#I expect the first two options on the poll to be the most popular but I may be surprised!

[cakeinthevoid]

actually I've been thinking

Suddenly got real curious... You can't take back a Kudos so I think most people actually seem to wait until the entire work is complete—but if I read an unfinished work that makes me go insane, you KNOW I am commenting asap.

[monsterfuckermilligan]

hey… not so quick question op……… are you not cishet? or do you love and respect any not cishet? better yet, have you ever even spoken to a not cishet person? or do you have knowledge about the cishet industry and the predatory behavior towards non cishet people? or do you just think that being not cishet is something cute and fun for stuffed or real animals that doesn’t happen to real people? i need you to explain why this is fun for you. you and all the people that do this stuff (voting or making these polls) owe real not cishet people explanations on why this is cute and not insensitive towards a marginalized group.

- hope you can hear how you sound bc ngl, it felt crazy to read your post. fucking. block people and shut up.

you really thought you did something with this but it really just puts it more into perspective on how adoptees are not taken seriously lmao. could i have blocked and moved on? yes. should i have? yeah, i even apologized to op because of it. i was unable to maintain control of my impulses, manage my own triggers, and practice solid emotion regulation at the time, and that’s on me. i take responsibility for that.

but your anon is just…yeah of course. how could i ever expect anything less? the fact is adoptees are mocked and belittled when we don’t think adoption is cute or act as if adoption is the human rights issue that it is.

adoption agencies are the backbone of the private adoption industry. they make money off of babies. they make money selling babies. this is an irrefutable fact.

they base our prices off of gender, age, disability, and race. they advertise in low income communities the most and tell first parents that their child will be better off with someone else. they tell them that it is an act of love. they take money from infertile couples, who are constantly told that they have ‘other options’ and given very little respect for the trauma and deep sadness infertility causes. they were started and popularized by a human trafficker named georgia tann. the adoption industry is now a multi billion dollar industry.

you are speaking to someone who just has to live with the knowledge that my adoption agency could’ve forged my documents because they did it to others. i am someone who has to accept that my adoption agency has been investigated for human trafficking. i am someone who exists with the knowledge that there is a price tag on my head. i was given to the people who bought me in a hotel room. compared to some of my friends, i am lucky, and my adoption was not wonderful by any means. i lost my first family, my siblings, my language, my country, and that doesn’t even count anything that happened after. i sounded like a person who’s been adopted who is angry that adoption is often not taken seriously, especially in fandom, and especially especially by (presumed) non adopted people.

you felt the need to parody my rb in an attempt to mock me and minimized the issues of two marginalized groups, and walked directly into the point.

one of the big differences in your comparison is that queer people and trans people are recognized by the majority, and legally to many countries, as a marginalized group. this is not true for adoptees. adoptees are 4x more likely to attempt suicide, more likely to be harmed and abused by their adopters, more likely to be killed, have higher rates of institutionalization and incarceration, and we even have our own remembrance day for those of us who don’t make it. it is this month. october 30th.

and as someone who is exceedingly educated on adoptee issues; the history of adoption, how it coincides with colonization and genocide when we talk about transnational adoption, transracial adoption, not to mention just the sheer amount how many of us have our records falsified by adoption agencies, how we are rehomed online, and the lack of regulation with the private adoption industry, and the way our identities are legally changed with no way of ever undoing it, this is genuinely not a 1:1 comparison.

queer issues are seen as real. adoptee issues are not.

it’s ironic to me because as a queer and trans person, i am allowed to be angry and pissed off to many people, even according to cishet people! i am allowed to make mistakes and still be seen as having a valid opinion even when i don’t express it correctly.

as an adoptee, however, i am always expected to be the bigger person, to just deal with it in silence, and if i have an issue, say it in the most polite way as to not offend anyone. as adoptees, we are just supposed to sit back and be fine with not having access to our medical records, we are supposed to be fine with how kids get posted online for people to buy adopt, ignore the amount of suicides and those of us who die by abusive adopters, and just be accepting of how the ACLU fought to give queer couples the right to adopt but won’t fight for adoptees’ rights because they financially benefit from the adoption industry. we’re supposed to just get therapy and never publicly express complex emotions or anger about the adoption industry or the way we are invalidated.

and honestly? that’s fucking bullshit. i don’t subscribe to that idea.

adoptees are allowed to be angry and make mistakes. we are human beings who have survived a trauma that isn’t even deemed as one by many. we shouldn’t have to be happy and grateful, kind and polite. this shouldn’t be the case. it’s not a commonly accepted practice to tell queer and trans people that we should be grateful for having to be closeted and shouldn’t express any negative emotions about our oppression or the violence we face. it’s not expected of us to just be quiet or respectful about our oppression.

adoptees deserve that same grace and respect. if you think otherwise, then do some internal reflection. that’s not my problem.

but… thank you for being an example of how adoptees are gaslit into staying silent about our injustices.

thank you for showing your whole ass and proving my point.

not to mention the hypocrisy of this anon in the first place; you could’ve just as easily blocked me and moved on, but you didn’t. you felt the need to mock me and say something you’re clearly uneducated about. you wanted me to know ‘how i sound’—well, you sound like maybe you should take your on advice. it’s also interesting to me how you kept it on anon so i couldn’t have a genuine conversation. hey…not so quick question anon……are you a fucking coward?

[danandphilplay]

im going to put my answers below bc i know some of these vids are likely not returning to dnp and i do agree with that i just wanted to do a fun poll abt if you could have another of these vids then which would you choose. ofc like ive said before we have no control over dnp uploads and i fully know some of these won’t come back lol

ok first of all i don’t think pinof is coming back and i think that’s been clear for ages anyways like ten is a nice number to leave it. HOWEVER i do think an april fools dapc pinof would be hilarious. answering crafties questions and whatever they send to craft universe dnp.

same with amazingdan BUT maybe there’s a slight chance of reacting to amazingdan. maybe not since so much time has already passed since pinof reactions (four months …..) honestly out of the options i’m not that bothered about pinof or amazingdan i feel like they’re classic dnp content that’s fine left as it is

ok for the pizza mukbang thing i don’t care for it to be a mukbang video lol like the actual thing was the nice sit down talk vibes pyjama pizza w friends maybe this is exactly what dan means abt being parasocial 😭 but that video is nice so i don’t think the actual mukbang part of it is that important it’s more the sit down talk style vid

i think i would do anything for another day in the life but i feel like it is prob peak parasocial content. would it count as phouse tour probably. do i think there will be a phouse tour no bc it sounds like it is still having a lot of work done 😭 and i honestly don’t really care abt it… i think the sims renovation was fun and an insight into their interior design opinions lol and that is enough for me

i put it takes two bc a lot of people want to see the next bit i like the game but not rly enough. idk it’s been awhile since that first vid and in terms of other games and things from dnp i don’t rly mind about it takes two being ignored 😭

i know baking is not a discontinued thing anymore bc HALLOWEEN but BUT i really believed easter baking would be a thing 💔 dapc had so much put into it that i kind of forgot about wanting a baking vid but 💔 i can’t lie i think i got set on the expectation for it. like the baking vids have always been absolute classic staple dnp content but definitely the cinnamon roll one was like the baking vids to the extreme… the full potential AND THE BAKE WAS GOOD TOO. the vid was also pretty popular. so my expectations for easter were a bit high. ok so if this poll is like magically summon a dnp vid 🪄 maybe id consider baking because i just love it so much like irl as a hobby but also then dnp doing one of my fav things too and it being so fun idk it’s some of the best dnp content imo. i would love them to try a series of making food from videogames but no offence to them i don’t get the vibe that they cook a lot…… so i think it might not happen. but dil is turning TEN in september so maybe dnp special dil birthday cake baking vid 💔 pleaese pleasemaybe

i think tumblr tag is totally plausible although ik the april fools tumblr tag thing 💔 bc the twitter vid happened i think they’ll do a tumblr one at some point. there’s so much amazing art on here not just fanart but written stuff video and photo edits so i’d want them to see all of that as well as the funny stuff. this isn’t like top of my list of things i’d want to see but it’s definitely one of the more plausible things

dapc behind the scenes content its either happening or it will never be spoken of

honestly idk if they would do reactions to the super amazing project. bc like what vids would they choose. maybe i can see them referencing it or discussing it if someone asked or in a live but idk about reaction vids.

ok draw my life would be fun and i’d watch them. i’d watch an updated dil draw my life too. they put so much effort into that dil draw my life. maybe an updated one for dil’s 10th birthday will happen? that would be pretty fun.

i think if i had to choose it would be a ditl vid. top 3 would be ditl, mukbang or literally just any sit down talk vid, and another baking video. ditl may literally just be bc of nostalgia i don’t really see it happening again but who knows. again just a poll about which vid you’d want to see if you could magic up a dnp vid i definitely know some of these aren’t coming back or very unlikely to

[secretskeepoffandommadness]

Omegaverse Ikemen Prince Poll Results

First, thank you to all who contributed. I didn't expect as many votes!

