#I'm too slow and my stuff as always been meh.

[thelassoway]

Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso » Ted Lasso 3.01 Smells Like Mean Spirit

#Ted Lasso #Theodore Lasso #Jason Sudeikis #*mine: gif #going to try not to overthinking how late this is or the fact a lot of these scenes have been giffed a lot/seen a lot #now to see if I can finish up ep. 2 today to maybe post tomorrow or Monday.... #something about the eye movements in a lot of these scenes #I definitely giffed the under the couch getting the yellow Lego brick scene for a reason but it just didn't fit here #but I'm thinking about that a lot too #it could've been any color and it was just the one missing piece. I'm reading too much into it. He was just being thorough #ugh you idiot with that face #stop staring at me swan #damn I had a feeling this would fail it looks like I need to pull a Roy and quit the giffing/I should not have started to take part in S3 #I'm too slow and my stuff as always been meh. #kind of want to delete this post and other stuff too....I'm in a mood today and this did not help #I thought posting this would help my mood but no #also definitely gave up on working on my ep 2 gifset so this is it. i guess....

[forgottenfourr]

i saw you in a dream - university smau

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chapter fourteen - impossible

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w/c: 1349

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a/n: i am still very sick (yes again) but the people must be updated!! while bedridden i have been rewatching kingdom: legendary war and i always forget how insane it is but i love it sm. i always act like i'm watching it for the first time when i rewatch it. but watching 3 groups that i absolutely love (skz, tbz, & ateez) compete against each other is so </3

chapter is not proofread because i am too exhausted too tbh

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yn's pov:

as you predicted, the cafe was agonizingly slow today. plus the anxiety of meeting with chan during your shift today was not helping the hours go by any faster.

it's about 2:30 when he walks into the cafe, his normal bright and full smile plastered on his face like always. maybe this chat won't be as shitty as you thought.

"hey!" he greets, voice as joyful as it always is.

your anxiety subsides slightly, "hi! do you want anything to drink? on the house." you try to match his attitude but fail.

"nah i don't really drink coffee. i'll just go sit and you can meet me there whenever you're free, yeah?" he says while gesturing to the booths that are just a few hundred feet away from you two.

"i can go on break now! min is here so he knows about you coming here to talk." like on cue, minho appears behind you, placing his hand on your shoulder to make you aware of his presence.

"oh my god minho! hey!" chan says somehow more cheerful than his previous words.

"hey, chris, how are you?" minho quickly starts a conversation with chan like they are lifelong friends.

"i'm good! busy with senior year stuff but overall everything is alright. how are you?" you can hear the genuine response and question in chan's voice. it makes you wonder if he is always an open book like this for everyone.

"meh, senior year. pretty exhausting shit. plus being friends with this dumb ass," he says while pinching your side making you shriek away at his touch.

"DICK HEAD" you retort back to minho whilst shoving him. causing both of the boys to laugh.

you groan at the two and how immature they are. "min i'm going on break," you state. not giving him the option to say no or ask you to wait a few more minutes.

"okay, don't miss me too much!" minho calls out sarcastically as you and chan make your way to a nearby table. his comment making you turn around and flip him off which resorts to him laughing at you again in hysterics.

you and chan take a seat across each other. if anyone were to not know the context of what is going on right now you're sure they would think you guys were on a date.

"it's nice to see minho so comfortable with you," chan begins, ultimately dragging out the conversation you so desperately just wanted to be over.

you nod your head at his words, a slight smile on your face.

"i don't mean to sound rude but, can we just get to the point? what did you want to talk to me about?" you feel awful for skipping the small talk and going right to business but you felt as if you couldn't wait another minute. your anxiety growing in you more and more as each second passed on.

chan's face seems to falter slightly and he repositions himself in his chair. it is very evident that he is now uncomfortable.

"yeah uhm," chan pauses for a moment, trying to find the right words that wouldn't automatically accuse you. "don't take this the wrong way but," he takes a deep breath, "did you actually write the guitar part for your song?"

a haste breath falls past your lips at his question.

"what?" of course you did. you came up with it yourself. you weren't a piece of shit. you would never steal another's work.

"of course i did, why are you asking?" the genuine annoyance and hurt so audible in your tone.

"i am not accusing you of anything!" his statement coming out very quick and apologetically. "it's just. i have a friend who i worked with a few months ago. and he has a guitar part in his song that sounds identical to yours. and it could be a coincidence! but it seems very unlikely?" all his words have a ping of uncertainty to them.

"no, i swear i wrote it myself i-" a sudden thought making you cut off your own words.

---------------

you remember exactly where you first heard the guitar melody. you had finally fallen asleep after nearly 3 days of being awake. you remember returning to your dream world, immediately greeted by the mystery boy. it felt like it always did, serene and peaceful. but it was different that day. the boy spoke to you.

"hey, do you know how to play the guitar?" he said with a warm smile on his face. the one you grew so fond of.

you laugh slightly, "i can but i am awful at it."

"would you like to be a little less awful at it? i can teach you some stuff," he said as he pulled out a guitar from seemingly nowhere

you didn't know what you expected his voice to sound like but it was certainly 10x better than anything your mind could've made up.

your cheeks blushed at his offer, "i'd love to." you replied, your acceptance making the tip of his ears red.

you guys spent the rest of your time together sitting together and playing songs for each other. though, most of the time it was him playing for you and you watching him with awe. he taught you different chords and melodies, helping you with each note as you struggled through.

there was one melody though. one that stuck with you. that bounced through your head at any given moment. one you found yourself humming at any given moment. it was like it was planted in your brain and you had completely fallen in love with the simplicity of it. the melody being so beautiful and perfect no matter the key or pace.

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your face grew pale at the sudden realization. you had only heard it once in your life. and that being from your dream boy. who is fake. who your subconscious came up with. right?

because it wouldn't make sense if the boy from your dreams actually existed. it isn't possible. and if it was, the only thing about the boy that would be the same is his appearance. everything else about him your mind created.

so there is absolutely no way he also just so happens to know the guitar melody that he taught you in your dream which you then thought was just something you came up with yourself because AGAIN it happened IN YOUR DREAMS.

there was no way that is possible. even if a teeny tiny bit of you wanted it to be possible, there is no way. it's like scientifically impossible. sharing your dreams with someone? let alone someone you don't even know?

it's too much to process. let alone in front of chan who probably thinks you're having a mental breakdown or going absolutely fucking insane right in front of him. which you kind of are!

"uh, yn?" chan tries to get your attention back to him quietly but him calling your name just makes you all too aware of what is happening right now.

you quickly stand up and you continue to revert your gaze from him. "i uh, i have to go." you quickly say, words barely audible through your mumble.

you don't give him a second to think before you're racing out the cafe's front door and run home. leaving chan there unsure of what just happened.

it's too much to think about. you just need to be away from everyone right now. minho will be fine at the cafe by himself. he'll be pissed but he'll forgive you. you'll make it up to him later. right now you just need to be alone to process everything. the possibility that somehow the boy you have been spending time with in your dreams for the past 7 months might be real and also might have been having the same dreams you have.

it's too much. but a part of you is hoping that he does exist and remembers everything you two did together. it's nearly impossible but one can hope, right?

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<<<prev masterlist next>>>

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[pain-in-the-butler]

you said you've been a kuro fan since 2009, I have to know what got you into the series and what has made you stay with it for so long?

what about the fandom did you enjoy back in the old days?

Ahahaha, oh wow, these questions feel loaded. Thank you for asking them, though, I haven't fully considered them before...

