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bones4thecats · 5 months ago

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Their Aku! S/O Competing in Ragnarok

Characters: Beelzebub, Adamas, and Loki Inspired By: A random video on Youtube A/N: I love Aku. He's literally my favorite character in the whole series. Anyways, enjoy I guess. ⚠️ Spoilers/Trigger Warnings for: Nothing (maybe mentions of fighting... idk) ⚠️ What I based the Reader's design on: Art by pachelbellart on Reddit (Original Post)

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╚═════ Beelzebub ═════════════════════════════╝

🪰 As a well-known demon lord that once ruled Earth many centuries ago, your power was something that many wanted for themselves

🪰 Beelzebub and you were hailed for your differentiated personalities; you were far more outgoing and outspoken while he was more introverted and quiet

🪰 So, when you were both called upon for Ragnarok, you happily popped out of the shadows and accepted the opportunity to battle a human just so you could embarrass them and remind everyone why you were called the Shogun of Sorrow

🪰 Your husband walked alongside you as you both sat down and watched the many rounds, and while he busied himself with something since he found it boring at first, you smiled and cheered for the Gods as they fought

🪰 As you were called by Zeus for your round, you smiled at your husband and noticed how he put his data-pad down and allowed you to kiss his forehead, and how he wished you luck

🪰 The sound of Heimdall's horn coming through the arena made the many members look up and either shiver with fear or shake with joy as the mention of the fighters

"Introducing the defender of humanity, the Japanese Warrior Prince who once defeated one of the strongest forces of evil the world ever faced, the Samurai, the anti-Shogun of Sorrow, and the one nicknamed by those he defended... Samurai Jack!"

🪰 A human walked into the field and Beelzebub noticed how his kimono flowed in the wind alongside a cherry blossom tree nearby

"And defending the Gods and going against Humanity's rule once again, it is my mass pleasure to welcome the Deliverer of Darkness, the Shogun of Sorrow, the Master of Darkness, and the Dark Lord... Y/N!"

🪰 The sight of a large mass of darkness appearing from above made everyone stare, including Beelzebub. The sloppy-darkness splat down on the ground and began to mold itself into a familiar figure

🪰 Your long flame-like hair and eyebrows were the first thing that everyone took notice of, especially Jack. The way you smiled, holding up a half-oni mask making him grit his teeth lightly

"Samurai fool. I figured I wouldn't see you for quite some time. How fortunate for me that our paths have crossed once again." You laughed.

🪰 Beelzebub smirked as you pulled your mask and put it on before raising your left hand and molding it into claws while your other one revealed a sharp tekko kagi, moving around like the flames you produced naturally

"I shall defeat you once again, Y/N. And protect Humanity the same why I did all those years ago."

"We shall see about that, Jack."

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╚═════ Adamas ═══════════════════════════════╝

🥀 You guys were one of the most powerful duos when it came to immortal-relationships. From his bloodthirstiness to your manipulative nature, almost all feared you guys

🥀 When he began watching Ragnarok and heard that you were going to be sent in as the newest addition to the Gods' Fighters, since Apollo decided to stand down, saying his beauty was far to important, he was beyond scared

🥀 He already lost two of his brothers, the youngest being the only survivor of the competition, he didn't want to lose his spouse next

🥀 Adamas ran up to you and yelled your name, making you turn around and look at his face, seeing how it contort into a more frustrated expression instead of his usual stoic one

"What were you thinking?! Going into a dangerous event, nonetheless Ragnarok without coming to me first?!"

"I'm sorry, Adamas. But last I knew, you were barely standing up in your new cybernetic body! Besides, I'm not doing this for the bloodshed. I was promised a fight to win no matter what, a fight to revoke the pain that I was dealt all those years ago on Earth."

🥀 He noticed how you bunched your hands into fists as your fanged teeth gritted together in anger, and he knew exactly what you were talking about now

"You're going against the Samurai, aren't you?"

"Correct."

🥀 Instead of getting angrier, Adamas sighed and laid a hand on your shoulder, making you face him with your flaming hair and eyebrows beginning to go down to resemble a calming campfire

🥀 He wished you luck and kissed your nose as you held his hand and kissed his palm in return before melting and moving down the many hallways towards the entrance into the arena for your fight

🥀 Adamas walked back to his stand alongside his brother, Zeus, and nephew, Hermes, and waited as he listened intently to Hermes' predictions for the battle. Thankfully, they were all in your favor

🥀 While Heimdall yelled the introduction of Samurai Jack, he rolled his eyes and began to pat his fingers against the railing in annoyance before yelling for him to hurry up, making the Nordic God jump and quickly say the human's name

🥀 But, when he said your introduction, he just allowed his smile to get larger and more smug as he continued with your many names, and sense of pride of being married to you flowing through his body

"Oh, Samurai Fool. What a funny coincidence to be fighting you today. I was just daydreaming about tearing you apart, maybe now I can make that dream of mine a nightmare for you and the rest of your foolish kind."

"I will not give into your manipulative wording, Y/N."

"We'll see about that, Jackie."

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╚═════ Loki ═════════════════════════════════╝

🐍 Local psycho couple? Local psycho couple.

🐍 You guys are feared by almost all, the only not fearing you being those of Chief God's ranking or those like Poseidon and Thor. And despite the fact that many others fear you, you always found a way to make them listen to you

🐍 Loki adored your manipulative nature, the way you could make somebody do your bidding easily was something he adored

🐍 But, when you came by and said you were chosen to fight in Ragnarok, he was surprisingly chill with it. He was very confident with your ability to defeat any human that challenged you

🐍 He floated down from his tree and patted the ground next to him, signalling for you to sit down next to him. And instead of turning away like you would for others, you smiled and sat next to him

"Do you know who you're fighting?" He asked, a curios-yet cheery tone coming out of his throat.

"Yep. I'm fighting that Samurai from when I ruled Earth. Y'know, the one with that damn pure blade that could harm me."

"Oh yeah, that thing!"

»–•–«

"Y/N! You're up next to fight!"

🐍 Standing up from your seat, you patted your husband's head as he happily swung side to side while your nails scratched his scalp before you left

🐍 As he sat up to pay more attention, Thor and Odin conversed on how the fight would go, to which Thor praised your skill in mental warfare while Odin just nodded along, his birds voicing their hopes in your win for him

🐍 Loki smiled as Heimdall began his small rant on you, letting your multitude of names coming out of his mouth and into the ears of all there

🐍 The mischievous God began to laugh as you spoke to the Samurai, oh how much he loved you and your spirit~

"Y/N. I shall not allow you to lay harm to another generation of humans."

"Oh, what a brave claim, Samurai." You then yelled in anger, "Fool! Just because you defeated me once while you lived doesn't mean you'll defeat me again after life."

"We shall see."

"Yes, we shall." You laughed.

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mysticstarlightduck · 4 months ago

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OC Reddit AITA Tag Game!

Thanks for the tags, @willtheweaver (here), @wyked-ao3 (here) and @the-golden-comet (here)!

So let's go with Deimos Soll from Supernova Initiative!

Deimos Soll

AITA for setting up my siblings and their crew for capture bu our worst enemy in exchange for safety against the warlord hunting me down?

Hi. So, I have been struggling with this for a while, and honestly wasn't sure if I should technically post this but since I've got few people I can vent this to, so I might as well give this a shot.

So, for context, I (26 M), did NOT want to betray my adoptive siblings. It was always us against the world growing up and we have always been all each other has had - well, at least until we had The Big Argument a few years ago and went our separate ways.

It all started to go downhill after that day, now that I'm thinking about it. After I left Jack and Cassie behind to pursue a solo career as a sniper, I ended up joining a Khosmonian war faction - I was very much an idealistic youth who knew little of the world of warfare at the time, but I believed that, by joining the Junction's greatest enemy in the civil war, I would have a chance to fight back against the government that destroyed my life in the past.

I was mistaken. Very much so.

It turns out that, for all the propaganda, the government in the Khosmonian galaxies - and especially the military branch I had joined - was just as corrupt as the Junction. I was quickly disillusioned and planned to desert that cause and go back to my siblings to make amends.

And I didn't even get that chance. I had packed my things and was ready to leave, but the warlord that commanded the faction I had misguidedly tied myself to - a monstrous woman named Eldora Thalax - wasn't about to let me go so easily. Apparently I was her finest sniper, and she didn't want to lose that asset.

Before I knew it, she had her soldiers capture me and bring me to her - she made me a final offer, saying she might forgive my 'treason' if I continued to work for her. I said no, and told her I was going to leave once and for all. She... didn't like that.

Eldora decided that, if I wasn't going to comply willingly, she'd make me do so by force - and so the nightmare began. I was locked in a freezing cell, and every day I was brutally tortured and experimented on - it didn't take long for me to realize what she was doing. Her plan was to break my mind and brainwash me into a living weapon.

I spent 3 years trapped in that living hell, barely holding onto my identity and sanity, until finally - on one extremely lucky day - I managed to escape and steal a spaceship to take me back to my galaxy. But Eldora wasn't going to stop hunting me down: 1. she didn't want to let others think she would simply let a prisoner get away from her, and wanted to make me an example, 2. she still planned to recapture me and brainwash me into her obedient soldier. Even as I went back to the galaxy I hailed from, I spent countless days trying desperately to avoid the assassins and agents she'd sent after me, barely getting a moment to even think.

I was at the end of my rope when I made the decision to seek the Junction's government for help - they'd always been my worst enemies, people I despised more than anything and who had destroyed my life and that of countless others over and over again. But I couldn't take it anymore, living on the run with the ever-looming danger of being caught again. Which I knew would happen sooner or later if I was on my own. I turned myself in and made a deal with one of the most influential Junction politicians, the Director, to get protection against Eldora.

They asked for something in return - and their price was that I helped them set up my siblings and their crew (since Jack, Cassie and the others had been the Junction's Public Enemy Number 1 for years now and Jack was the most wanted intergalactic thief of his generation) for capture. I didn't want to do it, but given that I had no choice, I accepted it.

Soon after, Jack, Cassie, and the crew were captured during one of their heists - something the Junction only managed to do due to the information I gave them.

They tasked the crew to do a dangerous heist on a hostile planetary system, making them work for our worst enemy in order to avoid the firing squad, and the Junction made me join them on the heist as well, probably out of sadism to see me struggle to keep the truth of what I had done hidden. At the time, no one in the crew knew I had been the one to blame for their capture.

The worst part is that, by saving myself from harm, I ended up subjecting my brother to the same - if not worse - struggles I had endured, as the Director made him his favorite test subject, torturing and experimenting on him for fun in the guise of seeking scientific progress.

