#I have such a frustration when tumblr speaks about science...

[lairofsentinel]

I love how this post forgets entirely that a lot of ppl are against GMO because they are deeply related to modifying food in order to resist certain pesticides that then end up in our food. It’s not because “contains genes”, it’s because contains non-biodegradable substances that pollute our lands and, by now, our clouds and rain. It’s about the chemicals that have tons and tons of studies showing they increase the development of allergies in the population, cause unusual hormone alterations, and even affect fetus in pregnant ppl. In the towns around the fields where they are spread, you have 3 times more cancer cases than the national mean, specially in kids. So, no, it’s not “mere genes”. It’s a lot more and deeper, related to sustainability and public health, which is also science that corporations ignore completely. What I found so curious is that most ppl from first world countries does not know that the majority of the GMO is not related to “make crops flood resistant”, but resistant to pesticides. Monsanto loves spreading that concept that GMO is just used to make “food have more vit A”. And ppl just repeat. Countries where we truly endure the use of GMO in our lands, we know exactly that GMO means.

GMO has existed forever, natives such as the incas practised it, it’s not “new”, it’s not “modern science”. Mexicas developed a hundred corn types over centuries with this technique. Again, it’s not new. Now we can accelerate the genetic modifications and be more accurate with the modern techniques, but it’s mostly to make them resistant to pesticides. Why do you think Monsanto was bought by Bayer years ago? The same corporation that sells you pesticides, that are, most of the time, non-controlled in their manipulations, is the same one that sells you food and then medicines because the illnesses related to the constant ingest of these [non-regulated] pesticides. And this is one of the many negatives effects. Another one that happens with GMO [even though nobody in this fucking place wants to acknowledge it] is the mono-cultive practices [non-rotation of the crops] that destroy the health of the soil, and if you don’t have a soil with rich minerals, the plants you put to grow there won’t develop properly or will be poor in minerals and vits. So, we have poorer food and erosion. Because, yes... GMO used in this way causes it. A big problem that, again, nobody speaking about GMO seems to know. We are not speaking about the erosion of the soils and how these practices are destroying entire countries’ biodiversity. 

Another great danger that specialists have been repeating over and over is that GMO usually forces similar modifications in different crops so different plants can resist the same pesticides that are sold in a big “bio-package”. This causes that weed and some plagues became resistant or stronger to this pesticide, so every few years we need higher doses or stronger pesticides that end up in our food and in our body [because so far, a lot of them are not biodegradable]. All the problems listed above become more concentrated. 

The other important danger is that it may happen a plague or a fungus that may be particularly prone to develop, associated with a similar modification that was used on different crops. This can endanger a lot of different crops with one single plague, causing potential destruction of big quantities of different kinds of food [this is also a very old concern known by natives since centuries ago, reason why they always tried to use rudimentary GMO techniques to favour a diversification of the crops, not the other way around like corporations do now]. So far we know, scientists have talked about this a lot, but one thing is a scientist talking about this issue, and another is a food-monopolised-corporation doing it, especially when corporations see more profit by just reducing the diversification in our food [less different bio-packages to develop]. 

And we can continue with the silly argument that “corporations are different to the GMO technique”, and even though that’s true “technically”, the reality shows otherwise. We live in a world where GMO has been monopolised. Hell, food industry is already monopolised, so don’t be so naive to think that we still can keep things separated. 

“Mere genes”. I would love so much this place to learn the topic properly before dismissing entire populations in this way. GMO, as it’s now, controlled and monopolised by corporations, is a big no-no. And dismissing the entire population whose children have 3 times more cancer cases than the national mean [northern provinces of Argentina, for example] because these pesticides, annoys me a lot. Never ever I've seen an integral post of GMO in this place. The topic is a looot more complex than the religious adoration of science or feeling superior because “I know science” or “I _believe_ in science”. Not all science is good, not all science is well tested before being used, corporation science is always a big question mark in many, many contexts, and science is always founded and moved by interests [unfortunately, more and more corporate interests by now]. Science is good, but don’t turn it into the new religion. It has limits and flaws, and it’s dirty to the neck with interests that few want to acknowledge. 

Funny how that works

[bookyeom]

to care for you — lc

pairing: dino x reader word count: 4.4k warnings: mention of blood and injuries, mention of fainting, swearing, hurt and comfort, kissing request prompt: Okay so tumblr ate my ask 😭 but this is in response to @darkypooo’s request for Dino + “do you want to kiss?” “Yeah.”

Author’s Note: Yes, this is a Spiderman AU — but you don’t need to know much other than the bare minimum about the Spiderman universe to understand the story :) It’s set in college instead of high school, though. I’m actually so, so proud of this one, and I hope you like it!

Thanks so much for all the support on my 700 follower celebration. You guys rock! I’m doing my best to get through the requests, but there were way more than I anticipated so bear with me!

He‘s exhausted. 

It’s an exhaustion that’s begun to seep deep into his bones lately, but it feels extra heavy tonight. After a not-so-brief brush-up with some bad guys, he’s hurting in places that he didn’t know existed — even after all of his years spent studying science. He can’t remember the last time he got this hurt — to the point where even breathing is hard. All he wants to do right now is give up. He’s not sure what good he’s doing out there, anyway.

He’s exhausted, and he’s hurting all over, and honestly? All he wants to do is see you. 

He feels like that a lot these days.

He knows he’s not supposed to want you like he does, to need you like he does — for so many reasons. First and foremost, because you’re one of his closest friends — his confidante (in everything not Spiderman related, anyway), his safe place. You’re his friend, and friends aren’t supposed to love each other the way he loves you. Besides, he’s Spiderman. He’s not supposed to need anyone at all. In this line of business, feelings are a weakness.

You, thankfully, have no clue about his alter ego… or his feelings.

Well, at least you didn’t know about the superhero part. Until now, when he drags himself into his room and you’re there, curled up in his bed. He thinks he must be hallucinating. He’s too out of it to really register it at first, but then your eyes meet his from where you’re sitting up against his headboard, duvet pulled up to your chin, and he’s frozen. You blink back at him in the dim light of his room, your face lit up solely by the lamp on his bedside table.

“Chan?”

Your voice is small — so quiet that he thinks without his heightened senses he wouldn’t have been able to hear it. He can’t think straight enough to really process that his mask is off — he must have dropped it somewhere between the living room and here. All he can register before he’s stumbled back and slumped into his desk chair, eyes screwed shut from all the pain, is that you don’t look nearly as scared as he thought you would. Then everything goes black.

There’s a warm pressure against his jaw and his cheeks. 

He slowly comes to as he registers the feeling, struggling to open his eyes and find the source of the sensation. He can hear a faint voice call his name, once, twice, and when his eyes finally manage to flutter open just a little, he’s met with your concerned gaze.

“Fuck. Hi,” you mumble, and he blinks. The pure worry in your voice helps to bring him back to earth a little bit more, and he tries desperately to clear his head. How long was he out?

“Why…” He tries to speak but fails, his voice weak and his throat hoarse. 

Why are you here? 

He sees you wince when he tries to move, to shift into a more comfortable position even though he knows nothing will be comfortable right now, and your head is suddenly shaking back and forth so fast that it almost gives him whiplash.

“Don’t move,” you tell him, and he dazedly wonders why you don’t sound mad. Or frustrated. Or anything but concerned, really. He’s confused, his mind swirling even more as he tries to understand why your hands are holding his face like that. Hadn’t he kept things a secret from you for far too long to warrant your concern? Don’t you hate him now?

“I don’t know what’s going on,” you say, and Chan fights the urge to try and speak again, to blurt out everything that he’s wanted to tell you since he met you. Oblivious to his inner turmoil, you hastily continue, “but you have to tell me how to help you, Chan.”

His eyes flutter shut once more at the sound of his name coming from your lips, and he feels your thumb brush against his jaw. 

“Chan,” you say again, and you sound more panicked this time, so he does his best to calm you down. 

“Off.”

You blink at him again as he finally speaks. You’re not sure what he means, and you’re desperate to know, because you can’t look at him in pain like this any longer without doing something to help.

“Off,” he repeats hoarsely, and your eyes widen as you hastily remove your hands from his face.

“Shit, sorry!” Your eyes frantically wander across his face, searching for any damage your fingers might have caused. “I don’t know where you’re hurting, I didn’t mean to—“

As you babble on, all he can do is shake his head minutely. That’s not what he meant. The last thing he wanted right now was for you to take your hands off of him. He manages to lift a hand to press gently against his side, where a dark stain has formed. He glances down at where the material is clinging to his skin before looking back up at you. 

“Oh!” You reply, realization dawning on your face. You try to hide the flush of your cheeks. “Can you stand up to move to the bed so I can help? If not, I can—“

Already, he’s attempting to move, desperate to make any of this easier for you. He wants to apologize, to say he’s sorry, but he doesn’t know exactly what for. For not telling you? For you having to see him like this? 

You help him stand, his arm reaching to rest on your shoulders as you do. You can tell he’s trying not to hurt you with his weight, and you almost laugh — how very Chan of him. You’re grateful that in the shock of survival mode, you’ve managed to avoid for now the way you know your heart is going to break when you register seeing soft, kind, selfless Chan beaten down like this. 

Cry tomorrow, is the message your brain is sending. Figure it out tomorrow. Right now, you need to help him.

“I’m strong,” you try to joke, though it’s a weak attempt, and Chan looks at you in confusion. “You can put your weight on me,” you elaborate quietly. He understands and gives you a sheepish smile, before doing as told, though you know he doesn’t want to. 

The two of you maneuver the few steps to the edge of his bed. Chan hisses involuntarily at the pain as he sits down, and you whisper soft apologies, though he has no idea why. Once he’s down, you immediately get to work, reaching behind him to find the zipper at the top of his suit. You manage to get it down as smoothly as possible, your eyes falling to where Chan is still clutching at his side.

“This part is going to hurt like a bitch,” you tell him softly.

“That’s okay,” he says. “It always does.”

You freeze for a moment from where you were about to begin to slide the suit off of his shoulders, but Chan doesn’t seem to realize what he’s said. You feel a sharp pain in your chest as his words replay, and you blink back tears, taking a moment to steel yourself. 

It always hurts.

You don’t respond, your fingers beginning to move again, and you’re surprised that they’re not shaking. Chan shivers when your fingers brush against his skin as you begin to slide the suit over his arms and off. You ease him out of the material on his uninjured side first, before coming around to the front of him and crouching down. You meet his eyes, his brown ones clouded over with pain, and your fingers gently reach to rest on top of his hand that’s still clutching his side. You give it a squeeze and he nods in understanding, closing his eyes tight, and you help him remove his fingers from the wound. You stand back up, and begin to pull the rest of the suit down his side and to his waist. Chan barely lets out so much as a whimper when you peel the rest of the material off of him. 

His lack of reaction is not what surprises you the most, though. The biggest surprise comes when you reach the spot on his side where you know a sickening amount of blood should be, and you find that it’s all dried — and that the wound has already begun to heal over. 

Huh?

Your brain can’t compute it. You glance up at him in complete confusion, but his head is hung low, and your heart breaks enough to distract you from all of the questions you want to ask. You force yourself to push the confusing mess of thoughts away until later. You can’t think about any of that right now. You can’t. 

“Chan?” Is what you say instead, knowing that you need to keep him awake enough to help him clean up, long enough to know he’s alright. Your hands are on his knees as you kneel between his legs and peer up at him. You have to stop yourself from reaching out to trace the newly-forming scars on his chest and arms, wanting nothing more than to kiss each mark and its associated pain away. You desperately want to know what happened, who hurt him like this, but you’re not sure you can handle it. You briefly register the older, faded scars that mark his skin, unsure of where they end and the new ones begin. 

You can’t figure it out — in front of you sits Chan, but it can’t be the Chan you know. It can’t be the one who giggles at your stupid jokes or falls asleep in your 8am lectures, or the one who remembers your coffee order every single time. The one who you swore had never fought with anyone in his life. The Chan in front of you looks so broken that you can’t put the two of them together. 

“You… okay?”

Your eyes shoot up to meet his again as he speaks, voice cracking and hoarse. Your heart stutters a bit in your chest as he attempts to look down at you, his eyes hooded over and half closed with the effort. He looks like he’s about to fall over, and still, he’s asking if you’re okay.

You’re hit so hard with sudden emotion that it causes you to inhale sharply without warning. Your hand lifts involuntarily to brush his hair back from where it’s falling into his eyes, and as he continues to try and hold your gaze, you register it all. This Chan is still your Chan. It’s the same Chan that has stirred feelings inside your chest that you were certain you could never feel again. The Chan whose intelligence and kindness still astounds you every single day. This Chan and your Chan are the same.

Your head spins.

When you finally make it to the bathroom, it’s all Chan can do to slouch down onto his bathroom floor. You help him out of the rest of his suit before crouching down beside him, wracking your brain for everything you’ve ever learned about cleaning wounds. You remain numb as he gives you single-word answers to where things are in his bathroom. It’s funny — you’ve been in his apartment so many times, but you’ve never needed to know where the antiseptic was. 

Chan’s eyes remain half-open as you work. He’s fighting with all his might, you can tell, and you can feel his eyes on you the whole time. You don’t think his gaze leaves you even once. It becomes monotonous: you clean the cut, he winces, you apologize. And repeat. Your mind wanders in what you’re sure is an attempt to protect yourself.

You’d come over tonight for your weekly movie night, letting yourself in with the code you’d long since been given access to. When hours had passed with no sign of Chan and no texts from him either, your heart had broken a little — had he forgotten? Was he okay? It was so unlike him that you’d stayed just in case, your heart racing with every little noise as you waited. 

