#I've only been able to get on mobile recently

[mesetacadre]

What would you say is the main responsibility/task of each communist party in each european country nowadays? How would the whatever task be done? While this of course differs with every country, I've often thought about this bc of the lack of support the communist party in my country gets. On top of me only just having started organizing and being inexperienced I often ask what I should do when me and my comrades genuinely don't have a lot of support anywhere, especially among workers (who are mostly nationalistic right wingers or centrists). Thank you if you decide to answer, I appreciate hearing your thoughts bc of the way you articulate things and bc of your experience within your own party

Broadly speaking, the main priority is achieving political independence and recognition.

Most of Europe has a context of historical communist parties getting whatever flavor of reformist deviation last century, resulting in the struggle of new parties (such as the PdA in Austria) to be recognized as separate organizations from the historical parties (KPÖ in this case), even when the historical communist party doesn't even exist anymore (the case of the NCPN in the Netherlands). This has nuances or course, the Swedish marxist-leninists, for instance, have managed to constitute themselves with the same name as the historical party (SKP). In eastern Europe, this is further complicated because communist parties are either wholesale banned or struggle a lot with the demonized legacy of the ruling communist parties from the cold war. Ukraine's UCU and many other similarly communist parties have faced considerable state violence, with the case of the Kononovich brothers being recent.

By political independence I mean being able to articulate the class interests of the proletariat on any given relevant issue, avoiding tailism and ceding ground to the logic of reformism, lesser-evilism, social peace, etc. Both of these issues have been, at this time best overcome by the KKE.

Recognition and independence to hand in hand, you could be the smartest marxist in the continent tucked away in some corner of the internet writing pages upon pages of excellent analysis, but if nobody recognizes you and your party as dependable and a serious organization, you might as well be masturbating over a copy of Capital.

This is solved by becoming a consistent ally of the working class in every single struggle you are able to, from the most immediatist to the most revolutionary. And on top of this, it is crucial European parties recover the focus on work as the base of their work. The student, housing, queer, etc. movements will have varying importance depending on time and place, will be more or less permeable to communist positions, and it'll be more or less useful to participate in them. But the worker's movement, whose mobilizations always have a direct relation with the mode of production and capitalism's prime contradiction, should at all times be the focus of any pretension of revolutionary work.

As time passes, a party will become a recognizable and trusted ally of the working class, by virtue of constructing that political independence, our work will always be consistent in its goal and interests it defends. Social-democrats, anarchists, worker's unions, will in some form or another falter in their support, due to the influence of bourgeois interests in their politics. If a party fails to continuously and consciously constitute its political independence, it will also falter and the workers' confidence will be eroded. If you imagine worker's mobilizations like a river that periodically swells up to flood everything in its path, and that at other times is an imperceptible stream, a communist party should act like sediment. It is not external to the river, it is an inextricable component part of it, the solid matter that, after a flood, when the river shrinks back down, remains in its path. It doesn't disappear, it's the memory of the previous courses the river has taken, and the size it achieved. When the river swells up again, it'll do so treading on the path marked by the sediment.

Though the experience of the workers' own immediatist struggles, in which the untrustworthiness of worker's unions and social-democracy especially eventually becomes relevant, having the communist party as a referent, a handful of communists who have lived and breathed the same victories, defeats and betrayals as the rest of the workers, a small hegemony of communist positions can begin to appear. If people begin to trust communists and our ideas again, it'll be because their own experience will show that, eventually, the only remaining dependable faction is the politically independent communist party. The same can be achieved in other movements. For instance, in my university, the communists have become the referent organization for matters of security and organization of structures, after years of consistently being the most trustworthy organization in those matters. The as of yet relatively small sympathy students and workers have acquired towards us and our political analysis has been gained through this, not by simply being the most correct.

Another essential foundation is that of internationalism. The propaganda of warmongers and violent xenophobes which is permeating the working class and making things such as an expanded military budget spurred by NATO and the EU, or stricter control over Europe's borders more palatable, must be faced directly and without pretensions. Solidarity work with migrants and our armies' victims beyond the Mediterranean is becoming increasingly crucial. And, once again, political independence is a prerequisite.

A common issue that springs from the small size of almost all marxist-leninist parties in Europe is that their work is predominantly agitative. Doing that kind of work I described above requires a number of hands and heads able to dedicate significant parts of free time towards those goals, so gaining new members becomes a top priority. It's a difficult cycle to get out of, growing requires actual work to be done, which requires a considerable amount of manpower for these small parties. But it is not an infinite cycle, though it may look futile, even a consistent small amount of work will eventually attract someone new. If the structure of the party is able to sustain itself with a minimum amount of members, growing becomes a question of ingenuity and time, less or luck (although luck is still involved).

Politics is a reflection of the state, at any given time, of the material conditions that continue the exploitation of our class. Therefore, only attempting to change it from the tail end, political discourse by itself, is useless. Parties must attempt to first act on the relations of labor itself, as close to the core mechanisms as possible, so that its political independence is possible, it can hold water, and it becomes a small part of the political sphere "downstream" from the relations of the organization of labor. If you want to convince workers of how chauvinism and racism is antithetical to their interests as workers, what's only going to work reliably and at a bigger scale than individuals is to be the only dependable ally in worker's struggles, holding internationalist positions. A party's positions can only be referential once its work is referential.

