#celsius 2022

[makingofstories]

Tamsyn Muir interview about TLT in Celsius 232 (2022)

This post is a transcribe of an interview/talk made to Tamsyn Muir during the Celsius 232, a multimedia festival about fantasy, scifi and horror genres celebrated in Avilés, a city in the North of Spain. The interview was about her saga The Locked Tomb. In this interview Tamsyn Muir talked about topics such as how the trilogy turned into a tetralogy, fanfiction, her favourite cliche and translations. She also answered fandom questions from the public.

Click on Keep reading to read the whole interview!

Thanks to Comic Astur for recording the interview. They have another interviews during Celsius 232 in their channel, both to Spanish and non-Spanish authors. So check it out!

I want to share this interview and to transcribe it so everybody can enjoy it. Also, although I was in the festival, I couldn't go to this talk. So I'm glad that it was recorded because I found it interesting.

A lot of people came to the event cosplayed as Gideon, Harrow and other characters. Here is a photo with all of them!

This interview was made in July 2022, so the books discussed are mainly Gideon The Ninth and Harrow The Ninth.

In the scenario there were three people, as you can see in the video. Tamsyn Muir (center, author of The Locked Tomb), Gabriella Campbell (left, interviewer (and author of books such as Pequeños restos de magia, El día del dragón...)) and Diego García (right, interpreter). Gabriella did the questions while Diego translated everything to Tamsyn and then to the public.

Now that everything is clear, let's start!

Interviewer: Well, I'm going to start very seriously. I think that I don't need to introduce to you who Tamsyn Muir is. You also now Diego a lot. *laughs* Before anything else, I'm going to be very formal and I'll start by reading a bit of Tamsyn Muir's biography from Wikipedia. *everybody laughs* So I'll need to use my glasses.

*Gabriella, the interviewer, takes some aviator sunglasses that were on the table and she puts them on, the glasses really look like Gideon's so everybody started laughing and clapping. Tamsyn Muir nods and does a thumbs up 👍 After this joke, Gabriella takes the glasses of and puts on her regular glasses to read*

Interviewer: Tamsyn Muir is a New Zealand author of fantasy, science fiction and horror. She's been nominated for a lot of prizes and her first novel was published in 2019. I think that you may know what's its tittle... *everybody laughs* She was born in Australia in 1985 and she moved to New Zealand when she was five years old.* Now she works as a teacher in Oxford.

*in Wikipedia it says that she moved to New Zealand when she was nine months old, but in the same Wikipedia article in Spanish it says five years old. So yeah, someone can confirm which is correct? hahaha

The Deepwater Bride was published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 2015, was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novelette, the World Fantasy Award—Short Fiction, the Eugie Award and the Shirley Jackson Award. Amazing. Then it came Gideon. It's the first book of The Locked Tomb trilogy. It was pulished in 2019. It won the third place in the Goodreads Choice Awards for best science fiction in 2019. Charles Stross describes it as: "Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!" *everybody starts clapping*

What the Wikipedia doesn't say is that this woman is her translators' terror. *everybody laughs* She does a lot of bad jokes and has a lot of memes. She also made me lose a whole week of productivity because I slept several nights at 5AM to finish a book.

My first question, which is something that I think that everybody is interested in a bit, the biggest and most important question of all... is... Who is Gideon Nav's favourite p*rn model?

Tamsyn Muir: There are so many... *everybody laughs* How can she pick?

Interviewer: There must be a favourite.

Tamsyn Muir: No, no, [she has a] special place in the heart for a lot of them. She's ready, she's waiting available.

Interviewer: Now a more serious question. I'm not saying that this wasn't a serious question. Tamsyn has talked before about this, but everybody asks what happened with this trilogy with four books. She has made to us a Douglas Adams? What happened with Nona? Why Nona?

Tamsyn Muir: Why not? It wasn't meant to be this way, I'm sorry. There were going to be three books, and it was going to be over this year. But my editor asked me: "How is Alecto going? Are you nearly finished?" And I said: "I've finished the first act." I could see his face, it was on camera. He was very sad. And he said: "Okay, that's fine. How long is the first act?". And I said that it's not that long, 140,000 words. And he said: "The first act?? How many acts are there going to be?". I said four. He said: "We can't publish that, it would kill people". So we took out the first act and that's where Nona comes from. And it is her story, it is the story of one girl and I think I'm ok with it now. I'm happy with having and extra book. It is it's own thing. Maybe I'm sorry that we don't actually get to have that very very very big book that I intended. But Alecto will be done and will not be small.

Interviewer: One thing that I found while doing an exhaustive investigation on the internet is that Tamsyn Muir has written fanfiction. I think that it can be noticed in Gideon [The Ninth] and Harrow [The Ninth], right? There's a lot of incredible details [that can be related to fanfiction]. A lot of these details are memes and other cultural references. Many have come from Tumblr and other social media, including fanfictions. All these tropes and resources are present in fanfiction, such as the cafeteria. You may recognize that the moment in the cafeteria is a common resource in classic fanfiction. Social roles inversions too. There are a lot of details like these. My question is, which is your favourite cliche?

Tamsyn Muir: I thought it couldn't get any harder after who is Gideon's favourite p*rn actor. There are so many fanfiction cliches that I love. And I think that my favourite ever, and this is very cliche of me, is probably arranged marriage. I have to say that I got to do a little bit of this when I was writing Nona. You won't find it in Nona. This is because my editor got angry at me. I stopped writing [the book] to write an alternative universe so I could prove something could happen. I only got 30,000 words into it. Not that long. And then I had to stop. But I wanted to get it and maybe it will be out there some day. Not that my editor has anything to say about it. But arranged marriage is definitely my favourite ever cliche. It's a good one.

Also, there is only one bed.

Interviewer: Another question, this is a fast one because I'm personally curious. Do you still do fan fiction secretly? And about what show, book or cultural product?

Tamsyn Muir: I don't do it anymore. I've retired. I don't have time! I would love to. Oh, what fanfic would I write? I think I would embarrass my agent-mate Martha Wells and write Murderbot fanfiction.. So that is why is good I have retired.

Interviewer: Another thing that I found in my great and exhaustive investigation is that some people found Gideon and Harrow's relationship and described it as an intimate friendship. You know where I'm going, right? Some people described it even as a relationship between sisters. *everybody laughs* So I wanted to ask Tamsyn. I don't know, but I thought, with my personal bias, that maybe there is something romantic between them.

Tamsyn Muir: I have two sisters. If I behaved the way that Gideon and Harrow do to each other with my sisters I would be arrested.

Interviewer: Talking about this, we don't see in Gideon [The Ninth] and Harrow [The Ninth] any kind of explicit erotic scenes. But I, and some people may too, see that you make repulsive things strangely sensual and sexual. I don't want to do spoilers about Harrow The Ninth, but in one scene happens a reconstruction of an arm. And I found it deeply sexual. I just wanted to know if this was done on purpose.

Tamsyn Muir: I didn't do it on purpose, but after I wrote the scene and read it back to myself I thought: "Huummmmm??". The books aren't very sexual, but for Harrow [this moment] is the closest in some ways that she gets, so you should all worry about the future.

Interviewer: Another thing that we all may be in agreement is that Tamsyn's world is really complex. I think that you need a map just to follow every character. I was really lost in the beggining, when they're in that kind of battle royale for the keys. All those houses, characters and personalities... As a reader you may feel overwhelmed. How do you work with this world? Do you have your own encyclopedia? Is everything in your head? How do you maintain coherence [throughtout the story]?

Tamsyn Muir: [I'm] Very optimistic. Specially with complicated things like in the first book, it's very important to have knowledge of who has certain keys and unlocked certain rooms. I thought that I could keep it on my head. I ended up with a very complicated Excel spreadsheet. In every single book I say to myself: "This will be the one when I write down in detail everything that's happening, everything that goes on. I will write notes for myself". And in every book I hate myself because I never do this. It is luck, it is sometimes little bits of paper all over my house. And it's definitely my copy editor, who I think must be the most exhausted person in the world.

Interviewer: Going back to the memes and the references... I remember reading Gideon [The Ninth] and Harrow [The Ninth] without problems and then starting to search through the internet. I found a lot of memes [that I didn't get on my first read]. Between this and words about anatomy that I had to search on the dictionary, I talked with David Tejera (book translator of The Locked Tomb to Spanish), who's right there on the first row. Come on, give him an applause! *everybody applauses* I looked at how he translated stuff that I didn't know how could be translated. Do you have any kind of connection with your translators? Do they ask you about a lot of stuff? Do they insult you?

Tamsyn Muir: I know I'm going to say this wrong but: Lo siento, David Tejera. I'm so sorry. All of my translators are very patient. Sometimes very confused. And David of all of them has been, I think, the most patient and not the most confused. You know, it's wonderful having close relationship with translators simply to get to see how things that are put in English translate or don't translate into different languages. I'm not a linguist. I don't speak many [languages]. So it is been wonderful getting a little bit of the languages, specially into the romance. And I always really appreciate translators who do talk to me because they don't always. And I think that, for what I heard, specially for the Spanish edition of Gideon [The Ninth], that shows the fantastic book [translation] it is. So that's all David.

Interviewer: *to the public* Do you want me to ask about the translation of a meme or do you want another question? *the public agrees to the meme question* We may be thinking about the same [meme]. I'm sorry for Diego [the translator], but I'm going to read the phrase in English, then David's translation and then I'll explain where's the difficulty. The original says: "so I'm shut in here —wallled in, really— to prevent the Nine Houses becoming none House, with left grief." The translation is: "y por eso me encierro aquí, entre cuatro paredes, para evitar que las Nueve Casas se conviertan en la Ninguna, con todo mi pesar". This has logic. When David read the original he may asked himself what was Tamsyn trying to say. None House, with left grief comes from the meme No pizza with left beef. It's and old meme from Tumblr, if I remember correctly, in which people shared photos of absurd pizza deliveries. There was one pizzeria that let you choose the ingredients that you wanted. One option was none. You could also ask for each half of the pizza with different ingredients, left and right. Somebody shared a photo of their none pizza with left beef. *while Grabriella was explaining this Tamsyn was laughing a lot* Now imagine David in this situation. It's a perfect translation, but the meme is lost. Here in Spain we couldn't get the joke if it remained. This kind of pop culture jokes are compensated with erudited references.

Tamsyn Muir: Even in Spanish it still makes me laugh! I'm sorry, I just have a very childish sense of humor. I'm so glad I can laugh at the none pizza with left beef joke in Spanish! Sorry hahaha (she didn't get that the joke wasn't really there but we'll forgive her because she was just laughing a lot 😭)

Tamsyn Muir: There is no explanation. It's so stupid. And yet, for who was saying it, he knew that nobody would get it. But he wanted to put it in it for himself, and I feel that. But I'm sorry. hahahaha

Interviewer: John does a lot of references. Is John an excuse so you can put in all the jokes that you like?

Tamsyn Muir: I have to think about this because it may be a spoiler. There are many characters who are ways of me slipping in things I like or like to say. Ianthe Tridentarius is one of them. But John has a special place in the story that perhaps you'll understand more of when Nona [The Ninth] comes out. That's a worrying sentence I just said. Perhaps you'll understand a little bit more of the jokes that John is making and why is saying them. I have an actual plot point.

Interviewer: There are just five minutes left, so we have time for one question from the public.

#1 audience question: Do you have any playlists for the characters? If you have one, share it please!

Tamsyn Muir: I can't say anything yet. I mean, I would love to see that, but...

Interviewer: I have to say that there are a lot of fan playlists. This one was quick, so one more.

#2 audience question: If Nona had a birthday cake, which would be its flavour?

