#And now you have to maintain activity because people will think you're dead and you will also think your art sucks

[misc-obeyme]

would u consider obey me a dead fandom?

Um. Nope. I sure wouldn't.

If there's anybody out there who thinks Obey Me is a dead fandom, I would say they're probably confused about what a dead fandom actually is.

I think an argument could be made saying that there is no such thing as a dead fandom. But I'm going to assume you mean that fan content is at an all time low.

Friend, I have been in fandoms where the content was like... you get a fic or two every year if you're lucky. This for a media that hadn't put out any new content in decades.

Obey Me? I get an average of five asks per day about Obey Me. I can queue 10 posts per day about Obey Me. I still average over 800 notes a day on this here Obey Me blog. In the past few months, we've had new artists and writers joining the community and posting their Obey Me fan works. The game is still active and updating. There are two apps even.

So no, I personally would not consider the Obey Me fandom to be dead by any means.

It's certainly been more active in the past. I'll never forget the surge of activity that happened when Nightbringer first came out. My Solomon fics seemed to double their notes over night lol.

But we're also in a bit of a lull right now because we aren't getting new chapters. Every time an event happens, there's another burst of activity. And then things die down just a little before they surge again. That's the nature of fandom.

Another common fandom thing is people coming and going. I've been here for almost two years, but there are others who have been here for four. And then there are some people who've only been in the fandom for a couple months. And then there are the people who were here at the beginning, but have since moved on. Maybe they only stayed for a few months before moving on. Maybe they're only casually in the fandom, dipping in now and again. This is also just the nature of fandom. There's no right way to do it. And it doesn't reflect on whether a fandom is alive or dead.

Hell, we even have plenty of discourse and toxic stuff in this here fandom, too. More of that when there's nothing else to do, I think, which is unfortunate, but also kinda... just part of fandom.

And all of this is just how it is on Tumblr. I know there are active Obey Me communities on Twitter/X and Instagram, too. I'm just too old and tired to maintain that many socials. I actually have accounts on both of those apps but I rarely use them.

And lastly, I'm a big proponent of being involved in fandom no matter how active the community is. By this I mean, if I still have an Obey Me hyperfixation in ten years when the apps are closed down and nearly everybody else has moved on, I will still be here posting fic. Because I won't leave a fandom until I am ready to move on from it, dead or not. (Sometimes this can mean you are one of the few people still creating for said fandom, but you might be surprised at how many people will still enjoy what you create.)

[beating-a-dead-plot]

Please Read If You Live In The USA

Hi! My name isn't actually Petunia, it's just a nickname, and I used it so I could maintain some level of anonymity on here and protect myself from shame and awkwardness. That is no longer an option to me.

I live in New York state, not the big city, a different region. If you are female, non-binary, or transgender and over the age of 18, living in a state that isn't so fun as mine, maybe you could come visit me? Maybe you finally decided that your random internet bestie should be your real life bestie and you just have to meet each other! After all, good friends are so hard to find these days! I live with family currently, so you would have to find a place to stay for your visit, but I would just love to finally get to meet you!

I mean, we could check out Niagara Falls, it's basically in my backyard, or we could take a little food tour of Western New York! If money is going to be tight, maybe it'll be on me if I'm in a decent spot with money, but if we're just two broke idiots, well, public parks are always a great option to hang out in, or we could hole up in your staying place and have some fun talking about all our favorite fandoms and characters! Also, we could take a little day trip to Canada, border's right there and and as long as you've got your documents and behave going through customs, it's fun! The butterfly conservatory is amazing, I bet you'd really love it! Think about how fun it could be to just have a little get-away with your internet bestie?

I don't care about my own embarrassment anymore, I will take being embarrassed for being a freak over not being at least offering to help people who need it right now. I'm nobody, I have like four mutuals and only one talks to me consistently (Which is my fault, NOT theirs, not playing the blame game here, not even close), but if someone needs a justifiable excuse to hang out in NY for a bit, send me a private message.

I don't care if we're mutuals or not, I don't care if you're even in the Star Wars fandom, I'll read up on something if you need me to. I can help with finding activities and resources in my area, I will gladly scope out the best hotels/motels/rentals in my area if you need me to.

Even if no one sees this post or takes me up on this, I just want to know, I tried. I tried to do something to keep people from being hurt when they shouldn't have to be. I'm currently a part-time college student and looking into getting applications in for jobs, but if you need help, if you need someone to be on your side when your own family isn't, come to me.

At this point, if you voted for the person hurting us? Still message me if you need help. I loathe your choice but I am not going to let you be hurt or worse because of it. Don't get me wrong, I am furious with those who voted him in, but if I let you suffer because of him, I would be no better than the hateful bigots on the other side from me.

And if immigration is what your goal is, I will gladly try to help you with Canadian immigration or coming to NY to explore your options. I will not help you cross with the intent to do so illegally, but a day-trip to check out Ontario? I will do it. I will not help with anything outright illegal, but if you need help and are willing to be close enough to legal not to get me arrested, I'm here.

There's this thing I saw people saying on social media "I could hate her more than anything in the world, and I still wouldn't leave her alone with that weird man at the party." You are now all in that first category, I don't care if you're a Trekie (I had to add humor, I'm losing it), you will never catch me leaving you alone at this party unless I am truly unable to, which would be if I'm arrested and/or dead.

Reach out if you need someone, there's none of you who should be left to the wolves now. <3

I am AFAB, cis-gender as far as everyone knows, I will now be referring to myself as straight but I used to go by bisexual as a label, and 23 years old. For more details, DM me and we can see what we need to do.

[writingjourney]

I want to write, and I did a little bit when I first the fandom of Ghost a few months back. But I quickly resolved back to thinking I'm not good enough for anyone to like it and people don't even care. I know the best way is to write for myself but I depend on validation. And I don't have any range to even be seen by anyone. I know I have to put myself out there but it's so difficult when you're afraid of the world out there. :(

I feel you anon, it IS difficult to put yourself out there, to build and maintain a presence online – especially if you're dealing with things like social anxiety and self-doubt. You have to ignore your mean inner voice A LOT and convince yourself not to delete that fic, not to talk yourself down constantly, not to compare yourself to others who post similar things. Believe me, no matter how many people follow you or how many notes or hits your work gets, this never goes away if you are an introspective, insecure person by nature.

