#Eventually I want to do some variety streams

[thefirstjoman]

Hi, all!

I finalized the last two widgets on my site so I am now confidently launching V1.0 of my full-feature landing page! (tfj.logicality.ca)

It’s my one-stop shop to find my Twitch, YouTube, and Absolute Fave music on Spotify, as well as get the deets on my streaming schedule (times in PST) and peruse my Steam library 😊

I’m trying to build a fun, loving, and fun-loving community to interact and game with in chilled out streams - complete with NCS background music where possible. Once I reach Affiliate level on Twitch, I will start offering channel points and more games where you can interact right from the chat box!

Currently, I offer room codes when I play Asphalt Legends, Beat Saber, Stumble Guys, and such so that you may get in on the action. I also have dedicated nights (usually Fridays) where I ask my audience to help me pick something from my library that I haven’t played before!

It’s my dream to make a living doing what I love so I would be honoured if you’d take a couple of minutes to check me out.

If you don’t like the cookies on my site, here are direct links to everything you’d find there:

Twitch Profile

YouTube Profile

Spotify Playlist

Stream Schedule (Google Calendar)

Steam Library (Lorenzo Stanco's Steam Library Site)

What are you waiting for? Click on a link above to help me rival Taylien for friendliest community!

Alternatively,

[chososrightnipple]

❝𝐣𝐣𝐤 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 + 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐬 (𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐰𝐨)❞

a/n: almost four hundred followers omg.. i love all you freaks mwah!! here is part two as promised. included some requests for characters. aged up! megumi and yuji of course. might do a part three maybeeee? afab body w/no gendered language as usual.

part one.

── დ ──

. *. ⋆ TOJI FUSHIGURO

▸ panty stealing. he thinks of it as memorabilia. snatching your panties from the floor before you have the chance to put them back on- just something he keeps to remember you bye.

▸ daddy kink. we all saw this coming, right? you call him daddy once and it's all he needs to fuck you into the bed for the rest of the night.

▸ thigh riding. seeing you frotting against his large thigh, desperate to cum, pussy practically drooling for it... his favorite foreplay 100%.

▸ cum play. this man will cum anywhere and everywhere and he'll love it. let him cum on your face, your ass, your chest, your back, down your throat, etc etc.

▸ hatefucking. angry sex after an argument where he takes out all of the stress you caused him on your poor holes :(

▸ breeding. you can give him another baby, can't you? you can make him a daddy all over again, right? just let him cum inside of you as much as he wants, he'll make it happen, he swears.

▸ exhibitionism. you grind against him once on the bar floor and next thing you know he's dragging out to the empty alleyway and pressing you against the nearest wall.

▸ size difference. he's so large, so big, every single part of him practically overtaking you. and he gets off on that fact so fucking hard!!

. *. ⋆ NANAMI KENTO

▸ cockwarming. seating himself inside your warm pussy while he's stuck doing all kinds of boring paperwork. he'll fuck you, he swears, you just gotta sit pretty on his lap for a little bit, okay?

▸face fucking. he loves taking out all of his stress on you. gripping your hair as he uses your mouth mercilessly, bullying his cock down the back of your tight throat.

▸blindfolding. silk ribbons in a variety of colors that he matches to the underwear you're modeling for him. only the best for his lover <3

▸ thigh riding. there's no better way to put him in the mood than pathetically grinding yourself against his thigh, using his body selfishly for your own pleasure.

▸ hair pulling. y'all know that one scene... he pulls at your hair exactly like that. fingers going white with how tight he's tugging at you, manipulating your position until you're face to face with his scowl.

▸ spanking. makes you count for every slap and if you miscount, he's starting all over again. pay better attention to him next time, yeah?

▸ semi-public. yes, he will bend you right over his desk, no he doesn't care there's a meeting going on next door. or better yet, against the window of the fourth floor, overlooking the busy street below it.

▸ phone sex. it really isn't any problem that he's across the country on a mission. even just the sound of your whines over the phone is enough to get him off.

. *. ⋆ MEGUMI FUSHIGURO

▸ panty stealing. he would say he feels bad about it, but he doesn't. you looked so good in the lacey little things, he can't help but want to keep them for later. even has his own little drawer for them.

▸ masochism. the stinging pain of your nails running down his back is utterly euphoric. and don't get him started on how harshly you tug at his hair when he's eating you out- he can cum in his boxers just from that alone.

▸ breast play. massaging at the skin, feeling the plumpness under his fingertips. sucking at your nipples and leaving a trail of kisses down the valley of your breasts. he's obsessed.

▸ edging. leaving you just on the brink of release over and over again, until tears are streaming down your face. he'll let you cum eventually, you just look so pretty this worked up for him.

▸ marking. oh my goddd do not get megumi started on this. he doesn't know why it gets him so worked up- seeing you covered in the hickeys and bite marks that he's left on you- but it does.

▸ cunnilingus. eats you out like a man starved, like he'll never eat you out again. pulling him away from your poor pussy is next to impossible if he's not yet done with his meal.

▸ mutual masturbation. sometimes you both just need to relaxation of release and nothing more. sitting across from each other on the bed, or maybe side by side, listening to the moans of the other as you both touch yourselves.

▸ dacryphilia. like adoptive father like adopted son. seeing your eyes brim with tears from how good he's fucking you drives him crazy.

. *. ⋆ YUJI ITADORI

▸ ass play. we all know he's an ass man i mean come on?! doggy style is his favorite position just because of it. seeing how the fat of your ass moves with every slap of his hips is fucking addicting.

▸ praise kink. tell him how good he's fucking you and how much of a good boy he is pleaseeee!!!!

▸ toys. he didn't realize how much he would love bringing toys into the bedroom until he sees how hard you can cum around him while he holds a vibrator to your clit.

▸ raw sex. he knows it's stupid, fucking you with no protection. you're pussy just feels so good, so warm, he needs to fuck you raw.

▸ face riding. please sit on his face, suffocate him, he doesn't care. it's his favorite position to eat you out.

▸ overstimulation. poor baby doesn't even mean to overstimulate you half of the time- he just has so much stamina, you understand that, right? and seeing you so flushed and fucked out under him has him so horny. just one more round, yeah? you can do that for him, right?

▸ dirty talk. yuji is a yapper and that doesn't stop when he's fucking you. the filth that comes out of his mouth has you wet just thinking about it.

▸ dry humping. the tension, the intimacy, the panting, the friction?? all of it, it's like a drug to him.

[mortalityplays]

You need more free art.

I quit my job yesterday. Well, actually I quit my job eight weeks ago, but they finally released me yesterday for good behaviour. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do - but I do it for the wrong reasons. Working for major charities, you learn very fast that 'I want to make the world a better place' is a phrase you use to ask people for money, not to give them things. I was an ass-backwards fit for that world.

You need more free art. I need more free art. Everyone has felt the shift in our media landscape over the last ten years, away from access and towards nickel-and-diming the human experience. That lack of access is making life and culture worse for all of us, across the board. Paywalled news sites leave us less informed, attacks on the Internet Archive leave us less capable of research. Algorithmic social feeds and streaming walled gardens trap us inside smaller and smaller demographic bubbles, where we are increasingly only likely to encounter ideas that have been curated for us by marketing departments. Hasty efforts to resist AI commodification have only led to more artists locking their work away and calling for even more onerous systems of copyright law. This is not good for us.

We all need more free art.

So what am I going to do about it?

This is a question I have been asking myself for years. It's easy to sit here feeilng frustrated and thinking 'boy I hope SOMEONE does SOMETHING'. It's harder to take action in a world where I still have rent to pay. But hard doesn't mean impossible. Sometimes hard just means time-consuming, frustrating and slow. And sometimes it's worth doing something time-consuming, frustrating and slow because...I want to make the world a better place.

I'm going to do this:

1. From April 1st, I am relaunching as a freelance writer and editor.

This is the one that will (hopefully) help to pay the bills. I am a very good and experienced editor. I've worked on hollywood movies, I'm a member of the Chartered Institute of Editors and Proofreaders, I have clients who have been coming to me exclusively for more than 10 years.

Alongside bigger contract jobs, I am going to refocus on offering my services to small-press creators at a reduced rate. That means you, graphic novelists. That means you, itch and amazon writers. I want to help you develop your work, the same way I help large organisations. You can learn more about what an editor even does and what kind of pricing you can expect here.