Tamsyn Muir: I have to think if it's a spoiler again! Nona has no taste, so it does not matter as long as it is covered in confetti and coloured icing. It would be disgusting! Lots of colours. Icing. It doesn't matter about the cake.

Translator: *after translating* Well, we have time, so one more.

#3 audience question: I imagined God as Taika Waititi. Do you have any actors/actresses that make you think about Harrow, Gideon or Ianthe?

Tamsyn Muir: Oh, that's hard. Sometimes when I think about Harrow... I love the maori actress Erana James. But Erana James is very beautiful and I'm not sure Harrow is that beautiful.

Translator: Ok, 3 more minutes. Any more questions?

#4 audience question: I think that Gideon is a character who is really open about her sexuality. Has somebody said you anything about Gideon's openness when talking about her sexuality?

Tamsyn Muir: I don't think anyone has to thank me, because I want to thank everyone who has responded to Gideon the way I wanted her to be looked, as a butch lesbian. I just wanted to put someone in who my 17-year-old self [would like], and the way that people who responded to her is like going back in time and telling my younger self that it's ok. So thank you!

People in the public: Thank you!!

Interview: Well, one last applause!

*really long applause, everybody loves Tamsyn*

Tamsyn Muir: ¡Muchas gracias!

Although I couldn't assist to this talk, I was able to go to the signing. There was a really big queue, but I had a great time with some friends who wanted their copy signed as well.

A photo with Tamsyn Muir, with my friend @alphathedm as well who's also loving the books! Tamsyn had some of the names to sign to written in her arm. 😂

My Gideon The Ninth copy signed 🥰

This is more of a fandom post and while I like to post stuff with more advice for professionals, I'm in the TLT fandom and I wanted to post something about it.

Thank you for reading!

#making of the locked tomb #the locked tomb #tlt #tamsyn muir #author interview #fanfiction #world building #writing #fandom culture #for the writers #books #celsius 232 #celsius 2022 #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #alecto the ninth #translation #harrow the ninth spoilers

[ariadnaltos]

ND Stevenson interview about She-Ra and animation in Celsius 232 (2022)

This post is a transcribe of second interview/talk made to ND Stevenson during the Celsius 232, a multimedia festival about fantasy, scifi and horror genres celebrated in Avilés, a city in the North of Spain. The interview was about She-Ra and The Princesses Of Power. There was another interview about his comics that I attended, but I couldn't find recordings of that one. In this interview ND talked about topics such as Catra's choices, toxic relationships, Nimona's film adaptation and Lumberjanes' TV adaptation. He also answered questions from the public.

Click on Keep reading to read the whole interview!

Thanks to Comic Astur for recording the interview. They have another interviews during Celsius 232 in their channel, both to Spanish and non-Spanish authors. So check it out!

First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! This post is being released on Christmas day in Spain, so I think it's a good moment to make a gift to the SPOP fandom. 🎁🎄

I don't do professional trancribes, I just want to share this interview. I love Celsius 232 and hearing ND Stevenson in person was a great experience. I want to share this with international fans. The interview is in a mix of Spanish and English, so I'll translate the Spanish parts (and also use some of Diego's translations that you can hear in the video) and I'll transcribe everything in English. I'll also add some notes here and there about the interview.

The auditorium opened some minutes before the beggining of the talk. It was almost full. There were some cosplayers of She-Ra, Adora, Catra and even one cosplayed as Finn, Adora and Catra's post-canon child. There was also a baby cosplayed as She-Ra (baby She-Ra!!). Some people brought with them pride flags because of the series nature. 🏳‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ When ND Stevenson entered the auditorium everyone started clapping.

In the scenario, as you can see in the video, there were three people. ND Stevenson (center), Jorge Iván Argiz (left, interviewer) and Diego García (right, interpreter). Jorge Iván did the questions while Diego translated everything to ND and then to the public.

The interviewer started the talk remembering that ND Stevenson will come back to Celsius next year, for Celsius 2023, and he also claimed the importance of animation. Then, he asked his first question:

Interviewer: When you make a comic you have full control. You have a blank paper or a screen. You have your pen and you can do wathever you want. However, when doing an animation film, even if it has a main creative, it's a hugely collective work. How it was your first experience? How it was entering the animation industry and realizing that it's a huge teamwork effort?

ND Stevenson: Getting into animation was actually kind of an accident for me. I didn't plan to go in that direction. When I started out writing comics I thought of myself as an artist first before I was a writer. And so getting hired as a writer in animation was kind of a surprise for me. And I wasn't sure if it was something I was going to stay with. But my first job was amazing. It was working for Craig McCracken who did Powerpuff Girls and a lot of other stuff that defined my childhood and other people's childhoods. It was a very cool job to work with him.

Thinking of myself as a writer... it took me a while to accept that. But also, the collaboration of animation was what made me fall in love with animation. I also had always loved animation as a kid. Sneaking into my parents room where the TV was, when they were out of the house, to watch Teen Titans, which was my favorite show. To be behind the scenes, to be able to share this world that we were building together with the rest of the crew, that was... I immediately became addicted to that.

To write a comic it is all you. And unexpected things still happen but it all comes from your own brain, you own hands. With animation, everybody has a little piece of that world. And so, I would look over people's shoulders and ask to be in meetings that I wasn't technically a part of, just because I wanted to know everything and see everything. And so that is what made me fall in love with animation and that's what eventually lead me to make She-Ra.

Interviewer: Now we're going to talk about She-Ra. She-Ra as a character already existed, created as a base for a series of toys. I think that it started in 1985 and it was a show with near a hundred episodes. She-Ras was a twin sister to He-Man and she had a similar story to him, it was kind of complementary. But you made something completely new with this character and this universe. This seems wonderful to me. The first example already appears in the tittle [of the show]. The original series was called She-Ra Princess of Power. But here we're talking about She-Ra and The Princesses of Power. This collaborative spirit that you liked a lot when making animation shows was translated to the animation series. I imagine that this was the first decision [that you made], to bring a more complete arc for characters and to create not just one, but multiple princesses of power.

ND Stevenson: Yeah, the show ended up being- it was about teamwork. It's not just what the show was about, it's also the way in which we made it. It was a show that was made under a lot of pressure, not just because of She-Ra, but because we didn't have the biggest budget and we didn't have the longest timeline for making it. And so it was really something that if we were going to pull it off, we had to rely on each other to do it. And so that was something that really brought us together.

But that show, taking it from being- I hadn't watched the show myself [before], the original show from the 80s [when I was] growing up. But I loved it when I watched it [as an adult]. I had a lot of love in my heart for that show. Trying to pay that off and take that so it could appeal to new fans as well and still make old fans happy was always the line to find and walk. Taking it from one princess of power to an entire team of princesses who are very powerful and making it more about that, about the group instead about the one individual. That was something that was very important for us to do. Because it was so personal for us, with how the show was being made, because we were so close to each other. It was important to show that aspect of friendship and teamwork, and relationships in general. And love in every form. That was our inspiration behind that aspect of the show.

Interviewer: I would like to know if from the beggining it was always clear that the series was going to have that format and that number of seasons. The first season was a presentation of the princesses, almost one per episode. For me the series starts having more pace when each episode develops these stories that connect with each other. I would like to know if the series was already thought like that or if after season one you still had freedom to make changes.

ND Stevenson: The production of the show was actually pretty unsual in animation. The show had already been greenlit for 26 episodes before I was even hired for the show. They just bought the rights to She-Ra and they knew that Netflix had already ordered the first season. They also knew that they wanted to do 52 episodes total. So when I was hired it was my job to pitch that second season. And so, when I pitched the show, I'm kind of a wordy person, so my pitch was supposed to be like 20 minutes and it was like over an hour [in the end]. And I was lucky that the people I was pitching to were receptive and interested, but I pitched all 52 episodes. That is part of why it was so long, because I wanted to have this conception of it.

Some things stayed the same and some things changed over time, but we had certain ideas that stayed the whole time. For example, an early idea was that Catra was going to get a promotion at the end of every season and move further up the ranks. And also she was going to betray somebody in each season. That really ended up in the show. She just keeps kind of working her way up the ranks and eventually decides that she's out of there, going back to Adora. That was something that stayed true over time, but there were some things that we found along the way. A lot of things were really unexpected. At the very least, it was very helpful to have those broad strokes figured out from the beggining. I'm glad they didn't just cut me off after 20 minutes of talking cause that would be embarrasing *laughs*.

Interviewer: One of the best things that has happened to YA narrative is the shift from just entertainment and fun spirit to topics that were forbidden before. This change probably happened because of the new young people creating new stuff for young audiences. Some of this topics are abuse, bullying, mental health... She-Ra is about some of these topics, toxic relationships are very present in the show. There are multiple cases. It has been talked a lot about the relationship between Adora and Catra, but the relationship between Catra and Scorpia is also another perfect example of a toxic relationship. Something that someone denies, although everybody is warning them. I would like to know more about these messages that can make the audience think about their own relationships. Tell us about it.

ND Stevenson: I'm of the believe that it's important just not to see representation of good behaviour and role models that we can model ourselves on. But is also, I think, a good thing to see representation of characters making the wrong choices and doing the wrong thing. And Catra is defined by that. This was [something that] the crew [asked about as well]. People would come and they'd be like: "so, you told me that she's gonna join the good guys again, right? She'll be OK? When is that going to happen?" And people started to stop believing me that it was going to happen.

AJ, who voices the character, I would [tell her] "We have a big run for you today, Catra is going to do something new, but I promise that she's going to be OK in the end". And she'll be like: "yeah, sure, you say that every time". But I think that's why [Catra] was very beloved among the crew and by me. She's a character who kind of consistently always makes the wrong choices. And it can be so frustrating. Because you'll yell at her at just be like: "OMG, you know you don't want that, why can't you just do the right thing?". And that, I think, in it's own way can be something that also tells us how to make decisions ourselves. So when you see somebody who we sometimes want to scream [at], sometimes we're compelled to do things that make us a bad friend or bad people. And it's important, I think, to know the consequences of those wrong decisions.

Catra is someone who expresses those things and my hope is that it is cathartic in it's own way, but it's also a little bit of a cautionary tell. She ends up alone at the end, without any friends. And that's the consequences of her actions. But then it's also something that it's- you know, there's nothing you can't come back from. There are things that if you work, if you make yourself vulnerable and open yourself up and try to make amends for your mistakes, it is possible to come back. That was something that was very important for us to show. It's my believe that it's important to see characters, specially female characters, making those bad decisions. We found it cathartic, and I hope that it was cathartic for others as well.

Interviewer: Now two short questions about the animation. First, it is traditional animation, or at least it looks like it, with some touches of CG here and there. I wanted to know if it was a conscious decision so the show would look like it was intended, or if it was because of the low budget and short production time which you said you had.

The second question is about the aesthetic of the ancient buildings. It makes me think about an illustrator called Roger Dean. I don't know if it's by chance or if it was an inspiration for this aesthetic.

*a fly 🪰 flies near the interviewer and he tries to hit it*

ND Stevenson: We had an option on pursuing 3D animation as well. It was something that was done at this studio I was at, at DreamWorks, pretty often. But it was also for an epic... There's a fly!! 🪰

*the interviewer and translator agree and everybody laughs* There's a fly in my... flying over and over... 🪰

Yeah, for epic action scifi fantasy it is harder, it's more expensive to do CG animation. And you have fewer resources. One thing that happens is that the characters can't go to many places because every room and setting has to be build in three dimensions. My friends who are writers working on shows in 3D have limitations of what they can use. They have a set number of characters and a set number of locations, which is true in hand-drawn as well, but less so. You don't have to design the whole thing if you'll only going to see it from one angle.