I'm not sure if I'm the right person for it, but I think I can try to give you some words of wisdom. I feel like the hard truth is that being creative has to (mainly) come from intrinsic motivations or you will not keep it up long-term. You have to love the story your writing, it has to be something you are happy to work on no matter if you post it or not. Extrensic motivation like notes/comments etc. can definitely help to get you to create more often but if your inner drive is not there it just takes you so much more effort to push through the insecurities. The best kind of writing is the story that gives you incredible brain rot because you're obsessed with it, not the one that gets you the most notes online. And I say this (I know) as someone who is lucky to get a lot of validation from others these days, especially friends.

The truth however is that it takes work and dedication like any other craft to get better at writing which also helps to get more confident, something an online audience cannot give you because it depends on factors beyond your control like fandom size/platform/ships etc. When I started writing fic on this blog in 2016 I was a tiny small account with not a lot of followers who was new to writing in English as well as the world of fanfic, I didn't have the best skills yet and posted x reader fics for maybe 10-30 notes if I was lucky, even for bigger fandoms. As time went by I improved, I found mutuals and a small community of writers but then eventually I abandoned this blog for a couple years because what happened is that I started writing for other people and not myself anymore. Taking requests, finishing stories for characters I was no longer into etc. It KILLED my creativity and I went back to other work beyond fanfic.

I went on to posting my fics exclusively to Ao3 when I did write because my motivation was the story itself, being obsessed with whatever media I had found, and not being popular in the fandom. I knew that was not gonna happen because my obsessions fluctuated and I was just a beginner writer who had a long journey ahead (still have I feel like). But the lack of pressure helped to actually get me to write. Instead of listening to what others want you have to allow your creativity to take you places and write the stories that inspire you, hop between fandoms and characters and tropes and be self-indulgent as fuck even if maybe two people read it. Finding writer friends REALLY helps with that.

I returned to tumblr for Ghost in an attempt to find community, not even really to stay here for so long, and I happened to be lucky to get here at a time where the fandom was VERY active and people were reading a LOT of fanfiction. Right now the fandom is pretty much dead compared to that time. When I came here I tried to be active because that is what I knew from when I started back in 2016, writers supporting writers, readers sharing a variety of works, multifandom accounts hopping all over the place, lots of activity not even bound to one bubble but across fandoms. I read other people's works on here and shared it, supported the new favorite writers I found, befriended people who I thought are cool etc. and I continue to do that now.

I feel like that is the key to having fun in fandom really. Because while a few people scout or follow the hashtags you post your work in most people will not bother digging through them (tumblr search is just horrible) but rely on what the people they follow reblog and put on their dash. People won't see your works if you stay inside your tight little corner and never interact with the community because there is no algorithm pushing it out. To be supportive is the best way to receive support and the best way to support others is to do so genuinely and not with the intention to get back. I KNOW this can be sooooo scary but I have only ever found it to be very rewarding in the end because kindness is contagious, you reap what you sow etc etc. I really hope you can find the courage to put yourself out there and listen to your creativity and let it carry you places instead of letting the outside world affect how you approach your creativity.

I hope this helped in some shape or form. I know it is all easier said than done but a LOT of people are sooooo kind and supportive if you show them that you are out there and care about them as well, I promise! ♡

[666writingcafe]

Exam Prep, Part Two

Solomon

"For the practical part of your midterm, you'll have to deliver a curse or hex, and you'll have to block one."

"I know," MC replies. "The professor went over that in class today."

"Right. I keep forgetting that you're the studious type."

"Does that surprise you?" I smile.

"For you, no. It makes perfect sense. I'm just not used to working with people who are quite so attentive."

"I've always tended to be a bit of a bookworm."

"That's good. Knowledge is power." MC snorts in amusement.

"You sound like Satan."

"Where did you think he got that from?" MC briefly looks perplexed by my statement, but quickly shakes their head.

"Is something the matter?" I ask.

"Not particularly. It's just that the questions I have will end up sidetracking us, and I can't afford to waste any time." I chuckle. They're definitely the most responsible person that has ever stepped foot in the House of Lamentation.

"All right then. Let's get started. I believe you'll do fine as long as you maintain control, but it never hurts to practice. So, today you and I are going to have a friendly duel." I position MC at one side of the room, and I take my place at the other.

"Why a duel?"

"Because other than wanting to mess with someone, you'll most likely curse or hex someone while you're in a fight."

"I see."

"Now, when you're actively battling someone, you can't afford for them to know your next move. You also don't normally have a lot of time to plan, so each second is valuable."

"So, you have to have the curse you want to use in mind, and then silently deliver it."

"Exactly." I appreciate the fact that they learn quickly. It makes things a lot easier for me when I don't have to repeat myself constantly. "For this exercise, just worry about blocking me. Once you feel comfortable, we'll switch to you delivering. If we have time, then we'll duke it out."

"None of this is going to be lethal, is it?"

"Of course not. You can't take your exams if you're dead."

"Except if I turned into a ghost."

"But then you would have to get ghost-friendly supplies, and that seems like a lot of work for a simple midterm." That makes MC laugh.

"I suppose you're right," they say once they compose themselves.

"So, are you ready?" MC nods their head.

If it weren't for the fact that I'm confident in their blocking abilities, I wouldn't even think about delivering this curse to MC. The brothers would kill me if it actually stuck. However, it's the first curse that pops into my head, and nothing else is coming forward.

So, I silently utter the curse, and its energy shoots out of my hands and heads towards MC. As expected, they block the curse. However, instead of simply getting absorbed, the curse bounces off MC's magical shield and hits me square in the chest with enough force to send me backwards. My back hits the wall, causing me to slide down to the floor.

To say that I did not anticipate this happening would be an understatement.

"Solomon!" MC's panicking. "Are you alright?!"

"I'm okay." As I stand up, I make sure to avoid eye contact with MC.

"I didn't hurt you, did I?" MC walks over to me and places a hand on my shoulder.

"Not permanently, no. I'll definitely be sore for a few days, though."

"I'm sorry, Solomon. I had no idea that this was going to happen."

"Neither did I. Very impressive." MC pauses. They must have picked up on the fact that I'm not looking at them.

"Solomon, what type of curse did you send?" I sigh.

"A love curse."

"Go on." If their tone is any indication of their feelings, MC seems cross with me.

"The person affected becomes infatuated with the first individual they lay their eyes on. The effects normally last for about a hour." They don't say anything for a couple moments, and I wonder if it would be more or less terrifying to have them yell at me for what I've done.