Tactics, then, become dictated by the needs of organizing in your own context. Perhaps participating in elections is useful to garner some recognition and use the electoral period as an opportunity for agitation, or perhaps it's more useful to ignore elections altogether. In my opinion, there is no European country where it isn't worth it to use the platform of elections, presupposing the party in question understands it is using elections, not earnestly attempting to govern some facet of the bourgeois state, although it is perfectly possible this will change in the future. Similarly, perhaps it is useful to participate in the worker's unions as a "red fraction" within it, to facilitate the party's participation in the worker's movement like I explained earlier, and without losing a clear criticism of the unions and their unreliableness, or perhaps it's better for parties to control/create a union itself. For smaller parties, generally speaking, the red fraction strategy is much more preferable. The KKE, for instance, has its own union, PAME.

In summary, the priority is political independence, with a stress on internationalism, that is only legitimized by the recognition gained through consistent organization, first in the worker's movement, through whatever means are deemed worthwhile, avoiding dogmatism, tailism, and disconnection from the reality of the working class in each country.

[the-disemvoweler]

I.. did not want to be that guy asking his followers for money. And I am so sorry for doing this.

I've been dealing with horrible, horrible joint and muscle pain for a while now. It's constant, but usually, it's manageable. But recently, it's gotten so much worse at times. I now need support to be able to walk sometimes. However, I don't have a job, and my family currently isn't taking my condition seriously. You see where this is going.

What I really need is forearm crutches, but if I can't get that, I will settle for a cane.

I can only be paid through cashapp, or by Amazon gift card (dm me if you choose to do that, we will work out the details). Do not feel pressured to pay me. I will find a way to get through this.

I will post a proof of purchase should I manage to get either of these aids.

Cashapp: $NovaDC

$0/$120

Please help me get a mobility aid.

[gyodragon]

POST GRIFFITH TORTURE RENASSIANCE!!! i keep staring at your art of griffith's broken stare with the bandages wrapped across his face and his emaciated little corpse beside guts...

I read this ao3 fic about his struggle with recovery in an aftermath where he doesn't go apeshit. *offers it to you gently* https://archiveofourown.org/works/609721

it made me think, as a certified griffith expert, what do you think his recovery may have looked like? could anything possibly have still made him happy after all of that... or at least minorly not-miserable? what kinds of things do you think he'd enjoy in such a state?

would he even try to grow out his hair?

The Renaissance that really constricts our hearts!! I remember when first learning Berserk, it was the transformation Griffith has after the torture that got its hooks into me and compelled me to read the series. The rest is history. Thank you so much btw! I've only drawn him a few times but it feels like more in my heart. Thank you for sending that fic my way! (I'm super into gen fic and that is a good one) *Certified Griffith Expert* AHH! That's sweet! I'd like a badge or something after this long LOL. First off, this ask has given me SUCH AN ITCH to pick 'Iron Hawk' back up (my fan project about Griffith being rescued from the Tower early and the aftermath of that. It's my baby) I'm thinking about maybe using a different, more sustainable format by writing multi-chapter fanfiction with accompanying illustrations. But I assume you mean a scenario about his recovery after the canon full year of torture. Interesting. I actually haven't put a ton of thought into that because, morbidly, I have a hard time imagining any outcome after that amount of trauma where he isn't doomed. So assuming this is a world in which he is able to make some progress in his recovery that allows him to regain some mobility and use of his hands, I could see a return of the bandit era. I could see Judeau with his ingenuity and the help of other Hawks working together to fashion him a kind of wheelchair. A Merlin chair wouldn't fit with the time period but you get the idea! Maybe he eventually uses a cane and back brace. He grows his hair out but it never comes back as thick or as long. He shows his face again but rotates a collection of partial porcelain masks to cover the worst of his scars. If his hands heal enough, he learns sign language, writes with the tip of his finger in people's palms and writes with a large pen or quill. (edit: I've recently been totally swayed by your post about him relearning to speak and whispering to his trusted inner circle. I'm SOLD) I think his band would continue to whittle down until only the most loyal remained. The core members who would inevitably transform back into his friends. He used to protect himself from 'friends' with compartmentalization when they were among the thousands of Hawks under his command. I think that Griffith's life during recovery would be hell but he could find happiness in his inner circle reducing to a small group. Like when he was a kid. I think with the deterioration of his body, it could be possible that his mind goes into overdrive. The frail, mute, mysterious general who is even more of a political/military genius. No more White Hawk. He is just 'Griffith' or 'General' or 'The prisoner'. After enough banditry and roaming, the group reclaims a comfortable position in a land away from political enemies. Griffith gives up on his dream and focuses on fulfilling the promise of his vision to just these few people. He is even able to preform Robin Hood-like feats in the countryside. Outlaw goodness, that sort of thing. He doesn't retire himself though. I have a dark outlook. I think he probably satisfies himself with this twilight campaign, sees his remaining friends in positions of security and wealth and when all is said and done he eventually claims his own life. I think Guts is the last one with him when he is finally finished.

