#while the relationships that aren’t on screen (page. whatever) as much are more compelling | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

comicteaparty · 4 years

Text

February 22nd-February 28th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from February 22nd, 2020 to February 28th, 2020. The chat focused on the following question:

How do you deal with people shipping non-canon ships for your story?

Deo101 [Millennium]

To be completely honest, I've only had one person ever ship a non canon/endgame thing. I kinda just ignored it. I think I would in general just ignore it, no matter how many people did ship a non canon thing. But it does make me uncomfortable

carcarchu

I once had a professor tell me "once you release your story to the world it no longer belongs to you" and i think he was right. once your story is shared with others it can no longer be said to be solely your creation anymore. you can't stop other people from shipping non-canon ships and even if you want to discourage it it's kind of beyond your hands at that point. other people's interpretations of your work is something you have to accept as a creator even if you find it unsavoury

Tuyetnhi

this is always in the back of my mind so uh, I let folks be and try not to search up fandom pics of my comic. at the US at least, I remember reading that creators who are currently writing/creating a story and it's not up to completion, anything like viewing fanart or reading fanfiction of alternative interpretations is not advised. So you have to stow it away till the story is thoroughly done, then you can just check out what fans are doing rip. I think it's aimed towards creators who have like NDA thing they're working on or if they're working with a publisher. still, I thought that's an important thing to keep in mind.

though I do get folks send me like single character fanart and really doesn't interfer with the story anyway so I accept those lmao

carcarchu

@Tuyetnhi that's for creators to not get sued for having their story turn out similar to people's fanfics

Tuyetnhi

aahhh :0

still er lmao. if the possibility is there, I rather not uh.... seek it lmao

especially like shipping fanfiction of my characters when the story isn't over yet lmao

eli [a winged tale]

I totally agree carcarchu. Readers can interpret character interactions through their own lenses and sometimes what we as creators intend in the story may be seen as a potential ship to varying degrees. I actually just had a conversation about this within my beta circle where a friend who hasn’t seen the whole script shipped a non canon pair and it was interesting! I personally don’t feel disturbed by it unless the pair had a large age difference/can potentially be unhealthy etc. There is a threshold I won’t cross but that tends to be quite high. Otherwise I just think it’s interesting and continue the actual story

Eilidh (Lady Changeling)

I haven't come across this with mine yet, but given that my story is deliberately non-romantic and the whole cast is aroace, I wouldn't be comfortable with anyone shipping any characters romantically. But that's very specific to my comic.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

To me, there are four levels of "non-canon" with regards to shipping. 1. You were supposed to ship this and get disappointed, so good job. The obvious example is the Mizuki-Cahe-Pejiba love triangle. Mizuki x Pejiba doesn't work out in the end, but it's not like it was a non-viable ship - if Mizuki x Pejiba wasn't compelling at all, it wouldn't have been much of a love triangle, now would it? 2. Didn't think of it myself, but I get the dynamic you're going for. One surprisingly common ship in the shipping contest poll was Taci x Coruby, which isn't a ship I was deliberately teasing... but, like, I get it? Coruby is outgoing, loyal, and makes lots of dad jokes. Taci is prickly, self-absorbed, backstabbing, and was (is? probably is) literally afraid of dad jokes. I can definitely see why people would want to see more of that dynamic. 3. ...Why? An example of this is Zaxaty x Mr. Enetoro, which showed up in the poll. Even ignoring the bad age gap (22 vs 50 which is like... all right... she's half your age but ok...) and the sexuality incompatibility (Zaxaty's only into women, Enetoro's not into anyone)... these two have literally never spoken to each other either on or off screen. Literally what drew you to this pairing??? Like I'd almost believe it was a mis-click on the poll over anyone actually thinking these two work together. 4. Bad, bad, very very bad. AKA "they're related", "one's underage", and/or "i know exactly why you want this ship, and I don't like it". For a while during the shipping poll's running, the third place ship was Mizuki x Nothing. First off, the age gap there is pretty gross, but I guess I can't expect readers to know that (Nothing is an immortal demon, but relative to other demons it's a kid so... someone's underage there). And second... I know exactly why people were shipping Mizuki with the giant demon that uses tendrils to mind control people, and I do not like that dynamic.

As for what I do about the ships in #3 or #4... so far, nothing, because they've been contained to the poll. If someone drew actual art of them, though, I'd probably tell them to stop, and I for sure wouldn't post the art on my fan-art page.

kayotics

I don’t have a very present fandom, at least in the sense that there’s any amount of shipping that’s unexpected. Or maybe it’s tucked away? I think the people who read my comic aren’t ones who make their own content. Either way, I’m pretty ok with shipping non-canon ships. I’d encourage it, really. I love the idea of people having fun with my characters in a way I didn’t expect. As for ships that are taboo... as long as they’re not hurting real people, I just don’t want to see it really or be made to be part of it. It would make me uncomfortable.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, how pushy/not pushy they are with Weird Ships is a big factor for me as well.

As long as they keep it to themselves, they can ship all the ships they want, no matter how icky. I'd prefer to not know if it's really icky.

So far there is only one Potentially Viable ship in my comic, though. And that Viable ship is very, very important to me. So if anyone ships one of the involved characters with someone else, I would seriously hope it's not because I've failed to develop the Viable Ship in a compelling manner. People are free to ship whoever, but don't let that be because of my own failure as a storyteller?

I've actually had anti-shippers against that Viable ship though lol, which may be relevant to the topic. What do you do when you get vocal anti-shippers of canon ships

I do think it is related, like another variation of "people sticking to their own thing with regards to ships."

kayotics

As a shipper: any crack ships I come up with is usually just because I like to explore the dynamic. Some people are more extreme about hating ships but... idk it’s probably just because they don’t like one of the characters for some reason

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Believable crackships can be a lot of fun to observe, as a non-shipper. Like I look at this amazingly well-written crackship and I'm like, wow, this is sorcery

sagaholmgaard

I haven't had it happen yet (my comic is less than a year old and doesn't have a lot of followers haha) But I'm really open about shipping! Much like @kayotics I would probably encourage it. I'm personally aroace and in my original writing I like to explore non-romantic relationships, but I know the appeal of shipping and tbh i ship my own ocs that aren't canon to the story/don't get explored in the comic because they're background characters for whatever reason. It would be genuinely fun to see if other people started exploring those ships on their own! Or things I haven't thought about! If something made me really uncomfortable, I would likely ignore it. If someone tried to get their non-canon ship to become canon that would be worse, no matter if i personally liked the ship or not, lol.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, people need to respect boundaries, always

kayotics

Yeah, definitely. It wouldn’t make me uncomfortable unless someone was trying to break into my personal boundaries

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

It doesn’t happen so much currently with Phantomarine, because I just don’t have enough shippable characters yet (related, underage, or otherwise just kinda squicky). I wonder what will happen when I introduce more. But as long as people are interacting with my characters in a fun healthy way, but still respect my choices in the end, they can ship away in any (legal) direction. It’s honestly not a ship-heavy story. It’s far more about friendship and healing and rebuilding strength/trust after trauma - if any shipping were to happen, it would probably be in a sequel or continuation when everyone is... feeling a lot better

DanitheCarutor

Depends on the characters. 90% of the time I don't care, I may even make jokes. There's nothing wrong with people wanting to see my hideous characters getting together, although there are two things that would make me a little salty. 1. If there is a scene going on that I want readers to take seriously. Such as if there is a part in the story where someone is overwhelmed and having a mental break down, then another character comes over to help calm them down. It would be kinda rude to get a bunch of comments screaming "KISS THEM!", "KISS NOW!" Although that could just be me being a stick in the mud. 2. Anything involving Julian. They are currently not mentally stable enough to properly consent to any romantic endeavors, so when people try to ship other characters with them it's a little... eeeeh! Kinda non-con, and it feels a little gross. I try not to get on anyones ass about these, realizing no one means any harm, they may not even be full aware of the situation. (Especially with Julian since they're still functional enough to talk to people sometimes and hold down a job.) Normally I leave the comments be, they just kinda irk me sometimes.

em.rowene

Honestly, I think I'd be flattered to see more fan interaction with Fractured Magic. Even if it's a ship I don't really get, it would just be nice to know people are engaged with the story and like my characters enough to interact with them beyond just reading (though this answer's definitely coming from a place of having been publishing it only half a year and not having a huge readerbase yet) Someone making fanfic with my characters is actually a major goal of my writing, but I agree with the above people who said reading it before the story's done probably isn't a good idea. I don't think there's much legal risk to it (I actually wrote a major paper on this in law school) - there's only been one case even remotely analogous in the US. Someone wrote a Rocky fan script and sent it to the writers, and then the next Rocky movie had a similar plot and the person sued. The judge said if you make a derivative work (like fanfic), you can't sue the creators of the original copyright for infringement. But I do think it would be bad form bc it is really easy to be influenced by stuff like fanfiction of your own story, even if you don't mean to be

Mei

Thankfully I haven't had to deal with people shipping my characters from MHIAC with anybody else. But that's mostly because I've only actually introduced the two main characters, who are husbands, and one friend. I think it'd be super interesting to see how people view the character relationships once I introduce more of the cast. I'd be really curious too! I mean, I don't want people to try and break up the canon couple that's for sure... but I guess all the side characters are fair game for shipping if people choose to. I'd honestly be super flattered if people shipped any of my characters, it would feel like I'm doing something right. As long as there's no NSFW stuff because boy that'd make me uncomfortable.

chalcara

Shipping‘s fan stuff and just for fan, as long as you do it in your own space, go hog-wild. Have fun! Not gonna watch/read/view it, but have fun! People taking their headcanons as fact for the main-comic might end up a problem, but I‘ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

So far, I've only had people ship the canon main couple, so I haven't had problems yet. But honestly, I don't care who the readers ship for the most part, unless it's gross and/or illegal. For example, if they are related or underage... Other than that, I don't mind. It's all in good fun

Deo101 [Millennium]

I actually wanna add on to my comment: non canon ships only make me uncomfortable if they go against the Characters sexuality, or if it's an abusive ship or illegal. If it's not one of those then it doesn't bother me! My Characters are generally friends so I totally get someone wanting to ship two who won't be endgame

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I dunno. I just can't be bothered by stuff like that for multiple reasons. 1) Most of my characters don't talk about their sexuality in the comic. 2) Because of setting and time period, everyone expects everyone to be straight (which of course isn't true). 3) And I don't think readers typically mean anything bad by shipping people with each other that won't be together (again, unless it's gross or illegal).

One of my characters, for example, is aroace, but he doesn't even know that's a thing, because sexuality and mental health is not understood in this time period. So of course he hasn't mentioned that he's aroace at all. He is married to a woman, because of societal expectations, so likely he will be shipped with her. But their relationship is horrible, and it was definitely a marriage of convenience. So if readers decide to ship him with other people, I can't fault them, because they simply do not know.

Him being aroace is only in the subtext and in my heart.

Deo101 [Millennium]

I make my Characters sexualities pretty clear, so I consider it akin to homophobia to want to see my gay man with a lesbian

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

In your case, it's definitely a bit different, because you have made it obvious.

