#and the article was otherwise very interesting! sucks

[cedarboots]

argh

#yet another academic: we should be careful about assigning modern labels to historical figures and be mindful of how #they understood themselves in the context of the time #therefore. let me assign they/them pronouns to this person who made it repeatedly clear that she wanted to live and be regarded as a woman #and the article was otherwise very interesting! sucks #chevaliere d’eon #18th century #cedar barks

[zenaidamacrouras1]

Writing Modern Steve Roger's Health Issues: A compendium

AKA How do Steve Rogers' MCU canon illnesses hold up in a modern setting?  

I am writing something that is SO NICHE and so NERDY I feel absolutely, positively deviant about it. Who knew you could have this much fun while eating a burrito and sitting in the sun on your back porch? 

OKAY! This one goes out to all of you writing modern AU's with a modern Steve Rogers. (There are literally dozens of us!). Let's go.

So, I find it somewhat problematic when people write disabled or otherwise medically complicated characters and are wishy-washy about the diagnosis they have. In real life, everyone I know with ongoing medical issues is a fucking expert on their exact shit. A great tumblr reference for disabled characters is Cripple Characters, but I also use reddit threads to read about people’s day to day experiences with different issues in their own words. If nothing else, just decide what your character has and take ten minutes and read through a basic website article about it. 

So let's walk through what modern Steve's medical history and diagnoses might be. If you feel like I missed any details or got things wrong, happy to have comments to that end.

We'll start with the list of “ailments,” going with the MCU canon and combining the images from the museum exhibit and screen shots of Steve’s enlistment forms:

Asthma

Scoliosis

Fallen arches

Partial deafness

Scarlet Fever, Rheumatic Fever

Heart arrhythmia

High blood pressure

Palpitation or pounding in heart

Easy fatigability

Stomach ulcers

Pernicious anemia

Nervous trouble of any sort

Sinusitis

Chronic or frequent colds

Caveat: I am not a doctor, but I am a person who enjoys reading medical journal articles about illnesses I do and don’t have. The human body is a fascinating and terrible place to live. Talk to me about your medical complications - I will always find them interesting. I love small talk about Crohn’s disease and/or extremely graphic details about the time you had surgery because one of your wrist bones was the wrong length. 

Sucks To Your Assmar: Asthma! How has asthma changed? 

Kids who have their asthma well managed at a young age are going to have less scarring and lung damage (this is called airway remodeling). Thus a modern kid will likely have less severe asthma than a kid born in Steve’s time. Further, allergy medicines got way better from the 1990s, so kids with allergy induced asthma would have had fewer attacks. Fewer attacks as kids = less severe asthma as they age. 

I would also note that asthma is highly connected to environmental issues. If Steve grew up in a house with cigarette smoke, cockroaches, rats, or mold present, as is fairly easy to imagine, especially without dehumidifiers in a swampy Brooklyn summer, those are environmental factors that would have made his asthma much worse. 

They are also all factors that kids today certainly face, depending on how you write your modern Steve’s childhood. While people today certainly can have very severe asthma, it’s also entirely possible that modern Steve’s relationship to his asthma is pretty chill and easy to manage. (My partner has relatively severe asthma with a lot of environmental triggers; modern allergy medicine was a big game changer.)

Let’s talk about scoliosis ~~

There are a lot of variations to how scoliosis impacts people. I have very minor scoliosis and it's barely a thing in my life. I’m not trying to speak for everyone, but for what it’s worth, there are professional athletes with spinal fusion. I used Kyra Condie as my justification for writing climbing coach post-spinal fusion small Steve Rogers in one fic. My younger brother and best friend in high school both had spinal fusions. 

In reality the athletic and physical abilities of people with spinal fusion vary pretty much exactly as much as people without spinal fusion, so you have a lot of leeway for how you decide to write a character with scoliosis. I recommend reddit threads to read about people talking about how their bodies felt before and after spinal fusion, or why they decided not to have the surgery, if you want to get a sense of how it might affect your character’s day to day life.

Wait, so how tall is modern small Steve Rogers? 

You can see in this article that gains in height post scoliosis corrective surgery/spinal fusion varies, but the mean was 27 mm (1 inch) and the maximum was 66 mm (2.5 inches). 

The more severe the curve in the spine, the more height gained with surgery. 

We know Steve had scoliosis, we don’t know how severe it was (do we?). But if he was 5’4” without spinal fusion, and with all of his childhood fevers, and possible poor nutrition due to the Great Depression and untreated stomach ulcers, then it’s very reasonable that a modern Steve raised with proper nutrition and his gastrointestinal issues (see below!) properly treated and a spinal fusion could be easily 1-10 inches taller. 

I think it’s great if you want to write modern Small Steve as 5’4” - but I tend to write him as 5’7” or so. 

I think it is entirely likely that a modern Steve Rogers could end up being 6 feet tall given modern medical intervention and a healthy digestive system and adequate nutrition. As an example of how people with more or less the same genetics having different heights due to environmental factors, I know of one family of four brothers that immigrated from Italy in the 40s. Their height was 100% correlated to their age when they moved to the US/started having access to food: the oldest brother was around 5’4” and the youngest around 6 feet. The oldest was also a chain smoker and worked full time from around age 8, so you know, he was a fucking badass 5'4" Italian guy, if that's not clear.

What about fallen arches? 

Fun story, but I have fallen arches/flat feet and had a lot of foot pain as a kid, but I thought it was normal. I wear custom orthotics and/or birkenstocks and do exercises to strengthen my feet muscles and it's fine now as long as I remember to do the things I just mentioned. My dad had to have multiple surgeries on his feet, so I think it helped that they caught it earlier in me. 

Should I write modern non-serum Steve as deaf? 

Maybe! I think it’s lovely when people write characters with hearing issues. There are great blogs that cover ways to do that well (a good link, another one, and another one and I think this one on hearing aids is particularly good if you are trying to bring in subtle day to day routine differences a character that wears hearing aids may have. Another great option is, again, reddit, especially for questions around how sexual intimacy might vary in small ways that can be nice to bring in. (I am working on a fic with a seeing character whose ex is blind and also read a lot of couples first hand experience with sexual intimacy around that dynamic on reddit). 

But how likely is it that modern Steve would be deaf? 

I think that it’s reasonably likely that Steve’s hearing issues were a result of Scarlet Fever, which is a bacterial infection that can result in rheumatic fever, an inflammatory condition that develops in more severe cases of scarlet fever. 

Scarlet fever caused deafness - in fact, both Helen Keller and Thomas Edison had hearing loss due to scarlet fever infections. Further, sustained fevers of over 104 degrees can also cause hearing loss, so there is a reasonable chance that some other fever caused Steve’s hearing issues. 

Today, the kind of hearing loss caused by fevers and infections can usually be surgically repaired or never occur because we have better antibiotics and better medicines to treat fevers. However, I have a friend who has partial hearing loss and lots of other life long nervous system and fatigue issues due to complications from childhood chicken pox in the 80s (this vaccine came around in 1995).

I don’t know if it’s canon or fanfiction, but I often see Steve as having one bad ear. For what it’s worth, hearing loss in one ear is much less common than hearing loss in both ears. 

However, potential causes of hearing loss in one ear are infections that result in a high fever and some kind of head trauma, both of which are easy to imagine would have affected a Steve born in 1918, and while possible in a modern Steve, also easier to avoid. 

Heart Stuff: Heart arrhythmia, High blood pressure, Palpitation of pounding in heart, Easy fatigability

The aforementioned fevers that can cause hearing loss can also cause heart issues. I think it’s reasonably likely that Steve’s heart issues were from his fevers as a young kid, but I often write him with a congenital heart defect, because why not? 

These days, most of the time, such issues are detected at or before birth and fixed when the person is a baby, but there are plenty of heart issues that can require multiple heart surgeries at various points. Regardless, a modern Steve would most likely either have had access to corrective surgery or medication to manage these heart conditions. Which is not to say that he wouldn’t suffer mental and physical trauma from this medical complication. 

There are plenty of professional athletes you can find who have all of the above heart issues. And plenty of people with heart issues who have no interest in being professional athletes, so like, follow your bliss. 

Digestive System Stuff: Easy fatigability, Stomach ulcers, Pernicious anemia

I have easy fatigability under heart stuff too, because lots of shit can make you tired. 

My personal head canon is that Steve Rogers has celiac disease and/or lactose intolerance, it would cause all of the above. Both can also lead to poor growth - in fact falling off growth charts is one of the most common symptoms of celiac disease in children. 

While people have been aware of celiac disease since there were people, gluten wasn’t identified as the clear cause till the 50s. 

I typically write modern Steve with some kind of food allergy, and I think that addresses quite a few of his canon medical complications. 

Because so many causes of this category of symptoms are relatively easily solved with modern medical intervention/avoiding the problem, I would point folks towards Crohn’s disease if you are looking to write a modern character with medical issue that is more likely to be an ongoing source of similar medical complications today.

(Also, kids with Crohn’s are likely to have reduced height. I have a friend who has Crohn's whose 3 siblings are well over 6 feet and he is around 5'8" (so 4-6 inches aka 11+ cm shorter due to his severe childhood illness).)

Nervous trouble of any sort

Kids with medical complications and food allergies are much more likely to have anxiety. I’m so proud of all the kids making it through the day with anxiety. Luff you anxiety kids, I see you working twice as hard to be present as the non-anxious kids. Tough as hell. Give yourself a high five. I’m so damn proud of you.

Sinusitis and Frequent colds

I mean, god bless modern decongestants and allergy meds. Celiac disease and lactose intolerance can both cause sinus issues, so here is another one of Steve's ailments that can be "cured" through that diagnosis.

Other stuff

When you look at the above, you can see a lot of scenarios where modern era Steve, like many children/adults today, had multiple surgeries and serious and scary health complications as a child, but as an adult would appear as a relatively healthy able bodied person, with the possibility of even becoming a top athlete if he was so inclined.  It’s also likely that some issues like chronic fatigue etc, might linger into adulthood as relatively invisible illnesses that nonetheless affect his everyday. 

