#I read their document and it really just seems like they're a really shitty person and really hatful and a hardcore anti/a hypocritical para

[canniballistichyenas]

Me every few weeks

When you discover a new amazing artist on tumblr but their bio says “proshitters DNI”

[sophieinwonderland]

On The Survivor's Network Admin's "Apology"

As many know, the Admin of the Survivors' Network made an awful post about me back in November. In the recent document from the Survivors' Network, it included the admin's "apology" to the server, and I wanted to address that.

The Original Post

Pictures of the original post are at the bottom under the Keep Reading. TW in advance for fakeclaiming, transphobia, misgendering, bullying, etc.

The "Apology"

When the post resurfaced this year, the admin had this to say in the Survivor’s Network: i am going to be fully transparent. i am the one who made that post, on November 28th of 2022. it was a shitty post. but ugh. i don’t know. i was in an abusive situation i was still in denial about and taking my anger out where i felt it was righteous. i had been trying to stay away from syscourse for similar reasons, but i’ve got a part i failed to keep track of there. and that is shitty. i was just so pissed that, just like she is now, she was only afloat after some terrible shit coming up because of claiming oppression she neither understands or actually experiences. i was so fucking upset, as a trans person, that she had repeatedly waxed about being and identifying as cis and then as soon as it benefit her claimed that she was oppressed in the same way trans people are. it fucking hurt to see that and to see so many people just accepting it— because that was why she said it. not because she actually believed it, but because it put her back in good standing to have a few more made-up oppression points. and then i did the Really Shitty thing and i decided to break through the Sophie Wall and talk directly to the host. and i got really fakeclaimy, and i regret the fuck out of that. if i could go back and have not made that post, i would. it’s private now, and, for full transparency, if any of you want to see the full post i can send it but in honestly ashamed by it now. i don’t care whether or not sophie is experiencing what she says she is, i don’t want other people to see that and be hurt by it. i just. ugh. i was being an idiot. in the place i am now, i’d never make a post like that. i feel really bad about it. it was immature and a very obvious display of lack of inhibition on my part. it does highlight where i think i’m still in need of s lot of growth, though, and reminds me i do need to continue to work with [alters name that I am not going to include in this incredibly public post, for system privacy] in therapy. i do also want to apologize to you all for doing this. i wasn’t leading by example. i wasn’t being mature. i was spitting vitriol, something that especially now, more than ever, with my current religious/spiritual growth and my personal growth in therapy, never feel is okay. i used to be a very hateful person towards people that i felt were wronging me and/or my community, and this is no exception to that. i regret it deeply, and can only rectify  that by promising that i have been growing and will continue to grow as time goes on. i’m really sorry. and i’m sorry that i didn’t deal with that post sooner— i would have if i had remembered it was there. i actually need to go through all my oldest posts, some of them are pretty bad.

Who the apology was for...

To be clear, this was not an apology to me.

It did not express any regret whatsoever at how it might have affected me. They express that they're concerned about other people being hurt by it and that they're sorry to the Survivors' Network for not leading by example. But they don't seem overly bothered by its impact on the person it was about.

Which is fine. I don't care. I'm not asking for an apology, and certainly wouldn't want them to fake one for my benefit. But since that one ask suggested I was given apologies, I suspect they might have mistook this post made in the Discord server... which wasn't intended for me, didn't express guilt over how it affected me, and wasn't in a place I could even find it unless I had a spy in the server... as an apology to me. I just wanted to establish for the record that this apology was worded in a way that it was directed at basically everyone but me.

Reasons are given in the document why they chose not to reach out and thought it would be a bad idea. And while those may have truth to them, this post reads as if they don't feel guilt for how this might have impacted me.

Maybe I'm wrong, but if that is the case, then I'm genuinely thankful they didn't try to give me some fake apology they didn't mean. I don't need and don't want it.

That's not what I wanted to talk about though.

Yes, Cis-Identifying Headmates With Different Genders Than The Body's AGAB Are Still Oppressed In The Same Way Trans People Are!

Let's zero in on this...

i was so fucking upset, as a trans person, that she had repeatedly waxed about being and identifying as cis and then as soon as it benefit her claimed that she was oppressed in the same way trans people are.

Do you think that the reason trans people are oppressed is because cis people just really hate the word trans?

That if trans people just called themselves by a different label, they'd totally be accepted in society?

No. Of course not!

And likewise, just because cis-identifying headmates with different genders from the body's AGAB don't identify as trans, that doesn't mean that they aren't oppressed in the same way trans people are.

That doesn't mean they won't be directly impacted by the way society treats any GNC people, and even much of the transphobic legislation being passed right now!

Transphobia isn't actually hatred of just the people who call themselves trans. It's hatred of people with different genders from their AGAB and GNC people, regardless of if they call themselves transgender or not.

On Why I Identify as Cis...

First, the most obvious reason I identify as cis is because I am. As far as I'm concerned, my inner form is my true form. And it's always been assigned female. What our shared body's assigned gender is doesn't matter to me.

But I will make a confession: the reason I talk about being cis so much, the reason I flaunt it, is to make a statement.

There was a very infuriating bit of sysmed gatekeeping last year that argued that headmates can't identify as transgender if their gender is the same as their AGAB.

I found this incredibly hypocritical given that almost all systems have non-transgender headmates with differing genders from the body's AGAB, but they're not forced to label themselves as transgender.