I will post screenshots if the results and give my opinion on characters briefly, but neither of them mean that it will be 100% the dynamics I will use in my main writings. These will have a proper post on my main blog when I'm ready.

For start, I will say I love the idea of most of the princes being Omegas, but I will start with some guys who I can't say as that at all.

As much as I love the conflict of personalities that seem the opposite of the dynamic's expectation, some characters just fit better with their expected dynamic.

For Ikemen Prince, in my opinion, these characters are: Jin, Leon and Sariel as Alphas.

Results seems to agree with it, because their votes are so close to unanimous, with less than 30% divided for the other dynamics.

And on the same category but a different dynamic from above: Rio as a Omega.

His votes aren't quite as high, but are still over half of them.

A character I like the idea of the conflicting dynamic x personality, but can't see that being my main option, instead I would save this for specific AUs, is Chevalier. So my final opinion is that he is an Alpha (although he seems quite neutral, and I can also see him being kind of adynamic, but that's beyond the scope of this).

Community votes also go in the same direction as his percentage is also quite high.

Princes I'm quite neutral about because I still don't know them enough. But if I had voted, I would go with Alpha for Luke and Beta for Gilbert.

Their votes are more spread out. Gilbert is the first my vote wouldn't be for the most popular option, but people probably know him better than me.

Clavis is another I'm still learning about, but I know him better than the former two, and for me he is the most Beta of the princes.

Seems people agree.

Silvio is very confusing. He comes off as pretty Alpha-like in the begging, but as hus route progresses, the more I can see him as an Omega as well.

In the end, unlike with Chevalier, I lean mire towards Omega Silvio. Mostly because it seems fun.

But I don't disagree with community's opinion being mostly Alpha. It makes the most sense.

Yves is another I'm conflicted on. Omega seems obvious, but I like Beta Yves as well. I would go with the later only to test it.

As expected, his votes for Omega are quite high.

For the twins, I was more sure of Alpha Licht and Beta Nokto, although the later also has strong Omega vibes.

People match my opinion on Licht and the vibes I had from Nokto.

As for Keith, I made another, separate poll, but I will consider the first one here.

Host seems pretty Omega while Alter has strong Alpha vibes. Although I like the conflict if the opposite, the only way for them to have different dynamics is Alter feeling like a different dynamic than the one Host presented as, but they still would have the same biological dynamic that rules some things about them...

They are really confusing and have all kinds of opportunities, but I like their presented dynamic and Host's being Omega and Alter adjusting to it.

But I understand community going for Beta. It balances out having two of them with different vibes and don't go towards the obvious.

That would have been my second option.

I only have vibes on the new princes, since we know little of them. My votes would be for Alpha Matthias, Beta Azel and Omega Kagari. (although I've seem someone post about Omega Matthias and I'm not opposed to all of them being Omegas.

The only one where my opinion differs from community vote is Azel. You probably also know more about him than me.

As for the side characters, I added them late, but I never really thought about them. I would go with:

Alpha: Cyran and Lucien

Omega: Carlo

Beta: Liam, Roderic and Walter

The only one I don't match final vites seems to be Roderic.

Last but not least, Emma.

I was in conflict. General otome protagonist vibe is Omega and I wouldn't disagree with it.

She also has a vibe that would make me think Alpha. But compared to Mai, she doesn't have as much if that Alpha vibe.

So I think of her more as a Beta.

(less decisively, maybe her dynamic could be whatever pairs well with her partner and the kind of fic you want)

Community went with the same dynamic as me, but Emma herself said she's an Alpha 😁

[accidentalkilljoys]

Pill-taking poll followup

#is this outrage bait #are we having a 'it never occurred to me someone would take 12 pills in one gulp because I can't do that' moment #or a 'I'm perfectly aware people take 10+ pills at once I just want attention and I don't care how I get it' moment

It’s not outrage bait, I swear! It honestly did not occur to me that, faced with a handful of small things of various sizes, shapes, and colors, tumblr users would NOT immediately sort them. (I personally take five in the morning, which I put in a little pile next to my cereal bowl, and then sneak them into my mouth between bites, largest first, like I’m tricking a dog.) 

I was not expecting over 50,000 responses to this poll. I have fewer than 100 followers, and that’s including the pornbots. But the notes are fascinating to read! 

“All at once,” or as one person called it, “the cursed jello shot,” was by far the most popular response, despite my forgetting to put it as a poll option. [The following quotes are all by different people.] 

Didn't realize there were other methods besides chaos #SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS #i slam them all back at once to take advantage of my powerful throat #i take pills with the same energy ppl in movies put their broken bone back in place #I will just shove them all in my mouth at the same time and hope I don’t die #<- YOU GOTTA SHOT GUN THEM BACK LIKE A CHEEP BEER #those mfs get gulped as a team #Genuinely I just chuck them all at once down my throat hole #i take my pills like a fucking whale shark ok!? #i gobble them up all at once like im a starving horse eating delicious gruel from the palm of a cowboy's (my own) hand. #all at once and I look like an owl eating a rat I unhinge my jaw, stuff them all in my mouth at once, then slam a big glass of water #all at once bby #all in one go baby #ALL AT ONCE BAYBE #ALL AT ONCE BABEY #Three at once baybee i am unstoppable #all at once babeeee

(There were also some people who were very judgy about people who can’t do the cursed jello shot, whose thoughts I am choosing not to reproduce here.) 

I am amazed at how many pills you all are taking at once. 

YES I usual to take 7 pills at once just to save time like a fucking animal #all at once #even if I have like 8 and they're huge #i take 9 pills at once about twice a day I take about 10 pills. I take them all at once. #i take 11 in the morning all at once including two large ones #i take 12 pills every morning and 7 at night and my family hates it but i just knock em back #i take them all at once #granted i take like 13 pills at once every night sometimes more #i take 15 pills every morning and i just swallow them all at once #i learned to take all 17 at once #i can swallow upwards of twenty pills at a time #i can easily swallow like 20-30 pills at a time

There were also a couple of notes from people who USED TO do the cursed jello shot but don’t anymore because they choked or, in one case, misfired and spent the day with a Claritin in their cleavage. 

Other things that didn’t occur to me: pills that dissolve under your tongue; people who use feeding tubes; the options of “in order from least tasty to most tasty;” random order; texture order; order in which they were prescribed; “whatever I grab first;” “all at once except the fish oil which is unreasonably large;’ order of how easy it is to swallow; in order of buoyancy because some pills float; by shape; “I only take one pill at once;” “top to bottom of my body so head pills first birth control last.” 

#i dont take any pills reglarly but secret 5th option had me think of someone fucking plinko-ing their pills

In conclusion: I’m glad we’re all doing what we need to do to survive and thrive. I’ll be over here with my cereal bowl. Thank you for participating in the poll. 