You hate so much that your worst fears had come true.

Chan’s pain seems to ease in record time, bruises forming on his skin faster than you’ve ever seen. You have so many questions, but you push it all down, down, down. He falls asleep on his couch and you stay up all night, blanket pulled around your shoulders as you sit on the windowsill and make sure he’s still breathing. 

He wakes as the sun is beginning to rise, and you watch as he shifts to sit up, letting out a breath of what sounds like relief when he’s able to move without much trouble. Some of the cuts on his face and chest are already scabbed over. 

How?

When his eyes finally land on you, he jumps a little.

“Hi.”

”You didn’t sleep.”

It’s an observation rather than a question. You pull your knees up and rest your chin on them. “I was worried.”

It’s quiet, and he doesn’t know what to say. Neither do you.

“Well,” he clears his throat. “I’m glad you stayed.”

“Yeah.” Your voice is small, and he immediately feels guilty.

“I’m sorry.” He’s not sure what he expects you to do, what he expects you to say. You level him with your gaze, searching his face. Your eyes linger on the scabbed-over cut just above his brow, and you bite your lip before you speak again.

“It was…” You can feel your lower lip start to tremble in an act of betrayal, and you bite down on it to try and stop yourself from crying. “It was terrifying to see you like that, Chan,” you finally manage, and you know that after all these hours, the dam is about to break. You can tell he knows it, too, by the way his brows furrow even more, and his eyes widen just slightly.

“I know,” he murmurs, and that’s what does it.

Your hands move to cover your face as you finally let yourself cry, sobs muffled by your palms. You can hear the couch creak as Chan moves, and you can feel his presence as soon as he’s close. He whispers your name once, his voice breaking, and when he moves your hands away from your face, you don’t have the strength to stop him. He’s sitting next to you on the windowsill now. You sniffle, eyes looking anywhere but at him. Chan holds onto your wrists, rubbing gentle circles against the skin. 

“I’m so mad at you,” you finally say, and he lets go of your hands. He doesn’t retreat to his side of the window though, staying put as he nods, chewing on his bottom lip as he looks down.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you,” he says, voice quiet. “I hope you understand why I couldn’t… but you still have every right to be pissed at me.”

It’s silent, and you stare at him in disbelief. There are so many thoughts running through your head, and it takes you a moment to settle on just one. “You think I’m mad because you didn’t tell me that you were Spiderman?” You finally say, causing him to look at you again in surprise.

“I mean, yeah? Why else—“

“I’m mad,” you emphasize, “because you’re out there getting hurt, and my heart literally can’t take the thought of that, oh my god, Chan.” Your voice breaks, and fuck, you’re about to cry again, but you can’t stop. Your eyes trace over his face, pausing where the bruise is starting to form on his cheek, and you feel frustration begin to build again as you angrily blink back tears. “What the fuck, Chan. Why the hell are you… I mean, if I hadn’t been able to help you last night, I wouldn’t — I just, I can’t even imagine—“

Your words are cut off as Chan’s hands find the side of your face. His gaze is firm as he looks at you, and his sudden boldness catches you off guard, your words dying in your throat. Once he seems to realize that you’re not going to run, his thumb moves to caress your jaw, and you can’t help the shiver that spreads through you at the gentle touch. Your hands lift to rest on his arms where they’re holding you, and you’re speechless, your eyes unable to leave his. He takes in a deep breath, and you follow.

“I’m here,” he says, and you draw in another shaky breath. You don’t think he’s ever been this forward with you before, but you’re grateful for it. He’s warm, and he’s here. He’s alive.You’re torn between wanting to never leave his side again, and needing desperately to be away from him so that you can think.

“I think it might be good for me to go now that I know you’re okay,” you say softly after a moment, and you can see the hurt that briefly shadows his eyes. It’s gone as quickly as it comes, though, and he nods, removing his hands from your face. 

“I understand.”

“And I… I probably need some time.”

He nods again, and your heart breaks at the thought of leaving him, but you have to. For now. Your feet feel leaden as you get up, going through the motions as you grab your backpack from the hook by his door. You barely register putting on your shoes, your mind on autopilot until it’s broken by his voice from just behind you.

“Y/N?”

Your name coming from his lips feels like a punch to the gut, and you almost reach out for him again, but you hold firm.

”Yeah?”

“I’m sorry. Can you just…” he sucks in a breath. “Can you please not tell anyone? About, you know—”

His words hit like a ton of bricks. You cut him off, expression full of silent fury at the insinuation. “Yeah. I won’t.” 

You’re pissed that he even had to ask, and he knows it, but there’s nothing else he can do. His secret is more important than anything — he just wishes it didn’t have to be more important than you. 

It takes three days for you to end up back at his door. He’s missed all of your shared college courses so far this week, and you’re worried. You’re terrified, actually, and you need to see him.

When he opens the door, you do a double take. It’s almost like nothing happened to him at all. The bruises and cuts are barely-there, and you’re reminded of the miles-long list of questions you have stored in the back of your brain. He’s surprised to see you, you can tell, and he blinks slowly before stepping aside to let you in.

“How are you?” You level him with raised eyebrows as you take off your shoes, and he nods, biting his lip. “Yeah, I know. I was worried that—“

“I didn’t tell anyone,” you interrupt. “Don’t worry.” You look down, your heart twisting painfully in your chest when you remember the words he’d said to you. ‘Can you please not tell anyone?’ You cross your arms as you head over to the living room, but you don’t sit down. You don’t really know what your plan had been — you’d just needed to see him. 

“Oh,” comes his soft reply before he adds, “I mean… I didn’t really think that you would.”

Your eyes briefly meet his across the room, confused, before you recover and look back down at the floor. “So then what were you worried about?”

You can feel his gaze intent on your face. “You.”

Your breath catches and your eyes swiftly meet his again. You blink. “Me?”

“Yeah.”

“Chan,” you say after a moment, trying to push down the bubble of irritation you feel building in your chest. “You didn’t even text me once.”

He’s quiet for a moment before he says quietly, “You said that you needed time.”

“To process, yes! But you didn’t even text me that you were okay. I was worried about you, Chan. Why would you be worried about me? I’m not the one coming through your window and fainting from injury, now am I?”

You can see the guilt flicker across his face. “I know,” he says, and then he suddenly feels the need to apologize again. “I’m sorry that I didn’t message you, but I didn’t think you’d want to hear from me.” He pauses. “Ever again, maybe.”

You can hear the sadness in his voice, and your heart breaks. You feel the anger in you start to dissipate as he looks away from you. Your eyes catch on the barely-there faded scar across his eyebrow, and your mind is filled with painful memories of the Chan you’d seen that night. 

“You’re so fucking stupid, Chan.” 

He knows. But judging by the way you sit down on his couch instead of storming out again, he thinks that somehow, his stupidity has already been forgiven. 

It’s quiet as he joins you. You can feel him looking at you, and when you can’t take it anymore, you look back at him pointedly. He blushes, quickly looking away when your eyes meet. You sigh, your head falling into the back of the couch before you turn and curl up against it, your eyes drifting shut. 

"Is that my sweater?" 

Your eyes shoot open, and it's as if he's finally grown the courage to look at you directly again now. His brown eyes search yours, and he motions to the shirt you're wearing. You look down — even though you know he's right — and your cheeks are on fire. You’re wearing the sweater he’d leant you forever ago on a cold night for your walk home — the one you’d never returned. You slept in it almost every night, and he hadn’t asked for it back. 

"Keeps me warm," you mumble, tugging on the hem. It's silent for a beat before you continue, voice even quieter than before. You pause, ruminating on your next words before you take a deep breath and say, “The last few nights, wearing it kind of made me feel like you were safe.”

You can hear his intake of breath before he says, soft, “Are you mad at me?”

You shake your head, because you’re not. You’re scared, stressed, worried sick — but you’re not mad. Not anymore. “No, Chan.”

The nickname sends a flood of relief through him more than your actual reply does. 

“I’m not mad,” you continue, “because of course you’re Spiderman. Of course you’re putting yourself in danger trying to protect others. I love how selfless you are, Lee Chan — I always have. But me? I’m selfish. And I’m scared to death of losing you.”

All he says, all he can say, is, “I’m scared, too.”

You look at him again now. You search his face as you ask, “Of what?”

“Of getting hurt. Of… of losing you, too.”

Your heart is suddenly beating so fast you think it might soon break free from your rib cage. You don’t know why you say it, because you’ve already got his undivided attention, but his name comes out breathlessly anyway. “Chan?” 

“Yeah?” He’s looking at you with those beautiful, big, questioning eyes, and you can’t help it. 

“I think it might be a terrible time for me to say this,” you blurt out, “but I — Chan, I’m in love with you.”

Silence.

Chan blinks.

“Wait, what?”

Your face flushes, and it’s your turn to look away. “Sorry,” you murmur.

“No, don’t — oh my god. What?”

You’re not sure what he wants from you. You’re embarrassed now, pulling your knees up to your chest in a feeble attempt to protect yourself from your feelings. Your face is flushed as you turn to look out the window, and you can almost hear Chan’s brain buffering as he remains silent.

“Do you mean that?”

“Why would I say it if I didn’t mean it?” Your voice comes out a bit harsher than you intend it to, but you don’t take it back. 

“I…��� He trails off. He doesn’t say anything more, and the quiet is almost deafening. You’re finding it a little harder to breathe as the seconds pass, and you wrack your brain for something, anything to say to fill the stifling silence.  

“I’m going to go,” is what comes out, and then you’re standing up so abruptly that you feel a little dizzy. The scene is familiar — you, running from what you’re feeling, running from him. 

“Wait,” he blurts out, and you do. You pause in spite of everything in you that’s begging you to run, and then he says, “Can I… I mean, do you want to… kiss?”

You turn back, eyes wide. It’s such a ridiculous question, such an innocent thing for him to ask in light of everything that’s happened in the last few days — but it’s so Chan that you almost forget about it all. This is probably a bad idea, you both know that — and you don’t care. You don’t know how this is going to work, but you’ll figure it out. 

Because it’s your Chan — the one who cares so much, the one who gives you hope, the one who wants nothing but for the world to be a better place.

“I mean — I love you too,” he says into the silence, and you realize that you haven’t given him an answer.

“Yes,” you breathe out before he can panic. “Fuck. I have so many questions, but first, yes. Yes, I want to kiss you, Lee Chan.”

You can hardly believe the giggle and shy smile he sends your way before he kisses you breathless. 

Yeah, you think to yourself as he pulls back, as your fingers lift to gently trace the barely-there bruise on his cheek, as he leans into the warmth of your hand. As you think about how he’s been doing all of this — trying to change the world — alone.

Yeah, you think. You’ll figure it out. 

TAGLIST: @waldau @minisugakoobies @tae-bebe @gyuminusone @wqnwoos @wheeboo @christinewithluv @lvlystars @variety-is-the-joy-of-life @iluvseokmin @seohomrwolf @pan-de-seungcheol @bewoyewo @kyeomkyeomi @mingyuscoffee @harry-the-pottypus @lightprincess-world @icyminghao @bella-l @darkypooo

[steve0discusses]

S5 Ep 50: Tristan Hates Horses, I Think

Been a while! Tumblr’s annoying as hell changes to the text editor took a lot of wind out of my sails, ngl. It had some problems they're resolving as they go, but it was really annoying to use and to edit if you write any amount of youknow……words….

And I was talking to a friend about this, and they were like “have you tried writing it in google docs and copy pasting it after?” And I happily realized when you copy paste from google docs, it also copies the PICTURES. This has literally saved hours of my life, y'all. It has turned something that was so frustrating I didn't want to open tumblr again into something that is no longer an obstacle so I can write once more!

So lets travel to Yugi’s brain, where Tristan desperately has to make up for all the work he hasn’t done because he was just a wee tiny bit possessed.

It may be hard to pick up where Tristan is on this picture, and I hope I recorded it somewhere in OBS like 2 months ago when I finished the series because it was such a funny animation, but hot damn this boy has hops.

And  you can see him there on the ground in the bottom left corner, that isn’t a rock, that’s Tristan having toppled a man with his bare hands, a man who had a sword and was sitting on an armored horse.

Can you believe this guy ran for school president? And then lost and humbly became the janitor?

Meanwhile, Joey discovered magic.

Confirmation that duel disks are made out of old tank parts.

Realizing for the first time that magic exists, they decide to peace out.

Back in the real world, Mokuba and Roland don’t know where the hell Seto went. Which is weird, I figured Seto would at least leave a note or a text message or…anything…but apparently even if he did, he just disappeared at some point down in Marik’s old living room.

So Roland and Mokuba decided that in order to find him, they would have to take a massive Boeing 747 to find their lost child.

Some kids have a motorcycle, some kids have a scooter, Mokuba just wants the most boring ass big commercial plane that is meant to sit a couple hundred people in an awkward way. That’s what Mokuba wants.

Just Mokuba things.

My bro who edits these for me wrote in huge ass letters "ROLAND SIGHTING" While saying "ROLAND ROLAND ROLAND" so I want y'all to know how much we appreciate a good Roland in this house.

Speaking of, I know it's like season 5 but...who is the other guy? He wears funny sunglasses but I have never heard his name, not once.

But this is when the plane was filled with heavenly light.

They begin to see the fight happening between Seto Kaiba (the OG Seto, the one that is cool and isn’t depressed because his not-wife died) and Bakura (who is now Zorc). Don’t ask me how the time stuff works, and why we see it now of all the times in human history, and right over Egypt in the sky. Don’t ask me why.