In some ways his character arc given the advances of modern medicine could mimic his arc due to the serum. 

Being medically complicated as a kid sucks. Even if you have surgeries to treat and/or learn how to live with things like Crohn’s and celiac and reduce flare ups, lingering mental health trauma can have an impact. 

Lastly and most importantly, I have a personal headcanon that young Steve Rogers of any era spent a lot of time sick in bed and staring into a mirror learning how to raise one eyebrow and perform other eyebrow gymnastics so he could more effectively sass his nurses. 

IN CONCLUSION:

I think it's actually reasonable for an author to say, "My modern Steve never had any fevers, and got his severe lactose intolerance diagnosed as a baby, and had good nutrition, had medications/clean environment that prevented his asthma."

So this Steve is 6 feet tall and healthy as long as he doesn't eat dairy and takes his daily zyrtec (cetirizine - it's an allergy med). The only medical issue he has from canon left is scoliosis, flat feet, and an astigmatism.

You can also choose to write a Steve with more complex medical issues, and there are lots of things that can be good and interesting and value about that. I think the main thing is to pick a diagnosis and write it realistically, hopefully this helps some with that!

#stucky fanfiction #smol steve #writing disability #steve roger #pre serum steve rogers #modern steve rogers #honestly whats wrong with me #I don't even know but I feel like I'm dealing with my mental illnesses well enough and I had fun writing this #meta #headcanon #stony fanfiction

[frienderbee]

THINGS I NOTICED ABOUT 2012 APRIL

[In season 1]

Almost always tends to make the first move in combat, surprisingly aggressive and impulsive. In fact, she sucks at defense in her fight with Karai and doesn't block a single attack.

Is REALLY oblivious to Donnies interest in her- doesn't notice him staring, is often otherwise occupied and brushes him off, she occasionally gives him questioning glances tho

First glimpse of her powers is in the episode with Rockwell as she has a better connection with him as another empath and she figures out he's human. (The description given in that episode about the powers they were hoping the mutagen could give them also describes April's powers in general)

She tends to understate things a lot. "Donnie got beat up by a monkey" (mutant.) "I'm being stalked by a giant pigeon" (mutant) "attacked by an old lady" (the most powerful kraang bot they'd seen by this point. )

There's lots of moments mentioned but not seen of April helping Donnie in the lab.

Biology seems to he her best or favourite subject. It is the one she mentions the most and is seen doing the most. She almost always has her biology textbook with her

She's failing trig

I think this is just lazy animation but she doesn't react as much when not the direct focus of a conversation (compared to the turtles) making her look like she's zoned out

Whenever she's upset she puts her arms around her torso like she's hugging herself. If she's sitting she pulls her legs up to her chest and rests her head on her knees.

Is most physically effectionate when excited, grabs onto the turtles shoulders without thinking. Hugs them (i think only donnie actually) more out of impulse than anything else. Can get very in their personal space when excited about something they're saying too

Whenever she's going undercover and pretending to be a delivery person or cop she puts on a deep voice

She does improve and has her moments in general but she's often a terrible liar. She stutters and looks around awkwardly

She also over acts and struggles to act natural on command ("Well I sure hope no pigeon sneaks up on me!")

Spends enough time one on one with Splinter to rival Leo. This is seen in their individual training sessions they do when the turtles are on missions as well as being implied as something they frequently do off screen.

In her student ID her picture shows her with braces and glasses.

This one's obvious but she's closest with Donnie. He's the only one we see her hug in this season, the only one she's implied to hang out with off screen and the one she always calls in an emergency.

He's also the first one she really smiles at and trusts in the first couple episodes.

Despite not saying she wants to be a journalist like some other versions, she definitely still has some of those skills. She is brilliant as finding articles and information on Kraang sightings online, is capable of getting information out of random civilians, has a recording device attached to an app on her phone which she sneaks into the purple dragons base and she manages to find the TCRI blueprints.

There's one scene when she's training with Splinter that she focuses too hard on the specific motions and shuts her eyes rather than watch him

Thought it was funny that Splinter eventually gave April a throwing weapon given she accidentally threw two of the previous weapons she tried

She can seemingly follow along with at least some of donnies scientific rambles, especially compared to the others

She has 1,178 unread emails, one of which is in urgent

#2012 april o’neil #2012 tmnt #2012 april #character analysis

[luigiblood]

Game Ownership

In sort of a response to the Ubisoft director of subscriptions where he said that we need to get more confortable not owning games...

Well, reading that interview from GamesIndustry.biz, turns out he never really said that. It's more of an observation of the gaming subscription services, and comparing different views. It's actually a pretty interesting read.

But the negative response to the more clickbait part where the gamers went very much against this from the get go was something that particularly striked me as how I really just didn't feel like I was part of those who responded like this.

I do not care about owning games that much. I may be a owner of retro consoles, games, and about 50 Switch physical games, but the reasons ranges from passion to just practical and economical.

Taking the example of the Switch, what currently makes me attached to physical games are more of how it's usually cheaper in my country (like, first party games day one tend to be 25% off brand new), and the practicality when you live in a household with 2 Switch systems, it's just easier to share the games that way with your family. If I could just buy digitally with the same advantages, I'd just do that.

This view on game ownership has mostly to do with my past of a guy who pirated games and movies like crazy before we got a little more comfortable paying for stuff. But this past also comes with a deeper importance on the presence of data locally. Cloud gaming is something I hate on passionately if the industry keeps going on that as a means to play games exclusively. It would be the kind of thing that would make my heart broken about modern gaming as a whole, but thankfully we're not even close to there, and I suspect we'll never be.

But I could also not need to pay for the games, I don't really see a lack of ownership as a problem on its own. The only thing that matters is if it's practical or not, and that's the part that feels like it tends to be skipped when explained. That's how it went about movies and music.

That practicality is critical, and that is the part that's the most in danger. The big reason why is how companies can decide on a whim what is accessible to suit their needs. That WILL be completely in the process of enshittification due to how companies have to keep growing until it makes no more sense. You don't even need to look very far to understand this, video streaming services are already very good at doing absolutely this, but I also dare say the Game Pass and PlayStation Plus are on a similar boat to a different extent, though.

One of the recent examples of how bad shit is HBO Max's removal of a huge amount of content just for a massive tax write down. There is financial incentive to fuck us all, and I consider the future to do absolutely that in the long term for gaming.

That kind of thing SUCKS. That is what we're actually scared of as a consumer. I hate seeing art being considered as a throwaway product.

I even saw a french article that was so complacent with this and kept saying complete bullshit things like "oh if they remove that game from the service, just take it as an opportunity to play another one" just, fuck off. That's not how I see this kind of service.

I love Nintendo Switch Online, despite a lot of its flaws, and hate on Virtual Console's overall legacy personally. I'm all for ways to allow discoverability and pick the curiosity of people. That's the kind of shit that I love in having some ease of access to catalogs, despite not owning them.

Wasn't it the dream to just access to everything with less money though? Don't tell me otherwise because I wouldn't believe you. I do think there's something nice in this kind of service, but we also need to figure how to keep companies from the inevitable enshittification that will ensue on the constant need for growth beyond any reasonable sense.

#gaming #streaming #opinion #ownership

[impala-dreamer]

Captives of The Court - Chapter Six

A Supernatural Series

~Strange things are brewing in Connecticut, so Dean and Y/N go check it out. After stumbling through town, they fall into something that’s been going on a very, very long time. Can they put an end to the bloodshed and make it out unscathed or will they need a little help this time?~

Starring Dean Winchester x Y/N Y/L/N

Chapter Six Word Count: 2834

Series Warnings and Info may be found on the Masterlist Here 

Impala-Dreamer’s Masterlist  ~  Patreon  ~ Published Works

Six hours later, the Impala’s hood was cooling down in the parking lot of the Royal Wolf Resort just outside of Cromwell, Connecticut. Although parked outside of room twelve, Dean returned from the office with keys for room nine, a fact that only slightly annoyed him. Usually, he was better at guessing vacancies. 

Y/N was leaning against the side of the car, ankles crossed and duffle bags at her feet. Her laptop was propped up in one hand and she scrolled through research with the other, fingers deftly flying over the keys. 

Dean took a moment to appreciate the way her mouth twisted up so adorably while concentrating. 

“Find anything interesting?” he asked, slinking up beside her. 

She nodded, eyes wide with jestful excitement. “Oh yes. First of all, this motel is full of shit.” 

He licked his lips and tried not to laugh, locking a joke in the chamber. “Huh. You’d think it’d smell more…” 

Y/N side eyed him and laughed. “No. I mean- the name, you ass. It’s not a resort by any standard definition, barely even a motel, from the looks of it. And- there are no wolves in Connecticut, royal or otherwise.”

“None?” 

“Not one. They were hunted to extinction in the state back in the late 1700s.” 

Dean sighed and reached for the computer, gently closing the lid as he took it away. “You’ve dug too deep, Sweetheart. Time to pull up.” 

She turned towards him with a finger extended in warning. Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t ‘sweetheart’ me, mister. And don’t knock the research. Knowledge is power.” 

She leaned close and Dean sucked in a quick breath, suddenly very curious about how big the bed in room nine was. 

“Sure thing, doll-” he teased, over emphasizing the nickname, “but what use could you possibly have for knowing about the wolf population?” 

Y/N shrugged and licked her lips slowly, eyes drifting over his freckled face. “Distraction, mostly.” 

While his mind was racing onto other things, she snatched the keys from his hand and twirled away, heading towards the room. 

“Hey!”

“First shower’s mine,” she told him, looking back over her shoulder with a wink. “Grab the bags, will you?” 

While Y/N used up all the hot water for the entire twenty room motel, Dean busied himself with research, although he stayed away from articles pertaining to animal populations in favor of more relevant information. 

