cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7450501

New post: Many migrants know this question: “Why did you come to Germany?” I write about why it’s rarely as innocent as it sounds. We often talk about migration as if it were just a personal decision — ignoring wars, repression, the arms trade, and Europe’s part in all of it. I try to unpack what it means to be asked such a personal question in that larger context.

A dark, fantastical tale that is intended to unfold a paragraph, or thereabouts, at a time.

On Publish0x:

https://www.publish0x.com/storytelling-in-paragraph-proportions/fragment-119-xmgjked?a=X7axkJW3ey

On Wattpad:

https://www.wattpad.com/1603386270-storytelling-in-paragraph-proportions-fragment-119

On Minkly:

https://www.minkly.io/series/chapters/1784

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7329625

New Post: What happens when a majority group responds to systemic struggle with the word "too"? This post explores the idea of "derailing"—how universalising experiences can inadvertently silence the specific realities of immigrants in Germany.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7211534

Wrote this series first of all to vent about it, but also to preserve a trace of what was said and how it was answered. End of the #HamidStory series: from classroom → publisher ("Textbooks aren’t sociological analyses") → school ("We’ll forward this" / "do it yourself") → Outcome: responsibility dissolved.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7127371

New Post: After a discrimination complaint about a German coursebook hit a dead end with the school and publisher, I asked NGOs and academics for guidance — and got neither answers nor meaningful responses

#HamidsStory #GermanCourseBook #ImmigrationNarratives #Germany #Immigration

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7066766

New blog post: A concrete case from German language education: a textbook narrative, a complaint, and how a language school responded — appreciation without responsibility.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6956399

The second part of Hamid's story: Wrote to the publisher about Hamid's overly grateful story—got polite dodge. Found sloppy "Migrationshintergrund = Ausländeranteil", chased again. Same pattern: small promises, big skips.

A dark, fantastical tale that is intended to unfold a paragraph, or thereabouts, at a time.

On Publish0x:

https://www.publish0x.com/storytelling-in-paragraph-proportions/fragment-118-xplpdlp?a=X7axkJW3ey

On Wattpad:

https://www.wattpad.com/1592023116-storytelling-in-paragraph-proportions-fragment-118

On Minkly:

https://www.minkly.io/series/chapters/1053

A group of unauthorized war reporters goes to a guerilla war zone, rumored to the most bloodiest, morbidly interested in the horrid tales about the local militants the government had warned them beforehand, and they are left seeing a spree of bloody results of atrocity after atrocity.

At first, there's a handful of guerilla fighters but what they do doesn't seem congruent with the bloody atrocities; in fact, while stealthily observing them, they're as confused and horrified as the news crew by the atrocities. At the end, they encounter this rogue group that captures and kills in their vicinity any civilians and guerilla forces, and mutilates them off-screen, and doing the same to dead gov't soldiers, though they aren't shown to be killing any of them. When the news crew, still mostly intact, sneaks out safely and in fact meets an incoming squad of gov't troops, hoping to report the grisly tales with the evidence they have at hand, they get shot at, and what's left of the surviving reporters runs away from the troops.

One survivor, who still remains in the area hidden, takes a recording of the troops that shot at the reporters, and the troops greet the 'rogue' unit casually at their campfire-lit base in the night. Those mutilating 'rogue militants', earlier, turns out to not be just allied to them but part of the state-sanctioned paramilitaries against the insurgency. A few of the killed reporters' corpses just hang in the background, by a tree because the 'rogue' units procrastinate from continuing their mutilation plans, and besides the mundane chatter, only the sound of crickets and the crackling fire fills in the silence. The camera of this person recording cuts mid-way, and the reporter who recorded it and whom we took their POV in this last scene, their fate is left unknown.

You know what'd be darkly funny. If it was indicated that the reporter, who was recording, and assuming we take his POV, had mentioned or someone else mentioned earlier that their camera was kinda low on power.

Note - this plot was inspired by US-backed death squads.

After that cut, the credits roll in, and we get to see the cast's photos, albeit it's vague if the credits are in character or not. I mean, cursory search of the names will only reveal the names are fictional [or maybe not; perhaps the actors used their real name for the movie].

It's as if we watched a documentary, for whom the movie was the leftover footage from the events that occurred.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6819666

"From the perspective of an immigrant from a Muslim-majority country, this story sends a troubling message: the message is that simply escaping war should be enough reason to be grateful.”