[ms-demeanor]

Not to be rude or derailing your answer to the ask about the scorched earth post, but I do think quite genuinely that the site is becoming more openly hostile to its userbase, or at the very least its disabled userbase. While I’m not a fan of mobbing people’s personal blogs in targeted harassment campaigns, I think some people are also ignoring that staff blatantly said in a recent post that epileptic users would need to pay for ad-free to have their safety assured

I kind of don’t think that’s being ethical or user friendly, to me that sounds like they’re refusing to meet basic accessibility requests and answering with ‘pay us money to be safe’. Strobing and flashing ads aren’t just eyestraining, they can legitimately lead to serious injuries for epileptic folk, and telling people with epilepsy to just pay up or get lost is kinda… I dunno… disgusting?

So it looks like in a livestream (not on a post so far as I've been able to see) either photomatt or zingring made a glib and inappropriate response to an epileptic user asking about flashing ads and suggested that maybe they needed to pay for ad-free.

That's bad, I don't like it, and if it was supposed to be a joke it was a shitty one.

Zingring, tumblr's COO addressed that comment in a post where she said:

Buying ad-free (or gifting ad-free to someone else) is always an option, but that is not the solution (and of course, some folks simply can’t afford it). Sorry that it sounded dismissive in the session! That was not my intent.

I still think that's inappropriate (it's not that ad free isn't *the* solution, ad free shouldn't be *a* solution to accessibility), but it looks like Zingring has addressed this issue multiple times.

She got tagged in this post listing ways that tumblr could improve accessibility for photosensitive users and seems to have pretty consistently followed up; she has explained that there are rules against flashing ads that are sometimes violated by the advertisers and asks people to please report ads that break those rules so those advertisers can be blocked, has noted that there is apparently a "stop all autoplay" option in the works behind the scenes. She does also seem to take it seriously when users reach out with complaints about accessibility issues and seems to be willing to explore options.

Looking through that blog, this does not seem to be a site that is hostile to users with accessibility issues so much as, like everything else that's wrong around here, it is ridiculously understaffed so every project that someone wants to have as a priority is a project that someone else needs put on the backburner.

However, to very gently push back: how much of what you're experiencing as hostility from tumblr is actual hostility and how much of it is seeing posts like this, which suggests that tumblr is removing accessibility features because the lightbox didn't have double-tap-to-zoom on mobile for some users for a short while, claims that the blocking/flagging issue is a false flag against trans women, shared the inaccurate fearmongering post about tumblr live's ToS, and also claimed that tumblr "allowed" flashing ads that violated the in-place rules that tumblr has for advertising?

(this kind of goes with the 'nobody understands the ToS' but also nobody understands ads; tumblr does not have enough staff to look over the ads that go on their site every day, no social media company does, they rely on advertiser agreements as a sort of enhanced honor system and reports from users if the advertisers don't hold up their end of the bargain; the only way around this for any site that uses ads is to not have ads and that post is explicitly saying don't pay for tumblr because they are doing ads wrong - either they have to run ads and some bad ones are going to slip through and users will have to report them or tumblr will have to be 100% paid by the users or tumblr will go away. If you see ads that are unsafe for photosensitive users on *any* website you should report them to the site because the site almost certainly doesn't know that there's an advertiser violating the ad ToS unless someone tells them)

Generally speaking, I am actually *not* seeing worsening accessibility features, I'm seeing improvements compared to where we were five years ago - alt text on images is now built-in and devs are working hard on making tumblr more compatible with screen readers (as noted in the changes blog regularly); tumblr itself started offering different dashboard themes for users after years of complaints about contrast levels and readability; the "tiktok/twitterified" desktop dash view that everyone hates is supposed to be more readable on wider screens.

Compare this post in October of 2022 when Changes celebrated adding animations for posting (and told users those could only be disabled at an OS or browser level) with this post from July 2023 when they rolled back a feature because of an unexpected use case that could cause problems for photosensitive users.

These aren't things that I'd expect to see from a company that didn't care about accessibility, or that was openly hostile to questions around making the site more accessible.

I don't disagree with you that the comment from the stream about buying ad free was inappropriate; it absolutely was and it must have made photosensitive users feel like shit. But in the three months since that comment tumblr has been very responsive about getting flashing ads removed as soon as possible and seems to be working on more permanent fixes. I think this may be an instance of able-bodied people not realizing how shitty and dehumanizing their joke was (and it was) and taking the steps to do better.

If you don't think they're doing better, I probably can't convince you. I certainly don't think that tumblr is perfect about accessibility and I think that users need to continue pushing for improved user control of how the site displays and interacts with various devices. But compared to the kind of responses users complaints got from staff in 2018? I feel like things have improved a lot.

[rimeiii]

What in Hell is Bad as fighting game archetypes

Backstory time: I recently bought Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and I've been having a ton of fun with it. But, just my luck, the character I want to main (Yosuke Hanamura) isn't particularly beginner-friendly, so I swapped to a more beginner-friendly character (Yu Narukami) to get my bearings first while learning Yosuke's basic combos. Seeing as this already happened to me in several other anime fighters (BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend with Hazama -> Jin Kisaragi and Tsubaki Yayoi, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] with Seth -> Gordeau, Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising with Belial -> Gran), I ended up trying to figure out which fighting game archetype suits me the most, and that...led to more WHB brainrot, lmao.

No, seriously, the only games where I stuck with my main ever since first trying them out are Dissidia Duodecim (Zidane Tribal, though I've branched out to Squall Leonhart and Sephiroth) and Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Ness, branching out to Lucas, Luigi, and Lucario).