By the time the shower stopped, he’d already made two phone calls and set up an appointment with the town’s sheriff. 

When Y/N emerged from the bathroom in a cloud of steam with a skimpy towel wrapped around her breasts, he was carefully laying out a clean shirt and tie for himself. 

She groaned when she saw his suit jacket hanging from the doorknob. “Your suit? No.” 

Dean smoothed out his navy tie. “Yup. Get dressed. I’m gonna hop in the shower quick- hopefully I won’t freeze…” He cocked a brow and she shied away innocently. “We’ve got a one o’clock meeting at the station.” 

Y/N sighed. “Yeah, but- feds? Again? We always do feds. Can’t we spice it up a bit?”

He turned and faced her with a narrowed gaze that soon lightened as he watched a drop of water slide down her throat and disappear between her breasts. Quickly, he cleared his throat and head. “Feds. Suit up.” 

“What happened to laughing so we don’t cry? Keeping things interesting?”

He sighed. 

She twisted her lips and pondered. “What about… Oh! I can be a reporter from a Canadian newspaper who’s boss has really been riding her ass hard about deadlines and you’re my sad but strikingly handsome photographer partner who has been in love with me for years to no avail.” 

Dean bit his lip to hold in a laugh, keeping his face as stern as he could. “Feds.” 

“Or…” Y/N tried again, her eyes sparkling with ideas. “I’m an actress researching a role and there’s like a ton of Oscar buzz around it and you’re my bodyguard hired by the movie studio because some psycho has been stalking me and you’re secretly and uncontrollably in love with me.”  

He exhaled slowly, holding in the urge to grab her and kiss her stupid, toss her onto the bed and have his way until the alarm went off. He cleared his throat. “Feds.” 

“What if we’re bereft cousins from out of town who just really need to see the latest body so we can get spiritual closure. I’m a psychic who talks mainly to cocker spaniels and you’re my husband who only can commune with recently departed hummingbirds but we really want to try to contact our cousin’s spirit anyway just to, ya know, get closure.” 

His fingers were twitching to touch her and he leaned in close, eyes on her lips like they were his target. “Or… we can be federal agents who have access to everything and hardly anyone questions it.” His lips floated near hers but he pulled away at the last second, spinning around her and slapping her towel-covered ass. “Suit. Up.” 

She pouted. “But-”

“Put on your damned blazer and let’s get going. We can role play all freaking night if you want to, just please- get dressed.” 

“All night?” 

He popped his chin on her shoulder. “Yes.”

She chewed her lip. “Can I be a young and enthusiastic sports reporter who has to struggle to make it in a male dominated field and you're a strapping but aging ballplayer who just wants some damned respect and is secretly in love with me?”

Dean couldn’t hold it back any longer and tipped his head back with a heavy laugh. “Anything you want, baby.”

She wiggled her hips in victory and earned a goosing. “Oh! Home run, Mr. Winchester…” 

On the ride over to the sheriff’s Department, Y/N had done a quick search just to see who they were going to be dealing with. Sheriff John Willard had been appointed over thirty years prior at the age of thirty-two, and while the youngest sheriff in the town’s history, he was also the most well liked. 

The person who greeted them didn’t quite look like a man pushing retirement age, and Y/N sat next to Dean, staring at the young, handsome man who claimed to be John Willard. 

He had a smile worth a million bucks and dimples to spare. Blond and blue eyed, she could see how the townspeople would appreciate such a man in power, but something wasn’t sitting right with her. She held her tongue, though, and let Dean take the lead. He wasn’t doing great- the Sheriff was being difficult. 

“So anyway, Sheriff, it’s been a long drive, and I hate to push it, but if we could just get a quick look at those files, we’ll be on our way and out of your hair in no time.” Dean turned up the charm, but it was clear he was barking up the wrong tree.

Sheriff Willard’s attention was fixed on Y/N. 

She smiled sweetly and leaned forward, giving him a tiny peek at what could be hiding below the string of fake pearls at her throat. 

“John,” she said, snagging her lip just a bit with a flirtatious smile. “May I call you John?” 

“You sure can,” he replied, clicking his tongue with interest and setting his forearms on his desk. He leaned in and set his gaze on her demourely painted lips. “And… what may I call you?” 

Dean huffed under his breath, clearly annoyed, but sat back, letting her do her thing.  

Y/N laughed coyly. “You can call me Agent Smyth.” 

He frowned. “So formal?” 

She forced a giggle. “Fine. Patti.”

“Patti…” He let her name roll off his tongue slowly and Dean gagged. “Much better.” 

Y/N made a play of squirming a bit in her seat, letting her tight gray skirt ride up a bit. “Now that we’re better… acquainted… John- do you think we could sneak a little peek at those files now? I’m just exhausted from the road. You’d be doing us- me- a huge favor.”

The Sheriff sat back and nodded, his eyes never leaving her for a second. “I’ll get my secretary right on that. Have her make some copies for you.” 

Y/N sat all the way forward, perching on the very edge of her chair, and lay a hand on the desk. “You’re the best. I knew we’d get along the moment I saw you.” 

John hummed and let his eyes drift from her face to the tiny, straining buttons of her blouse. 

“Oh!” Y/N straightened up and puckered her lips just so, making them plump and pliant. “Would also be really great if we could get down into the morgue and have a look around. Check out Mr.-” She paused to look down at her notes, pretending to be so distracted by his flirting that her job was at stake. “- Cooper’s remains. Just silly formalities, you know.”

She winked and John smiled. 

“Of course. I’ll call down and let them know you’re coming.” 

Satisfied, Y/N stood and reached for his hand. “You really are a big help, John. Thank you.” 

John stood as well. His hand was large and sweaty, and he wrapped his fingers too tightly around hers. 

“Glad I could help.” He didn’t let her go right away, lingering there and caressing the back of her hand with his thumb. 

Her skin crawled. 

“Maybe I can show you around town later. That is, if you’ve got time once the job’s done.” 

She hesitated, unsure of how to let him down and still retain his services should she need them later. 

Dean saved the day. He popped up and fixed the button on his suit jacket. “Dunno if we’ll be in town that long, but she’ll let you know.” 

Once outside and out of eyesight, Y/N shuddered, her entire body shaking with an unstoppable cringe. She set her hand on the hood of the Impala, steadying herself and taking a deep breath. 

“Well that was gross,” Dean commented, rounding the car with a cardboard box of files in hand. 

She gagged. “You have no idea.” Another shiver overtook her and she stuck her tongue out, forcing the bad feeling to leave. “Listen, I don’t know what’s what, but I do know something is up with that guy.” 

Dean popped the trunk. “Like what?” 

Y/N pulled the passenger door open. “I don’t know, but I mean- first of all- who hits on a fucking Federal Agent like that? And secondly- how the hell is that man almost sixty-five? He looks younger than you.” 

Dean frowned, annoyed dimples appearing above his lip. “Excuse me? I look fucking amazing.” 

“For your age, yeah.” 

“Did you just- call me- old?” 

She grinned and hopped into the car. 

“You’re lucky I like you,” he warned with a laugh before sliding in behind the wheel. “So, you got a bad feeling off the guy. You think we need to look into it?” 

She shrugged and looked out of the window at the police station. “Maybe? I don’t know. Just something to keep in the back of your head.” 

“Gotcha.” He turned the key in the engine. “Lunch then morgue?” 

YN gagged for the third time that day. “That’s gross.” 

Dean laughed. “Better than the other way around…” 

“You’re not wrong.” 

“Agent Henley, Agent Smyth. Sheriff told me you were stopping by.” 

The Chief Medical Examiner was far hotter than Y/N would have liked and much handsier than Dean would have expected. She whipped her long chestnut hair off of her shoulder and smiled, perfect blue eyes locked on Dean and his charmingly shy grin. She laid a delicate hand on Dean’s shoulder and took a step, leading him towards the examination table.

Y/N swallowed down a groan. “Ms. Parker-”

The woman jolted and sneered at Y/N over her shoulder. “That’s Dr. Parker, Agent,” she snit. “But you-” she turned back to Dean and winked. “Can call me Alice.” 

“Such a friendly town,” Y/N sighed, hanging back while Dean went to work. 

Dean licked his lips slowly and made a showing of dragging his plump bottom lip in between his teeth. It was a killer move and it seemed to work on the doctor. 

“So, what can you tell me about our man, here?” he asked, gesturing to the body on the table. 

Clark Cooper was laid out under a crisp white sheet, but Y/N could see, even from a few steps away, that he’d been carved up pretty good. Deep red lines peeked out from beneath the cover, and she squinted to get a better look. 

Alice let go of Dean’s arm and walked around the table. “Clark Cooper, twenty-nine. As of three weeks ago, he was in perfect health. They found him four days ago on the side of the road back behind Pritchard House. Just a mess. Very sad.” She pulled the sheet back and Dean leaned over the body, checking out the markings. 

He glanced up. “Cause of death?” 

Alice spent half a beat too long staring into green eyes. “Pneumothorax.”

Dean’s mouth twisted in question. 

Y/N stepped up behind him. “Really?” She leaned over and examined the body, almost pushing Dean aside. “His lung collapsed. Huh. Do you think it was from a fall or a crash? He seems to have lots of bruising-” 

The doctor sneered at Y/N. “I think it was from the multiple stab wounds he received.” Annoyed, she pointed at Cooper’s chest. Seven gashes were mixed in with the carved markings.

Y/N nodded. “Gotcha. And- what do you make of these markings? They were clearly made with a blade of some sort. Rather shallow cuts… probably not fatal.”

Alice sucked her teeth. “Again- he probably died from the multiple stab wounds.” 

Y/N straightened and tongued her cheek in a way that Dean recognized as her gearing up for a verbal altercation. 

He stepped in. 

“Alice,” he smiled and reached for her arm, turning her away from the body and YN’s ire. “Such a beautiful name. Tell me, what happened to his wife and the other couples that were found?” 

