#also I would leave the exclusive 'real name on tumblr' club

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 310: A Tale of Two Kacchans

Previously on BnHA: Flashback!Deku was all, “hey, you know what sounds like a good decision? Abandoning my studies at the safest place in the country so that the bad guy who wants to find me and kill me has literally nothing standing in his way of doing that.” All Might was all, “I fucking knew you were going to say some bullshit like that so whatever, but I’M COMING WITH YOU and I’m also going to invite the Hawksquad to come with us, mostly so that I can steal Jeanist’s car.” Jeanist was all, “okay fine you can borrow my car, All Might, but only if you wear jeans.” All Might was all, “okay sure” and he wore jeans and also sunglasses and a leather jacket and it was pretty rad. Anyway so now they’re out there fighting crime and hunting down the LoV and stuff, and absolutely none of it is going to end well, I’m just letting you know now. But I guess we’ll let them enjoy it while it lasts.

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi is all “happy belated Kacchan’s Birthday makeste, here’s the flashback you really wanted at long last,” and proceeds to pull the old vestige flashback out of the kitchen drawer and upend its contents all over my Friday afternoon without the slightest bit of warning. OFA III is all “WHAT’S UP I’M JUST SOME GUY, HELLO,” and okay?? Hello yourself. OFA II, on the other hand, is all, “okay yeah I have different hair and stuff, but I’m like 98% sure I’m either Bakugou or his goddamn twin, I mean look at me.” Which, yeah. I looked, and he really is though you guys. Anyway though, so he and OFA II basically just showed up in the First (who goes by Yoichi now)’s prison cell one day all “HEY THERE, WE’RE HERE TO SAVE YOU, APPARENTLY, ALTHOUGH WE SEEM REAL CONFUSED ABOUT IT TBH BUT HEY.” And so they saved him, and Yoichi was all “hey nice to meet you do you want to join my super-exclusive Saving The World Club”, and so they did, and then the chapter ended lol. I would have said yes too.

oh my sweet lord?? I didn’t realize we were getting a color page this week, but LOOK AT THIS

this could have been a fucking volume cover. I’m almost mad that it wasn’t, lol but I mean fkldjslklk just look at it??! Horikoshi out here spoiling us and making sure we’re well fed since next week the manga is on break for Golden Week. well this will certainly help to tide me over. hot damn look at those colors

so now it’s raining on some dumb building in the middle of somewhere

is this where the Hawksquad has set up camp for the night? or are we actually cutting back to the League? that’d be unexpected (but not unwelcome)

ffff nevermind dammit it’s just more random citizens under attack

feels like this is the third or fourth scene we’ve had of civilians being Under Attack since this arc started. I mean no offense, but I think we get it by this point. it’s the end times, etc. etc. we’re well aware that things have gone to shit

so apparently these two guys are facing off against a girl with a mutant quirk. and she’s telling them that she’s not a monster and she was just scared, oh shit. I believe her btw, you can see it in her face

but these assholes don’t believe her at all and they’re pointing what looks to be some type of support item gun at her

you know what’s interesting, is that this kind of random quirk discrimination is the exact kind of thing PLF and the like were swearing up and down they’d put a stop to with their glorious revolution. it’s almost like those guys were completely full of shit. huh

so yeah, fortunately for this woman someone is stepping in and intervening before she can be blasted to bits by this trigger-happy asshole for absolutely no fucking reason

looks like a hero actually stepped in and saved her?? but no that can’t be, heroes are the ones that ruin everything and make everything worse, or so I understand. lol where did all of this sarcasm come from out of nowhere dlkdsjlk I’m sorry guys I just suddenly got swept up in the hypocrisy of certain people’s philosophies out of the blue idek

anyway so it is of course Deku saving her, and now he’s trying to talk thess jerks down all diplomatically instead of just kicking their asses, which is certainly a choice

MOTHERFUCKER I’M

fucking impossible to miss the real world parallels here. shit. this woman nearly died for her crime of Walking While Having A Mutant Quirk huh. and meanwhile Deku is just letting this guy scurry away and even letting him keep that fucking bazooka of his, like, ????

fucking hell she’s crying!!

lmao this chapter is actively trying to make me mad now huh. that’s some genuine righteous anger I’m feeling on behalf of this fictional ferret lady whom I only met two minutes ago. girl you are not the one who needs to explain herself here!! you didn’t do anything wrong holy fuck. everything about this situation sucks so much

fkKJKLMMMHFGH

“I’m sorry I made you upset, please enjoy this panel of tiny!floating!Deku hefting this lady’s massive beach umbrella up for her like the fucking gentleman he is” well okay then thank you sir

and JUST LIKE THAT the tension is broken and I’m entirely incapable of taking the rest of this conversation seriously because Deku’s trying to be all calming and authoritative, but now the illusion has been broken because I know he only comes up to like her knees

“well thanks again for saving me young man. I’ll leave you to it, I’m sure you’ve got more important things to do like protecting your Lucky Charms cereal from all those greedy children”

oh hey All Might

you wouldn’t have just let that guy with the bazooka just walk away to commit more attempted murders would you?? man

OH MY GOD DEKU IS IMMEDIATELY DITCHING HIM AGAIN

I ~CANNOT STAY HERE~ oh, well, sorry to keep you detained I know you’re busy

dfslkjlk oh my god

fucking told you Deku didn’t pack any food lol. it’s literally all notebooks in that bag you guys. he couldn’t just leave them all in his dorm room when he left, because what if someone tried to read them and came across one of the pages where he absentmindedly doodled Kacchan’s name surrounded by little tiny hearts oh gosh

AWWWWW

I needed this Horikoshi. thank you for this wholesome soul-cleansing interaction after all of that bullshit earlier

so now Deku’s climbing up this tall building to eat his lunchbox more dramatically. Tokoyami would be proud

and Banjou is saying that society right now is just like in The Good Old Days (read: bad old days) when quirk society was even more of a mess than it is now

which is exactly how AFO likes it, no doubt

so now Deku’s having a whole conversation with Banjou seemingly out loud lol, weird. and he’s basically saying that they don’t have any clues as to where TomurAFO and the League are hiding right now, and none of the Tartarus escapees they’ve found knew anything either

mmmmmfmhm, marge simpson noises

but you think you can?? you, alone, by yourself?? you think you stand a chance?? I just need you to think this all through a bit more kid

Deku it is NOT JUST YOUR RESPONSIBILITY ALONE, PLEASE REALIZE THIS ALREADY. YOU MAY BE THE CHOSEN ONE, BUT EVEN THE CHOSEN ONE NEEDS HIS FRIENDS BY HIS SIDE GODDAMMIT

and of course my pleading is all in vain, because he’s a fictional character who can’t fucking hear me, and also because I’m pretty sure there’s only one character who is going to actually be able to get him to hear reason here. I’ve been saying it, and I’ll keep saying it lol. so until then I guess I’ll just have to be patient

anyway so it appears we’re segueing into another flashback??? HORIKOSHI PLEASE GIVE ME SOME BAKUCRUMBS BEFORE THE TWO WEEK BREAK, I BEG YOU

dlKSDJLFKWJELKGHSLGKLEKJLFKHLGK

YES, THANK YOU, I KNOW WHERE THIS FUCKING IS LOL, IT’S NOT LIKE I’VE BEEN OBSESSED WITH FINDING OUT WHAT HAPPENS IN THE REST OF THIS SCENE OR ANYTHING LMAO. BUT ANYWAYS DON’T MIND ME, YOU WERE SAYING??

oh my god oh my god I’m not readyyyyy, but also FUCK YEAH I AM SO FUCKING READY LOL LET’S DO THIS

YOU GUYS

I’M ABOUT TO STEP IN THAT ROOM AND YEET ONE OF THOSE FUCKING CHAIRS AT YOU ALL

NOOOOO

I’M ABOUT TO GRAB BANJOU’S GOGGLES AND STRETCH THEM OUT AND SNAP THEM BACK SO THEY SMACK THE SHIT OUT OF HIS FOREHEAD!!! IT’S WHAT HE DESERVES!!! I’M ABOUT TO MOVE TO JAPAN AND GET A JOB WITH DOORDASH AND FIND OUT WHAT HORIKOSHI LIKES TO ORDER FOR LUNCH SO I CAN BE THE ONE TO DELIVER IT SO THAT WHEN HE OPENS THE DOOR I CAN FINALLY ASK HIM “HEY WHAT THE FUCK” IN PERSON

AHHH NO EVERYBODY SHHHHH STOP TALKING!!!!

SOMEONE PLEASE TELL THAT PERSON SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS IN THE BACKGROUND TO SHUT THE FUCK UP, OH WAIT, THAT’S ME

(」゜ロ゜)」 щ(゜ロ゜щ)

LOL THIS FUCKING ASSHOLE!!! LOOK AT YOU!!! YOU’RE NOT KIRISHIMA OR SHINSOU OR IIDA IN A WIG OR ANYBODY LOL. YOU’RE JUST A DUDE. BROOOOO ABOUT FUCKING TIME, WHAT’S GOOD

I CAN’T SCROLL DOWN AHHHH BUT I HAVE TO BUT IT’S TOO INTENSE AHHHHHHH

I CAN SEE THE TOP OF HIS SPIKY HEAD, IT’S FINALLY THAT TIME AHHHHHHHH OKAY I’M GONNA DO IT HERE GOES

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

IT’S HIM. IT FUCKING REALLY FUCKIGN IS HIM OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. WHY AM I SO SHOCKED LMAO I’M THE ONE WHO’S BEEN SAYING THIS THE WHOLE DAMN TIME LMAO. OH GOD. O H MY FUCKING GOD

well okay then sir. so are you an ~ancestor~ or a Kacchan from another timeline or so what’s your deal then

YOICHI WHO IS YOICHI

YOICHI ALWAYS KNOWS WHAT’S UP. LMAO WHO IS YOICHI

(ETA: I’m going to punch myself in the face lmao. he’s Yoichi. he, the First. that’s his name. name reveal at long last what what!!)

MORE IMPORTANTLY SHOULD I BE IMAGINING NOBU’S VOICE RIGHT NOW BECAUSE LMAO I AM ANYWAY BUT YEAH

(ETA: I actually think he’s going to end up being voiced by Nobuhiko whether he ends up being Kacchan or not, just because it fits right in with the general “identical in almost every way” aesthetic he’s got going on.)

