#I feel like there relationship would be something like a not a internet geek and on the internet 24/7

[cessmaga]

pet peeve but I don't like how mk1 johnshi is portrayed, and no not just the infantizing disabled people one

[092040]

The Great Loves - Part 1

In the early age of the internet and social media I was still trying to find myself and understand the person I was and will be. Through a stroke of luck I met T when I was seventeen, bonding over photography, editing photos, and geeking out about early website developments.

We each had our own personal page with our unique personalities. What started with messages became more frequent text messaging that led to late night phone calls. I hadn't known how much T liked me then, but he told me about a dream he had, that I was dating someone else and he woke up crying. It was naive and young love, but pure to say the least.

How long did we go messaging each other throughout the many days and how many nights did we stay asleep on the phone with free minutes after 9pm? I can't remember but it was months before T and I finally met.

Imagine meeting in public at a huge festival with thousands of people and two boys who had fallen in love over messages and phone calls finally meeting, where could we go to finally be who we were as we spoke on those nights laying hundreds of miles apart. We found our way to the edges of the parking lot, hidden under pine trees, chatting, giggling, happy.

For the first time in my life, I was with someone who was like me, someone I had met by some odd chance. T smelled of the acne medicine he slathered on his face, but it was fine, we were teenagers, puberty was not kind to everyone. We sat there and leaned in for a kiss, a sloppy teenage kiss, butterflies shooting through my stomach, releasing through my mouth.

I'd never feel like this ever again.

Through that year, T and I followed our routine. We had known each other for at least 2 years, and dating for almost a year. One late night, he called me with a strange tone in his voice. He passed the phone to his mom, who insisted on speaking with my parents. As obedient Asian children who listened to elders, I handed off my cell phone to my parents in fear.

This wasn't the coming out story I ever wanted. Sure, I'd struggled with hiding like anyone else, cried myself to sleep thinking about the horror of having to admit to my parents about something I was still coming to terms with.

That was the end of between T and I. He confided in his aunt who he thought he could trust, who in turn told his mom, who called me and asked to speak to my parents. Silly me, I could have hung up.

Over the next year, T went to hurt me, to become someone I did not know showing me a side of him I had not seen before—the extent a filial son would go to make their parents happy and to seek approval. I was upset, I was stubborn, I knew it was all a lie.

I held on for dear life because I had no one else. Life at that time was so lonely, isolated and far from anyone else who could understand me, in the middle of America. I forced myself on him, refused to let go, went through my own hell as he dated girls and kissed them, had them curse at me for trying to steal him away, he wasn't theirs to start with.

--

"You are my soulmate," T told me once.

Those words burned. Why the hell tell me that only to leave me? I hated those words. If I was truly your soulmate, why did you do everything in your power to push me away, to let me burn in the aftermath alone?

It hurt. He hurt me deep down to my soul.

--

Almost one year of clinging on, T finally agreed to meet me as I forced my way his hometown.

That was the end of it. Overtime, I saw T move on as if I didn't mean a thing. He told me he would never date another guy and yet, when I saw that he was with another guy, the betrayal I felt through my bones destroyed me. It would have lasting effects and create toxic behaviors that would take me years to uncover and understand.

Many years through failed relationships and desperation, I made peace as I left the midwest. Onto New York City I went. A homesick suburban boy living in a bustling city in America, I felt so out of place, so out of my comfort zone. I learned and I grew into someone I could start to love, started to understand my flaws and the mistakes I made, and learned to accept them as part of my growth.

--

T reached out, years later.

He was visiting NYC with a friend. We had made small talk. My feelings were no longer there, dried up and blown away after the flames engulfed me whole, to grow anew. I would help show him and his friend around.

We ate, we laughed, we sat and we enjoyed sunsets at my favorite park: Sunset Park.

At the end of the day, I went back to their AirBnb in Jersey to make sure they were back safe. We would continue to hang out the next day too.

That night, T and I shared the pullout couch, sleeping side by side.

--

He forced himself onto me. For what reason I did not know.

"Even if you hate me," he said.

How selfish, I thought. How selfish of him to make me burn all alone and to grow myself back again, only to try and break me again?

"You can't come and go as you please," I told him, "it's not fair."

I held my ground, arms and grip stronger than what people may have taken me for. I slept with my back against him, hands folded between my legs. If he didn't fight for me then he didn't deserve me now.

--

The next day came and I pretended nothing had happened.

He had no power over me, he presence could no longer soften my heart. The door was closed, locked, and burned away. The home that was there no longer stood.

I loved T when I did, my first great love, the only person that physical butterflies in my stomach manifested and I felt them flowing through my breath, but that was all he would be.

Betrayal was the sword that cut our red strings, so called soulmates slashed into two.

[crystal-lillies]

alice takes a peek down the rabbit hole; or, what happens when I accidentally find a grifter-type news article on a subject I love

the ugly snort I made when I stumbled across a headline proclaiming that U.S. Comic Books are failing because of "wokeness" but Manga is thriving instead...

no joke, I felt like H.Bomberguy setting up a bit before a 4-hour long video essay as I found this article on my "new tab screen."

and I had to read it because my first thought, of course, was, "My dude," (the author is a man) "where the fuck have you been? Manga has ALWAYS been much more left and progressive than most mainstream U.S. comic books! You shot yourself in the foot right there!"

But, of course, I wanted to see if that point got addressed, and what else this article had to say, despite knowing that it was not meant for my eyes. The first mistake was that it claimed that manga was imported "non-woke" material within the first two paragraphs, while then much later acknowledging that what "might be called wokeness" exists in manga, particularly in LGBT relationships, even citing the outcry when the Sailor Moon dub censored the ships baked into the text of the story.

Yet...the issue is that U.S. comic books that have been behind in the representation department on many intersectional departments are now working to introduce more of these elements, such as Riri Williams taking over for Tony Stark as Ironheart when Iron Man is no longer around, or that Luke Fox exists in the Batfamily...with all of the other Batfamily around...or that Carol Danvers isn't as much of a fucking sexy fantasy doll than she was made out to be before.

Put a pin in that.

Another point brought up is how at "one time," comic book shops catered to a specific, niche group of people (a mostly male-dominated, juvenile-seeming group) and certain fandoms' toxic behavior soured the image in the public's eye...but NOW the stigma has LONG been GONE! ...I'd need a citation for that, my dude. (there wasn't one)

despite how many people go to Comic Cons around the world, being a comic book geek is still an oft-ridiculed and niche thing (as is the same for manga and anime, but it's a lot easier to find manga in my local Target than most superhero comics). and while some kind comic book shops do go out of their way cater to everyone, as someone who is Not Male and Not Always "Stereotypically Geek"-Presenting, I've had my fair share of judgement for my presence in those spaces.

Now coming back to the pin...making U.S. comic books and superhero stories more aligned with a wider, more diverse, "woke" audience, just like the massively successful imported (supposedly "non-woke") manga have been doing for many years...that's the real problem as to why comic sales are seemingly doing badly, according to you, sir? Not anything to do with the fact that translated manga is at a better price point for the value page-count and quality-wise, which you cited, or the fact it is more widely available to general intersectional audiences, which you ALSO cited?

The cognitive dissonance gymnastics is really something to behold. Sometimes, you really have to see it for yourself, and wonder how these writers are missing the point they're unintentionally making.

But, of course, I'm far from the intended audience that already agrees with the blind defensive ragebait.

and I do feel like H.Bomberguy now after having brought my head out of the rabbit hole.

if I wasn't so averse and terrified of putting more of myself out on the internet...I could see how easy it would be to go insane and make a 4-hour long video essay.

[purplesurveys]

1860

What store did you last buy clothes from? Landmark. I had a last-minute need for a dress for a family friend's debut, and with the One Free Time I had so close to the date, that was my best bet to find something, anything haha. I didn't find anything I was envisioning, but I got a pretty enough blue-green day dress.

Which parent are you more similar to? I am so much like both of them in many ways. I have my mom's explosive temper, uptight-yness, facial and verbal expressions; but I also got my dad's patience, liberal way of thinking, love of animals, and awareness of pop culture lol.

What are some of your favorite qualities for another person to have? I find it very cool if they have a hobby they have no shame in being a geek about. Most people (at least here) still think it's a loser thing to have encyclopedic knowledge about a niche interest – because being mainstream is the correct way to do things! /s – which is SO annoying to me.

What smell reminds you of your childhood? Brewed coffee and warm pandesal. This was my grandparents' default breakfast, and it stung to miss out on this smell when we moved + even more so when my grandpa passed.

Are you happy with who you are? I am increasingly learning to be.

Do you ever sleep with your bedroom windows open? I did that until college – pre-job, essentially, when I wasn't yet able to contribute to the family monies. Now that I'm able to help out, I have the AC on hours a day and haven't had the windows open in years lol.

Have you ever had a job where you didn’t fit in with your coworkers? Nope.

What was the last word document you typed? It was a transcription of an interview.

Have you ever gotten sick from someone else’s cooking? Yeah, I got food poisoning from a stick of barbecue at my uncle's place one time. To this day I still haven't eaten anything inihaw if it's there.

Do you crave approval and attention from others? Approval, yes, as a perfectionist; attention and affection not nearly as much.

What was the last kind of cheese you ate? Manchego.

Do you have any crazy neighbors? No but there is a toddler who wail-cries everyday which drives *me* crazy.

Have you ever abused any substance? No.

How young is too young to be sexually active? I don't think there is an age for something like this. If you are, you are.

Would you ever dye your hair silver? Probably not.

What was the last fun thing you did? Welp I hung out with Angela and Hans the other night and all we talked about were plans for their wedding lol.

Have you ever dated someone who had a child from a previous relationship? Nope.

Is there any drama currently going on with your family? Kind of but it's mostly blown over now. When it does get mentioned it's mostly in passing or just general updates of what's been going on since.

What’s your favorite kind of soup? Miso.

When was the last time you were on a university campus? I was in UP around two months ago to have late lunch and watch a softball and football game with Andi.

Do you know anyone who practices Hinduism? No.

Where’s your favorite place you’ve ever lived? This current house.

When was the last time you spoke to the first person you ever kissed? Three and a half years ago.

How many texts have you sent today? Just a couple.

What’s a political issue you have a strong opinion on? The blatant Chinese bullying of the Philippines.

What snacks do you like to get at the movie theater? Potato Corner is a Must for me, and I feel like malls understand that now because in nearly every cinema you go to you are guaranteed a Potato Corner five steps away.

Have you ever stayed in a hotel in the center of a big city? Apart from my own country where most hotels are in the center of big cities, I have done this in Shanghai, yes. It was nice, because knowing that China blacks out the internet there happened to be wi-fi in the hotel I was staying at.

Are your fingernails painted? Nope.

What was the last fruit or vegetable you chopped/sliced up? I don't think I've ever chopped a fruit or veggie before.

When you take a nap, do you nap in bed or on the couch? Either, really. I feel like I've done a share for both equally.

Do you have any plans for tomorrow? Eh, just work.

[sweetums0kitty]

Things that I think have Edward Nashton ✨Vibes✨ or like random headcannons for him.

The Early Fall Out Boy albums.

Mainly I think he’d love Take This To Your Grave (he’s big into Tell Mick he just made my list of things to do today) and From Under the Cork Tree (Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner, I Slept with Someone in Fall Out Boy and All I got was this song) and Folie à deux (mans screams 20 Dollar Nosebleed driving home after a murder)

Has a beat up to hell DSI he saved a bunch of money up for. Is the undisputed king of Brain Age. Has that DS game that’s just a bunch of public domain classic books.

The DSI itself is like really beat up from riding around in his book bag. He’s changed the battery multiple times so it’s basically running on spite and coffee fumes! Just like him!

I think Eddie would also be an MCR fan, Mama makes him cry his eyes out. Legit heartbroken when they broke up. Absolutely lost his (already gone) fucking mind when Foundations of Decay came out.

Has a deep buried desire to be loved and held and cared for. Does not know how to express it or attain it. Poor guy is the definition of touch starved.

When he does order food at the diner he keeps it pretty simple. Like a sandwich maybe a BLT if he’s feeling fancy. Mostly it’s pie time bay-bee! Also too much coffee

Pretend to hate Starbucks, says Frappes are just milkshakes with like a drop of coffee in them. Loves to play the Coffee Snob™️. But this motherfucker would inject Pumpkin Spice Lattes and Frappes into his bloodstream if he could!