Y/N was already in the car by the time Dean managed to pry the good doctor’s manicured hand off of his arm. She was clicking away at her laptop, trying to match the strange markings to anything in her research folders. Nothing was coming up.

Dean slid into the driver’s seat and slunk down, resting his head on the back of the seat for a minute. 

“That was fun.”

She sniffed the air and a sickeningly flowery smell hit her nose. “You stink. What is that?” 

Dean sighed. “I think some of her perfume rubbed off on me.” 

Y/N cracked the window, cringing. “I don’t want to know what she was doing to rub anything off on you.” 

He laughed and scrubbed a hand down his face. “Trust me, I wasn’t enjoying it.” He closed his eyes, resting. “Something was odd about her. I can’t put my finger on it.” 

Y/N nodded. “She was too pretty to be a coroner… Have you ever seen a woman who looked like that locked away in a basement full of corpses? No.” 

“Yeah… she was pretty hot.” 

“I’ll pretend you didn’t say that.” 

“Like you didn’t find the sheriff attractive.” 

She considered, shrugging. “He wasn’t… not hot. But still- something weird. They’re too…” 

“Yeah… Just too…” 

Silence fell while minds worked but neither could come up with an answer. 

Afternoon was in full swing and the town was alive. People walked arm in arm down the sparkling sidewalks, ducked into tiny stores, and generally moved about with smiling faces. 

Y/N stared out of the window and took it all in, watching the world move by. 

Everyone on the street looked strange. They were too happy, too… clean looking, too perky. 

“This town is creepy as fuck,” she mumbled. 

Dean, who had been watching a happy couple push a stroller across the street, shrugged. 

“Looks like an OK place to raise a family,” he replied. 

Y/N followed his gaze. “Dream on, Winchester.” 

He turned to look at her and reached across the bench seat. He lay his palm against her cheek and leaned in, hungry lips on a collision course with hers. “You don’t wanna have my baby?” he teased. 

Caught by the heat of his touch, Y/N gasped lightly and then coughed in his face, the perfume nearly choking her. 

The moment shattered into a million pieces and Dean fell back against the seat, hopelessly laughing at himself. 

“Holy shit- you need a shower,” she laughed, excusing herself to the opposite end of the seat. 

Dean plucked the lapel of his jacket upwards and sniffed at it, ultimately nodding in agreement. “Yeah. Let’s… rain check that kiss…” 

2023 Forever Tags (Always Open! Send an Ask!)

@aditimukul @agirlwithdemonblood @amanda-teaches @akshi8278 @alwayskeepfightingsweetheart @b3autyfuldisast3r @babysimpala @beardburnsupersoldiers @because-imma-lady-assface @bloodline1632 @charred-angelwings @chenshemesh1 @cosicas-cuquis @covered-byroses @djs8891 @deans-baby-momma @deanwinchesterswitch @deansyahtzee @feelmyroarrrr @foxyjwls007 @hobby27 @iamsapphine @idreamofdeanie @ilsawasanacrobat @impalaspixie @iprobablyshipit91 @jawritter @justcallmeasmodeus @kazsrm67 @kittenofdoomage @leigh70 @lovealways-j @lyarr24 @mariekoukie6661 @maggiegirl17 @mistressofallthingsgeeky @pandaxo79 @peachy-vans @rachiem4-blog @roseblue373 @sacriceria @samwellwinchesterthebrave @sexyvixen7 @spideysimpossiblegirl @spnexploration @stevekempscocktails @the-wounded-healer05 @thoughts-and-funnies @vulgar-library 

#cotc #supernatural fanfiction #dean winchester x reader #angst #fluff #series

[literaticat]

I've always thought writing a good (and commercial) story was the key to a writer's success. But I've been reading more and more articles saying that writing is now the least important factor of success- the biggest one being a large social media footprint. If I was interested in social media, I would have become an influencer, not a writer. Are these articles true? If so, it's pretty depressing. I'm talking only about fiction, by the way.

In my opinion, writing a good (and commercially viable) story is the most important factor in an author's success.

It may not be the ONLY factor. Timing, market trends, the economy, media/marketing hooks, *vibes* and sheer luck can all be factors. A robust social media presence or otherwise strong platform wouldn't HURT. (In other words, yes, sure, a ready-made audience of people who "know you"/ are familiar with your work and your name and who want to support you, whether because of your personality or expertise or *whatever* is a fine thing!)

But IMO none of this matters for long-term success without a book that is actually good and that people want to purchase. That is the meat; all the rest is gravy.

(In other words -- sure, yes, you might sell a bunch of books out of the gate because you hit the "timing" lottery, or you are an 'influencer' or whatever -- but if your book sucks, those sales will not be sustainable -- it's never going to reach beyond your core "follower" audience, and I wouldn't expect it to stay in print for years, or for you to suddenly be a career author. Whereas there are LOTS of career authors with sustained good sales and books in print years later and loads of contracts for more, who are very far from Social Media Superstar status.)

[courtney-deserved-better]

Please do Chase and Emma for the character bingo, I need your thoughts

man chase is such a asshole and emma should NOT have taken him back, like, twice after the shit he pulled. but i do find him entertaining. like a love to hate him kinda thing yknow? i do think his personality is really interesting because he can read as a nice normal guy and then something comes up and you're like OH this dude sucks actually. i think the writers did a good job with his character in that they did a great job of making him awful while still understanding why emma dated him.

emma is at her peak in the first half of the season when she's trying to murder chase and being besties with bowie. that emma i love. when she gets back with chase multiple times and turns on bowie? not so much. HOWEVER i (unlike what i've seen from other people) do think it makes sense why she gets back together with chase. its more emphasized with chase but she too was a part of that youtube house and doing crazy stunts for fame. she's definitely right to be angry with chase and i think the righteousness of her anger sort of hides the fact that she too has been impacted by going viral and whatnot. im struggling to find the right words but when i heard chase and emma's backstory it reminded me of this article which is. certainly something. while emma is nowhere near as narcissistic and awful as chase, and has definitely been a victim of his, she is also self centered and considering her backstory that makes sense. she wants so badly to hear an apology from chase and to have him put her first that she's willing to assume his actions are to cater to that need. she spends a lot of time complaining about chase to bowie but when her feelings on chase change on a dime, she assumes that bowie's feelings must match hers or otherwise he's against her, when in fact he's making very reasonable decisions based on past experience. i have a lot of thoughts on emma's characterization that i tragically am too tired to be coherent about right now but hopefully i will be able to post a better analysis in the future. again, i VERY much enjoy emma before she got back with chase, but i do think her behavior afterward isn't totally unreasonable considering her character. she turned on bowie due to her self centeredness but she is still a victim of chase's narcissm.

#td spoilers #td chase #td emma #tdr emma

[utilitycaster]

I want to talk about how this article sucks, but before I do I want to say that it's the article that sucks, not the Session Zero System, which actually sounds pretty great. The subject of this article is cool and everyone should watch Shriek Week (and, if they're interested, back this kickstarter). This is not about that. This is about how Polygon's TTRPG staff is apparently staffed by people who both hate D&D and also cannot think of other TTRPGs as anything but accessories for D&D. And, weirdly, like almost all indie TTRPG fans who hate D&D, they act like a psyop to make D&D fans less interested in indie games or to see those indie games only as ways to enhance D&D.

This article treats indie TTRPGs as merely tools to make your D&D world better. The Quiet Year has been used to create D&D settings, notably in Friends at the Table (note: I do not listen to FatT) which in turn inspired The Adventure Zone: Ethersea to use it. However, as published, the game is about telling the story of a year in a small, isolated settlement during a year of relative respite. Building the world and chronicling that year is the end goal, and you can adapt it to be otherwise, but it's a disservice to reduce it to prep work for a "real" game, and bizarre to reduce it to prep for a real game you don't even seem to like. I should also add that there are many players who genuinely do wish to show up to the table with a character and who do not wish to have to create the entire universe before they swing a sword.

World Ending Game, on the other hand, is, in fact, intended to serve as a capstone for a different campaign. I don't happen to think that's necessary if you're capable of handling ambiguity and the movie never ending but going on and on and on; or if you, unlike the assumption of many indie games, can handle open RP without an overly rigid structure that they claim grants more player agency. However, I can see how this can be enjoyable if you are truly putting a whole world to bed with the end of this campaign - the consideration of the various timescales is something that can be hard to fathom - but again, it seems odd to laud the final touches after you've whined about everything that got you there. The question in the Polygon article about World Ending Game is "[long-form heroic fantasy games like D&D and Pathfinder] are played in a character-centered way, and figuring out how to let go of those characters, to let them pass into some other phase of their life beyond the campaign that you have played, is often hard to do. What does Old Zoot the dwarf do after he’s defeated Strahd and flown a Spelljammer directly into the floating palace of a cloud giant?" The thing is...if you have put thought into the character of Old Zoot the dwarf and his motivations and backstory, and taken even sporadic notes of what happened in the campaign, and have seen perhaps one movie, then actually, you should be able to figure this the fuck out for yourself.

Also: I think the points made by the creator (Gabe Hicks) about the Session Zero System are very thoughtful with regards to how these structured tools may be used. I've long felt that there is an over-emphasis even in spaces that are in favor of D&D on forcing conversational scaffolding onto what could just as easily be open discussion (see also safety tools). Acknowledging that not everyone will need them, but they're good to have around for those who do and that, to be valuable to all, they should offer something even to people who do not desire that structure, is insightful and I credit them for getting this when so many people do not. But Polygon's writer referring to those other games as "essentials" when they are even more optional than the usual D&D accoutrements speaks to a highly specific and dare I say poorly understood view of D&D, Pathfinder, and the like; and this seems to plague the entire staff of TTRPG writers. And to be clear, you can love TTRPGs and not like D&D, but if you're writing about the TTRPG space, you should probably be able to speak about what is by far the most common entry point and most famous example with some competence.

