#I’ve become a boomer already

[whalefairyfandom12]

I was tagged by @ominian 💕

[Last sentence tag war! Rule: Write the last sentence you wrote and tag however many people you like to do the same!]

“The stench of death clung to Ominis’ skin, even if it was merely a phantom.”

Tagging @pandanscafanfiction 🥰

[cats-in-the-clouds]

my sister got engaged and we’re all really happy for her but my bitter rain cloud of a dad (who naturally she told last) is giving her a bit of passive aggressive grief about it despite her boyfriend being like the best man of our generation (presumably either because he’s not catholic or because my dad sees them as young dumb unemployed people who aren’t ready for marriage or because he’s mad he barely has any real love with his own wife or something). so like pray for us? i wish i knew what to do

[springfaekohaku]

Fics that I’m dying to write:

Steve In The Upside Down (so many variations)

Steve getting shot by Nancy in S1 (might also connect to Steve being dragged into the Upside Down) How Will that turn out? What are the consequences? How does this affect everyone? It was only supposed to be a warning shot…

Steve befriending a Demodog. It somehow disconnected from the Hivemind or was created as defect, hence the other monsters turn on it. But Steve saves it and in turn they both bond.

Steve has Powers (I’m already writing and continuing my first fic. But I want more different powers for him)

Steve’s powers being more physical and more practical. Maybe even adaptable and willing to change. Especially under pressure. Kinda like how El can fight off 001 in their minds and Steve can finish him off by destroying his physical body too.

Richard Harrington and Steve both flee to escape the abuse from Richard’s wife, Steve’s Mother and find themselves at Forest Hills Trailer Park. Before S1 maybe?? Eddie and Wayne notice their new neighbours and their story starts from there.

Hannibal Inspired fic but I’ve never seen the show. Only like, the premise and insane amount of Hannigram. Except, Henry/001/Vecna was stolen, taken under Brenner, a mad-man who believes that Cannibalism is the key to knowing all and the human condition. 001 was passed the torch to continue Brenner’s experiments and quest. So, he tries to find his first victim. First it was El, but then she escaped. His first attempt and failure, but he succeeds with capturing Steve. But then no matter how hard he tries, Steve never breaks, so he sets out to find a more younger impressionable youth; enter Will Byers. Steve stays and tries to keep Will alive and sane. Will they escape? Will they be brainwashed like how Brenner did to Henry? Will El find others to help them escape? Will they actually find the key from consuming human flesh? Is that Jason fucking Carver and why does he have Chrissy Cunningham and Eddie Munson tied up? Steve feels like everything is going to shit. Now he has more people to save before they become the next main course. Hehehehehe—

Steve actually being Dmitri’s son. Steve was taken as a baby and sent across to the USA, Dmitri hoping to give him a better shot at life rather than to stay in Russia. Can you imagine in S4 when Dmitri follows Hopper back to Hawkins that he’s reunified with his son?

Everyone besides Steve is a Vampire and Steve is the last werewolf. Humans have hunted down Werewolves for centuries and the numbers have dwindled down severely, right down to almost extinction. Vampires are more adaptable and find it easy to survive in plain sight. The Party and everyone in their Coven have found sanctuary in Hawkins and for years, things have been normal. But then a new scent and sunshine of a boy comes along with it (after S1) — but his timing is seemingly the worst because now he’s facing off Demodogs as a giant wolf and no one knows who he truly is unless he shifted back as a human. In S1, he missed out on the excitement but he got to know and become close to everyone. But then in S2, he is faced with the existence of The Upside Down and vein revealed that his friends and found-family are in fact Vampires. Oh and Vecna is a boomer elder-vampire. Everyone in The Party does not know ANYTHING about Werewolves and so, they learn a lot from Steve when they finally know about him and vice versa. ;))

Another Werewolf Steve AU but this time, he’s hurt, while hunting in his wolf form, he was caught in a bear trap and found by Wayne. Inspired by How To Train Your Dragon scene, Wayne was about to mercifully kill the wolf, but looked into his eyes and saw himself. So he instead took it upon himself and take the wolf back and nurse it back to health. Eddie of course has no idea what his Uncle is hiding until he finds out and freaks out. But finds himself enamoured by the wolf too. Steve is so fucked because he needs to shift back soon, his body itches and the need to be human again nawed at his entire being.

Kali introduces the Punk Culture to Steve. They have a sibling pond and Steve loves his new self. Kali dyes his hair, shaves it a little on the side/s and helps picks out clothes and everything. The whole gang also educated him of the history, iconic figures and music. Just, Punk Steve means a lot to me. You can also imagine him and El bonding about it too. “Bitching.” Eddie is head over heels. Wait, is that a bloody hanky in his pants right back pocket?