So! Just a quick disclaimer, a lot of fighting game characters have elements of several archetypes at play. For example, BlazBlue's Tsubaki Yayoi leans easily into the rushdown playstyle but her defining trait is her install gauge. But going through all possible combinations would take a LONG time, so...

And archetypes (with video examples) will be explained below the tier list!

As for the archetype explanations...I'll put it under the cut because it's long.

Shoto: A solid, all-rounder character who wants to be able to control the space directly in front of them to land their combos. Oftentimes the main protagonist of their respective games, though that's not always the case. They typically have three defining characteristics - a projectile (aka fireball), an uppercut (aka dragon punch/dp or shoryuken), and a forward kick (aka tatsu). Some notable shotos are Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter, Mario from Smash Bros (yes, really), and Jin Kisaragi from BlazBlue.

Shotos are often the 'old reliable' type of characters, as they're typically well-rounded in both offense and defense. While the traditional shoto is often barehanded, a lot of other shotos aren't (Jin, Yu Narukami from Persona 4 Arena, and Hyde Kido from Under Night In-Birth being some notable examples). You really just need those three types of attacks and an all-rounder kit to be a shoto.

Grappler: A character who excels at close range, their gameplay often revolves around throws and command throws to chain into their combos. They tend to be huge while having low mobility, plus they usually suck at anything other than close range, but boast crazy damage in close range. Some notable grapplers include Kanji Tatsumi from Persona 4 Arena (a lot of people laud Kanji as being one of the best-designed grapplers in fighting game history), Waldstein from Under Night In-Birth, and Iron Tager from BlazBlue.

There is a subset of grapplers known as semi-grapplers. They have more movement options compared to traditional grapplers, but to offset this, their power may not be as explosive as traditional grapplers - an example of this being Cerebella from Skullgirls. This tier assumes both grapplers and semi-grapplers - I would imagine Marbas being more of a traditional grappler while Beleth is a semi-grappler, for example.

Zoner: A character whose main tool is zoning - the act of keeping your opponent away from you. A zoner's combos often work at long ranges - as a matter of fact, they're usually incentivized to keep pushing their opponents away for their combo strings to continue. Their close-range options tend to be limited, with focus on pushback. Some notable zoners include Hilda from Under Night In-Birth, Ferry from Granblue Fantasy Versus, and Dhalsim from Street Fighter.

To be clear, zoning isn't a zoner-specific part of a character's moveset. But to be considered a zoner, their kit has to rely on zoning. Sometimes, they're called 'keep-away' characters - because they want to keep you away from them since they suffer in close range. And in the case of Leraye and Paimon, if you're asking whether a character with a long-range gun can become a fighting game character...Eustace from Granblue Fantasy Versus is a mid-range zoner who wields a long-range gun, Flamek.

Rushdown: An archetype that wants to get close to an opponent before hitting them until they die. Unlike grapplers, however, they have high mobility and many tools to move around the opponent. Any character can be played as rushdown if you're brave enough (usually with mindless button mashing), but some examples of dedicated rushdowns include Yosuke Hanamura from Persona 4 Arena, Mika from Under Night In-Birth, and Lancelot from Granblue Fantasy Versus.

Rushdowns excel in applying pressure on opponents. They have a lot of tools to catch their opponents off guard, and have ways to make them get their hit confirms easily - which is usually the start of a combo string. Once a combo gets going, they reward playstyles that are aggressive and offense-oriented. Their combo strings may seem more of a 'death of a thousand cuts' deal like Yosuke and Lancelot (and this is the rushdown type of the Abaddon demons imo), or they may have less tools for hit confirms but have attacks output a lot of damage like Mika (I'd think this is the Gusion rushdown type).

also insert yosuke appreciation here because i do genuinely feel like he's a super stylish rushdown (who has the same seiyuu as asmodeus - no i will not shut up about this). maybe it's my bias speaking (i've been yume-ing with yosuke for a decade now) but he looks good and feels good to play once you understand how his combo strings work. has some of the best voicelines too imo, especially in the en dub - his "now i'm pissed!" awakening quote is my favorite awakening quote in the entire game.

Footsies: Technically a term used for space control with the use of pokes (attacks that aims to 'use space' and make opponents think twice about approaching), it's now sometimes used to describe characters who have a strong ground game but suffers in the air. This is due to a lot of people associating footsies with ground game. Some notable characters whose kit has heavy emphasis on footsies include Gordeau from Under Night In-Birth (has some of the best footsie tools in the game) and Little Mac from Smash Bros (he has no aerial recovery, but excels on the ground).

Technically, footsies is a skill most fighting game players feel is part of the fundamentals. You're provoking the enemy and trying to bait them to do something that leaves them open for a counterattack. Likewise the enemy is trying to find an opening in your pokes to go for a counterattack. A lot of blocking is involved too. Generally you kinda have to play patiently when engaging in footsies. It's equal parts honorable and being annoying, if that makes sense, and which side you lean into more while playing footsies wholly depends on how you engage with it.

Stance: A character that can change their battle style with the press of a button. Sometimes their combos require you to seamlessly switch between the two stances (with some of their attacks potentially making them switch stances upon use), and their movesets can vary immensely between them. Some notable stance characters include Cecil Harvey from Dissidia, Narmaya from Granblue Fantasy Versus, as well as both Pokémon Trainer and Pyra/Mythra in Smash Bros.