I'll start with the second question, because it's easier to answer. What did I enjoy about the fandom in the old days? I didn't enjoy the fandom in the old days! Not on the whole, at least. I was just on the outskirts of it, more observer than participant. I wrote fanfiction, but most people didn't read it because it wasn't romantic. The memes weren't funny, the shipping wars were insane, and SebaCiel was completely unavoidable. The current fandom is way better than the old one! (I'm sure there were cool people around back then too, but I didn't go looking for them because I didn't think they existed.)

I kind of started dipping my toes in the fandom water in 2012 in the midst of the Campania arc. But even then, by 2014 I felt a little meh from all the cricket and I varied in my interest during Green Witch, so I really didn't participate much until around 2017. The Blue Cult stuff had me bored, but then when things started ramping up towards the twin reveal, I was back in the game. Or rather, in the game for the first time. The explosion of actual good memes had me hook, line, and sinker.

Now for your first question. My initial exposure to Kuroshitsuji was season 1 of the anime. It had wrapped in Japan less than a year ago, and my sister told me that she sort of liked it after seeing the first few episodes at our high school's anime club. She gave me a brief rundown of the premise and I guess the seventeen-year-old me was interested because I went to anime club for the first and last time next week. It was the episode with the corset scene and I was appalled. I was also appalled by my peers, because the teacher hadn't shown up that day to moderate, so a lot of kids were making out and drawing on each others' bodies with sharpies, and the few people watching the episode were wolf-whistling and clapping. It was a lot for a dweeby little goodie-two-shoes to take in.

But for some reason I persevered and watched the rest of the series on my own time. The first episode also appalled me. I think the whole show did. I don't really know why I watched it, other than perhaps a fascination with historical anime, but I definitely found Sebastian and Ciel worthy of parody, because a few months later, I was writing fanfiction about them. In high school, I wrote solely humor fanfics, and they were always about Sebastian and Ciel trying to make each other's lives worse through japes and antics.

Then in early college, I started reading the manga when I caught wind of Sebastian being "dead" and thought that sounded like an interesting development. I gave the earlier chapters a try and shocker, it was so much better than the anime (though I skipped the curry arc for some reason, only read it for the first time like a year ago). Then I got to the Circus arc scene where Sebastian has to help Ciel with his eyepatch strings and I felt the epiphany grow. Dadbastian is love, Dadbastian is life, etc. It was hard not to feel like a one-man army at the time, but a handful of others enjoyed the concept too.

And then the Campania arc happened and I was absolutely gobsmacked by how good it was. I will never forget what it was like to be there for the badass Lizzie reveal. That day, anime and manga fansites and subgroups across the net were all united in Lizzie love. It was so real 🥹😭

Moments like that kept me going, as well as a hope for small Dadbastian-esque moments and the promise of more Victorian flair. Over time, I've only gained more appreciation for the side characters and the themes, and I love the current fandom to pieces, so even though the story is slow, I'm more invested than ever.

I'm sorry that was such a damn essay, thank you for your interest in my little Kuro journey! 😊 I hope you are enjoying fandom life too!

#ask

[chillin-at-partys-bar]

Do you tell your friends / family that you write?

Have you ever written a canon muse that you first thought of ‘meh’ when they appeared in their canon show/movie/book?

Is there any fandom you regret exploring?

Do you plot a ship or see where it goes?

What’s something you find weird on here?

Questions for Mun

Do you tell your friends / family that you write?

I do! Actually, everyone who knows me knows I've made it my personality haha. Right now I'm writing sketch comedy for my city's sketch group, I have had a few of my sketches performed and will have two in our next show! A lot of my friends write too, we have a variety of genres from creative nonfiction to comedy to high fantasy. Not necessarily all of them RP but most of us have RP'd at some point!

My dream is to have a novel or two out, or more, so I tend to tell people to keep myself from backing out!

Have you ever written a canon muse that you first thought of ‘meh’ when they appeared in their canon show/movie/book?

I think Jessie is the main example of this one. I used to be scared of her when I watched Pokémon. And then I became a young woman in society and was like "Ah, I get her now." Haha. I love her and she is an angry woman in her twenties and I get it. Also I've met her VA (Rachel Lillis) and she was very sweet!

Also, Benn Beckman? Like I appreciated any RHP but of course I was most enamored with Shanks. But with some of the RPs I've been in lately it's made more sense to pick him up and now I'm a stan.

Is there any fandom you regret exploring?

I really don't want to call out the specific fandom, but I will in DMs if someone wants more tea. But there is a fandom for a muse that I still have that was just so polluted with bullying in like, constant call-outs, really, really forgetting people were the ones behind keyboards, and it was just mean. It really did a number on my own mental health with some of the things I experienced when I was in it. I've looked in on the fringe lately but seeing how some people still act I'm just... yikes. I've had a lot of fun in the OP rp world so I'm fine sticking here.

Do you plot a ship or see where it goes?

Yes.

I find RPs to just be slow. Which is fine, I'm a slow rper too, and everyone is busy. So I love when someone will just talk about muse relationships with me. Then if when we're chatting we decide a ship is where we want to go I love plotting that out so we can just write the good stuff. Sometimes the good stuff is the slow-burn, but that anticipation is what keeps me really motivated for writing.

So if anyone wants like, SmoLaw, SmoAce, MiShanks, or really anything just lemme know because then we can like... chat it out and write the fun stuff. Fun stuff doesn't corellate with smut either, it could be writing the fall, writing some angst, fluff, comfort, without having to spend time wasted on threads that aren't going anywhere. We're all busy, who has time for that? (Unless that's your vibe then you, you have time for that and take all of the time you want.)

What’s something you find weird on here?

Hmmm. Not much. I've been here for almost ten years at this point so there's not much I find odd. I used to rp on forums and stuff, and it was fun when everything was part of one connected world. But I know why that isn't the case here though I'd love for more threads/worlds/verses to be connected. Having characters gossip about other characters is just fun.

Though calling characters 'muses' is always a little odd to me but I've sort of gotten the hang of it. It sounds way more poetic than 'this is my garbage character that I sometimes mostly torture because destroying grown men is my passion.'

#waxgentleman #{answered} #{mun talk} #((thank you for sending in!))

[ideahat-universe]

I'm thankful for Pizza.

Hey, it's thanksgiving so lets give thanks for a variety of things.

It was honestly a pretty good year for me. Especially when it came to gaming.

Pizza Tower came out after years of waiting. I honestly would have released it shortly after the SAGE 19 demo given that the version was so well approved and already had a fanbase and a mod base for it.

But that didn't happen. Mcpig worked on more of the game, adding a bunch of stuff and removing just as many things.

There are plenty of videos about what ended up on the cutting room floor but my favorite thing is the Mansion because it was such an ambitious level that almost always had some kind of lore for its backbone only to get dropped because it was too large or too slow of a level.

Other stuff like having a two player mode with distinctly different characters to play as looked like a nice idea but in reality was just bloat.

In the end it all became mods and with a fully fledged game to cut their teeth on, modders would go absolutely bonkers with what they add and change. From making Pepperman actually functional to bringing back multiple versions of all the dropped levels the game is basically a huge success and has a really devoted mostly sane fanbase.

Emulation is here to stay

The Steam deck is a very successful device and with good reason. It's well made and easy to modify. The Steam Machine didn't work because there was no logical way into the PC market in a way that wasn't redundant.