I will expand on these later and separately. But these fic ideas have been in my brain and I can’t write them out because I already have two fics to focus on. So ah, thank you for letting me get this off my mind and into the world. 💜🪻

[nothums-from-tj]

Good morning I’m getting back into PPG lately and I can not BELIEVE the lack of Boomercup content. As I’ve said before: if you want content you gotta make it yourself

I present to you headcanons that only this micro fandom will enjoy if anyone’s left/active still at all bc it is. So dead. Dead enough that I’m revealing myself for a ship my followers don’t even care about again. Combining some 2016 canon with the OG bc there are some gems, like Butters being a math genius and how her insecurities were subtly explored more

I’m also considering them like 16 or so here for sake of high school concepts

- they get closer in high school when Boomer’s had enough with being an edgelord and being associated to Him and Mojo so he goes to Butters first since it’s easier to be in the lighter grey area of morality than to try to jump from one extreme to the next (currently have a WIP going on this concept!! “tbmg” tag on my blog or chapter 1)

- he learns a bit of her past with Ace and he’s downright nauseous over what he did to her (“It was years ago. It’s not important now.” “You were five. It doesn’t matter with the whole hero and villain thing—manipulating a child like that is gross. He’s gotta be, what?—10 years older than us?” “Minimum. It’s not like he actually liked me—he just toyed with me.” “That doesn’t make it any better.”)

- Boomer does all the cheesy pet names when they start dating especially bc he knows it bothers her (she likes it a little, not that she’ll ever tell him that)

- Boomer also once started picking up chess or checkers after having enough of his brothers picking on him so he started learning something to be “smart” so he challenged Buttercup to a match assuming she’d be at or around his skill level

- that said, in actuality she started picking it up years ago out of sheer competitiveness with her kind-of-constant sibling feud with Blossom, eventually coming close enough to stump her for a moment or two more often than not just not quite enough to beat her; he learned this the hard way when she beat him so hard at it he sat in stunned silence for 10 minutes trying to figure out what hit him, then demanded to see a match between her and Blossom

- he thinks it’s kind of really funny how much of a sore loser she is and how differently she behaves from when they were kids, so like instead of screaming and yelling and demanding a rematch like when they were young she’d simply flip the table over or chuck the console remote or whatever at the wall and walk away wordlessly to chill out and the suddenness usually makes him laugh really hard once the initial shock wears off

- Butters’ love language is quality time and physical touch, which it takes a few months or so for Boomer to learn when she starts hanging out with him like all the time and play fights him (light punches, kicks his ankle when they’re sitting next to each other, a soft kick to his shin when she scolds him for something, will sneak up behind him to jump on his back just to startle him, etc) and as they become like inseparable the insults are always paired with smirks and shining eyes and so many more excuses for touching and play fighting

- Boomer’s love language is words of affirmation and acts of service which drives Buttercup insane bc she doesn’t know how to handle either of them, words of affirmation are always combated with insults and she’ll dodge them when and where possible bc “how dare he accidentally pick an insecurity of mine to comment on and make me feel like I don’t deserve to downgrade myself like that” so she’ll look away and shoot the insult to not be vulnerable Or something that she does feel good about and be like “duh?????? I know that already” then neither really know what to do from there; acts of service Buttercup will turn into a competition or see as an insult at first as if she can’t do it herself so when they start dating her sisters have to hold her back sometimes to let her bf do something nice for her and she started understanding by then

- Buttercup is the definition of no rizz and it’s so painfully funny for everyone around her

- “Okay, Boomer.” “I hate you.” “No you don’t.” “Yes I do.” “Prove it.” “Are you asking me to fight you?” “Maybe.” = Buttercup, flirting

- as cliché as it is for these two, she does call him Pretty Boy—originally trying to insult him which he never took it as such anyway, then as a nickname/pet name

- Buttercup is very much a morning cuddler and Boomer never wants to let her go when they wake up together

- after 3 months into just their friendship alone there is no longer such a thing as Buttercup’s hoodies and Boomer’s hoodies, it becomes one collection to the point that later on when dating they’d get each other matching hoodies and both would still end up at one place after losing track of who has what

- Brick and Buttercup have the same advanced/honors math class and it drives Blossom insane that her sister and her counterpart are the math geniuses and she’s not; Brick also tries to play wingman for Boomer and Butters after partnering up with her for some project in said math class

- when the other brothers find out Boomer’s trying to change sides and it means having less interaction/association to their dads they also ask Buttercup to “tutor” them and it makes Boomer jealous to no end (she only has eyes for him though)

- he’s always the first person she contacts after a fight with either Butch or Blossom so she can rant and blow up and then, after arguing with Blossom particularly, he’s always the shoulder she cries on and the first hug she looks for

- both have to learn how to communicate openly and set firm boundaries so they both have to ask the other Puffs to help them with it to prevent arguing and Boomer is so much better at it than Buttercup, who will more often than not still get defensive and Boomer has to set that they need to walk away from the situation so they can chill and then talk and she’s always super pouty abt it but still follows through bc she hates fighting with him

I’ll likely add more later Or if anyone else has any to add on please do <3

[samobservessonic]