I assume it’s time compression shenanigans, just like FF8, so maybe it’s just every moment in time is able to see this UFO in the sky, but overall, it’s here because it looks cool. The fact that this right here is actually not a physical place, but is actually a figment of Yugi’s imagination shaped by Pharaoh’s botchy memories--is neither here nor there. Instead, it’s everywhere. 

Seto is unimpressed by this, because he knows how science and timelines should work, and this wouldn’t pass Kaiba Corp inspection.

Back at the yellow palace made of cheese and mario blocks, Pharaoh is still knocked out from that time he summed all 3 dragons last episode, which to me feels like just eons ago. 

But it’s OK, he’s fine now.

Typically he’d be dead, because his dragons died on the battlefield and their life force is connected to their monsters. But not only is Pharaoh 1.) already dead and 2.) the author of this universe and cannot die or this universe ceases to exist he’s 3.) got the puzzle, which means he can’t actually perma die, unlike everyone else in his court who is perma-gone.

He is not surprised by what is currently happening in Egypt’s downtown strip.

This is probably every day in Domino. Every day Seto Kaiba wakes up everyone in town with his three-headed dragon princess just because he can. Hell, Seto was doing this fight with Bakura on the top towers of Domino just this morning (or last morning…not sure if time passes in real life the same way it does in puzzle life)

The audacity of Yami right now, the one moment Yugi isn’t there to scream about ledges, this boy is leaping joyfully off that ledge. 

He fuses with the dragon which gives him this familiar outfit.

I thiiiiink it’s the same outfit as Alexander season? I’ll be real with you though, I don’t really want to look it up. Either way, good to see the return of putting on a ton of armor in a card game, I don't think we've seen it Canonically since that one time Joey did it against Valon, and ever since then, Joey kind of forgot it was a thing he can just do.

But unlike Joey, Yami doesn’t take the opportunity to punch Zorc in the face, instead he just loses yet another time.

This time he didn’t even pass out, he barely even died. This is progress, truly.

But as Zorc is powering up the peepee missile to fire in Yami’s face (what a way to die!), Shadi has decided to inform us why he’s been stalking these kids for this entire show.

So there’s two ways to read this. 1.) Shadi was Hassan the entire time but had to go back in time from this moment in order to do it or 2.) Shadi possessed the power of Hassan last second so Yami could avoid death one final time.

Both of these explanations don’t fully make sense to me, I’ll be honest, because in order to know that he’ll be needed in the first place, Shadi had to know that Yami would die at this particular moment--a moment that is a different timeline than has ever existed before.

So really, Shadi was just going by a hunch. He was like “I dunno, I’ll see how this goes.” which is more in line with the Shadi we know and love.

Is it a crying shame that Shadi, who has been with us for so many seasons, and it so integral to this show had such an unceremonious death? Yeah. I feel like I didn’t quite get the closure I wanted but I’m also sort of confused as to…what happened. But I’ll leave it there because apparently we get more Shadi content in Dark Side of Dimensions.

Anyway, I have no idea if these images will even fit into a post with how how tumbler does posts nowadays, and I'll be real I had to re upload the last bit of it, which I suspect was over 15 images???? Not sure??? but we found a workaround! google docs works!

Also, Seto didn’t die today! Instead it was Shadi! For a SECOND time!

I cannot believe how freakin lucky Mana is, this girl is still kicking and if Mana survives everything I am…going to be astonished, that’s what. Mana secretly OP, who knew?

And always you can read the rest of these here

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

if I turn it into a link it doesn't work right because the text editor is really, really bad. I hate it a lot. But uh...feel free to copy paste it until I can get links to cooperate.

[suinotsuki]

College AU: Behind Closed Doors (And One That Wasn’t)

A/N: I just decided to post my fanfics also here on Tumblr. But, all of these are cross-posted to my AO3 account too along with the other SenHaku Week 2021 fanfics of mine! Fanfic Links: AO3 | FF.net

Other Links: Dr. Stone Masterlist

College AU where Kohaku and Senku deal with being roommates. SenHaku Week 2021 Day 3: Roommates

Stone University was the most prestigious school in the country.

The school with their top-notch classes gave birth to genius professionals. That’s why a lot of famous people from various fields came here. Not only did they have tough entrance exams, but the freshmen year was also hellish. But after the gruesome first year, the students could customize a schedule fit for them. Some would say the school had a complicated system.

However, the dorm was more unpredictable.

The students were required to live in the residence hall after the gruesome first year. The rooms were spacious enough to do anything they want. There was a kitchen, a bathroom, beds, closets, and a vacant space. It seemed perfect, but the administration has a way of matching roommates randomly.

It was random enough that two people were having a hard time figuring out the current arrangement.

"Lioness, do you know why they paired us up?" Senku asked as he set down the last of his boxes.

"I'm not a lioness!" Kohaku huffed. "I don't know. I was supposed to be with Ruri." 

"I never heard siblings in different years being roommates."

"There was one before!"

"They were twins." The scientist stuck a finger in his ear and observed the red-faced blonde.

In the end, she turned back to unpacking the rest of her luggage.

They were definitely off to a good start.

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

The two roommates were already familiar with each other before they lived in the same room.

They came across each other frequently despite being in different programs and clubs. Ruri and Rei were to thank for that. It was the same for their friends. Still, they weren't able to really interact a lot back then. It was only until they became roommates that they got to know each other. Not just their quirks, but also their different studying habits.

Senku glanced from his tablet when he heard a loud thump. Kohaku was troubled again. He knew from the six months of being together that she'd lightly hit her head on the table when she was frustrated with her studies. Tonight was one of those times. He couldn't blame her. Cramming for the finals have always been ten billion percent a pain.

However, he was wondering why did the girl choose Radiologic Technology as her course out of everything. With how active she was in sports clubs, he almost thought she was in Sports Science. She was very involved in the school. A small smile found its way to his lips. He really admired her ability to juggle her academics and extracurriculars.

"Senku," Kohaku called out. She turned her head to face him. "What's wrong?"

A perceptive lioness, as usual.  The boy adjusted from his seat before asking. "Why did you take your course?"

The girl sat up straight and Senku couldn't help but notice how her blue eyes were full of emotions. "We had to rush Ruri to the hospital before. The radiologist there discovered my sister had pneumonia. If we found out late, she would have died."

"Ruri has been doing well already."

"And, I'm happy about that." Kohaku smiled. "I wanted to be like that radiologist. I wanted to save people like her."

The two settled into silence once she was done speaking. There were no more words to be said. It wasn't awkward. It was... comfortable.

The night continued with a peaceful silence around them.

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

By the time they hit their junior year, their schedules were different from each other.

Senku's timetable was filled with classes in the morning. By the time it was afternoon, he was either in his club or in their room. Her roommate was mostly spending his time crafting a spacecraft. Whether it was his own choice or because his program demanded it, he was occupied.

Kohaku was busier. She alternated her schedule between classes and clubs. The girl claimed that staying still and listening to all the lectures were going to drive her crazy. It's why she opted to squeeze her clubs in the middle to get some fresh air. She even had to practice for competitions from time to time.

The two developed a routine throughout the time they spent. They always had dinner together despite their busy schedules. If they couldn't, they'd grab a snack at least.

After coming from a long tiring kendo practice, the lioness desperately needed a shower. She opened the door to their room and was greeted by the cold air. Her grip on the box full of mille-feuille tightened as she shivered. She couldn't let the box drop to the floor. It was their snack before Senku leaves for dinner with Byakuya, Lillian, and Rei. 

"Senku, it's too co-" Kohaku stopped upon seeing the Aerospace Engineering student asleep on his desk. The afternoon sun was the only thing illuminating their room, and it created a paradisical image of their space. She would have continued to be in trance at the scene in front of her if it wasn't for the soft rustling sound of the papers on the floor.

Placing the box of sweets on the kitchen counter, she tiptoed to his bed and took the neatly folded blanket. The girl unfolded it with a flourish sending some papers flying. She'd pick that up later. For now, she should make sure her roommate won't be freezing by the time she finishes her bath.

She was fast to clean up the room. She had to. There are two more hours until his family arrives.

As she was about to get into the bath, courage struck her. The blonde glanced back to the sleeping figure by the window. The silly thought in her head pushed her forward to do something uncharacteristic. With steps as light as a fairy, Kohaku hurried to his side and planted a gentle kiss. She practically ran to the bathroom after that.

And if Senku felt her lips on his exposed forehead, he didn't dare to open his eyes and speak of it.

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

When their senior year started, the roommates already gained an almost perfect understanding of each other.

That included the awful luck one student has.

Days before his thesis defense, Senku just had to be down with a fever. It wasn't the kind that will immediately go away with a good night's sleep. He struck gold with the one that made him incapacitated to move. On the bright side, he didn't have to prepare for the defence.

"I'm sorry, lioness." The engineering student weakly apologized.

From the small kitchen, Kohaku resisted the urge to snap at the nickname. It wouldn't do them good if she did. He needed rest more after 'accidentally' overworking himself. He should conserve his energy more.

The blonde decided to focus on cooking the ramen. No matter how sick he was, he always had the appetite for it. It's one of the reasons why she decided to learn to cook it from him. The taste wasn't like the one they bought in the ramen house an hour away from the university, but it was close enough.

Taking care of Senku was definitely a piece of cake for her. She already did this many times not only to him but also to her sister. When the food was cooked, she made sure he was propped up and the ramen wasn't steaming hot for him to eat. They ate in silence with the lioness having to spoonfeed him.

Once they were done, Kohaku got busy cleaning up. The earlier she could get the boy to rest, the better. She still had to smooth things out for her practicals. He might be almost done with his requirements, but she still had two to fix.

"Kohaku?" Senku called her name as she tucked him in.

The lioness swore her heart skipped a beat. "Yes?"

"Thank you." And with that, the boy placed a tiny kiss on her forehead and he sleepily chuckled. "I remember that too."

No more than a minute did he fall asleep, leaving her shocked from his actions. She held her face as a blush slowly crept to her face. Memories of the stunt she did a year ago rushed to the surface, and she felt more embarrassed than ever.

And if Senku felt her kiss from before, he did dare to speak of it while in a state of a delirious fever.

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

Stone University always had a graduation party for graduates.

It was an event where alumnae and outsiders were welcomed to wander around the school's residence halls. Some freshmen would take this opportunity to have a sneak peek of their stay. For the seniors, it was their last opportunity to have a feel of their second home.

Kohaku and Senku stood in the middle of their room, taking one last look at everything before they start packing tomorrow. They weren't the type to feel melancholic. It wasn't like they couldn't help it. There were so many memories of their stay here.

Honestly, they still didn't know why the school administration decided to put them in the same room.

"Senku!"

"Kohaku."

The graduates turned their attention to the source of the voice. They found Rei and Ruri smiling at them from the doorway.

"Ruri? Rei?" Kohaku tilted her head to the side.

"We knew you'd be here!" Rei answered as she bounded to Senku with a bouquet of hydrangeas. "After all, we picked out this room for the two of you!"

"We hope you had a lot of good memories here. Congratulations on graduating." Ruri casually said.

For a while, the two roommates weren't sure if they heard Rei correctly. They turned their heads toward each other and looked back at their older sisters. If Ruri and Rei picked out this room for them, then...

"Rei, did you just say..." Senku trailed off.

"We picked out this room for the two of you!" His older sister repeated, but this time with a more cheerful voice.

"But, how?" The younger blonde exclaimed.

"As part of the student council, we had privileges." Ruri glanced at Rei. "Since Rei and I were friends, we thought the two of you might get along well too."

Silence.

The room was so silent you could hear a pin drop. It was a needed silence though. Whatever theory Senku and Kohaku had before, it was proven wrong in an instant by their sisters. 

"All this time, we believed ten billion percent that the administration was behind it." Senku chuckled. "I didn't consider the student council. That explains why the school got crazier when Ryusui became president."

"Ruri, why didn't you tell me?" Kohaku asked her sister.

Ruri made an apologetic face. "Sorry. It was supposed to be a surprise."

"Anyway, you're missing such a great party downstairs!" Rei pulled on Senku's hands. "Let's go."

"Rei, can you give us a minute?" Ruri and Rei glanced at each other until the older blonde smiled knowingly. 

Kohaku smiled when their older sisters left. It would probably be a long time before she and Senku would be able to meet again. They already have promising futures ahead of them. They would be busy with their lives.

Before any of them could say a word, the two closed the distance and tightly hugged each other. Three years. It took them three years to have this kind of hug.

It wasn't the end, but they might as well start with one hug.

[kharmii]

watching the news surrounding the 0l!mp!cs fills me with disgust but also with hope. The voices of frustration and resistance against this nonsense are getting louder and louder and more and more frustrated. And at the same time the usual deflection of throwing around insultes like confetti looses more and more it's meaning.

There is still a long way to go... but the winds of change are here. Normalcy is taken over again. And future generations will look at the history books thinking: "TF happened back then? How could insanity rule the whole western world like that??" (just like we are looking back at events less than a century ago and wonder how could all of this happen?)

With enough indoctrination everything is possible...

