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sgiandubh · 3 days

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The door faces North

This has been, by far, one of the most complex investigations I have ever done in this fandom, and I am truly sorry for the long wait I had to inflict on many of you & for the uncharacteristic radio silence in DMs and comments. During this peculiar journey, I checked, double-checked and cross-checked as many details as I could and I carefully considered at least two different theories, of which I still think they do not exclude each other. I am now confident enough to make not only an educated guess, but also a daring bet on SRH's next whisky move.

Also, sorry for the length of this post. Truly sorry - think of the completely pulverized night sleep I had to give up, in order to bring this to you.

But first, a word on Marple's obvious PR tip on the Hopetoun Estate refurbishment and distillery old/new project. I am fair game enough to tell you the obvious: her overall recounting of the principals is roughly correct, spare perhaps one or two minor details. Correct, but dry - she limits herself to the technical documentation submitted by Golden Decanters and The Hopetoun Estates Trust to the West Lothian Council for approval. She correctly points out that S is not a visible part of the deal, at this point in time and she does a decent summing up of a very, very, VERY plethoric amount of bureaucratic information. She concludes, and I think she is partially right, that he might be interested in becoming an investor (I am taking things a bit further, though). But in doing so, she focuses on the development phase of the project only: the possible connections with SRH and his own spirits business are less, if at all, obvious.

I am going to give you my view of all this charade and, if I am going to mention (and probably repeat) some things already found by her, I am going to focus on the people: this is where the whole story starts to become remarkably interesting, at least to me. After all, I remember promising you some more clarity. Here's an honest, fair play take.

Little did I know, when I started to write about that (now defunct) company, Midhope Castle Distillery, Ltd (https://www.tumblr.com/sgiandubh/748597198794670080/the-info-provided-above-is-correct-but-outdated?source=share), that my investigation would turn to this:

... for it was to be just an almost random layer of a juggernaut matryoshka of defunct or still active companies, featuring roughly the same people and no less than 6 different name combinations centered around Midhope, Hopetoun, etc.

The following pics will give you an idea - feel free to open them in a separate tab, for clarity . I preferred this synthetic approach, because otherwise you will curse the shite out of me. But it had to be done, with or without Depon, Advil's Greek cousin (and before you ask a graphologist, this is my handwriting, and nobody else's 🙃):

The only explanation for the whole almost frantic Midhope/Hopetoun crisscross/hopscotch (LOL) combos I can think of is two people trying to secure one (several?) credit lines or to attract significant investors for their project and ultimately failing to do so. But I might be wrong (although I doubt that, thank you). Out of this entire maze ( I swear I now have a migraine), there are only two active companies remaining: Golden Decanters Ltd (renamed GD Spirits Ltd, in April 2022) and Midhope Ltd (renamed Skosk Ltd, in July 2023). It is on them I am going to focus my gaze.

GD Spirits Ltd was incorporated in Berwick-upon-Tweed, England (just across the Scottish border), probably for tax reasons, on March 11, 2015, the nature of its business being listed as 'wholesale of wine, beer, spirits, etc.'. It started with a team of two women: Julia Mackenzie-Gillanders and Ann Medlock, whose names we are going to see over and over again in all the eight corporate avatars. Later down the timeline (LOL for three decades and a half), on January 30, 2018, they were briefly (until July 19, 2018) joined by two very interesting professionals: Mrs. Margaret Boswell, an attorney at the very prestigious international law firm Gide Loyrette Nouel (Paris and London offices)...

...and Ken Robertson, former Corporate Affairs Director at Diageo Whisky, a subsidiary of the international Diageo group, one of the major players on the world spirits' market:

The second company, Skosk Ltd, was incorporated in August 2021, in Perth, Scotland, its nature of business being listed as 'distilling, rectifying and blending of spirits', with the clear intention to align with the exacting criteria prescribed by the 2009 Scotch Whisky Regulations:

[ Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch_whisky - sorry, I don't have time to wax lyrical on this, and neither do you]

This time, we only meet again the two distillerettes, Gillanders and Medwick. Up until now, at least, nobody else (attorney, former sales executive, whisky expert) has joined the platoon - TBC? I would not speculate and leave all options open.

There is little to 0 transparency on Skosk's financial situation, at the moment and to be honest, it looks very much like S's co-star (hehe)'s Irish business venture...

... but I was a bit more lucky, and the numbers more chatty, as far as GD Spirits was concerned:

Paging all shipper chartered accountants out there, but to me, it doesn't look great, at the moment. Cash is ridiculous, the net worth is hemorrhaging and the current assets are negligible, compared to 2020, when I think they managed to secure one or two credit lines, but not nearly enough for what they needed. Just enough to pay themselves and their external consultants and cover the operating costs, if you ask me.

The revised Planning Statement, of 8 February 2024, posted first by Marple, echoes my initial guess (COVID blew it up, see link to the first post) and the above assessment:

Mark this: 'Discussions are now proceeding with investors and there is a realistic prospect that work will begin in the near future (2024/2025) to implement the permission.' Given that they will start with the road and parking rehabilitation and upgrading, probably overlapping with the distillery building, it would make sense to begin this autumn at the earliest, with the most urgent: access to the site itself.

The initial Planning Statement, dated 9 July 2020 and re-posted on March 21st, 2024, tells a more detailed story. This is part and parcel of the current project as well, since the revision is just pointing out the changes operated, not the entire rest, which remains unchanged. You be the judge:

Also keep in mind this tiny, tiny thing: the Business Plan is 'submitted (...) under Private and Confidential Cover'. See where I am looking?

The initial plan was (and still is) for GD Spirits to produce their own booze, using Midhope's own barley (this is very important for the rest of my theory!). They even offer an overview of the real impact of their project on the local economy:

20 to 38 initial new job creations for a £ 15 to 30 million investment is not 'huge', madam Marple. Cumbernauld is huge. This? This is rather modest, if you ask me. But hey, what do I know about the labor market, right?