[emojitournament]

Welcome to the Tumblr Emoji Tournament!

Hi everyone! Inspired by all of the bracket tournaments people have been doing with their polls, I decided it would be fun to make one to determine our favorite emoji!

Which emoji are included?

All official emoji up until Unicode 14.0 are represented! (The 15.0 emoji additions, such as the pink heart, goose, wifi symbol and others, are still unavailable on most platforms at the time of this writing.) However, some of them will be combined as one option. Most notably gender and skintone variants are combined, so that each "person" emoji is included once instead of eighteen times, and national and regional flags are counted as a group rather than separately (both to avoid matchups with political implications and because there's over two hundred of them and it would be repetitive). This leaves us with 1373 competitors.

What is the format of the tournament?

It's a seeded, single elimination bracket. However, of the tools and templates I could find to set up brackets online, none of them supported this many participants, so I'll be keeping track of the first few rounds mathematically, and post a bracket once things get more wieldy. I'll try to get a link to a spreadsheet up soon so that you can be sure I'm not cheating.

How were the seeds decided?

I used the Unicode Consortium's data on the most popular emoji used in 2021 (link in reblog), with more popular emoji given higher seeds. However, as this list doesn't include newer emoji, I added them in at the top of the initial qualifier round. I do expect the natural differences between whether something is your favorite and whether you use it a lot, as well as the specific environment of Tumblr, to make the seeding somewhat unpredictable, but that's what I'm excited about, the opportunity to see what happens.

Let the games begin!

[demonic-energy]

Okay, time for an in depth explanation about the shop post and my plans moving forward, this will be a long post and im going to pin it so folks see so apologies

First i want to thank everyone again for the amount of love that initial post continues to recieve! I really didnt expect it to get as many notes as it did, and i appreciate the support.

That being said, I'm a disabled person who works more than they should, so i haven't had the time/energy to put any work into getting the shop started. I'm also struggling to find myself a house within a certain time limit, so i have not been able to budget for supplies. I don't have a current time plan, but I'd like to go into depth about some of the items folks were excited/asking about. I welcome any suggestions or questions in the notes or asks!

So by a landslide the most popular thing people were excited about were the wing jackets. I plan on having two different "types" to accommodate for different budgets. The jackets themselves will be thrifted, and I do plan on including vests however for ease of typing i will be referring to all of it as wing jackets. And yes, I do plan on doing multiple wing types, not just feathered. The jackets will feature either sewn on wings with patterns of my own making, or painted on wings. The rest of the jacket I hope to leave customizable, with options for more painted designs or handmade patches. They may also feature a spot to hang tails, or an option to include such. 8/5/24 example poll is up!

The first product prototyping will happen on wing jackets, tails, and collars/tags. I will be able to test out painted jackets the soonest and will release an update when that happens, but i wont confirm a timeframe on said updates.

All of that said, thank you again to everyone for your patience and kind words. I do hope my situation gets settled soon and i can begin work.

[captainofthetidesbreath]

I'm curious (in part because I want to hold a tournament poll at some point) what would you say good seeding looks like?

So, generally speaking, a good seeding means that the match-ups get stronger (i.e. more even) across the board the further into the tournament you get. A lot of poll tournaments try to match their round one match-ups more even and fair for the purposeful of closer, more interesting first rounds, but this often makes for a weaker and less interesting final rounds. The purpose of seeding is to ensure interesting quarter-, semi-, and grand finals.

To seed a tournament, you should rank your options as best as possible from strongest (most likely to win) to weakest (least likely to win) based on the criteria of your tournament (with healthy consideration for overall popularity, given the nature of polls). How you determine this is up to you and whatever methods you employ, but the process is always somewhat subjective. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just needs to be a generally good approximation. You create the brackets out of these.

Now, not all forms of straight-up sports tournament bracketing will work here because real-life sports tournaments are skill based, and often these polls are based not insignificantly in popularity. Typically a single-elimination seeded bracket will work for most tournament polls: you match the opposite ends of the seed until everyone is paired up (1 v. 16; 2 v. 15; 3 v. 14; or 1 v. 32; 2 v. 31; etc.).

Because of the nature of these being largely popularity polls or based on name-recognition of the choices (especially if your options include minor characters or niche ships up against more well-known or popular options), you can even modify some of the matches as seen fit if you want to make things feel a little better or fitting or interesting once you start seeing what the match-ups are. But, to that, the point is that you stick to match-ups that are between Someone-In-The-Top-Half-Of-Seeding and Someone-In-The-Bottom-Half-Of-Seeding. If you're going to rearrange things slightly out of direct seeding, the match-ups in your first round should always be top-half vs. bottom-half, never top-half vs. top-half (not this round). This is designed to avoid eliminating your really strong options immediately, causing weaker options to get through the tournament unopposed. You don't have to do this, but it's always an option given you're working with polls, not skill-based sports.

When you set these brackets, you should also keep an eye on what round two matches this will produce. Typically, you do an alternating pattern to avoid 1 and 2 meeting in round two. There's a complex pattern to it, but you want to also make sure you're spacing out your top, say, quarter from meeting until round three. It's complicated, but there's a lot of single elimination tournament templates you can look to for how to arrange it once you have the numerical seeding done.

This WILL make for some super lopsided polls in your first round, but that's the point of seeding. The tournament, if all goes well, should become increasingly close as you move through the rounds. It's fun if there's an upset and someone gets through the rounds much further than expected—but that's only fun if it's an actual upset against legitimate competition, not because the bracketing caused all the favorites to win to be eliminated immediately.

Other people will have different advice and methodology, but the goal of seeding is not to create fair first rounds but to ensure that your best match-ups occur later in the tournament. You want to cut the chaff first and immediately weed out any options that can't hold their own against the most popular and stronger choices. You're aiming for your final rounds to be the most fair, not the first one.

[ms-demeanor]

Just because capitalism is bad doesn't make rioting a good or effective means of change.

As much as I hate cops I feel like it pretty much proves my point to START with the article in the cop magazine about how the Rodney King riots changed policing in LA:

Shortly after the riot, Chief Willie Williams was sworn in as the first outside police chief in 45 years. The voters created a new system where the chief could serve only a five-year term, renewable once at the city's option. On two occasions so far, the city has sent the chief packing after five years.

(Police Mag April 2012)

Here’s Anaheim City Councilman Stephen Fassell talking about changes after riots in Anaheim due to police shooting people:

We now have a representative government that we did not have before. We now have a city government that listens more. We’re only six or seven months into this, so we still have to learn our way around. Overall, the city is taking a renewed interest in that neighborhood (Anna Drive) and others. Neighborhoods, in general, have higher visibility in the eyes of the city government from one end to another.

(OC Register, July 2017)

Here’s some historians talking to Vox about rioting:

The 1960s unrest, for example, led to the Kerner Commission, which reviewed the cause of the uprisings and pushed reforms in local police departments. The changes to police ended up taking various forms: more active hiring of minority police officers, civilian review boards of cases in which police use force, and residency requirements that force officers to live in the communities they police."

This is one of the greatest ironies. People would say that this kind of level of upheaval in the streets and this kind of chaos in the streets is counterproductive," Thompson said. "The fact of the matter is that it was after every major city in the urban north exploded in the 1960s that we get the first massive probe into what was going on — known as the Kerner Commission."

(Vox, September 2016)

This is from an abstract of a study done on the 1992 LA riots

Contrary to some expectations from the academic literature and the popular press, we find that the riot caused a marked liberal shift in policy support at the polls. Investigating the sources of this shift, we find that it was likely the result of increased mobilization of both African American and white voters. Remarkably, this mobilization endures over a decade later.