#long post #d&d

[propelbottle]

Advice for closeted genderqueer?

hi there! hope you're doing well rn.. I am an awful person to go to for advice- my parents are very conservative, and I personally don't plan to ever come out to them.. some shaky advice from my experience under the cut but idk exactly what you're going through- feel free to send asks to literally anyone else as well! I'm sure you are, so kudos, get more opinions so when you decide for yourself in any possible scenario, you know you're making the right choice and doing the best you can

Since you're currently closeted, my advice would be to only tell your closest friends / family if you're really sure they'll support you no matter what. For each person, you can look at how they react to gay or trans people in media, fictional or otherwise (but maybe don't actively push for them to watch pro-lgbt things if they're not currently interested) or other signs- if you're not sure, err on the side of keeping quiet.. it sucks, but in my experience, I didn't end up coming out to my friend group until LAST MONTH, and I graduated college with a boyfriend this year.. it sucks, but you'll live, which is really more important

Make sure to find small ways to express yourself for the sake of your own sanity, whatever that might look like, like buying a cute scarf or a sleek belt or other articles of clothing that lean towards one style or another, in a way that makes you feel like you're putting yourself forward while still keeping things in the realm of plausible deniability

If someone suspects anything, have a picture handy of an ostensibly cis person (model, actor, singer, etc.) wearing their hair the same way as you or dressing the same way and say you saw them on tiktok/instagram/scrolling through spotify/magazines, and you thought that was just the current trend- that's actually gotten me out of a lot of binds

On the one hand, keep yourself safe, but on the other, it might be good for your confidence/self-esteem/outlook on life for your close friends to use the right pronouns for you. Know that there will always be kind people who will be there for you no matter what.. But, also - maybe controversial - no one deserves or needs to know certain things about you, especially to do with your real name or pronouns. Just like you don't deserve the mental and physical strain being closeted can cause.

I mean idk know that it's not your fault if someone assumes something about you, whether or not it's true. Try to be yourself because you deserve to be you, but please try to keep yourself safe, whatever that means for you. Sorry about the situation.. and definitely ask someone else for advice, but take care of yourself and you'll be alright

#idk thanks for the ask 😓 i'm currently half closeted #it all depends on what you want also #there are a lot of articles by trans and gay people that advocate staying in the closet #at the same time as everyone seems to be saying we NEED to come out #so it's up to you :) stay cautious stay confident and stay safe #ask

[woodsdyke]

Do you have any advice for someone who wants to become a sociologist? any do's and dont's?

ok hi anon i had to let this marinate for a bit before i answered it

anyway good question! and i'm not necessarily the best person to answer it because i currently don't directly work in sociology, but i'll give it a shot

first some of the logistics/career stuff:

-if a program doesn't sit right with you, and you have the option, just get out of there. no point in getting a sociology degree from a school that can't follow the program's own tenets (i.e. for my BS, i encountered soooo much unchallenged ableism. i was in psychology). also if the program is all white guy profs, get out of there

-if you already have an associates/bachelors degree and want to go to grad school, it's okay if it's not in sociology. my BS is in psychology with a bunch of biology/chemistry coursework i did before changing my major. some smaller universities don't even have sociology undergraduate programs. a lot of subjects that aren't sociology are still very closely related and won't strike any points against you when trying to get into grad school

-on that note, people will tell you the likelihood of getting a tenure-track professorship in sociology is like 1%. don't be demoralized. 1% isn't 0%. go get that shit

-know that the likelihood of you working specifically as A Sociologist isn't really high (not saying you can't write/etc on the side, writing a book is something i keep considering). other than professor/instructor positions, there aren't a lot of places hiring specifically sociology-related roles. my specialty is rural and queer studies, but i've worked in clinical research, community violence and suicide prevention, adolescent development, substance use disorder. which all made good use of my skills but weren't really related to my specific focus. would i like to get something specific to my degree specialization? sure! but who knows when that may happen

-sociology is useful in a TON of different fields. you can still use your skills/interests even if you're not in a specific sociologist role. any social science, marketing, education, medicine, public health, policy, etc. are all places that want that cool shit you're bringing to the table and you'll probably enjoy it too (idk about marketing. it seems soul-crushing. but maybe not for you)

-if you really want to specifically Do Sociology you're probably gonna want to get a doctorate. i have an MA, which allows me to be the sociology guy on my projects, but i still work within other fields (public health most recently)

-make sure you have a good background in analysis. you don't have to be good at quant or qual (people will tell you otherwise but i suck at quant and i'm here, so), but you want to be good at one of them. you are going to find more positions, and make more money, if you're good at quant (including SAS/R coding and probably python). it's the reality of math. but i think quant sucks and i'm a qual specialist, so follows your dreams

-if you're in/want to be in research: understand your jobs may not be permanent. i'm speaking from experience as someone who just got laid off. if you're working for an academic institution with grant-funded research, funding can run out! contracts will fall through! if you're looking to stay at one job for years and years, not sure if academic research is the place to be

now my own little tips about The Vibes:

-you will be weird at parties. sociology is basically going uh oh! this social phenomena is bad! we should fix it. but how ? and god descends and hands you a note card that just says ?????? on it. you will have knowledge of things that are bad. they'll be interesting! but also it can get kind of depressing at times. but so can all of existing, so

-you gotta like books. or at least just learning rly specific shit. if you're specifically wanting to go into sociology you probably know that, but i did read 300+ pages of articles and 14 books for my MA thesis. on purpose. over about 4 months

-people in more "hard science" heavy jobs will act like you're amazing for knowing things like what medical racism is. this will feel jarring and like you are being tricked. you're not, people just don't know things. just go with it

i know this is A LOT and i'm also early (ish) career and only MA level, but i hope at least something could be helpful!

-sociology is a really gay field. the queer autistics love that shit, most of my grad cohort was queer and weird and we spent 30 minutes deciding the coolest way to dispose of our own corpses when we died

#forest.txt

[7larson]

tbiny devlog #2

this is a repost of a blog article originally made at near-midnight august 21st, 2023 as i am migrating my blog to a new host. there was only two already written, everything here on out should be new :)

i should have been at work today, but i woke up with a horrible migraine, so instead, i called out and slept in. when i woke up, the migraine was still pretty bad, not in a state to go to work, but i wanted to finish setting up this blog and revamping my website, so i did that. don’t look at my commit history, it’s a mess. don’t migraine & code, kiddies.

today i want to get into a little bit about what the story of this game will be, its inspirations, etc. since it’s an idea i’ve had floating around for awhile, so that’s what we’ll jump into!

many eons ago, i got really interested in the concept of a ghost or spirit that lives in the body of or is otherwise attached to another person. this isn’t a unique idea, of course, it’s been done in a lot of media. the thing that originally drew me to the idea in this case was the Chronicles of Darkness book, Geist: The Sin-Eaters, but a lot of other media i’ve loved over the years has explored similar ideas in different ways, particularly The Blackwell series by Wadjet Eye Games.

i made characters based on this concept, but really wanted to incorporate this idea of the host being the main character, and transgender, and the spirit not knowing how to grapple with that, or something along those lines. in the end i don’t think it works well that way, or at least, is as interesting. i think there’s a lot more room for trans allegory in the spirit being the main character, and being trapped within the body, and having to cope with it being a different body than the one they came from. i want to explore things like gender and mental health through that super cool urban fantasy lens i’ve always grown up being attracted to, and what better way to do it through this story!

so that’s where our story starts. This Body is Not Yours is the working title, i don’t know if that will be the finished title, but that’s what i’m going with for now. you play as a ghost who, in the afterlife, made a deal with a dying person to bring them back to life on the condition that you’re bound to them now. and when you wake up, you don’t immediately remember that, because memories are a little weird when you don’t have a body for a long time. don’t think about it too hard, it’s better for the narrative if you learn these things slowly, i think.

i’ll make it make sense. maybe.

so on to day two of development.

first, i learned some more basics of conditional statements and how to edit sentences partway through using them for quality of reading, basically. i think that will come in handy later.

next, that CSS thing from yesterday was really starting to bug me, and with some caffeine for my migraine and the powers of google, i was able to thankfully find the solution. it turns out i just need to only be exporting the story.js once i have the CSS styling the way i want. oops!

with that in mind, i went ahead and did some more serious CSS styling, so now the game is nice and moody and has an appropriate light and dark theme :) i usually use light theme for everything, because my eyes suck, but i know most people prefer dark theme and it fits the setting, so here’s what it looks like now.

also, i commented out something i want to use later, but left it there so i can use it… later.

i also found out i can use ink’s class defining to define lines that i stitched together through scenes using glue (this all sounds ridiculous if you’re not familiar with ink, but knots, stitches, and glue are all real terms) so i can change the color of what appears to be a single line in the game, even if it’s split into a couple segments in the file. very useful!

this is pretty much it for technical stuff today, i think, the rest is just writing! so… this has been a devlog. tune in next time for god knows what!

#devlog #solo game dev #game development #tbiny

[everygame]

Gyruss (Arcade)

Developed/Published by: Konami Released: 3/1983 Completed: 07/05/2022 Completion: Reached Jupiter. 122,750. Trophies / Achievements: n/a

As I was wallowing in my failure with Doomdark’s Revenge, I thought I’d revisit a couple of Konami arcade games which were langushing on my “unfinished” pile–this, Gyruss, and Yie Ar Kung-Fu, which I’ll talk about later in the week.

These have actually been on that pile since their re-release as XBLA titles back in god knows when. You might remember that era, or just remember that I mentioned it in my write up of Scramble–a lot of Konami games were released by Digital Eclipse on XBLA in (frankly) terrible versions, and I managed to polish off the otherwise excellent Time Pilot and Track & Field back in the day. I even spent a lot of time playing their ports of Robotron 2084 and the like, but I’m not revisiting any of those unless I pick up another collection that features them because (again) these ports sucked.