Handhelds however were a different story. While the Switch and the 3DS dominated for years a secret project was being worked on. Handheld devices that can play multiple games from different franchises. Different developers. It wasn't streaming. It was emulation.

Emulation devices were more than just a knockoff device that Rerez would end up playing where almost all the games were bootlegs of bootlegs.

Real attempts at making real devices that could play real games using the various open source software that was available to them were being worked on.

This took many years. The PSP line actually held the title of being a really high quality emulation device but after the last couple of years true successors have been found.

The Steam deck, even with its massive potential as a device that can play thousands of games sold on the Valve store has the capabilities to easily play several generations of games flawlessly through emulation.

But it's very expensive. Which created a market of people who wanted a Steam Deck but couldn't afford one. So since the release of the release of the Steam Deck the emulation handheld scene exploded with a much sharper level of quality.

Emulation handhelds went from being Meh to Good overnight and with a massive amount of variety, portability, custom firmware, the ability to run Linux, Windows, or Android (depending on the device) and a community that easily maps out what does and doesn't work well on these devices.

Hell, half of these emulation devices already come with thousands of actual, working games on them. I bought a emulation device a couple months ago and it had Cave Story and Shovel Knight as well as several other playable stand alone titles.

There was also the option to mod a 3DS into an emulation device but if you wanted to play non Nintendo releases you were quickly entering scuffed territory (same with the PSPvita when playing Nintendo games).

If you wanted a really well rounded experience, it is more than 200 dollars but an Ayn Odin or upward would get you an impressive range of play ability.

You really are spoiled for choice these days when it comes to games which brings me to my next point.

The game industry is not video-games

I keep getting told that gaming is actually in a bad spot right now. Lots of layoffs, some truly terrible releases, and the ones that do find financial success are complete parasites sucking the blood out of willing whales.

Oh, and what was it? 90% of games being lost?

That last one sounds really bad on paper until you realize that all of human history is like that. Can you even imagine all the stories that were lost to time because the average man couldn't read or write or how certain experimental attempts at music were forgotten because they were before the age of music recording, made by a person whose work was too far ahead of its time?

Hell, a centuries' worth of film is lost because the owner of the property threw it away or it was destroyed in a fire or the original copy naturally degraded over time and there were no other copies of it or even worse, the original was edited meaning that the original master copy was effectively erased.

I get it. We shouldn't have games become unplayable due to bullshit DRM or the game needing a remote server to run or it being tied down to very specifically designed hardware and firmware but to act like gaming is going extinct is hyperbolic.

The reality is that for most people, a life time's worth of video games is already at your fingertips.

It's just a fact, you have way more games than you do time on earth to play them all and any game that becomes lost to the sands of time can probably be recreated as long as you aren't a stickler for copyright.

It's never been easier to play older games and it's never been easier to make a game simply running on the inspiration of a dead or mishandled franchise.

All the stuff about the layoffs and big game studios feeling the squeeze?

THAT'S GOOD.

The reality is that gaming as an art is doing just fine. If you make a really nice game that comes from the heart, even if when it's technically just okay. You can find some kind of success out of making it and people will have fun playing it. No triple A publisher would green light a Visual Novel like Slay the Princess even though Slay the Princess is probably the greatest Renpy visual novel game that has ever been made (which was tough competition seeing as it had to beat Doki Doki and Snoot game) and will have a profit margin which is more than I can say about Gollum.

Aside from whales who vary between being addicts and people with good jobs but no one in their life to dump money into (you can decide for yourself which one is sadder, having a crippling addiction or having nothing in your life other than Genshin Impact), the real thing keeping Triple A gaming afloat was investors.

As someone who is knee deep in the investment field, infinite growth is a real delusion pressed upon by stock holders. If you do the same as last year people want to sell the shares and buy something with moon potential. Sure literally every world renown investor whose word is so valuable stadiums get packed just to hear what they have to say in 0.5 speed (those old men take their time to deliver a speech) will tell you to find something that is stable enough while also offering value in the form of good dividends. From Warren Buffet to the Motley Fool they'll tell you to buy and hold for decades.

But uhh, people want their generational wealth now and if you have enough of those psychos in the boardroom when you decide the direction of your video game company you're going to get into some shit and into some shit a lot of them did.

But now investors are feeling the pinch so it's harder to press your thumb on the CEO when you have to sell off some assets just to make sure you don't end up in a bad spot.

But don't feel too bad for those big suits. They got used to gamblers throwing money at them so when money started drying out they cut talent rather than their paychecks which tells you what they really value in a company (I mean is it a surprise? When you've never worked in the industry you're a Chief Executive Officer in, you don't even think about if something is or isn't replaceable).

So you should be prepared for a crash, a lot of stuff is going to fall over if they don't figure out a restructure that doesn't accounts for priced in growth.

But um, like I said. There are thousands of playable complete, and easily modded games out there for you to play. You don't need to play a new game every year. arguably if you've never played it, heard of it, or know anything about it, that game IS NEW. For you.

So go play it. And if the game you want to play absolutely doesn't exist then ya know what.

#video games #fandom #pizza tower #emulation #steam games

[jeanmoreaux]

MICHELLE PLEASE LMK UR THOTS ON THE SHOW WHEN U FINISH (IM ON EP 7 ATM)

LYS I PROMISE I'LL ANNOY YOU IN THE DMS GDHSDSDJKJKSD i finished episode 3 earlier today and my ambivalent feelings are still very much a thing. here are some of my thought i had while watching the first three episodes to give you a taste of some (hastily scribbled down) thoughts i had so far.

MALINA KISS 🥺🥹😭

i'd die for inej 🥰 she can do no wrong in my eyes

the editing of the fight scenes is.......weird??? i hate the slow mo stuff. like pls just don't.

the editing between scenes is a little disjointed but PARTICULARLY the editing when returning from one storyline to an ongoing one is often a little jarring. the feeling of the continuity is a little wonky imo.

having people go "CRIMINALS!" not once but TWICE when dealing with kaz and jesper 🥴 very much made me cringe in context. who thought that was good dialogue??? why have these people say that as if they have no idea who they're dealing with????? it's just bad, i'm so sorry.

the dialogue in general is a little stiff and inorganic at times.... the chemistry between characters truly is doing some heavy lifting, saving some scenes. the cast is doing A LOT (all of them, especially the crows—though i have to admit the scenes with the darkling and crew are a little 'meh' at times).

talking about cast, freddy is very enjoyable to watch. i am also beyond ready for kaz to enter his deranged bastard era 🫶 patrick's nikolai is really working for me too so far. i think he strikes the right balance. archie's performances have been great as well! that scene between alina and mal after nikolai proposes marriage in ep3???? SO GOOD OMGGGG <33333

not sure how i feel about a lot of soc plot points playing out already. i honestly don't want stuff from that storyline happening NOW. i thought this season was gonna be more buildup, but like even in these first couple of episodes they already went strong with the wesper & kanej stuff for example so idk i can see them going there this season already (not with kanej, but maybe with wesper) even though internally i beg them to NOT. it would be enough to create some tension imo. having these characters prematurely stuck in these soc/ck dynamics will inevitable change the ice court storyline and everything beyond that.

the scene with the crows on the roof watching the crow club go up in flames???? love it. peak cinema.

also i really can't tell what route they'll go with wylan (ultimately). but if they’re gonna go the uwu innocent little baby boy with no badassery behind it i’m gonna throw fists. he has a moral compass he mostly adheres to and is generally a kind guy, sure, but he's also a little cunning shit at times and i hope they'll lean in to that over time.

always love seeing the darkling doing horribly. love that we get to see him being his fucked up guy. i hope people can stop romanticising him now that they saw him cut off his mother's finger. if not i hope they'll get well soon <3

there is something bugging me about the pacing but i can't yet put my finger on what exactly isn't working for me. maybe because after 3 episodes it still feels like we're in the "set up" stage of the story. REALLY hoping ep4 will pick up a little.