2. I'm also going to start giving shit away. Like, constantly.

Next week I'm going to launch a new free shop. If you're unfamiliar, a free shop, giveaway shop, swap shop, etc. is an anarchist tradition of setting up a storefront where anyone can take what they like for no cost. Offline, this often means second-hand clothes, tools, furniture, food etc. Online, I am going to be giving away digital art. Copyright-free, no strings attached. It will (eventually) feature everything from print-res posters to zines, poems, tattoo flash, t-shirt designs and anything else we come up with.

Yes, I said 'we' - while this is a curated collection, it will feature work from a variety of credited and anonymous artists and activists, all of whom have agreed to give their work away to the public domain. Some of it will be practical, some of it will be political, but a lot of it will be decorative or personal. This is, in part, a response to recent difficulty I had finding somewhere that would print a one-off joke poster for a friend that featured the word 'faggot'. Enough. No middlemen - no explaining ourselves. Just print our shit and enjoy it.

I'm very, very excited about this project. I'll have more to say about it closer to the launch, but you can expect it to go live on March 27th.

2.2 I forgot to mention the ACTUAL LAUNCH GIVEAWAY

To celebrate my launch, I am going to be giving away a ton of physical prints. When I went looking for my old stock to see if it was worth setting a new (paid) storefront up, I realised I had way more old work in storage than I thought. This will be announced in its own right on Monday, but this is why I've been hinting you should go follow my Patreon.

On April 1st, I will pick 8 random patrons (from across all tiers including non-paying followers!) and mail them a bundle of assorted prints and postcards. The prize pool includes A3 and A4 posters, packs of A6 postcards, and printed minicomics that I've previously sold for up to £12 each.

You don't have to be a paying subscriber to enter - this is strictly no-purchase necessary. It is purely and entirely a celebration of the concept of GIVING ART AWAY FOR FREE.

3. PORN, YOU PERVERTS

Because I still have to pay to stay alive, I am going to be subsidising all this free art with the introduction of Fuck You Fridays. Starting from March 29th, I will drop a new 18+ short story on the last Friday of every month, over on itch.io (yes I know my page is desolate right now, don't worry I'll get there).

The first edition, Go Fuck Yourself, is about, well - telling your boss where to stick it. Julia has had it with her millionaire man-child manager, and is just about ready to let him know what she really thinks. It's a short and steamy 5k words, with a gorgeous cover illustration by @taylor-titmouse, and you can pick it up for $3 starting from March 29th.

4. ANOTHER BIG SURPRISE

I'm keeping this one under wraps for now, but April 1st will also play host to one more (FREE) launch. If you've been following me for a long time, you might remember the other significance of this date (no not April Fool's day, though that is certainly thematically relevant to this entire effort). That's all I'll say right now. Watch this space.

tl;dr: I'm sick of paywalls and career ladders. I'm literally putting my money where my mouth is. More free art for everyone and I'm not kidding around!!!

[tbaluver]

Hey! I’m the anon who request the idol!reader, I really liked it and I wanted to request hcs for a reader who does streaming?

When You're A Streamer- The Love And DeepSpace Men

parings in order: Xavier x Reader, Zayne x Reader, Rafayel x Reader, Sylus x Reader genre: fluff fluff a/n: hihi again anonnie ! sorry this took a while to post this was sitting in my drafts until some ideas sparked up .·°՞(¯□¯)՞°·. this was such a cute and fun concept to write i hope this was okay and you enjoy ! ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ♡ any likes and reblogs are always appreciated! enjoy!

⋆｡‧˚ʚ♡ɞ˚‧｡⋆

Xavier:

Your audience would already be familiar with Xavier. He would occasionally pop up in the background of your stream with snacks and water when you've been streaming for too long. He'll softly smile and wave at the webcam, give you a sweet kiss on the top of your head, and then quietly slip out of the room. Sometimes he'll be sleeping in the background of your stream.

Sometimes he'll fall asleep with your stream in the background which resulted to him having a ton of channel points.

You tried to do a cooking/ baking stream with him one time and it ended up in a disaster. Flour and other ingredients everywhere but the bowl. Your audience thought it was hilarious and wanted more content of you two doing that more often.

He would get jealous when he would see a lot of people simping in your chat but it would be okay because you'd ban them. Anything to keep your lovers mind at peace!

He loves it when you include him in your streams to play games or do other challenges. He does not get scared playing any horror games but if you do, he'll reassure you that he's right here to protect you. Your chat would be a mix of awe and jealously at you two in stream. He's also your good luck charm whenever you stream a gacha game.

Zayne:

You two would have the worst sleep schedules ever. He would come home late at night and you would still be streaming when he came home. Eventually he'll tell you to stop streaming for the day so you guys can rest together.

He loves it when you do a baking stream. He'll get to try all the sweet treats you try to make behind the camera.

His face never makes an appearance because he doesn't want to be in the spotlight but his lower half would be seen. Your chat would be down bad for his hands and you can't help but agree.

The type of partner that would make you yummy home made food and bring it to you while you're streaming.

He finds it endearing that you're helping out the hospital when you do charity streams or any charity streams in general. He'll bring you a ton of snacks and water to make sure you're energized because he knows those can be lengthy.

When he's comfortable, he'll join you for some games on stream, but the chat would only hear his voice as his face will stay off camera. You guys would play games like Overcooked or It Takes Two or Bread and Fred. Your chat would absolutely love his dry humor and would want you two to play or interact more during stream often.

Rafayel:

He would have a streaming set up for you somewhere in his studio so you're still near him. Your streaming room would be so cute. You two would have designed it together and your fans would end up wanting a room tour.

He would have your stream open on his phone or any device and he'll play it in the background so he can listen to your voice as he paints.

Rafayel loves to be included in general in your streamer career. He'll help you design any of your custom merch or help manage your social media posts, thumbnails, and anything that was creative.

You would do a variety of things on stream depending on what you planned out for that day. Sometimes he'll help you plan and give you ideas! You could play different games, reaction, and challenges. He would love it when you included him in stream and sometimes you guys would get to do couple challenges.

If you were to include him in stream to be your 'good luck charm' when you played a gacha game, he would be so cocky. If you ended up losing your 50/50, he would look at you as if it was YOUR fault.

Sometimes he'll appear in your stream by 'mistake' and your chat would be freaking out. He would bask in all the compliments about him in your chat and you would have to usher him to leave.

There would be a ton of fan edits of you two online. Your fans would eat up any of the content that you guys post together, things like outfit of the day posts with him or you posting his artwork. They just think you guys are so cute. He would also lowkey be judgmental of your fans fanart of you two.

Sylus:

When he found out you were a streamer, he would upgrade your streaming set up with the best materials.

Your chat definitely knew you had a partner. You'd say hi to him in chat and they would hear him in the background as you talk to him. Your chat would be so down bad for his voice and would want him to do a reveal.

He secretly wants to be part of your stream sometimes because they seem like fun, but unfortunately he has to keep his identity hidden. That doesn't stop him from supporting you though.

He's genuinely interested in your job and understands how important it is to you. He's also really impressed by how much you gain followers and in awe with how much your fans love you.

He would be your number 1 fan and your number 1 viewer on all your streaming platforms. He would gift you so much anytime you stream. He would also have so much channel points and would make you do the silliest things. He'll make you sing or dance and sometimes he'll end the stream so he can have you all to himself.

He'll text you to ask if you want this or that to eat or drink and he'll slide it to you off camera so you're well-fed and hydrated.

Will be your rock when you face an criticism or any rough patches in your streaming career. He'll provide a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on while offering supportive words to help you maintain confidence in your career.

[xxatinyminionxx]

[ENHYPEN Legal Line] MTL Agree to Make Adult Content With You

Genre: Smut 🔞, MTL, Reader is Gender Neutral

Warnings: Jungwon is included, but with vague descriptions that fit my comfort level writing about him.

A/N: I’ve been sitting on this draft for awhile but here it is!

Most

Jake

Sunoo

Jungwon

Heeseung

Sunghoon

Jay

Least

Jake - YES. The idea of making adult videos with you is hot to him, plus y’all would get BANK for it. Your content would probably start off faceless with SEXY oral-based content. This is because you can’t get enough of watching Jake between your legs and have to film it- Eventually you film all your in-bed activities and your channel grows A LOT becoming a major hit. Brand deals, collab opportunities, and a thriving sex life is in your future.

Sunoo - Yup. You both considered showing your kinks off in videos. The initial intention was to record it for yourselves, but you two decided to post one of the videos you were both proud of. Upon casually making a variety of content to enjoy watching back, you notice the response to the one video was overwhelmingly positive! You become a major couple in the adult entertainment world like Jake, but on the streaming side. The schedule flexibility and exhibitionistic appeal of streaming makes your intimate moments with sunoo so much hotter. Bring on the sex toys, interactive fan engagement, and bondage—I mean bonding.

