#Gen Why Media Project

[madthetruemad]

more self!aware gojo

Gojo’s foot tapped restlessly as he used whatever measure possible to look into your room, at your phone, and even into your sketch book.

Slowly but surely, you were drifting away from him.

He could remember it clearly when he first stumbled upon him, or, more accurately, when you first found him.

You were scrolling through youtube mindlessly. Your teeth gnawing on the inside of your cheek as boredom threatened to kill you. Which was when a recommended video popped up. The title was something simple. “Top ten new gen anime to watch” or something like that. Already finishing your winter anime for the season, you decided to give it a watch. And at 1:30 of the video, he saw you and you saw him. He could see how your eyes shined just a tiny bit as you sat up and focused more on the screen.

Jujutsu Kaisen.

You noted the anime title quickly as you exited the app and went searching on where to watch it. Luckily for you, the anime was on Netflix, and much to Gojo’s amusement, you had immediately started binging the first season.

And throughout each episode, he got to know you.

You were a college student. A hardworking on at that. You still lived with your parents. Had a decent manga collection with figurines lining your bookshelves. You had two close friends that you had since middle school. And you were a total loser.

Gojo was in love.

He was used to the attention. He got it from everyone in his world and everyone in yours (or, at least, the people who actually watched anime or read a manga).

But he quite liked your attention the most.

You didn’t go overboard, but were still a fan that slowly started collecting the manga and looking for merchandise with his face on it.

Oh, you were so cute.

Your social media pages were dedicated to him. Your usernames having some sort of variation of his name. Your sketchbooks and fanfics were littered with his face and speech patterns. It was adorable. And unlike other fans, you did try to get to know him. Sure, you don’t try to do those character analysis posts, but you still try and he likes the effort.

Which was why he put so much effort in getting to know you too.

And yet…

As the manga continued he started to notice a sort of distant from both him and you. And it truly started to show right after his death and the end of the manga.

He watched as you changed your username. Your sketchbooks became empty. And your fanfics became so few. Your lengthy 1k fics turned into 50 word drabbles. Your username highlighted other characters he never even heard before. And you rarely turned a page of the Jujutsu Kaisen manga anymore.

Were you bored of him?

He didn’t want to lose! He couldn’t!

“Hey.”

Your voice rung in his ears as he snapped his attention to you.

Luckily you haven’t put his figure or poster into a cardboard box yet…

“Y/n! How have you been?”

He watched as you smiled. He recognized the voice on the other end of the phone. Sarah, her name was, a childhood friend of yours.

“Ohhh, nothing much,” you said as you went to cuddle into the comforts of your bed. Your free hand trying to untangle your blankets so you could get comfortable.

“That’s great! I’m planning on going to that anime convention this weekend! Want to come?”

Gojo watched as you perked up, a small smile on his face as he watched you. He has known you for years and it never gets old seeing you so excited for an anime con.

But as soon as the excitement showed, it was quick to disappear as you huffed, “I would love to, but… I have work.”

“Take a few days off then!”

You shook your head, “no can do. They need me for this project, Sarah.”

Gojo hummed, distinctly remembering you talking about it with your parents and how stressful it has been these past few months because of it. Right when you graduated college, you got a job and moved out almost immediately, much to Gojo’s delight. He was happy to see you be able to make it on your own (though, truthfully, he would much prefer to provide for you instead…).

Sarah sighed on the other end, “well, alright… do you want me to get you anything there?”

You played with your bedsheets. Your fingers pinching at the fabric and rolling it between your fingertips, “maybe a Gojo figure?”

“Gojo?”

“Yeah, you know, my all-time favorite character?”

Gojo could hear Sarah laugh on the other end, “kind of hard to imagine since you haven’t been talking about him lately.”

You rolled your eyes, “only because he died… ever since his death and the manga itself ending … I don’t know, I just really miss him. So, I tried to block him out. You know? If I don’t see him as often then maybe I won’t be so sad? Not to mention that work has been stressful lately. It feels like I don’t have any time to myself lately. And I’ve been itching to reread JJK again.”

Gojo could feel himself preening, you weren’t tired of him after all! You were just mourning his death. Which was cute. He liked how you cared so much.

“Alright, alright. I get it. One Gojo figure coming up!”

“Thanks.”

You both talked a bit more before eventually hanging up. He watched you toss your phone to your nightstand before reaching over and fiddling with the switch. After a couple of failed attempts you finally managed to switch it off.

Delving back into his own world where he sat comfortably on his couch, he leaned back. His head tilted back so he could stare up at the ceiling.

He needs to find a way to bring you to his world.

[zvaigzdelasas]

A North Korean propaganda song extolling Kim Jong Un as “a great leader and a friendly parent” has gone viral on TikTok, with mashups and dances racking up millions of views, leading to South Korea banning the tune due to “psychological warfare.”

Seoul’s media regulator on Monday announced it was blocking access to versions of “Friendly Father,” the cheery propaganda hit that became an unlikely social media sensation.

The song was unveiled in April during a nighttime concert to mark the completion of a housing project in the capital Pyongyang, according to North Korean state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Its lyrics praise Kim [...] as “a great leader and a friendly parent,” and the music video depicts North Koreans enthusiastically belting out the orchestral song proclaiming that Kim “takes care of us with affection.”[...]

The song went viral after content creators around the world used it to make their own edits of the music video adding dances and unserious captions to their own short one-minute clips on the platform, garnering over 2 million views.

“This isn’t Gen Z suddenly declaring allegiance for the regime,” said Alexandra Leonzini, a Cambridge University scholar conducting research on North Korean music.

“They’re laughing at the regime not with the regime.”

Nonetheless, South Korean security officials came down on the parodies. The Korea Communications Standards Commission decided to block 29 videos of the song, following a request from Seoul’s National Intelligence Service. But some versions of the song on YouTube were still accessible to users in South Korea as of Wednesday.[...]

The ban was not a surprise, as the country’s National Security Act blocks access to North Korean government websites and media, restricting exposure to Kim’s autocratic regime and penalizing behaviors promoting its authoritarian and nuclear-armed neighbor.

22 May 24

[heavenlycloud]

le sserafim reaction to you doing a tiktok trend on them: le sserafim x fem! reader

authors note: i wrote this back when these trends were actually trending a few months ago. this wasn't requested but i got the idea while scrolling through tiktok and forgot to post it so here it is!

tw// VERY VERY light barely there suggestive remarks

sakura ✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚

you and your members had just gotten finished with weeks of packed schedules with little rest. finally, you were finally fixing your sleeping schedule and feeling less like a zombie and more like a human being again. your members were decompressing in their own ways like yunjin who was lost in her own world strumming on her guitar in the room beside yours. chaewon and kazuha were watching some new drama in the living room and eunchae was asleep in her room. sakura busied herself with her new hobby, crocheting, while listening to a video with her headphones on. you watched your girlfriend make her new project- a small bag made of mesh-like stitches. her brows furrowed in concentration as she tried to count her stitches in her head so not to disturb you sitting silently across from her. she assumed you were reading a new book from your online library but you were actually just watching tiktoks. after seven chapters of your novel you'd lost interest and switched to something more entertaining. you'd stumbled onto a trend of girls asking their boyfriends to hand them an orange, then asking if they'd peel it for them to see the reaction. with nothing else to do you decided to give it a try:

"kkura?" you poked your girlfriend with your socked foot and she answered without looking up from her crocheting, "yes?" you put your phone in your lap and sighed, "i want a clementine, do you know if we have any?" sakura hummed and looked up, "there's some in the kitchen inside of the refrigerator in the bottom left drawer. i just got them for you yesterday on my way home." you smiled at the mention because you didn't ask her to buy them for you yesterday, she just did it because she thought you'd enjoy them. you clasped a clip back onto one of the twists that fell into your face before you asked sweetly, "can you please get it?" without hesitation sakura nodded and said while still focusing on the hook and yarn in her hand, "gimmie one second." when she finished her row she went to get your clementine and returned with two and a paper towel.

your girlfriend sat back down and began peeling the clementines for you without you having to ask. she even pulled the little stringy parts that you hated most off and threw them away with the peels. when she handed you back the peeled fruits you asked, "why did you peel them for me?" sakura answered easily, "you don't like how the peels gets stuck under your nails so i did it. enjoy." you leaned over and kissed her cheek, "thank you, kkura." she pressed a kiss to your temple, "of course my love."

chaewon ✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚

despite being a part of gen z and being called one of the best gen z idols by fans, you were underqualified in one area: social media. you didn't even remember to check your texts let alone what was trending across different apps. the only reason you knew if something was on trend or not was because of fans or your friends teaching you. however, after being teased about it you promised yourself that you'd keep up a little more just for fun. plus, your bosses suggested it'd be good for fan service and engagement which was always a good thing. but, what wasn't a good thing was that little promise to keep up with trends resulted in you now being 'chronically online' according to yunjin. you scrolled through your for you page and watched yet another video of a woman asking her partner, "name a woman." after going down a rabbit hole of the same type of video you decided to try it out on your own girlfriend.