So that was a lot of the reason of just what was posible with the show. But also, I thought it was important because She-Ra was one of the last shows in the 80s animated in the US, before everything moved overseas to be animated in South Korea and Canada, France and Ireland. It felt important to stay true to the original and the hand-drawn look of the original.

As for Roger Dean, that was definitely one of my inspirations. You have very sharp eye! That very epic... The science fiction illustrations of the 70s and 80s that you would see on the cover of a paperback... That is how I wanted the world to feel. But populated by characters who felt a bit newer. As a kid, I always loved this covers because you would see these floating rocks or the sky with dozens of planets and moons. I wanted to capture that feeling. It always sparked my imagination to see those illsutrations and I wanted to capture that in the show.

Interviewer: Before starting with the questions of the public I have to ask about the adaptation of Nimona into a film, as well as Lumberjanes' TV adaptation. Tell us a little bit about both projects.

ND Stevenson: You're gonna see the Nimona movie early next year, I think february or march. *big applause from the public* So get excited because I just saw the newest cut and it has a lot of the animation. I've seen the board drawings for a while, but I started to get the animation and it is completely surreal to see really dumb drawings that I made as a teenager like, suddenly being executed in three dimensions and it's gorgeous and the style is amazing. So I'm very excited for everyone to see it.

And Lumberjanes is still in the development period. This is a little more standard. I said that She-Ra was unsual in the animation industry and part of that is that the development happened very very quickly. Less than a year. For most animated projects it takes longer than that. So on Lumberjanes we are still on the development phase. We haven't launched into the actual production of the show yet. It's still on the writing and creating the look of the show, finding a studio and everything like that. I think that I'll hopefully have more news about it soon for you. And I think that it's going to be also really cool. So... yeah. *applause*

Interviewer: Great. (To the public) Any questions?

#1 audience question: 1) I heard some rumors that you had trouble with Netflix because the series did not have as much advertisement as they wanted, the low-budget... That was the case? 2) Would you be interested to start working for other platforms like Amazon?

ND Stevenson: Something that not many people know it's that I actually haven't worked for Netflix. I created She-Ra as the show that you saw on Netflix, but I made it at DreamWorks. DreamWorks is it's own animation studio and they had a deal with Netflix that Netflix would stream the shows that DreamWorks was producing. So that was the deal. That's different now. They still do co-productions with DreamWorks, but they [Netflix] created their own animation studio after a year or so after I started working on She-Ra. So actually I didn't have much interaction with Netflix at all. I didn't get notes from them. I didn't know my executives there personally... Actually, I did, but... One of my executives was actually a good friend of mine. But I didn't actually have meetings with Netflix in any way.

If there's rumors about being trouble with Netflix it's certainly not in any kind of working relationship way. They are pretty mysteryous, they guard their algorithm pretty closely. But yeah, that was my experience with Netflix. For me it was very positive. I can't speak any more to what their reaction towards the show was because we were in different places. Hope that answers that.

I'm not currently working with Amazon, but that's something that is definitely... it's pretty common in animation to kind of move around from studio to studio. So it's definitely posible.

#2 audience question: I'm almost 30 so I'm a bit old for the She-Ra target audience, but me and my friend loved it because there is a lot of queer representation. For me and my friend that is very important. I was wondering how it felt because we're more of less of the same age, so we've grown up with similar cartoons and there was nothing that showed you what queer means. We didn't really see ourselves in mainstream shows. I was wondering how it felt to put for the queer community out there this clear representation.

ND Stevenson: It was obviously pretty important for me in a personal level. But another thing that I don't know if that many people know it's that when I got the job I wasn't out yet as gay. So it was certainly not something... Honestly, the show is probably responsible for making me way gayer, just working on it. *everybody laughs*

But it was something very important to me, just in the world of the show, you know? For me, it's always queer characters, they're always on the front of what I make, even before I was out. But also it's something that is defined by the show itself, what makes the world feel more alive. So I felt that having very fluid gender expression was an important par of the show. Because honestly, the original show has fairly fluid gender. He-Man wears pink and purple in his clothes and then wears a furry diaper when he transforms as He-Man. All the characters are wearing tights and belly shirts and men and women, there're not non-binary people in the original show, but it makes sense for us that there would be. So there's something for me that made the world feel more alive. And again, rainbows and drag queen princesses were such a big part of the original that it just makes sense to [have them] and it made our world feel bigger and more expansive. So that was a lot of my thinking behind it, and sometimes it was an easy sell I think. We were pleasantly surprised that the studio would be very receptive for Bow to have two dads. And Double Trouble, we were very excited about that and very supportive of hiring a non-binary voice actor.

And then there were other things that were a harder sell. I got on the phone with a lot of different people for the Adora and Catra relatioship and had to pitch it a bunch of different times to different people. Got a few notes at first. And then, you know, appealed it, and then the noes turned into yeses. And I still didn't believed it until I was actually watching the final season on Netflix. I didn't believed it'd really happen. But it did so, yeah, that was really cool.

*when the interpreter was translating this answer by ND he tried to hit the fly 🪰 and everybody laughed and applaud, it was really funny*

Interviewer: (To the public) One last question with a short answer?

#3 audience question: In the series there's a lot of characters. I wanted to ask who do you relate to the most?

ND Stevenson: I think all the characters have little bits of me and the rest of the crew. I think almost every character is sort of- there's someone on the crew who identified with them really strongly and that person became more expert on the character. So we have someone who strongly identified with Entrapta, or Tecnia as you said... (Tecnia is the name of Entrapta in the Spanish dub <3) I forget they have different names sometimes. Which is a great name, Tecnia is a great name! *public laughs* But yeah. Almost all of the characters had some counterpart among the crew.

For me, I think that I sort of related the most to a tie between Adora, Catra and Glimmer. One of the things I struggled with on the show was that I was very young when I was hired and I'd never been a manager before. And I mostly just worked on my own stuff and so, having to suddenly become a leader was a thing that I found very difficult and very scary. Like, I really really wanted to do a good job. I wanted everyone on the crew to be taken care of. And it was very difficult and terrifying. That's something that I think all three of those characters deal with in different ways.

Glimmer unexpectedly becomes the new queen. Adora changes sides and suddenly has to deal with all the guilt of having been on the bad guys side before. And Catra has this drive and this ambition, but she also starts to fall apart the higher up the ladder she moves.

I put a lot of those feelings into the characters. With Glimmer there's an episode where she can't go on missions anymore with Bow and Adora because she needs to stay and go to meetings, which was like my everyday. Everyone's going to do something fun and I have to be in a meeting, I can't hang out with [other crew members]. Like Adora in the episode where they play D&D and she keeps just being like: "no no NO, we're all gonna die and everything is gonna go wrong" and she's trying to anticipate every possible way it could go wrong. That was a lot of like, you know, having to conceptualize and keep consistent a story that was going to be told in such a long period of time, with such a large crew of people. That was how my brain felt a lot of the time. A lot of these feelings were poured into she show through the characters. Those are the characters that I think I have the strongest connection to.

(ND is, in fact, wordy, so it wasn't a short answer LOL)

Interviewer: There are big threats and the world needs to be saved a lot of times, and at the same time what you're woried the most is if the characters will recover their friendship... What's going to happen next? Someone will pay attention to Scorpia? *everybody laughs* This shows us something that happens in our lifes as well, that a big event can change you as much as an event that may seem small. This series also shows us that being different is cool, being the same as everyone else can be pretty boring. Being different can be even desirable. ND said that at the beggining he started working with someone who changed his life and who gave him a show such as The Powerpuff Girls, and I anticipate to him that right now, very very soon, there will be people that will say "I'm working for ND Stevenson, who changed my life thanks to She-Ra and his other works". To make easier our wait for the next year [Celsius 2023], when he comes back to Avilés, we're gonna say goodbye to him with a very very strong applause.

*all the public applauses, ND does a heart shape with his hands 🫶 He also thanked the Celsius 232 organizers and the public for coming*

This interview was done on Friday 22nd, july 2022. ND Stevenson made another talk/interview the day before. After that one talk I went to the signing and got my copy of Nimona signed. He was really nice and we could talk with him a little bit. He seemed really happy to visit this event in Spain and I'm really excited to see him next year. At that time the Nimona movie will be out, so I'm sure that we'll be able to know more about it and his future projects!

Photo with ND Stevenson during the book signing on Thursday. My boyfriend and I went together. We both love Stevenson's stories. <3

Thanks to ND Stevenson for coming to Spain and to Celsius 232!! I've been going every year to this event since 2018 and they always have great authors and the festival is really nice. I've learned a lot of stuff thanks to this festival and with talks like this one that ND made. The event is mostly about books and literature, but as you can see other forms of media are in Celsius 232 as well.

That's all! Thank you so much for reading this whole thing. I hope that it was interesting. <3

#nd stevenson #author interview #she ra #spop #nimona #lumberjanes #celsius 232 #celsius 2022 #she ra netflix #she ra and the princesses of power #adora #catra #glimmer #bow she ra #comics #comic books #writing advice #nate stevenson #animation #Youtube

[petit-papillion]

Charles immediately after the race and on the podium for his 3rd place | US Grand Prix | 23 October 2023

📸 Mark Thompson, Patrick T. Fallon

#ah yes the bbq helmet #also it will be 6 degrees Celsius warmer than last year #on Fri & Sat #1 degree C warmer on Sun... #charles leclerc #us gp 2022

[a-loki21]

so i just saw My Chemical Romance live????!!?!? that happened???? i am now deaf and have no voice and probably got covid but if that’s the price i must pay. It was so worth it

#tho i have to say #the fact that it was 34 degrees celsius and VERY SUNNY wasn’t the best #mcr 2022 #my chemical romance #mcr bonn

[frightnightindustries]

Even if there were no migrant deaths, even if there were actually good human rights records for lgbt and women, I would still object to the world cup being held in Qatar.

The workers built the stadium in regularly over 100 degrees. One number I saw even said a max of 125.

125

#Qatar world cup #World cup #Heat stroke #seriously what the fuck #125 Fahrenheit #Not Celsius #Not Kelvin #fifa world cup #world cup 2022 #Footie or whatever the hell you guys call it

[reasonsforhope]

No paywall version here.

"Two and a half years ago, when I was asked to help write the most authoritative report on climate change in the United States, I hesitated...

In the end, I said yes, but reluctantly. Frankly, I was sick of admonishing people about how bad things could get. Scientists have raised the alarm over and over again, and still the temperature rises. Extreme events like heat waves, floods and droughts are becoming more severe and frequent, exactly as we predicted they would. We were proved right. It didn’t seem to matter.

Our report, which was released on Tuesday, contains more dire warnings. There are plenty of new reasons for despair. Thanks to recent scientific advances, we can now link climate change to specific extreme weather disasters, and we have a better understanding of how the feedback loops in the climate system can make warming even worse. We can also now more confidently forecast catastrophic outcomes if global emissions continue on their current trajectory.

But to me, the most surprising new finding in the Fifth National Climate Assessment is this: There has been genuine progress, too.

I’m used to mind-boggling numbers, and there are many of them in this report. Human beings have put about 1.6 trillion tons of carbon in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution — more than the weight of every living thing on Earth combined. But as we wrote the report, I learned other, even more mind-boggling numbers. In the last decade, the cost of wind energy has declined by 70 percent and solar has declined 90 percent. Renewables now make up 80 percent of new electricity generation capacity. Our country’s greenhouse gas emissions are falling, even as our G.D.P. and population grow.