That initial Statement tells also the story they want to tell about the genesis of their idea, the scouting for the right location and a couple of other interesting details:

So they are telling us they started to look for the perfect location in 2018 and oh, hello, they found the Hopetoun Estate rather quickly, already starting the pre-planning application consultations as early as July 2019 (don't get me started, please):

If so, then why did they incorporate not one, but two different companies clearly linking them to the Estate (Hopetoun Estate Distillery Ltd and Hopetoun Estate Whiskies Ltd) the same day and as early as May 23rd 2017 (and both dissolved in December 2022), as my above penciled timeline (LOOOOOL) shows? Who is really behind this project and why this entire ballet? It's like me pre-emptively looking for rental properties in (let's randomly guess) Lisbon, when it's just wishful thinking, heavily projecting and with 0 guarantees I will be posted there, right? I mean, I adore and deeply know Lisbon and I would be thrilled to go there. But I am not currently looking for any rental property, just like that, because that would be a #silly, rookie mistake. In their case, I think there's a different situation - again, you be the judge.

A first answer, as to who is really behind that project, was given by the UK media, back in 2020:

How odd, when we know that both Mrs. Boswell, the well-traveled attorney and Mr. Robertson resigned from GD Spirits in July 2018. Do they still say hi to the two distillerettes? Do they quietly keep an eye on the project? Are they silent partners? Business angels? Shareholders? Time to remind you that under UK law, there is 0 visibility on the shareholder's structure of a company. You just see the officers (Director, Secretary, etc), on the Company House website. On an umpteenth, last- second cross-check, it became apparent that Mr. Robertson remained involved in another company of the distillerettes, Hopetoun Estate Whiskies Ltd (yes, the one mentioned above), until its voluntary strike-off, in December 2022.

Their best laid plans do mention OL, and how could it be otherwise? But all this £ 15 to 30 million hullaballoo for 20.000 people only (who counted them and how?), on a seasonal basis?

High-end restaurant, luxury B&B, event spaces, you name it. Interesting, to say the least.

And, for the people in the back, who still think SRH has a 100 years lease at Midhope (Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ, the stupidity!):

This is why he commented as a 'member of the public'. At face value, there is no public involvement into that project. Yet. But it is my belief there is a vested interest in all this, justifying the comment, the visit, those papers rolled in his fist, etc. At first, I thought that was a visit to Lallybroch by the Exec Producer of OL's Season 8, to discuss technicalities - and shared that privately with a wonderful friend only. I mean, why not and still perfectly possible. But then, as I could not sleep tonight and felt guilty to have you all waiting, I started to connect some tiny dots.

Like this one, for a start:

Yes, I know, Marple told you that FIRST, I would not dare say otherwise, because if I did there would be a transcontinental screech. That trademark application was filed at the US Patent and Trade Office in September 2023 and I thought (and still partially do) it was a potential rebranding solution to The Sassenach's EUIPO nightmare (much exaggerated by the fandom's toothbrush experts):

But you also know I am an idiot and I always check people's CVs, when I follow a thread. This morning, the one Distillerette I am particularly interested in is Mrs. Julia Hall-Mackenzie-Gillanders (née Scales) and not like *urv would be.

Her LinkedIn profile is exceptionally talkative, too:

... and a BA (with Honors) in Fashion Design, class of 2005, at the Northumbria University.

The Financial Times article 'From packing boxes to wine deals worth millions', you can read on her LinkedIn page, tells a very interesting story. It is the story of a shy underdog (lots of temple bells clinging, at the moment), who made it by sheer persistence. It starts like this:

'When a painfully shy young woman contacted a fine wine merchant and said ' I have no qualifications- can I help?', she got the job and today is signing deals worth millions of pounds.'

It obviously did ring a bell and if SRH knows she exists (she is married, *urv!), and I dare to speculate he does, it must have struck a deep chord. Would I do business with her? I wouldn't speculate, although I am not very sure. Would he? He'd probably listen very carefully to what she has to pitch, for a start.

And what she has to pitch is also very interesting, in his world. A brief look at the Golden Decanters' website shows a first high-end single malt sourced collection of 4 exceptional expressions already sold out:

And when they mean high-end, they mean gold leaf labelling and all the tralala:

And, some last minute news, too:

Remind me, because I am an old woman, after this white night: wasn't The Sassenach (no comment, we agree to disagree and I am very skeptical), a blend?

We have these dots, then:

Bold Underdog ->spirits business->high-end collection of single malts sold out->business partnership with owners of Midhope Castle, fictional Lallybroch in OL, including a distillery and whisky production with Midhope/Lallybroch barley -> visit by the male lead and spirits entrepreneur (also the fictional Lallybroch laird) to Midhope/Lallybroch and vested interest in the estate's most recent business project....

What if The Sassenach would be included, for a start, in that new Blended Collection? And could it really be fanfic to imagine a future high-end, limited edition, Lallybroch whisky produced at Midhope, with Midhope/Lallybroch barley? It wouldn't be the first time, would it: after all, they did it with that limited tequila batch.

As I said, because I am (remember Someone? LOL) a 'silly cow', I was hoping he wouldn't do it. But my guess is he might very well do exactly that, with those people and under that label.

It's half past eight AM, local time and I need a strong, black coffee.

I rest my case (and I am bracing myself for the screeching). I will answer Anons later, after I come back from the hairdresser's. Appointments must be kept at all costs. Thank you all for your patience.

#boozewars #business #fandom #shitshow

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nalyra-dreaming · 24 days

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Can’t wait for people to flip when they meet “Privileged French White micro-aggression compilation”’s mentor, Mr. macro-aggression colonizer superiority complex Marius “I married a thirteen-year old former sex slave and adopted him as my son” de Romanus. Marius is his own trigger warning. Wait until they hear about Marius’ disciplinary methods involving whips and willow switches. Or the fact that Marius sent his son-wife to a brothel to learn “important skills”. Or that when he told Lestat about Those Who Must Be Kept, Marius literally framed Akasha’s genocidal tendencies as “taming savages”. Oh boy, it’s not gonna be good.