The Olympics debacle was so badly received I did not see one post glorifying it or even mentioning it here on Tumblr. Not one. It's true there's a push back. At least there are people admitting there's a vocal minority pushing weird stuff as a norm:

Speaking of weird stuff, the new order going out to the mainstream media is to push more the idea that conservative social norms are weirrrd now. Matt Walsh did a montage showing it:

I've had this psyop being pulled on me my whole life, and it hasn't worked. The oft spoken of coworkers have pushed it the most. I'm weirrrrrd for not indulging in the same ruinous self-destructive bad decision making as the rest of them, starting when they were younger into that 'forever in college' party lifestyle and culminating into the day they all went in a big group to get that experimental Covid vaccine. They can sneer at me all they want, but I wouldn't be any one of them for a million dollars, especially since I'd be likely to die from comorbidity of being grotesquely overweight before I could enjoy it all.

It helps I'm only hearing it from Matt Walsh because I don't take in mainstream news or watch much television outside of the few episodes of anime per day, like Black Clover or My Hero Academia. One must curate their media experience same as internet.

And future generations will look at the history books thinking: "TF happened back then? How could insanity rule the whole western world like that??"

Hopefully it will end up that way. The alternative is the end of Western civilization due to suicidal left-wing insanity.

A couple more:

The thing with drag queens.....is anybody else sick of them? -Or is it just me? I'm sick to death of drag queens for the same reason I'm sick of furries and trans people. -Like maybe they were fun and campy for a minute, but then the most obnoxious people on earth had to start injecting them into every damn thing until you can't get away from them.

Let's make 2025 the year people finally get sick of drag queens, trannies, monster fucking and stupid furry bullshit. Autistic people...stop being into trans and go back to being into trains. If someone isn't into trains, they might still be interested in hearing infodumping about railroads, but nobody is interested in hearing about all the boring-as-shit made-up gender 'science' being spewed on Tumblr 24/7.

[gwemmieee]

Sometimes, I get involved in posts here that attract the terfs, and I peer in to make sure I block anyone who's highly likely to send me hate (which has already happened a lot in just over a year on tumblr), and it's hard for me to unpack how often terf blogs hide behind edgy language that I actually sort of agree with. Stuff like women's liberation, supremacy, etc.

I am afraid of men after how much and how consistently they have traumatized me. I sometimes feel like I hate men, but I don't like to assume and judge and hate people I don't know, so I don't trudge too far down that hole. But I genuinely do think that femininity is superior to masculinity, and I do think that masculinity as we know it is only a positive force when it's used to defend others from violence, and otherwise it is at best a neutral/centrist force. And I don't know if or when any of that will change, because I have no desire to go out of my way to be closer with any man I've met so far--at least no desire strong enough to overcome the fear and trauma. And that's really saying something considering that I'm sexually bi and can find men attractive.

And almost every time I look at a terf's page, it's filled with words that seem to see eye to eye with me. Stuff about women being better, men being predators, etc., but it's all so much more sweeping and generalizing and judgey than anything I'd say (in public). But sometimes when I'm in private and really frustrated, I'll say stuff like that too, so I get it. I also see fully positive stuff sometimes and I get excited! Just today, I saw one reblog some science debunking that biological women are weaker than biological men, and that was wonderful. But she hates trans women, so I still had to block her.

As I keep reading through their pages, most of it is just them policing other people. I find a lot of hateful stuff that contradicts feminine superiority, or that has nothing to do with it. They see people who are taking longer to grow up because they've been abused and had to spend time unlearning that abuse in order to not perpetuate it on others, and they talk about those people as if they're subhuman predators, as if there's some kind of race to be all the way grown up and they're a bad person for falling behind. They get irrationally angry at people over innocent terminology disagreements or not being their ideal kind of consumer. I don't actually see much hate thrown at masculinity at all--I see a lot more hate thrown at people who it seems like they are more likely to tolerate than men, but they throw vitriol instead because those people are just not quite good *enough* for them. "This is what's wrong with our community." "This is who we need to kick out because they're a problem." I also see a lot of them digging out a single social media post saying something extremely nasty out of rage, then doing this weird magic trick where they take this leap of logic into suddenly talking as if that person represents every single other member of whatever demographic they feel like putting down this time (usually transfems). And it's weird. I understand the irony that I'm doing a version of that right now, but the key difference is I'm talking about a political camp that people have voluntarily chosen to rally behind, not a gender identity that is intrinsic to their entire being.

It feels like they're confused. Like, the way they speak about men, women, masculinity, and femininity, I would be forgiven for suspecting that they genuinely think masculinity is just a Y chromosome and a penis and femininity is just an X chromosome and a vulva, and I'm really glad I have no clue what they would say about intersex folks because I don't expect anything pleasant. So it's like, they're saying this high level stuff about the superiority of femininity and the predatory nature of masculinity that I actually really identify with, but they're not basing it on actual femininity and masculinity like I am. They're not considering the deeper nuance and reality around how men and women tend to behave and how that affects where our identities lie. It seems like they really do cling to the delusion that having a penis at birth means you will always and only be a predator, while having a vulva at birth means you will always and only be perfect. And... that's just so sad and limiting and out of touch. Are any of them actually interacting with and trying to listen to anyone who challenges their bubbles of thought?

I think it says a lot that they feel so safe and empowered to shit on people in public in ways that to this day my repeatedly abused and abandoned ass is still terrified to do even in private most of the time. And I'm very frustrated that they have such a monopoly on public speech that can voice the more negative sides of my own feelings around my own trauma around masculinity. The only way I can feel better is by consciously choosing to believe that most lesbians aren't like these lesbians. That most sapphics don't tolerate hate, including this brand of it. We shouldn't be dwelling on hating masculinity. We should spend more time loving femininity.

[katyspersonal]

I know it's morning where you are but on tumblr it's always sleepover time so now it's your turn, tell me about YOUR CRUSH (revenge time hehe)

It is also always sleepover time for me as long as I am sick and should stay in bed xd (I say as I have a work shift today :') )

Hoooo boy... The last time I had a crush it evolved into being full on in love (without return), so I am not even sure if that counts? But I was attracted to how deep and complex he was. How he spoke very honest, very direct and sinsere speech, without any manipulation, terminally online terms or American college buzz-words. How he loved books, art, music, poetry, nature, history, science, to learn about various religions across the world and time, and dabbed into spirituality- actually, it is easier to name what smartypants thing he did NOT love than what he loved dfhhdsg He also had very big range of emotions and a lot of painful, intimate experiences to share, and there was something incredibly human about how he'd speak about people, animals, his special interests, life in general. Though in retrospective, he fell for the trope of that misantropic villain / morally grey character that is being abnormally edgy about hating humans, thinking that only art/religion/both could save their souls, but loved and cherished every single animal xD I still think it is incredibly attractive, as frustrating as it can be to deal with it.

In general, life is not a poorly written fanfic, so normally when two broken people find each other, odds are, they'll not heal one another but only hurt each other more. Is this because they're trying to drag each other down into their Hell instead of reaching for the light together, or it is because they have different idea on what "healing" looks like so they try to "fix" each other by their own ruler, not thinking of this person's TRUE 'healed' state? Hell if I know. It is usually the latter. Most humans are just not capable of snapping out of their own idea of what 'healthy and good' is and to selflessly, genuinely invest into nurturing another person's real self. Reminds me of my early, abandoned idea on what the Doll deal was with G3hrman, or, heck, that official note from FMA creator that Tuck3r was unable to summon Nina's soul back all because he wanted the "idea" of that sweet, innocent daughter that once loved him, and not her true self in her entirety (that'd probably hate him for what he did anyways). We were never an exception. Hell, perhaps the guy was completely in the right to hate humans the way he does!

Alright djhdsfgh Listen, things like this sorta feelings is always something deeply tragic, emotional and complex for me, okay?? This is maybe why I always wreck my ships and can't imagine a happy cottagecore AU even at a gunpoint xd You are always in for a trip when you try talking to me about my crushes that aren't fictional! :')

[thatsmytrunks]

Fred Wood’s Game of the Year 2022 List

Here’s an organized list of my games of the year, 2022. The rules are simple: I must have completed the meat of the game for the first time in 2022. Release date doesn't matter to me. Nothing matters. Time is made up. We’re posting this on Tumblr in 2023. Nothing could possibly matter anymore.

Chaos;Head NOAH

I adore the Steins;Gate series and have picked up and supported every english release of every Science;Adventure visual novel that has released since. Chaos;Head NOAH is the first game that has completely disappointed me, and I’m not totally sure who’s fault that is. From what I understand the localization team on this release did some work to try and make the game more palatable to unfamiliar audiences, trying to make the main character less of a piece of shit than in the original release. Well, they failed. He sucks bad, and I’m not sure I can endure revisiting it again to find the other endings/routes, no matter how much better they make the story.

AI The Somnium Files: Nirvana Initiative

AI The Somnium Files: Nirvana Initiative is a sequel to AI The Somnium files, and is not as good. It tries to do some really wild things with its narrative and mostly succeeds, but they tried to make the game stand alone for folks who didn’t pick up the original, and I think that fear made it much less impactful. The inclusion of an Easy Mode for folks who want to binge the story and not deal as much with the clever puzzles made it much more pleasant for this dummy to enjoy.

13 Sentinels Aegis Rim (Nintendo Switch)

In 2019 13 Sentinels dropped on PS4 and I tried to play it and kept thinking “I wish I could play this on a handheld”, so I never finished it. This year I did, and while I was not as in love with it as all the folks in 2019 who extolled its virtues, I will say this is a very wild game that tells a wild story using a wild structure that seems incomprehensible until it clicks. And I think it clicks really, really well.

AI The Somnium Files

This game was the first new big drop from the creator of The Nonary Games series. I first played it a little on Switch when it first came out thanks to a review code, but the graphics were so bad and the beginning was so slow that I put it down and never picked it back up. When the sequel, Nirvana Initiatve came out, and friends started speaking so highly about it, I gave the original another try, this time on XBox Series X via GamePass. Instead of being a garbled mess, it was a gorgeous video game that held a great series of mysteries with a cast of characters I learned to love. The only mark against the game is it’s a bit hard. The puzzles in the game are based on dream logic, and dream logic is pretty subjective, so I kept failing and getting frustrated. The sequel mitigates this with lots of difficulty options and making it easier to retry. For this one I mitigated the difficulty by using a walkthrough when I got stuck. The game’s a real 9/10, though, highly recommended.

Undertale: No Mercy

Undertale came out in 2015, and here in 2022/2023 I’m working for Toby Fox on Deltarune, so take everything I have to say with a healthy amount of bias.

I played Undertale in 2015 the week it came out for a few minutes and thought it was cool and didn’t pick it back up until Thanksgiving. By that point the game had absolutely changed the internet forever and it was getting real hard not to get spoiled, so I played the game like I think most uninformed players do. I loaded up the game, thought it was neat, killed the really nice goat lady, learned that I did not have to kill goat mom, restarted the game, got a “pacifist ending”, then got a “true pacifist ending”. I had always heard about the other major route, but never really thought it would be my bag.

This year, after having talked to a lot of people and being pretty bad at the Undertale and Deltarune danmaku bullet patterns, I wanted to go and see the rest of what one of my favorite games of all time had to offer. I did it on a couple of Live Streams where I struggeled a lot, but ultimately won the battle against a true hero. I pushed on to give the friendly skeleton fight a few honest tries, before giving up and resorting to cheat engine.

Just like everyone else has said over the last seven years, it’s amazing how Toby was able to tell another very powerful and very memorable story by reusing places, characters, and battles. It’s wild how the most famous track in the game takes place in a battle that most players will never experience on their own. It reminds me of how the best part of Drakengard is hidden away after having to do a bunch of really horrible and actively unfun things, but that wild alternate route resulted in NieR.

I will probably never beat the friendly skeleton battle at the end of the game legitimately. I don’t have the kind of reflexes and memory to learn every single one of the attacks and pull them off, but having gotten there on my own and trying it a few times, I sure as hell understand and appreciate it.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe

Many years ago I played a game that told the story of a man named Stanley. While The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is not quite a sequel (though it also very much is), it was wonderful to revisit one of my favorite indie games of all time with a fresh coat of paint on modern consoles. The new stuff was wonderfully meta and hilarious, and there was enough of it to justify the double dip. The extra nice thing was playing it with my wife this time, so I got to see bits of the game through fresh eyes.

Sonic Frontiers

Who would have thought that Breath of the Wild meets Death Stranding would make for a surprisingly competent open world Sonic the Hedgehog video game. I really liked running around each of the “open zones”, pulling off tricks and goin’ fast. The combat was repetitive, and the bosses weren’t terribly fun, but the moment to moment controlling the blue attitude man felt really great. Also the game has simultaneously some of the best music in the series (the early cyber zones) and the absolute worst (every single boss battle, don’t @ me).

Sonic Origins

I was so excited in 2021 when they announced that the Christian Whitehead ports of Sonic 1 2 and CD were coming to modern platforms, as well as some sort of re-release of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. What we got was a very buggy mess of these games that had some really glaring issues that made it impossible to recommend, especially at its $40-$45 price tag.

Now with a little bit of time and a few sales, the game can be found for around $20 with its most glaring bugs patched out. Now we have a modern version of the mainline Sonic the Hedgehog games I grew up with, they have widescreen, and they have the ability to retry special stages. They also have fully and wonderfully animated sequences between each game connecting them to one another, and a full 4K upscale of each of the Sonic CD animations with tremendous care and attention.

This year I beat Sonic 1,2,CD, and 3K 100% with all chaos emeralds (something I’d never done in CD), and it was an absolute delight. And playing on the Switch OLED in handheld mode is an absolute delight. If you’re playing on PC, there’s wonderful mods that replace all the music in the game with uncompressed versions of all the original music, there’s fixes for small issues with the dropdash, and there’s a nice and quick fix to remove the weird bilinear filter on the games. It’s easy to recommend for me, now.

