha (and the basement level Whyte Wyrm bar apparently had no damage whatsoever). Blame the power of a misleading promo, one that did the actual largely anti-climactic reveals of this episode no favors.
A much bigger reveal was the story of Abigail Blossom, who was murdered by the ancestors of Archie, Betty and Jughead back in 1819 — and whose spirit, conveniently, is reborn in a fashion in each generation’s subsequent Blossom woman. As cool as this is, it’s also a bit of a shrug logistically. How exactly this works as Abigail was apparently childless at the time of her death is a mystery, although it’s safe to assume their were other Blossoms around at the time of her murder? Is this why Nana Blossom is so wacky? But perhaps as always it is best to remember Veronica’s immortal words of “forget it Jughead, it’s Riverdale” and not ponder the contrivances here too much. The larger point being that by the time the credits roll on this episode, Cheryl has revived her ancestor’s curse, invoked Satan and literally caused an ill wind to sweep through Riverdale.
Never mind that the past few weeks have seen Cheryl’s character undergo a transformation from mentally struggling to finding inner peace and wanting to act as a mentor for Britta Beach. Since the story demands it, “crazy” Cheryl is back, and there’s nothing viewers can do but sit back and enjoy the chaos. As frustrating as it may be.
The problem is, we have seen it all before.
Riverdale has an ongoing problem of playing narrative ping pong with its characters. Cheryl and Hiram Lodge suffer the most because of this infuriating creative decision. Due to the over-the-top nature of Cheryl in general, combined with her getting at least one killer bon mot per episode and Madelaine Petsch’s always compelling performance, her character is able to swiftly recover from these jarring transitions.
The same can’t be said for Mark Consuelos’ Hiram Lodge. Although you can see Consuelos trying his best to breathe some vigor into Hiram, the writers just seem to have no idea how to handle the character. This was most evident in the last half of this season, where Hiram was portrayed as an ineffectual joke (getting called a “little bitch” twice in the process). Suddenly after watching his emasculation for weeks, viewers are again supposed to view him as the ultimate threat, powerful enough to sneak back into a town where everyone is um, gunning for him to blow up Archie.
(Riverdale’s other current big bad is the Trash Bag Killer, a character who popped up in a brief scene to remind you that, oh yeah, he is still a plot point that the series needs to deal with at some point).
These kind of contrivances border on being contemptuous towards the audience. Riverdale can do better. It must do better. The inconsistency of characters is inexcusable, and a much bigger problem than the transparent — and almost certainly temporary — new “ships” on the show that are causing Twitter to implode as you read these very words. But these aren’t issues that can be solved easily.
Cheryl is too lovable of a character for her to permanently go “full dark no stars” and Hiram, well, does anyone really even remotely give a shit about this character anymore? It is a testament to Mark Consuelos’ enduring charisma that the dull void that is Hiram has any life left in him. When we last see the character he is driving away from Riverdale. For the show’s sake, it will hopefully be awhile before he returns. Perhaps by then the series’ will have figured out how to write its antagonists in a way that is both consistent and entertaining.
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Riverdale Rundown
Ship breakdown: Veronica is now with Reggie, Betty is with Archie, Jughead is with Tabitha, Toni is with Fangs. Plus there’s the rebirth of Falice as Alice and Frank have something brewing.
Does anyone believe for a second Archie and Betty are in danger? They weren’t shown in the promo during the credits, but c’mon. Archie’s abs can absorb the power of that bomb.
Eric Jackson has left Riverdale. Fare thee well, unimportant secondary character.
Am I crazy or was The Lodge Ledger never even mentioned before this episode? I remember Alice working for the Riverdale Register, but that was prior to the seven-year time jump.
Can we just take a minute to appreciate Alvin Sanders as Pop Tate? His scene with Erinn Westbrook as Tabitha tonight was my favorite moment in the show. A nice understated moment amidst all the chaos. Welcome back Pop, we dig your retirement look!
So where did all the water from the fire department go if it didn’t ruin the Whyte Wyrm?
Is Jughead, a man who less than a month ago turned in someone else’s novel as his own, a good choice to be teaching kids about journalistic ethics?
In a nice touch, the Ghoulie ingested some Jingle Jangle right before torching Pop’s.
Pop’s demise was the most upsetting fire involving a TV diner hangout since Chachi accidentally burned down Arnold’s on Happy Days.
Riverdale’s new logo declaring itself to be “The Town with Pop’s” made the heart of this longtime Archie comics reader soar.
Twin Peaks was a massive influence on this show’s creation, and now Riverdale has its own Agent Cooper.
So who you do think the Trash Bag Killer really is?
As for the FBI having a Riverdale Field Office, I totally buy this due to the sheer amount of bad shit that happens there. “God knows there’s enough crime here to last me several lifetimes,” Betty wisely declares.
The opening credits being shown over the smoke from the Pop’s fire really had me convinced that the show was doing away with one of its primary locations. Nice fakeout.
Given the licensing issues with Netflix, it’s not surprising that Chilling Adventures of Sabrina hasn’t been mentioned on Riverdale. That said, a main character is now a witch who has invoked Satan, so at least throw us a bone and give Greendale a shout out?
Someone should tell Fangs that the Serpents have been a joke since, umm, forever.
Pearls and Posh is now a front for a secret casino run by Reggie and Veronica. How will this cause friction with their friends who are trying to legitimize the post-Hiram town?
Kevin is heading to New York City to pursue his Broadway dreams. How will the show keep him in town?
We won’t have to wait long to see the aftermath of Abigail/Cheryl’s vow to “torment and destroy,” as the series returns on November 16th with a five-part story arc (apparently called Rivervale if the promo is to be trusted) that promises Midsommar-esque horror flourishes.
What are your thoughts on this season as a whole? My gut feeling is that it was the weakest to date, with the characters of Cheryl, Hiram, Kevin and, as always, Archie suffering some major disservices. However, it also had the Josie and the Pussycats backdoor pilot and the Next to Normal episodes, two of its strongest outings ever. Oh Riverdale, you frustrate me and I love you. We’ll be back here next month when the show returns.
The post Riverdale Needs To Solve Its Villain Problem appeared first on Den of Geek.
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Been Around
I’ve been working on an iteration of this tumble for a while.
My last one? Well. It was kinda. Sad?
Like, basically, oh hey I’m on the edge of ruin guess we’ll see what happens!
Obvs some time has passed since then. And like, I dunno, maybe people are wondering how things turned out?
So I’m here to talk about that. Oh, and yeah, talk about what I’ve been playing watching and listening to.
Question Corner time!!!
Um did you get fired or what?
Shockingly, no! I kept my job. In fact, kinda got a clean slate- new manager, a new schedule, the works.
What the fuck? How?
Right?
Basically, I kept my mouth shut when I needed to and stuck to one un-sophisticated but outrageously stupid lie about why my “work” wasn’t showing up in the reports.
And the person in charge of calling me on that bullshit just...didn’t.
I don’t know if it was kindness, or laziness, or what, but they basically let me off with a firm warning to not let my abject neglect of my job be so obvious next time around. Around the same time as all this was going down, there was also a big shakeup in management, and I got shifted to a new guy. Along with that, I also got approved to reduce my work week.
So my best guess is amidst all the change they decided to just give me a free pass, cuz firing a union employee in the time of covid would be...a lot of work.
Wow. Sick. So. New schedule?
Yup. My job is having a bit of a budget emergency so they have offered to let us take unpaid time off while retaining our benefits. I’m now working 30 hours a week until the end of the year. I’ll miss the money, but honestly? I’m fucking stoked. I straight up need to be at work less, and while it’s some shit that I have to take a paycut just to stay sane, you better believe I was ON THAT the minute I learned it was an option.
You didn’t get fired. You got a new sup, a new supervisor...so...are you gonna try in the future, to, like, not get in that position again?
Yeah. I’m very okay with not putting myself through any of this ever again.
I’m actually putting in a full day’s honest work. Logging in on time. Staying awake the entire shift. Doing actual work. It’s wild. And exhausting. And repetitive. So...so...so...repetitive.
Actually working my job the way it’s written out on paper is awful and draining. My work is deeply uninteresting and utterly without consequence. I don’t have any actual metrics to work towards because of how the pandemic has impacted things. You’d think that would be good! But actually, it sucks real bad cuz my bosses basically just say “you have no metrics, but you should also be demonstrably productive” which basically means BUSY AS FUCK. So every day is an exercise in how I can convincingly spin my tires for 10 hours a day.
The tradeoff for making a clean go at this whole gainful employment thing is that, presumably, I can forgo the stress of like, you know, having my entire life and sense of financial security implode at a moments notice. I guess it’s a fair trade.
Still, I’m so very, very tired.
So...how are you feeling about things?
Honestly...pretty okay?
Look, you gotta understand that for the past month I was unraveling at the seams. Barely sleeping, drinking way too much, gaining weight back and making zero progress on my creative hobbies. So any improvement at all? In 2020? Feels like a fucking windfall to end all windfalls, even if the job is still shit and the paycut is a bit of a kick in the ass.
Cool cool. You uh...still doin...?
Therapy? I mean you can just say therapy.
Yeah, I’m doing it. Results seem...limited?
I found out my therapist is a anti-vax covid truther so...that’s been an experience. But when she isn’t going on about how big pharma is just mining us for cash money (not totally untrue), she’s...aight?
I dunno. I have to talk a lot. I don’t usually do that, ya know? And sometimes I finish my sentences and I’m like lol that’s literally all I got and then have to wait for a response. And the response is usually something weird like “WELL THAT’S GREAT”.
I guess I was expecting to hear some high concept shit about my brain? And instead...it’s mostly just been affirmations of just how damn functional I am! I’m so functional! Look at me, being functional like I’m all sorts of hot shit.
I thought you were gonna fire her-
Yeah, uh, look. I’m...very bad at confrontation. I’ll fire the truther therapist next week, I promise.
Whatever, so...what are you gonna do now that you only work 3 days a work?
Hopefully more of this! I miss writing for an audience. I miss sharing what excites me with other people! I’ve missed having an online presence. I live my life on the internet these days. Like, yesterday, I had this distinct feeling that I was SO ONLINE that I was like, basically, on the verge of full Matrix. Like, between Spriteclub and Twitter and Youtube and my online games, just stick a fuckin’ needle in the back of my head and get it over with. I’m like fuckin’ Neuromancer over here, 3 monitors at once all day every day.
So...when do we talk about what you’ve been up to?
RIGHT NOW ASSHOLE! That’s right folks, let’s talk about what I’ve been gettin’ into during my free time.
WRITING-
Alice and the Pale Horse
I’m on page 123. Working on some edits. Seriously looking at how I can release my first few pages in an episodic format.
My dream is to someday have an animator for this story. A guy can hope, yeah?
Crash’s Corner
I’m gearing up for another anime post. I’m hoping it’ll be a bit shorter and more focused. Major show candidates include Kaguya-Sama: Love is War, Gleipnir, and Deca-Dence.
Film Journal
I’ve been guest writing for Ryan Sanderson’s year-long film journal the past few weeks. The last entry was about the Alien franchise. Give it a look!
ANIME-
God of High School
Man, this show is so damn lukewarm until it hits these wild action sequences that make your soul just fucking sing. The story feels like total nonsense, even for a shonen, but then you hit moments like this and it just doesn’t matter. It’s so imaginative it just absolutely soars.
Gleipnir
OH MY GOD GLEIPNIR. Look, I can’t recommend this show to you. It’s that batshit off the walls wild. But...if you can handle the absolute of anime bullshit- and if you’re an anime fan, you know what I mean- then you might be able to handle this. I just finished the first season this week and it grabbed me by the neck and didn’t let go. If it doesn’t get renewed, I’ll absolutely find the manga. But just. Like. Holy shit. Yeah. (I said Holy Shit probably at least 2 or 3 times per ep, so be warned).
Fire Force
Honestly, season 2 has been a bit of a gas for me. It’s just lacked a certain juice that the first season had. Season 1 had so much wild worldbuilding going on, while season 2 seems to be all about tossing in as many tertiary characters as possible. Curious if the manga handles that better. As it stands, Fire Force still makes it onto my weekly rotation of anime I hit up while biking.