#i'm gonna go watch ep4 now #excited and a little scared—especially what they'll do with the crows bc i don't like the direction i think they're taking them....... #anywaaaaay prepare for me to annoy you some more later on <3 #lys tag #answer #mish watches sab

[hxhhasmysoul]

22, 31, 45 for the writer asks

Thank you for the ask <3

___________

22. Are there certain types of writing you won’t do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc)

a lot actually. i write primarily to suit my own tastes and to have stories i'd like to read.

genre i wouldn't write a comedy because as i mentioned before i'm just not funny and it would be unintentionally cringe. other than that i would be open to most genres if i stumbled on a good enough idea for them that i'd feel is within my capabilities.

_

pov i wouldn't write a whole story in 1st and 2nd person pov. it's not like i've never used them. when i write the inner voice of the character i use both depending on the scene because that's how i talk in my head to myself sometimes in 1st sometimes in 2nd person. so i think they both have their uses but not as the primary pov of the story. and like i have no problem with empathising and sympathising with the 3rd person pov the other two make it actually harder for me.

with 1st person i could probably write a full drabble though i'm not sure if i've ever written a whole scene like that. and i don't like to read it when it's the primary pov, it just feels off to me as a narrative tool. like there've been some instances i've seen it work but that's the exception not the rule in my opinion.

2nd pov makes me actively uncomfortable, like i have physical reaction to it. i've always hated when people tried to put thoughts in my head and like after having gone through fandom harassment and discourse wars i react even more viscerally to it. and i know this is not the intention of people who write their stories in 2nd person but this is how it feels to me and i physically can't read them.

_

tropes wise, there's stuff that i have no problem reading but would never want to write myself because i'm soft and gooey inside XD and i sympathise too much with the characters when writing so there are emotions i just don't want to put myself through that actively. so like i can read hurt no comfort, torture or toxic relationship or non-con and sometimes even major character death but i wouldn't write it myself.

there are also tropes that i'm not very into but when the stars align i could and will write them. like i'm super meh about fairy tale retellings because i find them tired and overdone by popculture and i hadn't pictured myself as ever doing one. but i got into a new ship recently and in my head they felt perfect for a "beauty and the beast" inspired au and people weren't doing it on ao3, not that i could find anyway. so now i'm trying to write it in a way that suits my tastes. or like i can remember 1 slow burn i enjoyed and didn't find aggravating, plus like that one worked because the story and setting really facilitated a very slow development of the relationship and it didn't feel forced. but i don't think i have that kind of fucking patience.

then there are tropes that just make nope. there are some kinks i don't want to think about in fiction or rl - not that i think people shouldn't. but for more generally used tropes stuff there's abo for example. from what i've seen and what i understand from others talking about abo for me it just fails in every metaphor people claim it tries to be while being steeped in what reads to me as the worst kind of heterosexuality. and like i'm not going to write it because it's impossible to make it suit my tastes.

31. Do you start with the characters or the plot when writing?

I'm not even entirely sure what starting with characters means exactly so i might be talking out of my ass here. but like for me it's kind of a feedback system. like i don't think i can create them separately.

and i think i start with the setting actually, often an aesthetic feeling. and from that the plot and characters emerge simultaneously and heavily feed into each other and the setting feeds into it as well. it usually happens in a bout of adhd madness. like when it takes off it's an extremly fast process. my first fic ever emerged within a few hours with extensive backstories for all pov characters, worldbuilding with cultural aspects and most of the plot for the first 5 chapters which all ended up 10k plus up to almost 20k.

45. Do you want to break your readers‘ heart or make them laugh?

neither really. if i wanted to make my readers laugh it'd be dooming myself to fail because i'm not witty and my sense of humour doesn't resonate. i do write angst but it's always with the promise of cheese so like i don't think i can break the reader at least not for long maybe i can scratch them a bit. i once left my fic open ended and people didn't like it but idk if it broke them, more like i think they felt it was unfinished? idk

i mostly want my writing to resonate. i want to feel i connected with the readers on some level. i'm very much in the art as communication philosophical camp - probably because my only true identity is a linguist as embarrassing as that is XD

____________

Get to know your fic writer!

#answering asks #off topic #i feel i went off on the first one XD #lol i'm such a nope person

[spaceorphanssecondbreakfastclub]

SO's Book Club : Shiver

Okay, so I haven't been completely absent in my reading. I have finished a few things and wanted to get back to putting up my reviews.

Title : Shiver Author : Allie Reynolds Genre : Mystery/Thriller

Goodreads Summary:

When Milla is invited to a reunion in the French Alps resort that saw the peak of her snowboarding career, she drops everything to go. While she would rather forget the events of that winter, the invitation comes from Curtis, the one person she can't seem to let go.

The five friends haven't seen each other for ten years, since the disappearance of the beautiful and enigmatic Saskia. But when an icebreaker game turns menacing, they realize they don't know who has really gathered them there and how far they will go to find the truth.

Review:

I was going to have this one up in October in time for Halloween. Clearly that didn't happen.

The premise centers around a woman named Milla - who, in her early twenties, used to be a professional athlete, specializing in winter sports such as snowboarding and skiing. Back in the day - she and a group of her 'friends' had a lot of drama going on. In the present, she's invited for a reunion of sorts and then spooky things start happening as the truth of the past begins to come out.

The thing I'm coming to terms with with all of these 'thrillers' is that the schtick of them kind of are feeling the same. I suppose that's the point -- as I read dozens of Agatha Christie novels that have a similar sense of style to them. But maybe I'm finding these just aren't for me. I guess I expect too much from them? I don't know.

The book is split up into different halves -- the first half being in the present, and having that creepy - I Know What You Did Last Summer - vibe. And the second is the slow unraveling of what happened in the past.

The present day stuff is definitely the better part of the book. Reynolds is able to capture that unnerving, snowed in in the middle of nowhere feel to it. The tension of the present day is definitely felt, and I give this book points for having a great atmosphere. I do think it spends a little too much time before people start dying and the action to really start going, but the rely on tension definitely makes the book a very unsettling read.

Meanwhile, the stuff in the past is... idk, padded? I realize it's partly to get to know the characters better - but it feels like a lot of vamping because the reveal of the truth can't come in the middle of the book. And, as it seems like with a lot of these thrillers, the more the past goes on, the more terrible these characters seem. I get that that's part of it -- when terrible people are killed off, we shouldn't care all that much. But, meh, I feel like you should care a least a little bit about the characters.

Plus, the more 'twists' that happen, the more ridiculous I find the plot. Sometimes I think these books are trying to see how shocking they can be - and lose good character development and smart story telling choices in the process. It's definitely not bad, but I think once the truth begins to come into light, it stops being spooky and starts being a little campy.

I should also mention there is a little bit of queerness in the book -- and it feels exploitive (as in there for the shock value of it) more than it being a natural progression of the narrative.

The ending also felt a little... contrived? Idk what I really want from these thrillers, they always start out so promising with their premises! But they keep seeming to end on these outlandish twists.