There’s a page about AoStH that gives a brief introduction to the characters in that show, but I’ve skipped over that and moved onto what is unarguably the highlight here, which is the apparent “screen shots” from an early draft of SatAM Sonic. We see the image of the Freedom Team that was already shown in an earlier issue of StC, along with a few other images from a version of the cartoon that would never come to be What’s especially interesting here is that, at this stage, they already know details about the final versions of both AoStH and SatAM. We’ll get to that in the next post, but the article talks about them both separately. However, I believe that whoever wrote this thought that these images were from SatAM, as both this page and the bit about SatAM are referred to as being from a cartoon called “Sonic the Hedgehog”, as opposed to “Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog”, which they referred to as such. Having said that, on the SatAM bit, they talk specifically about characters from SatAM who were already looking different to these images. Bunnie and Boomer (the original name for Rotor) are both mentioned, instead of the Johnny Lightfoot and Joe Sushi characters shown here. “Princess Sally Acorn” is also mentioned, though she isn’t shown to look different from the Princess Acorn here But whatever the reason these images slipped out, I’m glad they included them, otherwise we might never have known about these at all. The general assumption is that they were from an earlier pitch for SatAM, based on the small animals in Sonic 1, and without Tails, so probably made prior to his introduction. Perhaps this is the evolutionary link that would lead onto the pilot episode of SatAM We already know that Sally went through a lot of design prototypes before they landed on the version used in SatAM, and that’s a bigger topic on its own, but I’m going to take a moment to talk about Princess Acorn specifically, because I don’t think she’ll come up again for me to talk about, at least not in this StC read-through. Princess Acorn is shown in every image here, even more than Sonic himself. There are two more images of her that I found on the Sonic fandom wikia, both marked as concept art, but I don’t know more about them than that. They don’t appear in StC, but I wanted to share them anyway:

The second one is particularly interesting to me, because it looks like it might’ve been from a storyboard, showing Princess Acorn reading a story to Tux Penguin. It makes me wonder if Tux was originally going to be portrayed as the “young child” character - a role that Tails would go onto fill. I know some fans talk about how Tails was more child-like in SatAM compared to later versions (but this portrayal of Tails was kind of general to western media, where “kid genius Tails” didn’t become more of a thing until after Sonic Adventure), so I do wonder if maybe to a certain extent, Tails had been swapped into Tux’s role. Maybe not, however. Since Tails was already present in the pilot, but you never know. Not only that, but Sally would go on to be called “Aunt Sally” by Tails in the show, which is perhaps a similar vibe to what they were going for with Princess Acorn and Tux here Anyway, that’s our bit of unused Sonic media speculation for today, but there is another page in this mag that I want to talk about, so I’ll include that in the next post

[prototypesteve]

“Don’t try this at home!”

So, if you’ve been following my posts, you might guess that there’s a chance I’m going to impulsively come out as aroace to my family and some remaining lifelong friends some time in 2024, and it might go well, and in the moment I might post something euphoric and, and, and.

I just want to make sure everyone knows that my situation might be different from yours, so my thing might go very differently than your thing. If you’re also thinking of coming out to a potentially “risky” group—especially your close family or close friends—please take these into consideration:

I may have a very different real-life audience.

I’m probably older than you. I’m 52 right now. Which means the friends and family I’m coming out to are going to be different, too. They’ll mostly be Generation X, and one Boomer.

I’m safe.

I’m basically independent. I can’t get thrown out by an impulsive parent, or quietly fired by a bigoted boss. If it goes badly, I’m not at risk of homelessness or anything like it.

I’m jaded, and risk-tolerant.

I’ve had some truly traumatic losses, so I’m emotionally prepared for new losses. I’ve already lost friends, very close people, and family, to emotional drift, breakups, and even death. If you haven’t had that happen yet, it can be really hard. Some of those losses messed me up for years. In some ways, I’m sure I’ve become a bit heartless towards the risk of additional loss. Like, “Been there, done that, do your worst!” If you’re new to loss, please don’t copy my impulsive and casual approach towards it.

I have genetically weird empathy.

I lack the so-called empathy gene (see notes below, I’m not making this shit up). It means I can really, really, really miss how badly I’ve fucked up a friendship, because it can be days or weeks before I realize I said something that affected someone in some level I’ve never seen before, and haven’t practiced learning how to “detect”.

I may post something about how well everyone reacted, and then have to post a correction half a year later. I haven’t had problems with it in a decade or so, but this is all higher-stakes stuff.

Footnote on the empathy gene:

I have genotype A/A on marker rs53576 in gene OXTR (position 8804371), and genotype G/G on marker rs1042778 in gene OXTR (position 8794545). OXTR as in "oxytocin receptor". In fairly large studies those two genotypes correlated with what gets super-simplified as having "no empathy" and being "callous-unemotional." I have feelings, but they work differently.

[fatale-distraction]

My coworker is pregnant, mazeltov, but if I have to hear one more fucking Boomer at my work laughingly ask every young, single woman when they’re gonna get knocked up too

Including me, the out and very loud Queer with a lesbian girlfriend who has said many times that I’m not interested in kids.

Including the elderly butch lesbian.

The trans man who they keep misgendering and deadnaming

The trans woman who they keep misgendering but somehow still think she has the ability to become pregnant??????

The young recent divorcee

And the 18-year-old who just got out of high school

I need people to stop demanding pregnancy of anyone they perceive to be a woman like it’s a reasonable thing to expect from someone or an appropriate topic of workplace conversation.

I’ve had two talks with HR already because I’ve started responding “well, J and I have been trying pretty hard, but I don’t think it works like that. We’ll keep at it, though!”

If you’re gonna ask me “when is the next time you’re going to have rawdog bareback sex with a potential sperm donor”, you’d better be ready for an equally inappropriate response ‘cause I’m done with the awkward laugh.

[aizenat]

I was watching this woman who does child free content on yt, and she was showing clips of a woman on tik tok who was complaining about some family vlogger influencers (because that’s somehow still a thing in 2024 apparently) on ig who went on a cruise and apparently went to have dinner after the kids went to sleep so they could have a romantic night alone. They had baby monitors and nothing actually happened, but the internet does what it always does and this girl is just moralizing about all the could be dangers that COULD have happened in a worst case scenario because god forbid people don’t live their lives with crippling anxiety constantly planning and expecting the worst thing to happen at all times (not defending the couple but girl nothing happened just shut the fuck up).