Deca-Dence
I heard hype for this on Twitter, and based on the stills and the trailer, I was kinda so-so. But I jumped in and gave it a couple ep’s and honestly? It kept my attention. It even surprised me several times. It’s deeply imaginative in its own right, and presents a couple of animation styles that play directly into the lore of its world presentation. I’m not resonating with it on an emotional level in the same way as I am with say, Gleipnir, but this is still a really damn good show that I’d have no reservations about recommending to anyone.
A Certain Scientific Railgun T
This one has me deeply conflicted. On the one hand, it is a gif generator, and I have a whole library of reaction gifs to show for it. The action is thrilling, the world gorgeous, the characters endearing and appropriately silly. But, like, also, it is the height of fan-service and there’s not much of a defense for it. So much so that I’ve only watched the first few episodes. I don’t know if I’ll keep on since the story hasn’t got its hooks in me yet. Reminds me a lot of Pandora in the Crimson Urn- deeply imaginative and funny but also full of yikes.
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
I’m only a few ep’s into season 1 but I’m intrigued. It’s a rom-com/slice of life type anime, but it plays like a more straight-faced Kaguya-Sama: Love is War, but with the voice of the show centered around a deeply unlikable incel-type character surrounded by a terrifically enjoyable cast of fellow students who each bring their own quirks to the table. I’m interested to see how the plot continues to develop, as I’ve seen fans raving about the most recent season. However, this show has fallen to the wayside as I keep getting distracted by other anime. Kinda reminds me of Food Wars in the sense that I find its premise and characters compelling but also lose my focus on the story quickly.
Samurai Champloo
Finally finished it! Loved it, for the most part. As a guy who has watched his fair share of classic sword films, I deeply appreciated how much reverence the animators and writers had for the genre, while also infusing their own modern sensibilities. It’s not hard to see what this sword story is so well loved, even if its overwrought ending doesn’t come close to touching the charm of its early charm and wanderlust.
Kaguya-Sama: Love is War
The best damn rom-com slice of life anime I’ve ever seen. Season 2 blew me away. I laughed. I cried. I enjoyed the new tertiary characters and was gratefully surprised by how easily the story was able to sustain the pace, brevity and sneaky depth of season 1. This show is special.
Dragon Ball
I want to enjoy this, if only ‘cuz I want to understand the story that is considered so foundational to many other fans. And I LOVE the trademark animation, of course. But...also..there’s a whole lot of moments in this that are just uh...they require explaining in 2020. Maybe I just need to get over my scruples and power through, idk.
Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
My current shonen project. I’ve been stalled out on the timeskip arc for about...a year now? But I’m not willing to call it quits yet! I need to see this bonkers time-traveling mafia war through to its conclusion.
Gintama
I fucking adore Gintama. I love how it doesn’t give a fuck about skewering anime as a medium until it flips a switch and slaps you upside the head with some weirdly emotional and hopeful message. Every character is both hilarious and yet has this deeply emotional connection to the audience. It is perfect satire.
MANGA
Note: People often ask me where I get my manga. My answer can vary from title to title, but my usual go-to is Epilogue Books, owned and run by my dear friend and writing partner of many years. I have a semi-regular shipment of titles I receive from them depending on how quick I get through a given shipment. If you’re looking for these, or any other manga, give their site a gander or contact them directly. They’ll hook you up, and you’ll have the satisfaction of supporting literally anyone but Amazon.
One Piece
I’m on volume 33 of the Skypiea arc, which has been so-so compared to the previous arcs with Crocodile and the adventures in the Deep Blue. I do find the Kami to be a curious and compelling villain, but none of the Straw Hats have done much in the way of growth beyond “get separated, fight jobber bosses, come back together and let Luffy finish the fight”. I’m toward the end of the arc, however, so we’ll see how it rolls.
Berserk
Holy shit Berserk. A bunch of folks told me to read this when I asked for suggestions on twitter. I saw the cover art and was like “ok guy with big sword in a dark fantasy world, neat”. Wasn’t sure if it said more about the people who suggested it, or more about me that they thought I’d like it. I was also deeply nervous about dark fantasy after my fiasco with Goblin Slayer. But I went with it and gave the first volume a read and HOLY SMOKES. What a damn read. Not only does the story have me hooked, but also, it is GORGEOUS. It is dark. It is moody. It is occasionally humorous. But its STYLE just grabs me in a way that is reminiscent of the old Spawn comics from my youth. I immediately ordered more and I can’t wait.
Fairy Tail
Just finished the lullaby arc and now we are deep into the Deliora arc with the Cold Emperor. It’s really been fun to see how the manga differs from the anime. The anime was my first true shonen experience and a story that I credit with having saved my life, so I had high expectations coming into this. I’m happy to say that thus far, the manga of Fairy Tail is worth every bit of attention that the anime received. Can’t wait to keep going.
Fruits Basket
Fruits Basket is fucking precious and if you come at these characters I swear to god I will come back at you. *deep breath* Okay. Settle. This is a positively lovely story, centered in positivity, kindness, and found family. Each character is working through trauma in their own imperfect way, and I adore their journeys. You can tell the story was penned by a deeply vulnerable human and I can’t thank them enough for having the courage to share it. Read this manga- and then go see the equally gorgeous anime.
Eden’s Zero
Written and drawn by the same crew who did Fairy Tail, it wouldn’t be inaccurate to call it Fairy Tail In Space. That said, volume 1 gave me just enough to get curious again about where Mashima is heading with his latest creative opus- and whether it will cross over with his wildly successful Fairy Tail universe. And yes, in case the above panel wasn’t enough of a cue- Mashima and co. can still play my heart for tears like no one’s business and it’s damn rude.
Sailor Moon
I love the Sailor Moon anime. I think it’s an adorable show with deeply relatable characters that approaches the monster of the week format with an effectiveness that would make even Buffy the Vampire Slayer jealous. The manga is just as wonderful- not to mention beautifully drawn. Volume 1 also works much, much faster than the show does, and I dare say it is better for it.
VIDYA GAMES
Warzone
I’m just seven levels out from completing my third battlepass straight. I’m going to try the Black Ops alpha this week. I’ve played Warzone a whole lot less lately, dedicating my evenings to reading manga, napping, or watching wrestling with pals instead, but it still remains my favorite shooter at this time.
Cities: Skylines
I started a new city last week. It’s a shithole industrial city on a desert map. I had to set my sewer drainage in a manmade lake outside of town that quickly overflowed. At one point the sewage flood disabled my powerplants which in turn caused my entire town of 8k to flee. I went into 3 million in debt while waiting for the town to rebound. I came out of it eventually, repopulating the town to the tune of well over 11k, and restoring my budget surplus, but it was a huge fucking ordeal. I love this game.
Yakuza 0
After chapter 1 of Yakuza 0 I was ready to write this game off. The camera angles pissed me off. The fight commands felt simplistic. The story was boring. But as I thought back to my experience of chapter 1, I realized that it more closely resembled some of my favorite action film sequences than I had initially realized. Did the button mashing make my wrists beg for mercy? Absolutely. Was it satisfying to overcome an absurd amount of enemies using little more than my x button and my wits? Also yes. And did those fights build on each other to create a sense of violent urgency as I propelled myself toward the “boss”? Definitely yes. And then you leave chapter 1 and get your run of a map that includes karaoke bars, Sega arcades and ramen shops- and yes, you better believe that I spent way too much time playing Sega’s Outrun. While jogging between shops and minigames random mobs of enemies pop up and try to start shit with you- much as they might in a JRPG. In fact, the game itself has a lot of RPG elements in it- stat boosts and inventory management and even a relationship meter. The more time I put in, the more the game opens up. I’m going to keep giving Yakuza 0 a shot for as long as that continues to be the case. Also, it is a perfect option to play as a streamed game on my phone.
Mario 64
Can you believe I’ve never played Mario 64? Seems embarrassing to admit now. So here I am, many, many years late to the party. I’ll let y’all know how I like it. So far...I’m already lost on the first course, so...hopefully things pick up.
Sky
Sky has been a bizarre experience. It’s the latest game from That Game Company, their previous work including Journey and Flower. Sky has that same aimless charm, but I also just can’t get into it to save my life. It’s free-to-play, but abstractly so- I’m not sure what the paid content even really does. I have a few friends on Sky- they typically have to drag me to the places they want to go. There’s nothing at stake in the world of sky- there are spirits you can free and content you can unlock, and occasionally you do encounter foes who pose a danger to you, but for the most part it’s basically a fetch quest with social elements added in. I appreciate those social experiences, and the community seems very chill, but it’s also a bit of a stress to log in and have everyone flock to you demanding your attention and time. Also, this game is only playable on my mobile phone, which I am not used to gaming on, so...focus is limited. I mostly just vibe on the starter island and talk to acquaintances.
Music
Powfu
DJ Blyatman
fawlin x Naits
Josh A
Tekken 7 OST
gothurted
Beast in Black
Battle Beast
Legos
Hey! I’m doing legos! That seems like a totally normal hobby to have at my age...yeah. Totally.
Anyway, I’m working on the Pirates of Barracuda Bay set. It’s about 3k pieces. It’s been a fun build so far! Here’s my progress...
WRASTLIN
Yes, I’m still watching wrestling. I usually get an episode or two in every week with my pals on discord. It’s not as many as I’d like to watch, but it’s for the best. If my viewing wasn’t forcibly tempered I’d have likely lost the past few months entirely to wrestling. And as you might have guessed from above, I’m someone who is happiest when their hobbies are varied and numerous.
I’m in June of 1999 of the WWF storyline. Undertaker is the heavyweight champ, the Acolytes hold the tag belts, Jeff Jarrett has the intercontinental title belt and Owen Hart just died. King of the Ring is less than a week away. My friends and I have filled out brackets. I’m very excited to see who, if any of us, ends up being right about the winner.
SPORTS???
I gave baseball the old college try. I ended up giving up. It just isn’t the escape I need. Something about those empty stadiums and players half-wearing masks and the shortened games just throws me off. I don’t feel at ease watching baseball in 2020. When I first got into baseball back in 2014 or so, it was because I was sick and baseball promised an illusion of normalcy- I could watch the rest of the world function in relative stability and hope that someday I too could join them. Now it’s the rest of the world that’s sick, and I’m relatively well, and all baseball can do for me in 2020 is remind me that I’m damn lucky I’m as well as I am, and that if I’m careless (or just plain unlucky) that I’ll be pretty sick to.
So where did I turn for competitive entertainment?
Well, there was wrestling, to be sure, but the real joy I’ve found is at SpriteClub.
The quick pitch- people just like you or me create fighters in M.U.G.E.N., a 2-D fighting game engine. These fighters, or sprites, are guided by AI, also designed by people like you and I. Think of it like a gundam and its pilot. They’re tossed into a pool with a whole bunch of other community creations and left to duke it out while the viewers bet fake money on the winners.
You would think that the idea might only appeal to gambling junkies and fighting game addicts, but the truth is this eclectic channel has a much wider appeal than one might initially give it credit for.
For one, its catalogue of fighters includes everything from pop culture superheroes to obscure anime characters to widely shared memes. It is almost impossible to not find a character you’ll have some sense of loyalty to.
Beyond that, the crowd that populates the chat is courteous, kind, and downright educational- a remarkable mix for anywhere gamers populate. It’s a relatively small community, so the channel takes the feeling of an intimate corner bar. If you enter the chat respecting the chill and willing to listen, you will learn a great deal not just about the fighters, but about how the genre of 2D fighter works as a whole.
Perhaps the most enjoyable part of SpriteClub is the exhibitions feature, which allows you to request custom matches with your favorite characters, which play out on the Twitch stream for others to view and bet on. Although often chaotic, the exhibition mode is home to a number of long-running series set up my stream regulars. These series take on a life and lore of their own that is frankly fascinating. Think of it like a more frenetic video game karaoke. Yes, picking good fighters is a goal, but so is finding a good angle for the match- the right level of humor, the right pairing of unlikely characters, and set-up for matches that are competitive, as opposed to predictable stomps.
I’ve never jumped into a Twitch channel as a regular before. I’ve never subbed to anything on Twitch before. The gamer community as a whole has always been one that’s left a bad taste in my mouth, rightfully so. But SpriteClub has been a lovely brightspot and proof that kind and informative gaming communities can and do continue to exist. I foresee myself being a regular viewer for some time to come.
And that’s it!
That’s pretty much everything I can think of sharing at this time! I hope y’all enjoyed it. As you can tell, I’ve done my best to keep busy. Hopefully I’ll have even more to share with you all in the immediate future. Until then, thanks for reading, and keep well!