It’s quite striking to go back to them, to be honest. Not only do they have absolutely awful “updated” graphics as an option, there are really no other options at all, and the games punish you for having the temerity to consider increasing the number of lives or changing the difficulty by denying you the ability to unlock the achievements if you do so (come on!)

Horrible ports or not, they’re the easiest access to the games I have, so I thought I’d have another crack at seeing them through, and… no to either of them, largely because I discovered they’re both loopers (i.e. they just immediately loop when you’ve seen all the content) so it’s not like there’s any sense of completion. Phew.

Oh, you want me to talk about Gyruss? Well. Gyruss is pretty unusual, to be honest, with a bit of interesting history behind it. Coming out in 1983, it essentially split the difference between Galaga and Tempest, which had both come out in 1981, offering colorful pixel graphics in a “tube shooter” (if that’s the term) that more actively aped the attacking formations of Galaga than it did the more abstract play of Tempest.

It’s honestly quite fun and playable, with the change of perspective somehow making it way more fun than Galaga (which as noted, I don’t have much fondness for) even if it is basically just Galaga if you rolled it up. 

Interestingly, it seemed to use a joystick rather than the far more logical spinner even in the arcade, which means the controls are a bit of a pain as you basically have to get used to twisting it around to stay in control as they relate to on-screen position not the movement of a ship. It’s a bit baffling.

The most annoying thing with Gyruss, to be honest, seems to be that most of the challenge relies on enemies shooting at you when they’re basically at point blank range. In fact, I’d say it’s the only way I lose lives in it, and I have literally no idea how to avoid it. I suppose you could say there’s a nice risk reward there (you hit them better when they’re close, but they might kill you) but it feels massively arbitrary and it’s necessary to shoot attacking enemies lest each level become an unbelievable slog. Though apparently some guy has played this for 62 hours in one go so maybe it’s me.

Will I ever play it again? I’m disappointed this wasn’t included on the Konami Arcade Anniversary Collection, but to be honest, it’s not really as interesting as it looks. I am however very interested in the Famicom/NES version, which bulks out the game somewhat. I’d play that.

Final Thought: Oh, I didn’t mention what the interesting history behind Gyruss was. Simply that this was the last game Yoshiki Okamoto designed for Konami before moving to Capcom over a pay dispute where he’d go on to make Street Fighter II. The rest is history, as they say.

Support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi, either via a one-off donation (pay what you like) or by joining as a supporter at just $1 a month and get articles like this a week early.

#video games #games #gaming #konami #gyruss #text #txt #review #1983 #arcade

[thepremedthatwrites]

Checkmate

request: hi! I love your writing! I'm wondering if you'd be open to writing a chess game between the reader x Edmund, that turns smutty or something like that? thanks!

warning: smut below the cut

“Checkmate!” the brunette exclaimed as he placed his knight in its spot, trapping my king.  

“Seriously Edmund, can’t you let me win at least once?” I complained as we moved to reset the board.

“But then you would be mad at me for going easy on you,” he pointed out.  I let out a sigh before moving one of my pawns two spaces ahead.  I rested my head against my hand as I watched Edmund, expecting him to move his own piece.  Instead, he smiled.  “I think I have an idea on how to make this game a bit more interesting.”  I raised an eyebrow.

“What’s your idea?”  I waited in silence, knowing I was either going to love or hate the idea.

“Why don’t we spice things up and play strip chess.”  The grin on his face widened.

“Strip chess?  What in the world is that?”

“It’s like strip poker.  Except it’s chess.  Each time a piece of yours is taken that isn’t a pawn, you have to take off an article of clothing.”

“How ridiculous,” I muttered, my face turning warm as I thought of stripping in front of Edmund.  

“Why?  Scared you’ll be the one to become naked?”  I looked into his eyes, his brown irises looking back with the same fire that was in mine.

“Fine, whatever Pevensie,” I said, looking away from his eyes as my heart raced in my chest.  I could feel his eyes still watch me as I focused my attention on the board.  “I just hope you’re wearing lots of layers.”

It wasn’t long until Edmund captured one of my rooks.  I let out a groan as Edmund let out a victorious laugh.  “Alright, (y/n).  Clothes off.”  I rolled my eyes as I pulled my shirt over my head.  My vision of him was shortly obscured by the red shirt before being returned to normal as I flung the piece of clothing away from me.  I was suddenly glad to be wearing one of my nicer bras as I felt Edmund’s eyes study the newly exposed skin.

“Stop being a creep Ed,” I said as I moved one of my pieces. 

“Sorry,” he muttered.  His response caught me by surprise as I had been expecting a witty comeback.  Instead, he focused his eyes on the game in front of us, his cheeks colored a light rose.  It wasn’t long until I captured his knight.

“Alright, Edmund.  Clothes off,” I said, repeating his words from earlier. 

“Very funny,” he said as he slowly unbuttoned his shirt.  I let out an impatient sigh.

“C’mon Ed.  We don’t have all day.”  He let out a chuckle, moving his fingers at a faster rate before the white button-up was off his body.  I had never seen Edmund shirtless before.  I had always known he was strong but I wasn’t aware of the abs that hid behind the fabric of his shirts.  His skin was tanned from the sun, most likely due to afternoons playing football.  

“Admiring the view?” Edmund chuckled, causing my face to heat up as I snapped my head back to the board.

“You wish,” I shot back, suddenly very interested in the game.  I studied the pieces in front of me as I attempted to slow my heart rate.  Luck must have been on my side as it wasn’t soon until I had captured Edmund’s rook.  “Let’s hope you didn’t wear your Care Bears boxers today,” I joked as Edmund stood up to take off his pants.  He started to unbuckle his belt and as he did, I couldn’t help but notice the butterflies in my stomach. 

I turned my attention to his face as he took off his belt and pulled down his pants.  He returned to his spot on the floor, his face filled with concentration before making his next move.  I tried to concentrate on the game but all I could focus on was the slight bulge visible in his black boxers.  “(Y/n),” he said, causing me to wake from my daze.

“Hm?” I replied, looking up to face him.  In his hand was my bishop.  

“Pants off princess.”  I know he meant it as a joke but my heart fluttered at his words.  I swallowed thickly, suddenly very aware of Edmund’s eyes on me.  I got up, unbuttoning my jeans before pulling them off, leaving me in only my underwear.  I saw Edmund lick his lips as he looked at me.  I blinked my eyes a few times before focusing them on the chessboard and not Edmund’s crotch.  Surely I was just imagining the growing bulge in his boxers, although Edmund’s uncomfortable shifting seemed to suggest otherwise.

Edmund had become increasingly silent as I pondered my next move.  I leaned forward, playing out my plan in my head as I slowly moved my hand to one of my pieces.  Before my hand could reach it, a larger hand grabbed mine.  “Are you going to continue teasing me like this?” Edmund questioned.  I was about to ask him what he meant when his eyes flickered to my cleavage that had slowly become more visible as I leaned forward.  I could feel my face start to warm, my eyes flickering to his crotch.  While I might have been able to write off his erection as part of my imagination before, it was now very much evident. 

“As if you aren’t teasing me as well,” I said, returning my gaze to meet his own.  His brown eyes studied my face as his hand traveled from my hand and up my arm.  He studied my facial expression, waiting for a sign to stop.  I didn’t give him one.  Instead, I crawled closer to him.  With one single swipe of his hand, the chessboard was gone.  Chess pieces clattered across the floor, not that either one of us cared.

Both of his hands wandered my body as I climbed into his lap, my legs straddling him as I wrapped my arms around his neck.  I slowly leaned forward, giving him enough time to stop me.  He didn’t though and soon, my lips were on his.  The pair of lips that were usually twisted in a sarcastic grin was as soft as silk.  I felt his tongue brush my lips, asking for entrance.  I parted my lips slightly, allowing his tongue and mine to be together.  They waltzed together, pressed against each other as Edmund’s hands worked on unclasping my bra.

After a moment, I felt the piece of fabric loosen before falling between the two of us.  We parted for a moment, both of us panting heavily from a mixture of the adrenaline pumping through our veins and the make-out session.  I ran my hands through Edmund’s brown locks, looking into his admiration filled eyes.  I experimentally rocked my hips back and forth, feeling his erection rub against my clothed sex.  Both of us let out a moan at the friction.  His hands gripped onto my hips almost bruisingly, pushing me down onto his hardened cock.  

“Oh God Ed,” I moaned, the friction much needed.  Edmund seemed to need more as he shifted our positions so that I was now laying on the floor.  His lips were quick to find mine.  Our lips moved together as his hands traveled to my panties.  He tugged on the fabric but it wouldn’t budge.  My realization that I had to raise my hips to allow him to take them off came too late.

“For fuck’s sake,” Edmund muttered before the sound of ripping fabric could be heard.  There was a moment of silence afterward.  I was now completely naked in front of my best friend.  I fought the urge to cover myself as his eyes wandered my body.  

“Those were my favorite pair of underwear,” I said, only half-joking.  A grin appeared on Edmund’s face, dissipating any self-consciousness I might have had.  

“My deepest apologies, love.  I promise to make it up to you.”  As soon as the words left his mouth, I felt a finger on my clit.  I let out a gasp.  A smirk formed on Edmund’s face as he started to lightly rub circles.  He added another finger, increasing the pressure slightly.  My hips rocked in time with his fingers, my body chasing its orgasm.  I closed my eyes as the pleasure built.  

“Edmund,” I gasped as I felt myself come undone, my head falling back as a moan left my mouth.  Edmund slowed his fingers until they had stopped moving altogether.  

“You look so beautiful when you cum,” he whispered.  I opened my eyes slowly to look at Edmund, a smile on my face.  He leaned forward, his lips pressed against mine in a soft kiss before pulling away.  I watched as he removed the only article of clothing from his body.  I bit my lip as my eyes landed on his erection.  He was definitely bigger than anyone I had been with before.  My pussy fluttered as I imagined his cock in me, stretching me out as he thrust into me mercilessly.  