Like… Who do you think Lestat learned his skewed world view from? Moving to America was probably a bucket of cold water to Lestat. I would like to give Lestat the benefit of the doubt, as his father was an asshole aristocrat. Lestat quickly learned how privileged he was, even as a disgraced marquis’ son. His genuine horror at how the racist fat cats treated Louis said everything to me. I don’t think anyone understands that Lestat is interested in doing better. He is. He’s working through it. He will fuck up, because nobody ever gave him a look outside his little world.

The thing is, vampires do end up in ruin when they stay behind as the world around them goes forward. Just like humans, when we get stuck in outdated ideals. It’s heavily implied at the end of the Blood Communion novel that Marius is slowly going mad. All vampires do, at some point, go through a period of madness. Some just come out of it better than others. In the IWTV novel, Louis eats grass and mopes around his brother’s rectory for a while after Armand hesitantly leaves him. Armand kills his own coven. Khayman loses his memories for a while and wanders the world, snacking on mortals’ bone marrow. Daniel becomes mute and obsessive, luckily finding an outlet in model trains. Poor Lestat lost an eye and had to be restrained, before he slept for a long while. Thorne got tied down for a while. Benji and Sybelle. Unm. Well, Benji ended up with a podcast and Sybelle delved into the piano. And Louis, of course, tried to kill himself once— but it changed his relationship with Lestat for the better.

Okay, so I went on a meta tangent, but the point is, Marius is an even bigger fuck-up than Lestat, and covering him is going to get pretty ugly. And even more existential. I hope viewers stop and philosophize, you know? Everyone stops to question the nature of mankind and how we fall if we don’t move with time.

And as far as Marius goes, hope Justin Kirk is prepared. 😅

P.S. I swear I’m not high, just tired. 🥱

:))

(For those who think the "eating grass" is an euphemism here: "I was picking at the grass, and tasting it, though the taste was bitter and unnatural. The gesture seemed natural.":))

Marius... is going to be something. Which is part of the reason why I keep saying that Justin Kirk will be perfect if he is, because it needs a very seasoned actor with a lot of thick skin to pull him off (and, I mean, Justin does not shy away from difficult characters as we know *nods at Succession*).

It will be interesting to see what kind of wounds they will put their proverbial fingers in.

Like, the casual racism and superiority complex Marius employs has to clash with Armand's recast, too. Not necessarily with the choice (of Amadeo) per se, but with the circumstances. I am betting real money that there will be some very uncomfortable meta commentary on sex slave trade in combination with racism coming up right there (and I for one want them to make that commentary! Even though it will probably lead to more fandom drama.).

These vampires are children of their times, and they do change/adapt/grow, but... slowly. (I am not so sure about Lestat getting his world view from Marius, I think there is a reason why Lestat never became the pupil Marius wanted him to be, and I do think that Lestat might be willfully ignorant at times, which can come off a certain way, but his own backstory is more to blame here than Marius, imho.)

I do not need Marius to be a good character to enjoy the fuck out of him, on the contrary.

I am not sure if the show will go the "whip" way. They might insinuate. I think they will, as with other scenes let the mind of the audience do the rest, which will be more than enough, too. I mean, the audience can read up on it all in the book *coughs*. There's no need to go more explicit than needed.

But yes. I hope Justin Kirk is prepared :)))

And... I hope the audience is prepared as well.

#Anonymous #asks #ask nalyra #amc iwtv #iwtv #amc interview with the vampire #interview with the vampire amc #iwtv amc #iwtv 2022 #interview with the vampire #marius de romanus #justin kirk #the vampire armand

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stoopid-turtle · 5 months

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the art of being a skeptical turtle

So this is a personal post more about my experience as a turtle. If you just want to get to the fun list of candies I totally buy into regardless of evidence, just skip down to where the asterisks are. (Consider this like a recipe attached to a blog post)

For those interested in the whole nerdery going on here, let me share that I had a lot of trouble coming to terms with bjyxszd. I wrote a whole series of posts about it to get my thoughts in order. Now I'm fully on the turtle train, but I find myself skeptical of some candies.

This is gonna get super-nerdy so hold on to your butts.

I'm a generally skeptical person. I come by it honestly. My parents literally subscribed to Skeptical Inquirer and Skeptics magazines. They (well, my dad mainly) were capital-S Skeptics. My family talked about logical fallacies, perceptual oddness, and the fallibility of memory over the dinner table.

Please don't back away. I know self-identified Skeptics are typically insufferable. I didn't know this as a kiddo, though, so the whole "thinking about things skeptically" became just my default way of processing stuff. Nowadays, I wouldn't call myself a Skeptic in the way that some in a particularly obnoxious subculture do. But I do tend to be a skeptical sort. I just don't...you know...think it makes me smarter/better/cooler than other folks.

(Actually, it makes me way less cool bc I can single-handedly ruin a fun party by expressing skepticism about something. Nobody likes a wet blanket. I know this)

My bestie in high school always called me Scully to his Mulder. He would believe anything he saw or read, whereas I didn't. Usually, I was right. Like when he totally thought that the Blair Witch Project was real found footage (It's not. Nobody thinks it is now, I know, but it was part of the promo at the time). On occasion, he was right. Like when he told me that some gray clouds we had overheard were from wildfires in Mexico. I scoffed bc, really, we weren't that close to Mexico. But he was right and I learned a valuable lesson on large-scale weather phenomenon. (He's still wrong about there being a picture of a light bulb in the pyramids though)

So, yeah, that's just how I process things. It's second-nature for me. But I reached a point with my generally skeptical outlook where I considered 2 things to see whether I really cared if people were buying into something I thought was false.

The stakes. If a person believes X, what does that lead to? If I don't believe Y, even though it's true, what does that lead to?

There's a whole bunch of political stuff that heightens the stakes. To take a ridiculous (and outdated one), when I was growing up, there was a common story that AIDS hopped from apes to humans because a gay man had sex with an ape and then had sex with other humans. Thus, the AIDS epidemic.