TUMBLR HOW WE LIKING OUR ANGSTY ALTERNATE UNIVERSE KACCHAN?? EVERYONE HATED YOU SO MUCH BEFORE THEY EVEN MET YOU, BUT THEY FORGOT TO CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY THAT YOU MIGHT BE HOT LMAO WHAT A TWIST

“some bright-eyed brat” oh come on. IT’S GOTTA BE HIM LOL

oh my god you all are probably TIRED AS FUCK of all my screaming but I’M SORRY IMMA HAVE TO DO IT ONE LAST TIME BECAUSE...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

that face. that expression!! THE FACT THAT HE’S OUT HERE OPENING DOORS WITH HIS FEET, LIKE HOLY SHIT!! JUST ADMIT THE JIG IS UP ALREADY

and so they really are the ones who busted First out of his jail cell huh

so how did they know you were in the room?? why did they come and break you out?? and how, pray tell, did they know to get you to transfer OFA to them?? hmmmMMMMMMMM

oh MY GOD

you guys. oh my god. it’s too much. every last bit of it lines up exactly with the Bakuverse theory sdkjfj I’m short-circuiting. it’s really fucking happening oh my lord

HELLO SEXY ALTERNATE UNIVERSE KACCHAN WITH HIS SEXY FUCKING SCAR, FUCK YEAH WE REALLY ARE EATING GOOD THIS CHAPTER

HELL YEAH WE’RE GOING. WE’RE GOING FULL SPEED YOU GUYS. LMAO I’M SO FUCKING HYPED RIGHT NOW I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF WEFKJLDKFFFF

SO, EVERYONE, LET’S RECAP. -- ACTUALLY NO, I STARTED TO WRITE UP A LIST, BUT I IMMEDIATELY REALIZED IT REALLY JUST NEEDS TO GO IN ITS OWN THREAD. SO I MADE IT AND POSTED IT, AND NOW I’M FINISHING UP THIS HOT MESS OF A RECAP POST. SO NOW WE’RE BACK TO THIS ONE FINAL PANEL OF DEKU EATING HIS KATSU ALL SERIOUS

YES SIR. YES SIR, WE GOING, FULL SPEED AHEAD, WHATEVER, IDK WTF IS HAPPENING BUT YES!!

lol, anyways so as I said in my other post, mysterious sexy guys with tragic pasts are what bring us together as a fandom, so whatever your thoughts are on the rest of it, let’s just rejoice in that. it’s what we deserve

#bnha 310 #midoriya izuku #ofa prime #ofa ii #bakugou katsuki #MAYBE??? #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

[nelliebrookstone]

( BRIANNE HOWEY, 29, CIS WOMAN, SHE/HER ) * hey, i’m looking for the office of ELEANOR ‘NELL’ BROOKSTONE. they’re the EMPLOYEE who’s known around the office as THE BURN BOOK, if that helps ? not to be a gossip, but i’ve heard that they’re SUPPORTIVE but PETTY, is that true ? i also heard that they’re the one who CRIED IN THE BATHROOM BECAUSE SOMEONE TOOK HER YOGURT. anyways, here’s the coffee they ordered.

Greetings Earthlings, my name is Asha I am simply a fellow human from planet earth looking to hang out with my cool friends at the Build-A-Bear. I’m excited to be here! I have more information on Eleanor (nellie if you know here, nell if you don’t) below the cut! If you give this a lil like I’ll slide into your exclusive tumblr DMs to plot! 

So, who is Nell? Well let me tell you. As far as most people know, Nell is a former Masters Model turned Head of Talent Management for models. She’s a mix of sweet Alabama charm and scary dead smile energy, and she always has a compact for you to borrow in her purse. Most people know she always has a perfect french manicure and knows most people by first name. You might also know she recently divorced Parker and is no longer using his last name, please do not call her Mrs. Carson she’ll cry in the bathroom and then leave you a bad yelp review. You’re not even on yelp, you say? She’ll make one for you and then leave a bad review. 

But like a curated Insta, this ain’t it folks. So buckle up. (I say this dramatically but tbh she has had a pretty stable life)

Nellie grew up in a smallish town in Alabama. If you ask her, it wasn’t small at all. But it certainly was compared to large city centers, and definitely compared to New York. It was the kind of town where everyone knew your business, and Nellie had a lot of business. 

She was a teen queen! Head cheerleader, student president, shining volunteer of the county and Lady Alabama of 2010 (not to be confused with Miss Alabama, but if you ask her it’s basically the same thing). She was very involved in her community and her parents were well known in the area for their construction company. Everyone loved her that she was like the golden child of the town.

It was a great, privileged life! Her parents got married young, had a bunch of kids, and had the means to care for them! Her parents also have a very genuine love story, still passionate about each other years later. She and her sisters (all five of them) have always wanted a life like their parents’. 

The one difference between her and her parents remained her desire to roam and see the world. She wanted to travel, or at least live in a place where she could meet new people from new places. Moving to New York seemed like a great place to get some experience, though if you ask her mother she probably got the idea from some dumb TV show. She did. It was a lot of shows. And a lot of movies. There were a ton of romantic comedies that TRULY shaped this desire. 

she started sending in applications to various schools in New York. She was an honor list student with a lot of extra-circulars and passion to be at these places that shown through on all her apps. She got many a rejection, the one from Columbia was the hardest. It was the worst thing that ever happened to her at the time, so you can imagine how her life must have been. 

She DID get accepted to NYU for Public Relations! CHEERS ALL AROUND! She was so excited. She was gonna see the world and be a big city bitch 10/10. In college, she was quickly involved in everything from various clubs, to sorority, to trying to get involved with the community. It didn’t work out as well. New York was just such a different town...in that it was...big. And she wasn’t used to that. 

But she did meet a funky guy named Parker Carson! And they fell in love! And here is a short synopsis of their relationship: 

they met at a department store. Parker looked a little lost in the dress shirt area so she helped him pick out an outfit and the rest was, as they say, history. 

they had a great relationship at first, full of love and passion and fun times. he had a pokemon tattoo, she used to play pokemon snap. what a team! 

but really, they had a great time together...which led them to get married real early. In fact, for Nell, this was even a little late. She thought she’d be married with kids by 23. 

a lot of little things led to their downfall, but it can be boiled down to not fully understanding what it takes to live with another person who doesn’t mesh with your lifestyle. A big issue for Nell was kids. She wanted them, right then and there. He didn’t! No one’s fault, but it seemed to be a block they couldn’t get over. 

they’re divorced now. it’s fresh. she’s got a lot of conflicts about it. She cannot believe she is divorced before 30. she cannot believe she doesn’t have kids by now. She is under the impression she’s run out of time for everything, which is not true at all but it’s how she feels. She’s none too fond of the man at the moment. 

But listen! Nellie is a fun girl! She’s got a lot of ~zest~ for life and likes to do new things and try new places. She’s also just as comfortable spending the day at home on the couch with everything she needs within arms reach. She seems like someone who would be into partying but that’s really not her scene. She’s a brunch girl, a drive-thru movie theater girl, and an all-day 90 day fiance girl. She has an addiction to cherry cokes and always misses her stop on the subway because she gets distracted listening to her music and zoning out. She cries a lot during sad AND happy movies and can’t eat pork because she once knew a pig named Babe (no relation to the famous babe). Her favorite animal is the octopus and she volunteers with the homeless shelter every weekend. 

All of this doesn’t really come across in her work persona. She always seems like she’s extremely put together and very good at what she does. She’s quick, snappy, and not afraid to speak her mind. She’s a master at the backhanded compliment and is the master of the delayed burn (you won’t know you’ve been roasted until she’s down the hallway). She has a very charming way of speaking with a thick southern accent and tons of sayings that no one knows the meaning of, but sometimes that Nice Southern Girl smile comes out and you know she would be stabbing you if such an act were socially acceptable. Despite this, Nellie doesn’t think she’s a mean person. 

But I’m sure there are MANY people who think she is. Because...sometimes she is! No one is perfect, and she definitely has a reputation of being a major pain in the ass if you’re on her bad side. Nell remembers EVERY slight against her. Oh, she remembers when you commented on the amount of emails she sends. She remembers when you mentioned that you thought her font type was a little too bold. She remembers it all...and stores it in her mental burn book. 

This also happens often because she is...pretty sensitive. And because she’s going through a divorce, which is NOT what she had planned for in life, she’s like a stubbed toe away from a full cry every day. She’s started to invest in waterproof mascara but it’s not working out. She really DID cry in the bathroom over her yogurt. She also came back the next day and wrote a VERY angry letter on the fridge titled ‘to the person who likes to take things that don’t belong to them, I hope your mother knows she raised a THIEF.’

As petty as she can be, she’s also a great person to have in your corner. If you’re a friend, she will fight for you to the end. She’s very loyal and will often drop whatever she’s doing if you need her. She can be very generous, no expenses spared to lift up someone she loves. If you’re a friend of hers, she’s a great friend. The kind you can call at 2 am when she’s dead asleep and she’ll still come help you move out of your shitty ex’s apartment. 

Basically, Nell is a whole lot of things. Not all of them are great. But she likes to think of herself as a good person that cares about other people. She generally is! She’s also fairly good at having heart to heart conversations, and isn’t afraid to own her mistakes if she’s not still upset about the issue. But she’ll also try to ruin your career if you steal her yogurt. Fun! 

I’ll add more as I think of it, but for now I’m here for all the plots. Best friends, enemies, the person who caught her crying in the bathroom, the person who caught her angrily scribbling her name on all her yogurt, you name it! 

#masters.intro #oh man this is a mess I'm not cool enough for intros

[ameliefms]

𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐝𝐲  𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞  ,  𝐪𝐭𝐬   🤠  ugh  i’m  so  excited  to  join  u  all  in  this  beautiful  group  !  i’m  s  /  stephy  and  i’m  bringing  u  a  chaotic  mess  to  the  dash  (  and  i  apologize  in  advance  🤕  )  ,  using  the  criminally  beautiful  madison  beer  !  i  love  to  chat  and  am  the  queen  of  dramatique  plots  ,  so  pls  do  not  hesitate  to  add  &  message  me  on  discord  :  simp 4 noah beck#6278 .  even  if  you  don’t  i’ll  still  spam  you  in  the  tumblr  dms  once  you  hit  the  like  :~)

new york’s very own amelie verona was spotted on broadway street , with a striking semblance to madison beer ! you may know them as @averona or hitting the front page of tmz as political heiress and it girl continues on the path of defying her prestigious family legacy and is caught skinny dipping at the governor’s mansion with a group of friends . according to tmz , you just had your twenty second birthday bash . while living in nyc , you’ve been labeled as being provocative , but also captivating . things that would paint a better picture of you would be sitting vip at the the most exclusive clubs in the city , delicate light-colored lingerie across a bedroom floor , sultry pink lip gloss on enticing lips . ( cisfemale + she/her  )

QUICK  STATS  .

full  name  :  amelie  valentine  verona  . age  :  22  . dob  :  valentines  day  ,  98  . hometown  :  ues  ,  manhattan  ,  nyc  . current  residence  :  nyc  . gender  :  cisfemale  . sexuality  :  heteroflexible  . occupation  :  model  ,  social  media  influencer  ,  singer  . tropes  :  reveler  ,  vixen  ,  coquette  ,  heiress  ,  troublemaker  .

personality  summary  .

i’m  literally  free  balling  here  with  the  thoughts  in  my  head  so  bare  with  me   💆‍♀️  okay  ,  amelie  ?  lets  do  it  .  i  would  describe  amelie  as  the  fun  ,  troublemaking  care  free  girl  that  loves  attention  .  she’s  very  confident  and  goes  after  what  she  wants  ,  when  she  wants  it  .  i  see  her  as  a  serena  vdw  before  she  changed  (  gossip  girl  )  ,  but  also gives  off  major  spoiled  ,   ice  princess  energy  and  can  be  pretty  manipulative  .  she  is  chaotic  and  known  to  get  herself  into  trouble  ...  and  others  into  trouble  .  we  love  a  rule  breaker  .  the  looks  come  in  handy  as  well  and  she  definitely  uses  it  to  her  advantage  🤢  the  reason  she  craves  this  attention  so  much  and  it  puts  out  this  chaotic  energy  is  bc  she  never  got  it  at  home  wompwomp  /:  .  typical  spoiled  rich  girl  with  parents  that  just  showered  her  in  gifts  to  make  up  for  being  shitty  .  so  she  definitely  has  a  more  softer  side  that’s  seen  once  she  lets  you  in  and  truly  see  why  she  is  the  she  is  .  hates  the  idea  of  people  leaving  her  and  honestly  questions  what  true  love  is  ):

the  dreams  begin  .

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬  :  growing  up  in  nyc  and  being  around  all  the  glitz  and  glamour  of  manhattan ,  amelie  always  craved  to  be  something  big  one  day  and  known  for  more  than  being  an  heiress  to  a  popular  political  family  .  as  the  spoiled  princess  that  she  was  ,  the  verona’s  wanted  to  ensure  she  got  what  she  wanted  .  they  started  by  using  their  connections  and  placed  her  in  dancing  and  acting  classes  ,  as  well  as  helping  her  with  her  already  naturally  good  singing  abilities  .    while  the  end  goal  was  to  become  like  her  childhood  idols  (  britney  spears  ,  miley  cyrus  ,  and  katy  perry  )  ,  she  and  her  parents   knew  they’d  most  likely  have  to  take  multiple  different  avenues  to  get  there  .  

abc’s  the  bachelor  .