"baby." you shook chaewon lightly as she laid in your arms with her cheek pressed against your bare shoulder. she answered sleepily, "hmmm?" you grinned as you told her, "name a woman."

chaewon pulled away from you slightly and asked, "what do you mean?" you responded plainly, "name a woman." your girlfriend toyed with one of your box braids and asked once more in confusion, "any woman?" you clarified, "any woman." she then replied without a second thought, "han sohee." you let out a huff and tried again, "name a different woman." chaewon answered again with a different name, "bada lee." you could almost hear the smile in her voice that time and you whined, "you were supposed to say my name!" your girlfriend pulled away from you fully and told you, "you said 'name a woman' not 'name my woman'. there's a difference, you're mine."

yunjin ✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚

you were no stranger to the song water by tyla or the dance challenge that went along with it. one evening while you were on a weverse live you'd played the song after seeing people comment the title. you sang along to it and mentioned with a smirk, "i want to perform this on a stage so bad guys. i learned the dance and everything but i don't know if i'd ever be able to show you. ever since you'd randomly danced to WAP during a live a year ago, you've been monitored more than your other members. but after fans demanded for days on end you were finally allowed to post your water challenge on tiktok.

"i dunno i think you need to do it again." yunjin sat in front of you with her back against the mirror in the dance practice room. your girlfriend was acting as your camerawoman for your tiktok challenge, and she had you redo the dance nearly 15 times now. you taught her the dance earlier and she was doing it a little too well yet she insisted only you be in the video. she eyed you up and down with her gaze lingering on your rolled up tank top and sweatpants that sat low on your hips. you sighed and did the dance again along to the music before asking her, "was that one better? lemme see-" you reached for her phone and she said, "oh i wasn't recording that." your eyes widened and you asked, "wha- why not?! were you recording any of them?" yunjin shook her head and you smacked her arm, "yunjin! you had one job!" your girlfriend defended herself, "what? you can't expect me to remember what i'm supposed to do if you're shaking all that in my face." she wrapped her arms around your waist and kissed your neck but you pulled away.

you told her, "you can have me later okay? now focus!" just as you were pulling away she looped her fingers around one of the strings of beads that sat on your hips. yunjin tied a hoodie around your torso and said, "much better. now i can focus." you rolled your eyes and told her, "you're no better than a man." she waved you off, "yeah okay. just do your little dance...i'm ready now i swear."

kazuha ✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚

you knew that yunjin created a monster when she introduced your members to chipotle and not even a full day later kazuha was saying she missed it. every time she looked back through her camera roll for pictures to post she was sending her chipotle photo to the group chat saying she wanted it again. you found it hilarious because all it took was one bowl and she was already whining about how korea needed to get hip to the fast food chain.

one night after scrolling through your tiktok feed you saw a man recreate chipotle at home for his wife so you thought you'd try it for kazuha. you couldn't find all of the exact recipes but you came pretty close despite the fact that cilantro just doesn't really exist in korea. but knowing your girlfriend, she'd appreciate anything that you gave her so it was fine.

"zuha! baby come here i have something for you." you called kazuha to the kitchen where you had all of the food laid out in containers on the table. you handed her a bowl and said, "i made you chipotle." kazuha's eyes lit up and she nearly jumped over the table to tackle you into a hug. she clapped her hands together and you stood on the other side of the table to serve her your home version of chipotle. she was more than happy to post about it on weverse, showing the meal off to everyone especially knowing that her members weren't around to steal any off her plate.

[thearchercore]

charles is a PR genius. and here's how he's trying to slowly rebrand his persona to strenghten his personal brand:

recently, especially after the triple header, you could notice charles had a period of time when he distanced himself from ferrari and clearly changed his public statements about his goals. he went from saying he wants to win with ferrari to saying that at his core, he just wants to win. and that he would leave ferrari if he didn't believe the project.

he also changed the way he communicated with fans, through social media. you can notice the change of wording in his post descriptions:

both posts are from the same year, but the wording is now different. he refused to use the ferrari branding and stopped using the typical ferrari-PR wording he was conditioned to use.

fast forward, he started interracting with ferrari by abu dhabi and seemed to be finally happy with the direction the team was taking. however, he still managed to build something from this anti-ferrari period -- the slow rebrand from being "charles, the ferrari driver" to "charles, the f1 driver".

charles is slowly, but surely working to increase the value of his personal brand to possibly gain more negotiating power, and other bonuses that come with having a strong personal brand not tied to any team in particular.

in general, the goal would be to outgrow the team so you are known as an individual athlete, not just someone who drives for the particular team and has their identity tied to the team only.

he also signed with WME for advertisement purposes, he started wearing his personal clothing brand CLACE again after ferrari banned him to do so. he clearly regained more confidence in what he can do as an athlete within the contract (that's usually very limiting from ferrari's pov).

how does he otherwise work on his personal brand? relatability. charles is a gen z child first and foremost, he knows parasocial relationships play a huge role on social media. he works on side personal projects like the LA vlog -- the vlog that had little to do with racing but still showed charles completely SUCK at basketball.

why would you include it, you may ask? it makes him relatable, it makes his personality more interersting. more fun.

his first public post from winter training then was him falling

why did he post that? well, a) he's a silly guy. but more importantly, b) he's not crafting up a perfect PR image, he's aiming for being relatable, showcasing more of his personality. he wants to stand out as an individual in the sea of other f1 drivers who posted more pre-planned content during their winter training.

in the LA vlog he also left in a little dig at carlos. why? because he can. he also used his twitter likes to like controversial things that ferrari wouldn't let him say. he very much knows how to navigate online spaces and how to create more boundaries between his personal brand and the ferrari brand.

additionally, he also now hangs out with people like max publicly even if they don't benefit the ferrari brand. max, in general, isn't liked by the tifosi or ferrari in general. but charles still makes sure to hang out with him on track and outside of it, once again, securing his personal brand and not pushing something that ferrari would prefer.

it's all very interesting to watch, seeing how carefully he's rebuilding his public image and how he communicates on social media with the world.

[throwawayhero]

could you give more hcs or a drabble about bakugou with a crush on reader!! pls i feel like ur fics are the closest ive seen to canon... i need more

No problem, and thanks! I try to make them seem canon, but sometimes it's difficult T-T. Just realising now that a few of these sound stalker-y and I'm sorta regretting writing this but oh well. I hope this is satisfactory!! c/w; social media au, buzzfeed, eminem (idek), karaoke, not proof read

!Katsuki who unintentionally catches himself playing with his hair while talking to you. Not in an obvious way (that's what he thinks at least), but more so absentmindedly fiddling with his side burns and such. It's kinda funny when he accidentally curls them and leaves them like that for a while. He also has a habit of playing with his baby hairs on the back of his neck.

!Katsuki who "accidentally" managed to copy your handwriting style down stroke for stroke? He doesn't really know how it happened, to be honest. He just noticed it one day during a group project after Jirou pointed it out to the two of you. You found it funny, but he found it outrageous and claimed that you had been the one to copy his handwriting.

!Katsuki who allowed you to tag along on one of Kirishima's and his study sessions. He beat the shit out of Eijirou and was gentle with you, more or less. He wouldn't hit you of course, but he certainly wasn't scared to yell. At least the first time. The look you gave him made him writhe with guilt, so he shut the fuck up out of embarrassment.

!Katsuki who heard you talking about a band you loved and decided it was his god given right to go through their whole discography and criticise it in his own time. But turns out, you have good taste, so he keeps to himself about it. "Accidentally" bought a spare ticket to their next concert and offered the spot to you. No big deal, right?

!Katsuki who did extensive searching for your socials, scrolling through his friends friends following, mutuals, and genuinely just word of mouth. When he did find your accounts, he stalked the SHIT out of them. When you requested to follow him, he freaked out and accepted straight away. He didn't follow you back until a week later, "just to be safe".

!Katsuki who unironically took one of those "Do I have a crush on my friend?" quizzes when he started to feel things towards you. 100% went down a rabbit hole on buzzfeed. He wanted to call his "crush" ANYTHING other than what it was. Mentioned it to Kirishima once and was left even ore confused than what he had originally been.

Unrelated but he just looks like he would listen to Eminem. Probably gets a good chuckle out of the whole "You gonna cancel me, yeah? Gen Z me brah?!" thing. Don't ask me to explain why I think this, it just makes sense.