Essentially, a stance change simply means a style swap. Different characters swap in different ways, from changing the character entirely like the Trainer switching Pokémon (and is how I envision Beelzebub doing his stance change - switching over to one of his clones) or the character just changing fighting styles or weapons (everyone else).

Install: Install characters have a gauge that they can fill, and they can expend this gauge to gain an immense power boost for a limited time - hopefully, enough to make a reversal. Dissidia has an install system built in to all characters with their character-specific EX Modes, and Yosuke's Sukukaja special in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax can also be considered an install, but for examples of dedicated install characters in fighting games, we have Tsubaki Yayoi from BlazBlue and Sol Badguy from Guilty Gear.

This one is a little bit hard to justify because I feel like, for Naberius's case in particular, he could be an install in the style of Dissidia's Gabranth but toned down - where his full potential (channels his inner Cerberus form) is unlocked in EX Mode, but he isn't the most helpless outside of EX Mode. Same with Gamigin with his dragon form. Everyone else would be a more standard install, though.

Puppet: As the name implies, puppet characters have a controllable puppet on the field. A puppet character's strength relies on proper usage of their puppet, and they're oftentimes severely crippled if their puppet is out of commission. Some notable puppet characters include the Clovers (Carl Clover and Relius Clover) from BlazBlue, Shadow Labrys from Persona 4 Arena, and the Rosalina and Luma duo from Smash Bros.

Minhyeok is a unique case where I think he'd call on lump form Ppyong as his puppet, in a style similar to Rosalina calling on Luma. Everyone else, their puppets could be the spirits surrounding them, or Jjyu in Belial's case. Buer and Bimet I feel would play close to Shadow Labrys, whose Persona, Asterios, is huge and permanent on the field...though maybe not as mobile as the Clovers' puppets.

Setplay: Originally a term used to describe getting a guaranteed combo off a hard knockdown, sometimes it's used for characters with traps - as traps oftentimes give a guaranteed opening for a combo string. Their traps force your opponent to think carefully about their movements, as stumbling into a trap means you're opening yourself up to a combo. Some characters like Seth (nobody knows what to classify him into as he doesn't play like any other character in the game) and Merkava (typically considered a rushdown/grappler hybrid) from Under Night In-Birth have some variations of traps (Seth's projectile orbs and Merkava's worms), but dedicated trapper characters include Cagliostro from Granblue Fantasy Versus, The Emperor from Dissidia, and Darkrai from Pokkén Tournament.

If not a puppet fighter, Vassago could also be a setplay character in my opinion. Zagan is a cut-and-dry case with his talismans based on his (very overpowered) L-rank Nightmare Pass card. And I know we see Leviathan mostly with powerful summons, but I'd like to reflect back to my Arknights Operator post and have him summon tentacles as part of his traps, potentially something like Merkava's worms. Otherwise, Leviathan could also be a puppet fighter.

unrelated note, i love seeing belial and avatar belial/avabeli getting bodied by other characters because they were so prominent in tournaments that i actively rooted AGAINST them during the days of base granblue fantasy versus tournaments despite belial being one of my favorite gbf characters and wanting to main belial one day. until i upgrade from the free version of rising, however, i shall remain a gran main - as the only character you can always play as in the free version is gran, everyone else is available on a rotation basis, and belial is a complex character to learn. plus, cagliostro is perfect for this matchup in-lore because she already bodied beelzebub in the main gacha, so belial/avabeli + lucilius feels like natural progression lol

Composite: Characters whose entire moveset pretty much borrows from other characters in the game. They're different from echo fighters, as echo fighters are fundamentally the same character with some moveset differences (think Mario and Luigi or Marth and Lucina from Smash Bros). Composite characters, by contrast, mix and match different moves from a variety of characters - as a result, they're often much harder to implement. Kirby from Smash Bros has some composite character features (he can copy the neutral special of another character with his own neutral special), but dedicated composite characters include Double from Skullgirls and Bartz from Dissidia.

It is precisely because their movesets borrow from others that they're hard to implement - it's hard to justify a character copying moves of other characters in-lore. Kirby's entire schtick in his main games is his copy abilities (which he gets from inhaling them - and that inhale is his neutral special), Bartz works because he's a mime, and Double is an Eldritch blob who serves a much higher being (one who essentially sows chaos) in the lore of Skullgirls. If the MC is a playable character, I'd put them here (because they were shown to be able to use the powers of the demon kings). As for the human forms of the lumps, I just think it'd be funny if they copied their region's demon king and demon lords. Lucifer could be a composite of the angels, but his position as their hyung would make his versions of their attacks stronger - perhaps with his lower mobility being a trade-off.

[unpretty]

I was recently diagnosed with EDS, that’s a hyper mobile knee right there. Do you have other signs, like elbows, wrists, fingers, hips, etc? Also how is your skin, can you stretch it farther than normal? (I recommend asking someone to do it on themselves for comparison)

i've always had weird fingers/toes that bend in ways other people find off-putting, and i can do the pinky bend and touch my thumb to my arm. i didn't think those tests applied to me though because i thought it meant that were supposed to be able to do that on their own :C i have only recently been corrected. i don't think my elbows are too bendy, but my shoulders and knees love to act up when i get more active. also now i'm suspicious of my hip pops >:C I've never checked my skin but maybe i should

[autism-autobot]

Flower of a Poisonous Seed Part 54:

Part 53:

TW: swears, drug mentions, suicidal ideation mentions,

Nezha woke up with pain in both of his legs. There was no way he'd be able to walk around today.