𝐭𝐡𝐞  𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐫  :  amelie’s  true  rise  to  fame  began  when  she  was  casted  on  abc’s  the  bachelor  .  she  quickly  became  a  fan  favorite  ,  known  for  her  beauty  ,  fun  &  care  free  attitude  and  being  a  troublemaker  ,  which  led  to  a  lot  of  entertaining  drama  with  the  other  cast  mates  .  at  the  very  end  of  the  season  ,  it  was  a  shocker  and  disappointment  for  many  that  she  wasn’t  given  the  final  rose  .  despite  the  disappointing  ending  ,  the  journey  with  the  tv  show  didn’t  end  there  .  everyone  saw  the  tremendous  fan  base  she  had  grown  .

a  social  media  star  is  born  .

𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥  𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚  𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐳𝐲  :  after  the  journey  of  the  bachelor ,  amelie’s  fan  following  grew  significantly  more  and  the  media  was  always  looking  to  see  what  she  was  currently  doing  and  what  was  next  in  her  life  .  becoming  the  new  it  girl  wasn’t  something  she  had  expected  to  fall  in  her  lap  ,  but  she  happily  took  the  title  and  all  the  attention  that  came  her  way  .  all  the  attention  gave  a  more  inside  look  into  her  life  ,  which  wasn’t  an  abnormal  one  for  someone  of  her  age  and  status  :  partying  ,  antics  ,  and  chaos  with  other  stars .  the  name  amelie  became  a  popular  &  controversial  one  ,  one  people  just  couldn’t  seem  to  get  enough  of  .  this  era  also  introduced  her  into  modeling  . 

the  sports  illustrated  moment  .

modeling  career  :  finally  taking  a  dab  into  serious  modeling  ,  amelie  was  invited  to  a  be  vs  angel  -  but  this  wasn’t  her  defining  moment  .   it  was  the  moment  she  appeared  on  the  cover  of  sports  illustrated  and  everyone  officially  knew  who  she  was  .  did  she  become  the  poster  in  every  college  frat  guys  room  ?  yes  ,  but  it  also  reached  a  new  audience  and  made  into  her  a  symbol  that  would  translate  into  the  the  next  stage  of  her  career  .

music  .

𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜  𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫   :  with  all  the  momentum  and  excitement  surrounding amelie  ,  it  was  time  for  her  to  take  her  career  to  another  level  .  she  signed  to  a  record  label  knowing  that  they  could  really  help  her  get  to  where  she  wanted  .  they  knew  what  fans  were  looking  for  from  her  and  what  kind  of  artist  she  needed  to  be  .  considering  her  rise  to  fame  surrounded  reality  tv  ,  modeling  ,  social  media  and  love  ,  they  knew  her  music  needed  to  be  about  her  real  life  relationships  and  the  way  she  expressed  herself  needed  to  be  that  of  a  fun  ,  carefree  ,  sexually  liberated  girl  .  a  taylor  swift  meets  bangerz  miley  cyrus  .  the  music  released  needed  to  be  upbeat  ,  demanding  ,  alluring  ,  and  confident  -  just  like  her  ,  with  lyrics  that  made  you  think  who  or  what  was  in  her  life  when  writing  it .

now  ,  amelie  is  working  on  releasing  her  highly  anticipated  second  album  .  in  between  the  highly  successful  first  years  or  her  career  she  has  featured  on  many  songs  ,  ventured  into  other  business  avenues  ,  and  toured  around  the  world  . 

connections  .

drama  ,  angst  ,  more  drama  :~)  but  seriously  message  me  and  if  u  read  all  that  ,  you’re  a rockstar  .

#wealthy.intro #staying on brand and being l8 !!! #but i blame working all day :~)

[youknowmymethods]

Content Creator Interview #3

In the third part of this series it’s @ohaine ‘s turn (*waves*) to pick @ashockinglackofsatin​ ‘s (satin_doll’s) brain about inspiration for baroque and larger than life OCs, what poetry has to do with fanfiction, and how a chance encounter with a masked swordsman kicked her down the path to fandom and fanfic writing. 

(My apologies if the formatting looks a bit weird to you. This looks fine on my desktop, but a bit crazy in the mobile app. Not sure what’s going on or how to fix it, so...)

                                   “He drapes the black cloth carefully. He doesn't want to disturb more than necessary. As he works, he murmurs to them, softly, ever so softly. Periodically, he pauses and stares into the distance, as if he's watching for a visitor. No one will come now. Not out here. Not for him.”

-Telling the Bees

If you read enough, if you pay enough attention, every now and then you’re rewarded with a fanfic author who not only truly understands the character they’re writing, but who also truly understands writing itself. They’re a gift. Not only to their readers but to other writers who take inspiration from them, who learn from them, who aspire to be as good as them.

On a sunny Saturday morning in April 2016 for the very first time I opened satin_doll’s page on AO3 and read her first Sherlolly story, “Telling the Bees.” I cried fat, ugly tears for Sherlock, for Molly, (inconvenient, not to mention embarrassing as I was in a public place) but I smiled because I’d found one. A gift. It was the beginning of a love affair with her work, the beginning of a masterclass in writing and understanding, but maybe even more importantly it was the beginning of a wonderful friendship. And it began with the same first words I’ve used to introduce her here.

It’s a joyous thing to be given the opportunity to talk to her about her writing. Whether it’s a revelatory character study, like “Down and Shaking When I Think I Lose,” the heart-wrenching romance of “Doubt,” even the so-perfect-it-could-be-canon world of the “Dark Company” series, satin_doll pulls you down a rabbit hole, into Sherlock’s world in a way that makes you understand him better, and teaches you something about yourself in the process.

 Funny, clever, insightful, she’s my number one writing crush, I love her to bits. 

Over Christmas 2018 satin_doll (@ashockinglackofsatin here on tumblr) was kind enough to answer my fangirling questions about her writing and characters. I hope you all enjoy reading what she had to say as much as I did.

  OhAine: So, starting at your beginning, how did the spark ignite?

satin_doll: I started with fiction before I could actually read or write. When I was four years old, there was a television show on about Robin Hood. My mom would park me in front of the television every day when this show was on (probably to get some relief/keep me out of her face for a little while so she could get something done) and I was absolutely in love with Robin Hood. I made up stories and made my mother write them down for me. This is how I learned to read and write: she started teaching me my letters when I asked her what the little black marks were on the paper. Once I learned, I read everything I could get my hands on. I read literally everything. I was absolutely fascinated with words.  I belonged to a children's book club, went to the library, read my parents books (both my mom and stepdad were voracious readers, so there were books everywhere.) I especially loved books about fantastic things - magic, sorcery, dragons, etc. I loved mythology, superheroes, science fiction and fantasy. I collected comic books for years. Not much changed as I got older. Speculative fiction is still what I'm drawn to.   

Despite my obsession with books and stories, I never considered myself a "writer" until after college. In school, I had the usual literature and writing classes until I met Mr. P, my creative writing professor. He was a well-known poet (think Pulitzer Prize) and our creative writing was almost exclusively poetry. I fell in love with both him and poetry and continued to take classes with him for years. One of my proudest achievements was breaking into a particularly choosy literary magazine and being published in it before he was. He never let me forget that. He also was fond of saying "Novelists are failed poets", which I took to heart for a long while once I understood what he was saying. He wasn't criticizing novelists, just making a point about how to write poetry. That's about the extent of my training as a writer; the rest is just me and my periodic forays into hubris. 

OhAine: Is voracious reading how you discovered fanfiction? 

satin_doll: No, it was on the old Compuserve bulletin boards. And loved it. But it didn't really occur to me to write it back then.

In 1998, I belonged to an online discussion group about Zorro. I had a video tape of all the old Disney episodes and I adored Guy Williams. One of the ladies in the group - I still don't remember why she chose me - asked me to write her a story about Zorro, so I did. I think Zorro ended up in a bathtub with a lady, taking his mask off and introducing himself by his real name. I don't know what happened to that file, I wish I still had it. As I recall, it was a nice story and I was very pleased with it. At any rate, that was my first fanfic as an adult that I shared with someone else, and after that I couldn't quit doing it.

OhAine: It’s that sharing that makes fanfiction unique, isn’t it? Because the reader isn’t some abstract concept, far removed from you, we’re all part of the same fandom so you get an instant connection, almost real-time feedback.   

satin_doll: Exactly. And that feedback is critical for a writer, no matter how much some of us protest that we "write for ourselves." We don't live in a vacuum and psychologically speaking, for writers, sharing our work is an important form of setting boundaries, which is expressing who and what we are. This is especially true for fanfic writers, I think. When we post work, we're not doing it so that we can go back and look at it ourselves. We're communicating and we're communicating something important. We join a fandom because we like it, and to communicate that enjoyment with other like-minded individuals. We want to share what we love and what we know. When we write stories about the characters or using a particular setting or universe, we're expressing, communicating - hopefully - something important about ourselves, both individually and as a group. 

When I write fanfic, I write it to communicate. I don't expect lots of kudos or comments; in fact, I'm usually surprised that anyone reads it at all, let alone takes the time to leave a remark or anything of that sort. But it's out there, and hopefully someone will read it and it will touch something inside them, have a little meaning for them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not writing to change anyone's life. It's enough to trigger some feeling, some emotional response, make them think or even just go "hmmm." I recently received a comment from someone who said they "had never thought of it that way." That was extremely satisfying to me, it meant that I had reached someone, made them think or consider something a different way and that's exactly why I write.

OhAine:  Is that how you measure the success of a piece? Or do you have something else you measure it by?

satin_doll: Success to me is simply getting it done! Feedback is lovely, it's wonderful, and I adore it, but if I had to go by that I'd never write another word. In terms of feedback, the stories I would have thought would be well received generally aren't and the ones I think no one will like do fairly well, all things considered. Writing is hard, and I'm a very slow writer. I'm also probably more serious about it than most in the fan fiction realms. Not that I think my stories warrant "serious" consideration, but that the writing of them is a serious act for me. If I'm able to sit down and finish a piece, that's a success as far as I'm concerned. That they get any notice at all is icing on the cake.

OhAine: So I wanted to drill down a bit into some of your stories. Choosing which ones to ask you about was difficult because I have so many questions about your process, but I’ve settled in the end on two that I think are representative of the things you do best; OCs and character examination. Words (part of the Dark Company series) stands out for me as one of your most memorable stories not only because it has an outstanding OC (as all of the Dark series stories do) in the form of Mr P., but because of the very Sherlock way that Sherlock approaches the problem of his feelings for Molly Hooper. Can you tell me a bit about the inspiration for that story?

satin_doll: Sherlock and "feelings" is a notorious problem for writers, I think. Moftiss didn't do us any favors with their approach to the subject. Most tend to depict Sherlock as being clueless about feelings in general, which I understand. But in my universes, he isn't clueless so much as he is averse. Feelings can cause problems, both professionally and personally, so he buries them. But (in my version) he does this consciously. It isn't because he's unaware, it's a choice. Along with that choice come consequences. When he decides that he WANTS to deal with the feelings, he doesn't quite know how because he's never practiced expressing them or communicating on that level. It's like having a muscle that you've barely used; it's weak and it doesn't function properly yet. So, when he decides that he wants to start dealing with the emotional side of his relationship with Molly, what would he do?