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Hello!!
Welcome to my Tumblr page. I vent here, I post what I am interested it, and I do get “political” sometimes. Mostly, I do the political thing on Twitter, but I vent about people/politics here A LOT!!! Over the years there has been one person I vent about the most...besides my mother LOL.
About 12 years ago, my husband had an affair. It was long distance, at first, and against his wishes...she left her own husband and moved here to Fl from NY. I didn’t find out for about 9-10 months, but when I did, he ended it and she went back to NY. It doesn’t end there, it was back and forth, we went through an actual separation where I packed his things and asked him to leave. She moved back here and they lived in a one room motel for 3 years until he decided he was done and came back home. It took another 3 years for me to finally get her away and him in therapy to get our marriage back. Yes...it was REALLY tough...but we did it, together. Fast forward to now... we are still married, coming up on 25 years in April, we renewed our vows in December 2015, our daughter got married and we now have a grandson and just bought a brand new home and moved in October 29th last year. Life is amazing.
Along the way, through many trials, I have forgiven her. I tried to be civil to her because she pretty much asked me to. She lives here, is remarried with a child of her own now. We live in the same city though, so I tried my best to keep tabs so we wouldn’t run into them. My husband hates her. Yes, it takes two to tango, but at least he realized his part, his short comings, and his need to change his behavior to keep our marriage and yes...make it stronger than it has ever been. She remained friendly with one of my husband’s sisters even after all this. My husband and that sister do not speak because of it and because that sister is one of the direct links to my suicide attempt in 2014. So is the other woman. I was bullied relentlessly by both of them. The minute I would try to fight back, it would just get worse.
Even after all of this, I forgave her and at one point, tried to be her friend. She confided in me so much. Even when she was claiming her marriage was imploding and she left her husband and was having online relationships with other men...I did not judge, I listened. I could see her going down the same pathways again and again. I still tried.
Her politics are Trump...and QAnon. She is fanatical about it. I don’t want to associate with anyone like that so I decided to try to talk to her a couple of times about it and explain why her politics hurt me so much, but she didn’t care. Seeing everything she has been posting politically for awhile now, and seeing her pushing the worst conspiracy theories out there, really scared me. I blocked her. Then, I decided that was too drastic so I unblocked her and tried to explain yet again. I actually apologized TO HER. The posts didn’t stop, the racist crap, the awful conspiracy theories and the QAnon idiocy was too much. She finally blocked me. I decided one last time to try to reason with her, because I hated to see her believe and act this way...especially having a toddler. I truly feel bad for the little girl she is raising to be the same way. I used an old account and posted on a couple of her tweets, nothing harmful, nothing harassing, nothing hateful. Just trying to strike up a conversation. She decided to unleash her followers on me. I was trolling some other asshats and posted that on my main Twitter and they screenshot it and harassed me over it posting Pepe the Frog meme’s and hateful things on my Twitter. I reported them and blocked them finally. I don't usually block people unless they are blowing u my DM’s or my feed with hate and that is what these people were doing. I am Native American, a member of The Seminole Tribe of Florida, and the Pepe the Frog nonsense gets to me because it has turned into a racist, alt-right, QAnon piece of propaganda. I am no stranger to racism coming at me. I took inventory and thought about it and decided to just let it go. As my husband says...”that fuck face isn’t worth the time or energy, plus she is crazy anyway”. Its pretty true, as she has shown over the years...claiming to be some kind of reptilian alien or some kind and things like that.
Anyway, this is what I have been dealing with. If I happen to get anymore harassment, I wanted followers that would back me up with facts, not fiction and conspiracy nonsense. That is why I am following so many of you fine #resisters and asking for follow backs. I have your back, and I would love for you to have mine. I try to adhere to the whole, “they go low, we go high” mentality as much as possible, but sometimes... you just wanna say fuck off. I can only take so much. Seeing what is being posted by her and her followers has really opened my eyes to the racist, cult-like person she is. It is sad, but one day she will regret it. She calls me a narcissist and a hypocrite, but I am not the one preaching love and acceptance and “living with a high vibration” in one breath and then spreading these QAnon theories and tribally supporting a racist misogynistic sociopath as POTUS. In my eyes, that is hypocritical. She never takes responsibility, never has, everything is always someone else’s fault, and especially in relationships...all her ex’s are the crazy ones...not her. I tried overlooking all this to have peace and be forgiving. My mistake.
If you’ve made it this far...thanks for reading. I look forward to being Twitter friends with you and hopefully taking back our country to what is should be.
✌️❤️🌊😘
~Kelly Renee’ aka PhoenixQueen15
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When antis are too lazy to research & you gotta do their homework for them.
Masterpost of current fuckery (still missing some stuff)
Still think Lord Pastel Lance is reaching? (If you want direct links, shoot us a BLOOD tribute/ask. We used screenshots so you can’t pull the “lol who cares about your link sources bye” card.)
The infamous Shalluragate happens after Wondercon reveals that Allura is a teenager & not an adult. Antis implode & start mass-deleting all their Shallura content. The “Allura is a lesbian” movement is started in response to this: as antis had used Shallura’s “diversity” before as a weapon against Shaladins. Now, they’re using lesbian Allura as their new tool of performative wokeness against the evil “racist” shippers. Shitllurans make up tons of excuses to ship shallura while still attacking & harassing shaladins for being “nasty”. A petition is started to get the ages from the staff (which fails). (1)
Hypocritical anti causes a PR scandal for an Anime Convention. (1, 2)
An adult anti chases after an underaged Shaladin even after the Shaladin blocks them for being creepy. (1, 2)
The adult anti makes a different account blog & sucks up to an adult Shaladin to try to get that Shaladin to tell the minor that the anti made an apology post. (1)
The adult anti gets tired of being ignored & goes to an underaged minor anti to be comforted.
Antis later put the minor on the Shaladin block list instead of protecting the minor from the creepy adult anti. (1)
Klance14 (an anti) tries to blackmail Studio Mir over the Voltron photo leaks. Antis & Klancers refuse to do anything about it & try to pin the blame on Shaladins without any proof. (1)
[Fairymatsu, the troll with like a hundred other accounts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
IMPORTANT NOTE: They are neither an anti or a shaladin. They are a troll with a long history of harassing people in other fandoms. If you have received a message like this:
then that means the account was made by Fairymatsu. Check the archive link on the sidebar of Our blog to see how to avoid them & what Fairymatsu has done. Currently, they’ve escalated to gorespamming.]
Klancer anti blames US for being Fairymatsu & obnoxiously replies to every MirGate post. (1)
Infamous harasser spacerangerpartners/keith-mcclains continues to bother & threaten voice actor Jeremy Shada. (1) NOTE: They have since then apologized & deleted the comments. (But from their attitude when We spoke to them, We do NOT believe that they are actually apologetic about it. They seem more mad that they were caught & called out on it rather than actually being sorry for it).
StrawGate, in which tons of antis attack Bex-TK over a few joke comments & she finally snaps back. (1)
Operation Shalanonymous: in which 2 underaged Shaladins expose leaks from an allegedly “child-safe” anti discord filled with Shaladin porn, cyberstalking, sexual harassment & death threats towards minors & ignoring an actual rape blog. Antis later tried to do damage control by claiming that the minor had sent them all rape footage in an attempt to traumatize them & that the screenshots were taken out of context. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
[Fairymatsu, the troll with like a hundred other accounts, impersonates me to harass both antis & shippers. Twice. (First time was the blog shalanonymous).
(1, 2) - first attempt The blog “shalanonymous”
NOTE: Upon contacting that blog, it turned out that it was NOT Fairymatsu, but instead an anti & the whole thing was some sort of inside joke with antis.
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5*, 6, 7*) * - are important posts detailing the harassment]
AnarcheryLesbian (Allura-of-Altea) gets her friends, quiznah & klanced, all Big Name Fan antis, to encourage their followers to harass voltronwlwmonth, a month started by Shaladins. They made up lies about the mod & later Anarchery was exposed that she shipped a pairing of a teen girl with an adult woman in a different fandom & could not tell them apart by age. (Even though it was blatantly obvious). The antis’ month, vld-wlw-month, does not even follow their own rules & had a Broganes prompt at one point.
Starryklance (creator of the Shipper Block List) later made excuses for her saying stuff like “She didn’t know, she doesn’t ship it now” & had the audacity to tag it as “Don’t rush to conclusions & accuse people right away without any proof” even though she, quiznah & klanced had all made false claims about the shaladin mod of voltronwlwmonth. (1, 2, 3, 4)
The Voltron House: how VLD kins abused a toddler in real life & nearly killed a trans teenager IN REAL LIFE. (1)
Antis attack Bex for supporting shaladin ships & for shipping Pance, calling her homophobic slurs & a traitor to the gay community. Fairymatsu calls Bex slurs & antis immediately deny all responsibility. Antis also threaten to physically attack Bex & call Bex a child abuser when she tells them that she’s not afraid of them.
(1)
An anti plagiarizes MisterPoofOfficial’s Sheith fanwork & opens a floodgate for other antis to attack & spam Poof’s page. Meanwhile, the antis constantly crow about how Klance is “sin” because the plagiarized piece was NSFW Klance porn. Interview with Poof was done with permission & the final post was approved by Poof. (1)
for-submissions, an anti, harasses Minty, an underaged shaladin & threatens to report her friends to a British Federal website for reporting cases of child abuse & child rape if she doesn’t give the anti her personal info. The anti refuses to believe that Minty is underaged &, although later apologizes for reporting Minty to that site, later brags about reporting other shaladin blogs to the website. WHICH IS ILLEGAL. (1)
List of antis making death threats at & condoning sending death threats to shaladins, compiled by anti-anti-survivor. (1)
An anti claiming that shaladins should be fed needles like the Taiwanese Undertale artist who nearly died at the convention in England. (1)
Vorgtron & other klantis sexually harass Karen Lance, a real estate agent, verbally online to get her twitter handle @ klance. Vorgtron fakes a hoax where one of their members is arrested by the cops after Karen called the cops, then makes excuses for the hoax, lies about Karen being inactive & repeatedly slanders her online. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
Lancestan/Klanti, Lynn, steals $1400 from a McHanzo (Overwatch) charity zine to buy Lance badges & fanmerch for her SECOND Lance-themed ita-bag. The antis make excuses for them, lying that she’s a minor who was Robin-Hooding a bunch of gross “incest” shippers who allegedly infested the zine (rival shippers were not allowed in the zine because it was a McHanzo-ONLY zine). (1, 2, 3)
Update: Lynn fucked people over one last time by sending them poorly made zines with no artist credits & no return address. People are planning on suing her over this. (1)
Vorgtron member brags about forcing the kids she was babysitting to watch Voltron with her & then illegally films them & uploads it online publicly to show the kids talking about how Sheith is “sexual assault” & “Klance is canon & gay” for discourse points. Vorgtron & other antis support her & excuse everything disgusting about it & how she fed the kids lines & misconceptions about sexual assault & Voltron. One member then claims that the people calling them out are worse than the rapist who assaulted them as a kid. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Antis make jokes about shooting Bex, the VA, & brag about having access to guns. They turn the whole thing into a meme & scream abuse when other people tell them that they could be arrested for making terroristic threats like that. (1, 2)
Anti troll screeches that their 11 year old sister found klance porn & trans Lance stuff on tumblr. This “traumatized” her, ESPECIALLY the trans Lance stuff, & the anti blames the shaladins for this for some reason, hurling death threats everywhere. (1, 2)
Antis make up lies & claim that Minty, from the Shalanonymous wank, was the one who started calling Shiro’s brains “scrambled eggs”. What really happened was that she was QUOTING ANTIS who called him that (one of their many attacks to demonize Shiro in order to make Shaladin ships abusive). They also claim that they DID report a rapists’ blog after they were traumatized by a rape video of an underaged girl, from a “report this rapist” post that Minty linked them, which would have been impossible because you can’t actually watch the video without PMing the rape blog for the video file first. (1)
Anti tries to remain a pure defender against sheith & shaladin but openly goes gaga for Devilman Crybaby, a series that should have made their heads explode considering the “problematic content” in it. They even try to bar shaladins from the fandom, claiming that the “antis” were there first despite being a 17 year old & the original Devilman manga being made in the 70s. They also attempt to shame & scold the Devilman fandom before getting blasted by both antis & shaladins for being such a hypocrite. Eventually they shut their inbox & went on hiatus.
http://archive.is/isakashi.tumblr.com <- the first 5 pages of their blog in case they delete (showcasing their willful ignorance & them openly ignoring netflix rating systems & being all “well just because i didnt say that it’s not okay for canon to show it, that doesn’t mean that i support it!” about shit) (1, 2, 3)
A Klanti (the same one who wrote the 50k+ “Klance is canon” meta) starts a war against the Korrasami & Bubbeline shippers on twitter for no fucking reason other than to be obnoxious because “Klance is SUPERIOR to Korra x Asami (Legend of Korra) & Bubblegum x Marceline (Adventure Time)”. Put together with misc. anti bullshit like keith-against-sheith claiming that ace headcanons of the paladins is sexualization of minors & sourwolf-wot screeching about “nasty shaladins” sexualizing minors while openly saying that people only ship shaladin because they’re “sick fucks who’ve only been in abusive adult x minor relationships & think that that’s the norm”. They also seem to be okay with Wincest (Supernatural) but think that sheith is incest & used Klance porn as their blog header at one point despite Lance being a minor. (1)
Vldflops, a hate group full of antis, starts reposting people’s art (heith, shaladin, langst) to mock & deride on Instagram, often calling the artist a pedophile & an abuser. They even went so far as to post uncensored photos of REAL SUICIDAL/DEPRESSED PEOPLE slitting their wrists & then had the nerve to “educate them” (in a condescending & insultingly uncaring manner) not to “romanticize self-harm”. They even accused one of the people in the photos of being langstdreams* (which it WASN’T & langstdreams SAW that).
