#anyway these have absolutely 0 cohesion

[beautifulpersonpeach]

As promised here, I'm continuing a series of posts on NewJeans and why I think the group holds real potential. What I want to briefly talk about this time, is the quality of their music.

Credit: @/haerin1sta

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Not exactly sure how this is going to come across, but the truth is very few groups in k-pop give me a quality sonic experience. I mean, for a lot of groups, I get no joy from playing them out loud in my space. BTS is one group where the music is so dynamic, textured and layered... I know this probably sounds pretentious, but BTS's music is the perfect blend of cohesive + complex + simple to suit my taste. I enjoy sitting back in my living room, dimming the lights and drawing the blinds, to hear Dis-ease play over my Bowers & Wilkins 800 D4 speakers. It feels like an actual pleasure. I get this with BTS, nearly every time. There's a handful of other groups whose songs I sometimes feel this way about, but there's been no other group that consistently gets me this way lately more than NewJeans.

At least I'm pretty sure there's no other group that gets me to break out a subwoofer more than NewJeans, after BTS.

All their songs have such a deep and rich bass.

It's almost sickening. Listen, k-pop has done R&B for years. The sound isn't new to the industry by any means, but the way NewJeans does R&B you can tell whoever makes their shit, cette personne a eu le cœur brisé par une personne noire.

Take for example a song like ASAP. That moment the bass comes in at 0:40, during the chorus - it sounds heavenly on my speakers. The whole song feels kinda magical and odd, like Christmas in July, and I suspect one reason why is the chord progression which I recognize to follow that of many Christmas hymns... and the deep heavy bass.

You might not hear it right in this clip because of how Youtube compresses their sound, but I think one can still tell the pitch shifts slightly. The tweaky game-beat percussion that fills up the rest of the song feels disorienting but that's also the point. By the time the second chorus comes in, the contrast it creates feels like you're diving into a pool of cool water on a hot day. It's so good. It's like that weird genre-mix thing SM likes to do in their songs, but with NewJeans it's so much more effortless, weirder, and cooler.

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This is Minji.

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This is Danielle.

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This is Haerin.

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This is Hyein.

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This is Hanni.

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All five girls have clean, clear vocals and very distinct vocal colours. One reason their music is so good, is because all their songs put an emphasis on their vocals. For example, listen to the pulled stems for Hurt.

The first 2 minutes and 50 seconds is pure acappella heaven, and then you realize it's placed in the center. The mix is so full and centered, it's perfect. The other stems in the video from 2:50 too are such a delight to listen to.

The sense of easy excellence is everywhere in NewJeans' sound and concept. They don't need to force anything, they don't need crazy ornamental riffs, or ridiculous beat switches to capture and hold attention. All the harmonizing that needs to be done is already in the music. It's simple and for that reason, good. Hurt for example is just a well made song.

It's so fun to play in the car. It sounds like a joint Andre 3000 would produce.

Another song that absolutely blows me away when I play it, is Cookie. Can you even try to imagine what the intro on Cookie sounds like with subwoofers?

It's mad.

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Ador encourages the girls to fully participate in several aspects, from songwriting (the members have been writing their songs since debut and 4 out of 5 members are credited on their songs so far), to making their choreography, to applying their ideas towards their marketing. It's really remarkable for a rookie group, but I also feel this is a culture HYBE has been trying to create at all their sub-labels.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to more music from NewJeans. Get Up was a solid treat - my ranking of the songs on it so far:

New Jeans

Cool with You & Get Up

ASAP

ETA

Super Shy

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(Haerin - dancer and vocalist)

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(Danielle - dancer and vocalist)

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(Hyein - dancer, vocalist, and maknae)

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(Hanni - dancer and vocalist)

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(Minji - dancer and vocalist)

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(I don't have a bias in NewJeans. And that's the first sign for me that this is a solid group.)

#Do y'all think I should continue with this series? #If so please let me know either with a reply DM or ask #newjeans #minji #hanni #hyein #danielle #haerin #ador #hybe #bts #bpp music posts #kpop #kpop music #kpop industry #Youtube

[techtechonmymind]

Okay now that time has allowed it to marinate, here are my thoughts on Golden Age like three days later haha.

Baggy Jeans - For me, Ten, Doyoung, and Taeyong are just incredible in this song. Now that the harsh shock of the chorus has blunted, I really do think it’s a beautiful track. Ten underneath Jaehyun’s lines at around 0:30 is absolutely breathtaking. This kind of vocal directing is what makes NCT so fucking special. What a gift. This is the first of kind of a running theme of very stage musical theatrical sounds that so consistently run through the album, which I think is really impressive and cohesive! When they sing as a chorus before the bridge, these five sound so beautiful together. The bridge itself - stunning.

Listening to the track itself, it’s a bit challenging to really understand the final fifth without the performance. Like if I had no idea this had a video and choreo, I would be extremely confused about the section where Ten dances in the center, for example. I hadn’t really thought about that. I don’t really think a song necessarily needs to stand without its performance, but it’s just something to keep in mind. Anyway, I do like it, but it can never break into full marks category because the lyrics are nonsense and not in a fun way lol. Also, I love Mark to pieces, but I find the rap in this song uncharacteristically forgettable. 7/10

Call D - This is another song where the performance is playing in my head as I listen. The instrumental is so good, with what I think sounds like a melodica. Both Ten and Taeyong sound absolutely beautiful. I don’t really have notes. Again, this song is very much like a stage production - we saw that at NCT Nation. 10/10

PADO - Haechans and Junjun - a perfect partnership. The brass instrumentation is gorgeous. Haechan’s lead into the final chorus is beautiful, as is Xiaojun’s adlib out of it. 10/10

Interlude: Oasis - Chenle and Jisung sound lovely. Jaemin’s kinda deadpan delivery works for something like this. The ultra high chimes at the very top end are so grating to me though. 7/10

The Bat - I both love the chorus and feel it drilling it into my skull haha. I love Jeno performing this song, and I am enjoying his foray into more challenging rap verses. Yuta is the highlight for me here. After a few days, I actually find it a bit boring. I really liked it at first. Kind of a shame. 7/10

Alley Oop - More brass! Extended sports metaphor. Yuta sounds so lovely. I actually also really like Jaemin in the choruses and Jeno at the end of the bridge. Their boyish tones work well for a song about being a basketball team or whatever. 8/10

That’s Not Fair - This is such a theatrical track. This is the song where that running theme really peaks for me - even moreso than in Golden Age. It very much feels like it should be in a musical on stage lol. It’s a weird but very familiar little number. Ten sounds great. 7/10

Kangaroo - So cute. Weeooweeoo! I loved this song as well when I first heard it and still do now, but it doesn’t leave me with the strongest impression. 7/10

Not Your Fault - Beautiful, lovely backing harmonies. Would have liked more dual shared lines like Xiaojun and Kun’s. But NCT have many gorgeous ballads. This doesn’t stand out that much above most of them. Except that it has my beloved 96 line… singing beautifully… but independently haha. 6/10

Golden Age - If it was up to me, I would have chosen not to use such a present Beethoven sample. It never works. I am also not an enjoyer of Red Velvet’s Feel My Rhythm lol. My gut says to me that NCT’s team feel unconfident with full group songs, so they’re opting for weird mash-ups (Resonance), the safest soft jammer on the planet (Beautiful), or a song that relies on SUCH an overwhelmingly present sample. I think they would truly benefit from just taking the plunge and seeing how weird they can get. They have such depth of talent, they can do it.

But I do think the rest of the song works very well. I love the glitch and change up, and the back and forth throughout the rest of the song. I love how anthemic the chorus feels. The pre-choruses are a bit too Christmastime lol. Xiaojun and Yangyang’s “everybody! say are you ready? arrrre you ready??”, Doyoung’s stunning line, the busy drum fill and Taeil’s closing line are a lovely stretch to the finish line. Also just happy Tennie has such a big presence in this, even though it’s in my behated pre-choruses lol. I kinda wish Taeyong was in this more, oddly enough lol. I think it would benefit from even more of a counter to the inclusion of a classical sample in the form of Taeyong’s weirdness. 6/10

#golden age #nct #nct 2023

[booniesoil]

personality changes are so WEIRD it's funny, I'm still getting used to it because up to this point I thought I had no personality at all, an unpinpointable. I often thought about how I feel like. Every single adjective (except for experience based ones) can describe me. (I come up with facts and tell myself them in the third person CONSTANTLY OK. That's why I fail to share basic things about myself I narrate stuff to myself so much I assume other people know,, until people start talking about that in relation to themselves and I get salty because I think they're implying I don't have that trait (though I'm a lot better about that nowadays)). Like Am I lazy? Yes. Am I explicitly not lazy? Yes. Am I honest? Yes. Am I dishonest? Yes. Am I an optimist? Yes. Am I a pessimist? Yes. Am I laid back and childish? Yes. Am I stoic and cold and professional? Yes. I have 0 idea what my personality is other than complex, to me it's to overly complex it becomes obsolete, fully simple. And now I'm just getting used to the fact that oh it just shifts all the time. Although I still think all these things describe me, stuff like my world view or behaviour or preferences or style change, this is seen the most potently to me with intonation when typing, there's a part of me that's suuuprr excitable like a lot of people know, and I use AlL cAps a LoT!! But that also SHIFTS a lot and there are many times where I do not like allcaps because I don't think it represents how I get excited or I find it unprofessional for me, but I still use it because I'm afraid people would think I lost interest or am not as excited or enthusiastic about their matter as usual. Often times I'd split between multiple feelings at once, I want to use allcaps because it represents my excitement but another part of me at the time is going "this is completely unprofessional, we do not speak like this in this house". This statement AGAIN is made up of multiple interests, professionally I would not reference a meme but another part of me really likes using them because memes transcend just a statement, referencing them genuinely communicates a lot more emotion a lot more specifically and it's very handy. Anyway my point from the beginning is that I'm getting used to the fact that I am capable of actually feeling like a stable personality at times, since before I didn't realize that was my personality point blank, and now I can actually try to interpret parts of myself as actually cohesive. I had absolutely no self esteem for months and it feels strange to suddenly just have that back integrated into my personality as it often used to be. Idk if that's a personality thing or maybe I'm finally feeling better but it is better! Ego is a really strange thing for me because early on I adopted false / joke ego as a JOKE (joking by acting like I have a super high ego U'V DEFINITELY SEEN IT I still think it's funny and I'm fascinated by the difference of how people can tell when someone's egotistical actions are a joke and don't feel threatened by it vs harmful narcissism. I've always believed ego / a checked narcissism is super important to being a healthy and good person), because early on I noticed so, so, so, so, so many people self deprecated as humour and how clearly harmful it was to the people around them for a self serving purpose, and how it was kind of the norm in the groups I was in due to #tragic mental health circumstances, (and you know me I got unbelievably stressed out at the people implying they suffer more than others and implying other people don't go through the same struggles at them), so I rejected it and went the opposite way in pretending to be awesome and haughty even if it was pretend, but it helped a lot because it actually brought me a lot of stability. SO I GET if that's just become one of the personalities I have it's a really good one. This was long and aimless lmao sorry, You can spot how I was constantly switching between a professional, grammatically accurate writing style and a more normal laid back one. I don't like the term (cont in tags)

#laid back a lot because I do feel like it's actually a bit egotistical but Idk how else to describe it #maybe people get it #OK. FIN. END SCENE I'M DONE #meiself #oversharing andy #pos tho #slash pos #i love psychonauts so much you don't know #idk if other people can tell my personality shifts #I kinda detailed how I mask it. like with the purposefully using allcaps to share my enthusiasm even though it feels wrong. its not that #bad though I just wish I didn't feel anxious to try to serve others when #using allcaps or not at a given moment like pretty much means NOTHING and it just makes me feel a bit uncomfortable #I'm pretty sure other people would not feel uncomfortable if they were forced to write in a slightly different writing style though. and #THAT'S the actual weird thing to me out of everything #OK END SCENE

[lesbianrobin]

hello em i have a request. can u please rate mr harrington's looks/outfits i just feel like u have the best takes and i'd LOVE to know how you'd rank his choices 👀

this is the single greatest ask i’ve ever received. i will be ranking the outfits, not steve’s moral alignment or actions in each scene. in order of appearance:

The Introduction

4/10

hair is tragic

steve copied this entire fit from a mannequin in the ralph lauren polo outlet store

would honestly be a 0/10 except for the obvious valiant effort being put forth by his lower half to resist the sexless curse of khaki pants. the devil (st costuming department) works hard but by god steve harrington (joe keery’s body) works harder

nice brown watch that certainly came from a department store

also gains points for being next to nancy’s anemic librarian fit, thus looking better by comparison

The Rich Bitch

8/10

thank god he ditched the khakis

hair looks much less demonic

it’s a simple look but the sweatshirt rides up when he shotguns the beer

he also gets wet

solid 8 for sluttiness alone

The Whore

10/10

wet

please note that his chest is waxed. keep this in mind.