Feel free to comment on it!

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6754525

New Post: First part of a small series based on true experiences. The text describes how everyday discrimination is encountered and how different institutions respond — sometimes clearly, often very distantly. It also touches on the uncertainty of whether reporting is worth the effort.

#Discrimination #EverydayLife #ImmigrationNarratives #Germany #immigration

A story about an AI girl who works in cemetery and ends up turning yandere and kidnapping you or a story about a tsundere girl who works in a store and ends up dealing with rude customers while falling in love with her coworker?

Episode 1: Pilot (Mayumi Oniyama is a Ball of Rage)

[We see a girl with reddish-pink hair working at a desk]

Girl: [sighs] Another day at the store.

Girl, voiceover: My name is Mayumi Oniyama. I guess you could say I’m a typical young adult. However, I wanna be more than just typical.

[Shows “sprite” of Mayumi leaning on her elbow, daydreaming]

[Shows drawing of Mayumi in a racecar]

Mayumi, voiceover: I want an awesome racecar!

[Shows drawing of luxury home]

Mayumi, voiceover: I want my own house!

[Shows Mayumi sitting on a pile of money]

Mayumi, VO: I want to be wealthy!!!

Mayumi, VO: But of course, I’m stuck at this crappy store job, especially since I decided not to spend my money, which I didn’t have, on college.

[Mayumi quickly checks her phone]

Mayumi: (Of course no one has texted me…)

Mayumi, VO: That’s right, no one even bothers to text me, my life is so depressing.

[A customer approaches and she puts her phone away]

[Mayumi listlessly scans the items, which are canned corn, eggrolls, sushi, and rice crackers]

Mayumi: [Bored and tired-sounding] That’ll be 2,310 Yen. Would you like your receipt?

Customer A: Sure!

Mayumi: [Doodles a smiley face and a flower on Customer A’s receipt] Have a great day, sir.

Customer A: Thanks! You too, ma’am!

Mayumi, voiceover: [Mayumi is scanning more items as people are in a line] I just wish I had a break soon…

[Customer after customer comes by and Mayumi has the same monotone “Have a great day” over and over]

Customer B: [As the old lady walks out the door] Keep smiling, honey! You got this!

Mayumi: [Half-smiles back] Thanks…!

Mayumi: [Thinking again] (That’s right, I do got this! I’ll be the nicest employee ever, with a nice car, a house, filthy rich, and…)

[Suddenly, a buff guy approaches Mayumi, trying to act “cool” but being rude.]

Guy: Yeah, woman, I don’t have time for games. [He sets down the items forcefully]

Mayumi: What?

[Mayumi scans the items and bags them, one by one]

Guy: [Crossing his arms] What’s taking so long? Even a kid could do what you’re doing. All ya have to do is scan and bag. Move those pretty hands, sweetheart.

[The camera zooms into Mayumi’s face, her eye twitching]

Mayumi, VO: But one thing most people don’t know about me unless they’re a certain group of people is, my patience is running thin.

Mayumi: [Screams at the customer, slamming her hands down on the counter, her face red] Oh, come on, dude! Can’t you see I’m trying my best over here!? You look like the type who doesn’t have to work and can’t get up off his lazy ass!!! So people like me, unlike you, actually understand how hard it is to have a freaking job!

[Mayumi starts panting, realizing what she said]

Guy: [Stares in stunned silence with a shocked expression before walking off] Fine. Whatever.

Mayumi: [Stares at the customer as he walks away, surprised at what she just did]

???: Mayumi!!!

[Mayumi jumps]

[We see a guy with dark brown hair, fairly muscular]

Mayumi: Hiro.

Hiro: Is there a problem? [Smirking]

Mayumi: [Gulps, looking worried] N-no, sir!!

Hiro: C’mon, princess. You don’t have to call me “sir”. We’ve worked together for what, a year and a half now? I’m just Hiro Hayashi.

[Hiro leans in to Mayumi]

Hiro: I saw what you did over there. That-That guy’s face! [he starts laughing]

[Mayumi starts nervously laughing, too].

[As Mayumi stops laughing, the screen pans out]

Mayumi, VO: Maybe my life isn’t so dull.

A dark, fantastical tale that is intended to unfold a paragraph, or thereabouts, at a time.

