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overlyimmersed · 1 year

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I wanna talk about wings

Just in general, rather than any specific Fairy's wings this time.

SO I was gonna a make a post comparing Fairy wings to irl insect wings, but the most I learned about insect wings the more I found I actually didn't have the point I thought I did, so I scrapped that. But I still wanna talk about stuff so.

I now know a lot about bug wings! which are way more complicated than you might think... They look like they're just "dead" material like keratin on mammalian bodies, BUT NO. Chitin is significantly different actually. It's more flexible than keratin is for one thing. And insect wings are actually made of "cuticle" which is different layers of chitin put next to each other. The veins of insect wings can have "blood" flow and even nerves. So wings are actually kinda living structures. The membrane between the veins does seem to be comparable to keratin, in that it doesn't have the blood flow or nerves. But still it's chitin so it's flexible.

Why was I looking this stuff up? Cuz when Harlequin kills Helbram for the first time and he falls over, his wings look very...fabric-y and that always bothered me cuz I always thought insect wings were more rigid then that. But apparently not. Nakaba may have trouble with human anatomy but apparently he knows more about wings than I do :p.

But anyway, since that always bothered me, and my general obsession with fairy wings, I'm always paying a lot of attention to how the fairy characters' wings move in the anime and in the grand cross mobile game to compare them to each other and look for consistency. I run a full fairy team in Grand Cross consisting of Helbram, Harlequin and Gerheade. I also have Gloxinia and Elaine so I can look at their wings too when need be. So I get a lot of time to observe the wing movements. And there are significant differences between the fairies that have starkly different wing structures. And I suppose I have a theory as to why?

As far as I can tell, the reason for the sharp difference in how the wings move between, say my main 3, had to do with the vein configurations of each fairy's wings. Harlequin, Helbram and Gerheade all have different vein configurations from each other. I took some videos of every fairy's grand cross models during idle movements, as well as when they have an attack ready, to show the differences in the movement.

These two have to be separate cuz when you select an action for all three the battle proceeds.

We already know Helbram has substantial flexibility to his wings. Harlequin's wings move and flex about the same way an irl butterfly's do, which is a moderate amount of flexibility. Gerheade's wings seem to be markedly stiffer. If you look at the vein configurations of each fairy's wings, which are better illustrated in the anime than the 3D models, you can see that they are very different.

Gerheade and Harlequin both have very insectoid looking wings, because to veins fork to create cells like irl bugs. Helbram though, doesn't have any cells in his wings, he only has vertical veins that don't fork at all. And between Gerheade and Harlequin, Harlequin's wings have larger cells in general as well as large central cells.

I'm inclined to believe these differences in the number and size of the cells formed by the veins are what causes the difference in flexibility. Since Gerheade has smaller cells, the veins are closer together giving her a more rigid structure, while Helbram lacks cells altogether so he has very little structure over all, giving his wings are more fabric-like movement. Harlequin is somewhere in the middle. Gloxinia and Elaine fall into the same category as Harlequin as they both have very much butterfly-like wings which have the large and small cell configuration.

All this being said, I still don't actually want to believe that Fairy wings are made of chitin. Simply cuz I don't know if that makes sense. Based on the very limited information we have about reproduction, it seems that Fairies are mammals? And mammals don't make chitin. We do, however, make cartilage. Which is a material that offers comparable flexible/semi-rigid structure to chitin. Like your outer ear. That structure is cartilaginous, you can just fold that right over on itself and it doesn't even hurt. But it still hold it's structure all on it's own. So the headcanon that I've held from the beginning is that Fairy wings are actually cartilage and some kind of skin. I drew a diagram for this when I was figuring out how the wings attach.

The dark grey indicates cartilage

My theory/headcanon is that when Fairies get their wings a fully cartilaginous ball-and-socket joint forms attached to the inner edge of the shoulder blades and underlying ribs. The veins are cartilaginous structures, while the membrane is skin. So, unlike with insectoid wings, if you damage the membrane of a Fairy wing it'll bleed. But, also unlike insect wings, Fairy wings can heal since they're fully living tissue with blood supply through the entirety of the structure rather than just in the veins like insect wings.

#seven deadly sins #nanatsu no taizai #7ds #sds #nnt #7ds analysis #nnt analysis #7ds headcanon #nnt headcanon #7ds fairy #nnt fairy #tw bones #tw bugs #full disclosure #I traced the skeletal anatomy from google images cuz I could not be bothered to try that hard on a part of the image that wasn't my focus #and I made those gif myself it was a pain in the ass!#tumblr is a prick!

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cozycryptidcorner · 2 years

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Monster Match #11

A monster match for the fabulous @cinderembersoul

Hi I go by Cinder, online and irl because I hate my real name (often times I can still hear my mother yelling it.) I'm 5' 4"and the small one of my group of friends. My pronouns are she/her/princess/her highness/my lady, because I am very much a princess. I am a polyamorus bisexual with a preference of men, a bit of a sadist (lemme hear those boys), subby, and sex positive asexual on top of all that. I have a love for animals, have a cat and dog, and want more but we can't afford that. I play ttrpg games, video games (been playing since I was old enough to hold a controller), stream, write, draw, and occasionally play trading card games. I love making cosplays, building model kits, sewing, knitting, sculpting, and taking things apart to see how they work.

I am known to walk around wearing a tiara, I'm not kidding. I wear lolita dresses and feel as though I am much younger than I actually am. I never matured properly which I believe has contributed to my princess and lolita mindset. I am a collector, not yet a hoarder, but my life is cluttered. I can find sentimentality in almost everything and want to hang onto the past best I can, or else it will fade.I also have a little spiritual sensitivity, but mostly don't mess with it. I'm super lucky when it comes to winning things, but never anything like the lotto. My grandfather's side of the family has history of a witch's coven that actually had table raisings, curses on the neighbors for stealing milk from their cow, and grimoires.

There are many benefits to being the scandalous lover of a Jotun prince.

One of them is being magically altered to better acclimate to the cold.

And it’s true, here, in this frosted Otherworld, there are days where it’s so cold that your eyelashes would have frosted over, lungs paralyzing and muscles failing. The temperature is abysmally low, lower than anything most human beings are used to. Despite the fact that a cup of boiling water freezes when thrown out the window, your magicked heart, lungs, and fingers never feel much more than a touch of chill when venturing in the dangerous outside.

Your wing of the palace (well… your boyfriend’s wing, but what’s his is yours amiright) is larger than any house you could feasibly own back on Earth. It’s almost how you imagine old noble estates to be, a whole section of a much larger castle bustling like it’s own special colony. Kitchen, staff, studios, a library, rooms galore, the wing has it all. The best part, though, is the bedroom itself, a cozy space that’s cluttered from floor to ceiling with bookshelves. The bed is serving frost giant realness, at least twice the size of a king, loaded to the brim with furs and pillows. No one’s dying of frostbite beneath the mountain of warmth, especially when you cuddle against your jotun in the night.

The palace is enormous, carved from stone and ice. The cliff it's perched on is so high that fog completely obscures the waves crashing into the rocky beach first thing in the morning. If you were to walk from the furthest point of the castle, down to the other, it would take from first light to noon... but you would be taking your sweet time. The architecture and sculptural work decorating the halls are enough to slow your speedrun out of awe. The nights stretch on longer than day, bursts of Aurora Borealis whirling along the horizon and reflecting against the ice walls.

He’s a bit of an enigma, cold and distant when in public, but melts almost immediately in your private company. Like a puzzle waiting for your fingers to pick open, with a stony expression and tight gaze, he always seemed like a god above all else, even in the presence of his super royal family. Your jotun isn’t like his overly affectionate brother (who has somehow knocked up every other woman in the kingdom), or the vicious but supremely friendly sister (that has more enemy kills that the chief assassin under her belt). Being the youngest, he has to be an almost entirely different entity from the rest of his siblings, careful not to seem too ambitious, lest the other two feel threatened.

Despite his cold exterior, your jotun is the type to privately shower you in affection once the doors of his room are locked. Whatever you want, it’s yours, all you have to do is look at something with a slight yearning and boom, it’s on your pillow tomorrow. He’ll pet your hair and murmur apologies if he seemed especially brusque that day, muscles finally relaxed after being so very tense for most of his waking moments.

People say that he looks like his mother more than his father, the soft features of a gentle spirit. He will never say that he likes the comparison, but he does. His eyes are like blood rubies, dark and blank during the day, but sparkling with youth and serenity during the night. His hair is a dusty cold steel, the color of the sky when the sun finally meets its end past the horizon. His freckles look like stars, a smattering of white against his nose and cheeks, and his skin is the milky blue of a shallow lake. He’s tall, but you suppose that comes with the territory of being a giant, though not as large as the rest of his family due to his half blood status.

For all his softened features, he can turn around and be blindingly cruel. It’s for survival and nothing more, growing up in the barbaric tundra can do that to a person. After his mother died and his father finally resolved his status as a bastard, your jotun began to claw and scrape his way up the social ladder. All the while, he has to balance the speed and success of his campaigns, making sure to meet just beneath his siblings’ accomplishments, while remaining just good enough to escape complete dismissal. It’s an exhausting endeavor, and his only sanctuary is you.

His mother was a light elf princess, seduced by his father into running away from her family. That somehow makes him valuable enough to be recognized as an official child, the blood of the elves fraught with magic, but also making him a legitimate candidate to the throne his mother almost grasped. As one can imagine, finding the roguishly handsome male she ran away with being already married did a number on her psyche, and despite her fight and fury, it wasn’t his father’s priority to marry her. Now, the nobles whimper and cry about her dying of a broken heart, but the servants mumble about a specialized poison, and your jotun is more inclined to trust the eyes of those who see everything.

His greatest fear is that you will be next, but your humanity brings just low of a status to be written off by the rest of the court. So far. But you have enough bite and are willing to learn the art of Fucking Shit Up, so you’ve been dabbling in magic, all taught by him. He’s a good teacher, his demeanor understanding and sweet in the face of failure, though you can see the stress of your threatened demise is doing a number on his mind. His main goal, for now, is figuring out how to return to his mother’s realm in the hopes that her family will offer sanctuary, though the trip must be taken under the guise of secrecy.

He will do whatever it takes, though, to make sure the both of you make it out alive.

