#guys idk just *insert every culture here*

[bingewatchintilldawn]

As a bilingual person, I realised that my handwriting is terrible in my native language AND second language...

Soooo I got curious

!!Please reblog for more answers!!

#poll series #my curiosity must be answered #/pa #languages #bilingual #trilingual #multilingual #polygot #guys idk just *insert every culture here* #English culture #French culture #German culture #Arabic culture #african culture #Indian culture #east asain culture #japanese culture #korean culture #Singaporean culture

[10hourshift]

Girl help the au is getting out of hand haha

Feel free 2 ignore this

For some reason I have spent quite some time doing some "world building" (if it can be called that) that I probably won't add in the comic, so, gonna dump it all here.

The school is not the best of all, not even by public school standards, if anything, the school is often a second choice, and most of those who enter there are mostly bc it has little requirements to get in, and is very lenient to special cases.

Some examples of these people would be Freddy (he enters after the classes started) Bon, Julian (both didn't enter the private school they were going to at the last minute, so they got "stuck" in that school, there's more to them later)

For the school itself, it's not that bad (there's a reason that many ppl prefer to go there as a second choice in comparison to other schools) the classes are fairly decent (though, some teachers are prone to not show up to class), and it has a bunch of academic and sports programs, even though it kinda lacks on the cultural aspect. Until a new benefactor steps in.

So, after Julian failed miserably during his entrance exams for the private school he was going into, his father got him into the school he is in now, and to "cover up" the incident his dad decided to become a benefactor of the school, and bc of that, now the school has more budget, with the condition of using it for the whole "art" section (idk how to call it). And out of the blue, the school now has an improved auditorium, a bunch of new material and instruments, and, of course, a variety of new activities for the students, starting with a brand new band contest where everyone can participate, who knows what might happen next, maybe there'll be an official school band, or a chorus or something, (this is all really just testing how the students might take the new situation)

**Julian exposition time again!. Let's go. He basically burned himself out for trying to study for the entrance exams, finish middle school, and all that. It was bad, like, forgetting weeks worth of studies the moment you start the exam bad, like staring at the questions for the whole 3ish hours of the test while none of the questions make sense bad, like, flunking so embarrassingly that it's basically a secret, to the point your dad makes up an elaborate plan to hide the true reason you're going to a certain school, and forces you to take a different path than the one he had already set up for you bc you couldn't keep up bad. Like, that bad. (Poor guy, every time I check on what his deal is, I add more to it. I'm sorry but I like it when the characters'actions are part of the setup of the story, idk how to explain but is Fun)

Now, onto the ppl behind the music contest.

Lana*- secretary- the one actually in charge of the contest

Vincent (yes, the waiter/presenter*) - intern teacher- the one who is supposed to do most of the work

Owynn- student 15 yr old- he helps out every now and then bc he has nothing better to do w no ulterior motives :)

Bon's dad*- music teacher (I'll get to that, hold on)- he has to set up practice sessions/ music classes for whoever enters the contest

[insert OC name here] (an oc wow)- student/intern 17 yr old- the one who ended up doing most of everything

*giving them roles bc I'm lazy 4 ocs, even [insert OC name] is almost the librarian, yeah he's another different character

The arrangement goes like this: Lana is the head of the project and the one who reports back to the boss (between the principal and Julian's dad idk). The planning of events, the coverage, and those administrative details get solved by Vincent, and Bon's dad is supposed to manage the music rooms and instruments, as well as make schedules for using those for practices. [Insert OC name] does most of the hard labor, checking registrations, putting up the signs, etc., since their job as an intern is basically to help w anything that needs to be done. And also basically doing all of Bon's dad responsibilities since he doesn't actually have the time to do his job as a teacher.

#:*3 #some shit ill probably wouldn't add to the comic idk #i think this bunch of useless info fots better in like a written format lols #im stopping here bc if it were for me i could keep going

[amaurotine]

tag nine people you'd like to know better

I. favourite colours: umm idk, i like pastel pink and purple! but black and neon colours are also good u.u

II. favourite flavours: mint, and caramel w/ sea salt.

III. favourite genres: i'm mostly a fantasy guy but i occasionally enjoy a mix of scifi and fantasy. huge historical fiction enjoyer, especially if it has costumes and propers that are both appealing and accurate to the time period.

IV. favourite music: i don't really have a definitive favorite genre, but lately it's been a mix of xiv's soundtrack, ethnic north african beats, and edm and breakcore. also insert random sprinkling of punk and darkwave '80s music here.

V. favourite movies: uhhhh the fall (the designs in tarsem singh's films SLAP), and the lotr movies :•)

VI. favourite series: merlin, and buffy the vampire slayer and angel. a lot of things in these series (specifically stuff featuring other cultures) has nooot aged well, but i still enjoy them and they are both in my top 5 list of comfort series i always fall back on.

VII. last song: Siouxsie And The Banshees - Spellbound

VIII. last series: War and Peace 2016 (because i'm completely normal about the original war & peace book and definitely did not inadvertently develop a hyperfixation on this book at age 13 because I was told my english would never be good enough to read it. the joke, of course, is now officially on every native english speaker in existence...)

IX. last movie: Blonde (i was warned against watching this and i will warn you against watching it in turn because it's awful and triggering asf, but as a chronic marilyn enjoyer, i just had to see what the deal was, and boy do i regret it!!!)

X. currently reading: sweats nervously at the pile of books i haven't finished lmaoo. Currently I'm wrestling with The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, 7th Annual Collection, which is just a collection of misc. really good stories with fantasy and/or horror overtones.

XI. currently watching: i'm binging a lot of videos on y2k celebrity drama because it's just kind of one of those weird rabbit holes I've been sucked into, and I'm remembering some of it from around the time I came to the states.

XII. currently working on: staying alive and getting through work every day, and probably also replies.

tagged by: @creatrix-mea tysm!!! tagging: all of you 😳

#❀ — 𝒹𝒶𝓈𝒽 𝑔𝒶𝓂𝑒𝓈 .

[fawnfulart]

finally the ask meme where i don't have to think of the questions myself 💫 Random favorite trope 🧶 What's a fluff plot you'd like to write? 🗯 What's an antagonistic plot you'd like to write? 🗨 What's a plot or trope you'd like to write [character] in? is it okay to ask so much.....who knows but i'm a nosy bitch

Writing Wishes Asks

FIRST OF ALL

You can ask anything you want to any time you like. Talking to people is basically what I made this tumblr for. I’m doing my best to be friend shaped, I hope it’s working. Stop by whenever your little heart desires about anything you want. We are all nosy bitches 🤝

Cut for length I'm really really sorry this is so long. I came up with a lot to say.

💫 Random favorite trope

I'm realizing these questions maybe weren't the best for me to reblog because I'm not sure I know the answers. Other people could probably notice what tropes I use better than I can. I know like a reluctant hero who wants nothing to do with the call to adventure lmao. I also like writing about cultural exchange so language barriers and characters who are fundamentally different creatures or who have wildly different life experiences come to mind. Insert Mermaid AU or whatever. Also..........found family again tee hee. Just put a bunch of weirdos through adversity so they can bond and love each other thanks.

🧶 What's a fluff plot you'd like to write?

I'm not sure what fluff plots I want two write mostly because A Long Way Off keeps providing me opportunities to put in just everything I want. I think a mall date would be fun to write, maybe I’ll put one in. Malls are very of the 90s here and the few malls that didn't go out of business are such a different experience now. When it comes to fluff I find myself writing about mundanity. There’s a real niceness to doing boring things with your favorite people. I wanna write about hugging and cooking together and stuff. People taking care of each other. Talking about nothing important. Also idk maybe the blorbos should kiss more, they deserve it.

🗯 What's an antagonistic plot you'd like to write?

Antagonists and conflicts are an interesting topic. I tend to prefer representing conflict that isn’t black and white. I want characters in conflict to each have an reasonable point of view so it’s easy to understand why they believe what they believe. It’s boring if one side is “just evil” or whatever. People aren’t really like that in my experience. I want both sides of the conflicts in my stories to have a point whenever I can write it that way. I want the reader to have to think about who they align with and why. It's boring if I just tell you what to think. I also think it’s interesting to write about characters who are stuck in conflicts that are larger than themselves and who are tasked with trying to navigate an understanding of the world that doesn't match what they’ve been taught about those conflicts. For example, members of feuding families, young people who have been born into the wars of their fathers, creatures or factions who are framed as natural enemies—inherited conflict where what side you’re on is not only assumed but socially enforced. What is one supposed to do when they stop believing what they were taught or have experiences that go against their prejudices? Romeo is out here like my dad says fuck the Capulets but Juliet is kind of hot tho….

🗨 What's a plot or trope you'd like to write [character] in?

You didn’t mention which character you want me to talk about so I’m going to assume it’s one of the two most likely ones we have in common. Sal. I just want to make Sal a creature so bad. I want him in every monster AU. I want a dumb mermaid AU. I’m gonna make him a rude cat boy. I want to make him the weird ghost haunting your house. I just think Sal is so funny in canon because he has regular guy syndrome no matter what extraordinary things happen to him. He’s so grounded. He’s so well adjusted. His perspective is so measured and humanistic literally no matter what, even when he is ripped from his plane of existence and shot across the multiverse. He's just vibing and having regular guy thoughts about everything. It’s very funny to me, and that makes me want to put him in crazier AUs more often. I would love to explore that dissonance between Sal's absurd fantastic circumstances and his normal guy reactions more.

For Larry I have kind of a cop out answer because I’m already writing it in the background of A Long Way Off. I'm really interested in how Larry forms his personal identity because I think he has a lot of similar ideas as Sal about things like masculinity and growing up and his place in the world but he's kind of fighting against different factors than Sal is. For one, I think it's more difficult for him to express vulnerability or anything feminine as it is for Sal. Sal is already "a freak" so in that sense society expects less of Sal than of Larry. Sal has more room to experiment than Larry does. I think Larry feels a lot more pressure to figure out what the world wants from him and to try to live up to that standard. He needs to be a respectable adult who embodies all the parts of manhood that his dad wasn't there to fulfill. But at the same time Larry is interested in counter culture, and the same masculine ideals that are important to him also make him feel threatening and force him to distance himself from things he used to find fun, like playing "girly" games with Ashley as kids. It's a hard balance to strike, trying to be a strong reliable man and a soft approachable boy at the same time. Also being more of a grown street rat and less of a sweet faced kid than he used to be has also caused him problems in school.

I tried to allude to it a little bit here. Because of his accident with the rabbit and because puberty hit him like a truck, Larry has kind of been categorized as a delinquent by adults and my experience of public school is that once authorities in systems assume you're a "bad kid" it's very hard to overcome that label. Anything you do is interpreted differently, especially if you are not white. Larry--who is large and mean looking and into "devil music" and has a permanent record and gets lumped in with his South American classmates--doesn't stand a chance. When he asks his teacher for a pencil, that teacher is going to assume he doesn't have it because he's irresponsible, because he doesn't care about school, because he has a bad attitude, because he's going to grow up to be a deadbeat and go to jail. But we know Larry, he's just trying to get through his day. I never bring this up in the story but I think the reason Larry doesn't have a pencil is because he lent it to somebody else and never got it back. But if you ask that teacher they probably just assumed he threw it at another kid or something. I think Larry is constantly wrestling with this double standard--am I supposed to be this strong responsible man or am I supposed to be this innocent well meaning kid? Adults seem to expect both from him and yet they arent happy when they detect aspects of either one. It's not fair and I worry about him. Anyway sorry for saying so much about it, I haven't really written a character like him before so I find it interesting. I think Larry's crisis of identity is kind of the opposite of Sal's in a sense. Sal knows who he is but he doesn't have a realistic understanding of how he is perceived by the world and he is very afraid of that. Larry, by contrast, understands completely how he is perceived by others, but he spends so much time worrying about those perceptions that he hasn't taken the time to ask himself who he wants to be.

#fawnfic #stellesappho #im so sorry this is so long #I feel like I must be thoughtful when you ask me things #I appreciate the opportunity to go crazy go stupid

[wowowwild]

Guys I just found my old self insert ygo fic on my regular writing sideblog. It's so embarrassing (like nearly my immortal levels), here's links to all the stuff I posted for it.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

I would be lowkey tempted to rewrite it except, you know, good, but idk. I was using my at the time limited knowledge of Japanese culture (I'm still no expert but I know significantly more) and obviously I've improved in my writing so I cringe every time I look back at it. I would do it differently know... Maybe I will rewrite it for funsies? If there's any interest I'll post here I guess.

This is the PSA that everyone starts somewhere so don't be afraid to just write to the best of your abilities even if you think it sucks bc you'll never get better if you never try <3

#ygo #yugioh #seto kaiba #mokuba kaiba #seto kaiba x oc #ocs #ace's fic

[let-us-meet-aga1n]

--tc challenge again but make it april and oh shit im late oh well

day 8: does your tc ever talk about what it was like when they were still a student? yep! she's talked about how she was considered this quiet, shy nerd who didn't really talk to people. she was valedictorian of her class and was really, really good at school- (i can verify all of that i have stalked the SHIT out of the internet and found EVERYTHING)

day 9: does your tc have a significant other? if so, what do you know about them and how do you feel about them? she does, yes! her fiancé and her have been dating for what appears to be 3 years now (from what i can find online) and they got engaged in the fall! i'm really really happy for her and i hope they have a happy marriage! i wish them all the best! he seems like a very sweet guy and i'm truly really happy for her. (this question was answer probably different from most, because i have less of a crush on her and more of a platonic obsession with her?? idk i wish she was my mom)

Day 10: What is the longest time you have gone without seeing them? winter break. 2 weeks of hell on earth without her. i genuinely don't want to have a summer break. i'm going to miss her so much...

Day 11: What do other people usually think about them? most people love her! she's a very sweet, genuine, and caring person. some people do talk shit about her though and every time they do i have very very violent thoughts come up in my head because if they're talking about her like that they don't even deserve to walk on the same ground she does (sorry if i got a bit crazy there i just love her so much and hate when people talk bad about her).

Day 12: Do you often make up excuses to speak to them? What kinds of excuses do you like to use? yes? more of making excuses to see her and have tiny interactions with her. i guess some people would call me a stalker??? idk she knows i'm there so its not really stalking. she's called me a lurker before which is probably closer to what i am. i make excuses all the time to go to my locker, go to the bathroom, "oh shoot i left my *insert random object here* in the other building! can i go get it teacher?" and then try to take every path imaginable to see what she's up to and what she's doing. yeah i just like lurking wherever she is-

Day 13: Other than the subject they teach, what are they really passionate about? she has a really big passion for travel and other cultures. it makes a lot of sense though, seeing she's lived in 3 different countries and only in her late 20s. she also really enjoys branching out in music which made me fall even more in love because HI IM A MUSICIAN AND I REALLY WANNA TALK MUSIC WITH HER ALL DAY BUT IM TOO ANXIOUS FOR THAT!