Overall, I didn't hate this book like it may seem. The atmosphere was great, and I did get creeped out reading it. The part of the book in the present was decently solid (with the exception of the crazy ending) and captivating. The flashbacks felt a bit much, and I don't think the characters are all that great. But I think it's equivalent of going to a moderately well done horror movie.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

#sbc book club #books #book review #shiver #allie reynolds

[fatmclassic]

Ok back to Lungs, my first and favourite.

This is the most commercial album, not surprising, there'd been a lot of hype before it was even released and a lot of people needed it to be big, not just florence and her machine. It's expensive sounding, no demo-ish sounding album tracks here, everything's been tweaked to perfection.

Anyway dog days is still a brilliant anthem. One I don't return to all that often as it was so overplayed and I usually skip it on live recordings too, it's just so drawn out. But when you are actually there, that makes it all the better. Getting carried off by loads of drunken strangers leaping in unison is always fun. Made so much better with strings and brass sections later on. May it never leave the setlist.10/10

Rabbit heart now. My very first track that I saw on Jonathan Ross when I was looking for 'my band' as a teen. A huge song with lots of layers, harp, and mythology references with a wickerman esque music video. Amazing live again, I got hoisted onto shoulders at every gig. 10/10

I'm not calling you a liar aka ghosts. A title taken from a poem, spooky references, harp and Isabella summers co writing. It's also one of the more personal songs on this album. It's a bit slow going but builds into that usual Florence finish. This song is actually quite lush, even if I'm not a big fan of slower songs. I still prefer the more raw and angry 'don't tell me' of this track however. Very nice, and appreciate it a bit more now 7/10

Howl is one there is few live videos of and that's because she doesn't really like singing it. I used to love the strings on the version. The heavy gasping breaths, and low vocal mixes are a nice touch. And I still love the driving drums. It's fun, if a little bit fillerish. It's a song about werewolves,as it says on the tin. 7/10

Kiss with a fist is ok, but not all that different from the many landfill indie tracks at the time. It's fun live though, as it's fairly unique in her discography. Still prefer happy slap though. Lyrics here are a bit shit, yeah it's a metaphor but compared to her other songs it's pretty far down the list. 6/10

Not her song but it is a link to her earlier blusesy interests. I went through phases of really liking this one when I looked through her old performances. The bayou percussion and demo versions are better. The lyrics here are off putting imo, but she didn't write it. This is pre lungs Florence. 6/10

Drumming song my beloved. I had heard rabbit heart but this convinced me to buy the album. So sad it's her worst performing single. The general public has no taste. I think her dancing here in this video is better than the stuff she does now It's all here, big drums, choirs and religious and water references. This song is always amazing live, even without drums. Very underrated 10/10

Between two lungs is my dud of this album and that hasn't changed. It's one of her first proper so songs and I respect that. The demo if you can find it is a bit better. It's nice enough, one of the happier songs here but everything else here is just better. I'm never going to be at a gig hoping she plays this 4/10

Ireland's favourite Florence song, the O2 advert song, cosmic love. Another essential song that cemented Florence's sound. And a moment to let Tom Moth shine. She's never made better use of the harp than here. I love how overwhelming this song gets, it's just big and unashamedly dramatic. Music video is a bit meh. Still the highlight of her setlist to this day. Even better with strings. And that finish, it's all so good. Written in 30 minutes with a hangover too. Not bad going 10/10

My boy builds coffins is one of the first songs to click with me. A lot of the machine helped write this. Moves along at a nice pace and is a nice link to pre lungs Florence. Another storyline song. I prefer this to the harsh original. This was ok live, nothing groundbreaking. Interesting topic though. 8/10

Probably the most commercial sounding song here with hurricane drunk Very polished. It's another quite personal one, wrapped up in metaphor. It's a nice heartbreak song, and Tom shows everyone what he can do. The single version had brass added to the end which really improved this song, even if the video was bleh. Interesting distorted synths in the background. The live version with really cool because the song actually sounds tipsy. Album version 7/10 single version 9/10

Blinding took me longest to warm up to. But I appreciate it so much now, it's the most fairytaleesque lyrics of all the songs her. The drums here are amazing, marching along. This song was fucking phenomenal live, closest thing I've had to religious experience. The strobes, the synths and the roaring wail. I actually love it so much. 10/10

I didn't like ygtl at first and for sick of hearing it everywhere. Video is nothing special but the single version is a bit better. I used to get so mad as a teen when they said they'd play Florence and it was always this one. But this song with a string arrangement is fucking amazing, like the royal Albert hall performance for example. Still, feels like the b side it originally was 5/10

Bird song intro is a nice curiosity. Rob wrote this alone and I remember listening to it over and over again at Davy Crocketts ranch during a family holiday at Disney land Paris. Birdsong is a cool throw back to old Florence. A song told almost like a story, like donkey kosh. Telltale heart with birds that gets wilder as it goes along. It's a nice throwback and I'm glad she brought this one along, even if only on the deluxe. 6/10

Falling is a favourite of mine among her entire discography. It's one of the few really delicate songs here and the part about only dealing things when you hit reality is personal to me. I love the swell at the end that ends so gently. A career highlight as far as I'm concerned. 10/10

Hardest of hearts is another I really like, it kind of glides along and like the heart pumping beat all the way through. She's more restrained here and a bit sinister. 7/10

Swimming is another favourite. The string opening grabbed me right away, as did the drums. Another water song. This is far better than the demo, which is more upbeat sounding. This song moves along at nice pace and I return to it a lot. The live version is very nice as well, especially the end. 9/10

Are you hurting the one you love is another team effort and pretty lofi. Classic Florence again, smashing pots and pans and violent imagery. I struggle to make of the lyrics to this day. I can imagine Kate Nash singing this. Not an essential track, but I enjoy it. 6/10

Heavy in your arms is a cool dirge. 'fingers laced a crown' is a standout lyric for me. Miserable Nd despairing, exactly how it should sound. The video was a bit odd,but it definitely made Florence look heavy, getting dragged about rather than carried. Not bad for a twilight track 7/10.

So Lungs overall is still firm favourite for me. So many great tracks, even in the deluxe. Her songwriting is more straight forward and simple here, but she was only getting started and it's all very good. The harp gets the most spotlight on this album. It's very much a collection of songs, an artist trying to find their sound. But that might be why I like this album so much, different songs to come back to and listen to in their own right. Little in the way of restraint and personal songs, but I'm not bothered by that. I spent hours as teen gather up different live versions of this album for my ipod so I've heard these songs in do many different ways. I'll always be biased, I admit, but this album is still no1 for me.

#it's all so good #and seeing people rank it last?😔 #Florence Welch #Florence and the machine #fatmclassic #FATM #review

[leqclerc]

oh no don't get me wrong i do love a good slow song, but idk there are just too many of them for me this year😅

Portugal is defo in the top five for me too though!! I really like how it builds up and she has a really nice voice!!