#monster match #jotun

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aliceinteyvat · 3 years

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Genshin Impact Idol AU ideas

So we all know the groups Veechu made with 4nemo, DCKZ, L/yue and, TVT DREAM however, I thought it was a crime the actual idol Barbara wasn’t in a group so, I made my own! I do not have the skills to draw this so, I will be including concept photos by actual groups(older and newer as well as the time in those examples i think suits them just for an example bts run era - dope era for a boy group) for the general vibe. Click on their names for a link to the kpop wiki about them. I also won’t include Lumine because many fans have made their own headcanons for that I like.

Feel free to use the ideas I added to this in fanworks just please credit me for the idea of the groups I made myself if you do. All will be under the read more so mobile users don’t break their fingers trying to scroll past. Wiki links are included for each real world inspiration. If looking for a specific character use ctrl+f on PC to search for them to make your life easier.

Note: their stories can be changed if you would like to make it different for your art/writing/whatever. I just think a bit of drama makes them feel more real. None of the stories are 100% based on any real group even their inspirations aren’t direct copies. As new characters are released/shown in stories I will be adding onto existing groups I made up or, making new ones so if you like my ideas save this and come back to it.

7evelUp! [pronounced Level Up!]

A rookie girl group created from the top seven trainees(voted by judges & public vote) in a survival show that quickly gained international fame from their debut single and, performance. No one doubts their talents however, some question how legitimate the voting/ranking was in the show. No one blames the girls themselves for this and, there is no real evidence to prove this. All of the members believe the show to be real due to their own experiences too although, a few of them due to their low self-esteem believe other trainees would’ve been better suited in the group even if they are thankful for the support. It will take a while for all of them to adjust and, have it all feel real. Will they rise to super stardom or, crack under the immense pressure?

- Members

Amber (leader, main dancer) 3rd place(got the leader position because she is the one who brought every team she was in together to usually win the challenges showing her leadership skills not from ranking)

Barbara (main vocalist,maknae,center) 1st place

Noelle (lead dancer,visual) 6th place

Sucrose (lead vocalist) 7th place

Xiangling (lead dancer, lead rapper) 5th place

Yanfei (main rapper,oldest) 2nd place

Yoimiya (lead rapper, vocalist) 4th place

- Real World Inspirations

Weeekly(Tag Me era - 7Days Tension era)

Girls’ Generation(Into the New World era-Gee era)

TWICE(Like Ooh Aah era - Heart Shaker era)

SYZYGY

An unconventional girl group with a unique sound. Despite their enormous amount of talent/skill , they haven’t been as successful as their small company had hoped. However, they continue to invest everything they can into this group much to the displeasure of the other idols under the company. Will their burning hot passion find success with the masses or, will they disband early leaving their company in complete ruin?

- Members

Hu Tao (leader, main rapper, vocalist)

Fischl (lead vocalist, lead rapper, maknae)

Mona (lead dancer, vocalist, visual)

Rosaria (main dancer, vocalist, rapper, oldest)

Xinyan (main vocalist, dancer,center)

- Real World Inspirations

Dreamcatcher (Chase Me era - Odd Eye era)

1NB (Stalker era - Once again, Winter era)

1MP@CT [prounced Impact]

A previously underrated boy group that seemingly appeared out of thin air on the #1 spots of all major top music charts. Most attribute their overnight success to their newest song going viral on social media but, some who work within their company secretly wonder if it has anything to do with the CEO’s private life and, the new anonymous investors. Regardless, they have made a name for themselves. They have a work ethic like no other and, will do whatever necessary to rise to the top. Even though fans are starting to worry their agency is pushing them too far. Will they become legendary performers the kind that future generations remember by name or, will their boss’ dirty little secrets make them guilty by association to the press when/if the time comes?

- Members

Baizhu (leader, lead vocalist, lead dancer)

Dainsleif (main rapper, lead dancer, maknae)

Scaramouche (main dancer, lead rapper, oldest, center)

Albedo (main vocalist,visual)

- Real World Inspirations

Big Bang (Fantastic Baby era - Bang Bang Bang era)

ATEEZ (Wonderland era - Fireworks era)

B.A.P (Badman era - Hands Up era)

DoDoCo

A junior girl group for kids/tweens made(and managed) by Alice to promote her daughter Klee and, have her gain experience for her dream of being a real idol. Although they perform, act, model and, release music similar older groups they still are children so, their concepts are always wholesome feel-good things to appeal to kid’s even younger their age or, younger. They also don’t have the same restrictions or, work hours due to their age. This group is very popular with Elementary schoolers and, sometimes even their families but, can be annoying to anyone older due to how cheesy it all is.

(Note: I don’t personally agree with kids being idols irl especially some I’ve seen that look like older teen/adult idols it’s scary. However, since it is a thing that exists and, this is a fictional head canon let’s pretend this is a world where none of them get hurt and can live pretty normal lives during & after their time as idols if they choose to do so. I just didn’t want to leave a playable character/important story character out of the AU entirely. Also, Sayu would be here but since she’s not officially released yet and, we don’t know any story about her I think it’s best for her to join later.)

- Members

Klee (leader, main dancer, vocalist, maknae,center)

Diona (main rapper, dancer)

Qiqi (vocalist, oldest)

Yaoyao (main vocalist, rapper)

- Real World Inspirations

RE:KIDS ANGEL (Ocean era) note: also their only era so far it seems but, apparently RE:KIDS is a larger thing with many other kids kpop groups so I assume others would have a similar concept.

CutieL (Debut era - Jungle Journey era)

Dandelion

A girl group that has stayed at the top for the past 7 years known for their elegant concepts although, they have had other concepts in the past(sexy, cute, etc.). Not only is Dandelion super famous but, each member has their own solo careers just as successful. Outside of the group Jean is known for her solo albums and, charity work. Lisa is known for her modelling career and, secretly is a successful author under a pen name. Eula is known for her many wins on dancing contest shows and, the many important roles she plays in dramas. Since this year marks the dreaded 7 year curse fans worry they might disband or, go on a permanent hiatus. Before this year they seemed inseparable to fans but, something happened during their last tour. Jean and, Lisa who were known to be best friends suddenly won’t even sit next to each other. Eula who was usually more reserved during interviews is having to do most of the work since they’re just awkwardly sitting on the opposite sides of her. Eula has never been the best at public speaking and, her blunt responses are causing antis to go on huge smear campaigns on social media. Jean who previously wanted to renew her contract is thinking about starting her own company. Lisa who previously wanted to renew her contract now wants to leave and, join a modelling agency. Eula still wants to renew her contract but, she doesn’t want to be solo yet. She is trying her hardest to get the group back together but, her harsh personality is only making the problem worse she feels. Will they stay together or, will they split? And if they stay together, will it be the same Dandelion fans fell in love with or, are some bridges burned forever?

- Members

Jean (leader, main vocalist, center, dancer)

Lisa (main rapper, visual, sub vocalist, oldest)

Eula (main dancer, vocalist, maknae)

- Real World Inspirations

IZ*ONE (Violeta era - Panorama era)

GFRIEND (Sunrise era - Mago era)

TWICE (Fancy era - Alcohol Free era)

Solo Idols

- Ayaka

From a wealthy Inazuman family Kamisato Ayaka (known as Ayaka) shocked the entire nation when she decided to stop pursuing traditional dance(which she had earned many honors and, was famous for since she was a small child) and, instead go overseas to become an idol. Due to her connections it wasn’t long after becoming a trainee that she was put on the same survival show that formed 7evelUp!. However, her good luck ran out when after filming she got into an accident in her company’s car on the way to her company’s trainee dorms. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured but, she sustained an injury to her ankle that made her unable to perform for the rest of the show and, therefore was disqualified. She was a fan favorite and, everyone was heartbroken that she couldn’t compete. Due to her popularity, her company decided that if she could prove she was able to work after being healed they would let her have a solo debut. She far surpassed their expectations being even better than she was before, resulting in her debuting the same time 7evelUp! did. She doesn’t have any negative feelings towards those girls but, she views them as her rivals. She is quickly gaining popularity for her insane talent in singing, dancing, acting, modelling and, song-writing. She is known to the media as “The Idol Princess” for her family’s wealth, her talent and, her graceful demeanor. Don’t put her into a box though, she can pull off any concept with ease. The question is though, will her company allow her the freedom to express herself to the fullest?

- Real World Inspirations

Note: I am not saying she would be super similar to these artist’s work but, I am saying she has the range and, the potential to reach this level of fame. Since I can’t pinpoint a single solo artist that has what I think she would do I’ll put the ones I think have the insane talent and fame I think she would have as well as a similar feeling although it will take a while for her to get to their level

- IU

- Taeyeon

That was all of the Genshin Impact characters that I know enough about currently to feel comfortable making headcanons for them! Let me know what you think and if you make fanfic of or fanart of these ideas please credit me for these specifically and veechu for the idea of the idol au in general! Feel free to spread this post around if you want to or repost it too with credit. I also would love it if you tagged me if it’s on here or would be kind enough to send me a link to your work/work you find of it.

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hollyhomburg · 4 years

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(reposted au- because i deleted it on accident)

(a special thanks to @atulipandarose without who i would literally be lost without <3 seriously you're a lifesaver)

I have this little idea in my head where like hybrids are allowed to come into work with their owners. New company policy and at first Jungkook is like great! Awesome! He can bring you (a cute tiger hybrid or something like that) into work and you’ll just sit and play on your computer or your phone while Jungkook spends the day coding sometimes you’ll lean your head on his lap and just purr- all and all like his favorite way to work honestly you’re his favorite person.

And then things change when the coworkers who he’s had a crush on forever starts to pop by his office more to see you and Namjoon’s always been so self-assured with miles of dimples and honey skin that Jungkook daydreams about kissing

and his partner hoseok, jungkooks boss, is only worse for jungkooks concentration. He’s always being quietly dominant over Jungkook, pulling out his chair for him at meetings or bringing him a cup of coffee in the mornings in exchange for his hard work.

Both men have take sort of an interest in you, petting you and complementing the dress that Jungkook picked out for you today, and of course, you know about jungkooks crushes and send him a shameless smirk as you whine and scent mark them much to their chagrin and jungkooks expense- blush lighting all the way from his collar to his hairline.

you’re always rushing over yourself saying things like “oh you have to come to lunch with us! There is this awesome ramen place across the street That Jungkookie loves” and of course Jungkook just blushes when Namjoon and hoseok turn their eyes on him and say “of course we would love to if you don’t mind kookie” Namjoon teases while hoseok gives his partner a wink

and Jungkook pulling on your tail and hissing at you while the two man gather their coats to leave “why are you meddling baby?” And you just giving him a feline grin and saying “just getting you that date you’ve been wanting for the last 2 years kookie”

and of course like, maybe hoseok and namjoon have a hybrid of their own- maybe panther Jimin who growls the first time he meets you and goes full on possessive because you’re his mate and now he won’t let you out of his sight and won’t let you leave their apartment, and maybe Jungkook is all blushy and shy and namjoon and hoseok really don’t know what to do because like honestly Jimin isn’t like this normally and he’s not even close to his rut like at all, but because of that he sleeps over at hoseok and Namjoon’s penthouse and like- their relationship buds from there or something.