My idea was that he would go to an expert in emotional expression for help, at least in the initial approach. Who better to come up with the right words than a poet? In the Dark Universe, Sherlock knows experts in everything. They are his friends, people he has interacted with, who know him and whom he knows and trusts completely. That was the beginning idea. Sherlock goes to one of his friends for help in finding the exact right words to open up the way to moving forward with Molly. Mr. P gives him a little poem that sort of wraps up the problem with the relationship as it is, and gives them both a push in the right direction. Sherlock does this because he is AWARE that he has a weak emotional muscle, not because he doesn't have one. It was like his first excursion to the emotional gym. He had to have help to get started. 

OhAine: And the poem at the end – “How is it that we say so much in our first glance of greeting, Yet our words sit on our tongues like tiny, frozen birds?” – it absolutely kills me.

satin_doll: You can blame my own Mr. P for that. I spent years writing mostly poetry, and though I don't get that "poetic" in most of my fics, I was taught to cut and condense (also a result of writing movie reviews and doing interviews for work), to focus on the exact word or image that would get the point across or get the right response (thank you Semantics 101.) I also love haiku, which I consider the ultimate form of poetry, and distilling the essence of what you want to say into a single image is really good practice for writing of any kind. There is a place for long, flowery descriptives in writing fiction, I suppose, but in the end you have to remember that you're telling a story and you don't want the words to get in the way of that. Simple is always best, in poetry as well as fiction. 

OhAine:  I thought it was interesting that in this story he reached out to her in such a romantic way, yet you managed to still have it happen in a way that’s very much true to their characters. How do you walk that line between showing something that we only ever get the barest of hints of on screen, expanding the characters into places and emotions that we’re not familiar with, yet still keep them true to themselves?

satin_doll: Ah, this is a touchy one. We all have our own versions of Sherlock, of what we think is "in character" for him. Mine is such a mishmash of nearly every incarnation of Sherlock Holmes, going all the way back to the ACD beginnings. There are inconsistencies in those first stories as far as Sherlock's character is concerned, but there are strong consistencies also. What I object to is the reliance on physical habits or traits in place of actual character. Using certain physical attributes portrayed in the series for example (the popping of P in certain words, certain phrases borrowed from the show used over and over, etc.) does nothing to show character. I don't actually rely on the BBC series for my version of Sherlock; mine is a combination of all the Sherlock's I've known over many years. I always start from that. Likewise, you can't confuse the actor with the character, and I see that so very often in fics. 

Molly, on the other hand, is much more difficult because we only have what we see in the BBC series and there's very little of that. So I sort of have to ask some questions that involve my version of Sherlock: What would he be drawn to? What character traits would he find appealing, be able to trust, and why? What would it be about Molly Hooper that Sherlock would want/love? We get little hints in the BBC show, and oddly enough, she does change and grow throughout. I never saw Molly as mousey. I mean, look at what she's doing in the very first minutes we meet her! Look at what her job is! I adored her from those first few brief minutes and I knew that of all the women in Sherlock's life, she would be the one that would appeal to him. So that's the way I write her (mostly; there are a few times I've been a little untrue to Molly, but not many.)

OhAine: It’s obvious that although they’re superficially very different you see them as very much the same beneath the surface. 

satin_doll: Sherlock has always known that he is not like other people; he's not "normal". Molly, on the other hand, was taught that "normal" was something she should aspire to, to be like other people. So she fights her nature - which, to me, would have to be a little dark, otherwise she wouldn't be drawn to Sherlock, she wouldn't have pursued the career she did. In the Dark series, Sherlock is trying to teach her that she doesn't have to deny those inner aspects of herself that are decidedly NOT normal, in order to be happy. No matter how much she tries, "normal" doesn't work out for her. Little by little, they are both learning to accept things they've denied in themselves and they're finding it in their "dark" natures, in the dark around them, which can contain so much knowledge and wisdom if we're willing to explore it - and relief from trying to be something other than who you really are. 

OhAine: And you’ve chosen to do that with OCs that are worthy of canon; Doyle couldn’t have done better in creating a world for modern day Sherlock. They have a vibrancy that’s worthy of a main character, yet you manage to do that without distracting from Sherlock and Molly’s story. How do you find these characters’ and their voices?

satin_doll: I know a lot of weird people. :D 

Seriously, I don't think we have to make up original characters whole cloth. We all know people in our real lives who would make great fictional characters. I take a person I've known (for example: Sean, Sherlock's twin in Mango. I did know a person whose father shot her mother in front of her. I borrowed the incident, added a few traits from other people I know and voila, instant character) and insert them into the story. It's part of what's called "writing about what you know." The more from real life you can insert into your stories, the more realistic and satisfying they are. This goes for plot and description as well as characters. As for making them not take over the story completely, you do that by giving them an emotional tie to the main character but not letting that original character take over the main plot. The inner/outer struggle and emotional growth have to be about your protagonist, your main characters.  

OhAine: That neatly brings me to Down and Shaking When I Think I Lose which is a masterpiece, and something that’s rare these days: an old school character study. You’ve written Season One Sherlock in a way that I haven’t seen done very often and not in a number of years. It’s outstanding because your Sherlock is atypical in a way that Mofftiss sadly abandoned after S2. There’s a line in your story that says, ‘Sometimes he wanted to be worn to nothing,’ that hones in on the cost of being Sherlock. Can you talk a bit about how this story came to be, and what about the canon character formed this version of him in your mind?

satin_doll: You have to understand, I love Sherlock Holmes deeply and have for a very, very long time. To me, he's not just a quirky, interesting character. He's my hero. And I have a thing about heroes.

I see a lot written about Sherlock that portrays him as broken in some way, or as deficient. There's always this underlying assumption that there's something "wrong" with him. Maybe there is, according to the scale by which normal people are judged. But there's another aspect to him that I've never really seen written about: what does he have to give up in order to do what he does? See I don't think he's unaware of how he is. I think he chooses to be that way. Part of that choice is to give up - to literally sacrifice - all those things that other people have as a matter of course: homes, families, relationships, emotional connections. This is part of the Heroic Saga. All heroes must sacrifice in order to be what/who they are. All of them, no exceptions. If they have the capacity to be the Hero, if they choose to go that way, they must sacrifice what the rest of us take for granted. There's a line from a book that I have constantly playing in the back of my head: "Who will do the hard things? Those who can." Sherlock is one of "those who can"; he CAN do the hard things. But always, implied in that, is sacrifice. If you choose to do the hard things, because you can, you must give up everything else. 

There is an episode of Zorro where Diego de la Vega makes the decision to give up being Zorro. He decides he is tired of not having what everyone else has. He wants a home and a family and a relationship with a woman he's fallen in love with. He tells his father what his plans are, and his father, bless him, even though he's an old man, decides that he must take up the mask and become Zorro - because someone has to. Someone HAS to do the hard things. When Diego realizes what his father is doing, and what his father is giving up, and that his father will most likely die as Zorro, they have a long discussion about what being a hero and doing the hard things actually means, how important it is that someone fill that role. Diego makes the decision to continue wearing the mask, to sacrifice everything he thinks he wants, in order to do something he realizes is more important - because he CAN. He will do the hard things, because he can. In my mind (and heart), this is Sherlock. He does what no one else does, what no one else CAN do, because he can. The sad part of all this is that usually, no one else realizes how hard those things are or what sacrifices have to be made in order to do them. The hero gets criticized for not being like other people, they get ostracized, shunned, ridiculed, misunderstood. But they still keep doing it. No matter how frustrating, lonely, terrifying the role is, they keep doing it because they know they can. No matter what they have to give up, they do it. 

I wanted to show that Sherlock has suffered all his life simply because of how he is and what he can do. And he chooses to embrace it, to stay true to himself in spite of everything, because he knows what he can do. It wears on him. It's lonely. It's exhausting. Frustrating. But he knows what he can do, and he does it, despite it all. Because someone has to.

OhAine: It’s funny, but I often think Sherlock’s sacrifice is less of a willing one than he’d have us believe. He says, ‘not my area,’ ‘while fulfilling for others,’… less ‘my mind is a temple’ than ‘I don’t think I can have both, despite the fact that I want both.’ 

satin_doll: Sherlock as hero is my own interpretation, based more on a combination of all the Sherlock's I've been exposed to over many years than on the BBC Sherlock alone. I don't really see all that many stories depicting him as a hero, which I totally understand given that so many discovered him from that series. I don't think Sherlock ever sees himself as a hero or tries to present himself as one to anyone else, but I think he's aware of the sacrifices he's had to make in order to do what he does, even in the BBC version. Otherwise I don't think he'd let anyone into his life at all, let alone work closely with people or consider anyone a "friend" - and yet that's exactly what he does, because he needs some sort of human connection even when he keeps them at a distance. There are a lot of interpretations out there of Sherlock and many many legitimate reasons people see for the way he behaves and what he does. Far be it from me to say that any of them are wrong. But for me, I don't think any hero's sacrifice is all that willing, no matter how aware he/she might be of it. In all of them, when that awareness is depicted, it takes the form of wistfulness when they realize what they've had to give up, to downright misery and attempts not to give up what they see other people having - which always fail. Sherlock is no exception in my universe.

This is where my frustration with Mofftiss comes in. Despite showing Sherlock as the supposed hero, they belittle everything else about him. They never address the facts that Sherlock literally gave up his life to save his friends, that what he does is absolutely extraordinary, in favor of depicting him as simply a social misfit with slightly nefarious motives, who needs to be changed into something resembling their idea of what "human" is. As a result, they have a schizophrenic John Watson, who never quite appreciates Sherlock or what he does despite more than ample evidence, and other characters that rather quickly become caricatures rather than actual characters. 

OhAine: I agree with you that Mofftiss belittle him, mostly through the disrespect of other characters, which really doesn’t happen in the ACD stories, certainly not by those closest to him…Watson, Mycroft... They sort of excused that away by saying ‘this turned out to be an origin story’ when we know that they were trying to convey isolation, but because they were unsuccessful it kinda sorta turned into bullying.

satin_doll: I think it's Benedict's performance more than the writing that makes BBC's version so appealing. He does capture, as much as possible given what he has to work with, Sherlock's dilemma - how to keep those connections with people in his life without letting them get too close. By episode two in series one, I was already starting to really resent the way John careened back and forth between admiration and caring and literally sneering at Sherlock for the way he was. Within minutes in episode two, series one, we have John treating Sherlock like a naughty child, then asking him for money, substituting the word "colleague" for the word friend and then jumping in to join Sherlock on an adventure. It just got worse from there. The BBC version became less about Sherlock and more and more about John's mental struggles, all the while trying to make Sherlock seem to be the one who was unstable and twisted. I know this is an unpopular viewpoint nowadays, so I don't generally say much about it. But it's been a major sticking point with me throughout all four series.

Having said all that about Mofftiss, I still watch all the episodes regularly because a) it's Sherlock Holmes, and b) I adore Cumberbatch's performance. :D

OhAine: Controversial take: I never really believed that Sherlock sacrificed himself for his friends. I think that was a consideration, one that could have been dealt with by Mycroft if he was motivated to, but I think the main reason he left London for two years was for the sheer adventure of it all… (Not true, I don’t think, of his sacrifice for Mary though…)

satin_doll: I can easily see this viewpoint. It could even be said that he left just because the people around him were simply getting too close and he needed a way to sever or lessen those ties before they got out of hand. Personally I don't think it was that simple. In the ACD version, Sherlock is gone for three years, and he's not dismantling anything - he just stays away for that long and travels around the world until he hears that the last remaining Moriarty Minion who wants to kill him is back in London. There's a bit of remorse for leaving John to grieve, but it's quickly resolved. In the Mofftiss version, it feels like a contrived set up; they use the excuse that he's doing it all to protect his friends, but really, I've never bought that between Mycroft and Sherlock they couldn't have come up with a better, easier way to deal with the situation. If they could calculate seventeen outcomes of the meeting on the roof? I mean really? 