This would probably have been higher up my list if not for the miserable state it released in and the $40 price tag.

Vampire Survivors

Vampire Survivors is a game that deserves to be game of the year on someone’s list, but isn’t quite on mine. I love incremental power fantasy roguelikes like Risk of Rain, and at first blush, this seemed to be the idle game version of that. Functionally you can move freely around a big open space, your character will attack every couple of seconds, and a horde of enemies comes at you. The first few minutes of the first few games are pretty boring, but as time goes on you kill enemies, gain xp, and start to build up your character with buffs and new weapons, making you an incredibly powerful killing machine by the end of your run, which at the start is capped at 30 minutes. I spent 30 hours with this game in the first two weeks of playing it, and it was a wildly powerful tool for making time disappear. I’d boot it up, unlock a bunch of new characters and perks, and then say “yeah, one more game”. As I sit here writing this on a 13 hour flight on Tokyo, I’m excited to say I’m going to use its magical time erasing capability to make this trip all the faster.

Also the game’s less than five bucks which is insane for how much fun I’ve had with it.

Judgment

Judgment is an open world beat ‘em up RPG in the vein of Yakuza by the creators of Yakuza taking place in the town of Kamurocho from the Yakuza series. You play as a private detective who is disgraced for getting a murderer acquitted who was then quickly re-arrested for the crime of super murdering his girlfriend. The story of Judgment isn’t about that case, but you can sure as hell bet you’re going to be relitigating that case while you solve a rash of cases involving a serial killer referred to as the mole (for some reason I never fully understood). I picked up Judgment when it came out on PS4, again when it came out on Stadia while I was on vacation away from home, and then again on XBox Series X when I decided I wanted to see the graphics much better. Each time I’d start the game, get to the arcade, play some Virtua Fighter and the claw machines, and then forget to pick it back up.

This year they finally released Judgment and Lost Judgment (the sequel I have yet to finish) on PC via Steam. It was a perfect release for me to enjoy on my very nice computer and TV, then pop over to the Steam Deck and play the side missions that Studio Ryu Ga Gotoku is so known for.

Judgment is somewhere firmly planted in my top 3 Yakuza games, and I mean that with the absolute highest possible praise. It’s a great game and a wonderful introduction to this studio’s work. Y’all should play it.

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

The Witch Queen is the latest expansion in Destiny 2, and is likely the best one we’ve gotten. There are all sorts of incremental improvements to the game’s economy and the loot pool, but the biggest and most exciting change was the addition of a “Legendary” difficulty for the game’s campaign, which made it a challenge for once, like the Halo series Bungie was known for. It felt like a real accomplishment finishing this game’s story, and the legitimate twist at the end of the game is spectacular. 

It’s more Destiny and I like Destiny and they did this Destiny really well so it goes on the list.

Inscryption

I played Inscryption in January of 2022 so I really don’t remember it very well – which is exciting as hell because I’d love to replay it. It starts as a pretty simple and very fun card game with some creepy stuff that expands into a different kind of card game with other kinds of creepy stuff, and eventually tells a really cool and wild story. Telling you much about that story would spoil it, so I’ll shut up here and just say that Inscryption is spectacular.

Neon White

Soundtrack of the Year winner Neon White is a first person platforming shooter where you have cards that are guns but also special abilities. I adored the world of Neon White and most of its characters, though it’s hard to go wrong with a protagonist voiced by Steve Blum doing his best Spike Spiegel recap. Most of the story fails to land, but the gameplay, soundtrack, and replayability made it a hell of a game. I hope they make a silly expansion for it, because I just want more.

Dicey Dungeons

Dicey Dungeons has been on my game of the year list before, but this is its final resting place. This year they ported Dicey Dungeons as well as all its many bonus chapters to iOS and Android, and there’s no better place to play it. Dicey Dungeons is a card-based deck builder where you have skills that requrie different numerical requirements that you meet using dice. It’s got many characters to play as, many tweaked versions of the game, and an incredible soundtrack by Chipzel. It’s a must buy.

Elden Ring

Oh, Elden Ring. The only reasons you're not my Game of the Year is because I'm not good enough to meet your challenges. I was playing the game my way -- offline, single player, with an ultrawide hack and a 120fps patch, without looking up any guides and without watching videos about how to build out my character effectively. This means that before I could get into the dope castle area, I had to defeat the Draconic Sentinel, and no matter how many times I got ‘em down to a sliver of health, they’d ruin me.

The sense of exploration in Elden Ring is unparalleled. I went down an elevator that just kept going and going, then came out to an underground cavern that was so big that it had a sky. I went through a portal in a chest that dumped me into a battle with a dude straight out of Shadow of the Colossus overlooking a massive castle town. I went to hell, I think. Every time I went to some new place, I was blown away. Each place felt unique and compelling, and I just wanted to explore every nook and cranny.

I think I’m going to go back to Elden Ring, but I need time. Hopefully when I do there will be some sort of official PC patch that completely gets rid of the baffling stuttering issues I was having on a 3090. Hopefully they’ve embraced an unlocked framerate and don’t require me to go use tools that would get me banned from playing the multiplayer experience to get the most out of my time with it. And hopefully I’ll have a controller that can withstand the few times I quit the game in furious anger. I really do want to see all that Elden Ring has to offer, because I know that it’s a lot.

Fortnite

Fortnite went from a joke of a game that was never coming out to a game that ripped off a popular new video game to one of the biggest gaming sensations in the world. In 2021 when matchmaking for Halo Infinite broke, the folks I was playing that with pivoted to Fortnite. While Halo Infinite's back and better than ever -- we're still playing Fortnite. Gunplay has gotten better, the sandbox has grown immensely, and they introduced a No Build mode which removes the pesky ability to build fortifications -- something I'm bad at and refuse to get good at. I've had so much unironic fun playing Fortnite with friends, won many, many games (and lost many many more), and I've spent money on cosmetics. There's something incredible about John Cena riding in on a boar with a cape on his back, dropping a dude with a shotgun, and then doing Gangnam Style in front of him while he bleeds out.

Also, as of writing, they just added a bunch of incredible visual tech from Unreal Engine 5.1 which has made the game become a baffling technological showcase.

EarthBound

Have you heard of this one? Way back in 1995 my friend Thomas and I went to the local Blockbuster and rented a game with a huge box for the SNES. It was a weird and wild RPG about a kid who got chosen by a bee to go and save the world from some sort of weird existential threat. I did not understand it back then, but I thought it was fascinating. I didn't have a SNES nor the money to rent the game again, so I didn't play it again.

In 2012 at the Portland Retro Game Expo I was across from a booth selling a complete in box copy of the game in poor condition for $250. Someone wrote the name Shawn Rogers (probably a person named Shawn Rogers) on the front of the box, destroying its value. I spent the money on it, excited to finally have enough money to own this fascinating game I'd tried emulating a couple times since, and called myself a real EarthBound fan. Later that year I brought an SNES with the game to my friend Levi's house and played it for 3 hours. It was rad, and I decided that I should finish Mother before I finally gave EarthBound its due, and so I did in a weekend long live stream. I burned out while playing EarthBound when I got to Fourside for the first time, and decided to call it quits.

In 2021 I picked up a dirt cheap XBox Series S right before a trip to my inlaws in Arkansas, and got RetroArch running on it. I had initially intended to play Halo Infinite (my 2021 game of the year), but the input latency on the TV made it impossible to play the game -- so I tried a fresh playthrough of EarthBound using the "New Controls" hack. I ended up having a lot of free time during that trip, so I divided it up between Destiny 2 via Stadia on my phone and revisiting this aging RPG.

EarthBound is magnificent and deserves all the praise it gets. It has heart, it's earnest, it's weird, it's quirky, and it's not afraid. The story of the young chosen one Ness is simple and unoriginal, but the characters, places, and troubles you get into are unforgettable. The last two hours of that game (The Place and The Final Boss) are filled with some of the most memorable imagery and soundscape in a video game. I don't want to spoil anything for those who really don't know about it, because it's really special.

I'm so glad the game's finally out on Switch as part of Nintendo Switch Online, because the barrier to entry is now just subscribing to a $20 a year plan on a console that most gamers have. There's other ways of playing it that don't cost $250 for a boxed copy (or the $2800 they go for now, sheesh), so I'd really recommend it. It's the second best game I played this year.

Tunic

Tunic's the best game of 2022, and one of the best games I've played in a long time. It's one of those kind of games where if you try to explain what makes it good, you ruin it for someone who hasn't played it. So let me dance around that.

Tunic is a game that looks like a Zelda game, has combat like a Dark Souls game, and has another layer to it. Over the course of the game you learn that if you do one thing it unlocks a whole new ability, or you learn to read a symbol that opens a whole bunch of new opportunities, and culminates in the biggest "I can't believe they did this, that they'd expect someone to figure that out, and I can't believe I figured that out" moment I've ever had with a piece of interactive media. Really just a triumph all around.

The game is hard as nails, sometimes downright unfair, but the game's completely guilt-less accessibility options (infinite stamina, invincibility) make the hardest fights possible and trivial, while letting you get back to the big brain moments. Also it's on XBox Game Pass, which lowers the barrier to entry to an outrageous extent.

Tunic's my game of the year because of how it made my brain feel, and nothing comes close.

Games I didn't finish that deserve to be played:

LIVE A LIVE

When LIVE A LIVE got announced, we had a team meeting where everyone talked about how good and important LIVE A LIVE is, and two people suggested I started on the prehistoric storyline. That was probably a mistake for me, as it was really slow and not very fun, but also had the mega hit Megalomania for the end boss of that chapter. I started up the ninja’s storyline and was much more into it, but I think I might wait for the inevitable PC port. The loading times on switch were attrocious, and that HD2D style would look much better in HD.

Cursed to Golf

The folks at Chuhai Games are new friends to me, and Cursed to Golf is a fantastic golf-based rougelike that they’ve made. It’s incredibly fun and the story is goofy and wonderful and I need to find more time to play it.

Lost Judgment

Lemme be honest, the story in Lost Judgment so far is a snooze fest. All this stuff in the highschool is starting to burn me out, but I’ve been told that it gets much better. So I’m gonna stick with it. Not every game can be as good as Judgment was, anyways.

Picross 3D

Every year or two I delete my Picross 3D save file and start from scratch. I love me some nonograms, and taking them to an extra dimension is a delight. It’s criminal that we’ve only gotten two of these games, and none of them on the Switch. There are some perfectly acceptable clones out there on Steam and Mobile, but none of them match the charm of the Picross 3D series from Nintendo.

[evieolo]

hi! so i had a fluff fic idea?? idk if uv seen how nick and chris call matt "miserable matt" on the pod and stuff but it genuinly makes my heart hurt for him...but like maybe in the fic its after they film the pod and they tease him abt his bad mood the whole time and he acts strong but he comes downstairs after and cries about it to the reader and she has to comfort him about it? obviously u dont have to but i rlly miss the fluff fics, tumblr needs more!!

Miserable Matt — Matt Sturniolo x Reader

Word Count: 1k

Miserable Matt, Miserable Matt, miserable Matt. Every damned time he speaks, the words coming out of his mouth are ‘too sad,’ ‘too depressing,’ or something that, as Nick so loudly claims, ‘nobody wants to fucking hear about.’

Matt is having a particularly bad day, making everything Chris or Nick does even more grating than usual. He is growing increasingly overstimulated with every excursion they pull him into after deeming him the designated driver without consulting him. But who is he to say no? Instead of getting to catch up on much-needed sleep, he gets called a fun killer sixty times by Chris, who barges into his room, wakes him up, and demands a trip to the mall.

On top of all this, you are busy. The one person who doesn’t make his brain feel like it’s on fire is at work meetings all day, from six a.m. to six p.m. All he keeps telling himself is that he just has to finish the podcast episode, and then he gets to see you. But god, Chris and Nick are seemingly intent on testing his patience.

The topic of the podcast is "The Science of Happiness," but soon veers into the exploration of nature, a topic Matt revels in.

“Matt, you’re always reposting videos of trees and shit on TikTok, what's the significance?” Chris asks, pulling Matt out of his looping thoughts.

Matt adjusts the mic, pulling it closer to him and shuffling in his seat to get settled before he speaks. “I really like nature because of how calming it is,” he gushes, a passionate smile draped across his expressions. “If I’m ever really sad or something like that, being detached from people like that really calms my nerves,” he says with complete candor. He is content with his answer until Nick mumbles two words into his microphone.

“Miserable Matt,” he laughs.

Chris nods, joining in with the bantering laughter. “Detached from people is crazy,” Chris jeers, obviously getting a kick out of this. He and Nick banter back and forth for a good while until Nick brings himself back to seriousness and waves at the camera. “We’re cutting that part out. I don’t need to see any more edits of this kid being all miserable on my For You Page.”

Matt sighs, trying to hide his disappointment. He isn’t quite sure what emotion he’s feeling, but the buildup from being frustrated and tired all day makes him push the microphone away from his face, subtly enough so Chris and Nick won't notice, and lets them carry the conversations for the remainder of the night, only chipping in at times he feels he won’t bring the conversation down. All he can think of is three things: the amount of times he’s cursed Chris out, the amount of times he’s sighed, and you.

When Nick starts closing up the video, Matt can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. He can’t help but clench his jaw when Chris butts into the outro, saying yet another dumb joke.

When the camera monitors turn black and the cameras shut off, Matt nearly skyrockets out of his seat. He snaps his hands against his thighs and sighs, “We’re done?” he questions. Nick and Chris look at each other, then to Matt. “Yeah, we’re done.”