And I had this thought I’ve been having a lot where I’m thinking this woman who I’m watching react to this girl’s tik tok (a supposed journalist lol) is wasting her time watching a girl waste her time making tik tok after tik tok moralizing about a couple she doesn’t know doing something that wasn’t the smartest but led to no issues, bitching about this couple sharing their stupid lives online.

And like I just thought to myself “why does this girl on tik tok care so much about this couple to make all these videos faking concern about these kids that are fine? Why is this YouTuber wasting her time reacting to this girl making tik toks about a family neither of them know and how they raise their kids? Why is this couple able to get enough people watching them vlog their lives that they can afford a nice cruise (and apparently make enough to afford a hypothetical nanny for the kids so they wouldn’t have to leave them alone sleeping in the rooms just for a date night, according to critics), and enough attention to get major backlash for doing something I’m sure most of our own parents did at least once or twice.”

Like truly, what does ANY of this matter? I don’t know ANY of these ppl I’m engaging with. I don’t care about family vloggers: I find them all reprehensible. I don’t care about some random white woman’s moralizing on another couple not being perfect parents like she thinks all parents should be. I don’t even understand why the child free content creator was even commenting on the drama. Like what was the point? Don’t have children so you can have date nights without worrying about kids?

Like who cares? Why are we all so obsessed with other people’s lives? People we don’t know, will never know, who will get canceled in a few years for something (if they’re lucky enough to last that long) just to do it all over again with a new influencer. That south Asian ray guy was the most popular YouTuber and and then it was pewdiepie then one of the Paul brothers then dream then Mr beast and he’s getting canceled now so it’ll be someone new this time next year.

Again and again the cycle goes and what do any of us get out of it? Are we better people for it? Are we even entertained? Why does ANY of this shit matter? Truly?

Idk how corny or eye roll inducing it is to say this but the entire internet, and most of modern media, has become a literal virtual reality matrix that we’re all acting like we have to participate in. You don’t go online, you miss all the news. Everyone from boomers to gen x to millennials to gen z to gen alpha don’t know how to connect to people without it. At my last job, my coworkers would bond over memes they’d share on fb or send each other snapchats or tik toks and constantly reference them. And because I’m not on the sites, I was literally missing out. And when I’d ask them to send things to our group chat so I could enjoy the fun, they just ignored me.

In today’s world, if you’re not plugged into the matrix, you pretty much don’t exist. It’s a red flag if ppl can’t find social media on you. YouTube commentary videos don’t even introduce players in drama because they assume you already know who they’re talking about for some reason. I’m expected to know all the latest tik tok influencers and streamers and podcasters and all the other mundane morons taking up space online. Why? Why do I need to know any of them just to keep up? Truly? Why?

Meanwhile, no one knows how our government work to organize effectively (looking at the faux “pro Palestine” ppl protesting the dnc without any fucking real plan all while ignoring that three of the most progressive and pro Palestinian representatives were up for reelection and let two of them LOSE their reelection bid, pulling more pro Palestinian voices away from congress; as well as ANYONE telling people to not vote or vote third party in November), no one seems to care that we’re living through a major environmental catastrophe, NO ONE READS, art is literally dying thanks to corporate greed, men are gearing up for a major anti feminist backlash that I’m afraid no woman under 30 is quite prepared to fight against, and no one can afford to live a happy and comfortable life.

But I have to care about stupid influencers being stupid online for stupid amounts of money because everyone is chasing a bag instead of working to make the world a better place.

I’m genuinely hitting a limit. Not in the manosphere way, but I’m seriously taking the red pill and getting the fuck out. This online world is just so bleak and miserable. I can’t deal with this shit anymore. It’s burning me out and I’m exhausted by it all. I genuinely just need out. Completely and fully. I’m so completely done.

[aclosetfan]

Do you have any ppg fandom pet peeves? Outside of shipping that is, like character interpretations?

My biggest one, and I’ve talked about it before but I’ll say it again because it annoys me so much 😂😂, is sibling dynamics in fics.

Like it’s pretty clear a lot of people don’t have siblings or siblings close in age or close relationships with their siblings…

And like that’s fine, but the amount of fics I see where Butch seriously calls Brick his “big bro” I’m like lmao WHAT?

The brothers bug me more than the sisters probably because we at least have a more canon idea of what the sisters are like. But some people do not have brothers and do not know how to write bothers, and I’ve got two of them, so I read shit and I’m like “nope would not happen like that” 😂😂😂😂 it’s hard to suspend my disbelief

And I also can’t stand this need to make brick the “dad-brother”. I understand some siblings take on parental roles, but the fact the boys are triplets, and I’ve never met a pair of twins/triplets who the youngest doesn’t specify “yeah, but by two minutes 😡” hints to me that there’d be a more “we parent each other” relationship.

Then, it’s really just little differences in characterization that I’ve gone on about before! I don’t think the girls would hate each other. I don’t think Blossom would be perfect. I’m not one to believe Buttercup would hate her sisters and let her aggression rule her. I like when Bubbles is actually incorporated into a story. And I don’t prefer Butch and Boomer to be 2/3s of three stooges, unless Brick completes the trio.