Capitania do Azar

Too bad @Deo101 [Millennium] i am preparing problematic ships right now (no I'm not)

I don't care about what people would ship, and I would be curious as to why people think this or that pair could work it's a very interesting way to see how people are interpreting the story and the characters

Deo101 [Millennium]

LMAO

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I'm definitely scared of people shipping incestual relations in my comic, because there is a situation where characters are related, but it isn't known to the audience (yet)

And I really don't want that mistake to be made

Deo101 [Millennium]

Lia/luke shippers before the last star wars movie came out...

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Yep

I'm like... soooo nervous right now

I can just feel the bad ships encroaching

Capitania do Azar

If people don't know can you blame them?

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah I think it's only bad if the ships persist after it's revealed

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I can't blame them, but I just don't want to think about it

sagaholmgaard

ack, good luck cronaj! I wanted to add that when it comes to shipping and canon sexualities i'm the same boat as you cronaj. I have my own idea that my main characters are pan and ace respectively, but it doesn't come up in the comic and they don't have the lingo for it during this time period, so I can't blame readers for making up their own headcanons and ships

I have comic ideas that are a lot more centered around sexuality and getting into a relationship. If i ever make them happen I'm sure I would mind a lot more it people's ships went against the characters' canon sexualities

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Lol, haha, I also have a pan character whose sexuality isn't revealed in comic XD

Like... A little bit of subtext, but not explicitly said

FeatheryJustice

I actually don't mind people shipping things in my comic that is non canon, because it just proves people read my comics. I myself love crack pairings and dumb things, so I treat their ships like crack pairings. I think an example in Teasday was someone joking about shipping Vander with Spyder, two characters who never met and I was like "Haha that's funny." Because it just proves they read my comic to even know the names at least.

Capitania do Azar

They never met but... If they did

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I've had more readers want to date the characters themselves then ship them with another character, so it's hard to have a solid thought on how I'd feel with ships so far That being said however, i don't really mind ppl shipping as long as it's respectful to me and the readers boundaries. There's been people honestly wanting more interactions between characters that aren't shippable in my eyes, so i most likely would advert them if i saw ships i didn't agree with. That said, go wild!

Kat - The Yuri Canon

I get a lot of non-canon shipping, mostly because there are so many possibilities. Mostly I allow it, as long as they don't get too extreme or overly sexualize my characters. But I did have to stop some when they kept insisting my Ace go out with one of my characters. I finally had to say it just wasn't happening.

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Its never happened to me, but if it did that would be fine I guess. I’m not about to change plans in how I write the story to spontaneously put characters together unless there was good chemistry maybe

I would be happy overall that people were engaging with my characters on that level

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I have only had one single ship comment in the 14 years I’ve been doing webcomics, and it was over a decade ago. But it was also an intensely uncomfortable one, where a reader was trying to ship my 14yo gay character with an adult female villain. Needless to say I put the brakes on that right away, and have never had a ship comment since.

But secretly I wish readers did occasionally ship my adult characters, because so long as they don’t get toxic, I think non canon shipping can be fun. If the reader doesn’t demand their ship be made canon or fight with people shipping a different pairing, I’d be all for it.

Ash🦀

Honestly I would love to see ships. I've never really had an audience for Foxes with Machine Guns, so seeing people care that much? I think I'd just be grateful. TBH I cried when I got a comment so someone having a whole ship? Of My OCs?? I'd probably end up sobbing like an idiot. They're all adults, ship away, you have my blessing.

Nutty (Court of Roses)

I personally love shipping, and in regards to my comic, I'm excited, but also nervous. I have a main ship that I push myself that so far a lot of readers have been really receptive to (Merlow/Nocturne <3). I also have a few more ships coming up... but in the meantime, I like to see theories, but I worry that either a) the ships I end up with will make folks unhappy, or b) folks will ship things that ignore a character's established orientation. Like, it's fairly clear Diana is a lesbian, but I already had a casual suggestion from a rl reader of her and Merlow getting together and I'm like. N no. No please. Please, just let them be besties, they will be best friends I promise but Merlow is not a lady.(edited)

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

See, I don't care about people having ~gross~ ships. I might not want to hear about it -- and if you expect it to become canon, you're probably out of luck -- but if a reader enjoys imagining or exploring it on their own time? I'm not gonna police them over that.

Just because a thing is illegal to do IRL, that doesn't mean it's illegal to imagine it or write about it. (If it was, I'd be in a whole lot of trouble...)

...not that it's really come up, since with my comics it seems like most people are happy to go with the canon mostly-healthy ships anyway, but.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Same with shipping against orientation -- if some reader wants to imagine an AU where the character realizes they've been bi the whole time after all, why not? The canon representation you wrote is still there. It's not gonna be compromised or erased unless you write that happening.

(And if the reader's imagination is more like "everyone is actually straight and some people, including these characters, just get temporarily confused"...I mean, at that point they have waaaay bigger problems than which webcomic characters they like to imagine kissing.)

kayotics

I think I gotta agree with Erin here. I’m not gonna police what people want to imagine. It’s not my business. They can do what they like in their free time.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I assume most of "I don't want X" folks mean "I don't want to see X." I can't even imagine policing what people do in their own time! I mean, what are you gonna do, be like the NYC library parking sign?

(That sign is real and I have seen it)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

"I don't want to see X" is definitely true for me

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Yeah, any time someone's clear that they mean "I don't want to see X" or "I don't want readers telling me about X", that's a different story!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

And if said illegal/gross ships are perpetuated on the internet, I'll probably try to step in

ESPECIALLY WITH UNDERAGE CHARACTERS

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

...see, that's getting back into "policing what random people do with their free time" territory.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I WILL FIGHT YOU

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

um, there's a difference between things you do on your free time, and things you post where children can see

it's an important distinction

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I specifically have one character who is a small child who I do not want to see in ANY romantic situations

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

I mean, we don't have psychic filters on "check this box to confirm that you are over 18" filters, so in theory "children can see" just about anywhere...

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

unless, of course, the character is aged up significantly

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

And cute ships with young characters having crushes on each other have been around since forever.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

oh young characters having crushes on each other is one thing

but there are far worse things on the internet

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Yes

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Right, but we're talking about "shipping" as a general thing, which includes the cute crushes.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I don't want any weird pedo crap

keep that aaaaawaaaaay from my characters thank you

Deo101 [Millennium]

on the subject of what people do in their free time, it's pretty obvious that I can't control what people are doing but that doesnt mean I support any free time activities.

I'm not gonna say I'm okay with adults shipping adults and children even if they do it where no one can see

like they CAN and I can't stop them but I wont say i'm okay with it just because I can't control it

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Sure, but, we're not talking about any "free time activities" -- we're talking about people using their imaginations. That doesn't cause me any harm. And if nobody ever sees it? Geez, plenty of people have waaaay darker thoughts than that in the privacy of their own heads.

Deo101 [Millennium]

I think it causes harm to how they interact with the world, though. and just because it could be worse doesnt mean it's okay

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

If they are interacting with the world in a specific harmful way, that would be a thing we can discuss on its own merits!

FeatheryJustice

I feel like if you police people from not doing something, they want to do it more.

So by not drawing attention to it, it might be a better move? For Ships, if someone ships something you don't like, don't draw attention to it kinda thing?

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Also true!

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I think "I won't say I'm okay with it" and "I will actively make an effort to police it" are two very different things?

You can definitely have this... area where the distinction isn't clear

FeatheryJustice

For example, if someone is like "Don't draw this character as X because I don't like it" People might do it because you said something?

People are weird, I wish they will listen to author wises but not everyone will.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

I mean, yeah, but "I won't make an effort to police it because that would be physically impractical" is also different from "I won't make an effort to police it because that's not my job."

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Well, if they do that, then they are an asshole(edited)

because they aren't respecting the creator's barriers

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

@FeatheryJustice Not spreading ideas you don't like in the first place is a smart move, yeah. Put your energy into promoting and spreading the things that make you happy.

FeatheryJustice

Yeah! Promoting things that make you happy might be better. Like "I like the fact you guys enjoy drawing my characters" Something like that that's more positive

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Sure, they can do it, but if you do something like that, which is also illegal in most countries, then you are disrespecting the creator, the character(s), and the law

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Wait, what are people doing that's illegal?

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past) Today at 11:19 PM And if said illegal/gross ships are perpetuated on the internet, I'll probably try to step in ESPECIALLY WITH UNDERAGE CHARACTERS

FeatheryJustice

Oh yeah that's something different. That's just illegal.

RebelVampire

I'm just admin stepping in here to remind people to remain respectful. Cause this is the sort of conversation that can quickly go out of hand.

FeatheryJustice

Got it Rebel

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Doing bad things is illegal. Writing about bad things happening isn't illegal. (Again: I have written fiction about soooo many illegal-to-actually-do things.)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I think there is a difference between writing about a terrible thing happening and putting it in a negative light and shipping pedophilia(edited)

Deo101 [Millennium]

I think writing about underage characters with the intent for sexual pleasure counts as CP

FeatheryJustice

I mean drawing and writing about murder is okay, actual going out and murdering someone is not okay. But I think for this context we are looking at something that is a bit more worrying.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

But I wouldn't want to read a story where murdering for pleasure is glorifed either

FeatheryJustice

Yeah, that's why I think context matters.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

and I frankly think media like that shouldn't be shared with the world

Like, i guess write it and stash it away on your computer somewhere

but don't show it to people

Tuyetnhi

i can hear the police sirens blaring from the sound of someone writing cp lmao

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Lol

FeatheryJustice

Back to talking about shipping (Sorry I got this conversation derailed here), I think there will be people who will never announce their ships as well.

Or have it so open ended no one knows what's what.

And maybe we can brainstorm good ways to tell people we would like them to not ship certain things?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Probably don't say anything unless it does become a visible problem

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

...I get that nobody wants to go into this too closely, and I sure don't either, but I also think someone should say -- legally speaking, a work is only CP if a child is harmed in its creation. If there's a living, human victim. Conflating that with other things is not beneficial to anyone, and can itself be hurtful to survivors.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Honestly, I don't feel the need to warn people not to write inappropriate ships about my underage characters, because it should be common sense not to do such a thing

I really won't say anything about it unless someone actually posts it on the internet

Tuyetnhi

rip I hate to burst it but under us law, even drawn cp is considered illegal

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I think it depends on the country

but in some countries, yes, it is considered CP

RebelVampire

But see that brings in the complecation of international law. If an artist is in the US but the fanartist is in say Japan where they have a much different relationship, whose laws apply?

Tuyetnhi

it depends on the site host i think?

like if it's a US based site

and there's CP there, it's under US law correct?

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

the fanartist can't be be punished if they live in a country like Japan where that's legal, but I would still try to contact them and ask that they take it down(edited)

FeatheryJustice

(I wasn't talking about CP in my post I was just like if you don't want these two characters to be shipped together what can you say? Didn't mean to spiral off like that sorry)

RebelVampire

But it might only apply to US citizens. For example, some sites specifically alter themselves so part of their site follows European GDPR laws but tell the americans they suck

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

But that is also the difference between law and site terms

the person might get banned from the site but not sued

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

I can't speak for every country, but it's genuinely not illegal in the US -- and, yeah, I don't know why a general discussion about shipping had to go this far either! You don't need to go right to the most disturbing possible interpretation when thinking about hypothetical shippers...