OhAine: I’d say moving swiftly along, but neither of us do things swiftly LOL. Anyway. *Moving* along, Bring me my Queen is a stunning piece of storytelling that focuses on Molly this time, and for me it brings together your storytelling strengths in one piece. You’ve obviously drawn on real life experiences with this one, and I wonder how important that is for you? Is it a device, catharsis, processing of the emotions…?

satin_doll: It's probably all of those things. I use the stories and the characters to act out stories from my life, because it's what I know. It helps me to vent and process emotional aspects, but it also gives the characters something real to deal with; it makes them more like real people. At least in my head. It helps express beliefs, process both pain and joy, let people know what I've learned, hopefully touch them in some real way. Stories are to help us deal with real life situations, to communicate and to learn from, as well as give enjoyment and entertain us. Years ago, during a spiritual study, I read something that really struck a chord with me (I even ended up writing an article about it, which I'm sure still exists online somewhere but hell if I can find it now!): Messages from the Universe most often come to us via our favorite form of entertainment. What better way to get through to us or catch our attention than in the form of something we really enjoy? So I look at fanfic, both writing and reading, as a way to be in touch with the Universal Intelligence, a way to learn what life is trying to show me, and a way for the Universe to use me to reach others. 

And after all that, writing stories is the best way to vent that I've ever found. :D

OhAine: I think you’re right. I think the message finds us in a way that we’ll be willing to receive.

satin_doll: Back in the 1990s, I saw a movie in the theater and near the beginning was a line from one of the characters that hit me so hard, on so many levels, that I didn't even remember anything about the rest of the film. I had to see it again in order to see how it all turned out. That one line quite literally changed my life. Since then there have been many other occasions where the things I enjoy the most have contained deep words, phrases, concepts that have had incredible impact and resulted in life changes. I know most people believe that change in our lives  more often comes from pain and tragedy, but  honestly, I don't think that's true. If we pay attention, we more often learn life lessons from joy and pleasure and entertainment - and creativity. It's only when we don't pay attention that the universe has to hit us upside the head with a bat and we have to learn from pain.

OhAine: Change, and messages from the universe, is something that’s a theme in  Mango  which is also a bit of a feminist story because (and correct me if I’m off base) it’s about empowerment and independence: Molly discovering things about herself, by herself, which I thought when reading was almost a parallel for women in writing (particularly fanfiction). How important has writing been for you in developing your understanding of yourself and your own identity as a woman?

satin_doll: I'm not sure I have an answer for this one. Writing has always simply been a part of my life. I write because I can't not write. I think more of my understanding of myself and being a woman came from music, which is a notoriously misogynistic art. I actually had a male musician tell me to my face that I couldn't know that much about music because I'm female. Those were his exact words. I've played in bands with both women and men and the women have always been easiest to work with. I think part of this has to do with men viewing sex as "their area". Sex, to men, is always about them. Women in music, especially rock music, are a lot like women in fanfic, where our own sexuality is seemingly always under attack. It's as if we don't exist unless we're defined by males. I  find this absolutely absurd and hateful. Mango, the song itself, was written expressly to celebrate female sexuality. Molly dancing around the room to that song when she sees Sherlock again after  a year away, is a sort of celebration of her own self-discovery. The dance is her way of honoring herself and her sex. That Sherlock discovers her that way was very fitting, because she leads him into a discovery of his own sexuality as well. I wish more men would wake up to the fact that we can do this.

OhAine: It’s an incredible story, but then so many of yours are, so I wonder is there one of your stories that you're very proud of, or one that you're particularly happy with how the finished piece turned out?

satin_doll: Oddly enough, I don't have a lot of pride connected with my stories once they're finished. I write them and put them out there and then I'm pretty much done with them. There are some I like a little more than others, I guess - Dark I like because it broke something loose in me that apparently I'd been ignoring. I think, if I have any pride about them, it's just that I write them at all. I'm proud of myself for actually sitting down and doing them. If there is one that I would have to say I'm "proud" of, it would be An Avenue Once Bent in Shadow - one that isn't even finished and that is totally unlike any others I've written. I like it because of its intent, which is to highlight and illustrate differences and how those differences are both perceived and dealt with in the world. It sort of takes both Molly and Sherlock to the extreme, and I like that also. It's a challenge. 

OhAine: I think you should be overflowing with pride in your work. You’re gifted. Your stories are beautiful.

satin_doll: Thank you. I suppose a lot of this comes from my childhood and maybe a little bit of misunderstanding on my part about the word "pride". I think I'm more attached and proud of just having the guts to dive into the creative process at all rather than the results of it. But that's just me.

OhAine: Well then getting back to your creative process, tell me about finding a particular character’s voice. Are there things that you do to get you into their heads?

satin_doll: When I was about ten, I wanted to be an actor. This lasted for about three years. I went around trying on characters from movies and television, practicing their expressions and movements and voices. These days I tend to act out the characters in my own stories. If I can feel them physically, feel them in my body and face, I feel like I can write them. Feeling Sherlock turn his head a certain way or have an expression on his face, feeling the way Molly would look up at him or move around the lab - I tend to rely on that to get them in character, or at least how I feel they're in character. I also have to hear their voices in my head. I read all the dialogue out loud and if it doesn't fit - it don't sit. 

OhAine: I read it out loud too, something I learned in Uni. It truly helps, doesn’t it?

satin_doll: I guess there are writers who don't do this, but I don't know how they can get dialogue to work any other way. It's been said about Stephen King's work, by people who have adapted his books into film, that one of the reasons it's so hard to translate his books successfully to scripts is that he doesn't write dialogue the way people normally speak. Supposedly when you read successful dialogue, our brain translates it differently from the way we would hear it if it was spoken aloud. I've never tested this and part of me doesn't believe it. But then, I'm not an expert about any of it. I just know that being able to hear the words out loud makes a difference for me as far as character is concerned. 

OhAine:  What’s the beginning point of a story for you? Are you a methodical planner, or is it purely instinct?

satin_doll: It's purely instinct. I have tried and tried to do it the "professional", by-the-book way, and it's always a disaster. The beginning is usually a mood and it can be inspired by just about anything. Most of the time a story just comes out full blown, beginning to end; it's just there and I write it. I had one story pop into my head while I was doing dishes. I stopped, wiped off my hands, and sat down and wrote the story all at once. Then I went back to doing dishes. I don't have any idea where it came from or what inspired it, it just happened. Most of them are like that. Maybe if I was a planner and methodical about it I'd write better stories! :D But this seems to be the only way I can do it and actually get anything written. 

OhAine:  We can’t talk about fanfiction right now without talking about what’s happening on tumblr / the purge. You’ve been writing online for a good number of years and I’m sure you have a take on it…

satin_doll: Sadly, I've seen this happen over and over since 1993. A space becomes a haven for expression and then suddenly comes under attack for one reason or another by one group or another. Luckily, there will always be somewhere new to go. It's painful and sometimes a long and trying process, but in the words of Mr. Universe: "You can't stop the signal." Someplace new will open up and, for a while at least, free expression will be allowed again. William Gibson, among others, wrote about this very thing, long before the internet was established in our lives. There are always going to be those who try to squash creativity. Unfortunately, being creative doesn't fit into neat little non-offensive boxes the way some want it to. But it will survive. It always has. It's the nature of the beast.

OhAine:  It can’t help but survive given the volume of fan created content that’s out there now, there’s obviously a huge appetite to create it as well as consume. And having that said, do you think fanfiction has become mainstream?

satin_doll: Depends on your definition of mainstream. Everything eventually trickles down into the mainstream. Unfortunately this isn't always a good thing. What passes for fanfiction these days is far different from what it used to be. I won't go into "Back in the Good Ol' Days". But by definition, the mainstream waters everything down, dilutes it. It loses some of its substance. Fan fiction has gotten a lot of attention lately, partly because so much of it has dealt with issues that are in the forefront of our lives, namely sex and identity. The fact that the majority of fanfic writers are women only adds to that. The danger is that the issues could also become watered down, so to speak - diluted - because of becoming "mainstream". Hopefully fanfic will survive the process.

OhAine:  Which is why it’s so important for spaces like AO3 to exist.

satin_doll: I think it's vital to life on this planet. Censorship is one of the great evils of life. AO3 and the OTW are champions of freedom, of every human being's right to expression. I don't care how offensive that expression is, we have to protect the right to it. "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." There's a reason those words were written and it's not just about fair play. 

OhAine: "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Should be AO3’s banner, tbh…

satin_doll: The older I get, the more important this has become. Censorship is subtle and insidious and infects societies on so many levels. It's not just some huge noisy machine created by the government; it can be found in very small social groups and cliques as well and results in making people invisible, which is one of the worst punishments humans have ever invented. We see the consequences of this every day in every walk of life. There's a lot to be said about all the different types of censorship that impact our lives. And I agree, that line would make a great banner for AO3. :)

OhAine: I think that’s as good a place as any to wrap thing up! Kat, it’s been an absolute joy, thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions!

Next Friday, 8th of March, @writingwife-83 talks to @thisisartbylexie

#content creator interviews #Sherlock #sherlolly #sherlock and sherlolly content creator interviews #ashockinglackofsatin #ohaine

[maddiviner]

Hi! I just found some people saying that they wish they lived in the “og” witchcraft era, that this shouldn’t be for everyone and that the way information is so easy to get from tumblr and everywhere else somehow makes those who take it less valid then natural witches. And also that you ~need~ a mentor. I’m a beginner and I get where they come from, but it was said in such a negative way that it made me question if I’m really not worthy of this. What do you think of that?

First off, let’s be clear here. There’s no such thing as a “natural witch” any more than there’s such a thing as a “natural painter” or “natural carpenter.” There are people with psychic abilities such as clairs, but they’re not witches unless they also study/practice witchcraft. 

I realize there is/were a few people on Tumblr talking about how they felt unique like “real special witch people,” but trust me, regardless of how they feel about it and themselves, they had to learn the Craft just like everyone else. Witches are self-made, not born. This is true now, and was always true, even in times past.

I’m not quite sure what is meant in this ask by the OG (old guard) witchcraft era. I’m going to just guess that it refers to witchcraft prior to the advent of the internet and the widespread availability of occult information for most people.

I cannot speak to what it was like to be a witch in the 1970s, 1980s, 1950s or the heckin’ Middle Ages. And, I’m not sure what time period in particular these folks wish they could return to.

I don’t know if people on Tumblr realize this, but I’m probably at the older end of the Tumblr witch spectrum. I know I’ve got the really dubious honor of being the oldest person in a couple of Tumblr-related witchcraft Discord servers (small servers, but still). I’m in my early thirties, and I’ve been studying the occult since about 1999, which was the year I got my first deck of Tarot cards.

I remember a little bit about what learning witchcraft was like at the tail-end of the 20th century and into the new millennium. It was really very different. If you were interested in a particular path (besides Wicca), you were often quite out of luck - even well-stocked urban occult bookstores didn’t have much information outside of Wicca, and occasionally Satanism or Thelema.

This assumes you were lucky enough to have access to an occult bookstore - plenty of us (myself included at times) had to make do with what we could find at Borders, Barnes and Noble, or Hastings. At the time, that was, well… mostly books about Wicca, New Age paths, and with a few occult “classics” (like The Satanic Bible) smooshed in, too.

The witchcraft-related books were almost all exclusively geared towards Wicca. Some of them, like Cunningham’s work, went on to become occult classics in their own right. 

Others were full of pretty poor scholarship, things like D. J. Conway writing about “Norse” and “Celtic” magick that was just Wicca with some deity names changed. And Edain McCoy writing about an “ancient Irish potato goddess.” And Silver Ravenwolf. Of course.

A lot of these books were pretty preachy, too - insisting that only Wiccans were witches, that no “true witch” ever did black magick (or a million other things), etc. Plenty pushed (heavily) the “paleolithic” origin story for Wicca. Few mentioned Gardner even existing, let alone his role in founding Wicca and his contributions to the Work.