Also rip Princess. Her character never seems to develop in any way. She doesn’t get the redemption arcs the boys get because…lol idk. Shipping prolly.

UMMMM and then I guess the lack of variety? I mean, I know I do high school aus, but I’m not particularly interested in HOW the boys become good but the AFTER. And I know y’all already know I’m more interested in how characters affect other characters’ development when it comes to shipping instead of the actual romance, so if a fics TOO high romance, I jump ship. That may be hypocritical because I’ve written romance before but that’s exactly why. I can write the romance I want to see but i need someone else who’s more skilled to do all the other cool stuff 😂😂😂

[pomellon]

I’ve been a little vague about how Funz starts in the dtk+ dragon au, mostly cuz I do want to attempt to actually write a fic for it, but this is basically the idea I have in mind for the beginning:

Foolish has created a lush oasis in the middle of the desert, big enough that it looks more like a small jungle. The greenery has attracted other surviving dragons over the years, all of which started to look up to Foolish as a type of demi-god due to his strong magic abilities. He didn’t bond with any of them, so they started referring to themselves as his followers instead of his flight, and after a while they grew determined to find him an actual bond. They want him to be happy, but they also want him to have heirs down the line, strong dragons with his blood that would make their settlement even greater.

Foolish hasn’t bonded to anyone for years tho (for centuries, but no one knows how old he actually is at this point), despite new dragons joining the settlement frequently. So they set out to find other flights and invite them to send their best dragons to court him, offering them a safe haven in their oasis should they succeed with a bond. Foolish isn’t really into the idea, but his followers have grown a bit fanatic and he rather just go along with it then deal with them yapping at him should he refuse. 

The news of the courtship eventually reaches Bad’s flight who have been interested in scouting the oasis out for some time already, wanting to know what kind of magic could make such a place possible. They quickly come up with the idea to send someone to the courtship, but then the question becomes who?

The only dragons that have gotten their god claim are Sam, Punz, Sapnap, and Boomer, and it’s quickly decided that a dragon with magic should go since they’re desirable in many different areas. Sapnap and Boomer are almost immediately ruled out due to being too young, and while Sam is the oldest he has issues regulating his magic which defeats the purpose of sending a dragon with magic abilities. This leaves Punz.

Punz absolutely hates this plan. He’s not fond of social assignments to begin with, so flirting and schmoozing up to a random dragon he doesn't know is definitely not something he wants to do. Secondly the courting is meant to result in a pair to produce offspring and they know Foolish is a scout, meaning Punz, who’s a guardian, would be a horrible match when it comes to producing eggs. On top of that Punz’s scales are covered in a lot of knicks and battle scars and at this point in the story he’s struggling a little bit with his self image, not really seeing himself as attractive and making him even more reluctant to go.

He pretty much refuses until the others convince him that Foolish not being interested in him due to being a guardian will actually give Punz more of an opportunity to scout the place out. It takes some more convincing but eventually he agrees to go with Sam and Ant coming with him to act as support and backup if needed.

Ant and Sam do their best to doll him up for the first day, covering his scars with jewellery and silk accessories. Punz still feels very out of place when he arrives at Foolish’s palace, most of the other courters being nurse or scholar class dragons that would match well with a scout. He’s the only guardian, and he can’t help but regret this plan even more, simply wishing to get it done with so he can be ignored and do his job.

This does not happen however, as Punz standing out in the crowd makes Foolish instantly zero in on him, curiosity about the guardian peeked and determined to get to know him better.

And that’s where I’m gonna leave it for now uvu

[cicada-and-pomegranate]

I feel like if 9/11 happened again, no one would really react.

I think a lot of people were horrified on 9/11 because they didn’t know things like that happened. The boomer generation is all like “never forget”, acting like it’s the greatest tragedy since the Holocaust, and acts like joking about 9/11 is paramount to joking about genocides, but they went to school every day to learn about how to hide from a nuclear bomb.

At the end of the day though, the most that 9/11 effected the lives of most people acting like 9/11 is the world’s greatest modern tragedy is that they have to take their shoes off at the airport. 9/11 had disastrous effects, of course, but not on the people most intimately obsessed with its tragedy.

There’s a 2002 episode of Arthur where a school fire is used as an analogue for 9/11. (I really wish they just used real 9/11 that would have been so fucking funny) One of the plots is about Buster feeling bad about not really caring about the fire. At the time that was a super important message for kids, because why the fuck would they care? They probably don’t even know how much 3,000 is or necessarily what death is or maybe even where New York is. It’s unrelated to them.

9/11 happened 21 years ago. It can legally drink in the US. If you actually remember the significance of what 9/11 was when it happened, you’re kind of old now. Young people either were Buster or they learned about 9/11 in history class. It’s a meme now.

I’m going to New York in about a month and I’ve already planned to take a photo of the 9/11 memorial and caption it “I forgor”. I don’t fucking care; I wasn’t alive in 2001. I think older people need to accept that 9/11 is now a historical event rather than a modern tragedy, and a historical event with a comparatively low body count.

The fact that 9/11 gripped the nation for decades after isn’t just a consequence of the place and time it happened; it was intentional. It was a terrorist attack; it was meant to be flashy, it was meant to be destructive, and it was meant to be scary. Making 9/11 out to be the worst thing ever projects Al-Qaeda’s strength.

We’ve now lived through entire months in which every day has killed more people than 9/11. Of course that’s always been true, but not from one collective, abnormal cause. When you become desensitized to death, it’s no longer tragic. One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic.