Matt staggers downstairs lightly, passing by the empty merch boxes and large sofa on the ground floor.

You shift your head, hearing the tapping of his footsteps against the tile floor. “Matt?” you hum softly in question. You spot his bright blue Fresh Love hoodie and piece together that it’s him coming down the stairs.

“Matt, do you want to get food now?” you ask, recalling his previous requests that Nick and Chris have denied. Matt bites his lip in an attempt to stop a flood of emotion. “No, I gotta go to the bathroom,” he mutters, lying through his teeth. His voice is hoarse, and this gets your full attention on him.

You turn to him, throwing your arm over the sofa’s armrest so you can pivot in your seat, giving you easier access to see his face.

He shies away almost immediately when he realizes your eyes are on him. “Matt, what’s wrong?” you ask, shuffling from your seated position, nearly hurdling over merch boxes to reach his area.

Matt shakes his head. “Baby, you can talk to me,” you urge, palming his cheek with your cupping hand. Matt swallows harshly, a tough swallow - the kind that hurts your throat, all because of sadness.

“I-I’m not miserable, am I?” he asks, his posture slumping.

Your face drops at his self-accusation. He takes this as an end to your question and shrugs your hand off of him. “Why are you with me if I’m miserable?” he asks, teary eyes half on display.

“Matt, you’re not miserable,” you sternly say in a voice both demanding and childish.

You pull his arm, gesturing him to the sofa. He sits down dramatically and pulls you into him. You yelp at the sudden movement. You’re on his lap now, straddling him in the most non-sensual way.

“Nick and Chris say I’m miserable,” he sulks.

You kiss his lips - a little quick kiss before speaking. “Nick and Chris are wrong, Matt. They're just teasing you.”

Matt nestles his head into the crook of your shoulder. “It feels bad, though,” his voice is small and mumbled.

You feel the wet drip of a tear onto your neck and lace a finger through Matt's hair. You know this is where he wants to be, how he wants to be. He doesn’t like showing his face when he’s emotional, happy, or sad; that’s just how he is.

“Hey, you went on that zip line at the zoo, right?” you ask. Matt hums in agreement, nodding his head slightly. “If you were this miserable fun killer you think you are, you wouldn’t have done that.”

“I guess,” Matt mumbles, muffled by the fabric of your sweatshirt.

“Matt, look at me,” you say. He raises his head slightly, just enough for you to cup both cheeks in his palms. “Just because you’re not at six hundred percent all the time like Chris is doesn’t mean you're miserable, baby.”

His lip quivers a bit at your sentiment, and you continue, “You’re perfect like this, Matty. I think if you were as energetic as Chris, it would be like babysitting, not dating you.”

Matt laughs, and his chest rumbles against yours. “Yeah, Chris is a big baby,” he mumbles. You bite your cheek, stifling your laughter. “I’m staying out of your sibling fights, baby.”

Matt hugs you tightly, wrapping his hooded arms around your torso into a borderline painful bear hug.

“I love you, Y/N,” he mutters. This is probably the loudest thing he’s said tonight.

You knot your fingers through his hair and kiss his forehead. “I love you too, Matty.”

Ten seconds later:

“What if he calls me Miserable Matt again?”

“Then I’ll bitch-slap him.”’

A/N: in about five days once I forget this ATROCIOUS piece of “writing” exists trust that I want no reminders that I wrote it

Ily thanks for sending in a request

[lizzienaut]

I totally understand what you're saying but think whit me a little bit ok,

Do you really think this community is fair to everyone? That is it fair enough so that people like me do not complain about not having the same respectful treatment with you, THE ROPE LOVERS?????. Idfk and don't care, I'm just saying facts, that's all. Also commission custom tword art? It doesn't sound like a bad idea actually!, one thing I'll make sure is that it's not the work of any of you, but again it's right that i'm being the bad person here so oficially i'm leaving here, stop saying nasty things and will try to do my best to tolerate this community, despite y'all will make very difficult nlg

honestly? i’m not gonna be as nice as the other people have been.

you, based on how you portray yourself through each dumpster fire of an ask sent to this community’s content creators, are clearly a misguided minor who has learned nothing from this experience. despite apologizing on mickey’s blog, you still show up in my asks (rather late too, very offended on that front) and continue to speak negatively of the others in this community through your passive aggressive comments (i.e. “the rope lovers”).

answer me this; what’s so bad about liking bondage? feathers? feet? trick question - absolutely nothing. this shit isn’t inherently sexual (i mean for god’s sakes, half of the people in this community realized they like tickling because of children’s media) — a mass majority of the people here who draw feathers and feet and light bondage are SAFE FOR WORK (i.e. no genitalia showing, no underlying (intended) sexual themes, etc) just drawing those things because they think it’s fun. it is literally as simple as that. the community is not going to serve you the content you specifically want on a silver platter, both because god knows you don’t deserve it AND for the fact that despite how unfair it may seem to you, artists owe you jack fucking shit my guy. nothing. nada. zip. zero. yeah, it’s frustrating to not find what you’re looking for, but that’s the internet for you dude. wanna know the secret? literally just keep looking and blocking the content you don’t like. you made this everyone’s problem when you could’ve just shut your mouth, silently blocked the accounts you don’t like, and moved on your merry little way to go finish whatever homework you probably didn’t do.

also — even if the art is suggestive or sexual in nature, who gives a shit? it is not the creator’s responsibility to walk on eggshells for you just because you find it upsetting, so long as it’s tagged properly. you’re clearly old enough to use some common sense, so utilize those block buttons. it’s not rocket science.

i’m very pleased to hear that you wouldn’t commission me — i wouldn’t want your money anyways, as i don’t want to work with individuals who tell people to kill themselves, or harass others into doing what they want, or are just generally throwing tantrums on everyone else’s blogs.

i could not give less of a shit that my (or my mutuals’) presence on tumblr dot com will make your poor widdle life that much harder. you are not being respected because you do not treat others with that same respect you so desperately crave in return.

block button. that simple.

you’re clearly the same asshole that you were before, your apologies and promises mean nothing to me, nor does your opinion.

leave me and my slut well in peace now :)

[will-o-the-witch]

I'm part of several magic geared discords run by popular youtube practitioners (tried smaller ones but they were somehow more awkward) and when I first started getting into magic 8 or so months ago they felt like such a boon. So many books to look into, so many resources for who to avoid, so many people to learn from. But as time went by I started to feel really awkward and couldn't put my finger on it.

Recently though I've started to realize that there's a lot of performative activism in the groups. Lots of Heathens will make giant posts, cut people out(nike and georgina rose), make podcast episodes about how horrible white nationalism and na*is are, but then when someone pops on to ask about Lilith, these same people talk about how she's so powerful to work with and all this (legit one of the mods across 3! severs is a host for a heathen podcast and said she grew up in a Jewish household and she doesn't care if people worship Lilith because no one she knew ever cared). People go out of their way to be respectful to Indigenous practices (mostly in regards to land spirits and white sage) but there's not a lot there to help bring attention to the rampant anti-Semitism in magic spaces.

They constantly publicly shame people who share their UPG while also suggesting books that are by and large just the authors UPG. (Or low key really appropriative but somehow it's okay because they are so popular *cough Jason Miller cough*) The same mod as I mentioned above has gone on long tirades about how if you say something is part of your practice you NEED to have *facts* that back it up, but the facts she wants are like random correspondences from a book she "trusts" (honestly, if we're not talking 100% historic stuff what facts are there most of the time? (and even then history isn't static and changes based on new information))

My question is how would I even start a conversation (if I choose to, which tbh probably won't but it'd be nice to know what to do about it in the future) with people like this? These people think anything not in a published book aren't worth looking in to. Anyone from tumblr/tik-tok/instagram is considered a joke regardless of how good their information is (which is hilarious because these people mod on discords for youtube witches). I'm starting to realize this is just a really common thing and I don't know what to do. You seem to have a lot of (probably unwanted) experience with this kind of stuff and I don't want to leave the discords because there is some good information if I dig. It's just getting harder and harder not to say anything when people do icky stuff.

This is a great question!! Unfortunately performative activitism and anti-intellectualism can worm their way into any community space, but I think the latter tends to hold firmer in magic/mysticism spaces because it's been used to try and justify SO much pseudoscience(which feeds back into it) and magic work is so esoteric and subjective anyway that so much information can't ever be formally verified.

I think the best thing you can honestly do is just rise above it. Be picky about your sources (I usually don't touch a book on magic with less than 3 pages of works cited,) study your history and science, read original sources when you can, etc. Not only will it help you out personally but you'll be better equipped to point out WHY something is bullshit if you need to. (And reminding people that Llewellyn and other publishing companies don't necessarily have a quality standard, it's about whether they think a book will sell enough copies.)

Leading by example and speaking with confidence is good, but you also don't have to rot your brain trying to change every mind. Some people aren't interested in being corrected, and you don't have to make them their problem. If a group is frustrating and draining to you, just leave! Find your tribe of like-minded folks who have the same values as you. They're out there, sometimes it just takes hunting!

[ginkgomoon]

Gavin and MC’s High School History- Detailed Timeline

Dedicated to my amazing and kind friend @cheri-cheri- one of the Queens of the MLQC fandom on Tumblr! I literally didn’t know how to use it before but I had learnt how in order to keep up with her posts. Without her work, I literally wouldn’t be on here making my own blog either. Thank you, Cheri!!

This is a timeline following the years of high school that MC and Gavin had together. Compiled of dates, rumours and secrets, calls, texts, and other from multiple servers. The source will be shown allocated to its corresponding sentence. I created this because I was really moved when I rewatched Gavin’s Old Days Date and suddenly thought of the many things other players could have missed out on regarding their high school years. If there is anything you need clarification on, or if you would like to add anything in, feel free to send a post/ask or just comment and I’ll try to incorporate and adjust accordingly! 

Based off of true correspondence of the Chinese education system in Shanghai, where the schools there are very strict, with specific responsibilities and events students must have and attend to. In addition, this is different from Western school systems where years 7-9 are in a seperate schools from years 10-12 before university. Dates and seasons mentioned will also be noted as accurately as possible to suit the Loveland storyline in which different events occurred. I felt like a detective trying to piece a fractured storyline together to solve a mystery, honestly...

Prepare your tissues, your milk tea and your soul because even I almost didn’t make it to publish this...

Timeline

2008

Gavin enters high school.

2009

MC and Minor enter high school. MC does her hair in a nice ponytail, one of the only hairstyles she ever had in school.

Gavin is a grade above her. He is in his last year of high school. [Spring Festival Date]

Late Autumn of October 2010

“I noticed who you were before you ever noticed me.” 

On a rainy first day of school, Gavin helps Mr Keller move the tables and chairs in the classroom. 

Without taking an umbrella, Gavin leaves. 

At the same time, MC saves a cat in the rain with her handkerchief, attempting to shield it from the incoming rain under a roof. She gives it snacks from her bag while sheltering it from the rain. 

Gavin thinks she was nerdy-looking, but couldn't take his eyes off her and watches her from a distance for a long time. He feels out of place standing.

She looks back at him in astonishment, not knowing how long he stood for. 

She smiles at Gavin.

Gavin notes that MC’s smile just like her eyes, were pure and comforting as they start filling his vision. 

The rain starts to get heavier and MC shivers. 

Something stirred in Gavin’s heart as he notices this, and kicks a can in frustration then shelters her with his jacket. 

He runs away as MC shouts, “thank you!” 

She didn’t know it was Gavin who gave her his jacket at the time.

MC goes back and is then told by her fellow classmates that the boy she encountered was the “tyrant school bully”,  and “the Underworld Senior Gavin”, and that she should stay away from him. [Tilted Time- Rumours and Secrets]

-

MC finds piano dull to play the same songs over and over again.

MC in her spare time practices and sings to Liszt’s Liebestraum No. 3 (Love Dream) for a talent show.

At the rooftop, Gavin is wounded by a gangster’s knife. A gradually intensifying melody is heard. 

Gavin kicks the gangster boss but then is pursued again. Outnumbered, wounded and losing consciousness due to major blood loss, the gangster boss kicks Gavin off the roof. 

Gavin reaches out, to something- anything. 

A heavy, surging melody sounded, transcending through time and allows Gavin to reflect on his past- to his father, to his late mother, and invokes deep reflection and epiphanies. 

Heavy notes seep into Gavin’s ears as he almost hits rock bottom. He feels his limbs emerging with the wind and awakens his wind evol. 

Gavin is now reborn.

The music continued to play. Gavin ends up humming with a bird. 

He then hears MC’s singing.

MC stops, mesmerised by the ginkgo leaves flying through the wind. The ginkgo leaves falling was her favourite time of the year in high school. This vivid sight is still engraved in her memory after many years.

Gavin vows to protect her for the rest of his life. [Campus Date]

-

Gavin saved Minor from bullies. 

Minor also happens to be MC’s outgoing, talkative desk mate who sometimes helped old ladies cross the street. How he managed to hang around Gavin and not get beaten up, nobody knew (except us). He would often copy MC’s homework but never dragged her down with him if he got caught. This was MC’s biggest impression of him. 

During science class, MC cooked noodles for Minor on the Bunsen burner when he was hungry. The recipe was Shrimp flavoured instant noodles, mix two eggs in well, then add a dab of sea salt and black pepper. [S1 Chapter 7-1]

-

Gavin is always at the school gates at 7:30am. Carrying his flat school bag, he orders fish balls at the snack kiosk on the north side of the school. It was the third day in a row that Minor notices this. [Minor’s Memory Book]

Gavin would occasionally travel around on his bicycle. (Pre-debut Sparky??) He says he was good at riding it. [Lost Love Date]

It was hard to find Gavin as he’s rarely at school, so she didn’t see him until 3 days later when MC went to the library at sunset. 