The Heterosexual

2/10

hair looks like he dipped his head in glue

bold choice with the grey pants. unfortunately that choice was wrong

matching outfits with your comphet girlfriend isn’t as cute as you think it is stevie

you only get points because despite that ungodly pastel stripe pattern the polo’s decently fitted and makes your arm look kinda nice

The Dickhead

3/10

glue head pt. 2

at least the stripes aren’t pastel this time

The Cuck

6/10

hair slightly less glue-y

yet another striped polo is peeking out unfortunately

but! it’s green and green looks good on him

finally wearing jeans like a normal fucking human instead of weird slacks

pivotal moment in steve’s fashion evolution from preppy male model to sexy morally upright king

his morals are stored in the denim

The Final Girl

9/10

an outfit with a character arc to rival steve’s own

pretty fucking good hair if i do say so myself!!

it’s fluffy!

that shit looks like if you touched it it’d be soft... no glue here!

finally not copying from the goddamn l.l. bean catalog

iconic green slut sweatshirt? check! jacket and nikes? check! fucked-up gorgeous face and baseball bat full of rusty nails? check, baby!

looks good on its own OR with some blood on top

overall a very solid look

The Darling Little Drummer Boy

7/10

babe no... please don’t go back to the khakis... they won’t treat you like jeans do...

not quite glue head but not his best

apparently steve owns a single green sweatshirt, a thousand striped polos, and one very precious christmas sweater

almost makes up for prep-related khaki crimes by being really fucking cute

The Simp

8/10

glue head is DEAD

further evidence that steve harrington’s entire closet is just striped polos

this is his fifth unique striped polo

most of these points are for the sunglasses and the hair

actually all of these points are for the sunglasses and the hair

he’s finally let go of the fucking pastels thank jesus

and you can’t see it but he did wear jeans with this fit i just forgot to make sure they were pictured and it’s 4:15 am so i don’t feel like going back to remake this collage

cannot tell if this is a lighter blue version of the jacket he wore three times in s1 or if it IS the jacket he wore three times in s1 and the color grading is just that different

either way he loves jackets and i think that’s very sexy of him

The Intellectual

9/10

i’ve been waiting for this one... turn it up!

literally invented vests

excellent hair

loses a point for unfortunately introducing steve’s SIXTH unique striped fucking polo

i can’t see the collar but i know it’s there i know you’re wearing another fucking polo steve you can’t hide from me

can’t decide if he looks gay or just really preppy but either way he’s got some repression going on

still a very solid look

The Oh No Oh God It Hurts I’m Looking Away I Can’t Watch This

10/10

yes that middle picture is absolutely to show off the texture of his blazer and not at all me making sure that if i have to see his heartbroken little face then you all do too

anyways i Know that blazer cost at least $100 like i Know that shit’s expensive

excellent gorgeous soft-looking hair that someone ought to run their hands through but only people who haven’t dated him for a year while pining after someone else

emotional devastation... but make it unbelievably fucking sexy

stevie baby i know you’re a colorful guy but please wear more black

The Meathead Jock

9/10

aw christ whatever happened to standards?

introduction of the blue nikes <3

god his hair looked fucking good here

could have gained that final point by using tube socks with blue and GREEN stripes to tie together the shoes and the gym uniform :/

shorts could be shorter but are an altogether appropriate and enjoyable length

fun sweatstain to customize the look <3

The (is there a word for victim of bullying?) Serious Athlete

8/10

the yellow stripe was more fun

still cute though

The Sudsy Boy

11/10

wet

suds indicate that he’s washing his hair, presumably with faberge organics. is this why he’s being bullied?

steve brings his faberge organics shampoo and conditioner and his farrah fawcett spray to school with him whenever he has basketball practice

steve either has shampoo, conditioner, and hairspray in his backpack at all times, or he has a separate gym bag that’s mostly haircare products

just need to make sure we all know that

excellent freckle showcase

his chest is still waxed. please, i beg, keep this in mind

one of his strongest looks

The Babysitter

10/10

his most versatile look to date

a different jacket than the one(s) he’s worn before but it still has the same kind of collar. steve found a jacket he liked and bought it in at least three colors

the whole thing fits So fucking nicely! shirt, jacket, jeans... baby boy is TAILORED

return of the white nikes with the red check indicate that they are his fashion nikes, while the blue nikes with the white check are his sport nikes. interesting.

this fit lasts like 48 hours and steve simply looks sexier as time goes on which is a testament to its quality as well as his inherent power

every new accessory elevates his appearance. roses, nail bat, rubber gloves, blood, sweat, band-aids, bandana, goggles... each element complements the look in its own way!

an overall win

The Chauffeur

8/10

we can’t really see the whole fit but he’s not wearing a striped polo so i’m calling it a win regardless of what’s on his bottom half

cannot give him a 10/10 though because he might be wearing khakis

red is such a nice color on him when it’s not just from his blood

i lied when i said he should wear more black he should wear more colors

that plain sweater absolutely cost $85 or more

hair looks very nice and soft

excellent look!

The Sailor Man

9/10

very precious

absolutely the best hair i’ve ever seen

baby boy got highlights for his hot girl summer!

bright colors make his very red lips pop

shorts could be shorter

love the little accents! especially the white pockets and belt

excellent color coordination on steve’s part with the blue sneakers (notably different than his s2 blue basketball nikes) and the red bruising/blood

i hope you remembered that steve’s chest was waxed. as you can see his chest is now unwaxed. some change between s2 and s3 drove this decision, presumably either his breakup with nancy or the fact that he no longer showers in front of other guys at school. up to your interpretation

shock blanket at the very end is a nice touch so we don’t forget he’s traumatized

The Drowned Rat/The Man Overboard

10/10

wet

shorts could be shorter

the decision to purchase and wear a hoodless raincoat is absolutely ridiculous and stupid

however it is also very steve harrington and i value self-expression

The Chick Magnet/The Flaming Homosexual

100/10

what can i even say about this fit?

the absolute best pants he’s worn thus far. amazing fit, excellent classic wash. i say this as a former american eagle outfitters associate and the winner of my freshman year dorm’s “best at folding jeans” award

manages to make blue jeans with a half-blue denim vest work effortlessly

bold primary colors make him stand out without being too gaudy

excellent pairing of t-shirt with simple stripes and vest with simple color blocking to create a complex yet cohesive and flattering look

simple brown belt gives the look a put-together yet down-to-earth vibe

hair has only gotten better

still wearing that same brown watch that he’s had since the introduction

this man looks like he waxes his chest

this is steve in his final form

thank you for your time

#em talks #asks #long post #steve harrington #stranger things #battleonthedeathstar

[dallonm-archive]

TABBY | SHORT STORY UPDATES #4

In Tabby, a reclusive man who’d rather exist as a phantom than a human notices the neighbours aren’t feeding their cat, and is sucked into a world that breaks the stillness of his own.

Genre: literary fiction, “soft” noir (??)

POV: 1st person present, very observational and detached for most of the narrative

Setting: late 1940s/early 1950s, unnamed US city but implied to be Los Angeles 

Atmosphere: a summer that’s sickly, orange juice, the smell of paint, shaky hands, peach skies, sunflowers, blood splatter, a cats purr, the gut feeling that something is very, very wrong

Literal Logline: this cat is my friend and he doesn’t judge me over silly little things like the murder i just committed (also i think he might be god??)

Hi I wrote a story about a cat and got way too into it and accidentally made it about murder and now it might be my favourite thing I’ve written! Lets talk about it! cw for murder and blood imagery!

general taglist ; @kowlazovdi​ @avi-burton-writing​ @ryns-ramblings​ @melpomeny​ @kitblogsthings​ @ezrathings​ @aetherwrites​ @bookphobe​ @haldimilks​ @alicewestwater​ @bookpacking​ @shaelinwrites​ @writingamongthecoloredroses​ @harehearts​ @zemnian​ @onlyganymede​ @theelectricfactory​ @write-like-babs​ @oceancold​ @notphilosopherstudentblog​ @veiliza​ @sidhewrites​ @wolf-oak​ @feverdreamwritings​ @oasis-of-you​

This entire story sparked from this photo, which I couldn’t find a specific source for, but is cute and a Mood nonetheless! 

My thought process was essentially “man sits on bench with cat...........and also.......murder?” I don’t know why my brain is like this!!! 

I imagine this story being set in the late 40s/early 50s, but haven’t pinpointed exactly, in a suburb of Los Angeles (but this also isn’t clear in the story as of now). This used to be my go to setting when I was really into noir, and it was fun to return to that in a non-noir piece! This started out as purely literary, but now I do see some noir elements here. They’re just very subtle - nor was I intentionally trying to capture any - and the story misses some of the fundamental conventions. To me it’s almost like...soft noir? Noir lite??  I feel like it’s inherently noir and inherently not noir at the same time but I love the vibes of it a lot. There’s this “glow” to the story that I can’t exactly put into words, like a very subtle golden hour that is very tranquil and strangely undisturbed by the general chaos going on in the actual story

I took this setting, the vibes, and the idea of a character with an innate connection to this cat, plus a murder chucked somewhere in the middle and ran with it.

I wrote this over the course of a couple days, and it came very naturally! The prose is a little more sparse than my usual writing which made the process much quicker, and I’m really into this style at the moment. A lot of it is also internal thought, which y’all know is right up my alley. I really, really love the voice in this. It starts very unremarkable, but there is an unsettling undercurrent that grows and grows and it’s been very fun to blend the mundane and the creepy. This story really reignited my drive for short fiction because the trend lately has been coming up with an idea I love that just doesn’t translate on paper, but this one despite needing a good deal of work was very smooth!

I’d say this is my first successful attempt at a nameless/faceless character and it’s one of the most interesting experiences of character development I’ve had in a long time?? The only other time I’ve done this is in my story Rinse Cycle, but the narrator never really felt much like a character (which is very unusual for me), whereas the narrator in Tabby feels as fleshed out and nuanced as any of my characters with names or faces. I rarely focus on appearances for short story characters anyway, but I’ve never struggled with finding a name for a character and this narrator just Does Not want to be named. But I think that really fits him! He likes to be invisible and drift through life unnoticed, where he is merely an observer rather than a participant; so when he does get chucked into the middle of a very messy, very chaotic situation he essentially shuts down. I really like the tonal shift this creates where we go from a very detached narrative to very in the moment, very vivid and intense, like we go from 0 to 100 real quick. I don’t want to share a lot of plot details (which makes writing this a little frustrating sigh), but it ends with him committing a murder that, whilst intentional in the moment, is entirely impulsive and practically out of his control. He is not a natural killer and goes from barely being an emotional participant in his life to fully immersed in the moment and absolutely terrified by that. I’m really looking forward to digging deeper into his psychological state as I work on this draft because Boy We Don’t Have Time To Unpack All This. A quick summary of him would be though

people watcher, picks up more than he realises

living in a house he inherited from his dead father 

made eye contact with a stranger and it was physically painful

quietly unhinged

doesn’t feel like he’s a person 

oh no, now i have to face the consequences of my actions!