Nowadays, I can go online after (or even before!) buying such books and learn where the author got their information (or didn’t get it, as the case may be…) I can simply google and find out all about Gardner’s life, or Crowley. I can read sites by actual Romany people explaining what occult traditions are (and aren’t) part of their culture. It does really make things easier!

I couldn’t do that back then. No one had access to such a vast repository of information.

I’m not sure how the idea of mandatory mentors got started. It is true that in some occult/witchcraft traditions (like the A.’.A.’. and certain covens) mentors are important and required. That’s not true for witchcraft or the occult as a whole, however. 

Finding a mentor, even in an established tradition, is always going to be hit or miss. I’ve had some really horrible experiences with people trying to mentor me, including the sordid situation with my ex-A.’.A.’. mentor. I’ve had friends who had similarly horrible experiences. I also have friends who found wonderful mentors. Again, hit or miss. 

The thing is, even back then, it was hit-or-miss finding a good mentor, too. Heck, especially back then, before the internet. Nowadays I can google someone’s name and see what former/current students say about them, what they’ve written, and what kind of footprint they’ve made on the world. 

Back then, I couldn’t. If someone said they were a Gardnerian initiate (for example), it would’ve been much more difficult to prove or disprove that than it is nowadays, too.

I also couldn’t research what I was actually being taught to see if it was even true. If I ended up studying with someone who (for example) believed the paleolithic Wicca founding myth, I’d be stuck with that. 

Heck, if you ended up with a mentor who taught that he was the 4,000 year old King of Vampire Witches and that you had to drink blood or something like that, you were stuck with that, too. The most you could do would be to walk away if it was overly-ridiculous or just felt “off.”

I read a study recently (I can dig it up later if people are interested) that said younger, internet-savvy generations are less-likely to buy into wild claims without proof. Apparently, we’re more skeptical. Food for thought.

There are certainly some folks who would rather this weren’t the case, and wish they could control the flow of occult/other information more easily themselves.

They want to be able to tell whoppers without people checking into it and calling them on it. I’ve not seen such people on Tumblr, but on sites like Facebook, I’ve definitely encountered people trying it.

To sum this all up, I think those people claiming pre-Internet witches were more devoted, more “natural,” or otherwise superior are overly-nostalgic and misinformed about the past. 

It’s true that it was harder to get information back then, and becoming a decent willworker would’ve taken more legwork. That doesn’t mean much, though, except that yes, more people choose magick nowadays due to the surplus of information.

If you’re one of those types who treats the occult like it’s some kind of special club and want to keep the “normies” out or whatever, I can see why this would be troublesome. For me, though? I think more interest in magick is a good thing. More people studying magick and witchcraft? Excellent.

Think of it this way: in any given field, you’re going to have a lot of different types of people. Some will be pretty good and innovative at what they’re doing. Others, maybe not - they might end up leaving it for something else, too.

The more people you have researching, working, experimenting, the more likely you will end up with someone really innovative who breaks new ground and changes things for the better. This is a common way of seeing things in academia, but I think it’s true in witchcraft and the occult as well.

#magick #witchblr #witch #witchcraft #occult #eliza.txt #elitism #history #Anonymous

[thechasefiles]

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 5/20/2019

Good MORNING  #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Monday 20th May 2019. Remember you can read full articles for FREE via Barbados Today (BT) or Barbados Government Information Services (BGIS) OR by purchasing by purchasing a Daily Nation Newspaper (DN).

BLP MARKS ONE YEAR IN OFFICE – Hundreds have packed the pews at the James Street Methodist Church to worship and celebrate with the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) which is celebrating its first year in office. During a short address, Prime Minister Mia Mottley thanked God, her Cabinet ministers, their families and the people of Barbados.     She said support was needed in the past year but reminded them all hands still needed to be on deck going forward. In May 2018, the BLP won all 30 seats in the General Election. (DN)

DOOR OPEN FOR DONVILLE – If the embattled Donville Inniss is interested in representing the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) in St James South again, he will be welcomed back with open arms – once he is proven innocent. But he will have to be interviewed by an executive board before being presented to the party for consideration. Inniss, the former representative for the constituency, lost his seat to the Barbados Labour Party’s Sandra Husbands in the General Election last May 24. Shortly after, the former minister of commerce and international business was arrested in the United States on money-laundering charges. He is accused of accepting bribes from a Barbadian insurance company and then attempting to launder US$36 000 in illegal payment using the “US financial system”.  (DN)

BARBADOS AND ANTIGUA TO DISCUSS LIAT SHARES  - Barbados will not be negotiating LIAT’s future direction in the public domain, Prime Minister Mia Mottley has reiterated,  in response to reports out of Antigua and Barbuda that her Government has agreed to sell its shares to St John’s. Speaking on his radio station on Saturday, Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne said Mottley has said yes to selling “a significant portion” of Barbados’ shares in LIAT to his government. Earlier this month, the Browne administration issued a statement from a Cabinet meeting which said, “Prime Minister Gaston Browne indicated to the Cabinet members that he has written to Prime Minister Mia Mottley on the LIAT restructuring plan.“An offer was made for Antigua and Barbuda to acquire the LIAT shares owned by Barbados, through a take-over of the liability of Barbados to the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)”.This afternoon, Prime Minister Mottley’s Press Secretary Roy Morris confirmed that Barbados had received the letter but made it clear that Mottley would not be drawn into making public comments on the matter. “PM Mottley’s position is that Antigua has made an offer to Barbados regarding its shares in LIAT, and Barbados has responded by inviting [Prime Minister Gaston Browne] to send a team to Barbados to talk,” Morris told Barbados TODAY. “In the meanwhile, Barbados will not prejudice those talks by making any further statement on the matter, ” he added. Antigua Newsroom, an online news outlet, reported that Browne did not give an exact number of shares Barbados intended to sell, but said Mottley indicated that Bridgetown wanted to retain “at least ten per cent of its shares”. “The intent is not to exclude any country from participating in LIAT. In fact, as far as practicable we would want to broaden the shareholding in LIAT,” prime minister Browne said. He added that he was “quite happy that they [Barbados] will maintain a shareholding position”. Browne further disclosed that a negotiating team has been established, including MPs Lennox Weston and Sir Robin Yearwood as well as a representative from the Ministry of Finance. He said the decision was in the best interest of the Antigua and Barbuda economy. Last Wednesday, at the annual luncheon of the Barbados Employers’ Confederation (BEC), Prime Minister Mottley said she was primarily focused on ensuring reliable and affordable regional transport, as she confirmed receiving Antigua and Barbuda’s expression of interest in purchasing her country’s shares in LIAT. “Let’s just say we agree on the mission, and the mission is that there must always be reliable affordable access for travel in the region as there must be nationally. And I can assure you and the country that we are working on this every day. “But you also have to take the reality of an existence as you find it and then determine whether the modality that you have is the best mechanism by which to deliver on that objective,” she said. (BT)

BCC TUTOR QUITS – Reverend Reginald Knight has called it quits. The part-time tutor at the Barbados Community College (BCC) has decided to withdraw his services as a tutor in ethics and citizenship, six days after being embroiled in a controversy over leaked exam results at the Howells Cross Road, St Michael institution. Answers for the ethics and citizenship exam were leaked to scores of students last Tuesday, forcing the BCC to reschedule the test two days later. “It was a mistake. I have apologised to the principal and the registrar,” a contrite Knight told the NATION in an exclusive interview last night. “While they understand how the matter happened, I personally did not wish to be seen, or to have done anything that would have brought the college into disrepute. I have tendered my resignation, and it should reach the college tomorrow (today). (DN)

DE-VERNE KEVIN SCANTLEBURY SLAPPED WITH CRIMINAL CHARGES – Detectives of the Major Crimes Unit have arrested and charged De-verne Kevin Scantlebury in connection with a serious matter which occurred on May 17. Police say Scantlebury, 25, of Clement Rock, Airy Hill, St Joseph, has been charged for offences including: possession of an unlicensed firearm, possession of 11 rounds of ammunition, possession of cannabis, and intent to supply cannabis He is scheduled to appear at the District B Magistrates’ court on Monday, May 20. (BT)

THREE CHARGED IN MILLION DOLLAR DRUG HAUL – Three St Michael men are scheduled to appear in court today, charged in connection with the seizure of more than $1 million worth of cannabis. They are Christopher Dave Johnson, 36 years, of Martindale’s Road; 35-year-old Malo Anthony Edwards of Taylor's Gap, Martindale's Road and Colvin Ishmael Brathwaite, 47, of Brandons Main Road. The trio is jointly charged with possession of cannabis, intent to supply and trafficking. Police were acting on a tip when members of the Marine Section and the Barbados Coast Guard intercepted a fishing vessel 27 miles off Needhams Point, within the island’s territorial waters. They discovered 16 polyethylene bags all containing vegetable matter suspected to be cannabis. The bags weighed about 300 kilogrammes and the contents have an estimated street value of $1 210 400. Johnson, Edwards and Brathwaite are all scheduled to appear at the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ court. (DN)

VINCENT KOMPANY LEAVES MANCHESTER CITY TO BECOME ANDERLECHT PLAYER-MANAGER – Vincent Kompany says joining Anderlecht as player-manager is the "most passionate yet rational" decision he has made after announcing he has left Manchester City. The 33-year-old has signed a three-year deal with the Belgian club after 11 years at Etihad Stadium, eight of which he spent as club captain. Saturday's 6-0 FA Cup final win over Watford was Kompany's final game for City, after winning four Premier League titles, two FA Cups and four League Cups. In an open letter on Facebook, Belgium defender Kompany said leaving City "doesn't feel real". He defines the essence of the club. For a decade he has been the lifeblood, the soul, and beating heart "Man City has given me everything. I've tried to give back as much as I possibly could." In a second letter released hours later, Kompany announced his move to Anderlecht, who said his arrival marked the "return of the prince". "I want to share my knowledge with the next purple generations," said Kompany, who first joined Anderlecht at the age of six. "With that, I will also put a bit of Manchester in the heart of Belgium.  Centre-back Kompany joined City from Hamburg as a defensive midfielder in 2008 and was named club captain three years later. He scored his final goal against Leicester on 6 May, a brilliant strike from 25 yards that was voted goal of the season on BBC Match of the Day. That victory took City to within one win of the Premier League title, which they sealed on the final day of the season with victory at Brighton. (DN)

ADVENTISTS SPRUCE UP ISLAND’S BUS TERMINALS – The East Caribbean Conference of Seventh Day Adventists has teamed up with the Barbados Transport Board to paint the terminals at Fair Child Street, Princess Alice Highway and Speightstown. Last evening, church members got down to work at the Fair Child Street Bus Terminal. Director of Community Services and Personal Ministries Departments Pastor Dayle Haynes told Barbados TODAY it’s all part of the church’s GLOW (Generosity, Love, Outreach and Wholesomeness) project. “We want to embark on reaching out to our community and helping,” Haynes said. “Last year we painted 50 homes for the elderly and the needy in Barbados.” (BT)

CROP OVER LAG –Some bandleaders are contending that Crop Over is losing its appeal, and fear that in a couple of years there will be a seriously scaled down version of the sweetest summer festival. Veteran leader of Kontact Kadooment Band, Anthony Layne, told the NATION he was seeing Barbados, already “lagging behind” Trinidad, being overtaken by Jamaica Carnival. “Right now I am not seeing many local people opting to jump in the bands. They are leaving here to go to Trinidad, Jamaica and other Caribbean island carnivals,” he lamented. In fact, Layne said his numbers now comprised more overseas revellers than locals.  (DN)

For daily or breaking news reports follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter & Facebook. That’s all for today folks. There are 225 days left in the year. Shalom! #thechasefilesdailynewscap #thechasefiles# dailynewscapsbythechasefiles

[pywackett-barchetta]

E3 2017 Impressions (6/12/17)

Miscellanous

Forming a chatroom with a few friends across social circles expressly for the purpose of E3 commentary was nice

EA

Story modes in sports games seem to be a thing they think people want. I appreciate yearly entries in a franchise getting to be distinct games with their own unique reasons to pick each up, at least

I should’ve known to tune out as soon as it opened with a drumline of people in Patriots jerseys

I felt so confused during the FIFA segment, even allowing for the fact that I’m not in the target audience there

I refuse to acknowledge anything in Star Wars canon from VII onwards so Battlefront 2 is gonna be a pass. I’m sticking with Battlefront II

Hearing people complain about Boba Fett, clones, and Darth Maul co-existing tells me they never played the original Battlefront games

Need for Speed: Payback looks like they’re quintupling down on literally everything the fanbase has ever unanimously asked them never to do again

The car customization’s still sweet, though, and it’s got a 350Z

I don’t know why NFS has decided it needs plot and grittiness, but it clearly did not work for Undercover or The Run or Rivals or the 2015 game or rival franchise The Crew

I didn’t give a flying frick about Battlefield before, but them testing out the new map was really fun to watch and a genuinely enjoyable experience

Even my mother was pissed off that the post-show interview about Madden was just the actors “bro-ing” out and talking about nothing in particular for twenty entire minutes on camera

Every presentation of NFS: Payback used the exact same scene played the exact same way, which is how a vertical slice works but not usually this blatantly, and not usually the exact entire scene from the trailer you released before the show even began

Nobody will agree who won E3, but we all know EA absolutely lost.