Also i literally cannot believe that Finland made it?!?!?! like what. i was so shocked when they announced them😅

Omg i liked Italy 2020 better than almost any entry this year. The semis was my first time hearing it and i was so captived by it and yeah the crowd was just absolutely incredible with this one😭

Im kinda uncertain about Brividi ngl. like sometimes im like omg this is the best and then when i hear it again and im like meh. But I always thought Mahmood was robbed when he didn't win with Soldi so definitely gonna cheer for him and Blanco!!

omg you're so right! Cyprus was giving me major The Birth of Venus (the painting) vibes and yeah i can totally see the Secret Combination vibes too!!

and omg spaceman and number two????😶 that song wouldn't even be in my top ten if i had to make a list lol like it really is such a generic song... a part of me is always like hope England gets zero again cause that would be kinda funny. like i felt really bad for artists last year but getting literally no points is kinda funny😅

Omg hello again 👀

That was me with Australia in semi final 2 🙈 Didn't like it tbh. Switzerland (Idk if this is an unpopular opinion because it was a ballad but I much preferred Tout l'Univers last year) and Armenia are also pretty meh for me this year (Armenia sounds like a female spin on Mumford & Sons or something). Finland's just okay for me. Like, the comparisons to It (the horror movie) are pretty funny jsjdf But it didn't blow me away or anything 🤔

Yesssss, right? Diodato my beloved <3

Omg I feel you with Brividi though... when I first listened to it after they won Sanremo I didn't like it... then I started listening to it more in the build up to the ESC and started warming to it. So it's definitely a song I've flip-flopped on as well ajsdj I still think Soldi > Brividi but eh. Though - and I feel like this is ~controversial but - I am an Arcade truther 🙈😭 It got overplayed to hell since then but I did like it.

Right??? Justice for Cyprus tbh 😭

THIS!! Like it's good but it's also so generic mainstream radio-ish that I was honestly shocked to see it rated so highly and predicted to podium. Especially considering UK's string of low-point finishes over the last few years...🤭 Apparently the guy became like a TikTok sensation after singing cover songs in lockdown or something? Can't believe we're living in an era where there's a TikTok to ESC pipeline but I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later 😭 Anyway it's a decent entry, better than some of the other stuff they've competed with recently, but 2nd place? Idk :/

Also, someone else pointed this out to me, but there's a lot of English-language songs in the running this year. Which I guess is an interesting ~trend shift considering all top 3 songs last year were non-English.

I generally tend to at least kind of like the winning song in the end, even if it wasn't my favourite. I think the only exception in recent years is Portugal in 2017. I literally never listened to that song again once the final was over which is rare for me jsdfj 🙈

I think countries like Ukraine and Italy have shined the most when they lean into their own culture and language. Like, Ukraine's English-language entries (2018, 2019) have been very meh pop mainstream BUT whenever they send something more folksy with actual Ukrainian roots they tend to shine - Jamala in 2016, GO_A last year. I think all of Italy's entries for almost a decade have been in Italian and good for them!!!! (2016's entry was like 90% in Italian and I really loved that song too). Italy's entries in general have been consistently so high-quality recently and I'm glad it finally paid dividends last year!!

#replies #anonymous #so glad you're back eurovision anon!!! ❤️❤️ #also in a similar vein i absolutely believe for example ireland would break their string of non-success #if they just leaned into their roots and sent something folksy with a modern twist #hell maybe even sing it in irish #i mean riverdance exploded in popularity after they performed during the interval in 1994 #generic pop songs are not it :/ #eurovision #music tag #.longpost

[justmybookthots]

The Bear and the Nightingale

One good thing (among others) this book had going for it? The MMC doesn't really show himself in great detail until the last third of the book. If he'd shown himself so much earlier, I'd have lost interest fast. He was pretty underwhelming as a winter king/demon, and I'd have felt demotivated to continue. But because he showed up late, the main plot of the story got to shine, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I was really sceptical about this book at first. Everyone on Goodreads said it was slow-moving and very dense and sometimes it felt like nothing was happening at all in the first half, and even though that was partly true, I kept turning the pages. The slow, subtle plot beats had some kind of grip on me, and even now I can't tell you exactly why they did. 

This book plays on tropes I'm not the biggest fan of: the heroine embracing more traditionally masculine traits and being lauded as better than the other women in the story because of that. But it's a tricky situation because if she was submissive like the other women, I'd have felt unsatisfied too. I don't know what the right move is.

Nonetheless, I liked Vasya a lot. She was pretty likeable for the most part, especially as a child. Sometimes I just wanted to give her the biggest, tightest hug for the stuff she was going through. I hated Anna, her stepmother, who I'd sympathised with at first but grew to loathe. It was unsatisfactory how Anna just died in the end without realising how wrong she'd been about Vasya. I wanted her to wallow in her awful decisions but that never happened. She just died after getting attacked by the Bear and there was no reflection on her part.

(Also, I saw a reviewer feeling sorry for the priest and I'm like, ARE YOU SERIOUS. Guy was the second worst person after Anna. Or maybe the first. I don't know. They take turns to vie for the foulest existence in the book.)

Overall, a pretty solid read, even if not the most memorable. There's some stuff that gets glossed over (marital rape, blatant misogyny) but I guess it's an evocation of its time period and makes sense. I don't think I'll be picking up the next book because it concludes quite nicely and the winter king was meh, but we'll see.

- 5 February 2024

I Hope This Doesn't Find You 

I'm really, really sad.

This book was one of my most anticipated books this year because This Time It's Real was my five-star favourite last year, but this just… did not make me feel the same way.

I'm torn about my feelings in two parts. One part believes that if I had read this some time last year, I'd have enjoyed it more. I'd been desperately craving some story with an academic-rivals/hate-to-love relationship. I'd felt Divine Rivals lacked the anger and heat I was looking for but now? This had all the anger and tension I had craved but I just found it tiresome after a while.

The other part of me just didn't get the swoon factor I was looking for in Julius that I got from Henry and Caz. I guess in romances I've always liked proactive heroes who were sweet on the heroine later into the story (not right away, but preferably through a slow burn)—and I don't mean by just doing things for them. Yeah, Julius did some things like running the race for Sadie and cleaning up some of the mess in her house… but for some reason, those actions didn't really move me. 

Maybe it's because Julius just isn't proactive about his feelings the way Sadie is. He does those nice things for Sadie—but you know he's still holding back, that he hasn't come to term with how he feels. In the end, all his kind acts do is make Sadie more emotionally beholden to him, and I don't like that. 

Sadie is the one who realises she likes him, who decides she's going to have the maturity to try to confess to him, but he fucks it up anyway. He assumes she's nice to him because she pities him, and he makes it about himself, and plays a victim in this situation. All this, when Sadie was the one who stood up for him in front of his brother, who took the courage to take the first step outside their decade-long feud by being nice to him and trying to confess, and he makes it about himself. And he says horrible things about her in retaliation.

There's one part that really got to me: when Sadie says she's been thinking the best of him, and he's been thinking the worst of her. That line hit me REALLY hard, and made me disgusted.

And how does it get resolved? By him overhearing her confession of her feelings towards him. Only when he has concrete proof that she likes him back that he allows himself to be proactive. He doesn't take a risk, doesn't let himself take the first step into the unknown like Sadie did. Never once does he let himself believe the best in her. He only believes that when he gets proof. 

This book left a horrible taste in my mouth, and I'm gonna admit I'm quite upset. I don't know how This Time It's Real was 5 stars and this book is like… 2. I was also disappointed by Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands and I wonder if I'm just gonna be met with disappointment after disappointment with all the releases I'm anticipating this year. 

The last one that I was really looking forward to is The Prisoner's Throne, so I shall see. I'm no longer feeling as pleasant as I did about it before this book.