They keep getting reported to instagram, having their accounts deleted & then remaking a new account to continue harassing people (you cannot get them to take down your art because they will insult you if you DM them & make up a fake abuse backstory to get you to feel bad about “harassing” them).
They even went so far as to encourage their followers to cyberstalk & send death threats to people & when one victim said that they were going to commit suicide, vldflops immediately posted cropped (in a biased way) screencaps of the DMs on their instagram & cried to their followers about how their victim was giving them anxiety by trying to commit suicide over a ship. (Which is 100% a lie & vldflops has gone back to harassing those same people AGAIN).
https://huntypastellance.tumblr.com/tagged/vf
*langstdreams is a shipper who had been harassed & stalked by antis who repeatedly told them to kill themselves & deliberately misgendered them. (1)
Barlee is harassed by antis because she drew art of Shiro & Keith & called them bros. The antis attempted to throw the shaladins under the bus until Barlee clarified that it was the hundreds of Broganes comments from antis that caused her to lock the post’s comments. (1)
Kihyun Ryu also gets spammed by the antis on all the blatantly romantic Sheith art he drew on his instagram. He also received hate on his memorial art, for a friend & Studio Mir coworker who passed away in a car accident, from antis who claimed that the art was fatphobic & disgusting because Hunk was drawn serving food. Antis also accused him of being racist by coloring Hunk too pale, which is a huge fucking lie. (1, 2, 3, 4) - album showing the hate comments will be compiled on imgur soon!
Klantis illegally record Jeremy Shada accidentally breaking his NDA at an autograph signing (he spoiled some stuff about future seasons) & upload footage of it online, titling it as “Jeremy confirms canon Klance!”. It is literally nothing like that & now Jeremy is in legal trouble. Antis ignore this (other than the few who deleted the footage & posts of it) & celebrate Jeremy “escaping Lauren’s basement to confirm that Klance is canon”. They openly tweet at Lauren that Jeremy hates her & is “Klance cannon king”. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
Antis bring up an old post about Josh from a whole year ago & start making fake accounts of him on twitter claiming that he is a pedophile & sending him & his family death threats. They harass him NONSTOP for 2 whole days & continue this even when he reports their accounts. Josh ends up caving to the antis & they openly celebrate his surrender, make fake apologies or excuses (”they’re just meme vines, not REAL death threats!”) for their behavior & continue to send him MORE death threats.
This leads to a tremendous amount of antis either doubling down on their “right” to send Josh & his family death threats or claiming that they had no idea that any of this was happening despite openly supporting their friends (who were sending the threats) & constantly shittalking the cast & defending people sending them threats for over a whole DAMN YEAR. (Check the Bex knife threats to see examples of that.)
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
Update: A sheith shipper made an anti block list after this blew up only for antis to attack & stalk her by claiming that being on the list opened them up to attacks & gave them anxiety. They apparently completely forgot about the MULTIPLE inaccurate lists that they made about shaladins & that HAVE been used to attack shaladins in the past. Some antis also threw a fit because they weren’t “antis” anymore & were outraged that they were on the list (real ex-antis were only mildly annoyed). Some antis even bragged that they should be on the list, basically admitting that they supported the same people who sent Josh Keaton death threats. (1, 2)
Afterwards, many antis claimed that antis who send death threats to people aren’t welcome in the fandom & made posts claiming that Shaladins were equally in the wrong. However, those same antis have been documented sending death threats to people, too. (1)
Anti accuses Lauren of “queerbaiting” the fandom with Klance & says that she should drive her “Klance-fueled car” off a cliff & calls her a cunt. (1)
Another anti whines about Lauren talking with a Sheith shipper at a convention & threatens to scream “Broganes” at her to ruin the conversation while accusing them of being incest-loving pedophiles (that last part is implied). (1)
Joaquim talks about ships being like “forbidden fruit” & Klantis immediately take his quote out of context to make it sound like he was homophobic & attacked him until he apologized & clarified his statement, something that he shouldn’t have had to do. (1)
Insane klanti tricks their klanti friend into stealing a Sheith fan-edit (telling them that it was from the show) & letting the friend photoshop it into a Klance edit. After the klanti was accused of art theft, their friend ditched them & threw them to the shaladins because who would believe that someone would be so douchey as to trick their friend like that? (1)
Klantis harass Jeremy Shada on instagram for saying that “Keith & Lance have a brotherly relationship” in an interview. (1)
Anti harasses 2 adult Sheith cosplayers over their lap dance at an 18+ con & claims that they’re harassing the Shiro cosplayer because “they hate black people”. (1)
Kihyun Ryu’s art gets attacked by antis for being too “Sheith-y”. (1)
An anti by the name of bluepaladinstan harasses an underaged VLD cosplayer on twitter for being a shaladin. The harassment has been going on for MONTHS. (1)
Antis literally defend their racist caricature fanart by saying that the canon skin colors are “too boring” & that anyone who criticizes them is a racist. (1)
Anti admits that they will not confront people in real life over problematic choices (like buying 50 Shades of Grey) but that’s it’s “safer” for them to attack people online, despite this having less impact than doing it irl (because they really don’t care that much about their own cause - they’re a coward). (1)
Anti makes up bullshit story about how fanfiction led her “sweet” friend sexually assault children and pet dogs & how fanfiction is worse than “doing lines of crack cocaine”. (You can’t even do lines of crack cocaine! It’s physically impossible!) (1)
Anti rants about their best friend of 3 years being a Shidge shipper & another anti encourages them to dump their friend. (1)
Anti is so disgusted by Shaladin ships that they became grossed out by their own boyfriend (20) being 2 years older than them until they remembered that they turn 19 in a few months. (1)
Klantis attack the Voltron Cafe event solely because the staff went to an event run by shaladins (despite the event being ship-free). (1, 2)
An anti, keilua, makes a GoFundMe page to take them to Dreamworks HQ to punch the entire staff in the throats. (1)
Antis attack black comic artist for “drawing the VLD comic cover too ugly”. They even celebrate when the cover is pulled (not due to harassment but due to other circumstances). (1)
Sinningpaladin, aka sinpal, abuses antis & uses them to slam Shaladins & gain popularity with a flimsy lie that they were a Dreamworks intern, (claiming that Sheith was disgusting & that Dreamworks intended Klance to be endgame). This isn’t found out (by the antis anyway) until sinpal goes too far with the power the antis gave them. Later, they “apologize” by blaming it on their meds & mental illness. (1, 2)
Antis accuse POC Lance cosplayers in Shamus’ “Lance is Bi” article of brownfacing despite literally being presented a photo of the cosplayers’ faces. They suddenly retreat after the cosplayers themselves refute them on twitter. Meanwhile, an anti doubles down on it & claims that Shaladins using this incident as proof that antis are racist are even MORE racist & that it’s okay for antis to accuse POC of brownfacing so long as they get “educated” about it. They also rant that lightskin POC shouldn’t care about being accused of brownfacing because they will never suffer as much as darkskin POC. (1, 2)
To be added...
They also attack Lion Forge (a POC-run company) over the VLD cover being “whitewashed” despite the fact that it was another company handling the covers & there was no way for Lion Forge to get it fixed. (1, 2)
Klantis make Jeremy’s selfies with his girlfriend all about Klance instead, claiming that the rainbow is proof of Jeremy supporting Klance, (this was an actual rainbow & not the LGTBQ+ flag btw). They also make endless disrespectful jokes about Lauren locking the cast in the basement & drew fanart of that, too.
Klantis draw fanart of Jeremy x Steven for Klance & secretly recorded their white classmates, (claiming that they’re Klance whitesonas because they’re wearing red & blue shirts), while accusing Shaladins of doing the same thing for Sheith. They continue spouting the term “whitesona” with zero irony. (1, 2)
#vld discourse#voltron#vld#pro-shaladin#anti-shaladin#not tagged as k/ance because this post is too damn long#and you guys cant be bothered to learn how to use xkit or actually doxx someone#we ain't that evil#despite what all the die bitch messages in our inbox say#masterpost#LPL
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Of Privilege and Punching Nazis
The title of this blog is “Angry Brown Girl Abroad” and it exists for two reasons. One is to record my adventures of my travels through Central America and my trials and tribulations as I struggle to learn Spanish and connect to my roots. The other reason is the “angry brown girl” side, a place to vent my opinions on my place in the world as an ambiguously brown, female in gender (most of the time) person from the United States. I’ve mostly used this blog for the former, and I tend to take to Facebook more often to voice my opinions on the latter, because, quite frankly, I think they are more likely to be seen and shared there. However, I feel like it’s time to explore my angry brown side a bit more in this space.
I actually haven’t posted anything on this blog in a few months. Part of this was because I was in a rush, and went back to the states for the holidays, which ended up being a very emotionally tumultuous time for me. When my feelings are in overdrive, I still turn to writing for comfort, but I rarely publish those deep feelings for anyone else to read. The holidays were hard for a variety of reasons, but the even harder part was coming back to the country I am currently staying in (Guatemala) and watching both the inauguration and coverage of the Women’s March on Washington from thousands of miles away, and the ensuing aftermath of both events. Watching your country implode from a distance is a strange feeling, you care, you want to be there, you can’t look away, you feel glad that you got out, you feel guilty that you got out, you struggle to enjoy your time here while you wonder if you can do more for the people still there. I’m working on finding the balance, but I’m spending a great deal of time on the internet these days, reading about each new horrible thing our incompetent commander in chief has cooked up that threatens the lives of POCs, LGBTQ people and disabled citizens. I am both constantly surprised by the lengths this administration is willing to go to, and also the response from people to it, especially within my own community. I am frustrated with them more specifically, as I find out where each person falls on certain lines in the sand. One of the ones that keeps coming up, weeks after I feel it should have been settled, is punching a Nazi (and, more recently, the violent opposition of Milo Y-I’mnotevengonnatryhesanasshole speaking at UC Berkley).
I AM REALLY TIRED OF PEOPLE WHO ARE THE LAST IN LINE TO BE HURT BY BOTH NAZIS AND MILO YGAYNAZI TELLING PEOPLE IN THE LINE OF FIRE HOW THEY SHOULD REACT TO SUCH ABUSE.
Yep, I said it, I mean it. It is not at all a surprise to me that every person I have argued with personally about whether violence is justifiable against people who PROMOTE VIOLENCE has been a cis-hetero-white dude. I’m just mad that there are so many, and so many that I know personally, and that they have the audacity to call me, and the people like me to who disagree with me, names because we won’t agree with them that “violence is never the answer.”
Violence should not be our first answer. Violence should not be applied willy-nilly to anyone who disagrees with us. Violence is, 99% of the time, the last choice from a marginalized group. You know why? Because it’s dangerous, because people don’t want to do it, and because the people most likely to suffer the worst legal ramnifications for using violence against their oppressors are minorities. Black men get shot by cops for doing literally nothing, you think they are going to actively choose to fight the police as their first move? Nah.