Okay slight addendum to this that was triggered by a comment from @kamen-tenshi!!

What if I stead of a tiger hybrid the reader is a house cat hybrid or even like a teacup variety like extra small and fluffy and cute and Jungkook found her when they were young and mad his parents adopt her and has always called her ‘catcat’ since he was small. And it’s kind of a cutesy nickname he has for her, when they cuddle at night when they kiss sleepy and drowsy in the morning's hands itching under clothes so that they can get even closer. Her tail twines around his wrist and she calls him ‘bunbun’ all the time.

And then maybe Namjoon and hoseok pick up on this and tease him about it too, but they just can’t resist how he always blushes whoever they call him bunbun too even though they’re kind of starting to date like imagine they’re all shy at first kinda spoiling both you and Jungkook.

And maybe like!!! What if we through tiger taehyung into this too, and say that like Namjoon and hoseok have grown to like expensive things and that means their hybrids, who are both bespoke exotic breeds, are both reflections of that as well as both being dominant alpha hybrids who are as possessive of their masters as their master are of them, though there is a fair amount of love in their relationship as well like- oh, sometimes when hoseok gets stressed out he’ll just get attacked by grooming tongues determined to get all the yucky smell of anxiety off of him and namjoon will just smile and set about making hot chocolate for the four of them and they’ll cuddle on the couch together until Hoseok starts to feel and look more like his in control self.

Of course it was because of their two hybrids that hoseok and namjoon made the new policy for a hybrid friendly work place, because while Jimin does have a fairly lucrative job working as a model for a luxury brand that has a special line for hybrids, taehyung doesn’t have the most enriching life and wants to come by more and see what they do when they leave the hybrids at home all day.

And at first- neither tae or Jimin go in to visit the company because like Jimin is suddenly busy with a photo shoot during the day but when they come home they’re both kind of curious because- what is that strange super sweet smell coating their humans necks? And why does it make both of their tails stand on end and goosebumps erupt on their forearms and tempt them to lick and bite wheerever you happen to have rubbed your sweet scent on that day. Like they might recognize jungkooks scent a little (kind of like oranges and cream- like a cream ice pop) but yours in just- intoxicating and might trigger a rut in both of them the verry first time they both smell it in hoseok and namjoon.

Both hoseok and namjoon put two and two togeather and reach the conclusion that your first irl meeting will probably be notable at least if their hybrids are already going crazy for just your scent- because seeing you irl is 100 times more sweet and they know that- Namjoon can’t resist giving you pets or scooping you up in a hug when he sees you by jungkooks desk, and hoseok is always stopping by for just a chirpy purr in delight from you, your head suddenly shooting up from jungkooks lap before you get up to greet hoseok on you tippy toes to rub a cheek against his neck. And he’ll just chuckle and run a hand though your hair while he asks Jungkook how the project is going, used to the way that cat hybrids both big and small greet people they like.

when Jimin and tae finally meet you it’s just after dinnner when the four of you come back to hoseok and Namjoon’s apartment a little tipsy Jimin and taehyung just pounce- literally on you. And the humans are kind of shocked and too drunk to handle it- and it’s not like Jungkook didn’t know that Jimin and taehyung didn’t exist like- he’s seen pictures and everything. But this, both of them cageing you in their tails swishing back and forth and both of them growling when you take a step back- your ears pinned back against your head- is exactly the opposite of what he’s expecting and all you have to do is whimper before Jungkook gets you out of there while hoseok snares both of their hybrids by the collar when they try to follow and namjoon apologizes profusely.

And of course, Jimin and taehyung are suddenly very interested in coming into work with Namjoon and hoseok, but they know enough to have Namjoon surpervise a lunch visit where you can all be formally introduced.

It progresses from careful sniffs to purrs as each of you get better reads on your scents as Namjoon and Jungkook enjoy an intimate lunch on the roof of the company, their hands brushing over the top of the table and both of them giggling as jimin moves his chair so he can sit closer to you and get one of your hands in both of his and Taehyung continues nuzzling his nose acros your neck until he gets to your ears and nibbles and both Jungkook and namjoon have enough sense to chide “be gentle tae” before they look at each other in suprise, blush, and giggle.

There are other moments where Namjoon mentions a vintage store and coffee shop that Jungkook is curious about, and takes you and Jungkook on a spontaneous not date- date where you and taehyung fall asleep in the window of the shop while Namjoon and jungkook sit closer than they should and Jungkook listens to Namjoon talk about his obscure interest in old fashion love letters his heart beating so rapidly as He recited his favorite at jungkooks urging and finds himself enraptured.

Later, Jungkook startled apart from him when hoseok stops by to meet them after a late board meeting. And you blush when hoseok stops to press a kiss to taehyungs forehead and then yours, Jimin cuddling up to your side before he even takes his jacket off to a suprised squeek as both the tiger and the panther start to lavish you in their scent (a process that they repeat on Jungkook when your two groups part later on)

And Jungkook dosent want to assume anything at first but then Namjoon and hoseok treat both you and Jungkook to like a spa day (because hoseok lowkey loves being pampered- and like he’s loaded because he owns the game development company that Jungkook works for as well as runs it) and he says “really just come with us, we have enough vouchers because Namjoon and I go like every week- it will be fun”

but like Jungkook has looked up the prices and they’re like- expensive af, but he lets Namjoon and hoseok take the two of you and Jungkook has to admit that it’s super lovely to see you all comefey and well cared for getting your nails done while another woman rubs a softening treatment into your ears. He watches Namjoon air next to you getting a facial, take a video of your purring for both of the larger cats that wait at home (who are both firmly against being wet for any prolonged period of time) but will enjoy the videos and squeal over their Mate being happy when he sends it to them.

“haha you know if you keep doing things like this for us you know where going to take it the wrong way right?” And jungkooks bashful and joking and looking down and he glances over, and all of a sudden hoseok is all infront of him and they’re both in like those robes you put on for the sauna and suddenly Jungkook realizes how undone hoseoks has gotten and hoseok has a hand on either side of jungkooks head and is leaning in close murmuring into jungkooks was

“what if we where trying to romance you? Trying to spoil you for as long as you let us,” hoseoks lips brush against jungkooks neck with his words and it feels almost as sensitive as it does every time you scent mark him but almost more...forbidden. “What would you say to that jungkookie? If we wanted to make both of you ours? Would you let us?” And Jungkook is bright red before hoseok pulls away and tells him to think it over.

Jungkook of course has to talk it over with you first but really, why wouldn’t you say yes?

adding a little bit to this! based off of an ask i got a few days ago, I got to thinking about like, Jimin and Tae and Hoseok and Joon bringing Jungkook and the reader to some fancy meet and greet for Jimin’s hybrid modeling line. Joon and hobi buy you a beautiful dress and a matching-ish tux for Jungkook and end up complementing both of you enough you tuck your face into Jungkooks shoulder and Jungkook just kinda- melts.

And some like fancy snow leopard hybrid who Jimin has modeled with before in the past drops a snide comment about the reader being too drab for him, like a housecat hybrid, with no pedigree and a mixed breed. a hybrid whose obviously not worthy of the two golden boys one of which is the highest paid hybrid model in the industry and both of which have immaculate pedigrees. The slur of “mutt” carries a heavyweight.

And Taehyung and Jimin just like- go a little feral and defensive, with a loud rippling growl and sudden gnashing of teeth, putting themselves in front of you before anyone has a chance to throw down some claws. The room goes still, and suddenly you crumple further under the weight of everyone's eyes, your tail wraps around your waist and you hide your face in Taehyungs wide shoulders.

The snow leopard hybrid’s owner is quick to step close and urge her to apologize to you, which you stutter and accept, much to the ire of Jimin’s and Taehyungs dark-eyed possessiveness. Before you know it you’re getting pulled to sit sideways in Taehyung’s lap his arms possessively wrapped around your waist, hand tightening on your hip and rubbing in a slow pull while jimin feeds you spoonfuls of creme Brule, both of them relaxing a little when you perk up a little, tail swishing, whining a little for more. you feel warm all over as Taehyung runs his hands up and over your arms and shoulders. especially since one hybrid feeding another hybrid is like- some sort of declaration that you will provide for them, one of those old fashion instinctual things that have long fallen out of fashion.

All the while, the humans get a little too drunk to be attentive to the drama that’s going on with their hybrids. Jungkook is all leaning into Namjoon’s shoulder and giggling while Hoseok’s hand tightens on his knee- and Jungkook will be all like- shocked because while the two men tend to be a little intense sometimes but they also make Jungkook laugh so much. There is never a moment that they’re not together where Jungkook isn’t smiling.

That night is probably like the first time he realizes just how happy Hoseok and Namjoon make him- but they’re not even like together yet. and it scares him really, how much he’s grown to depend on them- especially when maybe at the party Jungkook meets someone that used to be in his position- that both Namjoon and hoseok had dated before.

And maybe Jungkook starts to pull back- starts to worry about getting hurt like he has in the past, because Hoseok and Namjoon are together and they might not need Jungkook- there’s a nasty insecure voice inside of him planted there by people who didn’t treat Jungkook right that suspects he might just be a plaything for Hoseok and Namjoon- and it only takes a few days of Jungkook giving them wishy-washy responses and canceling on dinner once for Namjoon and hoseok to turn up in his apartment.

and when ask what’s wrong, plead with Jungkook to tell him what they did to set him off- what happened, he bursts into tears. and Jungkook feels like it might just be because he’s feeling like he’s coming down with a cold (has felt nauseous and headachey all day) or the fact that his computer crashed today at work and he lost a few days worth of coding. But all of a sudden it’s just too much and he holds out his arms for them.

and of course, Namjoon and hoseok spend the next few days taking care of Jungkook when he gets the flu, cooking him meals, and lying with him and stroking his back the few times he vomits. And it’s entirely unglamorous, Jungkook feels less than his best, and will no doubt look back on those days with no small amount of embarrassment. But they never stop looking at him with anything other than aching fondness and worry. And a few days later when you and Namjoon get sick as well, Jungkook and you go to stay at their apartment so that the hybrids and the humans can take care of both of you.

and maybe after that- you and Jungkook only go back to your apartment for one or two days a week- and move in with them.