I hate myself with every fiber of my being for what I did, and I would do anything to go back and change the decision I made in the past. If I had known what the price of my betrayal would be, I would never have done it. I would have preferred to spend the rest of my days working with Eldora than to let my brother go through what the Director did and does to him.

In fact, I never should've left them - abandoned them - in the past, after our argument in the first place.

I have kept my betrayal a secret from them ever since we had to start working together again, and it's eating me up inside. I know that if I tell them the truth, it would be the final crack to Jack's spirit - and Cassie... well Cassie would probably try and kill me for it.

And she'd be right.

Tagging (gently): @sleepy-night-child, @kaylinalexanderbooks, @smol-feralgremlin, @oh-no-another-idea, @littleladymab,

@winterandwords, @eccaiia, @sarahlizziewrites, @illarian-rambling

@agirlandherquill, @anoelleart, @ray-writes-n-shit

@writernopal, @anyablackwood, @unstablewifiaccess, @forthesanityofstorytellers

@i-can-even-burn-salad, @cakeinthevoid @thecomfywriter

@thepeculiarbird, @clairelsonao3, @memento-morri-writes, @starlit-hopes-and-dreams

@differentnighttale, @leahnardo-da-veggie

#wip supernova initiative #oc: deimos soll #oc AITA game #oc AITA tag game #AITA reddit tag game #writing #writers #writers on tumblr #my writing #my characters #character writing #writerblr #my wips #writeblr

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samflir · 1 year ago

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What makes a good boot sequence?

A while ago, I had my first truly viral post on Mastodon. It was this:

You might've seen it. It got almost four hundred boosts and reached beyond Mastodon to reddit and even 4chan. I even saw an edit with a spinning frog on the left screen. I knew the post would go down well with tech.lgbt but I never expected it to blow up the way it did.

I tried my best to express succinctly exactly what it is I miss about BIOS motherboards in the age of UEFI in this picture. I think looking at a logo and spinner/loading bar is boring compared to seeing a bunch of status messages scroll up the screen indicating hardware being activated, services being started up and tasks being run. It takes the soul out of a computer when it hides its computeriness.

I think a lot of people misunderstood my post as expressing a practical preference over an aesthetic one, and there was at least a few thinking this was a Linux fanboy post, which it certainly is not. So here's the long version of a meme I made lol.

Stages

I remember using two family desktop computers before moving over a family laptop. One ran Windows XP and the other ran Windows 7. Both were of the BIOS era, which meant that when booting, they displayed some status information in white on black with a blinking cursor before loading the operating system. On the XP machine, I spent longer in this liminal space because it dual-booted. I needed to select Windows XP from a list of Linux distros when booting it.

I've always liked this. Even as a very little kid I had some sense that what I was seeing was a look back into the history of computing. It felt like a look "behind the scenes" of the main GUI-based operating system into something more primitive. This made computers even more interesting than they already were, to me.

Sequences

The way old computers booted was appealing to my love of all kinds of fixed, repeating sequences. I never skip the intros to TV shows and I get annoyed when my local cinema forgets to show the BBFC ratings card immediately before the film, even though doing so is totally pointless and it's kinda strange that they do that in the first place. Can you tell I'm autistic?

Booting the windows 7 computer would involve this sequence of distinct stages: BIOS white text -> Windows 7 logo with "starting windows" below in the wrong aspect ratio -> switch to correct resolution with loading spinner on the screen -> login screen.

Skipping any would feel wrong to me because it's missing a step in one of those fixed sequences I love so much. And every computer that doesn't start with BIOS diagnostic messages is sadly missing that step to my brain, and feels off.

Low-level magic

I am extremely curious about how things work and always have been, so little reminders when using a computer that it has all sorts of complex inner workings and background processes going on are very interesting to me, so I prefer boot sequences that expose the low-level magic going on and build up to the GUI. Starting in the GUI immediately presents it as fundamental, as if it's not just a pile of abstractions on top of one another. It feels deceptive.

There may actually be some educational and practical value in computers booting in verbose mode by default. Kids using computers for the first time get to see that there's a lot more to their computer than the parts they interact with (sparking curiosity!), and if a boot fails, technicians are better able to diagnose the problem over a phone call with a non-technical person.

Absolute boot sequence perfection

There's still one last thing missing from my family computer's boot sequence, and that's a brief flicker of garbage on screen as VRAM is cleared out. Can't have everything I guess. Slo-mo example from The 8-Bit Guy here:

#computers #opinion #boot sequences #computing history #meme

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lotusmi · 2 years ago

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uhhh neville did talk abt the void state as the I am state. the void state is just the nickname to it. check @zen-shu s post to it. don't assume we don't even know what it is & ur experience does not change that ur pure consciousness aka the I am state is the sane pure consciousness as the void

ok, here we go then...

I got many people asking me why I said that I AM State is different from Void, I never really made a post about it since I did not wanted people to overthink by thinking they can enter 'I AM State' by "accident" while wanting to tap into the void, which is not possible, since the difference is in the intention, not in the affirmation "I AM..." that can be used to tap in both experiences. ♡ I know other bloggers don't agree with me in this topic, yet a experience is a experience. I don't feel 'upset' with it, I still appreciate them so much and it is okay if you don't agree with me.

I AM x VOID

"the I am state is the sane pure consciousness as the void" This is obvious, since there's not 2 consciousness. "Imagination is God, and there is no other God! His name is "I AM" forever and forever." I AM is the name of God, I AM is, actually, not a state. Nor is the void.

A state is what you identify as being or having. States are temporary, I AM is forever. States are not permanent, but I AM is. "A state is simply an attitude of mind, a body of belief, a phase of experience." “There are an infinite number of states. The state of health, the state of being unknown, all are only states and everyone is always in a state.” We are at many and many states right now. But we are ALWAYS I AM. And the void is always, nothingless. That's why I don't really like to call those experiences 'states'.

☯︎ I like to see I AM and VOID as yin yang. Creation is made by opposition. Hot and cold, good and evil, WHOLENESS AND NOTHINGLESS. Consciousness can experiment both.

+ "ur experience does not change that ur pure consciousness" I never said that.

Before reading about the void, I had read At Your Command by Neville. So I tried to do it, and it was exactly as most of experiences people had 3, 4 years ago, before 'void' being a 'method' to ''get desires instantly''. Neville Goddard students had experienced the same I did.

I closed my eyes and started repeating "I am.. I am" and I got numb, then I felt like I was everything, saw my city from the sky (it was not a astral travel), then I felt like I was the trees, the world, other people, I saw the Gold Melting and then I saw myself in the body of my sp, we had fighted some weeks before, and I felt he was sorry and saw him apologizing, I understood "everyone is you pushed out" that day. Then I really entered the state of being forgiven, as Neville said, it's simple to enter a state when you know you are all the states. When I left, I got a text from my sp, saying he was sorry and missed me.

I had others I AM experiences where I felt like being every part of creation, feeling myself being them and all of that. The last was last year, I shared one with Vesora. (ignore the grammar)

A lot of people said to me "this is just what you experienced, it's some random thing." well but it was not only me, here I linked lot's of I AM experiences from NevilleGoddard/reddit. Most of them were posted way before of void being know as this 'magical method'. They did what Neville Goddard said, this was the "I AM" meditation. Am I saying the void did not existed back then? No! The void always existed, but it was not knew as a "manifesting tool" as it now is. And it was not knew this way (we now know) by the old Law of Assumption community. They believed they could change their states using 'I am technique', but they thought they would have to wait a "bridge of incidents", and that the desire would not be manifested instantly. Then here we found the difference.

+Golden Melting experiences commented by Neville (you can skip if you want): "A bolt of lightning splits man in two from the top of his skull to the base of his spine. He is cleft as though he were a tree that had been struck by lightening. at the base of his severed body he sees “the blood of Jesus”, a pool of molten gold; he knows it is himself; then fusing with “the blood of Jesus” he ascends his severed spine in a serpentine motion into his skull. This is to fulfil the Scripture; “This Son of Man must be lifted up as the serpent was lifted up by Moses in the wilderness” (John 3:14)." - Neville Goddard (from He breaks the Shell)

"I was sitting in the Silence, not thinking of anything in particular, just simply contemplating this interior structure of the brain as it were. If you turn your eyes, mentally turn them inward and just let them rest upon the interior of your skull, in a little while all these dark convolutions of the brain grow luminous and they fascinate you. The whole thing becomes liquid and golden liquid light. So while watching this wonderful golden liquid light, suddenly out of the nowhere came a stone, a rock. There’s nothing more sterile, nothing more opaque, nothing more contracted as far as imagery is concerned than a rock. So here was a rock, this quartz. As I looked at it, just simply looking at it, not wondering why it’s before me, but there it is before me, and suddenly it became fragmented, broken into unnumbered pieces. Then all these little pieces were gathered together, but not re-formed into the rock (the original form) but into a human shape. And here it takes human form. Here, I am seeing a man seated in the lotus posture. I became intrigued. As I looked closer, I’m looking at myself. I am the being that I’m contemplating. Here he is seated in the lotus posture and just the very image of the being I knew myself to be. As I looked at him, he began to glow and he increased in luminosity until he reached the limit of intensity, and then he exploded. Then I returned to this level with only the memory of what I had experienced." - Neville (He Is Meditating Me)

"your whole body is split from top to bottom, revealing blood…but the blood is living, golden, liquid light. As you look at it, you not only know it is yourself, but you know it is the Creator and Redeemer…and yet you know it is yourself (Blake, Jer., Plt.96)." - Neville (Everyone Has the Plan in Him)

"you see the golden liquid light that is truly life itself" - Neville (What Must We Do? Believe!)

"At the base of the spine is a pool of golden living liquid light, and as I looked at it I knew it was myself. Here I am a pool of living liquid light" - Neville (Imagination’s Power)

"When you go into the Silence and you see this golden liquid light that moves and moves and moves all through the brain." - Neville (Remembrance of Things Future)

Another topic, most important one for me, is that I AM was knew as this experience where you discover/FEEL you are God, that the world is within you, that everyone is you pushed out. Not as only a tool to "change the world", but as a way to understand YOU are the world and the world comes from you. Then you stop desiring, since you know there's nothing to create, but to accept. Accept that creation is finished, and it is all coming from us. So we don't have to change the world, but change SELF with the knowing we ARE GOD.