Which brings me to another point: so many of these dudes who I’ve seen argue really hard against punching actual, confirmed Nazis, have been oddly silent on cases where POCs are killed, without justification, by police. They’ll go on and on about how minorities should not use violence to defend themselves, but say nothing for the victims of state-sponsored police violence. They get into a frothy fervor about hypothetical punching, but when was the last time they even acknowledged the tragic ends of Tamir Rice or Trayvon Martin? (Both are children and the last was killed by another citizen). Where is there outrage for the actual deaths of people, who espoused no genocidal beliefs, and were killed for the simple sake of being not-white? Is it because the punching of white dudes might actually affect them whereas police shooting them is pretty much a non-issue? I take note of who goes hard for what issues, I see you, and trust me, I’ve made note.
But lets just say that said dude is not in this just for himself and his own preservation. Still, defending Nazis and the pasty scum that is Milo Yareyousoawful does not paint you in a good light. Its not like these are white dudes who said something questionable on the internet. Richard Spencer, the aforementioned Nazi who was punched mid-interview at Trump’s inauguration, is a confirmed Alt-Right (CALL THEM FUCKING NAZIS) leader who just launched a new website dedicated to the Alt-Right movement. His previous website featured the essay “Is Black Genocide Right?” and features the line: “we should instead be asking questions like, ‘Does human civilization actually need the Black race?’ ‘Is Black genocide right?’”* So, pretty clearly a Nazi. As for Milo Ywontyoujustgoaway, he is a Breitbart senior editor known for slinging hate who was supposed to speak at UC Berkeley but his engagement was cancelled after violent protests on campus. Milo Yifeelsorryforyourmom has built his empire on hate, he gained notoriety last year by leading the charge on Twitter that led to Leslie Jones (one of the stars of the new Ghostbusters) being harassed with a slew of racist, sexist, violent messages and tweets. This earned him a ban from Twitter, but didn’t stop his book deal.* In his speech at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee he outed a trans student named Adelaide Kramer, projecting a photo of her earlier in her transition for all of her classmates to see and calling on the audience to laugh at her as he degraded an misgendered her.* There are reports that, in his UC Berkeley address, that Milo Yohgawdshutup was planning to target students who did not have documentation to live in the United States. Milo Yuccccckkkkkkkkkk claimed that it wasn’t true, but that instead he intended to talk about cultural appropriation while wearing a Native American headdress, so either way the man is filth.* It’s not like these men are people who posted a questionable Facebook status, they have a documented history of advocating hate and abuse against people not like them.
And we get told we cannot fight these men with fists because it would be “sinking to their level.” We can’t, though, not with a single punch. Hitting someone who advocates for the murder of an entire group based on the color of their skin is not comparable to, I don’t know, advocating the murder of an entire group based on the color of their skin. Unless you immediately start putting together armed groups and planning the next white genocide after you throw that punch, there is no sinking. Making someone reconsider their choice to espouse violent rhetoric in a public arena is a good thing, a thing that one wishes we could accomplish with protests, but clearly those protests are doing little to slow down the new Nazis in this country. Also, claiming that we’ll lose support of fence sitters and drive them to the genocidal far right because we’re advocating for Nazi punching is ridiculous. Anyone who is on the fence about support genocide or genocidal rhetoric is not someone whose going to change their mind if we are lenient on those who would see them hang. If you’re on the fence about genocide, well your fence is already pretty far past the line of decency anyways.
Which brings me to my last point, the invocation that I have heard over and over again that we should try and talk things out with Nazis. That our words will be more effective than our fists. And to this I say, “Maybe yours, Mr. Hetero White Dude who keeps espousing this belief” because believe me, they are not going to listen to an ambiguously brown woman, with an ambiguous sexuality, talk to them about hating less. Those of us who are targets of Nazi hate should not be required to speak calmly to our oppressors about it, especially since some of the oppressors feel like we should be shot on sight. And telling us we should is ignoring and invalidating the very real and justifiable fears that we feel. Stop doing that, it’s a form of gaslighting.
The fact is, if Nazis are going to listen to ANYONE at all, it’s going to be another white dude. Which means these dudes defending the not-punching of Nazis, should put their money where their mouth is and go talk to Nazis. I want each and every one of you, before you come onto a status of a POC, LGBTQ or disabled person and tell them how violence is not the answer, to go to an alt-right forum, a Facebook page, hell, even in person, and engage in a peaceful discussion. I want receipts proving that you are willing to do the very thing you are preaching that the rest of us to do. I want to know your success rate for converting Nazis before you open your mouth about our methods. Since you care so much, go and do the work you wish to be done in the world. Maybe the two-pronged approach, discussion and violent opposition will be even more effective.
I’ll be over here, practicing my elbow strikes.
PS: The First Amendment only protects your freedom of speech from the government shutting you down, it does not protect you from the people who you are calling for the murder of en masse from beating your ass down, so I’m gonna need all you crying out about that to get off that tired horse. Words have consequences.
* http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/01/17/richard_spencer_launches_the_alt_right_s_newest_website.html
* http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2016/12/milo-yiannopoulos-leslie-jones-book-deal
* https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/trans-student-harassed-by-milo-yiannopoulos-speaks-out
* http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/uc-berkely-protests-milo-yiannopoulos-publicly-name-undocumented-students-cancelled-talk-illegals-a7561321.html
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Danger Signs, Aurora Climbs, Morgan Stanley’s Fine
Danger Signs, Aurora Climbs, Morgan Stanley’s Fine:
IPOooo … Oh My God, We’re Going to Crash!
Hey, I heard you missed us … we’re back! (Yeah.) I brought my pencil. Gimme something to write on, man!
Sorry about the two-day hiatus, but life happens. While I was away, the market broke out to fresh all-time highs. The Dow is above 29,000, and market bulls are eyeing 30,000. Jeez, I’m out of it for a little while, and everyone gets delusions of grandeur!
But there’s one thing that didn’t change while I was out. As usual, with the advent of new market highs come the inevitable “the last time this happened, everything went to hell” articles. Today’s “clear danger sign” example comes from MarketWatch.
The article interviews AdvisorShares Ranger Equity Bear ETF (NYSE: HDGE) manager Brad Lamensdorf. It opens with the comical line: “When pigs squeal, feed them.”
Excuse me while I try not to have Deliverance flashbacks here.
The “pigs” comment refers to an age-old adage on Wall Street. When investors are craving overhyped initial public offerings (IPOs), investment bankers will feed those “pigs” with more overhyped IPOs. But, as Lamensdorf notes, this can be a “clear danger sign.” He elaborates:
Over-priced IPOs usually occur toward the end of a long bull run when stocks in general become very overpriced. Why does this happen? Generally because investors have lost their sense of reality. They are willing to buy stocks on hyped stories instead of the facts.
(It kills me that we can’t edit direct quotations. Why two different spellings for “overpriced,” Brad? Why?)
The last time we saw this kind of excessive exuberance and resurgence in failed IPOs was 1999, aka the dot-com bust.
The Takeaway:
The dot-com bust is the new “Black Monday” (which was the new 1929 crash, which was the new Panic of 1907, yada, yada, yada). It’s brought up every time a new indicator gives the impression that the current bull market run is ending. It’s the Godwin’s law of finance.
Now, I agree with Lamensdorf that many investors in the IPO market lost their ever-loving minds last year. Following the WeWork debacle, the IPO market all but imploded. Speculative venture capital investors became much more conservative after former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann took them for a ride.
The problem with screaming “the sky is falling” every time an indicator throws off a bearish signal is that, eventually, no one will believe you … Chicken Little.
This indicator is no different. Unlike 1999, the entire market isn’t driven by IPOs. Back then, investors were fixated on any and every internet dot-com company. It didn’t matter that most of those companies’ business plans were written on fast food napkins — if they had one at all.
Dot-com companies were the market back in 1999. IPOs are not the market in 2020, nor were they in 2019. If they were, we would be talking about WeWork like we talk about Bear Stearns and the financial crisis.
Is this explosion of losses in the IPO market concerning? Sure. Is it bad for speculative IPO investors? Definitely. Will it stop the current bull run? Nope.
The current market is so much more than just overhyped IPOs. It will take more than this one indicator to give a “clear danger sign” for the market as a whole.
In the meantime … you know what to do after you feed the pigs, right? You make bacon!
I can think of no better way to bring home the bacon than by joining Paul Mampilly’s True Momentum research service.
Paul sifts through the stock market’s scruff so you don’t have to. Instead, he recommends standout stocks that are primed to soar higher.
And as this bull run continues, you’ll need stocks with true momentum to keep the bacon — er, gains — rolling in.
Click here to see why Paul’s True Momentum is your perfect companion for the 2020 bull market.
Good: It’s All About the Benjamins, Baby
What you wanna do, be traders? Investment bankers? Gains-makers?
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) just made bank on earnings … we’ll call it money for short. The investment banking giant blew Wall Street’s expectations away, posting a profit of $1.30 per share in the fourth quarter. The consensus was looking for $1.02 per share.
Revenue soared 27% to $10.86 billion, bro. Now that’s some green. Know what I mean?
But Morgan didn’t make its money wheeling and dealing in equities and trading, no. Morgan got paid in the fixed-income market, where revenue surged 126% to $1.27 billion.
It’s certainly an unexpected turn of events, given that we’re 10 years into a bull market, but being less aggressive paid off big-time for Morgan Stanley.
It’s also a nice contrast to the woes plaguing the IPO market right now. A word to the wise from Morgan Stanley: You don’t need to be aggressive across the board to grow your wealth.
Better: Lifting the Cannabis Haze
Dude … wait … what happened? Oh, we were running a business! I guess we should, like, fix it or something.
I’m not sure if the cannabis market has fixed itself yet or not, but investors certainly think the sector has baked long enough.
Pot stocks have made a comeback in the past week, and former Great Stuff favorite Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NYSE: ACB) is showing signs of life … thanks to Cowen analyst Vivien Azer.
Azer reported on the ICR Conference this morning, telling clients that Aurora’s management was working with creditors to restructure its debt.
She also noted that the Canadian cannabis firm looks to control spending and focus on sales. (Focus on sales?! Duuude … that’s a great idea! We should totally sell this stuff.)
As part of her note to clients, Azer reported that sales of Aurora’s Cannabis 2.0 products (such as gummies and chocolates) exceeded expectations. Azer then reiterated her outperform rating with a $4.61 price target on the stock.
So far this week, ACB shares are up nearly 40%. While this is good for investors, the stock remains down more than 70% in the past year. What’s more, Wall Street may not be convinced to buy back into ACB until the company reports earnings next month.
Best: Squeezing Mr. Robot
iRobot Corp. (Nasdaq: IRBT) is about to go on a rampage, and there’s nothing Will Smith can do about it this time.
Beaten down by an escalating trade war between the U.S. and China, iRobot finally got some relief this week when both sides signed the “phase 1” trade agreement.
Doing so lessened tariff pressures on iRobot, which has an extensive supply/manufacturing chain running through China.
With a sigh of relief, investors returned to this outperforming home-robotics specialist in droves. The stock is up more than 15% in the past two weeks, with bullish sentiment driving IRBT above psychological resistance at $50. (And you thought psychology and robots didn’t mix!)
While the rally has investors excited, short sellers are more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. According to ShortSqueeze.com, more than 46% of iRobot’s float (i.e., shares available for public trading) are sold short. In other words, nearly half of all IRBT shares on the market are shorted.
This is a powder keg just waiting to explode for IRBT. All it’ll take is one little spark to send the shares skyrocketing as short sellers rush to avoid potentially heavy losses. (Just look at what happened to Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA), which more than doubled in just a few months due to short sellers covering their sold positions.)
The catalyst for such a move could be something as benign as IRBT shares moving above technical resistance at $55. Or, it could be next month’s quarterly earnings report. Either way, IRBT is primed and ready to run.
You Marco. I Polo.
It’s Reader Feedback time!
It’s been a bit of a rough week, and I feel like we could use some encouragement around here. (I know I could, at least.) So today, I’m going to be a bit shameless and share some of the great things you have to say about Great Stuff.
Let’s start with this short-but-sweet email from Barbara M.:
Thanks for all the laughs! Love, love your writing! Keep it up. Get your mind out of the gutter, as someone just said.