(American Political Science Review, 2019)

There’s a whole-ass article about this in Jacobin this week

Even the case of the 1960s is more complicated than the liberal story about scared white Nixon voters suggests. For one thing, there is substantial evidence that the riots led to higher government expenditures in the deprived cities where they erupted. James W. Button’s pathbreaking 1978 book Black Violence documented the ways the riots forced policymakers to pay attention to the effects of their policies on the urban poor, a group they had been happy to neglect previously. At a time when many social scientists viewed even protest movements as a kind of mass psychosis, Button showed that riots were a rational response to being ignored. Later research showed that riots could increase welfare expenditures, even in areas where white racism was strongest. In other words, even if riots pushed white public opinion in a conservative direction, they also brought important benefits to the areas where they occurred.

(Jacobin, June 2020)

And here is the full 17-page PDF of an article published by the American Political Science Association in their journal, I’m linking to the whole thing but I’m only going to reproduce the conclusion here:

We focus on violent protest as a political tool for a low-status group in the United States. While other scholarship has examined other forms of political action and asked if it is efficacious for racial minorities and other low-status groups, the scholarly literature has largely failed to ask whether rioting is a useful tool for building policy support, even though, from the perspective of the rioters, this question is paramount. Here we show that violent political protest can spur political participation among people who share an identity with the rioters.

Although it often seems extreme from the American perspective, political violence is not isolated to particular regions or eras and is still common in many parts of the world. Moreover, the implicit threat of violence underlies the relationship between governments and citizens in many places. As the use of violence continues to be an active feature of our political system, our findings and approach may help future scholars better understand this important topic.

(American Political Science Review, June 2019)

And also just because riots may or may not be politically expedient doesn’t prevent them.

I want to talk for a second about the concept of a state monopoly on violence.

The deal is that in most states (here meaning countries or governments, not US States) the State (or government) is the only entity that is allowed to be violent. You’re not allowed to break down your neighbor’s door, your partner isn’t allowed to hit you, you’re not allowed to smash your boss’s windshield. The state and its agents are the only things allowed to be violent and their violence is supposed to be used to curtail societal violence. The cops outnumber your partner and have the legal power to lock them in a cage if your partner hits you, this is in theory supposed to prevent your partner from hitting you. Fear of state violence is supposed to act as a deterrent to crime and interpersonal violence.

BUT there are supposed to be rules. The state is the only one allowed to be violent but they’re not allowed to be wantonly, willfully violent. The state doesn’t get to hit you with no evidence of a crime, the cops aren’t supposed to smash in your windshield, sheriffs aren’t supposed to break down your door if you haven’t committed a crime that warrants a violent response from the state.

The state isn’t holding up its end of the bargain.

The state has lost its right to a monopoly on violence.

Yes, the violence is unfortunate. Yes, the violence is not ideal. No, I’m not applauding when people set fire to local businesses.

I am maybe applauding a little when they set fire to a massive corporation that has utilized the violence of the state against citizens while working hard to protect itself against workers (Target) and I’m applauding the destruction of symbols of inequality and institutionalized racism (Rodeo Drive in LA and the Market House in NC and all the statues of racists on this list) and I’ma be real here, I kind of always think police stations should be torn down brick by brick or forcibly converted into libraries or low income housing.

So while the violence is not ideal I don’t think that it’s illegitimate. The state has lost its right to a monopoly on violence and a violent response is certainly one way to make that point.

But here’s the other thing:

All these riots started with peaceful protests against state violence. There are thousands of photos and videos of peaceful protestors peacefully protesting and having speeches and asking for change.

And there are hundreds of videos and photos of cops launching tear gas and rubber bullets at these peaceful protestors. There is a staggering amount of evidence that in city after city police escalated tensions and introduced violence to peaceful protests.

(and please let’s remember: all of this started in response to an act of police violence. These riots didn’t fall out of a clear blue sky, they are a direct reaction to four police officers killing a man by kneeling on his neck for eight minutes while he begged for his mother and his life. That is, in my opinion, something completely worth burning down a police station over even if that act never accomplishes anything further than burning down that police station)

[hijitae]

HijiTae Poll #2 Results

Thank you to all those who voted in the second HijiTae Blog Poll! This poll closed on January 31. Here are the results:

I expected the majority of votes to go to “Thought about them and their moments while reading/watching Gintama” because that’s how it usually happens. And, wow, did Sorachi ever surprise and bless us!

“Read fan fic about them” and “Through meta posts” were the next couple of reasons to gain the most votes. Fan fic for rare pairs is a blessing; not every rare pair is lucky to have even one. There have been a few meta posts over the years, sometimes found as brief comments in old forum topics in places like Yorozuya Soul, Crunchyroll, and others. I’ve written a fair amount myself, and I’m glad they have helped to bring in new fans.

Next were the reasons: “Discovered fan art featuring them”, “I love shipping rare pairs”, and “Through fandom edits”. Luckily, HijiTae fan art has existed since forever, basically, though quite a bit has been lost over the years as old fan sites went offline. Some artists have re-uploaded to Pixiv now, some to DeviantArt. I’ve commissioned two HijiTae art pieces among the latest batch of new art. Hope we get more fan art soon!

I completely relate to those who voted for “I love shipping rare pairs,” because so do I. I have plenty of other faves in different fandoms. I love going against the norm, going with my instincts on possibilities, and thinking outside the box. Sometimes, it’s just more fun to go that route.

Fandom edits, like gifs, fan vids, and more -- here I want to give a special shout-out here to @arirna​, who has contributed much to the HijiTae fandom with gifs. Thank you so much! I’ve no doubt that those gifs of yours and other fandom edits have brought in more HijiTae fans.

“Other reasons” also had the same number of votes. No one came forward to share what other reasons got them into HijiTae. I think I covered all the major reasons – although I did forget to include old HijiTae fan listing site as an option. It lasted from 2007 to 2009, if I recall correctly. It was started by an old friend of mine, and I have her to thank for being the first to provide a place for HijiTae fans to gather in the international fandom.

“Through the HijiTae Tumblr blog” (yay!) and “A friend got me into them” were the last reasons to receive votes. I’m glad my side blog has introduced someone to HijiTae, because that’s one of the reasons I created it.

“Through general fandom discussion” didn’t receive any votes, but I’m not surprised – you mostly see the same crop of ships pop up in general discussions and rarely anything that deviates from the norm. HijiTae doesn’t even qualify as a “Pair the Spares” kind of thing since they’re both tied to more popular ships. Fewer people will object to spare, “leftover” characters being paired together since the new ships won’t interfere with the popular ships of majority preference. Unfortunately, not everyone is open to different or unpopular ships, so I don’t blame people for not bringing their rare pairs up in general discussions. I know from experience.

Well, that was a fun poll and useful for determining how people find their way to HijiTae. Thanks again for voting! Please feel free to make new content for this tiny fandom – art, fic, edits, etc.

[perlukafarinn]

I posted two polls yesterday, asking who is your favorite potential love interest for Dean besides Cas and vice versa. I’ve tallied the votes for both polls and reblogged them with the results and some commentary but I thought it’d be nice to gather them in one post, plus some extra thoughts from me below the cut.

Potential love interests for Dean:

Benny (116). And yes, correct.

Cassie (77). Also correct. A few of you pointed out that Dean should have gone to her in season six instead of Lisa and are you wrong?

Victor (34). Tbh I wasn’t expecting Victor in the top three but I am very happy with all of you!

No one (28). Very Cas coded of you, very sexy.

Crowley (25). This is the one I feel like the character in question would be the most upset about. Only number 5??

Bela (13). I’d also like to interject that demon!Dean/demon!Bela should have happened.

Lee (8). Good for him, I guess.

Jo (5). I don’t know if I’m surprised by Jo’s ranking or not.

Donna (4). This one had a lot of support when her first episode aired, if I remember correctly.

Tessa (3). Good for her, I guess.

The rest got either one or two votes. With two we’ve got: Aaron (surprised he didn’t get more), Anna, Ash, Cain (very disappointed he didn’t get more), Deacon, Garth, Ketch (uhhh), Rhonda Hurley.