In the report, we were tasked with projecting future climate change. We showed what the United States would look like if the world warms by 2 degrees Celsius. It wasn’t a pretty picture: more heat waves, more uncomfortably hot nights, more downpours, more droughts. If greenhouse emissions continue to rise, we could reach that point in the next couple of decades. If they fall a little, maybe we can stave it off until the middle of the century. But our findings also offered a glimmer of hope: If emissions fall dramatically, as the report suggested they could, we may never reach 2 degrees Celsius at all.

For the first time in my career, I felt something strange: optimism.

And that simple realization was enough to convince me that releasing yet another climate report was worthwhile.

Something has changed in the United States, and not just the climate. State, local and tribal governments all around the country have begun to take action. Some politicians now actually campaign on climate change, instead of ignoring or lying about it. Congress passed federal climate legislation — something I’d long regarded as impossible — in 2022 as we turned in the first draft.

[Note: She's talking about the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Act, which despite the names were the two biggest climate packages passed in US history. And their passage in mid 2022 was a big turning point: that's when, for the first time in decades, a lot of scientists started looking at the numbers - esp the ones that would come from the IRA's funding - and said "Wait, holy shit, we have an actual chance."]

And while the report stresses the urgency of limiting warming to prevent terrible risks, it has a new message, too: We can do this. We now know how to make the dramatic emissions cuts we’d need to limit warming, and it’s very possible to do this in a way that’s sustainable, healthy and fair.

The conversation has moved on, and the role of scientists has changed. We’re not just warning of danger anymore. We’re showing the way to safety.

I was wrong about those previous reports: They did matter, after all. While climate scientists were warning the world of disaster, a small army of scientists, engineers, policymakers and others were getting to work. These first responders have helped move us toward our climate goals. Our warnings did their job.

To limit global warming, we need many more people to get on board... We need to reach those who haven’t yet been moved by our warnings. I’m not talking about the fossil fuel industry here; nor do I particularly care about winning over the small but noisy group of committed climate deniers. But I believe we can reach the many people whose eyes glaze over when they hear yet another dire warning or see another report like the one we just published.

The reason is that now, we have a better story to tell. The evidence is clear: Responding to climate change will not only create a better world for our children and grandchildren, but it will also make the world better for us right now.

Eliminating the sources of greenhouse gas emissions will make our air and water cleaner, our economy stronger and our quality of life better. It could save hundreds of thousands or even millions of lives across the country through air quality benefits alone. Using land more wisely can both limit climate change and protect biodiversity. Climate change most strongly affects communities that get a raw deal in our society: people with low incomes, people of color, children and the elderly. And climate action can be an opportunity to redress legacies of racism, neglect and injustice.

I could still tell you scary stories about a future ravaged by climate change, and they’d be true, at least on the trajectory we’re currently on. But it’s also true that we have a once-in-human-history chance not only to prevent the worst effects but also to make the world better right now. It would be a shame to squander this opportunity. So I don’t just want to talk about the problems anymore. I want to talk about the solutions. Consider this your last warning from me."

-via New York Times. Opinion essay by leading climate scientist Kate Marvel. November 18, 2023.

#WE CAN DO THIS #I SO TRULY BELIEVE THAT WE CAN DO THIS #WE CAN SAVE OURSELVES AND THE WORLD ALONG WITH US #climate crisis #united states #climate change #conservation #hope posting #sustainability #climate news #climate action #climate emergency #fossil fuels #global warming #environmentalism #climate hope #solarpunk #climate optimism #climate policy #earth #science #climate science #meteorology #extreme weather #renewable energy #solar power #wind power #renewables #carbon emissions #climate justice

[digitalcreationsllc]

Claimants in Celsius Crypto Bankruptcy Targeted in Phishing Attack

In July 2022, crypto lender Celsius filed for bankruptcy and froze withdrawals from user accounts. Customers have since filed claims against the company, hoping to recover a portion of the funds.

View On WordPress

#2022 #bankruptcy #Celsius #crypto #filed #from #froze #July #lender #withdrawals

[zrypto]

#celsius network #celsius #celsius chapter 11 #celsius network 2022 #celsius network review #celsius withdrawal #celsius update #celsius network crash #celsius lawsuit #celsius wallet #crypto.com vs celsius #celsius vs crypto.com #celsius news #celsius chapter 11 bankruptcy #celsius crypto #celsius network news #celsius network update #celsius bankruptcy #celsius ponzi #celsius network news today #celsius bankrupt #celsius ceo #celsius crash

[robertreich]

Is Crypto Really Going To Crash? (Yes)

Crypto is going to crash and could take your savings with it.

In June 2022, Bitcoin dropped over 30 percent to its lowest values since December 2020, and Ethereum, the second-most valuable cryptocurrency, fell about 35 percent. TerraUSD, a so-called “stablecoin,” also collapsed when its underlying cryptocurrency LUNA lost 97 percent of its value in just 24 hours, apparently destroying some investors’ life savings. The implosion helped trigger a crypto meltdown that erased $300 billion in value across the market.

As cryptocurrency prices plummeted, Celsius Network — an experimental cryptocurrency lender — announced it was freezing withdrawals “due to extreme market conditions.”

These crypto crashes and freezes have fueled worries that the complex crypto banking and lending system is on the brink of ruin.

But this crash shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with the industry – or anyone who remembers the financial crashes of 1929 and 2008.

Let me explain.

In the murky world of crypto decentralized finance, known as DeFi, it’s hard to understand who provides money for loans, where the money flows, or how easy it is to trigger currency meltdowns. 

There are no standards for issues of custody, risk management, or capital reserves. There are no transparency requirements. Investors often don’t know how their money is being handled. Deposits are not insured.

It’s a Ponzi scheme. Like all Ponzi schemes, getting rich depends on how many other investors follow you into it – until somebody’s left holding the worthless crypto coin.

Why isn’t this market regulated? Follow the money.

The crypto industry is pouring huge amounts into political campaigns. It has hired scores of former government officials and regulators to lobby on its behalf — including three former chairs of the Securities and Exchange Commission, three former chairs of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, three former U.S. senators, and even former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

In the past, cryptocurrencies kept rising by attracting new investors and big Wall Street money, along with celebrity endorsements. But all Ponzi schemes topple eventually – just like the Wild West finances of the 1920s did.

Back then, Americans had been getting rich by speculating on shares of stock, as other investors followed them into these risky assets — pushing their values ever upwards. When the toppling occurred in 1929, it plunged the nation and the world into the Great Depression.

That crash resulted in the Glass-Steagall Act, signed into law by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Glass-Steagall separated commercial banking from investment banking, putting an end to the giant Ponzi scheme that had overtaken the American economy and led to the Great Crash of 1929.

It took a full generation to forget that crash and allow the forces that caused it to repeat their havoc.

By the mid-1980s, as the stock market soared, speculators noticed they could make even more money if they gambled with other people’s money, as speculators did in the 1920s. They pushed Congress to deregulate Wall Street, arguing that the United States financial sector would otherwise lose its competitive standing internationally.

The final blow was in 1999, when the Clinton administration succumbed to intensive lobbying and ditched what remained of Glass-Steagall. With its repeal, American finance once again became a betting parlor.

Inevitably, Wall Street suffered another near-death experience when its Ponzi schemes began toppling in 2008, just as they had in 1929. While the U.S. government bailed out the biggest banks and financial institutions, millions of Americans lost their jobs, their savings, and their homes – but only a single banking executive went to jail. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, a new but watered-down version of Glass-Steagall was enacted — the Dodd-Frank Act.

Which brings us — nearly a century after Glass-Steagall — to today’s crypto crash.

If we should have learned anything from the crashes of 1929 and 2008, it’s that regulation of financial markets is essential. Otherwise they turn into Ponzi schemes — leaving small investors with nothing and endangering the entire economy.

It’s time for the Biden administration and Congress to end the crypto Ponzi scheme. In the meantime, share this video so your friends and family don’t fall for it.

#crypto #fraud #Ponzi #Glass-Steagall #finance #regulation #video #videos

[mapsontheweb]

Rome, Italy just experienced its highest temperature in recorded history with 42.9°C (109.2°F). This beats the previous record from 2022 by 2 full degrees Celsius.

by @WxNB_

#WxNB_ #rome #heatwave #temperature records

[themculibrary]

Tony Takes Care Of Sick Peter Masterlist

Am I A Dying Man? (ao3) - Odd_I G, 5k

Summary: Peter Parker didn’t get sick, not any more. He hadn’t been really sick since before the bite, and that was what? Three years ago?

He was pretty sure it had something to do with his super healing, but he wasn’t completely sure. They never really had to test it out, after all. But he healed fast, so it generally made sense that his weird radioactive spider system also fought off any infections and illnesses.

— OR —

Peter gets sick, is a dramatic little shit, and Tony is just done with everything.

Appendicitis (ao3) - tommyparkerr T, 15k

Summary: In which Peter doesn't realize until too late that the flu shouldn't be this painful, and Tony Stark is right there to both lecture and comfort him (and accidentally call him his kid in the process).

Blankets (ao3) - kiwifeather G, 1k

Summary: Tony cares for an under-the-weather Peter the best way he knows how (which is pretty good, because he's a Dad™ now).

et tu, brute? (ao3) - turtle_bean G, 3k

Summary: Peter rounds the corner and gives a half-hearted hop. “All ready for the mission, Mr. Stark!”

Yeah, no.

“FRI, give me a read.”

“What -”

“101.7 degrees Fahrenheit, Mr. Stark,” Karen announces from Peter’s suit.

--

or, peter is sick, ned’s worried, and tony is... well, tony.

Extra Noodles (ao3) - duskblue G, 4k

Summary: Peter is staying with Tony while May is out of town. Unfortunately, Peter doesn't feel the best, so Tony is on a mission to figure out what's wrong so he can take the best possible care of him. He enlists his good friend, Bruce Banner in this task.

flushed away (ao3) - underpassgraffiti G, 2k

Summary: "I'm dying," he decides, flushing the toilet and resting his forehead against the rim. He feels disgusting. "I'm dying, I'm gonna die. Spider-Man dies to ravioli."

"Should I alert Boss?" Friday chirps, and Peter groans, waving a hand uselessly.

"No, m'fine," he grumbles. "WebMD will save me."

or: peter gets food poisoning & tony takes care of him.

Into the West (ao3) - ChocolateAndRedbull G, 1k

Summary: When a feverish Peter lets himself dwell on the past, Tony makes sure that he’s there to talk him through it

it's in the job description (ao3) - iron_spider_suit G, 8k

Summary: Peter gets sick just in time for movie night with the team. Tony does his best.

lessons in the metric system (ao3) - akapeterman G, 2k

Summary: “Pete,” Tony said slowly, “You’re sick.”

“No!” Peter said more urgently. “I’m hyp’thermic.”

“Trust me, you are the opposite of hypothermic right now, kiddo.”

or; Peter and Tony decide to road trip to Canada. Unfortunately, a peppermint air freshener happens to be Spider-Man's kryptonite. Confusion ensues. And honestly, Peter blames the American school system. They really should be more clear about the difference between Celsius and Farenheight.

Of Chicken Soup and Brooklyn-99 (ao3) - AnnabelleBlack20 G, 2k

Summary: Peter hadn’t gotten sick since the spider bite. But then again, his rotten Parker luck had a mind of its own. Lucky for him, he’s got a superhero in his corner. Nothing but pure fluff between IRONDAD and his SPIDERSON!

shaken up realities (shaking up reality) (ao3) - lemonlillybee M, 5k

Summary: This takes place after Endgame, and it’s a bit angsty, but everyone lives!