She tries to retrieve “Byron’s Poetry Collection” from the top of a 2-metre shelf, and since Gavin was a head taller, he was able to help her get it. 

He musters up the introduction that he recited many times- but MC quickly thanks him and leaves before he could speak.

Minor notices Gavin watching after MC and that he was SMIL-ING. 

He helps him locate MC and reports that every day after school she would go to the library for afternoon revision, always sitting in the same seat. 

Gavin sat at a corner not far, quietly flipping through textbooks he hated. People who were reading in the library would be driven away because they were scared of him LOL

MC would then leave at 5pm sharp to go back home. 

Gavin commits to walking back 10 metres behind her with Minor every day on forward. [CN Tilted Time Rumours and Secrets] 

-

Gavin saves Minor from bullies again. Minor dedicates himself to be his “bro”. 

He finds out that MC is an honours student, but doesn’t know that she’s the school orchestra leader. [Mystery Wings Event] and [Mark Date] However, he does know that she’s renowned as the “campus belle/ school flower”.

Minor idly mentions that more people were giving MC love letters.

Gavin tells Minor to collect all the people who were planning to confess their love to MC. Minor doesn’t want to be wingman anymore HAHA

Gavin stared those boys down as they trembled with fear. He tells them to take them back and if they scare her, he’ll make them regret it. 

Minor realises Gavin’s feelings for MC. [Minor’s Memory Book] 

-

MC eats from a small stall outside the school gate selling red bean puffs. ($3 for one, $5 for two. What a deal!) 

She also encounters the stall that sells sugar figurines [Gift of Life- Sugar Figurine Call]

MC ate chocolate sticks often at school. It's also a memory of student life for Gavin, as well. [CN 2021 March Sign-In Taste of Happiness]

Students would scramble for the small swing set in the school garden. MC never went at lunch breaks, but she watches the sunset on it after school. Gavin is sometimes nearby. MC never noticed him, but she does however notice the ginkgo leaves dancing in the wind. [Mini House Small Happening- Leisure Time]

-

Gavin isn’t his usual self anymore. He sees MC out in the library everyday and starts reading “5 Years of College Examinations and 3 Years of Sample Questions” (book for colleague entrance examinations).

MC watches a basketball match at school. She calls someone from an away team “dashing” because they won with a dunk. This has been engraved in Gavin’s memory ever since. [Dreamers Date]

Gavin found out that he was very fond of basketball success stories, rushing into the court to try hundreds of shots after. He writes “I will beat you” beside Sakuragi Hanamichi from a Slam Dunk poster alongside “not a step back”.

(Slam Dunk starts out with a boy wanting to play basketball to impress his crush.)

Gavin then injures his head badly :(

He realises that basketball couldn’t help him to protect anything he wanted. He determines that he will do whatever it takes (to “beat” himself”). [Mystery Wings Event]

-

Gavin leans against a tree as he watches MC hurry down the corridor as she clutches a textbook. [Boundary Rumours and Secrets]

MC would eat pocky. Gavin would eat them too. [2021 March Sign-In Moments]

- 

MC faints during a sports meet because she didn’t eat breakfast.

Gavin hurries to carry her to the infirmary. [CN Delightful Search Date]

He leaves bread and milk before she wakes up.

-

MC is on duty during PE class, which happens to be on basketball. 

Minor was careless about his aim and the ball almost hit her in the head. Gavin slams the ball away. [Minor’s Memory Book]

Gavin glares at Minor as MC thanks him.

Minor also “accidentally” pushes MC towards him.

Gavin glares again.

Gavin later is continuously shooting hoops. 

MC returns late at night to clean up the gym but all had been returned neatly in the basket. MC wanted to thank him but couldn’t. [CN Basketball Court Date]

-

There was a school sports competition that they attended. Gavin participated in the 10 lap race and came first by an impressive large measure. [Minor’s Memory Book]

MC participates in the sprint race, too. Gavin is worried about her performance, and if she would faint again. 

Gavin requests Minor to take a photo of her on his phone (which probably ended up as the photo that he carried with him in his early days at special training where the other men teased him about hiding a photo of a girl.) 

Approaching the End of October 

Gavin, Minor and MC are walking home. 

The weather is cold, and Gavin notices MC shivering in the distance. Gavin, conflicted by this, tells Minor to buy MC a hot drink without telling her that it was from him. [CN Tilted Time Rumours and Secrets] 

MC would occasionally spot a hot drink or a carton of strawberry milk in the piano room. [Chapter 31-12]

-

Gavin one day is conflicted by their early exchange, recalling how MC looks startled at the entrance of the library after seeing each other. His spirit depletes, kicking himself (metaphorically) in the corner of the classroom at how he might have scared her. 

Minor rushes in with a pink bandaid from MC for the wound at his mouth. 

He carefully took that bandaid, treating it as if it was his world’s most precious treasure.

This pink bandaid was always taped on his heart and whenever he stepped into the swamp-like darkness of the night, it gave off a faint warmth. [Mystery Wings Event]

-

MC starts to notice Gavin everywhere. At the corners of windows, she would see his figure. At the library, he would help her retrieve books from higher places. She would also see books laid out on his table, but most of the time he would be sleeping. Beneath his overlapping arms, he sees “Byron’s Poetry Collection”. Gavin doesn’t understand the poems, though. 

Lord Byron's "Don Juan" - Canto the Ninth, XVI 

"To be, or not to be?" — Ere I decide I should be glad to know that which is being? 'Tis true — we speculate both far and wide, And deem, because we see, we are all-seeing; For my part, I'll enlist on neither side Until I see both sides for once agreeing; For me, I sometimes think that Life is Death,

-

At the music rehearsal room on the fifth floor, she would see a corner of his shirt in the wind. 

MC thinks Gavin is friendly and slowly lets down her guard. 

At the canteen, he would offer her the last bottle of water. 

She begins smiling at him when they see each other, with the small arcs forming on her lips, soon becoming smiles that made her eyes squint.

-

MC would walk along the Senior hallways and subconsciously stop at a certain classroom- catching the sight of Gavin sleeping. On one particular day, she sees him standing by the window, staring at the sky. 

-

Minor asks Gavin if he could form a band with him. Gavin rejects him. He then asks Gavin if he wanted to join the school’s singing competition. Gavin rejects him again, saying that he didn’t perform for unimportant people or have others tell him how well he could play.

MC plays “Falling Slowly” on the piano. Gavin hearing this, learns to play the guitar. He doesn’t know the name of the song but familiarises himself with the melody. [CN Music and the Past Call]

-

Whenever school let students out early, she would go to Lynn’s Kitchen. MC gets her noodles with clear broth, chopped scallions and a half-boiled egg. Gavin usually gets his spicy noodles with garlic, cilantro, thinly sliced beef.

Gavin remembers her favourite order. 

MC leaves a post-it note at Lynn’s Kitchen, “I might never see you again and I didn’t even get to say goodbye. I miss you”, about a friend who transferred schools. 

Gavin knows she hates people who leave without saying goodbye the most.

Gavin, also in the vicinity near Lynn’s Kitchen, writes a post note.  “Until I met you.” [Mystery Box Game]

He saves Mr Noah’s son from an accident, immediately takes him to the hospital and pays for the medical fees. [Anime]

-

Gavin dismisses rumours of high school romance. 

“If you confessed on the 7th step of the stairway in the corner of the 3rd floor then it’ll succeed, or if you carved your name and another person’s name on the 6th tree in the courtyard at the back then your misunderstandings will be resolved, or if a guy gave the girl he liked the second button of his uniform on graduation day then the two of them will end up happy together.”

At lunch, he hears MC talking about the second button, and upon seeing her yearning face, he raises his head in thought, suddenly couldn’t wait for graduation. He tears off his second button. [Mystery Wings Event]

Gavin is just in love at this point.

-

Gavin sees one of the top students stealing money from a shop outside of school. The shopkeeper doesn’t believe him. 

He stops the student on his way home to hand him back the money. 

MC sees him at the alley then leaves.

Gavin spent all the money on a walkman he wanted for a very long time.

Mr Keller was the only one who believed in him. He said to him, “Since you can’t change what others think of you, you might as well just listen to your heart.” This had a great impact on Gavin. [Campus Date] 

Winter 

In the snowfall, the school allowed additional ten minutes of break time. The class next to MC’s stuffed Minor’s shirt with snowballs.

Gavin thought of helping him with a counterattack but MC had already returned a snowball to the male student who pulled the prank. 

Gavin looks at MC the whole time. [CN Recovery ASMR]

-

MC overheads girls in her class say that Gavin had bullied students for lunch money that morning. 

MC rides her bike back home after studying at the library for her finals. 

MC sees Gavin being handed an envelope full of money at Lynn’s Kitchen in an alleyway. 

She mistook it for him taking protection money. 

-

Summer of June 2011

On a humid afternoon, MC looks outside the window of the classroom in boredom. A boy in a loose-fitting school uniform ran by. She couldn’t make out his face. [S1 Chapter 7-23]

MC begins to distance herself from Gavin. She rushes out of class and goes straight home instead.

Gavin is sad. He broods by the piano room, goes to the library to brood, then stares at the place MC sits to brood some more. 

Minor wonders how he’s able to stare all afternoon at an empty space in the library but sleeps all day during class hours. [Minor’s Memory Book]

Before graduation, Gavin’s father expresses his thoughts for Gavin to join the organisation for special training. Gavin refuses, but his father uses MC to influence him to agree. 

Gavin remembers the panic and timidity in MC’s eyes when she first met him. He recalls that moment was probably the hardest to bear in his life.

Gavin in his short period of freedom writes a letter to MC. He ponders about what to say, thinking about their first encounter, and how she started to distance herself from him. But all he writes is-  

“Saturday 9am, I will be at the school library waiting for you.

-Gavin.”

-

MC attends the flag-raising ceremony and rehearses her speech. She then leaves to study for her exams. 

Meanwhile, Gavin finishes a fight with other boys from school in an alley after they talk inappropriately about MC. [Old Days Date]

Gavin, bloodied and bruised, asks Minor to make another copy of his letter. 

This is the only thing that Gavin had asked Minor to do so of course, he agreed. [Chapter 7-11]

Minor thinks the letter is a symbol of passion and fierce love due to the bloodstains and decides to keep the original. 

He writes “GAVIN” and places it on MC’s desk for her to see the next day. 

(In the Campus Date, the older MC is the one who finds him instead of Minor and treats him to his injuries. She ends up seeing the contents of the letter to find him later on.)

MC mistakes the letter as a threat and throws it away. 

That Weekend

Gavin sits for 14 hours in the library waiting for MC, scanning the library every now and then.

With a fingertip, he rubs “Byron’s Poetry Collection” and carefully sandwiches a dried and yellowed ginkgo leaf into the book. He suddenly felt a measure of self-deprecation.

He stands up, and leaves, his heart filled with regret that he didn’t give it to her personally. [CN Tilted Time Rumours and Secrets]

After Summer Break- July 

Minor never saw Gavin, and neither did MC. 

“We met often, but never passed by each other. I remember every moment I saw you in school. Time, location, weather, your expression, your clothes...

-I remember them all.”

[masterthespianduchovny]

No shade to anyone, but the people who believe Mulder wouldn’t wear a mask due to covid (or would only wear one because Scully would kill him) misunderstand Mulder.

Look, I know it’s a joke (for some), but the fact that some do believe this plays into a much larger issue on the noticeable discrepancy between the metas on Mulder and the metas on Scully. I’m not trying to make anyone write metas on characters they don’t want to write metas on, BUT IMO, because some aren’t exposed to metas on Mulder, they just focus on jokes and memes and overlook the nuance of Mulder’s character.

Mulder is 100% a conspiracy theorist, but the difference between him and the anti maskers is that his theories are based on actual facts more times than not. Even when he’s wrong about his theory, a conspiracy of sorts does exist.

He knows for a fact that the government can and will release viruses on unsuspecting citizens. This happened in “blood”, a season 2 episode, we also have “wet wired” despite that not being a virus, and was discussed in FTF. Hell, a virus killed three of his closest friends (and his kid’s for fathers, I think they were). There are also numerous occasions where government testing and viruses being released was discussed.

There is no way in hell that Mulder wouldn’t believe covid was real because he has first hand knowledge and extensive research that the government would do some fucked up shit like that.

What Mulder would believe instead was that the government manufactured and released a real virus for nefarious reasons OR that they knew the devastation such a virus would cause and did nothing to stop it for nefarious reasons.

He would’ve 100% believed the virus was real.

And based off of Scully’s medical confirmation of said virus, he would’ve taken it even more seriously.

Mulder never doubts Scully’s science. If she says something is real, medically speaking, then it’s real.

Mulder would’ve stocked the fuck up on masks or learned how to make his own.

Mulder would’ve tracked covid before it was a National topic and was officially announced as a pandemic. He would’ve had masks, hand sanitizers and all that shit before stores were cleaned out.

Scully would’ve looked at him like he was crazy and shrugged.

I love laughing at funny Mulder jokes and memes, but we need to have more than that because some of these jokes and memes mischaracterize him. Due to the severe lack of Mulder metas people say certain things and others run away with it and it’s just like, “no, that’s not Mulder.” But, these become well believed ideas about Mulder and that’s frustrating.