"How long have you had feelings for me?" The question catches me off guard. I wasn't expecting them to be so blunt.

"A while," I admit.

"Why me?"

"To be honest, I don't know. I haven't allowed myself to feel this way about anyone in a really long time, and yet somehow I've managed to grow quite fond of you."

"I see. Are you afraid you won't be able to control yourself once you look at me?" Damn. They're really observant. What else have they picked up on?

"Something like that. The combination of your power and my emotions will most likely intensify the effects of the curse, and I don't want to put you in a situation you don't want to be in."

"And yet you chose that particular curse." I feel like they're smirking at me.

"I knew it wouldn't hit you. You're an excellent blocker."

"Thank you." Footsteps indicate that they're walking away from me, and for a moment, I'm convinced that they're going to leave me in this room alone as punishment. However, the door not opening indicates that they're still here.

What exactly are they doing?

"Solomon?" Their voice is coming from the direction of the couch. Are they sitting on it?

"Yes?"

"How long do you reckon the curse would last under these circumstances?"

"At least a couple hours. Why do you ask?"

"I'm just making sure that I won't be missed." I'm confused.

"What are you getting at, MC?"

"I want you to look at me."

"You better not be joking." The words escape more harshly than I was intending.

"I'm completely serious. Of course, if you would rather I fetch someone else..." They trail off as my eyes finally meet theirs. Sure enough, they're sitting on the couch.

"That won't be necessary." I quickly walk over to the couch, where I lean down and kiss MC on the lips. Before I can pull completely back, MC pushes me onto their lap and deepens the kiss.

This is going to be a long afternoon.

[nettlestingsoup]

they might be uncharismatic organisms to OTHER PEOPLE. to me they are my husband and my wife and my best friend and the love of my life <3

(do you have a top ten uncharismatic organisms? i'd LOVE to know)

GOD you're so right. and i have MANY uncharismatic organisms that i would love to share with you!!! this list will not be in order of preference it's just gonna be Cool Things.

1: naked mole rats!!! it's kind of in the name! they're naked rats that live underground! a lot of people think they're really gross but they have an absolutely fascinating and very complex social structure that's almost similar to bees, are the only cold-blooded (or mostly cold-blooded) mammal, and are resistant to cancer. it's insane.

2: the suriname toad! the female rears her young in hollows in her back! it's extraordinary, but don't google it if you have trypophobia.

3: earthworms. i think it would be an honour to be reborn as an earthworm. they're fantastic ecosystem engineers, and so much of the soil depends on their ability to break down leaf litter and aerate the earth. they are humble, but mighty, and i think they're very beautiful.

4: vespa vulgaris, the common wasp. i know people hate wasps, i do, but if you stay still they will not sting you, and they're capable of wonderful feats of architecture. they're also incredibly important for maintaining and managing populations of other invertebrates. i think the key theme of a lot of uncharismatic species is that people underestimate their importance within an ecosystem, and vespa vulgaris is certainly one of those.

5: woodlice! i'm very familiar with these little beasts, and i think of them as friends. i grew up in a very old house, and it was very common to see them in corners or behind furniture. they're actually crustaceans, not insects, and they can only survive in damp or submerged areas (except for one species, which lives in the desert!!!)

i'll stop here for now with detail because i have things to do but i also adore vultures (beautiful, beautiful creatures that, like earthworms, do their ecosystem and incredible service by breaking down the dead), hagfish (which have a skull but no spine and are slimy beyond belief), great crested newts, aye-ayes, and ants (again, fascinating social structure, and some species such as leafcutters actively farm fungi that can't be found in the wild)!

i hope that was educational!!! they are all my nearest and dearest, especially the earthworms and the woodlice <3

[valkyurii]

I thought the game was trying to reassure us actually xD In a manner like, "We know we've stated multiple times that Malenia is undefeated. But worry not. You'll be fighting a half-dead version of her! She's defeatable!"

I guess there's always room to argue how intentional the blooms are since it's vague enough. Though, my opinion is… hmm.. Regardless of whether Malenia actively chooses to bloom, I think significant feelings of despair will inevitably be present. Because it's only natural to despair on the brink of death, no? Unless she has zero survival instincts. And it's not as if she can find closure like Millicent. During the first bloom, she fights with purpose. During the second, she's not expecting a fight. In both cases, whyever would she instinctually willingly go down just because she's "not supposed to win"? Anyone else in her position would be resigned to carrying their resentments to the grave. But that doesn't happen for her since she harbours a parasitic time bomb which exploits the human condition. These are my current messy thoughts anyway. But I don't particularly care if she bloomed on purpose.

Maybe Malenia's combo of difficulty + novelty needs time for evaluating or adjusting to. Maybe that's why more people are coming round to her now. She's like an acquired taste in a way? Which also means some people just hold feelings of aversion towards her.

Sorry to give you an awkwardly late response. Sometimes I overthink what to say even when anonymous. Btw, my ask isn't an essay question with a limited word count :P rant if you wish. I enjoy reading your response. Thank you. And I too hope you're well.

Hey anon, so sorry for the late reply I haven’t been on here much this past week 😅

Oh you’re right though it could well be the game trying to reassure us I was mostly joking lol. What Gideon says about her being in the Haligtree, but potentially being dead would give us indication that she may not be in a good state when we get there. Also speaking of Gideon I always find it interesting how he never seems to elaborate much on her. There’s an option to ask about the others but not her or Mohg or Miquella. Mohg I get cause no one knows he’s the Lord of Blood. But I still think it’s funny how the All-Knowing knows nothing about the Haligtree or the twins. And then when we tell him about Miquella he’s like “maybe we should kill him because I do not want to be around if he wakes up”

I agree with what you say about the bloom. Despair seems to be a key factor according to Gowry and while I tend to take a lot of what he says with a grain of salt, he does seem to be on to something there. It certainly seems to be the case with Millicent given the two outcomes of her questline. I don’t doubt it would be the same for Malenia as well. During her fight with Radahn she was physically and mentally exhausted by the end, making it harder to fight off the rot, which we know takes a lot of willpower on her part. Then there’s the possibility of her failing to win the war. You put all that into perspective and it’s easy to see why she acted out of desperation like that. That feeling of despair is bound to set in. This is all just my speculation though as I know it’s a very controversial topic at this point. It’s hard to discuss these things at times as there’s so many people who think the war was over nothing and Malenia just threw a tantrum because she couldn’t beat the Big Man and she just wanted to maintain her undefeated status. It’s so funny I swear, if she didn’t have that line about never knowing defeat people wouldn’t be so upset over this.