I’m trying to limit the amount of excerpts I post when it comes to short stories [because I am always basing the value of my content on prose I share which is! not healthy!], so the only writing I’m going to share is this little description that’s not very plot relevant, but is a good demonstration of this narrator’s funky little voice:

Every morning, at seven sharp, I routinely sit on the swinging bench behind my house to eat over easy eggs and burnt sausages. I still don’t understand how to cook meat. Behind me, cars murmur and sputter into the city, housewives chatter from their separate square gardens and I do not exist in the same reality as them. I am boxed in by off-white picket fence. The fence dividing my neighbours and I – a saffron coloured house with sunflowers bordering the perimeter – is painted pinkish red like an infected tongue. Every morning, I routinely think, that I do not know what’s stranger: how the red jolts the sun house’s otherwise harmonious existence, or the way the job was never finished. It’s not as if the painter died, because if the painter died there would be a corpse; perhaps blood spatter would darken against red wood, perhaps paint would pool out of the dropped can and mimic the presence of an exit wound. 

Y’all might be wondering, where does the cat fit in all of this? And the answer is it’s complicated! In terms of form, we bounce between observations/interactions of the cats behaviour and the “main plot” of the story - which is to do with the rather unhinged new neighbours disrupting our neighbours unremarkable life. Thematically, the cat definitely symbolises a lot of things and opens up a lot of conversations that I still haven’t polished because well, we’re on draft one and I was focused on some funky Cat Descriptions. Some fun ideas include the distinction between human and animal, how capitalism is impeding on our chances to live a fulfilled life, and the idea that all humans do is overcomplicate everything. It’s presence also acts as a grounding technique for the narrator, since he so easily detaches himself from the rest of the world. The writing started with a scene of the act killing a mouse and how clean and simple it all is that I’m lowkey obsessed with, and is definitely some non-subtle foreshadowing for what comes later. 

I like to joke that the cat is God because sometimes the narrator says some weird shit like, how the Earth stops orbiting the sun when the cat goes to sleep and how the cat doesn’t need to worry about predators because it hasn’t invented any. So the cat is not officially “God” but like,...,,It Might Be

Quickly adding this to the end but! Your girl finally has a (working title) for her collection! I’m not ready to share it yet because I’m still not 100% on it, I feel it matches the stories thematically but not always tonally, however it captures the core idea that I’ve been following so it’s good enough for me. This was a really important step because as much as I tried I could Not Visualise a collection at all without a title, which is v annoying because titling a collection is the worst!!! I was fine just writing short stories and letting them exist but I really wanted to build them as a cohesive collection as I went, and now I really like where it’s going - it’s definitely got a long way to go but I feel like I’ve finally managed to take control of it and steer it into a direction that reflects what I enjoy to write. I spent a lot of months clinging onto the collection I started in late 2018 before The Great Writing Hiatus Of 2019, even though it really didn’t resonate with me anymore, so I’m very happy to feel like I’m now on the right path and I feel the collection really shows my growth as a writer this year! This is definitely not set in stone, but I have a lot of fun imagining the potential order of the stories and right now it looks like:

[Some of these are stories unfinished, and some of them are finished and I just haven’t talked about them because I am the Worst at remembering to write short story updates, but tbh I’m thinking of just talking about them all briefly in a big post about the collection when I write a proper intro for it in the future]

We love to see it! I’m hoping to put a lot of time into this collection in 2021 and get some submissions rolling too (I had the goal of submitting at least one story by the end of this year and I! Don’t know if that’ll happen but January definitely). I’m likely going to be taking most of the year out of uni due to the whole global and mental turmoil rn [also I’d have to apply for writing masters atm and that is NOT happening lmfao], so I’m v v excited to have some extra writing time and see where this all goes!

#atlastracking #am writing #short stories #writeblr #i am once again posting at an odd time when my dash is ~dead~ #also playing around w how i format these posts as always

[murdereraisuha]

Final Chapter 5 Reflection

This will have my personal opinion/thoughts on:

The VDC outcome, Rook’s actions, and what could’ve made it better

The Rook reveal and Neige

Kalim, Jamil, and Epel’s development

The Grim scene

Total word count: 2134 words

--- 1 ---

So, RSA won the VDC. My feelings on this are mixed.

Looking at it in relation to the whole plot of TWST, it makes sense. It moves the chance for NRC to finally beat RSA to the upcoming magift tournament, which gives NRC’s potential victory a large amount of excitement/importance which it wouldn’t get from this middle of the year championship.

Furthermore, Rook’s actions do make sense based on his personality. If Vil really didn’t believe that he himself was beautiful, Rook of course would vote for the team that exhibited pure joy in their performance and therefore exhibited a heartfelt beauty. It would be a lie to vote for NRC, and it would disgrace both Rook and Vil. Rook’s actions plot wise also lead to the discussion about Vil valuing himself vs seeking value from others, which I think is a crucial thing for Vil to remember. While trying to gain recognition for hard work is good, and Vil certainly does deserve recognition, it’s much more important to maintain a good perception of yourself even when things happen or people wrongfully say things that might tear down your self-esteem

However, I still have issues with how this played out in relation to the plot of chapter 5. It’s unrealistic for all of Vil’s misgivings about himself to get fixed through the power of friendship and beating each other up. But, still, the team went through a lot in order to get to the championship united and ready to perform. It feels like a slap in the face for them to lose after all that. Especially the scene with Kalim and Epel crying while Ya Hoo cheerfully plays in the background, it's so comically dissonant. Though we already got an explanation from Vil about how Neige’s performance appeals to viewers, I was still shocked. At least it was a close competition rather than a crushing defeat. 

Also, while Rook’s message was sound, the timing was rather bad. Vil and the rest of the team just had a massive battle and then went through a whole song & dance performance without major blunders while still injured. Focusing on Vil’s self-esteem there makes it seem like Rook is just brushing all that determination and effort away. Though Vil doesn’t seem to truly hold it against Rook since he offers the handkerchief back to Rook when he cries, the situation still feels off.

In conclusion, I think that the plot events made sense. However, the execution of them could have been improved. As is, it’s hard to understand Rook’s motivations in this part due to the ridiculousness of RSA’s kid’s song winning. To fix that without just completely overhauling the plot, I believe that the admirable qualities of Neige and the dwarves should have been shown more clearly. For example, while the Pomefiore CM shows a glimpse of their bond, that’s nonexistent in the game. I think that incorporating that into the game (ex. a short scene of Neige reassuring the dwarves that their performance will go well before they step on stage) would help people understand Rook’s point of view better by showing instead of just telling us about the belief Neige has in his friends.. 

Moreover, alongside better reasons for why Rook choose RSA, I think it should be clearer why he did not choose NRC. It seems an attempt at warning of the “betrayal” was done with Vil menacingly saying he’ll win the VDC during the voting, followed by the shot of Rook just going “........”.  To make this less sudden, I think I would change episode 66. Though that episode has Vil saying that he’s ugly, because the team contradicts him and keeps him as the leader it makes it seem like the problem is solved there. Therefore, to better lead to Rook’s speech, I would change episode 66 to have Vil show more hesitation and signs that he still doesn’t believe in himself. 

--- 2 ---

Anyway, on to the reveal about Rook. I wasn’t sure what to think about the name slip up during the previous part, but I just guessed that maybe they’d met before and that meeting is related to RSA and Rook having light magic. Nope, we get Neige simp Rook. I think this reveal was really surprising, but more in a funny way than a “ruins Rook’s character” way. It’s nice to see Rook seriously caught off guard by Neige just nonchalantly exposing him in front of everyone, and everyone’s reactions were extremely funny.

I think that the chapter did a decent job of making it clear that Rook’s relationship with Neige as a fan of him is vastly different from Rook’s calm admiration of and friendship with Vil. I’m kind of curious now about how and when Rook became a fan though. Him being the 2nd member of the fan club implies that Rook found Neige when Neige still hadn’t gotten much fame yet. 

I loved everyone’s Ya Hoo too. Ace and Jamil having level 0 enthusiam, Kalim and Rook having level 1000 enthusiasm, Deuce being startled but slowly getting into it but still being kind of eh, Epel just keeping that wide-eyed confused expression the whole time. ボーテ、１００点. For Vil, I understand that he was probably faking his big smile for the benefit of the audience. However, I still hope his opinion of Neige has improved somewhat or will improve. Neige telling Vil that he’s still number one in the eyes of the people who voted for him was really sweet and their interactions with each other are pretty cute/funny when Vil isn’t trying to murder him.

Unlike other minor characters like Chenya and Farena who either weren’t involved in the plot or were only involved as backstory, Neige is Vil’s present rival and motivation for doing the stuff he does and over blotting. With such a large presence that continued all throughout the chapter and the Rook reveal, it would seem strange for Neige to suddenly drop out of existence come chapter 6.

Therefore, assuming that the Grim situation doesn’t derail the current patterns we’ve seen in the story, I think that Neige will be included as part of the Pomefiore involvement in chapter 6. Of course, it could be something small like getting called in for a favor near the end or just mentions of Rook continuing to write him fan letters. However, I’m hoping it’s something larger. From my analysis of the previous part:

Vil’s team’s performance had a lot of cohesion and rehearsal put into it, but it was very competitive focused. On the other hand, Neige and the dwarves obviously had a lot of fun with their performance. However, it was clumsy and they were ill prepared. Therefore, Vil could teach Neige more discipline and planning while Neige could teach Vil about how to not lose sight of finding joy in your work. 

Now that we have confirmation that Neige is a genuinely nice guy, I really want Vil & Neige friendship to happen, or for them to at least be on good terms with each other. It might just be my personal love for relationships where one person tries to be all rival-y but then the other is like “nope, I’m going to friend you whether you like it or not,” but I think this sort of development in the story of TWST would be really enjoyable to watch.

--- 3 ---

For the performance of Absolutely Beautiful, I love that Jamil got to be in the center for a bit. However, that also just makes me more disappointed that we didn’t get more Scarabia or anything about how their families are watching this. With the stuff in 5-30 and 5-34 focusing on Kalim’s perspective on things and his relationship with Jamil, I thought that at some point we would get a final scene focusing on them and how they’ve developed since chapter 4. What we got with  Jamil swooping in to the rescue with the magic carpet then talking about how he could sense that Kalim was about to do something stupid was better than nothing, but idk. I just love the writing and complexity these two have gotten and I wanted that to continue to the end. I still have hope though! If we can get a thing about Leona noticing the traces of magic in the arena, then we can get future appearances from the Scarabia boys too!... please...

Now, for Epel, I also have mixed feelings about his development throughout the chapter. I absolutely loved the beach scene with Deuce and Epel, it was so cute and I liked Epel realizing the power of beauty because of the apple juice Magicam post. However, I think the narrative missed something important. Though Epel’s views had a lot of improvement to be made, Vil’s treatment of him was also terrible and should have been addressed. I believe Vil saying that “throwing a tantrum and taking it out on others was terrible of him” in episode 66 implies that he’s realized that all his actions, not just the overblot, were wrong. However, it’s not clear enough that that was the intention. Vil does not apologize specifically for how he attempted to force Epel to conform to his own beliefs. Though there’s always chapter 6, it still doesn’t seem like the story will ever really address this issue, which is a shame to say the least.

Furthermore, in this final part, Epel offering to take the center position was really good and showed how much he’s grown since the beginning of the chapter. However, it still didn’t bring the whole “poison apple” thing to fruition. Absolutely no one made any comment on his cuteness or how it might rival Neige’s cuteness. Did they plan something with that but scraped it? Like, this is way too little pay off for such a focus on Vil shaping Epel into a way to best Neige. My disappointment with this ending might have to do with these past 3 main story updates being the only ones I’ve been in this fandom for, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Whatever the cause of my disappointment may be, my disappointment still does exist.

--- 4 ---

To top off this roller coaster of a chapter and end this reflection with a more neutral analysis, we have the stuff with Mickey and Grim. Mickey seems really nice, I’m glad that Yuu seems to have made an ally in him. We certainly need one after whatever the hell just happened with Grim. I really have to give props for how unsettling both Grim’s appearance and the sounds during that scene were.