On Publish0x:

https://www.publish0x.com/storytelling-in-paragraph-proportions/fragment-117-xgnlvwv?a=X7axkJW3ey

On Wattpad:

https://www.wattpad.com/1585642408-storytelling-in-paragraph-proportions-fragment-117

On Minkly:

https://www.minkly.io/series/chapters/697

You, a lonely person in their late teens/early twenties, go to the cemetery in the middle of the night with a friend Mike as a dare by him, as he suggests the place is genuinely haunted and you'll be able to speak to dead loved ones/people. You and Mike end up getting yelled at by a worker there who is in charge of many things, specifically burying the dead. They ask what you're doing here and chase you and Mike out of the cemetery.

Despite this and the fact they don't seem to like you much, you can't seem to get them out of your head and have the desire to learn more about them.

You keep going to the cemetery each day in the middle of the night, this time without Mike, just to see them.

They react with hostility at first, and are confused as to why you keep coming back. They just don't want you there. Just as you're about to leave, however, they show a warmer side and seem to want you to come back!

You find out their name is Kanami Yamamoto and that they are agender (main pronouns they/them), which of course, you don't have a problem with.

Kanami starts to show a friendlier side to them and starts to REALLY, I mean, REALLY take a liking to you.

They even tell you that they're a sentient AI created by their "father", famous developer Charlie Yamamoto.

Kanami invites you to their house that Charlie bought them and in it is a secret room in the basement labeled Kanami's Safe Haven.

so many characters can have many different "dere" types. i already did a post (crossposted as well) asking if my character Kanami was a yandere, and so far, the consensus is yes. however, would they also qualify as a kuudere/tsundere character? one or the other? both?

The first side Kanami shows to MC (you!, this is like a game/story idea where MC's features and gender is determined by you yourself) is hostility.

Kanami seems creepy at first, as they are a cemetery worker. They enjoy teasing other people and are quite cold to you (MC) the first time you see Kanami and interact with them.

Kanami then starts to show a more cheerful side to them before they become obsessed with you.

Maybe a kuudere-yandere blend, a tsundere-yandere blend, or a kuutsunyandere type thing?

Kuudere characters for anyone who doesn't know, is "A stock love interest who is calm and collected on the outside, and never panics. They show little emotion, and in extreme cases are completely emotionless, but may be hiding their true emotions."

Tsundere is "A stock love interest who is usually harsh, stern, cold or hostile to the person they like, while occasionally letting slip the warm and loving feelings hidden inside due to being shy, nervous, insecure or simply unable to help acting badly in front of the person they like."

кросс-пост из: https://thelemmy.club/post/37307493

Kanami "Mimi" (also known as Kanami Yamamoto) is a sentient AI created by developer Charles (Charlie) Yamamoto, a Japanese-American programmer.

Kanami, as an AI, forever takes the appearance of a 19-year-old. They were made to assist people and end up working in a cemetery and help by burying dead people as they can move very fast and work quickly.

The first side Kanami shows to MC (you!, this is like a game/story idea where MC's features and gender is determined by you yourself) is hostility.

Kanami seems creepy at first, as they are a cemetery worker. They enjoy teasing other people and are quite cold to you (MC) the first time you see Kanami and interact with them.

Kanami then starts to show a more cheerful side to them. In "side stories", which aren't part of the canon story, their cheerful side remains. They are also known as Mimi in the side stories, but when they get more serious in the main story, they go by Kanami. However, in the main story, they develop an obsession with you and end up kidnapping you due to their fear of abandonment. They will do anything for you just so you stay with them forever, including cooking for you, doing services for you, etc.

In the basement of Kanami's house, Kanami has a "safe haven" where they try to make you as comfortable as you can but isolate you from your friends and family and cause you to go missing. Several people have escaped, but they are determined that you won't.

A yandere is defined as "A term for a person who is initially loving and caring to someone they like a lot until their romantic love, admiration and devotion becomes feisty and mentally destructive in nature through either overprotectiveness, violence, brutality or all three combined." "Yandere characters are mentally unstable, deranged, and use violence or emotional abuse as an outlet for their emotions."