The void obsession comes when you think that in order to have what you want, you think you need to access something outside of you, "God power", you have to do something, you have to do a method, you need to tap into the void, etc. But you forget, you ALREADY are God. You focus in 3d and you think "I have to change it". But you don't have to change nothing in the outside, you have to change SELF. And repeating/feeling I AM, which first was a beautiful way Neville taught of understanding you are God, a way to free yourself, "be still and know I am God", turned into a 'hype', a 'escape', a obsession, something that people think they need to somehow enter so that they can change their world, they forget that there's no way to change the world since all you can change is SELF, and that Self, is GOD.

So, at least for me, those are the meaning of the names we are used to think are synonym of "void", based in what they meant in the past:

ps: yes, I know void, God and I AM WORDS have the same meaning of "Conciousness, awareness, mind". But the meaning the community gave to each of them in terms of the name of the different experiences, mean different things.

God State:

"The god state is when you know that you are creating, you know that everything that you desire is coming to you [is already yours!!]. It’s a state where you have full trust that you are manifesting your life.

Being in the god state feels effortless, you know that everything is responding to your thoughts and assumptions."

I AM (as a meditation/experience):

A experience where you feel yourself to be all. Wholeness, everything, everyone. Gold melting. The nature, the animals, you get visions, you almost feel overwhelmed by the knowing nothing exists without being part of you.

VOID:

"When he attains the state of void, all thoughts cease for then pure Thought thinks itself alone." Stillness, emptiness, blackness, nothingless. You don't feel nor see nothing. Know as method to manifest instantly or shift.

+ Can I accidentaly experience one of those? No. If you want to enter THE VOID, you have the intention, you are naturally expecting to 'enter' the void, so you will enter the void.

Again, you don't have to agree with me. But I guess I had included great evidence that sustain my arguments, so that's the post, my views on it.

✩ I see I AM and VOID as WORDS to represent what it is to be/feel God aware of the whole creation, and be/feel God aware of the nothingless the creation was made of.

#I AM state #i am state #void state #the void #god state #neville goddard

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sometimes-men-need-help-too · 1 year ago

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A month ago there was a question posted to reddit asking if something his wife did was considered domestic violence. He said she hit him so hard during an argument that it left a massive bruise on his shoulder

Now while there were supportive comments, I'm here to discuss the ones that weren't. It's nothing I haven't talked about before but it's important to bring up regardless

Usually I'd agree that reddit (or social media in general) are very eager to tell people to break up or divorce, but abuse is a very legit reason to do that. But really, most marriages can obviously survive a wife hitting a husband? No one should be hitting anybody, let alone enough to leave a massive bruise.

Notice how this commenter immediately made him the villain even though there's no proof. Furthermore, while cheating is utterly despicable, it doesn't give anyone the right to assault that person. You can still be charged, as you should be.

We need to stop focusing on the height and strength. That middle paragraph is absolutely horrible.

Now while the punting part is obviously said in sarcasm, you get the gist of it. It's the same when people say they would never put up with abuse and at the first sign, they would be leaving. You don't really "get it" until you're in that situation yourself. It's so easy to act like you would do this or that until you're in the face of it, so it's important not to say things like this. Victims in general feel shame for being in this mess, for "letting" this happen to them. They don't need you making. remarks like this. You aren't being helpful.

It just seems bit silly to cry about it when the person that hit you is a lot smaller and weaker. This is part of the the reason why men are hesitant to step forward. Not because it doesn't happen to them, but to see or hear comments like this is discouraging. Abuse is abuse and should be treated that way even if the person is smaller. Try to imagine how much shame these men must feel. Try to imagine, and this is not just from other men but women as well, being looked as less of a man because you "let" this happen to you.

The abuse should be taken seriously and recognized for what it is no matter what the size of the abuser is.

#mens rights #misandry #anti misandry #double standards #male victims #male victims of abuse #abuse

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bonnyhoddie · 5 months ago

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Ocellus - Teenage Exocolonist OC

I need to post more so here’s something I made in February for a game I love a lot - I was a Teenage Exocolonist!

The character is called Ocellus (yes, like the changeling in MLP I could not think of anything else that sounded sciency or eccentric enough, ideas are welcome!) and their augment is chameleon, because I thought it’d be easiest for my mental health and art block to create a character with obvious signs such as that, without going into classic animals, like a cat or mouse. (Also I had a snake as a pet called Misty and I wanted to give a character a reptile tail)

The idea sketches (as you’ll find from the inconsistent outfits and lazier style, and also Ocellus being pink and blue to match the butterfly, when in the reference, it became decided that those colours would be romantic (I might change them actually)) and the reference drawing was actually made either on the same day or a day before I left my toxic environment lol

Also, fun fact, someone accused me of character theft because a bunch of members were planning to make a mod called Extracolonists (NOT Extracolonist by Seraphic on Reddit) so, AFTER I made Ocellus and just had to do some final details, I was like “omg how cool would it be if I joined in on the mod, they have some space left” so I looked through the discord search thing, looking up “chameleon” and I found a character called “Chanterelle”.

So, finding a chameleon augment character already I was like “oh ok so it won’t go in the mod, ah well, I’ll just post this in the art channel and make a little joke about it.”

Important thing to note: These characters looked nothing alike, aside from being POC and having multi-coloured hair. However, Chanterelle was default blue/pink and all I saw was an image, so I imagine a lot of the functionality stuff like the sign language and the tongue being too big in the mouth, is all mine (or, it’s ours now because sadly I did probably give too many ideas to them). Another thing to note is that I was exclusively following Exocolonist eccentric explorer styles, while the image I saw was Chanterelle’s child version just kinda in a blue hoodie.

And, at first I got compliments and, what confirms my thoughts about the functionality being mine, is that I was being COMPLIMENTED for my ideas AND my character. UNTIL, one person, decided to be like “I’m really uncomfortable with this” and, when I asked why, I get “Because it’s character theft! The characters look exactly alike!”

(They don’t, at all, whatsoever, again, aside from being POC and having multi-coloured hair with COMPLETELY different types of hair texture and multi-coloured types (Ocellus has straight thick hair that’s essentially just very tiny chameleon scales, so it’s a little heavy, with colours at the ends, while Chanterelle had afro space buns and split dye), which, is probably telling that those features make characters look “exactly alike” but idk I’m white, I don’t think I get to decide on what’s telling)

So then, the ENTIRE group, even ones that were COMPLIMENTING me, decided to just turn on me LMAO, (fucking pick a lane a stick to it dudes lmao /j) which, from the perspective of “I had just joined a few days ago and they don’t know me and they have established friendships” I get, but, first of all, I was doing a bachelor of ARTS at the time, which I stated on the first day, I’m sure that I wouldn’t be doing that if I was uncreative enough to be a thief, and, whenever I tried to defend myself and prove my innocence, I was not listened to and I had the EXACT SAME PHRASE repeated to me “you know how it looks right?” Over and over and over again no matter how many times I responded to that, it just was not going anywhere, my attempts of defusing the situation just was not working at all, and I was not being listened to. So then the person who “called me out” decided to post in another channel “let’s make another server for the mod because this doesn’t feel like a safe space for me anymore :(“

EXCUSE ME??? YOU accused me of character theft and dismissed my Timelapses, which is the ONLY way of proving that I didn’t steal a character design. I was reasonable and polite the whole time because I wanted to calm things down and clear up a misunderstanding, while you wanted to argue, and accuse me and my friend of being toxic because she has harsh tone sometimes, while YOU YOURSELF were displaying extremely toxic behaviours, the only bad thing I said to her was:

“I’m so sorry, this saying is only ever said in a mean way and I have no other way of saying this, but, I’m not gonna lie, I feel like it has to be said, you aren’t special, not every coincidence you see in a character is theft against you, and I’m literally in Uni for ART and MAKING CHARACTERS, where I am watched and observed when doing character design tasks, I’m not gonna be uncreative and steal a character design. I just checked to see if Ocellus could be in the mod, that’s it”

Because, I’m gonna be honest, the character wasn’t basic, and was fucking adorable, I’m not trying to insult the character, BUT, she had a LOT of popular character design choices when I checked, and not really much to separate her too much from the norm, which is absolutely ok, BUT, that means that that person is going to see a LOT of characters that look similar, and they can’t expect people to NOT have coincidental ideas of things that ARE unique to the character.

So I just sent a really long message about how I’m gonna leave because I TRIED to peacefully and calmly settle the issue, but everyone was willing to just attack me DESPITE complimenting me before, and not listen to me at all despite showing my Timelapses to show my thought process. And then for the person who started this whole thing to suddenly feel “unsafe” despite the fact that I was the one being attacked.

So, one of my friends (me and 3 others joined because we wanted to be a part of a community) stayed in the server, either that one or an 18+ one to see what happens after or for anyone to try and talk to me through her, and one of the mods did contact her, super sweet like:

“Hey I’m so sorry your friend went through that, we had a talk with the others, we don’t think Chari (me) did anything wrong and we’re gonna make a ticket system so things never escalate like this again, so if they want to join back at all, they are free to, again, we’re so sorry, we don’t let these things slide without a reaction.”

Anyway, I haven’t joined back since, because I said that I would if the person who called me out apologised, and, if I DID rejoin, I should get an apology from the people who escalated everything (bit immature I know and I did state that), but the mod kindly explained that she wouldn’t apologise and would just leave if I joined back, so I just decided that, instead of chasing her out of possible safe spaces by just existing, I was just gonna stick to talking about it with my friends and maybe in the future join another server, which I haven’t done yet. Also there was some Vace lovers /j

So yeah, fun story lol, I wonder how they’re getting on and I do hope the project is going well for them.

Might also add some more patterns and details to some parts of Ocellus and make an Ocellus mod, not out of spite at all, I promise, but because I really wanna do something with them and I really wanna make mods.

Also, despite how it seems, I’m not actually mad, I find this haha funny. I was also stressed and annoyed at the time but not exactly angry.

#artists on tumblr #digital art #art #digital artist #my art #lgbt #teenage exocolonist #i was a teenage exocolonist

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moonspirit · 8 months ago

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hi! I hope you’re doing great today ☺️ I wanted to ask you one thing

how do you think Annie got her ring? was it her idea so that she would not have to bite herself? and if so, what does it say about her personality?

Hello! I hope your day is going well too :3

Interesting question tho. I don't think anything about Annie's ring was ever mentioned in the manga beyond the obvious reference to its purpose. Please correct me if I'm wrong tho, my memory these days is WELP xD

However, assuming I am right, this is where I have to say that I like picking tidbits of information from other published sources to expand upon lore, as long as it doesn't straight up contradict canon information.

So, I'll dive into Lost Girls for a bit.