The stakes of other people buying into that homophobic nonsense were (and are) life and death. (If you believe that...uh...bye?) It's something that's worth me being the obnoxious Scully if I hear someone buying into it.

The stakes of, say, my high school bestie believing that The Blair Witch Project was real found footage was...nothing. It just made him want to see the movie more. Nobody was hurt. It didn't matter.

I argued with him at the time, but I probably wouldn't anymore.

The stakes for believing that bjyxszd, here in international fandom, are perhaps higher than the Blair Witch thing. But only barely. If somebody believes in a particular rumor/candy that I don't think is real, it affects literally nothing. We're both still turtles. We have a lot more in common than we do difference with regards to YiZhan. Likewise, the effect of me not believing a candy that may be true is nil. Gg and dd are not impacted in any way.

(I think things may be different for c-fans, but that's not at all a thing I'm qualified to delve into. I can only account for myself in my context)

2. The other thing I consider is the context. That is, how likely are we to know the actual truth?

Scientific claims have a method to test them (and claims that can't be tested are just...not something science addresses). Claims about current events can be researched using journalism methods or whatever. For that homophobic AIDS story, there's ways to prove that it's not true. For the Blair Witch thing...well, the actors went on the talk show circuit for promo so, you know, the real footage myth was quickly lifted.

Celebrities exist in a different context. Like most people, they have a private life that is not accessible to people on the outside. If they choose to open up about that life, then cool. But if they don't or can't do so (like is the case with YiZhan), then they'll try to keep their private life out of sight of fans.

It really hit home to me when I was doing the bts thing how little of dd and gg we saw in the Untamed bts. We see even less of them now. I'm at peace with the fact that I just will never know much about these guys (I wrote a whole post about it). But the fact that there's a big mass of the unknown means that the possibilities are endless. We don't know and we'll never know.

So I don't have any more authority on anything gg or dd related than anybody else does. So why would I attempt to question or dismiss candies that other people find compelling? At the end of the day, there is a truth, but it's not accessible to us, so anything we come up with is just extrapolation.

Which is fine. It's fun. I think there's real stuff going on. (If I didn't, I wouldn't be here) But it means there's no real point arguing about the specific candies.

(and to be clear, I don't see turtles doing this, really. so this is all just me reiterating my own approach to things bc I'm a person who processes thoughts through long tumblr posts apparently) (and it's not a reaction to any particular candy. this post has been in my drafts for ages)

I think I'm a hard sell on a lot of candies, and I'm definitely the fuddy-duddy who just squints and asks a bunch of obnoxious questions about things.

But I ask those questions of myself and don't feel the need to annoy other turtles with them because, honestly, we're all in this boat together. Some candies appeal to particular turtles more than others, and I think we all kinda have our personal preferences for which ones resonate with us. I'm not here to rain on anybody's parade, especially as we all have way more in common just bc we all believe in bjyxszd.

This is all a long-winded way to explain how I think about candies, honestly. Or more, how I assess candies that are new-to-me and figure out whether to buy into it or not. With anything involving bjyx, I also leave a lot of room for there just being an unknown and unknowable. Again, the stakes are low, and if I'm wrong about any particular candy (in either direction), then...oh well? It affects literally nothing.

************************************************************************************************************************************************

So here's the fun part! The list of candies that I fully admit don't have a whole lot going for them (by my stupidly exacting standards) but that I totally buy into just because I like them.

Basically all lip-readings, but especially this one

(if you don't want to click thru, this is the moment from the Nanjing farewell concert where dd and gg seem to flirt about photos while on-stage)

Okay, I know, rationally, that lip-readings are always gonna be shaky. I mean, I've seen Medieval Land Fun-Time World. If I'm honest with myself, I know that the lip-readings are basically fluffy candy.

But whatever. I choose to believe them. This moment, especially, I adore (and it does come with dd posting a bare-faced photo after!). I think their big grins while openly flirting with each other on stage just jazzes me enough to pretend.

It's all true. I totally believe it.

Related to this is:

2. Any and all CPN about dd and/or gg seeing turtle signs and smiling or otherwise reacting positively.

I've seen such CSI-worthy analysis of sight-lines to try to establish with precision where dd or gg is looking at the moment they smile/look happy. I have no idea how much any of it holds up, and it's not worth the bother to try to confirm any of it.

But whatever. I like it. I believe it. I'll probably believe it everytime it happens.

3. Advanced Bombology.

So there's some things that aren't in dispute here. We definitely know that gg suddenly cut an Olay commercial ad from a 2 day shoot to a 1 day shoot, and it's a reasonable assumption that he did so to be at the DDU anniversary episode with GG.

The rest is a little fuzzy. The video details dd being kinda grouchy in interviews before the DDU shoot, and it also shares an anon rumor from a person who claimed to overhear dd in a studio restroom arguing on the phone with gg. This rumor came out a year after the event.

The rest of the video is some interpretation of the boys' behavior/mood in the DDU anniversary ep.

So, like, I get that anon rumors a year on maybe aren't the most solid evidence for anything. But whatever, I buy it.

And the interpretation of the boys' mood seems true to me, especially the moment where the interviewer asks gg if they'd discussed his visit ahead of time. Gg def does a sweatdrop, panic pause, look at dd moment and waits for dd's lead to answer. I find a lot of mood interpretation from videos a bit much, but this feels real.

In fact, the whole thing just feels real. Maybe that's why it's easy for me to buy. It feels like a real argument a couple would have.

4. The 5/22 fight during CQL shooting.

I talked about this back when I was doing the bts in order.

In tl;dr, dd gives gg a bit of a brush-off response to something. gg responds by cold shouldering him and then doing some passive aggressive sniping about how dd doesn't want gg to care about him. dd gets upset, then he apologizes, then they go on to watch something on one of their phones.

The basis of this one is some gossip plus a video shot from a distance that requires reading lips. So we know that's already fuzzy, and I know I approached this with some skepticism in my earlier post. That was just to be rational about things so as to be honest with myself.

In truth, I buy it. I buy the argument. I buy the lip-reading. Again, it feels real.