Jungwon - You would run an account with him that has content galore. Some videos are short and get straight to the point while others are a bit longer experimenting with plot-driven roleplay that has been your interest lately. Due to the content you create being on the niche side, it is easily underrated until the algorithm starts taking a liking to them. Popular or not, making content never seems like a chore and you both find it enjoyable to serve your tight knit community.

Heeseung - He’s camera shy when it comes to recording your sex life for the whole world to see but wants to try because of how naughty the idea is. According to your comfort levels though, you both edit the videos so there’s a blur overlay on your faces. Oh and this man is definitely picky about which videos you post (usually you don’t post for months) but they always do so well! Expect the majority to be oral and pov fucking-based videos with a fair amount of dirty talk that gets you two riled up.

Sunghoon - He doesn’t mind making occasional mature videos, but he wouldn’t want to put the pressure of video creation on your relationship. Don’t get me wrong, he’s all about wanting to look sexy on camera but he also values a privately carefree sex life. He loves you so much and doesn’t want 19+ videos to become the forefront of your relationship. Kind of like Sunoo, your videos would be based around specific kinks like spanking and overstimulation.

Jay - It’s a big nope from him. He wants you and your sexy ways to be something that only he knows about. I also feel like he would become too self-conscious already thinking about the comments and overdo it in front of the camera to the point that it makes things less enjoyable. That doesn’t mean he won’t let you record for your own pleasure though ;)

—

©️ xxatinyminionxx 2023. All Rights Reserved.

[angelsnkisses]

haiii! i see ur requests r open again,, but im just curious to here ur thoughts on camboy!danny cuz its a concept that i absolutely adore n i need more people talkin abt it :3 (only if ur comfortable with it!!!!! u can ignore this completely if u'd liek 🫶)

(some flowers 4 u btw, im givin everyone i send asks to flowers)

RAHHH I LOVE THIS SM. also, ty for the flowers lovey!

thinking about camboy!danny <3

💟 nsfw - mdni 💟

warnings: switch!danny, gn!reader, masturbation, use of vibrator, use of dildo, overstimulation.

• camboy!danny, who is so shy when he first tries out a cam site. he's a blushing, whining mess the whole time, anxiously checking the chat every five minutes to see if everyone likes what he's doing. and trust me, they do, which helps him build more confidence on camera.

• camboy!danny, who starts out with relatively vanilla content like stripteases, rubbing himself through the fabric of his boxers, making soft little noises with the top of his face just out of frame.. agonizingly teasing actions that leave his audience wanting more.

• camboy!danny, who slowly starts to get more and more comfortable with himself as time goes on. as his devoted viewers grow larger in number, so does his variety of content. within the first few weeks, he decides to bring a little more flavor into his content. his poison of choice? vibrators.

• camboy!danny, who starts off with a small bullet vibrator, teasing his tip with it while he pumps his hand up and down his hardened cock. his noises increase the more he strokes himself, the vibrations multiplying his pleasure in a seemingly infinite way.

• camboy!danny, who loves seeing the chat absolutely blow up with people praising him, begging for more, begging for him. he gets cockier with every compliment, and how could he not? all that approval makes him want more, it makes him wanna give more. so, little by little, he gets more vocal. eventually, he even starts talking to his viewers, thanking them, teasing them, etc.

• camboy!danny, who whimpers. so much that it's a staple for his content. he can't help it, as soon as he starts feeling good his lips start spitting out the most vulgar, intoxicating sounds, pleasing the eyes on him even more.

• camboy!danny, who is constantly asked about dildos and such. at first, it's a hard no, but as time goes on and his content changes, he eventually starts to consider it. so, he'll give in and buy himself one. after a few private uses, he decides he might as well- he's already done so much, what's a little more? especially when his chat asks so politely..

• camboy!danny, who's genuinely surprised at how feral everyone goes as soon as he pulls out his new toy. he'll blush like crazy, insisting it's a one time thing and that they shouldn't get too excited (it's not, and they should). he'll take his time, laying back and teasing himself with the silicone object before finally beginning to fuck himself with it on camera. the amount of people watching him almost doubles, hundreds of eager viewers getting off to the perfect display. he'll push it in deep, his movements getting quicker, rougher, until he's practically cockdrunk.

• camboy!danny, who loves to overstimulate himself. sometimes he'll stream for hours, cumming over and over again until he can barely even process what's going on. whether it's with a dildo, another toy, or just his hands, he always manages to push himself to his own limits.

***

bonus <3:

• camboy!danny, who isn't always such a mess. some days he just needs stress relief, his mood low and his body tense. he'll touch himself with rough hands, groaning and huffing instead of his usual soft sounds. he'll sit with his thighs parted, leaned back against the wall, hair disheveled, feet planted firmly to the ground.. his large, veiny hands relentlessly moving up and down his length, hips occasionally shifting or raising slightly. lord, is it a sight to see.

[redrandomposts]

happy birthday yjh!!! i bring you: no angst. and a post!

When Yoo Joonghyuk started streaming, it was to a game he genuinely found difficult — Star Stream Scenarios. It was a little known game, and so no one watched his streams.

Except for one person: GuwonReader. He had just... appeared, one day, and never left. Each stream there'd be a series of comments from the one viewer, who was more in the lore than the gameplay. Still, they became someone special to him. He'd check chat regularly and respond to them, as if it were two friends talking.

Eventually, when Yoo Joonghyuk expanded his game variety, more people began flocking in. Instead of losing his first and loyal (although, they were perhaps more loyal to the game) viewer in the growing chat, he had made him a mod. Not the smartest decision, but it ended up working well.

GuwonReader had done some research, apparently, as they had even made a Discord server, cardd, and social media accounts for Yoo Joonghyuk. Although it wasn't professional quality, it was far more than what Yoo Joonghyuk would have done himself.

And through Discord, they had moved from talking stream-to-chat to calls that could span hours.

GuwonReader was an anchor for Yoo Joonghyuk. At some point, he'd also taken manager tasks, like setting schedules and even contacting companies that wanted advertising.

And the first time they met face-to-face — well, you can't expect Yoo Joonghyuk to hold back when seeing a pretty face that was also his best friend, manager, and mod.

It was in a convention, where YJH had his own panel. GuwonReader had come, bought a ticket and everything and acted as if he were a fan. As his psuedo-manager, GuwonReader easily set up a surprise during the program. The screen behind Yoo Joonghyuk lit up halfway through.

[Meeting the first fan, the most loyal, the mod, the manager- GuwonReader!]

Kim Dokja went up on stage, smiling at the man he followed for years. "Joonghyuk-ah, why won't you say something?"

Except there isn't anything said. All there is are a few steps then a kiss. Kim Dokja is held tightly, as if Yoo Joonghyuk couldn't believe that he could hold the man.

"Fool," he says, and says again when he learns that Kim Dokja spent half his salary to get a ticket. And again, when he learns that Kim Dokja pulled an all nighter to learn how to he the best support for a star streamer. And again and again and again, because Yoo Joonghyuk could not believe this man.

Yoo Joonghyuk firmly believes that if he were dying, Kim Dokja would give up his life to save him.

Except, wouldn't Yoo Joonghyuk do the same?

===

dunno this is messy paused halfway through and im terrible at characterizing. happy bday yjh!!!

[moonspirit]

Papamin Propaganda - Armin's natural affinity for children

This is nowhere near as lucid or detailed as I wanted it to be, but I've managed to throw a few points together, so have it anyway.

There are quite a few characters in AoT who have shown remarkable compassion and empathy toward children, notably, Levi, Reiner, Jean, Hange, and so on. In this post we'll talk about Armin.

Episode 72 (S04E13) is titled "Children of the Forest" and I think it's quite self-explanatory at this point - as Sasha's father put it, the children of this ruined world have been roaming around in a forest of endless violence, unable to find a way out of it. By the end of AoT, the characters who are presently "children" (i.e, Gabi, Falco, Kaya, and so on) do end up exiting this 2000 year old forest, toward a new world of harmonious co-existence. What I love particularly about the episode titling sequence however, is that Episode 71 (S04E12) is called "Guides" - and it deals mostly with the people who will act as the literal "guides" to the "Children in the Forest". This is of course, Hange & the surviving members of the 104th, and therefore also, Armin.

(In a previous post I've talked at some length about why I consider Armin to be *THE* guide out of the forest, for not only children, but humanity as a whole; so we will not go into that here. Instead we'll stick to why Armin has a natural affinity and flair for handling children specifically.)