The constant propaganda about 9/11 being the worst thing ever, counterintuitively, makes it seem less bad. It normalizes it to the point that it’s not the tragedy it once was. Especially when you didn’t live it because you were not yet alive.

This doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, I mean no one cares about the myriad obscure genocides which killed hundreds of thousands to millions, but 3,000 people who happened to have a statistically higher income (the Twin Towers housed financial offices and the flights that were hijacked tend to have a lot of business travelers, especially on a morning flight early in the week)? Greatest American tragedy literally ever.

I think people not caring about the faceless people who died on 9/11 and ended up getting turned in to patriotic martyrs and caring more about the faceless people who die every day because governments around the world think it’s in their best interests for them to is a good thing. It’s an inevitable part of moving forward in time; the sands of time erode all but the number of bones.

So joke about 9/11. It ends the era of “never forget”, and brings about that of the perpetual apathy that faces all historical events with the inevitable bored child in an elementary school classroom asking the teacher why he should care about dead people.

[papirouge]

I’ve stopped caring what my dad says about protesting and how he thinks it’s stupid to get arrested protesting at the universities because “your life becomes so hard after that arrest goes on your record” because the bigger picture is something he doesn’t want to see. Most boomers cannot handle that the reality of the future for us is grim without drastic fighting and change. They know they’ll be dead soon

But I can’t stop shaking at the horrors that happened in the tents of Rafah. And that now that the Israeli president is now getting called for HIS arrest, he responds by more violence. Clearly nothing will stop him unless someone like the CIA assassinates him.

No offense to you dad, but did he forget what his own generation did back in his youth?

I know Alzheimer is a bitch, but the selective memory collection of older generation and their own youth activism is very embarrassing. I actually find zoomer very tame in comparison to gen X (those who were teens during the late 90s/early 00s) and even boomer who were popping pills like there's no tomorrow, engaged in straight up satanic cults, and polylove sects in the 70s. But noooo zoomers are actually very dangerous because....*checks notes* they are protesting against a genocide.

I wouldn't trust the word of people who most likely have only a decade to live on this world. The consequences won't be the same for them.

I think I already made a post about it but I'll forever side eye the hypocrites who during c0vid were arguing how it unfair to label all the anti lockdown protestors as "far right" or "white supremacists", have no issue calling all of those protestors "hamas supporters" (hi Dr. Eli David!). The mask of many former anti lockdown freedom fighters really slipped off the moment it came to anti Zionist protests. They hopped on the side of the same oppressive power that brutalized them 4 years before... Suddenly the police was "right" to arrest & brutalize people exercising their freedom of speech because antisemitism/islamist/Hamas supporter... Those people were never about freedom, they were about to have their own way under any excuse.... They are disgusting & fake and I'd advise anyone to never take seriously any of what they say any more.

BTW, isn't it funny how no one came up with the "antichrist" accusations against Netanyahu? 🙃 this dude checks out a bunch of boxes : martyring Christians (in their own churches), hounding, mass deporting & killing anyone on its way under the premise of providing world peace.... Conservatives called Obama the anti Christ for much less....jeez I wonder whyyyyy... ah yes, white people/conservatives casual racism of being suspicious of someone sense or morality based on their skin color lol

[despoyler-blog]

So, I played some Doom

Gotta be honest with ya, fine reader, I played original Doom in my wee years. Like I got to it when I was visiting my mom’s workplace whe she can’t leave me alone at house. And there it was, glorious Doom, with all that E1M1, soundtrack, which I couldn’t hear (cause there weren’t any speakers, you see), and I thought “cool, where can I get home play some Quake?” I was from household that played all Quake parts and had it installed, but no Doom, so I hadn’t touched original two parts. My intro into those parts was Doom 3 and still I have some warm feelings to that part. Years went by, I played different FPS games, also regarded Doom as standard bearer, played and had some fun with Doom 2016 and Doom Ethernal, but yeah, not the same. And friends were participating in RAMP 2023 (that’s the initiative for map creation, check it out, that’s a good shiet, you can see people’s passion and soul sometimes) and playing some Plutonia Experiment. Honestly, I’m kind of guy when something in group happening and I kinda like it - I need to try it. So, I’ve tried Plutonia (thanks to @opanasopanasovychopanasenko for help with set up with GZDoom) and I must admit - I’m in awe. I can say that is “the Dark Souls of FPS” and that can be quite accurate description, but where we would be with that? Nowhere, that’s for sure. I can say this - while playing Plutonia it’s the first time in my 23 years of gaming (I’m 26 currently) when I can hear developer’s communication though the gameplay. You see, when you play the current titles - they’re good, but they don’t have some author’s touch.  With Plutonia, proudly developed by Dario and Milo Casali, I can see the vision for what developer’s intended for me to do in some sections of the game in order not to get totally by the enemies. For example, it can be in such details when spawning archvile right in front of you, but if you know that rocket launcher will push him over the ledge - such encounter will become much easier to overcome. The level design was really intriguing - from the labyrinth with archviles to hellish levels with separate platforms and tons of secret, from hard regular levels to  secret levels with some devilish tricks (I say that I must applaud to the decision of spawning five archviles in already cleared areas, after beating 4 cyberdemons). And secrets thruought the level located like with purpose “there is a tough enemies, but here’s your reward - take it, you’ll need it” I got this cozy feeling inside me, when I played Plutonia that everything is like it should be.  Even If I got stuck on some nasty sections, I soon realized - yeah, they designed it in such way, now seek means to beat that. Anyway, can’t recommend it enough to any connoseir of oldschool FPS/boomer shooters if you haven’t tried it yet, it’s so good. Until then, keep calm and donate UAF(https://savelife.in.ua/en/ or any other UA foundation) so I can sprout such thoughts in the future.