5. GG's card to turtles

This is one of those frustrating ones I'm having trouble refinding. Darn.

The upshot, and I'm going from memory, is that there's a CPN about a card written to turtles ostensibly from gg. This came with some handwriting comparison to try to match the signature to gg's known signature.

This isn't something I'd place bets on, because...seriously, it's so fuzzy.

But in my heart, I believe it for no reason other than that I want to.

6. DD as gg's mystery driver

Okay, there's a couple such incidents. One quite recently. Where gg's driver is mysteriously masked such that you can't see their face.

And, truth, it could be literally anybody under there. But for me, it's dd. No need to give me painstaking comparisons of hands or whatever. I'm fully in on this one.

7. The bone necklace.

Ack, don't hate me for this one!

When I was doing my posts about stuff that had convinced me that gg and dd were still together, I stumbled with the bone necklace. To me, it's the main thing that convinces me, but if I'm honest, it really is kinda a leap of faith thing.

With the ox-head necklace, we have the fancam footage to back it up as being from gg. All we have for the bone necklace is the timing and the precedent of dd having already worn a necklace from gg. That's shaky, really.

In fact, I think I saw some other dd CP claiming the bone necklace as theirs (I saw them also claiming the Leica camera). I think they're wrong, but I don't have any solid proof to say so.

I think the most I can say is that there are much harder evidences that gg and dd are still together. But these typically involve massive privacy violations so I'm not eager to spread them around (I kinda hate that I stumble upon them, tbh). But in any case, it has me convinced, so if I already know gg and dd are a couple, then of course the bone necklace is related.

But on its own, the bone necklace is a leap.

Okay, that all said, since I (finally) had a photo of dd last time I posted, I'm dropping a random gg photo here. Not my favorite, cause pls don't make me choose, but one that hangs out my head throughout the days.

#bjyx #yizhan #considerations of being a turtle #it starts nerdy and then turns into a listicle #no judgment for just skipping to the candies #gratuitous gg photo #they srsly just wrapped him in cables and then that happened #what is his waist yall #and why's there a car driving up his lapel?#still sexy

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crp-low-quality-content · 3 months

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What a creepypasta series would look like:

We are imagining what a creepypasta series would look like irl trying to be as realistic as possible because the chances of this existing are very low, Idk this is just my opinion.

Live action or animation?

Probably would be animation, because there aren't many good actors out there willing to record a series like that. Also there's no big studio willing to make this series, the crp fandom is small and most people think that creepypasta is cringe, that's why I think it's easier to be animation probably made by fans.

3D or 2D?

Depends, can be any of them if not both. Is easier to this series be made by fans and most of the animators in this fandom make 2D animation, but it's not hard to be 3D by seeing most of the recent fan arts being realistic not only in the visual aspects, but also in the anatomy, poses and the characters souls.

Genre

For the genre most people agree it would be horror because is what creepypastas are, and it would be good to make them scary again and let the characters be portrayed by how they're really are. But it also could be comedy in some way because nobody is truly scared of most characters and creepypasta is outdated as a horror genre and most people nowadays sees this a something to laugh of, so why not be comedy?

What would the plot be like?

The plot could be something like telling the characters/the killers backstories and then them finding each others and fight or unite to eliminate a bigger enemy. Or it could be a main character that is an ordinary human, maybe an researcher looking for more evidences of the murder cases and end up finding the authors of the murderers and getting in trouble.

Ambient

For the ambient most people imagine woods and mist and it will be a very marking atmosphere for this series, but it also could include scenes in places with sunlight and moonlight to equilibrate.

Characters

The characters are owned by their creators and probably that some of them won't be in this series and that new ones will have to be created maybe.

#creepypasta #creepypasta headcanon #jeff the killer #creepypasta fandom #ticci toby #slenderman #eyeless jack

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anartificialsatellite · 8 months

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Here's a spicy opinion for you, sort of related to that previous reblog:

That thing where something is super popular and then eventually becomes cringe and the Most Hated thing and everyone is deeply morally opposed to it for [reasons]? That is actually where I think most people's problem with Hetalia stems from, rather than from an actual good faith objection to any of the content within the canon.

I've talked a little bit before about how a lot of the objections I see to Hetalia and its fandom are kind of weirdly nonspecific or really outdated or just factually incorrect in a way that suggests that the critic's only real familiarity with it is from their memories of other people's complaints, but I was thinking a little bit about the heyday of the fandom and what the atmosphere was like at that time and how that relates --

It's easy to forget (or to not have been old enough to be present within fandom spaces then, as the case may be), but Hetalia was wildly fucking popular in its time, rivaled in many places at that specific time only by Homestuck... And people in general hated Homestuck to just about the same degree they hated Hetalia, and in fact did so to the point that the fandoms went from "rivals" to building a weird little bond of solidarity over being The Worst.

I'm not saying there aren't or weren't valid reasons to dislike Homestuck canon or the fandom, but what I am saying is that I'm incredibly fucking skeptical of the idea that the general backlash against Hetalia comes or came from a sincerely held belief that it is an irredeemable pile of nazi fujoshit, when I saw a very similar level of venom for people who wore gray body paint at cons at about the same time.

I know I just said a few days ago I hated that people feel the need to constantly qualify their comments to preempt arguments but I'm gonna do it now anyway: This is not to say that I don't think there are valid objections to be raised about Hetalia canon or the fandom and that people can't take real issue with it. I absolutely do, and if you'd like to know more I invite you to come chat with some of us here, because nobody tears up the shit parts of a canon and fandom like people who are really really into it. (So f you come in here to tell me all the totally reasonable reasons you hate it i will bite you because I already fucking said.)

But I am saying that I think a certain amount of people who have to loudly tell everyone how gross they think it is every time it comes up (or who do so totally unprompted) are not doing it out of a real deep sense of moral concern but either out of a need to justify their cringe reaction to it and to be seen doing so, or because they've seen other people doing it and also want to be seen doing so so that people know they don't enjoy the Bad thing and feel an appropriate level of scorn for those who do.