Speaking of Fall things favorite season right there. He loves Spoopy stuff!

The air getting colder, the leaves changing color, it’s crisper and Gotham is allllllmost a tolerable place to be in. Not when you’re right in the center of the city, that’s dank and nasty. But go to the parks or the outskirts and yeah he can vibe with that.

Is strangely enough a master at hair braiding. He picked up the skill from the Orphanage.

Really loved Roald Dahl books as a kid. Back when he was still innocent and idealistic (before everything went to shit and even a little after in the Orphanage) he would try really hard to see if he had Matilda powers.

Like he’s stand in the bathroom and give himself a migraine trying to flip the switch with his mind. It never worked! 😔✊

Shockingly don’t think he’s an Incel, is he dismissive of other people and outwardly rude? Yes, yes he is! But he just can’t give enough of a fuck about other people to give a shit about who’s having sex and who’s not. Still lonely tho…

I think his parents (to make him sadder, who doesn’t wanna kick around the Blorbo a lil) were/are a Rich Girl who was studying at Gotham University with a Law Degree and the son of her Landlord’s who was also studying. A joint study session or two and they had their little fling and boom! Eddie.

His birth mom is from Metropolis actually! His birth dad disappeared under mysterious circumstances. (Rich Girl’s dad paid him a bunch of money to fuck off out of Gotham and never talk to Ed or his mom ever again)

Neither of them have his last name and his records are hella obscured. Trust me, Eddie tried to find out something, fucking anything.

Rich Girl Mom went on to marry some Rich Boy and she ended up with a MRS. Degree and had two half siblings. She often wonders about him. Saw what happened in Gotham and felt terrible and responsible for how he turned out. Just uh… not enough to like actually reach out and help him.

Eddie hates people but will never be mean to a child. Especially not the children in his building. He likes kids, they’re honest and non-judgmental.

Deep down he still wants a spouse, a nice 4 (one room is his office/man cave) bed and 3 bath house on the outskirts of Gotham with 3.5 kids and Golden Retriever or some shit like that.

Watches/watched too many movies and thinks relationships are supposed to be like a rom-com.

Is in a few Discord servers, has his own for the Riddler but also has like a group of internet geeks he plays D&D and like Jackbox or TF2 with.

He is the D&D Dungeon Master thank you VERY much! When he’s not in charge (he will fight tooth and nail on this) he likes to play Wizards, he’s a classic Elven Wizard guy. Always super high intelligence and Wisdom stats. Has the worst fucking luck on charisma throws, even worse luck when it’s a saving throw.

He had/has friends he just self isolates into a pile of hatred for the world and self loathing so his relationships are shaky.

This dude fucking loves the Sims, Sims 2 is his Nostalgia fave but he really got into the Sims 3 and had played that one the most.

I think he smells nice and doesn’t use like 3 in 1 shampoo. It’s still shit like store brand generic green man soap. But he takes care of his skin and his hair.

Avid wearer of sunscreen, will burn if he doesn’t wear it. Objects majorly to going outside during the summer.

Has one faintly chipped tooth from when he got slammed into a toilet in Middle School.

Was a Library TA in high school. Mainly his senior year since he really didn’t need to take anymore classes other than like an elective (shop class and one more language course. He picked German)

Likes the smell of spearmint, vanilla lotion (especially on a pretty girl), leather, old books and the metallic smell of fresh blood. Also coffee but that was a given.

Can technically cook but chooses not to.

Okay, I really should fucking stop this is already so long. 😖😫 But I love him.

By god I have to add onto this post!

My dude is a raging pansexual, like you all saw how feral he was for Batman.

He has such a weird way of getting crushes on people. One time a cute guy was vaguely nice to him when he got his coffee order and this poor guy already planned out their entire wedding and what they’d name their kids.

Cannot initiate to save his life in those situations. Gets too up in his head and his mean ole brain is like “A you’re disgusting, B. You’re getting distracted from your mission you fucking loser and, C. We gotta circle back to what a gross loser you are.”

If someone showed interest in him he’d short circuit and then assume it was some kind of prank. Please reassure him, he needs it.

As for mental health stuff ima project onto the husband here.

Has BPD, why? The outbursts, getting unhealthy attached to Batman without even knowing him, the mood swings. He just seems like the type.

ADHD my dude lives in organized chaos. Nobody else knows where anything is in his place and that’s how he likes it. He’s got his hyperfixations! Riddles and puzzles being one. Numbers too! He seems like the type of person who would bounce their leg a lot.

Pens are his stim toys, you can bite em, you can tap them, you can click them and they write! 

Tried to go to a gay bar once, he did not make it through the door, mostly sat in his car trying to hype himself up.

Once he got his Riddler outfit tho…. Ooh he was in there and it still freaked him out. Mostly it was him sitting in a corner trying to blend in and lowkey drooling over every hot person that passed him by.

Watched/watched Gravity Falls. He liked Dipper, kinda hates Mabel but not really and full on loves Ford

He’s always hated Harry Potter, thought it was stupid and whenever someone asked him what his house was he’d be like “I don’t have a Hogwarts house because I’m not a child.

Green Apple and Lime are the best flavors fight him.

He used to drink like way too much Monster and other energy drinks but they kinda give him heart palpitations now so he sticks to coffee.

He likes arcades, there’s one that’s been around forever by his place. The folks who own the place are pretty nice to him.

Very pinchable cheeks. You knew tho!

Wears socks in bed! His peets get cold.

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

Saved from scrap?

This one is interesting as a fandom barometer. Like, as far as I can make out by squinting at the meager fossil record, this story was considered a GEM by RWS fans… like, the sort of people who were kids way before TVS and way, way before the Internet, or railway worker/volunteer types who came to the books as adults. This is probably because these types were generally suckers for both the motifs of “scrapping threat” + “Edward,” plus, I'm guessing, acquiring and restoring a traction engine is one of those dreams that seems just about within reach for a mechanical geek.

By the 2000s, you see glimpses (especially waaay back in the SiF archives) of this attitude, but then as the internet fandom gets underway this story suffered a huge drop in favor.

In general, the fandom got a lot younger (a good thing! the alternative being that it dies out) and developed an appreciation for stories, even within the RWS, that aren’t just the “Thomas or Percy do something silly” or “Edward does something admirable” ones that were so heavily favored by the old fogeys. The consensus warmed up, almost season by season, to non-Awdry stories; the preference (especially for video-makers) swung strongly towards stories with more “action”; TVS expanded the cast of characters to include so many more options, most of which actually have personalities… kind of unlike Trevor. :/ Fifteen years of underage bros making hurr-durr pedophile jokes surely hasn’t helped, either.

Thus at this point I hardly ever see this story mentioned, much less praised. I was a bit surprised by the ask, tbh.

But, having since done a Season 2 rewatch, I’m ready to commit to the proposition that this one is a bit slept on! It holds its own pretty damn well against the rest of the a great season.

Let’s dive in:

1) First off, it begins with Yet Another TVS-Penned Introductory Bit. This is one of the things that Allcroft and Mitton did really well during the golden years, and I’m starting to feel they don’t get nearly enough credit for their bits of original writing. The little exchange between Thomas and Edward is so natural—you don’t need to tell us anything about their relationship when you can just show a telling lil’ glimpse like that.

Master Class in How to Shoehorn Thomas into ANYTHING and Actually Make It Work, Exhibit A

Master Class in How NOT to Shoehorn Thomas Into Anythi

From what I’ve learned on Twitter/SiF, by the way, the footage at the very beginning (before the turntable scene—“The Fat Controller works his engines hard”) was originally intended as the intro to “The Missing Coach.” After they gave that episode the axe I don’t think I would have thought to recycle it into this of all stories in a million years. But it’s really smart? A very subtle intro, but it sets up the contrast in this story between TFC’s railway and certain private, less-ethical owners…

2) ‘Kay, let’s jump ahead to the single greatest adaptational change, possibly of the entire season: Trevor’s design.

SO. MUCH. BETTER.

Red accents improve the look of virtually any steam engine. Brilliant work.

3) Yo, still talking about the visuals in both Trevor episodes… the sets are so nice? They especially stand out in the context Season 2, where to be honest the sets (David’s beloved harbor scenes excepted) are decidedly not the selling point.

But here they not only take advantage of the lush orchard setting for some welcome prettiness in a somewhat drab-looking season, but even the not-so-pretty sets and shots are very nicely-arranged… with not nearly as much wasted/empty space as you see in a lot of Clearwater footage. Look at how many shots here are either unique to this episode or the first appearance of an iconic location:

Somewhere, right now, someone is offending me, personally, by carping "durrrr they used the same layout three times just dressed differently." Yeah, yah spoiled capitalist guttersnipe! That's the amazing part! It's creative economy, and they fucking nailed it.

Bonus points for them using a cross-fade at 0:15 (! — do we ever get one of these in the Classic Series again? I’ve been wracking my brains trying to think of one). Also, the scrap train is one of the cooler consists that we get this entire season… I feel like you need some mixed goods, plus a nice flatbed of logs, before you get significantly more interesting than this:

Bonus points again for the sound of the brakes. I freakin’ love when they use that effect.

4) Story-wise you have to consider the series (book and shows) in chronological order before you fully appreciate what a jump in the threat level of the universe “Saved from Scrap” really hits us with. Prior to this, there were fears about being “sent away,” but they were very vague and undefined; if the series had ended with Henry the Green Engine, there would be no reason to read those words as anything more serious than being expelled from school. And two books earlier, Toby the Tram Engine yanked up the darkness, inasmuch the first story ends with Toby left closed in his shed, presumably forever… plus the threat of Henrietta being turned into a henhouse… and that was all “yikes” enough, to be sure. But we still hadn’t even said the S-word yet, and even “Toby and the Stout Gentleman” ends with the shed being flung open again, plus the reassurance that Toby will have more adventures after a brief, lighthearted Thomas intermission.

And that’s it… until suddenly Edward and the reader/viewer are faced with a bloke sitting in a scrapyard who literally has a date set to be “broken up.” Next week.

Shit just got real on the island of Sodor!

This really feels like the moment we stepped out of “nice lil’ kids’ bedtime stories” to start wading into the deeper waters of “strap in babe, they’re gonna be making adaptations and fanfic out of this dramatic literary series for decades.”

5) Of course it’s utterly appropriate that the main character here alongside the (presumably very young and wide-eyed) reader is Edward. This is the story where his character is distilled into its most concentrated form, imho. He’s an old and clanky engine himself, apparently he visits this scrapyard and hauls away pieces of machine corpses on the weekly, and yet—he is appalled at the idea of a not-already-broken engine being scrapped. I mean how is he this shocked? But that is not a criticism. His horror and single-minded determination to not shut up about this until Trevor is safe is just so… Edward. 💙

I’m also not sure that, up till this point, we had ever gotten a story where one of the engines can exercise some agency and do some good with it? Honestly, in many of Awdry’s stories (you can almost visibly see him unbending as the series goes on, with Enterprising Engines being the high point), the engines using free will almost always means they’re about to do something troublesome or at least silly. I mean, there are examples aplenty of “persevered until finished a hard job,” but outside of strictly their railway duties I can’t think of any earlier examples of engines wanting something and it not inevitably turning into “… but in the end the dumbass learned their lesson about engines having, hahaha, Ideas!” Even “good” mischief like Henry’s sneeze was down to the drivers.

I like to imagine someone straight-up told Awdry “Yep. More of this, please.” Because, as said, after this you start to see more and more of the engines taking some initiative (Stepney showing Duck how to lay down sand, Oliver asking Douglas for help and Douglas agreeing, Toad and Oliver conspiring to tear apart an enemy… well, maybe one of these isn’t like the others. Then again, maybe it is!)

6) I don’t agree with the sometimes-heard criticism that this is a “slow” story… as a matter of fact, they cut some of the convos from the RWS version, probably to avoid the narrative seeming too busy! It’s just that it’s pretty human-centric, rather than railway-centric. Plus it still feels way more impactful and “high-content” than the story before, despite being not nearly so “actiony.”

Anyway, I love the this human-centric aspect. Another development you can see in the Awdry stories leading up to this book is the increased emphasis on human characters—in fact, the Rev. actually stepped back from this level of human spotlighting after Edward the Blue Engine, I suppose because perhaps the series would have gotten rather cluttered if every station/town had been fleshed out in this much detail.