One vote: Balthazar, Daphne (lowkey feel like the two people who picked them read the question wrong), Donnie, Lisa (I also don’t know whether to be surprised by this ranking or not. On the one hand she’s Dean’s longest running textual love interest. On the other, they kinda forgot to give her a personality beyond ‘love interest’ and ‘mother’), Lydia (????), Me (lmao), Michael, Mick (also ???), Robin, Ronald (ngl I had to look him up), Sam (😶), Sarah Blake (this voter did admit they might be projecting) The Impala if it turned into a guy (this one might have the most canon support), That one hot desk officer from season 1 you know the one I mean (I don’t).

Potential love interests for Cas:

No one (33). I was expecting this option to be high up but not number one! Quite a few people specified he should be a single parent but what I really appreciate are the few of you who wrote dissertations in the tags on why this makes sense for Cas’ character.

Meg (26). Correct and very sexy.

Mick (25). I’ve seen like one episode with Mick so idgi but good for him!

Balthazar (6). Thought he’d get way more votes?? Idk might be my bias speaking.

Sam (6). Love the one of you who specified that Cas should not like him back.

Luca (4). Okay so there is a canon character named Luca who is a priest but I’m pretty sure y’all mean the Luca from In the Shadow of your Wings by ao3 user Enochian Things, who is also a priest (esp since a couple of you did say he’s not a canon character) and who actually meets Cas.

Benny (3). It should be noted that two out of three of you wanted to include Dean in this ship.

Crowley (3). Just as with Dean’s list, he’d be very insulted by placing so low.

Hannah (3). Hannah got three votes, two specifying in a male vessel and one just specifying “trans”.

Kelly (3). Makes sense, as she is the mother of his child and they have a friendly relationship. Also makes sense this didn’t get more votes since they have no chemistry and she is a republican.

These all got two votes: Djinn queen, Me, Pastor Sexy.

And now, a special category of those with one vote from people I’m pretty sure read the question wrong: Cassie, Lisa, Ash, Victor.

Another special category of Dean alternates who got one vote but don’t count because they’re still Dean: AU Dean, Amnesia Dean, Dean Smith.

And the rest all got one vote: Dabb-era OC, Hypothetical guy from centuries ago (from one of those times Cas’ mind got wiped), Jesus Christ (asdjifsdkl), Miguel from The Love Story of the Runner-Up by ao3 user Margo_Kim, Sergei (???), That angel dude who wanted him for his hands (okay who and what episode).

Okay so what jumped out to me immediately was “no one” topping Cas’ list (it placed pretty high on Dean’s list but Benny, Cassie and Victor still beat that option handily). 

A lot of people straight up did not like the thought of Cas with someone else (very Dean coded of them) but a lot of others just couldn’t picture it. Which I think can be attributed to none of Cas’ relationships with others being all that developed on the show, besides with Jack which is obviously not romantic. Tbh there aren’t a lot of deeply developed relationships on Supernatural that don’t include Sam or Dean (and lbr, mostly Dean).

People were also explaining their choices a lot more in the Cas poll. Idk what that means but I just thought it was interesting. There also wasn’t a consensus on Cas’ sexuality; while Meg and other female characters got votes a lot of other voters said they see him as gay and can’t picture him with a woman.

Most delightfully surprising result: Cassie taking second place! Honestly, it’s what she deserves. And Victor in third! The taste! 

Most expected result: Benny winning the Dean poll in a landslide.

Most surprising low placement: Balthazar only getting six votes in Cas’ poll. I thought this ship was more popular but that’s probably my bias speaking since I happen to like it.

Funniest vote: Those three of you who wanna shoot your shot with Dean/Cas. Go for it, I’m rooting for you!

Favorite specification on a vote: “Meg in a deeply lavender marriage way”

[waffliesinyoface]

And the final result is! Mage/Warlock in a landslide, lmao.

Observations and other stuff below:

First off, Lord! I mentioned this in one of the earlier reblogs, but it amuses me that this is the least picked option, since you typically only get one or two of these per run, for obvious reasons. It didn't even hit 2% until the last couple hours! Fitting, that we only got a handful of Protagonists™.

Second, we have Mercenary/Cavalier/Knight. A couple of people commented that it should've been Myrmidon instead of Mercenary and... you're right, lmao. I was looking at a list of classes from the first game when making the list, saw Myrmidon, and wrote down Mercenary. They're essentially the same class these days, so no harm done, but that was a goof on my part. I kinda expected these three to be on the low end because they're kind of generic, but this comment made me laugh:

To be fair, in most runs you only really need one, maybe two Armored units. They're for setting up chokepoints, and you're rarely going to be utilizing more than one at a time.

Next up, we have Archer/Warrior/Dancer/Thief. Warrior I expected to be with the last group, but I guess it's more popular because the people love Big Axes? Archer is also more generic but TBH it would've been my second choice after Pegasus/Falcon/(Dark Flier), because I DO think bows are cool. Especially in games where there's one specific bow/skill that has like 5 Range and shitawful accuracy. Two comments from this section made me laugh:

1: i am this player. i feed undeserved kills to my thieves all the time in the hopes that they will metamorphosize into Something Good. Occasionally it works!

2: how dare you be funnier than me on my own post etc etc

Next, we have Pegasus Knight! I'm not sure if it got more votes because people think flying is cool, or people choosing it because Gender Validation, or because it's the closest thing to Wyvern Rider on this list? I didn't officially group them because they have a different vibe entirely, and, barring exceptions like Jill in PoR, usually have different stat focuses, being more Strength/Axe focused instead of Speed/Lance.

Coming in Second Place, we have Clerics! It's to be expected, really, because this is the most versatile class on the board. Every game gives you a healer, but every game also has completely fucking different ideas about what that healer should promote into. Should they branch out into magic? Should they get on a horse? Should they learn to punch people in the face? The world is their oyster.

And in First Place, by a landslide, we have Mages. We have so many fucking mages. Frankly, I didn't expect this to win by so much?? I know it can do magic, but in most FE settings magic is less something that's mysterious and more "some people have a better aptitude for throwing fireballs". Or, well, I was wondering why it had such a big lead, until I read this comment:

and doesn't that just sum up tumblr perfectly?

Special mention goes to the Other tag - Some of these were popular enough that I wish I could've included in the main poll, ie: Mage Knight, but tumblr only has 12 options. 15 would've made things much easier.

Of those, Mage Knight was the most popular, assuming you count ALL of the Swords/Magic classes together. IE: Dread Fighter (Awakening), Mortal Savant, Priestess, Tactician, etc. I saw one person voting for Basara, which is apparently Lances/Magic, which is... kind of similar? Similar enough that I'm counting it, at least.

Infantry Lances got passed over because even if Halberdiers are cool and I like them, it was basically tradition in FE to give you a red cav and a green cav for ages, so they're the more iconic "lance" class.

Most of the rest of the Other Votes were all classes that exist pretty much exist solely in Fates - Maid, Malig Knight, Mechanist, etc. - because despite Fates' overall bad writing, no one can say that it's lacking in class variety.

I'm also highlighting this comment for the same reason I found it funny that Lord was the least voted for:

You get one (1) dragon per game!! Way too niche for me to make it an option, but it is technically a class as well as a race, and I kind of hoped someone would pick it.

Actually hang on that last post inspired me

personally i would be a pegasus knight. maybe a dark flier. please keep your bows away from me i dont want to take 3x effective damage

(repost because how the fuck did i forget thief)

[1kook]

THE RESULTS !

i have to say thanks bc i didnt expect a silly poll to get 400 VOTES IN 2 DAYS 😳she is shocked! flabbergasted! poquito shy👉🏻👈🏻 also, i started doodling on this pic of jk. the colors reminded me of the results wheels in the poll. so of course an obnoxiously named poll needs an obnoxiously colorful/ugly banner so here we are <3 with the power of justice and claire’s retail stores across the nation, i present to u this....

anyway, you’ve all seen them but after 400 votes (again, wow!!!), here are the FINAL RESULTS FOR THE 1KOOK JK BEAUTY PAGEANT ELECTION SEMFINAL QUALIFYING MATCH (YUP THAT’S RIGHT) !!!!