#hetaposting #hetalia #I was never into Homestuck but at one point literally all of my friends were #and BOY HOWDY were people fucking mean about homestuck #also using fujoshit ironically obviously as i am and will continue to be A Fan #of fujoshit

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coffeexafterxmidnight · 2 months

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I have no idea what I'm doing but uh

Hi people in the Overwatch fandom! Let me introduce you to my omnic doctor OC!

Jillian "Jill" Herrera-Cortez - Caretaker

"Don't you worry, I'm the best mechanic in Mexico City."

A young woman with bright gray eyes, long black hair held up in a high ponytail, and freckled medium brown skin. She’s on the chubby side, but agile, with legs built for sprinting and calloused hands. She’s also short - 5’2, not counting the ponytail or boots. She prefers casual clothes - hoodies, t-shirts, overalls and jumpsuits left with the tops tied around her waist and the legs cut off at various lengths. Jill always keeps her safety goggles and collapsible toolkit on her - never know when an emergency will happen.

(forgive the somewhat outdated and inaccurate picrew, I can't draw.)

Jill is a talented mechanic who runs a dubiously legal Omnic clinic in Mexico City. Compassionate to a fault, she works hard to take care of those who come through her doors. She's not afraid to take risks, and her reckless behavior has gotten her hurt many times, but she keeps getting back up again because she believes she's needed. All she wants, in her heart, is to be like her childhood hero Mercy. She'd be a perfect fit for Overwatch... Which is probably why I tend to play her being kidnapped by Talon or Null Sector and forced to work for them instead, haha

Full backstory, written first person POV, under the cut:

Truth is, I try not to think about it. It’s easier to keep a secret, if it’s not always on the tip of your tongue. Maybe I’m the only person who thinks it’s a secret - I mean, who didn’t lose loved ones during the Omnic Crisis? But if I keep it to myself - tell my patients that my parents died in a car accident, if I really have to - then, maybe they’ll be more inclined to trust me. It wasn’t their fault what happened. I don’t hate them. Nobody should hate them.

When I was eight, I got in trouble at the orphanage for it, but by the time I was thirteen, I’d gotten good at it. How could I not? Didn’t matter how the nuns punished me, I wasn’t going to stand by and watch people hurt other people. And standing up for the Omnics never worked, so… I did other things. Misdirection, hiding the victims wherever I could, even the occasional dirty trick. But it wasn’t enough. I don’t see how no one understands - the Omnics are people. I feel more in tune with them than any human. When I was a child, I saw it so clearly. I was looked at the same way they were.

Nobody wanted me either.

I broke the law a lot, to get what I needed. They don’t just leave Omnic blueprints lying around online. At first I felt guilty, and scared. I wondered what would happen to the people around me if I got caught. Seems a bit silly now, doesn’t it? But I wanted to do more. I wanted to help. So I moved away when I was 16, set up a home in a rundown building, and put it back together. I fixed things for humans - still do! - and I bartered, and I negotiated, and I begged for what I needed. I stole. I survived. And nobody seemed to notice, when the Omnics slipped in through the door in the back, or when they came back out. Well, maybe one of my neighbors did, but she never said anything.

And the word got out. That I was kind. That I was safe. That I was good. That I was the best damn mechanic in Mexico City. That’s what I tell my patients, whenever I see them. I haven’t lost any of them, not a single one. Call that a miracle.

It was never just one powerful, traumatic moment. It was a thousand little cuts that led me here. And don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate humans. I can’t imagine hating such a vast, amazing quantity of life. There’s nothing wrong with being human. There’s nothing wrong with being Omnic.

Even now I just don’t understand why my remaining family never took me home. I had two older sisters, three uncles, an aunt, all of them I found after I grew up. I reached out to my siblings… never heard from them. I reached out to one of my uncles. He blocked me. I’m starting to think there’s a reason I’ve been thrown out of the family, and it’s not because of my clinic. What were my parents doing before the Crisis? I have no idea. All their records were destroyed, just like so many others…

I tell myself it’s okay to be alone, that I don’t need them. I wish I could lie to myself as easily as I do everyone else.

#overwatch #overwatch oc #overwatch original character #this is low-key terrifying to do i hope i don't regret this 😅

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pinkyjulien · 4 months

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Hi, i really hope im not bothering you by sending a modding question... i am absolutely brand new to even thinking about modding, and i know theres a big discord out there, but ive mostly heard horror stories coming out of the community so im honestly terrified to even check it out... im just wondering if you have any idea if its feasible to make a mod of Padre's shirt for V? (The one w the sweater over a collared shirt, i feel like ive seen it on other random npcs as well) not asking you to do it or anything, but its one ive never seen in mods so idk if its already been tried by modders and everyone decided "nah this wont work". Again, so sorry if you dont want to be bugged with questions like this, you honestly just feel like one of the most approachable people ive seen in this fandom so far and trying to make any cp77 friends has proven extremely intimidating.

Heya!! It's always ok to ask modding questions, you don't bother at all 🤲

I can't blame you for not wanting to get your feet into big servers, it can get quite overwhelming and frustrating when nobody seems to notice you. Tho I recommend using them as modding-wiki extension! It can be useful to search for solution, plugins and softwares, discord exclusive tutorials, or catch someone's getting help for a similar problem for example. There is no need to be active :3 but no pressure ofc, just know that it's totally ok to join these servers to just lurk

Now for Padre's shirt! I won't be able to do it (not right now at least) so I'll throw infos and direction if anyone else wanna give it a try 🤏

Here's the path to Padre's mesh -

base\characters\garment\gang_valentino\torso\t1_078_shirt__sweater\t1_078_ma_shirt__sweater_old.mesh

Tho we can see its all wonky compared to a regular MA mesh, and that's because this one is specifically fitted for old' Padre (it's even in the mesh file name, _old)

To make a version useable for masc V, we'll need to combine a few meshes available in the same folder!