Which I get, but still, this story/book's worldbuilding for Wellsworth is so great, just as or more vivid than any glimpse we get of RWS’s famously bucolic Thomas’s branch line. There’s the driver and fireman (who have names), who know the Vicar, who knows Jem Cole, and they all know that they know each other, and man am I ever a sucker for fictional small-town dynamics. I could eat this up for days.

And I am super happy that a good deal of the “human stuff” was accordingly kept/filmed in the adaptation. Good vibes!

‘Course, as is becoming tradition… here is the RWS stuff that didn’t quite make it into TVS:

Okay, this was mostly all in TVS, but the begging goes down really hard here. “You have roooooommm!” points out Edward, as if that alone should be reason enough for someone to save another living being from being killed slowly and painfully, and also come to think of it where is the lie????

Honestly this story is only “simple” if you don’t think about it for two seconds. When you do, it starts to break your brain. (Also, +1 to TVS for giving Edward that albeit-slightly-odd-looking “upset” face during this exchange; Dalby illustrates this as a smiley happy scene???? Which it is not. Sorry. The Vicar might think it’s funny but he’s the only goddamn one.)

Even if the very last bit was lost, delighted that the boys made it into the adaptation. (Come to think of it, are the two naughty kids in “Old Iron” who nearly get James killed their foils/Jungian shadows? lol Anyway I forgot to take a picture of it, but the line right before this page is the boys begging their father to buy Trevor on the spot, no test-drive needed. Good lads. Distinctly less narcissistic than their old man lol she says, with an “lol” and a whimsical strikethrough to indicate that she is not taking this too seriously when actually she wanta chase after this man with a damn blowtorch.)

I am, however, disappointed that TVS cut the part (also not photographed above) where Jem gets the demo started by saying “Watch this, Reverence!” (Ironically, this refusal to portray that bit of cheek is actually part of the modern “PC” stuff that Awdry was bitching about—and yes, I am sure he did notice that omission when he got steamed up. Give 'im a lil' credit.)

Still, overall, yeah… this episode looks great and it also retains, indeed in some ways manages to enhance, the themes that make this story unique. High marks!

Certainly it blows “Bertie’s Chase” right the hell out of the wa *aaaand the network abruptly cuts to commercial*

[1kook]

commercial break; SEVEN

this is part of my netflix & chill series ! happens a few months before part 7 

summary; And lastly, Jungkook will bring it full circle by indulging you two in some good old fashion spooky sex where he nuts inside you because the only thing scarier than a scary movie is a pregnancy scare. It’s a perfect plan.  warnings; horny jk, jk wants to roleplay... everyone point n laugh, mentions of his impreg kink lol, making out, tits, honestly jk is just very horny n in love lol, jk in a vampire costume w fangs O_o rating; mature (18+) wc; 2k

notes; if u don’t know who lindsay is first of all ur sick, second of all here’s my queen’s top moments. also i just gotta say, this was originally gonna be a larger fic (a halloween special) for my ncouple, but i got a lil busy with school n ultimately didn't have time to invest in this as a whole installment so..... enjoy this commercial break instead!!

Jungkook loves Halloween.

He loves the pumpkin carving and the decorating. Loves the spooky music and the abundance of candy. He loves it, absolutely adores it, and for the second year in a row, he gets to spend it with you! Yet another person he loves very much.

He doesn’t remember ever being this excited for Halloween. Last year, you had roped him into going to some frat party with him, had egged him on, begged so cutely that it was your last year in college, baby until he caved. The two of you had spent the night drinking until you blacked out, Ubering home with your costumes half on, and then unceremoniously fucking in his living room with the blinds wide open.

(The next neighborhood meeting had been very awkward for Jungkook.)

It was his first time ever drinking with you like that, and he vaguely remembers, through his own drunken gaze, how cool you had been. Had absolutely owned a bunch of greasy football players at beer pong in your little sexy nurse costume. And when the crowd cheered your name, shrieked in awe, it had been him that you turned to for praise. “Did you see me, baby,” you had giggled, crowded him against the wall of this random house until Jungkook was sweating profusely. In lieu of a costume, he had worn a silly jogger set with a skeleton design that was supposed to glow in the dark, according to Amazon. You had told him he looked adorable, had kissed and squeezed his cheeks until Jungkook was a flustered mess.

It was still early into your relationship— if Jungkook did the math, you were only about five months in at that point —so he didn’t know how else to cope with the rapid thundering of his heart, the confession sitting on his tongue, the then scary L-word begging to be heard. So, he took you home and fucked you until your little nurse cap slid off your head and you were begging for him to let you cum, thus earning him his first ever offense for violating the neighborhood rules (i.e., traumatizing a group of middle schoolers by fucking in plain sight).

Long story short, Jungkook loves Halloween, and he loves it even more when he gets to spend it with you.

(He’ll never admit it, but he’s a hard romantic. He wants to do cheesy things with you, like cuddle you into his arms when you get scared, pat your head until you can look at whatever is happening on screen again. He wants you to feel safe in his arms, wants to be your refuge when things become too much. He likes to think he’s done a pretty good job so far.)

Jungkook’s plan goes like this:

First, welcome you with that Halloween basket you’ve been sending him tweet links about all month. The cute little Jack-O-lantern candy bucket stuffed with candy and hair ties and a soft Halloween themed blanket. It’s so cheesy, makes him blush when he catches sight of it in his closet, but Jungkook will do anything to please you.

Next, after presenting you with your Halloween gift and having you coo and tell him he’s a good boy, he’ll invite you to break your new soft blanket in. The living room will be prepared with an assortment of your favorite foods, the flat screen ready to play whatever horror movie the two of you settle on.

And lastly, Jungkook will bring it full circle by indulging you two in some good old fashion spooky sex where he nuts inside you because the only thing scarier than a scary movie is a pregnancy scare.

It’s a perfect plan.

It’s the best way to spend his favorite holiday, with his favorite girl by his side and some of his favorite horror films on the big screen. Jungkook spends all of October geeked up for it, even considers hanging up lights around the living room to really set the mood. He’s so excited, can’t wait to spend another wonderful holiday at home with you, that he doesn’t fully realize why you haven’t brought up the long awaited topic of costumes.

“You like?” you ask, standing at the door of his bathroom with a sultry look in your eye, tits practically pouring out of the tight top you’ve wiggled into, skin oiled up scandalously. He fumbles with the fake vampire fang prosthetics he’d been trying to glue in for the better half of an hour.

He had heard the door open downstairs when you got here, had called out his mandatory greeting as he heard you come up the stairs. But none of that had prepared him for the sight of you in… whatever this was.

Jungkook doesn’t really understand exactly what you’re supposed to be dressed up as until the two of you are back downstairs—blinds drawn, full moon slipping in through the cracks—with some random horror movie pulled up on the TV. “I’m Lindsey,” you whine, brand new fluffy blanket wrapped around your shoulders. It shields your boobs from view, but he’s not sure if that’s a win or a loss. “From Total Drama Island!”

He settles in beside you, doesn’t get too comfortable because it’s nearing sundown now and he knows the herds of children are bound to start flowing in. “Uh huh,” he says mindlessly. His collar feels itchy, the overly-detailed vampire costume he meticulously scoured the internet for being one size too small. You snuggle into his side anyway.

“You don’t know anything about cinematic masterpieces,” you frown, avidly tuned into The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, because apparently you love horror movies all of a sudden, a fact that genuinely throws Jungkook off. He’s not sure what it is about you that had deluded him into thinking you would be a scaredy cat, but he doesn’t take the new bit of information too hard.

The doorbell rings right as the first gorey scene ends and you make a big show of huffing and whining as he rushes to answer it. But it’s only the beginning of the long night that awaits, and, as Jungkook comes to find, running back and forth from the door to the couch is harder than it seems.

Anyway, Jungkook’s neighborhood is a little posh, or ‘bougie’ as you like to claim, and trick-or-treating hours end a little before eleven pm. By then he’s tired, having refused your offer to switch places in fear that your boob might fall out of that scrap of fabric you call a top and earn him his second neighborly offense.

However, that doesn’t mean he’s opposed to your boobs falling out in private.

“Stupid,” you giggle when he gets caught in his long cape, the sound slowly melting into a whimper as he slips his hands beneath your top, fighting with the ridiculous push-up bra you’ve donned tonight. Hands tangle in his hair, mess up the careful side part he’d styled up for tonight, and legs lock around his waist. “Your curtains closed?” you tease.

He huffs, catches your chatty lips with his roughly, presses and presses until your mouth must bruise. He belatedly remembers about those sharp fangs he’d glued on—hey, if he was going to dress up as some gaudy monster it might as well be realistic—and doesn’t realize until he tries to bite your neck and you let out a little yelp. Truthfully, he feels bad right away, but then you’re practically dissolving in his arms so he plays along. “Shh,” he hisses.

The roar of a chainsaw and terrified screams fill the living room, almost drowning out the soft sounds you release by his ear. “O- Or what?” you pant, flinch when he pushes your sad excuse of a skirt up over your waist. “Gonna b- bite me?”

And so Jungkook does.

You shriek. “That hurts, you idiot!” you scold with a tiny whine in your voice, but Jungkook’s cock is so hard. Your tiny, tight outfit does you no favors. Tits in his face, tiny thong against his bulge. He wants to make you sob, litter bites and marks all over your skin until his love makes you ache. You must see the crazed look in his eyes, because you drop the scowl. “Hey,” you say slowly, hand on his chest. “You look like you’re gonna eat me.”

He lets go of a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. He wonders if you can feel his thundering heart beneath your palm. “Fuck,” he sighs, leaning away to regain his senses. Was it something in the air? Was it the fatigue? The full moon? Why did he want to fold you in half and fuck his cock into you until you were a crying, shivering mess? Something about you tonight, laid out for him to take, makes him feel absolutely insane. Starved and psycho; he just wants to take and take until you don’t have anything more to give. He purses his lips, tries to ignore the hot feeling in his lower abdomen when your hardened nipples register to his eyes. “I think I’m becoming evil.”

Of all the idiotic things his brain can come up with, this one is definitely top five. His cheeks flush right after, fueled by the boisterous laughter that escapes your lips at his statement. “Oh my god,” you gasp in glee, hands falling down beside your head. “You’re becoming evil?’

Jungkook frowns, flopping down on top of you to hide the embarrassment that paints his face. “Shut up,” he mumbles against your neck, warm and safe.

A hand cards through the back of his hair, nails dig lightly into his scalp. “Aren’t you the cutest little vampire,” you coo, seemingly ignoring the rock hard cock Jungkook presses against your thigh. He’s still so horny, has this sick thought that he could just pin you down right here, tear that silly costume to shreds and swallow you up in his lust. But your voice is so sweet, has his eyes fluttering shut as you gather him in his arms. “Silly vampire,” you hum, one leg thrown around his hip, a subtle roll of you hips up into him.

Jungkook huffs, licks a flat strip along the base of your neck. It draws a shaky exhale from you, has your hands digging into his back when he begins to slowly lap against the skin, nibble and tug until your back is deliciously arching up into him. “Wanna push you down,” he confesses quietly, hands securing themselves against your hips as he leans back. You're all dazed, eyes trained on his fanged mouth when he hesitantly adds, “l- little human.”

You could laugh, tease him for his sudden weird need to role play with you, but you don’t. A look of understanding crosses your face, sly smirk slowly following. “Oh?” you grin, hand coming around to cup his cheek. “The little vampire wants to use my body?” Jungkook tightens his jaw at your jab, but nods nonetheless.

You’re a feast before his eyes. Boobs in his face, pussy begging to be filled. You’re his, just like Jungkook is yours. And when you indulge him and his stupid whims—kinks, he should say, occasional interests that sometimes make him question himself—his heart feels warm and full. Proud and unashamed, like the truest version of himself when you look at him with those eyes. And your words only confirm it.

Your hands reach down for your top, pull the flimsy material over your head in one swoop that has your bra coming off with it. It drops to the floor. If it makes a sound, Jungkook doesn’t hear it over the shrieks of terror on screen. the blood deaths, the suspenseful music. All he hears is he hammering of his heart. 