Though we’re obviously getting close to the endgame, the Ignihyde sneak peak that we got seems pretty normal and related to their personal problems rather than the plot. Though it would be interesting for a big change to happen like Yuu being out of commission for the chapter, I think it’s more likely that Yuu will be rescued, Grim just goes missing, then we don’t get much more info on that whole thing until the end of chapter 6 leading into chapter 7.

Anyway, for the scene itself I understand if it just because silent protagonist, don’t want to make them talk/do too much, but it feels kind of weird that there wasn’t really any indication of a struggle? Just standing there, staring at Grim, getting clawed, then black out. Nothing to indicate trying to step back. There was some weird clopping??? sound after he attacked but since the camera didn’t move that wasn’t Yuu collapsing.

Also, it might just be supposed to be “Grim’s laugh but creepy,” but his ケヒッ、 ケヒヒッ laughter sounds unusually distinctive? Idk, I just had the thought that it could be in reference to some other disney character with a similar laugh but idk who that would be since I’m not big into disney movies.

Right before he attacks, Grim also shouts “this is my stone!!!” Firstly, assuming that this stone is the same small size as the others, shouldn’t he already be done eating it? Yuu’s not exactly gonna stick their hand down his throat to retrieve it. So what stone is he talking about?

Well, we know that the magic crystal on the magic pens is supposed to collect blot so that it doesn’t built up inside someone, right? Blot accumulated from outright eating it instead of blot accumulated from casting magic is probably different, but what if some of the blot from the black stones did get gathered up by Grim’s crystal on his collar? We know how crazed he has been getting about the black stones. Is it so much of a stretch to think that he might be trying for more? That he might be trying to create instead of just find? 

How would a black magic crystal taste?

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst spoilers #vil schoenheit #rook hunt #neige leblanche #twst theories #twst grim #update screaming

[saipng]

re7 anon, im bad with horror in general so im progressing really slowly but i genuinely thought losing hands was a re8 thing and i felt quite bad for ethan when he lost his left hand like .. he got it back but also i wish he could keep his hands. also if you don't mind me asking, why is re8 a bad game? i dont know anything about this franchise i just jumped straight into the 7th game with 0 knowledge

man oh man how i WISH you hadn’t asked that, for both our sakes. cuz now it is 5 am the day after my birth and there is no way that i am not going to go into an overtly long rant that idk if anyone will care about. but hey, you brought this upon us, so.

without spoilers, why is re8 a bad, bad game?

well, you see. that is simply because it is not a game.

it is a part of a franchise.

listen. listen here. what the hell is that supposed to mean???

there are plenty of franchised games, right. just because a game is part of a franchise, or even a sequel to another game, obviously doesn’t make it automatically bad.

the reason re8 is bad, however, is because that’s all it’s meant to be. it is a sequel and a prequel to yet another sequel. it is not a game.

because, if you look at it from the point of view of a self contained game, it is bad.

the story is all over the place. absolutely nothing is answered or explained, and only more questions are created with the promise to be explored in future games. new characters are introduced only to be very obvious sequel baiting, and absolutely none of them are explored beyond the surfacest of surface levels.

moreover, the reason for things to happen simply isn’t there. the story is so bad, the characters in canon literally cannot explain it to you. the reason is ‘just cuz’. it feels like capcom threw all of their budget into rendering every follicle on dimitrescu’s tiddies as opposed to actually creating a cohesive narrative that doesn’t fall apart at the simplest probing.

see, the reason that re7 worked and re8 doesn’t was because re7 was a GAME. any person, even a person like you, who has never heard of anything resident evil before or even cared about the franchise, could jump in and enjoy their experience with it. the horror works, the story works, the characters work. the pacing is immaculate. i’m not saying it’s a perfect game obviously, but it WORKS and it is FUN. and, for those who DO know resident evil, you get the hints and implications and the lore and even a familiar face and eventually, the dlc. it was an AMAZING reboot to the franchise.

re8 though? re8 assumes you’ve played all of resident evil games before and you’ve enjoyed them immensely and you want more and you will play again and again and again.

im not saying that a game, especially a sequel, has to be completely free of references or call backs to previous games or work alone without any previous knowledge. i mean. that’s not how sequels work.

but in the end, they’re still supposed to make sense. a game is supposed to be that - a game. doesn’t matter if it’s the first or eighth or seventeenth.

re8 feels like a weird wobbly bridge that you got across before the other side is finished building. it is awkward. it feels incomplete, stitched together from different concepts and ideas. they brought back ethan winters only to have no idea what to do with him. they introduced the lords only to be short term hype generators. they shoehorned in chris redfield because he is chris redfield and it really doesn’t matter how much he doesn’t fit.

in my humble opinion, the game needs to be at least 5 hours longer for it to actually start making sense. at LEAST.

the characters, protagonists and antagonists alike, need to actually be explored, the pacing fixed, flimsy writing tied together, map expanded, puzzles actually added in. then, it would be a better game. i don’t know about good. but definitely better.

that being said, you may be thinking. why the HELL is everyone obsessed with this trainwreck????

well, because we’re all mentally ill, that’s why.

okay, serious answer - because the less the assholes give us, the more power it gives us to project and play around. they created these extremely fun concepts and didn’t bother developing them despite the enormous potential and that pissed us all off. well, me. it pissed me off.

and, as we all know, NOTHING motivates me more than spite at this point. so me and the other content creators basically ripped the lords and ethan and rose and all the others out of capcom’s undeserving hands and said ‘okay thanks ours now’.

because dammit, resident evil village could have been SUCH a good game. the idea of it is FUN and we all love it.

the execution? perfectly terrible.

and again, i’m not saying that you’ll hate it. i think you can, and should play it (or at least watch a playthrough). and moreover, i think you’ll enjoy it. i think you’ll have fun, still. i think you’ll like it a lot, as did many others.

none of that erases the fact that it is still very much a bad, bad game.

now, i could go more into how the horror elements greatly suffered because of capcom’s desperate need to rehash re4, or just how much of re4 they actually ripped off and shoved into this game; i could talk about how ethan winters (and mia, to an extent) is a terrible character in this game and reason he works in re7; i could talk at extent why the bakers were truly scary and the lords very much arent; i could even mention all the unnecessary mechanics and how much they truly contributed jack shit to the experience.

i could, but i’m not gonna. this is long enough as it is, and i hope it all made sense, at least somewhat. i tried to not include any spoilers (as much as was possible).

and i also really hope i didn’t dissuade you from giving re8 a try.

because, like i said, it’s still fun. capcom gave us steel beams and pieces of plastic and said ‘go wild’ and we built our own playground. it’s like that post that’s like ‘this amazing new restaurant everyone talks about and you finally go there and they serve white toast bread and everyone brought their own jam’. literally that.

but it can be so good, if that’s something that you can be into !!!

oh and. this is my own personal take on the game, of course. draw your own conclusions, yada yada. but if you’re bad with horror, you’ll find this game easier to digest for sure.

anyway. periodt.😩✌️

#resident evil village #resident evil 8 #re8 #if anyone starts any arguments i’m gonna lose it please don’t okay i’m not strong enough for that #long post #anyway #anonymous #answered

[liberons]

so anyways have a weird pseudo-meta on the 239894 ways levi’s character could’ve been better used story-wise

tbh i do believe yams had it in him to write a nice, tight, cohesive story where everything could’ve fallen in place well enough -- at least to the point where actions made sense with reference to established character personalities and arcs within the story. i have no issue with regression, but you can’t make it half-assed or just. entirely left-field and leave it at that and ok moral of the story i’m like, 90% sure come from being far too invested in the fandom as an author. NEVER change your story because of someone else’s opinion when it’s SERIALISED y’all.

SECTION  I .     KILL  HIM  OFF  !

let’s be honest !!!  this is the most obvious !!!  we get it he’s popular, you’ll get backlash, yaddi yadda ya girl’s tired.

(  i .  )   why didn’t eren kill him.

why

remember what levi was actually established to DO early on? the whole “i’ll take care of eren if he goes manic”? his WHOLE NARRATIVE PURPOSE? would be great if we, you know, played with that At All.

how fucking FRIGHTENING would eren’s final form be if it just fucking nipped levi in the bud? if levi, completely fine and uninjured, stayed true to his word and lead to handle eren, just to be fucking annihilated? eren has like 60 fucking titans inside him INCLUDING the activated founding. I THINK IT’S PRETTY FAIR TO REDEFINE HIM AS BEING FUCKING OP NOW.

just define some real form of tension come on.

this could’ve also just. so naturally shifted the tension in mikasa’s direction. literally everyone instinctively has mikasa jotted down as second-best-next-to-levi, both in and out of canon. it would make sense for other characters to just eye awkwardly in deciding mikasa ‘has’ to be the next one to try through the framing bias that presents. 

right now it’s like it’s not even her choice but everyone decided it would be for no goddamn reason. why does mikasa need to be ok with killing eren at all??? why cant one of YALL do it????????? and like mikasa kills him but then presents absolutely no real conclusion in doing so. we get 0 insight into what’s really going on in her head and WE DONT EVEN GET TO SEE IT !!!!!!!!!!

(  i i .  )   zeke if yOu’Re goNnA do it dO it RIGHT

to stay more true to canon, here’s way better ways zeke could’ve actually been rid of him that aren’t. regressing and dumb lmao:

zeke’s still a war chief, he’s had YEARS of troop strategy / planning up his sleeves. why didn’t he use turning levi’s squad into a means to set up some real traps because what’s he gonna do to a bomb, huh? Fight it?

or better yet, spike more than just levi’s squad and just have swarms and waves of mindless titans coming in to provide that distraction.

or have more help?? there’s all the yeagerists at your disposal and not ONE can secretly set something up with you?

overall like zeke should know levi’s skill and levi shouldn;t have to assume zeke’s not ?????????????? “willing to die”??????????? WTF????? AREN’T YOU WHY WOULDN'T HE BE?????

god anyways

zeke kills levi u know what that sets up? the fact that he’s pretty fucking clever and powerful on his own???? so now when eren & zeke team up to cause the rumbling, regardless of zeke’s original intent, would make them Far more horrifying to the rest of the crew; 

tbh i feel like this should mean moving the ‘reveal’ of eren’s betrayal to the very end of the manga when eren explains everything through path visions bc at least it keeps his moral grey area more.... grey. 

we know by the end that he betrayed zeke so it’s like ok So Yes He’s Doing Summ For The Greater Good But What and at least this would balance the scales of mass murder a lil by not snipping all the men i fucking Guess lmao god

(  i i i .  )    RUMBLE HIM

step on him 

but really he can just??? die during the rumbling???? point blank??????????? why were there not more major character casualties lmao boi

if the colossal titans are just far too many and far too boring, all the previous titans on eren’s back is so delicious and should’ve been drawn out im not sorry about it.

where’s the 349873 iterations of character x character teaming up and slowly getting better at absolutely Slicing these bastards? WHERE ARE THEY? 

i want my warriors x stray marleans x survey squads just dedicated to keeping the 9 titan iterations out of eren’s neck.

he could’ve finally killed zeke here too but i’m gonna get to that whole thing lmao god.

we've also established him getting wounded when others are involved (à la leg injury helping mikasa) so have him??? sacrifice???? to help others like finish his empathy arc

let him sacrifice himself by keeping the titans back while armin blows up idc

and for all of these — it doesn’t even have to be a quick death. let him lose a body part and die of blood loss. let his organs fail. let him get infected like yo not every death has to be in 3s flat.

SECTION II .     OR  DON’T  !

like. let’s just say there’s absolutely no way your publicist is gonna let you kill this character. you love him too much / he’s become a weird self-insert. ok sure. YOU CAN STILL DO SOMETHING.