(after a near death experience with this au i think i will turn it into something more lasting- maybe soon! idk! let me know what you think!

#namkookseok #vmin #vmin x reader #bts hybrid au #bts hybrid #bts fic

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les-belles-infideles · 3 years

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What happened with Kora @princesshamlet: A start at contextualizing the events of the past week

While I am writing this because Kora expressed that they would like it if someone would post something contextualizing what happened, I do not speak for them; my opinions and perspective are my own. I think the general response has been wildly disproportionate to their actual words and actions. Let me know if you have questions about anything or if my writing style is hard to read and I’ll do my best to clarify.

Tl;dr: Last fall, Kora, a new Supernatural fan, started rewriting Supernatural to be more racially diverse and to more overtly address social issues such as homophobia and misogyny. They continually asked for feedback, particularly from POC, and received overwhelmingly positive responses.

Earlier this week, Kora posted something that unintentionally played into ideas that harm trans men. They were horrified to have hurt people, immediately apologized and made an effort to learn more about the issues involved.

Yesterday, some of Kora’s friends cut them off, presumably over the abovementioned. Some people read Kora’s Supernatural rewrite and were offended by portrayals of various ethnicities; Kora tried to learn from these criticisms and apologize for them. People organized to spread bad-faith, extremely hostile claims and Kora left Tumblr.

Background:

- last fall, Kora started watching Supernatural, and posting about it, including making some popular reaction videos and an elaborate summary of the events of season 16 as of mid-November. They got really attached to Cas as a character and DeanCas as a ship.

- Kora made a post along the lines of “what if I drew Castiel as Indian?” and got encouraging responses, so they made a drawing. A lot of Desi people left comments saying that they really liked the drawing and that the representation was meaningful to them, so Kora started posting and reblogging a lot more about recasting Supernatural to be racially diverse.

- Kora accumulates a lot of ideas around how they wish Supernatural had been, and starts casually writing it up into a story. It didn’t even have a title for the first few chapters, but it quickly amassed a small, enthusiastic following.

- I started reading it at first mostly as a way of getting to know Kora, who was at the time a new friend irl (they didn’t mean to give me their Tumblr; I had followed them for Hamlet and Star Trek posts and then recognized them when they posted a selfie) but wound up getting pretty invested. I started watching Supernatural despite the fact that I can pretty much never commit to finishing a TV show.

- Kora’s general strategy was to post ideas on Tumblr and get input before including them in the fic, particularly regarding race and ethnicity. Plenty of people gave them feedback -- I remember one really long conversation where people swapped headcanons about what music a Mexican-American Dean Winchester would have liked growing up.

- iirc, they actively collaborated with multiple Latine fans of the fic on one chapter that foregrounded Mexican-American culture. These fans are credited in an author’s note.

- they received substantial encouragement from Supernatural fans of color for how they were writing the fic, and afaik no negative feedback.

- they also used the fic as a way to discuss and joke about their personal experiences with misogyny, repression, and homophobia, including writing Dean Winchester as undergoing a character arc involving working through and overcoming severe homophobia. When we called recently, they described going from homophobic to not homophobic as “the best character arc a man can have.”

- afaik they had beta readers or at least people to run ideas by for most chapters.

First incident:

- earlier this week, Kora posted a somewhat poorly-worded vent post about Dean Winchester’s misogyny in Supernatural canon.

- I think I reblogged it because I don’t have super high standards for my SPN blog and yeah, afaict Dean said some pretty gross things in canon? I’d seen a lot of people talk about it, particularly Asian women, it’s clearly a thing.

- several people expressed hurt at the post’s wording, which could be read as bigoted against trans men.

- Kora immediately apologized and started looking for ways to learn more about trans men’s issues (afaict, mostly asking friends and going through the trans dean tag)

- they messaged me about it (Tuesday 4/13/2021), and I took a closer look at the post and explained how in isolation it looked harmless, but some of the rhetoric fit into wider patterns of transandrophobia, i.e. part of the impetus for this post was Kora being surprised that some of their trans male friends project onto Dean, since he’s a pretty bad role model for gender -- I pointed out that one way trans men are marginalized within queer movements is by people perpetuating the idea that we’re more misogynistic than cis men (which makes no sense), and their post could be read as playing into that trope (that reading had occurred to me when I first saw the post, but I had initially dismissed it because Kora and I had been spending a lot of time talking about gender and I never felt that they distrusted me or saw me as a threat).

- they made another hasty apology post, quoting my message to them.

- I encouraged them not to worry too much about what strangers online thought about them, but they were very insistent that they had hurt people and needed to learn and make amends.

- I think what happened next was that the conversation sparked a larger discussion about transandrophobia in the Supernatural fandom? I’m not sure about this though, I was off Tumblr most of Tuesday and Wednesday. I saw a few well-written posts refuting the idea that it was misogynistic to headcanon Dean as trans. I did not see anyone claim it was misogynistic to headcanon Dean as trans, but again, I wasn’t looking.

The Discourse™:

- yesterday, Kora started getting a lot more and a lot meaner messages.

- a large part of their social circle cut them off all at once, saying they felt unsafe and that Kora was transphobic. Kora did not/was unable to receive further clarification, while actively seeking the chance to learn more and repair harm done.

- someone made a dedicated hate tag for them.

- a new group of people read their Supernatural rewrite, and were offended by their portrayals of race and their writing about homophobia, and additionally mocking their writing style. The tone was often extremely mean-spirited.

- Kora responded to and apologized for some of the concerns around their portrayal of race, and refuted some of the bad-faith readings of their depictions of homophobia.

- Kora made an effort to understand what they had done wrong but a lot of the posts weren’t very specific.

- some of the claims got fucking wild. A lot of them involved taking stuff out of context. I think w*ncest got brought up at one point???

- Kora wrote another apology and took a break from Tumblr, on the advice of another friend.

- I spent like a day gearing up to write this because I vastly underestimated the speed at which Tumblr discourse moves.

#i know this would be a stronger post if I linked to posts addressing the issues in question #but I kinda just need to post Something at this point #supernatural #spn #princesshamlet discourse #discourse cw #ask to tag #tooth speech #lore

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avaantares · 4 years

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FFVII:REMAKE - A Review

So I beat the game two weeks ago and started writing down my thoughts while they were fresh in my mind, but I didn’t post anything then because my one IRL friend who is also playing it hadn’t finished it yet and I didn’t want to risk posting anything spoiler-y. But the extra time has allowed me to play through the game again on Hard difficulty, which has allowed me to reconsider and elaborate on some of my thoughts. And frankly at this point I just need to dump my Very Big Opinions somewhere, so... here ya go.

I discuss visuals, gameplay, character and story below. I’ve tried to keep spoilers minimal up front, though obviously if you want to go into the game totally cold, don’t read this. All major spoilers are clearly tagged. All of it is below a cut to spare your dash.

Also, there are pretty pictures, because why not?

First, my background with this franchise: I played through the original FFVII multiple times; I’ve watched and rewatched Advent Children and Last Order, played Crisis Core, gave up on Dirge of Cerberus despite my deep love for Vincent Valentine (sorry, VV, but your game was just a mess), and lamented that Before Crisis wasn’t available in my country. I even played (and own!) Ehrgeiz, the obscure fighting game that featured the main cast. (Still bitter that they didn’t keep Miki Shinichirou as the voice of Sephiroth. He’s one of my faves.)

^ Ehrgeiz, a mediocre fighting game that forever endeared itself to me by including Turks!Vincent Valentine as a playable character. 💖

In short, I’ve been waiting for this game for DECADES.

So. Here we go. My thoughts on Final Fantasy VII: REMAKE.

The good:

The character models are very pretty. With individual pores, threads and scuffs visible, they’re so detailed that it’s almost impossible to reconcile them with the mouthless sprites from the original game – even more so than Advent Children (and dear goodness, that was over a decade ago now, wasn’t it?). Still, they’ve kept the costume details and absurd proportions largely intact (Barret’s fists are literally larger than Tifa’s entire head, yet somehow it works visually), so it’s not too much of a departure from the familiar.

They’ve kept the aesthetic. I was afraid the game would try to update the iconic world of Midgar, but by and large, it’s full of visually-arresting designs that preserve the gritty-industrial look and feel of the original.

Japanese version is included. BLESS YOU, Square Enix, for including the Japanese voices and character animations. Not only is it impossible for me to hear Cloud in anything other than Sakurai Takahiro’s voice, but the Japanese script is a bit nicer to the characters. I’m not really keen on the English dub… but more on that below.

They fixed the spelling of Aerith’s name. This may seem like a minor point, but considering it’s been 20 years and I’m still bitter that Devil May Cry still hasn’t corrected “Nelo Angelo,” it’s a small victory.

Improved combat. Admittedly, I wasn’t sold on the new combat system at first, but after playing through the game twice, I’ve come to really like it. It has a few rough edges and can get chaotic in some battles, but it does a decent job of blending the feel of an action game with turn-based strategy. The fact that you can switch to a more traditional turn-based system if you prefer is also nice. (I haven’t tried Classic mode yet, though.)

Weapon customization. The Skill Points system allows you to upgrade your loadout instead of acquiring new gear. The tutorial was somewhat lacking (I didn’t quite figure out the multiple-core-unlock thing right away), but I appreciated the ability to add materia slots or stat buffs rather than just cycling through a dozen swords that Cloud apparently keeps in his back pocket.

Background dialogue management. On the whole, the conversations as you run through town enhance the story without slogging down the gameplay; you don’t have to stop and talk to every single resident, because snatches of their conversation reach you (and your on-screen chatlog) as you pass. You can stop and listen for more detail if you want, or you can just keep moving. The extra worldbuilding is really nice.

The music. The orchestrated versions of the original themes are excellent (and some of those music cues gave me goosebumps… Did I spend way too many hours immersed in the original game? Probably). I can take or leave some of the collectible jukebox tunes, but the background music in general is good. (But did I earn that Disc Jockey trophy? Yes, yes I did.)