I didn’t have to imagine for much longer as Edmund climbed on top of me.  My hands automatically wandered his body, touching anything it could reach.  I pushed his head down so that I could kiss him.  My moan was muffled by the kiss as he pushed into me, my back arching in pleasure.  He stayed in place for a moment as I stretched to accommodate him.  Soon enough, he started a slow pace.

Although the pace was slow, his thrusts were strong.  My body moved with each thrust, my nails raking down his back.  His mouth traveled from mine to just under my ear.  “Ed,” I moaned as he started to softly suck on the skin.  The pace had started to become faster as one of his hands went between our bodies.  I let out a gasp as his finger brushed my nipple.  He continued to toy with the sensitive area as I felt myself getting closer to my release.

“I’m so close,” I gasped.  I could feel Edmund smiling against my skin, the knowledge that he was able to unravel me like this probably amusing to him.  

“Cum for me (y/n),” he whispered into my ear, his hot breath tickling my neck.  My body obeyed his command as my entire body shook with pleasure.  My walls collapsed around him which seemed to be his tipping point as he moaned into my ear.  “Fuck (y/n),” he moaned as he gave one last thrust before spilling into me.  I let out a small moan as I felt his warm spurts of cum enter my body.  

After a few seconds, he pulled out of me.  He rolled off of me and to my side, turning his head to face me.  A smile was on his face as he brushed a strand of (h/c) hair from my face.  “See, wasn’t that better than boring, regular, old chess?”  I let out a chuckle.

“It seems you did have a good idea for once.  Although you still owe me a new pair of underwear.”

“Fair enough,” Edmund replied as we both got up to find our discarded clothing.  

#edmund pevensie #King Edmund #king edmund the just #edmund pevensie fanfic #edmund pevensie imagine #edmund pevensie smut #edmund x reader #edmund pevensie x reader #narnia #The Chronicles of Narnia #narnia fanfiction #Smut #imagine #fanfic #skandar keynes

[shihalyfie]

Kizuna itself vs. the two versions of the novel

Written on request from a friend who wanted to remain anonymous. This is more of an editorial than a meta, and while I usually have a policy of “this is an analysis blog, not a review blog” it goes into more of my personal impressions and opinions than usual, but it’s something I write hoping to be helpful.

There are basically three “official” full versions of Kizuna: one being, of course, the movie itself, one being the Dash X Bunko version of the novel, and one being the Shueisha Mirai Bunko version of it. While it’s certainly not to say that any of the three is an “incomplete” version of the narrative, if you really want as full of a picture of the story as possible, somehow, each of all three versions of the story happens to have really important information that the other two do not. If I had to pick only one of these three versions to recommend to people, I would of course pick the movie itself; it’s obviously the base story everything else is based off of and was the one the production centered around as a priority, but the novelizations have a surprising amount of info that provide a lot of insight into the movie’s story and themes.

I get the impression that the creation of Kizuna involved making a lot more story and background details than could fit in a 95-minute movie, so these novelizations, which were based directly off the original movie script, ended up being an outlet for a lot of these details (and as much as I could be harsh on the movie itself for being a bit “reliant” on extra material, I have to admit that Adventure and 02 were both like this too -- a lot of our current understanding of the series comes from the Adventure novels and drama CDs -- so frankly I’m thankful we at least got this with a 95-minute movie instead of a yearlong series). On the flip side, while I'm not going to say that the novels are completely and utterly inaccurate representations of the movie, in a perhaps too-close approximation of Adventure and 02's writing style, this is a movie where even the nuances in a single line or split-second moment carry heavy implications, which become much blurrier or harder to identify when they’re presented differently (or not even presented at all) in the novel’s context, especially when they emphasize very different things from what the movie itself was emphasizing.

The short version of this is that I believe the Dash X version contains the greater amount of “plot and story” information but significantly misses out on the emotional themes and presentation, whereas the Shueisha Mirai version abridges and cuts chunks of content but is much better at conveying the intended message. More on this below the cut. (Note that the following post spoils Kizuna’s plot events.)

The movie itself

Since the following parts are more “in comparison to the movie”, I’m not going to go too much into this in this section, but one thing I will say is that the official English subtitle translation for the movie is really not great. Even if you take out nitpickiness about the fact it misses several significant nuances (the difference between “unchangeable fate” and “changeable destiny”, or the fact that Gennai refers to partnership dissolution as a “case” and not like it’s something that happens overall) at really plot-important moments, some lines (thankfully, usually not plot-important ones) are just straight-up incorrect. And worse, there’s evidence the official English dub was based on that translation! (I’m not faulting the people in charge of the dub for this, but whoever handed them that translation to work with.)

The dialogue in the Dash X Bunko version is transcribed effectively word-for-word from the dialogue in the movie (or perhaps vice versa, given that the novel is based on the original script), so I highly recommend checking that version as a reference for dialogue or if you want to do any intimate analysis on it. I don't want to go as far as to suggest not supporting the official version of the movie because of this, but at least please be aware that the translation used there is not entirely reliable.

Dash X Bunko

If you talk about “the Kizuna novel”, this is the one that people usually tend to be referring to, for two reasons. Firstly, it was translated shortly after the movie’s release, and due to the unfortunate circumstances of Kizuna being delayed in accessibility outside Japan for several months, this basically served as the only comprehensive source of info about the movie outside Japan for a very long time. Secondly, in Japan, this one was marketed as “the one for adults” in contrast to the Shueisha Mirai one being “for kids”, which meant that a lot of people assumed that the latter one was just an incredibly stripped down version that was otherwise disposable or replaceable. (This is very, very much not the case, and is extremely ironic when it comes to a movie that partially centers around the dangers of looking down too much on things associated with childhood.)

When it comes to “plot and story info”, this is the one that probably serves as the best reference (especially for fanfic writers or those who need a refresher on certain plot events or to look up something quickly), and probably has the most “comprehensive” listing of plot events surrounding the movie. The dialogue in it is a word-for-word recreation of the movie’s script, and actually includes more scenes than the movie itself does, including two that I suspect to be deleted scenes (a detailing of the specifics behind the initial plan to pursue Eosmon, and a conversation between Koushirou and Tentomon) and adaptations of the first and second memorial shorts within their context in the movie. It also contains some interesting background details and extra context for some things in the movie that you might think would normally be animation flair or something, but take a very interesting implication of story importance if they’re going out of their way to write this in the script. (There’s a scene where Agumon and Gabumon appear in front of their partners when they’d been behind them a minute before, and it’s easy to think this might be an animation error, but not only does the surrounding context make this unlikely, the novel itself actually directly states that their positions had changed.) Given that, I think it was very fortunate that this novel was available to us for those outside Japan waiting for the actual movie to come out, because this level of detail was very important to have on hand rather than fragmented spoilers on social media.

However, the part where I think the novel is significantly deficient in compared to the actual movie (and also to the other version of the novel) is that it describes the plot events in too blunt of a manner and doesn’t bring out its themes very well. (It’s kind of like having a long and very detailed Wikipedia article plot summary; it definitely got all the hard facts down, but the emotion is gone, which is still a pretty significant issue when media’s all about the feelings and message in the end.) While “considering the movie to be more cynical than it’s probably meant to be” happens regardless of which version someone’s working from, I’ve talked to perhaps an unnervingly high number of people who started with the novel and were absolutely convinced that the movie’s message was about adulthood sucking and needing to just accept it, until they saw how the actual movie pulled it off and the surrounding atmosphere and realized it definitely was not. (I think one really big factor here is that a lot of the visual imagery makes it extremely, extremely hard to miss that Menoa’s mentality is completely screwed up and her way of seeing things was dubious to begin with; prose descriptions really just don’t capture the way they slam this in your face with visual and musical cues during the climax of the movie.)

You can figure this out from the novel itself, but you have to really be looking closely at the way they word things, and on top of that it’s hard to figure out which parts you should be focusing on and which parts aren’t actually that important -- in other words, the “choice of priorities” gets a bit lost in there. Even the little things lose a lot of value; it’s theoretically possible to use the novel to put together that Daisuke is wearing his sunglasses indoors during his first scene, but you have to put together the context clues from completely different paragraphs to figure this out, none of which compares to the actual hilarity of visually seeing him wearing the thing in a very obviously dimly lit restaurant because he’s our beloved idiot. (For more details, please see my post with more elaboration on this and more examples of this kind of thing.)

I wouldn’t say that the movie itself isn’t guilty of (perhaps accidentally) having some degree of mixed messaging, but I would say this problem is rather exacerbated by the novel’s way of presenting it due to its dedication to dropping every single plot detail and event without much in the way of choosing what to contextualize and what to put emphasis on (as it turns out, treating practically everything in the movie as if it has equal weight might not be a great idea). So, again, for that reason I think the novel serves as a good reference in terms of remembering what happened in it and knowing the movie’s contents, but I also feel that it’s really not the greatest deliverer of the movie’s message or themes at all.

Shueisha Mirai Bunko

The second version of the novel was not translated until several months after the movie first released, and shortly before the Blu-ray and streaming versions of the movie itself came out anyway, so my impression is that on this end a lot of people don’t even know it was a thing. On top of that, even those who know about it often dismiss it as the “kid version” -- and to be fair, it did baffle quite a few people as to why this version even exists (Kizuna is technically not unacceptable for kid viewing and its plot is still understandable regardless of age, but since the movie is so heavily about the millennial existential crisis, it’s not something kids would really relate to). So a lot of people tended to just skip over it...which is really a shame, because it contains some interesting things that actually aren’t in the other two versions at all. For instance, did you know that, as of this writing, this is the only thing that plainly states the specific explanation for why Yamato decided to become an astronaut, for the first time in 20 real-life years?