Written for the following Sicktember 2022 prompt: Cold Sweat

Sick Puppies (ao3) - OllieCollie G, 7k

Summary: Tony has been through a lot in his lifetime—from being kidnapped by terrorists to saving the world multiple times and just about everything in between—but he may be facing his toughest challenge yet: taking care of two kids with the flu.

Since I Have You (ao3) - lunasquared G, 2k

Summary: He didn’t register the fact that he started falling until he was caught by a pair of arms right before he hit the floor.

“Whoa there kiddo,” Tony said, helping Peter over to the couch. “What’s going on?”

“‘s hot.” Peter mumbled as he laid down on the couch thankful to finally be off his feet.

OR

Peter gets sick and Tony helps take care of him.

we all have a hunger (ao3) - MotherKarizma G, 6k

Summary: “Morgan,” he croaked, throat afire, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Hey – hey, it’s okay, I’m just…”

“You’re sick.” She mustered up something like bravery, using it to straighten her back and plaster a very grown-up look on her face. “I’ll get Daddy!”

“No!” Morgan jumped, eyes wide. Peter fought to calm his voice. He offered her a smile that couldn’t have been convincing, not even to a five year old. “No, you don’t have to. I feel better now. You don’t have to tell him.”

Morgan’s lips wobbled. Peter knew what her fake pout looked like well enough to know this wasn’t it. “Petey…”

Peter had a lot of reasons to feel guilty. He felt guilty for scaring her. He felt guilty for forgetting to lock his bedroom door, for making scaring her a possibility. He kind of, in a way, felt guilty for doing it in the first place, though not nearly enough to stop.

But more than anything, he felt guilty for this: “Morgan, promise me you won’t tell him. He…he won’t let us swim anymore if you do. And I’m not sick, my tummy just hurt a little bit, but I’m all better now. Promise me you won’t tell him, okay?”

“But…”

“Morgan. Promise.”

When I'm Sick Or Suffering (I'll Still Call You) (ao3) - l_u_c_k_y_c_l_o_v_e_r G, 2k

Summary: Peter comes down with the flu, but a certain superhero makes sure he doesn't have to deal with it on his own.

Wingman (ao3) - Sahiya G, 4k

Summary: Holy shit, Rhodey thought. Tony’s a dad.

#themculibrary #marvel #mcu #irondad #masterlists #irondad masterlist #sick!peter #sick!peter masterlist

[ariadnaltos]

I need to do some posts about Celsius 232. It's a convention/festival about fantasy, scifi and horror in Avilés, a city in the north of Spain. A lot of authors and artists both Spanish and non-Spanish come to this event. Mostly writers and comic artists, but also people related to film making and gamedev as well.

This year I was really happy because ND Stevenson came to the event. I got my Nimona copy signed!! Tamsyn Muir also came to the con. I hadn't read Gideon at that moment, but I got a copy of Gideon The Ninth signed as well. I'm really hyped for the next edition because ND Stevenson will come back! :D

Some of the talks are uploaded to youtube (pretty legal, the convention is free), so I want to transcribe them so anyone can enjoy them. I find them really interesting both for fandoms and authors/artists. The Tamsyn Muir one was great and really funny.

Photos below with ND Stevenson and Tamsyn Muir, they were both really nice <3

IDK why we did the thumbs up 👍👍👍 LOL but I really like the energy

#celsius 232 #celsius 2022 #nd stevenson #tamsyn muir #the locked tomb #nimona #spop #she ra #lumberjanes #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #convention #fantasy #scifi

[umseb]

Sebastian Vettel in the Porsche 963

Sebastian Vettel has prepared meticulously for his stint with the hybrid prototype. On 14 March, the 53-time Formula 1 race winner paid a visit to the FIA WEC team at the Porsche Penske Motorsport facility in Mannheim. One day later, the Heppenheim native completed an extensive simulator session at the Porsche Motorsport Centre in Flacht and familiarised himself with the special features and complex controls of the Le Mans race car. This was followed on 21 March by the first familiarisation kilometres with the Porsche 963 on the in-house test track at the Weissach Development Centre. In dry weather with tarmac temperatures between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius and 10 to 13 degrees cool air, the F1 champion completed almost two Grand Prix distances in Aragón without any problems. "Of course, I also keep an eye on other motorsport disciplines and know many drivers who are active in the WEC and Le Mans. At some point, my curiosity was so great that I had the idea of trying it out myself. Porsche gave me the opportunity to test a current hypercar with the 963," says Sebastian Vettel. "After the seat adjustment, the simulator session and the roll-out in Weissach, I already had a good feeling. Driving the Porsche 963 on the track here in Aragon - that was definitely fun. I first had to get used to everything and find my rhythm. The driving experience is different simply because of the roof over your head, as well as dealing with the higher weight and the tyres. The Porsche works drivers were very helpful and explained to me what was special and what I needed to get used to. That made it easy for me." The Porsche Penske Motorsport works team has won both the season opener of the North American IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the 24 Hours of Daytona, and this year's first race of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in Qatar with the approximately 500 kW (680 hp) Porsche 963. At the WEC highlight, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, record holder Porsche is aiming for its 20th overall victory. There, as at the other rounds of the WEC, the entire starting field has relied on a biofuel since March 2022. "Aragon is one of the few places in Europe where we can run around the clock and gives us an opportunity to run 36 hours straight in preparation for Le Mans. The quite long back straight that gives us the top speed of more than 300 km/h we see on the Circuit des 24 Heures," explains Jonathan Diuguid, Managing Director Porsche Penske Motorsport. "Having Sebastian Vettel here is a unique opportunity for the team. He is a four time Formula 1 World Champion. He has massive experience with hybrid systems and high performance racing cars. Having his fresh unique perspective on where the car is and gives feedback on our systems and performances is a unique opportunity. We are happy to have him here. He came out of the car with a smile which is all good." In addition to Vettel, a total of seven Porsche works drivers will take part in the endurance test. Matt Campbell (Australia), Michael Christensen (Denmark) and Frédéric Makowiecki (France) will share the Porsche 963 with starting number 5 in the WEC, while Kévin Estre (France), André Lotterer (Germany) and Laurens Vanthoor will drive the sister car with the number 6. They will be joined in Aragon by reigning DTM champion Thomas Preining from Austria.

#sebastian vettel #f1 #formula 1 #wec #fic ref #fic ref 2024 #not a race #2024 not a race #between australia and japan 2024 #testing #testing 2024 #aragon

[mariacallous]

Humanity’s superpower is sweating—but rising heat could be our kryptonite, and an average temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels could bring regular, fatal heat waves to large parts of the planet, says Tom Matthews, a senior lecturer in environmental geography at King’s College London.

“We have evolved to cope with the most extreme heat and humidity the planet can throw at us,” he explains. But when our core temperature gets to about 42 degrees Celsius (around 107.5 degrees Fahrenheit), people face heat stroke and probable death as the body strains to keep cool and the heart works harder, inducing heart attacks.

Matthews cites an example from his home country, the UK. In the summer of 2022, the UK broke its high temperature record, surpassing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Scientists estimate there were roughly 3,500 heat-associated deaths that summer in the UK. Across Europe, they estimate high heat caused more than 60,000 deaths.

“At 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, the likes of Lagos, Karachi, [and] Shanghai start to experience heat waves exceeding our limit. At 2 degrees Celsius, the events increase at least 10 times more often, and if we get to 8 degrees Celsius, a large fraction of the Earth’s surface would be too hot for our physiology and would not be habitable,” he says.

Air conditioning and heat-escape rooms would help, but we might need to abandon intense outdoor work such as rice farming in hotter regions. And these solutions will need to be able to meet demand. “The infrastructure must be able to withstand the surges when everyone turns on the air conditioning, and must be able to withstand hurricanes or floods,” he says.

Our best hope in the face of inevitable rises in heat? Cooperation. “We’ve built forecasting systems that will warn us when disasters are incoming by working together at enormous scale. We must continue to do the same.”

[deathbyyoongx]

everytime; chapter 4 — myg

╭ chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, ...

╭ word count: 5.3k

╭ summary: Everyone knew Min Yoongi as the guy who wouldn’t say no to a nice pair of tits. His cocky attitude and stunning looks made it hard for most girls to resist. And even though you would like to say you’re not like the others in that aspect, you unfortunately happened to be his ex. But even though you despised his guts for the last 3 years or so, he somehow managed to find himself a way between your legs on one semi-drunk night.

╭ pairing: fuckboy!yoongi x ex!reader

╭ genre: smut, angst, bit of fluff, more smut

╭ warnings: enemies to fwb, dom!yoongi, sub!reader, jealous ex!jungkook, bestfriend!jimin, hate sex, yoongi has a degrading kink but so does yn, brat taming, hair pulling, spitting, slapping, hickeys, choking, unprotected sex (STAY SAFE GUYS!), creampie, praise kink, hand kink, possessive yoongi, sexual content ofc, mentions of drinking, ...

╭ author’s note: this fic is inspired by the song everytime by ariana grande. I also recommend using the chrome extension InteractiveFics for a better reading experience ;)

Its been a while, woops

22/08/2022

The sound of your doorbell ringing caught you off guard as you were trying to find some milk for your cornflakes. You looked through the peephole, and the sight of Jimin send you into a frenzy. You cussed and cussed again as you were running towards your room. “I’ll be there, wait a minute.” You rummaged through your closet, finding the first turtleneck you could find before heading back to the front door. When you swung the door open, you saw Jimin waiting for you with a rather mad expression. “What are you doing here?” Was the first thing you asked, a sweat droplet running down your cheek.

“I came to help like you asked me too.” He nonchalantly answered.

You frowned your eyebrows. “Yeah, tomorrow, not today.”

He looked back at you with a puzzled expression, realising his confusion of the dates. “Oh, anyway. Where were you last night? You never came back we were so worried about you?!”

Jimin walked into your apartment, inviting himself to come in, closing the door behind him. “Uh, I-uh got sick.” You said, walking over to your couch before you placed yourself down onto it.

“Sick, huh?” He didn’t buy it.

What you also didn’t tell him was that last night, after your little rendezvous with Yoongi, you snuck out of Hoseok’s house as fast as possible. Not because you wanted to get away, but because your neck and chest were covered in hickeys that you couldn’t hide from anyone with what you were wearing that night. That’s why you had to wear a turtleneck right now, even though it was 30 degrees Celsius outside.

“Yeah…sick.” You smiled. “What, don’t you believe me?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to believe, but-” But before he could say anything further, another ring of the doorbell could be heard. This time though, Jimin decided to open up. “Oh, hey Jungkook.”

Jungkook looked a bit confused for a second, expecting it would be you opening the door. “Oh, hey.” He said before he noticed you behind Jimin sitting on the couch. “Jimin told me he was coming over so I wanted to do the same. Are you okay? I was worried sick yesterday! You didn’t respond to any of our texts.”

You could describe the feeling you were feeling now as standing on your tippy toes in a pool, keeping your head just above the water. You were suffocating yourself right now by your poor decision making from yesterday.

“I’m really sorry guys.” You desperately plead “I guess I drank too much and got distracted.”

Jimin pouted his lip with combination of squinting his eyes in doubt. “Distracted by what?”

“You also don’t seem to be so hungover.” Jungkook added to ruin your alibi even more.

“Aren’t you hot? It’s like 30 degrees outside?” Jimin spoke again, making you finally have enough.

You stood up and started hinting the two boys to leave your apartment. “No, very cold, very sick. So please, go I need some alone time like right now!”

By the way they’ve been looking you the entire time, you could tell they were very suspicious and confused about your secretive behaviour. But before they could say anything, you already closed the door in front of them, not answering their desperate pleads for you to open the door again.