"During the first bloom, she fights with purpose. During the second, she's not expecting a fight. In both cases, whyever would she instinctually willingly go down just because she's "not supposed to win"?"

Yeah this is something that’s always confused me with this fandom. Because I am genuinely curious as to how people think Malenia should have responded in either situations. People seem to think she should have let both Radahn and the tarnished win simply because it would have been easier for both us and him, instead of using everything at her disposal to try and take us both out. They act like she should have just lay down and died. I mean god forbid Malenia fights with everything she has. This is like that argument I saw a while ago that was like “why does Malenia attack us on site?” I mean are people really mad at that?? We break into her home and stand in front of her armed to the teeth looking for a fight. It’s hardly surprising she wants to kill us lmao. The amount of bosses that do the same thing and yet no one ever complains when Godfrey opens his fight by launching at us in a similar way.

Sorry this just turned into a rant post. I appreciate the message anon and again I’m sorry I took so long to reply and didn’t really have much to say <3

[ocean-again]

alright, they first put me in therapy at age 7 and as an adult I've returned to it repeatedly. (even despite getting several bad therapists that I couldn't swap out because I'm on medicare and I'm not allowed to be choosy) So, I hope you find my perspective a bit more useful to you.

lets address your concerns, first off: it's important to remember that you're allowed (heck, encouraged) to have and maintain normal if/then boundaries with your therapist. like, just because they're your doc does not mean they get to be the boss of your life. they really only have the power you choose to give them. (power is derived from the consent of the governed and all that)

pills make you feel bad? don't fucking take them.

therapist wants you to try some woo bullshit you don't like? don't play along. or hell, pretend to play along to get them off your back about it and then change the subject next session.

group therapy has cult vibes? don't go back!

don't want a vacation to the land of the grippy socks? don't tell your therapist you can an active plan to kill yourself unless you want them to stop you from doing it.

(note: this is not the same as talking about ambient suicidal ideations like "I wish I was dead" or "I belong dead" that's just depression, it's normal. also, if you are actively suicidal and you wish somebody would step in, a therapist sending you to inpatient can help in some circumstances, but again, you can choose to tell them about if if you want to go. if you don't? Don't. )

therapist isn't good with gender/sexuality issues? worth asking for a different therapist if you can, but lets be real, if you can't swap? Not all therapists deserve the full picture of your life. make them help you with what they can and wait for a fresh intern when the bad one burns out. (advice only applies to medicare therapy)

"my siblings might get taken by CPS" alright, one, CPS prioritizes placing kids with family. they're way likely to end up at your grandmas or your auntie's house than they are with some stranger.

two, think of a mandatory reporter as an OSHA inspector, the job isn't to "disrupt business" it's to shut down the factory before the boiler explodes. they're also only going to shut down the factory if the boiler is threatening to explode, mostly they just go "huh" issue a warning, and let it slide.

three: CPS is overloaded. they don't have room in the system for your family, so if they decide to intervene? then the situation is Extremely Bad.

four: to return to my original point, you don't have to tell your therapist everything. like, I know they want to hear it, but if you don't want to tell them you don't have to. Now, I think you should. I think as the one kid getting sent to therapy you have a unique opportunity to be the family whistleblower, but it is not your job, and you don't have to.

therapy is mostly useful if you have depression or anxiety, if your family is shit, or your life is falling apart, therapy can be useful for identifying your problems and patterns and getting some help in figuring out how to solve those problems and build better patterns.

not everybody needs that, a great deal of people can manage just fine by journaling and having levelheaded friends.

also, personally, I've found that therapy is what I make of it.

if I want to have a mostly normal conversation about my day? then that's what's gonna happen this session. if you're finding it to be an emotionally fraught experience? that's because you're bringing that energy to the room and it points to you maybe needing to ask for strategies to deal with anxiety.

not that you have to, they're just gonna be like "ok lets consider the worst possible outcome, lets consider the best possible outcome, now lets consider what usually happens" which you really don't need a person with a doctorate for.

(also, you're not gonna get arrested for sitting in a room having a conversation. if you don't want to get arrested simply don't yell or be scary and threaten people, don't throw chairs, don't try to stab fellow patients with the goddamn art therapy supplies, and you'll be fine. they don't arrest you if you can keep your manners on. I realize not everybody can, but like the threat of being arrested at therapy is another aspect that is fully within your control, just like it is at fucking starbucks. if you can be normal enough in public to get coffee? you can handle going to therapy.)

Therapy would be so good if it were good

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 49: How It'll Go Down

Cassandra and Willow sat in Zach's house, each one sitting on an old wooden chair. No ornate design, just ordinary wooden chairs that looked ready to fall apart. Neither talked to each other, they both knew that they were one conversation starter away from a full blown meltdown. So Cassandra stared out the window, at the large white building that jutted out from behind the town. According to Julian, it was the Sharp Life university, the best one outside of Sangaria. It put the nerds in one building to help the jocks get stronger, while ensuring they wouldn't have to deal with their bullshit either. According to Julian, it's a pretty loved system.

The guy Zach was just talking to walked out of the room, waving goodbye to them as he did. Zach beckoned both to the room, a smile plastered across his face as they entered.

"How are my two finalists?" he asked, quickly dropping the smile when the girls entrance dropped the mood with it.

"Fine." Cassandra sighed, sitting on another chair. This one was nicer. Probably custom made.

"Excellent." Zach nodded in reply with a finger snap. "Anyway, let's cut to why I got you here. Now, I'm assuming you've heard the rumours of Legion activity around the tournament."

"Yep." Willow said, giving a side-eye to Cassandra, which she just tried to ignore.

"Well, it's been confirmed. We left a fake gauntlet at the top floor of the hotel to see who'd take the bait. Sneaky bastards got it without anyone noticing, and we're down one bodyguard."

"Wait, you can't mean-"

"Dead." Zach cut Willow off. Willow's gaze intertwined with Cassandra's, but neither said anything.

"So, we gotta scare them. Real bad. And that's where you two come in."

"I'm guessing you want us to use the relic weapons?" Willow asked.

"Right on the money." Zach said as his smile returned. "Keep hold of your weapons, and bring em into the arena. Hopefully if anyone thinks of invading, it'll be stopped."