At the same time, they also don't publicly call themselves cis despite feeling cis on the inside.

So my goal of bringing up being cis frequently is to challenge accepted norms for systems. To normalize publicly identifying as cis headmates, and by extension, to normalize headmates with the same gender as the body's AGAB identifying as trans.

If people have a problem with trans-identifying headmates with a different gender from their body's AGAB, then they should also have a problem with cis headmates with a different one. And that means the vast majority of the plural community.

I call myself cis, all the time, to get people to think seriously about how we conceptualize gender when it comes to systems.

But identifying as cis doesn't mean I don't experience gender dysphoria while fronting, nor does it magically stop me or any other cis-identifying headmates from being victims of the same oppression we would face if we identified as transgender instead.

On Having Room To Grow

It was nice to apologize to the other people who saw it.

But this apology still doubles down on some of the most harmful points. It denies the oppression systems with cis-identifying headmates face, and practically presents our gender identities as less valid than those of trans-identifying people.

And in this way, they fail to understand a huge part of WHY their original post was bad.

Yes, the fakeclaiming was awful, and could easily send people into derealization spirals. The language itself was cruel and verbally abusive.

But let's not ignore the huge problem with the premise itself. The whole ideology it's built on that the only way GNC people can be oppressed is by explicitly identifying as trans. That discrimination against systems for our genders isn't as bad as discrimination against transgender people.

And this is something that I sincerely hope the user and anyone in the system community who agrees with them, can grow out of.

The Original Post:

Oh, and no one in our system has ever used 4Chan. 🤷‍♀️

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for potentially putting a loved one between me and my client, who is their friend? (Gonna keep stuff vague aside from some details about myself since I'm actually kinda intimidated by this client) This is a wacky one, I'm still reeling from it. I (26m) am a freelance illustrator and approached someone for work after hearing that they were looking for artists to help them with a project. We discussed things and everything was good at the start. I did a couple orders, payments were fine and it all seemed gucci. Now, I fumbled communicating one or two times and that got resolved (or so I thought) and I explained several times that I'm a huge perfectionist when it comes to hired work. I also knew that they were busy and had a couple medical issues so I kinda stopped contacting them because if it were me, I really wouldn't want to deal with 'HI SO ABOUT THOSE ORDERS' when I'm in misery and pain and have appointments with specialists but I guess that's just me because only after they FINALLY got back to me with some work (work that was never on my commission sheet and so , I said no and explained that right now I don't feel comfortable with that level of complexity) things went south and I was told I was basically being fired. For those who want some extra context, the offer I got was a similar type of art I had done ONCE before for the same person but only because I offered and only because they 'desperately' needed someone. The piece took me a week and I voiced that I was glad to be done with it, fun as it was, because I was originally hired for character art, smaller stuff, not big illustrations. (There was also some real life bullshit happening like dealing with shitty social workers, falling off my bike, nearly slipping into a depression as the heat made my european ass VERY uncomfortable and have no AC so I couldn't get much done at all. There's more but you get the idea. I let them know of most of the heavy stuff but I guess it didn't matter in the end)

When I was told that 'we should stop cooperating' it wasn't just a single sentence, it was an entire paragraph basically outlining every single mistake and flaw they could see in me, accusing me of wanting to work on 'equally complex' work instead (in other words accusing me of lying about the work they wanted from me being too complex for me at the moment) and that I hadn't properly communicated *anything* when I very clearly did and could easily go back and pull up those DMs. I defended myself with a paragraph of my own, debunking the assumptions and accusations but was met with a fresh paragraph that was even longer and read like a court document. I'm not kidding, this person used bulletpoints and titles that were bolded to further outline how I was wrong and how I was a shitty person to work with. This is where I cut them off, told them I felt misunderstood as hell, wished them well and removed them from Discord as well as blocked them on most other platforms. This person however, is a friend of someone I'm close with. I'm now paranoid that, although this loved one is agreeing with me on most things, they're now going to be caught in the middle of this and now I'm just analyzing the whole shitstorm, trying to see if I was, at any point, just a huge asshole. So tell me, AITA for waiting instead of contacting my client and 'showing initiative? Was I an asshole for cutting them off like that? Did I potentially screw over someone I care about because they're friends with this client and will no doubt hear about it from another perspective?

What are these acronyms?

[griefabyss69]

04 vampire argument sequel! I just, I see 'vampire' and I have to ask

Yesss!! It's nice to take a look back in this document after being away from it for a few months!! Thank youuuu <3 <3 <3 This is the sequel to Between Light and Darkness, the first in the Grey Heavens series (the rest of the series is microfics that aren't really in any kind of chronological order) Rated T or M idk, also some of this might not be understandable without the context of the first fic, but it's probably fine to read without it!

After that first night, the one where Steve put the life back into him with his dick, they don't actually come to an agreement on who was right.

It's such a petty thing now, they have a solution that renders the argument useless, but whenever Steve does that thing with his eyebrows and rolls his eyes at him, he can't help but argue back, something intense buzzing under his skin.

He's seen a lot more of Steve in the past week than he ever had, even during the most horrific moments of his life, and that's not just his body.

That's also the emotional fortitude he has, more of the cliche charm he'd gotten a peek of the first night, and the fact that when they're alone he can be softer than a pillow made of clouds.