The main piece: t1_078_ma_shirt__sweater.mesh

The bottom part: t1_078_ma_shirt__sweater_shirt.mesh

The cuffs: t1_078_ma_shirt__sweater_cuffs.mesh

And one of the two available collar: t1_078_ma_shirt__sweater_collar_01.mesh or _collar_02.mesh

All of these should already fit into one another, but if not a lil refit in blender should do the trick!

Then I can only point out to the Modding Wiki and its numerous tutorials for the AXL part (making a standalone clothing mod)

I also recently added my own AXL Workflow in my Tutorial Drive; I'm planning on writing a proper one, for now it's only screenshots from an old private tutorial I made for a friend, some infomartion are outdated (I've learned a lot since then as well) but it can still be useful, hopefully!

Thank you for the ask and for your kind words 🧡 I'm sorry to hear the community hasn't been too welcoming, but there are a lot of good souls willing to help and guide if needed!

A big server that I often recommend is The Cyberpunks; it's a fandom focused server, really chill and friendly, not based entierly on modding but its modding channels are pretty active! I lurk in there, you can catch me in the modding and screenshots area :>

If big servers are out of the picture, I totally recommend trying to get into a smaller server; small bubbles can be more comfortable when the members are well spirited and positive :3

I hope you'll find your place and people you vibe with 🧡 and hope the few info on Padre's shirt can be useful, to you or anyone out there seeing this that might want to give it a try! With a few recolors I'm sure it can be a cute, cozy corpo-ish attire ✨👌

#cyberpunk 2077 #ask #anxious--ace #modding shenanigans

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thejakeformerlyknownasprince · 2 years

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Do you think there’s a possible animorphs resurgence on the horizon? I know the graphic novels were sorta new blood into the series but I’d be really hyped for it to come back into the public eye on a bigger level!

1. I may have a biased perspective, but. I've been seeing "impending Animorphs resurgence?!?!" since ~2012, usually in the notes of a post that escaped containment, occasionally when Applegrant news comes from Twitter. I'm not betting the rent on it. There's been a trickle of fan content, and an IV drip of author content, since 2001. It's safe to say Applegate has remained interested since 1996, and that I'll remain interested in 2036. Other than that, who knows.

2. I'd love more Animorphs content, especially of the audiobook-and-comic variety that makes the series more accessible to new readers.

3. I'm glad Animorphs never got as popular as Harry Potter, and I never want Animorphs to get that popular. Because I don't want Animorphs entering the fandom boom-and-bust cycle. As soon as any fandom becomes big enough online — Night Vale, Supernatural, the MCU, John Green novels, Harry Potter, Sherlock, Joss Whedon shows, Rick & Morty, Steven Universe — the backlash is more or less inevitable. After a while it gets exhausting, like all those times your middle school decided overnight that Bowling For Soup had gone from being the coolest band ever to the worst music in existence. For now the DC Christian universe (Good Omens, Sandman, Lucifer, etc.) is in its salad days, but anyone who thinks the Sandman author is still going to be here in 2025 needs to research their history. This boom will cause a bust. Don't know when, don't know how; I just know that it's coming.

And K.A. Applegate is pretty cool, Animorphs is super cool, but neither is perfect. Animorphs has outdated language about disability; it has lines about how "nobody cares anymore" about Black girls dating white boys; it has jokes from Marco that edge into sexism. Applegate's not on social media much, but Michael Grant's said plenty of ham-fisted and ill-worded things online. If Animorphs ever gets so big that it starts annoying everyone else, then Tumblr will find a reason to attack it. And not just "I dislike it" but "it is morally wrong to like." I'd rather be spared the drama. I'd rather keep the campfire of our love glowing, rather than fanning it into an inferno that destroys everything.

#animorphs #fandom #tumblr #animorphs fandom #if i sound like a jaded crusty old fart #it's because i am - in fact - a jaded crusty old fart #I've openly declared that I like Twilight better than The Lord of the Rings #I have ALL the fandom battle scars #and I'll pour one out for Mr. N.G. when he's gone #because even if good omens and stardust were never my jam; i'll always love mirrormask and coraline

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snowflake-of-destruction · 8 months

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Re: fandom confessions

I think it's completely fine to ship minors. It's fictional and no children are harmed in the process. I like akuroku and I won't apologize since they don't actually exist.

YOU GET THE TROPHY!

It had been a long time since I have given out the trophy and so the credit is outdated. Shaky Mayhemm had long been shaky-flakes and fandom dormant (though sometimes I can still hear her voice) so the updated link to the art featured in the trophy is

There we go. Trophies all around and NEVER feel sorry for the akuroku.

I would say that even about a ship I didn't personally support. They are all just lines on a page, images on a screen, thoughts in a head fictional beings and what we support in fiction is not a reflection of anything but taste in fiction.

And as for akrk specifically? The Nobody factor makes everything ambiguous. Even if Nobodies age normally--and there have been contradictory statements made, fight me--it is not a normal, human life or development. I really don't see akuroku as an age gap ship most of the time. But that's just me.

#fandom confessions #akuroku

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5ummit · 4 months

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Hey, tumblr offered me your crit of the 2023 AO3 ship counts and there is an additional point worth mentioning: 2023 was the year the AO3 community found out that LLMs were being trained on their words and AO3 itself recommended concerned users lock access to their works. While there have always been a few people removing or locking works here and there, the scale of change this past year is unprecedented in the history of the archive. Previously, assessing changes in public work totals per ship would have a more stable rank estimate of new works available to AO3 users. This past year, the noise would be a whole lot bigger.

It's fair to suggest the method of assessment for work counts should change, particularly if the proportion of locked works will continue to be higher and more inconsistently used across fandoms than pre-ChatGPT. Calling the use of a freshly outdated metric shit is not very constructive.

While it's true this past year has been magnitudes worse for privating and deleting fics on AO3 due to the threat of AI, centreoftheselights' data presentation and methodology has clearly always been flawed and inaccurate. I only just happened to notice it now because it's become unignorable.