!Katsuki who more often than not is watching you out of the corner of his eye. Not in an overly-creepy way, he's just "aware of his surroundings". He says that to anyone that mentions it, which is literally just his paranoia.

!Katsuki who secretly loved the fact that you hung out with him and his friends almost daily. Because then he wouldn't have to initiate hangouts and look as desperate as he really was. It gave him a plausible excuse to absorb every single opinion you uttered. It gave him an excuse to get even closer to you.

!Katsuki who freaked the FUCK out when everyone (besides the two of you) got sick and couldn't do the bi-weekly hangout everyone had played a part in organising. The group had settled on doing karaoke, so you can imagine how it went down with just the two of you there. Although, the two of you did make an amazing duet. (No one was really sick, Mina just mentioned Katsuki's behaviour and put 2 and 2 together. She also wanted to see if he would take initiative for once.)

!Katsuki who went out of his way to make changes to his hero costume that he knew you would like. Small details here and there, for both style and practicality. While it was cold he would use the neck warmer to hide the smirk that creeped onto his face when he saw you checking out his new look. He also started to make himself look nicer in general, indulging in a bit of jewellery (stud earrings, a ring or two, and a silver necklace), nicer shoes, wearing the uniform properly and such.

!Katsuki who has your number pinned in his contacts, as well as giving you your own message & ring tone sound. He has everyone but you, Kirishima, and his parents on silenced. He also has your contact saved as a nickname he assigned you without you knowing with a heart emoji. It's simple, but endearing.

[atissi]

had to watch the new Folding Ideas video twice, read all of the comments, watched Lady Emily's video, watch an AVGN video for the first time (sorry i'm gen z), failed to get through Wavelength (1967), read a bunch about Wavelength (1967), and read through a bunch of Twitter comments, but i think i'm finally understanding the artistry in "i don't know james rolfe"

narratively it's dan olson revealing the rorschach test of media analysis, i.e. there was no way for him to critically analyze james rolfe's career without revealing all of his own obsessions and insecurities, just as james rolfe reveals himself through his film and video game reviews. this concept is lampshaded by the highlighting of Wavelength (1967), an extremely minimal and obtuse film that engages with the idea of inattention — meaning that bored or negative responses to the work are still responses to the theme. which is cool.

and it's cool that criticisms of dan olson's video include people upset that he hyper-focused on specific elements of james rolfe's life and not other, arguably more important elements, such as the Monster Madness controversy or james's time in special ed — almost as though the character of dan olson is cherrypicking aspects of james rolfe's life that are the most personally wounding to him. aspects that expose dan's insecurities relating to filmmaking and failed dreams, expressed through the vessel of AVGN.

but meta narratively, the video becomes a rorschach test for the audience — your response to the video reveals your own obsessions and insecurities in how you relate to dan olson. why does someone find the video mean-spirited? why does someone else think the video is self-serving? why do I feel so awkward watching dan attempt a deeper, more abstract creative work?

where does dan olson end and the character of dan olson as a media critic begin? where do you as an audience member end, and YOU begin?

it's projection all the way down

[nihildenial]

On the Nose by nihil-denial (wc: 1,465)

Pairings: Special Ghoul & Copia's Rats

Rating: Gen

Tags: Fluff, No hurt, Animal love, Copia's rats, Rigatoni the Rat

Summary: Special Ghoul believes he won't enjoy pet-sitting Papa Emeritus IV's twelve pet rats. Perhaps he shouldn't make assumptions that quickly.

It’s difficult to continue daily tasks in a quiet Ministry. Special Ghoul’s routine of sweeping, paperwork, and media management was typically easy because of the flurry of activity that kept distracting him. However, with Papa Emeritus IV, the Ghouls, and Papa Nihil out on tour, Phil was left in charge of most of the ghoul’s daily chores. The Siblings stepped up for a lot of it, much to his relief. 

So, that meant he could keep his normal schedule of document reviewing, instgram and email wrangling, sweeping…and now, rat babysitting. He wasn’t looking forward to starting that task today. Rats were considered pests in New York City, only an hour’s drive from the Ministry. Sure, the Rats song was fun to shoot and the cartoon stickers Copia handed out were cute, but the real animals were probably a mess of dirty vermin that the man has managed to look past to find something adorable in.

He probably would get dirt all in his tunic. 

Special Ghoul straightened his belt and hung his mask by his fascia as he neared Papa Copia’s room. He closed his deep amber eyes and took a deep, settling breath before he pushed through the heavy velvet curtains. 

He feels for the light switch, jumping when it triggers the large lava lamp on the side table. “Fucking hell,” he mutters and continues through the small living area to the bedroom. He switches on the overhead lights and sighs at the large metal structure taking up the entirety of the right wall. 

Special stares at it then looks to where he presumes the Anti-Pope sleeps. It’s a twin mattress on the floor, pushed up against the middle wall. The fire Ghoul knows that the man’s coffers are more than full enough for a nice bedroom set. They’re satan worshippers for fuck’s sake; Special needs to convince the man to put his selfish wants first for once. 

Special sets the several bags of things on the neatly tucked bed. A packet of paper is sitting innocently on the Star Wars pillow. 

He then walks to the floor-to-ceiling cage and comes eye-to-eye with the rodents Copia so dearly loves. Special flips to the first page (it’s a motherfucking table of contents) and then the next, which has a picture and description of each of the twelve pet rats. 

Alfredo

Allegro

Buccatini

Crescendo

Farfalle

Gemelli

Gemini

Legato

Minestra

Opus

Rigatoni

Toccata

A star sticker was placed next to Rigatoni’s picture, designating him as Copia’s ‘heart rat’ or whatever that meant. Phil closes the packet and sets it aside. He toes off his shoes outside of the baby crates that surround the cage and carefully steps inside, trying not to step on any of the toys. 

Squeaks of all pitches meet his ears. He finally looks up to meet the excited gazes of the rats. They’re squirming, jumping, wrestling and going between the many different levels of the cage. A bunch of them gather on the floor nearest his face. There’s little dirt or visible poop on the colorful blankets and dig box. In fact, the longer he stands there, he notices how they use their tiny arms to lick and wash their faces and bodies.

“Why are you all actually cute?” He asks quietly as a pink nose pushes between the thin bars of the enclosure. He boops it gently. “I can’t let Papa know he was right.”

The black and white rodent jumps away from the bars, scurries up onto one of the hanging hammocks, then bounces back to press against the bars. It repeats it when Special touches the pink nose again.

Oh, it wants to play. 

“Okay, okay, let me make sure this is secure before I let all of you out.” He checks the corners of the playpen, fills the thin bowl with water and most of the frozen peas and carrots, then steps back up to the cage. The latch on the bottom area is simple. 

As soon as the doors are open, the rats are eagerly scurrying down the short ramp to the cushioned floor. Copia’s instructions say he can let them go by themselves for a bit, so he steps out to observe them.

Special watches their fuzzy, avocado-shaped bodies move with such a feeling of excitement that he finds himself smiling down at them. Geez, he’s turning soft. 

A large, golden rat pauses in its place at the platter of peas and pellets to stare up at him. It crawls around its packmates and tries to jump onto the playgate. Surprisingly it makes it almost to the top. Special falls to his knees and grabs the rodent to keep it from escaping. 

The animal is squishy, warm, and wiggly. It calms as it relaxes in the radiant warmth of his palm, closing its beady but cute black eyes. According to the papers, this is Rigatoni, a special rat. 

Special ghoul carefully pets the rat’s head with a finger. When the rat relaxes more, he caresses the animal’s pudgy body. 

It’s calming. Special is holding a tiny life in his hands, and is being trusted unconditionally . He’s a scrappy fire ghoul meant to fight in the pits of Hell and this little creature finds something good enough in him to relax. He has to wipe the hot tears from his eyes with the sleeve of his tunic. 

“Hello, Rigatoni,” he croaks. 

The rat opens its eyes and stretches its delicate pink arms and legs, climbing up his arm to sit on his shoulder. 

Special has seen Copia walking around with a few of the rodents like this. Sometimes he even puts a basket on his stupid tricycle for several rats to ride around in. 

More of the rats have finished fishing for peas to hop at the gate to gain his attention. He reaches down and picks up one of the docile black and white ones. Allegro paws at the embroidered ghoul symbols. 

“Yes, I’m a ghoul,” he answers the rat.

He has to put the rat back down when it tries chewing off the patch. “No, no. No nibbling off my patches. I know it was a few of you little shits that did that to Papa’s favorite pants.”

He tries to look at them sternly, but their tiny, curious faces make it extremely difficult. Special reads a few more pages of Copia’s instructions. 

“You guys want some treats?” He says and laughs at the eager frenzy that causes. He presses the rectangular bits of sweet potato, peas, and walnut pieces in the different balls, snuffle mats, and hammocks. 