RebelVampire

Yeah. All my point is is blanket saying its illegal just cause it is in the US is inaccurate.

Deo101 [Millennium]

also morals =/= law, and a site is allowed to say no to that even if it is legal

they are not owed a platform

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Individual site TOS can be stricter than national laws, yeah.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

@Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn) I think the reason people discuss the worst case scenarios is because those scenarios are precisely what they have issues with, as opposed to other kinds of non-canon ships

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

@Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn) In my case, I mentioned it because that's where I draw the line with shipping. Other stuff, no matter how much I disagree with it, I don't really care enough to do anything about it

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

I get that people have those lines in their heads, but when you don't describe the distinction, when you talk about "shipping" as if "everyone should understand that I exclusively means graphic photorealistic sexual content"...that's a big leap to make!

Tuyetnhi

@Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn) agreed but er.... I still do believe that the US has a law about drawn CP being illegal. it's something that I found out when I had to help a friend out from a situation (I won't go to details rip)

but yeah it's a big assumption lmao

I know shippers in good faith won't try to push that onto others

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

And it seems unfairly harsh on any shipper with literally any other interests or activities.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Honestly, even if someone only commented about a ship with an adult character with a child character, I would still ask them kindly to delete their comment, or delete it myself

Tuyetnhi

^ye

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

It doesn't have to be a visual representation for me

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

And when you're talking about your own website, I think setting rules like that is completely reasonable.

Deo101 [Millennium]

again, I wont say im okay with it even if it's only in someones head. Just cause theyre not sharing it doesnt mean I'm okay with it

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

If I have the power to remove their comment or report them, I would

but if I don't, I will ask them to refrain from such comments

That's all the power I have

And as @Deo101 [Millennium] said, I also don't have to agree with people's filthy thoughts

Deo101 [Millennium]

I understand they can think them and i cant do anything about it but i wont offer support for it i dont think

RebelVampire

As a reader, I want to second that it's important to distinguish what you mean when you say you don't tolerate specific ships. Obviously, no one think pedophilia is okay and that would be a fine ship to not tolerate. However, if all you say is you don't tolerate specific ships, readers will also jump to the worst conclusion possible, which in this context is you don't tolerate anything that is non-canon (vs. what creators think is the worst possible conclusion when they hear non-canon).

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

see, this sort of thing is exactly why i have four tiers of "non-canon"

Deo101 [Millennium]

please elaborate!

Tuyetnhi

4 tiers? :0

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Oh yes, definitely

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

i mean it's in my post a few days back To me, there are four levels of "non-canon" with regards to shipping. 1. You were supposed to ship this and get disappointed, so good job. 2. Didn't think of it myself, but I get the dynamic you're going for. 3. ...Why? 4. Bad, bad, very very bad.

with more detail explaining specific ships that ended up in my poll that fit into each category(edited)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Even if stuff is noncanon, or goes against a character's canon sexuality, I don't really care, because fan AUs exist

and it's pretty hard to offend me

mostly the pedophilia thing is the only thing I'm passionately against

So yeah, #4 is the only place where my hair stands on end

Deo101 [Millennium]

oh sorry I did read that but I didnt realize thats what you meant by the tiers ^^;

Tuyetnhi

its helpful!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

It is indeed

I read it before, and I still find it useful

I'm sure #1 and #2 is where most of the WotP shippers will reside

And there will definitely be a few #3s

FeatheryJustice

That's very useful, the tiers XD

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

@RebelVampire absurdly late, I know, I just wanted to second that "obviously, no one thinks pedophilia is okay" is really important to keep in mind. No matter what anyone says about any kind of shipping -- people should be able to feel comfortable that nobody's gearing up to call that into question. We're all on the same side with that one.

spacerocketbunny

There's a few characters I'm a little protective over regarding their sexuality, but most of the characters are bi/pan so it's pretty free game! I'm so here for random crack ships honestly

Capitania do Azar

Get ready

AntiBunny

Personally I enjoy seeing what random ideas fans come up with. It's all part of being a creator.

meek

lmao i'll try to get one comment in before the discussion closes As a creator, a lot of my feelings about shipping is related to how I am as a reader/audience member for media? Character dynamics and relationships are one of my favorite things + what'll usually hook me for a series, and definitely exploring relationships that either didn't receive any attention or were completely non-existent in the original material is one of my favorite things to do! And that'll inspire me to create or make certain choices with my original characters based on that "Well, what if [this] happened in that story?" So with that, I don't find myself get super-attached to canon/endgame ships and I'll just do my own thing, regardless. I always respect the original intent when it comes to character's sexuality or preference (unless it's a case of 'everyone's straight' lol), but I'm a rabid multishipper in fandom anyways so I'll carry that energy over to my own works LOL And let it be free for all, even if I have an 'end' goal in mind. After all, I'm the biggest multishipper for my own characters too!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

>I always respect the original intent when it comes to character's sexuality or preference (unless it's a case of 'everyone's straight' lol) @meek Just for the sake of argument, why do you respect the characters' sexualities unless everyone is straight? Personally, I don't mind sexuality swapping in fan ships and such, but I do wonder why there is this specific stipulation for you.

meek

Also input as a reader: sometimes it's good to be completely upfront about where your boundaries are as a creator! And also being explicit about certain character details or relationships can help, because a lot of times readers don't.. really know.. I can't tell you the number of times I've started reading a comic where the ages of the characters are very ambiguous with: - specific ages are never said - the art style is stylized in a way that unless they're explicitly a child or an elderly person, everyone looks like they're the same age - the context clues on their age is limited to.. they worked a minimum wage job - in-story they are treated with the same level of respect and authority status as everyone else around them - characters that are older than them that act the same age and that's led me several times to thinking a character was at least 18-23+ and actually they were supposed to be 14.....

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I assume it's for the same vein of reason why we don't have a Straight Pride Day. This is getting into the weeds though, so I'm very hesitant to approach further

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Sure

meek

The short answer is that there's no harm in adding more gay or trans representation to a work of fiction

but erasing canon gay or trans representation to make it cis or straight is bad and homo/transphobic

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong with respecting characters's sexualities or messing around with possibilities, but it just seems rather... odd

meek

also just straight up it's complete white-washed fiction that LGBT or POC did not exist in history until [convenient time here] so acting like you're being "historically accurate" by exempting them is just.. bad

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Well, depending on location, that would be incorrect

But again, I'm not particularly upset to see "straight" characters depicted as gay(edited)

meek

well i'm a queer nb person so i've encountered innumerable works of fiction where everyone is straight, cis, and white so i'd much rather diversify that then perpetuate it

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

You're not wrong about there being a numerous amount of straight, cis, and yes, white characters in media

But I feel like it's destructive to society as a whole to suddenly decide to be more courteous toward LGBTQ+ groups than toward straight people

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

This is getting too political for me and I feel it could get out of control quickly

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Maybe it is political

You don't have to participate

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It also feels off topic

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

But I think it's important to politely discuss it

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Maybe not in this channel specifically

meek

i'm going to be honest, i feel incredibly uncomfortable to be asked to continue this conversation

if you want to talk more, then write a DM but this has nothing to do with the main part of my comment or the topic for this channel

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

If you feel uncomfortable, then I respect your decision not to continue this discussion

I've said my piece

Spring-heeled Jack

Jumping in before this closes: I'm not there yet but I'm in the camp of "whatever floats your boat!" If someone ships my characters I think I'll be flattered that they are that invested in them to have those feelings. But also I'm super new to this and the only comment so far is my friend jokingly saying she ships herself with one character.

Ash🦀

I'm in the same boat as Spring-heeled Jack- the idea that people would even be invested enough would be flattering, yes. It would be really cool, but I doubt it will happen since there's a limited cast and it's not a romance. I do have personal ships, but since romance isn't a factor, shippers... Just won't be canon, kinda no matter what they ship. Maybe if my story was more romance-centered I'd care more, but as it is... Do what you want, it's not going to hurt my feelings if you think Ren and the Oni would be a power couple or whatever.

kayotics

I’m just gonna pop in here and say this: shippers making queer content of (presumably) straight characters is a large part of how I figured out I was queer, because for the most part (especially when I was younger) that doesn’t exist in the public eye.

Spring-heeled Jack

My comic isn't romance based, it's horror but I feel that really good horror is best built off characters you can connect to. So I have some families. I have some married couples. The older two "children" (they are in their 20s) are dating. I made one of my main non-binary and their partner is ace. Another main is a transman. In my heart my characters are all pan anyway so I like just putting them with who I think works best lol

I also low key ship one of my married characters with another character that is coming in later. I do enjoy shipping so I might be biased lol

Deo101 [Millennium]

my comic is pretty romance based, it's not a romance but there are pretty strong romance threads in it, and my characters arent all pan so I feel differently, so I do see why you would feel differently than me on this subject!

Spring-heeled Jack

I can also respect a creator having an idea for a character and not feeling comfy with people going different directions with it.

Ash🦀

Oh definitely- How individuals interact and feel for their characters varies from person to person.

Kabocha

I don't mind people making changes for shipping purposes or shipping non canon stuff -- so long as they don't expect me to change my writing to suit them. And like Snuffysam, I kind of have similar tiers for ships, too. I don't want to (and can't, really) control what other people do, but I'd prefer that if a reader knows it's going to make me upset or something I've expressed wishes against, that they not share it with me. Besides, if what I'm writing doesn't meet their needs, I'd rather see shippers search out, celebrate, and elevate work that better matches the values they idealize in pairings. (and trust me, romance is FULL of it if you look. :D)

Spring-heeled Jack

I thought about my only canonically het character that I have (I only rp him now, I have a comic planned for him down the line) and even with him all I can think is "if someone wants him to kiss a boy, I super don't care."

Ash🦀

Wait, hold on, have people actually asked to change the story based on who they think should get together? Is that a thing people do? (Forgive my ignorance, I’m not really a fandom person? I’m p shy and keep to myself)

FeatheryJustice

I seen it happen. Which in itself is pretty rude soemtimes because people get angry if their ships aren't canon kinda thing

Ash🦀

Oh my. Thank you for the warning then, I’ll keep it in mind. That’s very rude! Would probably fill me with spite, to be honest. The “well now I’m not doing it” haha. I’m... disappointed but not surprised this happens. Still, it won’t change my mind. XD

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I have run into more than one person who hyperfixates on a ship (in any media, not just comics) that's... honestly, truly, never going to happen? Like, a main character crossed with a background character who had no lines and showed up in a single scene. That sort of thing. Then they implode/explode when it doesn't become canon by the end. If it happened for my own work, I don't know what I'd say. Apart from telling people not to put all their eggs in one basket, I guess I fear that kind of manic fanaticism.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Wasn't that the reason behind that infamous blackmail incident, the Voltron one

or am I mixing it up with a different fandom?

Spring-heeled Jack

Looking at fandoms in general, there are people that get over invested and become possessive. It's a shame.

Deo101 [Millennium]

the fact that it could be more than one fandom says a lot, i think :P

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

yeeeeeah ugh

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

If it's not, I'd still believe it (edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Also the needle in the cookie one (though this was given to a fan artist who drew a ship they didn't like, not the actual author)

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Hoooooooly hell, I feel like I remember that, but not specifically what it was for. NIGHTMARE SCENARIO.