Eddie's into that too - thought he might start weeping when they had dragged themselves into Steve's bed, below a window where they'd hastily tacked up thick sheets over the thinner curtains, where Steve had slowly pressed his lips to the corner of Eddie's mouth. Eddie had brought a book up with him, and held it open on the same page for hours after Steve had fallen asleep, watching the sweet flutter of his eyelashes with the same focus he had given his dick a few hours before.

But.

No matter what kind of multifaceted emotional depth the guy has, being stubborn and bitchy is a cornerstone to his whole personality.

It's motivating, that's for sure. The cocky attitude Steve has sometimes. When he's straightening his spine until he's got his full height as he slowly paces around the basement, hands dismissive at the same point Eddie's made for the tenth time that hour. It's cyclical, never quite a fight but always gets him riled up, and brings out Steve's bitchiness on a predictable level.

Eddie's never that hungry anymore, can go a day or two without feeding, a thought that brings a rush of blood to his cheeks that still boggles his mind a little bit. So his mind is fast and his dick is even faster, the back and forth of what's starting to seem more like a comedy routine turning into foreplay for him.

"Again, dude. We have the literal scientific evidence that I don't need your blood and you're still saying that I should've just done it?" Eddie scoffs, getting up from his spot on the couch.

He stalks over to Steve, way more comfortable with getting close to him now, no matter how delicious he smells. He thinks the constant temptation of what he can only liken to is various foods he must eat when he's drunk is a fair trade off for being able to hear what it does to Steve's heartbeat when he cuts in front of him, making him stop.

"Yes, because we didn't know that you," Steve says, eyes tracing over Eddie's face before they get stuck on his mouth. "You uh, can live off of other stuff."

It's practically shy, the way he says it, which means he's starting to get flustered, and maybe he's picked up on Eddie's heartbeat too, the janky little kick-drum in his chest that can't really figure itself out most of the time. He knows his cheeks are red, whenever he's alone with Steve these days it happens like a reflex, but that alone should be evidence that he's doing fine, he's like, Vampire-Healthy.

Steve could step around him and continue pacing, Eddie's not going to pull a weird aggro move out and block him like a bully in a shitty teen movie, but he doesn't seem to think of it, just stands there with his body tense like he's ready to keep moving but Eddie had pressed pause on him.

The morning after that first night - when Eddie woke Steve up before heading downstairs to actually sleep before the sun's rays properly broke over the horizon, aiming high powered beams of death in through all of the windows on the ground floor - they had talked a bit.

Steve hadn't been shy then, even as he yawned and took Eddie's hand, keeping their fingers threaded together even when Eddie had to step behind them so they could get down the stairs. He just talked plainly, lighting up every cell in Eddie's body with facts such as, "Last night was the hottest thing ever," and "We don't have to do it again but if we can't I need like three business days to get over that".

[gallus-rising]

my apologies but i don't think i actually have anything useful to add <(- -)> i mostly meant that as a life long pokemon special interest-haver/person that likes to read/watch smarter ppl analyze and talk about things i think it'd be cool if anyone got into the uh narratives? emotions?? i guess??? of nuzlockes. because people typically think of nuzlocke-ing as just a challenge mode, but i've noticed when it's being LP by a more casual fan and documented in some way (shitty mspaint comics being the old fashion way, but these days it's all livestreaming ofc) the run seems to naturally develop its own story.

i think what i'm getting at is when people talk about nuzlockes they're talking about the raw mechanics, sometimes the history of the challenge. people come up with ways to make pokemon seemingly unwinnable(no pokecenters, mono-types only, no overleveling, etc), or try out weirder and weirder restrictions(egglocke, wonderlocke, soul-link), but i haven't seen anyone discussing nuzlockes as a form of roleplay

your video list is really cool tho and i'm having fun trucking thru it!

dreaming up a syllabus for an imaginary course on metanarratives about gameplay, which i think would go something like:

unit 1: who do you think you are i am - auto-documentary & games

Vlogs and the Hyperreal, Folding Ideas

The Slow Death of Let's Play Videos, Meraki (to ~10:00)

World Record Progression: Mike Tyson, Summoning Salt

ROBLOX_OOF.mp3, hbomberguy

Life as a Bokoblin: A Zelda Nature Documentary, Monster Maze

optional: Braindump on the History of Let's Plays, slowbeef

unit 2: what like it's hard? - intro to challenge narratives

Chapter 26: Games as Narrative Play: Two Structures for Narrative Play, Rules of Play

A different kind of challenge run: Minimalist 100% (BOTW), Wolf Link

Surviving 100 Days on Just Dirt, Mogswamp

Can You Beat DARK SOULS III with Only Firebombs, the Backlogs

Is it Possible to Beat Super Mario 3D World while permanently crouching?, Ceave Gaming

The Pacifist Challenge - Beating Hollow Knight Without Collecting Soul [CHALLENGE] - Sample

optional: How to 100% Snowpeak Ruins in under 15 minutes, bewildebeest

unit 3: nelly you don't understand, i AM the narrative - form and function

The Future of Writing about Games, Jacob Geller

Can You Beat GRIME Without Weapons?, the Backlogs

Mushroom Kingdom Championships, Ceave Gaming

My Life as a Barber in Hitman 2, MinMax (Leo Vader)

MyHouse.WAD - Inside Doom's Most Terrifying Mod, PowerPak

optional: Mega Microvideos, Matthewmatosis

the theme and structure is mostly intended to introduce at least one critical or historically contextual work followed by examples of the type of narrative in question.