As someone with a large audience who trusts and respects them, I would argue centreoftheselights has an ethical duty to (1) collect data in way that minimizes error as much as possible and (2) present the collected data, along with its faults and limitations, as clearly as possible so as to not be misinterpreted. They failed unequivocally on both counts. If they published something like this in academia or for an actual job they would and should have been fired.

Centreoftheselights is perfectly aware fans will take these stats at face value and draw conclusions about both their own fandoms and fandom as a whole. It's no secret, it happens every year. That's arguably the whole point of this list. And every year they're perfectly happy to bask in the glow of the praise fans give them for all of their supposed hard work. All the while hiding and obfuscating the flaws in their data. Because if they did make people aware of the flaws, they risk nobody paying attention to it.

When you have data this massively flawed (+60% error in some cases!) you owe it to your audience and fandom at large to make that as clear as you can. This dataset, if presented at all, should've included a banner in big bold letters at the top warning people about the discrepancies in the numbers and that they shouldn't be used as the basis for any analysis, not buried at the end of a separate FAQ post the vast majority will never see. The absolute bare minimum though would be to start by labeling your chart correctly (by calling the count "net gain" instead of "new works") to not straight up LIE and misrepresent the truth.

If they were new at this rather than being a "respected" fandom statistician with a large audience, I would've been more forgiving and constructive in my criticism. They've been doing this for a decade though and there is absolutely no excuse for this ethical failing, whether intentional or through shear incompetence. A statistician who can't accurately label and present their data for general consumption cannot be trusted and should not be allowed to have this much influence.

#apparently there's nothing that makes me more fighty than misinformation #ao3 #ao3 stats #asked

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sapphire-weapon · 2 months

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"ignore all observable evidence and say I'm right//ur wrong" is such a hypocritical and arrogant thing u could say

have u ever considered that the world is huge and everyone is entitled to their own diverse opinions? like if u genuinely think that by posting evidence here on anything and everything u consume is some ultimate fact or truth then uclearly are a self entitled asshole lmao

literally anyone can use evidence for a meta analysis. anyone. the only issue is is that they're all based off on different interpretations and opinions, something u clearly do not understand or are just arrogant enough to believe u know better than anyone else. ur just seeing the world through ur own lens my guy, so why don't u too fuck off and let people see it through theirs same way they want? ur a nobody in this fandom and the internet so that makes ur opinion irrelevant to begin with, same as anyone else and u clearly live in some old outdated time capsule so good on ya

anon's really fucking mad about having to live in an objective reality

this ask is made 20x funnier when you remember they got this mad because of a post about leon's hair color

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ao3-feed-shadam · 1 year

Text

VIDEO FILE

by dibbi_writing

It was on the desk that he found the video recorder. It was old, probably from their days as students, and had stickers all over the side. Shiro remembered when Adam would record videos on their missions. Maybe some of those were still on the drive.

But when Shiro turned on the camera, he didn’t see the expected sixteen-year-old Adam grinning in the now-outdated Garrison ships. Instead, he saw an Adam he recognized a lot more, older with more worry on his face. He looked sad—destroyed even—but maybe a little hopeful.

The video was dated April 6, 2313. The day the Kerberos mission left.

---

Or, Adam recorded a bunch of videos while Shiro was gone, and Shiro watches through them all.

Words: 4386, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: M/M

Characters: Adam (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron)

Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron)

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Reunions, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Adam (Voltron) Lives, Author Does Not Know How To Tag, Adam lives i swear, just bear with me here, Shiro (Voltron) is a Mess

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/43738309

#adashi #shadam #voltron #vld #voltron legendary defender #ao3feed #fanfic

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chaotictarlos · 2 years

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With love, your soulmate

Ship: Tarlos | Fandom: 911 Lone Star | Author: chaotictarlos| read on ao3

Rating: Mature | Warnings: Alternative Universe, Tarlos AU, Brooklyn Love Stories AU, Alternate Timelines, long-distance relationship, fluff, soulmate au, pen pal au, mention of police cruelty

Author's Note: I know it's been awhile since I've posted a chapter to this but thank you so much for being so patient! It's been a bit of a rough go writing this chapter and making sure it's fantastic but it's here now! As always a shoutout to the lovely @noxsoulmate for being the best beta ever!

Nobody has permission to save, translate, repost, upload, or do anything with my fics. My fics are only posted on AO3, if you see them on any other site such as wattpad please let me know. This story was written for an adult audience and is intended for adult consumption. If you are under the age of 18, you should not be reading this story.

(tw: mention of police cruelty)

Hello TK,

I can’t believe that I’ve been doing field training for six weeks now! The weeks are passing by so fast and I’m learning a lot on the job. I’m loving every minute of it… aside from being partnered with Nathan. He wasn’t the greatest today. Again.

I know he’s been a cop for 26 years but he has a lot of outdated opinions so it makes working with him hard sometimes. Today he stopped a homeless person just to harass them and it made me uncomfortable. I intervened the best I could and that lead to me having to listen to him lecture me for an hour about how it was our job to clean up the “trash” in the city as well as take care of the criminals.

I’m also enjoying getting your letters - it gives me something to look forward to each day now. Even if the day is bad, I know that I can come home to a letter from you and it’s like a little gift! Especially after days that are more challenging than the others. I don’t think the classroom training really prepared me for how mentally taxing field experience can be… but I’m still loving every minute of it!

I can’t wait for the next six weeks to pass so that I don’t have to work with him any longer. I hope that my official partner is someone who actually cares and wants to help people. I know that can be hard to come by in this field but I refuse to believe that every cop is corrupt and has such outdated opinions.

But other than Nathan, I am enjoying my job. I do feel like this is what I am meant to do in life and I know that I can make a difference. And maybe I can inspire other people to make a difference too.

I enjoyed the comic that you sent me last week! It was funny! I’ve enclosed one of my favorite comics and I hope you think that it’s funny as well.

I’m always so excited when you tell me about how you’re doing in your field placement! Did you really see a lizard crawl out of someone’s leg? And - there are lizards in New York? I don’t know how you do it, I would have been terrified of that thing. To think… there are flesh-eating lizards… not something I needed to know about but it makes for a good story.