Day 14: What is a skill you really wish your TC had?

GOD I WISH SHE PLAYED AN INSTRUMENT- piano or viola seem to fit her and i don't know why. possibly even electric bass? i'd love to see her play an instrument... i'd probably die if she did

#☘️.pdf #tc challenge #female tc #platonic tc

[owen-not-carvour]

cultural differences

i have a lot of international friends. and with me being american and them being from Literally Anywhere Else, we have discovered a Lot of cultural differences. pair that with curtwen/spies brainrot and you get whatever This is: 

- starting off strong with an obvious one: temperature. the age old fahrenheit v. celsius debate. like i imagine the guys just walking around whatever city they’re in for the week and (we’ll say it’s summer idc) curt’s like ‘it’s so hot out here, it’s gotta be like 90 degrees or something’ and owen just looks at him in Horror for a second (maybe he even says something along the lines of ‘mega ik it’s warm but that’s just overdramatic’) before he remembers curt’s american and that’s just Regular hot in fahrenheit and not like INSANELY hot like it is in celsius. and then he’s just ‘no its more like 32 degrees i think’ just to fuck with him bc the same though process will go through curt’s head and owen just wants to see his face before he remembers owen’s british and not just saying the opposite of what he said. and ofc they know both systems well enough; they’ve traveled around enough for that. and usually it’s not that weird; curt’s used to owen using celsius and owen’s used to curt using fahrenheit and they usually get what the other is saying, but Sometimes they just either forget or don’t want to convert what they’re saying for the other, so they just Don’t and let the other suffer trying to figure it out for a minute. 

-same with measurement. american measurement names are so weird to begin with, it’s like curt’s asking to get made fun of when he talks about how many feet something is or Whatever. (also just imagine owen mocking curt’s accent the way curt mocks owen’s at the start of the show,, yeah it’s great) Anyway- it’s pretty much the same thing as the temperature situation, but because of the american measurements curt just gets made fun of a lot more. like owen knows what he means when he says it but he’s still gonna respond like ‘what the ✨bloody hell✨ is an inch????’ (extra british to just make it that much worse for curt lol)

-chain stores. listen idk what all types of chains they had in the 50s (britain especially lol) but they for sure weren’t nearly as globalized as they are now (pretty much all i remember is that walmart and mcdonalds existed in the US at that point tbh) but ik based on conversations i’ve had with my international friends it’d go something like this (the same for if you flipped them too ofc): owen: hey have you been to *insert British chain (restaurant, store, Whatever)*   curt: sorry to What?? i’ve literally never even heard of that. what is it?       owen: ONLY THE BEST THING EVER???? i can’t believe you don’t have those in america, no wonder you’re so miserable...                                                         and then the second they have an opportunity to do so, owen drags curt to britain to experience Whatever The Place was lol. curt’s done the same with some american places, too. They both really love those trips :)

-names of every day objects. this one probably comes up between them most often (also the most obvious). of course there’s the difference between apartment and flat, trunk and boot, elevator and lift, etc. these types of differences generally don’t bother them (same with the extra u’s in words like colo(u)r), it just earns the other some classic accent mocking. it’s the pronunciation of some words has nearly ended their relationship a few times. examples include but are not limited to: 1) cicada; i imagine they’re out on like. a stakeout or something and it’s getting dark and curt’s like ‘woah the sic-kay-duhs are so loud right now’ and owen’s just ‘... the What?? are you talking about sic-ah-duhs?? like the bugs?’ ‘yeah... how did you say it???’ ‘sic-ah-duh.’ ‘wrong.’ and it’s just them realizing that this is yet another american/british relationship clash and argue about who’s right about the pronunciation until they almost miss their mission target moving. 2) scone; i’m not gonna write this one out like i did the last one but here’s the rundown: owen: scahn curt: skown. owen goes out to pick them up some breakfast from a coffeeshop or Wherever before a mission and gets them a couple of scones. He brings them back and calls them ‘scahns’ and curt is Appalled at that. they proceed to argue about the pronunciation of their breakfast until cynthia or barb calls to ask them why tf they haven’t even left the hotel yet. eventually they make it to their mission but the argument never stops. not until the end of the day. 

(the scone one is literally based on a recurring conversation i have with a canadian friend of mine)

Bonus: y’all know how curt’s from Texas? well i’m from the south as well (different region of the south, yes, but shhhh this is funny ok) and WELL. that opens up a whole new section of cultural differences, but the first one that came to mind was sweet tea. i hate unadulterated sweet tea so much but OHHHHHH does it make for a great headcanon. so i hc that owen is a tea over coffee type of person,, not just bc he’s british (though that certainly doesn’t help) but just because i feel that suits him more. And of course curt very much so makes fun of owen for drinking tea (a la when he mocks his accent at the top of the show) too. but one day curt’s like hey owen i made you some tea. totally harmless right? WRONG! he made sweet tea™️ and it might as well be poisoned bc that shit is sweeter than sugar itself (bc that’s practically all that’s in it). but owen doesn’t pay it any mind and accepts it as his boyfriend just doing something nice for him (though he does give curt a Look when he takes it). but curt knows exactly what he’s doing and waits for owen to taste it. the second he does he just. imediately gags and curls in on himself (yes it can be that bad when you’re not expecting it lol). curt can’t stop laughing. a few moments later when they both recover (kind of) owen’s just. shocked. absolutely speechless. he just sits there staring at curt with murder in his eyes until, “...what the hell did you just give me?” “sweet tea” “no shit, but this isn’t tea by a long shot. how much sugar is in it?” “no clue” “WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘NO CLUE’?!?! YOU MADE IT!” “just bc i made it doesn’t mean i measured.” “WHAT??!?!” “that’s just how you do it :)” “NO??????” 

owen doesn’t forgive him for a week. he also doesn’t trust curt to make him tea (or really any drink) at all after that unless he can actually Watch him make it :)

#spies are forever #curtwen #curtwen headcanons

[mysterystarz]

hi! first and foremost, i love your layout! 💕 (i swear, whenever i see blog layouts that i think are cute, i’m like “damn, mine could never compare to theirs” LMAO 😂) anyways, so i read your nekoma manager headcanons and i love them! i was wondering if it’s alright if i can have some nekoma x manager!reader in which the reader is either a second or third year (i’ll let you pick) and is a foreigner (no need to specify their nationality). let’s say that in the country the reader is from, they don’t have honorifics for upperclassman like they do in japan, so whenever the reader’s underclassmen calls them “senpai”, they get a bit flustered (they don’t even know why they’re flustered, it just happens) idk, i think it’d be cute 🥰 i think it’d also be cute if the underclassmen decide to mess with the reader to see who can fluster them first by calling them “(f/n)-senpai” in every single sentence whenever they’re talking to them and eventually yaku’s like “knock it off!” 😂 tysm! 💖

the manager game (nekoma deluxe edition) <3

g!n manager!reader + the shenanigans of nekoma!  ☆ a/n ☆ AWWW thank you!!! this request was super fun to write and being from a country that doesn’t have a concept of upperclassmen, i can proudly say that i’d be flustered if someone called me “nova”-senpai too <3 hopefully, i did your request some justice hahaha

when you moved from your home country [insert country] to japan, you were not prepared for the cultural differences 

before you moved, you had practiced some Japanese so you could interact with the people around you, but the idea of people using honorifics on you was something you never imagined 

cue you walking into nekoma high for your third year! 

you already were familiar with the volleyball club and even managed for them 

tough love style because serves can’t be flubbed and they cannot sacrifice the poor underclassmen

one day you were walking through the halls when you accidentally bumped into lev 

he was all apologetic and started wildly gesturing before he said “sorry (f/n)-senpai! I never meant to bump into you!” 

your composure 

GONE 

(hotel?) trivago (sorryyyy!!)

you were so flustered that you just nodded and ran the hell out of there (you go!!!) 

lev reported this to the VBC at their usual practice and kuroo decided that the underclassmen should mess with their little foreign manager and call them (f/n)-senpai...for everything

and thus started....THE MANAGER GAME™ 

monday morning, all the first years were at the gate, ready to greet you (like they always did since they are sweethearts), except they were going to switch out the honorific 

instead of the (-san) that they usually used they were going to use (-senpai) 

so you were the unsuspecting victim and walked up to meet them and...

“good morning (f/n)-senpai!!” 

you were all red and were gesturing to try to ask them what the hell they were doing when fukunaga walked up to the gates 

and you thought “phew, at least fukunaga will probably be in his senses” 

but instead, he waved at the first years and said “what are you waiting for (f/n)-senpai? class is going to start soon” 

and he freaking WALKED AWAY WHAT

the first years and fukunaga laughed at your shyness as you waddled off to class

you thought practice was going to be better

OH HELL NO, IT WAS NOT BETTER 

anytime the ball went out of bounds, or they needed a specific set of stats, kuroo would always send a first or second year

“hey, (f/n)-senpai, how do I have a stronger receive?”

“(f/n)-senpai, what do you think the correct angle is for a good spike?” 

YOU. WERE. SO. FLUSTERED. 

SO FLUSTERED THAT YOU STARTED SPEAKING IN [insert language of your country]

the VBC was laughing their head off

but you couldn’t help them or give them tips because of the seniority and respect you were being given 

you were always fine with a (-san) or (-chan/-kun) 

it was the final straw when kenma said “hey (f/n)-senpai, can you get kuroo to stop giving weird speeches?” 

YOU EXPLODED (hinata style pftttt) 

yaku had been observing (and kicking lev) for most of practice but he knew he needed to intervene or else they were going to virtually kill their manager 

so in the typical yaku fashion 

“YOU GUYS NEED TO CUT IT OUT! NOW!” 

BONUS: 

once you calmed down you put on your most evil smirk....and sentenced the underclassmen to an eternity of calling you (-senpai) >> the underclassmen were TERRIFIED because now if they called you anything but (-senpai) they’d have to do flying falls 

AHH you really loved those boys <3 

©mysterystarz all rights reserved - please do not plagiarize, modify, or translate this post in any way or form

click here to join my taglist (if you're interested!)

#nova scribbles <3 #nekoma #fukunaga #senpai #kuroo #kenma #lev #anime #hq #haikyuu x reader #hq x reader #foreign reader #foreignmanager #manager hq #nekoma manager #haikyuu heacanons

[marimopeace]

there's a limit on how much you can be an isekai intellectual...

a bunch of analyses have been popping up before me all day so i wanted to throw my hat into the ring. all love to ppl who are exercising their creative minds + ppl like geoff here who just talk about these things because of fan interest but i feel like there reaches a point where exploring the "types" of isekai is pointless? i've seen ppl list out the different types of villainess revenge isekai or fantasy mmorpg isekai but eh why fit them all into separate boxes like that?

i think it's easier to think of isekai as a "type" (genre) of itself with only two categories: 1) a focus on isekai (lit. another world) 2) tensei (lit. to be reborn). this allows for a variety of applications and thus tropes that ppl see so many trends of!

with isekai - in another world

you see everything from:

pure fantasy (inuyasha, digimon wait maybe not the best example but in my childhood mind i count digimon as pure fantasy, fushigi yugi)

mmorpg inspired fantasy/adventure (.hack//legend of twilight, sao ugh, log horizon, overlord (LOVE OVERLORD!)

otome game-esque worlds >>> this is where it gets complicated with "villainess routes" since i admit there are multiple villainess tropes but this is why it's nice to not think of this as a "sub-type/genre" bc it frees you from those complications! (the saint's magic power is omnipotent, the white cat's revenge as plotted from the dragon king's lap soso cute!, the savior's book cafe in another world, i'm a villainous daughter so i'm going to keep the last boss wait i can't remember if she's reborn in this one lmaooo see this is why rules make everything hard)

with tensei storylines - being reincarnated/reborn in another world as *insert character/role*

you see...

the same tropes!!

pure fantasy (a returner's magic should be special, reminiscence adonis, the lady and the beast, light and shadow, i can't think of a manga off the top of my head for this ah)

mmorpg inspired fantasy/adventure (so i'm a spider so what i stan kumoko so hard, her majesty's swarm, can't name another off the top of my head ah i hate lists shorter than two things...)

self-insert based games/novels (fiance's observation log of a self-proclaimed villainess, who made me a princess, death is the only ending for the villainess, the villainess wants to marry a commoner, honestly games vs novels are different applications but i'm not in the headspace to try to remember a bunch of both lol)

*insert line break to give random ppl a break from scrolling but tl; dr just enjoy things for what they are no need to micro analyze*

similar variations occur in both genres (if ppl want to be super technical i guess i'm arguing that isekai itself is a massive genre that has the "another world" subgenre and "reincarnation" subgenre tl; dr) so i think it's honestly a huge pain to try to separate all these trends into so many different types of stories. for me personally it's easier to not get overwhelmed by this gigantic umbrella of "isekai" that spans light novels, manhwa, manga, and mobile games by just stripping each story down into its trademark tropes (aka character archetypes, story structures) and slapping "oh this is a person going to a world that's not ours" and "this person gets reborn as blank in another world". none of this "omg this power fantasy is such a this kind of isekai moment" or "there are 14 different types of villainess revenge stories and this series fits into this" bc AH labels! limitations! circle-jerks via ppl trying to compartmentalize everything and sound smart for leaving a comment on story analysis instead of ooh-ahhing over a character's face! dividing things into light novel manga vs manga vs korean manhwa ft. female characters!

the last bit is mainly why i feel frustrated by ppl's insistence to group everything?

the video linked at the beginning of the post (honestly good video essay, i enjoyed it, i just kept thinking in my head the whole time "marimo these are tropes do not take the genre talk literally") has a baby comment thread talking about "korean isekai manhwas" as a genre featuring nothing but reincarnated villainess' and i can't.

like i cannot acknowledge that as a genre of any sort. the energy i felt reading through some of those insights takes me back to 2012 when all yt americans discovered k-pop and deemed all korean music k-pop from then on! (ppl still do this now, yes you are seen and don't talk to me pls i don't like you. k-pop is korean pop music and nothing less and nothing more. take a few seconds and try to parse apart aspects of korean culture instead of slamming everything into a monolithic label that has the letter k and a hyphen.) it feels so odd to see a bunch of young ppl on ig and tiktok acknowledge korean media that happens to be in the form of a webtoon as "oh stories all about young girls becoming villains in stories they made/played" bc it feels so reductive u.u