( i .  )  why does he just. not grow.

he’s five three but does his heart have to be?

anyways fr he’s literally a huge fucking asshole and he doesn’t grow out of it. no one ever point out that it’s terrible. the biggest blacklash he gets is historia punching him like pew. and it’s not even addressed why she did that. it’s just like haha, yep.

can we get him some uhhhh??? clear empathy ???? some actual growth?? like we know he went from the guy beating eren up Excessively to forcing historia to be queen to giving armin the colossus, and then back to just slicing zeke up uselessly and caring about one (1) thing. like he was clearly on a path somewhere.

like first of all, holy fuck get over it. it’s like he had a manic episode for 4 years just obsessing over killing zeke when the game changed buddy??? it’s been established that the issue is No Longer zeke why are we so hard on this. his entire character just becomes kill monkee because his arc is DONE so if we’re going to keep him around find something else?? or CONTINUE to develop him.

make him grow his soft skills as a leader. make him learn how to stick around his team and know exactly how to fall back. 

if he’s injured, make him LITERALLY stay back and learn how to handle those he has to keep back with him.

make him struggle keeping morale. 

make him argue with some of the non-paradisians, or even those from paradis that are like what the FUCK and just learn to offer his perspective.

if he’s so obssessed with zeke maybe uh?? address that with someone???? talk it out with your therapist buddy you’ve clearly not come to terms with the fact you let erwin die and he has no reason to be so caught up by that and if he does like lmao ok let us see and understand it???

( i i .  )   do something with the ackermans

that’s it that’s the post

idek what else to put here i want this fucker dead

#❛ ⍀ 𝟎 𝟎 𝟔 ．» ᵒʰ ʰᶦ ᵐᵃʳ ∕ ooc ． #next time i'll be logging into my ymir blog to talk about how to better treat ur lesbians #i could probably write this properly but the disarray feeds into my fury #i was going to work on more drafts but instead i just sat here seething in my rage the Second i thought about the last arc again #those Fill In The Blanks games with character names and we could probably write a better final arc #anyways

[conncrfms]

𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐫𝐤’𝐬 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐎𝐑 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐍 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭 , 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐉𝐀𝐂𝐎𝐁 𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐈  ! 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐚𝐬 @𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐦𝐳 𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐧 ����𝐚𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 . 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐦𝐳 , 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐡 . 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐧𝐲𝐜 , 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 . 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐚 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐣𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬 . ( 𝐜𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 + 𝐡𝐞/𝐡𝐢𝐦 ) + ( 𝐦𝐲𝐚 , 𝟏𝟗 , 𝐬𝐡𝐞/𝐡𝐞𝐫 , 𝐩𝐬𝐭 ) 

hi lovelies! allow me to introduce myself! my name is mya, you can reach me on discord for plots at ˗ˏˋ 𝐦𝐲𝐚 ˎˊ˗#8406 and i have never had a single cohesive thought in my life! now that that’s out of the way let me introduce you to my demon child connor! i spent literal hours on his intro and it’s still not good but that’s besides the point but for your best viewing experience you may wanna see it through his blog for the ~aesthetics~ anyways on with the intro!

triggers will be tagged and marked accordingly as they come up but here’s what to look out for: cheating tw, death tw, cancer tw, and alcohol tw

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐒

𝐅𝐔𝐋𝐋 𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄

bellamy connor livingston

𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐒

bells

𝐁𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐇𝐃𝐀𝐘

october 26th, 1997

𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓

6″0′

𝐀𝐆𝐄

23 years old

𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑

male

𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐒

he/him

𝐎𝐂𝐂𝐔𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

ceo of premier event manangement / event planner

𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐔𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐒

english

𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

bisexual

𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌

alex fitzalan

here is his childhood home, family vacation home, and his current home

𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘

bellamy connor livingston was born in MANHATTAN NEW YORK on an unusually cold october day 

his father was voted as the SENATOR of new york and his mother was a LUXURY REAL ESTATE AGENT who sold a majority of the penthouses on the upper east side, it wasn’t easy living in new york and NOT knowing who the livingston’s were, whether you saw their names on billboards on heard it in passing on television you knew who they were

but the livingston LEGACY precedes connor’s successful parents and goes way back to his ancestors who made their fortune, specifically one of his GREAT grandfathers who was granted 160,000 acres along the Hudson and was an OFFICIAL FUR TRADER AND BUSINESSMAN who earned the family a whopping $35 BILLION DOLLARS and the wealth continues to grow RICH  KEEP GETTING RICHER

in short connor is a total TRUST FUND BABY.

while a family like this is usually drowning with TURMOIL the livingston’s lived a fairly scandal free life, even when you did MASSIVE DIGGING, no signs of infedlity, their four kids got along great, and they were BIG on philanthropy and giving to charity 

𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐖 

this is until you stepped behind CLOSED DOORS which is were the livingston’s liked their SKELETONS to remain, connor’s dad, was a SERIAL CHEATER and the only reason no one ever spoke up is the livingston family INFLUENCE no one dared to cross them 

𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐖

despite growing up in such a TOXIC ENVIROMENT connor was actually a really good kid, his grades were nothing to write home about, and he was definitely a CLASS CLOWN but he did what he was supposed to, and stayed out of trouble for the MOST PART

he was the ELDEST of four children so he felt the need to be a good influence on what would prove to be a BUMPY ROAD for the family 

connor’s high school experience was not what you would expect from someone of his  CALIBER, well at least not ALL of it 

for starters he had the tendency to be a bit ARROGANT due to who his parents were and because he knew the scope of their influence, and he used this to his advantage, he was definitively a “DO YOU KNOW  WHO MY FATHER IS?” ass bitch, partly due to the fact people had always treated him differently and thus it went straight to his already empty head

and he PARTIED a lot, whether it was throwing parties in a penthouse his mother rented SPECIFICALLY for him, attending LAVISH parties, or jetting off to THE HAMPTON’S   “for lunch”, school became a DISTANT PRIORITY

so distant in fact his parents ended up hiring a TUTOR to help him with his studies, and you wouldn’t believe me when i say connor FELL and he fell HARD

so hard in fact i’d say he CRASHED, two planets colliding into each other that was although a CATASTROPHE was ENCHANTING to see, but i’m getting ahead of myself

BEATRICE or BEA as connor and nearly everyone else called her, was connor’s opposite in almost EVERY WAY, she was a straight a student, and connor could hold a c average if he made the effort to CHEAT, she went to their private school on a SCHOLARSHIP, his parents had enough money to buy the ENTIRE SCHOOL, but they were IN LOVE

and i mean the kind of love you see in ROMCOMS the kind of SICKENINGLY SWEET love that others will tell you is IMPOSSIBLE, but they made it work, bea made connor more serious but his studies, and he in turn fell COMPLETELY and EFFORTLESSLY in love. see BEA was already WHOLE so think of this story less of two halves COMPLETING each other, and more so two wholes COMPLEMENTING each other 

they continued to date throughout the rest of high school, and BEA became apart of his family, his mother referred to BEA as her DAUGHTER IN LAW, it was cemented in everyone’s minds that one day the two of them would be MARRIED

oddly enough connor NEVER met BEA’S parents no matter how much he BEGGED and PLEADED, all it took was BEA telling him her family life was something she was UNCOMFORTABLE with and he dropped the subject COMPLETELY 

due to BEA’S influence, connor applied to university, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, to be exact and got ACCEPTED into the school of BUSINESS, of course BEA also applied an got ACCEPTED into the school of SOCIAL SCIENCES

connor didn’t HESITATE to PROPOSE to BEA and to no one’s surprise she immediately said YES and the plan was to get married IMMEDIATELY and so the date was set for JULY 17TH 2017, the theme to be WINTER WONDERLAND, it was BEA’S idea a winter wedding in summer, and seeing the way it made her absolutely BEAM it was worth it

the MONTH of the wedding was a tense one, GRADUATION, PREPARING FOR COLLEGE, and a WEDDING

however TRAGEDY would strike, BEA was LATE to the WEDDING and anyone who knew BEA knew that she wasn’t LATE to anything, that’s when connor got a call that would change his life FOREVER

𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖

remember how i told you BEA never wanted connor to meet her parents? that’s because BEA was sick, CANCER to be exact, and didn’t want connor to find out. her parents tried to rationalize that she didn’t want to seem him HURT, and that she told them EVERYTHING about him, she DIED with connor right by her side, and what was supposed to be the HAPPIEST moment of his life became the SADDEST

𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖                 

that was THREE YEARS AGO and to this day he hasn’t recovered since

𝐀𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐇𝐎𝐋 𝐓𝐖

since then he has gotten two new vices DRINKING and HOOKING UP, it’s not unusual to see him at a bar drinking his FIFTH or TENTH shot of vodka and taking home his SECOND or TENTH girl of the night

𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐀𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐇𝐎𝐋 𝐓𝐖      

he has been CLOSED OFF to the idea of love ever since, and hasn’t held a STABLE relationship since then, he simply can’t see himself COMMITTING to anyone as he did with BEA

in LIGHTER news, he graduated from COLUMBIA with his associate’s in BUSINESS and is now a ceo of his own EVENT PLANNNG company, which has been extremely successful in putting on TOURS, CHARITY BANQUETS, CONVENTIONS, CONCERTS, and the like, they specialize in everything except WEDDINGS

and his father 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐍 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐍 has started his presidential campaign, that connor has somehow managed to rope himself into

𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓

he fights in an underground fighting ring.

it started innocently enough, after BEA passed away he wanted an outlet something where he didn’t have to think about the GUILT and could let out his ANGER, really he wanted something to distract from the SADNESS 

BOXING seemed like a good idea until he couldn’t harness the anger and nearly KILLED his opponent 

that’s when things fell into place, his “ FRIEND ” who witnessed the fight first hand told him about this fighting ring that him and a couple of other people were involved in and connor decided WHY THE HELL NOT, he felt as he had NOTHING else to LOSE

and thus began the cycle of showing up to work in shade to hide BLACK EYES and surprisingly enough BRUISES are easy to hide behind three piece suits

and now current day it’s become THERAPY for him, since a lot of the guys are just like him, looking to ESCAPE from something in their PAST

𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘

𝐙𝐎𝐃𝐈𝐀𝐂 

scorpio sun, scorpio rising, virgo moon

𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐍𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 

chaotic good

𝐌𝐁𝐓𝐈 

estp-a

𝐄𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐀𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐌 

type 7w8

𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 

choleric

𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐄 

slytherin

𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐔𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐒 

in order: physical touch, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, and words of affirmation

𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐒 

adaptable, adventurous, affable, affectionate, ambitious, amusing, attentive, brave, bright, calm, caring, charismatic, charming, committed, courageous, creative, decisive, dependable, determined, diligent, determined, direct, driven, easy-going, efficient, engaging, enthusiastic, extroverted, flirtatious, forthright, frank, fun-loving, funny, gregarious, intelligent, knowledgeable, lively, logical, loyal, mischievous, neat, objective, observant, open-minded, organized, outgoing, passionate, persistent, playful, practical, pragmatic, protective, quick-witted, rational, realistic, reliable, responsible, romantic, self-confident, sociable, strong-willed, and trustworthy

𝐍𝐄𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐒 

abrasive, aggressive, aloof, analytical, argumentative, arrogant, assertive, avoidant, belligerent, blunt, bossy, calculating, callous, cautious, competitive, condescending, confrontational, critical, cynical, deceitful, defiant, destructive, detached, discreet, dishonest, dramatic, evasive, explosive, foolhardy, grumpy, guarded, harsh, headstrong, impatient, impulsive, insensitive, intimidating, irrational, judgmental, melancholic, narcissistic, negative, opinionated, outspoken, perfectionist, pretentious, private, quick-tempered, rebellious, reckless, rude, secretive, stubborn, temperamental, thoughtless, unemotional, vain, and violent

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐏𝐎

i’d like to say he’s a weird amalgamation of characters i liked in media i’ve consumed, and although he relates more to some characters than others this is an incomplete list of my influences

p.s. you can click on the names of a character to see a gifset of them that reminds me of connor <3 

𝑺𝑪𝑶𝑻𝑻 𝑳𝑨𝑵𝑮 ( 𝐀𝐍𝐓-𝐌𝐀𝐍 ) , 𝑬𝑳𝑬𝑨𝑵𝑶𝑹 𝑺𝑯𝑬𝑳𝑳𝑺𝑻𝑹𝑶𝑷 ( 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄 ) , 𝑹𝑰𝑮𝑩𝒀 ( 𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐔𝐋𝐀𝐑 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐖 ) , 𝑫𝑨𝑴𝑶𝑵 𝑺𝑨𝑳𝑽𝑨𝑻𝑶𝑹𝑬 ( 𝐓𝐕𝐃 ) , 𝑹𝒀𝑨𝑵 𝑯𝑶𝑾𝑨𝑹𝑫  ( 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐄 ) , 𝑱𝑶𝑯𝑵𝑵𝒀 𝑩𝑹𝑨𝑽𝑶 ( 𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍𝐍𝐘 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐎 ) , 𝑫𝑼𝑵𝑪𝑨𝑵 ( 𝐓𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐋 𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐌𝐀 𝐈𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃 ) , 𝑨𝑳𝑬𝑿 𝑹𝑼𝑺𝑺𝑶 ( 𝐖𝐈𝐙𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐖𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐘 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄 ) , 𝑪𝑯𝑼𝑪𝑲 𝑩𝑨𝑺𝑺 ( 𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐏 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋 ) , 𝑪𝑨𝑺𝑬𝒀 𝑮𝑨𝑹𝑫𝑵𝑬𝑹 ( 𝐀𝐓𝐘𝐏𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 ) , 𝑳𝑼𝑲𝑬 𝑫𝑼𝑵𝑷𝑯𝒀 ( 𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐍 𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘 ) , 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑫𝑬𝑹𝑬𝑲 𝑴𝑶𝑹𝑮𝑨𝑵 ( 𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐒 )

𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

𝑹𝑶𝑴𝑨𝑵𝑻𝑰𝑪

𝑪𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑵𝑮. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.