It’s two of your sneaky fingers that come up to play, pinch one nipple tenderly as you meet his eyes. “It’s all yours,” you purr. “I’m all yours.”

And the thirst he feels, well. It’s a little vampiric, to say the least. 

—

Copyright © 2020, 1kook on tumblr. absolutely NO reposts allowed.

[rapunzel-the-pun-master]

Hi everyone, I’m sure that most of you are aware that there’s been some discourse (again) from certain whiterose shippers (again) towards the rosegarden community. This time they’ve crossed a line, but I will get back to that. I’m going to write about my own interpretation of the reasons behind their actions, and then I will provide some ways I think we all can avoid this in the future. I can’t stress enough that this is my own interpretation based in what I’ve seen. This is not an attack against anyone, and this is not intended to be a definitive glance into these people’s thought process. Everyone thinks differently and I could be way off the mark. I’m more using this as an example to figure out why discourse happens in fandoms at all. One last side-note before we get started: this does NOT represent whiterose as a whole, this discourse has been consistently lead by what seems to be the same whiterose shippers with some stragglers contributing here and there.

A lot of people prefer some ships over others because of self projection. So when someone tells them that their ship sucks, or another ship containing one of the characters starts to have a chance at being canon, the shipper will naturally begin to feel threatened. The certain whiterose shippers that have been causing all this discourse probably feel threatened by rosegarden merely existing. This is not an insult, I want that to be very clear. To be fair, while I haven’t seen it myself, these whiterose shippers justify their harassment by saying that rosegarden shippers leave mean comments on their posts unprompted. Even though I haven’t seen this, I will take their word for it. When the discourse first began, it was very nitpicky. They would argue things that aren’t true such as Ruby and Oscar being too far apart in years, and Ozpin making the ship akward. We would argue against these points, and the same arguments would resurface again a little while afterwards. Recently, Miles did a cameo where he disproved these points. He said (once again) that there is only a two year age gap, and when asked if it is okay to ship rosegarden, he said yes. There was also another cameo where someone tried to bait him into saying that Ruby and Oscar have a sibling relationship but it backfired completely and ended up adding fuel to rosegarden. I think that these certain whiterose shippers got frustrated with rosegarden’s increasing momentum, backing and lack of things to nitpick and they didn’t really know what else to do. Very recently, someone posted on twitter “we should bully Rosegarden.” This became a troll thread, and from there, people began to add increasingly vulgar stuff, all targeted towards rosegarden shippers. I will not go into detail, there is no point in resurfacing insults in a post that I want to be helpful.

So how do we avoid conflict in the future? Here are some helpful tips:

1. The block button is there for a reason. This is a very obvious solution that many of you have heard countless times before, but it does work. Now, the block button should not be used just because someone says they ship something different. The block button is there to avoid harassment and cyberbullying. Wait to see if the person you want to block actually means you any harm.

2. Take a 5 minute break. This works in in real life, to. If you are ever in an argument with someone and you can feel yourself or the other person getting angry, it is perfectly fine to say “I’m starting to get angry, I’m going to take a break to calm down. I will come back to this conversation, though.” The purpose of a conversation is communication, if a conversation is going nowhere, then it is also fine to say “this conversation isn’t going anywhere. Let’s just stop.” If the person tries to continue the conversation, give them a warning and say something like “I don’t like this conversation, and it isn’t going anywhere. If you keep trying to continue this conversation, I will block you.” In real life, you can’t always use this because some conversations need to find a resolution. But on the internet when you are talking with a stranger, this is a great tool.

3. Don’t comment on posts about your ship unless they directly reference it. This should be a given, but it does happen quite a lot. It doesn’t help you or your ship at all, it just gives the other person reason to retaliate. Not to mention the fact that it is just a really mean thing to do.

4. Don’t “take revenge.” It is very easy to justify insulting someone because they or their community has done it in the past. This will never result in something good. So just avoid this all together.

5. Try to diffuse the conversation. If a conversation is going nowhere, or the other person is getting aggressive, act subjective. You may feel very angry in the moment, but when people become angry, they actually become dumber in the moment. So act subjective, and if it begins to get difficult, take your five minutes. Do what you need to do to calm down.

6. Ask for advice. Go to someone you trust and show them the conversation. Ask if it seems like the conversation is going anywhere or if it is an appropriate time to block the person. Try to say the conversation word for word so that your feelings don’t mix up what was actually said.

7. Report the person. This is a very last ditch effort kind of thing to do, and it should only be done if the person has actually violated the platform’s community guidelines.

These are some ways to avoid conflict off the top of my head. Fell free to add your own if you feel I’ve missed something. Fandoms are here so we can geek out about something we all enjoy, at the end of the day, try to remember that these are just fictional characters and that it’s okay to step away for yourself. Your mental health and other’s mental health is much more important than your OTP. I hope everyone has a great day!

[deleteddewewted]

Incel!Shinsou Headcanons:

TW: Mentions of SS/Assault, Misogyny, Mild Strong Language

I wasn’t aware that a lot of people liked the idea of Shinsou being an incel. So let's fuel the flames a bit more. (Quick Note: This is a No Quirks AU since i wanted to keep it in reality. All characters are 18+)

Keep in mind that UA in this AU is a University that focuses mostly on STEM and Art. Think of the Hero Course as a the Art Course while the Support Course is the STEM Course. Business Course is still the Business Course. UA is responsible for many talented and intelligent people such as Aizawa who's a nurse, Yagi who's a famous actor, and Endeavor who is also an actor. Within the Courses you you have specific departments such as for STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and mathematics. For Art: Theater, Painting/Drawing, Music, Vocal, Dance, Media, and Writing.

Part 1: Incel! Shinsou x F!Reader

Part 2: Incel! Shinsou x F!Reader

Ok here we go.... Incel!Shinsou pre meeting you + backstory

Shinsou lives with his dad Aizawa, a nurse at the local hospital. Aizawa is always at work and barely pays attention to what his son in doing online or with people irl.

Shinsou is raised by a single dad which took a bit of a toll on him since he didn’t have a female relative other than his pornstar aunt Kayama as an influence. (This isn’t where he became an incel btw. During this time he's around elementary so he's not even aware as to what Kayama's work is.)

With a limited relationship with women, and other people in general, he became isolated as a young kid. His dad never being able to make it to school events or any of his games (Shinsou plays baseball) left him to be the butt of the jokes the other kids would make because of a lack of a parental figure.

Shinsou starts to invest most of his time on the internet to look for validation and a distraction from the cruel jokes and absent attention in his life. (Which was the first mistake.)

He starts investing more time into playing video games than school and makes no effort to socialize in person because he found “friends” online that understood him and his struggles.

From there, the pour in of misogynistic ideals comes in (if you’ve played any FPS ever you know what I’m talking about, XBOX chat 😬)

He starts to fall for all of it and even starts to push away Aizawa because he feels like he's never really cared about him. (He's about middle school age here, remember that kids develop a lot of their personality during this time. You can take this as him being and angsty teen)

When it came to his aunt Kayama, he was incredibly cruel. He would mock her and taunt her about literally everything she did and eventually went as far as to mock her SS. Telling her that “It was your fault. If you weren’t such a slut it would’ve never happened. Maybe keep your legs closed next time!” (Freshman/Sophomore in High School)

That solidified everything

Aizawa sent him to his room and pretty much ignored him thinking that Shinsou would eventually apologize. That never happened and they’ve both been on edge with each ever since.

Shinsou falls deeper into this mindset and even starts to ignore his own hygiene because he wants to keep away "whores who only want him for his looks." (I cant believe I've somehow manage to make him someone i hate.)

He falls...and falls....and falls for this mindset to the point that his chances of getting into a good school, UA specifically, are slim since he neglects his studies in favor of berating women and other groups on the internet for shits and giggles.

He's loosing any chances of furthering himself because he feels miserable yet is stubborn about his own mindset. He knows his opinion makes people ignore him, at this point he's doing it because he genuinely wants to be alone. He hates everyone and everything.

Shinsou loves theater! This boy is secretly a geek at heart and tells NO ONE about the fact he takes acting courses. (Aizawa doesn't think that Shinsou deserves to have his acting classes be payed for because he isn't doing well in his academics but he also hopes that Shinsou, having something positive in his life like theater can help him change his attitude)

He ends up getting into UA in the General Study course which pisses him off because he was trying out for the Art Course (Throws a tantrum once he finds out but doesn't stop him from practicing. He's dead set on getting into the Art Course)

With the school year started, he meets all of his classmates and low and behold there you are. The one person that irritates him off the bat just because you exist. (Congrats!?)

[annikasafternoonread]

So. Gideon the Ninth. That was a wild, wild ride -- wild doesn’t even begin to cover it. This is going to be a long reflection, so buckle up and stay hydrated. 

My biggest reaction is one that I’ve mentioned several times through reading this, which is just -- this book does not behave the way I expect. That’s not a value statement one way or the other, just a fascination. Oh, there are dozens of genres and ages and thousands of authorial styles, but there’s still a pattern to it all. A familiar rhythm to the way a story is told (in this time and place and language, at least -- certainly other cultures have different rhythms) -- a certain way of setting up ideas, a certain narrative voice, a certain rise and fall of the action and drama and mystery. 

This book does not know that rhythm and it does not care. Everyone else is ballroom dancing and this book is breakdancing. To classical music. But somehow it works. And it’s so different as to be breathtaking. It takes a little getting used to, I wasn’t sure at first if I liked it, and I’m sure some people would find it too jarring -- but as I got used to it, it just felt fun. To have every one of my preconceived notions about what a story is and what a character should be and how a thing with a certain connotation is interpreted -- every single one of those expectations was cheerfully fed through a shredder and then sprinkled out a window like confetti. I never quite knew what was going to happen. And as I adjusted to that unpredictability, my expectations shifted a bit as well; my guesses became what felt completely wild and ridiculous, and some of them were, but some of them weren’t. But I never had the slightest idea which was which! Oh, some things at the end were more predictable, some of the final payoffs could be guessed as we got close, but that’s not a bad thing either -- that just means it was set up well and the conclusions satisfied. I couldn’t see anything coming at the beginning, but at the end, it all felt like it made sense (albeit in a somewhat nonsensical way). 

I enjoyed how this book challenged my preconceived notions of death magic and necromancy as dark and illicit. And I enjoyed how as I got more used to that, it twisted again, in that some kinds of necromancy are still Not Acceptable. I enjoyed how it challenged my understanding of past and future, modern and ancient. They know what guns are but choose to fight with swords. They have space travel, but there’s no mention of computers or internet. It’s not entirely clear whether this universe is our universe in the far future or another galaxy or universe altogether.

Sometimes that uncertainty and unexpectedness is fun, but it also can be frustrating. There are a lot of gaps and questions left unanswered. I’m sure many of them will be answered in the next book(s), now that we’re not trapped on one planet, but... I guess I’ve seen too many books that didn’t make it to sequels to feel entirely comfortable with a first book leaving that much open. It’s not clear what the Cohort is fighting and expanding into. It’s not clear what the Emperor and the Lyctors are fighting. It’s not clear what the Emperor is and what his relationship with his followers is. It’s not clear what’s hiding in the Locked Tomb, and why, and why the Ninth has been allowed to continue if it wasn’t supposed to, and why the other Houses seem to treat them with so much reverence. It’s not clear if all the Houses are in the same star system, if they’re planets or moons or something else or a mix, if they’re trying to colonize or explore or defend or what. On a smaller level, it’s not clear who killed Protesilaus the second time. It’s not clear what’s up with Gideon surviving everything, and why they didn’t kill her when she didn’t die. It’s not clear why Harrow wanted Gideon to be her cavalier. It’s not clear why the Ninth leaders killed themselves, and it’s not clear why Harrow brought them back. It’s not clear why the Ninth House stopped having kids after the murder spree. It’s obviously good for the first book to have some world left to explore, some questions left to answer, but when that list gets too long and unwieldy... it just makes me uneasy. 

It is definitely fun to have a book that focuses on queer characters without it being about queerness or making a big deal out of Hey Look This Person Is Queer Hell Yes Representation. Both of those have their place and are valuable, and I don’t want to diminish that -- queerness is an important story to tell, and representation is great. And it’s not that Gideon isn’t Flamingly Loudly Queer, she totally is, but it feels... different. It doesn’t feel like a statement or anything, it’s just... Gideon. She’s buff, she’s rebellious, she’s into women, she likes swords, the list goes on. None of these is any more or less remarkable than any other. 