- 6 February 2024

#book review #ann liang #i hope this doesnt find you #romance #the bear and the Nightingale #katherine arden #this time it's real

[struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor]

Wherever u r isn't a bad song, it's just nothing special. It's pretty, yet very basic. The lyrics are meh, but since they're unoffensive and make sense, that's good enough for me (looking at you, Jungkook). Umi's voice is pretty yet also basic, and she has that cursive style of singing (even the title is in lowercase and abbreviated) I don't exactly love. V's voice fits the song, but his accent is awful. He doesn't always sound bad in English - eg., the English trilogy - but when he sings in cursive with an English accent, it sounds like he has marbles in his mouth, as a Redditor once put it. It's very distracting. V could sing way better in English if he changed the way he sings. His accent isn't great, but I don't understand at least 70% of what Jungkook sings in his Golden b-sides and enjoy the songs regardless. Even with flawed pronunciation, songs can be enjoyable. The issue is how V chooses to sing in English. If he sang clearly like in Korean, it would be much easier to ignore his poor accent. Given how many people like to say Jungkook was only chosen for Seven because he's somehow's Hybe's favorite, I once again ask those fans if they can imagine V singing Seven and it becoming a hit song - no offense to V. He can sound amazing, but his English singing takes a lot of getting used to. My favorite V song is Sweet Night, which I adore - I love his voice in the song, how it combines with Adora's, and how romantic and full of yearning he sounds - but it took me some to get used to his English.

But it's sweet that he dropped the song on his birthday. Happy birthday, baby! I hope he gets some sort of special treatment or reward on his birthday - like a better meal, more phone time, leaving "work" earlier, or something like that.

Side tangent, I get that this song was released on V's birthday, and Jimin's song came out during Christmas, but aren't 2 songs in a week too much? Golden came out not too long ago, we're still processing Vminkook and Namjoon's enlistment, we have regular BANGTANTV episodes, BTS Monuments is airing, and it's the holidays so people are generally "busy"... Did we really need two songs? Couldn't Jimin's song have been released for Festa, or Valentine's Day or something? Since V's song's a collab and came out on his birthday, it would've made more sense to postpone Jimin's release instead. Are they really going to maintain this level of activity until June 2025? I know Jin comes back next June, and Hobi a few months later, but just how much stuff do they have prepared for us? I'm so behind already, I wish Hybe slowed down.

#bts #v #jungkook #jimin #reviews #text

[sageshyperfixdiary]

Meh, I'm bored and impulsively creative

This is purely me just talking to myself (in public) about my future plans to create and publish stories, ignore me.

So I've been wanting to be creative on the internet for a while now and originally I was aiming for YT but that felt like kinda too big a task, and it was intimidating. I did get through filming a couple videos and planning out content but it always faded into mild disinterest in actually finishing the project. A big part of that was that I hate niching even though now the consensus has been leaning towards people don't need to niche as much anymore which is nice. But anyways I just feel like I don't click well with video content yet, I much prefer the written word. As evidenced by how many diaries and journals I had when I was young, and I still keep multiple journals for different parts of my life. On top of that I used to be a fan fiction writer and a webtoon artist, I love creating stories. But again, it felt like the world was really turning towards video content, which is kind of a narrow mindset considering I'm an avid reader, and that there are so many literature based communities on every social media site.

Anyway, after letting my content creator dreams die a slow death, I got a new MacBook and kind of stumbled onto Tumblr. And I can't even begin to express how deeply in love I've fallen with this site. I became almost obsessively active on this site, and treat it like a deranged online diary. It also inspired me to draw and write again, shocking me with how much love I received on a short fanfic post. I honestly thought I lost the ability to write because I haven't written for other people in so long. And it felt so good to feel that passion again, to pour my thoughts into a physical form.

Long story short I decided to start writing my original stories and publishing them to ao3 (they have an original works section too). And I'll be using Tumblr to post concept art and story snippets. I still love drawing but I think webtoons just took a lot out of me and it wasn't the exactly the right medium for me. So I think I'll start writing stories that are more writing focused than art, but add in cool concept arts and stuff, like the stuff you get from certain otome games! (I love collecting those).

Sooo yeah that's where my thoughts are for right now, if you've read this I really appreciate that, so thanks! Have a great rest of your day babes!

#personal growth #just thinking #deep thoughts #thinking aloud #talking to myself

[honeymouthedtales]

Miss Cla... Can you share your skin care routine? Or some good products you know about? (Yeah, sorry about me asking that in your writing account. It's because I saw about you mentioning about it and I got curious and honestly I'm clueless to know where to ask)

hello! issokay, it's a bit long so i'll be putting under the cut. sorry for oversharing eheh

I have very sensitive skin so I either switch between a moisturizing routine and a still moisturising but for a sensitive skin routine according to how bad my skin feels. I also use both western and korean skincare. i don't use a lot of products that are difficult to use (like you have to pay extra care about not mixing chemicals who react badly together) like acids because i'm afraid to mess up due to poor knowledge, and i'm also not using a lot of stuff like retinol or vitamin c which are photosensitive products because i'm not that good at reapplying my sunscreen. I also try to avoid anything with a strong fragrance because fragrances are guaranteed to make me break out horribly. i'm very slow at trying new products because i introduce one new thing at a time to judge whether it's been creating problems, breaking me out or irritating me. i also think too much is not good and i always try to downsize my routine in order not to overwhelm my skin.

without further ado, the routine. i do foam cleanser - toner - moisturizer - sunscreen (makeup) in the morning, and makeup remover (oil) - foam cleanser - toner - essence/serum - moisturizer at night, sometimes throwing a random face mask in there. i don't put any serum in the morning because i still use face masks a lot outside and the moisture get trapped between the skin and the mask and becomes thriving field for bacteria... i learned to take it easy in the morning.

For cleansers I generally use the bring green tea tree cleanser (kr) or the glow recipe blueberry bounce gentle cleanser (uk), which i buy when i go back to italy because sephora kr doesn't have it ㅠㅠ also for removing makeup I use the manyo pure cleansing oil (kr). i like oil makeup removers more than micellar water, but I always follow up with the foam.

Toners... I use a lot, but honestly, don't trust toners that claim to do miracles because they never do, they're mostly just nice water ahah what I look in a toner is that it has to be fresh and calming for my sensitive skin. I could rec you like ten or twenty but they're not /that/ effective so don't waste too much money on a miracle toner, just find a simple calming toner that works for you and stick to that, invest your money in other products (unless you love toners like me, i have like six that i'm using rn on rotation)

as for serums I'm using beauty of joseon's green tea calming serum and i'm in love with it. i also have their glow serum and i don't like it, meh. once a week i use the ordinary's niacinamide serum, which I love but it's very harsh on my skin so I only use it once a week and I dilute it with my moisturizer to reduce the harshness. it's always worked for me, but i need to be careful and don't overuse it because my skin wouldn't like it. i think it's the only product in my routine i'm a bit wary of. recently i've also started using the dermalogica circular hydration serum recently which is quite expensive. i'm not that impressed considering the price, but we shall see.

finally, for moisturizers, i'm using beauty of joseon's signature moisturizer and also their ginseng eye cream. they're very good products, and ranked quite high on skincare reddit/youtube. also sunscreen, i'm in love with the anessa skincare milk (jp) which i've used for years.

generally, it's hard to recommend products not knowing what the other person needs, but in my case i've found out that more important than a single product is to pay attention to my skin and switch my routine to products that have a more calming effect if i notice something is not working well, and only go back to the more aggressive product once i'm sure my skin has gone back to normal. the more effective a product is the more harsh it will be on the skin, and that's why the skin must get slowly eased into accepting some products like retinol, acids, vitamin c, and also niacinamide which can do many good things but can also cause you to break out.

also as a golden rule unscented almost always works better because fragrances bother the skin a lot. and it's way better to invest in a slightly more expensive product which is tested for not causing allergies even if you don't have sensitive skin, than finding yourself with a product you cannot use (my real barrier moisturizer :) which was riformulated when i was in italy :°) to add bergamot fragrance :°°°) and now i only use it as body moisturizer :( )

sorry if i talked so much, if you have specific questions you can ask them!