𝑬𝑿𝑬𝑺 𝑶𝑵 𝑮𝑶𝑶𝑫 𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑴𝑺. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.

𝑬𝑿𝑬𝑺 𝑶𝑵 𝑩𝑨𝑫 𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑴𝑺. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.

𝑭𝑹𝑰𝑬𝑵𝑫𝑺 𝑻𝑶 𝑳𝑶𝑽𝑬𝑹𝑺. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.

𝑭𝑹𝑰𝑬𝑵𝑫𝑺 𝑾𝑰𝑻𝑯 𝑩𝑬𝑵𝑬𝑭𝑰𝑻𝑺. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄.   

𝑺𝑲𝑰𝑵𝑵𝒀 𝑳𝑶𝑽𝑬. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.

𝑺𝑳𝑶𝑾 𝑩𝑼𝑹𝑵. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.

𝑷𝑹 𝑹𝑬𝑳𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵𝑺𝑯𝑰𝑷. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.   

𝑻𝑶𝑿𝑰𝑪 𝑹𝑬𝑳𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵𝑺𝑯𝑰𝑷. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.   

𝑼𝑵𝑹𝑬𝑸𝑼𝑰𝑻𝑬𝑫 𝑳𝑶𝑽𝑬. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.

𝑷𝑳𝑨𝑻𝑶𝑵𝑰𝑪

𝑺𝑸𝑼𝑨𝑫. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.

𝑹𝑶𝑶𝑴𝑴𝑨𝑻𝑬𝑺. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.      

𝑮𝑶𝑶𝑫 𝑰𝑵𝑭𝑳𝑼𝑬𝑵𝑪𝑬. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.   

𝑩𝑨𝑫 𝑰𝑵𝑭𝑳𝑼𝑬𝑵𝑪𝑬. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.

𝑩𝑬𝑺𝑻 𝑭𝑹𝑰𝑬𝑵𝑫. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.

𝑪𝑯𝑰𝑳𝑫𝑯𝑶𝑶𝑫 𝑭𝑹𝑰𝑬𝑵𝑫. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑. 

𝑵𝑬𝑮𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑽𝑬

𝑭𝑹𝑰𝑬𝑵𝑫𝑺 𝑻𝑼𝑹𝑵𝑬𝑫 𝑬𝑵𝑬𝑴𝑰𝑬𝑺. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.

𝑬𝑵𝑬𝑴𝑰𝑬𝑺. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.

𝑭𝑹𝑬𝑵𝑬𝑴𝑰𝑬𝑺. 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.

if any of these interest you feel free to message me! i have ideas for all of them that i’m always ready to share! also feel free to mix and match any of the plots above a good influence who has an unrequited crush but is also his roommate? sounds like content to me, a friend with benefits turned best friend turned exes on bad terms we love to see it! and if none of these seem interesting to you fill free to check out connor’s wanted connections page!

#wealthyhq:intro #cheating tw #death tw #cancer tw #alcohol tw #i didn't proofread this #so if there's any typos #rip

[lektricwhump]

hello hello! i was tagged by the lovely @for-the-love-of-angst to do this picrew challenge. i know i don’t post my ocs here, but i’ll post some of their designs anyway :0 i’m posting text about the oc + then the design. these ocs exist in the same universe but they’re not, like, related, because i am bad at telling cohesive stories. these are probably just the main ones i’m using at the moment first off, we have Tate--art school reject, certified ray of sunshine, maybe don’t look in that weird room at the edge of her main studio space and definitely don’t pay attention to those weird stains on the ground, they are Absolutely Not Blood. as you can see she’s a fun artist friend!  whumper, though she’s the queen of willful denial on that front. it’s just art, she’s just painting people with their own blood, not hurting anyone! ⬇

next up--Jo! sadly, this picrew didn’t have her signature fruit earrings, but i’ll work with what i got. works for the mob--or at least something that calls itself the mob--as a “professional interrogator” which is slang for getting to torture people for a living. she likes her job. a lot--because where the hell else is she gonna get to be violent and make money off it? you’d never guess she ended up here by accident. whumper, obviously, and very, very good at what she does. ⬇

Walter! Jo’s “business partner” against his will. former med student, his involvement in the mob is even more of an accident than hers. caves easily to peer pressure, easily manipulated, too deep into the crime world to have any hope of getting himself out. not exactly a whumper, but present at many, many torture sessions. also, not pictured: the giant scar across the lower right half of his face. ⬇

Fish! ask them what they are, and depending on how trustworthy they deem you to be, they will reply somewhere from “a human with mouldy blood” to “epic space person.” and yes, they do not pronounce that u as silent. eldritch creature turned almost human, except for being physically incapable of dying. ...not like they can’t still get hurt, though. they are a whumpee, and i tend to go a bit overboard with the ways i hurt them. fun fact: lots and lots of trauma around water. :) ⬇

aaaand last one i think because if i did every oc this post would be fifty feet long. here’s Seoyeon! disclaimer: since she’s 11, I do not whump her, but i do enjoy brainstorming crack whump involving her hitting people with throwaway guitars. shortest metalhead you’ll ever meet, will beat you up if you diss any of her favorite bands (currently: slayer and cattle decapitation). also has a bit of a thing for building elaborate minecraft worlds. soooort of a whumper, but only crack whump, and only hurts people who deserve it.  

tagging @pretty-face-breaker​, @crash-bump-bring-the-whump​, @straight-to-the-pain​, @pythagoreanwhump​, and  @sopwithwhump​ . no obligation to respond, just figured i’d tag y’all :)

#tag game #whump community #picrew #seoyeon #fish #walter #jo #tate #not whump #per se #lmao #simon speaks #this took me literally two hours #rip #also don't steal my ocs #do not use this without my permission #there is a reason i do not post oc writing on tumblr and it's: paranoia #gonna use them in a book someday don't do that to me #ok obligatory legal shiz over #whee

[study-like-you-mean-it]

things I wish I had known when starting a studyblr - study-like-you-mean-it

 It’s been a looong time since I made this studyblr; I started it in Easter 2016, which means it’s over 3 years old now (which doesn’t seem like a lot but going from GCSEs to having finished the first year of university is a long journey). I thought I’d share a couple of things I’ve learned along the way, through trial and error (mostly error), and hopefully this will help some of you out! :)

Experiment with your look: It’s great if you settle into an aesthetic straight away and want to stick with it for the whole time you have your blog, and if that works for you, that’s great! If like me you want to keep trying out different styles, go with that (I still haven’t settled on an aesthetic and that’s chill)- most of the time, people will see your posts in isolation anyway so don’t put too much pressure on finding aesthetic cohesiveness

Don’t think you have to buy all the stationery: You’ll see a bunch of brand names popping up over and over again in people’s posts, and whilst brands like MUJI and mildliners may work for some, you absolutely do not need to buy all of these things in order to keep up a certain ideal aesthetic. I, for one, have strayed from mildliners and use stabilo pastel highlighters now, as they are cheaper and last longer. My go-to writing pen when I work is a BIC biro, which I bought in bulk so it costs 24p per pen. I do have MUJI pens for working on my bullet journal and the B4 notebooks for taking to lectures, but it’s really not necessary to cash out on all the kit in order to be a “legit” studyblr. All you need is a phone camera, a pen, and a piece of paper.

You don’t need the “studyblr” handwriting: Scrolling through the myriad of studyblr posts, it’s easy to become convinced that you need this stereotypical ultra-neat “studyblr” handwriting, and whilst it does look nice, it’s not the only handwriting that looks nice. I used to take ages to try and write my study notes out so that they conformed to this aesthetic, and it ended up slowing down my studying to the point that I never finished the notes or the material I wanted to cover in a given day. I also ended up making notes for the sake of studyblr posts that ended up not being an effective way for me to study (I learned this the hard way). I’m quite lucky in that my regular handwriting is quite consistent, but to be honest, the overall aesthetic of a post is more important, and sometimes this studyblr handwriting fits into the aesthetic, but I can guarantee it’s not a necessity and you don’t need to spend your time on it if your handwriting doesn’t look like that.

Composition and lighting are most important: Long story short, you can’t take a good photo of your notes if the composition and lighting aren’t there. Take a look through the most popular photo posts and you’ll see what I mean: it doesn’t matter what the actual content of the photo is, just that it looks nice overall. Again, this is a case of what kind of a look you’re going for: some posts will have this super clean, neat look with no shadows, and other will tactfully play with the shadows for a different kind of image. However, if the shadows in the picture don’t match the aesthetic you’re going for, or you try and edit them out after taking the photos, I can guarantee this is a recipe for disaster.

Edit, but don’t overedit: Everyone with a studyblr edits their photos. I personally use a combination of VCSO and Snapseed, and have been doing this for a while, but even then I often make errors in judgement about filter strength and editing, and sometimes my photos end up looking overprocessed and frankly unattractive. I have 11.5k followers, and even now I get posts with 0 reblogs because my photo editing has been so bad. It happens (and the posts get deleted once I realise), and that’s just something you just gotta keep trying at.

Be inspired by others: See something that you like that someone else is doing? There’s no harm in trying to recreate something similar yourself, as long as you’re not plagiarising or downright stealing.

Regularity is important, but you are more important: Obviously, uploading and/or reblogging content regularly is important to your blog. However, it’s a studyblr, and if you find that it’s getting in the way of doing actual work, there’s no harm in taking a break. I rarely upload during term time, or even in the holidays, because I’m so busy trying to get my actual life sorted and enjoying my university experience. For me, I worked the most on my studyblr last summer after I finished my A-Levels, and that’s when I experienced the most growth through very regular uploads (and since everyone else was also on their summer break, they had more time to spend on tumblr and see my content). From there, it’s just been growing by itself, and it’s almost 10x as big as it was in January of 2018. Don’t feel pressured to dedicate loads of time to producing content if you simply don’t have the time. If you’re a studyblr who reblogs rather than produces content, it’s always possible to just queue up stuff so it’s released regularly whilst you are working.

Stick at it: It took me over two years to experience any real growth, and by that time I’d poured many hours of work into it. Growth doesn’t come overnight, and no matter how hard you work, you’ve gotta keep working. My first text posts got 10k notes and that did almost nothing to my follower count. Keep going and it will happen, and when this happens, you’ll be able to reach out to more people, directly and indirectly, and it becomes an even more rewarding experience.

I hope this helps some of you, and as always, you can access my Redbubble store here, and if you think what I’m doing is kind of cool (and want to request content that becomes top of my priority list/support what I do), you can find my ko-fi link here (it’s like patreon but they don’t take commission).

#studyspo #studyblr #studylikeyoumeanit #text post #long post #advice #gcses #a levels #university #cambridge university #bullet journal #stationery #summer #work #studyblr tips #photo tips #photo editing

[yellowocaballero]

how long did it take you to write bell book candle? how much planning did you do in advance? did you know what sort of ending you wanted when you started? its just so good and i kind of want to know what sort of steps you took

Thank you for the question! I’ve received questions like this before. I’m afraid my answer is the same, and will be both disappointing and very funny. 