I recall a chapter in it where Mikasa confronts Annie over her ring that she found in the training grounds (we already know that Annie doesn't wear her ring all the time, only putting it on when she's likely to use it, and Lost Girls maintains this). Annie's response to this is that it was an item given to her by her "parents" before she left home, and that it's important to her. Mikasa then asks her something like, "Why are you here, in the military?" And follows it up with, "It doesn't look to me like you're here to secure a place in the inner districts, rather, you're doing it because you have to." Annie then explains that the ring is what gives her purpose, and that's good enough a reason.

From this I've always assumed that the ring wasn't a thing Annie made or bought herself - it was given to her by her father, probably once she was seen by the Marleyan military as a definite successor to the Female Titan.

Now where did the ring itself come from?

Since we aren't told much about Mr.Leonhardt either except for the fact that he was shipped off to Liberio for his half eldian blood, his background remains murky. But I remember reading a reddit post years and years ago about how the pointy blade on Annie's ring was a bit similar to real life poison rings that were used in the middle ages by nobility. These rings were used to poison enemies as well as to facilitate suicide in case of capture. Sound a bit familiar? Anyway, somehow I ended up imagining that Mr.Leonhardt came into possession of a similar such ring with a blade as a part of a loot of stolen goods before he arrived at Liberio, and that has been fact in my head haha xD

So while I've just taken Annie's words (about being given the ring by her dad) at face value and accepted them, it is also highly interesting to explore the possibility that Annie bought it herself. Why? Let's see:

Whichever take you go with, the ring is very symbolic. The choice of using the ring to transform instead of a bite or cut, is very much reflective of what Annie was taught: to be quick, powerful and lethal. With a ring you attract less attention, and the cut will be smaller and therefore easier to hide as it heals. It can assist in situations where the hands and mouth are bound and gagged. It can also act as a psychological trigger: putting it on means you have a mission to complete and see through, no matter what; aka, you mean serious business.

So to put it simply: Annie getting the ring for herself would basically speak about her tactical mind and quick problem solving abilities, leaning towards methods most efficient and able to get the job done with minimum effort - the ring achieves exactly that.

On the other hand, Annie getting the ring as a "gift" from her father would speak to narrative symbolism. The reason I personally like this more than the first one is because Annie calls the ring "important to her", and perhaps that is because the ring is her one, single tangible link between her and father (in the Lost Girls chapter, she pats her left breast pocket to check for it), and as such, it's very precious. This brings out Annie's softer side that yearns and longs for affection and love.

Anyway xD Long ass reply, but I hope that satisfies you!

#ask #oneav #annie leonhart #attack on titan #annie leonhardt #aot #snk #shingeki no kyojin #meta #??

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mrs-gauche · 2 years ago

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Ok, I'm pretty sure no one actually cares about this and I'm probably *really* overthinking the plot of a very simple comic here, but hey, wild speculations are fun and since there's still a bit of time left until the final volume of The Missing releases at the end of this month, why not write it down just in case there could actually be more to this (or you all get a reason to laugh at me in about two weeks)! 😂

Because for some reason, I just can't stop thinking about the "true identity" of the mysterious "Venatori assassin" that had been stalking Varric and Harding since volume 1...

(...Assuming the person we see here was actually one and the same throughout all these scenes. 👀) But before I go on, just beware of spoilers for the whole comic obviously, but also some stuff about the DA4 reddit leaks from a few weeks ago under the cut! 😁

So, to reiterate real quick, by the end of volume 3, Varric seemed to think that, whatever happened the moment he was almost killed by a Leopard and then heroically saved by a "Venatori assassin", was somehow instigated by none other than Solas himself. First of all, let me start by saying that there's a good chance that none of this actually matters, the guy was simply a cheap plot device to keep readers guessing and we'll never see them again, there won't be any grand revelation about them nor will they play any significant role whatsoever, given that the poor guy, whoever it was, appears to have basically disintegrated because of the strange time-altering magic in the Arlathan Forest after saving Varric from that Leopard and is therefore presumably.. pretty dead now, I guess. lol

Yet, in any case, the way this mystery person had been presented to us throughout all this, almost made it feel like they were setting this person up for something big or some grand unmasking by the end of this comic? 🤔 At least, that's what I thought until the end of volume 3... Which leads me to believe that there’s still a small chance for some sort of surprise in the final volume despite the unceremonious disintegration. lol (Or that’s just wishful thinking...) I kinda already did this in my post on volume 3, but after giving it some more thought, here are all the potential "identities" I consider possible now: 1) What I have come to realize now and what seems to make the most sense actually - and thank you again @thebookworm0001 for pointing it out to me 😁 - that it could've simply been one of Solas' agents who was ordered to keep an eye on them throughout this whole journey and to save them in case they got in any dangerous situations. Which would also explain what happened at the end of volume 1, when Varric and Harding found that deepstalker lying dead in front of Solas' hideout, suggesting that this agent had killed it to prevent it from attacking Varric and Harding, saving their life yet again. lol

This could also fit in with some comments I’ve seen, assuming that this pouch thing that the assassin carried in that scene in volume 3 showed the same “Dread Wolf” symbol that was also seen on that wax seal on Solas’ letter.

Though I still think it would be kinda weird for a spy to openly carry a symbol of identification like that? lol But if that’s the case, might I add that Solas’ agents would therefore quite literally be wearing a badge of Pride. (*ba dum tsss*)

2) The guy was actually a real Venatori assassin, but somehow manipulated by Solas to save Varric. 3) The Venatori was Solas himself in disguise. Now, while that IS the most fun scenario to think about, it still just doesn't make much sense to me tbh, because of basically all the reasons I talked about in this post, so I won't bother to elaborate again. 😂 I'll just say that, again, ever since "the Orlesian Bard", anything is possible, so I can't fully outrule it either, I guess. lol (Though in addition to this, I also don't know why Solas wouldn't just kill that Leopard (or the deepstalker in volume 1 for that matter) with a simple spell or something, instead of jumping in and "sacrificing" himself. lol Actually, now that I think about it, it seems a bit suspect now that he also wouldn't interfere when Varric and Harding were being attacked by that Tevinter mage in volume 2?) 4) Varric was simply wrong. lol Solas wasn't involved in this at all, the Venatori was the real deal and this is all actually part of some grand plan by the Venatori to get Varric and Harding to lead them to Solas/the ancient artifacts like the Crucious Stone. Which is why they saved Varric to ensure they made it out of the Arlathan Forest alive to continue their pursuit and use those ancient artifacts for... something not good. lol With the way Varric and Harding were seemingly lead to follow all those (purposefully laid out?) clues, only to end up at this letter telling Varric not to interfere, makes me actually hope that this was all part of the Venatori's schemes, just because I still don't fully understand what the whole purpose of this was then, if Solas was the one behind all this. (Unless his intention was to simply keep the Inquisition distracted or something.) And looking at the blurb for the final volume again, which seems to have Varric and Harding going back to Minrathous because Solas "has been spotted" there, maybe this will all culminate in the Venatori trying to get the Crucious Stone back from him/Solas trying to stop the Venatori from doing something really stupid with yet another ancient artifact (much like what he did with this one Tevinter mage and the red lyrium idol in Tevinter Nights). 5) The person was someone else entirely, neither associated with the Venatori OR Solas! Which brings us to the last and probably my favorite theory (and actually the main reason I even wanted to talk about this again)... What if this mysterious person... is actually the next protagonist? 😂 Hear me out! This comic was marketed to lead directly into DA4 somehow, right? So this should be taken almost like a little (yet ultimately irrelevant) prologue to the main story, right?

It also seems pretty clear by now that the overall purpose of this whole comic is to introduce us to/highlight the four factions (Grey Wardens/Antivan Crows/Veil Jumpers/Tevinter... something) that are probably going to play an important part in DA4's story in some way, or rather the four factions that are likely going to be options to choose for our next protagonist, if we're looking at how those four factions were already presented in concept art/short stories, but also the 2020 teaser, along with Varric's narration talking about how "It's time for a new hero" and "Someone they'll never see coming".

And with this, I'm also looking at the reddit leaks again from a few weeks ago and how "Rook" will apparently be the name/title of our next protagonist. A name that might suggest a spy background (along with everything we know about the first version of DA4 "Joplin" and the ominous "red book" with a rook on its cover), someone who goes by an alias rather than their actual name to operate, like many of the spies we know from DAI. So... when Varric's talking about "a new hero" and "someone they'll never see coming", wouldn't it be so hilarious to have that one mystery person disguised as a Venatori assassin, turn out to be literally the one spy no one saw coming? 😂 Obviously, I have no idea how they would even be involved in all this.. Like, why would they stalk Varric and Harding and why would they even want to save Varric? But who knows, maybe at the end of this comic this person will pop up again in Minrathous, which will segue directly into the start of DA4 when the protagonist will bump into Varric saying "Oh wow, I don't know who you are but you've done an amazing job at spying on me, would you be interested to work for us?" 😂 "Rook, it is? Oh don't worry, you can keep your silly spy name." Or what if Varric will be the one to assign this name to the next protagonist then when he’s recruiting them? After all, Varric IS still a spymaster, right? lol

What kinda speaks against all this though is, for one, that the Venatori assassin was already shown to be of human or elven like stature, which would therefore already "canonize" the next protagonist to be of a certain race, and while BioWare has used their own canon default Hawke/human Inquisitor for promotional stuff before, I don't know if they would do it like this... Also, I can't see BioWare actually have the next protagonist be introduced in a comic/additional media that most people aren't going to read anyway. lol But still, I think it's a lot of fun to think about. 😁

So that's where I'm at. Again, I'm about 99.9% sure that none of this will actually be addressed or matter at all in the final volume and we'll just be left to forever speculate who the mysterious no name was who saved Varric's life. lol

If anything, thank you mystery person for saving our favorite dwarf (unless it was actually you Solas, in which case, shame on you for even getting Varric in a situation like this in the first place. 😂)

#dragon age the missing #dragon age the missing spoilers #varric tethras #solas #da4 #tinfoil time

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thesunfyre4446 · 1 year ago

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(1) Before the show aired I used to say I was on TB, now I feel like that's admitting a shameful secret? Because I'd be putting myself in the same bag as A LOT of delusional TB/Rhaenyra stans, most of whom are just bullies. The more I see both teams fighting on reddit or here the more stupid it looks to me; I end up wanting to correct them but then it comes off as me siding with TG. I'm not but it kills me to see how wrong they got the story. Most TB fans read F&B and filled in the blanks with their own delusions and think that's what really happened; what's even worse is they can't separate book from show. They think they have the moral highground but a lot of them are terrible, with their double standards and self righteousness. Like when they accuse TG of mysoginy but then crucify Alicent for everything she did and didn't do. Even young Alicent, who did absolutely nothing wrong, but still gets attacked by Rhaenyra's feminist stans.