It's important to remember that Armin was a bullied child, one at the receiving end of a never-ending stream of insults, kicks, and violence. Despite being abandoned by his parents and eventually also losing his grandfather, Armin never lost his kindness and gentle persona. This, at an age when children are heavily influenced by their surroundings and what they witness through the behaviors of other people, *can* be a bit surprising. It is a known fact that bullies are born due to (among other things) a variety of self-esteem issues and jealousy. I would say Armin retained this softness because in spite of being orphaned, & considered the 'weakest' among the 104th, he always received love from those around him (the fact that he couldn't see this love and value placed in him is a different thing entirely), and was treated with kindness too (ah the days before Floch came along with his insults were peaceful #_#)

Moving on to the aforementioned episodes in particular: It is Sasha's father who introduces the concept of the forest, we know Hange cries "Genocide isn't right!" twice (and thereby making it clear that she is the most senior "guide" in all of the bunch), but it is Armin who is the first to put to literal action the meaning and role of being a guide that brings children out of the forest.

Between episode 71, 72, 81 (S04 P2 E06), 82 (... E07) & 83 (... E08), the events taking place are very tightly packed together. Everything from the first reveal of Eren's Jaegerist faction to the beginning of the Rumbling takes place. It is a period when the military is in shambles, Eren has pushed his friends away and become that giant bony monster, Falco's been taken hostage, Hange's hiding away taking care of Levi, and the rest of our characters are dispersed across various locations, stumped and paralyzed with fear and hesitation about what to do about the world getting trampled outside. It is a period of intense confusion, and there is no unity between anybody. The Alliance hasn't been born.

In this duration of time, we see the following:

1. Armin helping a battered and bloody Gabi get up in Niccolo's restaurant and helping her walk to the next room, away from the arguing adults.

2. Telling her in no uncertain terms that she's not going to be killed out of vengeance. It's important to note this because while Gabi's already received the kindness of other people by this point (Sasha's family), she soon comes to know that Armin is Eren's best friend, i.e the Devil's best friend, and yet, he's still kind to her.

3. He meets up with Gabi, and tells her honestly what's happened. Now this is a favorite scene of mine, but you'll notice that when Gabi falls to her knees, everyone's standing around towering over her, but in the end, Armin kneels to her level, holding her gently by the shoulders. Body language is a powerful tool to convey a person's emotions and intent; he does ask her about what she saw when the walls fell, but he still does it gently, and at her level of height where she doesn't have to crane her neck up to look at someone 'commanding' her. It's a humane action, gentle and kind, an indirect way of saying "I'm listening, you can trust me, so don't be afraid." It's also pertinent to note that of all the people around Gabi in that moment, Armin's the most approachable. Mikasa's withdrawn, in a turmoil of her own. Sasha's family is clueless. Connie kidnapped Falco, not a good image. Jean's rough, prone to losing his temper. Hange & Levi nowhere to be seen. But Armin? He was kind to her at the restaurant, and continues to be so, retaining his softness both in manner and speech, with her.

4. With Mikasa immediately after (the outburst scene), we see him say many things; that the line of command has broken down completely, that they need Gabi's trust if they have to do something by forming a team with the Cart & Jaw titans. Remember: Hange & Levi are missing, two of the closest superiors the kids know to look for guidance; and yet he alone makes the difficult decision of going after Falco. This move of his does three things: (a) It wins Gabi's trust in full, (b) Tells Gabi (and also to us as the readers) that he doesn't agree with Eren's actions, (c) Lays the very foundation for the Alliance before anybody's even told him to.

5. With Falco's scene, things are once again, self-explanatory - but I like one specific detail. We see the others trying to catch some shut-eye (Mikasa, Jean, Annie, Hitch, etc). Earlier with Mikasa, Armin had expressed his wish to just sleep for two days straight. And yet it's HIM who rides with Gabi all through the night non-stop to get Falco back, trying to catch up to Connie who's had a head-start, waaayy before them. This little detail, imo, shows his dedication and drive for what he believes in, as well as strong empathy and understanding for these hurting children, who don't know any better. (I don't know if Gabi knows he's the holder of the Collosal titan atp... I think she knows? If yes, it would show how much she already trusts him, going with him alone. Now tell me that isn't because of the compassion and empathy he's shown toward her.)

It's obvious that all of the 104th understand where children like Gabi come from - brainwashed and rabid as they are. But in choosing to show Armin as the one who takes the first step in bringing the Alliance together, through the heart and mind of a child, I find myself believing - this man's going to be a GREAT dad.

Sorry if this was all over the place xD I wanted to make it more coherent, but I don't have the energy, welp. Feel free to add your thoughts!

[mokkkki]

been following your works since your AJA series and love your choice of allusions, references, metaphors, similes, and motifs - your intertextuality is so layered and insane and established so right off the bat (no pun intended). how do you do it?

hey gorgeous! okay, wow, this is a very big question and i will try to do my very best to answer, though i might miss some things just because of the ginormous nature of this ask.

read. the most important thing a writer can do is read. i love fic as much as the next person, but it's important to delve into works that have been professionally published. when people say this they dont understand that reading is only the first level (and ofc, the most important level) of this step. read fiction, non-fiction, comics, or whatever you want to write one day, and after you're done with that, read things that you would never, ever write. don't stick to a genre. don't even stick to a format! go to podcasts, video games, movies. all of these are based on scripts. it is so so important to be able to recognize those universal elements of good media. there are so many components to this: reading will give you more general knowledge that might work its way into your writing one day, it allows you to meet a vast variety of povs, it develops your critical thinking skills, and ofc, it can even provide a roadmap for your later projects. writing has no rules, but if it had one, id have to say this: a good writer knows good writing, and the fastest way to that is reading a lot.

research. this ties into the fact that reading a lot will give you more general knowledge, and i think that general knowledge is an important factor in being able to write well! you asked specifically about my intertextuality, and most of my intertextuality is historical or religious in nature. i chose to intertwine my characters with historical and religious figures because i like them and the information i have built in! "research" doesn't have to be some crazy note-taking adventure (though it certainly can be if you want it to), it can quite literally be reading a wikipedia article on the toilet. some fascinating aspects of history i personally enjoy reading about is the ancient world, which ties directly into mythology, and eventually flows into abrahamic religions. religious intertextuality is so built-in and inherent, just because of its universally applicable themes (death and rebirth) that apply to every story told. i think its a great place to start if you are trying to add intertextuality to something you've written! i also recommend looking at non-western history, because it tends to be overshadowed, and there is truly so many fascinating things contained within it.

write. like. duh! and im afraid this might sound a little discouraging, but i think that if its your first time writing (and your goal is to be a good writer, rather than a cute hobby on the side), you also have to know that on some level, your first draft/project will suck compared to published novels, just a little bit. but you can't let that discourage you! you just have to keep going. its still something you've created, and even if that thing is ten pages of a bathing grandpa's stream of consciousness, it is valuable and important. i literally mean that with all my heart. i think that writing is a really tough discipline sometimes, just because it's a solitary activity where you type out what is, for all intents and purposes, an extended daydream you are having, and its for that reason that people tend to just run out of steam halfway through a project. you have to be able to motivate and push yourself. write like the wind! write poems and short stories and scripts and fanfic and novellas and epics, experiment with different styles, and above all, know that the content you are creating has value, simply because it came from you.

okay, i think that's everything! thank you so much for trusting me to answer such an important question, and if there is anything that seems unclear to you, please don't hesitate to leave another ask or even send a draft over <3 lots of love!

[prodbyblush]

heyy can i request nijiro hc of fem jpop idol reader? it's fine if you don't want too btw !!

ｎｏｗ ｌｏａｄｉｎｇ …

▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ 100%

ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟᴇᴛᴇ!