You leaned against the door and sighed, quickly taking off that dreadful turtleneck.

Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Y/n, you’re so dumb!

How could you be so stupid? Did you enjoy last night? Well of course…but it just made everything worse for you! You didn’t think about the consequences it would had. You didn’t really care about what Jimin or Taehyung would think, but it all boils down to protecting Jungkook’s feelings. You knew how much he hated him and how badly everything went down after the breakup of you and Yoongi. You knew he just wanted the best for you, but that led you to having the need to avoid even the slightest hint of Yoongi’s existent around Jungkook. He also was just fucking jealous of the guy too.

Beep beep

That’s when a small notification sound caught your attention, making you fish out your phone out of the sides of the couch.

[11:02] Jimin: Look, Idk with who, but I know you hooked up with someone last night

Your heart had sunken to your stomach and it felt as if you were really getting sick this time. Your blood started pumping from the sudden adrenaline rush since you couldn’t feel more stressed than in this moment. It couldn’t be right? Yoongi wasn’t the type to tell the others? Or was he? Did he change that much? Was he really just a cocky asshole? You couldn’t think straight, which led you to finding Yoongi’s account again and doing the dreadful thing you always wanted to do. So you pressed the button that you had been staring at for months.

Unblocked

[11:08] y/n:Did you tell Jimin about what happened yesterday?????

With biting nails you were waiting for a respond. With every passing second you started stressing even more. Maybe he wasn’t even home. Maybe he was with another girl. You shook your head. No, he couldn’t be with a girl. That guy is not the type to have fuck dates at this hour. He was probably working, which meant he would probably not read your message anytime soon, right? Maybe it’s better for you if he didn’t answer right away. But who were you kidding? You were in no state of mind to behave normally now. But before you could even think of putting your phone away, a text message popped onto the screen.

[11:12] Yoongi: Uhh…hey

[11:12] Yoongi:No I didn’t?

Your heart stopped. And all you could think was…wait ,what?

Were you really the idiot here or was he playing with you? Maybe you should’ve asked Jimin first how he got that information…

[11:13] y/n: Why do you think that???

You send to Jimin.

[11:13] Jimin: y/n, you were wearing a turtle neck in this weather…told me you were ‘distracted’ at the party…bit suspicious don’t you think?

You. Wanted. To. End. It. All.

[11:14] y/n:  Heyy

[11:14] y/n: hahaha…

[11:14] y/n: Uhh…just forget I said anything

[11:14] y/n: Thank you!!!!!!

You quickly wrote to Yoongi, questioning your whole life existence in this very moment.  

[11:15] Yoongi: …okay?

[11:16] Yoongi: Nice to see I’m unblocked again

[11:16] Yoongi: Can’t they know about what happened between us?

[11:16] y/n: No, they can’t

[11:16] Yoongi: Why not tho?

[11:17] Yoongi: We’ve fucked before, it’s not like they would care

[11:17] y/n: It’s complicated

[11:17] Yoongi: Right…

This was not how you wanted to spend your Sunday morning.

When work suddenly called to take over someone’s shift, you couldn’t be more than thrilled to go since you then had an excuse to ignore everyone’s text messages. And with everyone you meant Jungkook.

“Why didn’t you come and say hi to me yesterday?!”

What you didn’t know however, was that Jia was also working today.

Jia’s sudden question made you stop what you were doing. You awkwardly laughed as you turned yourself to her. “I-uh, thought you were busy.”

“Of course not! Yoongi wouldn’t mind you saying hi, you know.” His name alone made your heartbeat increase. “In fact, I didn’t see him for the rest of the night.” Memories of you and Yoongi that night flooded through your mind, making your cheeks unwillingly turn a subtle pink. “But he told me he’d make it up for me by taking me out for dinner.”

And with that, your increasing heartbeat got shattered. “How nice.”

“I know right?!”  She beamed. “Oh, and I saw you with Jungkook yesterday. He got handsome didn’t he?” She teased, making me playfully roll my eyes.

“He has always been handsome.” You answer back, refilling the straws on the counter.

“Yeah, but like now he’s like a man and you can tell he had been going to the gym.”  Thinking about Jungkook in the gym had made Jia a bit more excited than she should be. “Are you two back together?”

You chuckled. “No we're not.”

“Why not? Seems like a waste of a good guy, doesn’t it?”

“Maybe.”

“Then we could go on double dates!”

Ow yeah, great idea! A double date with two of your exes that hate each other and your obnoxious co-worker who doesn’t know you’re fucking the same guy. “With you and Yoongi?” She excitedly nodded to your question. “Jungkook doesn’t like Yoongi”

A quick pout appeared on her face. “Why not? They used to be quite close right?”

“Yeah, but something happened.” You turned to Jia, noticing she was waiting for you to add something to your sentence. “I don’t know the details.”

She sighed in dissatisfaction. “Yoongi’s also not the relationship type of guy though. So I guess that’ll never happen anyway.”

You mentally scoffed  and decided to act dumb “He’s not?”

“No, I already talked about it with him before, but something in me says I can change him.” She said in full confidence.

“Good luck with that.” You said sarcastically, hoping she wouldn’t notice. And as you were refilling the milk, a thought popped in your head. “Are you in love with him?” You asked out of curiosity and out a bit of fear. You didn’t know which idea you hated more: her being Yoongi’s casual fuckbuddy or her being actually head over heels over him. But her answer made you sigh out of relief.

“Love is a big word.” She said after thinking about it for a second. “But I think he’s cute.” She smiled.

The hours passed, and happily for you without any mention of any guy named Min Yoongi or Jeon Jungkook. And even though you didn’t want to, but whenever you were eying down Jia, it reminded you of how Yoongi’s dick had been in her. A vile thought, but your jealousy had always gotten the worse of you. You really wanted to like her, but the thought of him doing all the things he did to you to her did something with you.

“Oh my god, he’s here!” Jia quickly took of her apron and took out her hairclip. “Tell him I’ll be right back. I’m going to get my stuff!” She beamed as she quickly hopped off to the backroom.

“Who’s here?” Asking was useless, cause you could see the man in question standing at the door, smirking at you. “Never mind.” You quickly looked away, acting as if you didn’t see him. You were searching something to make it look like you were busy, but luck wasn’t in your favour. Everything got restocked and cleaned for the next day, and worst of all, by you.

You felt his presence at the other side of the counter, which made you suddenly act if the cuticles of your nails were very interesting. “Not even a hello?” You suddenly heard.

Not looking up, you said “I don’t know you and you don’t know me, got it?”

A simple ‘tsk’ left his lips as he slightly shook his head. “Hoba found your panties by the way. He gave them to me.” He said, smirking as soon as he realised he got your attention.

With wide eyes you looked up at him. “Did you tell him?!”

“No, he just saw you leave the bathroom after me.” He said with a small laugh after that. “Anyways If you want them back, I guess you’ll have to come over.”

And all you could think was this bitch “You can keep them.”

He shrug his shoulders and looked back at the door of the backroom, which soon opened to reveal a dressed up Jia. He smiled at her, making your heart ache. “You look absolutely stunning.”

Jia giggled. “Oh, stop it you!” The way he put his arm around her…just how he used to do with you. Corners of his lips curling up, giving her a small smile. “See you next time, y/n!” She waved.

With pressed lips, you gave her a quick smile back. And the moment she turned her head away, that’s when you gave Yoongi one last look. This time he wasn’t looking at you. He gave Jia all of his attention from the moment they stepped out of the door. Whatever, you thought by yourself. Why should you care. It was a one time thing you kept telling yourself. Even though something in you really wanted your panties back.

Who would’ve thought that your little interaction would upset you as much as it did. Usually you would come home, filled with joy since another day of work was over. But when you finally sat down into your new bought couch, you couldn’t help but be filled with anger. Dinner wasn’t even on your mind. How could it be? Knowing Yoongi and Jia were going on another date, which would probably end in the same scenario you had with Yoongi the day before. You sighed out of frustration. There was only one logical thing to do now.

Text Yoongi.

[18:23] y/n: Hope you’re having fun

Your impulsiveness got the best of you again since the send button was pressed faster than you could comprehend. How dare he do all those things to you yesterday and then show up to work to pick up one of his other girls? No way. The nerve he had. And weirdly enough, you didn’t regret what happened yesterday. Your eyes suddenly sprung open of the thought of yesterday.

Oh no…

Was what Yoongi said true? Did Hoseok saw you leave the room after Yoongi? If yes, did he tell Jimin? Taehyung? Or worse, Jungkook?

[18:27] y/n: Hobi…

[18:27] y/n: Is what Yoongi said true…?

[18:27] y/n: Do you know what happened yesterday?

Fuck it, you thought as you walked over to your liquor cabinet. Since your stomach was filled with so much jealousy already, the only thing you could devour now was a nice glass of white wine. You popped open a new bottle and poured yourself a glass that suddenly got lit up by the light of your phone.

[18:32] Hobi: Yes and I think you guys are fucking disgusting

[18:32] Hobi: I invite you to my house for the first time

[18:33] Hobi: And the first thing you do is fuck my best friend in my bathroomㅠㅠ

“Shit.” You cursed out loud.

[18:33] y/n: I got carried away in the moment!!!!!! I’m sorry!!!!!!!

[18:33] y/n: Did you…tell anyone?

[18:34] Hobi: Of course not

[18:34] Hobi: Why would I tell other people if I didn’t even wanted to know

[18:34] Hobi: One good thing to came from that is you and Yoongi are back to talking

[18:34] y/n: I guess…

[18:35] y/n: I wouldn’t say back to talking…it’s complicated

[18:35] Hobi: I’m surprised…

You knew he meant that sarcastically

[18:36] y/n: Oh…and Hobi…

[18:36] y/n: Is it true that you found my panties…?

[18:38] Hobi: …

[18:38] Hobi: I did

[18:38] Hobi: But I gave them to Yoongi so…

[18:38] y/n: How did you even know they were mine?

[18:39] Hobi: Cause Yoongi told me…

[18:39] Hobi: He was helping with the clean up the day after

[18:39] Hobi: Then I found them…and I knew I saw you two leave the bathroom the night before so yeah

[18:39] Hobi: I just had to connect the dots

[18:39] Hobi: Yoongi also told me they were yours so yeah

[18:40] y/n: Well…thank you Hobi

[18:40] y/n: again…sorry

[18:40] y/n: ttyl

You took another sip to comprehend what just had happened. At least you got your answer, Hoseok did know. You were at least relieved that you could trust him enough that he wouldn’t tell anyone else.

But here you were again hours later, tossing and turning in your bed, thinking about the one and only Min Yoongi. His name kept lingering in your mind, no matter how hard you tried to think of something or someone else. Yoongi, Yoongi and more Yoongi. Reimagining how is hands felt on your body. How the petals of his lips pressed against your skin. The thought alone turned you on, which subconsciously led your right hand into your panties, mimicking the motions Yoongi did to you that night. And so you started fantasizing again. How his tongue circled around your sensitive nub, making you lose all sense of reality. Or how his husky breath against the nape of your neck made you shiver. Or how his growing bulge kept rubbing against your…

Beep beep

The sudden notification snapped you out of your trance.

It was him, which made you happier then you should be.

[01:16] Yoongi: Hope you realise how unsurprised I actually am that you texted me that

[01:16] Yoongi:  Oh and don’t worry, she’s not the only one I had fun with tonight

His snarky little comment made your desire turn into full jealousy. And you knew damn well he said that just to piss you off.

[01:17] y/n: Min Yoongi fucking multiple girls? What surprise!

[01:18] Yoongi: Yeah and you’re one of them now

[01:18] y/n: That’s not true

[01:18] Yoongi: Oh, isn’t it?