"Don't they have their own weapons?" Willow asked. "That they can use?"

"I mean, we can fight. We could at least be targets instead of innocent people in the stands?" Cassandra said nervously.

"I mean, if a pleasant conversation doesn't stop them, I guess that plan will have to do."

"So…we have an agreement?" Zach replied, getting out of his chair, his excitement already showing at the explosive replies Willow and Cassandra were gonna give.

"Sure." Willow sauntered out of the room with her hands in her pockets, leaving Cassandra and Zach together.

Zach clapped his hands together in hopes the sound would scare off the tension, which didn't work in the slightest.

"Well. Guess you're free to go." He said after a few seconds.

"Look, can I ask you something before I leave?" Cassandra asked.

"Go ahead." Zach said quietly, sitting back on his ornate chair.

"Look, I don't have memories of anything since I got here, and nothing's jogging my memory. So…what's up with your dad?"

Zach's frown extended, and his eyes lowered.

"You sure you don't remember anything?"

"Nothing."

"Got it." Zach sighed. "My father was the previous ruler of this place. Once the skyspace was established, my family took it upon themselves to ensure the peace. They used to run a country which history forgot the name of, and so were given a grand when humanity moved up here."

"Wait…you forgot the name of an entire country?"

"Weird, isn't it?" Zach nodded. "But two hundred years of my family's rule continued until my dad, Michael, took over. He quickly tried setting up Fightston into a nation focused on glory. He started either deporting or outright throwing out people who didn't meet his qualifications for strength. Because we were the nation defined by it. He managed to fend off some terrorist attacks, stuff rumoured to be the start of the Legion. Whipped everyone into a frenzy. But we didn't have scholars or anyone to maintain the place, so he started issuing demands to everyone for infrastructure. People followed to keep the peace, until old man Rory stood him up.

"Saoloro Rory?"

"Yeah, about twenty-five years younger. He refused to give Fightston any food until they could prove they could contribute, and a few others followed suit. And a few days later, an assassin tried to get him. And the people said the worst part was that it failed. Once that happened, I invited Marcel over to try to start some kind of peace talks, and Cutter showed up in case anything went wrong."

"So then what?"

"My dad died." Zach said casually. "Nobody knows what happened, and his body was dumped out of the Skyspace before an autopsy could be carried out. So it was up to me to fix everything. I begged Rory for help on my knees. And it impressed him enough to get some help sent. So I fixed the place up, got some funds to build a college for the smart people here, and then changed everything from a monarchy to a democratic system. I ran for re-election a year ago, and people liked me enough to keep me around."

"So they never figured out how your dad died?"

"It didn't matter much." Zach answered casually as he moved to look out the window. "What matters now is the present, and the final round."

"So, scaring the Legion off with the weapons?"

"Precisely." Zach nodded.

"Also, on the topic of the Legion, I wasn't thinking of what I was saying during the show last night, so I think I should apologize to you-"

"Why?"

Zach's one word response attacked her, rendering her to feel like a bunch of feathers were stuck in her mouth, trying to get a response out at the same time as getting them out.

"Well, because…you know, people think I'm defending the Legion, but I'm really not, and-"

"Nah, I got your message." Zach said, sharply turning around. "And honestly, I'm with you."

The feathers all left Cassandra's mouth in one divine motion as the endorsement left his lips.

"Wait, you're with me!?"

"You talk sense. Inside the Legion ships are probably a bunch of kids as scared as we are of whatever their leader is, and getting them back seems like a way better option than killing them all. Heck, you could be from there, seeing as you don't remember the rest of the Skyspace."

He started to chuckle at his own joke, stopping when Cassandra was trying to hide her own look of fear.

"You aren't actually Legion, are you?"

"I…have no idea." Cassandra answered slowly, trying to contain the horror in her voice. "When I fought the Legion in Inariu, one of them called me the key to everything."

"And you don't know what that means?" Zach asked, sitting back down.

"I have no idea!" Cassandra screamed. "Am I the daughter of the ruler, one of the old elites memory wiped for some reason!? My boyfriend keeps telling me to relax, but what if the Legion set off a kill switch in me and I wake up over his corpse?!"

"Well, I don't know." Zach sighed. "I don't think there's something that bad, seeing as you've had the chance to take weapons several times. Personally, I think you should sleep on this. Feel free to take a spare room if you want."

"Nah, I'll head back to the hotel, thanks."

Cassandra shuffled out of Zach's house and back to her hotel room. As she passed the busy streets, filled with innocent lives that the Legion could take at any moment tomorrow. She tried to look out for anyone particularly shifty, but it seemed to be business as usual, nothing stood out compared to her previous visits over here, besides a few kids looking up at a rooftop.

"So, what's going on here?" She asked. Even with her hat, the sunset meant she couldn't make much out."

"Our ball's stuck on the roof!" One of the kids whined. The building looked abandoned, probably something Zach's dad probably destroyed and they never got around to fixing. There was a streetlight nearby, and she was able to climb on top of it and get onto the roof without much hassle. On top were several balls, so she just threw them all down below and jumped back on the streetlight, and back to ground level. The kids were too busy playing to thank her, but that didn't matter much. She was happy with her good deed, because an action like that proved she was a good person.

Certainly.

And the finals would just prove that further.

Absolutely.

[famia-of-87]

Guess who's gonna revive this blog soon because twitter is screwing me and everyone else all the same

[jennycalendar]

ok so like it's been a hot minute since i watched season 2 but i've always felt like… jenny did nothing wrong? not even in a Fave Defending way? like this isn't about anyone's in-universe reaction but i feel like a lot of people, even jenny enjoyers, say she still did a Fuckup and should be sorry, even while acknowledging it wasn't her fault and buffy/giles' anger was unjustified. but what did she even fuck up really?? her only crime is a lie of omission! what good would it have done anyone for her to tell them the truth? it's not as if she was really double-crossing them. she was actually on BUFFY'S side by not doing anything about their relationship, like she was actively going against her family for their benefit and most importantly she didn't know about the trigger. and you can hardly blame her family for wanting to keep tabs on the curse when everyone is fully aware how brutal angelus was. and she immediately tried to undo the damage that SHE DIDNT EVEN CAUSE (i know they didn't know that at the time on the show but for the broader context? and i think it's clear she even cared more about having hurt buffy rather than about maintaining the curse simply for curse reasons) idk i know i'm an overly forgiving person but hello?