in unit 1, this is the idea of "How do people talk about their own experiences in the context of YouTube and playing video games?" across three rather different kinds of documentaries. unit 2 is intended to take that lens of who is telling what tale and dial in on challenge running, where i first noticed the way some videos turn the story of overcoming a challenge into its own narrative that is distinct from but related to the narrative events of the game itself. unit 3 circles back to the bigger picture with a variety of examples that, to me, are maximally metanarrative, the emergent story of the player-narrator now functionally replacing the game's embedded narrative.

bonus unit: broken narratives

Glitch & the Grotesque at the MLA, Sylvia Korman

Watching time loop movies to escape my time loop, Leo Vader

The Stanley Parable, Dark Souls, and Intended Play, Folding Ideas

Breaking Madden, Jon Bois

The TRUTH about the Pizzaplex in FNAF: Security Breach, AstralSpiff

this one is highly underdeveloped, but i'd love to work out something more robust building on randomizer challenges that produce intentionally bizarre, semi-ironic "lore," and bois-esque endeavors to break games so hard the story itself crumbles. but that's really out of scope so i'm just including the links to things i couldn't bear to get rid of. more rambling abt the challenge runs I chose under the cut.

Challenge runs represent one of the most obvious places to start, due to being extremely plentiful and having a hook that makes a "here's how I did X thing in Y video game" format almost unavoidable. Minimalist 100% is an underrated and sweet straightforward example that I mostly include as a baseline for reporting-out style narrative; here are the facts, here's what happened, this is the thing that it is. Mogswamp's 100 Days on Just Dirt is similar in style, but the physical measuring of days is a delightful and, more importantly, external narrative device.

Now oriented, we get a taste of Ceave Gaming's narrative approach to Mario challenges with the no-crouching run, and while we still aren't at the degree of player-characters being constructed for the narrative's sake, the spirited belief in crouching sets the stage for other rhetoric in more extreme cases we'll see later.

The Backlogs' entire body of work qualifies here, but GRIME is the strongest inspiration for putting this list together. I include the DS3 firebombs run because what was initially a factual description of how his wife's use of firebombs inspired him to play differently in the original DS1 firebombs run has developed into full-blown multi-game narrative arc with the Firebomb Goddess (his wife, who also voices the character) compelling his in-game character to achieve his destined quest. Grime takes that even further,

In-Game Documentaries

I include Life as a Bokoblin mostly as a contrast to My Life as a Barber - there is a level of fictionalization and roleplay involved in the Zelda in-game documentary that highlights exactly what I want to single out when I am talking about metanarrative, the story about a story.

[3rddimension]

Reading through the comments of that shitty TikTok made me realize how many people think S and C are just really close friends, and that all the evidence doesn't really indicate they're dating. It's an interesting discussion, I think.

On the one hand, yes, a man and woman can be really close, can share clothes, can live in the same apartment, can be in family photos, and can even embrace intimately and not necessarily be dating. I think that definitely is a thing, and if you see all of the evidence out of context, that conclusion becomes more reasonable.

However, people like us who have been following S and C for a long time, who see a lot of the evidence IN context, that's why it's pretty clear they're dating. It's kind of complicated and not easy to explain all at once.

It's a lot of little things and the stuff they've said publicly. One big thing is when they've talked about their relationship preferences in the past, which they discuss in podcasts and pit challenges and stuff. C still to this day talks about how their biggest preference in a partner is humor, and how humor makes people 30x more attractive to them, and you piece that together with the fact that they mentioned how Shayne is someone who makes them laugh the most, even when they're having an awful day. The types of (genuine) compliments C gives S in general over the years heavily aligns with their relationship preferences. The fact that C has massive anxiety surrounding first dates and approaching people they're attracted to, it makes perfect sense that they would date someone they're already great friends with.

Like I've said, certain pieces of evidence BY THEMSELVES aren't necessarily 100% proof, and can easily be read the wrong way... but being such a huge Smosh fan and follower of S and C and knowing a lot of the little things help solve the puzzle. The evidence only works TOGETHER with EVERYTHING we know, not just by themselves. They intersect.

Could they still just be really close friends? Sure... and I don't blame people for coming to that conclusion if they aren't regular Smosh viewers. But it's all in context, and that's not always easy to explain to people. Like we may not know them personally, but they sure do talk a lot. 😅

Even with all that evidence out there, if you know, you know... that's all I'm saying 😌 very curious of your thoughts!

Damnnn that's a long boi! Thanks for the ask!

I agree with you that watching and getting to know them from video and other content really does help piercing the puzzle from all the proof that we found. The people that don't follow them regularly or don't really know them would mostly thought that they're just best friend. (Although if you see the full picture of Topp's family photo, you might change your mind if you don't believe it before. It's a semi-serious professional photo that you would took with a serious long-term relationship only tbh.)

The example that you wrote is probably the best one and the most document one. She talked about this topic so many time publicly. She also talked about this again on her anon Q&A. That she preferred humor over other thing. (She also played with her necklace while talking about this too. Which we thought that she might be thinking about him while talking. So cute!)

At least that TikTok only gone viral for awhile and it's already died down. I also think that both of them would saw it or someone would mentioned it to them but they seems to ignored it which I think it's best case scenario.