☆HOTTEST JK IN THE 1KOOK NOCHUVERSE.... netflix & chill jk! with a landslide win. he amassed 192 votes (48%) which is nearly HALF of all who voted. as to be expected of the most fic having, kink trying, movie obsessive, girlfriend loving jk. long live the king <3 our bae skirt chasers comes in second, only barely beating out swsh 😨

☆MOST LIKELY TO SURVIVE AN APOCALYPSE.... explorer jk with 236 votes!!! honestly, makes sense. this man from outer space he’s probably witnessed the most unimaginable shit. the hunger games? already happened on planet h-57 -_- come on now

☆WHICH VAGUE JK IDEA DESERVES ITS OWN FIC? model jK! with 167 (41.8%) of the votes. honestly, this one was also not a surprise because he is our most popular hypothetical jk rn... concert jk im sorry u deserved better....

☆WHICH JK WOULD YOU BEAT UP IN A FIGHT? the most controversial question probably and it ended up being a TIE -__- baecation and church boy both received 149 votes for this (idk why the % is weird) and the two main reasons why were 1) u wanna rob baecation and 2)u can easily win against church boy. YALL R FUCKIN EVIL!!!!

☆WHICH JK CROSSOVER MAKES THE MOST SENSE? the blue option ( aint typin all that out again -_-)!! no surprise because that one included the three most popular jks so of course the hoes wanna see them win

☆BEST JK TO QUARANTINE WITH nc jk (wow! im so surprised!!!11!1!) wins 55% of the popular vote, beating out zoom jk whose... entire... arc... is... quarantine... (embarrassing)

☆BEST COLLEGE JK.... DESERVED! skirt chasers jk aka our original blueprint jk, wins this one with 213 votes! surprisingly, however, zoom jk takes second 😨 despite having a 2 part baby series with no smut

☆JK THAT DESERVES MOST SCREENTIME.... we dont talk about these jks bc um. yeah anyway 🤠 milestone jk aka our first ever... 1kook jk.... (soungs of cryeing) wins this one but just BARELY

☆AND FINALLY, IF NC JK SUDDENLY DROPPED DEAD, WHO WOULD BE THE RIGHTFUL HEIR TO THE 1KOOK NOCHUVERSE? skirt chasers jk of course 🤩

anyway!!! ty for everyone who voted im still really surprised that 400 of u voted for this stupid poll 😭 i had a lot of fun seeing the results change and the justifications people gave, so hoepfully we’ll do another stupid poll like this in the future!!!! it was very fun and made me very happy to see so many people interact with my ideas anew /.\

[famedroleplayarchive]

As promised, here’s an admin update post. This addresses several topics you all probably knew were coming and might have been waiting for the answers on, as well as some other topics, additions, and changes! Please take your time to read this thoroughly, and thanks again for four years of Famed! There’s a lot here, so take your time reading it.

URL change

The main blog’s URL has changed to famedroleplay. Some links are still being updated, but if you notice anything still links back incorrectly after a week or so, please do let me know!

Faceclaims

After hearing out the opinion of everyone who shared theirs regarding banning faceclaims involved in bullying scandals and taking that into consideration, face claims will be banned if they are linked to outside crimes or severe such as sexual assault, molka, or bullying in connection to suicide / suicide attempts. This means the initial ban on actor Kim Jisoo and April members Kim Chaewon, Lee Naeun, Yang Yena, Lee Jinsol, and and ex-member Jeon Somin remain in tact.

Bullying allegations not linked to these outside factors will still be grounds for someone to be allowed to ask to change a faceclaim before their faceclaim change waiting period is up, though, if they are uncomfortable continuing to use a faceclaim because of bullying allegations. If a faceclaim leaves the industry and/or removes themselves from the public eye for the foreseeable future for any reason, they are also still unusable, but this rule was already in place.

As for how this will affect parts of the roleplay other than faceclaims, please see the section further down about Element. Two April songs (”Oh My Mistake!” and “Love Clock”) were previously used for the first season of base’s COLLA3ORATE. These will be retroactively replaced with Elris’s “Jackpot” and “Like I Do” respectively, but if you had a muse involved in “Oh My Mistake” and would prefer to remove them from COLLA3ORATE season one entirely, just message me and they will be removed. I assigned the lines trying to match the positions and line distributions up similarly, but if your muse was involved and you’d like to keep them in “Jackpot” but want to switch to an untaken position, you’re welcome to request that as well. Otherwise, any references to that can simply use those songs instead now.

Element update

Due to the recent allegations involving Somin, a major revamp of Element has had to be conducted. After discussing the situation with the current muns of the group, the past model discography of Element has been replaced using Checkmate, K-Tigers Zero, and Lucky J, and they will be making their final comeback on April 12. After those promotions end, Element will be disbanded and the members will re-debut later in the year in a boy group, Quicksilver, with model groups of Ateez and Treasure and a girl group, Marigold, with model groups of BVNDIT and Melody Day with two new members each. The Element spots have been reopened, but the new positions in the new groups won’t be opened until after Element have finished promoting. This will be a major plotline for the roleplay and Gold Star in particular so expect to see it brought up in schedules and in some articles on the Exclusive blog as the storyline unfolds.

The new debuts in Quicksilver and Marigold will be available on May 13.

Fuse’s model discography update

Thanks to everyone’s suggestions, I was able to find two groups to add to Fuse’s model discography that I felt could align with their sound, direction, storyline, and positions enough to be happy with for now. These groups are Cherry Bullet and Weki Meki. The updated line distribution can be found on Fuse’s page.

There are other groups I’m looking into adding onto the model discographies of, but Fuse was the most urgent, so they’re the only official update I have today!

Canon soloists

Ultimately, after the poll, more people voted to remove canon soloists than to keep them, and they are officially being removed from the roleplay.

Those discographies previously used for the soloists will begin to be open for points claims at midnight/12AM EDT on April 12.

With the removal of canon soloists, the plan is to allow a solo music career to become a more prominent claiming option, and there are plans for some additional claim options to become available in relation to such a career, but those will be added and addressed at a later time.

As for storylines linked to some of the soloists, this is how those will be retconned:

BC Soloist 1: Instead of BC signing and debuting a known Gold Star trainee, BC hired a high profile creative director from Gold Star known from working with Gold Star since their inception and had worked on some of their most defining comebacks and announced she would be taking over as one of the company’s main creative directors. She has since worked on conceptualizing several group’s comeback as well as most heavily on Chroma’s pre-debut project.

Dimensions Soloist 3: Instead of Dimensions buying out a small and brand new company created by a crew of popular music producers with one soloist who they transferred to their label, in early 2020, Dimensions bought out a music production company that was created by a top music production team with several rising producers signed with them and made the producers in-house producers for Dimensions. Since then, the new producers have helped to produce several hit Dimensions songs since.

While Gold Star Soloist 1 no longer exists as an IU stand-in, Gold Star still had an incredibly popular and loved NPC soloist as one of their first artists that helped give their name prominence. At the beginning of 2021, she announced her departure from the agency to create her own label, citing her reasoning as feeling she needed a more focused environment than Gold Star’s growth could provide. There are rumors she was alluding to dissatisfaction with Gold Star’s recent management and gossip that Gold Star was pushing for her to pursue activities in overseas markets she wasn’t interested in.

Anyone who had a feature or MV appearance claim on a soloist can contact me and let me know whether they’d like to just drop the claim (and, if a points claim, recollect those points), keep it as a claim in an unspecified work, or try to replace it with something else. The following muses had claims this applies to:

Features:

Cha Kyonghwa (Kami) (app claim) Kang Sunghee (app claim) Park Jaewon (points claim, 10 points) dropped! Choi Joosung (Sun) (points claim, 10 points) Moon Chaeyeon (Dita) (app claim) Park Duri (points claim, 10 points) kept as unspecified!