Deo101 [Millennium]

thought that was because they didnt draw a character fat?

again, the fact it could be multiple things

hugely concerning

Spring-heeled Jack

Just, please, never take consumables (food, drink, ect) from strangers.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, I think the "you didn't draw her fat enough" was a different one

Deo101 [Millennium]

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Scary world we live in -_-

Spring-heeled Jack

There are people who get too invested in things and don't know how to process those feelings. Be smart and careful, but don't let those people stop you from making your comic, art, fanart, or anything.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

ngl, I'm honestly legit scared. Not quite terrified but lowkey fear in my mind... I'm not at all active in con circuits, etc. so I don't think any physical harm will happen to me, but I do worry about potential online harassment.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Me too, to be completely honest

Spring-heeled Jack

Conventions are usually really great. I've been at some for about three years now and everyone has been so kind. Online, however, is more of a concern because people can post anything, it's easier with that distance.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Even with a low likelihood of something happening, common sense is definitely good. Don't take food, have a buddy nearby, have an 'out' if you feel uncomfortable. But yeah, cons seem to be lovely so far. If anyone causes trouble, staff usually does a good job wrangling them

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Yeah, I've had great experiences at cons for the most part. A few creepy people that camped out at my table for a bit longer than comfortable, but otherwise it's been great

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Oh yeah The campers. They mean well, but man... they CAMP.

Spring-heeled Jack

I get a lot of lingering people and returning people,. but only once so far did I really have someone just stand there and block others. But he was a bit older and was putting his change in his wallet from a sale, so I didn't want to say anything

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I love the people who return! I usually get people returning the next day to buy something (or to buy more stuff). Those people always seem so invested in my work.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, it's more the online stuff I worry about

o(-<

Deo101 [Millennium]

me too, I've been real lucky to have people mostly be very kind but theres always new fear with new readers, or every new thing i introduce that someone will be mad about it

Spring-heeled Jack

Lemme clarify, returners are okay, but the ones the are weird and linger and block the booth. That makes me a little stressed out

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Oh man, Deo, I can feel those fears in my bones.

Deo101 [Millennium]

ahahha a bunch of new people show up and youre just like thats a lotta people who could be pissed at me huh?

I had someone get very upset with me over something once, in a way i never imagined someone would, and im coming up on a scene I've been planning for like a year now which canonized my characters trans identities, and I worry some people will think i am hmmmmmm doing a bad job

or not the job they want

Spring-heeled Jack

Forget them. Do what you have planned!

Deo101 [Millennium]

yup! but if people do get very upset with me I will still be hurt, even if I think I am really doing the best job I can

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

hard same

I won't bend my story, but I sure as hell will be hurt

Spring-heeled Jack

I understand. I worry that my queer characters aren't queer enough, but then that's a worry I have about myself IRL, sooooooo, I get you

Deo101 [Millennium]

someone once got upset with me over that ;) so i worry about it too

Spring-heeled Jack

It sucks because the opinion of others both don't matter and SUPER matters

Deo101 [Millennium]

or, sorry, they said I was blase my bad

and yeah like, im gonna do what i want but it still sucks when people are mean about it, regardless

which ^ is kind of how I feel about this shipping topic. Im gonna do what I want but Id really prefer people not be upset over not getting what they want.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I think everyone's mileage varies on what 'the right representation' of relationships and characters is. Barring obvious no-nos, I don't think everyone will ever be 100% satisfied. I do very much dread that one person coming into my comments to tell me "You did this character/ship wrong, thus, you are a bad writer, and probably a bad person - gonna write an article about you now kthxbye" At that point, I would just hope enough people come to my side to go "Um... no?" because I would definitely want to recede far into the nearest dark corner and think about what I've done

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah. when I did get that comment of someone kind of telling me off about how Ive chosen to represent things. I really kind of started... not overthinking, because I dont think that worrying about doing a good job and taking comments into consideration is BAD, per se, but I started really worrying about whether or not i DID do something wrong. my friends came to my defense, which was very nice, and the person did actually end up changing their mind and kind of rescinding their comment. I think places like this and having people that support you to back you up when stuff like this happens is really important

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It happened to me and it did absolutely suck. I'm genuinely unsure I can take another one if it happens again

Deo101 [Millennium]

yeah idk what I would do if someone went... that hard..

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I think there are some reactions that not even sensitivity readers could predict. Like, things that are so out of left field, but also still make a bit of sense if you really, really stretch your brain? Arguments that would make for excellent thesis papers someday, tbh

Spring-heeled Jack

:( I'm really sorry it hurt you that much, Keii. I know I can say "don't let it get to you" all day but you will feel how you feel when someone pulls that kind of stuff. I hope it doesn't happen again and, if it does, I hope it doesn't hurt you!

I hope it helps to remember that there will probably be many people out there that see your work and see the characters and go "That's me!" or "I feel seen!"

Spring-heeled Jack

We get a new topic tomorrow, yeah?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I think so

Spring-heeled Jack

Nice!

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #creator interview #comic creator interview #creator babble #comic tea party #ctp

2 notes · View notes

sadisticpussies · 5 years

Text

Choose Me, Babe

(Part 2)

(Part 1)

———————–

They've been perched on the plush cushions of his taupe colored sofa for the past few hours, watching movies and shoveling handfuls of buttered popcorn into their mouths. The night, much to Jessica's avail was seemingly going better than she thought. Though there was still a maladroit tension that hovered between them, she wasn't compelled with unsettled nerves like she usually is when it's just the two of them together.

It was quiet, an unusual hushed stillness resided amongst them. It started to worry her a bit because she that whenever Alex got this quiet, it meant that he was overthinking and she knew exactly what was disrupting his musings. Jessica knew that it was primarily the reasoning for him inviting her over. She knew that it had perturbed him whenever she subverted the topic of conversation any time he tried to bring it up. She knew that she owed him the decently of at least telling him the truth about her and Justin, but it was just too hard to say out loud.

Her eyes were cemented towards the television screen until she saw him attempt to intertwine their fingers. She pulled her hand away in haste. She chastises and chides herself for her petulant behavior, already knowing that it made her appear as if she was disgusted by his touch. A slight frown wans on Alex's face and Jessica opens her mouth to apologize, "What's going on Jess?" He asked, his tone is solemn and weary.

"What do you mean?" She asked dumbfoundedly, albeit she definitely knew the context behind his inquiry.

"I mean," Alex sighed, reaching forward as he picked up the remote and paused the tv. "This, us. The way you've been acting towards me since the night of the dance. I mean, did I do something?" Jessica's heart quivers at the sight of his worried eyes and sotto voce.

"No, you didn't do anything." Her heart aches as she stared at him. She knows that he is getting exasperated by her bleak answers. He wanted the truth, something other than these unwarranted fibs she was feeding him but the more she thought about it the more the pain started to haunt her. Knowing that Alex thought he was the reason for her uncanny behavior made her feel gravely ill. He was so sweet and nice, so innocent and pure. He was someone that deserved better than how she had been treating him these past few weeks.

"Then what's going on? Please, just tell me the truth. Do you not wanna be with me anymore, is that it?" She feels all the air being drained out of her chest, her mouth is suddenly parched and she could feel the heavy tears burning at the back of her eyes. Her silence provides Alex with an answer, he sighs heavily as he shakes his head with a wry chuckle emanating from his lips.

"Alex.."

"So, you don't want to be with me anymore. I guess I should've known. You always flinch or move away whenever I try to hold your hand." Another heavy sigh emanates from his lips as he distance himself away from her. He's quiet again. They both sit there compelled by their own thoughts.

Jessica nervously glances over at Alex. She wants to say something, to apologize, and reassure him that nothing's his fault. She fears that he hates her now — which she would understandably get because well, she did cheat on him, but she couldn't handle it if he ended up despising her. Five minutes lapse by before Alex acknowledges her presence again. He rises to his feet with a low groan.

"I'm not like, mad or whatever. I get it. You aren't ready to be in a relationship yet. I guess I just wish you told me instead of just stringing me along. It just kinda sucks, you know?" She nods understandingly, though her chest still clenches with every labored breath that she exhales. Alex mussles a hand through his hair as Jessica chewed worriedly on her bottom lip.

"I'm so sorry, Alex. You're an amazing guy—"

"You don't have to do that." He hastily interjected, waving her off in a dismissive manner. Jessica pursed her lips together tightly after swallowing down the thick lump that formed in the back of her throat. She needed to leave, looking at his pained countenance made her feel worse than she already felt. Jessica quickly began to gather her things.

"I'm gonna go." She pocketed her phone as she rose to her feet. Alex opened his mouth, preparing to refute her suggestion but he closed it shut moments after. Jessica knew that although he didn't hate her per se, he was still very much hurt and needed time to process everything that just occurred. And if she was being quite honest, so did she. Jessica released a deep breath after she departed from the Standall House.

It had been two days since the gut wrenching occurrence at Alex's house. She refrained from calling or texting him, as she assumed that he still needed time and space. She was sprawled out on her bed, reading a book that was assigned for her English class when she heard a tap on her window. Jessica glanced up to see Justin's face reflecting on the other side. She rose to her feet and unlatched the locks on her windows.

"Are you okay? I've been texting but you haven't answered any of them." He asks worriedly. Jessica had inadvertently relented from speaking to him as well, she's been so consumed with everything that happened with Alex that she closed everyone else off. She shut the windows, making sure she locked them back before climbing back into the bed.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She shrugged as she picked up the small book and opened it back to the page that she was reading prior to his arrival. Jessica felt the bed dip, Justin had removed his shoes along with his jacket which were both sitting by her desk. "I'm an awful person." She murmurs quietly, her eyes are still cemented to the small printed words in the book. She didn't need to look up to know that Justin was already staring at her.

"You told him?" She shakes her head, a deep sigh follows afterwards.

"No. He just assumed that the reason why I've been acting so closed off towards him was because I didn't want to be in a relationship yet. And I let him believe it because it was easier than telling him the truth."

"You're not an awful person, Jess." Justin insinuates sincerely, much to her avail though she scoffs lowly. He moves upward on the bed, scooting next to her as his back rested against the headboard. "You're not. I mean yeah, I feel shitty about what we did to Alex too but that doesn't mean we're terrible people."

Jessica laughs softly as she shakes her head, "I find flaw in that logic but thank you for trying to cheer me up."

"Always." He presses a soft kiss into her hair as he drapes an arm across her shoulder. She chisles herself against the warmth of his chest, pulling the blanket over her legs. She sat there quietly reading while Justin slowly lulled into a quiet slumber. He began to snore and she started to scold him until she remembered the sight of the heavy bags that adorned underneath his eyelids. She was aware of his sufferance of insomnia that he's been experiencing lately.

Jessica pulled the warm blankets over his body before closing her book and placing it on the nightstand. She wrapped an arm around his waist and found herself succumbing to the heavy slumber that slowly crept up on her. She woke up to the slight tremors of Justin's body. His eyebrows were furrowed and his pink lips were pulled into a small frown. Drenched sweat prickled along his forehead. "Justin."

He stirs before prying his bleary eyes open. He blinks slowly, croaking a sheepish smile as he met her worried gaze. "How long was I asleep?"

"About four, five hours."