Thank you, Barbara! But I’m afraid that if I took my mind out of the gutter, there wouldn’t be anything left of it. (My mind or the gutter … I’ll let you decide which.)
Next, we have this delightful feedback from Dawn B.:
OK, I admit, I just read my first Great Stuff email — love it! But tell me again, what happened to the little boy who said the king had no clothes on? (Isn’t that what the derivatives excuse was all about? “Don’t worry, I can’t explain it and you wouldn’t understand it anyhow, just the brainiacs in the financial markets, the nerds!”)
Love your sense of humor and your no-nonsense assessment of the information. What I’m curious about is all this information and misinformation — some of it coming from the president himself! So, how do we know what’s real and what’s Memorex?
Thanks again for a refreshing, witty, delightful read!
I completely forgot about those commercials! “Is it live, or is it Memorex?” Here’s a little Ella Fitzgerald commercial for those who don’t remember.
(For you young’uns out there: Back in the day, we had to record music and videos on these things called cassette tapes and VHS tapes. It was barbaric, and we liked it.)
I’m glad you love Great Stuff, Dawn! And if you’re worried about all the misinformation out there, just keep it dialed in to Great Stuff and BanyanHill.com. We’ve got you covered.
If you wrote in and I didn’t get to you, it might be because you cursed too $%*?@#! much. I still really appreciate the feedback, even if they won’t let me publish it.
And if you haven’t written in yet … what’s stopping you? Drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know how you’re doing out there in this crazy bull market.
That’s a wrap for today. But if you’re still craving more Great Stuff, you can check us out on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Until next time, good trading!
Regards,
Joseph Hargett
Great Stuff Managing Editor, Banyan Hill Publishing
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IPOooo … Oh My God, We’re Going to Crash!
Hey, I heard you missed us … we’re back! (Yeah.) I brought my pencil. Gimme something to write on, man!
Sorry about the two-day hiatus, but life happens. While I was away, the market broke out to fresh all-time highs. The Dow is above 29,000, and market bulls are eyeing 30,000. Jeez, I’m out of it for a little while, and everyone gets delusions of grandeur!
But there’s one thing that didn’t change while I was out. As usual, with the advent of new market highs come the inevitable “the last time this happened, everything went to hell” articles. Today’s “clear danger sign” example comes from MarketWatch.
The article interviews AdvisorShares Ranger Equity Bear ETF (NYSE: HDGE) manager Brad Lamensdorf. It opens with the comical line: “When pigs squeal, feed them.”
Excuse me while I try not to have Deliverance flashbacks here.
The “pigs” comment refers to an age-old adage on Wall Street. When investors are craving overhyped initial public offerings (IPOs), investment bankers will feed those “pigs” with more overhyped IPOs. But, as Lamensdorf notes, this can be a “clear danger sign.” He elaborates:
Over-priced IPOs usually occur toward the end of a long bull run when stocks in general become very overpriced. Why does this happen? Generally because investors have lost their sense of reality. They are willing to buy stocks on hyped stories instead of the facts.
(It kills me that we can’t edit direct quotations. Why two different spellings for “overpriced,” Brad? Why?)
The last time we saw this kind of excessive exuberance and resurgence in failed IPOs was 1999, aka the dot-com bust.
The Takeaway:
The dot-com bust is the new “Black Monday” (which was the new 1929 crash, which was the new Panic of 1907, yada, yada, yada). It’s brought up every time a new indicator gives the impression that the current bull market run is ending. It’s the Godwin’s law of finance.
Now, I agree with Lamensdorf that many investors in the IPO market lost their ever-loving minds last year. Following the WeWork debacle, the IPO market all but imploded. Speculative venture capital investors became much more conservative after former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann took them for a ride.
The problem with screaming “the sky is falling” every time an indicator throws off a bearish signal is that, eventually, no one will believe you … Chicken Little.
This indicator is no different. Unlike 1999, the entire market isn’t driven by IPOs. Back then, investors were fixated on any and every internet dot-com company. It didn’t matter that most of those companies’ business plans were written on fast food napkins — if they had one at all.
Dot-com companies were the market back in 1999. IPOs are not the market in 2020, nor were they in 2019. If they were, we would be talking about WeWork like we talk about Bear Stearns and the financial crisis.
Is this explosion of losses in the IPO market concerning? Sure. Is it bad for speculative IPO investors? Definitely. Will it stop the current bull run? Nope.
The current market is so much more than just overhyped IPOs. It will take more than this one indicator to give a “clear danger sign” for the market as a whole.
In the meantime … you know what to do after you feed the pigs, right? You make bacon!
I can think of no better way to bring home the bacon than by joining Paul Mampilly’s True Momentum research service.
Paul sifts through the stock market’s scruff so you don’t have to. Instead, he recommends standout stocks that are primed to soar higher.
And as this bull run continues, you’ll need stocks with true momentum to keep the bacon — er, gains — rolling in.
Click here to see why Paul’s True Momentum is your perfect companion for the 2020 bull market.
Good: It’s All About the Benjamins, Baby
What you wanna do, be traders? Investment bankers? Gains-makers?
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) just made bank on earnings … we’ll call it money for short. The investment banking giant blew Wall Street’s expectations away, posting a profit of $1.30 per share in the fourth quarter. The consensus was looking for $1.02 per share.
Revenue soared 27% to $10.86 billion, bro. Now that’s some green. Know what I mean?
But Morgan didn’t make its money wheeling and dealing in equities and trading, no. Morgan got paid in the fixed-income market, where revenue surged 126% to $1.27 billion.
It’s certainly an unexpected turn of events, given that we’re 10 years into a bull market, but being less aggressive paid off big-time for Morgan Stanley.
It’s also a nice contrast to the woes plaguing the IPO market right now. A word to the wise from Morgan Stanley: You don’t need to be aggressive across the board to grow your wealth.
Better: Lifting the Cannabis Haze
Dude … wait … what happened? Oh, we were running a business! I guess we should, like, fix it or something.
I’m not sure if the cannabis market has fixed itself yet or not, but investors certainly think the sector has baked long enough.
Pot stocks have made a comeback in the past week, and former Great Stuff favorite Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NYSE: ACB) is showing signs of life … thanks to Cowen analyst Vivien Azer.
Azer reported on the ICR Conference this morning, telling clients that Aurora’s management was working with creditors to restructure its debt.
She also noted that the Canadian cannabis firm looks to control spending and focus on sales. (Focus on sales?! Duuude … that’s a great idea! We should totally sell this stuff.)
As part of her note to clients, Azer reported that sales of Aurora’s Cannabis 2.0 products (such as gummies and chocolates) exceeded expectations. Azer then reiterated her outperform rating with a $4.61 price target on the stock.
So far this week, ACB shares are up nearly 40%. While this is good for investors, the stock remains down more than 70% in the past year. What’s more, Wall Street may not be convinced to buy back into ACB until the company reports earnings next month.
Best: Squeezing Mr. Robot
iRobot Corp. (Nasdaq: IRBT) is about to go on a rampage, and there’s nothing Will Smith can do about it this time.
Beaten down by an escalating trade war between the U.S. and China, iRobot finally got some relief this week when both sides signed the “phase 1” trade agreement.
Doing so lessened tariff pressures on iRobot, which has an extensive supply/manufacturing chain running through China.
With a sigh of relief, investors returned to this outperforming home-robotics specialist in droves. The stock is up more than 15% in the past two weeks, with bullish sentiment driving IRBT above psychological resistance at $50. (And you thought psychology and robots didn’t mix!)
While the rally has investors excited, short sellers are more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. According to ShortSqueeze.com, more than 46% of iRobot’s float (i.e., shares available for public trading) are sold short. In other words, nearly half of all IRBT shares on the market are shorted.
This is a powder keg just waiting to explode for IRBT. All it’ll take is one little spark to send the shares skyrocketing as short sellers rush to avoid potentially heavy losses. (Just look at what happened to Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA), which more than doubled in just a few months due to short sellers covering their sold positions.)
The catalyst for such a move could be something as benign as IRBT shares moving above technical resistance at $55. Or, it could be next month’s quarterly earnings report. Either way, IRBT is primed and ready to run.
You Marco. I Polo.
It’s Reader Feedback time!
It’s been a bit of a rough week, and I feel like we could use some encouragement around here. (I know I could, at least.) So today, I’m going to be a bit shameless and share some of the great things you have to say about Great Stuff.
Let’s start with this short-but-sweet email from Barbara M.:
Thanks for all the laughs! Love, love your writing! Keep it up. Get your mind out of the gutter, as someone just said.
Thank you, Barbara! But I’m afraid that if I took my mind out of the gutter, there wouldn’t be anything left of it. (My mind or the gutter … I’ll let you decide which.)
Next, we have this delightful feedback from Dawn B.:
OK, I admit, I just read my first Great Stuff email — love it! But tell me again, what happened to the little boy who said the king had no clothes on? (Isn’t that what the derivatives excuse was all about? “Don’t worry, I can’t explain it and you wouldn’t understand it anyhow, just the brainiacs in the financial markets, the nerds!”)
Love your sense of humor and your no-nonsense assessment of the information. What I’m curious about is all this information and misinformation — some of it coming from the president himself! So, how do we know what’s real and what’s Memorex?
Thanks again for a refreshing, witty, delightful read!
I completely forgot about those commercials! “Is it live, or is it Memorex?” Here’s a little Ella Fitzgerald commercial for those who don’t remember.
(For you young’uns out there: Back in the day, we had to record music and videos on these things called cassette tapes and VHS tapes. It was barbaric, and we liked it.)
I’m glad you love Great Stuff, Dawn! And if you’re worried about all the misinformation out there, just keep it dialed in to Great Stuff and BanyanHill.com. We’ve got you covered.
If you wrote in and I didn’t get to you, it might be because you cursed too $%*?@#! much. I still really appreciate the feedback, even if they won’t let me publish it.
And if you haven’t written in yet … what’s stopping you? Drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know how you’re doing out there in this crazy bull market.
That’s a wrap for today. But if you’re still craving more Great Stuff, you can check us out on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Until next time, good trading!
Regards,
Joseph Hargett
Great Stuff Managing Editor, Banyan Hill Publishing
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8 tips for becoming a professional travel blogger
I’m running an exclusive sale this week with Travel Blog Success just for you guys – use promo code FALL35 and save 35% off all their memberships and courses and get an exclusive webinar with me
It’s been almost five years since I quit my job to follow my dreams traveling the world and becoming a full time professional travel blogger. Yes, it’s a thing.
Five years of crazy adventures, heaps of countries, learning new stuff, discovering things about myself, of ups and downs, highs and lows, successes and failures, it goes on and on. Though thankfully, I haven’t failed catastrophically at this whole blogging for a job thing. And let me just tell you, there were plenty of people who were hoping expecting me to fail.
Take that, I am not back home living in my parents attic working at Starbucks! Which to be frank, was a very strong possibility. The world has been saved from a potentially bitter barista full of failed dreams giving thin bitches who order skinny pumpkin spice lattes wholemilk out of pure spite.
But I digress.
In 2012 I had the dream of building my blog into some kind of empire to fund my travels. No, I didn’t want to enter the real world. No, I didn’t want a real job. No, I didn’t want to settle. No, I didn’t want to pay my student loans back. I just wanted to explore. And I figured out a way to make it a reality in a way that let’s me tell stories and be creative.
But what essentially started as very selfish travel goal has slowly evolved over the years into something so much more; I like to think anyways.
Nowadays, travel doesn’t mean as much to me as it used too. I don’t really care about ticking places off a list or all the must-dos, to be honest. Now I’m rather more interested in the experience, the journey, the learnings, than the location. My blog has become my outlet for inspiring other people to chase their dreams too. To look outside convention and not be afraid to dream big, whatever that entails. It’s become a place for me to be creative again and make something meaningful that lasts.
I think everyone has a story to share and should start a blog. For me, blogging is for everyone.
Whether that’s traveling for the first time or going somewhere new to learning a new skill to trying to fix and change the world, for me what started as a self-indulgent journal of my adventures has grown and evolved into something much bigger, perhaps even more self-indulgent and totally different. At least for me.
In 2014, about a year or so after I had been blogging full time, I wrote a post called So you want to be a professional travel blogger, which is still one of my most highly read pieces. In it, I share all my knowledge from years of blogging and open up about how I make a living online.