as much as i would love an alternate version of the show where jenny lives, it could've also been a Really Good death if they had allowed it to resonate. give me buffy desperately trying to make peace with a dead woman in season 3.

and on that note, sorry to say so many things but this just popped into my head lol- idk if you've talked about this before but if jenny had lived, how do you think she would react to angel coming back/buffy seeing him in secret? because everyone else was so angry. (true giles was mostly angry because angel had killed jenny, but maybe say angel had tortured her/severely wounded her or something? to get a similar degree of Giles Mad for arguments sake?) do you think she'd be pissed off about it or overcompensate with supporting buffy out of guilt or what? 😃

hglshkhlshlsgdk this is such an unpopular opinion that i have to water it down when i suggest it, but i actually completely agree with absolutely everything you're saying. there is this constant perpetual narrative that jenny did something wrong and should have told them, but sheeeeee really didn't there! she had absolutely no relevant information that would have stopped angel from turning. there has been the half-suggested supposition that the scoobies finding out jenny was there would have prompted them to ask questions as to Why she needed to be there, or that it was jenny's responsibility to ask more about the purpose of her mission, but, uh, giles also has a mission with some questionable ethics going on and we don't see him questioning the higher-ups until season three! she has an ingrained sense of loyalty to the people that raised her, and from her perspective, she's just watching some guy and reporting back to her uncle. definitely some foresight would've been USEFUL but her lack of investigation/independence, while dumb as hell, isn't the catalyst for the angelus stuff & it's doubtful that that could have stopped it anyway. like. even if they knew about the happiness clause, there was always the possibility that buffy and angel wouldn't have realized that sex with buffy would make angel truly happy! and MY POINT IN ALL OF THIS is that just trying to frame jenny as At Fault requires the same kinda supposition that i'm throwing around now. the same kinda ifs-buts-maybes. there really wasn't anything she could have done to change what happened.

and like you said, she was straight-up team buffy from the get-go! the very first scene we see is her going "sure yes i'll take buffy away from angel" and then she makes one halfhearted really bad attempt and completely gives up? and can that even be called an attempt? like she was making a VALID POINT, literally who else was going to be able to take the judge's arm safely to nepal or tibet or wherever? but the show treats everything she does as if she's some disney villain when what she's doing is actually just kinda...trying to figure out a way to make this work for the people she loves. (and the framing is deliberate! the sinister music that shows up whenever jenny's doing Sinister Things that actually are literally never sinister. looking at u, surprise party invitation.)

so yes i completely agree. the only crime jenny committed was being a smart confident lady, which she obviously had to be killed for, because no adult woman on btvs can be smart AND confident AND morally upstanding AND alive all at the same time. you get two. jenny just barely gets two and a half so she comes out ahead.

also -- hm! hate to say it, but the thought that immediately comes to mind is jenny kinda considering herself too low on the totem pole to actually have the right to say she's not comfortable being around angel, especially after everything that happened in the previous season & how things were left between her and buffy. i think that giles would pick up on this really fast and be cosmically fucking horrified by this. like maybe during the intervention the scoobies poke jenny to try and get her to say she's not comfortable and she just totally demurs and draws into herself and that very likely makes buffy feel Even Worse About Everything. (maybe jenny's critically low self esteem post passion in an au where she lives is something i'm seriously thinking about as this watch continues, because i really don't think you can go through a whole month of the people you love--both blood family and chosen family--just cutting you off and treating you like dirt without feeling like you're not honestly a part of the team. blowing a little kiss to @hal-1500 because something good TOTALLY GETS THAT imo.)

[doberbutts]

it's particularly weird when both Fenris' breeder and the owner of one of his littermates, who IS cropped and docked, are right here and linked extensively in the last few days? Like I don't want to bring crap down on Ron or anything but it's extra bizarre when you're been extremely publicly hanging out with a bunch of Dobe people this week all of whom have cropped/docked dogs and... you personally... have one totally intact adult and now one totally intact puppy.

like I'd assume the axe grinding was an attempt to get you to yell about the horrors of docking/cropping but... obviously.... you are willing to continue working with and maintain close relationships with people whose priorities differ on that topic...

which makes the axe grinding and repetitive questioning even stranger

@grison-in-space​ Honestly I think you are being too charitable. Considering one of the more recent events was someone randomly swinging at me not because I had posted a recent photo of either of my cropped dogs or, apparently, because they had seen my desktop blog theme which features one of them, but simply because I am a doberman blog and dobermans are a cropped and docked breed. In their words, since I don’t have a disclaimer that I disapprove of the practice (because idgaf what other people do) in my bio or a pinned post, I was fair game to swing at and label as pro-crop/dock (also incorrect) and thus yell at and call an abusive monster. When I said that this is asshole behavior and I didn’t appreciate it, they made the excuse that actually it’s because they just care about the animals and I’m the asshole for being annoyed that I was called an abusive monster for even liking the breed.

So yes I am very done with repeatedly getting this question. My cropped dogs are dead. The dobermans I have now are fully natural. That’s also what I wanted in the first place but one was a rescue who I got at 2 years old and thus the ears were not even remotely my fault, and the other I purchased from a breeder at 13 weeks, he was cropped at 6, and I only even heard about him for the first time at 11, which again means that I had nothing to do with his ears having been cropped. Same with tails. Now I have a natural import from a country where it’s illegal and I have a natural puppy born in a country slightly more allowing than this one (also technically an import).

And as you said what’s more annoying is that there are multiple people on tumblr who deliberately chose to have their puppies cropped and/or docked and those people do not receive a fraction of annoying questions and abuse allegations. Not that I want them to- many of them are my friends. But still, to continuously bother the one person who actively did not want a cropped/docked dog in the first place because either their two previous dogs were cropped/docked or because the breed usually is and thus the whole breed is tainted, is really fucking obvious and also really fucking annoying.

That being said, this apparently was asked in good faith- the anon poked me in dms and explained t hey just didn’t know and they weren’t aware that this is a repeated harassment tactic that got old 9 years ago let alone today. My answer, however, remains the same: I don’t care what other people do with their dogs, it seems unnecessary so I don’t want it to happen to my own dogs, stop calling surgery under the care of an actual doctor abuse just because you don’t like the practice, go spend some time with actually abused and mutilated dogs like I have before running your mouth about ears and tails, WHY CAN’T LITERALLY ANYONE BE NORMAL ABOUT EARS AND TAILS.