(positionality disclaimer that i'm praying isn't actually necessary: i am a 3rd-generation korean of japanese descent do not fite me i am exhausted irl of ppl asking for validation/verification bc massive shove off.)

breaking news! korean manhwa...is just as multifaceted as japanese manga...bc how can comics as an art-form not have multiple genres...huh such a shocker?!?! same likely applies to media in other parts of the world like chinese manhwa and french comics--not my place to explain either of those i just know those industries exist bc of wakfu and donghua shows by Tencent.

at the end of the day it's not like analyzing any kind of isekai is wrong--absolutely not!! i think it can be super fun to think about how isekai elements complicate a story (MCs trying to go back home, ppl from the og world, reincarnation plot-twists) or maybe even bash a series for including some kind of other world element when they could have just written a super fun fantasy.

insert marimo's brief ramble that hey you can get sick of truck-kun's hitting disillusioned guys who happen to be super duper smart or girls who happen to be master chefs/craftsmen but transporting a fully-grown being into a fantasy setting is the ultimate cheat code for making mundane modern technology seem cool and overpowered, and being reincarnated as a fully grown person in a world with a pre-made story/game set-up completely bypasses the need for an author to slowly flesh out world-building in a natural progression so isekai is actually a really smart writing tool it's just that there are some series where the author didn't use it well at all and it's cheesy or clearly isekai was misused as a vehicle for character/story development and it was pointless *DEEP BREATH OUT*

in this essay i will argue...lol i am such a culture studies major!! if i were an english major i would be talking all about writing but here i am having a side-tangent about world-building via someone being reborn wow i love this for me (don't get me started on when an author has someone reincarnate as a baby and the story is mostly them having warm fluffy moments with their family--typically father figures--and getting lots of powers i could and would and probably will rant about east asian toxicity)

but anyway am i crazy????? like yes for being passionate about the technical use of a word like genre (i am a scorpio rising let me be fussy pls) but i don't think it's a lot to ask for ppl to not unironically see "villainess revenge isekai" as the definition of korean manhwa.

idk as someone who resonates with why japanese isekai is so popular domestically + why a lot of korean manhwa feat. the same tropes (it's not for great reasons lads it's actually depressing tbh) i'm just starting to feel kind of pained by the generalization and need to separate "cute japanese girl in an otome game"/"japanese boy finds a harem in another world" from "korean girl dies and comes back as a villainess" bc they are just! applications to the same story device!!

recommendations for any who makes it this far down below <3

// also gladly recommend any of the examples i've listed in the above rant as i've read/watched all of them and adore them v much! //

save me princess

super refreshing fantasy manhwa ft. a princess and her ex-boyfriend having to save the world!

the beginning after the end

an AMERICAN web novel turned into a comic (but see it being not korean/japanese doesn't really matter when you just consider isekai as a genre...isn't it nice to not overthink it?) ft. a super-powerful wizard king reincarnated into another world and starting from scratch--gives mushoku tensei vibes but huge twists!

the reason why raeliana ended up at the duke's mansion

love love LOVE this story--read the title and you'll learn how this girl reincarnated as the character raeliana in a book gets married to a duke!

trash of the count's family

such a good novel!! a guy gets reborn as a lazy oaf and he takes the hero of the story under his wing...plot twists come up later on!

this time i will definitely be happy!

v good and refreshing for a shorter series! she's been reborn 3 times and remembers every time the hero's stabbed her in the back, and now she just wants to break up with him!

silver diamond

older manga but v good adventure w intrigue! a boy who loves plants get sucked into a desert world with demonic lizards and a mysterious bodyguard by his side. shonen-ai not BL but wonderful vibes nonetheless + great side characters!

the princess imprints a traitor

adore everything in this from the world (not in that way this society makes me so angry) to the machinations at play and the dynamic between the fl and ml

#isekai #mother's basement #inuyasha #digimon #fushigi yugi #.hack//legend of the twilight #log horizon #overlord #the saint's magic power is omnipotent #the white cat's revenge as plotted from the dragon king's lap #a returner's magic should be special #adonis #the lady and the beast #light and shadow #kumo desu ga nani ka #her majesty's swarm #fiance's observation log of a self-proclaimed villainess #death is the only ending for a villainess #the villainess wants to marry a commoner #save me princess #the beginning after the end #the reason why raeliana ended up at the duke's mansion #trash of the count's family #this time i will definitely be happy! #silver diamond #see i normally put the raw titles for everything but the tiny korean/japanese part of my brain is so tired bc my english brain went off #the princess imprints a traitor #manga #manhwa #donghua

[kinktae]

beyond the story: bitchin’

Hi friends! I hope you are all staying safe and healthy during these tough times! I really wanted to put something out there as a thank you to just how much support Bitchin’ got. You guys really are incredible. So, although this story has come to an end, I wanted to properly close the Bitchin’ chapter by giving you all a behind the scenes look at Bitchin’ and everything that went into writing it. This includes hidden easter eggs, backstories, alternative plot-lines, and a short drabble of the Bitchin’ cast 10 years after the story’s end.

Without further ado, please enjoy and thank you again for all your love. You have all of mine.

CHAPTER ONE – PARTNERS

Ah, yes, the start of this whole wild ride. I’ve always loved the whole nerd/popular person trope in fanfics, so it was only a matter of time before I tried my hand at it too. One thing I was adamant about was not making this a “popular person turns nerd hot/confident/better” fic as its kind of one of my least favorite cliches. With that in mind, and knowing that I was going to allude to TATBILB’s contract, I decided that I wanted Y/N to gain as much from the deal as Jungkook did. No blackmail, no just agreeing for the hell of it – Y/N was going to further herself and her dreams given the opportunity.

The beginning of the chapter is where the two are most separated and dissimilar throughout the whole story. It wasn’t that they were fundamentally different, it was that they approached life differently. Y/N was frustrated at how superficial Jungkook seemed, because she believes there is much more to life than just kicking your feet up and cracking jokes.

On the other hand, Jungkook didn’t understand why Y/N was so tense and on guard. To him, life was meant to enjoy and not take so seriously. Which makes sense, given that he grew up with minimal rules and minimal worries (bare minimum partners wassup !) 

“So, do we have a deal? Partners?” There was mischievous timber to his words, the kind that made you feel as if this would all later come back to bite you in the ass.

Pushing that pestering thought away, you took his hand into yours, holding his eyes as you gave it a firm shake.

“Partners.”

God, this bit. I knew from the minute I wrote it that I was writing the ending of bitchin’ along with it. I knew this was exactly how I was going to end this story, bc the word partners has multiple means right? In chapter 1, this meant business partners, but in the final chapter… it means life partners. Idk, I’m just still really happy with this writing decision :D

CHAPTER TWO – THE CONTRACT

Dearest Yara. We meet her in chapter two don’t we? Yara is completely based off of my irl best friend Yara who is a writer and who helped me A LOT with this story. She was my biggest supporter throughout figuring out this crazy plot. It was initially only about seven parts, but with her help I managed to bump it up to 10! Everybody say thank you Yaraaaa.

You were angry, that much was evident to her. Yara was sat in your shared dorm’s living room, a thick blanket engulfing her small frame. You briefly glanced towards the TV, it was tuned into MTV, the familiar music video of Every Breath You Take by The Police playing, before directing your glare back onto the copper-haired girl.

The song reference is a direct allusion to writer Yara’s fic, which is one of my favorite fics by her. She was actively writing it around the start of our friendship so it only felt right to pay respects to her. The introduction of her character felt necessary imo bc I wanted to make sure Y/N had a life outside Jungkook. Plus, I got to use the scenes between the two girls as a way to reference the music and culture scene. Yara is especially a fan of the powerful women in the music industry at the time, i.e., Madonna, Annie Lennox, Cyndi Laupner, etc.) Yara is a raging feminist and believer in sexual freedom and libery for women, we do in fact have to stan.

“How old do you think your sister is?”

“Hey, don’t sass me. For your information, Lyanna still has all her Care Bear tapes. She threw a hissy fit when my mom tried to give them away last Christmas.” Yara recalled.

Lyanna is one of writer Yara’s past pseudonyms. She always used to joke about how whenever she read it, it was confusing because there was Y/N, Yara and Lyanna, which were technically all her lolol.

FUNNY STORY ABOUT THE CONTRACT I INSERTED INTO THIS PICTURE… Twitter found it and made it into somewhat of a meme because no one knew it came from a fic rip. I was actually rly embarrassed and even wrote some posts about how much twitter scared me on my blog LMAO. but THEN weirdly enough, I actually stumbled upon a small community on twitter who actually found my fic and would TWEET ABOUT IT!!! LIKE REACTIONS TO EACH UPDATE!!! I wish I could go back in time and remember how giddy I was the first time I found a tweet about my fic. The fanfic community on twitter gave me a new love for the site (which I had previously had removed myself from because of its toxicity) and I have met so many wonderful people because of it. People even made themselves a little twitter group chat to talk about my fics, and now we are all friends! I miss posting a chapter of bitchin’ and refreshing my twitter feed as all my mutuals would post memes and live tweet their reactions. God that made me so fucking happy.

CHAPTER THREE – THE ROLLERSKATING DATE

I love the bickering in this chapter, because unlike the bickering in the first chapter, it’s actually less hostile and more playful. Y/N is slowly letting her guard down to the very persistently charming Jungkook.

“Woah. Family of six, huh? So you have siblings then.” He noted.

“Yep. Three.”

“Tell me about them.”

Looking up from where you were slipping on your second skate, you met Jungkook’s eyes, surprised to see genuine interest in them.

I actually originally had Y/N brush him off here. I was going to wait until the drunk party scene for Y/N to open up about her family and relationship with her sisters. But then I kind of thought to myself… Why? Y/N made peace with it and doesn’t hold onto those insecurities anymore. And objectively, Jungkook hasn’t proven himself to be a bad person so… I let Y/N open herself up to him.

“Then there’s the twins, Rosa and Lia.”

“Hold on. Twins? Wait… did they go to our high school?” Jungkook asked, his interest in this conversation doubled.

“Yep. They were two grades above us.” You confirmed.

“Oh shit, yeah, I remember your sisters, they were mad hot.” Jungkook let out a low whistle, before stiffening, flashing you an apologetic look. “Uh, in a totally non-meathead way.”

You offered the scared-looking boy a small smile, shaking your head.

Some of y’all notice but, Rosa and Lia are a blatant homage to my name: Roselia. ACTUALLY some form of my name can be found in every one of the rewind series fics, including upcoming ones. I’ll give a cookie to whoever can find every single mention hehe.

“I told you it was dumb.” You laughed nervously.

It wasn’t that you cared much about what Jungkook thought but you had a feeling a guy like him, who was popular and carefree, wouldn’t be able to sympathize in the way you would like him to.

“No, I’m just… surprised, that’s all.”

Jungkook certainly was surprised. You had built up quite the impression on him from the very moment you two met. It was hard to imagine that the girl who was so unapologetically herself was ever unsure or insecure.

Somehow, the idea tugged at his heart, as if he understood you more if only just a little.

From the get go, Jungkook was extremely drawn to just how confident and secure Y/N was in herself. I knew I wanted Y/N to be unapologetically sure of herself and in her abilities. Something I didn’t want, however, was for frat boy!jungkook’s only personality traits to be liking sex and being a cocky bastard (although I am a big consumer of that trope heh). Jungkook is actually canonly incredibly insecure. He lacks a real sense of self, which is why he is so desperate for Kiri back. His relationship with Kiri at that time was a big part of what he thought was himself. He has somewhat of low self esteem tbh which is why he’ll go back to a woman who treated him unfairly. That’s why he comes off the way he does in the first chapter and why Y/N thinks he has a big ego... he’s overcompensating. He finds it so endlessly fascinating that Y/N, in all her confident glory, was actually once super insecure. He admires her all the more once she opens up about her past.

“Oh, Rosa is an intern for our hometown’s newspaper but between you and me those assholes don’t even let her write. She does coffee and burger runs for men in charge. And Lia sells ice cream at the mall.”

“What about your brother?” Jungkook asked.

“He’s training to be a cop just like my dad.”

“And your mom?”

“She works at a convenience store.”

All their careers resemble people in the latest Stranger Things season (Nancy, Steve, Hopper, and Joyce). Fun Cameo there.

“What’s wrong?” You wondered, following his eyes.

“October 16th, 1985. 6:48PM.”

“Yes. That’s today’s date and time. What about it?” You pressed, growing confused.

“Remember it.” He warned.

“Why?”

“It’s when I fell in love with you.”

This iconic line I actually got from the real Jeon Jungkook himself. While Jungkook wasn’t actually in love with Y/N here, it certainly was a cute way for him to express his admiration for her.

OH HERE’S A FUN FACT: the hickey scene at the end of this chapter where JK and Y/N kiss for the first time was actually supposed to be Yara giving Y/N the hickey like the best friend she is. Ultimately I went with JK giving it for... smut purposes... ≖‿≖ 

CHAPTER FOUR – THE HALLOWEEN PARTY

The decision for Y/N to be Freddie Krueger came from me planning to be him for Halloween. And I was! JK as Glen Lantz just followed naturally. I’ve seen some great edits of him as the character. Truly chef’s kiss.

I really liked that Jungkook came over to the girl’s dorm to get ready. I didn’t want a scene where Y/N was thrown into a situation she was uncomfortable with which is how much Nerd At A Party Scene go so made sure Jungkook stayed by her side throughout the part, going out of his way to introducing her to the people he cared about.

Tae’s character came in when I realized I needed a way to actually put Y/N’s event in motion. He was the missing link and BOY did you guys eat his character right up huh. Love that for me.

Another thing, the confrontation with Kiri was so hard to write guys, I reeaaaally struggle with girl conflict. GIRLS SHOULD SUPPORT GIRLS. However, not everyone gets along in real life so I went with Kiri being more along the lines of petty rather than outwardly a cunt to Y/N. Realistically, Kiri is popular and well liked among the greek life so being unkind to someone she hardly knows wouldn’t make sense. There’s definitely tension between these two but I tried my best to steer away from the typical cat fight/revenge porn/public humiliation trope most movies seem to follow.