Supporting character development. Jessie, Biggs and Wedge actually have characters! And personalities! Clichéd ones, admittedly, but it’s an improvement over the original game killing them all off within the first few minutes. The game also does justice to the Turks, and actually surprised me with how much depth of character it gave Reno and Rude in particular (perhaps setting them up for a mini redemption arc so players forgive them for dropping a plate on tens of thousands of slum residents?). Their moments of concern for each other and (brief) crises of conscience made them more than the stock villains they were in the original game, more in line with their temporarily good-aligned characters in Advent Children. Tseng, likewise, was on point. However, I do have to qualify all this with one irate question: Where the heck is Elena?! Seems like the female characters are always getting left out… /sigh/

Improved plot devices. REMAKE cleans up some of the more questionable and outdated content from the original. As you likely already know from the demo, the new game somewhat exonerates the protagonists by having Shinra blow up their own mako reactor to turn public opinion against AVALANCHE (possibly because someone finally realized that it’s hard to sympathize with characters who are willing to melt down an entire reactor and kill a bunch of innocent civilians). AVALANCHE are still eco-terrorists, but they’re… terrorists with a conscience? I dunno, at least they feel bad when people die now… Likewise, the weird and uncomfortable Honey Bee Inn segment of the original game has been reborn as an amazing dance extravaganza. Less voyeurism/prostitution, more Vegas floor show (complete with minigame choreography) and makeover. The whole Don Corneo scenario is still hella creepy, but frankly, there’s nothing that can fix that.

Series references. Fans of the original will appreciate all the inside jokes and direct references to the original game and other franchise entries: One-off comments about Chocobo racing; a broken console in Wall Market that shoots at you; a framed picture of the original 32-bit Seventh Heaven; ads for Banora apple juice; side mentions of characters and plot devices from spinoff games; PHS communication… The game definitely pays tribute to its history. They even recreate the original loading screen and several of Cloud’s iconic poses/animations throughout the game:

The neutral:

Recycled gags. Look, I know Advent Children was the ultimate evolution of FFVII for a while, and admittedly, it did some things very well. The running gag with Rude’s sunglasses and the victory fanfare being used as a ringtone are some of the best moments in the film, in part because they were so unexpected. But as much as I enjoyed the repeated nods to AC in this game, they felt a little desperate, like there were no new jokes to insert so they had to double down on the ones they’d used the last time this franchise had a renaissance. (See Rude’s broken sunglasses, below.) And fitting into the series as a whole, it feels a little weird. Why is Rude’s ringtone the same as the clones’ from Advent Children? Does Barret really need to sing the victory fanfare over and over when he defeats an enemy? Is there supposed to be some history behind that song that was left out of the worldbuilding? It just feels too meta.

Arbitrary localization of names. I don’t really grasp why it was necessary to rename so many items and characters for the English market. Some changes make sense for localization (e.g. Whack-a-Box certainly works better for an American audience than Crash Box), but others seem arbitrary, like changing Aniyan Kunyan to Andrea Rhodea or Mugi to Oates (a play on the meaning of his name in Japanese, but... does it matter?). And then… well, I don’t want to spoil A Major Plot Element, but there’s another thing that changes names from one English word (in the Japanese track) to a different English word. Why? No idea. It doesn’t affect gameplay, and it’s not really a problem, but listening to the Japanese track, I found it jarring to have the subtitles contradict what I was hearing.

Underutilized characters. While the whole gamut of original FFVII characters make appearances, several of them aren’t used to full effect, or aren’t used at all to advance the story. Rufus Shinra’s bossfight is a decent challenge, but while his character was vital to both the original FFVII and Advent Children, his presence in this game is little more than a cameo. His fight could be cut or swapped out with any other boss, and it would have zero effect on the plot. Similarly, while Hojo is a key player in the full story (which this game doesn’t cover, since it’s only a fraction of the original timeline), he’s largely wasted here, except as a means of extending play time by making you wander through corridors and fight a bunch of monsters for “research.” (I have no idea what his motivation is; you’d think he’d be more interested in recapturing Aerith or Cloud, but instead he just... opens an elevator and lets them leave? after they beat up some midbosses.) Reeve Tuesti actually has a solid presence in this game, but since he’s ONLY ever active as himself, there’s no explanation for the random Cait Sith cameo in one scene (players new to the franchise probably have no idea why a random cartoon cat showed up for a few seconds and was never mentioned again). Obviously the plot arcs have to change when the game is covering only a few days’ time in a much longer story, and the major players need to be introduced at some point if they’re going to feature in later games in the series, but from a narrative standpoint, there are an awful lot of superfluous characters doing things for no reason in this installment.

The bad:

THE PADDING. Dear goodness, there is so much padding to make this a standalone game instead of just the first chapter of a longer adventure. I got really, really sick of running literally from one end of the map to the other on side quests – and that’s me, an avowed trophy hunter who spends hours scouring dark corners for collectible items in other games, saying that. So much of this game felt like time fill that didn’t really advance the story. It’s also full of unnecessary new characters with improbable Squeenix hair, like Roche the super-annoying motorcycle SOLDIER (below), or Leslie, Don Corneo’s doorman who somehow merits his own backstory and side quest. (Though in fairness, every FFVII sequel has added superfluous characters, with Crisis Core possibly being the worst offender.) But it just felt really drawn-out and bloated for a game of this generation. If this game had been as compact and tightly-written as the other games I typically play, it probably only would have taken me 15 hours to beat instead of 50. (I don’t actually know how many hours I spent on it the first time through, as I didn’t check the play clock before restarting on Hard difficulty. I do know it took me over 110 hours total to complete the game on both modes, though much of the second run was spent dying repeatedly on a handful of nasty fights. Hard mode removes items and MP replenishment, and if you run out of MP at any point during a chapter, you’re going to die. A lot.)

The pacing. Related to the above... the Midgar portion of the original game was just the setup for a larger story. It wasn’t meant to have its own complete dramatic arc so much as to introduce you to the world and the major players. Consequently, there are some really odd beats in this story, as well as a total lack of urgency in your mission. There are no natural places to slot in the side quests and minigames, so they’re shoehorned awkwardly between plot sequences. “Quick, our friend is in mortal peril and needs our help!” "Okay, cool, we’ll go rescue her after we spend ten hours running around town doing random errands for townspeople and playing games with the local kids.” Uh... what?

The graphics just aren’t as good as they should be. While the character models are gorgeous, there are a lot of low-res background textures and weird polygons that don’t quite match up with other components. Most egregious are the Shinra logos, which frequently get close-ups as part of the fixed camera work and, frankly, look like lossy JPEGs. (See image below, screencapped from a PS4 Pro. Those jagged edges on the logo are present throughout the entire game.) There are weird clipping errors and artifacted images and reflective surfaces that don’t reflect, making the game look more like something from the PS3 era than a 4K late-gen PS4 game. (And it’s not that we don’t have the technology: Uncharted 4 was released back in 2016, and the rendering of its vast world was twice as pretty. Devil May Cry 5, released in early 2019, has far more realistic textures and object interaction. Granted, those are different types of games with fewer NPCs to render, but I feel like there’s no excuse for a game this big to look this mediocre.)

The HUD could be better. The lower-corners concept is okay, though it took me a while to train my eyes to travel between both sides of the screen and track the fight action. But for a long time, I didn’t even notice the commands in the upper left corner of the screen, and after playing through the game twice I still have no idea what they say because I couldn’t focus on the tiny text long enough to read them while trying not to die in combat. (I just looked it up; apparently they’re combat control shortcuts? Huh, that would have been useful to know.) It wasn’t until my second time through that I realized there even WERE separate controls on screen during the motorcycle minigames; I had resorted to panicked button mashing to figure it out the first time through because there was no tutorial (you’re just dropped into the action) and, having ignored the small text for the previous hundred combats, I had no reason to look for on-screen instructions there. Not that it would have helped, since on many backgrounds the text in the upper left is really difficult to read (see below). It’s worth noting that I have better than 20/20 vision and played this game on a large TV screen and still had trouble reading some things; on a smaller TV, or for someone with less acute vision (like my sister, who is blind in one eye), I think even the basic menu controls would be difficult to see. While you can resize the font for subtitles, my cursory glance through the menu did not uncover an option to increase the size of the HUD.

Inter-fight menu mechanics. Specifically, the inability to save (or save loadout settings) between fights in a multi-part sequence. There are several back-to-back fights in which it is necessary to switch characters or change gear between bosses. The game treats them as one continuous fight, though it does allows you to access the equipment menu by holding square during key cutscenes. Which is good, if you only have one of a particular materia or accessory that you need to switch between characters, and in most cases when you die the game lets you restart just before your current fight instead of restarting the whole sequence -- also good, since some multi-stage bosses can easily take 20-30 minutes to beat, and if several of those are strung together in sequence, you’re in for a long play session to get past them. But since it’s treated as one fight, you can’t save between bosses (more than once, I had to leave my PS4 running in Rest Mode overnight and just hoped we didn’t have a power glitch), and if you happen to get killed and need to restart the fight, your loadouts reset. Which means if you’re, say, fighting the end boss on Hard difficulty and get killed in the first two minutes -- which happened to me a lot -- by the time you restart the fight, sit through the unskippable cutscene, access the menu and rearrange all the materia and accessories you need, you’re spending five or six minutes gearing up for two minutes of play, and then doing that over and over again every time you die. It gets really old.

The English dub script. *deep breath* Okay, look, I know I can be a bit elitist about translations, but I really do not like the English adaptation of this game. It makes Cloud come across as less socially-awkward and far more of a deliberate jerk, Aerith is mouthy and even swears (which is not accurate to her original character), and it downplays some of the symbolism that’s more obvious in the Japanese script. One quick example: When Aerith gives Cloud a flower, she says (in Japanese), “In the language of flowers, this means ‘reunion.’” It’s subbed/dubbed in English, “Lovers used to give these when they were reunited.” That’s a subtle difference, but since the concept of “reunion” is a freakin’ huge part of the FFVII plot, and since Sephiroth was on screen literally seconds before that line is delivered, my brain automatically went, “OMG REUNION!!!” while I’m guessing people listening in English only picked up on the romantic subtext. It’s a pretty minor thing, and of course translation is always a complex balancing act between literal meaning and local market understanding, but the English version just seemed to me to have a different vibe overall. (Unfortunately, the English subtitles are the same as the dub, so unless you can understand the Japanese audio you’re kind of stuck with that dialogue.)

[WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT]

- …And my #1 complaint about Final Fantasy VII: REMAKE is…

…it’s not actually a remake.