I also enjoy that this book is absolutely unapologetically queer to the point where it doesn’t even bear remarking on in universe. Like, it’s not just that queerness is accepted -- it’s that being queer isn’t, well, queer. There’s nothing to remark on, it’s just a person being attracted to a person. There’s no wondering oh is she even into women though it’s just she pretty I like and that’s that. The question isn’t “is she attracted to my gender” it’s just “is she attracted to ME.” It feels like being into women is like... being into redheads, or guitarists, or history geeks, or whatever. It’s refreshing.

I feel like I should have more to say than this, but also this is already like a thousand words long. I’ve written some that were longer, but this is definitely up there. And I think I’ve hit the main points. So I will leave you there with one more thank you so much for tagging along and for all your love on this journey -- it’s been awesome to watch things grow this past month or two. We passed 100 followers, we passed a year of this blog, I got so many asks and comments and posts that folks seemed to really connect with or enjoy or just side-eye the shit out of. It’s been a blast. 

I can’t wait to continue with Harrow the Ninth.

[sanchoyo]

danny phantom 14-20 thoughts!! I finished up s1 :D these last few eps were actually really really good!!!

-did. did tucker really just say esperanto was a dead language only spoken as a secret code between geeks. google says around 100,000 people actively speak it. oh my god...it being an auxiliary language doesn't mean its 'just for geeks to speak in code' ...it helps bridge gaps between people who don't have a language in common...

-danny really isn't pulling punches when it comes to fighting the ghost-cop possessed people huh. like he SLAMMED KWAN INTO THE CONCRETE SO HARD. HE THREW PAULINA INTO A BILLBOARD. will that...I mean it WOULD carry over to their bodies non-possessed, right? like if the ghost piloting their bodies gets hurt?? itd be so upsetting to be possessed, lose time, then wake up covered in bruises (and possibly, broken bones??) real horror movie stuff im sure wont be addressed in any way

-tuckers parents seem nice! I like them :)

-WULF IS CUTE AND I FEEL BAD. im so glad the gang realized he was only causing trouble bc of the shock collar walker put on him and helped. also, him wearing that big hoodie with the hood on, and thinking its subtle. we can tell youre still a giant wolfie :) THEN GETTING SUCKED INTO THE PORTAL AAAAH :( anxiously waiting to see Him Again....

-DANNY BLASTING HIS PARENTS THINKING THEY WERE OVERSHADOWED LMFAO GET THEIR ASSES. maddie marking how many ghosts she gets with lipstick tallies on the side of her portal gun? kindaaa iconic tho. (ALSO, SHE WAS LIKE, 2 FT AWAY FROM HIM RIGHT AFTER SHE TRIED TO SHOOT HIM. HOW DO YOU NOT RECONINZE YOUR OWN SON??? like sure, he might have diff hair/eye colors. but like, if one of my family members dyed their hair, and was wearing contacts, its not like id be like 'wHO IS THIS STRANGER!!!' ...he still has all his facial features!! same everything!!! I hate it here)

-paulina being #1 girl realizing danny's a friendly ghost immediately. smart queen. lancer and kwan ran away right after he made this sweet baby face at them:

which is hilarious.

-ok. im not saying his bullying is JUSTIFIED, but. dash looked so pleased with the (cute!) poster he just painted, and danny comes thru the wall and spills paint on his nice letterman jacket. his anger is justified maybe 65% of the time so far...(not the way he handles it, but STILL.) at least lancer is stepping in!! and them making a silly little bet was...cute?? until dash pulled out his GROSS UNDERWEAR AND SAID DANNY WOULD HAVE TO EAT THEM???? WHAT THE FUCK MAN. TUCKER WAS SO RIGHT ITS FUCKING WEIRD TO CARRY THOSE AROUND EWWW. THIS KID IS UNWELL. lancer was right, his animatronic setup was SUPER IMPRESSIVE?? hes actually pretty creative. danny meanwhile is stealing the fright knight's design...I hope dash is taking art classes or smth with his sports

-fright knight is the most bestest ghost so far i LOVE THAT DESIGN. I am biased towards knights, and characters with swords, but he fucks so severely. and should sue danny for copyright infringement for stealing his design for his haunted house. if some 14 yr old broke into MY house and stole MY sword, id also be pissed. his evil winged unicorn rules too with its FANGS. and he just CAN SHOVE THE PORTAL OPEN WITH HIS HANDS??? is he the strongest ghost weve seen so far? idk but hes my fav. SOUL SHREDDER IS SUCH A COOL SWORD NAME TOO. ANY NAMED SWORD ALSO FUCKS. 'flaming bedsheets of DEATH' funny king. ALSO he was polite to dash and tucker when just asking for directions and telling tucker 'oh maybe, just a suggestion, maybe be nicer to me and be more respectful :)' I LOOOVE HIM.

-I noticed this in the Ember ep, but jazz has an electric guitar in her room!! talent musical queen!! its cool to see hobbies just in the bg.

-fright knight's murder castle reminds me of the booby trapped murder castle in zexal!! another supposedly 'for kids' show with murder/trap castles! we love that. if you are a dp fan reading this, give yugioh zexal a try. its also got 13-14 year old protags and involves (alien) ghosts. the cardgame is just a vessel for the plot, which is really good. (I just want more people to watch my fav yugioh, man)

-danny. with a SWORD.

-danny doesnt NEED TO WIN this contest, dash didnt STEAL HIS DESIGNS AND STEAL A SWORD. he also got excited to hear lancer got sent to a dimension with his worst fears too just so he could win the contest? DANNY WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!!! BRO MAYBE YOURE 14 AND HAVENT FULLY DEVOLPED YOUR WHOLE BRAIN YET, BUT...THATS FUCKED. this kid casually says the most deranged things, I do worry for my spooky son. once again, therapy needed. that judo toss was great tho. I wonder if he actually did pick up some martial arts stuff from his mom?

-danny can fly 112 mph!!! thats so fast! I love the lil montage of him and his friends testing his abilities and stuff, very cute and a good way to showcase what he can do by now and how much more proficient he's gotten from ep 1!!! I'm sure he's going to get more abilities :)

-im glad...maddie's at least TRYING this ep. I do feel for her because her husband is a man baby. but the fact it took 16 episodes to get a kinda semblance of any kind of real concern or attempts at bonding. hmm. jack's 'BACK OFF SHES A MINOR' @ the ghost trying to attack jazz. also was very funny. and him wanting to make an action figure of her? are the parents redeeming themselves to me? slightly. they gotta Work Harder

-THE GHOST. IS FLYING. THE PLANE.

-fenton machete. but she doesnt carry a PHONE??? ???

-I mean I expected vlad when you namedrop him earlier in the ep, and also the title card picture, and dalv corp being fucking vlad backwards. but seeing him just pull up on a golf cart made me bust out laughing. WITH the gift baskets prepared. why wouldnt you at least be suspicious. also, if he wants danny to be his lil sonboy, why is he so fucking malicious?? dude you are going about this in such a bad way. stop it. get some help.

-maddie not even hesitating to drag danny out. fucking good. danny is so right, go on the internet to date. get a cat. how do you spend...how many years?? has it been since college?? at least 20, right, since the parents/vlad are in their 40s? hung up on ONE girl. my god, man. incel drama queen. her kung fu IS impressive, but dude. 'we both know hes a creep' SO right. it sucks but they do need a phone and shit being in the middle of NOWHERE. also, just stealing his helicopter was great. <3

-'you must be exhausted carrying the weight of that mistake you made years ago' 'well we all make mistakes. maybe I'll make one now!' WHY DID THIS EXHCHANGE SEND ME. AND VLAD WITH THE BREATH SPRAY EWWW BITCH. 'OLD BAIT BREATH' SOO RIGHT. both danny and his mom playing him HAHAH hes so dumb. or rather, I think he thinks with his emotions too too much and is...actually pretty gullible? lmao he believed danny was ready to give in SO fast. (which is sad hes that hopeful, like you have SO MUCH MONEY YOU COULD EASILY GET ANOTHER GIRL WHO HAS A KID. AND WOULD WANT TO BE WITH YOU AND BE SUPPORTED. GET OVER THIS (1) WOMAN ALREADY IM GETTING SECONDHAND EMBARRASSMENT AAAAH)

-GHOST BEAR GHOST BEAR GHOST BEAR. it was also in the title card, but I still got very excited. we love bears here

-SAM'S BAT SWIMSUIT COVERUP!!! her outfits are simply iconic.

-'i'd tell you to go to the mens room, but I don't think you qualify' top paulina transphobic moments. :( and him wearing a tanktop to the swim park? hmmm! (actually I think she was overshadowed by then, so, KITTY top 10 transphobic moments??)

-kitty just piloting paulina around makes me feel SO bad tho, paulina's gonna wake up and be like 'wtf do you mean I was dating this rando' like youre leading danny on to make johnny jealous, and also just POSSESSING POOR PAULINA. dude take your relationship problems ELSEWHERE. last time we saw them, they seemed like such a cute couple!! wtf johnny!! I mean, she sucks for trying to make him jealous, he sucks for looking at other girls...maybe they need a break, but Not Like This. or, you know, just. better communication...

-and the A-listers having a full packet and a stamp system. who organizes this. kwan fucking owning being the new danny though, this is hysterical. THE TUCKER/KWAN FLOWER FIELD TWIRL. UNIRONICALLY ADORABLE. and him giving it his all for the poetry slam. bless his HEARTTTT.

-Star owns. actually, all of the extra characters are shining this ep and I love it.

-INVISO-BILL??? NOOOO THEY DID HIM SOO DIRTY. DANNY SWEETIE IM SO SORRY.

-johnny and danny bein friends and staging a fake fight (which danny takes too seriously, once again this child has aggression he NEEDS TO WORK OUT) I hope these three stay friends, I said it before but danny needs more friendly ghosts to hang with.

-at this point, Danny's ghost enemies are a lot like, I dunno, batman's rouge gallery is the first thing that comes to mind. they all have their own gimmick and unique designs, but most of them are easy to beat after learning the Moral Lesson. I still get excited when any of them show up again, though. 18 is another valerie episode!!!! :D skulker really said you two will get along if I have to handcuff you together <3 and the gym teacher really said, youre married now, have a flour baby! ngl, I'm not really watching this show for the shipping stuff (which I am very scared to look at the fandom for after I finish this watch through- I feel like there's probably discourse/arguing about ships...) but. I'm gonna put my opinion out there. valerie/danny > sam/danny. maybe I just really love the enemies to lovers trope. And the secret identity stuff adds Extra Flavor.

-SKULKER JUST HAVING THE BOX GHOST AND DANGLING HIM BY A STRING. HILARIOUS. and him watching them with binoculars and making his silly little commentary. AND MAKING THE SACK BABY CRY. LMAO. THIS DUDE IS A BABY KIDNAPPER. skulker is super fun

-danny, you just...collapsed the water tower. and then attacked the nasty burger machine...mascot thingy...out of anger..I KEEP SAYING HE'S GOT ANGER ISSUES BUT. HE REALLY NEEDS A LESSON IN MANAGING COLLATERAL DAMAGE!!! So does valerie!! They're both pretty focused on each other. I mean it's good of Danny to say he's trying to make sure PEOPLE don't get hurt, but... (I mean I guess it's not something 14 year olds WOULD worry about, but as an adult im like, who's going to fix that? how much money will that take??)