[scarfacemarston]

GO VOTE

Tw mentions for: Racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, abortion discussion, anti-Semitism mention, anti-islamic mention, voting rights, miscarriage mention

Guys, please please please go out and vote. I was born in dictatorship that my country still hasn’t recovered from. I and millions of others lost so much in my country and my country is FAR from the only one. With that said USA:

Democracy is on the block for so many countries, but we have early voting and the Election Day. GO OUT AND VOTE. If Republicans get the majority in the House or Senate, our rights could be taken away. People say it won’t happen, well, people said the same about Roe vs Wade, but it did. 

You have no excuse. Voter apathy because things are bad? So you’re just going to sit there and do nothing while things get worse? The biggest voting demographic are boomers. Why the hell are people, especially young people, allowing THEM to make the decisions that will affect everyone with people under 50 being affected the most. Voter apathy is handing the election to the far right. 

Lgbtq+ people are in serious danger. People are banning lgbtq+ affirmative care, especially for transgender people. People are wanting to harm lgbtq+ people for EXISTING. Not even libraries are safe. LGBTQ+ marriage is at risk. 

Teachers are finding it increasingly difficult to be allowed to teach history, literature or politics because of the far right narratives they’re being forced to teach. LGBTQ+ kids are not safe in the class room.

People are dying from not being able to access emergency abortions and DNCs (a procedure that helps remove excess tissue build up that can sometimes be from abortion but often times not. Considering there is even a small chance of the dnc being used for abortion, it’s why republicans are attacking it.)

Btw, an ectopic pregnancy is impossible to survive without medical intervention. People are nearly dying or dying in hospitals because it’s too late - the hospitals have to consult their lawyers first. 

People aren’t being prescribed medications that have even the tiniest side effect of a miscarriage. These are drugs people need to LIVE. Drugs that treat lupus, cancer and reproductive disorders to name a few.

And for many others, Medicare, Medicaid and social security benefits are being attacked. Yes, that is something old republicans are going to suffer but for those saying everyone deserves it - what about the democrats that are that age? Why should they have to suffer? What about the tons of POC whose votes were ignored because of gerrymandering? And voting rights are under attack RIGHT NOW.

People of Color’s voting rights are in serious danger because of government officials redrawing boundary lines so their vote is skewed, or how they have less voting places and have to travel farther, or deal with a lot of voter intimidation in addition to what’s already out there.

Immigrants are still being treated as second class citizens with cruel stunts by republicans like flying them to other states to be used as political pawns and it’s getting worse.

Anti-Semitism and anti-Islamic sentiments are growing and are becoming increasingly dangerous with attacks on religious institutions and violence.

Gun violence “thanks” to republicans blocking everything from the state level to federal level. I’ve lost track of all the school shootings.

Our world is burning due to climate change being ignored and corporations. Again, don’t let republican boomers and older make these decisions for us.

Get. Out And.Vote. I understand there are some individuals that truly can’t vote due to circumstances including lack of access or even safety reasons, but if you have the chance to vote and you choose not to? Well, that’s in your right but you may not have the right to choose to go ahead and vote in the future. Do not get complacent if you see democrats winning at the polls. People thought the same thing in 2016 and 2020 was a VERY close call.

Brazil won their elections and got rid of a horrible man. It shows it CAN BE DONE.  Save  yourselves from the dictatorship I and so many others have gone through.  I BEG you to please vote. So many people are scared right now. I already voted. I know this is going to piss people off, but I’ll say it anyway: If you are someone able to vote, have access and you’re still not convinced or care enough to vote, then I find it really hard to respect you.

[wolfwatching78]

Lets Talk About Pistol Start In Doom

In one of his twitch streams while developing Sigil, his first full Wad for the original Doom in two decades, John Romero briefly spoke about how he prefers to play the game on Pistol Start without Save-Scumming. Although I was familiar with these terms, it was the first time I'd heard them from the creator himself.

Basically in classic Doom, if you die you are thrown back to the start of the level with no guns. It penalises dying but as a player you can avoid this it by saving the game. This leads to a massive difference in how levels play out in their design. Not only can the player stock-pile weapons and ammo, they can also find powerful new weapons hidden in each level.

The alternative to this approach is to play Pistol Start, whereby you find what weapons you can in every stage. Most levels are constructed in such a way as to make this a viable option for the player, but it's led to a bit of a schism in how Doom levels are designed.

Sandy Peterson, who contributed to over half of Doom 2 noted he was disappointed in the first game; he felt they had not adequately accounted for the fact players were carrying their weapons over between levels:

"Most people started levels with some kind of significant equipment. However, almost all our playtesting was done starting each level with just a pistol. We made the game too easy for the average player."

It’s probably for this reason I’ve felt the levels in Doom 2 are extremely frustrating compared to the first game. Doom 2 spams enemies at you in such hordes that it almost expects you to have a constant supply of plasma gun ammo. I even prefer the much more difficult, yet fair TNT WAD which was made by fans.