Sure, the game starts out the same way and covers a lot of the same events, but fundamentally, it’s a sequel, not a retelling. It’s evident from Cloud’s future-oriented visions throughout the game that something else is going on, and the ending MAKES NO SENSE if you don’t already know the story. Heck, even the rest of the game doesn’t really make sense if you don’t know the story -- Sephiroth’s presence is never explained; Zack isn’t even introduced, just shows up randomly at the end; Cloud’s flashbacks of Tifa and her dead father in Nibelheim are left as a complete mystery (and since she evidently remembers the burning of her town, judging by her dialogue outside Aerith’s house, why doesn’t she even react when Sephiroth shows up?).

The core elements of the plot – the Feelers (Whispers) preserving a specific fate; the three entities from the future (whose weapon types just happen to correspond to certain named characters) defending their timeline; the return of post-Advent Children Sephiroth (the only time we’ve seen him in human form with one black wing), who has inhabited the Lifestream since his death and promised that he would never truly disappear, who in the end appeals to Cloud directly for an alliance rather than attempting to control him, because he knows now that Cloud is strong enough to defy the Reunion instinct; the change in the outcome of story events in which Biggs (and, unconfirmed as to which timeline he’s actually in, but quite possibly Zack) now survives his intended death -- all point toward Sephiroth trying to manipulate destiny into an alternate outcome in which he is victorious, and using this naive version of Cloud to facilitate it. That means this game is taking place in an alternate or splinter universe, created at some point after the events of the original Final Fantasy VII, and possibly even after the events of Advent Children.

All of that is fine from an overall continuing-story perspective – it opens up a lot of interesting possibilities, like the fact that Aerith might survive now that Cloud has seen prescient flashes of her death (among other events), and there are opportunities for more story twists and changes from what players might expect. But touting this as a remake of the original game has the potential to confuse players who are new to the franchise. FFVII was groundbreaking back in 1997, and it defined JRPGs for an entire generation of Western gamers. But that was more than two decades ago, and a lot of current gamers weren’t even born then, so while they’ve probably heard of the classic game, they aren’t necessarily steeped in its lore. FFVII:R relies heavily on prior knowledge of the series to carry its twist ending, so it largely fails as a standalone game.

Also, speaking as a longtime fan of the franchise… I honestly found the ending rather lackluster. It was a twist, of sorts, but not the sort of shocking, mind-bending revelation that made the first game so iconic. Granted, it’s hard to follow an act like revealing that your protagonist’s entire identity is a lie, not to mention killing off one of your main characters a third of the way into the story! But when the surprise ending is just, Surprise! We’re going to change things up a bit this time around so you aren’t entirely sure what’s coming! Also, here’s a gratuitous Sephiroth fight because everyone expects that, even though it doesn’t serve the main story at all nor resolve any conflicts previously established within this game! it smacks of Different for the sake of Being Different, not for the sake of a really amazing storyline they’re hiding up their sleeve. It’s a bit of a let-down, and I find that I... just... don’t really care that much. Which, for someone who’s been a fan of the series for nearly a quarter of a century, means there’s a Big Freaking Problem somewhere. If you’re not keeping the attention of your die-hard fans, how do you hope to build a fanbase of players new to the franchise?

Given the pacing and story issues inherent in this game, I’m not convinced that the following game(s) in the franchise are going to be structured any better. Considering the amount of pure side-quest padding they did in Midgar, I have no idea how they’ll maintain that same tone on something the scale of the World Map portion of the original game, unless they just completely eliminate things like Fort Condor and the submarine and the spaceship side quests. I have a feeling the Gold Saucer is going to be reduced to a Jessie flashback, a Chocobo race (probably to win a key item), and a battle arena run like the coliseum in Wall Market in this game. If they include all the story elements and side characters from the original, this series is going to be a dozen games long.

Still, on the whole this game was enjoyable, and I’m glad I played it. It wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, but they haven’t completely killed off my interest, so I’ll probably continue with the series whenever the next game comes out. Though I’m not really sure if the higher-priced edition I pre-ordered was worth the extra money, so I may wait and see how the next game is shaping up before deciding which version to get...

But if they don’t give me a really pretty (playable) Vincent Valentine in the next installment, I may riot. I do have priorities.

#final fantasy vii #final fantasy vii: remake #ff7:r #final fantasy 7: remake #ff7 remake #video games #long post #review

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perfectirishgifts · 3 years

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High Price, Limited Performance Of European Electric Cars Might Boost China Minis

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/high-price-limited-performance-of-european-electric-cars-might-boost-china-minis/

High Price, Limited Performance Of European Electric Cars Might Boost China Minis

Wuling Hong Guang Mini EV

The high price of so-called “affordable” electric vehicles in Europe and their often pitiful highway cruising performance might make some hard-up buyers grit their teeth, admit the unthinkable and opt for a mini battery-powered vehicle because the alternative is a scooter, a bike, or even worse, the tube or bus.

And the possibility of a cheap but limited little electric car might well lead to dancing in the streets in Europe’s poorest countries, which have so far been left out of the electric revolution.

The cheapest electric vehicles like the Renault Zoe, and upcoming offerings like the Fiat 500E and perhaps the expected Volkswagen ID.2, start at around €20,000 ($24,300 after tax). That’s about twice the price of an entry-level gasoline-powered car, which might not even be available by 2030. EU CO2 rules, and even outright bans, threaten cheap traditional cars. Small electric cars and SUVs like the Vauxhall/Opel Corsa and the MG ZS EV cost from around €30,000 ($36,500). These vehicles all come with impressive claims for range, which suddenly dissolve when the vehicle is asked to undertake a highway journey at normal cruising speeds.

The speed limit across Europe is mainly 130 km/h, about 80 mph, and this is the accepted legal cruising mode on many highways, except of course in Germany where there are still long sections with no speed limit. You will see every type of sedan and SUV, from the cheapest to most expensive cruising at around 80. But the impact on available mileage at these speeds on battery electric vehicles (BEV) is catastrophic. Often you will lose miles at twice the rate or more of the actual miles being travelled.

So these “affordable” cars aren’t the equivalent of regular gasoline or diesel powered cars. They are fantastic city cars, but very expensive considering their limited ability. Suddenly a small car like the Wuling Hong Guang Mini EV from China makes lots of sense. It can reach about 60 mph, probably downhill with a following wind, but quite adequate in town and country driving. Base models have a range of about 70 miles. You can make an average daily commute, said to be about 24 miles in Europe, do the shopping and take the children to school. If you’re not convinced yet, try this. The base price is $4,400. That number will be enough for many Europeans with average earnings to swallow their pride. And there won’t be much of that because the little Hong Guang Mini EV looks cute and believable.

Hong Guang Mini EV

That’s the price now in China and it’s likely to be a bit more expensive if it came to Europe, but will still probably be popular in eastern Europe.

Groupe PSA of France’s Citroen is about to launch its cheap and cute little Ami, electric city car, although this in its initial form is too slow (28 mph), has only 2 seats, a range of 43 miles, and costs €6,000 ($7,300).

The idea that small is the answer isn’t exciting some European analysts.

“We don’t see a switch by European carmakers into making these little electric cars happening,” said Viktor Irle, Stockholm, Sweden-based analyst with consultancy EV-volumes.

Irle said small cars like this won’t be profitable.

That’s probably true of traditional European manufacturers, but likely not Chinese ones.

“The Citroen Ami will not be a big seller. Europeans want a car – not two – that gives them flexibility. If you have a small car, unable to go on highways, the use is very limited. Big cities like Paris, Berlin and Rome could see some sales of these. Generally, car buyers move up in segments. So Ami is likely going to replace scooters and mopeds and motorcycles in our analysis,” Irle said.

But this assumes that “affordable” electric cars can match gasoline or diesel cars on the highway, and that isn’t the case in my experience. It remains to be seen if the latest electric cars, like the Volkswagen ID.3, perform adequately at motorway cruising speeds.

IHS Markit auto analyst Ian Fletcher doesn’t see a shift downmarket either.

“Volumes of traditional (city car) segment vehicles have been retreating anyway. (Manufacturers) have been pulling out or reducing their exposure to this category and we see this continuing. This is partly related to the difficulty making the financials stack up compared to something larger, and recently this has not been helped by meeting new regulations in the (EU) region, particularly those for (CO2) emissions. Customers are also less interested buying something of this size as well,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher said IHS Markit predicts city cars will make up just over 1% of the European market in 2025, and just under 2% by 2030.

Fletcher reckons price won’t be a factor because leasing plans make new cars more affordable. Sales growth will come from electrifying small and medium sized family cars.

Citroen Ami is a quadricycle and can be driven without a license in France from the age of 14. … [] (Photo by Abdulmonam Eassa/Getty Images)

“We see far greater BEV volume growth in (VW Polo and VW Golf equivalent) segments, which are the biggest by volume currently anyway. By 2025, B segment BEVs will be around 6.5% of the entire market and 9.5% by 2030, while C segment BEVs will be around 7% and 12.5%, respectively. Obviously, there is an argument with regards to the purchase cost, but I think fewer and fewer people are looking at that now. It is more about the affordability on a monthly basis through a leasing plan or similar,” Fletcher said.

But the Hong Guang Mini EV has a been a remarkable success so far in China, which of course won’t necessarily translate to Europe.

“This new battery electric vehicle has taken the (Chinese) market by storm, breaking all sales expectations since its launch,” said LMC Automotive analyst Alan Kang.

The Hong Guang Mini EV, is a two-door micro electric vehicle launched by a joint venture between General Motors GM and SAIC.

“The diminutive model’s eye-catching design gives it a deceptively expensive look, something that has undoubtedly contributed to its surprisingly robust performance. In September, only its 4th month on the market, the Hong Guang Mini EV racked up sales in excess of 20,000, propelling it to the top of China’s electric vehicle market,” Kang said.

“A range choice of between (70 and 100 miles) is more than adequate for the needs of its target audience. And less powerful battery translates to a lower sticker price,” Kang said.

In a recent interview, David Bailey, Professor of Business Economics at the Birmingham Business School, said he believes a serious threat from China is likely in this segment and Europeans must gear up to meet it.

How Mini cars used to be. BMW Isetta. Photo: Sina Schuldt/dpa (Photo by Sina Schuldt/picture … [] alliance via Getty Images)

“European manufacturers certainly need to embrace this niche or face being wiped out in this segment by super low-cost Chinese brands when the latter can meet European crash safety standards,” Bailey said.

LMC Automotive’s Kang agrees.