SWK: *grunts in pain* Nezhie?

Nezha: Wu darling?

SWK: Your legs sore too?

Nezha: Yes, my back as well.

SWK: I forgot how many muscles are used during horseback riding.

Nezha: I thought I just walked around too much yesterday.

SWK: That probably didn't help.

Nezha: Damn it, today's the meeting with Erlang and the military generals regarding domestic affairs.

SWK: So it's the meeting about the people who made our house go boom.

Nezha: Yes, and from recent reports, we are not the only ones. The hatred is spreading.

SWK: Shit. Wanna borrow my wheelchair today?

Nezha: What? I could not possibly-

SWK: You need to be at that meeting! We lost all other mobility devices in the fire and Red Son's not going to be done making us more for at least a week. I don't have anywhere to be today. You take it, I can stay here.

Nezha: *sorrowful and hesitant* But you hate being bedridden.

SWK: I can crawl if I need to. And it's only one day. I'll be fine, you go.

Nezha: *sighs* Alright, I'll take it. But since my father will be attending the meeting as well, so I would prefer to call someone to come take care of you and bring you what you need.

SWK: Okay. Red Son then?

Nezha: I'll call him now.

~~~

RS: Don't worry about a thing, Cousin. I will take good care of Wukong.

Nezha: Thank you so much.

Jing: If it's not too bothersome to you, keep an eye on Macaque, would you? He can handle himself, I just want someone to make sure he's not standing on his busted leg for three hours straight.

RS: Not a problem.

Nezha: Actually, I don't know if it's wise for us to leave both monkeys in the care of just one person.

Jing: I'm sure they'll be fine. They get along well enough, and how much trouble can the two monkeys cause?

RS, who grew up in a house of way more than two monkeys: :) I'm sure it'll be fine.

Nezha: ... Anyways... Shall we be going?

Jing: Yes, of course.

~~~

Not even half an hour in and Macaque collapsed in the living room.

Red Son tried to convince him to go to the hospital to which Macaque replied saying he didn't need to and that it was just a symptom of his reincarnation/soul disorder.

SWK: But Jing said you were taking medication for it! Why are those things still happening to you?

Mac: So... about me taking medication...

RS: You have been taking the medications haven't you?

Mac: Um... no?

SWK: Nephew, if you don't mind, I'd like to have a private conversation with Macaque.

RS: *knows that's code for 'lecture him back into the grave'* Okay, I'll leave you to it.

RS: *exits the room*

SWK: *turns to Macaque* *sits himself up* Six-Eared Macaque...

Mac: I can explain!

SWK: You better!

Mac: So... Jing's been trying and failing to sneak it into my food, but I've been getting rid of it because, well, I really don't think I need it!

Mac: Besides, people who need stuff like that are just a bunch of druggies, too.

SWK: So Nezha and I are druggies then?

Mac: What? No! No, I don't think of you guys like that, that's not you!

Mac: You clearly need your medicine, Wukong. We saw what happened to you when you didn't have it! I don't need medicine like you do.

SWK: I do need my medicine, but that's not what's bothering me.

SWK: You're bluffing. You know you need it so why aren't you taking it? Be honest.

Mac: Okay...

Mac: I'm worried about what the medicine will do to me y'know? I don't think there's some ✨️magical✨️ cure-all pill that will make my problems go away.

Mac: What if it only makes things worse? And what if the medicine makes me do... things? I've heard stories about what can happen with medications that mess with your brain.

SWK: Those are all possibilities, yes. Nezha, for example, had to try a few different medications before finding the one that suited his needs and biology. And, over time, he has needed to either up the dosage or start another medication entirely.

SWK: I was very lucky to find the right one on the first try, though I too had to up the dosage. I'm not saying you'll be as lucky.

SWK: And you're right about there not being a magical cure-all pill. All medicines have their potential side effects. Sometimes I get drowsy or start sweating randomly. Nezhie gets dizzy and achy.

SWK: But in both of our cases, the benefits outweigh the side effects. Nezha's not fainting every day or having problematic blood pressure levels. Still happens on occasion, but usually only in extreme circumstances.

SWK: He's supposed to be taking more than he has been these past few months, but there's been a shortage of his medications since the various 'end of the world' things have caused more people to die and get resurrected incorrectly. Oh yeah, and my medications...

SWK: I don't want to kill or hurt myself anymore!

SWK: I have therapy too, but my therapist agrees that their work alone isn't going to be enough to stop the depression.

SWK: *places a hand on Macaque's hand* The medications your doctor prescribed to you can help you. And if they don't, tell someone! You have Jing to help you. And he's been through this before with Nezha. You can talk to him. You can talk to your doctor or the reincarnation/soul disorder specialist.

SWK: Pay attention to your body and soul and try to give them what they need.

Mac: Okay, I'll give it a shot. But... I'm scared. *starts crying*

SWK: It's okay to be scared. You have people who can be brave for you if you can't find the strength by yourself. You're not alone. I'm here. Jing's here. We've got your back.

Mac: Okay... I'll talk to Jing about it.

SWK: *joking* I'll kick your ass if you don't!