Rigatoni crawls down his arm to hop back into the playpen to join the search for treats. When he tries to take one of the balls to put more treats in, Toccata grabs it and starts an impromptu tug-of-war. When Phil carefully tosses it in, the grey rat pushes it around with it’s pink nose like a dog. 

-

“Have you seen Special Ghoul?” Sister Gwenyth pokes her head into the Siblings’ communal kitchen.

Brother Ezra shakes his head from where he’s stirring in a large pot. “Not since this morning. He said he was going to feed Papa’s rats.”

She purses her lips and looks to the few other Siblings in the kitchen. All of them give her equally unhelpful answers. She turns and heads back out into the cloister, checking the empty Ghoul crypt once more. She goes back upstairs to the main level and heads towards the papal wing. 

She tries not to think too hard about the empty bedrooms as she passes them. She stops outside the curtain, a line of light spilling from under the doorway. “Phil?” She calls.

When she gets no answer, she cautiously steps inside. The living room is empty, so she moves on.

The bed is filled with the Ghoul’s duffel bag and discarded silver mask. She looks over the edge of the playpen by the open rat cage (not seeing any rats or squeaks, which makes her panic) and sees the most adorable sight.

Special Ghoul, asleep in the middle of the large space, with twelve rats snuggling in the junctions of his neck and on top of his chest. He looks so peaceful, his sharp, charcoal grey features relaxed. The rats on his chest are snuggling under one of his hands, their tails sticking out from his fingers. In the crook of his neck is a bunch of curled up rodent noses pressed against each other and moving with their breaths. 

She has to physically restrain herself from making noise. Gwenyth frantically captures the moment with her phone and sends it to Copia. She checks that all of them are indeed breathing and snaps another picture before leaving them alone. The tax documents can wait until tomorrow.

[theafroamericaine]

My Perspective on Black Culture in the USA

I am highlighting my people and our culture for those who seem to lack understanding about it. I have seen countless derogatory comments coming from our own and others pertaining to us. I will never understand how someone can say we don't have a culture, no social practices, no traditions etc.... or only shine light on negative stereotypes grouping us all together. Black people are not a monolith. It's ridiculous to observe the behavior (esp. the negative part) of a person or group then project that image onto all of us. To cherry pick which parts of our culture are "cool" or "trendy" then completely erase us out of the picture and try to gaslight us into thinking the style never originated with us. AAVE in media is looked at as "internet slang" or "Gen Z slang" nothing to be taken seriously. Our signature styles, rather it be hair or clothing are looked at as trends or streetwear. It seems as if when it's deemed popular our style is no longer apart of us.

The whole "Black Americans don't know where they come from," topic is old and tiring. I have never questioned my identity nor was confused about where my family comes from. For many Black Americans their families have been in North America for centuries, why is it so confusing as to where we come from? When someone says that they are Jamaican, Haitian, Bajan or any other group in the diaspora, do you question who they are and their families origins? Is it skeptical to you then? I take great pride in my ancestors for persevering and fighting for us to be recognized as citizens of this country and I have no problem with calling myself a Black/African American, those are my family roots here. We do know where we come from and we do know who we are.

Google is one second away if you are actually curious about our culture and trying to get a better understanding. Stating that we have nothing of our own and aren't unique is low vibrational. Just because a group of people doesn't fit your definition or interpretation of what a culture is and what it should look like, doesn't mean that they don't have one. A people's culture isn't based off of what you understand or your feelings. Research and reading helps.

Thanks for coming.

[deepdreamnights]

Hey there, saw your post re: harassment around artists using gen ai and thought it was great esp with the debunking of data usage myths. Would you share your thoughts regarding concerns that models are being trained to copy specific art styles and thus pose a direct threat to the artists whose art styles are being used?

Well, there's several levels to that.

The main one is that on copyright grounds, styles are explicitly non-copyrightable. Moreover:

No one's style is unique

No one's style is unimitatable by analogue means.

The second point is important, because anyone can go on Fiverr right now and and find someone to replicate any given art style, and every competent draftsperson has to be able to do it to some degree or another. No major animation house, art studio, or comic company has ever hired someone because they couldn't find someone else that could imitate the surface-level aspects of their style.

The first point is just a matter of basic reality. Ex-nihlo creativity either doesn't exist or is so rare as to be a once-in-an-epoch thing. Everyone builds on the influences that they learn from, and if you think someone has a unique style what they really have is a different media diet than you.

For example, Don Bluth. Born 1937, aged 15 in 1952.

Same year Time released this this picture of Burlesque Performer Dale Strong.

Someone made an impression.

Marilyn Monroe was also a national sex symbol when Bluth was a teen, putting some context to most of his other ladies, but especially Goldie Pheasant (or maybe she's more Jayne Mansfield, hard to tell through the bird-ness). His art style has obvious roots with Tex Avery and I would guess he read Mad Magazine a lot as a kid.

And Not to hang the guy out to dry alone, I was a teenager in the 1990s, and most of my sexy fictional ladies are 9/10 some combination of Dana Scully, Peg Bundy, and Rhonda Shear.

The point being that style isn't something you create intentionally so much as an accumulation of influences, drawn from the commons. Attempting to claim ownership of such a thing is by itself an act of theft in my view, and allowing them to be protected under the law would mean a judge being shown exactly how many pieces of prior art the Walt Disney Corporation owns that your work superficially resembles. Why, they'll even run it through a style recognizing AI to make sure they catch them all.

But let's talk about style matching.

It just takes one image now, and doesn't require training.

Which I'm sure sounds frightening, but this has been the situation since February for Midjourney, and it was available in the Stable Diffusion ecosystem long before that. If the threat were as pronounced as feared, we'd have seen the impact by now. And we haven't, and we're unlikely to, for several reasons, several of them listed above.

The largest is that style isn't even close to the be all/end all of what an artist brings to a given project. And the kinds of execs who are making a 'replace 'em with a robot' kinda decision aren't the kinds of people who care about art style beyond how much it looks like the most recent successful thing. And nobody's ever needed a robot to ride coattails.

But the next largest part is that AI style imitations aren't really accurate because the robot doesn't see style in the same way we do. It's all just math to the robot, and it prioritizes what it notices, not what we do.

I'll demonstrate.

Jack Kirby will be my example, for several reasons.

He has a bold and identifiable style, he's arguably the most famous artist in western comics history, and he has many analogue imitators and homagers.

Using Midjourney and prompting "an illustration of dana scully by jack kirby, 1968, in the style of 1960s marvel comics --ar 3:4 --s 15"

Using the base model, on the first roll we get three complete style mismatches and one that's kinda close, though I'd say that's way more Sal Buscema or John Byrne.

Kirby's women had a certain, difficult to describe oddness about their faces that the robot doesn't seem to grok, and it doesn't touch on the kinds of wild patterns and bold black/white swatches that make Jack's work feel 'jack'.

Tom Scioli's take on Kirby is a sort of lovingly flanderized parody, but it captures the spirit of Jack's art much more directly even if a lot of individual details aren't period-accurate. He draws Kirby the way you remember Kirby from your childhood, but I don't question whether the page above is trying to be a Jack Kirby homage or one to Sal Buscema.

But Midjourney has style reference, so we can inject the Kirby right in. Using the picture of Sersei dancing from above with the same prompt, we get:

Well, the work is more convincingly period, but again, we're not terribly close to being on-point. In fact, they're not very consistent between each other. Top left is any 80s marvel fill-in artist. Top right is maybe Kirby-esq. Bottom Left is flat out Jim Lee, bottom right is very Byrne-y.

Using three reference images to give the best shot, I'm also moving to using images of a similar color style, and all with a woman as the central focus. I have included the infamous Crystal pin-up shot because as I said, Kirby women have a certain oddness to them (fondly).

Results (MJ 6.1 on the left, Niji 6 on the right):

It all says 60s-70s Marvel, but I don't think Kirby would be the first guess for any of them. Maaaaaaybe the lower-left Dana in image #2 if you squint.

And that's Jack Kirby. Massively popular and prolific with a career spanning decades. If anyone in the comics space should be impersonatable by this thing, its him.

I'm sure you could train a LORA to get closer, and sure, the tech is only going to get better from here, but by the nature of how the system works no generation pulls just from what is referenced. Every generation is both blended with other concepts and emphasizes only what the machine catalogs as relevant, not what we might.

There's not much to stop someone from imitating your style with a machine, but there was nothing stopping them from doing the same with an underpaid freelancer. The results are likely to miss the mark regardless.

If the client wants you, they'll try and get you. If they just want something kinda like you, they've always had an avenue to that.