Xbox

Even with the acronym, Xbox One X makes the Wii U sound like a good name for a console

Was thrilled for the annual reveal of a car on-stage but was underwhelmed by it being Porsche

Whole thing about Porsche being a lot harder to take seriously if you’re keenly aware that they just got out of an exclusivity contract with EA and now every racing dev’s trying to court them to their side

I was excited by Forza 7, but moreso massively disheartened by people really being jerks and scoffing at racing games for some reason

EXCLUSIVE

DBZ basically won the damn show out of completely nowhere with a slick, beautiful fighter that hearkens to nostalgia but doesn’t rely on it. Also it has Majin Buu and he’s cute and terrifyingly powerful and I ask little else

No but seriously, I understand the decline of motor vehicles as a ‘cool factor’ in modern culture but why are people so actively disdainful of racing games

EXCLUSIVE, WORLD PREMIERE

Crackdown 3 massively underwhelms by trying to be an Old Spice ad to distract from the fact that all the promised monumental destruction was cut at some point in development and replaced with stuff I can already do in Saints Row 2. If Terry Crews cannot save you, there is a problem

Wasn’t particularly floored by The Last Night, but that might just be too much time on Tumblr talking

Like, racing-wise, I’m just talking silly arcade/simcade stuff and not the cesspits of the sim-racing community that actually would be contemptible, but just “oh, cool, cars!” is worthy of scorn somehow nowadays, come on

Anyways, I just want all this stuff on my PC anyhow so this was probably the most relevant conference in hindsight

EXCLUSIVE

Would’ve been nice if they ever actually stopped to explain what Mixer was; I’m still hopeful that those Mixpot things go through for me

Forza 7 having character customization and being on PC in full makes it a strong contender, so now it just needs stock car racing and I’m probably happy.

Bethesda

I went to bed before this went on

Skyrim re-release announced

Oh my god, Wolfenstein II looks absolutely captivating and nicely topical, and as much as I love The New Order, it’s genuinely impressive they got me to care at all after how awful The Old Blood was in comparison

Creation Club does not bode well and I will leave it at that

Devolver Digital

I fell asleep and had to check this one in the morning

Early contender to win E3

“I bet you want that game. I bet you wanna buy that game. You will buy that game. I believe in you. Buy that motherfucking game”

It didn’t have to go as far as it did but it was great anyways in my book, but granted, I probably would’ve shut it off partway through if I was watching it alone

Please watch their press conference if you hadn’t already and are willing

PC Gaming Show

“Cool, am I right?” *complete silence* “...Jesus, thanks, audience!”

XCOM 2 gets that expansion released on my dad’s birthday. He doesn’t play anything besides Smash Bros, but I might get him XCOM anyways, might be up his alley.

The announcer panicking in the Killing Floor 2 trailer instead of playing things viciously straight seemed actively unfunny and forced. Background music was hella rad, though

Ubisoft

I just read the bullet points on my phone while at my doctor’s office, and looked up individual trailers later

And by that I mean someone forwarded me The Crew 2 which was all I was really gonna watch anyways

The Crew 2 actually looks bright and happy and fun and about enjoying motorsports and extreme sports and anything with an engine, and it absolutely should be this because the grimdark crap sucked the fun out of the first game

Every motorsports title featured (besides NFS: Payback) was genuinely enthusiastic and vibrant, which is how it should be

That Olympics expansion for Steep looks rad. I love when real-world sporting events end up in extreme sports games; tends to work a lot better than when they’re contract jobs for standalone licensed titles

Playstation

Undertale coming to PS4 and Vita makes me somewhat less of a screaming frothing madman over the Touhou fangame ports, but I’m still going to be absolutely outrageously unhealthily unnecessarily bitter over Udonge’s ULiL console exclusivity until either she’s ported back to PC or I literally die

They started at a disadvantage here, because usually Xbox does a dumb consumer-unfriendly thing and Sony capitalizes on it, but here, Xbox was touting more backwards compatibility while Sony execs were telling fans “ha, no, that’s stupid, old games look bad, buy new games”, which basically tore asunder any last shreds of illusion I had about the gaming industry being benevolent

Concert opening went over well with my family, who are Niyaz fans

Uncharted being inaudible

Skyrim re-release announced

“Oh, is this Last of Us?”, I say, during the Days Gone trailer

I spent the whole Detroit announcement going “is that the guy from Grey’s Anatomy” which is not descriptive but I meant Jesse Williams, and considering other people understood who I meant, I think it is

“I’ll choose my own adventure! What if I choose, uh... none of this? What if I don’t play this game? How about that!” - My mother, on Detroit

“This better be Spider-Man” - Me

“YES” - Also me, several seconds later

“WOAH” - Also me, every couple of seconds in the trailer

The quick-time events concern me and if there weren’t so many of them conspicuously strewn about, Spider-Man would be the winning presentation hands-down

Distinct feeling of “that was it?” after it ended

Nintendo

I don’t have any of their hardware since the Wii, so.

#e3 2017 #rambling #profanity #long post #text

[merrywetherweather]

i would like to make a complete list of all the things that are wrong with my workplace (i’ve worked at bed bath and beyond for about 3 years now), because im mentally prepping myself to quit. i’ve made a resume and i’ve applied to other places and honestly i cannot believe all the bullshit ive had to put up with so far so here goes:

- does not offer time and a half pay on holidays

- does not have paid breaks

- during my first yearly raise they only added $.20

- a 20% employee discount that customers get anyway for either having their coupons or pressing hard enough

- when i was promoted to the front end supervisor position, i only made a dollar more than the cashiers but i now have what my manager describes as “the hardest job in the building” not including his and also describes it as “being set on fire and everyone else is holding water but no one will put me out as i run around and make sure everyone is happy”

- does not hire people to clean the bathrooms and floors regularly

- makes the closing cashiers do it every night instead

- most of the cashiers are women and only the cashiers that close are women so only women have been cleaning the bathrooms

- this is problematic because the dudes will go in and piss right before the women cashiers have to clean and they wont flush like some weird exertion of dominance thing

- the boys club that formed on hard side where they would prey on any new girls that were hired and talked themselves up claiming they could get with them, SOMETIMES WITH DISGUSTINGLY LARGE AGE GAPS

- they also had a rating system in code for when customers walked in where rutabaga meant hot girl and potato meant ugly girl and i still have no fucking clue what artichoke means

- rape jokes made by one of the managers that i tried to ignore or just subtly disapprove of because i have anxiety and i cant directly call out my manager on that shit

- the same manager confessing to me one night after close and making things uncomfortable until i finally decided to quit *this is the final straw

- does not manage its resources well and occasionally runs out of bags and necessities for cleaning the bathrooms LIKE GLOVES

- does not manage people well. breaks are a mess and people that are scheduled to cover other people’s breaks are scheduled for break at the same time

- does not hire/schedule enough cashiers and still expects their front end supervisors to keep the lines down with very few people available to call up to ring

- does not register train everybody (which they are supposed to do before they put them out on the floor)

- back up for ringing is a gamble because they wont come up and sometimes refuse to even tell you if it’s because they’re busy with a customer EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE A WALKIE

- employee A who comes up to the front and tells me how to run everything and when im tasked to do something immediately listens in and jumps in to do that task before i even get a chance to just so she can complain that she does everything and everybody else isnt doing anything

- employee B who is not my boss sometimes comments on my attire when i wear a skirt even though i wear them with leggings (which is perfectly in line with the dress code) and i am much more professionally dressed  than her

- male employee C who asked me to damage out an item for him. i asked if he knew how to damage items (because everybody is supposed to and i would be glad to teach him) and he said he did so i asked why he couldnt do it and he said he was busy straightening up soft side. so i told him i was busy counting the tills, which i am not allowed to leave alone

- floor employees who are called for back up and then leave returns at their registers for my regular cashiers to clean up and cashiers that leave their file folders a fucking mess when i’ve gotta organize it at the end of the night

- coworkers who are not my boss that try to boss me around

- getting told to do things while im already in the act of doing those things

- it is so dusty that i appoint myself as the head dust buster so everybody isnt suffocating and dealing with allergies behind the registers

- the worst customers on the face of the earth, and im not even exaggerating, with the most memorable being: smelly workout lady who i know can afford to shower because she’s always buying fancy exercise equipment, blonde woman with a tall son who always returns shit, coupon man who tries to use expired manufacturer coupons, BARBARA, coupon finaglers, person who came in with a shitty attitude and refuses to be helped, that one lady who had dementia and her friend just let her lock herself in the bathroom stall so i had to slip under and free her from her smelly prison, thieves who try and return shit they pulled off of the floor and think im stupid enough to return it no questions asked (to be fair, i do have some cashiers that would...), the thousands of customers that ask if im in line when im directing traffic, the silly string war customers who never paid for or cleaned up the product they tested out in seasonal, the one lady who returned a pot with a broken glass lid and her chicken dinner was still inside when she brought it in, the people who bring their dogs inside regardless of size (i can see a purse dog but an untrained lab that is lunging at other customers is unbelievable), the people who knock shit off the shelves and walk away, the people who eat shit and leave half eaten merchandise with rappers everywhere, people who get angry at me for exclusions with coupons, people that get angry because i cant use more than one coupon on one item, people who make the “i guess that means its free” joke, the sexist asses that have read my nametag “sam” and have said “dont you like your full name?”, “your parents must have wanted a boy.” and “is that your real name?” knowing full well it is not, customers that have asked me out, people who have probed for my ethnicity, people who’ve gotten mad when we dont carry something in store, the one lady who was contemplating getting a divorce at my register because i offered her our add on and she wistfully sighed and said she used to make a lot of frivolous purchases when she was single but now life isnt fun anymore since she was pressured into marriage cause all her friends were getting married too (WTF @ STRAIGHT PEOPLE???), people who have wished me luck on becoming a teacher just because i said i was majoring in english, and of course, that one grouchy lady who when i was offering cookies because it was the holidays and i had all my available cashiers up ringing told me i was unhelpful and what would be more helpful is if i would open up more lines.

the only highlights from my job were meeting a handful of good people like @aviolentvioletmermaid and the snacks mike from world market would slip me now and again

fuck you bed bath and beyond (also, in case you ever wanted a tumblr, i am in possession of @bedbathandbeyondofficial and i will never let it go. you honestly could not pay me enough and most ironic of all you never have)