Part 55:

Masterpost

@weaverpop @istopaskingmemate @ainnur @starrclown @cutvdo @swkbiggestdefender @fruit-fight

[httpiastri]

sleeping patterns – cn34

nights filled with endless crying and screaming take a toll on clement's confidence.

genre: fluff, slight comfort/angst ig

pairing: young dad!clem x young mom!reader

warnings: none

author’s note: aaaaaaaaaaa im so soft for clem and ive had such an insane baby fever recently. i miss him sm :(( he would be such a good dad, i just know it

f2/f3 masterlist

‎‎ ‎‎

the big, red numbers of your electric clock on the bedside table tell you it's only 3am, a frustrated huff passing through your lips when your eyes slowly open. it takes a while for you to realize what's waking you up – but then it makes so much sense.

the soft cries on the other side of the baby monitor sting like a knife in your heart, and you're fully awake in a matter of seconds. you're just about to push yourself up to a sitting position when the bed dips next to you. after turning around, you find your boyfriend already jumping out of bed. "i'll get her."

"are you sure?" you ask, voice creaky after several hours of not speaking.

clement nods, leaning down to press a kiss to your temple. "go back to sleep," he hums, and just like that, he has waddled through the door to your nursery.

the sad truth is that your little one hasn't been progressing with her sleep as much as she should. she had a period of almost sleeping through the nights about a month ago, but then you were hit with the four-month regression. she's almost five months old now, and still, you have issues with sudden wakeups in the middle of the night. as much as you adore every second you get to spend with her, you just wish you could get one full night of sleep sometime.

you know you won't be able to fall asleep until clement is back, you never can. but it's not because you're worried; in fact, there's not a single piece of concern on your mind over it. you know that he has mastered the cradling-cooing-bouncing sequence by now. and sure enough, your daughter's cries grow lighter and lighter, until the only sound that can be heard from the monitor is the ones of soft steps and hushed whispers.

but something feels off. even when the apartment is completely silent, clement doesn't come back to bed.

it's very strange. he fell asleep once in the rocking chair in the nursery, but complained about his back aching for a week afterwards and promised that he would never put himself through that again.

the moonlight peeking through the poorly shut blinds in the nursery casts a shadow across clement's profile when you step inside. despite how dark it is, you can see every little toy on the floor and every detail of the little race car-themed mobile that dangles above the crib clearly. you're way too used to being in here at night.

clement has put your daughter back down into her crib by now, and his hands are wrapped around the railing as he leans over it, looking down at her. he doesn't react when you come closer, and he doesn't move a muscle even when you place your hand on his shoulder. it's easy to understand that something is bothering him.

"what's on your mind?"

he turns to you and lets out a tiny exhale, as if it was a struggle for him to snap himself out of his thoughts. he shakes his head. "it's nothing."

"tell me," you press, giving his shoulder a soft squeeze.

"well, i…" he squeezes his eyes shut. "i'm kind of freaking out. it's been over four months, and… i still haven't adjusted."

"honey," you start, your hand moving to the back of his neck. "where is this coming from? so suddenly?"

"i don't know," he says with a sigh. "you've seen me lately, i've barely been able to fall asleep at all."

he opens his eyes again and gazes down into the crib, eyes softening once they land on the little bundle of love resting so peacefully. he follows the way her chest rises with her breaths, her slightly pouting lips, her tiny fists that are wrapped around her blankie.

"it feels like i'm the only one who's struggling. you're such a natural, you're doing so much better with her, while i just feel… hopeless."

you don't want to interrupt him – clement doesn't often speak about his deeper feelings, so now that he's finally going, you don't wish to stop his flow – but you have to say something. "i think you're doing really well."

"you actually think so?" he asks. though his gaze doesn't move an inch, he can still see you nodding in the corner of his eye. he takes a deep breath. "i've heard people say that new fathers go through things… that it takes time, that it takes patience- and i've tried to be patient, i really have. but…"

he finally looks at you, and his heart breaks slightly at the sight of your uneasy expression, the tension in your eyebrows and your worried eyes. he hates being the one to make you feel like this.

"i just can't get rid of this constant anxiety. it feels like i'm always stressing over something. over you, over her, over everything."

you relate to every word he says. being this young, you feel like you're stumbling through darkness most of the time, not knowing what to do. it's frankly a guessing game, with mostly correct guesses mixed with some bad ones, since neither of you have any prior parenting experiences. even though he may not see it or know it, you're going through the same things as him.

no one had expected for you to get pregnant at this age, and no one – not even the two of you – had expected for you and clement to actually keep the baby. and sometimes, way more often than you'd thought before, your youth and inexperience has been catching up with you.

it's hard, but at least you have each other.

you step closer, draping your arms around his shoulders in an instant. "it's alright," you whisper into the skin of his neck, your nose filling with that scent that's just so him, and you finally relax a bit. his hands find your waist, fingers caressing your sides through the flimsy material of your nightgown. "it's okay to feel like this. i do, too. i think… all new parents must feel it." you give his neck a soft kiss. "but they all get through it, don't they? and so will we."

he stays silent for a while before he nods slowly. "it's all just so… intimidating. i don't want to mess anything up."