[honeyblockm]

I absolutely NEED your takes on tsoa I think I may die if I don't hear someone else talk about it

well they're kind of /neg so if you don't want to hear me complain about it for a little while then probably scroll away sfjdkj

so like i don't think madeline miller is a bad writer. i think her writing is pretty banging actually. I just think some of the ways she took her book was a little. hmm. WELL. it wasn't for me ^_^. Also i didn't read the whole thing bc i did not have interest in finishing it but i have skimmed most of it. The way Patroclus is characterized irks me especially like bro... he got defanged (in service of playing into, in my personal opinion, some :| mlm dynamics). i really do prefer more the patroclus in the iliad where his relationship with achilles was on more even footing. and he was a warrior! a damn good one! and not at all immune to getting caught up in the bloodlust and violence of the war! the trojans literally have to have apollo kill him because he was going on a huge murder spree, achilles' armor or no! i can see what miller was going for w the stuff about portraying the brutality and cruelty of war ig but to me that's a really odd leap to make for the characterization of a main character. Patroclus is nice, ofc. i love that guy. but mannnn let him kill people let him be affected by culture of his time let him folly!

also i feel like the book wouldn't have gained mainstream popularity with the. ........... crowd if patrochilles' characters hadn't been warped into something that could be crammed into easily digestible weird gay tropes. (though i don't think this was the intention of madeline miller.)

next thing. ehehem once again the (sort of) sanitation of shitty aspects of the iliad like... briseis. idk. i don't always want to read the silence of the girls type bare and brutal recounts of all the shit that happened to women. sure. and i guess it mightve been a precipice point for a lot of people who want to enjoy the protagonists? but it also feels weird how it's glossed over like the book's going wink nudge don't worry guys patrochilles are one of the good ones unlike all the other greeks. there's nuance to be had, though tsoa just seems to skate around it instead.

and oh this is an interesting one kind of related to the previous point but the way most of the women are portrayed is a little.. well why are they all set up as antagonists of a sort (except briseis). why are women like deidameia and thetis set up as obstacles between the two protagonist's epic gay love story or whatever, with only the barest of sympathy for their positions in the world?

+ every time i go into the iliad tag i have to scroll past 294020 tsoa posts where everyone acts like a marvel character and honestly, things have earned my undeserved scorn for less. lol

sighs deeply. anyways. it's a fine book. it's literally fine. whatever man there's way worse books and i am speaking from experience. it was kind of fun i liked the odydio snippets. i don't think it's ruining greek mythology or killing people or whatever, I'm just too bitchy to set my differing opinions aside about it. i would know him by touch or whatever that one went is a pretty epic quote. i have another line from it in a tentative webweave document rn. it's pretty cool but i hope queer retellings of greek myths get better from here on out. grits teeth. whatever man

[bringingglory]

@eerna oh my god acshdgagaahhdvsahsv I never expected you to see my post, so I won't lie, I feel like super embarrassed acsgsga

anyway! not gonna lie, this wip has been sitting in my drafts for months now because I wanted to see if I could plan stuff but then I got stuck because Details are hard to figure out BUT I did write out a few scenes, so I'll put them below the cut because they're kind of long. the first one is the "opening" of the fic and the second one is a sort of reimagining of the Silent Princess memory. i have a few other scenes sort of scribbled out, but these are the most "polished" of the stuff i've written alsdkfjasdfk

the opening lol

Link wakes to a faint buzzing in his ear that sends little darts of pain shooting through his skull. He waits for it to end, and when it doesn’t he groans and rolls over, smacking the space around him to find whatever was making that noise and make it shut up. He can’t fathom why his brain is rolling through his skull like that and why there’s an intense pressure behind his eyes, but when he rolls onto his side, he has to press a hand to his abdomen to settle whatever was sloshing around inside his stomach.

Ah. He’s hungover.

Link peels open his eyes and the light sends a fresh wave of pain ricocheting through his skull. He blinks once, twice, and then forces his eyes open to find a phone the size vibrating against the ground a few inches away from his hand.

Link groans and pushes himself up to a sitting position before grabbing the phone and dismissing the alarm. When the phone falls silent in his hands, he finally looks around and tries to assess the situation.

He’s sitting in a bathtub, the porcelain slightly damp from what he hopes is just water. His shirt smells vaguely of cheap vodka and he still can barely look at the sunlight streaming through the window without wincing.

A moment later, he realizes the phone in his hands isn’t his.

Link holds the phone up to his face and rubs the grogginess from his eyes. He swipes up on the screen, surprised that it isn’t protected by a password.

The phone is open on note in the notes app, and it reads:

link, if you’re reading this right now, im so sorry for leaving you in the tub like that!!! my dad’s supposed to come home from the office today and the document case i was telling you about is missing and he cant know i lost it. i know we just started getting along, and im so sorry to ask you this, but could you find the document case? impa’s in my contacts and she can help you. also you have permission to dig through my phone, just dont judge me if i have anything embarrassing on there. can you find the file by midnight? his flight leaves at 3 and i can stall him until then.

it’s 6:11 right now so i have to run before he gets back, but please hurry! i’ll be waiting for you

-zelda

Link blinks and turns the phone off.

Last night? What happened last night? Why can’t he remember anything?

Well, if his raging headache tells him anything, it’s that he had probably blacked out last night.

Link isn’t usually a drinker or a partier. He isn’t really one to go to big social events. So he’s really confused as to why he woke up passed out in a tub with zero memories.