He yawns softly as he sits up, running a hand over his hair. He chuckled, "That's more sleep than I've been getting these past few days." Jessica contemplates on asking him what he dreamt about. From her perspective, what ever it was it didn't seem too pleasant because it appeared as if he was haunted by a nightmare. She knew that he only informed her about the insomnia but now she started to wonder if these nightmares were the reasoning behind it.

Jessica's countenance must've been one of perplexity because Justin leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss to her cheek. "I'm starving. Think we can order takeout or something? Your parents are still gone, right? What?"

He asked upon noticing the narrowed expression of her scrutiny. "If there was something wrong, you'd tell me right?" Justin's eyebrow quelled up, the creases of his lips twitched into a slight smile. Jessica knows that he's about to reassure her that everything was fine, and she wants to believe it but she could tell that there was something that he was reluctant to inform her about.

"Yeah. I've just been having trouble sleeping lately, s'all. But of course if something was wrong I'd tell you." Justin could still see the internal ambivalence still wavering over her. He reached forward and placed his hands on her waist. He guided her towards him, where she straddled his lap with her knees bracketed on either side of his hips. "You don't have to worry, Jess. I promise."

His thumb massages under the cusp of her ear, while his other hand gently squeezes her thigh. She leans forward, meeting him halfway in a slow, feverish kiss. Their lips move in perfect tandem, he kisses her with a ravenous vigor that she hastily returned. His tongue laps over her bottom lip, she parts her mouth and allows his tongue to invade her wet mouth. It's messy, their teeth clash a bit. "Someone's a little revved up." Justin jests quirkily as Jessica presses her body further down onto his and wraps her arms around his neck.

Justin groans inwardly at the delicious friction as a litany of profanities spews from his lips. "You were saying?" He groans again, this time panting a labored breath as his hands begin to hesitantly linger along the waistband of her pyjama shorts. She nods her head before he gets a chance to ask the question.

Jessica eases the shorts over her hips and haphazardly tosses them on the floor. Justin's clothes soon follow suit as the pool on the floor somewhere in the mix of her forgotten clothes. They're bare; her bouncy chest is pressed against his flattened one.

She moans softly as she sinks down onto him, bottoming him out completely. Their dewy bodies pressed tightly against each other's as they move in a shallow, lazy rhythm, exchanging languid kisses and whispering appraisals. Their breathing is hitched and heavy.

The sound of his stomach grumbling caused her to laugh. She cranes her head as she looked up at his sheepish smirk, "I haven't eaten all day. I told you I was hungry."

"I'll go see what we have in the fridge." She reaches down and gathers her clothing, slipping on her underwear and shorts, followed by her shirt. Jessica climbs out of bed and jogs down the stairs and enters into the kitchen, heading straight for the refrigerator. She stumbled across some leftovers and pulled them out. The sound of the doorbell caught her attention.

She opened the door to see that it's Alex — sheer panic wavered over her. "Hi."

"Alex, hey. What are you doing here?" She asks, pulling the door closer in hopes that he receives the hint that she didn't want him to come in. He immediately noticed the innuendo and sheepishly rubbed at the back of his neck.

"I uh, just wanted to talk but if now's not a good time I can come back later." She feels relieved on his insistence. She definitely wanted and needed to talk to Alex, but not now. Not when Justin was still here, upstairs, naked in her bed. She opens her mouth to tell him that they could talk tomorrow but the sudden calloused countenance of Alex's face made her halt. His jaw clenched and his eyes darkened. Jessica turned around and followed his gaze.

#13 reasons why #jess x justin #jessica davis #alisha boe #justin foley #brandon flynn #alex standall #miles heizer #fanfiction #drabble #clay jensen #dylan minnette #13rw season 2 #13rw fanfiction

8 notes · View notes

topweeklyupdate · 6 years

Text

TØP Weekly Update #62: They’re *Really* Back (9/14/18)

We knew going into this week that there was a real storm coming, and that was an understatement. Though the complete Trench album is still waiting to be released, it really feels like the band is back more than ever.

This update is a novel-sized doozy. Grab your new merch, and let’s dive into it.

This Week’s TØPics:

A Complete Diversion in London Brings Trench (and a Flaming Car) to the Stage

The Boys Speak to the Press: Rock Sound and Alt Press Announce Special TØP Issues, and the Boys Hop Back Onto Radio

First Details Emerge About “Neon Gravestones”, “Pet Cheetah”, Clancy, Nico, and More As the Press Hear the Album for the First Time

Major News and Announcements:

The big one finally hit: after over a year, Twenty One Pilots returned to their home on the stage. They started making flex moves before the show even started. They arrived in London two days in advance, rehearsing and playing soundchecks into the night that die-hard campers could hear from outside the venue. They arranged for folks in Bandito uniforms to dispense 150 tickets to those that showed up at the box office. The venue delivered food to the queue, and the Clique in turn donated their blankets and duvets to a local soup kitchen. Pretty darn sweet.

The real event was even sweeter.

Twenty One Pilots did not quite pull out all of the stops for their first performance in over a year. The set was just over an hour, did not debut any never-before-heard songs, did not include any special guests, and mainly stuck to the skeleton of the Blurryface Era setlist. And you know what? There was absolutely nothing wrong with that. If anything, Tyler and Josh keeping things focused on dusting off the old gears and introducing a few new elements for the Trench era resulted in a tight and emotional return for today’s greatest band. (Shout out to Ohio Clique for editing fifteen different Periscope and Instagram Live streams together to make a cohesive concert movie.)

Highlights of the show include:

There were no screens present in the smaller venue, but the production crew did make sure to bust out a ton of other great production elements, including tons of lights and, most notably, the car from the “Heavydirtysoul” video that bursts into flames at key points during certain songs- including, at one point, when Tyler was standing on it.

The Clique brought the production value in the crowd, too: beyond all the folks dressed up as Banditos and Bishops, you also had plenty of people bring in yellow screens for their flashlights and yellow flowers and petals to offer Tyler.

The setlist was pretty sensible, with the four new Trench singles plus all of the songs that you would have expected them to play at an old festival show (minus “Guns for Hands” and “Tear In My Heart”, no I’m not sweating, why?). It is interesting that “WDBWOTV” and “The Judge” were played, but I suspect that it was mainly to justify bringing out the ukulele for “Nico”; if there are more uke tracks on Trench, I would not be surprised to see one or both of these songs dip out of the regular rotation.

Tyler had to stop the show twice to help people out of the pit- it was that kind of show.

The show opened with Josh coming out on stage in full Bandito regalia, torch in hand, looking like a badass. After sitting down at the drums and playing a few simple sequences, a masked man with a bass guitar walked out on the stage, started playing “Jumpsuit”’s gnarly riff, and yelled for the crowd to “GET UP!” Awesome. Twenty One Pilots is back, mate.

Tyler stumbled over a few lyrics in “Jumpsuit” and “Levitate”, but he successfully played it off- only the most diehard fans would have caught that he wasn’t just pausing for breath or to hear the crowd.

Tyler actually yelled “Why’d you come, you know you should have stayed?” at the end of “Heathens”, and it sounded damn good. Hope it sticks for future shows.

Tyler’s “WDBWOTV” pre-speech was a pretty good inaugural address for the Trench Era. He let the rabid audience know that he had been watching them since before the concert (both literally and metaphorically), joked about needing to get back in “show shape”, and thanked London for being a home away from home for them. In gratitude for hosting them, Tyler even announced that they were adding a third arena show at Wembley and joked that Mark should tweet it or something (he did).

Prior to playing “Nico”, Tyler adorned a bright yellow jacket over his usual uke kimono; Josh helpfully banged the drums dramatically for every successful button.

Tyler and Josh did the handshake during “Nico”, because of course they did.

For “My Blood”, Tyler drew from the old playbook and attempted to direct the two halves of the audience to sing harmonies. It worked even better than it used to with “Doubt”, much to Tyler’s evident glee- his smile and little dance to everyone singing his new song back at him was probably the best moment of the whole show.

The Trees Speech was short and sweet, with Tyler promising that he’s written “pages and pages” of things he wants to say, but for now all he can say is that they’ll be coming back on the new tour with “things we’ve never seen before” and that the fans look so good.

#YellowConfettiConfirmed

In the last bit of major news: new merch (that Josh stitched himself, be nice) and a new yellow Trench vinyl that I’m sure won’t immediately sell out. Have fun spending your life savings, kids!

Other Shenanigans:

The band was active in other spaces this week, of course. After Zane Lowe broke open the floodgates last week, both Rock Sound and Alternative Press announced that they would release some exclusive Trench Era Content (tm). Rock Sound’s came in the form of a thirty-page mag featuring a lengthy 22-page feature comprised of the first interview the two bands gave together since before the hiatus, Tyler and Josh’s first full photoshoot in over a year, and tons of awesome posters and Clique art. It definitely is not available in any form on the Internet that I’m afraid to link to lest I get pegged for copyright and sent to jail. Highlights of this interview that I certainly haven’t read include:

Lots of typical Rock Sound purple prose, in which the writer goes off on more tangential metaphors than even Tyler Robert Joseph.

The reporter describes Tyler’s house as “quite stunning” (yeah, with that Blurryface money combined with Columbus real estate values, I should hope so).

Josh laughs at the memory of some of their old costumes. “Those suits were so hot,” he says, as if those heavy coats aren’t a billion degrees inside.

Tyler: “There’s something healthy about realizing that the world keeps turning. Sometimes it can feel like the whole world is revolving around you- I think we all selfishly get to that point. When you have those moments, when you stop and realize that even if you weren’t there those other people would be, it lifts a weight that can feel very heavy. It motivates you to want to come up with a reason why you’re here.”

Tyler says they cut out social media during the hiatus in part because “removing the ability to run straight to it was important. For me, writing music is the thing I want to run to when I feel compelled or inspired. Whether it’s frustration or anger or compassion, whatever it is that I wanted to express, I wanted it to live somewhere new. I didn’t want one drop of meaningful expression to live anywhere else.” Additionally, they did want to test whether the Clique would stick around, and even kinda hint that they wanted to shrink how crowded some of the rooms they entered were becoming.

We are assured, however, that the next “hiatus” will not be the exact same as this. Tyler: “Going away broke my heart. It hurt that we weren’t able to tell people why we had gone, but I’m an advocate of showing people what I’ve been working on rather than telling them how hard I’m working. [...] That said, though we don’t know what the timeframe will be or if we’ll take another break, the manner in which we left... we’ll never do that again.”

I’m just gonna leave this here: “He tells us also of the beautiful relationship he has with his wife, Jenna, and the role that she played in helping him unlock the words and the sounds that would form the basis of this new chapter; of the times he would hand her the phone while behind the wheel of his car to allow her to record anything from melodies to simple poems.” Yeah, will someone sweep up all the pieces of my heart that are just lying on the floor, that’d be great.

Tyler has long had the idea to tell a geographic story, much longer than since the end of the last cycle, and he didn’t always intend to tell it through music. “I feel like in our mind there are places we learn we shouldn’t go.”

Tyler says that there are lots of songs that he writes that never see the light of day because he has moved past the season he wrote them in by the time it comes to record them.