[Image ID: Discord image. Sakura from Naruto saying “hey how did I plot BBC I don’t remember” and light from death note saying “you started writing. planned nothing. went. “EMILY ITS ALL DIALOG”. and produced a fic. End ID.]

1) I just checked the Google Doc. I’d say womb to tomb, less than a month, about three weeks. I work a full time job and have other things I do with my life so it’s definitely not my fastest work - that would have been an old fic of mine that was womb to tomb 100k words in two weeks, I barely remember those two weeks - but it’s not my slowest. I think I was just really aching to write a story - the beginning of the Google Doc has the sadly aborted Jon/Basira fake dating AU which would have been hilarious if it had taken off, and I was really taken with the idea of Jon and Georgie teaming up to fight crime. It all spiraled from there.

2) I did no planning in advance. 0 planning. This is the case for everything I have eve written, and I don’t think I’ll ever really get in the habit of it. This is why my plot lines are so messy and convoluted lol. Sometimes I hammer out a quick outline halfway through a story, like I did in the one I’m writing right now, but I always deviate from it anyway. Every time, I discover the themes, intention, trajectory, character arcs, and purpose through the writing. I make every story decision, and people who know me will back this up, based on if it’s funny or not. It’s what works for me! It may not work for you. Find what you groove with and fire away, baby.

3) I believe in committing to themes and trajectories. I often surprise people (so I’ve heard), and I really like pushing the envelope in endings and plot twists, but I mostly believe in not backing away from something. If I’m going to spend the entire story depicting Jon’s descent into moral grayness and monsterhood, then I’m going to commit to it and show him losing his soul. Characters should hit rock bottom before they can climb back up again. If I’m going to spend the entire fic going “Jon’s going to start the apocalypse and here’s why”, then I want him to start the apocalypse. That’s why I’m a little surprised people were surprised in the comments about it - where Jon ends up as a character and what he does is very, very clearly signaled. Don’t be afraid to let things get bad! Conflict is mandatory for a story. Absolutely every story ever written should have conflict, even if the conflict is whether or not to buy mac and cheese for dinner.

But I also really like happy endings. And I think stories that are about recovery from trauma, like BBC was, should have happy endings, so I guess you can say where the story ends up was the intention from the start. Jon’s character arc in that story was love - learning how to love in an unselfish way, learning how unconditional love and acceptance is the basis behind empathy, forgiveness, self-love, and self-acceptance. I think it’s the definition of a happy ending for love to give you the power to heal the world, and to heal yourself, and to forgive yourself. You know what the ending will be when you know where you want the character to end up. The ending was super crazy but it was really the only thing that made sense - for Jon to hit rock bottom and to rescue himself anyway.

God, this is long, I’m so long-winded. I will say that if you’re wondering how to write a longer story, write a shorter one first. I learned how to write by writing scenes that were nothing but two characters talking. Then I learned how to stitch together those scenes. Then I learned how to put these scenes in a narrative, then to give those scenes thematic meaning, then to give them cohesion and unity, then to write a short story, then to write a novella, then to write a novel. Writing has always been...intuitive for me? I just know what works and what doesn’t. But I’m kind of sitting on a pile of bones of really shitty stories lmao. Build your intuition and your confidence by seeing what works for you as a writer. People tend to be on the spectrum of gardeners or architects, and finding where you land is a good start. I’m sorry I can’t give you a step by step guide, I really wish I was a more polished writer so that I could, but I’m really 95% self taught. I just have fun and get funky with it, and if it’s good and makes me laugh then other people see it.

TL;DR: my only rules are 1) does it have conflict + do the characters have to fight for what they want, 2) do the characters grow, and 3) would it be funny. If the answer is yes to all three I go for it. No brain cells otherwise.

#my writing #also i type 120 wpm so that helps on the speed front #ppl tell me im fast and i have no frame of reference so like I guess but im only fast bc i dont have two brain cells to rub together

[aciiers]

                                     hello children it’s your favourite monstrosity cel here                                            with your other problematic fave Snuffles Jr. 

(  cis male  |  he/him  |  chris veres  )   ——   isn’t that  SIRIUS BLACK ?  yeah that is them, sitting there at the  GRYFFINDOR  table with those other  SIXTH  years. when sybill looks into that crystal ball of hers, she sees   ( tw; wounds )    oil patches under city rubble,  glowing canine eyes,  the stripe of dawn crowning winter trees,  bloodstained footprints,  calloused hands,  irregular bruise patterns.  anyway i’ve heard they’re pretty  UNDAUNTED,  IMPETUOUS,  and  JOCULAR.   apparently they’re a  FOR THE LIGHT  and  PUREBLOOD  but i’m sure that’s not related. ——   [ cel : akdt : 22 : she/her ]

𝑰.       𝐻𝐼𝑆𝑇𝑂𝑅𝑌           »                combustibles  mix   poorly   with  heat ,    and  the  air  he  breathes  feels  thick  with   soot  .    it’s  hard  to  know  what    ‘  fresh  ’    means  until  you  feel  it   yourself ,    and  it’s  harder  still  to  accept  that    you  can’t   clean   what’s  already  been   stained  .  

            tw ;   trauma ,  abuse

we’ve all Been Knew he has family trauma

i’ll likely be playing with the idea that his family’s just deadass abusive,  both mentally & physically,  because i virtually cannot imagine how a woman filled with as much Pure Rage as walburga black would not be?? rip

that being said,  i’ll also place his disownment as the summer  after  this  one   just because i feel like that ??  aligns best with the plot.  like he announces his allegiance vocally and whatever else tomfoolery I make him do and that’s just,  The Last Straw

obviously he finds a lot of security in james  &  the marauders and is honestly only as good of a student as he is because he catches up  /  gets ahead  during  the summers

also 100% fucks around muggle london all the time when he’s back home,  usually never telling his family he’s leaving and causing Mayhem when he gets back

i’ll say it again for the people at the back:  he is !! one smart bastard !!  just irresponsible af.  the breathing figure of That Guy(tm) who never studies or shows up to class and still rolls out in honours

𝑰𝑰.     𝐴𝑁 𝐼𝑁𝑆𝐼𝐺𝐻𝑇      »                making   models   out  of  air   sounds   easier  than  it  is .    conjuration  he  can  do  ,    but  at  least  he  knows  what  to   look  for   in  that .    he’s  a   shameless   follower ,    but  he  presents  as  an  addition    —    the  last  piece  of  the  team .    he’s  a  paradox  of  individualistic  &  dependent ,    and  the  line  never   seems   to  focus .

obviously the shit he’s been through,  and being  /  feeling like he’s unable to just roll with it fucks with him.  the guy literally came in with no idea how healthy dynamics work he just knows his family’s Isn’t It,  Sis.

at this point he has trouble seeing the world as anything but us vs. them because his world is only that.  he either likes you or he doesn’t and he doesn’t really see why this wouldn’t be mirrored or how his actions can impact that.

he’s also at that point where he just Assumes he’s always right and that makes him jump to conclusions and just.  stay there.

basically he’s the type to take things way too far way too quick. just like the snape thing;  like was that in any way cool??  No,  but a bitch physically Does Not Understand That

that being said though,  he is,  in general,  just hella fun-loving and only occasionally Too Much so.  he finally has the chance to actually  be  free of his home’s clutches and he always uses that to his fullest , even if upon first glance he may come off v aloof.  he’s always being chaotic & impulsive and pulling random people into one plan or the next so it’s Very Likely your character has either faced or Will Face this six feet of mayhem at some point

he also just prioritises his friends above anything else & that usually means having absolutely 0 means of balance or real desire for an external relationship, despite coming off rather loving and indulgent when he is present.  so he can be excessively flirty and sometimes even charming but it always goes,,, nowhere rifp

𝑰𝑰𝑰.    𝑆𝑈𝑀𝑀𝐴𝑅𝑌        »

sirius black? absolutely Stunning but listen he wasn’t raised right

this translates to terrible coping mechanisms and a sub-par understanding of empathy, but he’s learning

will constantly swap between being an arrogant bastard and needing all the attention / validation in the world, but constantly tries to make the former Happen

florida man is the reincarnate of sirius’ shoulder devil i don’t make the truth i only speak it

𝑰𝑽.    𝑊𝐴𝑁𝑇𝐸𝐷 𝑃𝐿𝑂𝑇𝑆      »

jk i didn’t think this far ahead just @ me i’ll come up with something vaguely cohesive and Thrilling

tho in terms of things i definitely want to explore with him...... probably mostly like, his family dynamics and how he’s really coping with them  (surprise, terribly!)  and just the overall growth of his character into someone who learns to handle his emotions and how to actually  be  the Good Guy(tm) that he  wants  to be.

like idc what jk rowling said OotP did sirius Dirty and knowing they were in danger of actually orphaning their baby jily at that point would’ve never made sirius harry’s god father if sirius hadn’t matured by then thanks for coming to my ted talk where we Burn canon

also i Say this but 99% of my threads Will Be fluffy nonsense Bet

oh and pureblood shenanigans he still has to deal with until he cuts ties :^)

#petrificus.intro #i made the Terrible Mistake of saving this without backup and tumblr ate all my original bullets bc i indented some and not others i HHHHH #anyways #wounds tw #trauma tw #abuse tw #i mean only Implied but we stan a dramatic queen #i probably forgot to finish a sentence somewhere but you know what we're going to Ignore that

[seongshwa]

✨ + my stuff is all tagged w 'my gifs' if u wld like to!!! 💖💕💖

one - half of these are also my fave hwa looks omg i live and breathe for the bwl cover look :((((((( anyways i like how you kept the colouring close to the original’s?? we stan melanin ateez 🥺

two - love the colouring in this one!!! i like how the greys, browns and blacks all looks really good together because of this muted style :D and the quality is great too!!!!! also your wooyoung all to zero teaser is really pretty, i like the pinks, blues, and oranges in that set too!!

three - hhAGHSGGFGHGFAHSGFHAFGHAF I REMEMBER YELLING UNDER THE TAGS OF THIS SPARKLY SAN SET oh my god..... it’s put as 3rd on this list bc of the i’m pace going through your gifs tag rn but if we were to be real honest (i hope what i’m about to say is going to make sense LMAO) i think this set deserves the number 0 place bc it’s just THAT superior. the no.1 title isn’t enough to describe how much i love this set sjhfsjjhsf

four - i love aurora so any aurora stages = my fave sjhdgfjgsjs i’m kidding asjfgajfa but seriously, i absolutely love how cohesive the colouring for this entire set is!! one of the thing i dislike about making 3x3 compilation sets is attempting to make the general colouring cohesive, so really, really big kudos to you for being able to make this set looks so good bc i know music show’s lightings can be such a pain in the neck even if it’s the same performance :<

five - this one.... just.... i have the date memorized because of the outfits that day...... i’m.....no words head empty just 181111 ateez 😩

send me ✨ + the link to your creations and I’ll answer with my top five favourites!

#replies #btw not sure if it's just my browser but i think your links are still linked to your previous url? :o #i tried to only talk about your ateez sets but your lim jimin sets are also really nice!!!! owo #chwejongho

[ailuronymy]

Hey, I follow a WC YouTuber called Moonkitti and she'd uploaded a video called "Warrior Names". She kinda slams traditionalism and also demonstrates she has no idea what exactly it is. Like she shows some prefixes as examples which has Tree and Dirt as acceptable and Jay isn't, despite the inverse being true. I know she mentions she's not against it in concept, but that it was being enforced to limit others' creativity, but I have really mixed feelings about it and wanted to know your opinions.

Hello there, Ruddles! I hadn’t heard of this person before but I went and watched this video and I think I understand where your mixed feelings might be coming from. This video is trying to do a lot of things but, in my personal opinion, it’s doing none of them particularly well.