If anyone asked me now I'd say I'm not in any team; my favourite characters are aligned with Rhaenyra, whom I think is the rightful heir based on my understanding of succession. I will defend Alicent cause she's an interesting character that people refuse to try to understand and is treated unfairly. I actually loved watching most of the characters (and relationships) because they are all so complex, even if I don't agree or like them . They are engaging, despite what "team" they're on. It really annoys me that so many fans miss out on this because they're busy with the TB vs TG war.

i think that not being in any team is the best way to watch the show, anon.

i mean i'm TG but watching daemon is def very entertaining. he's a horrible person but matt smith (who's one of my fav actors from the good old doctor who days) is incredible. i can enjoy daemon's character while also acknowledging the fact that he's a horrible person. appreciating characters for their complexly & just how entertaining they are without agreeing with the things they do or even liking them is a skill this fandom desperately needs to learn.

i got a hate anon a few days ago accusing me of "having bad morals" for saying alicent did what she believed was right and honorable, and then just refused to understand that what alicent believes is right is not necessarily what i believe is right (i mean she's a fictional character from a medieval inspired fantasy world, of course we're not going to have the same set of values ? ). i'm not TG because i believe that men should inherit before women, i just like the characters better and find them more interesting.

i also think that this fandom has a HUGE problem separating headcanons from actual canon. with daemyra shippers being the obvious example. daemon and rhaenyra's relationship is very toxic. he's psychically abusive to her, he gr00med her, he abandoned her in a brothel... like this is obviously a very bad relationship. but people still insist on labeling daemon as a MaLeWiFe and a femenist (?) [he smashed his wife's head with a rock because he didn't like her but ok] and get very angry whenever someone tries to suggests that maybe... daemyra isn't that great of a ship.

don't get me wrong it's fine to ship daemyra, we all like to ship fictional toxic relationships, but you have to separate the headcanons you have from the actual show.

yeah the double standard with the so-called feminists attacking alicent is... a lot. an unhinged stan left a comment on one of my posts talking about alicent's "lowly hightower c***". a lot of them are accusing her of "seducing" viserys when she was 14-15, or defending corlys for offering his 12yo daughter as a bride to the middle aged viserys... i'm not very comfortable with these posts so i usually just end up blocking the op. (and don't even get me started on how some of them treat nettles)

thank you for the ask! ;)

#house of the dragon #hotd #hotd fandom critical #asks #answered asks #anti daemyra stans

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quirkymarshmallows93 · 2 years ago

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The westernization of Poland as exemplified by flagship fast food restaurants

Hi everyone! It's time for a full-on blog post, I'm talking paragraphs and shit. This will be another then and now comparison post, also set in Warsaw, Poland, now with multiple sections.

The First McDonald's

On June 17, 1992, McDonald's opened its doors for the first time on Polish soil. That day, the taste buds of 45,000 Varsovians would discover the hyperstimulative combination of the Big Mac, French fries, and fountain Coca-Cola, the American counterpart of a traditional meal of kotlet mielony (frikadelle), ziemniaczki (potatoes), and kompot (homemade juice). At 8 AM, the ribbon was cut by Jacek Kuroń, the Minister of Labor and Social Policy, who was asked to be present in exchange for a donation from the company to the impoverished children of Poland. Also in attendance were cultural figures such as the coach of the Polish soccer team, Kazimierz Górski, and poet Agnieszka Osiecka. The opening and the fanfare surrounding it was as much a celebration of Polish culture as American culture. The building which housed the restaurant was located on the facade of the Sezam department store, a staple of the communist era, providing a juxtaposition of life in the Soviet Bloc and in the West.

Above is the restaurant the day of its opening, and below is the modernist building shortly before being demolished and after its shuttering in 2014.

The location of the fast food joint is at the corner of Świętokrzyska and Marszałkowska streets, two main thoroughfares in midtown Warsaw. Following the closure of the seminal McDonald's, a new restaurant was opened just slightly east of its forebearer. Below is a comparison of the locations, with the emblematic Palace of Culture and Learning in the background of both photos, the latter photo being taken in May 2023.

The department store was replaced by an L-shaped high rise building visible to the right of the present-day McDonald's, with Sezam still occupying the ground floors. The replacement McDonald's is not as grandiose as the original; however, these days one can walk several hundred meters in any direction and come across another one of the company's franchises, which now number 517 in Poland.

The Stillborn Taco Bell

A while back I posted photos from the 90s of an ultra-rare combination Pizza Hut/Taco Bell/KFC restaurant in the center of Poland's capital. These are likely the only images, on the surface web at least, of the lone Taco Bell which operated for merely a few months in the country, according to PortalSpozywczy.pl. Evidently, the chain's offering didn't quite align with the market's tastes. Still, memories of the restaurant's presence live on online, with a dormant Facebook group pleading for its return to Poland. A Reddit post links to an article about Taco Bell's unsuccessful entry into Central Europe, with commenters reasoning that currency exchange rates in a nascent free market economy made fast food a luxury for consumers, and that the Polish customer simply deemed Tex-Mex adjacent food too exotic, especially when compared to the already unfamiliar offerings of hamburgers, pizza, and fried chicken by competitors.

While visiting the city for a few days, I decided to photograph the site to contrast between 30 years ago and now, as I did with the site of the first McDonald's. Below on the left is the restaurant pictured in 1993, while in the center, the site in 2023. I tried to take the photo on the right from the same vantage point as the 90s image, but the frame isn't quite identical since the lens of my iPhone SE camera doesn't have as wide of an angle. Also, it appears that the restaurants’ signs have been moved back, rendering them not visible from where the photographer was standing in 1993.

Below on the left is the second of the two rare photos, showing the northwest corner of the building. On the right is my recreation.

For some context, the restaurants only occupy the ground floor of the building. It was built as one of Warsaw's handful of pavilions, which were meant to showcase cultural exhibits and provide a space for various expositions. Built in 1968, the complex bears the name "Zodiak", and remains a venue for architectural exhibitions and events, itself a post-war modernist structure. The astrological theme is currently slightly subdued, as the original pavilion featured a neon map of constellations on the building's facade, and a cosmic-inspired mosaic, which was replicated in the renovated building as pictured below.

Back to the fast food chains. The most obvious difference is the erasure of the Pizza Hut and its replacement with a Starbucks café. The pizzeria was relegated away from the street and toward the interior of the block. Gone are the branded trash cans and tiled enclosures, which were cleared to make way for Starbucks' tables and umbrellas. It's clear that Pizza Hut was running the show here thirty years ago, having prime frontage and dominant branding in the complex. Burger King has also invaded Yum! Brands' former fort, now nestled between the still-strong KFC and the Pizza Hut that let itself go. Today, just like thirty years ago, this site is still an example of an old order public institution, here an exhibition space for architecture and design, coexisting side by side with iconic American foodservice brands.

Communism to Capitalism: the Failed Attempt to Convert a Socialist-Nationalist Symbol into an Outpost of America's Largest Export

A similarly famous pavilion to Zodiak in the capital is the nearby Cepelia, which was constructed in 1966 to house a gift shop with the purpose of "solidify[ing] the rural identity of [Poland as] a socialist nation." That's a tall order for patterned mugs, kitchen towels, and woven baskets, but the store was a staple of Warsaw until May 2019, when it closed as a result of the building being sold. The ownership of the building was privatized following the creation of the Third Republic in 1989, and the company which owned the pavilion had been in a state of bankruptcy ever since, while the company which operated the store became the spiritual successor to the brand Cepelia in a schism of sorts, still profitably in charge. Before the closure even took place, McDonald's proposed the construction of a new restaurant in honor of the original vision of Cepelia's architect, Zygmunt Stępiński, after the land's change of hands to a new developer. The fast food giant went as far as saying that the design would go beyond this dream, because building technology had advanced between 1966 and the modern day in such a way that even more remarkable architectural features could be added. However, in 2022, it was announced that the redevelopment into a McDonald's would not take place at the request of the Masovian voivodeship's historical commission. The future of the pavilion remains unclear; meanwhile, McDonald's has not had a true flagship location in Poland since 2014.

Above, from left to right: Cepelia pictured in 1971 in the evening, Cepelia pictured in 2019 with its architectural elements obscured by advertising, and a rendering of the McDonald's which was to replace the pavilion while replicating its original distinguished design.

Fast Food Ephemera: Taco Bell's Free Drink Coupon

Back to Taco Bell. While researching more about its Polish presence, I found a photo of a coupon for a free medium drink with the purchase of any combo posted by a Reddit user.

I figured I could exclude it from this deep dive into the world of Polish fast food, as it didn't add much value to the analysis. That is, until I looked at the bottom of the coupon and noticed its expiration was at the end of March 1997. This shattered my view of the world, to put it hyperbolically. It was my understanding that Taco Bell was only around for a few months in 1993! This is the historical consensus at least. The only explanation for this could be that the coupon was simply valid for a few years instead of the standard few months, as the chain saw a bright future ahead for itself in Poland. Also, since we're here already, it's interesting that, at least in this promotional material, the brand emphasized its vegetarian offering, perhaps since all of its competitors served beef or chicken as their core products. This is the only piece of ephemera I could find online for Taco Bell's Polish presence, but the failure of Taco Bell in the 90s reminded me of the double failure of Dunkin' Donuts (now just Dunkin') in Poland. Buckle in for some more franchise lore.

Dunkin' Pączki?

The coffee chain operated in Poland not only from 1996 to 2002, but also from 2015 to 2018, when the company attempted to reenter the market. When searching for traces online of the company's first presence in the country, I could not find a single photo of a Dunkin' Donuts branch, but something arguably more interesting: a dormant Blogspot blog devoted to a similar mission as this post. Its author posted four entries, all in 2006, and one of them was of ephemera from 1999 that advertised DD's offerings.

Clockwise, from the top right, we have three pamphlets side by side advertising the chain's seven locations in the city of Warsaw, a brochure featuring photos and detailed descriptions of the product offering, complete with pronunciation tips; a flyer which brags that because the donuts are made with vegetable oil and not butter, they contain 40% fewer calories compared to traditional Polish pączki (quite bold of them); and an ad showcasing frozen coffee through iconic 90s graphic design. 14 years after closing its doors in Poland, Dunkin' Donuts came back, making the same mistakes, so I've included below a photo of a storefront with signage proclaiming its grand opening for August 11, 2016, in the city of Łódź, and below it a tweet from the company's Twitter account, stating, "We're coming back, and for good this time! :)" Foreshadowing at its finest.