This is kind of just a vent post. I've self-published a bunch of novels, and a few years ago a small publisher published three of my science fiction novels. I churn out about two novels per year, and have four or five right now that are ready to be published, I'm just waiting for the voice actor I'm working with to finish recording the audiobook of the second book of a historical-fantasy trilogy I finished writing and editing a year or two ago. I'm thinking of producing my own audiobooks myself.

I'm working on a new novel that I'm really excited about, one that's been in the back of my head for at least fifteen years, and it's coming easier to me than anything I've worked on in years. Yesterday I wrote seven pages in about an hour in the morning before work, which is a lot, and very fast, even for me, but it's not an unusual rate with this book. This book is almost three hundred pages long right now, I only started it about six weeks ago, and I've written it so fast that when I look back at earlier sections, I barely remember writing them, and can enjoy them almost like a random reader, and they seem pretty good to me, but I'm pretty sure that when I publish this book, no one is going to read it, and no publisher will risk publishing it.

My current projects are:

• historical-fantasy LitRPG trilogy about four modern American teenagers teleported to 11th century Byzantium (only the first volume has been published, there's also an audiobook);

• Imagine if the OG StarCraft was a novel, but more communist (finished but not yet published);

• Freya McFadden's The Housemaid, but with a stand-in for Jeffrey Epstein (finished but not yet published);

• a diary about working as a blue collar worker. I was publishing it online chapter-by-chapter until it got me in trouble with the police, even though I kept everything in the book vague and anonymous. I can’t publish it until I leave the country;

• What if a planet identical to Earth appeared on the other side of the solar system right now, and we found out that people lived on that planet, except on that planet, it's the year 1492? (I'm writing the first draft now)

I write these books for fun and out of boredom. Sometimes I'll get home after a long day of work, I'll be exhausted, I'll take care of dinner and my kids and keeping the house clean, I'll check the news and watch youtube or tiktok for an hour or two, and then there will just be nothing left to do except write and research. I have been immersing myself in the Aztecs and the Maya for a week or two now, for instance.

Still, I'd also like to be a famous writer and pay the bills with my work, but years have gone by, and I would guess that thousands of people have spent money on my books total. For this to be more than a hobby, that needs to be thousands of people per month, not over the course of, like, six years or so, which is how long it's been since I "went pro" as a writer. I know people are going to tell me that I should advertise and promote my work, and I actually spent a lot of time doing that, and it just drove me nuts and went nowhere. People here can critique or offer advice if they want, I'm just venting. I didn't post links to my books but if you're curious about them, you can message me. They were on libgen, but that never works anymore. I'm not sure if they're on Anna's Archive.

A dark, fantastical tale that is intended to unfold a paragraph, or thereabouts, at a time.

On Publish0x:

https://www.publish0x.com/storytelling-in-paragraph-proportions/fragment-116-xmgklod?a=X7axkJW3ey

On Wattpad:

https://www.wattpad.com/1580206886-storytelling-in-paragraph-proportions-fragment-116

A dark, fantastical tale that is intended to unfold a paragraph, or thereabouts, at a time.

On Publish0x:

https://www.publish0x.com/storytelling-in-paragraph-proportions/fragment-115-xplnxve?a=X7axkJW3ey

On Wattpad:

https://www.wattpad.com/1575859222-storytelling-in-paragraph-proportions-fragment-115

A dark, fantastical tale that is intended to unfold a paragraph, or thereabouts, at a time.

On Publish0x:

https://www.publish0x.com/storytelling-in-paragraph-proportions/fragment-114-xjymexe?a=X7axkJW3ey

On Wattpad:

https://www.wattpad.com/1572535450-storytelling-in-paragraph-proportions-fragment-114

A dark, fantastical tale that is intended to unfold a paragraph, or thereabouts, at a time.

On Publish0x:

https://www.publish0x.com/storytelling-in-paragraph-proportions/fragment-113-xnjlpqm?a=X7axkJW3ey

On Wattpad:

https://www.wattpad.com/1567621291-storytelling-in-paragraph-proportions-fragment-113

A dark, fantastical tale that is intended to unfold a paragraph, or thereabouts, at a time.

On Publish0x:

https://www.publish0x.com/storytelling-in-paragraph-proportions/fragment-112-xvprznl?a=X7axkJW3ey

On Wattpad:

https://www.wattpad.com/1564521127-storytelling-in-paragraph-proportions-fragment-112

Sometimes I write poems and wonder if people in this comm have some advice for song writing and/or poems.