And also, why Zelda left her phone with him.

a version of the Silent Princess memory but they're at a party and its modern

Zelda laughs. “I think I got a little too sober from the Yiga incident to enjoy the party now.”

Link isn’t sure if he’s supposed to laugh with her, but nods anyway. “Do you want to get some air?”

Zelda gives him an odd look, then sighs. “Yeah. Yes. That would be a good idea.”

Surprisingly, she grabs his forearm and leads him through all the bodies pressed against each other. He can feel the heat of her hand wrapping entirely around his arm like a hot glove, even above the heat of the late summer air and the heat from other people in close proximity.

Somehow, they make it to the other side of the house. Zelda pushes the back door open and pulls him past the other stragglers outside before they find a nice tree with a patch of grass that seems generally clear of alcohol and vomit.

Zelda releases his arm as soon as she finds the tree and she sits down, dropping her head against the trunk.

“Are you okay?” He asks.

Zelda waves her hand vaguely.

Link pauses. “Do you need water?”

“If you get me any more water, I’m probably gonna piss myself,” says Zelda. “Sit down.”

He sits down.

The crickets hum vaguely around them, mingling with the distant buzzing and thumping bass of the music from the party. But without people pressing in from all sides and an open field in front of them, it finally feels like he can take a full breath.

The silence settles over them like a blanket. It feels comfortable to him, but he isn’t sure if it’s supposed to be.

“Oh, Link, look.”

Link cranes his head to see Zelda twist around and point out a blue flower glowing vaguely in the dark. It was beautiful with blue petals so light they looked almost white, and a sky blue bleeding out from the center before fading out.

He wants to give her a questioning look, but she’s transfixed on the flower. He can see the smallest of smiles creeping up onto the corners of her mouth.

“It’s a Silent Princess,” she says. “It was my mom’s favorite flower.”

He can tell something important is happening, so he keeps his mouth shut.

“She said that we can’t grow them domestically yet, despite our best efforts.” Zelda breaks into a full smile and it’s radiant. “The Princess can only thrive out here. In the wild.”

They both turn to look back at the house as another loud WHOOP cuts through the air, followed by the sound of a can being crushed against a head.

“Nature is beautiful,” says Link.

Zelda swats him and he has to bite back a laugh.

She turns and runs a gentle finger along one of the petals before sighing and leaning back against the tree.

“Thank you,” she says suddenly. “For being there with the Yiga. And for being there the whole party.” He can hear her swallow. “I’m sorry for being a bitch.”

“You weren’t being a bitch,” says Link.

“I was, though.” Zelda inhales beside him. “I mean, just because I’m under a lot of stress from my dad doesn’t mean I’m allowed to take it out on other people. I was acting like a kid.”

“To be fair, your dad sounds like an asshole sometimes.”

Zelda snorts. “Yeah. He can be.” He turns his head to see her lean forward to fiddle with the grass. “But he’s got a lot on his plate. And it probably doesn’t help that his daughter doesn’t want anything to do with his ‘legacy.’”

“Just because your dad’s under a lot of pressure doesn’t mean he’s allowed to be an asshole,” Link points out.

Zelda finally looks up at him and offers him a small grin. “Fair enough.”

“And besides, you’re your own person. You don’t need to follow in his footsteps.”

“That’s what I said,” huffs Zelda. “But of course it’s, ‘blah blah you have a responsibility. I didn’t raise you like this so you could waste your time researching pointless things.’” She sighs. “It’s fine. It’s whatever. I came to this stupid party to blow off steam, I guess. But Goddess, I did not eat enough today to drink that many cans of shitty beer.”

Link sits upright, alert. “Do you need to get food or—”

“No, no, that’s fine.” And that smile returns and Link wonders what else he can say to make it stay. “You’re sweet. But I’ve probably gotten drunk enough tonight.” Her eyes slide up to him and the mischief in them stops his heart for a moment. “You still have to try the Hot Frog.”

Link blinked. “...what is that?”

--

the endings are abrupt on both of them just bc i wasn't entirely sure how to end them akldjfasd. also the "Hot Frog" is gonna be some kind of mixed drink that gets link really drunk -- me trying to allude more to the original memory from the game haha

anyway, thank you so much for the ask! and thank u for coming up with the shitpost because it made me laugh the first time i read it hasdklfj hopefully i'll continue this one day and do ur shitpost au justice!

[sittingupwiththedead]

Historically most gangs started in places and communities where cops would not go, or where dangerously corrupt.

Extortion of protection money doesn't start as extortion it starts as insurance and investigation. If the bodega is paying you protection money they're not just doing it so your guys won't rob them they're doing it so that if ANYONE robs them you will find out who did it, and you will do something about it because the cops sure as hell won't. And by do something I mean find the fucker and put him on the ground because nobody fucks around in your territory. And maybe Vinnie at the bodega is having trouble paying his rent so you buy the building and instead of protection he's paying you rent yeah? and maybe instead of $500 a month or whatever it is You tell him you'll take just under an equivalent value of cartons of smokes this month and call it even yeah Vinnie? (this by the way makes Vinnie complicit in your criminiality because now he has to cook his books to hide the cigerettes yeah?)