My take is that Dunkin' Donuts did not have the correct marketing approach when coming to Poland. In other European countries, the chain was able to succeed despite, or likely because of, its emphasis on donuts, since in those cultures, there was room for a novel pastry, and the rest of the shop's offerings - coffee and sandwiches, mainly - could complement the American-style donut. Dunkin' begged Poles to understand that their pastries are unique, but we just saw them as shitty pączki. When the core item, already disliked by the average consumer, is in the place's name, it's no surprise that the rest of the product range didn't catch on and that customers weren't coming in. Perhaps if Dunkin' makes another comeback sans-donuts, it may be more fruitful given the company's shift to a "beverage-led" strategy in recent years. As they say, third time's a charm.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading! I'd like to acknowledge that this shit took me literal hours to conceive of, research, do my own field work for, write, edit, and publish. I was almost late to my great aunt's apartment for dinner because I took those pictures of the old Taco Bell! I know my worth, and what I'll say is that this quality content that you bitches get for free on here should be behind a $500 paywall on ScienceDirect, I'm just so philanthropic I could cry. Now give me my honorary history, marketing, and sociology PhDs. But seriously, I don't know which niche of the internet this sort of thing fits into, but that's the beauty of Tumblr and its randomness. For the most part, I'm just writing this for myself, to put my thoughts into words and try to make sense of capitalism and globalization.

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bluisgayandmoregay · 1 year ago

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I'm just gonna say it. Linus Media Group is just another shitty company owned by another shitty rich white guy. Maybe Linus is "nicer once you get to know him" or some other bullshit like that, but everything that has happened and has been happening with them is down right sad.

No one should ever be dismissed or told off or belittled or shamed for coming forward about assault in the workplace, hell anywhere, and Madison deserved much better when coming forward to higher-ups.

If LMG responds to Madison's allegations the same way they've been responding to all the inaccurate videos callouts and the whole Billet Labs controversy, then Terren should consider taking a long hard look at who he employes while he gets situated as CEO

On related topics, first my opinions about the "mandatory meeting" video from

this link (credit u/Nitazene-King-002 on Reddit. It was originally posted 6 months ago around when Madison left, however the comments on the original post are upsetting).

This is the most corporate bullshit response Linus could've given. I've heard some of these exact phrases a dozen times working for Big Corporate™ before.

The fact that barely anyone knew about an internal anonymous reporting feature is highly concerning as that implies no one told them either purposely or accidentally. And either way is shady.

James's "joke", while maybe funny to some of a certain inner circle, was very clearly poorly timed and disgusting given the circumstances of the meeting itself.

Second, my opinion about the Billet Labs waterblock prototype scandal.

In LTT's video addressing the data inaccuracies and "how the company will move forward from this"

youtube

(credit: Linus Tech Tips on YouTube)

They say that they simply misplaced and mislabeled the waterblock and auctioned it off at the LTX convention, and, after finding out that it was supposed to be sent back to Billet Labs, handled refunding the auction in a very unprofessional way.

Third, my opinions on the inaccurate graphs and lazy post production fact checking.

While LMG is certainly not the biggest tech company trying to give people data on products, they most certainly have the time, money, and effort to fact check everything in their videos, despite what Linus has said on both the LTT forums and the WAN show. While they do address and focus on this topic in the above YouTube video, it is once again filled with corporate copypasta phrases and empty feeling promises as they try to calm everyone down. The video feels half assed and like most of them aren't taking it seriously as they insert inside jokes to the script. (but that is just my opinion)

Fourth, my opinions on Madison's allegations.

A link to Madison's thread

(credit: @suuuoppp on Twitter. It's a long read and heartbreaking, but worth it if you still believe LMG is a good company)

explaining everything that happened to her while working for LMG, and exposing higher ups for how they dismissed and belittled her for feeling attacked by other coworkers.

In my opinion this thread alone should be enough to tell people that something is wrong at LMG. She did not deserve anything that was mentioned there, whoever dismissed her cries for help should be fired for putting an employee's mental health in danger.

I believe Madison without a doubt, the behavior of some of her coworkers is completely unacceptable.

All in all, I expected better from LMG. I feel bad for Terren for having to deal with this right as he joins, but perhaps he's going to be part of the problem later.

I hope some of the smaller teams in LMG like TechLinked/GameLinked and Mac Address come out ok. Maybe Riley takes the linked writers and an editor to make his own tech news channel, or Horst can do the same with Mac Address.

And I genuinely hope the best for Madison. She was a wonderful part of any video she was in and never deserved anything that wronged her during her time there.

(Small explanations for certain parts:

Remember that these are opinions about facts, while I do literally state that Linus "is another shitty rich white guy", that is my opinion. I've never met him nor anyone who I'm hating on in this post.

It is entirely possible that Madison is lying, but knowing what it's like to be a woman in the corporate tech industry. Right now I believe her 100%.

I am aware of and have seen Gamers Nexus's video calling out LMG about the inaccurate graphs and lazy fixes and the Billet scandal. This post is essentially in tandem and agreeing with their video, while also adding Madison's allegation.

And for those confused as to why James's joke "Are you gonna dance on that table, or just stand on it?" is bad. That line is a reference to someone performing in a place like a strip club, and the way it was said was (in my opinion) satire on the way people in a club might say it in a demeaning way to a performer. I'm not sure who he said it to or why he said it in the first place, but closing a meeting about discussing assault or harassment in the workplace with that line is very disgusting.)

And of course I don't know everything, I'm just putting my opinions on the Internet™. If I've missed anything you know about you can reply/reblog/send an ask and I'll edit/add it on. Same for if I've gotten anything wrong.

#tl;dr I think Linus Media Group sucks right now.

Love,

Brie

#Youtube #linus tech tips #lmg #ltt #gamers nexus #controversy #tw: harrasment #harrassment

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adveon · 2 years ago

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So... Let's talk about Arryn Troche and some recent tweets people have been making...

No doubt, if you've been in the RWBY FNDM, you will have heard of Arryn Troche, also known as Puns of Damage on YouTube, a RWBY reactor who got to work on Volume 9 and the RWBY X Justice League films as an animator. While most of the talk online has been positive, there has been some people saying some extremely negative things about Arryn on Twitter and Reddit, especially in regards to their time working at RT on RWBY and making some very bold claims.

Now, I am not someone who worked at RT, nor is this a post to defend the company for any of their actions in the past, I want to make that extremely clear before continuing. No, this post is to talk about how Arryn Troche is a genuine person who truly cares about their craft and their co-workers (To the point they would rather people come after them if it means their co-workers are left alone), not to mention their passion for RWBY.

To say they got their job because of their reaction videos or got special treatment at RT is untrue, they had to apply for the job like anyone else and work as hard as their co-workers. Arryn also has said on multiple occasions that during their time there, the animation team looked after one another and tried to avoid crunch as much as possible. Not to mention their constant advocation for people in the animation industry to be treated better across the board. Like, they did not post a thread about how much they loved working with CRWBY a week ago for nothing. And this isn't even getting into the people on Reddit trying to twist Arryn's tweets and comments into ammo against CRWBY, as that's a whole other can of worms.

As for my personal experience with Arryn, well, safe to say it has been nothing but positive, like I said before, they are someone who cares about their craft and RWBY, having gone on for hours about how in spite of all the issues, they love doing animation and they love RWBY. But more so than that, they care about people, to say they are compassionate is an understatement, and the fact that they have gone out of their way in the past to make sure people are ok speaks volumes to who they are as a person and I am glad to have had the chance to know them because of how inspiring that is.

So yeah, that's about it. Arryn Troche is just an overall good person who is generally just a super supportive of others and passionate about allot of stuff. Definitely not deserving of the hate people are giving them for talking about RWBY now that volume 9 is almost over.

#Arryn Troche #RWBY #rwby volume 9 #rwby vol9 #CRWBY

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kats-chaotic-wonderland · 1 year ago

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The tiny town of Merin Falls [Part 1]

(this is repost of my original reddit story so it's still structured for reddit. TW: mentions of blood, violence, gore, assault, and stalking. Nothing too graphic, but this is the set up for a horror story.)

Today had been a pretty slow day, so when I eventually found myself on Reddit, I whittled away my shift by reading through some of the posts in this particular sub. As I was on some post, about fifteen stories in, my coworker pointed out that some of the stuff we've seen would probably be interesting for some of you here. He suggested that I put a few of the more...bizarre? Creepy? I guess horrific? Stories about weird shit that happens in our small new England town.

So, as I'm sure you've heard before, I'll start by saying I live in a small town. It's settled in the northeast, a ways up from the Bridgewater triangle, and on the hill above a small bay. It's old, and has a history of witch trials and war battles. If you've ever seen a horror or Hallmark movie you've seen a town just like it. From calm summers to colorful falls, with old Victorian homes settled in old neighborhoods, complete with soccer moms and honor roll kids. This place is chock full of the American dream.

For context, we're small for this area. Like really small. One school, town square, a few neighborhoods, some mom and pop shops. We have a few docks down at the bay, but nothing bigger than a small motor boat. We do have one guy who lives on his boat, but it's a single room ship. Officially our population is about 1000-1500 on a good year. Unofficially, we stand about 2000 consistently. We'll talk about why at a different time, for now I just wanted to put it in your mind how small we're actually talking.

This place looks and operates like a normal New England town on the surface. Of course, I wouldn't be here if it actually did. There's a lot wrong with this tiny town of Merin Falls.

I spent a while today rolling around in my brain for what story really works for a start. See, we get a lot of weird, dangerous, unexplainable stuff out here. But starting off with true horror is a bit of a challenge. After six years, and for some other reasons, I’ve become a bit numb to some of what happens here. Not all, but some, and the ones that stick with me really aren’t something I want to dredge up just yet. But after some thought, I settled on one that I think will serve as a good look into what living here is like.

The day in question was a pretty typical day, maybe four or so years ago? I had gone into work, had a total of four customers. I remember because Iian still has a polaroid of each one tucked away and dated in his portfolio. This is one reason I started to hang around with him, his need to take way too many photos means I have easy access to memory triggers. But we’ll talk about that on a different day. For now all that matters is I had four customers. Holly Baker, came in the early hours right at open, she bought three binders, a sharpie, and a roll of yellow duct tape. I rang her up with no issue, my coworker Iian took her photo as she was checking out. She left and we were dead until around four o’clock. That was when Mrs. Miller came in with her rat dog and her spineless husband.