-TUCKER MAKING BANK. and sam and tucker being super emotionally attached to their flour baby and being pretty good parents. that's cute...also him just straight kissing her and being like. WAIT. O_O JDSKAFHD. his mom baking them into cookies was the funniest possible result. tbh I dont feel like this is on tucker, if anything the other kid's shouldve been more responsible! He was just taking an opportunity to get that $$ which I respect

-Danny being more understanding of Valerie's situation in the end (helping her at her job, too, and trying to keep that a secret for her!!!) And seeing them work together this ep, and also her letting phantom get her out of the ghost zone...was very sweet. LOVE that. more valerie eps pls

-me when I realize vlad's big stupid house exploded because of his own carelessness with changing the ghost portal ectofiltrator or whatever: *pointing and laughing*

-me when I realize it means he's gonna go make danny's life hell for it somehow: >:(

-SCOOBY PARODY!!! I feel like there's gotta be some scooby doo/danny phantom crossover stuff, right? also, 'guys in white' men in black wishes

-'oh, that's right! dad married the love of your life! you're bitter and alone!' DANNNNNYY GET HIS ASS ONCE AGAIN WE ARE POINTING AND LAUGHING AT VLAD

-'jack, you captured the ghost boy!!' UMM. he did nothing <3 'we have a weapon's vault??' YOU HAVE A WEAPONS VAULT??? and jack didnt put a handle on the inside. of fucking course he didnt! why would you leave that to your son!! or expect him to clean YOUR LAB when its where you work with probably dangerous chemicals and weapons and hes 14!! give him normal chores, like, I dunno, vacuuming, laundry, dishes...CMON. I hate it here. But I'm glad Jack is more chill about danny while he's a ghost, and willing to work with him for this ep. AND. I DID ENJOY JACK PUNCHING VLAD IN THE FACE. AND GENERALLY JUST OWNING HIM. the ghost punchy fists are actually amazing. like yeah, just punch a ghost in the face. that rules.

-ep 20 opens with the coolest fucking ghost lady design. her tattoos can come off and fight. MA'AM. I like ur nose ring and your cape maam hello 👉👈😳

-sam's grandma is hilarious and the most valid member of her family and I love her. thats my grandma now. and tucker covering for sam by dressing as her. thats true friendship <3 also skipping school to go to a goth circus. just bestie things! sam's parents are haters but for all the wrong reasons.

-'my family has controlled ghosts with this for generations!' WAIT. WAIT FREAKSHOW /ISNT/ A GHOST? I didn't expect that...he's just a fucked up guy controlling ghosts? anyway watching danny shoot at police cars and rob banks while mind controlled. its like, the most stereotypical 'bad' things lmao. (tbh an evil ghost circus troupe is a sick concept)

this gives off big deviantart emo edit vibes

(I'm going to assume evil circus reaper danny has a lot of fan content. people love an edgy au, except this one is canon (even tho its via mind control...having the protag go evil otherwise might be hard, I guess?) but au where he stays with the troupe...that has to exist, right?)

ANYWAY. excited to start s2!! lowkey surprised by how many notes some of these posts have gotten. I've gone back and tagged them all with 'dp thoughts' so they're easier to find on my blog! ^^ and I will probably possibly do (more) fanart on my art blog after I finish the watch of the whole show, so like. @sanchoyodraws follow my art blog :)

[aion-rsa]

Inside Job Wants to Make Conspiracy Theories Fun Again

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Conspiracy theories used to be the realm of late night AM talk radio, obscure internet forums, and breathless conversations with trusted friends. Whether it’s talking about Stanley Kubrick faking the moon landing on a soundstage or a global cabal of reptilian elite pulling the strings, sometimes it’s just fun to indulge in the ridiculous and grandiose. 

Unfortunately, however, conspiracy theory thinking has run amok in the digital age. This has led to the mainstreaming of some truly dangerous ideas, like let’s say hypothetically, that a vaccine for a deadly virus is actually a microchip/population control device/mark of the best/whatever else. How does Shion Takeuchi (Gravity Falls, Disenchantment), creator of Netflix animated conspiracy comedy Inside Job, feel about these developments?

“I’ll tell you what: I don’t love it!” Takeuchi tells Den of Geek. 

Inside Job is a 10-episode animated series on Netflix and is, in fact, Netflix’s first animated series produced entirely in-house. Set at Cognito, Inc., the Illuminati-like organization that pulls the strings of every world event, the show covers the weird, wonderful world of conspiracy theories. From building a robot to replace the President of the United States to visiting a secret moon base run by sex cult leader Buzz Aldrin, Reagan Ridley (Lizzy Caplan) makes sure everything runs according to plan.

The series is fit-to-bursting with fun conspiracy theories both popular and obscure. That’s because Takeuchi comes across her interest in the topic naturally. Like many other highly distinguished, creative, and dare we say classy individuals, the writer and animator enjoyed listening to cult radio talk show Coast to Coast AM in college. Created by Art Bell, Coast to Coast airs from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. ET on select radio stations and is a safe haven for any paranormal enthusiast or conspiratorial thinker to call in and share their wild stories. 

Though Bell died in 2018, Takeuchi appreciated the gentle way in which he would respond to his callers’ more out-there theories. Still, some of those theories had a darkness at their center that scared the young writer.

“I think that my personal journey with conspiracy theories was initially more fear-based,” she says. “A shadow government would be horrifying! Then I broke down that concept and realized that probably would be ridiculous.”

Yes, most conspiracy theories don’t pass the simple smell test of “could a group of human beings pull this off?” The answer more often than not is no because most human beings can barely successfully get themselves out of the bed in the morning. 

“I don’t know if anyone has ever been in a workplace that has ever been able to execute something with precision. It certainly hasn’t been in any workplace I’ve been a part of.”

Cognito, Inc. certainly has a hard time with keeping things together. Reagan’s team includes D.C. frat boy Brett Hand (Clark Duke), strung-out biochemist Dr. Andre (Bobby Lee), human-dolphin hybrid super soldier Glenn Dolphman (John DiMaggio), head of media manipulation and office gossip Gigi Thompson (Tisha Campbell), and of course: a psychic mushroom from a hive mind deep in the Hollow Earth named Magic Myc (Brett Gelman).

“Bret Gelman is also very good at playing sharp tongued asshole-types. He brings a certain depth to that that’s always so funny to watch,” Takeuchi says of the mushroom man.

The core of Inside Job, however, revolves around Reagan Ridley’s relationship with her father, Rand Ridley (Christian Slater). Once the CEO of Cognito, Inc., Rand was fired for nearly exposing the Deep State, and now spends his days at home, annoying his daughter with his paranoid ramblings. 

“Christian has a wonderful dynamic with Lizzy,” Takeuchi says. “He brings this really fun slovenly dad type of energy to this role that could have gone a different way. He could have been more professorial. There’s just something so funny about Christian’s deadbeat dad.”

Takeuchi notes that Lizzy Caplan was her first choice for Reagan as she strikes the right balance between flawed and driven. Even while the character seeks to control the events of the universe, she must confront that some things can’t be changed – like a relationship with a father who names her after his favorite President. Though the origins of Reagan’s first name are clear, does her last name suggest some upcoming Alien-like adventures a la Ridley Scott?

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

“I will say that she does appear in a power loader a couple times!” Takeuchi says.

All 10 episodes of Inside Job are available to stream on Netflix now.

The post Inside Job Wants to Make Conspiracy Theories Fun Again appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3ppjeTb

[lnlii-archive]

I think a lot about the asexuality label and what would have happened to me if I'd surrounded myself in worse of an internet echo chamber. Eventually wanting to explore liking girls is what got me out but what if I had surrounded myself with messages of 'it's okay not to want sex ever' i might never have done that. I wouldn't have had my adventures kissing girls all over campus and, moreover, because I'd never have tried girls, I'd also never have had the courage to try boys. I still think about how magical it felt the first time a girl put her hands on my bare back, and I still remember the first time I asked a girl out and planned a cute date for us, and I still remember the recoil and then the intrigue the first time a boy put his tongue in my mouth, and I still remember the way my stomach swooped the first time I made a boy moan 'I wanna be inside you so bad.'

Like it's horrifying because always in my head, even when I pictured myself as 'ace', my version of myself in my head was a bit roguish and flirty. Winks and muttered asides. And now that I'm older and I've had a relationship and I've had sex I've realized just how massively important sex is to me and how enriching sexual attraction is to my life, and sex to a healthy romance. Like to me it's really healing. It's a way that I feel really safe, and when choosing who I'm going to date it factors decently into who I actually let take me out. I like people who like sex, because that vision of myself in my head WAS me! It wasn't some dumb fantasy, it was a truer, non traumatized version of my struggling to break free!

It's really scary to think about because for me, I was a late bloomer, so I assumed since I didn't care about romance at 17 that that meant I was ace. I took the internet explanations for why I was obsessed with writing fanfiction centered on romance. 'Oh you can be ace and still like romance' etc etc. Even when I started masturbating I still accepted those explanations. That I could touch myself to pictures of a woman's thighs and still be ace. The ace label encouraged my cognitive dissonance and delayed my recovery from my trauma, and delayed my realizing I was bisexual.

People love to move the goalposts so they can belong to something and fit in their desired group but listen. If you experience the swoopy stomach thing, you're not asexual. If you masturbate, you're not asexual. If you get wet talking to someone, you're not asexual. If your heart beats faster in a good way around someone, you're not asexual. Not being asexual doesn't mean you're ready for sex! I know i wasn't ready for sex when I started feeling sexual attraction. But like it's important to just leave that door open so that one day, if you want to, you can walk through.

Like I think we really need to start a discussion on how harmful pushing these labels are. I saw a young adult book, targeted towards fucking 12-16 year olds, called 'ACE' on gr...like at what point are we going to acknowledge that all these microlabels are ultimately just benefiting the retailers that can use them to manufacture more garb they can sell to confused teens under the guise of self actualization and activism. And you can't compare it to past teen fads etc because if you were a scene kid in that day you went to concerts, if you were a prep you had bonfires in your parents yard, if you were a geek the computers kinda sucked so you still had to go to the arcade. And none of those identifiers were associated with missing out on like a core part of the human experience, nor did they encourage kids to lock themselves in their rooms and embrace social anxiety and internet addiction (who might I have been if I'd never seen a YouTube video of a young, attractive British man bemoaning his social awkwardness to an audience of millions?). None of the last generation's social niches are similar to a 12 year old proudly declaring she never wants to date or have sex and all the missed experiences that follow. When you keep repeating that stuff to yourself you believe it to be true even if eventually your gut is pulling you in another direction. You'll say no to the co-ed party with the awkward game of spin the bottle, you'll avoid school dances, you'll say no to dates, and you'll misread that twinge of regret after saying no as a twinge of anxiety brought about by 'allo' culture, and eventually 'allo' culture WILL give you anxiety. My god not to be That Guy but internet microlabel culture is making kids miss out on formative experiences in their lives and unless the internet blows up tomorrow it'll continue into adulthood. These people will grow up bitter, resentful, adult children because they were told that putting themselves in a box early was how to discover themselves, when really it prevents that very thing.

[oasisspringstownie]

FAME: A Legacy Challenge

Sul sul simmers!

Like many of you, one of my favorite things to do in The Sims is play Legacy Challenges. They lead you to explore new aspects of gameplay, give you new imaginative ideas, and facilitate storytelling. So, a couple of nights ago I got the idea to create a new kind of legacy challenge revolving around different aspects of fame.

The goal isn’t exactly to become the most famous using said career/ skill, but to play around with different elements of the fame system in the game. You by no means need all the packs to play through this legacy. While the experience would be more complete and you will be missing careers and skills and stuff you can obviously adapt it to your need. Also, you are more than welcomed to use mods to enrich your gameplay. I myself can’t play without mods and look forward to see what kind of chaos mods can add to this challenge.

So without further a do below are the 10 generations I concocted like a fever dream at 2 am on a Saturday evening:

Gen 1: A Shaky Foundation

Traits: Cheerful, Ambitious, Self-Absorbed

Career: Acting, Style Influencer (Trendsetter Branch)

You move to a new city full of hopes and dreams. You initially pursue your dream of becoming an actor. However, your career is cut short by the unexpected arrival of your first child. You retreat from the spotlight in order to raise your baby and put all of your energy into making sure they have the best future possible. The rest of the time you spend either working or trying to unwind from your demanding life. What will fate bring you and your descendants?

Goals:

Move into an empty lot with 1600 simoleons for the bare minimum.

Start in the Acting Career, but abandon it for the Style Influencer career once your first child is born. Remain in the Style Influencer Career and eventually choose the Trendsetter Branch.

Max out the Style Influencer Career.

Reach level 10 of the Parenting and Wellness Skills.

Be close friends with all of your children and make sure they each age up with at least 2 positive character attributes.

Gen 2: Get Your Head in the Game

Traits: Active, Music Lover, Outgoing

Career: Athlete, Entertainment (Musician Branch)

Your parent might have seemed very overbearing at the time, but they instilled a work ethic in you like no other. Your entire life you were split between your two passions: basketball and singing. Okay, fine, you're Troy Bolton. After succeeding in the sports world you still find yourself feeling somewhat unfulfilled. You enter the entertainment career later on in life to live out your dreams. Will this be the start of something new?