The illegal (read untaxed) selling of booze and cigarettes is still an ongoing problem in many both urban and rural areas btw: If you wanted a way to diversify Hood's operations and move him away from the harder drugs hand rolled/stolen cigarettes and bathtub gin/moonshine might be a way to do it. Besides Batman stories are always at their best when there's a hint of the old school gangsters in it. And let's be honest Batman popping open a crate of expecting to find heroin or oxys and instead finds cartons of Malboros is a hilarious mental image.

The chop shop idea is great, especially if he has bounties. "Steal this asshole's car" or "Steal this type of car". Also if it's a personal vehicle you can alot of ID info out of registrations. Use the registration info to hack a bank account and just skim.

If there's isn't a shitty dying high school in/on the edge of the Narrows I'd be shocked so he have him fund the vocational programs. After school clubs, the idea about selling books to make money as well as encourage literacy (Jason also seems like the kind of troll that would make sure a good chuck of it comes from banned book lists). The mechanic class kids who show real promise get jobs at the mechanic shop covering the chop shop, kids in the art class get money to paint murals his gang can hide their tags in. Free breakfast and Lunch programs. Etc

A free clinic he aggressively enforces as a neutral zone and makes damn sure his guys know is a neutral zone. Needle exchanges.

Going back to the free breakfast and Lunch programs food is a fantastic way to create loyalty even in unexpected places. We have documented instances for example that, in certain towns in the Americna West when miners where injured and couldn't work the local brothel, and their favorite workers there seeing to it that groceries where delivered to the men's wives. Also eating together builds inter connected bonds in humans -it's one of the fastest ways to make us pack bond. You could have Red Hood literally hold dinners for his guys with him sitting at the head of the table. Even if he doesn't eat (depends on how you wanna do the mask situation) make him literally-clearly- 'the founder of the feast'.

Just some ideas. Hope it helps!

(I really wanna read this fic!)

The hardship of planning an elaborate fic about Jason and his crime lord-ing is figuring out how tf to run a crime empire with morals. Oof.

[hoskinsvarietyshow]

Anyone have an idea of what a "bad faith" review is? I'm genuinely trying to find an actual definition. As far as I can tell people seem to use it when describing a hurtful comment, a summary that contains insults about the quality of the product/story/creator, or generally anything that is particularly passionate in how much they dislike the thing being criticized.

If IGN or the New York Times were to do any of those things, I'd probably agree. But saying a random individual is acting in bad faith seems a bit contrived in scale. "Your book fucking sucks." Or "this show must have been written by an idiot" are just really harsh personal opinions. It's like saying YouTube commentors or Twitter frogs are bad faith reviewers.

I see a lot of creators using bad faith as a term to discredit their detractors. The RWBY team in the early seasons were very noteworthy for saying their critics were reviewing in "bad faith" when they mean some guys on YouTube and tumblr were saying their show has shitty pacing and stupid self insert characters. It doesn't matter that they're right. They aren't nice and academic about it so they're "bad faith reviewers" when there's nothing actually dishonest or fraudulent about what they said. Especially in the context of an individual sharing an opinion.

This started because I saw a tweet about "not writing to avoid bad faith readers" which brought up my continued search to find out what the fuck that means. How can you fraudulently our incorrectly read a book.

Let me know if you have some kind of documented definition of bad faith reading or bad faith reviewing or just bad faith in regards to media consumption at all. I still can't find any.

[qforqazaq]

Black Dial: The Drama

You've probably heard the latest news from the Q-pop world: L and Teddy are no longer in Black Dial.

Hmm, where shall I start?

***Disclaimer: For the convenience of the foreign fans who aren't sure what has actually happened, I tried to recreate the sequence of events to get some exposition first. I've missed some details here and there, because this was already getting too long.***

It all began when the producers of YB Entertainment posted the announcement saying that the official Instagram accounts of L, Teddy, Ray and Black Dial were hacked, so from now on everything that's going to be posted on those pages has nothing to do with YB. "Okay, the pages got hacked, whatever, it happens, no big deal", I thought. BUT! After awhile I've noticed (first ever) IG stories posted on L's and Teddy's accounts with the actual L and Teddy recording each other while giddily saying something like "Did you know that we were hacked?" - "Lol, no, did we?" - "Yeah, they say we were hacked. I am hacked, you are hacked, comeback is hacked too, hahaha".

Obviously, everyone got even more confused, like, why the hell would the producers call the accounts hacked if they were obviously not. I mean those were real L and Teddy, right?

Meanwhile, I started to read some comments about L and Teddy and something about leaving the group, which got me a huge "Wait WHAT. WTF??? Are you bloody kidding me??" moment.

I obviously couldn't believe my eyes, because, what the hell, first Newton, now Black Dial, are you for real?? When I was about to start doubting these rumours while frantically looking for more info, there came interviews from the official press conference by YB Entertainment.

There, Yesbolat Bedelkhan with Bayan and Bota Yerimbet have formally announced that Yeskeldi Quandyq, formerly known as L, and Samat Kazmaganbet, formerly known as Teddy, were no longer the members of Black Dial, that the company had terminated their contracts, the main reason being consistent violation of the contractual terms by the former members. Moreover, according to the producers, the stage names "L" and "Teddy" and all the social media accounts belong to YB Entertainment and they cannot be used by the members should the contract be terminated.

To say I was shocked is to say nothing. Because, apparently, L and Teddy have not just left the group - they were kicked out. Not only that, they basically kicked themselves out by consistently showing insubordination, disobedience, and violation of terms in many occasions. Without feeling much remorse about it too, it seems, as they didn't look very sad on those Instagram stories - that's for sure.