CHAPTER FIVE – THE FIRST TIME

Introduction to Erik!!!! It was really important to me that Y/N had a life before Jungkook. That's why I wrote in Y/N having a fiancé. She’s not opposed to love, she just has reshifted her focus. She knows what she wants and is choosing to focus on that, which why when she realizes she’s falling for Kookie she’s so hesitant to admit it because she’s fallen down that road before. Even though Jungkook treats her with respect and acknowledges the parts of her she’s most proud of, she just isn’t willing to possibly give up her passions for love. Which is why she doesn’t immediately confess to him, even once she’s sure she loves him.

“I’m serious, nerd. You’re like… um… the sun!” Jungkook marveled, eyes growing full as the realization dawned on him.

“The sun?” You laughed.

“Yeah, like… you’re this bright, beautiful thing that seems like it’s here in front of me but is really light-years away.”

Jungkook was drunk, and although you were sure he was making more sense in his head, you couldn’t help but feel your face grow hot, unsure of how to react to his drunk analogy.

“You’re the sun, Y/N. You make the world turn for you. Never orbit for anyone else.”

And suddenly, you were kissing him, for no other reason other than you wanted to and that it felt like the right thing to do.

No real commentary here. Just love this bit. It’s probably my favorite interaction between them two ‧⁺◟( ᵒ̴̶̷̥́ ·̫ ᵒ̴̶̷̣̥̀ ) 

“Also… She’s, uh, currently dating Eunwoo.” You told Yara.

Your best friend blinked, silence falling over her.

“Yara?”

“Good for her.” She perked up almost forcibly. “Let her put up with his annoying ass.”

Yara could see the way your expression had turned dubious as if you didn’t believe her nonchalant act.

Yara turned up her nose defensively, “What?”

Ugh yes, some character development from Yara.... the flavor ! Yara (much like Y/N and JK) also struggles with love. She has a real fear of commitment and if far more comfortable with casual sex than relationships. She did develop actual feelings for Eunwoo, she just wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment so she cut him off. Fleed the scene if you will. Typical gemini smh my head.

"I don’t think the contract mentioned orgasms.” Jungkook smirked as you released his thumb.

“I say we let it slide.” You shrugged, leaning into him casually.

“You think?”

“Totally. Think of it as… a bonding activity.” You joked, resting your chin on his shoulder, peering up through your lashes.

“Damn, we’re really committed to this fake dating thing, huh.”

You laughed in the way that you hated, but Jungkook loved; it was loud and abrupt, but it genuine, and it was you.

“What can I say, I’m a method actor.” You sighed dramatically, causing Jungkook to grin before pressing a kiss to your nose, simply because he liked the way it always seemed to make you smile.

GOD THEY’RE SO WHIPPED FOR EACH OTHER ITS DISGUSTING!!!!!! I’m really happy I decided not to make sleeping together a big deal and I got a lot of feedback from you guys agreeing! I had a lot of fun with these two’s sex scenes knowing they could do it whenever they wanted.

CHAPTER SIX – THE STEM EVENT

I started the scene with smut BUT I wanted to point out that much of their time spent together is at Y/N dorm, Jungkook either napping, hanging out or doing work as Y/N would study like she always did. I liked the idea that Jungkook would get bored and would want attention from Y/N because she was so focused. Idk, I just wanted to write a love story about two people spending time together and figuring out how they fit in each other’s lives as opposed to some dramatic I mEeT HiM aNd mY LiFe bEcAmE cRaZy. There’s nothing wrong with that plot line, I just didn’t want that for these two dorks. I wanted Y/N to interact with JK’s scene and crowd but not give up her own which is why most days JK and her just lounged around in her dorm studying.

Also, I don’t know how the teacher/student roleplay made it into the smut, it just did, no further questions (ʃ⌣́_⌣́ƪ).

Then the event scene.

“You’re whipped, dude! Seriously.”

Jungkook felt his face go red, “Shut up, no, I’m not.”

“Hey, I’m not judging. I get it. That’s your girl.” Taehyung shrugged. Jungkook placed a hand on the fold up table in front of him, staring down at the information pamphlet you had worked so hard on.

“She’s just… so fucking driven and passionate about everything she does. Sometimes I look at her, and I’m just like… holy shit, what am I doing with a girl like her? I feel like she’s totally out of my league and being with me is holding her back but— I dunno, man. I just… really like her.” Jungkook revealed, voice growing small.

An unexpected wave of tenderness fell over the two boys, Taehyung throwing an arm over his little brother’s shoulder.

“I’m happy for you, bro.”

Jungkook didn’t know it just yet but dude was talking from the heart and, is in fact, totally whipped :’c

I loved the confrontation scene between the boys and Eunwoo because the boys standing up for Yara really did make everyone feel like a friend group, not just some character who happen to exist at the same time. It wasn’t just Y/N and Yara and one side and the boys on the other. They would all become friends, which is ideal to me. A boyfriend who likes your best friend and considers her a friend so you can all hang out??? Yes please.

Initially, irl Yara and I had noooo clue if Yara would end up with Eunwoo or not. That was actually the original goal actually. But after this chapter four, you guys made it ABUNDANTLY clear that you guys wanted to see Taeyara, despite the two never even meeting! Honestly, it wasn’t until this chapter was written that we decided for sure that Eunwoo was out of the picture for Yara. Part of me really wanted to keep Yara single, but irl Yara insisted on dick and frankly, she’s right. Bitchin’ Yara deserved a shot at love. She definitely has her own story outside of Bitchin’ and will experience a lot of growth in the future.

“God, I know. I do not miss that temper of his.” She chuckled, her words piquing your interest.

“Temper?”

“Oh, yeah. Have you seriously not experienced it yet? He’s got some gnarly anger issues. Not to mention all the lying…” Kiri paused suddenly, straightening up as she flashed you an apologetic look. “Yikes, I’m sorry. I totally should not be telling you this. I’m not trying to be that gross girl that shit talks her ex to his current girlfriend.”

Miss Kiri, Miss Kiri. She really acted up this chapter didn’t she. There was a lot of discussion about whether or not those things she said about Jungkook were true. Which was exactly what I wanted hehe. We come to find out that Kiri had definitely stretched the truth. She really is good at manipulation and understanding how people think and it’s why she is in the role that she is in. Messy queen.

CHAPTER SEVEN – THE ROOFTOP DATE

This entire chapter was inspired by High School Musical with Troy and Gabriella’s rooftop garden scenes. This was my shortest chapter and honestly, probably not my strongest. I definitely went into writing this with zero concept of what I actually wanted to happen. Usually when I write my chapters I have a 4k long outline of it beforehand that I go off of. Not this one though. I really just winged it and I tried my best to write a chapter that really showed off (dialogue wise) just how this couple bounces off each other. I do really like some of the banter they have in this chapter.

You had taken note a little wooden popsicle stick poking up from the soil of the yellow flowers. Acacias, they were marked. Pulling your knees up to your chest, you considered his words.

Yellow acacias stands the value of true friendship and can indicate a secret love! I thought that was very appropriate given these dummies' relationship.

“So, you probably know why I brought you here.”

You nodded.

“You’re proposing, right?”

“Yeah, I– oh, shut up.” He laughed, the serious mood shattering as you joined him.

Even though I knew they were going to have a semi serious talk, what with Y/N asking about what Kiri had told her, these two dufuses realistically are just too comfortable with each other to stay serious for too long.

“Hey, I said that out of frustration, I didn’t really mean it. I’m sure she’ll come crawling back soon.” You attempted to comfort him, hoping to sound sincere.

“Even if that’s true, I’m not entirely sure I want that anymore.”

“What?” You blinked. Jungkook shrugged.

“What about us?” He met your eyes, causing your breath to hitch.

“What about us?”

Jungkook stared at you for a moment, noting the way the timber in your voice had become higher pitched as if panicked.

MORE FUN FACTS LMFAO: I typically do this thing with unplanned chapters where I just go for it and write and usually it works out. But when I wrote this down I remember stopping and being like ??? WHY DID I JUST WRITE THAT ??? I don’t like deleting my writing so I had a serious think to myself about whether this was going to be the moment Jungkook confessed or not.

Canonly, I decided that Jungkook did in fact mean ‘us’ in a romantic sense, but because of the way you perceivably panicked at that possible meaning, he decided against taking the conversation in that direction, instead speaking about ‘us’ in a platonic sense. Poor kookie :(

“Stop. Listen to me, Jungkook, you’re a fucking great guy, okay? You’re charismatic and funny and care about your friends… sure, you almost ruined my event, but it was mostly to defend my best friend when Eunwoo got too pushy, right? You’re a good guy, meathead. I know I joke about your ego, but I really believe you’re capable of more than you think you are. Seriously, Kiri is so lucky to be the object of your affection.”

Jungkook watched the way the sun’s orange light kissed your face, a bittersweet feeling growing in his chest as he contemplated the object of his affection. Just a couple of months ago, he would have had no doubt about who held his heart, but as you held his stare, he found himself unsure and yet, entirely sure all the same.

“Jungkook? You okay?” You frowned, catching in the sadness in his eyes.

“Hm? Yeah, yeah. I just… realized something.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“…It doesn’t matter.” He smiled, the gesture hardly reaching his eyes.

It’s in this moment that Jungkook decides that there is no way you hold the same affection towards him that he does to you. He mistakes your words of comfort as you pushing him away. You are so kind and encouraging and Jungkook loves you so much that hearing you insist about him ending back up with Kiri hurts him so bad.

But you are still unsure about your feelings and genuinely believe that's still what Jungkook wants. You’re just being a supportive friend!! :( It isn’t until the end of this chapter when Y/N has her talk with Yara that she realizes, oh man, she’s in deep.

CHAPTER EIGHT – THE MISTAKE

BLAH. This chapter is so BLAH, you know? Having to write this chapter was SO HARD. I texted irl Yara complaining about how much I hated having to put my characters through this and that I wanted to just end the story on chapter 7 and keep them happy forever. BUT ALAS! I had planned for this to happen from the start.

You tasted like the mint of your favorite brand of toothpaste. He imagined if he had caught you any later then the mint would have been accompanied by the taste of coffee, knowing the way you rarely started a day without a cup.

God, he had missed the taste of you.

What you guys didn’t see is Jungkook spending the night with Kiri, and immediately kicking her out, freaking out as the weight of guilt washed over him. He knew he had done nothing wrong, that you weren’t his real girlfriend, and that getting back together with Kiri was exactly what he had signed up for. It was what he should’ve wanted. But it wasn't… because you were what he wanted. And that was exactly what he was going to tell you as he marched over to your apartment.

But he panicked. His mind already decided that your answer to him would be no– that you didn’t feel the same. So he kissed you. He had you in the only way he was allowed to. He was selfish and impulsive and so incredibly scared that he ended up hurting the person he loved the most.

Initially though, I had Jungkook get back together with Kiri, not that he slept with her right before sleeping with Y/N. But I decided TEEHEE let me just make everything erupt into flames. However, I didn’t realize just how angry with Jungkook you guys would get. I remember thinking DAMMIT WAS THAT TOO SCANDALOUS?? I knew I was going to have to work hard for Jungkook to redeem himself to my readers.

“She wants to get back together.” Jungkook swallowed dryly, eyes wavering between yours as if to gauge your reaction.

“…Oh.”

You shook your head.

“I mean, wow! That’s… That’s great!” You smiled, something tearing apart inside you as the words left your lips.

“Y/N–”

“Seriously! This means it worked, right? This is exactly what you wanted to happen.” You enthused, turning your head so that he couldn’t see the way your eyes had welled up.

Jungkook’s heart was pounding in his ears, fighting the urge to wrap his arms around you.

“Yeah… yeah, no, you’re right. We did it.” He replied monotonously.

GOD THIS PART IS SO UNBELIEVABLY FRUSTRATING! JUST ADMIT YOU LOVE EACH OTHER YOU MORONS! This entire situation is so convoluted because there's so much information missing and not being expressed, I seriously want to ring my own neck rereading this bit.

“Are you mad?” He called out cautiously, a heavy feeling falling onto his chest.

“Why would I be mad?” You quipped back sharply, causing Jungkook to flinch. He shifted in his seat uncomfortably.

“I just thought… I mean we’ve been fooling around a lot lately, so I didn’t know if—”

“If what? I had feelings for you?” You scoffed. “Please, as if I’d ever fall for you.”

And there it was— everything Jungkook already knew but had been so afraid to hear. Of course, you didn’t feel for him what he felt for you. How could he have expected anything different?

IDIOTS!!! THEY'RE BOTH IDIOTS!!! I don't know how y'all put up with this for so long. Forgive me.

CHAPTER NINE – THE BREAK

Okay I actually love this chapter. And for many reasons. Let me break down the three scenes for you guys.

Scene one: Kiri confrontation

Kiri is definitely an opposing antagonist. She is constantly working against Y/N because of their interests directly conflicting. BUT. I would argue that the biggest antagonist to this story is the inner ones – Y/N and Jungkook's lack of ability to admit their feelings constantly holding them both back from their happy ending. That being said, a confrontation scene between Y/N and Kiri was MUCH needed. While I suppose I can understand why Kiri doesn't like Y/N, that doesn't change the fact that she has been disrespectful and catty. So miss Y/N had to put Miss Kiri in her place (•̀ᴗ•́)

Scene two: Yara and Tae at the library

Fanservice. That is all. LMFAOOO y'all reallllyyy wanted it to happen and who am I to deny my people what they want. It was really fun getting to explore my side characters and develop them through interactions outside the two main characters. IRL Yara also mentioned giving bitchin’ Yara and Tae their own chapter as a joke and I was like LOL BET. I fully was going to but then I got the idea for the next scene and was like ahh ok maybe not the whole chapter.

Scene three: Meeting with Erik

So. This was a SUPER last minute decision. Like, it wasn’t until I was writing this chapter that I planned on Erik making an appearance. I saw a tweet with someone saying their bitchin theories and they mentioned Erik appearing out of nowhere and I was like,,, HOLD ON!!!! That could be kind of spicy ≖‿≖ 

I knew for a fact JK was NOT going to be forgiven in this chapter; I needed a way to lay the situation out between the two dorks without trying to seem like I was trying to sway my audience in a way that didn't make sense to the story. Y/N was rightfully angry. But she wasn't only angry about the timing of the sex. She was angry that Jungkook went back to Kiri at all and there was no way she was going to admit that. So who better to lay it all out than calculated, unbiased third party Erik. He deserved some character development after all.

I also liked the idea that Y/N had, in theory, “romantic options.” Losing Jungkook didn’t mean the end of her life. Having my female lead stand on her own was very important to me.

CHAPTER TEN – THE END

RIGHT OF THE BAT I needed Jungkook to suffer. So that whole scene where he tries to interact with his old group only for his presence to make everything awkward MMMM yes, sweet revenge on my part.