・❥・ requested

→ fem!reader

• will keep the relationship with you a secret and will only reveal it to the public after a year or two. • prior to revealing the relationship to the public, dates are mostly going over each other's apartment, going out with a group of friends and reserving a table at one of the private rooms of celebrity owned restaurant or bar. • home dates are just basically cooking dinner together, ordering take out, watching dramas or variety show programs, doing each other's skincare or just drinking coffee / hot chocolate while admiring the stars in the night sky. • but after going public, dates have finally become more free - shopping together, setting up a picnic near the river, going out for coffee in between busy schedules and such. • nijiro comes to your group's comeback concert / comeback showcase as an audience among the crowd. your fans / fandom will immediately recognize him, secretly taking pictures of him in his seat before gushing on social media how he's watching your event. • does he come empty handed? nope! after the concert / showcase, he'll enter the backstage with bouquets of flowers and a cake with a congratulatory message written with icing. • nijiro knows that some may be happy of him entering a relationship, he also knows that some wouldn't be happy with the idea of it. so he clearly explains to his fans that he draws the line between fans cheering for them and fans prying on their private lives. • always assures you that you are worth it despite the hate comments you receive online. his heart pains when he sees you cry over something that is beyond his control. nijiro can only do so much. • eventually leads him to asking his company to take legal action with the malicious comments attacking you online. he isn't doing this for himself, he's doing this for you. • if he can't attend to one of your schedules because of conflicting schedules, he'll send a food delivery to the studio you are in. so that not only you but your group members and crew are enjoying as well. • takes candid pictures of you - under your chin, you sleeping with your mouth slightly open, you frowning - and he makes memes out of those. • says he's helping your fans by giving them new memes to use! • if you're on tour and going a thousand miles away from him, facetime dates is gonna arise! even if you two aren't talking and are just watching what the other does, it's alright for him. • doesn't even mind if you've fallen asleep on him. he knows how much effort you put into rehearsals and he wishes you nothing but the best. • after returning home from the tour overseas, he dotes on you - tubs of ice cream, a bottle of wine and pain relief muscle patches. • when you do instagram lives with your group's official account, you can best believe that nijiro will be streaming, repeatedly tapping on the heart icon while sometimes spamming comments how pretty you look even though you're on your sweats and strands of hair are out of place. • being with you is like his getaway from his busy and fast paced life. • he lets himself be himself with you. he's not chishiya of alice in borderland or takahashi in hanalei bay or jintan in anohana, he's just nijiro, your nijiro. • each other's support system! • he's all smiles when your name is brought up in magazine interviews or when the hosts in the variety show program mention it. • a simp for you. case closed.

TAGS: @retrospacealien @chishiya-of-diamonds @ang3liclov3ly @kenqki @shadowheads-shitshow @lunoxxy @supercoffeeblogs @laylasbunbunny

[wildpeachfarm]

(sending this around or similarly worded to get a variety of opinions)

i'm kind of stuck between two very different opinions right now on what george should do:

A) he addresses it

i don't think he needs to post another video, maybe a tweet or something similar, he either confirms or denies caiti's claims of touching her breast and reiterates what he said in his previous video, maybe adds a part where he says he's taking a hiatus or something similar.

B) he stays silent

this one is tricky because to me he's already said all that he needs to say, he's addressed and taken accountability for the power dynamic and how he didn't see it that way, how he was careless for ages and how explains how he's gonna do better to prevent another situation like this in the future, all while apologizing to caiti. But since she refuses to watch his video where he addresses all that she claims he didn't address (so fucking stupid on her part imo, specially when she begs ppl that hate her to hear her out fully but whatever).

To me the best thing no matter what is to just move on, maybe wait a week or two and start off with a dteam video on Sapnap's channel, then slowly start content again with dream and eventually post on his own channel. The less they stay on twitter the better and if they start being full time youtubers again it'll be perfect. Maybe streaming if he gets a tight circle of mods that'll do their job (paying them will be good too to avoid controversy)

but what do you think?

ehhhh I'm kinda torn tbh

I personally would be fine with him not addressing it; his original response and apology still holds true no matter what and I really don't think the situation changes much- and honestly I'm so fucking tired and emotionally exhausted and just want this to be finished as soon as possible so we can all move on

However I do understand that him responding means closure for some people, but I really don't think george will literally say "yes I touched her boobs" because that right there would be used against him forever and that would be stupid of him to say even if it did happen. So i don't know what people really expect from him in a final response?

But yeah I think they just need to resume youtube content soon at the very least to give people something new to consume and start talking about dteam minecraft again

[buzzdixonwriter]

The End Of An Error

AI is good for crunching large amounts of data to find patterns within it. Humans then need to analyze those patterns. For research, it might be extremely useful. However, since most of us here are creators of one stripe or another, I'll focus on what it's doing there. It's wreaking havoc among musicians who previously found some sort of steady, reliable income through Spotify and other streaming services. AI generated music crowds out all but well established acts and old standards; musicians struggling to break through find their support in live performances and merchandise. AI generated blog posts and emails are already dominating those venues, perversely causing more and more people to ignore them. In fiction writing it enables mediocre writers to hack out acceptable mediocre genre fiction at prodigious rates. There, too, it will eventually undermine itself as discerning readers look for something more original and idiosyncratic. Original writers will need to put more time into promoting / marketing themselves, and the revenues will probably dip the way they have for musicians, but the ones who weather through it will survive. Artists are already being hard hit. Top line design jobs will still go to humans who can understand the wants and needs of other humans, but for lots of lower level art jobs it will be easier to generate / steal art (full disclosure: I gleefully swipe AI generated art when I find something that fits my fictoids when I post them on my blog; unlike public domain art I post, the AI prompters get no credit or recognition). The next big sh!t hammer to fall will be AI video. Already passable short films have been made using AI generated clips skillfully edited together.

 It helps that most of these are short-shorts of a horror / sci-fi / fantasy nature since AI’s inability to remain consistent can play into the air of unreality found in those genres.  Once AI learns how to stay on model it will be a major game changer. Elsewhere I've said I have no objection against people using AI for personal amusement, creating their own music videos, mashing up art, creating political satire, etc. But doing that is going to undermine mass media by creating user-specific content. What that will do culturally is anybody's guess; what happens to cultural touchstones when there isn't one version of Gilligan's Island but a three hundred million? There's a lot of practical uses real artists can find for AI (musicians trying out different orchestrations, artists doing a variety of concepts before settling on the one they want to develop, writers creating prompts for themselves, etc.) but it's already disrupting the creative sphere.

 © Buzz Dixon

[schlattsdoll]

idk if you like taylor swift, but for sleepover can i request something inspired by any of these lyrics from midnights w/ ted :> (i picked multiple for variety ig)

1. can i ask you a question? did you ever have someone kiss you in a crowded room? (question)

2. karma is the guy on the screen coming straight home to me (karma)

3. what if i told you none of it was accidental and the first night that you saw me, nothing was gonna stop me? (mastermind)

my brain wants to use all three so i’m gonna try! y/n/n means your nickname fyi :)

it was a rare occurrence that ted streamed and he wanted to do one with you so, you jumped at the chance. your relationship wasn’t public yet but the fans had an idea of what you two were. the stream itself was a chill laidback stream, you two playing minecraft together like the old days. you started humming along to question when ted, being the cheeky fucker he is, asked you if you’ve ever been kissed in a crowded room. “well y/n/n have you?”

your mind flashed to the first time you and ted kissed. it was the first time you met for that matter, at a party your friends dragged you too. some guy was creeping on you all night and ted came to your rescue. he grabbed your shoulder, “there you are baby! i knew i���d find ya. is this guy bothering you?” he smiled at you knowingly.

the guy was hesitant but backed off for the time being. “thank you so much.” “no worries, ‘m ted. what’s your name angel?” and you introduced yourself to him, not knowing what you got yourself into. you spent the rest of the night talking and flirting, making jokes about how he saved you from someone horrible. the same creep kept looking at you up and down, not believing the ruse. “quick, do something he keeps looking.”

ted grabbed your face in his hands and kissed you gently. the creep rolled his eyes and gave up on you. “i’m so sorry! i should’ve asked you first.” the taller man started fiercely apologizing. “it’s alright ted, i kinda liked it.” you smiled up at him, kissing his cheek.

you reminisced on that night that started your friendship, and eventual relationship two years ago as you told the story, avoiding using ted’s name. the chat had suspicions about who your mystery man was. “chat, let’s just say a guy on the screen comes straight home to me.” was your response with a wink.

the stream ended and ted looked at you and revealed something about that night. “would you believe me if i told you i set everything up so i could talk to you? nothing was accidental, that first night we met.” he then went on about how he had one of his friends hit on you so he can swoop in and save you. “i can’t believe you teddy, i actually fell for a classic play.” “i hope you’re not mad at me angel.” he frowned slightly, causing you to kiss his cheek and reassure him. “i can never be mad at you teddy. i love you so much. if you wanted to talk to me that badly though you could’ve just came up and asked me ya dope.”

ted’s arms wrapped around you in a tight embrace, “i know love. but i’m your dope.” “forever.”