[01:18] Yoongi: So we weren’t fucking when I was filling you up with my cum?

[01:19] y/n:  Why you gotta say it like that????

[01:19] y/n: You’re fucking disgusting

[01:19] y/n: And that was a one time thing, it won’t happen again

[01:19] Yoongi: Oh? It won’t?

[01:20] y/n: No, it won’t

[01:20] y/n: I was just drunk and horny

[01:20] Yoongi: Why are you texting me then?

[01:20] y/n: What do you mean?

[01:20] Yoongi: Your basically telling me you want to go back to how it used to be

[01:20] Yoongi: Which is completely ignoring my existent

[01:20] Yoongi: But here you are

[01:20] Yoongi: unblocking me

[01:21] Yoongi: Texting me to ‘have fun’ cause that’s your way of telling me that you’re jealous

[01:21] Yoongi: Acting as if you don’t like me paying attention to you

[01:21] Yoongi: Cause if you didn’t, I assume you would’ve stopped responding a long time ago

[01:21] Yoongi: It’s almost cute how dumb you are

[01:22] y/n: I don’t know why I sent that, okay?

[01:22] y/n: Sometimes I do things without thinking twice

[01:22] Yoongi: How about you stop trying to convince me and yourself you don’t want me, and just send me something pretty to keep me busy?

You felt your cheeks turn red and your heart started pumping out of excitement. You shook your head, no. You shouldn’t let your sick desires for this man get the best of you…right?

[01:23] y/n: You got to be kidding me

[01:23] Yoongi: What? Its’ not like you haven’t done that before ;)

[01:24] y/n: Oh yeah, that’s right !

[01:24] y/n: Maybe you should think about those pics then instead huh

[01:24] Yoongi: But I’d like updated pictures

You bit your lip as you started to think if you should do it. Yoongi noticed it took you a while to respond in comparison to before, knowing you were having second thoughts.

[01:25] Yoongi: Look, you don’t have to send me anything but if you don’t want to

[01:25] Yoongi: But it sure is welcomed

You looked down at your sleepwear, finding your worn out shirt with holes far from sexy. Leaning over at your right, quickly reaching for your most presentable lingerie in your top drawer. As you hastily put it on your body, a part of you couldn’t believe you were doing this for him. So here you were, making mirror selfies in the most lustful way you possible could. Your hair messy and every curve visible just for him. And after being quite pleased about the results, it didn’t take you long to press send.

And no matter what you did or how much you tried to convince yourself you didn’t want him to fuck you senseless, he seemed to get exactly what he wants.

[01:29] Yoongi: You never disappoint

A very pleased grin appeared on your face after reading his message, feeling quite flattered he liked them. You laid down onto your bed, waiting for his next text, assuming this would be a lovely night of sexting. However, him suddenly calling you caught you off guard. “H-hey.” You stuttered as you picked up.

“Did you change into that just for me?” Was the first thing for him to ask, making you a bit embarrassed by his sudden call out.

So the only obvious thing you could do now, of course, was lie. “No, I-I just happened to have that on.”

You could hear him scoff on the other side of the line. “You’re such a bad liar. You looked absolutely stunning in it though.” Another smile came onto you as he said that. “Do you like pleasing me?”

You started playing with your hair. “Maybe.” You teased.

Yoongi smirked, finding your reaction cute. “Do you regret what happened yesterday?” He asked out of genuine concern.

“No.”

Your answer made some weight leave Yoongi’s shoulders. Even though he always loved testing your limits, in no circumstances would he want to take it on a level where you would feel uncomfortable. “Can’t believe how shy you are right now.” He teased.

“It’s just been a while since we talked okay”

“And who’s fault is that.” He scoffed.

“Not the point” You quickly added.

What you didn’t know was that Yoongi was being very smiley as well, reminiscing about the time you were still dating since you were acting the same now as you were back then. “Well, I didn’t mind seeing you again” You couldn’t control your smile after he said that.

“Of course you didn’t, but something like that won’t happen again”

“Why not?”

“Because I refuse to become one of your girls.”

“I don’t see a problem with that.” He said. “I’ll be nice.” The huskiness in his voice when he said that made you swoon. “Didn’t you like the way I made you feel?”

Memories from that night quickly flashed through your mind. “I did.”

“That’s what I thought.” That’s when Yoongi reminded himself why he called you in the first place. “Are you still wearing the same thing?”

“Yeah…”

“Still wearing the same black panties?”

“Uhu…”

“I want you to take them off.”

“W-what?”

“You heard me.”

A sudden excitement rushed down to your stomach, making you do as he told without thinking twice. Grabbing the hem of your blacked laced panties and sliding them off, throwing them to the side. “They’re off.”

“I want you to touch yourself and think its me between your legs” He asked with a smirk, feeling himself, literally, getting more excited. “Got it?”

“Yes, Yoongi.” His wish was your command. Sliding down your fingers, spreading your folds before you took some of your wetness to glide over your swollen nub. Subconsciously holding your breath as you were playing with it.

“Are you wet?” He asked in between the silence.

You bit your lip. “Of course I am” You reassured.

“Good girl.” He praised. “I wish I could see you right now.” Yoongi said, eyeing down his ever so growing bulge inside of his grey sweatpants as his right hand’s playing with the string of his joggers.

Your breathing became unsteady. “I wish you were here too.”

 “What would you want me to do if I was there?”

“Hmh-“ Was all you could mouth. Even though this wasn’t the first time you guys did something like this, it still managed to make you timid.

“If you can’t tell me what you want, then you won’t get it.”

Oh god, those words had given you another round of sheer desperation for him. How you would love for him to come over now. This time, not a chance of anyone barging in. It would be just the two of you, accessible for one another for hours on end. With the amount of fantasies you had about him ever since that night, you were confident you two could go at it for hours. And you know he sure wouldn’t mind. A small moan escaped your lips “I’d want your fingers pleasing me instead of mine. I want you to make me come as you did yesterday.”

“You really enjoyed that, didn’t you?”

You hummed a ‘uhu’ in between your heavy breathing “I really did. I haven’t been able to control myself ever since.”

Your sudden confession had peeked his interest. “Oh, haven’t you now? I thought you didn’t want me?”

The combination of the white wine and your never ending horniness made you give in into Yoongi’s questions without second thought. “I think we both know what I really want since I’m finger fucking myself by the thought of you as we speak.”

“Ooh, there she is.” He responded as if he had found something. “The shy girl got replaced by the y/n I know. Gotten your confidence back, huh?”

Another moan slipped out as your grip around your phone tightened. “You don’t know how bad I want you right now, Yoongi.”

“Getting desperate there, huh? Just for me? I’m flattered.” Satisfaction took over Yoongi’s facial features as he realised he had been on your mind ever since last night. “You’d love for that to happen again, don’t you y/n?”

“Fuck-Yoongi, you don’t even know.”

His lips curled into a sadistic grin. “But yesterday was a one time thing, right?” Of course he said that. Of course he would use your own god forsaken words against you in this moment. And you knew he was enjoying every single bit of it. “I mean, it doesn’t have to be. But only if you make it very clear to me how much you want me.”

You started to have a hard time keeping your legs open. “I want you all to myself, Yoongi. I want to please you like no other girl would. I’d obey you like no other, just for your enjoyment.” Yoongi’s desire for you became hungrier as the minutes passed. Just the thought of you alone being so worked up about him made his imagination drive to unspeakable places. And you could tell by the size of the tent in his sweats. “I want you to fuck me senseless.”

You slipped out another moan without thinking much of it, but on the other side of the line you just flipped a switch for someone. “Fuck babe, I’d love to hear more of that. Just you moaning my name over and over again as I stretch you out.”

“I wish I had your dick inside of me instead of my fingers, Yoongi” You pleaded, as you started to pick up the pace of your fingers. “I need you so bad.”

“Of course you do, dirty girl.” Yoongi knew he wouldn’t be able to contain himself any longer by the way his dick was twitching. “My dick is rock hard for you baby.”

“Yeah?” You moaned, inserting both your middle and ring finger inside of you. “I wish I could help you to get rid of it.” Just thinking about Yoongi’s face while you’d suck him off made you even come closer to your orgasm. “I’d be on my knees begging for just a taste.”

“God just thinking about it makes me insane.” He groaned as he gave his clothed member a hard stroke. “You’d look real pretty sucking my cock.”

“I want you to grab my hair as you do it” You moaned. “You’ll be in full control of my motion, just the right pace for my Yoongi” Yoongi bit his lip as he eagerly grabbed his rock-hard cock out of his boxers, tip red burning full of desire, giving it a few slow strokes. “Looking up to you, watching you trying to hold in your moans as I suck you off.” Fuck, you wanted him so bad. “And when you cum, I want to lick everything up. Every last bit, I want to taste you.”

Wasting no time, He vigorously started stroking himself, unable to control his hormones any longer. The mere thought of you doing all those things made him sexually frustrated, making him rethink if he had should’ve spend the night with you instead of Jia.

He scoffed. “You’d do anything to please me, isn’t it?” He panted

“Anything.”

The grip around his cock tightened as a reflex to your words. “Come for me, baby. I want to hear your beautiful voice as I touch myself.”

“Yes Yoongi.” The more you started to focus on your orgasm, ,the louder you seemed to get. However, the louder you got, the heavier Yoongi’s breathing got. You started smirking, since now it felt as if the roles of the day before were reversed. It felt as you were more in control in this moment. And even if it didn’t felt like that for Yoongi, you sure were going to try. “You wish it was my mouth pleasing you instead of your hand, don’t you?”

A grin appeared on his face, knowing well enough what you were doing. “Of course I do, baby-fuck.” It was embarrassing for him how close he was already getting to come lose. “Then you’ll be able to show off your improvement, huh?” He teased.

Even though you wanted to scoff, a moan left your lips instead since you were almost at your climax. “I-I’m coming, babe.”

“Come for me, please.”

“Yeah- Yeah-“ Almost being unable to hold onto that damned phone as your whole body was clenching together when you finally reached your peek. Slammed thighs together and letting out deep breaths as you felt your body loosen up again. But the person on the other side was just getting to his orgasm with the helps of your messy moans. And the last thing you could hear was a deep groan and heavy panting on the other side, making you smile out of satisfaction. “Did you come too? That didn’t last very long.” You teased

Yoongi’s head was thrown back, his jet-black hair covering his eyes as he panted to come off his high. Cum dripping down his veiny hand, knuckles white from his grip. “fuck, y/n.” He needed a moment before he could respond to your snarky little comment. “As if you’re not a mess now.”

You scoffed. “I can handle more than this.”

“I bet.” He chuckled, grabbing the nearest tissue he could find to clean himself off. “Can’t wait to see your endurance next time I see you then.”

You suddenly got shy again. “N-Next time?”

“Come on, you can stop acting as if you don’t want to see me anymore, y/n.” He said slightly annoyed. “Besides, I would love to take you out again.”

“I doubt that.” You said, not because you didn’t believe him, but because you didn’t want to believe him.

Something in Yoongi’s tone had softened. “No really. How about tomorrow? I know your schedule. I can pick you up after work.”

“At work?? Jia would see us?”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah? So? Unlike you, I don’t care who sees us. Besides, it’s not like it’s a secret I’m seeing other women.”

Him mentioning the fact you weren’t the only girl in his life mad your heart ache. Was going out with Yoongi again a good idea? Probably not, but something in you had been waiting for this opportunity for so long that it would be cockblocking yourself a this point. “Other women, yeah. But she doesn’t know about…us, you know”

“Then I’ll guess you’ll have a new topic to talk about then” He couldn’t care less about what other people would think. He only cared about you right now and how he would love to spend time with you, no matter who was looking. “But if you don’t mind me, I’ll have to clean up the mess you made me make.” He heard you let out a little giggle, making him smile. “Goodnight babe.”