MV appearances:

Kim Kyongmin (Alice) (app claim) Ryu Jaein (points claim, 5 points) dropped! Seo Minjung (points claim, 10 points) points reclaimed! Moon Chaeyeon (Dita) (app claim)

Points shop updates

There have been a few updates to the points shop!

Firstly, the nation’s title claim checklist now requires a headcanon on the muse’s image and how it relates to their claims and career to be completed. This is just so I can see a mun’s own intentions for how everything ties in with their image. This headcanon shouldn’t focus on the title itself since that isn’t ever guaranteed for approval, but the muse’s general image as the mun has shaped it. The viral moment requirement for a nation’s title is now also specified to need to relate to the image involved in the desired title.

In the wake of canon soloists being removed, I’m planning on being a little more strict regarding music claims aligning well with positions.This applies to both individual songs and whole discographies. Still, the intent is to be reasonable. Chungha having a rap-like verse in “Bicycle” won’t require someone to have a rap position to claim it since it’s not a lot of the song and she’s not known as a rapper, but I also wouldn’t approve a muse whose most prominent position is main rapper or a main dancer making their entire discography IU releases since IU is primarily a singing-focused artist.

There used to be a rule requiring that muns seek admin approval before claiming songs written by deceased artists, but that rule has now been removed. Keep it respectful, though, please. If any issue arises with muns breaking the fourth wall in relation to these songs to be disrespectful about a real person’s passing, that claim may be revoked and the rule may be reinstated. Songs performed by deceased artists still cannot be claimed.

There’s also a new claim available — a YouTube variety show or talk show. Please see the variety page for examples and more information, but note that this is separate from both a reality show claim. I’ve tried to specify the difference, but if you’re ever unsure which one what you want to claim would fit into, feel free to ask! Both will now be uploaded in-’verse to base’s Youtube Channel. Likewise, there has been a small change so that future radio show claims are now through base Radio, a radio streaming application (think Naver Now). 

Company building pages + Pinterest

I’m currently working on pages that give more detail on the layout of the company headquarters. They aren’t quite finished yet, but I have created a Famed Pinterest account for those of you who find more muse visually or who are into visual worldbuilding! One of the sections on the boards there gives a rough idea of company building visuals. There are group concept boards as well, so if you’re struggling to decide where your muse might fit, looking at those might help you if you’re more of a visual person. No one is required to follow it and I won’t be answering messages or anything of the sort there, but I thought it might be a helpful way to visually convey locations and concepts! I’ll make a small post to let everyone know when the pages with in-depth information on the company buildings is available.

Activity rules updates

I mentioned there’d be a few more touch-ups to the activity rules to fill in loopholes that have been around a while, so here they are.

- There is now a formal hiatus request form that must be submitted to request a hiatus. Simply sending the main an IM that you want a hiatus will no longer qualify as a valid request and it will not be processed.

- There will no longer be a week-long grace period after a hiatus ends. You are responsible for being active for the next activity check after your hiatus ends.

- The maximum length of a hiatus is now three weeks (and the minimum one week). The initial hiatus request maximum is still two weeks with one week extensions, but extensions may not be stacked to exceed three weeks total without a passed activity check in between. If you can’t be around for a longer period of time, it might be best to rejoin at a later time when you’re more available! In total, a mun is allotted a maximum of four weeks of hiatus over any twelve week period.

- If a muse reaches three activity warnings in a month, they will be automatically moved to the unfollow list on their third warning instead. If a muse is removed and refollowed three times over the course of six months, they will not be able to be re-followed again and will have to re-apply.

New points opportunity

As of this post going up, muses may now collect one point for every first closed thread with a new muse after it has reached ten posts. This will no longer only apply during events and the ten post requirement is new. Members should be interacting with new muses all the time, not just during events, so it felt right to adjust this accordingly. This applies only to threads started after this post goes up.

Chroma

As schedules have been made quarterly, all remaining Chroma roles will be made available for reserves and applications in at midnight/12AM EDT on April 12.

Suggestions + Feedback

I want to end off this post by reminding everyone that I’m always taking suggestions for events, tasks, etc! I plan on opening an official suggestion submission blog at some point down the line, but I’m happy to take suggestions through the ask box or submit if you have any. I’m also open to feedback as well. If you do send in either of these things, please specify if you’d like a reply from me, since sometimes I might be naturally inclined to keep a message simply giving a suggestion or idea without any questions instead of responding to it.

Thanks for reading this very long update! There are more additions to the roleplay in the works, some I’ve hinted at here and some I’ve not, but I hope Famed’s fifth year is able to be its best one yet!

[accirax]

And with that, the polls are closed!

we uh... we were really going through it on this one, huh?

Not only in terms of denial, but in terms of being divided! My compliments to the killer, they made a baffling case indeed.

Thank you to everybody who participated in this poll! Even though the results weren't necessarily different from what I expected, it was still fun to watch the numbers go up and down all week. If you're curious about the actual numbers of how many people voted for each option, I've already done the math, and will talk about it below, along with some of my general thoughts and opinions.

Levi absolutely swept this poll with 129 votes on his own. Good god, man, that's more people than are in the entire US Senate! I can see why he would be a popular choice, though-- he has the means (strength) and the motive (his literal motive) to pull it off. I still feel like he still has a greater role in the story that has yet to be completed, but that's just my two cents.

Hu was an easy second with 72 votes going her way. This one surprised me a little. Like, I definitely knew that there were Hu culprit truthers out there, but I didn't know there were so many! I don't think I've actually seen someone write out a full theory of how and why they think she would be the blackened. Is it that most of you think that she was manipulated by David? Is it connected to her wire being used in the Ace near-murder? Or is is something else entirely? If anyone has defended their Hu choice in writing, please send it my way, because I'd love to hear what you think! (/gen)

After much fluctuation, J wound up in third with 27 votes. So my anti-dressup theory meant nothing to you guys, huh? (/j) Well, unlike Levi, I would believe that J's role in the story could be done here (I honestly have no idea what to do with her in terms of death order predicitons), so I understand the appeal. I do wonder, though, what percentage of J culprit theorizers think it's her because of the dressup theory, and what percentage believe it's her for other reasons (her relationship with Arei, her remote, etc). I'd make another poll, but it'd only have an audience of 27.

Ace took fourth with 21 votes. He started off slow, but gained traction over time! Ace is certainly quite relevant to this chapter, what with fighting Levi, bullying Nico, and overhearing the conversation between David and Arei, so this could definitely be the point of Ace's exeunt. Venus and I have basically determined that, story pacing wise, it probably makes the most sense if Ace dies here or survives. So for the sake of all Ace fans (including myself), I hope it's the latter.

Eden ultimately wound up with 19 votes. I would guess most are disciples of the 1moreff-creator/thebadjoe scripture, much like I am. As someone who currently believes that Eden is the blackened, I'm a little disappointed that she didn't do better, but also not that surprised. Actually, the reason why I made this poll in the first place was wondering how many people actually believed all of the giant theories we were writing about grippy tape. Somewhat like Ace, I originally believed that Eden would be a big, important character in DRDT as a spin on Teruko's "rival." Not necessarily a survivor, but at least, like, Chapter 4 or 5? While I now think that her character could end here and still be a well-written and important addition to the cast, I can obviously see why people would be against the idea, and believe that that still could be her path.