Rock Sound is positively glowing in its brief advance review of the album, saying it is undoubtedly the best project of 2018, “a labor of love”, “a varied, often spectacular collection” with some of the band’s all-time greatest moments. It will be even more sonically diverse than we’ve come to expect: “Morph” is described as “old-school R&B”, “The Hype” “anthemic indie-rock”, “Pet Cheetah” has “stomping beats and a fiery rap verse.” The highlight, though, is apparently “Neon Gravestones”, “a piano-laden spoken word masterpiece” with lyrical content that “will save at least one person’s life”. Damn.

Alt Press will also be releasing a 24-page cover feature on the band and were even nice enough to include a fun video ad from the boys. They’re so cute, and I’ve missed them so much. (Also, Tyler’s checkered pants are a quality meme.)

After the Complete Diversion, Tyler and Josh performed a mini-press tour. First, they gave five-minute interview with Annie Mac on BBC Radio 1 and an Instagram Stories AMA on the station’s account. Highlights of this quickie include:

Josh and Tyler joke that specifying the exact number of months they’ve been away sounds like a mother saying their kid is “14 months” instead of a year old.

Tyler notes that this was the first performance in a long time that they’ve felt truly nervous, as they could no longer rely on muscle memory to carry them through after the long break, particularly with the new songs.

Annie references her last interview with Josh, where he confessed to be nervous about whether the fans would return. When asked if the first show helped them overcome those nerves, Tyler replied honestly, “To an extent, yes.” They chuckle about it, but the implication remains thick: the dedicated fanbase certainly turned up, but there is no assurance that they’ll have long-term mainstream success in the future. They seem cool with that.

Tyler states that they chose London specifically to make their return because, besides Columbus, it’s the only city where they have played in every size of venue, from the Barfly club to the Ally Pally and everything in-between over the course of fifteen shows. That type of home atmosphere made it feel right to start the new era there.

Josh says they played a bowling alley in London once. He did not wear bowling shoes in the set nor when he bowled afterward, which, as Tyler points out, is very punk rock.

Tyler reflects on how this show represents years of preparation and practice teaching them how to “trim the fat” and master the tempo and flow of the concert to appear as confident as possible and bring the audience along for a well-planned journey.

“My Blood” is one of the most challenging songs for both artists to play, particularly Tyler, as he has to balance the difficult falsetto with keeping that bassline groovy and consistent.

The IG answers were mostly just the dudes trying and failing to answer basic questions like “Are you happy to be back?” and “What’s it like to be famous?” in as few words as possible without giggling, hugging, and tickling each other. Best Q/A: Why did they watch the Grammys in their underwear? “We didn’t have air-conditioning.”

South African DJ Rob Forbes from Radio 5FM also conducted a truly fascinating interview with the band, the first that dives into the lore and one that gives us even more of a glimpse into some of the future songs. Additionally, Mr. Forbes briefly posted the tracklist w/ time-codes, revealing that both “Chlorine” and “Bandito” go over five minutes- get hyped, kids. Highlights from this interview include:

When asked about Clancy, Tyler responds with a pregnant silence before asking how the the interviewer knew about him. DJ Forbes stutters an answer about having listened to the record, but Tyler replies that Clancy’s not on the record. All he does say about Clancy is “I’ve heard about him, and I know we’re from the same place.” What is up with your cryptic nonsense, Tyler Robert Joseph?

The band intentionally left the Trench Trilogy open-ended to be able to continue it in the future. Tyler did not mean to make the timeline confusing, but did note that its cyclical nature left it open for the Clique to pursue that interpretation.

Tyler is careful with choosing his words to describe Nico. He admits the whole thing is pretty confusing (his grandma asked him once, “What’s a Nico?”), but that was his intention: he wanted to give the Clique a lot to think about and discuss as a reward for waiting so long. He does seem to confirm that Nico is Blurryface, or at least an aspect of him that represents how much more familiar Tyler has become with the nature of his own insecurities as he writes about it.

Tyler denies that the final verse of “Neon Gravestones” has a specifically political bend and actually sounds a little offended that something so important to him could be cast in that light. No idea what that means, I need to hear this song.

The interviewer says that Tyler calls his “Pet Cheetah” “Jason Statham” within the song itself in a fun rap verse. Tyler laughs and says that came from an inside joke between him and Josh that he was excited to bring to life. I am SO confused, you have no idea.

Tyler says that they had plans at one point to come to South Africa for a show that fell through at the last second, but that they’re still interested in going at some point in the future.

Additionally, the music production interest site Mix did a small spotlight on the producers behind Trench. We already knew that Paul Meany was handling main production duty; Darrell Thorpe, whose credits include Radiohead, OutKast, Paul McCartney, and Foster the People, joined him as an engineer while the band captured the album’s drum tracks at United Recording Studios in LA, the only studio they used outside of the one in Tyler’s home. It’s always cool to see the dudes who bring the band’s music to life, but, to be honest, the best part of this short little article is Tyler’s dad socks in the photo.

Oh, and music video director Andrew Donoho told Billboard that he can’t spoil the album or Tyler will burn down his house. So... yeah, okay, moving on.

Chart Performance:

After its first full week of sales and streaming, “My Blood” secured a debut at #16 on the Billboard Bubbling Under chart ranking the songs that have yet to reach the Hot 100. The song gains at all metrics, and according to some industry sources like Headline Planet, it is receiving a concentrated marketing push to pop and adult contemporary markets that its predecessors have not. “Jumpsuit” continues to fade, but its run was respectable, and I remain optimistic about Trench’s commercial prospects going forward, especially in the midst of this hype wave.

Whew. That was a long run. Congrats to everyone who made it all the way to the end. We’re so close to Trench, you guys. Keep powering through. Stay alive. And power to the local dreamer.

|-/

#twenty one pilots #tyler joseph #josh dun #trench #rock sound #alt press #a complete diversion #bbc radio one #pet cheetah #neon gravestones #top weekly update

12 notes · View notes

cedarrrun · 4 years

Link

Try these yoga and meditation practices, digital detox tips, and more for overcoming mental blocks, enhancing focus, and awakening your imagination.

Here’s the fantasy: You step into your sacred workspace on a peaceful morning just before dawn, fully rested and ready for your uninterrupted date with the muse. You pick up your pen or paintbrush or guitar pick with optimism, and the words or lines or notes come rushing from your subconscious as creative inspiration flows through you like water.

The reality: If you’re lucky, you get a few good sentences down on the page, pick the colors that speak to you, or nail the first two measures of a new song. And then… nothing. Your smartphone pings, and you reach for it instinctively. Before you know it, you’re scrolling. The coffee you poured is cold. You’re hungry. Your cat is hungry. You should probably shower. Did you even brush your teeth yet?

The truth is, no matter how many times you start, stop, and start again, your creativity is never dependent on how much you produce in an hour, a day, or even a decade. Ingenuity and imagination are defining characteristics of the human experience. We are all creators, whether that creativity manifests traditionally as great works of art or discovery—or as quieter moments and expressions of imagination and inventiveness. We simply need to give ourselves permission to create and establish practices that help us find the time and the confidence to do so. Your yoga mat is a good place to start. Your practice will help you get out of your thinking, judging, procrastinating mind and into your body, where you can begin to move stuck energy and awaken the muse within.

See also The Ultimate Sequence to Work Through Your 7 Chakras

THE ART OF SELF-STUDY

Although creativity is often defined as a process that generates something novel and original, any creative endeavor requires us to cultivate a strong and sincere relationship with ourselves before we can begin to express any of that outwardly. According to psychologist Abraham Maslow, creativeness (his preferred term) is a necessary component of self-awareness and self-actualization. In The True Secret of Writing, author Natalie Goldberg writes, “underneath everything we long to know ourselves.” The ancient yogis say that’s precisely why we practice—to uncover the truths that lie beneath our judgments and fears.

Yoga gives us the discipline (tapas) we need to keep showing up, even when we’ve hit a roadblock; the opportunity to examine the obstacles that get in the way of knowing our true Self (svadhyaya, or self-study); and the ability to let things unfold as they are meant to (Ishvara pranidhana).

GETTING INTO THE BODY

Nailing a Forearm Balance isn’t the most difficult element of a physical asana practice. No, it’s calming the so-called monkey mind and establishing a sense of contentment in Child’s Pose or surrender in Savasana. Navigating the emotional disease and discomfort that may arise when you’re in a posture and coming into stillness can provide the foundation for finding repose and acceptance when struggling through the not-so-Instagrammable creative block.

When you’re stuck, get on your mat, even if you aren’t in the mood. Feel your feet on the ground and begin to move, letting go of the need to do the pose perfectly. After a while, you may even find yourself in “the zone” or in “flow,” a space described by Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi as a state of consciousness and total immersion in the moment, where all external sensory stimulation melts away. This renewed focus will propagate a greater appreciation for whatever it is that you’re doing. Afterward, you may emerge feeling more confident and energized.

WAKING UP THE MIND

Almost every person has an editor on their shoulder, scolding, tsking, and offering unsolicited advice. Learning to approach creative practice as ritual, much like you do other meditation or mindfulness practices, will give you plenty of tools to hush the critic and move past any creative resistance.

Opening your newly discovered toolbox, you’ll first find conscious breathing. Each full inhalation is an opportunity to create space, while each exhalation is an opportunity to explore that expansion. Breathing sends fresh oxygen to the brain, filling the control center of our bodily vessel with life-force energy to improve overall function, boost cellular activity, and wake us up.

See also Find Calm and Boost Your Immunity with These 9 Yogic Breathing Exercises

Next, you might find boredom. When your brain has all that life-force energy at its disposal, it’s awake and ready to create. In order to do that, however, it needs to be left to its own devices. Let your mind drift off into space. It may sound counterintuitive, but if necessity is the mother of invention, then boredom is the mother of creativity. In a 2019 study published by the London School of Economics Business Review, researchers Guihyun Park, Beng-Chong Lim, and Hui Si Oh found that boredom has a unique effect on creativity. Their research found that when people are bogged down with a mindless task, they encourage their brains to explore new patterns of thinking and problem-solving. This is similar to what happens when we sit quietly in contemplative inquiry—we’re embracing boredom.

Which leads us to meditation. Research shows that people who practiced both yoga and meditation have elevated levels of alpha brain waves, which boost creative thinking. Studies have shown participants’ brain waves became “rhythmic and orderly” as their minds settled into the practice. The solution for busting through a creative block, then, is simple: Move your body, free your mind from distraction, and the rest will follow. That doesn’t mean that doing some Sun Salutations will automatically invoke the muse. But yoga and meditation, as rituals, can help us find steadiness and stimulate the senses—not unlike keeping a gratitude journal or strolling around your neighborhood sans phone. It’s the disconnection and subsequent tapping in that work wonders for the creative process.

See also Start Your Day With This Energizing Morning Practice

Daily Ritual: Early Morning Freewriting

Do this exercise without expectation or the desire to achieve a certain outcome or goal.

No matter what your creative calling is, freewriting can help you loosen the grip of insecurity and get into the flow before your mind yields to the more pressing matters of the day. Wake up 10 minutes earlier than you normally would, grab your journal, and begin writing while still in bed. Write whatever comes to mind without worrying about whether it makes sense. Try this every day for at least a week, and notice whether the path to your creativity changes. Are you able to relax into the rhythm of your process at the end of the week more easily? Does inspiration come from new sources? It might be interesting to read over what you’ve written to see what surfaced—any surprises or insights into your creative process? If so, be sure to reread what you wrote to reflect on what helped get you there.