Fortunately, you're more than your style, and whatever anyone can do with the machine, you can do better because you've got access to both.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Kylie Cheung at Jezebel:

The day after Election Day, calls to the Trevor Project’s crisis services hotline for LGBTQ youth surged by 200%; online searches for abortion pills and emergency contraception skyrocketed, too. Queer youth, women, and girls were clearly concerned about what a second Trump presidency meant for their safety and their futures. But the country has been largely apathetic to their fears. Instead, we’re being called to consider young men’s suffering—real and imagined—and the insidious forces that seemed to shift this demographic to the right. A sampling of post-election headlines includes, “We Asked Young Men Why They Voted for Donald Trump—Here’s What They Said,” “The ‘Lost Boys’ of Gen Z: how Trump won the hearts of alienated young men,” “What’s the Matter with Young Male Voters?” and “Trump Offered Men Something That Democrats Never Could.” Of course, Jezebel is now adding to that list, but what’s missing from some of these stories is the manosphere as an increasingly powerful political arm.

Exit polls show Trump received a larger proportion of voters under 30 than any Republican presidential candidate since 2008. In 2020, Joe Biden beat Trump by 11 points among men under 30. Last week, Trump beat Kamala Harris by two points. (Among young white men without college degrees, he beat Harris 56% to 40%.) Some of this should be taken with a grain of salt: Youth turnout dropped sharply from 2020, so these stats offer an incomplete snapshot of an entire generation’s views. But, as journalists, organizers, and the Democratic Party scramble for answers, one concern that’s come to the forefront is the manosphere—a fast-growing, unrepentantly hateful community of men’s lifestyle influencers, podcasters, and media personalities who glorify and preach misogyny to a new generation of young men. Think: serially accused rapist and human trafficker Andrew Tate, hate speech-platforming Twitch streamer Adin Ross, or misogynist streamer Sneako, who once slapped a woman on camera as a “prank.” There’s also TikTok star Bryce Hall, who joined Trump on the campaign trail about a year after collaborating with proud neo-Nazis, including Sneako. One video from December 2023 shows Sneako laughing as he’s approached by young fans who yell, “Fuck the women” and “All gays can die.” He half-jokingly asks the camera, “What have I done?”

On Election Night, Trump handed the mic to UFC President Dana White (who, like Sneako, also slapped a woman on camera) at his victory party, and White directly thanked Ross, as well as the Nelk Boys and Theo Von, more popular manosphere influencers and podcasters who also supported Trump’s campaign. Over the last several months, Trump made numerous appearances on their shows and streams and hosted them at his rallies. And, because this seems to have worked, those who didn’t see Trump’s victory coming are now trying to understand this chilling sphere of influence that’s seemingly been radicalizing young men right under our noses.

It may be annoying, even disturbing to have to take this increasingly mainstream underworld seriously, but Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters for America (MMFA), tells Jezebel that understanding the manosphere is important to understand “what future generations are going to look like.” Carusone says MMFA researchers tracked at least 20 times that Trump appeared on manosphere podcasts—including those of Von, Hall, the Nelk Boys, and Jake Paul—since May. In 2023, Ross and other popular manosphere creators including JiDion, Steve Deleonardis, Jorge Masvidal, and alleged rapist DJ Akademiks, appeared with Trump at a UFC event. The meet-and-greet was set up by right-wing video platform, Rumble.

MMFA has been closely following manosphere stars for years now, watching them and the social platforms that host them profit off of mocking rape survivors and trans people, or joking about and openly celebrating violence against women to their impressionable, mostly teen and tween boy audiences. Young people who might turn to them for apolitical interests—weightlifting, video games, MMA fighting, dating advice—are increasingly inundated with out-of-context stats and arguments about how much easier it is for women to get jobs, or minorities to get into college, or trans people to succeed at sports. These audiences are radicalized to believe a liberal, feminist world order is crushing them. Now, thanks to social media algorithms, content about weightlifting, video games, MMA fighting, and dating has become a pipeline to the right.

[...] Nicole Regalado, vice president of campaigns at Ultraviolet, told Jezebel her organization has been tracking online misogyny campaigns since Gamergate in 2014, which saw an outbreak of rabid sexism, racism, and queerphobia against perceived feminist progress in the video game industry. But she’s been alarmed by sharp rises in online harassment against women in recent years. It doesn’t help, Regalado said, that at a time when the manosphere is surging, with the help of anti-MeToo backlash and a golden age of media illiteracy, “social media platforms are gutting moderation, trust, and safety teams,” while “platforming and profiting off hate.” A lot of this came to a head with the outcome of the 2024 election, Regalado said, which “followed months of disinformation and racism-misogyny about Kamala Harris” from popular right-wing, manosphere-type influencers. Trump’s victory has only emboldened this toxic stew of misogyny, culminating in the viral “your body, my choice” slogan.

I understand the importance of Democrats and progressives figuring out how to “reach” young men—the electoral stakes are high, especially for the most marginalized among us. But in the last week, I’ve often found myself frustrated, even disgusted by the idea that young men are uniquely suffering because they’re young men, that they deserve outsized sympathy and attention at a time when women and other marginalized communities are on the brink of perhaps one of the severest rollbacks of our rights in modern times. Teen girls and young women suffer from endemic sexual violence and misogyny, and many still find it in their hearts to not elect a fascist. 

Carusone says he’s struggled with this, too. But he’s made sense of it by understanding the manosphere and its toxic, mass appeal as a youth issue. “The 30-year-old men who are upset, the Tucker Carlsons of the world, they need to get over it. They’re not who I’m talking about,” he said. But manosphere content is poisoning the minds of children, shaping them to become violent toward other children, to grow up and inflict violence on marginalized people. “We have to think about this as it relates to kids. If we don’t do something about this now, we’re messing up kids,” Carusone explained. “As these boys and young men grow, they’re going to build and organize political power, and even worse, as they move into maturity, they’re going to be more violent and abusive than previous generations.”

Jezebel does an excellent report on how the cadre of manosphere influencers such as the Nelk Boys, Sneako, and Adin Ross-- who helped push young men to the right and push Donald Trump over the finish line and how they’ll shape politics.

[tboy-trash]

why would people react weirdly to you callin yourself a fully grown man? /gen

trans men as a whole are constantly infantilized as part of the project to take away our agency and force us back into the reproductive asset role. transphobic media will almost exclusively acknowledge us as misled, mutilated girls. even people who consider themselves transfriendly, if they're not aware of the problem, tend to have an issue considering us "real" men, men "to the same extent" a cis man is a man. people like that will not act weird when i call myself a "trans man", a "guy" or a "boy", but they're visibly fazed when i call myself a "man" without qualifiers, and even more so if i say "full grown man" because patriarchy is resistant, as transfeminist writer Talia Bhatt says, to acknowledge manhood is a social class, which to trans men means we're never fully "accepted in". even well-meaning people uphold this mentality -sometimes they, frustratingly, do so when trying to be nice, because they think it's nicer somehow to not consider us fully men so we're not "put us in the same category as cishet men". which is just another way of denying us agency, only in a condescending way.

and, more personally, i commit a second set of sins that make people react strangely when i assert that i am indeed a man by not being straight or masculine. while being on HRT has masculinized my body immensely, i am very short, i wear my hair long because i like it, i fuck other men sometimes, i dress somewhat femininely, i apparently gesture more with my hands than what masculinity requires of you... things like that already get cis men's gender called into question (see: homophobic and cissexist harassment and discrimination), so when you're a trans one all of that is multiplied. put it simply: a lot of people, whether they're aware of it or not, see and treat me as a girl "acting out" or "confused" in some way, and when it's safe i like to test the waters to see where people are with that. calling myself a "full grown man" works nicely.

[altocat]

I was asleep when all the Lucretia stuff was going down but I still wanna throw in my two cents, and it's this:

I think a lot of the hate towards her is people forgetting that she does not have the information that we as an audience do Especially during the time she was pregnant. No one on the Jenova Project knew that Jenova was an alien Aside From Hojo. The discussion around her choosing to experiment on her child has to be predicated by the fact she thought Jenova was an Ancient and Hojo would have Never shared anything that contradicted this to her. By the time she started having those visions and her body started falling apart it was already far too late, and it's not like Lucretia understood Why any of that was happening.

By virtue of the us the audience knowing what Jenova is, that knowledge gets projected onto characters who don't have it and never did which muddies their actions and intentions. This is a phenomenon I've seen many times in different media contexts, it happens all the time. Gast and Gillian (very occasionally) get the same treatment at times but I rarely see the same visceral hatred directed at them (and when Gast gets some side eyeing it's, justifiably, for the other morally dubious shit he did and his narrative being a confusing mess for the past 30 years lmao).