“I am not sure whether Hong Guang Mini EV will go to the Europe market now, for I don’t know whether the model can meet the regulations and standards of Europe market. But I agree with you that such little mini EVs with cheap prices but good design might also be welcome in the European market, if they can meet the regulations and keep same low price at the same time. It would be just a commuting tool, that does everything you need to commute, shop and take the kids to school, as you said,” according to Kang.

Germans and relatively well-off western Europeans might be tempted to scoff at these limited little electric vehicles, but in the east they may well be seen as a godsend. According to a survey by the European Automobile Manufacturers association, known by its French acronym ACEA, in the world of electric car ownership there is a deep divide between the haves and have-nots. ACEA said in 2019, 3% of new cars sold across the EU were electrically-chargeable, but the comparison between rich and poor, east and west was stark. The poorest GDP per head country was Estonia at €21,160 ($25,652) had an electrically-chargeable car market share of 0.3%. The richest, Germany (€41,510-$50,332) had a 3.0% market share.

1. Estonia – 0.3% (GDP of €21,160)

2. Lithuania – 0.4% (GDP of €17,340)

3. Slovakia – 0.4% (GDP of €17,270)

4. Greece – 0.4% (GDP of €17,500)

5. Poland – 0.5% (GDP of €13,780)

1. Germany – 3.0% (GDP of €41,510)

2. United Kingdom – 3.1% (GDP of €37,780)

3. France – 2.8% (GDP of €35,960)

4. Italy – 0.9% (GDP of €29,610)

5. Spain – 1.4% ECVs (GDP of €26,440)

(Source-ACEA)

No doubt Chinese manufacturers have already figured this out and will be cranking up sales campaigns in Tallinn, Vilnius, Bratislava, Athens and Warsaw.

From Transportation in Perfectirishgifts

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sparxwrites · 7 years

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@lyinginbedmon replied to your post “…well, that turned into a clusterfuck of a post, all from a throwaway…”

I’m presume I’m the exception and not the rule in this context?

oh Boy, i was wondering when you were going to pop up… :p for those from my new fandom - lying’s a canon creator from a previous fandom that i’ve ended up friends with (for full disclosure: i started writing sometimes-explicit fanfic involving his character, discovered he knew when it was mentioned in a video in passing, and then realised he was regularly reading my blog via a friend, a stat tracker, and remarkable coincidence), hence why he’s asking this question.

i don’t think you’re an exception to the rule, necessarily, but i think you’re an exceptional case, largely because of a three reasons: 1) you have a small fandom, so most of your fans are very able to have a more personal relationship with you than normal, 2) most of your fans are aware of the kind of fic i write, and of the fact you’re friends with me despite also being aware of this, which i suspect provides some reassurance, and 3) a large number of your fans are Unbelievably bold and have an utter lack of shame or fear, which is… quite remarkable, really.

i think if you had a larger fandom, there would be more pronounced issues. speaking honestly, there have already been some issues - interpersonal conflicts and the like surrounding the discord server, fandom wank you’ve gotten more caught up in than most canon creators would be, some of your fans making unreasonable emotional demands on you, etc. - from your closeness, though i’d say in your case they’ve affected you more than some of the fans, perhaps.

i’d also be lying if i said that awareness that you were watching hadn’t changed the way i behaved in your fandom environment. whether it’s censored me or not, i’m not entirely sure (i’m aware that, since i’ve carried on writing porn of your characters, i don’t appear censored, but there have definitely been things i’ve hesitated to post, or haven’t posted, because they’ve seemed to be potentially close to the line emotionally rather than explicitly. whilst i know you’re okay with my weird nsfw fic, that doesn’t mean i don’t worry about upsetting or offending you, or sometimes about drawing too much of irl you rather than character you into the fic), but it’s definitely altered my behaviour.

also, regarding the fear and anxiety aspect: when you initially followed me and began to interact with me, though, i was pants-shittingly terrified. i literally cannot overstate that how terrified i was. i had a panic attack after publishing an early nsfw fic involving your character and realising you (and potentially dave) were going to see it. i also very nearly deleted my blog several times during the period where you and dave started interacting with me. and that was with sam and fuzz, who already knew you / both of you, to reassure me that you were decent people and weren’t about to send a mob after me for my metaphorical head on a metaphorical pike. despite all obvious signs and reassurances - and despite the fact that, weirdly, despite the anxiety i almost wanted the interaction to continue? because attention and approval, especially from people who create stuff you like or people you look up to, is an alarmingly strong drug - i was still scared of you.

none of the above is your direct fault, and obviously my issues were entirely my issues, but they’re Issues nonetheless. i think… regardless of how hard they try to integrate, canon creators are Apart and Above fans. they can’t be part of their own fandom in the way that fans are - how insufferably arrogant they’d be if they were! - and they have a natural, inescapable power over the fans in the sense that their fans are inevitably going to look up to them and idolise them / put them on a pedestal. it makes things a little sticky for creators in the sense that they’re stuck as almost a god-figure, but also that their fans want to be friends with the Real Them - and, of course, either the creator keeps up the god-figure persona, stays on their pedestal, and disappoints the fans who feel held at arm’s length; or they drop the god-figure persona, get off (or fall off) the pedestal, and disappoint the fans who feel angry and betrayed and upset that their idol is actually fallibile and human (and has opinions the fan disagrees with / is boring / is bigoted / isn’t funny when they’re not performing / isn’t a role model or desirable when they’re not pretended to be a god-figure). damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

in a way, i guess, keeping a line in the sand isn’t just for the emotional safety and comfort of fans - it’s for the emotional safety and comfort of the creators, too.

so this doesn’t sound like it’s all me being doom and gloom: now i know you personally, i’m very chill around you tbh. i value you a lot as a friend and as an interesting person to talk to. and, ngl, it’s lovely sometimes having a canon creator in my corner when people try to start shit with me. and - as an added bonus - as far as i’m aware, you’ve never stolen fanart from your fans without permission, or asked for free fanart. (okay, so you did get a few people to help with some of the specials, but tbh i feel like we extracted payment by way of endless dick jokes, inappropriate chicken spawning, and general incompetence - plus, we were all your friends at that point, which makes it a different dynamic altogether from acquaintance-fans, and you’d helped some of us with your on youtube videos. i think it all sort of evens out there.) all in all, you’re a nice guy irl, as well as a nice guy in the videos, although not quite the same person in both contexts.

if this all comes across as me having a go at you, then i want to reassure you it’s absolutely not. it’s not even really, i suppose, about you, again other than in the most surface way possible. it’s just an attempt to point out that even the Nicest and Calmest of canon creators aren’t necessarily free of complicating the fandom environment when they step into it.

#reply #this is not fic #meta #sparx chats #i would... i'm not entirely sure if i'd have Advice for you #but i think Especially when it's affecting your emotional state or putting undue burden on you #you could do with taking a step back from things sometimes #but it's Hard because your fandom and therefore your job and income is set up to /rely/ on that emotional closeness #sooooooo... yeah. definitely even fewer easier answers here #mostly: look after yourself. be sensitive to your fans and how your presence affects them. carry on being Very Public about your Chill #idk dude i'm not a sociologist or a psychologist i'm just. spitballing i guess

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spamzineglasgow · 4 years

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(FEATURE) On The First Five Years of Dostoyevsky Wannabe

As storms of various average names raged across the UK, SPAM stayed fashionably online and caught up with our DIY indie publishing comrades Dostoyevsky Wannabe over gmail. The Manchester-based press have been going an impressive five years now, and with the absolute power couple that is Richard Brammer and Vikki Brown at the helm, you’ll find all the off-kilter zeal of Stereolab combined with the stylish swoon of The Carpenters (fyi the two band t-shirts Rich and Vikki wore when we first met IRL) in their impressive back-catalogue of books (fiction, poetry and beyond), anthologies, collections and other materials. In this piece, Dostoyevsky Wannabe unpack the origin story of the press, the dazzling success of Isabel Waidner, the impetus behind THOSE covetable designs and, most importantly their love of GLASGOW – not to mention some very exciting publishing announcements…

On ‘phase 1’ of Dostoyevsky Wannabe

> ‘Phase 1’ is how we’ve started to refer to the first five years of doing this thing. It’s anyone’s guess why we’ve started calling it that because it’s not like the first five years was a tremendously well-defined plan written by some nameless council or corporate body. Overall there definitely wasn’t that much of a plan at the beginning and it’s possible to say that the whole thing is perhaps really just a design and publishing experiment that got out of hand. We think perhaps Phase 2 was the name of the repository of code that held our second website redesign or something, so perhaps that was the reason, like Autechre songs named after whatever they named their MIDI files. We’re arguably in phase 3 now. We wonder what that will be like.

> At the beginning we just wanted to make objects and to probably do something that was like some kind of 1980-1990s indie record label or some other such vague aim. We were writing a bit ourselves, so we thought we’d make books and put them out somehow as long as we could find a zero-budget way of doing it. A small press did seem a bit like an indie record label somehow (one of us is doing research on this at the minute and there are a few interesting similarities actually). Actually, we were reading an old article in an old copy of The Face today about Heavenly Records and it sort of reminded us how much we had sort of unconsciously been influenced by their approach. Anyway, the identity and the covers came before the content of the books and that was partly because when you start a press nobody necessarily wants to publish with you much because they don’t know whether it’s worth it. The idea for the Cassette anthologies and the fact that we were a little bit connected to indie literature in the US (via the internet) helped because a few writers who were more or less well-known over there submitted to the first one and Sam Riviere, who was doing quite well with his 81 Austerities book in the UK, also agreed to be in one of the early Cassette books. At the time we didn’t think much about editorial and just wanted to make books that looked good together and we were massively naïve about lots of things but that’s ok, we don’t mind a bit of naivety. Since that time, we’ve learnt plenty about publishing but also a lot about other things too.

> A few years ago, we would mostly refer to ourselves by saying two things 1) that we weren’t ‘proper’ publishers and 2) that we didn’t know what we were doing, and, at various times, that’s definitely been true. We do sort of increasingly know what we’re doing these days, so any dumb pose is perhaps wearing a bit thin (although we’re totally capable of completely getting things very wrong too). In terms of not being ‘proper’ publishers, that’ll probably always be true in some sense because most publishers are not designers who also publish and are usually purely publishers and they don’t usually change their publishing models all over the place like we do, at least not on purpose. It’s kind of small press publishing business suicide really to do that. That said, some books that we’ve published have been shortlisted for major prizes so we must be doing something right, at least some of the time.