Weekly Ritual: A Creativity-Boosting Yoga Sequence

One of the biggest hurdles we face when creating—or practicing yoga—is learning how to get out of our own way and plug into the flow of the present moment. Whenever we’re lacking imagination, we can always come to the mat to move energy around and distill the chatter.

For a sequence that taps into the source energy of creativity, rousing the sacral chakra (svadhisthana) to channel the muse, try this asana practice for creativity. The poses in this sequence also stimulate the throat chakra (visuddha) to hone authentic self-expression, open the heart chakra (anahata) to rekindle the flames of passion, activate the crown chakra (sahasrara) to awaken us to higher insight, and energize the solar plexus chakra (manipura) to increase motivation and confidence.

Monthly Ritual: Vision Boarding

A vision board physically identifies what it is you seek and acts as an intuitive road map to get you there, harnessing the powers of manifestation and the law of attraction. Olympic athletes use imagery and visualization techniques to focus in on what they aim to accomplish. These techniques help activate their senses in such a way that imagining their desired outcome gives them a greater chance of achieving them. Neuroscientific studies have proven the effectiveness of this approach.

On your own or with friends, gather a stack of magazines, photographs, and printouts, along with scissors and glue. Choose images that inspire you and align with your goals—what you wish to magnetize into your life. Cut out phrases or letters to string together your own affirmations or mantras, especially if you have limiting beliefs (think money, work, or your abilities). There is no wrong way to make a vision board, as long as you’re giving yourself permission to express your dreams in physical form. This is a great monthly manifestation exercise—particularly near a new moon, a moment that’s ripe for intention-setting. You can choose to make a new vision board each month or continue adding to what you’ve begun. This is your opportunity to flex your creative muscles and make something with your hands—if your inner artist is inspired, you'll know you're on the right track.

See also The Intention-Activating Power of a Daily Ritual

Ongoing Ritual: Media Detox

The addictive 24-hour news cycle can inhibit your imagination’s ability to flourish. Consider what may be blocking you: listening to the radio or podcasts on your commute, scrolling through news feeds, or using the TV for background noise. Create parameters around screen time and audio disruptions by designating technology-free hours.

Then pay close attention to the moments when you feel compelled to fill the void with noise or other stimulation. Is being alone with your thoughts uncomfortable? Take note of those feelings without judgment—and then watch how your mind begins to replace them. Keep a note-book nearby, and write down the random thoughts that float to the surface. Try drawing a picture or coloring to fight off the urge. Over time, notice how your creative process transforms in the absence of outside distraction.

See also 7 Ways to Disconnect from Tech—& Joyfully Do Nothing

The Yoga Almanac by Lisette Cheresson and Andrea Rice

Additional reporting by Linda Sparrowe.

#sleep sounds #sleep music #white noise app #nature sounds #relaxing sounds #rain sounds for sleeping

0 notes

krisiunicornio · 4 years

Link

Try these yoga and meditation practices, digital detox tips, and more for overcoming mental blocks, enhancing focus, and awakening your imagination.

See also The Ultimate Sequence to Work Through Your 7 Chakras

THE ART OF SELF-STUDY

GETTING INTO THE BODY

WAKING UP THE MIND

See also Find Calm and Boost Your Immunity with These 9 Yogic Breathing Exercises

See also Start Your Day With This Energizing Morning Practice

Daily Ritual: Early Morning Freewriting

Do this exercise without expectation or the desire to achieve a certain outcome or goal.

Weekly Ritual: A Creativity-Boosting Yoga Sequence

Monthly Ritual: Vision Boarding

See also The Intention-Activating Power of a Daily Ritual

Ongoing Ritual: Media Detox

See also 7 Ways to Disconnect from Tech—& Joyfully Do Nothing

The Yoga Almanac by Lisette Cheresson and Andrea Rice

Additional reporting by Linda Sparrowe.

#sleep sounds #sleep music #white noise app #nature sounds #relaxing sounds #rain sounds for sleeping

0 notes

amyddaniels · 4 years

Text

Feeling Stuck? These 4 Mindfulness Rituals Will Help You Feel Creative Again

Try these yoga and meditation practices, digital detox tips, and more for overcoming mental blocks, enhancing focus, and awakening your imagination.

See also The Ultimate Sequence to Work Through Your 7 Chakras

THE ART OF SELF-STUDY

GETTING INTO THE BODY

WAKING UP THE MIND

See also Find Calm and Boost Your Immunity with These 9 Yogic Breathing Exercises

See also Start Your Day With This Energizing Morning Practice

Daily Ritual: Early Morning Freewriting

Do this exercise without expectation or the desire to achieve a certain outcome or goal.

Weekly Ritual: A Creativity-Boosting Yoga Sequence

Monthly Ritual: Vision Boarding

See also The Intention-Activating Power of a Daily Ritual

Ongoing Ritual: Media Detox

See also 7 Ways to Disconnect from Tech—& Joyfully Do Nothing

The Yoga Almanac by Lisette Cheresson and Andrea Rice

Additional reporting by Linda Sparrowe.

0 notes

actutrends · 4 years

Text

Too much, yet not enough: Amazon’s Echo Studio, Echo Flex, and Fire TV Cube

I behold the pile of Alexa devices that Amazon has sent me to review, and I do not immediately know what I want to do with them. There’s an Echo Studio smart speaker, a Fire TV Cube, an Echo Flex (which defies description), and a couple of accessories to go with the Flex. Our household already has an Echo Spot (smart clock with a screen), a smart plug, and a pair of Fire tablets for the kids. And of course, we have the Alexa app on our phones.

Given the volume and diversity of Alexa devices now populating my home, I decided to go all in and try to create as unified a smart home system as I can, comprising all these parts and pieces. This is, of course, what Amazon wants. I bow to the will of the tech giant for the purpose of testing out this smart home stuff.

After doing so, I have three key observations:

These devices, what they offer, and what they require are simultaneously too much and not enough.

To extract any significant value from these devices, you need to have a specific problem (or problems) that a specific Amazon device (or devices) can solve.

These Amazon devices cost a lot of money, and in many cases you’ll need more than one to get the full functionality you need.

The task of creating what portends to be a convenient, virtual assistant-enhanced home feels overwhelming — so many devices; so many individual device settings; so many possible types of lists, reminders, alarms, skills, routines, games, and “Blueprints.” It costs a lot of time, work, and mental energy to dig around to find useful ones and set them all up.

There are some 100,000 Alexa skills you can enable on these devices. Some of them are eminently useful, like a “find my phone” skill to help you keep track of your phone, while a great many of them are utterly banal, like the Spongebob Challenge skill that’s just a themed memory game. It can be a challenge to separate a small bit of wheat from so much chaff.

I do not ascribe to a “tech for the sake of tech” ethos. I’m interested only in what sort of tools or new capabilities tech can provide. That’s a necessary approach to take with these devices — not “what can they do,” but “how can they help me.” If all you want is a nice speaker that you can control with your voice, great — the Echo Studio is for you. If you want a way to control your lights with your voice, you’ll need to pair an Alexa device with an Amazon Smart Plug, if not a third-party lighting system that works with Alexa. If you want an alarm system, you can pair a Ring doorbell with an Echo Flex plus a motion sensor accessory. And so on and so forth.

The point is, although Alexa is an extremely broad, generalized tool, the devices on which you find it are incredibly domain specific. Because they have a discrete purpose, each item in the vast and growing ecosystem of Alexa-powered devices has commensurately limited capabilities, too. Combining multiple domain-specific devices can get you increased capabilities, but only to an extent. A fully tricked-out Alexa-powered smart home needs more than just a handful of devices.

And that’s problematic, because these devices are not cheap. It’s true that Amazon kept costs impressively low on things like most of its Fire tablets (never mind that such devices are loss leaders) and some Fire TV devices, but other devices aren’t so affordable. Even the humble Amazon Smart Plug (which works with Alexa but doesn’t have the virtual assistant on board) is $25. The costs build up from there.

All the things

The devices at hand — the Echo Studio, Fire TV Cube, and Echo Flex — are compelling in their own rights, despite their respective costs.

Echo Studio

The Echo Studio ($200) is a smart speaker designed to play high-quality music, as opposed to a smart speaker that’s meant to be simply a hands-free voice assistant. The idea is that the Echo Studio offers the sort of audio range and fidelity that you’d want from a nice home speaker system, with five internal speakers, including a tweeter and a subwoofer. It’s able to automatically adjust to a room’s acoustics, too.

The large black cylinder measures approximately eight inches tall and seven inches in diameter, so it’s reasonably compact, such that you can stick it on a shelf or corner of a kitchen counter and it won’t take up an egregious amount of space. It has the normal slate of Alexa buttons — volume controls, mute mic button, and “action” button that obviates the need to use the wake word– and the telltale LED light ring that shows you Alexa’s status or activity.

Subjectively, the audio quality, range, and spatial sound is on par with the stereo speakers-plus-standalone subwoofer that I was previously using — which is impressive, given that the Echo Studio is a single unit. The volume was sufficient to fill the entire main floor of my house with clean, distortion-free music.

Echo Flex

The Echo Flex is a palm-sized device that plugs into a wall outlet and is designed to control things like your lights, locks, thermostat, and so on. It has its own little speaker (and mic) on board, but that’s for communication purposes only — the tinny, distorted sound is grating if you try to play music through it. You can augment the Flex’s capabilities by plugging in attachments to its USB port. Ostensibly the roster of such add-ons will grow, but the two that Amazon sent along are the Third Reality Smart Nightlight and Motion Sensor.

It’s unclear why the Smart Nightlight exists at all. It’s essentially an overcomplication of the traditional night light, which is arguably already a perfect product. The Smart Nightlight lets you set different colors for the light, adjust the brightness of the glow from 1% to 100%, and determine when it turns on and off.

The Third Reality Motion Sensor is more practical. From its position in whatever outlet you’ve stuck it and the Flex into, it detects movement that crosses its sensor. Then, you can use the Alexa app to enact all manner of subsequent actions, from giving a verbal welcome to using Alexa Guard — a security notification feature that’s part of Alexa — to alert you to intruders.

You configure all of the above from the Alexa app on your phone. The Flex costs $25, or you can buy either (but not both!) of the Third Reality accessories in a bundle with it for $40.

Fire TV Cube

Essentially, the Fire TV Cube can supplant whatever other media streaming devices you may employ with your TV, like a Roku.

It’s small and unobtrusive at a little over three inches square (it’s technically a rectangle, but barely). You have to plug it in to a wall outlet, and it doesn’t come with its own HDMI cable. You’re supposed to position it at least one to two feet away from any speaker, including your TV’s built-in speakers, which can create some placement challenges. However, it includes an IR extender that will help you keep your home entertainment setup’s clean look if you need it.

You can control the Fire TV Cube with the included remote, your voice, or both. The box itself has a mic and Alexa, as well as Alexa buttons, so you can speak commands to it with a wake word and do things like adjust the volume directly from there. The remote has an Alexa action button on it, though, so you can press and hold it and issue voice commands without saying the wake word.

The $120 Fire TV Cube has the same on-screen interface as any Fire TV device, giving you access to streaming channels, live channels, games, and more.