#ask #cla #little blossoms #skincare

[richardsondavis]

Official Translations. My first rodeo with them was when I was still with MangaRock. Before MangaRock became INKR.

So I was only familiar with fan translations of manga, scanlations as they were called. My first manga that I've ever read was Beelzebub. MangaFox source.

I was also using a different app. MangaReader. A blue app. Man, memories. That app was one of the first then I found my main app for years. Manga Reader by Robin Studio. Pink themed app and that one had a lot of sources and it introduced me to a lot of genres. Loved it. Then MangaRock.

So I didn't know that there are official translations of manga. I found an official translation by accident when I was looking for a good Fairy Tail translation. The fan translation of that one is just awful for the first chapters.

When I found that Sigurein is translated as Sieglain as per the dub then I knew I got a good one. Didn't know that it was official and by Kodansha, a trustworthy manga translator.

So I enjoyed that shit. Finished Fairy Tail with Manga Rock. Then Manga Rock died so I had to find alternatives. Heard of Tachiyomi so I went and checked it out and lo and behold a shit ton of translation sources. This was also the time I became interested in manhwa and webtoons. So I went and checked and my search for manhwa to read solidified my desire to go with official. Manga was various with the quality some are not good, others serviceable.

Manhwa is just good or meh. The official translations are fucking fantastic. So I applied the same ideal to manga.

Now I was not aware of the official translation discourse until recently. Apparently, manga and Japanese media in general as far as translation is concerned are getting "mistranslated" by the very partisan and left leaning peeps. And I can safely that yes, that has happened.

Of course, nuance applies and the mistranslations always have something to do with the LGBT and feminism stuff.

Chainsaw Man recently had a panel in the official translations where the MC is just saying something about Unions and Job Security. The fan translation does not have the mention of that one whatsoever. The anime also didn't. This was not blown up however because it talks about Union Jobs and job security and humane job treatment. This also isn't anti-LGBT bait or anyother so yeah. The only mention of the anti-woke side who hates official translation whom they call localization is a meme and the comments have a discussion referencing commies and stuff. Awful stuff and not worth the headache.

There was one thing there though that was interesting. There was a Japanese person in the comments that said that what the MC said in the raw manga was gibberish. I guess its true. Then in the not so woke side of the conversation the gibberish that the MC says also is just how he pronounces the words for union job and job security and shit.

I feel so butthurt. Not because of the conversation about the union job, translation or anything. I have opinions too and I feel like I should pick a side herr but I don't want to. I want to read Chainsaw Man. I hate being redpilled.

Guess my woke tolerance is a bit high.

I just want to enjoy my shit without controversy. My friends are like that. I mean my problem isn't the translation or what people say about it. It's the sides that form when these are talked and the feeling that I'm a bad person whenever I enjoy these works. Based on the vitriol I see. Maybe I shouldn't take things seriously.

I've been pressured to read smarter or be analytical but I just can't. I feel dumb half the time and I'm very slow on the uptake on things. I just want to forget the internet and enjoy things in ignorance. I'm better off that way. Fuck the redpilled. Fuck the woke. Fuck this translation issue. Fuck everything!!!!

#rant #manga #csm #official #translation #scanlation

[facetsofthecloset]

Just finished watching the first ep of the Urusei Yatsura reboot!

Spoiler free thoughts: The art is super cute and I like Kamiya Hiroshi as Ataru a lot, even if I love the original most forever and always. But the pacing feels rushed and there is no comedic timing, it's all just go-go-go. :/ Hopefully once they get past the establishing episodes it’ll calm down a bit??

I also like the new opening and ending!

More spoilery thoughts under the cut:

Ok so they condensed the whole tag game and the "Ataru and Shinobu try to talk to each other on the phone but Lum interferes" episode into the first one, and the problem with that is...it really rushes things.

I've been rewatching the old series leading up to the reboot, and I really think the pacing is way better. Sure there are slow moments (a consequence of animation being more time consuming I assume?), but it knew how to create a mood and let you sit in the world.

I think this might be a problem with a lot of modern anime (though I honestly don't watch a lot so I can't say lol), but there's just no room to breathe. Every scene is like watching race cars do a lap; you think you've seen one but then it's gone and the next car is flashing by already.

So you don't really get any establishing of the status quo or characters before it's shaken up; I assume because it's aimed at people who already know the story/characters???

But the gags during the tag game of different methods Ataru tries are pretty much gone too; even the final way he catches Lum is turned into total dumb luck rather than Ataru being smart (well. In a pervy way, but you know, being smart at mischief was his whole thing). So I don't think it's a good introduction to people who are totally new either.

Which I think is what they should have gone for?! If you were going to cater mostly to old fans, you'd be better off doing a one-off OAV with the old cast like they did for the Rumic Theater stuff. As a reboot, I personally think it should be focused on completely new fans, so what's the point if they can't do the comedic timing right and don't even do gags?? It's a romcom, heavy on the com???

So that's my #1 concern going forward, is if they can't figure out how to make the jokes land because the timing is so rushed. I don't think this kind of slapstick is necessarily going to land with a modern audience unless you really sell the timing, so...meh.

THAT SAID, I really did enjoy Kamiya Hiroshi as Ataru. even though every time I heard Ataru's original voice actor doing his dad's voice I really wished it was him still doing the voice lol

I mean, I get it, he's old, it'd probably be harder for him to portray a high schooler nowadays, but oh man. I can still hear the old Ataru in there and it's like 🥺🥺🥺 SIR PLEASE I MISS YOU

I read that Lum's original VA is going to be voicing Lum's mom so I'm excited for that. New Lum is alright, though she's going heavier on the "cool" rather than the "cute," which I understand, just because the old voice is so iconic. You gotta differentiate somehow. I definitely prefer the old one, but the new one isn't bad.

Positives are again the art, really love the colors and the old art style being modernized. It's cute af

Really miss the old sound effects/soundtrack, but the new ones are cute too. Again, I like the energy of the new op and ed.

It was trippy seeing Ataru with a smartphone in the opening but using an old rotary phone in the episode 😂

I really don't understand the choice of squishing the intro tag game and the phone episode into one though, I think both really suffer for it. The old show knew how to set a tone and have "serious" moments to set you up for the punchline of the next scene, but this one really...doesn't. It's all rush rush rush so you don't have time to enjoy jokes or establish character much. It honestly feels kind of like an extended trailer?? 間が足りない。

Which again, might be just because it's the first ep and they want to get the premise set up and over with, but...I just don't think it's a good introduction. I really don't think the comedy lands at all, so I have no idea what people without nostalgia goggles are going to get out of it.

But I have the biggest nostalgia goggles of all, so I'm gonna keep watching it lol

#urusei yatsura 2022 #uy 2022 #urusei yatsura 2022 spoilers #kamiya-san is kinda making this thing for me tbh #if i didn't already like him idk if i would have liked this ep as much #i love the old show so much :( #but it could've been worse #i'm not impressed with what i've seen of mendou in the trailers though #kamiya akira is like. the king of screaming. love torturing his characters #this new mendou is kinda just flat #but who knows when he actually shows up maybe he'll be really good