Mrs. Silvia Miller, is a rather irritating thorn in my side. From my first day working here she’s come in at least once a week in order to make snide comments about my appearance or moral choices, and make laughably bad attempts to return items she never purchased. She’s every retail worker's nightmare. (And no, unfortunately this is not the story about her being a horrible monster) Her antics have gotten so bad over the past six years that we have rules specifically for her. I’ll explain them in more detail in a later post, but she’s not allowed to shop when it’s just me on shift. We do not accept returns from her. Ever. And all of her receipts have a stamp that says “Non returnable. All sales are final.” These rules extend to her husband, a short stumpy man who looks like a frog next to his witch of a wife. As well as her kids, on the off chance they take the time to visit the old crone.

I remember this interaction clear as day, without the need for a trigger. Silvia had come in ranting and raising holy hell about some folders she had purchased from Arthur, on a day when I wasn't working. I listened to her diatribe as she gestured rapidly with her free hand, her faux pearl bracelet looking like it was going to snap off her knobby wrist. After five or so minutes I just stopped her, took her receipt, and pointed at the massive hot pink stamp that was glowing in the black light. With a look that I can only describe as, complete and utter entitled bitch bafflement, the look a Karen gets when the manager doesn't give them free stuff. She turned up her crooked hooked nose and snatched the receipt. Then she turned on her heels, a cheap pair from the thrift shop, of which she had painted the soles red with what I can only assume was cheap spray paint. Then with the fury of a western wind, headed for the door in a huff. Her shaking bug eyed rat and amphibious husband in tow. The former clutched in her cheaply manicured claws, and the latter being dragged by the scruff of his threadbare suit. The Millers are what you would call high class white trash.

The third customer was a guy I can't remember, but since Iian has a photo with the same date, I'm gonna assume he was there. From the photo, I can see he was an inch or so taller than me, gaunt face with some dark stubble, thin lanky limbs, and curly dark hair down to his shoulders. He was wearing some casual shorts and a tee shirt, and….round Ozzy Osbourne sunglasses indoors….for some reason. What strikes me as off on this one, is we have a lot of photos of him, but Iian doesn't remember ever taking them. And, for my weird memory issues, I can't bring up a single image of him in my mind if I'm not looking at a photo. It's like he just blinks from existence when we look away. There's a lot of photos of him actually….I wonder if he’s a regular? I’ll check the cameras for him at some point.

The last customer came in just before close. I call her Thelma, but I don’t actually know her name. She’s not local, but she is a regular. For whatever reason she drives out to this podunk to buy her music sheets from us. Thelma is always dressed in a similar outfit, just different colors and patterns. Always a top with 3/4 sleeves, a skirt that fits her closely but not tight that ends at the ankle in a ruffle. Sunglasses, sometimes she keeps them on. And her wiry gray hair is always up in some clip ponytail, updo thing. The top is always solid or stripes, and the skirt is always some kind of floral. Her shoes are either sandals, heels, flats, or sneakers. I wish I had more to say about her, but she never says much. Just comes in, wordlessly gets her blank sheets, checks out, pays cash, and bails. She did the same thing that day. Not a word more than needed, sunglasses on the whole time. Have I mentioned my store is lit up mostly by black lights? Yeah she makes no sense to me. But she doesn’t cause problems so I like her well enough. After Thelma left Iian and I cleaned up, locked up, and he headed home. We waved as I was taking my key from the door. We go in opposite directions, save for the off day when he walks my way with me so he can stay with Ryan for the night. That night was not one of those nights.

So there I was walking alone. It was a warm night and I was in a pretty good mood after everything that day. I’d made it a good six blocks when a car pulled up next to me. They rolled up real slow and kept pace with me. I didn’t give them any attention. Instead the hand on my opposite side was reaching for the knife I keep on my belt. I have a few on me at all times, I lived on the road for a while before I landed here. You figure out a lot about how to keep yourself safe in places like truck stops and roach motels. My knives won't save me from a bullet, learned that the hard way. But guns are rare in this area, instead kidnapping and other person on person crime is higher. But when they rolled their window down and I heard a whistle, my eyes just rolled.

Travis Heartly was the star of the football team back when he was in high school, now he was a community college drop out who could not understand the word no. Or fuck off. Or I will stab you and not feel bad in the slightest. He’d taken a liking to me just a few weeks after I had moved to Merin Falls. Unfortunately for him, I had sworn off guys. Not love, just guys. After getting abused three times in a row, I realized that me and guys romantically just don’t work. Travis didn’t get the memo apparently. He would come into my shop, near daily, and ask me out. Waste my time with his small town bragging. Act like a general Neanderthal. When Luther finally had enough and banned him from the store, he just started waiting outside for me to leave. Wait in my favorite coffee shop, bar, library, you name it he stalked it. His car was an old beat up sedan his mom gave him. He cleared out the back and put a bed in there. Needless to say that didn’t help his case when he busted into the shop excited to show me his new ride.

This car he was in however, was a rather nice Lexus. He was still beside me, calling out for my attention. I of course would not be giving him any. So he opted instead to move up the block and park right in the next street I needed to cross. Because of this move, the idiot gave me enough time to pull my larger blade from my boot. It's a good three inches longer than the belt knife, and an inch broader. See, my boots are clunky steel toed work boots. I don’t really need them, but old habits die hard, and hold big knives. I stopped a few yards away as he got out. We were close in age, though he had a good two years on me, but I had about six inches on him so I guess we're even. Still, after his flunk out, he’d taken up booze and dropped his work out. So his once toned body was slowly fading into the start of a beer belly and unkempt stubble.

He closed the door and leaned against the car,”Hey! How was work?”

“Leave me alone Travis.”

His expression dropped,”Come on, what did I do? Was it the roses? Look I just thought maybe-”

“Oi.” I cut him off, ”Shove it. I’m not interested. Now beat it.”

“Come on Am.” his voice was pitiful. He had his choice of girls when I moved here. He was pretty, young, fit, and locally famous. But when he clung to the freaky new girl, they all moved on after a year or so. A fair amount of his classmates were hooked up with someone new. Iian liked to gossip about his school a lot at work. In a small place like this most of the kids never really leave. But, his problems weren’t my issue.

“Move.” I ordered

He was looking at me like I’d just kicked a puppy.

“Fine.” I started to cross to the far side of the street. He panicked and ran toward me, closing the distance in a moment as he grabbed my upper arm. He'd learned not to try and grab my forearm. I always hold my knives down, with the bunt to my arm, blade out. In the event I need to block, or get grabbed from behind it's quicker to defend myself. Think Rambo or Hunter from the bad batch. Say whatever you want, but it's saved me more times than I want to admit.

“Wait!” he pleaded,”Please just one chance! I promise, I can-”

I ripped my arm away and rounded around with my free hand. The fist collided with his nose, I felt a crunch and heard a bone snap. Travis stumbled back and grabbed his now gushing nose. Tears welled and fell in rivulets as he looked at me in shock.

“I told you not to fucking touch me.” I spat and stepped back several feet. I kept my eyes locked on him and my guard up,”Try that shit again and I’ll do worse than break your nose. When a woman tells you no for two straight years, believe me she is not going to change her mind dumbass.”

He just looked at me, tears and blood running down his face. I’d always told him no. No maybes, no waffling. Always a direct no. And I’d put up with his stalking, but he’d never touched me before. This time he crossed a line he hadn’t realized was there. The look in his eyes was either rage, or passion. And I really didn’t want to know which. He’s the kind of guy who wants a woman to ruin his life. I guess he thought I would fit that bill.

He was right, but not in the way he wanted.

This standoff lasted for maybe a minute before headlights came slowly up behind us. Travis made the connection before I did. He saw the red and blues and bailed off into his Lexus. I watched him peel out from where he had been. I didn’t move until officer Lison parked and stepped out of his car. I lowered my knife and slid it into my boot as he walked over to me.

“Amber? Was that Travis I just saw?” he asked, he sipped on his coffee, getting a few drops caught in the edge of his salt and pepper mustache.

I turned and rubbed my hand, it was bruising from where I had punched him,”Yeah. He tried to grab me when I went to walk away this time.”

“Shit.” Lison chuffed with a bushy browed scowl,”What an ass.”

His reaction was so flippant, I just...I busted out laughing,”That’s all you got Boris?”

“What?” he asked confused,”He is. Plus he’s getting thrown in lock up tomorrow anyway.”

This made my laughter stop, it was my turn to be confused,”What did he do now?”

Another sip of his coffee,”Grand theft auto.” he shrugged,”Lexus was stolen from a lot east of town. That's why I stopped.”

“You’re kidding.” I asked slack jawed.

“Nope. I don’t think he even realized he was on camera.”

“So what? He just took it in hopes of a date night?”

“Looks like it if he was here for you. He’s a desperate man.” he shook his head,”Wanna lift home?”

I thought about it for a second,”Sure. Thanks Boris.”

We hopped in his cruiser, and made light conversation for a few blocks. Three blocks from my house though, a call came over the radio. Some mix of cop lingo and garbled static that I couldn't really understand. He did though, Boris looked concerned and stopped the car. He gave me a look I couldn’t really place,”Look, kiddo. I gotta respond on this one, but it’s back that way,” he gestured behind us,”It’s an all night type deal. Are you good for the last few blocks?”

I nodded,”Yeah, you go do what you gotta man. Thank you for the help, and the ride.”

“Any time Amber.” He nodded, his face looked a bit forlorn,”You should be safe from here, but be careful.”

“Always.” I smiled as I slid out of the cruiser, my boots hit the pavement and I walked behind the car to the sidewalk. Boris took off a moment later, back down the way we had come.

I should have asked how he knew Travis wasn’t around. I know now that's what he meant when he said I was safe. The look in his eyes should have clued me in, but I just figured it was part of whatever call he had gotten. I was right. Doesn’t make it easier for him though.

He’d get six calls of the same nature that night. And he wasn't the only one, a total of twenty eight similar calls came in one after another. None of them could be explained. He still blames himself for the two that survived, and the rest that didn't.

Boris Lison had lived in Merin Falls his entire fifty seven years of life. And he’d known Travis for all twenty one years of his. He’d been close with the football star's grand dad. But after his spiral, the officer just felt bad for the kid. That made it hard for poor Boris to pick him up off the pavement that night. The official story was that he crashed the Lexus into the retainer wall because of his erratic behavior. Some of the officers even insinuated that it was on purpose after my rejection and breaking his nose. That he had finally snapped and tried to end it all. Claiming mental illness was easier than trying to explain the gaping hole in his chest. Or how he had been dragged out of the car through the back windscreen. How he ended up a good half mile from the car. Or why he was frozen almost cryogenically with his heart yanked halfway out of his ribcage by the time Boris had found him. How he survived for the following week is beyond all of us. Not that he was any help in explaining anything. By the time I was ready to leave the hospital myself the following week, Travis tried to use his bed sheets and window for his own way out. I can’t say I blame him. I probably would have done the same after what happened. He spent the next two years in the Merin Falls psych ward. His time there was a horror show of its own.