I incorporated all of the above into my home network. None of the devices proved terribly onerous to set up. (You do need to have a Wi-Fi network and your Alexa app handy to perform any necessary configurations.) They joined an Echo Spot (smart speaker with a screen), smart plug, and two Fire 8 tablets that we already had — and of course, the Alexa app on the phones we own.

The app and everything

Even though Alexa is a voice assistant, the organizational center of any and all Alexa devices is the app. It’s where you do everything from adding devices to configuring their settings to checking your device activity.

One could fill numerous tedious pages with all the items and features included in the Alexa app. But a few screenshots tell much of the story:

Most of these items are self-explanatory, like reminders and lists, but some are more specific to the Alexa ecosystem. Routines are essentially a way to string together commands or set up cause and effect relationships between commands. If you tap Things to Try, you’ll get a little overview of all the things that you can do with Alexa, from communication to productivity to music. The Skills & Games section is a sort of marketplace where you can hunt for skills, which are essentially apps for Alexa.

The Activity section is one to keep an eye on; it’s where you can see your personal history with your Alexa devices and even play back to recordings of your commands. (Yes, Alexa records and stores audio files of all your queries and commands, although you can delete them.)

Blueprints is one of the more compelling features. It lets you easily create your own “Skill Blueprints,” which are customized skills that you can create from templates, like a chore chart, special date countdown, or study aids. Like many of the Alexa skills, though, a lot of these are frivolous, like a custom Q&A where you create your own answers such as making your hometown the answer for “Alexa, which is the best city in the world?”

I created a basic but customized to-do list in just a couple of minutes, but it was indeed basic — for instance, I included leading items like “email Mike” and “check my meeting schedule,” but Alexa didn’t follow up on any of those things by, for instance, sending the email or checking my actual calendar and reading off my schedule.

What to do

Armed with a group of Alexa devices and the Alexa app, I had to come up with things to try, given the nature of the devices I had on hand and the specific things that made sense for me to use them for.

Listening to music

My family has a propensity for playing music in the house, so voice-controlled music via the Echo Studio seemed ideal. There’s a Spotify Alexa skill you can toggle on (from the app), which is perfect, because we have Spotify Premium. Setting this up took just a few minutes and a few taps in the Alexa app.

However, Amazon really, really, really wants you to use Amazon Music. By default, that’s the pool of content from which it draws. Some of it is free, but to get the best experience, you’re strongly encouraged (by Alexa, via the Echo Studio) to subscribe. Although we believed we obviated this need with our Spotify subscription and Alexa skill, the Echo Studio seemed unable to tap into Spotify like we wanted.

For example, when I said, “Alexa, play Yola on Spotify,” it played “Yola radio” — which includes Yola’s songs, but also the songs of others. When I specified that I wanted to hear Yola’s album Walk Through Fire, I got the same frustrating result. “Maybe we should just use Amazon Music,” my wife sighed, annoyed but resigned. “But that’s what they want us to do!” I yelled, in the general direction of the Echo Studio.

Whatever tracks we did get the Echo Studio to play sounded terrific, though. We did not spring for an Amazon Music subscription.

Watching TV

In order for the Fire TV Cube to be of any real use to you, you need to subscribe to streaming services. We’re cord-cutters, so that was not a problem in our case. Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Netflix, etc. were all there and available on the little cube. All you have to do is install their respective apps and log in to your accounts, all through the Fire TV interface and using your remote.

I found that navigating to and through the various streaming services using Alexa was intuitive and direct. (You can also turn on follow-up mode, where you can ask Alexa trailing, contextual questions without re-saying the wake word.) From the home screen, for example, I could say, “Alexa, play Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” or “Alexa, play Tiny House World,” and it opened Prime Video and took me to the right show. If I’d previously watched an episode, it returned me to the exact spot where I left off.

Only a certain number of the apps on the Fire TV Cube work with Alexa, but for the ones that do, Alexa is smart enough to know that a given show or movie is on multiple streaming platforms. For example, when I said, “Alexa, play Good Girls,” it asked me if I wanted to view it on Hulu or Netflix.

However, when I asked Alexa to play Little Women (which is a new show on Prime Video), it instead suggested that I buy the book on Audible, and by the way wouldn’t you like to buy an Audible subscription? No thanks, Alexa.

You can also use the Fire TV Cube and Alexa to turn your TV on and off. This feature may or may not work on TVs of a certain age, though.

Lists and reminders

One of the advantages of an ecosystem of devices that all have the same virtual assistant on board is that the experience of interacting with Alexa is essentially the same, no matter the device. It’s true that the commands you might make of a given device are dependent upon what it can do, but Alexa offers plenty of capabilities that work across all of them. For instance, you can ask about the weather or the day’s headlines, or set a reminder, or add to a list, whether you’re near the Echo Studio or browsing on a Fire tablet or watching TV show on the Fire TV Cube.

These are applications where you’re using the cloud-centric strengths of Alexa and not the purpose-built tasks germane to, say, a smart speaker. You could say, “Alexa, remind me to take out the trash tomorrow morning,” and as long as you’re within earshot of an Alexa-powered device, you’re good to go.

But even here, you’ll bump into limitations, like if you make a list. It’s ideal in one sense, because it’s in a shared Prime account, and anyone in the house can say, “Alexa, create a new list” or, in the case of an existing list, “Alexa, add [item] to the list,” and there it shall be. But that just creates a “dumb” list. To get any kind of advanced features, like a grocery list that organizes items by food category or shows you which items you’ve ticked off already so you don’t miss anything, you need to locate and enable a skill, or hope that an automatically suggested one fits the bills. Also note that if you try to use the “dumb” list for groceries, you really need to enunciate clearly, because Alexa isn’t trying to match your words to any sort of domain-specific bank of terms. That is why when I said, “Alexa, add to my grocery list,” and it asked what I wanted to add, when I said “beer,” it added “fear.”

You’ll want a skill, like the OurGroceries skill. This was quite handy, because we already happen to use that app. I found it in the Alexa Skills Store on the web, clicked to enable the skill, and had to create and enter a password for the skill. But then, any additions to our shared lists we made via Alexa automatically synced to the app on our phones. The only slightly annoying bit is that you have to invoke the skill every time — “Alexa, ask OurGroceries to add milk” instead of “Alexa, add milk to the grocery list.”

Communications

One of the most compelling uses of Alexa is communications, especially if you have a lot of devices on your network, as we presently do.

You can make calls from an Alexa device to a phone, and vice versa. Setting this up can be a bit complicated, mainly because you have to know contact names, who has which devices, and so on. But for my specific purposes, it was fairly easy: I turned on the calling ability in the Alexa app and made sure every device on the network was enabled, too. If the kids want to get ahold of me while I’m out, or my wife wants to call me hands-free, they can just ask Alexa to do it from any of the many Alexa devices around the house. If I need to call home but doubt that anyone will pick up a smartphone and answer, I can use the Drop-In feature.

Drop-In is a fabulous tool that lets you connect to one of your Alexa devices from another — including your phone. It’s basically a smart intercom. If I’m in the kitchen and don’t want to yell down to the basement playroom for the kids to come up for dinner, I can tell the nearby Echo Studio to drop in on the Echo Flex (which in this scenario is plugged into an outlet downstairs). After confirming that’s the device I intended to drop in on, Alexa will turn on the Echo Flex’s mic so I can talk to the kids, and they can respond that they’re coming. Even if I’m not at home, I can “drop in” on any of the housebound Alexa devices from the Alexa app on my phone.

Airing of grievances

Here is a short list of annoyances I encountered in the course of setting up, using, and evaluating these devices and Alexa — in addition to any aforementioned grievances.

If there are multiple Alexa devices within range of your voice, the wrong one often picks up the command, like when you’re trying to tell the Echo Studio to play a song, and the Fire tablet jumps in instead. (This was abated by Echo Spatial Perception [ESP]), a feature that determines which device you’re closest to if there are multiple Alexa devices nearby. But if you’re shouting at the Echo Studio from across the room while you’re prepping dinner, the tablet your kid is playing with at the kitchen counter may actually be closer to you.) You can change the wake word on the devices so they don’t all respond to “Alexa,” but you can choose from only a few options. Even then, you have to remember which of your devices has which wake word enabled.

When your children interrupt you when you’re in the middle of saying something to Alexa. (This happens no matter what virtual assistant you’re using.)

The presence of multiple voice assistants. In addition to Alexa devices, you will likely have one or more Google Assistant or Siri devices. Sometimes I’ll find myself using the wrong wake word for a given device.

The Alexa app can technically be the default assistant on your phone, but it’s tough to consider ditching Google Assistant or Siri, for all the reasons they’re valuable to your phone experience. If Alexa is not your default assistant, then you have to open the Alexa app and tap the action button in the app before issuing voice commands.

The constant upselling is annoying at best. Amazon wants you to keep buying back into its vast service and device ecosystem. This is why a search on the Fire TV Cube resulted in a pitch to subscribe to Audible, why there are ads and promos all over the Fire TV interface, why the Echo Studio tries to steer you to an Amazon Music subscription, and so on.

Something of value

Any time you add to the roster of devices you depend on, you have to come back to the fundamental question of whether it provides something of value — in particular, something of value that you don’t already have or can’t acquire via easier or less expensive means. Although results will vary depending on what each individual wants or needs, for me there’s very little that I got from the pile of Alexa-powered devices that I found indispensable or superior to other options.

Although the calling and drop-in features are nice to have, we already have a smartphone as a dedicated house phone that serves that purpose. “Dropping in” is way more fun, and potentially more effective because you can essentially call a room and anyone in it rather a specific device. But in order to maximize its effectiveness, you need to have multiple Alexa devices spread out across multiple rooms, such that you guarantee that a drop-in can be heard by someone in the house.

The voice features on the Fire TV Cube work quite well, but in most cases I can navigate to what I need faster by pressing a few buttons on the remote. The interface is more cluttered than, say, that of a Roku device, and although the Fire TV Cube does have more features, such as games, there’s nothing particularly compelling about playing games on a device like this one instead of a phone, tablet, or console.

The Echo Studio provides excellent audio performance, and it’s nice to be able to speak the music I want into existence, but it didn’t hook into the music streaming service I prefer in the way I wanted it to. (And although not everyone has the luxury of such a setup, I have a PC with decent speakers already set up in a common area of the house.)

The Echo Flex, along with its accessories, does offer some functionality that you can’t readily get from other devices, like motion sensing and the resulting routines you can employ such as alerting you to the sound of breaking glass. But in order to really extract value from it, I felt as though I needed two or three of them, plus an accessory for each, placed strategically around the home.

Everyone has their own predilections, but in our house the most useful application we’ve found for Alexa so far is connecting the Echo Spot in the bedroom with a Smart Plug so we can turn off the lamp across the room without getting out of bed.

Of course, there are literally tens of thousands of things that Alexa and its many devices can do, so the specific things that clicked for me won’t necessarily appeal to others, and vice versa. But that brings us back to the notion that before you spend a lot of cash on the Echo Studio, Echo Flex, or Fire TV Cube, make sure that they’re going to solve a problem for you, or make something more convenient, or bring new and valuable capabilities to your home — and that those advantages are worth the setup and management overhead.

The post Too much, yet not enough: Amazon’s Echo Studio, Echo Flex, and Fire TV Cube appeared first on Actu Trends.

0 notes