You were surprised. His hair was no longer shaggy and long like you remembered it. Instead, it had been freshly cut, looking healthy and neatly styled for the first time since you met Jungkook.

THE WAY SO MANY PEOPLE COMMENTED ON THIS LINE “but Y/N liked it long?!?”  IS SO FUNNNYyyyy. So let me clarify a thing. Jungkook had always wanted to cut his hair right. The only reason he didn’t was because Y/N told him not to. With Y/N no longer in the picture to convince him out of it, he cut his hair. That’s really all there is to it skfjsjf.

You know, I had written this part around the time I had just finished up the third ch believe it or not. And it was COMPLETELY different. I had it planned that Yara and Y/N ignored him throughout class and Yara had gone back after the bell rang to go verbally assault JK. And as the two hashed it out, only then was that when Jungkook would realize that he liked Y/N after Yara literally spelled it out for him.

“You like her, dumbass!” Was what I had written Yara saying. I really had written him in denial for ten chapters, I was a whole sociopath (╥﹏╥). But ultimately, I decided that Jungkook came to that conclusion on his own and the decision to apologize to Y/N would have been made over winter break.

“You said Kiri came over asking for you back, yet you still came over and slept with me the next day. Even though the two of you had sex the night before. Do you understand how that makes me feel?”

“I’m—”

“Like garbage!" You emphasized, the white paint of the door somehow irritating you further. "I felt like I was something you threw away and picked back up whenever you felt like getting your dick wet.”

Your chest was rising and falling rapidly, and you tried your hardest to not let your emotions get the best of you.

“Not to mention to everyone else, it looks like you cheated on me. Which makes me look like a fucking idiot." You scoffed.

Jungkook said nothing in reply, which somehow made it easier to say all you should have said that day in your room.

“It just sucks to realize that someone you once cared about sees you as nothing more than a toy. It fucking sucks.”

Man :( writing this hurt my heart. I really, really, love bitchin!y/n and writing her hurting freaking stinks. But she had to speak her mind. She deserves the chance to get everything off her chest with the way Jungkook hurt her.

Your heart and mind were in constant paradox, torn between wanting him back and wanting him to know just how much he had hurt you. Your mind ultimately won the battle, of course, but as Jungkook stood just a few inches of drywood apart pouring his heart out, it was hard to say which major organ was responsible for your next words.

The creak of the door being pushed open sent Jungkook's eyes wide, revealing your hesitant form. You had your arms crossed over your chest as if to guard the contents inside of it.

You looked like an angel underneath the bathroom's blue fluorescent lights, beautiful and lovely, a stark contrast from your next crushing sentence.

“I slept with Erik.”

Hehe. Ofc my girl Y/N had to have a rebound!!! She knows that life goes on. However, as I wrote in, she definitely regretted it. It was kind of the same situation that Jungkook was in where he pursued something just because it was familiar and a distraction and not because he really wanted it. Both Y/N and Jungkook are flawed characters but that’s okay! If anything, Y/N’s mistake of sleeping with Erik is what allows her to forgive Jungkook. Knowing first hand how complicated their entire relationship really was.

“I don’t need you… but I don’t think I want a life without you.” You finished shyly.

Your eyes were locked with his when suddenly a small noise escaped him, eyes pulling away from yours as his head moved to attempt to hide the way his eyes had grown wet.

I got this line from one of my best friends after her ex broke up with her. It made me physically sad and really sympathize with her so I quickly wrote it down into my notes app to save for later LMAOOOO. Knowing that you are your own person and life will inevitably go on after losing someone, but that your heart still wants and is pleading for the one person you can’t have. SO SAD. I’m happy I got to use this line in one of my fics.

The note Jungkook wrote Y/N,,, imagine him not being able to sleep one night over winter break so he just writes down everything he should have told Y/N while he still had the chance…. I’ll for real cry dude, he’s so cute. Also, the line about him buying you fluffy Halloween socks for Christmas went over people’s heads I think but HECK I THOUGHT THAT WAS SO FUNNY AND SWEET (because Y/N bought Christmas socks when it was Halloween teehee).

"Are you two dorks done crying?" Yara’s voice rang out suddenly, causing both of you to jump apart.

"Yara, you creep! Privacy, dude! Ever try knocking?" You sniffed, wiping at your face hurriedly.

"What? Like you were peeing with Jungkook in the bathroom? Please." She waved you off, walking back into the living room to give you two some privacy. She did say Jungkook had 15 minutes before she’d have to come back in after all. "Anyway, Tae will be over in 10 minutes for the Saved By The Bell marathon that’s on so you guys are more than welcomed to join." She called out from her newly seated position on the couch.

I included this scene with Yara because things were getting too serious for my liking ngl. Plus the idea that the four of them would all come together at the end for a much needed reunion made my happy bitchin heart soar.

Jungkook let out a laugh, his palm finding your cheek, eyes locked on your lips. You were preening for his kiss, mouth parting slightly as you anticipated it.

“Partners?”

The question took you by surprise, eyes widening at your not so pretend lover.

Idiot.

“Partners.” You smiled softly, eyes shiny and brimming with tears as he kissed you for what must have been the millionth time, but still somehow felt like the first.

UGH I LOVE THEM I REALLY DO. I was so happy with how this final scene came out :( They’re partners, they really are I miss these boneheads.

AND NOW, I PRESENT THE CANON FUTURE OF THE BITCHIN UNIVERSE...

10 YEARS LATER

Let’s be honest, Jungkook popped the question the day of graduation, he can’t imagine a life in which you wouldn’t be beside him

You said yes (shocker)

Cue Jungkook being the most wonderful partner and respecting your wish to finish your residency program before having the wedding

You absolutely kick ass at being a neonatal surgeon

Also, Jungkook started a film company! It’s small but he loves what he does and works with colleges and helps out the film majors with resources and equipment <3

SO IT'S THE DAY OF YOUR WEDDING RIGHT

Yara and your sisters are helping you get ready, with your best friend as the ever so reassuring maid of honor

And by that I mean you’re as calm as a cucumber and Yara is one wrong move away from having a stroke

“Y/N… Don’t freak out....The catering company put in two orders of shrimp instead of chicken and steak.”

“Yara, it’s okay.”

“NO ITS NOT???? THIS IS YOUR WEDDING DAY AND YOU’RE GETTING CRUSTACEANS.”

Y/N making Yara take a seat and practice some breathing exercises so she doesn’t upset the baby

Oh yeah, Yara is 10 weeks pregnant

Taehyung is the dad lol

Yara and Taehyung have been together ever since that day at the library hehe <3

They moved in together and adopted a cat and everything (sweet boy Tae wanted a dog but Yara’s afraid of dogs and Tae would do anything for that woman so Yeontan the cat it is)

Yara refuses to put a label on their relationship even after all this time, and Tae doesn’t ask for one. They’re happy and dedicated to each other and don’t feel the need to put pressure on something that’s already so perfect

Yara is actually violently in love with Tae but still scoffs when Y/N tries to bring it up

“Oh my god, you’re so in love with him”

“Huh??? you must be sick or something. Get well soon, damn :/”

Yara likes to come up with different labels for Taehyung every time she has to introduce him. Among her favorites are roommate, rent sharer, baby daddy and penis lender

Speaking of Taehyung, he’d have a hand on Jungkook’s shoulder as he tries to calm down the panicking groom to be

“JK, breathe.”

“What if she doesn’t show up? What if she doesn’t want to marry me? What if I pressured her into this and— and I’ve freaked her out and now she hates me?”

“Dude, you guys have been engaged for eight years. She’s had her opportunity to run. She’ll show up.”

Taehyung scruffing up the younger man’s hair reassuringly, which only flusters him more because DAMMIT he wants to look perfect for you and now his hair is messed up >:(

(You like him no matter what his hair looks like though)

Jungkook literally swallowing down a sob as you walk down the aisle and he lays his eyes on you for the first time

You having a dumb smile on your face the entire walk over because your husband to be is crying and you haven’t even exchanged vows yet

The entire audience going all sobby when you finally do exchange vows because they’re so beautiful and real

The ten years together has not been easy— from financial struggles as you tried to support yourself through med school, to personal conflicts when Jungkook wanted to start a family already

But you guys figured it out

You always do

He’s your person. And you are his.

Y/N’s sisters Rosa and Lia are a WRECK— even your dad is tearing up

Your family loves Jungkook and have been counting down the days until you guys married, let’s be honest

“You may now kiss the bride.”

Jungkook punching the air with a “FINALLY!” before kissing the hell out of you

The cutting of the cake inevitably turning into a food fight

The shrimp entrees turning out to be pretty damn good

Yara catching the bouquet and wagging her brows at Taehyung suggestively

Jungkook pulling you aside to take photos of you outside the venue because you look so so pretty and he loves the way you smile when he’s the one behind the camera

The party is in full session, your siblings tearing up the dance floor like the extroverts they are

You and Jungkook are sat at the head of the room, hands intertwined underneath the table as you watch a tired and painfully sober Yara swing her bare feet onto Taehyung’s lap, requesting a foot rub

Watching your pregnant best friend and her lover together, you turned towards your own, smile impossibly wide

“What?”

“Let’s have a baby.” You’d grin, so stupid happy

Jungkook’s eyes going round and immediately jumping up from his seat because god that’s all he’s ever wanted

Being tugged out the room by a giddy Jungkook, one of your heels flinging off somewhere behind you.

“What’s happening? Where are we going?!”

The two of you find yourself in a storage room somewhere on the hotel floor

“Jeon Jungkook, what the hell—“

His mouth find yourself, kissing you in a way that couldn’t at the altar

You kissed him back without questions, arms wrapping around the man you now called your husband

“I love you.” He’d sigh into your neck, his hot breath causing you to shiver

“I love you too.”

“Let’s make a baby.”

“Yeah let’s— wait, right here? Right now?!”

Jungkook merely nodding as his mouth found the exposed skin of your chest

“Meathead, we can’t just ditch our wedding to have sex!”

“Why not? We did our marital duties. Now it’s our guests' job to get embarrassingly drunk and make a fool of themselves on the dance floor. No one will even miss us.”

“Isn’t baby making what our honeymoon is for?”

“Screw that. I’ve done my waiting. Let’s start our family, nerd.”

Jungkook kissing your protests silent before you inevitably give in and let him take you right there and then, your wedding dress hung around your hips

Husband and wife coming together with shaky breaths and hushed moans as they promise the rest of their lives to each other, making every argument, struggle or moment of uncertainty leading up to now totally worth it

Walk of shame back into the party with nervous hair fixing from you and a proud grin from Jungkook

Yara figuring out exactly why you two had sneaked off to, flashing the newly weds a knowing smirk

The night of your wedding, Jungkook surprises you with a present

You unwrap it in confusion, only to see that it’s a glass frame and inside of it is the wrinkled and worn out lined paper the two of you had scribbled on many many years ago

Jungkook hangs up the contract right above your bed as per your request, smiling as he does and jumping on him the moment he puts down the hammer bc dammit it you’re too heckin excited to make love with your sentimental loser of a husband

And yes, by the next month, you are pregnant and incredibly happy

And of course, your daughter and Yara’s son grow up to be best friends, not a family holiday passing by where they aren’t told the story of the totally bitchin’ way both set of their parents got together

#beyond the story #bts smut #Jungkook smut #bts jungkook #bts #bts imagines #bts preferences #Jungkook x reader #jeon jungkook

[seasurfacefullofclouds1]

“louis is harrysexual.” This is what bothers me the most.

I try to understand the social aspects surrounding the whole larry thing as a pop culture phenomenon but the fact that Louis is absolutely nothing to them but a puppy to keep Harry happy is what I can’t stand about it.

Go with Harry, ship him with Olivia if you like straight ships, choose a guy to ship with Harry if it’s what you enjoy shipping, but come on choose someone from Harry’s present life like idk Xander, Mitch or even Jeff and Harry can be a forbidden love lol I don’t care just forget Louis please.

(Sorry I just needed to take that out of my chest)

The contrast between their hysteria in screaming about Louis and Harry’s “love” and the absolute, stone cold callousness with which they treat Louis is sobering.

“I hope that you don’t run from me.” It’s probably really hard being Harry Styles’ partner. [emphasis mine]

This is the bias and the insanity, the way Larries incorporate their self-insert fics (with their transparent thirst for Harry) and teaches a new, young fandom to treat real people as puppets, fictional characters.

Here’s Louis’ interview in the Guardian, from 2017:

Tomlinson says he has already sweated more for this record than any before. When you’re putting together material as a soloist, he says, you quickly learn that those hot-shot collaborators who once dribbled to work with One Direction no longer pick up the phone so readily. “I couldn’t say to you now that I could definitely get a superstar writer in a session with me. And I understand that.” Tomlinson adds, with no real vinegar, that not all of his former bandmates will be operating in these same straitened circumstances: “Harry won’t struggle with any of that.”

In their One Direction days, no question, Styles got the most attention. But all the boys had their devotees and Tomlinson retains a body of fans who’ve been loyal to him even when he might have looked a wobbly investment. He wants to prove to them – reason three – that he’s been worth the backing all these years. “I honestly think they’ll write books about One Direction fans,” Tomlinson says. “Because they are so fanatical. The intensity. It’s remarkable.”

Draining, I ask?

“Oh definitely draining. Definitely.”

Tomlinson […] says to me more generally that he hopes his new music will reveal to fans a more complete version of himself than before.

“Although my problems might look a hell of a lot different they’re actually, fundamentally, the same. Loss feels the same. Heartbreak feels the same. The fundamental hurtful things for a human are all the same. And I feel like I have to push that constantly, that humanised… The humanised feeling that…”

That you’re not a toy?

“Yeah. Honestly, it’s crazy. It’s hard for a lot of people who are fanatical to believe that you are a real entity and a person.”

It is heartbreaking to think that in 2017, Louis was already aware of what could happen: that both the music industry and most fans would prioritize Harry, and that fans would treat Louis as a toy, a side character— as it has become the reality in the Larrie fandom in 2021.

“Definitely draining. Definitely.”

In Walls, Louis has written such beautiful, bittersweet lyrics such as “All that’s left of us is a closet full of clothes,” “Mentally, you were already out the door,” “Why are goodbyes so often bittersweet?” “For every reason why, you were my because.”

But these lyrics have been intentionally misread and manipulated from their careful, complicated, nuanced meaning. Louis’ honest words have been twisted for propaganda. A rollercoaster life of exhilarating and terrible moments has been reduced to being “the partner of the great Harry Styles.”