But even bringing Gast back in for a moment when he learned Jenova was an alien it was long after the fact and seemed to send him into a mental spiral. We simply do not know how Lucretia would have reacted to this information, and it more than likely wouldn't have been good. She didn't even know that Sephiroth was going to be taken away from her; acting like she had full information is just wrong.

THISSSSSSSSSSS

Lucrecia isn't even a known sadist like Hojo or a callous bastard like Gast. She's literally just...some lady. Who evidently didn't have as much power within Shinra as she assumed. Hojo likely saw her as a prime opportunity to accomplish a goal. And since Gillian and Gen's mother had already served their purpose to the project, Lucrecia probably thought such actions were logical.

And honestly? Ignoring all that, ignoring her overall knowledge, culpability, etc. When is it EVER okay for someone to be emotionally abused by their husband? When is it okay for someone to have their baby being taken from them before ever even getting the chance to hold them? The person wasn't "asking" for this. They didn't bring this upon themself. No one wants to go through this shit. It's horrible. Losing a child is an unfathomable pain that I hope no one EVER HAS to go through.

Vincent himself, whether out of love or understanding or empathy, decided that telling Lucrecia the truth about what happened to Sephiroth would only prolong her suffering. His own actions, whether right or wrong in your eyes, cemented that there was no point in further bringing Lucrecia emotional damage. He chose to be merciful. He chose compassion because he KNEW that she was in enough pain already.

Why can't we?

[aigoos]

Obikin Shrine Journey

Today, I went to work for the last time this year, and I added to my Obikin shrine some new merchs that I received a few days before. This shrine has been my project for all of 2024. What started as a few charms (or danglies, as I call them) and buttons grew into this as I spent the entire year collecting enamel pins, stickers, charms, prints, plushies, buttons, figures, magnets, and photo tiles.

I started off with a much smaller board, but then in the summer, my co-worker and I had to change offices, so I took the larger board in our office (which was good, because I had run out of space), and then even took over the refrigerator and expanded the shrine onto my desk, shelf, cabinet, and wall.

Let's just say I am grateful that my current co-worker and my former co-worker support my obsession. I've never mentioned to them about the actual ship, only stated that they are my favourite characters from Star Wars, and I did do my best to keep the shrine platonic as possible . . . until a gay colleague saw my shrine and said, "It's giving off a homoerotic vibe." LMAO. If he thinks my work shrine is homoerotic, then I wonder what he'd say if he saw the sexy shrine I have at my work home. See below on why that shrine is staying home LOL.

Anyway, I also wanted to mention that @barmadumet's collection is what heavily inspired me to start my own collection. Thanks to her, I finally personalised my workspace that I hadn't bothered to do anything to for three and a half years. This adventure has brought me many joy -- though my bank account says otherwise, ahaha! But seriously, it got me to support many small businesses and artists (50+!!!!), and it allowed me to meet many other like-minded collectors, and they also helped me get some of the pins that are no longer available. Plus, a couple of my friends and colleagues even gifted me some items for my shrine. This adventure has not only brought me happiness, but it has humbled me as so many people have helped me along the way.

Oh, and it has also taught me to just accept that I cannot put things up straight and to know when to just let the crookedness be.

That said, I've compiled a list of all the businesses/artists below with links to their shops and/or social media~ To conclude, I hope 2025 will allow me to fill up that remaining space on the board!

Amanda Baldwin Art Armstrong Outpost A Sirens Pins BBCre8 BCRCustom BlackWandaShop Cedric @cherriielle @christinechangart Designs by Gen Designs by Joe Distant Fantasy Boards EchofromtheMill @faivsz FestiProper FoldItCreations Foundling Mercantile @geekipopstudio @ginalongillustrations Ginshi Hatters Designs Holy Pins Hunter and Convor IchigoTokki Joy Addict Junction Point Workshop @kana7o KJones Crafts LaDecorEU @dinagastuff Lantern Pins Laser Brain Patch Co Liminal Pins MaxxMerch @mouyashii @mushbuzz-do-not-repost Mythmore Mythos Merchant Co @nickytess Odder Than Antiquity Osiripengin PinButlers Inc Pinculture Co Pins of Marvel and Magic PlushiShop PotatoClone RebelArt Design Roobean Art Ruzovy @saeuchelle @saltyseaturtle Shannon Burton Art SnowFoxTrading Co SuppieDoodles Sword and Whetstone These Pencil Shavings Winter Aifu Xanadu Pins

[bed-buggier]

Game Theory About Who Professor Victoria is

This evening, we just recieved one final TailsTube to close out the year, and within this episode was a cameo from a character many have speculated on for over a year now, and I believe this piece of the puzzle will help us solve SEGA's game of Where's Waldo

Professor Victoria

Or just Tori, has been a thorn in the community's side since 2022, where she first appeared in the official social media series, Tailstube, alongside various humans from Sonic Unleashed. Since then, she's made a cameo in the 3rd Sonic Movie and tonights episode. Many were quick to believe she had ties to the then upcoming Sonic Frontiers and its new addition to the cast, Sage, but this wouldn't be the case.

Her Many Appearances

Examining her first appearance, she's depicted not in the Sonic Unleashed style, but rather Yuji Uekawa's artstyle (note her smaller head and overall lack of western stylization). This style is so rarely used nowadays, instead Sonic Team opting to use their 3D models and on this rare occassion, it's only in merchandise. Why would SEGA randomly revive it for a random addition like this?

Her next appearance would be in the 3rd Sonic movie, showing up during Team Sonic's initial encounter with Shadow. This would both be the first time we saw the name Victoria associated with her, and act as a teaser for tonights TailsTube.

What's also worth noting is this is the 2nd time the films have acknowledged TailsTube, with movie Tails' desktop being pulled straight from the series. Clearly whatever they have planned for her expands outside the Sonic games.

and then there's today with the release of TailsTube #10, solidifying her as Prof. Tori: Historian and author, 2 aspects of her character that combined with the nugget of lore Shadow Generations gave us, has lead to me forming my crack theory of the evening.

Taped on the back of the cover to Gerald's Journal is a note left by someone simply known as T. Who is T? A new character? A returning Topaz from Sonic X? No.

It's Tori.

The Actual Theories

so, we now know Professor Victoria is a historian/author who may have or had connections to GUN, collecting material for past projects such as the Space Colony Ark and Project Shadow, depicted both in a artstyle SEGA doesn't often use and within the Sonic Movies, having some notoriaty to be on billboards. From my findings, I've boiled it down to three possibilities of when we could see her finally debut.

1. GUN member/Team Dark's Coordinators/Robotnik(?)

This seems like the most logical, with GUN having a resurgance in Sonic 3 and Shadow Gens. We also don't know what's up with GUN after the Eggman wars in Sonic Forces, where they went under following the doctors takeover.

Perhaps with Sonic Frontiers' successor, we'll see the remains of GUN researching the Starfall Islands with Team Dark leading a exhibition. It could be a way to explain what ties the Black Arms could have to the ancients that led to Shadow visiting Chaos Island, AND many have speculated that she just might be a Robotnik, particularly, Maria's little sister alluded to in Gerald's Journal, bringing it all full circle.

That said, we have yet to see much of any continuity in the games, and it's a element in Sonic's greater storytelling I'm not sure SEGA would integrate now when isolated adventures have been the series' bread and butter for years, give or take a small nod to the fans. Why mess with success knowing any game could be someone's first?

2. Remake/Remaster Side Campaign

This one I have little faith in, but there's a slim chance. We now know SEGA isn't against adding new story content to re-releases of Sonic games with Shadow Gens, so perhaps Tori will get her start in a new campaign?

Perhaps she was a author studying the mythology of Sonic's world before GUN, residing at Spagonia University with Professor Pickle, someone we saw in that TailsTube art collection. That then raises the question though: Why go through this much trouble for a simple port of a Xbox360 game? Putting her in movies and setting expectations this high? It doesn't make sense, but that's where my main theory comes into play.

3. Sonic Lorebook

Call me crazy, a schizo, desparate for answers, whatever, but I'm fairly confident SEGA's apology for the Sonic Encylcospeedia may come very soon.

For those unfamiliar, in 2021, SEGA released a encyclopedia for the Sonic series. What many hoped would be a answer to all the continuity errors over the years and a clear outline of the SEGASonic universe turned out to be just a booklet of game facts, modded screencaps of Sonic 06, and offhand lore tidbits like Infinite being dead and Marine possibly having hydrokinesis, something I'm sure we'll see explored soon big trust.

The release of this book left many with more questions than answers, but I think it and Sonic Frontiers are the first in a major domino effect.