Fifth place is Whit, with 14 votes. To be frank, I don't really understand this one, given his apparent day-long alibi with Charles and openness about sharing his motive secret. But, I 100% respect whatever your guys' reading led you to. Maybe I'm the one getting duped by Whit's quips and quirks. Maybe Good Grief isn't his character song. Maybe then I can stop crying every time I look at it--

Sixth is the nebulous Teruko/Charles/something else option, with a combined 13 votes. (13, huh? Teruko coding.) I really hated having to combine all of these choices, especially seeing that they did get thirteen votes. Like I said in the comments, I suspect that most people just used this as a "see options" choice, but now I'll never know! I do feel like I saw at least one person semi-suspect Charles, so maybe there were some real votes for Charles or Teruko out there. If any of you want to share, I'm all ears.

Arturo wound up in seventh, having 11 votes. I love a good "suspected but disproven at the beginning of the trial, so you think they're good, but then it wraps around and you learn that they actually were the culprit all along"! To be honest, I (sadly) don't think Arturo is long for this world, but it could still be interesting to see more of his reactions to J having declared war against him by outing his secret. Not to mention how the student body as a whole would feel about him after learning about how he threatened Eden and led to his sister's death. A definite option, although a low one by consensus.

Our main literature man insane, David, got 8 votes. When I first got into DRDT, I thought I had been spoiled that David was the Chapter 2 killer, so I guess that would be the fulfillment of that prophecy. Maybe I'm the Ultimate Clairvoyant, who knows. The appeal for David is there, given that he... literally confessed to it. Him getting an MV also matches Min's MV after she was the culprit. I think the Trial is probably about to lead us away from David as a suspect, but we'll see what happens if/when DRDT resumes.

Veronika has 5 votes, which puts her in ninth. Her percentage was weirdly high at the beginning, so I guess most of the Veronika culprit enjoyers are prone to stalking the DRDT tags? Or they just really like to vote. Not sure why Veronika would want to kill here, given that she seems to enjoy the killing game. Maybe it's about her yet unrevealed secret? Hit me up with an explanation if you've got one :D

Nico has four votes at tenth most likely. After trying to kill Ace, they just couldn't resist going for another, huh...? I feel like, given their behavior, Nico didn't try to kill again here (why would they target Arei, also), but who can really say? At least if Nico is the culprit, it might give us more of an excuse to discuss the gym crime scene in canon. I want answers for that thing so bad.

And in the end, even Rose couldn't avoid getting one vote. Sorry to everyone who was hoping that she could escape scot free. Of course, given that literally only one person thinks she did it, she's probably going to survive this trial. However, if she is the killer, props to the one voter for seeing what the rest of us couldn't! Assuming that that one vote isn't just someone who saw that Rose didn't have any votes, and wanted to give her one to be unique...

Again, thank you for voting, and thank you even more for actually reading my opinions! I want to stress that although I think some culprits are more likely than others, I truly do respect everyone's opinions and interpretations of the work. There's a lot of information to go through, and everybody comes into it with their own biases and beliefs on what makes a good story (including the creator himself!)

What I find most fun is hearing what everyone thinks and remaining flexible such that we can explore every possibility. Therefore... please share your culprit thoughts. I am once again asking politely.

I was thinking about this the other day and realized that I really had no idea what the stats were for the fandom as a whole....

Please note that I'm asking about the blackened-- AKA who would be executed-- for this poll. In the case of "Levi was Eden's accomplice," "David manipulated Hu," etc, I want to know who you think is Going To Die.

[crystalelemental]

The best solution to all this brave nonsense with colors is if Marianne ends up with Blutgang. Her OG form alredy uses anima magic, and although a backup, she also has a healer alt in the game. That'll let things open for both Marth and Eirika to see who gets the Staff and who gets the Tome (or end up being two tome units, one green and the other colorless, since Starlight doesn't have an element attached to it). Gatekeeper's definitely taking blue, so that's out of question.

Okay, I need to say this now or no one will believe me later: I don't think Marianne will have Blutgang in her Brave. We all assume she will because her base form didn't, but consider this.

Her base form was planned before CYL5 ended, and they had no way to know the outcome. So why hold off? Prior, we all expected base form Blutgang because of Annette having her relic, but that's like one character. Ingrid has hers too, but Ingrid can obtain Luin pre-timeskip, while Annette was not. So this was entirely based on Annette. But Annette showed up in March 2020. Which means she was in development prior to CYL4's results, and before they knew how severely Three Houses would dominate the poll. Meaning they likely gave it to Annette anticipating this would be her only form ever, barring seasonals.

But they know better by Marianne. Three Houses dominated the rest of the series in unprecedented ways, and they've pandered to it so hard that all but one student is in the game, as are half the church and NPC characters at this point, less than two years after Three Houses released. And it continues to do so. We're getting unnamed NPCs outright winning CYL, even if it was through bullshit. They know this sells, and by all metrics they're right; FEH had it's first increase in profits by following this. So why wouldn't base Marianne have Blutgang?

Because now they know they can make her timeskip version and she'll still sell like hotcakes. Blutgang will be on timeskip Marianne one day, mark my words. Her Brave alt will likely be a healer since she's known for her healing ability, though she could take green tome due to her association with light magic (which could also be blue, but that's less likely). Marianne is the only one who can tech into any color and make sense.

Gatekeeper, by comparison, is almost definitely armor. BST will increase, such that armors hit 190BST. And he gets a PRF skill, which will definitely be his B-skill, and likely be buffed Obstruct to hard counter the current AR L!Sigurd/Nott meta. He'll also have Far Save, as the first introduction of that skill to the general pool now that they have more options that can Windsweep/NFU through it. So consider: are they really going to make him a lance, and have him compete with Bector over who's the better Far Save user? Keeping in mind that this would essentially come down to what kind of nonsense they give him to compete with Bector's armor effectiveness negation and removal of debuffs. Either Bravekeeper is irrelevant on arrival, or Bector becomes irrelevant, neither of which is good. Similarly, he won't be axe, because same issue but Bedelgard. The most open and obviously available niche he can occupy as an armor is sword. Take after Byleth and have that be a connecting point, and make him a sword armor with Far Save. No conflict with the other two popular Braves that way, and can still be a massive threat.

Which leaves Marth and Eirika. If Blue and one of Colorless or Green are left, then I'm confident Marth would take blue. Either through Starlight as a light magic tome like some people want, or with a reference to Caeda's Wing Spear. I actually feel relatively confident saying he might even be flying if they go with the Caeda connection, since no Marth alt has blue or flying yet. Yes that means lance flier, but there's always one that's a bit too oversaturated in the movement type department (Alm with sword infantry, Edelgard with axe armor). That leaves Eirika with the color Marianne doesn't take. I think it's more likely she gets green, in which case it's most likely Excalibur. I just hope she's on a horse. I think she will be. Much like Saves, I'm anticipating Marianne and/or Eirika to be the main pool introduction of Trace skills. It's been long enough, and more than likely IS will want those skills made more easily available on units that players want to merge instead of fodder.

So, my final guess before the reveal later this month:

Bravekeeper - sword armor, signature B that buffs Obstruct and packs Far Save, as the AR meta counter

Marth - I'm sticking with blue lance flier, fully aware he could be blue tome infantry. The lance flier seems more likely as a reference to Caeda.

Marianne - Most likely colorless for her healing support, definitely on a horse that will likely be Dorte. Strong possibility of green for light magic. I'm actually going to guess her signature skill will be a C-slot, maybe a buffed Recovery skill.

Eirika - Most likely green, guessing Excalibur in that situation. Really hoping for a cav mage, since flying and infantry green mage is very much accounted for. I do see people saying bow and I'll be fine with that but I want Excalibur.

As a last note: it is possibly the theme is deep connections. Bravekeeper referencing Byleth, Marth with Caeda, etc. In such a situation, Fado and Ephraim are pretty impossible references for Eirika, because Fado's accounted for with Bephraim, and lance is accounted for in Marth. So my guess is they'd reference L'Arachel and make Eirika the healer, while Marianne would reference Hilda and possibly get an axe. I'm sticking with my first answers, but I want everyone to have this as by backup answer I didn't pick so you can laugh at me if this one's correct.