To make the matter worse, they had no rights to use those Instagram accounts anymore, which explained the earlier announcement about "hacking".

Frankly, that was a lot to take in, and while I was desperately trying to make sense out of whatever was happening out there, all hell let loose. Interestingly - on the producers. Because a horde or rather a flock of angry fangirls or "Ravens" started to shout accusations at the producers, blaming them in all deadly sins. According to them, it was all producers' fault, because they intentionally kicked their "biases" out; how did they dare to be so unfairly strict with them; they were shitty producers in the first place; they should have made their comeback sooner instead of postponing it; the whole "hacking" incident was made to sabotage the members' reputations, and their beloved L and Teddy did the right thing leaving this horrible company.

As for me, these accusations sounded too heated and not very convincing especially when I took a step back and started to actually think about it.

Well, let's break it down, shall we?

First of all, the question of fairness seems super childish, because we're talking about actual legal binding contracts, not some sandbox tantrums that can be resolved by shoving lollipops in kids' mouths. If one signed a contract, it is assumed that both of the parties were aware of and agreed to all of the terms in the first place. In other words, if you in a sober mind signed a legal document, complaining about stuff that you can't eventually commit to afterwards won't work. Why the hell one would even sign a contract in the first place then?

Secondly, do you really think the contract was that strict? Okay, stricter than, idk, a contract signed by the guys from 91? I do very much doubt it. I'm more than sure Yerbolat isn't that chill and understanding compared to his younger brother.

Thirdly, Black Dial is the only active project of YB Entertainment (Darrem doesn't really count) aka literally the company's only flagship product that was supposed to get its long-awaited comeback. Think about it: who the hell in their right minds, in such a crucial moment, would kick out members from the only existing group without a legitimate reason? No one. And there was one reason, a few actually, wasn't there? Moreover, according to Yesbolat Bedelkhan, they've tried very hard to keep the group intact, to smooth out those cases of disobedience and insubordination, closing their eyes to most of them. But I guess, the situation got completely out of control, so terminating the contracts was the last resort.

Fourthly, haven't you thought that the comeback was being postponed over the course of, what, 9 months? exactly because of the internal problems and conflicts inside BD and YB? What if the producers weren't sure if they could proceed should have the said members continued to "misbehave". Which they apparently did, so better cut ties earlier than later, with only one MV, and one more released song.

Next, the "hacking" incident. According to Yesbolat Bedelkhan, sometime around February 14, when BD was supposed to record a video to mark the date, L and Teddy have completely disappeared from radar, not answering anyone's calls and/or messages. The producers even tried to reach their parents at some point, to ask if everything was alright with the boys. Strangely, the parents were not reachable as well, because apparently they have changed their contacts too. Later, the producers discovered that they couldn't access official IG accounts of L, Teddy, Ray and Black Dial, because someone changed their passwords. I suppose it was then they guessed it was L and Teddy's doings, which I assume was the final blow.

Finally, Yesbolat believes that someone from outside have persuaded the boys to sabotage their own places at YB Entertainment. A certain someone with a personal grudge against YB producers. I have my guesses and I won't be surprised if this someone will collaborate with those two at some point in the future too.

Show business sucks, doesn't it.

_________________________________

Don't get me wrong, by making a case for YB Entertainment, I don't want to imply that Yeskeldi and Samat are inherently bad people or anything. Okay, I must admit I had my problems with Teddy and tbh wasn't very sad to know he has left the group (yeah, I'm crude), but I did respect L very much, coming to admire his capacity for songwriting when I took on that challenge at translating their songs (Bul Soni Yemes is a lyrical masterpiece. Period.), regarding him as a very thoughtful young man. Despite personal preferences, I didn't want anyone to leave the group in any circumstances, always hoping and betting on them to settle at least on the second place in Q-pop.

In other words, waking up to a news like this has brought me no pleasure. Further unfolding only left a bitter taste in the mouth and the feeling that you were viciously played.

However, I do still think that it was, pardon my French, totally a dick move to leave everyone and everything just like that, without a decent explanation, a formal apology to the fans at the very least. Leaving by making a public drama out of it, while openly gloating in the social media, abandoning the company, the producers and the other members who counted on them so much.

Was it fair? I think not.

I do wish them luck in whatever they're planning to do though, just to see if it was actually worth the drama, huh.

And I do certainly wish the best of luck to YB Entertainment, to the producers and the remaining vocalists in remedying the whole situation, so to speak.

And what now? Yes, YB is having their casting in search for their new rappers and everything, but what does it tell about the whole "Q-pop movement"?

It's impaled, sick and haven't even grown out legs to stand upright and move properly. People are leaving the groups whenever they want, groups changing the label companies however they want, the entertainment centres are opening and closing at flick of the fingers, and we only have about eh.. 3.5 groups who are actually doing something now? With Black Dial on the resting bed, those would be Ninety One, Mad Men, Moonlight and sort of Newton~. Considering that I'm already very cautious with the latter, skeptical with the second, and Moonlight just doesn't excite me very much, we're coming to the default settings of just clinging to the founders for now while just observing everyone else from the distance.

Nice.

What do you think though? What was the reason for BD having so many problems with its former rappers?

Is Q-pop actually going to crumble to pieces even before it becomes anything substantial?

Feel free to comment and share, and please do leave a like at least. I've been writing this for ages after all.