- “It’s okay to support them both, but only like Harry’s music.”

- “Streaming Louis is not your job. But Fine Line is a great album and has been my pandemic savior.”

- “Louis’ music isn’t my cup of tea, but he loves Harry so much.”

- Whenever an anon gets sent in about Louis’ music or team, “I don’t really know anything about that.”

- An anon gets sent in about the Away From Home Festival, “I’ll have to go back and watch it again. I didn’t really notice.” (And it’s never followed up.)

- “Fine Line 5/5. Walls 4/5.”

- Louis has to support Harry until he’s a great movie star - once Eternals comes out, Harry will be established. Louis’ closet is for Harry’s career.

At least their Louis hatred is consistent post 2015.

#Larries #nothing can jeopardize the career of the great Harry styles

[mariaiscrafting]

ahhhh ty ty ty <3

ok, so I think that what makes Dream act this way (iykyk) is how dreamwastaken became so big so quickly. and by quick I mean fucking lightning speed.

he didn't have enough time to learn enough about cc etiquette, especially in these three aspects: influence, boundaries and fanbase/stans/whatever you call it. I'll try to explain it:

• Influence: Does he know the influence he has? Like, when he hears that he is the myct with the largest fanbase, does he really process that? I remember he talked about not being able to control all of his fanbase and there's bad apples everywhere -- which is true, and that only like 1% of his fanbase breaks his boundaries (that include sending hate for him, harassing, doxing, etc. yk, basic twitter culture lol) but, honey, with your big ass fanbase, 1% is still a lot of people. As a content creator you *have* to be aware of that.

let's take the hbomb situation. First off, as a streamer, it's you that set the mood of the stream. Even if he was only messing around with his pals, even if they did say to do not send hate to hbomb, dt dunking on him created a toxic environment, which caused his fans being toxic towards hbomb and you know what happens next. Hell, when this happened, I was watching Tapl and he was watching them and he was crying laughing over them screaming bc they were just. so loud and so aggressive that it was kinda ??? Sirs, this is literally a Minecraft Stream lmaooo

my point is, that was not the road that dreamwastaken, 21M fans, should've taken. he don't condone his fans actions but he knows his fans are diehard and will always be on his side, he should be more careful before stating negative opinions, especially if its towards another person.

• Boundaries and Fanbase: He posted a list of his boundaries a while ago, idk if you know or seen it (btw please george copy your bestie for the love of god <3) but I'm not talking about those boundaries, I'm talking about the basic boundaries between cc and viewer. boundaries that, in my opinion, should exist between cc and viewer. I get that Dream is an open person, an oversharing type of open person if I may add, but I think he should take a step back regardless. When I heard that he was taking a time from twitter, I genuinely got so glad, not because he couldn't start any drama then, but because it would do so so good for his mental health. I'm not even that fond of him, it's just that for me, any cc taking a break or outright leaving twitter is a win for me. I know how RSD is hard to deal and honestly letting shit out it's better but dream you have dt you have bbh so please don't make things worse online 😭 I know how good can be to feel validation from millions of people but. it's not a good idea, especially in the state that his fanbase is on rn (this topic is kinda sensitive to talk abt for me bc people be outright ableist and hide it as criticism like. say that shit's not helping his reputation and whatever without acting like he's fucking. manipulating his fanbase for being affected by his rsd💀 or, on the other hand, don't say that hes just being adhd🤪 when he's just being an asshole like damn that's a Him thing bro lol)

(omg it's so big I'm so sorry and theres a part two I'm so sorry tumblr user messed-up-gal ToT) - morango 1/2

pt. 2:

Dream is the proof that the people who loves you can be your downfall. istg. Have you noticed that every drama that Dream enters, people usually get more mad abt how his fanbase reacts (85% they'll react in a bad way) than Dream himself? it's not always, but its definitely more likely. I'm not saying Dream is saint, he Is petty and his ego does him dirty and made him choke multiple times before,, But! i dont think hes a bad guy. he's literally just a dude. ok, he's a 21yr old white gamer man that has a trumpie past (maybe?? idk. I think hes cured now ig lol) so he's bound to do some shitty things but he still tries to get better and hopefully he'll mature. 21 is old enough but it's still so young, yk? I kind of lost my mind during the end and my eyes are literally begging to be closed so tl;dr: Its gonna be hard for him to become a better cc bc his fans don't let him be criticized (by infantilizing his adhd symptoms or the mob mentality as soon as someone says anything abt him), the honest criticism get lost between lies from antis that don't know shit, he still has a lot of growing up to do and overall he became famous too fast and he needs to learn things even faster bc as soon as there's not a single one dream hater on sight they'll turn their back and attack him instead lmao I hate twitter i definitely have more to say but I'm tired and my memory is shit. just-- hate dream if you want, love dream if you want, nobody is obligated to have an opinion but I wanted to express mine. have a lovely day! -morango 2/2

Aight, there's a lot to unpack here, so Imma try to only go into the points I have something to add to (here's what I talk about in each paragraph, if you want to jump to a specific point):

Speed of Dream's rise to fame

The "bad apples" in the Dream fanbase

Post-MCC HBomb stream

Not condoning versus actually condemning his fans

Manipulation & RSD

Criticism of Dream, his fanbase, and his brand

The “just a dude” argument, flipped

First, I agree that one of the many factors that has resulted in the current image Dream has set up for himself, the way his fanbase functions, the ways people hate on him, and the way the Dream brand functions, is the speed of his rise to fame. It's unique, and there are probably a hundred social/psychological angles that could be used to examine the exact effects of that speed upon all of these facets of the Dream Name; did rapid fame beget the rapid rise of unrighteous hatred, did those waves of hatred then instigate the rise of a surprisingly overdefensive fanbase, did that rapid fame get to his head and/or result in an inability to appropriately handle all the after-effects of rapid fame, etc.? That point you bring up, about how the speed of his rise to fame requires him to learn even more quickly, is so interesting to me. I think that maybe Dream expected to get pretty famous pretty quickly, hence the preparedness in regards to some mechanics of influencer fame- merchandise, business-building, networking, knowing how to manage his fanbase to best benefit him. But I don't think he expected to get this famous this quickly. This is all speculation of course, as are this entire post and your ask, but I think that he just couldn't anticipate having to learn how to handle enmasse controversy, waves of antis, or every Youtuber speculating/knowing about him; and yeah, that results in him having to learn all of these things very quickly, lest he allow his whole brand and fandom to fall apart.

Second, I disagree with the frequent argument that Dream's fanbase is only marginally toxic. Personally, I think that the circumstances of Dream's fame, his personality and management of his fanbase, and his brand of content have resulted in the very specific kind of stan that Dream stans are. I don't think this is simply a case of "all fandoms have a small percentage of assholes who take it too far;" rather, the nature of the community itself breeds the kind of mentality of "an asshole who takes it too far." I only even know this because I was a Dream fan (kinda a stan, I'm ngl). At one time, I watched every single Dreamwastaken & Dream Team video multiple times; I listened to the Manhunts on repeat, as though they were podcasts; I followed mostly smiletwt and dttwt accounts on mcyttwt; I had upwards of 10 tabs for AO3 DNF fics open on my phone at a time; I watched DNF and Dream Team Being A Family-esque compilations on repeat; I watched every George and Sapnap alt stream I possibly could; I went out of my way to defend Dream against Redditors and Twitter antis regarding the cheating scandal. For the latter half of 2020, and a couple months of 2021, I lived and breathed this part of the fandom; so when I say that Dream stans are a whole other breed than any other kind of mcyttwt stan, I say that because I used to be like that, too. I usually use parasocial very loosely or ironically, but Dream stans are genuinely one of the most parasocial fanbases I have ever seen or been a part of. The level of investment Dream stans have in this man's life, the lengths they will go to to defend him, the amount of psychonalysis and digging they do on his life and character, the amount of emotion he can evoke in them- it's taken to another level, man. This isn't just characteristic of a fraction of his fanbase; this is what the fanbase is like as a whole.

Third, I partially disagree with your take on the HBomb thing, but not in the way one might think? I actually empathize with the way they reacted much more than I thought I would, simply because I suspect I have RSD (also suspect I have ADHD, have for several months now) and I can see myself getting insanely frustrated because of something like that. Like yeah, it was "just a MC stream" or "just an MC game," but that's kinda disregarding the fact that something that might seem like "just a [insert inconsequential thing]" to a rational mind might have a major emotional consequence/take a major emotional toll on someone with RSD, or really anyone who gets easily impatient/angry about video games (Sapnap reminds me of many of my friends, in that way). The issues I, personally, had with the way they handled the HBomb situation is that these are simply explanations and reasons for my empathy; they are not excuses. I have no excuse when I get irrationally angry about something inconsequential in my own life, for a couple of reasons. One, because I am an adult and I need to learn how to handle my reactions and manage my own anger. Two, because as someone with many mental problems, it is my responsibility to learn coping mechanisms to ensure my own emotional stability and livelihood; this includes learning whatever I need to handle RSD- whether that be isolating myself from others when I know I will become violently/passionately angry about something, creating and sustaining a support system that can get me through bouts of extreme emotion, finding healthy emotional outlets for my negative emotions that won't harm myself or others, or a combination thereof. I don't think what they said about HBomb post-MCC was an irreversibly horrible thing, or anything. I think there were errors committed by two men who should be fully capable of foreseeing and preventing those errors, but I don't unconditionally hate Dream or Sapnap for the post-MCC stream or comments. I just wish they had made amends quickly, publicly, and sufficiently, because the greatest consequences from the whole thing weren't even from those two criticizing HBomb themselves; they were from the waves of backlash because of their immense influence on the MCYT fandom, which could've been prevented, if they had acted maturedly and responsibly after the stream.

Fourth, you’re right, that he doesn’t seem to condone his fans’ behavior. I detest the frequent anti argument that one of the reasons Dream should be criticized is because he explicitly uses his fanbase to attack others, or something of the sort. Personally, I think he created his fanbase in a very specific way and interacts with them in such a way so as to benefit him as much as possible, yes, but he never actually tells his fanbase to go and yell at or harrass anyone. Still, there is a significant difference between not condoning something and condemning something. It might seem unfair, and it might be annoying of me to say this, but I truly think that someone with this large a fanbase, especially one as overzealous as Dream’s, needs to be condemned every single time it goes on some kind of rampage/harrassment campaign. Either that, or Dream needs to make a definitive, permanent statement against any kind of harrassment of others on his behalf. I know he’ll occassionally make the odd tweet or serious stream addressing something his fanbase did, but one of the many reasons his fanbase keeps doing the same damn thing is because he’s so lukewarm and spotty about this condemnation. A fanbase like his needs to be given explicit guidance and boundaries for the numerous things they do in his defense- harrassing/doxing antis, harrassing people who criticize him who aren’t antis (respectful criticism, other CCs, other MCYT stans, etc.), harrassing the people he critcizes (i.e., HBomb), speculating about his personal life (his relationship with his gf, his mental health/ADHD, his romantic life, his childhood, etc.), and speculating about his relationships with his friends and colleagues.  My personal ideology is that, if you have significant influence over someone or a group of people, you are at least somewhat responsible for the things those people do or don’t do, if it at all relates back to you. I’m so fucking tired of the argument that CCs aren’t responsible for what their fans do. Obviously they aren’t responsible for every single one of their fans, and obviously they can’t fully control their fans at the end of the day. But I think there are certain things that reach such a level of extremity that does make those CCs responsible. This can be measured by either scale or intensity; that is to say, if a CC’s fanbase does things on an extremely large scale, or one person from/a fraction of the fanbase does something really extreme, then the CC is made all the more responsible. Another CC I’ve always had trouble discussing with other people on this subject is Pewdiepie, in particular, about the extremists in his fanbase. Because the things a small handful of his fans have done in reference to him and/or in his name were so fucking extreme, I thought Pewdiepie had to take at least some responsibilty. Along a similar vein, because the things Dream’s general fanbase does are so widespread and on such a massive scale, Dream has to take at least some responsibility.

Fifth, okay. Hmmm. I want to tackle this point you made about the ableism he faces in some criticism of him carefully and with empathy, but not coddling. One, I do think a lot of the criticism he receives for the ways he handles criticism (post-cheating Tweets, reactions to John Swan, post-MCC HBomb stream, etc.), disregard his RSD and can be oftentimes ableist. I’ve actually encountered people irl who criticize this aspect of Dream’s character, and have had to explain to them their disregard for how ADHD/RSD affect neurodivergent people’s reactions to criticism. But - and this is a big, and very controversial but - I think mentally ill/disordered people can 100% leverage their mental illness/disorders for the sake of manipulation. This is actually something I’ve learned from a psychiatrist, regarding the ways people I know and I handle our anxiety and depression. This manipulation can be unwitting or intentional, but it is entirely possible, and the possibility shouldn’t be entirely dismissed as ableist. Living with a mental illness or disorder that others know about/that you are very public about puts you in an interesting position to receive frequent sympathy, empathy, and/or pity. I’m not saying that empathy for Dream having ADHD/RSD is entirely unjustified; on the contrary, I have frequently expressed how I can relate to his ADHD symptoms and have defended him for expressing those symptoms, both on mcytblr and in real life. I am saying that Dream fans tend to use his ADHD as a kind of shield for a lot of criticism levied against him, including the supposition that he could be manipulating his fanbase to defend him because of his public expressions of RSD. So yes, my theory is that Dream knows how to levy every aspect of his life for his personal gain and for the growth of his brand, and that includes his ADHD. I think he has courage for his openess about his ADHD, I think his openness has contributed to the rise in awareness of mental health and empathy for neurodivergent people within Gen Z, and I think at least some of his expressions of RSD publicly/online weren’t intentionally made public. All that being said, I also think he has to know just how much his fanbase cares about defending him for his ADHD, and I think he has to know that some of the things he does related to his neurodivergence endear him to his audience, in a coddling, baby-ing, mildly ableist sorta way.  Maybe this is all incredibly presumptuous of me. Of course, I can never know the real intentions behind any Dream video, Tweet, or stream. Maybe I’m just projecting, because I can see myself doing just this, if I had the maturity I had circa 2018-2019. Idfk know, man.