Since I've seen a few of the dogs you've posted on your blog have it, I want to ask your opinion on tail docking/ear cropping for dobermanns (and by extension other dog breeds)? I'm asking because I live in a country that has banned both practices and the image of the cropped ears/docked tails is so prevalent in breeds like the dobermann.

My opinion is that I'm tired of having this discussion 2 years after my last cropped dog passed

[kingofthewilderwest]

I feel like Tumblr also feels like a ghost town because of the NSFW ban, and how we found out that certain parties were using the site to further nefarious schemes. It means that it's harder to trust new people because they could be lying about their fandom love as part of a factory job.

Both of these are counterable, and I use this as an encouragement for folks thinking of being active to make tumblr a more social place - reblog with added comments, have public blog conversations, talk to people, etc. My response isn't going to be directed specifically at you, but for all peeps coming into this conversation. And I realize we were also talking about events outside us, but I want to bring this in to what “We can do.”

"Ghost town" to me always feels like the Brother Bear meme. "Sometimes I can still hear his voice." ;)

What you're saying works from an analytical factual standpoint, because that was a cultural turning point of tumblr. "People left" is a description of one reason we saw tumblr become less social. And seeing deactivated blogs is a thing.

But it doesn't work from when trying to explain why you (universal "you") aren't talking now. The onus of maintaining tumblr social culture isn't on others who've left; it's on us who've stayed. We, the people using this website, direct what this website's culture is.

That many people left tumblr for the nsfw ban, while true, minimizes the fact others are still here. Ghost towns don't have dashes full of new posts. I know all of us go on tumblr and see active bloggers - otherwise, what content are we consuming? ;) And as long as there are humans we are following and reblogging, then we have the possibility to talk to them.

We're walking around, a bunch of living people, on a platform that is alive, keeping it alive by our being there, where each of our many posts is a throbbing pulse and our reblogs reach the limits of the circulatory system, but saying, "We're dead." And that's hilariously backwards. I can either look at a slightly wilted plant and water it and foster it to blossoms, or I can quit watering it and kill it. But whether the plant lives or dies is on me. And folks need to quit watching, blaming others for inactivity when you're the people on tumblr, and start doing.

I am not going to cover the administration's financial situation. I am just talking about USER CULTURE.

A community can be extremely vibrant whether it's 300 people, 3,000 people, or 3,000,000 people. Some of the best discord servers I've been in have 6 people and some of the least vibrant servers I've been in have 600. Some of the best social media groups or platforms I've been on have been smaller. Whether or not there is a smaller userbase on tumblr now than in the past does not need to dictate whether or not we choose to talk to someone.

2. Learning about things like Russian tumblr bots is going to be a fact of life wherever you are. Tumblr isn't special. This has to be a thing people need to grow to handle. Learning how to balance the duality of trust and sometimes-'betrayal' will be infused in every fiber of every society. There will always be a faker, whether it's the falsely happy coworker telling lies for clout, the companies that pretend they support a social issue for sales, or the internet blogger pretending to be 16.

Loss of trust sucks, and it can be hard to work through, but living by a generalized distrustful mindset where everyone is now out to get you is going to make things psychologically worse and less fulfilling. In the end, the way to combat a disappointment is by finding meaningful, supportive relationships again. And you can't do that by hiding from everyone. Health often comes with community, not isolation.

Of course of course of course, internet safety, but folks were hopefully acting by internet safety before anything was revealed about Tumblr Blog X, Y, or Z. Internet safety is a constant, just like there's public irl safety. I think that someone should always be operating on websites with a grain of doubt for who you're talking to - anything else is letting the guard down too much, exactly because they're strangers. Doesn't mean there aren't awesome ways to socialize with genuine humans. I can still have fun talking to strangers, irl or url. Just don't expect them to be incapable of wrong.

For something like learning a blog making political posts had a bad angle? I mean, this is just my view, but tumblr is Horrrrrrrrrible for accuracy and intent on political, social, religious, etc. information. This isn't the best site to believe what we read, anyway. Like, just keep the doubt up and the fact checking on, is what I encourage.

Socialization is always a learning and growing process. But no one grows if no one's socializing.

Besides, it's going to be easier to figure out if the blogger is a real person when you chat with them on a day-to-day informal basis, rather than keep 'em at an arm's distance ;)

"Don't make the same mistakes twice" (like trusting blogs with certain political content without careful triangulation) is different than "don't try again" (talking to someone for recreation).

----

I 100% encourage people to reblog posts with comments to create a sense of social culture on this website again. Your points are about factors of the past, which are facts. I agree with you there. These happened and contributed to tumblr’s changes, yes, totally, good points. But if we're going to talk about reasons for personal inactivity, it's always on the person to be active. It's by doing things in the present, rather than dwelling on pasts, that something changes.

[the-incorrigible-chaia]

I think people need to understand that Rowling is not an Irrelevant Problematic Author From The Before-Times. She's not Tolkien or Lovecraft or some other dead author who put racist things in their books, she is actively attacking trans people (and Jews*), as a famous person. The operative words here are actively and as a famous person. She's utilizing her fame and influence, influence that comes from the social (and literal) capital gained from the Harry Potter fandom, to attack trans people, and she's doing it now, not fifty years ago. If you want to protect trans people, you need to cut off the resources she is actively utilizing to attack us.

This isn't about whether supporting problematic writing makes you a good person or not. Harry Potter could be a holy grail of literature, and it wouldn't change the fact that Rowling is actively utilizing her influence to hurt people. Shunning Rowling and boycotting her media isn't a moral purity thing, it's directly cutting off her avenues of power, because she is using that power to hurt people.

Rowling is also not your friend. She doesn't know you or care about you, beyond the clout and money you give her by consuming her media. She is a famous millionaire (her net worth is £820 million, to be precise,) and she does not give a shit about you as a person. There is no reason for you to care about her as a person beyond "this is a person who has human rights." Not to mention, if you like Harry Potter and haven't spoken out against Rowling, she is actively putting her words in your mouth. Rowling has claimed that 90% of Harry Potter fans support her transphobic opinions but are too afraid to say so. If you stay silent on this, you're letting her speak for you.

In conclusion; it doesn't matter what you think of Harry Potter in this context. What matters is whether you're willing to do the work to protect us, or are content to be used by a transphobic, antisemitic millionaire as a cudgel to attack us, just because you like her books.