There’s three major things happening all at once: 1. a legitimate personal reflection about how certain traditionalists acted towards this person in the past and how that impacted her (4:50; 6:20); 2. an incorrect and misleading explanation of what traditionalism even is and very clearly no understanding of why it appeals to people, and therefore very little empathy towards people who use the style; (5:13; 6:00);  and 3. (from an outsider stance as someone who likes deconstructing arguments for fun) a fascinatingly messy argument both in favour of Erin Hunter while using Erin Hunter’s various (and typically more incompetent) choices as justifications for… everything and anything. 

It’s a mixed bag to be sure! To start with, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with saying that some people who use the traditional style are jerks. It’s very true. I remember those days too. Some people genuinely did crash forum threads just to mock and belittle other people. It was terrible and I think it’s totally legitimate to be upset about that.

I think the argument that everyone who uses traditionalism behaves that way is bad faith, however, and I also question the confirmation bias happening at 6:54, because I only ever see people talking about traditionalism for themselves, because that’s the spaces I hang out in. I wonder if Moonkitti has ever actually looked for traditional forums and sites, or if she’s just taken for granted that they don’t exist and everyone who uses the style is waging their own personal crusade. That’s not something I endorse in any way, by the way. Don’t anyone do that. 

The second topic is personally the most frustrating because at points she’s almost right. But her definitions are incorrect and explanations simplify in a way that isn’t helpful to anyone. She’s not trying to actually give an account of the style and then point out the ways it doesn’t work or shouldn’t exist or anything like that: she’s half understood the idea and gone, “That sounds dumb.” This is in fact what she claims traditionalists say about other styles (7:22), which I disagree with: traditionalism is based mostly on having a set framework in place and then fairly rigorously debating what works and doesn’t within that world set-up. Plenty of names that are traditional sound pretty silly, but that doesn’t mean we knock them back wholesale. The whole point of the style is there is a method. Making judgments based on looser qualities, like sound or flow or imagery, is more of a lyrical approach.

Anyway, she doesn’t even seem to have gone to the effort of learning about it herself before deciding to preach. I think that’s tacky. It’s exasperating to me, because it’s not like there aren’t a ton of resources out there: if nothing else, traditionalists are good like that! We love lists and archives and referring to rules we’ve written out. That’s one of the things she’s correct about. She frequently refers to the fact that traditionalism is fan-made (2:25; 3:59; 6:45), but she does so as if this is a bad thing, which it’s not. Traditionalists are aware it’s fan-made: we are, after all, the fans who made it. That’s the whole idea. 

Which brings me to the third topic: she doesn’t seem to fully understand why traditionalism exists and why it brings joy to people who use it. That’s an issue, because much of her argument is based around “well, canon.” She mischaracterises traditionalists as people who are “taking things too seriously” for being creative–i.e., she recognises that the entirety of traditionalism is fan-made, but can’t seem to understand why fans would elect to create rules to follow; it seems to cancel out the creativity in her world-view. She also repeatedly refers to the fact that she doesn’t need a traditional system to enjoy the Warriors world (0:26; 7:17; 8:28; 9:05)–to which I reply, your mileage may vary–and seems to look down on people who are pulled out of the story by “a silly name,” unlike her or Erin Hunter, who don’t take things “seriously.”

The major problem I have with this approach is that it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the value of good world-building–or even some idea of what it looks like. She claims a strict system would result in a boring story (which perhaps would be true for her, who knows: again, mileage may vary) (8:28), but the issue I have is that she says: “don’t get me wrong, warrior cats is not perfect, but the least of our troubles with the quality of these books is how strange these names are. Sure, Bouncefire sounds weird and doesn’t seem realistic, but if you’re worried about this story’s realism, consider the fact that we have about fifty cats who live together who barely gossip except if it’s about a housecat” (1:06). 

She uses the word “realistic” throughout the whole video, as though the goal of using a traditional style is to make Warriors realistic, which in my opinion it’s not. Plausible, yes. Believable, yes. Cohesive, yes. But not realistic. These are, after all, talking cats with religion. I myself multiple times a year refer to the fact we’re all getting excited over “feral cats talking to stars in the forest.” There’s no pretense there! But the thing Moonkitti argues that actually makes me mad is that, because it’s not real, nothing matters. 

And that’s absolutely horse-apples. It matters that the names in canon don’t have structure, because the world of Warriors doesn’t have structure and that is the underlying problem of the series. That is part of why the series is not well-written. The world doesn’t have structure or consistency in how it is built, and the run-on effect is that characters are frequently flat and their decisions–even their deaths–are regularly made meaningless by the world of the story. The world-building is inconsistent and poorly planned, and the run-on effect is that plots regularly force characters who are supposed to be intelligent or even an average amount of smart into being unbelievably stupid simply for the sake of furthering it, and the stakes of the stories are constantly forced to increase to squeeze any amount of impact out of the plots because the writing itself won’t do it. 

There is no hierarchy from most to least when it comes to the quality troubles of Erin Hunter’s work. The issues in Warriors are not stand-alone. They are interconnected. It’s silly to pretend that transformative world-building, which is what traditionalism is, is somehow a superficial, ornamental thing and not simply another way for fans to mend some of what makes Warriors “not perfect,” like any other AU or fandom meta. Canon invented the name-change custom (7:43)–and repeatedly made it messy, and shameful, and had no idea what they wanted to go with. Traditionalism mended that and made it better. If you can recognise that the series isn’t perfect, I don’t think it’s a stretch to also recognise and acknowledge different ways of how fans react to and deal with those imperfections in fan-works, such as role-playing and fanfiction and OCs. 

Moonkitti’s repetitions that this is a fantasy series and it’s not real so stop caring frankly reminds me a lot people who get uncomfortable and defensive when you analyse and discuss a piece of media in any kind of critical or thoughtful way and will tell you don’t be so serious. In my case, these people tend not to realise that, for me at least, this is fun--and it’s worthwhile and important to do. It’s also my actual job, in the daylight hours. (Here it’s just a hobby).

So tl;dr: Erin Hunter doesn’t take Warriors seriously–and that is the problem. The canon naming style is a symptom of how little effort Erin Hunter puts into consistent or meaningful world-building. Traditionalism exists as some fans’ attempt to craft a solution for themselves, and I include myself in that. 

Moonkitti’s approach to explaining traditionalism from a place of 1. not being interested in understanding it and 2. being oddly defensive of Erin Hunter, the creative team behind all of canon’s terrible weird writing choices, rather than critical of said choices and choosing instead to blame fans for wanting canon to be better and then acting on that desire, feels a bit in bad faith to me. I’m sad to hear that she had such bad experiences with traditionalists in the past, because that’s awful, but I also feel strongly that it’s a good idea to know what you’re talking about before you step onto the stage like this.

For instance, she says, “There’s no real argument for why [certain] names [should] not be in the series,” (2:13), but, well. I’m here and this blog is my seven-years-and-counting argument. I like to think it’s often a persuasive one, too!

#good god this is long #ALSO it goes without saying but i'll say it just in case: no-one is to go to this person's channel and leave any kind of rude comment #i like to believe none of you would even think of that but i'm saying it now: don't. #if you don't like what she's said just move on and go do something nice. plant a flower. tell a friend you love them. do that kind of thing.

[custer-mp3]

ANYWAY LIKE.

I don’t want to be a “bad victim” for laughing @ how fuckeen STUPID it all is

i don’t want ppl to not take it seriously or to underestimate the amount of trauma/pain bc of how fuckeen stupid it is

i don’t want to fail at conveying how fucked up it was bc it is it also dumb

i don’t want ppl to discredit me as petty or bitter bc it wasn’t “bad” enough

i don’twant ppl to discredit me bc i’m bad at relationships if i mention that all relationships have in fact made me miserable & i’m just not wired for them even tho figuring that out was a huge revelation & personal breakthru & the only thing i’m truly proud of in this or like, y’know, for myself in 2019 period

cuz y’know i’m actually GOOD at relationships despite them making me miserable. like. i can do them for a long tme despite Mcfuckin Hating my life the whole time. I AM VERY GOOD AT PRETENDING TO BE HUMAN & THIS IS NOT MY FAULT & IF ANYONE TRIES TO CALL ME DISHONEST FOR IT I’LL SKIN THEM ALIVE

or y’know actually like. my entire life in general 

i don’t want ppl to not get why i’m so busted up abt it if it was a scam marriage anyway

i don’t want ppl to think i deserved it since it was a scam anyway

i don’t want ppl to discredit what i went thru on account of it being a scam

i want to convey how both intrinsically hilarious & also emotionally scarring this entire experience was & how i could grow to love someone & want to make it work--for me, for them, for not having to fail again, for want of fkn STABILITY & nice furniture--despite actually being Not Happy In Relationships

cuz we were friends.

i want to MAYBE convey the complexity of losing this 10+ yr relationship & that pain while also being so angry & so done & so fucking out of love for this person on one level

i don’t want ppl to think i’m a repeat victim cuz i’m bad at making decisions for myself or w/e

i don’t want to be called a bootlicker again by tankies on tumblr bc B happened to be military

i don’t want it to get bogged down & no longer be funny

i don’t want ppl to laugh at ME & my faves & my choices, just how intrinsically stupid the concept and these incidents are

i don’t want ppl to discredit me BECAUSE so much fandom identity is a) deeply uncool (having feelings isn’t cool) b) it’s stuff other ppl write of as shallow/stupid/a phase/something to grow out of when u become a ~~cool kid/whatever

i want to convey the importance of fandom & hyperfixation without sounding weird & desperate & pathetic & cringy

i don’t want ppl to think i deserved it for being so involved in that/my friends/fucking “selfish” for trying to remain a whole person (WHOSE IDENTITY HAS ALWAYS BEEN TIED TO FANDOM) while in a relationship

i don’t want to be a spectacle bc of my fandom or the subject matter

i don’t want ppl to think i’m overdramatic or petty or bitter as a result of my fandoms or how i spend my time

i don’t want ppl to say i should’ve left earlier if it was so bad/question why i stayed/say i brought it on myself for my relationships outside the partnership/trivialize or minimize the trauma of the experience cuz the abuse wasn’t Bad Enough on their personal imaginary Abuse Severity Scale

i want a cohesive narrative, i don’t want to do it as short pieces & i fear that it would turn out disjointed & incoherent

i want it to wrap up neatly as narrative but it continues to be an ongoing situation & i’m only getting More Stupid left unsupervised out here

i don’t want ppl to discredit/trivialize/downplay the trauma of the experience bc of their biases against the things i like

i don’t want ppl to distill this down to some sort of fucked up fandom/genre war

“stop being nu trash” is not a solution cuz being nu trash is NOT the failure point of the relationship

if being nu trash is enough to fail a relationship, why the FUCK do you think you’re ready to even be in a relationship

i don’t want ppl to think my refusal to give up fandom is the crux of the marital failure as tho i didn’t retreat INTO fandom as a RESPONSE to the conflict already present from Day 0 of this venture

THIS IS IN NO WAY MY FAULT

ANY REASONABLE PERSON WOULD HAVE REACTED/RESPONDED DIFFERENTLY EVEN IF THEIR PARTNER WAS INTO A THING THEY ABSOLUTELY COULDN’T STAND

CUZ THE BREAKDOWN WASN’T ABT FANDOM, IT WAS ABT ME HAVING ANY FORM OF INDEPENDENCE & AGENCY & LIFE & ACCOMPLISHMENTS & ACTION CAPABILITY OUTSIDE OF THE RELATIONSHIP WHEN HE IS SO TRAPPED WITHIN HIS LIFE BY HIS SHITTY CHOICES (MILITARY “EASY WAY OUT”) THAT NOBODY ELSE SHOULD HAVE ANY EITHER & HIS INABILITY TO MULTICHANNEL/MULTITASK AGENCY FR HIMSELF MEANS MINE IS/WAS A THREAT & IF HE’S TRAPPED IN THIS HE NEEDS A FKN CELLMATE

AS EVIDENCED BY FKN BUMBLE PROFILE AFTER DISSOLUTION

I don’t want to be dismissed fr being angry

i don’t want to be dismissed as a chronic victim or someone looking for victimization where there is none bc this isn’t my first rodeo