The fact that each level of that WAD was designed by different authors means they were more focused in accounting for pistol start. It may even be the reason why TNT has gone on to become one of the more influential WADS over the years.

Now as for save-scumming, a term which certainly has its abrasive Gen X internet charm, I’m not going to get into the arguments for or against. A great video on the subject has been uploaded by Dean of Doom on Youtube already.

By all means people should play the way they want. I’m more interested in how it’s been accounted for in game design. Older PC shooters from the nineties, which have affectionately come to be known as boomer shooters, are praised for their difficulty and probably require it.

Recently I played through Jedi Outcast on the switch. Aside from the fact it’s cumbersome to play with a control pad, the game seemed to me to assume the player would save at every turn. This game really makes you “feel like a jedi”; since only a force wielder would have the level of precognition required to navigate it’s mean-spirited traps and far too accurate enemies. Save-scumming in this scenario just seems to be the sane way to play if you ask me.

There is no Pistol Start either; death simply reverts you to your last save, so you are encouraged to make your own checkpoint system, and this leads to the possibility you may lose all your progress in the game if you save it with a small amount of health left, for instance. It hasn’t happened to me yet, but the fear is enough to make me keep a few save files on hand at all times.

But even in games like Jedi Outcast, people will state a preference for certain levels or sections of the game they like playing through, and weapons are taken away at certain points. So it's still a key aspect to think about when looking at difficulty.

In this way, the creators of Doom using the Pistol Start system was a forward thinking idea. They may not have known the extent to which players would enjoy designing their own levels at the time of its implementation, but it certainly informed level design going forward.

It would be interesting how a hybrid system like this could work in a Souls game. Or other genres. Carrying over your weapons and inventory seems to be such a given in modern games these days, that there may be scope to design an experience around this not being the case.

In the original Doom Pistol Start was a kind of compromise born out of a time when save-points, passwords and level skips were still being ironed out into the smooth hassle free experience we expect today. That said, it might be interesting to see Pistol Start, Sword Start or even Pokemon Start make a return.

[motleymedley]

The Social Problem in Media

At the risk of sounding like a boomer, the concept of social media has gone too far. Before you ask, the year I was born does start with a “19” but since I’m on the tail end of 99, I hardly think that should count. I grew up with Gen Z, feeling like some sort of undercover boomer agent. Or perhaps most Gen Z feel this way, looking at everyone on social media acting completely okay with broadcasting their lives. 

There is no way to know for sure. I come from a generation steeped in tech- we know who you are, what you’re up to and what your family did last weekend. This is seemingly an age without privacy and without time to disconnect. In previous generations, when you would leave work for the day that would be it. Hasta la vista, baby, I’m going home to stare at drywall all weekend and cry into the cool side of my pillow- but that is not the case anymore.

Now, more than ever, people are broadcasting their lives. Just last week I was in a gynaecology department and they were talking about doing a video on the latest TikTok trend while I was sat waiting for what was sure to be a super awkward experience.

It is not my business to determine what they do with their time. Quite frankly it’s nice to see the world relax a bit and try to have more fun— but it got me thinking. The social media is impossible to avoid. I’ve been told time and time again, I will get nowhere in life without a social media presence; that there are people half my age making double my wage dancing online and all vying for the same five seconds of the audiences attention span.

This got me thinking. In order to make money in life, do I have to do the same? Am I doomed to failure unless I take to social media to express myself and capture the attention of the masses. This brings yet another problem. How am I, to attain the attention of the masses? To do so would require me to compete with an infinite market.

To come up with an original idea? That’s already been done. Even if you write an original idea someone somewhere will surely recognise its taste and offer several other examples of it having been done before. If you try to sing, others will sing it better. If you market my looks, other people will be prettier. As the philosopher Qui-Gon Jinn once said, “there’s always a bigger fish”. So how do we, the average populous, navigate this social media saturated world? For those curious, listen carefully to what I will say next.

I don’t know.

Not a clue.

Nada— and it’s stressing me out.

As someone who’s horrendously socially inept, this is a painful realisation. There is no social life without media. Not anymore. Gone are the days when people would ask for phone numbers, all my (admittedly limited number of) friends communicate through instagram, meaning I too have to communicate through instagram and risk getting stuck in reels for hours on end.

Since then I have had to set a limit for how long I can go on instagram (something that was painfully needed, congratulations to those who are able to practice self-control, I salute you), I have had more time to do things. Conversely, I have also missed out on more. Without social media informing me and everyone else of what everyone and everything is doing, I have lost friends and contacts alike.

This may be hyperbolic. I haven’t lost them. I didn’t misplace them under the cushions of the sofa, never to be seen again— but we are less connected now. Almost as though, through severing my connection to social media I became untethered and slowly drifted away. This isn’t a bad thing. Nor is it a good thing. Drifting to and from people is all a part of life and yet it seems easier to do so these days than when ease of communication was difficult to come by.

Theoretically this is easy to explain, if you cannot keep up with the fast-paced world of socialisation and media you become less relevant. It’s a simple and easy notion that all of us can understand.

There are many people who struggle with navigating social media; just because it seems as though everyone is inclined to share their lives online doesn’t mean it’s unusual to not want to. Granted, much of the time, you may not be able to avoid the demanding world online but it is okay to get overwhelmed. This is a new phenomenon. You are not alone.