Sixth, I actually agree with you here, people probably do get more mad at his fanbase than him. Dream puts out content pretty seldomly, considering the frequency of content output for other Youtubers/streamers in his field/at his brand size. And yet, he has received masses of criticism. Considering that the things Dream himself does/says do not entirely correlate with the amount of criticism he receives, I think it’s a logical assumption that a lot of that criticism actually goes back to the size of his presence online, rather than the man himself. That is to say, because of the massive community he’s amassed, the exponential growth of his fanbase, their presence on every single social media site and in virtually every single Internet space/fandom, and the size of his metaphysical presence in his fields, Dream is much bigger than the man himself, so the criticism he receives will, at least in part, be a direct or indirect result of all these other aspects of the Dream brand.  Something I don’t think many Dream fans/stans, or even most MCYT fans in general, understand, is that Dream isn’t just “one guy” in the eyes of the Internet- at least, not anymore. He hasn’t been for nearly a year. Like Pewdiepie, Mr. Beast, and other CCs who have amassed similar levels of fame and wealth via Internet content creation, Dream is a brand now, and most people will treat him as such. He isn’t just some uwu soft boy playing Minecraft anymore. He is on a whole other level from any other MCYT in his friend circle or colleague interaction bubble. His words will never again live in a vaccum or private bubble, his friend circle will never again be under anything less than intense scrutiny, his past actions will never again be simple mistakes or silly errors, his words will never again be casual tweets or streams for laughs among a couple thousand followers. Dream’s name represents something much bigger than just the one man. As such, all aspects of his brand, including his fanbase, will tie back to him and, ultimately, to any general criticism of him.

I’m not saying I like any of this, and I actually think the evolution of influencers from people to a marketable brand with similar mechanisms, responsibilities, and liabilities as a corporation is some kind of late capitalism nightmare fuel; I’m just stating my own observations and theories as to why so much anti-Dream criticism seems to be directed at his fanbase, rather than him.

Seventh, he’s just a guy, you’re right, but I think a lot of the antis on Tumblr understand this more than you know. As I’ve seen it, the sentiment among much of the “DSMP stans DNI” crowd seems to be that of “Dream/other MCYTs are such ‘bad’ people, so why do their fans stick to these mediocre, racist men, when there are so many better people to watch/better content to consume?” We know this argument is flawed for many of the obvious reasons - the conflation of all MCYTs’ actions regardless of individual identity, the equating of a CC’s fanbase’s morality to that of the CC they enjoy watching, the exxageration of any error MCYT CCs have committed as bigotry/racism, the fundamental misunderstanding and misinformation that led antis to believe this exxageration of the facts, etc. But I want to focus on the general, underlying sentiment of, “why not watch someone better, when your creator is problematic?” Sometimes, I ask this of Dream stans. Yes, being mildly ignorant, getting involved in the scandals Dream has, and being a right-leaning/libertarian centrist in the recent past all seem like harmless things, all things considered. One could say Dream isn’t nearly as bad as many antis who are misinformed seem to believe, and that there are much worse CCs Dream stans could be watching and creating fan content for. But I think what Tumblr antis wonder is, aren’t there also much better MCYTs/CCs people could be watching and stanning? Because he’s just some guy, right? Is his content truly so exceptional or is he really so exceptional a person, that people have to stick by him, despite the things that spike up regarding his current or past actions? I think that’s what made me finally decide to stop watching Dream. I realized he was just Some Guy. The Dream Team was a comforting dynamic to indulge in, DNF was a cute ship to read and speculate about, and Manhunts were fun videos to watch; however, once the Reddit posts came out and I read them in-depth, the cost-benefit analysis tipped over to the “not worth it” side for me. I realized Dream’s content, while fun and comforting, was not entirely unique, and wasn’t worth sticking around for, given what I then knew about his past political leanings. If he is just Some Guy, then there are a hundred more like him out there. There a hundred more ships, a hundred more found family dynamics, a hundred more entertaining and skilled Minecraft players. So while I agree with you on the point of people being allowed to love him regardless because he is just a guy, at the end of the day, I think that, if we are to believe that sentiment or use that argument in such a manner, we should also understand the flip side- that, if he is just some guy, why is it worth sticking around? To that I say, maybe because people just enjoy the simple things they enjoy.

Anyways, I wholly agree with your tl;dr. Thanks for that insanely long ask, this was a fun thing to keep me occupied while I’ve been at work, facilitating Zoom sessions this whole morning.

#ive been writing this on and off since 830 am est SHEESH #dreamwastaken #dream critical #eh i think im relatively lenient of him here given my past posts ab him #but still just in case the blacklist tags for yalls convenience: #discourse #/neg #asks #long post #long posts #this a LONG one bois #morango

[whocalledhimannux]

@peregrer the What. 👀👀👀 *insert John Mulaney gif of "say more right now"*

ok so when I say "the extent to which I've fleshed out the QT GBBO AU in my head is getting to be embarrassing," I truly and deeply mean it, please enjoy 1,900 words of utter ridiculousness.

first, our competitors:

Legarus - performs so poorly that viewers are a bit confused how he got on the show in the first place, a la Jamie (series 10) or that one guy who made a lime and chocolate cake in the first week.

Chloe - nice flavors and good ideas for decorations, but pretty sloppy. was up for elimination in the first week but came back with a great showstopper.

Melheret - good but not as good as he thinks he is (hence his bread week elimination because of sloppy technique), heavy-handed with the alcohol flavoring

Agape - solid competitor, not flashy but tasty + pretty results. I haven't worked out exact week-by-week themes (that would indeed be Too Much) but I imagine this is something like "Dairy" or "Caramel" or "Vegan," some particular element she just happens to not be strong on. viewers are disappointed by her early elimination

Teleus - Dad contestant. brings in a bunch of weird pans and gadgets he made up himself, does pretty well until it comes to Fiddly Foreign Foods he doesn't know (probably eliminated in French or Patisserie week)

Laela - typically has good flavors and pretty designs but technical knowledge is a bit lacking, so there are usually some flaws in the execution and she's often in the bottom half of technicals

Phresine - Grandma contestant. nails the classics but ultimately isn't creative enough to make it further.

Magus - the "Ian (series 6)" flavor of Dad contestant, often brings in foraged ingredients or eggs from his own chickens or whatnot and revives old recipes/flavor combinations no one else knows about. one week, some of those turn out to just be too weird, leading to his elimination.

Sophos - pretty elaborate decorations and good flavors (on the border of classic and new), but he tends to try a million different embellishments on everything and struggles with timing, occasionally to the detriment of technique.

Kamet - always has really interesting and different flavors and tends to do well in technicals especially, assuming he doesn't get overwhelmed. which is... an assumption (Finalist)

Costis - leans towards classic and indulgent flavors, although sometimes a bit sloppy--the kind of contestant where the judges look at his dishes and say "it's a bit of a mess" and then Paul Hollywood starts laughing because it still tastes delicious (Finalist)

Irene - absolutely stunning visually, queen of the technicals, occasionally gets the "style over substance" warning (Winner)

more details below the cut

I've gone back and forth on whether Eugenides should be in it but ultimately I decided no because I wanted to maintain a pre-show relationship between Laela + Kamet (I thought otherwise at first but then I realized I hadn't left Kamet any longterm friends or family for his finalist video and that's depressing af) and Irene and Sophos which to my knowledge hasn't happened once on the show so far? so having a married couple on top of that seems like it would be a stretch, and also then I think I'd need to make Eugenides the winner on principle and you know what? he can stand to be second fiddle to his wife for a little bit. My alternate backstory for him is that he was actually the winner of MasterChef one year (good with knives), so in the first episode Irene's first little chat to camera is something like "my husband's been bugging me for years to try out and I keep telling him he's got a skewed perspective on cooking competitions, finally I applied just to shut him up... and here we are." Her little video introduction is about how baking is a stress relief from her bigshot job. Her decorations tend to be abstract and gorgeous rather than cutesy.

Kamet, likewise, was nagged into applying by Laela, but she very cleverly framed it as she wanted to apply and wanted him to do it to for moral support. both were confident the other would get in and surprised that they did themselves. This is one of those series where everyone's friendships are immediate and obvious and super adorable (cast of series 10 my beloved...), and in particular these two are holding hands in episode 1. Laela's deep blue robe from TaT sticks in my head for whatever reason so I imagine her making an elaborate blue peacock cake or something one week that wins her star baker. somebody always does a peacock something and it's always impressiev.

Phresine is cool as a cucumber under pressure, always has lovely things to say about everyone else's bakes, and is the go-to last-minute helper because she usually comes in under the time. Irene starts out similar but as the weeks go by she starts to feel the pressure a bit more and cuts it a bit close. Sophos is the worst on timings, and mentions his wife at least once an episode. (I also played with him being single on the show and meeting Helen later through Irene and Eugenides, but this idea is too cute to pass up tbh.) Teleus lives with Relius, a fact that isn't mentioned until a few weeks in when he comments that Relius likes a recipe or gave him an idea for a flavor or something (Relius does not bake himself but will happily sample practice bakes), to the surprised delight of every viewer whose favorite contestant is the oldest gay in any given series (me, me, that person is me).

Costis tends to use a lot of chocolate and, as I said, pretty "classic" flavors--one of those people who makes a full English savory bake at some point. He's usually in the top half of the competition but doesn't get the top until one of the later weeks in the competition, which is a Honey themed week, and he absolutely nails it. The delicate decorations of his honey nut cakes and his use of honeycomb are particularly praised and that's the week he gets star baker. One of those bakers who flirts with elimination the first few weeks but noticeably improves over the course of the show.

My most, like, plot-y ideas are about Kamet (SHOCKER). I imagine he was born in Setra (I usually make Setra a non-autonomous region in my AUs) but arrived in Britain as a child due to [Unspecified Crisis] and ended up with foster dad Jeffa, who was roughly from the same region but not Setra itself; whenever Kamet wanted Setran food as a kid, Jeffa would take him to the library to find recipes and that was what sparked his love of baking. He's well-read on the subject and knows about foods from a lot of different cultures, so he's usually heard of the technical challenges even if he hasn't made or eaten them. He does a lot of fusion flavors, and is ALL ABOUT bread week.

I don't usually make the his-relationship-with-Nahuseresh-is-romantic leap in modern AUs but I think it works for this one because of the nature of the format--Nahuseresh doesn't actually appear on camera but is alluded to once or twice, ends up being Very Displeased that Kamet is doing something for himself, and during the week following Laela's elimination they have the fight that makes Kamet realizes this is actually a terrible relationship and he needs to leave now. He calls Laela to let her know what's up and mentions that, since he'll need to stay in a motel and has presumbly lost his job as a secretary (yeah working for your boyfriend is Bad, he's realized that now), he's going to have to drop out of the show. Laela, despite living in a studio flat without room to host him, immediately thinks "um fuck that" and calls Costis, and within an hour Costis and Aris and a few rugby buddies have moved all of Kamet's things into Costis and Aris's flat, where Costis insists that he'll squeeze into Aris's room (they've shared before, it's fine) and that Kamet gets first dibs on the kitchen for all bake off practices.

None of them actually reveal any of this to the show's producers. Kamet gets a little overwhelmed the following week and nearly walks away from the tent, but Costis jumps in to keep his bake from being ruined, and some soothing words from Irene + the hosts calm him down and he returns to finish. The only mention of the Drama comes in the finale, during the longer video clips they do on each of the contestants. Kamet is deliberately vague about the details of the situation, but Aris shows up in both Costis's and Kamet's videos and references the fact that having TWO flatmates in the bake off is a bit difficult because they only have a standard size kitchen, so he hasn't cooked for himself in a month and has been living off cake and savory breads. one of the hosts talks to Kamet in the tent after that clip is shown and he still won't talk about it in more detail, but says that he wanted to tell people so they could appreciate why Costis hasn't practiced as much the last few weeks (the judges scolded him for winging it a couple of times), and admits that he totally copied some of Costis's techniques for honey week based on watching him at home.

I imagine the finale task is something like an illusion cake--probably with a bunch of additional required elements because the show has been going bonkers with the finale showstoppers in the newer seasons--and Irene wins with a jewelry box containing, among other things, ruby earrings made out of candy. Kamet does a stepwell, and Costis does something architectural (I was thinking castle but something visibly Greek-ish so maybe a temple or a megaron? idk). Irene wins but they're all BFFs and that's obvious, so everyone's delighted for her. The little montage at the end reveals that Irene + Gen are expecting twins, that everybody hangs out all the time, and that Costis + co recently helped Kamet move into his own flat where he's now working on a novel (Immakuk and Ennikar inspired, obvi, leaning heavily on the honey-shared-on-the-road thing and including some recipes that actually work in the narration, albeit still written in an ancient-novel-like-way).

[Obviously not part of the show, but when Kamet mentions that it's time for him to look for his own place, Costis tries to v awkwardly invite him to stay forever and Kamet is like "nope I've got to try this on my own but yes we will go on a date once I've moved out and see how it goes from there."]

[This is so far beyond the scope of the show but also several of them go on to have more baking-related careers and have active social media presences and at one point they're all hanging out and Eugenides pulls out a camera and demands they all produce baking pick-up lines. Teleus refuses and also doesn't believe anyone knows baking pick-up lines off the top of their head or could make them up on the spot. Sophos sort of proves him right by coming up with "you're the apple of my pie," which Eugenides instantly mocks because Sophos's three greatest loves are baking, Helen, and poetry, and that's the best he can do? Helen comes up with "I like my cake the way I like my men--rich, sweet, and bright red," to which Sophos blushes on cue. Irene's is "when I'm with you, I feel like chocolate heated to 50 degrees--I struggle to maintain my temper." Eugenides protests this is more like an anti-pickup line. Irene insists this is the most accurate marriage-related baking pun anyone could ever come up with.