Not all of the best and fascinating things about Mulder are Scully centered. He’s more complex, layered, and fascinating that tumblr gives him credit for at times.

And it’s truly an insult to lump him in with anti maskers, which most likely have an overlap with anti vaxxers.

Mulder believes in science and almost always puts the well being of humankind over himself. No way he wouldn’t take covid seriously.

[mdverse]

Hey there!! Im not the most consistent tumblr scroller but when I have time sometimes I come check your page out and I stumbled across your post on your art journey and man, it was really special to read.

I really liked what you said about practice and experimentation, and starting with copying/tracing/referencing folk we really like), and slowly finding a way to develop asystem that works for us, whether it be for brushes or writing- in my case!

I also really resonated with the part about finding something to be inspired by, to push us to create our own shit - and I guess thats the cool thing about art, and writing, and music, and science etc etc I guess? The fact that everyone builds on the stuff that comes before!

But yes - it's been so cool and 21st century weird, I guess - to feel like I've seen your work evolve in this year thanks to tumblr?

Ooh this got long. But Im sendin u lots of love :)

Yeah!! U get me!

I've gotten a lot of comments from people saying they could never draw the way I do and it's frustrating bc like. Yeah you're gonna suck at drawing for a while but everyone goes through that stage! You'll never get better at anything if the fear of failing prevents you from even starting! And the feeling you get when you compare your recent art to your older drawings (or writing, in your case) and see nothing but improvement is unparalleled. I can't speak for everyone obviously but when I compare sth I've drawn recently to my earlier digital artworks I get a massive rush of pride because I know how much effort I've put into art over the past few years and sometimes I forget it. But then I see the progress and it all feels worth it again. It really is a special feeling! And to be honest I feel like showcasing growth is so important. Like that's part of the reason I still keep all of my old art on my ig page - I could delete it bc it's embarrassingly bad in my eyes, but seeing it evolve over time is sth that really motivates me, and hopefully motivates anyone else who makes or is considering making art :)

And the fact that everyone builds on the stuff that comes before!! So very true! It's wild to think that the people I look up to have their own sources of inspiration, who in turn have their own sources, etc in an endless cycle! I can't think about it too much bc it'll get overwhelming really quickly but it's incredible, isn't it?

Anyway this will get long too unless I stop myself haha, talking about art will never not get me excited. I'm sending you so much love too, it's lovely to see you here 💞

[dinosaurtsukki]

BSD x university au hc’s | pt. 2

part 2 of the university au hc’s !! i am obviously a slut for chuuya and fyodor so don’t mind me. i hope you guys like this !!

check out pt. 1 here

***********************************************

Akutagawa Ryuunosuke:

i love akutagawa ryuunosuke my angst child but i’m just like ‘hmmmmmmm’ when it comes to what his course would probably be

after extensive research aka reading his character page on wiki i feel like maybe he’d be a history major because,,,, he likes antiques?

well his clothes do seem very dark academia-esque and i can see him liking something as cool as history

akutagawa’s probably into something like war history but he’s not weird about it he just finds it really cool how different strategies work or analyzing what exactly makes the winners win

he absolutely HATES the fact that he keeps having to read the Iliad for class

he’s also that classmate who INTENSIVELY DEFENDS achilles for being a bit of a little bitch (but he fully agrees that patroclus and achilles were gay af ok this was random moving on)

akutagawa has practically no social life. he doesn’t go to parties, he doesn’t talk to his roommate, he doesn’t even like to eat in the dining hall

BUT he absolutely loves being in debate team because WINNING

he’s such a nightmare to work with though but he just delivers so well when it’s time for him to speak. like, if he’s on a negative and it’s time to hash out rebuttals, just prepare to get MURDERED

other debaters: “esteemed scholars and adjudicators...”

akutagawa: “you, sir, have no idea how wrong you are.”

that is until dazai decided to randomly show up at a debate tournament all ‘la di da da’ like and completely crushed akutagawa along with his ego

from then on he started stalking dazai and just SOMEHOW managed to end up in his circle of friends

even though he’s antisocial in real life, akutagawa 100% runs a dark academia aesthetic blog on tumblr i’m right and i don’t accept criticism

it’s actually really good he has a ton of followers and even does requests for moodboards if someone asks nicely

atsushi was the one who actually found out about it but he’s nice so he didn’t tell akutagawa about it

kunikida probably follows that blog

Chuuya Nakahara:

if this part sounds like i’m just thirsting for chuuya then you’re absolutely right i love wine man

don’t get mad at me but i can ABSOLUTELY SEE HIM MAJORING IN FASHION DESIGN I MEAN LOOK AT HIM

he’s just always had such a good eye for fashion and he’s veryyy meticulous when it comes to snipping and putting together clothes

chuuya also carries a sketchbook full of designs and his drawings look amazing and he isn’t afraid to just show them off

that said he doesn’t dress like a tired uni student at all, like he just always looks so on-point and unbothered by his five million deadlines

dazai: chuuya, i said this was a CASUAL LUNCH

chuuya, dressed in what looks like silk pajamas: THIS IS CASUAL

tbh if he just wore a white t-shirt and jeans i would die maybe he’s actually saving us from this ordeal

he has so much talent though as a designer he’s probably had several internships with design companies all throughout his years at uni

i feel like chuuya’s also really active in extracurriculars and has been in leadership positions in some of them (he probably runs the student org for fashion design)

chuuya in a student band though oh my gosh i can’t breathe i can’t breathe him as a VOCALIST?? and wearing torn jeans and eyeliner and that same hat in concerts ican’t brEATHE

okay in all honesty he would thrive being in a band chuuya loves the attention and the creativity of being able to design their whole look and write songs

tbh i don’t know if he’d have a roommate chuuya’s probably the type who’d rather have one of those single rooms or just rent a flat for him to stay in even after graduation

because his social life is super vibrant, he does have a lot of friends and he does make an effort to get to know all of them individually 

but he’s more open around those who he’s been friends with for a really long time and as much as he’d like to say dazai isn’t one of them, he is

also chuuya is definitely the type to party hard during the weekends and has more than once crashed in someone’s house after drinking too much (dazai drew on his face on more than one occasion)

Oda Sakunosuke:

i love this man SO MUCH you guys have no idea i would literally die for him

100% this guy majors in creative writing because this is supported by FACTS and not just me wanting to be coursemates with him in this fictional world

super serious and diligent with his work especially since he’s passionate about writing. he loves to read in his spare time and is such a fan of classic novels about social realism or philosophy

oda spends 99% of his time in second-hand bookshops that the owner probably knows him by name at this point

he’s super old school when it comes to writing though, like he still keeps and writes in a notebook before typing it up on a laptop and no matter how many times dazai tells him its impractical, oda just keeps doing it

lmao whenever workshops come around he’s super nice with his critique. i bet a lot of his fellow classmates like sending their writing drafts to him

he draws smiley faces and always adds ‘nice work’ on people’s drafts omg i love odasaku

he’s such an old soul, he probably doesn’t do a whole lot of partying but he likes more quiet, private social events like drinking with close friends or just hanging out and talking at other people’s houses

he and dazai probably met when dazai decided to take an intro to creative writing class and wrote a long poem about double suicide on his first day that kind of put off everyone in the class from wanting to sit with him

odasaku was the only one who wasn’t exactly bothered but he did give dazai some comments to help him with his poetry and dazai instantly wanted to be his friend

in terms of extracurricular life, i can definitely see odasaku joining a writing organization and even the campus newspaper. he does find joy in interviewing students for newspaper articles

he’s also pretty into photography and uses a really old, second-hand camera that he bought at an antique store and fixed himself. at one point he won a prize in a contest

odasaku would be the best roommate. he’s super sensitive to when you have a bad day and will invite you to sit on his bed and hug his pillow and talk about your problems

scratch that, everyone talks to odasaku about their problems and now your room is like a therapist’s office

Edgar Allan Poe:

i swear this was the only gif i could find other than actual edgar allan poe

ANOTHER CREATIVE WRITING BUDDY AHHH I WOULD LOVE TO BE BESTIES WITH HIM AHHH

well actually i feel like since he’s super ambitious and already has a fixed idea on the stuff he likes to write, he’d probably double major in something like forensic science because he’d use it to write his mystery novels

omg that’s where he meets ranpo and now pretty much every main character poe writes is slightly based on on ranpo

it’s a problem. his professor brings it up more than once during his classes but it’s poe’s Thing now

he also has such an unending passion for gothic literature and he wears those white, long-sleeved blouses and waistcoats on a REGULAR BASIS

chuuya probably saw him once and was like ‘hmm, i could pull that off’

poe’s daily route is just going to the library and to class and then go home and that’s about it

he ended up working as a student assistant at the library because he’s just super familiar with the book collections and it’s a job that’s peaceful and quiet 

more than once though, he’d just be really in-deep with his writing to the point that he doesn’t even notice that the library has closed or that he hasn’t eaten the entire day

that’s alright though because ranpo always passes by the library at night to check on his friend and (reluctantly) give him some snacks

also since poe’s pretty much a recluse, he doesn’t go to any social event UNLESS it’s a halloween-themed one

he loves going all out with his costumes because he’s a Drama Queen like that but the problem is he keeps dressing up as gothic novel characters and nobody gets it

dazai, trying to guess his costume: umm,, Two-Face from Batman?

poe: IT’S DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

there was this one time when poe took it upon himself to host the halloween party and it was EPIC

he basically designed it as a murder mystery night wherein everyone who came pretended to be guests at a house and then a murder happened

the only problem was that ranpo was conspiring with poe and it was pretty much unfair

except for the fact that ranpo was frustrated at how bad everyone was at deducing that he ended up solving the mystery for them

Fyodor Dostoevsky:

one of my favorite scenes of him in s3 was of fyodor playing the cello because god damn that is beautiful and therefore i am hc-ing him as a music major and you can’t tell me otherwise

fyodor is an absolute music genius and he was definitely scouted by the university’s music program and then he was granted a scholarship (because in this ideal university, the arts are valued)

he purposely decided to go to a university rather than a music conservatory because he’s also interested in learning a bunch of other things

aside from his music classes, he ventures into comparative literature and philosophy, even a bit of computer science at some point

people always assume that since he’s a music major he probably wouldn’t do well in other subjects but SURPRISE BITCH

anyway, fyodor’s a genius because god clearly has favorites

aside from attending class, he’s even part of an official orchestra and has even landed a few solos 

that said, he’s quite busy and very preoccupied in his own work to actually have a social life either

you’ll often find him rehearsing by himself in an empty classroom for hours and hours on end (someone pls bring him food he’s also the type to forget to eat or even drink water)

if you are able to catch him perform at an orchestra or just practice by himself, it’s quite a mesmerizing sight. his eyes are often closed so he could focus on the sound alone and his fingers move so elegantly along the neck of the cello

(sorry i just love people who play any form of stringed instrument)

fyodor also takes such good care of his cello. also he would probably kill you on the spot if you touched his bow

he has a fairly small group of friends and they like playing chess together (even though fyodor is better than all of them) and just talk about um,, idk philosophy and stuff (whatever it is smart people do idk i’m not one of them)

i have a feeling he actually follows akutagawa’s dark academia blog and loves his content, even to the point of requesting ‘cello player moodboards’

also because he’s a cello player he needs to take care of his fingers so he wears gloves a lot (idk why i find this hot)

***********************************************

taglist (check out my post for details on being part of my taglist): @waitforitillwritemywayout @tpwkatsumu @laure-chan

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

I read Harry’s statement about labels mostly as a personal refusal to offer detailed information to the public (wether he has more info to give or not) and I can absolutely relate to that. I find it stressful and frustrating to define myself in increasing numbers of detail and got to a point where I just refuse to get more specific than queer. But at the same time there are absolutely occasions where specificity matters a lot, especially in terms of who is impacted by what. But then it’s necessary to talk about how to get that specificity. I thought about how differently people use the term “label”, about the important differences in addressing personal identities by labels and using labels to describe distinct experiences and realities of a group and how those uses overlap or not. My first introduction to a bigger label discourse was tumblr and online fandom and while important to me, I’m also glad I started university about the same time and had access to learning about different ways of thinking and talking about this. To me, also coming from a social science background, there is a difference between addressing people by an identity (that they assigned themselves, assigned by others is different again) or by addressing them by a shared experience or practice. (Famous example, speaking of men who have sex with men rather than gay/bi/queer men when talking about risks of sexual behaviour). Who you are vs. what you do, basically. Of course, there is not always a clear distinction between identity and experience but enough difference to make it worthwhile to consider. Especially because identities are always formed and named in a certain context, socially, historically, locally, even if a lot of current (online) discourse heavily tries to deny that. You explicitly wrote about “people of different experiences” and I get a much clearer idea of your meaning with that than had you written “different labels”. Harry’s “not having to label everything, not having to clarify what boxes you’re checking” to me sounds more about the self-defining identity labelling than about describing experiences.

Thanks for your thoughts anon.

I do think one of the key questions for understanding what Harry is saying is how he understands labels.

I think one of the things that I'm interested in what 'labels' as a concept means to Harry and what weight it's come to have. But it's complicated by the fact the answer may be 'nothing' and this may be one way he feels like he can answer the question.

What struck me most about what you say is that both of the frameworks you have for understanding 'labels' (tumblr and university) are places that have never been accessible for Harry. And I do think that's one of the things that is interesting - we've no idea what framework he even has for thinking about labels.

I think the question I'm ultimately answering is does the concept of 'labels' have meaning for Harry, or is this more about sexuality and boundaries more general.