[thefifthnetwork]

About This Project

The Fifth Network is a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. The WB and UPN were both attempts to launch a fifth broadcast television network in the United States in 1995 following the success of Fox (the fourth broadcast network) in the prior decade.

While a single fifth broadcast network might have been successful given the TV landscape of the late 90s, the two simultaneously-launched fledgling networks largely ended up competing with each other rather than challenging the Big 3 or Fox. While both networks had some successful shows, they constantly lost money, and both threw in the towel in 2006 after 11.5 years, replaced with The CW, a new single fifth network co-owned by Time Warner and CBS (the final owners of The WB and UPN, respectively).

The Project

Who are you?

My name is Jen Lastnameredacted (she/her). You can follow me on Tumblr @nullpointerintime or on Bluesky @nullptrintime.bsky.social.

Is this a nostalgia thing?

Nope! I was only 10 when The WB and UPN ended, and I didn't watch anything on either network while they were actually on the air. Prior to starting this project, the only UPN shows I had watched were Voyager and Enterprise [1] and the only WB show I had watched was the first season of Supernatural [2].

Why then?

I find this period of TV history fascinating. It's a transitional period where there was clearly more demand for TV shows than the Big 3 could fulfill (as demonstrated by the success of Fox and various first-run syndicated shows), but TV itself was also changing as you started seeing more serialization in stories and eventually fully serialized shows.

Maybe a single fifth network could have found a sustainable place in the TV ecosystem, but the hubris of media executives launching two new networks ultimately doomed them both. By the time they got their act together and merged in 2006, the broadcast landscape was firmly established as a Big 4 (now including Fox) and cable networks were now also producing their own series.

Like its parents, The CW found modest success with niche audiences [3] but continued to constantly lose money. Sports seem to be the only thing people are willing to watch live these days, so maybe pivot to live sports that The CW's new ownership is making will pay off? [4].

Meanwhile, the whole cycle has repeated with streaming, as Netflix became the Fox that demonstrated the new market and then every other media company assumed they could replicate that success with their own streaming service even if they all launched at the same time.

Anyway... another goal of this project is to force myself to watch shows without bingeing them. In August 2023, I started watching Survivor, and by the end of the year I had watched all of Survivor. Shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer have been on my list for forever, but I don't want to just watch all seven seasons in a blur. This project forces me to slow down while also giving me a sampler of a wide variety of other shows I might not otherwise watch.

Will you watch everything that aired on these two networks then?

Definitely not. For one, it's literally impossible, as there are some shows where I'm unable to find a source to watch them today. Aside from that, I do expect to end up watching most of what aired for the first year or so while both networks were limited to just a day or two of programming each week. As the schedules expand to more days, I'll probably continue watching roughly the same amount each week and be more willing to drop shows that I'm not feeling.

These are the rules I'll generally try to keep myself to:

I should watch a least a couple hours of programming each week, unless everything scheduled is either unavailable or a rerun of something I've already seen.

I should watch at least one episode of each show that aired on The WB or UPN and is available in some form. This will typically be the pilot, unless the pilot is unavailable and some other episode(s) are.

For shows that last more than one season, I should generally check in with them at least once per season, even if I'm not watching otherwise. This rule is relaxed for reality shows.

This whole project is supposed to be fun though, so I reserve the right to change these rules if they become too restrictive. No guarantees that I actually finish all 11.5 years either. If I finish this project I'll literally be 40 when it's done. Even if I'm still fully enjoying it, it's possible that it becomes too much work to continue depending on what else is going on in my life. If this project becomes a chore rather than something I enjoy...

When are new recaps posted?

A recap post of what I watched in the preceding week will be posted when it's Saturday thirty years ago, since neither network ever scheduled anything in primetime on Saturdays (even The CW only started scheduling Saturdays in the past few years).

This means that recaps will initially go out on Tuesdays in the present day. Due to leap years and 30 not being a multiple of 4, this will switch between Mondays and Tuesdays in March of every even year.

The new networks didn't expand to Thursdays and Fridays until Fall 1998, so posts may occasionally go up earlier if I finish a week's writeup early.

How strict are you about watching week-by-week?

I won't watch any episodes from beyond the week I'm currently on. A large part of the motivation for this project was to avoid binge watching, so I plan to be fairly strict on this.

That being said, I may occasionally watch ahead of the actual 30-year gap in order to build up a buffer before some weeks where I know I'll be traveling or otherwise too busy. Posts will still go up 30 years later, and I'll make sure to finish one week's watching completely before moving on to the next one. I expect this to be particularly common with summer reruns where there is less to watch and it's easier to just batch weeks together in my actual watching.

Within each week, I'm giving myself flexibility to watch in whatever order works best to allow for things like coordinating watching a particular show with friends, or leaving shows I'm marginal on/have already seen until the end of the week if I have time.

What's your spoiler policy?

Since I'm watching week-by-week anyway, I won't even know any spoilers for future episodes of most shows, but for the few shows I have watched before, I'll try to avoid any explicit spoilers. I may discuss vague spoilers around the direction of shows to the extent I'm aware of them. How long each show actually runs is obvious from the embedded schedules, so that's completely fair game.

I'm watching 30-year-old shows here, so I don't expect to completely avoid spoilers, but I'd appreciate it if you don't send explicit spoilers for something I'm watching directly to me. Things like "you'll really like where this show ends up going" or "you should definitely make sure to watch this episode" are great though! I'd prefer if you don't tell me bad things about the future direction of shows I'm enjoying though. Let me be disappointed when I get to the bad stuff rather than preemptively telling me something sucks.

The Website

While I'm cross-posting on Tumblr, my posts about this project primarily go up on my website, which includes interactive schedule elements that can't be included in Tumblr posts.

In addition to the specific elements embedded in these posts, the site also contains a fully interactive schedule for the entire runs of both networks, which you can browse here.

The Tumblr versions of each recap post will include text-based versions of the relative schedule entries, with links to the interactive versions on the site.

What's included and what's not?

Every primetime schedule slot for The WB and UPN should be filled, and I also filled The CW's schedule for the rest of 2006, as well as most airings of most WB/UPN shows that continued on The CW for the rest of their run. Initial airings of episodes that premiered on another network and later re-ran on The WB or UPN are included in infoboxes, but won't appear on the calendar.

The following is not included:

anything that aired outside of primetime (8-10 PM on weekdays; 7-10 PM on Sundays)

any shows or specials that premiered on The CW in 2007 or later

any continuations of WB/UPN shows on other networks, including airings of episodes that were ordered for WB/UPN, but never aired on them

new episodes of WB/UPN reality shows on The CW in 2007 or later

Supernatural season 6 and later (I didn't feel like adding all 15 seasons, especially given only one season aired on The WB, and season 5 seemed like a decent stopping point).

some reruns of other WB/UPN shows in 2007 or later

Where-to-watch info is added on an ad-hoc basis. I did a cursory search for streaming and DVD availability of all shows, but I've only searched more extensively for shows that I will be watching soon. All streaming info is for the United States; if you live outside the US, you'll need to look up availability on your own. If a given show is available on multiple services of the same type (paid, subscription, and free), I may not include all of them, especially for shows that I won't get to for a while, given availability changes regularly.

Links to taped episodes on YouTube or the Internet Archive are only included when I'm unable to find a legal streaming service or in-print DVD. I don't host pirated content on this site, but I don't have any qualms about linking to it when it's the only way to watch it.

Where did the data come from?

All schedule data was manually compiled by me from a variety of online sources, particularly TV Tango, IMDb, TheTVDB, and Wikipedia. These webpages by Aaron Greenhouse were also useful references.

When sources conflicted, I made judgement calls/guessed to decide what to include. I'm fairly confident that I got the airdates and times for most first-run episodes right, but reruns may be less accurate. Some reruns only list a show rather than a specific episode. If you have evidence that I got something wrong, please send it to me here.

What do the different colors and indicators mean?

Purple schedule entries are for UPN. Yellow schedule entries are for The WB. Green schedule entries are for The CW. Most reruns will use faded versions of the network's color [5].

The interactive schedules on the website include additional indicators, such as when a given schedule entry is the last known airing of a given episode. See the website version of this post for more details.

Example schedule that demonstrates these elements:

Monday January 18, 1999 Malcolm & Eddie S3E05: "Dream Girl" - 8 PM on UPN 7th Heaven S3E12: "All That Jazz" - 8 PM on The WB Guys Like Us E12: "Good Old Days" - 8:30 PM on UPN The Sentinel S1E01: "The Switchman" - 9 PM on UPN Buffy the Vampire Slayer S3E06: "Band Candy" - 9 PM on The WB

Can I browse the calendar if I don't have JavaScript enabled?