With Frontiers, we saw its writer, Ian Flynn, go a little wild with callbacks to previous Sonic games. While one may see this as leaniance on SEGA's end with the game initially set to launch that same year for the series' 30th anniversary or Ian Flynn being Ian Flynn, I see both as the early groundwork for reinstating of the Sonic continuity. Combine that with what we know of Tori, the establishment of a lore management team in 2022 (who just recieved a artist with Evan Stanley), alongside relaunching Sonic Gens which explored the series' history with DLC that gives us the most overt crossover of the game universe to the movies, and you have a recipe for a broader audiences entry to one hell of a history.

I believe within the game universe, Professor Victoria will be a well known historian, researching gods and anomolies within throughout the galaxy and multiverset. Meanwhile for us, she'll be the mascot of the IRL Sonic the Hedgehog Lore Management Team, and will be our guide for the long awaited true encyclopedia of the Sonic the Hedgehog series; Every character, every historical event, every world. All explained and outlined for a general audience and fans consumption.

or I've gone mad because I still don't have a snug placement in my timeline for Team Sonic Racing idk

[winchesterwild78]

Forgotten

Story Warnings: Language, angst, anxiety, accusations of cheating, fluff, SMUT

A/N: I had to write a quick story about a birthday and how Jensen forgot. The idea came to me since my birthday was earlier this week. No disrespect to his family or wife, this is a work of fiction and does not depict real life.

Characters: Jensen x Reader-married, Jared, Gen and unnamed characters

All work is my own. Don’t take it. I wrote this and edited quickly. Please overlook any mistakes. Feedback on any of my writing is always welcome.

Minors DNI 18+

💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

You sat in your living room answering texts, phone calls and replying to posts on social media. It had been a long but good day at work. Your coworkers surprised you with a cake and some amazing gifts. When you married Jensen you wanted to make sure you were able to keep your job. You enjoyed your coworkers and loved working with kids.

As the calls, texts, and posts kept rolling in your heart broke with each notification. The one person you wanted to hear from the most was Jensen. He was away doing a project so you knew he was busy. As the day wore on your heart broke more. Gen called you to tell you Happy Birthday and to chat. “Hey Y/N, Happy Birthday girl! How have you been today” she asked in her cheerful way. “Hey, Gen. I’m okay. Just trying to keep up with all the birthday wishes. How are you and the family doing” you asked as your voice cracked. “Pretty good, the kids are outside playing and I’m getting ready to cook dinner. Just got off the phone with Jared and he said he and Jensen were wrapped for the day and heading to dinner.” She told you. “Oh, okay. Well I need to get my dinner started too. Thanks for calling me. Bye Gen” you said holding back tears.

You held it together until you hung up. The world around you crumbled as you realized Jensen forgot your birthday. Your heart broke. The rest of the evening was a fog. When you crawled into bed you grabbed your phone and sent Jensen a text.

Me: I’m going to bed. I wish I could have heard from you today. I love you, Jensen.

You sat your phone on the table and turned off notifications. Sleep finally washed over you after crying for about an hour.

The next morning you woke up with a headache. You checked your phone and still nothing. The sadness was replaced with anger. What the hell is so important that he couldn’t even text you back. You scrolled social media and then the anger was replaced with absolute rage. You saw pictures of Jared, Jensen and some of the cast out partying last night. In each picture one of his female costars was hanging all over Jensen.

You growled out “what the fuck! So this is what was more important than me.” You took screenshots and sent them to Jensen.

Me: So this is what was more important than me yesterday?!?! You forgot my fucking birthday and then I see you were out with her and letting her hang all over you. You know what, just fucking stay there!

Jensen was standing beside Jared when his phone went off. He smiled when he saw the notification was from you. Then his heart dropped. Jared noticed the color drain from Jensen’s face. “Dude what’s wrong” he asked. Jensen raked his hands through his hair and down his face. “I fucked up big time man. I forgot Y/N’s birthday yesterday and then she sends me this” he shows Jared the text. “Oh damn. How did you forget her birthday man and why would you let her hang all over you.” Jared asked. “I don’t know. Shit, how am I going to make this right” Jensen said.

Jensen stepped away and called you. It rang and you saw it was him calling. You didn’t answer. He hung up and called back. Jensen did that about 5 times before you finally answered the call. “What?!” You hissed as you answered the phone. “Babe I’m so sorry I fucked up. I didn’t mean to forget your birthday. Please forgive me.” Jensen pleaded.

“Why. You didn’t just forget my birthday Jensen, you let her, of all people HER hang all over you like you two were together. I saw you in the pictures. You fucking enjoyed it. Damnit Jensen. You know how her and I feel about each other. She’s wanted you since she started on the show and she hasn’t been subtle about it either.” You broke down crying. “I am so sorry baby. I swear I don’t want her. I love you more than anything and I swear I’m going to make it up to you.” He said with fear and sadness in his voice. “You know what Jensen, no. I love you but no. There is no fixing what you did and what you allowed to happen” you said sternly.

“I need to go. Goodbye Jensen” you hung up. Jensen stood in place looking at his phone for what seemed like hours. Jared walked over to him and asked what happened. “I blew it man. She doesn’t want to talk to me. She said there isn’t anyway to fix this. I don’t know what to do man” Jensen said with tears in his eyes.

Jared grabbed him and said “Go home! Go to your wife. Make her listen to you and make her feel like she’s the only woman in the world. If you love her and want to fix this then go. I’ll talk to the director you book a flight!” Jensen pulled Jared into a hug and took off towards his trailer to get a flight home.

You were sitting on your bed with a picture from your wedding day. You both looked so happy and so in love. You felt incredibly lucky to have met him and to have fallen in love with him, and to have him fall in love with you. You held the picture to your chest and cried. You had always felt not good enough for him and his newest co-star was a model and didn’t hide the fact she was in love with him. She found every excuse to touch him and be close to him. She’s made snarky comments about you and to you. The last time you were around her you both got into a heated argument that almost resulted in an assault charge.

You laid down clutching the photo and cried yourself to sleep. You didn’t care if it was the middle of the day. Your heart was shattered and all you wanted to do was fall asleep to the memory of a happier time.

Jensen found a flight that left within the hour and he booked it. He packed quickly and Clif got him to the airport fast. “Go get your girl man” Clif said as Jensen took off towards security. Jensen boarded the plane and sent you a text.

J: Baby I know I fucked up. I love you and I’m going to make this right. I’ll love you until my dying breath Mrs Y/N Ackles. Today, tomorrow, forever.

You heard your phone go off but you ignored it. Soon sleep fell over you and you dreamed of your wedding day and of the wedding night. Jensen had always been an incredible lover but your wedding night was something else. He was so gentle and loving. You two explored every inch of each other’s body and you made love so many times. Even in a deep sleep the memory brought a smile to your tear stained face.

Jensen’s legged bounced nervously as the plane approached the gate. He turned his phone off airplane mode and checked his messages. There still wasn’t anything from you. “Shit! I fucking blew it.” Jensen mumbled under his breath. He sent Jared a text to let him know he landed and was getting ready to leave the plane. Jared sent him a text and told him everything was good at work and they gave him 2 weeks off for the “family emergency” Jared told them Jensen had.

Jensen: Thanks brother. I owe you one.

Jared: No you don’t. That’s what we do. Now go fix this.

As soon as the plane doors opened Jensen was running towards the exit. He grabbed an Uber and headed home. It took a good half hour to get home. The driver was polite and obviously was a fan. Jensen did his best to answer questions and be friendly but his mind kept wandering to you.

When the car pulled in the driveway Jensen noticed how dark the house looked. He was afraid you had left him. He got out of the car and ran up the steps to the door. Jensen pulled out his keys and unlocked the door and walked in. He called your name but there was no answer. Each step he took was met with silence and his heart sank.

He climbed the stairs and walked to your bedroom door. He opened it and saw you lying on the bed still holding the picture. He smiled and walked over to you. If you were holding that picture there had to be hope. He sat on the bed and softly touched your face and whispered your name. “Y/N, baby wake up. I’m home sweetheart” Your eyes fluttered open and you saw your husband sitting on the bed. You sat up shocked. “Jens, what are you doing here.” You asked him. “I told you I was going to fix this. I’m so sorry baby. I really am.” He said as he caressed your cheek. You leaned into his touch.

You threw your arms around him and lunged into his lap. He pulled you in for a kiss and as soon as his lips were on yours you deepened the kiss. You moaned into his mouth as his hands ran up your body. He picked you up and laid you down on the bed. Jensen hovered over you and kissed your lips. Working his way down your neck and on your collarbone. His hand lifted the hem of your shirt and his fingers danced up your body.

Fire ignited on your skin with every touch. He pulled your shirt over your head revealing your bra covered breasts and he bit his lip. Your hands pulled at his shirt until he pulled it over his head with one pull. Your hands ran up his toned chest. Your fingers dancing over each freckle.