It’s something a lot of people are curious about. Without fail, when I tell someone I’m a pro travel blogger, 95% of them will immediately ask me how I make money. Man oh man, if they only knew. Literally it’s the same conversation. Depending on my mood, I often now just straight up lie and invent various boring career paths knowing that the conversation will end there. Accounting (hey, I do my accounts), publishing (obviously), project managing (sure), investment broker (ok, what?!).
Because when I do open up and share about my life and work, I can’t do it half-assed. I’m all in. Hold on for the ride.
It’s been a couple of years since I wrote in-depth about building a career as a professional travel blogger, but it’s something I think about all the time. While many of my tips and secrets stay the same over the years, like be consistent and don’t share shitty content, some of my other pointers have taken much longer for me to realize.
I’ve been really involved with the travel industry over the years, and have picked up quite a few tips along the way for going professional and “making it,” whatever that means. My tips for becoming a professional travel blogger aren’t hacks or shortcuts. I’m a big believe in doing the work that is required to build something that lasts, and I’ve seen people over and over again try to jump the gun only to disappear a year later.
Here are my 8 best tips for becoming a professional travel blogger. Enjoy!
Join Travel Blog Success this week and save 35% with my exclusive offer code FALL35
1. Have clear achievable goals
I think most blogs are sloppy. Hell, even I’m sloppy. For any of you who’ve met met me personally, you know I’m literally all over the place. I’m messy. I’ve been called a hurricane. I’m glad you can’t see my desk space as I write this.
Organized chaos guys.
That being said, I have always had relatively clear goals regarding my blog, and I slowly worked at ticking them off over the years, setting the bar higher and higher for myself as time goes by. A tumultuous overachiever if you will.
10 tips for starting a kickass travel blog
Whether that was hitting certain numbers of followers, or developing a channel like Instagram, to organizing a specific project, I’ve always sat down, clearly outlined what I wanted to achieve and figured out how to get there. Funny enough, money has never been part of my goals ever except to earn enough for rent and coffee and to pay my blog costs.
In fact, I’ve hit peak goals – I’ve got an email chain currently with NASA. Like, what?!
2. Find your tribe + join Travel Blog Success
I hate the word tribe; I can’t believe I just wrote that. Community. That’s what I meant. Find a community to help you on your journey.
Listen, I’m an introvert at heart. I hate people. I hate talking to people. I want to be left alone. Mostly. But even I, in my harsh and lonely cynicism, will admit that I would have never gotten where I am today without an amazing community of other travel bloggers who helped me over the years when I needed it and who didn’t bother me when I wanted solitude. I’m grateful.
In addition to my own travel media conference I launched last year in Australia (The Travel Bootcamp), I have only ever been a part of one blogging community – Travel Blog Success. I’ve been a member since 2012. Travel Blog Success is an amazing resource, consisting of two major online courses that teach you everything from how to start and build a blog to going pro with it, along with other courses to help you advance your online business.
Why join Travel Blog Success?
It’s the only really established travel blogging group started and filled with genuinely good people. It’s really open and everyone is really supportive asking questions and getting good answers. There is a secret Facebook group where everyone asks everything, creating good dialogue, and perks and job offers that often pop up. While I joined 5 years ago, I didn’t actually go through and do the courses then, which I wish I had because it would have saved me years of trial and error.
And I’m still learning new things. TBS just helped me last month about setting up new adshare opportunities here I would have never known otherwise. Most of the major travel bloggers are in and participate in the Facebook group; it’s the only group I participate in, and it’s been instrumental in my growth and success. It taught me everything I needed to know, introduced me to key people, and I ran with it.
Also this week I’m running my own exclusive sale with Travel Blog Success just for you guys to join if you’re looking to start a blog or go pro with your blog. It is so difficult to try and make it on your own. I’m offering an exclusive 35% discount on all their courses and memberships til Friday October 20th midnight EST – use PROMO CODE FALL35 at checkout. And you’ll also get access to an upcoming exclusive webinar with me where you can ask me anything (within reason).
3. Think outside the box
It is so easy to copy what other people doing, especially successful people, but that will only get you so far. There are hundreds of millions of blogs in existence today. If you want to be in it for the long haul, and be a serious professional travel blogger, you have got to stand out.
And you will never stand out if you do what every one else is doing. Obviously.
Figure out your point of difference and run with it. And it can’t be bird stuff or getting hate mail, that’s mine.
4. Diversify what you do
Would you believe me if I told you that my blog earns me into the six figures, something I never thought was possible. I went pro solely in the hopes I could pay for my travels, and now it’s gone so much further than I could have ever imagined.
If you think the only way to make money as a travel blogger is through advertising and affiliates, you’re not thinking outside the box. The ways I earn really vary, and I’m always trying new things. My work through my blog has been anything from location scouting New Zealand to hosting my own tours to launching my own events. But if I’ve learned one thing in this industry as a professional travel blogger, it’s that it’s really important to diversify both your content and your revenue streams.
Don’t just focus on one social media platform either. When I started this blog, all that matter was Facebook and Twitter. Quickly that changed to Instagram and who knows where we will be in another 5 years. I’ve made sure that I’ve built a strong solid presence both on different social media platforms but also running my own column on Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand’s biggest newspaper and writing, creating and consulting for others too.
Try new things, and don’t put all your eggs into one basket.
5. Tell a damn good story
It blows my mind that the stuff people are creating online these days are both simultaneously amazing and shit. Literally most of the blogs I see online are terrible. Even the really famous ones. Perhaps I’m being judgmental here, especially when I know for a fact there are a whole lot of people who hate my guts out there, but still. Why can’t everyone be like me?
Jokes, I jest I jest. Please don’t be like me. The world would implode.
What I’m trying to say is I would like to fight for the value of a truly good tale. Storytelling is incredibly important in digital media these days. We crave good stories and we don’t always get them.
If you can craft a good story, in any way you can, you will do well. And I don’t mean just being a good writer, I mean in terms of what you make. Whether that’s through photos, videos, art, words, whatever medium you want, storytelling is a powerful and important tool to have if you want to be a professional travel blogger.
And don’t get caught up on making it perfect. I think actually that shiny polished content doesn’t matter as much as a rock solid story. Look at Casey Neistat. His vlogs are intentionally a bit messy. He’s all over the place, you see him adjust exposure on his camera. It’s not refined at all. But he’s a great personality, a great storytelling and a damn good editor, that’s what matters more.
6. Hustle til it hurts
No one is going to hand you anything if you’re trying to be a professional travel blogger. You have to work for it. You’ll never stop working for it. It doesn’t get easier. You have to hustle to make shit happen, like with all things in life.
I can’t even begin to express just how difficult and hard this is. It’s stressful and exhausting but worth it.
I send out huge proposals almost daily. I am always on the phone with potential new clients. I chase up people I might want to work with. I make an effort to meet people face to face. I make people say no to me three times before I give up, and even then I don’t always. But I always try to do it in a nice, polite way, and I spend a long time building relationships with people before I pitch or ask for anything. Don’t be thirsty.
Hustle and don’t be afraid to go after what you want, but be genuine and don’t be a dick about it.
How to get paid to travel the world
7. Be memorable
Self-explanatory.
8. Mistakes and failures are lessons
Don’t be afraid to take risks or to fail. In all aspects of your life.
Success only comes after hardships and screw ups. But if you play it safe, and have a boring, average blog, it’ll be very hard to go professional nowadays. Dedicate a lot of time into coming up with creative things, projects and strategies that could launch your brand into going pro. And well, if oyu screw up on the way, no big deal. Everyone has the attention span of a toddler these days, and they’ll have forgotten it in a week and you’ll likely have learned something very valuable.
This is the most important thing I’ve learned with my blog, and it’s one of my greatest tips to give to people. This is a fucking hard industry to break into. But if you are willing to jump in feet first, be open minded about opportunities, be creative with your work and above all, be willing to take risks with what you do, you are setting yourself up for success.
Do you have a blog? Link below and I’ll add them to my list to read. Are you interested in becoming a professional travel blogger? What’s your dream job? Share!
Join Travel Blog Success this week and save 35% with my exclusive offer code FALL35 and access my free webinar
*This offer ends at 12am EST Saturday, Oct 21, 2017 or October 21st, 5pm New Zealand time. Webinar date and time TBA.
The post 8 tips for becoming a professional travel blogger appeared first on Young Adventuress.
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April 30th, 2017
Hello everyone,
My name is Sami Louise and I'm just your pretty average typical young adult emo/goth/scene/punk/alternative/what the hell ever you would like to call me, person. I've decided to make a visible online blog for everyone to read so I could get my thoughts and ideas out in the world. Maybe it will help me to not want to kill myself so much. No, I'm not joking. I'm an ex-cutter and for the first time in a long time I am being forced to actually deal with my shit myself while trying not to slice myself up.
I guess for my first entry I should basically summarize how my life is going right now.
My life took a massive shit on me back in November of last year. November 23rd to be exact. I remember because it was my mother's birthday and the night before Thanksgiving. My boyfriend of four years (with a minor 7 month break due to me and my fear of commitment) was supposed to be coming over. I cleaned my room. I woke from a nap and it was 6pm..no messages from him. I felt this terrible dread in my stomach, like something was wrong but I just didn't know what. I texted him.
“Hey when are you coming over?” I texted him.
“I've been thinking a lot lately.”
Oh no. I thought.
“Good or bad thoughts...?”
“Bad.”
“About...us?”
“Yeah.”
I at this point call him because my heart was imploding in my chest. I couldn't think straight. I told him I couldn't understand what he was saying because he was crying so hard. I told him I was coming over (which was a half hour drive for me.) to pick up all of my things and talk about this in person. I mean, he owed me just that. If he was going to finally end this after a good long four years, it was going to be in person. I remember as I was putting my shoes on I kept screaming curses. “DICK!” & “ASSHOLE!” You know, your basic insults.
On the drive to his house I just kept thinking about how I was going to move to Colorado as soon as I save up enough money for it. I was finally ready to give into my mother's many requests and hints and join her and my brother, father, and niece out there to begin a new life. Have a fresh start. Get away from California for good. There is nothing left for me here but good, bad memories.
It was your standard break up. He was wearing the blue plaid button up shirt I had gotten him for our Anniversary not even ten days earlier. He looked so good. It was a “It's not you it's me” type break up. He even used the ever so classic, “I love you but I'm not in love with you.” speech. I admit though, I did punch his legs and arms a couple times. I was so mad. I cried, he cried, he held me. I sacked up, finished packing up my things & I put them in my car. We kiss goodbye and I drove off.
Now, that same night I didn't want to be home alone because I knew for sure that if I was alone I was really going to kill myself. I hit up an old-time friend, David. I went over to his house and we talked until 1am the next morning. He made me laugh and made me feel good. David and I used to date a long time ago back in 2011. He was my one that got away and still to this day is the hottest person I've ever slept with. He ended up being a good friend of mine after I quit hating him after we broke up. I like having David in my corner fighting for me. He always has my back and is honest with me. After that night we began to hang out like every weekend there for like a month and he made me feel so invincible. His school year started up after that and we barely see each other now but I make sure that we remain talking because he will always be in my thoughts and my heart that's for sure.
Two weeks after my ex and I broke up and we said we were going to be friends still, a mutual friend of ours gave me heads up saying that my ex had began dating someone else, I shortly found out after this that the mystery girl ended up being his band's old manager. I met her a couple times in the end. This girl apparently is so terrible that no one wants to be around her. All my mutual friends that used go to his house a lot don't really do anymore. She has MS and is apparently dying, even though I know people who have had MS and lived for a long, long time. She makes my ex do absolutely everything for her, she is a 4 in the dating scale when I am at least a 6. Well I promised my friend I wouldn't say anything. And I didn't. Until my ex started calling me out on his twitter passive aggressively. Turns out one of our mutual friends on two of my social media outlets was telling him stories about how I was fucking some guy named Luke. I know one Luke, he commented something sweet on my facebook on one of my post-breakup posts. I hadn't seen this guy for at least a year at this time. They also mentioned a snap I took of me laying on David's bed, fully clothed, make up and hair on point, talking to David. Apparently that means I was sleeping with him. After a long fight my ex and I decided to not talk anymore.