Clicking on a schedule entry relies on JavaScript to dynamically generate the infobox, but you can see pre-rendered calendars for each year here and pre-rendered infoboxes for each show here.

How can I follow you to see when new recaps are posted?

You can follow this blog on Tumblr, where I post auto-generated conversions of each new post here. You don't get the interactivity of the embedded schedule, but each post will appear on your dashboard. I also post a link to each new post on the site's Bluesky account.

At some point, I'll try to get an RSS feed up on this site directly. If that's something you're interested in, let me know so I can prioritize it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Both binge-watched in 2020 ↩

Binge-watched during high school, because I was active enough on Tumblr back then that of course I did. ↩

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend my beloved ↩

Hearing about college football on The CW was one of the sparks that got the idea for this project going in my mind. ↩

The exception is when an episode premiered on a different network. In that case, the first time that episode is aired on WB/UPN, it will be colored like a first-run episode. ↩

[luulapants]

“I don’t drink beer. How do I write characters that do?”

Beer has been an integral part of human society for about as long as we’ve had a human society. Some anthropologists now theorize that we fermented grain for beer before we used it for bread. It’s the most popular alcoholic drink worldwide, and everyone has their own regional variety. This will mostly focus on US beer culture, which is what I’m familiar with.

Who’s drinking beer?

Beer has a reputation as a “man’s drink,“ at least in Western cultures, but there are plenty of women that partake. Showing a woman drinking beer, though, might convey to readers that she’s “one of the boys” or down-to-earth.

The cheap stuff is really, really cheap, and therefore seen as a blue collar, “working man’s” drink, but the low price point also makes it good for events with lots of people. It has high water content, so it’ll keep people hydrated at an outdoor event better than other options. Most have a relatively low alcohol content by volume, making it a good choice if you want to keep drinking for a while without getting too drunk.

For beer snobs, the craft beer world can be a hobby or a lifestyle. They might brew beer at home or have a local brewery they hang out at. They’ll go to brewery events where new batches or special reserve bottles are released and sold. Some bottles can cost quite a lot!

You could reasonably expect someone to have a few beers in the fridge. Frequent drinkers would replenish the stock often. Less frequent drinkers might have a few they forgot about. It does go bad eventually, so it’s not like a hard liquor where you could have a bottle sitting around untouched for multiple years and offer it up to someone. When it goes bad, it gets a “skunky” taste.

How are they drinking it?

Most good beers are meant to be poured into a glass, and there are different glass shapes for different styles, all purported to enhance the beer in some way. The basic is going to be a 16-oz pint glass. You should pour slowly with the stream hitting the side of the glass, not the bottom, to avoid it all turning to foam and overflowing. The foam is called the ‘head,’ and if it gets too tall, you have to wait for it to go down before drinking or else get foam on your nose.

Pouring the beer into a glass allows it to breathe and means the drinker is smelling the aroma of the beer as they drink. A glass suggests your character is enjoying their beer for its taste.

Drinking straight from the can or bottle, then, suggests a character that doesn’t care about the flavor or a beer that isn’t worth savoring. An exception is Corona, a Mexican beer, which is best enjoyed by cramming a lime slice into the bottle’s opening. It drops into the beer, which fizzes in response.

Cans are cheaper than bottles, generally. Cans often need to be crushed before they go in the recycling bin, to save space. Some people have mechanical crushers, some will crush with their hands or under their boot. If you want to show that someone is a real meathead, they might crush it on their forehead.

Of course, an exception to the “dignity” of glasses is the iconic red Solo cup, a plastic disposable cup associated with binge drinking at parties.

Binge drinking and drinking gimmicks

A beer can only be chugged (drank quickly all in one motion) from a glass, due to a lack of air flow into a can or bottle. Chugging can be a great sexually suggestive shorthand, since it’s best done if the drinker can completely relax and open their throat, basically pouring the drink directly down their esophagus, and... well, you catch my drift.

To get around the air flow issue, cans can be shotgunned, a practice associated with binge drinking, party culture, college/frat behavior, etc. To shotgun a beer, the side of the can is stabbed with a knife. You then cover the knife hole with your mouth, tip your head sideways so the can is upright, and crack the tab. This allows air to flow into the top hole, causing the beer to flow quickly out of the knife hole and into your mouth. It requires you to chug the entire beer or risk getting soaked.

A beer bong involves a large funnel with a long plastic hose coming from the bottom. The drinker puts the end of the hose in their mouth while a second person stands above them, the higher the better (I once saw a beer bong from a 3rd floor balcony), and pours a beer into the funnel. The gravity pressure then carries the beer down the tube at high speed, forcing the person at the bottom to drink as quickly as they can.

Not to be confused with beer pong, a game played on a ping-pong or similar-sized table. A triangle of red solo cups is arranged on either end of the table, each filled with a small amount of cheap beer. It’s a two-on-two game, with each side taking turns throwing a ping-pong ball, trying to get it into one of the other team’s cups. If it lands in a cup, someone from the other team needs to drink that cup and remove it from the table. There are usually elaborate house rules. Most people claim there is a “sweet spot” of drunkness where they are best at the game.

A keg is a barrel-shaped pressurized vessel that holds a large quantity of beer. For parties, a keg can be the most economical option for serving so many people. The keg will be stored in a large ice-filled container, often a trash can or storage tote. The keg must be “primed,” a plunger on top pumped repeatedly to get the vessel properly pressurized. People use the attached hose, which has a button or nozzle on the end, to dispense beer into their cups. It has to be re-pumped regularly, and by the end of the keg, this becomes laborious and frustrating, often leaving you with nothing but a sad trickle of foam.

A keg stand involves doing a handstand with your hands on the rim of the keg, usually with someone holding your legs to stabilize you, and drinking from the keg hose while upside-down. It frequently results in beer going up your nose and can show that a character is a fun party person or a walking disaster.

Ordering at the bar

Yes, in movies, a man will sit at a bar and say “beer me” and a beer appears in front of him with no conversation. No, that’s not realistic. Bars have a wide variety of beers, and you need to tell the bartender what you want. If a character wants something cheap, they might say, “A Miller Light,” or maybe a sarcastic, “A can of your finest Coors, sir.” Otherwise, they might read the menu, either posted on the wall or on a sheet of paper at the bar. They could also ask the bartender, “What’s on tap?”

Most bars will have a stock of cans and bottles in a fridge. They might ask if you want a glass with it. Beers on tap are stored in kegs under the bar and attached to spigots, usually with decorative handles. Some may be mainstays of the bar that are always available, and others might rotate in and out.

No, your character doesn’t have to specifically name drop a brand. You can give a general description: a can of the cheapest beer they had. A stout a little too syrupy for his tastes. A local IPA. All of these choices will say something about who your character is as a person.

Cheap Beer

Most mass-produced are light lagers with a pale yellow color. Those who don’t like them describe them as watery or tasting “like piss.” If one is hitting the spot at the end of a long day, it might taste slightly tart, slightly bitter, but mostly refreshing. Worse ones are more bitter and have a sort of “funk” to them. The big names like Miller, Coors, Bud, Natty Light, or Mich will be instantly recognizable as a cheap beer, but if you really want to get regionally specific in the US, many places have a local one that is so, so much worse.

For home drinking, cheap beers can be bought in the traditional six-pack, but serious drinkers are more likely to buy a case, usually 24 beers. As for where you can buy them, that varies from state to state and county to county. Look up the local laws on whether beer can be bought in grocery stores or convenience stores.

Craft Beer

The craft beer industry has exploded in popularity in the US, with microbreweries churning out small batches of local beers with creative, complex flavors.There are a kajillion different variations, but I’ll try to hit the big categories:

Lagers are usually associated with cheap beer, but there are craft lagers such as bocks, dunkels, and schwarzbiers. They’re fermented at lower temperatures and usually have a lighter flavor and a low alcohol content.

Sours are, as the name says, sour! They are light, low alcohol content, and often fruit flavored. These are summery and the fruity ones are sometimes seen as “girly.”

IPAs (India Pale Ales) are usually light with heavy hops content. Those who don’t like them describe them as too bitter or tasting like grass. Those that like them describe them as floral and complex. IPAs had a “craze” in the early 2010s and were disparagingly described as “pumpkin spice for men.” Because they are light and easy-drinking, they’re less “butch” than others.