Jensen reached around your back and with one hand unhooked your bra. You helped him remove it and your full, ample breasts sprang free. Jensen growled as he looked at them and took a nipple in his mouth. You threw your head back with a loud moan of pleasure. Electricity surged through your body as Jensen worked each nipple. He sucked and nibbled as you felt the heat and slick pooling between your legs.

Jensen leaned you back and pulled off your pants and panties with one pull. He used his knee to separate your legs. Biting his lip as he looked at your body on full display. He looked down and noticed the slick sliding between your folds. He took his fingers and parted your lips and felt the wetness. “Damn baby, all this for me” he asked. You nodded. He took two fingers and hooked them inside your dripping pussy. Pumping in and out. The smell and sound of your arousal in the air.

Jensen locked his eyes on yours as he helped you chase your release. Thoughts of the last few days started to fade as you looked your husband in the eyes. Seeing all his love and desire behind his green eyes.

You bit your lower lip and moaned Jensen’s name. “God I love when you moan my name sweetheart” Jensen panted. Jensen cupped your breast with his free hand and licked at your hard nipple. As he nibbled your nipple he felt your walls tighten around his fingers. His thumb rubbed circles on your swollen clit. “Jensen I’m close. I’m gonna cum” you breathed out. “Cum for me baby” he whispered in your ear.

You came hard and screamed his name. As you came Jensen’s lips captured yours sending chills through your body. As you came down from your high you looked at your husband and bit your lip. “Please Jens, I need you” He smiled softly and removed his pants and boxers. His already hard cock sprang free and on there was a bead of precum that danced in the soft light. You leaned forward and licked the pink tip of his long, engorged cock. Causing it to twitch at your touch.

You licked your lips and took his length in your wet, warm mouth. Jensen moaned loudly. Soon the room was filled with the sounds of Jensen grunting and the wet sounds of flesh being sucked. Jensen pulled away and you frowned. “No baby. Tonight is about you. I don’t want to cum yet” He whispered as he cupped your face. You nodded and leaned back.

As you laid back Jensen placed himself between your legs and lined himself up. He gazed down at you with lust and love in his eyes and you nodded. He pushed his length inside you and you gasped with pleasure. He stopped giving you time to adjust but you moved your hips, silently begging for more. Jensen pushed all the way in bottoming out and you gasped loudly as he moaned.

He kissed you as he set a slow pace. Your hands on his chest. Lightly touching his toned body. Gripping his large biceps with each thrust. His hands running over your breasts as they bounced with each movement of your bodies. Jensen leaned down and kissed you.

You wrapped your legs around his hips trying to push him in deeper. Jensen took that as an invitation to pick up the pace. He hooked both his hands around each leg and lifted them up on his broad shoulders. You moaned at the change of position. Jensen picked up the pace and you pushed back against him. He was going deeper now and hitting that sweet spot. You felt yourself getting closer to the edge again. “Jens I’m going to cum again” came from your lips. “Me too baby. Cum for me again” Jensen demanded in a voice laced with passion and need. You both came hard. Jensen grunted as his hot seed coated your walls and you screamed his name raking your nails down his back.

He let himself go soft before he pulled out. As he got up he kissed the tip of your nose and said he’d be right back. He returned with a warm cloth to clean you both up. He threw the cloth in the hamper and laid beside you. Taking you in his arms he placed kisses all over your face causing you to giggle.

“Jensen I can’t believe you came home in the middle of filming. You’re going to lose your job. I know how important your job is to you”you said with concern in your voice. “Nothing is ever more important to me than you. It’s worked out thanks to Jared and you have me for 2 weeks before I have to leave. Please believe me when I tell you how sorry I am I forgot your birthday. It was not intentional and I don’t want anyone but you. You’re my world and I’ll spend the rest of my life proving that to you. I love you, Y/N” He whispered as he pulled you tighter.

“I love you too, Jensen. I’m sorry I overreacted and got so jealous. I know you don’t want anything to do with her and you’re an incredibly faithful husband. I still can’t believe you flew home for me” you said with shock in your voice. Jensen pulled you closer and kissed your forehead “I’d do whatever I needed to do to get home to you when you need me. There is nothing and nobody more important to me than you.”

You smiled at him and kissed his lips. “Jens, about that. I don’t think that’s going to be entirely true anymore.” He looked confused “what, why would you say that. You’re the most important person in my life.” You looked your husband in the eyes and cupped his face. “Jensen, I’m pregnant” you whispered tenderly. He smiled and kissed you. “I’m going to be a dad” he questioned. “Yes my love. You’re going to be an amazing dad” you replied. “I found out on my birthday and I got so excited I couldn’t wait to tell you. That’s why got so upset. My greatest moment of joy and I couldn’t wait to tell you. Telling you now and seeing your reaction is far better than telling you on the phone. I love you, husband” you said gently. “I love you too, wife and our little bean” he pulled you in for a kiss as he rubbed your belly.

You forgave Jensen and realized sometimes the best gifts are worth waiting for.

Forever as tags: @nescaveckdaily @kr804573 @jensengirl83 @k-slla @jackles010378 @jawritter @xx-spooky-little-vampire-xx @roseblue373

[celinamarniss]

Year in Review

In 2024 I posted 4 fics at 53,035 words.

Previous years:

2023: 4 fics at 58,153 words

2022: 4 fics at 45,096 words.

2021: 3 fics posted, 55,788 words.

2020: 7 or 10 fics posted, 125,738 words.

2019: 7 fics posted, 72,149 words.

2018: 7 fics posted, 87,752 words

2016: 9 fics posted, 51,643 words

2017: 9 fics posted, 115,336 words

2016: 9 fics posted, 51,653 words

In total, 52 fics posted to Ao3.

Thrones, Dominions

31,420 words, explicit, Thrawn/Mara/Luke

I finally wrapped up the Triumvirate verse with a big flashy finale (and bound it, too). I started Triumvirate in 2019, which means I've spent six years on this series, and that blows my mind a little. (a lot).

Will there be more Triumvirate stories? I genuinely hope that other writers will take up the torch and write more fic for all fans of the series. I’m not sure if I’ll write any more myself. It could happen. But for now, I’m happy to let this series rest.

An Oral History of the Ewok Bikers of Endor

4,115, gen, an Uncommon Hazards fic

I pitched three story ideas to the From A Legends Point of View fic collection, and this is the concept they accepted. It takes an idea from the Uncommon Hazards series, that post-Endor, Ewoks have immigrated to Coruscant and started an illegal swoop racing industry.

As I began to write it, I realized that the fic challenge required 5k and this story wasn't much more than a 3k concept. I stretched it out to 4. I'm not sure that this story was exactly what the mods had in mind, but it was fun finding ways to bring in characters and reference different types of media.

A Smuggler’s Guide to Joining the Rebellion

14,355 words so far, gen, the sequel to The Things You Find on Tatooine.

I wanted to get this fic through all of ANH by the end of the year, but my brain didn't cooperate and I ran out of time. But Smuggler's Guide has been a fun distraction to carry through into 2025.

The Coruscant Job

3,145, gen, Fenig Nabon/Ghitsa Dogder

Who? you may ask. Why, the super obscure con artist team that appeared in three short stories in the 90s. AKA the Fenig Nabon/Ghitsa Dogder fic literally no one asked for, because no one even knows who these characters ARE. This was another idea I pitched to the FALPOV challenge, and while it wasn't selected, I wanted to write it anyway. It turns out that was a good decision, because what I wrote wouldn't have followed all of the FALPOV rules. (My idea moves their timeline forward and retcons the story “Credit for Your Thoughts.”) 

GOALS FOR 2025

Finish A Smuggler’s Guide to Joining the Rebellion (teen, Luke/Mara) The ongoing project. Progress: five chapters posted, uhhhh lots of scraps and and partial drafts in a doc.

Lando Calrissian and the Jewel of Andara (gen, Lando/Karrde, Luke/Mara) The Lando and Mara heist romcom I’ve been promising forever. Will 2025 finally be this fic's year??? at this point, I don't even know. Progress: three chapters drafted, but in need of heavy revision.

Experiments (teen? Luke/Mara) I honestly started to think this fic was dead dead, but this year I dusted off the old files and finished drafting the first two chapters. What happens next? I'm not really sure. I feel like this period/setting (Mara on Coruscant post TTT, pre Yavin) has already been well-worn by other fics recently and I don't know if there will be any interest in it. If I keep going, I'll have to come up with a outline and figure out what I want to do with the fic. Progress: two chapters drafted, but they may need to be merged into one chapter.

Other fics on the backburner:

Courtship remix

Daughter of the Rain and Snow (dead???)

More daemon fic! (I always want to write more daemon fic)