[Laela's is "You and I are like custard--I hope we never split." Kamet's is "You remind me of bread, because I knead you." Costis freezes for a minute and finally comes up with "Fancy a cream horn?" which produces a lot of giggling and makes Kamet slap his arm in such a way that, hen Eugenides posts this video to instagram, fans of the show all go WAIT ARE THEY DATING NOW] [by this point, yes they are] [I didn't even have to google baking pickup lines for this, guys, I legit came up with them on my own, please clap.]

am I obsessed? I might be obsessed

#queen's thief #attolia irene #kamet #costis ormentiedes #sophos #eugenides #teleus #eddis helen #laela #oh dear I bet her tag is virtually unsearchable #sorry laela

[itsclydebitches]

Was planning on making this my own post, but I thought you would be more suited to discussing this sort of topic. Something I've noticed when it comes to the more prominent/important/strong female characters (Nora, Pyrrha, Penny, Robyn, Emerald, Sienna) is that RT often has the tendency of giving them masculine allusions (Thor, Achilles, Pinocchio, Robin Hood, Aladdin, Shere Khan) as if they are unable to stand on their own as characters unless they have that connection to a male character. 1/3

It is worth discussing! Yeah, I hesitate to call it a pattern just because, as you say, Team RWBY themselves are an exception to the rule  — and as the title characters of the story, they’re a pretty big exception. We also have good women allusions turned into good women characters (Glynda with The Good Witch, May with Maid Marian) and bad women allusions turned into good women characters (Winter with The Snow Queen — I don’t think she was ever meant to enter full antagonist territory, but that’s another post). So it’s not just a matter of saying, “RWBY models their strong women after male inspirations and turns all female inspirations into male characters.” It’s not that simple. But the fact that it’s not simple doesn’t mean there’s nothing there to unpack because I definitely understand the feeling you’re pointing to, anon. Team RWBY feels like it has the most thought put into it in terms of changing up these allusions, specifically when it comes to subversion: the little girl in a red hood who previously needed a hunter’s protection has become the hunter herself, Belle overcomes both her Gaston and the now evil Beast, Snow White extracts herself from her own abusive situation (with a little help from the Dwarves still), and Goldilocks is no longer lost and in need of basic necessities, but can rather punch her way out of any establishment  — like, say, a club. The execution of these themes aside (how Adam was handled, turning Jacques’ arrest into a joke, etc.), there’s a commonality here that works. Or at least, it works for me. Yet when we expand the allusions past our title team, things get... very messy. That’s when we start to hit on these concerns. 

I’d say the problem stems primarily from that lack of thought, not the act itself of turning women characters into men or vice versa. Meaning, as I’ve said in the past, RWBY’s use of allusions is terribly unreliable nowadays, and that’s not just in terms of plot expectations like, “Why did Penny have to become a flesh girl because Pinocchio, but Ironwood didn’t stay good because Tin Man?” It also includes these questions of why these changes were made and what sort of messages they send. As you lay out, why are so many of our heavy hitters  — the most talented huntress, the lightning-immune smasher, the Maiden android, etc.  — based on men? Why are many of the effeminate and “weaker” men  — Jaune the untrained, Ren the emotional councilor, Oscar the kid who wants to talk it all out  — based on women? Again, I don’t intend to sling any hard accusations, but rather to point out what’s likely a subtle, unconscious bias. To provide another example, I’ve seen talk recently about how RT (again, unconsciously) depicts the faunus, where all the good characters have culturally established “good” animal features and all the bad character have culturally established “bad” features. It’s cat ears, rabbit ears, sheep ears, monkey tails, dog tails, and beautifully changing skin color vs. scorpion tails, spiderwebs, bull horns, tiger ears, bat wings, and crocodile scales. Is it a perfect 1:1 divide? No, Ghira has panther claws and Fennec has fox ears, but there’s enough there for us to go, “RT tends to give the good guys cute features and/or features we associate with safe animals, whereas the bad guys tend to get ugly features and/or features we associate with dangerous animals.” I feel the same way here, that there’s a bit of a trend at play, with the caveat that there are more complications simply by virtue of these allusions being, well, complicated. But there’s enough there to make us stop and think, “What were RT’s intentions with this? If they just chose something based on the rule of cool, what might those inclinations tell us about gender norms in America?” Meaning, when someone goes, “Idk, we just thought it would be cool to change this up” there’s a lifetime of media consumption driving that choice. It’s not actually random, but based on whatever has been normalized  — unless you actively counteract that by thinking through what you want the change to do. 

Unconscious biases are always at work. When we analyze something like this it’s often not a matter of saying, “The author is [insert accusatory term here]” but rather just, “The author is falling into expectations, patterns, and normalized decisions based on the culture they’ve grown up in.” Which includes things like thinking, “Well, if this character is based on a male god, she must be crazy strong. If this character is based on a woman fighter, he’s probably more emotional.” Such biases may be driving a lot of decisions because, as said in the past, I really don’t think RT is putting much thought into these allusions, if any at this point. For me, Penny was proof of that  — the inability to see how following her allusion utterly destroyed her character growth  — but even if we don’t agree about Penny, what about Salem? Far from just using her name, this volume gave us a blatant reference to the events of Salem Trails in the 1690s. Namely, the burning of the witch. 

Except references like this can’t just look cool. This isn’t a video game Easter egg with no real connection to the story, it’s a cinematography/plot choice that carries meaning. So what is that meaning? Well, the thing about the women on trail at Salem is that they were innocent. This is what that reference says: “Hey, remember that real life event where women who weren’t witches were horrifically killed because others thought they were evil? None were actually burned, but culturally we tend to think they were. So that’s the image in our collective mind: innocent women on fire.” Except... Salem is actually a witch. Salem is evil. Salem is guilty. Or at least, the questions surrounding the extent of her guilt  — How much responsibility does she hold in comparison to the Gods? How much agency does she still have after the grimm pool?  — has not been acknowledged by the text. Yang just yelled at Salem for killing her mom and Oscar is about to blow her up. This is not a “Question Salem’s humanity” scene, it’s a “Kill the witch” scene... yet it uses an allusion that is contrary to what the moment is trying to achieve. So what are we supposed to take away from this? Do we adhere to the subtext and believe that Salem is innocent somehow, ignoring what the actual text says, or do we uphold the text and in doing so undermine the reliability of every other allusion in the show? If we can’t trust Salem’s, why would we trust, say, Penny’s? 

RWBY’s allusions are all over the place and yes, I think that lack of consideration extends to who they randomly decided to genderbend. There’s no acknowledgment of  — let alone engagement with  — how many of these characters and historical figures were trying to pass themselves off as another gender, nor does RWBY acknowledge how the need to do so feeds into our current and historic assumptions about gender as a whole. Why does the man dress as a woman? To keep himself safe and seen as a non-threat. Why does the woman dress as a man? To gain access to places previously barred from her and to gain the respect she otherwise wouldn’t be afforded. And, of course, in 2021 there’s the expectation that media will include trans characters, GNC characters, non-binary characters, cis characters uninterested in practicing traditional femininity/masculinity, etc. None of which RWBY tackles outside of May, a woman who references a systematic transphobia we otherwise never see in the show. May, as a minor character, is great and I am in all honesty thrilled that she exists in the RWBY canon. However, the rest of the show is built on an anime conception of gender  — combat skirts and bare midriffs in the snow  — while nevertheless engaging with the very complicated question of how you re-imagine canonically/historically gendered people. As a “girl power” show, RWBY has opened itself up to questions like, “Okay, it’s great that you made these four fairy tale girls kickass, but can we talk about making Joan of Arc into a bumbling guy whose presence as a blonde, blue-eyed, sword-wielding man taking up lots of important screen time has generated accusations about this being a male-centered show?” It’s not a “RWBY is horrible for doing this!” issue, but a “RWBY is deliberately playing with gender and marketing itself as a progressive show, so... let’s figure out what these individual choices are actually implying and whether or not we consider that progressive.” 

#rwby #mymetas #Anonymous

[lizard-isms]

whoever is responsible for the culture around ocs having to be “good” i will hunt you down and biting kill you. if i see one more “ouhhgh but ONLY if they have believable flaws” or “nooo you cant do that it’s unrealistic” i am going to animorph into the jokedler. im not writing a novel over here im just making up some strange little guys. and that ok. more under the readmore (it is long)

i think this came up mostly around that huge wave of. oc “fixing” or finding and making fun of “”bad”” deviantart ocs, and the mary-sue mockery that was Ridiculously Prominent. and still has not died like it should have years ago. but like. god. who is it harming. if someone wants to make a ceepy passa self insert oc that’s like. ouuuugh evil powerful murderer in a haunted videogame kills you through the screen. jeff killar’s wife and boyfriend slander men’s daughterson. who are you to corner them out of that y’know. its fun. my first oc was a sparkledog-esque warrior cats character who started her own clan when she was a literal child. and i loved her with every ounce of my 10 yr old body. but once i gained a certain level of awareness of the greater art community (??? what should i refer to this as??)’s attitude towards characters like her i was TERRIFIED to publicize any of my ocs. i would agonize over them like ohhh is this too much is she too overpowered is he too boring is he too unrealistic etc etc. and. man. i wish i was able to have fun with that stuff. NOW agonizing over character motivations is fun to me but theres a big gap between being like. cornered into it when you have no interest in it beyond not being mocked mercilessly and doing it because you choose to. i am choosing to agonize. when i was twelve i just wanted something vaguely me-shaped to project my desire to run around in the forest onto.  i know im not the first person to bring this up but GOD it still makes my brain twist into a new shape every time i see a Horrible OC Take. and only recently has there been a notable push to have people Not be evil and awful over this. at least that ive noticed, im sure there’s been plenty of people talking about it before??? i would like to believe there were plenty of people talking about it before that i just didn’t see. please let me live in blissful ignorance if i am wrong. and it wasnt just people having a chuckle over an un-spellchecked deviantart oc bio this was people putting out MULTI PART YOUTUBE SERIES that were DEDICATED to tearing peoples characters apart. shits kinda fucked maybe idk. a lot of people that were the targets of this kind of stuff i feel were Not looking for criticism, constructive or otherwise, also. many of us were not focussed on getting Better, we were focussed on kissing fictional character of choice. or running around in the woods. or projecting poorly-processed trauma.

#also sorry if this shows up in any fandom tags. i tried to make any direct names as fucked as possible to prevent that but i do not know #if it will work correctly #(or even if its necessary for actual post text or just tags????) #lizardisms.txt #this is not spell-checked. so it might be a little fucked. also i didnt reread it extensively so if its incomprehensible let me know #thanks you :-) #THIS ISNT ABT GIVING WELCOMED CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM ALSO. separate thing. i am not qualified to talk about that because i have never wanted #or given constructive criticism in my life i am fully in my own little I Dont Know What Im Doing circle #tip: this is just me talking also. not like a serious in depth piece. i am not thinking very hard right now

[iwanttomeetdavidbowie]

I am begging you to please info dump about 'people have always been people'

Oooooh man. Oh boy. Oh wow.

It’s happening nerds. It’s happening.

But honestly though, we’ve all seen the major posts that make the rounds here. Like graffiti that we used to think meant something important or powerful. But was really just “I f*cked your mom” or “-insert name- was here” or “this is very high” and that’s my cute “people have always been shit posters” thing. But it really comes down to the fact that people have always wanted to make their mark. People always want to be remembered. People want to talk to each other and reach out. But we always reach out in very similar ways. And when you look at the heart of it we all really interact in very, very similar ways.

My favorite stupid video on the internet is of a group of Arab men in full head cover and everything in a cab, going somewhere inconsequential. And one of them is on the phone talking to a girlfriend/wife/mother. The only reason I know in my heart he’s talking to a woman is because his friends are giggling and moaning in high pitched voices. The more flustered he becomes, the more delighted his friends become. And if anyone can sit there and tell me they’ve never seen a group of guys in their home country do the same thing they’re bold faces lying.

Or how we respond to strays. Or at least strays that we like. I love watching people rescue animals or talk to animals. Or try to get those animals interested in them. There are countless videos of all across the world of just that happening. My Chinese teacher on her hands and knees trying to convince a cat to come out from under a car to her. Even when you look at people from the past. The man who commissioned a painting of his wife with her 30+ favorite cats, or paintings of kings and queens with their favorite hunting dogs. How many pictures do you have saved of your pet or a pet you want on your phone?

Or stupid things in paintings (back to shit posting) like the painting of a medieval market that got ‘restored’ in the 20’s; but when they were working on it again recently they realized that the original had a man literally shitting in a bush, which had been painted over by the 1920’s restore. Some artist actually sat down and painted that. There’s a freaking wall hanging with a dog doing the same thing that they put up in the MET. That took days to make that little section I’m sure.

Kids are the most obvious forms of “people are people” though. Kids are wild little chaos goblins that all act so much alike and have such similar mannerisms and games. I watched a group of kids in China play a game where they were all dogs, and the leader of the group made them eat rice off of a step. At first I was horrified until I remembered eating grass as a kid because we were horses. Or when kids are interested in something they try to watch it as long as they can. Or this one time I watched a little girl try to pet a swan, but it bit her. And even though I couldn’t understand her language I could tell she was saying “and then -sob- I tried to pet it -sob- but it -sob sob- it bit me!” And her mom was just cooing and saying what sounded suspiciously like “I know, I know”

Or the way each generation is fighting for something better than the last generation had. Absolutely convinced that the last generation has no idea what the new one is going through. I used to LOVE listening to /slightly/ older people complain about modern music, I’m talking 40-55 max. And every time I would use my best fake grandma voice and say “you damn kids and your rock and roll music!” And every time they would stop and see what new pattern and role they were taking up.

Or that we’ve always loved making art, because it connects us in a way. We can look at a painting in a museum that’s been around for hundreds or even thousands of years, and we can feel the same way people from then felt. Genghis Khan felt so strongly about ‘the arts’ he would often times kidnap the artists and poets and sculptors and writers from a court he’d just decimated in order to have them in his court.

Or the way mother’s comfort babies. The way every old person has that look when they see a stroller or baby carriage and they’re trying to look at the baby with out getting in their business. Hell. The way random kids just look at strangers from the safety of their adults legs.

Idk I think that’s why Miyazaki films are so relatable. There’s a lot of body language that’s easily recognizable in so many people. But that’s a weird one for another one.

Or people wanting to be helpful.

I have customers come into my niche store every day and tell me how much they used to love to do the thing, and how much they miss it now. I like to tell them why they stopped doing the thing “because then you went to highschool and you were suddenly allowed to go to the movies on your own with the opposite sex and that was way cooler” and every time they stop in wonder because they realize that was the reason.

Or how we mourn the loss of ones we love in as grand a way as we possibly can. From sitting with a shotgun at their headstone to prevent their grave from being moved for a new road, or creating the Taj Mahal as a symbol of your love and devotion. Or the headstones/graves of children where people leave toys for a child they’ve never met, from a time before even their grandparents were born. Or the way we build temples to deities we’ll probably never see. Those things are all over the world, there’s no culture with out an example of this paragraph.

At the end of the day people have always lived, struggled, loved, cried, worked, laughed, and tried to find meaning of their life. I think often times we’re made to think of people of the past as this far off thing that’s so much grander than we are. Like pictures of MLK in black and white, even though there are plenty of colored pictures of him because most cameras were shooting in color. Or when we see pictures of grand ladies in ball gowns, but never think about how badly they were sweating or the funny way they’d have to go to the bathroom Or that story of king Tut and his ducks, I know I still have my baby blanket and my stuffed animals that brought me comfort as a kid.

I’ve reread this like 4 times, and it’s definitely just a rambling mess. I did it on my phone too so… take that for what you will.