I left some of my things at his place since I was angerly packing I missed some things. We made a date for my to come and pick them up. I got all done up, banging actually, got my sexy ass in the car and began driving to his place. I was ready to have some closure and say goodbye. Leave him pining after what he lost but as I’m getting off the freeway he texts me saying that my stuff was in a box on his porch and I can just walk up and get them. I begged for him to come outside and say goodbye but he said apparently he wasn’t home. I got to his house and his car was there. I walked up to his porch. Grabbed my box, And went back into the car and drove home crying the whole way. We haven’t spoken since.
In January of this year I was diagnosed with a slightly rare skin disease called Lichen Planus.
“Lichen planus (LP) is a disease characterized by itchy reddish-purple polygon-shaped skin lesions on the lower back, wrists, and ankles.[1] It may also present with a burning sensation in the mouth, and a lattice-like network of white lines near sites of erosion (Wickham striae). The cause is unknown, but it is thought to be the result of an autoimmune process with an unknown initial trigger. There is no cure, but many different medications and procedures have been used in efforts to control the symptoms.”
In August of I began to get a rash all over my body after I returned from one of my ex's band's shows in Willits, Ca. I thought it was poison ivy because apparently it was all over that place. I had itchy bumps all over my body for about three months out the end of my relationship with my ex and when I was finally diagnosed after seeing four different doctors and five months all together, I texted him. I heard nothing back.
I'm fine now, after being treated with UV rays my rash has dropped down to %80 which was the goal. It's starting to form in my mouth but that's nothing a good ointment won't take care of...results to come.
Everything was pretty basic between then and now. I tried dating again but it ended up being pointless and just not worth my effort right now. I attempted to try and take a 23 year old virgin's Vcard but after he tried to argue with me about how fast we were moving (making out and oral) twice, at the second time I was like fuck this, I do not have the time. So I ended that. I tried talking to a guy I met before meeting my ex and he figured that since we had sex 5 years ago then that just means we can start back up right from where we left off and got mad at me because I got mad at him for always asking for sex from me and telling him no. Nice guy. I started talking to a friend of one of the two mutual friends with the ex but even that guy ended up being a lying douche bag who only wanted sex from me too. Like, I am a person here. Not just a vagina for you to come and fuck when it's convenient for you. So I gave up on dating California boys. I'll think about picking up dating again when I move to Colorado. I hope my Colorado boy will have a beard. And a man bun. Man buns are my guilty pleasures.
This weekend shows up and I am hanging out with a couple friends from Woodland. I was informed that my ex has married the band manager. Why? Not because of true love, no. They are married because her parents hate my ex so much that they cut her off from all the money they give her (they are rich af) and took her off of their health insurance and knowing my ex, he probably felt bad and let her talk him into getting married so she can be on his health insurance. Apparently she does heroin now too.
My ex has been ignoring my texts for almost five months now. He either reads and ignores them, deletes them right away, changed his number, or blocked mine because he never replies. I texted him today though.
“I know you're ignoring my text messages or have blocked my number from your phone or even laugh at what I send you sometimes but something about messaging this number gives me serenity at these hard times. Do I wish more than anything in this world that you would talk to me? Yes. There is so much that I want to tell you. So many good things. I think I like the silence, however. It helps me to realize how gone you are from me. That I will never have you back in my life. As much as I wish that was different. As an ex-girlfriend it makes me happy knowing the things I know but, as a friend, I am worried about you. It's so weird having such strong contradictory feelings for someone. On one hand I'm happy and on the other I worry about you on the daily. I hope that you are doing okay and when you are ready to have a true friend fighting for you in your corner, I hope you'll have the peace in your heart long enough to talk to me. I give very good advice and I'm a great listener. Anyways, I hope that you are okay.”
And no reply, of course.
My old high school theater director passed away today. A man that taught me so much and had such an impact on my life is now gone. I hope he is finally at peace riding a huuuuuge dragon. He loves dragons.
R.I.P. Tom Fearon.
We will all miss you.
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Michael Moore wants to "discombobulate" Donald Trump
It sounds like a scene that's right out of a horror movie: Michael Moore wants to "discombobulate" Donald Trump. With that phrase I was thinking of a scene like the end of 1995's "Braveheart" movie. However thoughts of gore and torture ceased when I stopped using a private definition of "discombobulate" and looked up the universal one: turns out that all "discombobulate" means is "to confuse" someone. Michael Moore outlined a step-by-step sequence at his Facebook page on Wednesday titled "HOW TO STOP TRUMP." In the post, Moore lists several calls to action. He recommends phoning congress every day, going to town hall meetings, joining forces with friends for "RAPID RESPONSE," and several other strategies for effecting political change on the American landscape. Lastly, Moore advises people to "JOIN THE ARMY OF COMEDY" because Trump has "massively thin skin." According to Moore: "I truly believe the final tipping point for Trump will be when he implodes from all the laughter -- the mocking, the unbearable ridicule of tens of millions of Americans that will discombobulate him and force him out of the White House" (February 22nd). On the comedy front, Trump certainly doesn't seem to be a fan of Saturday Night Live. I don't know if he was before he became president, but he has to be less of a fan now that Alec Baldwin is doing his part to "discombobulate" Trump. The actor has portrayed Trump in numerous skits over the last few months, all of which have lampooned Trump either as president or president-elect. Trump sidekicks Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway haven't exactly been portrayed too favorably either. There has been a lot of discussion in the media about Trump's reaction to being made of fun, discussion that would suggest that Moore is right when it comes to trying to discombobulate the president. Deadline's Greg Evans wrote an article in early December titled "Donald Trump Still Hates Alec Baldwin’s ‘SNL’ Impression" (December 3rd). More recently, Motherjones.com talked about the SNL skit where Steve Bannon was portrayed as Death: "Donald Trump Is Going To Hate This Saturday Night Live Skit So Much" their headline read (February 4th). Both headlines give some insight into the president and he is definitely a weird politician in the sense that he seems completely ill-prepared to handle the lampooning that comes with holding public office. https://twitter.com/MMFlint/status/833479265689669635 It could be that his life as a corporate monster, someone who is used to being feared, hasn't prepared Trump to be ridiculed. Maybe Moore is right that comedy will "discombobulate" President Touchy. On that note, Trump jokes have become a thing with Trump's hair central to some punchlines: (1) The USA shall over-comb! (2) Mess with the states and there will be hell toupee! (3) Hair Force One (jokes4us.com) (4) Hair to the Throne One joke I made up that doesn't have to do with hair probably requires some explanation for most. Me: "Why didn't Trump get far into 'Moby Dick'?" You: "Why?" Me: "He doesn't like anyone named Ishmael." (Explanation: the very first line in "Moby Dick" is "Call me Ishmael." It's an acclaimed opening to a novel, because it really pulls you in. It's like - okay is your name actually Ishmael? If not, then why should I call you it? Once you ask yourself those questions, you're hooked for a bit. If you find the joke discombobulating, it has to do with the travel ban to the USA and Ishmael being a name that I think would be common enough in the countries that were targeted.)
This is what Michael Moore wrote on how How To Stop Trump:
1. THE DAILY CALL: You must call Congress every day. Yes - YOU! 202-225-3121. It will take just TWO MINUTES! Make it part of your daily routine. It's even better to try their direct line. For Senators, find their numbers here: http://bit.ly/2kko0Ao. For the direct line to your Congressman/woman in the House of Representatives: http://house.gov/representatives. But here’s the best way to call them: Go to the App Store and get "5 Calls". The app will dial the friggin' phone for you and give you talking points for when you speak to your reps. Remember -- a call a day keeps the Trump away. 2. THE MONTHLY VISIT: To add even more pressure, SHOW UP! Your member of Congress has a local office in your town or somewhere nearby. So do both of your U.S. Senators (often in the nearest federal building). Go there and ask to speak to them or their aides about the issues you care about. And when they have a town hall meeting, be there! 3. YOUR RAPID RESPONSE TEAM: You and 5 to 20 friends must form a Rapid Response Team so that when we need to leap into action (like we did at the airports the hour after Trump signed his Muslim Ban), we can email and text those closest to us to make an instant plan. 4. JOIN! JOIN! JOIN!: If you haven’t already, it’s time to join some of our great national groups: Planned Parenthood, ACLU, Black Lives Matter, Democratic Socialists of America, ERA Action, MoveOn.org – the list goes on and on. And all the new groups that have sprung up to fight Trump: IndivisibleGuide.com, TownHallProject.com, Organizing for Action (ofa.us), ActionGroups.net, etc. Go and so many more. Sign up! 5. WOMEN'S MARCH NEVER ENDS: The historic, record-breaking January 21st Women’s March on Washington -- and the hundreds of other Marches that day across the US and the world, with over 4 million in attendance! -- inspired millions and ignited hundreds of local movements. Every day now dozens of actions continue to take place as if the Women's March never ended. It hasn't. Join it! Go to my RESISTANCE CALENDAR (www.resistancecalendar.com) where you can find out what actions are taking place near you. 6. TAKE OVER THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY: The old guard of the Party has twice in 16 years presided over the majority of Americans electing the Democrat to the White House -- only for us all to see the losing Republican inaugurated as President. How is it that we have won the popular vote in SIX OF THE LAST SEVEN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS -- the Republicans have only won ONCE since 1988 -- and yet, we hold NO power in any branch of government?! We must elect reform and progressive candidate, Congressman Keith Ellison, as the new DNC chair. Keith is a former community organizer, the first Muslim elected to Congress, and a key backer of Bernie Sanders. Sign his petition of support at www.keithfordnc.org/howyoucanhelp. And locally, you need to start attending your county Democratic meetings. If possible, organize your friends and others and take over your local Democratic organization. 7. LET’S FORM BLUE REGIONS OF RESISTANCE: People keep saying, “I live in a Blue State - what can I do?" Show the rest of America what it could look like in a state where Trump isn't in charge! New York should go ahead and offer Free College for All. California can create its own Universal Health Care. Oregon can stop mass incarceration of African Americans. Hawaii can enact its own climate change laws. Important historical note: Before Roe v. Wade made abortion legal, California and New York passed their own state laws to make it legal. This greatly helped pave the way for CHOICE being the new normal – and, three years later, for the enactment of Row v. Wade. 8. YOU MUST RUN FOR OFFICE: I know, that's the LAST thing you want to do. But if we keep leaving the job up to the dismal, lame, pathetic political hacks who have sold us all down the river, then what right do we have to complain? This is only going to get fixed when you and I decide we are willing to put in our time -- even if it is a brief time -- and run for office. Run for school board, town council, state senate in 2018. I ran when I was 18 and got elected. You can, too. At the very least, run for precinct delegate. The time commitment is just 3 hours a year! Call your city or county clerk and find out how to get on the ballot. If you'll do it, I'll do it. 9. JOIN THE ARMY OF COMEDY: Trump's Achilles heel is his massively thin skin. He can't take mockery. So we all need to MOCK HIM UP! I truly believe the final tipping point for Trump will be when he implodes from all the laughter -- the mocking, the unbearable ridicule of tens of millions of Americans that will discombobulate him and force him out of the White House. I don't know what happened to Trump in boarding school at 13 and I don't care. Whatever it was, let's use it. He's used all the other things he picked up over the years - misogyny, bigotry, greed - against the powerless and the unfortunate. It's time to laugh him outta town. And if there's one thing we all could use right now is a good laugh -- AND the possibility of a much-shortened presidential term. Please share this and spread the word. Follow me on Twitter (@MMFlint) and Facebook (facebook.com/mmflint) and I’ll keep posting ideas on what we all can do. We can stop him. We can nonviolently block and obstruct halt the damage he's doing. But it's going to need -- and take -- ALL HANDS ON DECK! Let's make Trump toast again. -- MICHAEL MOORE Ladbrokes sportsbooks seems to both think and not think that the President Twitter will become discombobulated. Currently, Donald Trump is actually the favorite to win the 2020 election with Ladbrokes. The same betting firm makes Trump a favorite "to leave office via impeachment or resignation before end of 1st term." The two sets of odds seem to be at ends with one another to a certain extent. How can someone be favored to get impeached or to resign and be favored to win the next election? Like Trump is going to get impeached and then win in 2020? Not likely. Could be that it's not just Trump that's discombobulated with everything that's going on. If Trump does resign or get impeached then perhaps political death via lampooning could be a part of that. Chances are that whoever replaces him will be a little thicker skinned with handling the jokes. After all, seasoned politicians know that it comes with the territory.
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