#bed bath and beyond #retail #you guys should ask me for stories about working here cause i've got plenty #i also have some accompanying comics #gotta vent somehow

[witch-cub-blog]

105 Witchcraft Asks

1. Are you solitary or in a coven? Solitary! 2. Do you consider yourself Wiccan, Pagan, witch, or other? I don't know at this point... But I don't follow the Wiccan religion, I can tell you that much. 3. What is your zodiac sign? Leo Rising and Taurus Moon! 4. Do you have a Patron God/dess? Nah. 5. Do you work with a Pantheon? Nah. Used to, though! 6. Do you use tarot, palmistry, or any other kind of divination? Yes, I do! I use tarot cards, palmistry, pendulum divination, and Futhark runes! I also use coin divination, though I want to get into scrying. 7. What are some of your favorite herbs to use in your practice? (if any) Rosemary, sage, and bay leaves! 8. How would you define your craft? Messy? Haha. All over the place. 9. Do you curse? If not, do you accept others who do? Oh, yes I do. Names are power, and if you've pissed me off, you better hope I don't know yours. 10. How long have you been practicing? 13 months and 11 days! 11. Do you currently or have you ever had any familiars? Yes! I used to have a crow familiar, but he's since moved on, I think. Right now, I kind of consider a stuffed dragon of mine I enchanted my familiar. 12. Do you believe in Karma or Reincarnation? Reincarnation? Yes. Karma? /shrugs/ 13. Do you have a magical name? I don't know what that is, so I'm going to go with nah. 14. Are you “out of the broom closet”? To all family members and close friends. 15. What was the last spell you performed? I enchanted a plush to give to my mother for Valentine's Day! 16. Would you consider yourself knowledgeable? Not at all haha 17. Do you write your own spells? I do! Most of the spells I do are of my own creation, actually. Normally on the spot. 18. Do you have a book of shadows? If so, how is it written and/or set up? I call it my grimoire, and its a tag on my blog. 19. Do you worship nature? Worship? No. Honor? Yes. 20. What is your favorite gemstone? Rose quartz! 21. Do you use feathers, claws, fur, pelt, skeletons/bones, or any other animal body part for magical work? Not yet, but I want to so bad... 22. Do you have an altar? Yes! It's my favorite part of the bedroom. 23. What is your preferred element? Fire, but only because I'm a Leo and I'm biased. 24. Do you consider yourself an Alchemist? Nah. 25. Are you any other type of magical practitioner besides a witch? Not yet, though that might change if I research into it more. 26. What got you interested in witchcraft? It's kind of hereditary, actually? My step mom was a witch and she introduced it to me, and my eldest sister was a Wiccan. 27. Have you ever performed a spell or ritual with the company of anyone who was not a witch? Yes! I've made a charm for my sister while she was with me. (Not the Wiccan one.) 28. Have you ever used ouija? No, but I'd like to! 29. Do you consider yourself a psychic? I don't think my psychic skills are honed enough to give myself such a title, but I do have skills. 30. Do you have a spirit guide? If so, what is it? Everyone has one, but I don't know who or what they are yet. 31. What is something you wish someone had told you when you first started? "You don't have to rush into it." 32. Do you celebrate the Sabbats? If so which one is your favorite? Kind of? I acknowledge them and bake to celebrate, but I don't know enough yet to actually properly celebrate them. 33. Would you ever teach witchcraft to your children? If they asked me to, yes! But I wouldn't hide it from them, if that's what you mean. 34. Do you meditate? All the time. 35. What is your favorite season? Autumn or Spring! 36. What is your favorite type of magick to preform? Charms and enchantments! 37. How do you incorporate your spirituality into your daily life? I carry charms with me, pray at every oppurtunity, throw up wards and cleanse myself nearly anytime I feel I need to. 38. What is your favorite witchy movie? The Witches of Eastwick 39. What is your favorite witchy book, both fiction and non-fiction. Why? I don't think I have one? Every witchy fiction book I've read is super gimmicky and I haven't read a non-fiction one. 40. What is the first spell you ever preformed? Successful or not. I cleansed my room with essential oils and cleared out the bad energy! It was successful. 41. What’s the craziest witchcraft-related thing that’s happened to you? A spirit impersonated the gods I worshipped at the time. 42. What is your favourite type of candle to use? Plain white pillar candles! 43. What is your favorite witchy tool? My deck of tarot cards that I made <3 44. Do you or have you ever made your own witchy tools? ^^^ Also runes. 45. Have you ever worked with any magical creatures such as the fea or spirits? Spirits, yes! 46. Do you practice color magic? Trying to incorporate it into my practice, yes. 47. Do you or have you ever had a witchy teacher or mentor of any kind? Not really? I'm self-taught. 48. What is your preferred way of shopping for witchcraft supplies? Going to Dollar Tree, Walmart, thrift stores. Amazon is nice, too. 49. Do you believe in predestination or fate? Mmhm! 50. What do you do to reconnect when you are feeling out of touch with your practice? I just roll my sleeves up, blow the metaphorical dust off of my energetic center, and do a simple, low-spoons spell! Or I meditate and try to manipulate the energy of something around me or myself to keep those muscles strong. 51. Have you ever had any supernatural experiences? Mmhm! 52. What is your biggest witchy pet peeve? Gatekeeping witches or spirit workers. Pretentious people in general. Thinking witchcraft is a closed off, exclusive club. 53. Do you like incense? If so what’s your favorite scent? Haven't used it yet, but I'd like to! 54. Do you keep a dream journal of any kind? Mmhm! 55. What has been your biggest witchcraft disaster? Trying to conjure spirits on my own. Without wards. 56. What has been your biggest witchcraft success? Breeching my own expectations. 57. What in your practice do you do that you may feel silly or embarrassed about? Well, if you were to walk into my room, you would see dried candle wax. Ev. ery. Wh. Ere. Plus, how passionate I am about it. 58. Do you believe that you can be an atheist, Christian, Muslim or some other faith and still be a witch too? DUH! It's not an exclusive club! 59. Do you ever feel insecure, unsure or even scared of spell work? Oh yeah. It's to be feared and respected. 60. Do you ever hold yourself to a standard in your witchcraft that you feel you may never obtain? Nah. I am myself, and I am capable of anything I set my mind to. 61. What is something witch related that you want right now? The Wild Unknown tarot deck, more crystals, more altar decorations-- Lots of stuff. Also a faery garden! 62. What is your rune of choice? /clutches self-made bag of runes to my chest/ Don't make me choose. 63. What is your tarot card of choice? Death! Bet you saw that one coming. 64. Do you use essential oils? If so what is your favorite? Yes! I really love Mint. I love Mint everything. Or Patchouli! 65. Have you ever taken any kind of witchcraft or pagan courses? Nah. 66. Do you wear pagan jewelry in public? Used to! 67. Have you ever been discriminated against because of your faith or being a witch? Nah. 68. Do you read or subscribe to any pagan magazines? Nah, but I'd like to. 69. Do you think it’s important to know the history of paganism and witchcraft? Of course! Historical context is super important. 70. What are your favorite things about being a witch? The idea that I am not like everyone else, that I have a deeper understanding of the world around me. That I am capable of amazing things, things even the most intelligent mundane could never understand. 71. What are your least favorite things about being a witch? How expensive it can be :'( 72. Do you listen to any pagan music? If so who is your favorite singer/band? THERE IS PAGAN MUSIC. WHAT. SOMEONE GIVE ME RECCOMENDATIONS SCREAMS 73. Do you celebrate the Esbbats? If so, how? No? Those are a thing? Jeez I need to do more research. 74. Do you ever work skyclad? ???? No? What is that??? 75. Do you think witchcraft has improved your life? If so, how? Mmhm! I think it's helped me grow and better myself. It's helping to pull me out of my depression because I have something to do that's constructive! Plus, it just makes my house feel so much nicer. 76. Where do you draw inspiration from for your practice? Other witches here on Tumblr! :3c 77. Do you believe in ‘fantasy’ creatures? (Unicorns, fairies, elves, gnomes, ghosts, etc) Of course! 78. What’s your favorite sigil/symbol? Everytime I make a new one, I'm temporarily in love with it lmao 79. Do you use blood magick in your practice? Why or why not? No, but I want to try it one day! I think it would add a personal connection and increase the power of the spell, since we witches are such powerhouses. 80. Could you ever be in a relationship with someone who doesn’t support your practice? Oh, hell no. If you don't accept me for everything I am, you don't deserve me. /flips hair/ 81. In what area or subject would you most like your craft to grow? I want to be a better Death witch... :'( I want to be more involved in mortality and visit graveyards and take care of bones and hides and not just twiddle my thumbs and dream about it. 82. What’s your favorite candle scent? Do you use it in your practice? Pumpkin spice! No, not really. 83. Do you have a pre-ritual ritual? (I.e. Something you do before rituals to prepare yourself for them). If so what is it? Set up wards, cleanse myself and my space, and light some candles. 84. What real life witch most inspires your practice? All of you lovely witches on Tumblr! 85. What is your favorite method of communicating with deity? Divination! I like getting clear answers :/ 86. How do you like to organize all your witchy items and ingredients? I wish I organized them better tbh. I just keep it all on my altar, though I'm working on getting a spice rack or something. 87. Do you have any witches in your family that you know of? My old step mom and my eldest sister. 88. How have you created your path? What is unique about it? Trial and error, trying new things and applying what I liked. I think it's unique because I made it, really. I can only feel the way about it that I do, I can only do it exactly like I do. It's unique to me. 89. Do you feel you have any natural gifts or affinities (premonitions, hearing spirits, etc.) that led you toward the craft? If so what are they? I've always been sensitive to spirits and extremely empathetic. 90. Do you believe you can initiate yourself or do you have to be initiated by another witch or coven? You can initiate yourself. Don't be pretentious, guys. 91. When you first started out in your path what was the first thing or things you bought? A bunch of pretty rocks, herbs (sage and rosemary), and a bottle of mint essential oil. 92. What is the most spiritual or magickal place you’ve been? My eldest sister's house. I swear to God there had to be a faery ring or something nearby. 93. What’s one piece of advice you’d give someone who is searching for their matron and patron deities? Research, and trial and error! Just introduce yourself, spend some time researching and praying, find out what works for you. Not every deity is going to mesh with you, and you won't mesh with every deity. 94. What techniques do you use to ‘get in the zone’ for meditation? Binaural beats or music! I have to lay down, I can't sit up and meditate. 95. Did visualization come easily to you or did you have to practice at it? I'd say it came easily, though it takes a bit for me to concentrate and not let my ADD ass wander off. 96. Do you prefer day or night? Why? Night. Energy flows so much easier under the moon, and spirits are more abundant! 97. What do you think is the best time and place to do spell work? Whenever you feel like it, wherever you are most comfortable 98. How did you feel when you cast your first circle? Did you stumble or did it go smoothly? I felt a little giddy! I stumbled a bit, but it worked out. 99. Do you believe witchcraft gets easier with time and practice? Oh no way. It gets harder the more you learn, but its super rewarding. 100. Do you believe in many gods or one God with many faces? Hard to say, really. 101. Do you eat meat, eggs and dairy? Yep! 102. What is your favorite color and why? Mint or teal! Because its pleasing. 103. What is the one question you get asked most by non-practitioners or non-pagans? How do you usually respond? "Oh that's so interesting! What's it like?" I usually say: "Thank you! And it's not as crazy as it sounds. It's pretty simple, actually. Just a lot of salt slinging and shouting." 104. Which of your five senses would you say is your strongest? None of them are particularly strong, to be honest. I'm hindered by a lot of things, though I think that my intuition is pretty sharp. 105. What is a pagan or witchcraft rule that you preach but don’t practice? USE WARDS. I forget too often.

@prettyalice13

#me #words #long post