Stouts are the other side of the ale spectrum: heavy, black, and thick. It’s like drinking bread. They are often strongly and complexly flavored with things like coffee, chocolate, banana, peanut butter. They can be aged in whiskey barrels to give them a smoky flavor. They can be syrupy or bitter. It’s hard to drink too much of them because they are filling and calorie-heavy, but they usually have a very high alcohol content, two to four times as strong as a light beer. They’re seen as a beer for “serious” beer drinkers. Guinness is the most well-known commercially available stout, but most beer snobs will stick up their noses at it.

Porters are the less-heavy predecessor of the stout. They’re dark brown with lots of hops and a malty flavor. A good compromise if you want a strong, dark beer to show you’re A Man™ but don’t want a beer you practically have to chew.

In nonsense stereotypical terms, darker/heavier/higher alcohol content = more tough/butch, lighter/fruitier/lower alcohol content = more feminine. That said, I wouldn’t want to drink a heavy beer in the sun on a hot day, so context also matters.

Is there anything I missed? Let me know!

[talenlee]

How To Be: Cassandra and Rapunzel from Tangled (In 4e D&D)

In How To Be we’re going to look at a variety of characters from Not D&D and conceptualise how you might go about making a version of that character in the form of D&D that matters on this blog, D&D 4th Edition. Our guidelines are as follows:

This is going to be a brief rundown of ways to make a character that ‘feels’ like the source character

This isn’t meant to be comprehensive or authoritative but as a creative exercise

While not every character can work immediately out of the box, the aim is to make sure they have a character ‘feel’ as soon as possible

The character has to have the ‘feeling’ of the character by at least midway through Heroic

When building characters in 4th Edition it’s worth remembering that there are a lot of different ways to do the same basic thing. This isn’t going to be comprehensive, or even particularly fleshed out, and instead give you some places to start when you want to make something.

Another thing to remember is that 4e characters tend to be more about collected interactions of groups of things – it’s not that you get a build with specific rules about what you have to take, and when, and why, like you’re lockpicking your way through a design in the hopes of getting an overlap eventually. Character building is about packages, not programs, and we’ll talk about some packages and reference them going forwards.

You know the story of Rapunzel? The kid’s story about a girl with long hair in a tower which you can tell as a bedtime story and it takes maybe ten minutes, fifteen if you’re doing a lot with the voices and details and want to make the witch’s end really grisly? Well, yeah, turns out that got a movie back in the day and then that movie got a TV series and that TV series kicks ass, and so for this Smooch Month, I decided to try and make an article about base-level optimising choices for a pair of characters, a battle couple. In this case, one of those Battle Couple members is Rapunzel, the hero of the story Rapunzel, and the other is, uh

Her name’s Cass.

Original art by Nonadraws

And hey, I’m going to talk about some spoilers for a kid’s cartoon you probably didn’t watch but I do like it and I think if you care about spoilers, well you should watch it without me being the way you find out about the third story arc of the TV series and what it means okay byeee.

Alright, what do you know about Rapunzel and Cassandra? They’re Disney Princess style characters so it’s not like you see a lot of comic book measurement stuff going on in their stories. They’re adventure stories, and the characters are as tough and strong and smart and witty as they need to be to get you to an ad break, or, because this was late 2018, probably to the next streaming check-in. Though maybe they have ads on Disney+ now, it wouldn’t surprise me.

The characters are pretty basic, though so it means it’s not that hard to give a rudimentary breakdown of how they present in the story and then how that informs choices about how to build them in the rest of the game.

Rapunzel,

Is a charismatic leader with a huge variety of skills. In the story of Tangled she’s shown developing a huge variety of skills, including engineering, crafting, knot-tying and juggling, which implies mathematical skill.

Extremely sociable and prosocial and operates in a good faith with almost everyone.

Access in some form or another to influential music; she can sing songs that change people’s minds or maybe make a compelling case.

Cass, on the other hand:

Routinely is shown handling weapons and wearing armour

Is represented as being physically fit and uses her physical strength to achieve things

Doesn’t, at first demonstrate any magical powers or prowess

For this exercise, the challenge is not in trying to find a way to represent everything the characters can do but instead to present an example of how two players can construct their characters so they fundamentally work together, while sticking to the framework presented above. It’s also going to try and build a pair of characters that work together expressing the different versions of these characters that you can perceive throughout the story, in a way that fills two complementary roles in a party.

Basically, how do you make team synergy that also leaves other people ways to connect, and can it be done such it looks like the different possible iterations of Cassandra and Rapunzel?

Before the Beginning

First principles, established introduction for Cass and Rapunzel. You have Rapunzel, as she was at the end of the movie Tangled, and her handmaiden Cass. These are characters who are very new to one another and new to their relationship to the world. Rapunzel has not been a princess before, and Cass has been a handmaiden in waiting looking for a princess to take up the mantle.

Cassandra in this time is also sneaking out to fight. She wants to be a warrior, she has aims to be a knight, but her predominant job is to be a handmaiden doing needlecraft and proper courtly management. At this point I would suggest you can represent Cass best with a Rogue, and Rapunzel, without magical powers as a Warlord.

The build I’d pick for Rapunzel is a lazy Warlord – the build that doesn’t actually have to make attacks of its own, and only grants them to other people. The best advantage of this build for Rapunzel is that it avoids her needing a high strength score, and instead focuses on things like her Wisdom and Charisma. While Rapunzel does not commonly wear heavy armour, this kind of build can give up on armour in exchange for better and more free movement.

As a rogue, Cass can emphasise a good basic attack, which is exactly the kind of thing a Warlord wants to have on hand. The Thief build from Heroes of the Fallen Lands starts with a good basic attack, and can do things that emphasise and improve it.

During The Day

The next major iteration of the pair, Cassandra is now openly able to act outside of the Handmaiden duties she has in the castle. She gets involved in fights, but her fighting is in defense and protection of Rapunzel. Rapunzel, on the other hand, now has access to her hair again, which changes a lot about how she acts – now she’s a character with a lot of reach and the means to control people at distance.

For this pairing, which represents the bulk of the narrative of the series, I’d represent Cass with a Fighter of some variety, and Rapunzel now as a Bard.

Rapunzel as a Bard can take the Superior Weapon Proficiency (Whip) and have that represent her hair. Melee bards don’t have to care that much about the power of their melee attacks, but they can do things that trigger off those attacks. An example would be the Skald bard, where you set up an aura around you and trigger buff effects off your basic attacks.

The Fighter gets to wear armour of varying degrees, but can mix up a melee weapon and a bare hand, if you want Cass to feel like a fencer, or you can represent a shield with a reinforced arm guard, and play a much more standard fighter build. The bard can grant attacks, or temporary hit points depending on build choices, and the fighter can capitalise on that.

The Lonely Twilight

In the final season, Cass and Rapunzel are apart, broken up by the revelation that Cass is the real child of Mother Gothel and has had to deal with Rapunzel literally being chosen over her by even her own mother. But in this time, Cass embraces magical power, and gets lithomancy magic, a kind of stone based magic. What it looks like is attacking with spikes and having big chunky stone armour. She still draws a great big sword, and she still fights with that.

At this point, the Cass looks a lot more like something like a Paladin. Her powers are driven by her personality and she’s less mobile. If you take this aesthetic, this look, you’re going to see her raging out and swinging a big sword. There’s a lot more magicality to her area control, and if you want the Warden could do the same thing, similar vibes. The heavy armour pulls me towards Paladin here.

Rapunzel is at this point full blown wizarding with glowing eyes and magical incantations and the hair as a whip is less important. For this end, and because a thing like granting basics is less important, I’d instead look to a Cleric as your compatriot pair. Two different sources of divine powers are pretty cool but also they can have overlap on energy damage types. A cleric who goes for blasting lasers and charisma based powers can benefit from the Radiant Mafia build, and that means these two bring the core of what that needs to any given play group.

Junk Drawer Options

It’s pretty cool how many of the leader types can be stuck onto the different versions of Rapunzel. Bards, Clerics, Warlords, they’re all covered, but don’t neglect the value of the Shaman or Artificer, which both can carry a lot of the feelings of the setting even if Rapunzel herself doesn’t do much with it. Cass is very limited but if you don’t want to play the defender type in the group, she can play a dual-wielding Ranger or Scout, too.

At this point the outline of this document is a thousand words. Presenting specific examples of things that can make builds work together in synergy is pretty challenging. There are things like Agile Opportunist and specific ways to maximise basic attacks. With a really off the wall option you can have Cass doing the leader duty of a Bard while Rapunzel takes up the job of a Wizard or even –

yes, I’m going to mention it

A druid.

Okay, okay, I’ll stop.

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