Goals:

Max out the Athlete Career and then switch to the Entertainment Career (Musician Branch).

Max out the Fitness and Singing Skills.

Be in the drama club in high school.

Gen 3: Going for the Stars

Traits: Clumsy, Loner, Genius

Career: Astronaut

Your parent always told you to shoot for the stars, you just took it a bit too seriously. This world was always a bit too pedestrian for you and you yearn to finally lay your eyes on the astronomical craters of Sixam. There's just one problem: you're terrible at it. It's not your fault, you're just a bit clumsy; but will your two left feet keep you from reaching your dreams?

Goals:

Work in the Astronaut Career your entire life. Get demoted and fired at least once in your lifetime.

Destroy and repair a rocket 3 times.

Live in a tiny home for your young adulthood and adulthood.

Have at least one set of twins. *You can cheat for this!*

Gen 4: The Finer Things in Life

Traits: Materialistic, Hates Children, Lazy

Career: None

You've seen all the generations before you work their little pixelated butts off for every simoleon, but you're not about that life. You were destined for the finer things in life.

Goals

Reach level 10 of the Charisma and Mixology Skills.

Marry and survive 5 spouses. Take that wording however you want. Divorce is not allowed. You must be the last once standing. After all, spouses are like infinity stones. Meaningless.

Never have a job. Only make money from spouses, family, or children. If you get desperate enough you can ask a friend for a loan or steal, but no working of any kind.

Each child you decide to have with one of your rich spouses comes with a 20k trust fund. If they get taken away or die before coming of age, all the money has to be returned to the evil capitalist overlords. You can't get rid of them that easily.

Own at least 1 restaurant/ retail/ business with one of your spouses. Decorate it, assign the uniform, and hire everyone, but you never run it. Why would you go through the trouble?

Gen 5: My Precious

Traits: Art Lover, Kleptomaniac, Self-Assured

Career: Criminal

Your childhood was pretty hectic and you felt like you barely knew your parents. Who needs them? You've never needed anyone else anyway. On your 18th birthday, you receive your inheritance and use it to buy yourself an unfurnished apartment in the nicest building you can find and that's when your money runs out... literally. However, will a new job as a tough guy be the first of many great ideas or will it only be the beginning of the end for this famed family?

Goals

Once you become a young adult give yourself enough money to buy one of the apartments in the Uptown Neighborhood in San Myshuno. It must be unfurnished. After moving in set your money to 0 simoleons.

Complete the Criminal Career.

Reach level 10 of the Mischief and Dancing Skills.

Gain an atrocious reputation and spend the rest of your life trying to cover it up.

Steal 10 paintings from a museum and exhibit them proudly in your home. You are never allowed to sell them. As an adult, hide them in a secret attic nobody else has access to or knows about. They are your precious.

Gen 6: The Muses

Traits: Creative, Family Oriented, Insider

Career: Painter

You could have anything you wanted in the world thanks to your family's empire so you pursued your passion: painting. While you were never close to your other family members you were always very close to your art teacher. This led you to have very close ties to your friends, co-workers, and eventual children. Will your legacy remain for longer in the memory of strangers or your loved ones?

Goals

Complete the Painter Career

Reach level 10 of the Painting, Cooking and Baking Skills

Have a better relationship with your art teacher than anyone else in your family until you're a teen.

Move to a new world once you become a young adult and cut ties with your family.

Be the leader of one club for all your young adulthood and adulthood.

Be close friends with 3 co-workers and all of your children.

Prepare a meal at least once a week with the help of your children. *I know we don't have this in the game yet technically, but I'm hoping to have Cottage Living by the time I play with this generation*

Hang 5 paintings in a museum.

Retire from Painting Career to help care for your grandchildren.

Gen 7: Mole

Traits: Good, Perfectionist, Paranoid

Career: None

You always had a good relationship with your parents. You told each other everything... well, almost everything. You never understood why but one of your parents never talked about the rest of your family members. They explained that they simply never had a good relationship and would rather not talk about it. You respect this until their death when you return to their seemingly abandoned childhood home. While exploring the house you find a not-so-subtle bookcase door and a long forgotten attic filled with paintings. You take them in hopes of returning them but unbeknownst to you, you are being watched.

After an unfortunately unavailable nail-biting car chase, you shake off your attackers. You can't just lead them home to the rest of your family and what would the police do? They don't even arrest Vlad when he's trying to bite all of your sims!

Sorry, different rant.

So you do the only logical thing: you sell the paintings you just stole for some cash to buy an empty lot and skip town. A new life awaits you... just a bit underground.

Goals

Reach level 10 of the Writing, Logic, and Handiness Skills.

Complete the Best Selling Author Aspiration.

After your parent dies, you visit Gen 5's main home and retrieve the paintings hidden in the attic generations ago. Sell them and use the money to buy an empty lot in a completely different world.

Use your remaining money to build a small underground bunker. You can now never leave your bunker or risk immediate death.

You make your income by writing books under your new name. Oh, didn't I mention that? You changed your name to avoid detection. Your children may carry this new fake last name or your partner's.

Gen 8: Part of Your World

Traits: Loves Outdoors, Outgoing, Geek

Career: Social Media

All you knew was the bunker and it's not that you hated it, you just wanted a bit more. You're basically the little mermaid, except you don't get to be a mermaid. You just get a bunker you can never leave and a desperate yearning to explore the outside world.

Your outlet is the internet. From a young age you loved using it to play video games and make friends. As a teen you began to make videos and fostered a community online. Will you finally take your place in the world or remain hidden underground?

Goals

Reach level 10 of the Media Production and Video Gaming Skills

Complete the Social Media Career.

You're never allowed to leave the underground bunker until you're a teen.

You aren't allowed to go to school. Instead you play video games and use your computer for outside interaction.

As a teen you start developing your online presence by posting on social media and making videos on the video station.

You are only allowed to move out of the household once your parent dies and you have enough money in reserves to buy a furnished home.

Gen 9: Natural Born Performer

Traits: Gloomy, Unflirty, Adventurous

Career: Entertainment (Comedy Branch)

Due to your parent's fame, it was always expected you would follow in their footsteps. While a bit more gloomy than most, you are happiest when you make others laugh. So you join the Entertainer Career where you flourish as a comedian. You're also a bit unlucky in love. Will the family name's fame and your own notoriety keep you from finding true love or are you destined to a lifetime of gold diggers and one night stands?

Goals

Complete the Entertainer Career (Comedy Branch).

Reach level 10 of the Comedy and Rock Climbing skills.

Complete Serial Romantic Aspiration

Have four children.

Die suddenly and *mysteriously* in your adulthood.

Gen 10: A Grand Finale

Traits: Kleptomaniac, Ambitious, Perfectionist

Career: Actor

After losing your parents at a very young age, you and your siblings were sent to live with some distant relatives you didn't even know about. While you and your siblings are all very different and you bicker plenty, you always stick together.

After learning you are a descendant of some of the most famous and infamous sims in history, you are determined to meet and surpass their achievements. Will you come out on top or have you flown too close to the sun?

Goals

Complete the Actor Career

Achieve level 10 of 10 skills of your choosing.

Become a Global Superstar.

Get a star on Starlight Boulevard.

Throughout your lifetime you must go on vacation to every house you lived in throughout all previous 9 generations. Oh, and your three other siblings need to come along too. Think of it as Narnia meets It. Also make sure to steal something from each of the houses as a souvenir and display it proudly in your own home.

After you've completed all the things above, get turned into a vampire and choose to end your mortal legacy here... or start a whole new type all together.

Thank you so much for indulging me in this insanity. While I haven't played through any of these generations myself as of yet, I look forward to see the chaos and cuteness possible in The Sims.

Happy simming!

V

[mrsdr-ethan-ramsey]

God, Have Mercy pt. 2 (Ethan Ramsey x f!MC)

You all asked, and now you shall receive...here is part 2 to God, Have Mercy (linked if you haven’t read it). I hope y’all like it part 2! I loved writing Ethan and his father. Part 3?? Yes please? No, stop you’re butchering this idea? What do y’all think?

Part Three Here!

Tag List: @the-soot-sprite​ @ethandaddyramsey @silverlitskies @trappedinfandoms @samihatuli @sherlockedmcu @marywitchjane @awalker965 @openheart12 @flyawayboo @hatescapsicum @edith-eggs1 @princess-geek @akacalliope @my-heart-beats-for-ya @hipstercoffeeshop @miyakokurono @riverrune @chasingrobbie @sekizincimektup @canthandlechoices @thatysn @virtualrain202 @myusualnerdyself 

Pairing: Ethan Ramsey x f!MC (Parker Kennedy)

Summary: Ethan posts his first pictagram thanks to his father’s photography skills and Parker knows it was meant for her.

Warnings: Swear words? 

Word Count: ~1300

Ethan never expected to actual use his new social media account. He had intended to delete it as soon as he got what he needed from it, but now? He could see the perks of social media. One of them being, seeing all the photos Parker would post. Since the ‘incident’ in his office, Ethan became addicted to checking the website just to see if she had posted anything else. Nothing since that day. Deciding that he needed a distraction, Ethan made the snap decision to visit his father for the weekend. Hopefully the distance from Parker would clear his mind.

Ethan arrived in Providence late on Friday night, in time to talk to his father before they both went to bed. He had spent most of Saturday helping his father with projects around the beach house and cleaning up the space. Since Ethan left and his father was living on his own, he had gotten better about keeping the house tidy but Ethan would always clean when he would visit. There was always something worn or broken for him to help. It was the least he could do for him.

On Sunday morning, Ethan woke up early as usual. His father was already up, as when he went to the kitchen the coffee pot was freshly brewed. Pouring himself a cup, Ethan went outside where his father was sitting on the porch drinking his own cup of coffee like he did every morning. This was always the highlight of Ethan’s trips home, just sitting with his father in the morning simply enjoying that they were together.

“Good morning,” Ethan said, his voice gruff from just waking up. He sat down in the chair next to his father, relaxing back into it.

“Good morning Ethan,” Alan replied, eyes staying on the waves rolling in from the ocean.

They stayed quiet for a while, letting the sound of crashing waves be the only thing to listen to. It was peaceful, completely different than the usual sounds of Boston traffic that Ethan listened to in the morning. Ethan’s eyes stayed on the horizon as he brought his mug to his lips, not expecting the next words out of his father’s mouth.

“So Ethan…when are you going to settle down?”

For the second time this week Ethan coughed out his coffee, the brown liquid landing on his lap and the deck this time (instead of the picture of Parker practically naked...great now he was thinking about that again).

“What??” he choked out, his head snapping to face his father.

Alan chucked as he watched his son’s eyes widen, a red tinge coming to his cheeks. “You’re 37, don’t you think it’s time you found someone? Unless…you already have someone?”

“No.”

Ethan said it too quickly, making his father just smirk and turn back to the view. Ethan tried to clean the coffee of his pants as his father spoke.

“Not even that colleague of yours? The blonde you call Rookie?”

“I’m her boss, it would be inappropriate.”

“Plenty of colleagues date Ethan. It sounds to me like you’re just making excuses,” Alan argued, taking a long drink from his mug.

Ethan narrowed his eyes at his dad, shaking his head he replied, “I’m not making excuses. It could hurt her future career if anything happened between us. I need to be able to push her professionally.”

“So we should set you up on online dating?”

Thankfully Ethan wasn’t drinking because he knew he would have coughed up his drink, again. Online dating?? What was his father doing in his free time? Reading Cosmo?

“I am not doing online dating,” Ethan said flatly, trying to deter his father from the idea.

“And why not?”

“I will not use the internet to date. The internet is for research, not relationships.”

“Well, if you change your mind…”

Ethan’s phone buzzed in his pocket as father put his own down. As he unlocked it, he had several photos of himself sent from his father. They were all taken here, in Providence, but he couldn’t remember him taking any of the pictures.

“When did you take these?!” Ethan asked, scrolling through what he had sent. He had never seen these photos before. 

Alan shrugged, “I knew you wouldn’t let me take photos of your visits so I did it when you weren’t paying attention. Figured I could create a…oh what’s it called…Timber?”