On Isabel Waidner

> We’re more than happy to talk up Isabel because they are brilliant. Someone recently asked how we’d found their writing like it was a great mystery how we’d done it but it was quite simple from our end really. For a long time, we had rolling open submissions and Isabel sent Gaudy Bauble to us when, as far as we understand, it had been not picked up by a few other presses and we accepted it after reading just a few pages. It had that energy which is ALL Isabel’s and that came fully formed from the off. It’s an energy and a style which has somehow evolved and gotten even better with We Are Made Of Diamond Stuff (even as it was pretty much fully formed with Gaudy Bauble). It’s just brilliantly exciting writing and we have to say we’re not just the publisher of their first two books, but we’re fans and we’re as excited to read what Isabel does next as many readers who’ve picked up on their work will be.

> We have a lot of affinity with Isabel, we’re a similar age, have broadly similar previous experiences in DIY/indie/whatever you want to call it circles and Isabel has become a really good friend. They are definitely willing to experiment both in a literary sense and in the sense of being VERY energetic in promoting their books. They don’t finish the book and then walk away waiting for the publisher to go to town doing everything for it whilst they sit back (this is just as well given our policy on such things). Isabel has been smart enough to do more to promote their books with us than we have although, in truth, we’ve made a good team and the two books (three including their anthology Liberating the Canon) have sold ridiculously well by any independent book sales standards and they don’t really stop selling either somehow. Isabel will basically always have a place with Dostoyevsky Wannabe but we have been gently suggesting to them, perhaps since Gaudy Bauble, that they go to a press who can afford them better distribution than the limitations of our print on demand setup because we want their writing to get to as wide an audience as possible and there are other larger publishing presses (small press and otherwise) who could do that.

> We have long had this kind of residual guilt perhaps that we are never quite good enough in that way (don’t worry about that though as we’re probably overly confident in other ways). This arose from the self-declared idea that we’re not ‘proper’ publishers, at least not in the way that every writer who we work with can easily gain a large readership, which is something that rarely happens across the board with every author anyway, for any press. Some of it is just typical working-class insecurity because money obviously helps when being a small press and we haven’t really got much which is why it’s often quite a middle-class thing. It’s not just all a case us being kind of chronically unambitious though and, in fact, we’ve realised it is just us being realistic according to what we want Dostoyevsky Wannabe to be because we are committed to being designers AND publishers and we haven’t got and we’re not planning to develop the resources to promote books as the only thing that we do. The design side is a huge interest for us and maybe this can cause us a bit of anxiety because we know we can’t promote writers in the kind of manner that publishing more generally might be able to do. For writers who aren’t that independently minded and who want to defer a lot to the press, people who need the press to push their book way more than they do, are not really that good a fit for us or us to them. It’s not like we won’t help. If they tag us, we’ll always retweet but there is a limit to what we can do. It’s always hard because we want EVERY book that we work on to do really well and find lots of readers and happily a good proportion do and we work hard for those books but, on the other hand, if a writer is so independent that they sort of reduce us to the status of pushing buttons and they want to take lots of control over everything then that doesn’t work either because we’re sort of reduced to being their unpaid employees so it’s a difficult balance to get right. We hope that admission doesn’t put writers off though (it doesn’t seem from the massive numbers of submissions we get) because with every new author who we work with we’re experimenting with all of this as a process. It’s not like all writers are the same either, there are many scales of writerly ambition and Isabel’s success whilst working with us proves that things are possible even with a set-up such as ours. We’ve been hugely lucky to work with so many different and interesting writers and we look forward to more of the same in the future.

> Oh, and by the way we totally, and obviously, think that We Are Diamond Stuff should win the Republic of Consciousness Prize this year but then we would wouldn’t we. The book world certainly has plenty going for it beyond prizes but the ROFC was the first prize that Isabel was nominated for and it does a lot of great work for small presses. We’re honoured to be in the running for it, as ever. So keep your fingers crossed for us!

On Publishing and Design

> It’s probably practical for us to separate design and publishing when we’re talking about it to people, just for the sake of clarity but in our minds, and in our plans, they’re one and the same because we do view our deliberate experimentation with different publishing models as a form of design in itself and we view publishing as a creative act in its own right. Maybe we’re designer-publishers or something and that’s not that weird historically and there is some precedent for it inasmuch as, before the whole middle-class industry of publishing grew into its broadest conventional modern form, printers were often the publishers and so what constituted publishing would have been quite different from that angle in a similar way that it is from our design angle. It’s common for small press publishers to maybe not overly think about design and typesetting so much on a personal level because they maybe outsource it and focus mostly on editorial.

> Something which was clear to us from the beginning, and it’s something that we’re still really into, was a lot of 20th century album and book cover design, particularly the more repetitive, quite heavily circumscribed styles based on things done in between the lines of a grid. We always really liked the anonymity of design which was sort of commercial work done quickly and loads of it rushed out at some tremendously productive pace complete with little mistakes but mistakes that had some charm about them. It was a weird decision for us to decide to ape the style of Penguin and Pelican books because they are so well known and there are lots of designers who practice by designing a Penguin type cover in some way but we were comfortable with our decision because we decided to not copy the covers but instead to use the Marber grid that was created by Romek Marber and which underpinned many (not all) of Penguin and Pelican books from the mid-century period onwards. We started to use the grid to make designs instead of exactly copying the Penguin designs and we continue to use it, sometimes breaking it and sometimes adhering to it a bit more. We’re currently updating the bottom part of it for ourselves to make it into a more compound grid actually, but you’d have to be a design geek to want to know about that.

> It’s interesting that people might look at those Penguin/Pelican books and assume that there was some huge Penguin factory or huge corporate concern where words went in at one end and some machine, tended by a group of designers in white coats, spat out books at the other end but it was actually more interesting than that from what we can tell. For instance, it was odd to find that Romek Marber worked from his home throughout his career, almost like a freelancer and in more DIY circumstances than you might imagine. Having arrived in the UK in 1946 after only just escaping death in the concentration camps, he came to England hardly able to speak English and got a job sweeping floors in a London clothing factory where he became friendly with a Belgian dress designer who found that Marber was interested in art and encouraged him to take evening classes. As a refugee at the time, he wasn’t allowed to apply to join St Martin’s College to study painting but he was allowed to do a more vocational course so that’s how ended up as a commercial designer. He lived in a shared London house for a good while and we read somewhere that he had to wait until people went out on a Saturday night so he could develop photos in the kitchen sink and it was this work that went on to become the Penguin covers. I think we were really taken with the idea that he was a bit DIY in this because whilst we’re obviously not in anything like the same boat as he was we have always been quite DIY at root ourselves. We were (still are, largely) penniless and we have to keep our overheads low by only using different forms of print on demand, but we have always essentially been kind of indie DIY at root because having no money often leads a person down that path. The thing is we didn’t just want to be all about photocopying and paste up aesthetically, even as we like that cut and paste aesthetic just fine, so even though we have little control over the types of paper or the actual printing of our books, there’s still a lot of control that we can have as designers to get quite a good looking book in a way that doesn’t bankrupt us.

> Of course, we were also quite influenced by the obvious examples of indie label designers from Manchester like Peter Saville and that kind of overly-audacious post-punk approach to design that was often partly doomed to commercial failure but which was just going to go ahead and do it anyway but we have to be careful about getting into that because if you mention the Hacienda too many times in a row some huge corporation puts up another luxury living skyscraper in Manchester and we’ve perhaps got enough of them already.

On Future Things

> We are experimenting with the idea of branching out into non-fiction books alongside fiction and poetry (we’re open for non-fiction books mostly on music and design and technology so if anyone has ideas for these then please check our site and send a proposal). The fiction and poetry side will perhaps slow down as a result, but that doesn’t mean that we are not more committed than ever to helping get work out by fiction and poetry writers whose books we like.

> As far as titles are concerned, first up in 2020, we’ve published an anthology in collaboration with Partisan Hotel, also we’ve had Lee Rourke’s Vantablack, SJ Fowler’s I will show you the life of the mind (on prescription drugs), Nadia de Vries’s Dostoyevsky Wannabe Cities Amsterdam anthology and we will be publishing Marcus Slease’s Never Mind The Beasts. Also we’ve got Maria Sledmere and Rhian Williams’ book of Anthropocene work (poetry and essays) and 3:AM’s Andrew Gallix is publishing his collected reviews and journalism with us. There’s plenty more in the pipeline too just not as many as previous years. On the subject of Cities anthologies, these are all totally an open source effort for the editors, for us, for everyone involved, and all for no money because we sell them at virtually cost price so it’s the case that some happen and some don’t and we’ve had to scale down our own commitment to them and do fewer in future years but they’re still very much an idea we like.

On Glasgow

> Why does Glasgow get a mention all on its own? Well, first, even though we’ve been lucky enough to work with lots of different writers in lots of different cities, we are big fans of Glasgow as a city and have been for a while. We’ve always enjoyed the relaxed democratically collaborative spirit of the place since we first made the trip up there and visited Good Press and Monorail and we’ve since found that the same attitude prevails and exists beyond those places across both music and literature, not least in what you do with SPAM. Secondly, we mention Glasgow because it seems that a good percentage of the books that we’ve decided to publish in 2020, and even more so in 2021, are coming from poets who are either from Glasgow or based in Glasgow. First up this year is Jane Goldman’s book and having met Jane at Colin Herd’s brilliantly collaborative launch for his book You Name It with us last year, we’re very excited about that one. In 2021, we’re turning even more towards the city, at least for a while, to publish books by Kathrine Sowerby and Nick-e Melville which (hopefully) will happen at a similar time to Ruthie Kennedy and Colin Herd’s collaboratively edited Dostoyevsky Wannabe Cities Glasgow anthology. From the sounds of it this will be a book that reflects just how good Glasgow and its poets and writers are at working together to produce amazing work, plus it seems like it’ll be a good night (or a couple of nights out) and one where we’ll be able to satiate our need to listen to Jonathan Richman whilst at the same time hear a few new bands that we’ve never heard of — and maybe coincided it with when a Divine night was on (which is a favourite of ours).

> Anyway, that’s your lot. We’ve rambled on enough now and thanks to everyone at SPAM Zine for giving us the platform to allow us to ramble on.

For more on Dostoyevsky Wannabe, including their excellent ‘Materials’ section, delve into their beautiful new website here.

Published: 25/2/20

#interview #interviews #feature #features #SPAM #Dostoyevsky Wannabe #Isabel Waidner #Colin Herd #poetry #design #publishing #DIY

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