While there are still some things that weren’t in the movie proper (mainly the Eosmon initial plan and the adaptation of the second memorial short), for the most part, the actual events are somewhat abridged compared to the movie and the Dash X version, and other than a few stray lines, there’s not a lot of extra information that would be as helpful for referencing the events of the plot. The version of the novel here is rather broadly interpretive of the scenes in the movie, so several things are condensed or taken out (and, amusingly, because it’s assuming that the kids reading this don’t actually know the original Adventure or 02, it has to describe what each character is like in a quick one-liner).

However, interestingly enough, it’s because it’s so heavily interpretive that it illuminates a lot of things that weren’t really easy to glean out of the Dash X version. For instance:

Some scenes are described with “other perspectives” that give you info on someone else’s point of view. (For instance, we see more of Yamato’s perspective and thoughts when he has his first phone call with Daisuke, or a bit more detail in the process of how Eosmon kidnappings work.)

We get a lot more information on what’s going through everyone’s heads during each scene, and what emotions they’re feeling at a given time. (This is something that you could at least get to some degree in the movie itself from facial expressions and framing, but would often be a lot blurrier in the Dash X version; here, it’s spelled out in words.)

When things are abridged, you get a clearer idea of what the intended point and theme of the scene was because it’s stripped down to include only that part. In one really interesting case, the scene with Agumon finding Taichi’s AVs has a “censored” equivalent where Taichi’s pushed to a corner because he can’t find anything non-alcoholic in his fridge -- so when you look at the two versions of the scene and what they have in common, you can figure out that the point isn’t that it was a lewd joke for the sake of it, but rather that Taichi’s forcing himself into boxes of “adulthood” that are actually meaningless and impractical.

Some of the descriptions of the characters, scenes, and background information make it a lot more obvious as to their purpose in the narrative (it outright confirms that Miyako being in Spain means that her personality is getting overly enabled there).

The scene where the circumstances behind Morphomon’s disappearance are revealed makes it significantly less subtle what the point is. In the actual movie, a lot of this involved visual framing with Menoa seeming to become more and more distant, but in this version of the novel they basically whack you over the head with the final confirmation that Menoa is guilty of neglecting her own partner, which contradicts her own assertions that “they were always together” (maybe not emotionally, it seems!) and helps clarify the commonality between her, Taichi, Yamato, and Sora in what exactly led to their partners disappearing.

Bonus: this version of the novel really wants you to know that the ending of the movie is about Taichi and Yamato fully having the determination to turn things around and lead up to the 02 epilogue. (The movie’s version of this involves the extended version of Taichi’s thesis and the credits photo with Yamato obviously next to a rocket, while this novel’s version involves more detailed fleshing out of how Taichi and Yamato decided to use their experiences to move onto their eventual career paths and what kind of hope they still have at the end. The Dash X version...didn’t really have a very strong equivalent here.)

In other words, while this version of the novel isn’t the greatest reference for plot or worldbuilding, it does a much more effective job being straightforward about the intended themes and message of the movie, and even if the scenes in it are much more loosely adapted, it’s much better at adapting the emotional nuances of the things that would normally be conveyed via visuals, expressions, and voice acting. (Although I would still say that the movie itself is the best reference for that kind of thing, of course.) If you just want lore or plot ideas, I don’t think it’ll help you very much, but since this series is so much about characters that had their ways of thinking fleshed out in such incredible detail, and about strong theme messaging, this is all still very valuable information in its own way.

#digimon #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #kizuna spoilers #shihameta

[midasinc]

Hi! Do you have any hc's on how Les Mis characters would dress in modern times?

hi ! i absolutely do, my mental images of les amis are very particular lol

a lot of them i imagine living in sweats. they’re college kids for the most part, can you blame them?

courfeyrac wears a lot of comfy pants and crewnecks or hoodies. he has the ability to be stylish but at the moment he Doesn’t Care because school sucks so hard. when he actually WANTS to try, he has really good style. he has a lot of platform shoes and chunky sneakers bc i hc courf to be like 5’4 on a good day and he regularly tries to pass as 5’6. he also doesn’t mind feminine clothing, courfeyrac has this way of being confident no matter what he wears that’s really attractive to a lot of people. he also has pierced ears and at the moment is thinking about piercing his tongue !

combeferre has good style… but only when it’s cold. in the summer he wears like the same 4 tshirts and these awkward cargo shorts that go down to his knees and it’s… interesting. in the fall and winter, though? he has a lot of nice trousers and chunky sweaters and he looks SO good. ferre wears a lot of neutral colours, most of his sweaters and crewnecks are white, beige, brown, and so on.

enjolras is like a cartoon character in the sense that he wears nearly the same thing every day. he isnt literally wearing the same clothes, but his sense of style is very particular and he doesn’t dress outside the box. every day is his nice trousers, a button-up, a sweater thrown on top, and his puffer coat. he’d be easy to animate since he essentially is never seen jn public wearing anything else. at home he lounges around in sweats all day and likes to Stay Comf, but only a select few have ever witnessed enjolras in his Chill State. he also wears glasses! they’re huge, clear, square frames and they are pretty damn thick. he has some shitty ass eyes but he also loses his glasses at least once a week

feuilly dresses kinda like jesse pinkman on his off days. otherwise he’s in his work clothes bc to me in modern times he works construction and is usually very dusty and dirty and in orange. but on his own he wears very big and baggy clothes. he doesnt care about having a style he’s just a Dude

jehan is. hm. jehan dresses… okay. do you remember like 2017-2018? the hypebeast supreme era of style? that’s jehan. jehan is a hypebeast in the most derogatory sense. he wears a lot of gucci and supreme, because he can afford it but also because he’s delusional enough to believe that it’s actually high fashion. he has like the fanny pack, the sweats, the shoes, everything. jehan loves brands and he cant put them together well at all

grantaire is a fucking mess this dude only wears sweatpants that he refuses to wash and the same 3 hoodies. to me, modern grantaire is an animator and he does not have enough time in his day to think about clothing and looking presentable. he’s looked presentable maybe three times in his life: at his sister’s wedding, at the interview for a job at his current animation company, and at a fundraiser gala les amis held that… he was outrageously drunk at and genuinely ruined (im writing a ficlet about this so hey!). but yeah. you can take his ratty sweats out of his cold dead hands

bossuet is stylish. bossuet is SO STYLISH omg. bossuet loves actually fashion (full shade to jehan) and loves to dress both masculinely and femininely. he loves accessories and has a nose ring and wears lots of bracelets and dresses in vvv bright colours all the time. he likes skirts and he likes dressed and he likes trousers and corsets and platform boots and normal sneakers and man. if you ever need any article of clothing, bossuet probably has it. but he also liked to bum around and wear sweats on comfy days too. im tellin yall, these guys just love their sweats

joly dresses like every ftm trans youtuber in 2017. lots of button ups and flannels and such. courfeyrac made that joke one day and bossuet laughed until he cried

bahorel is a character. he comes from a bg of loving punk rock and during high school-uni, he was full blown 2007 emo. the weird vests, the button ups, the skinny black jeans, everything. now, he’s pretty comfy with what he wears. he still loves spiked bracelets and such and he has an “emo’s not dead” hoodie he wears religiously. he dresses mildly like a butch lesbian, according to éponine

#let me just say again #trans op #thanks #ALSO TY FOR THE ASK!! i love these kinds of questions #i think i hust want everyone to dress like jesse pinkman bc i dress like jesse pinkman #les mis #les miserables #les amis de l'abc #les amis #les mis headcanons #modern les mis

[houseofbrat]

Hmmm will people (not just the royal watchers) ever know how power, money hungry and crazy Meghan is and how pathetic and full of envy Harry is? I mean yeah everyone can see how pathetic Harry is but there’s still the ‘it’s all Meghan’s doing’ sentiments from the British people. Meghan has her support base in the US and I’m wondering whether they will turn against her and see the same thing the UK sees?

I think a lot of royal watchers genuinely overstate what Meghan's support is in the US. Meghan is not Rihanna, JLo, Taylor Swift, or Ariana Grande. She does not generate a lot of genuine interest in people outside of her stans. And I’m saying that as an American. 

Most Americans do not follow the BRF closely, if at all. The Oprah interview and Harry’s docu-whatever on Apple+ are what has gotten Americans’ attention this year, and I don’t think it was good for them in the long run. Most celebrity watchers tired of them a long time ago. Most of the comments I see about those two dunderheads in American celebrity forums tend to run negative. 

Meghan is already overexposed. People are tired of her. Some people have a genuine interest in Harry, but that is because he is a genuine royal, a rare species that is not native to the US. Otherwise, the events associated with them are not really royal but reality tv, aka Oprah interview.

The events that most Americans can remember about these two are the following: royal wedding, birth of a child, Megxit, and the Oprah interview. Maybe some of them remember the birth of the second child, but I’d give it 50/50 odds. Most Americans wouldn’t care. There has been no picture released, and the American media landscape is very crowded. Most people moved on. People can remember Archie’s birth more easily since there is a picture of him with The Queen. Not so for this recent birth, which means any interest has dwindled day by day. The name drama doesn’t count since most Americans will see that and think what a strange name they gave their child. (Most Americans are not going to care about The Queen’s private nickname.) Also, the drama aspect of the name just makes them look like reality tv stars, aka housewives or Kartrashians.

So there is no need for the US to turn against her because most people never cared to begin with. I would not take her gajillion magazine articles--that she paid for!--as a sign of genuine interest by the American public. She is not Jackie Kennedy/Onassis. Her husband isn’t John Jr. She is not Carolyn Bessette. 

I don’t expect Harry’s reputation in the US to suffer as much as Meghan’s because he had a before-Meghan identity established. You’d basically have to be a royal watcher in the US to know and realize how much of this situation is Harry’s fault. Otherwise, most Americans are just going to remember the reality-tv-show antics, such as Megxit & the Oprah interview, and the dumpster-fire divorce. The pre-divorce and divorce events will seal Meghan’s reputation in the US. It’s going to suck to be her.

#ask #usa #comparison #uk #prince asswipe #Duke of Traitorhood #crazy sociopathic bitch Megs Markle #duchess of I NEED PRESS