“Goodnight Yoongi.”

And with that, he hung up.

A part of you was dreading the idea. Were you really going back to being emotionally drained by no other than Min Yoongi? Or was this time going to be different. You scoffed at yourself as you shook your head. Of course it would be different. It would be even worse. Cause this time you weren’t his and he wasn’t yours.

Taglist; @flowerblu00, @brinda-9, @seokjinkismet, @sugainmybowl, @mxxxnshine

#bts #bts fanfic #bts fanfiction #bts fic #bts imagine #bts scenario #yoongi #min yoongi #yoongi fic #yoongi fanfiction #yoongi smut #bts smut #dom!yoongi #fuckboy!yoongi #badboy!yoongi #playboy!yoongi #yoongi x reader #yoongi imagine #yoongi scenario #yoongi angst #bts x reader #smut #angst #bts series #yoongi series #suga #bts suga #suga fanfic #suga fanfiction #suga smut

[moreofthatdrowse]

New Interview: Scandinavian Music Magazine Gaffa

Alex Turner interviewed in Scandinavian music magazine Gaffa. 31.10.22

I’ve translated the interview (find it below the cut), but as with all laymen-translated interviews, take it with a grain of salt. The interview was obviously done in English, which the journalist then translated into Swedish words, which I in turn have turned back into English. When presented with a choice of words to use, I’ve tried to choose words I think Alex would use. Still, we all know Alex likes to take pauses and start sentences over, which is not at all apparent in the interview. You know how it is. I for one don’t in a million years believe that he rambled on about the World Cup as undisturbed as it’s made out to be in the last paragraph.

Arctic Monkeys Interview November issue of Gaffa 2022, by Jesper Robild

A Sci-fi Hangover in a Toyota

With the album The Car, Alex Turner is back on Earth. Gaffa’s reporter Jesper Robild travels to Los Angeles to meet Arctic Monkeys’ frontman, who takes his time and talks about getting a unique energy from the tournament fever.

When he steps into the minimal, presently closed hotel bar in his current hometown Los Angeles, Turner is equal parts rock hero and eccentric introvert. Stylish in way too many clothes with regards to the 31 degrees Celsius outside, and he chooses an astride position on a hard chair rather than to share the sofa. At the same time, he is slightly evasive, reticent, often dragging his fingers halfway through his hair and fastening his gaze at the floor when he for the tenth time takes 20 seconds to begin an answer in five different ways before sentences form, accompanied by hands that juggle his thoughts. Five days earlier, the death of Queen Elizabeth II was announced. 

   “The football was cancelled. I think there was some Champions League match that needed to be moved because they didn’t have enough police officers. I can’t sum it up succinctly. It’s a unique situation. Unique.”

“I didn’t know it was going to be this record”

Four years ago since Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, three and half years without any concerts, and this is one of the first interviews he does after three years of silence. The new album The Car demanded a lot of attention. And time. 

   “I’ve started jogging every now and then, a couple of kilometres, which is an improvement. That kind of exercise has never been for me before. But mostly I’ve consciously devoted time to this record and things connected to it. I’ve spent a lot of time during the last six months on the shaping of the live show and a bit of film stuff that has to do with the record. When the tour in 2019 ended, I started writing music immediately. There was no pause at all this time, no period for me to try to be inspired. I didn’t know it was going to be this record, I don’t necessarily think I knew it was even going to be a record. I tried to deal with it very quickly, but it didn’t work of course, and here we are three years later.”

   Everything became clear with the first seconds in the first song, There’d Better Be a Mirrorball, something Alex returns to many times. 

   “When it comes to most of the records, there is a moment where I realised which direction it would take, and that can be quite thrilling. I had had the instrumental introduction for the song for a long time, and then this moment came about when I found a way to connect and transform it to more of a song. It doesn’t quite start as a pop song, but it gets there eventually. When I discovered that transition, a bit of how the lyrics would be, and the synth loop that is repeated throughout the song, I knew what the record would be like. What I didn’t realise was that it would take a further two years to find things that could work around it.”

“Obviously down-to-earth title”

The drummer Matthew Helders has said in an interview with NME that the album continues where the last one left off. But if a hotel and casino complex on the moon is as weird as it gets, a car would have to be the opposite. 

   “I at least present it like we’re back on Earth, but when I look back on the songs, there’s more of a sci-fi hangover than I perhaps realised. But there are no carton models of space hotels nearby. The title is quite obviously down-to-earth. After calling a record Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, you’re easily attracted to calling the next one The Car. 

   The album title is the easiest explanation possible to the lone Toyota Corolla that crowns the cover. 

   “It’s a photograph that Matthew took a few years back, and I fell in love with it the first time I saw it. I directly felt that if we were to package the record in that picture, it wouldn’t feel like such a bad idea. It’s as if the photograph gives permission to the idea that the record could  be called that. “The Car” were also two words that I realised that I kept repeating in the lyrics. And if you’re going to be a bit cynical, when you realise you say “the car” in three songs, you stand at a crossroads - either you go all in and call the record that or you find another way with the lyrics. And by laziness, I chose the first alternative. No, that’s not it.”

“The lyrics are part of something else”

No matter how little you care about lyrics, it’s difficult not to raise your eyebrows at Turner’s whimsical, almost dadaistic habit of wrapping his thoughts in slightly nonsensical metaphors. Unexpected words that call for attention are constantly recurring - just take a title like Jet Skis on the Moat. 

   “I know what you mean with lyrics passing you by. I feel like I don’t pay them much attention either. When I’m listening, that is. I don’t automatically think that I need to isolate the lyrics from everything else that’s going on in the song, from the other components: the music and the melody. I’m very interested in the relationship between those three things and think that they give each other permission to behave in a certain way. That’s how I think about it when I write songs. I don’t feel that you need to care about the lyrics when you’re listening. They’re part of something else. Sometimes, they’re in Italian or something and you don’t have to worry about it then. 

  In an interview with NME almost ten years old to the day, Alex talked about how he in the beginning of his career saw John Lennon’s I Am the Walrus as a sort of unattainable template for a type of song he wished that he could write. When questioned whether he has got closer to an imagined ideal, he begins with half a minute’s worth of silence.

   “It’s not like there’s an idea in the distance that I’m getting closer to. Again, it’s not about the lyrics but about the composition as a whole. There’s something close to what you’re asking about, but the instrumental introduction right at the start of the first song is as much part of what everything is about on this record as the words. I remember when I talked about I Am the Walrus. When I was 16 and heard those kinds of lyrics I naively thought that they would be easier to write because they didn’t give much meaning. But I quickly realised that it’s harder. I don’t know if I’m closer to being able to write a song like that now, haha. I think I missed that departure. But if we break it down further - the lyrics subscribe to the composition as a whole in that song. The words are in line with everything else that’s going on, the melody, the production… And I could probably draw a weak parallel between that and what’s going on in our records. There’s also a crumb of humour in that song that’s important not to forget.”

   Does it take courage to weave in humour?

   “It probably took some balls to declare that ‘I am the eggman.’ I don’t know if courage is the point… Perhaps it takes some courage to follow the instinct that tells you to go in a humoristic direction and sing it. It’s important to me to have a little humour amid all the heartbreak.”

   When we get onto more parallels to The Beatles among fans and media - something that six No 1’s on the British album charts have caused, not the least - Alex is very careful to not make it sound like he brought up the subject.

   “What are we discussing now? You’re saying that people sometimes compare Arctic Monkeys with The Beatles? I didn’t know that was common. I haven’t listened to them in a while. If I’m going to come up with my own comparison… They were a band who didn’t end musically where they started, in broad terms. There was an idea of experimenting with pop music, which I’m very positive about. I think the comparisons might have to do with that. It feels like there never is a risk if we were to stay in the same place, not even when we have tried to. The making of a record is something that lives its own life. Every time I happen to repeat myself nowadays, it doesn’t really work. 

Multitracks himself

15 years after the debut Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, and with seven albums under his belt - plus two with the side project The Last Shadow Puppets - Alex Turner is truly not stuck where he and Arctic Monkeys began. Garage indie and post-punky britpop has gradually evolved and has on The Car landed in a relaxed appearance with crooner vocals, cinematic strings, and a lounge ambiance equal parts noir as jovial. On his 30th birthday in 2016, Alex Turner was given a piano as a birthday gift by the band’s manager, which led to a shift in main instruments when it came to songwriting. But despite the guitar getting relatively little space in the soundscape on The Car, Alex Turner has given it more attention than the last time. 

   “It feels like I play more guitar on this record. And some of the songs were written on guitar. But I suppose that after having played more piano and having written more on piano, new possibilities arose, so it’s different now when I write on the guitar. Just how I think about how everything goes together is slightly different from when we wrote Brianstorm, for example, or something else from the second record. Perhaps it’s less about whether it’s guitar or piano and more about thinking in other terms as a band. Not “Everybody’s going to do this for 16 bars.” And I suppose that the song structures are more different now. It might not be apparent, but there’s that distinction in my head. Back in those days, we often put things together in a way very much based on the idea of the rehearsal room. Now I put it together more on the basis of the studio environment. 

   It feels like it’s easy to romanticise the rehearsal room. Do you miss that way of playing and writing?

   Yes. But at the same time, speaking of methods to look ahead, it’s something you can leave behind. My writing process the last ten years has been a lot about multitracking myself. That’s the biggest difference between the old records and the last two plus the last Shadow Puppets record. That I make demos of myself. That has probably changed things more than that there’s a piano in the picture. We’re rehearsing this weekend and it’s actually pretty exciting, it doesn’t happen that often except for before tours. We’re thinking that we aren’t going to look back, but I don’t know. It’d probably be fun to approach a new record like that someday. If you leave something, an idea or method, for long enough, it might become something else that makes things happen.

   It doesn’t feel unusual that rock dinosaurs around 65 do that, rehearse together and record live.

   “Haha, dinosaurs! Exactly, “just like in the old days. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Recording and the Euros

Arctic Monkeys aren’t quite back with any nostalgic devices just yet. The Car was recorded in the Suffolk countryside at Butley Priory, a building that was constructed to house Augustinians in the 12th century.

   “It’s not a place I was particularly acquainted with, still aren’t. It was just our provisional studio for a few weeks. It was a lovely experience. We hadn’t spent any time together for a year or so, and it was wonderful to be back together again.”

   It was only here that the other three members made their mark on the material.

   “I had my 16mm camera and spent quite a lot of time filming when we were all making the record. It was mostly to preserve the memories, I suppose, but I had worked on the songs on my own for quite some time, and bringing the camera meant that I had to take a step back sometimes. Everybody could contribute then. And when I was putting new film in the camera or something it created a buffer, perhaps not enough, but the others got a bit of space. 

   The recording during the summer of 2021 coincided with the European Football Championships that had been delayed since 2020. A component that enhanced the experience, and does that in many contexts. 

   “Some games were played during the day, and we had to take a break then, but I suppose that depended on how important it was to see Austria play, for example. Did they play?

   Yep. 

   And Sweden, too, right? Didn’t we face you? Or no, that was in the World Cup in 2018. That was a pretty stale match. It’s easy to become completely engrossed when those tournaments are going on, you become so invested. The World Cup is soon, I’m looking forward to that. It gives the band a unique energy, but it also shows in the environment. It’s been apparent when we’ve toured during the World Cup… There’s something about that tournament fever.

#arctic monkeys #alex turner #jamie cook #matt helders #nick o'malley #the last shadow puppets