What happened that night scarred a lot of people in this town. Unfortunately, myself included, both physically and mentally.

Boris had just gotten out of sight and I started making my way down the block. My body was still on high alert from my encounter with Travis. Every noise, flash of headlights, each passing car made me freeze. I'm not a skittish person. Anxious sure, but it's a quiet anxious. Not jumpy. Something in the air had me on edge. It felt like each step dragged me through a slurry of static and shaved ice.

My feet trudged onward. Alarm bells flagged in my brain, each thud of my heart sent a scream from the back of my mind. They all called me to turn and run. But….I didn't.

I should have.

The further I went the worse the feeling of unease got. Then, after a block, I saw something. A dark figure crossed the street ahead of me. I watched as it moved from my side to the other, then back again. Stopping in my tracks, my brow furrowed. It was like looking at something dipped in Vantaa black. My brain wanted to warp around it, like it was a void between two images that should be touching but weren't.

The way it moved, it wasn't….it wasn't right. Like a shadow blinking in and out of existing, but never moving all at the same time. I was frozen the moment my eyes caught it. My skin prickled as ice slinked in a slurry through my veins. I could feel the sludge crawling up the back of my neck as the thing turned to me. Whatever this was, I wasn't supposed to have seen it.

Thoughts raced in my mind, 'I've dealt with weird shadows before, if I tell it to leave it should right?'

'No wait, why isn't my mouth moving?'

'Hold on why can't I mo- wait is it getting closer!?'

A scream was lost in the void of my throat as I realized that the creature was moving in static flashes toward me, or was it? It was close, then it was miles away, a few yards, miles and miles, feet, then inches.

‘Shit!’

Freezing blood pounded in my ears as this...this thing...I couldn’t form a real thought as it neared me. What should have been it's face, instead just a chasm of inky blackness, was inches from mine. If it had eyes I couldn't see them. But I could feel them. It felt like a numbness trailing over me as it tried to understand what I was. Panic clutched my chest as the numb feeling hovered over my heart. The ice in my veins rushed to the center of where it was staring. A choked groan seeped from my throat as I felt the muscle in my chest freeze to a halt.

'How am I even still breathing?'

'Wait...am I?'

I couldn’t tell anymore.

It’s arm moved as it flashed back several feet again. Looking at this thing hurt. Like I was watching a game character glitch in and out as it tried to move. Just rapid, glitchy, morphing, shapes of shadow. It looked humanoid, but entirely not at the same time. Raising its arm I felt cold static touch the skin over my heart. My top was probably fucked, but I quickly didn’t care as I felt it slowly pushing it's claws into my flesh. I couldn’t scream. Gods I wanted to. I wanted to cry out in pain and terror. This creature was ripping my chest open. Claws in the shape of a perforated circle were digging, boring their way to my heart. Determined to remove the icy lump of muscle and sinew from where it was caged in bone.

Silent tears rolled down my cheeks, so hot they burned like flames as they fell. As they left blazing trails, it occurred to me as the heat faded, I couldn’t feel anything but the pain in my chest anymore. A sickening ‘*CRACK’* sent a new wave through my body. White spots floated and flitted around the edge of my eyes. Like sick fairies drawn to the scent of blood. This thing was taking it's time.

It enjoyed watching me suffer. Frozen in fear and pain.

The next thought that crossed my mind was so horribly clear,’I’m going to die here.’ I wish I could say I had some awakening and I snapped out of it. Or that in that moment my life flashed before my eyes and I saw the error of some choice in my life. But no. In that moment, alone with that thing, it’s claws reaching for my frozen heart, I just wished for one more moment. The image that did come to my mind just as the white began to take my sight wasn’t something deep, or wise, or heroic. It was a smile. A smile I knew would never look the same if I died. From that day on it would be tinged with sadness. Of not knowing what happened. Maybe she would think I just left. I prayed, for the first time in so many years, a silent thought,’Please, let her hate me. Don’t let her linger. Don’t let her search. Forget me and be happy.’ And that was it.

Everything went white.

I woke up two days later in a hospital bed. The nurse beside me was changing an IV bag. His eyes caught mine as they fluttered open, with a professional manner he told me I was in the hospital and to not move. After calling the doctor and running a few tests. Things like asking me for information, grip strength tests, stuff like that. They told me what happened. Just as I passed out, before I was gored by a shadow thing, Ryan had found me. He said I was just collapsed on the sidewalk cold, with a ring of stab wounds on my chest. He called 911 and they rushed me to the hospital. I had a few cracked ribs, and they said it was nearly impossible that all of the stabs had missed major arteries. But it wasn’t. That thing wanted me alive to the last second. Ryan found me two hours after I left the shop.

It had frozen me there for two hours.

I was in the hospital for recovery for a few days. Iian and Ryan checked in on me every day. Arthur and Luther came by a few times too. They even paid for my bills. I really love them so much. I don’t know where I’d be without them all. Once I was released, Iian stayed with me till he believed I wouldn’t keel over. Within two months I was healed up, a perfect ring of five exactly matching scars, centered right over my heart. As soon as the doc cleared me, which took a bit, she’s a thorough woman. I was in the tattoo parlor the next day getting a new piece to accent my new scars. That thing tried to kill me. But, I’m no coward. I was scared shitless, I’d only felt fear like that once before that day. Despite that, I lived. Somehow. So I’m owning it. Just like the one on my back. My shoulder. The bullet scar in my thigh. And the bands around my wrists.

Each scar is a memory. Each tattoo, a way to take back control in a small way. Every horror story leaves a scar of some kind. Mine were physical this time. Next time maybe we’ll look into the ones on my mind. But for now Iian is bugging me to check in, I didn't realize how long I've been typing. I’m Amber Haze, and I’ll be back soon with more from the tiny town of Merin Falls.

Master post

Horror master post

Navigation post

Part 2

#merin falls #horror #creepy #creepypasta #r/nosleep #amber haze

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justkeepwalkingnothinghere · 9 months ago

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1 year. 1 year. Wow. Has it really been that long? Has it really been that long since The Owl House bid us farewell? Since the final "Byeee!" that was heard 'round the world? We learnd the story of The Collector, we saw Luz die and get revived, we met Papa Titan. That night, every last one of us got the opportunity to witness Luz, Eda, King and Raine all come together to kick Belos's ass and take him down once and for all. We all watched as every last character came together to build a brighter future for the Boiling Isles. It was an emotional night for everyone. All of that was 1 year ago. And it's hard for me to believe. It doesn't feel real.

To this day, I can still recall how my night went. My parents were at my aunt and uncle's wedding. Adults only, small ceremony in their backyard, I could understand. Only problem is that it left me with no other option but to stay at home, alone with my thoughts, dread, worry and fear over the finale as the minutes ticked by. Waiting until the world would say byeee to a show like no other. At 5 in the afternoon, what would become the most emotional night of my life began with me going to my music, and listening to Lacrimosa on loop for 45 minutes. I listened as I went through Reddit, Tumblr, Discord, YouTube, seeing everyone get ready to watch the finale that I don't think anyone was ready for. I made one last post here wishing everyone good luck before I cut myself off from Tumblr for the rest of the night, not wanting to get any spoilers, as I was waiting until Easter morning to watch it myself. I decided to watch a bit of YouTube to maybe clear my mind and cheer me up, especially once I saw Zeez Vov Gee's TOH video contest was up. I had made a submission of my own, so I was excited to find out if mine had made it in (it did not, sadly). By the time I had finished watching, it was 8:20. 5 minutes away from air time. So, I said good luck to some friends in a TOH Discord I'm in, muted said server until the morning, and was about to switch to watching something else, as YouTube was also a no go. Until a farewell video appeared in my feed. I watched it, being met with the chorus of the song "As The World Caves In".

And I watched it again. And again. And again. One last viewing, this time singing along to the chorus in the literal seconds before the finale aired. A fitting event that was unintentionally timed to perfection. Couldn't have given a better last second send off if I wanted to. For nearly the entirety of the finale's runtime, I listened to the full song on loop, singing along, crying at the thought of getting a hug from Luz as it was really the only thing I wanted then, doing literal shots of milk, sitting and walking while everything swirled within me. Before long, it was past 9, and I hadn't eaten dinner. Stouffer's meatloaf and mashed potatoes. And you wanna know what I did? I ate it while venting to this claymation mouse. Just the two of us, enjoying our meals. For a bit, it felt like that mouse was listening as he chomped down on his chocolate. It was oddly nice. I at least got a break from my anxiety. Turning to dessert, a mini double chocolate bundt cake while watching 30 Rock and drawing glyph doodles, a pleasure that lasted for a short while before my parents made their eventual return. At 11 o'clock at night.

But my entertainment wasn't over just yet. After cleanup, I still had one last thing up my sleeve. I laid on my bedroom floor, in the dark, with my phone brightness turned all the way up. Caramelldansen played through my headphones as the strobe lights danced on the ceiling, getting in one last silent breakdown before heading to bed. My night had concluded after many hours of nothing but dread and anxiety, me constantly trying to keep myself sane. My parents and I had McDonald's for breakfast the next morning, witnessing a masterpiece of animation. And I was happy at the end! Belos was dead, the coven system erradicated, everyone was at the best places in their lives! It was peace and love in the Boiling Isles! How could I not be happy about that? Unfortunately, the joy wouldn't last long. Things settled in soon enough. At first, it felt like the show wasn't over yet. It felt like there were still some stories to tell. But the reality set in before I knew it and I was left sad. I kept thinking about how much the show meant to me, to many. All it had done for me in the handful of months that I had known it. I still wasn't ready for it's end.

Nowadays, a year later, I still haven't fully recovered. This time around feels a bit dark. My 2024 has been nothing but a mess so far, although I am getting through it. But with such a stark contrast to where I was last year, I can't help but feel like things are too different. Almost like a royal fallen from grace. Life in itself hasn't felt the same since Watching and Dreaming. I can't bring myself to watch it again. Today feels weird, and I'm probably not alone. Wherever your emotions stand on this anniversary, just rememeber this:

Us weirdoes have to stick together.

#toh #the owl house #toh watching and dreaming #toh anniversary #watching and dreaming anniversary #us weirdoes have to stick together #farewell owl house

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