*The new Hogwarts Legacy game is incredibly antisemitic, with literal blood libel in it, and while Rowling wasn't directly involved with the game, she's maintained an iron grip on the Harry Potter franchise and the game could never have gone with the plot it did without her approval.

[netheritenugget]

I think my other ask got eaten but thoughts on Cleo or evil X designs?

Your asks didn't get eaten, I just got a lot of duplicate Hermits when I was sleeping, and decided to answer them from oldest to newest. Haven't had anybody ask about Cleo or Evil X yet though, so I'll definitely answer them!

Cleo is so cool. Her gorgon skin is pretty neat, but I like her OG zombie skin the best. I like when people interpret her as sewn together, maintaining her own body like it's fabric rather than flesh. It fits well with her habit of creating things like her armor stand people. There's something really fascinating and beautiful there, being the master of your own creation, shaping your own body how you want it to be with care, needle and thread, painting on your irises just the right color of orange. Because screw it, you're dead, you get to define how you live now!

I don't have a favorite Evil X design, but any character who has somewhat of an eldritch horror flavor hiding underneath a facade of humanity is just *chef's kiss* And I do find how this has evolved over time very interesting! Evil X has a pretty long history of unique fanon and headcanon designs, dating all the way back to Early Hermitblr in 2019. While his design could have just stayed "Xisuma but creepier," I think things diversified because people were actively looking for new and fun ways to differentiate between him and Xisuma's Doomguy skin. If he looks less like Xisuma, then you can easily understand at a glance that he's his own character, even if you weren't familiar with Xisuma's content before. Besides, since Xisuma and Evil X's species and appearance under the Doomguy suit are somewhat nebulous, people definitely liked to speculate and make headcanons about that, too. So from the very beginning, there was plenty of room for interpretation!

[system-reset]

I don't mean this. how could I? it's just been difficult lately. there are rooms in our house that we don't go into. rooms that belonged to people who aren't around anymore, rooms that hold memories too big for any of us to handle right now, rooms that belong to those of us who are still in denial and those who have been difficult to work with.

it's hard to live life when you're only conscious for short periods of time. hard to budget when nobody seems to be able to agree on what we should be buying. hard to play games because the reality of this particular mental illness stew that we've got going is that if we get too enthralled in an activity we start to disconnect from everything. hard to maintain friendships when you often fail to remember your friends' names.

I love them. I don't think this body would have any living consciousness at all if it weren't for every single one of us. I think we'd be dead if I hadn't split off years ago. we almost were several times.

I love them. but god are they hard to help at times. it's like herding cats. ironically, our cat alter is better at following directions than most of the rest of us.

I think maybe it's time to consider some... spring cleaning, so to speak.

[ialreadyreadthatfanfic]

It's been 20 years

I've always been a proponent of firm divide between fandom and creators, and by extension, between creation and the creator. It was instinctive, mostly because I find the idea of creators commenting on fanworks in public invokes in me very strong embarrassment, both first- and second-hand (and it kinda ties in with the reasons I don't vibe with RPF). And in many ways, this is a very comfortable seat to be sitting in! The author is dead, my city now. If the actor playing my fave says something stupid, I don't have to care about it. I was into MCU, I was into Sherlock, I was on Tumblr in 2012, I am familiar with the ways that creators, actors, writers can fuck over fandom and be fucked over by fandom. It is very freeing to Not Care. But sometimes even shooting the author at point-blank range is not enough. This is about JKR and Harry Potter series, actually. In last weeks I've heard some echoes about the new HP game, the one where the plot is apparently that you're stopping goblins from taking over white wizarding world and kidnapping white wizarding children, or something like that. Frankly, I don't want to go looking for more details to make myself angrier, the gist is that it was made by racist people, it's bad, and you know a person crossed some kind of moral horizon if a literal war criminal (Putin) invokes your name to prop up his propaganda! Looking back, it's kinda bewildering how she ended up where she's at if you weren't paying attention. There was a post on Tumblr - which sadly I can't find now - that summed up how it happened, how she started more liberal-aligned, through her clumsy attempts at retroactively making series more inclusive ("Dumbledore is gay but it's not plot relevant") and then how she descended into being a TERF. Consequently, we - as in fandom - are having some very relevant discussion on how to deal with that. Harry Potter is too big, and JKR is too involved with her creation to ignore the issue. She's still making money from it. She has a Twitter, she has a platform, she is having real world impact. Which is why I'm writing this, even though I haven't actively participated in HP fandom for years at this point. It's making me uncomfortable (which is good) and it makes me re-evaluate my connection to and attitude toward her works. HP was my gateway to the fandom. I was a young teen and the religious media in my country were decrying the series as morally degenerate and when I started to read it I indeed went "morally bankrupt" at speed of light in exactly the way these media predicted. It took me barely three months to go from reading these books to reading gay fanfiction! When you're raised catholic in almost entirely catholic country, such journey is a thrill and a revelation. HP fandom was so big and vast that a precocious tween with unmonitored internet access could get exposed to very different world-views and end up really expanding their horizons. I cannot help but look fondly back to that part of my fandom experience, and I cannot help but remember fondly the communities, the fanworks, the batshit crazy wank. The last time I let JKR make money off me was when I paid for tickets to the first Fantastic Beasts movie, I think. The experience was ok in so-so way, a bit underwhelming, so that along with whatever glimpses of JKR twitter reached my carefully maintained Tumblr dash, it just so happened that I didn't get drawn back into HP. Her media presence corrupted the franchise like harmful radiation, and I'm not inclined to touch it any more. I don't feel quite the same aversion when I go through my folder full of saved fanfics from back when I was into HP, and I'm not removing my HP fic bookmarks, or anything like that. I still believe that the author doesn't and shouldn't intersect with the fandom. But there is a certain MZB-eqsue effect (MZB - Marion Zimmer Bradley, the author of and the reason why you probably didn't read "Mists of Avalon"). Even if I hadn't moved onto different fandoms by now, I would be distinctly

unenthused about HP by now. HP fic, these derivative works, I'll probably still enjoy, but the source material?... Ah, I guess there's a pang of regret originating from my nostalgia, but I'm fine if it fades into obscurity and becomes largely irrelevant. We can shoot the author, we can proclaim the author dead; however, the corpse is still stinking up the place.

Dear JKR, if only you weren't such a piece of shit! Then we wouldn't have to throw you out along with your stuff in order to air it all out.