“Tinder.”

Alan smiled, “That’s it! I figured I could make a Tinder account for you to find someone to introduce you to. That was until I thought you’d probably want someone in the Boston area.”

“You were going to steal my identity to find me a partner?” Ethan asked, completely baffled that his father was admitting this to him.

“I figured one of us should be trying to get you a spouse. I’m getting old Ethan and I want grandchildr-”

“Alright, that’s enough,” Ethan cut him off and put his phone away. He wasn’t going to entertain the idea of him being in a relationship with his father. He wouldn’t use those photos to create a Tinder, but as he looked through them some more...maybe they could be useful.

***** “Holy moly!! Ethan has a pictagram! I repeat, Ethan Ramsey has a pictagram!” Sienna shouted as she ran out of her room and into the living room where Parker and Elijah were currently watching Spider-Man: Far from Home. Parker tried to look shocked, like she hadn’t been there to help him set up the account.

“What??” Elijah asked, his jaw dropping as he paused the movie.

“He has a pictagram! Danny texted me that everyone in the hospital is talking about it! He even posted!” Sienna said rather loudly, causing Jackie and Aurora to join the other roommates in the living room.

Jackie cocked a brow, “You’re kidding, right?”

“No! Go look up @ethan-ramsey!”

Each of the roommates pulled out their devices, searching the username in the app. When Parker’s timeline finally loaded her eyes widened. Holy. Shit. There in all his shirtless glory was Ethan Freaking Ramsey at the top of her page. Scrolling through the likes and comments, it was obvious that all of the hospital and more had found his account. He had blown up with one post. How was that even possible!?, Parker thought to herself as she scanned every inch of Ethan’s bare chest. He looked more relaxed than Parker had seen him in a long time.

“Look at all those thirsty comments…” Jackie mumbled.

Aurora read aloud, “ ‘I would catch a disease just to see this doctor’. Who comes up with this stuff??”

Parker could practically feel herself turn green. She had never been one to get jealous, but see all the people throwing themselves at Ethan made her only see green. She had always known that Ethan could get anyone he wanted, but this just made it way more obvious to her. Ethan Ramsey could honest to God get any man or woman he wanted.

“Huh,” Elijah said with a furrowed brow. “He’s only following one person, but I can’t see who it is.”

“I-It’s probably Edenbrook,” Parker said quickly, trying to control the color in her cheeks. She knew it was her profile, but she couldn’t tell her roommates that.

Sienna eyed her, thinking about the recent photo Parker posted on her pictagram. Parker could see her connecting the dots in her head. She quickly shook her head no at her, begging her not to say anything to the others. Parker could handle Sienna knowing, but she didn’t feeling like airing her dirty laundry to the rest of them.

“Yeah, it probably is,” Sienna agreed slowly. She sent Parker a look though, telling her that she’d have to give her all the details about why Ethan Ramsey was following her later.

The excitement of the event quickly went away and everyone returned to what they had been doing before Sienna had run out. Everyone except Parker. She looked at the image, imagining being there with him. The wind blowing through his thick hair, the smell of salt in the air. He looked like an angel. Parker chewed at her bottom lip as she thought. Did he post this as a reply to her photo? He must have…he said he didn’t want to post anything. Now he was on his way to be as famous as Bryce on pictagram. If this was how he was going to be, Parker could easily keep up with him. She smirked as she double tapped the image, a red heart covering his chest. Game on Ramsey. Game on.

[june2734]

The Short Lived Golden Age of Nerdy Web Shows

There was a time between the years of, let's say, 2007 to 2015 that I like to call the golden age of nerdy web shows. It consisted of a lot of small low to no budget productions that had a lot of heart, the kind you just don't see very often anymore for some reason. Many of these show have found a dedicated home on streaming services like The Fantasy Network, some have even gained enough steam to be featured on big name services like Netflix and Amazon like The Guild and LARPs The series respectively. I'm not exactly sure why the web show trend died out so hard, maybe the crowds just aren't there for them anymore like they use to be with some many pieces of high budget productions on streaming services vying for their attention. Every once and a while I'll jump onto Google to try and find new web shows that have that same heart and feel but rarely if ever do I come up with anything. As far as I can tell the only place new nerdy low to mid budget web shows or films gets any attention is at GenCon or small streaming services like The Fantasy Network. Who knows if there will ever be another nerdy heartfelt web show created that captures the spirit of those old series I hold so dear to my heart, but regardless if it happens or not I'd like to bring some attention to a few of my favorites. They may be old by the standards of the internet and maybe even cheesy by today's standards, but I really think they were something special and if you give them a shot maybe you'll think so too. If you have any others that you think would fit in with shows like this feel free to let me know.

The Gamers: Hands Of Fate

Zombie Orpheus Entertainment use to be one of my favorite channels for nerdy fantasy related content back in the day. You could always see the quality and passion that they put into every piece of content they out out on their channel. They're still around today but they've shifted their focus to other ventures such as the ever popular trend of live streaming table top games rather then making scripted content. That being said their old stuff is still well worth a watch and The Gamers series, particularly The Gamers: Hands of Fate, is some of their best work they’ve ever put out. The series centers around a group of table top gamers(the same that can be found in most of the other The Gamers creations by ZOE), particularly the character by the name of Cass, as he steps into the world of one extremely popular card game hopes of impressing a woman who's a huge fan of it. But this is seemingly simple premise is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this series. The show also features a secondary narrative that involves the characters that actually exist in the card game as as the players decisions in the real world effect their lives and leads one character, Buckstahue(not sure if I’m spelling that right), in particular to start questioning what mysterious forces are controlling their lives. The show is a real treat filled with twists and turns I never saw coming, it's fascinating seeing how the real world actions of this card game effects the card characters lives as well as question if and when Buckstahue will figure out what strings control her actions. The stories surrounding the other characters in the party might not be as engaging but they are by no means a weak point of the series either, many of their subplots are engaging in their own rights and pay off certain character moments established in proper The Gamers creations. If this peaks your interest then the series can still be found on Zombie Orpheus's Youtube channel or as a movie on The Fantasy Network. ZOE had pivoted more towards live streaming as opposed to the scripted content of their past but I'd love to see more content from The Gamers one day. Source

LARPs The Series

LARPs The Series first premiered at GenCon 2014 and took home the award for Best Independent Series. The year after it was picked up by Geek and Sundry as a part of a push for more scripted content on the channel which was where I and many others first got a chance to watch it. When the short trailer for popped up on the G&S channel everything about it screamed that I was absolutely going to love it, and I wasn’t wrong. The series centers around a 4 man party of larpers (AKA Live Action Role Players) by the names of Will, Brittany, Arthur and Sam and their DM (Dungeon Master) Evan as we follow their lives in and out of the game. The show is surprisingly heartfelt and sympathetic towards the characters involved in this often misunderstood and mocked hobby as it shows how larping enriches their often turbulent lives and connects them all as friends on a deep and meaningful level. These characters felt real and you really rooted for them as they deal with, work, relationships and the many other hurtles of adult life as they wait eagerly to gear up for whatever peril might befall them in their next campaign session. The show was also pretty hilarious, seeing them play out classic predicaments that any party, whether they be larpers or table top roleplayers, have experienced such as one player trying to roll to kill a tavern owner or romances between PCs were always a joy to watch unfold.  Another thing that most will notice right away is how the production value and direction are surprisingly astounding as well, especially in season 2. I was shocked by just how much quality was put into the show from the costumes and sets as well as from a writing standpoint. If you're interested in checking out the show then it can be found on Amazon Prime but they can also still be viewed for free on YouTube or in The Fantasy Network. Beanduck, the production company behind LARPs The series, is working towards a funding campaign in hopes of earning enough to produce a third season so if you have any spare change you might want to toss it their way in support. Regardless if you decide to help or not, LARPs The Series is a show that I think any nerdy individual will enjoy. Source

Glitch

Glitch was another show produced by the team over at Zombie Orpheus Entertainment, but it never seemed to get the same kind of love as many of their other productions. The concept was brilliant: What if one day you woke up and found out your life operated on the logic of video games? Well this is the predicament that a programing temp nicknamed Glitch finds himself in. Most episodes of the show centered around particular game mechanics causing problems in his and his friends lives and how he tries to figure out ways to work around or fix problems they've created. Glitch, Wyatt and Samus were all fantastic characters and it was always fun seeing Glitch trying to work through some real world problem with game logic like trying to flirt with a woman he likes using a conversation wheel like in Mass Effect or figuring out how to "defeat" his boss at work who he see's as an actual game boss. Another thing I liked about the show was how the characters really felt like real people I knew, they played games on the couch, debated about which Sci-Fi starship captains were the best, and they grilled each other in nerdy ways while working in slang from their favorite bits of nerd culture into their daily vocabulary. I always hoped that ZOE would eventually put out a second season but unfortunately for whatever reason that never became a reality. Now days the channel that originally hosted Glitch has changed their name to Burger Orchard and rarely if ever uploads anything, but luckily those original episodes of Glitch can still be found on their. Give it a watch, it's short but sweet and if you really enjoyed the show a lot there are little companion shorts that can also be found on the channel. Source

The Street Fighter

The Game Station was an early find for me back in my early college days, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I shaved away many hours watching all kinds of gaming related content on that channel instead of studying for exams. One production, created by one of the channels founders Layne Pavoggi, which came out in late 2011 and was a cut above much their already fantastic content was a short lived series was called The Street Fighter. The series centered around a single dad by the name of Phil who has just lost his job and decides to take up a short career as a professional Street Fighter player to provide for his son as well as keep his mind off of the stressful and highly competitive job market. This a real underdog story that’s extremely reminiscent of old sports 80s films where the protagonist has everything working against them, with that being said you might think that such a trope filled narrative would make things a little predictable and you wouldn’t be wrong but there’s still plenty to love since this concept has really never been explored with videogame to my knowledge. Phil is a guy you’d be hard pressed not to warm up to, especially when you see him interacting with his preteen son Ryan or his best friend/semi love interest Camile (played by former All That star and all around spectacular person Lisa Foiles). Seeing him trying to make his way into the job market, taking odd jobs here and there just to try and get by while also playing Street Fighter to destress and become better for the sake of winning a competition for money to support his son really makes to root for him through all of it. One aspect of the show that I really this is fantastic is how it feels truly authentic to the FGC (Fighting Game Community) when it comes to talking about all of the technical aspects of play Street Fighter on a competitive level. There are moments when Phil goes into detail about his “bread and butter” combos or talks about different strategies when it comes to taking on different characters compared to his main. The show was short lived but it can still be found on The Game Stations channel, if you’re looking for a heartfelt underdog story then I highly recommend giving The Street Fighter a shot. Source

Versus Valerie

Versus Valerie is a bit of series finale for a fictional character created by Hannah Spear for the character more commonly known as the Sexy Nerd Girl on her YouTube channel. Even if you didn't watch the characters vlogs over the years leading up to the web series I still think you'll find something to enjoy in this extremely charming show. It centers around Valerie Lapomme, the titular Sexy Nerd Girl, as she lives life hanging out with with her best friend Guy, shopping for comic books, going on dates, vlogging, and trying to make something of herself as a mid 20 something living in Toronto. The brilliant thing about this series is how each episode is structured like or makes homage to popular shows, films and games such as Star Wars, Doctor Who, Memento, and The Matrix just to name a few. On top of that the show is surprisingly well produced and written for something that spawned from a fictional vlog series, Valarie and Guy are much more fleshed out and all the characters including them have some really fantastic character arcs and moments in the show. Valerie’s awkwardness and extremely nerdy imagination felt embracingly relatable to me personally since I often imagine different situations in my life in relation to my own nerdy fandoms. What I was often taken aback by when I first watched the show years ago was just how enjoyable all of the episodes were in their own special way, and the pay off of it all really feels like a proper satisfying ending to the strange and imaginative journey we’ve been on with Valerie. If it peaks your interest at all then you can still find the full series on the Veruse Valerie YouTube channel as well as some of the vlogs prior to the series on the Sexy Nerd Girl channel as well. It’s well worth a viewing and aside from the fantastic lead characters of Guy and Valerie the show also managed to grab Mark Meer as a supporting character, aka the voice of COMMANDER MOTHER F^*$(^% SHEPARD BABY!!!  Source