"and you won't." you pull away slightly to look into his eyes. "i trust you fully, and-"

you're interrupted mid-sentence, the sound of your daughter stirring in her crib taking clement's attention away from you as he glances towards her. you see his adam's apple bob as she begins to whine, her fists clenching and face scrunching up. "should- can i take her?" he asks tentatively, hands trembling slightly on your sides.

you nod not even a second later, stepping out of his embrace to give him no excuse to hold back. "go for it."

clement had bought every parenting guidebook he could find, and read every website with tips for new parents on the entire internet – and yet, nothing had prepared him for this nervousness that he's experiencing so often. he knew it wouldn't be smooth sailing all the way, but he hadn't expected to feel this uncertain in everything he does. even in the way that he picks his daughter out of her crib, he feels anxious that he's doing something wrong.

however, the second she feels her father's presence, it's far from the story that his anxiety has been making up for him. she lets out one last soft cry before, as if out of habit, nuzzling her face into his skin.

while clement has been struggling this whole time, you can't help but notice that she settles easily into his arms. like she belongs there; like she knows that he'll take care of her.

because he always does.

"see?" you say, letting a finger run along the curve of her cheek as you smile down at her. "that's not so bad, is it? you're doing so well."

considering all the difficulties he's faced, hearing these kind words of appreciation from you gives him comfort in a way that few other feelings can compare to. his gaze is still glued to your daughter, the precious little baby that is his entire world. well, half of his world – the other half is standing right next to him. "i love her, you know," he says softly. "even if she doesn't know it yet, i do. so much."

"i think she knows," you answer, watching as your boyfriend cradles her against his bare chest. he has loved the skin-on-skin contact since day one, and you're sure she does, too; her gentle babbling is always a sure sign that she's completely content. you can't hold back from smiling. "and she loves you just as much."

"sometimes i just can't believe that she's ours. that we made her." his eyes meet yours, nothing but pure love in them. "isn't it strange?"

"strange that we've done something good for once?"

he answers your tease by sticking out his tongue, nudging your shoulder with his, though gently enough to not bother the little one in his arms.

"come on, let's go back to bed," you say, leaning in to press your lips gently to the back of her head. "one night of co-sleeping can't be the entire world, can it?"

[hkthatgffan]

I just found out about another Gravity Falls zine that recently finished! From what I can tell, it was from the Russian community and only through the website VK? vk.com/zinebefa It's the same zine that these three illustrations were for: twitter qoolk_is_cool/status/1938259354962043067 twitter SharleneHopes/status/1938358345993224419 twitter eezjik/status/1938120316825571824 I don't know if there's a digital version. On the bright side, I live in the US and was able to download VK's mobile app through google's playstore and make an account with my US phone number just fine. I logged into the website on my desktop pc afterwards by scanning a qr code on the page with my phone. I'm not sure what your thoughts are on trying to archive non-EN zines as well, and I have no idea what other ones might be out there for Gravity Falls, but I figure that since I recognize some additional known EN fandom artists among their contributors (like SamFannar and cherryviolets), it might be reachable for you!

Oh wow, thank you so much for letting me know about this. Looked into that zine on the VK page and it's pretty cool looking. Seems the page was originally for a Good Omens fanzine and then became a GF zine project.

The art for it is amazing. The Russian Gravity Falls fandom is full of so many amazingly talented people and is still so underrated in the English fandom. I've always wanted to dive deeper into that part of the community one day. There always seems like there's something cool going on with GF fans in Russia. In a lot of ways, they seem to care about Gravity Falls more than Disney ever has (then again, we all probably care about GF more than the mouse).

I have looked into some non English fanzines to archive, such as a few Japanese zines that I was told about, but those ended up being more so comic compilation books by individual artists instead of a zine project and others had some...not really PG content in them if you get what I mean. I'm only really after SFW fanzines to archive for obvious reasons. This one of course looks to be a zine that is totally safe and worth archiving.

My rules for zine archival basically are that the zine needs to be fully completed and has no prospects of ever being sold again. Given many of these zines are charity projects, I obviously don't wanna freely make available something that is still being used to make money for a good cause. Hence why, although I bought a copy of it years back, I'm not gonna be releasing a download of the old Wayfaring Strangers zine, as the team behind it still makes it available to buy every now and then. Other zines like Epilogue or Summer Memories of course are fair game as they're long over projects that never again will be sold. So for zines like that, archiving is beyond important.

As for this zine, given there are some names attached to it that I know like Cherryviolets, I might ask Cherry about it and see if there's a digital copy of the zine that can be shared, if the project is completed that is. Of course, if there's anyone who did buy that fanzine and has a copy to share, please either get in touch or publish it somewhere anyone can access it like the Internet Archive. If I find it and get permission to do so, I will of course publish it to my IA page without question.

I strongly believe all Gravity Falls fans should have free access to these fanzines once they are finished, as a means to preserve and archive them. What's the point of gatekeeping these things long after they are finished and never to be sold again? I want new fans to enjoy these as much as old fans who bought them did. And that's why I do the archiving work that I've been doing.

The internet isn't as permanent as people tell you. Media goes lost every single day. And if no one is archiving this stuff or trying to find the people who have them, then it's lost forever. Being a data hoarder in this day and age is not only good but should be more encouraged. There is always a chance that one day, something you saved off the internet years ago and is sitting in a forgotten drive, is something someone else has spent years trying to track down. Lost Media cases often come down to the right person saving the right thing and being able to find out and share what they got.

Hopefully this zine is out there too. Cause I would hate to see this become lost media.

[paper-mario-wiki]

What does your Googoo aresenal look like?

This is my default Googoo loadout. I use it by far the most. Some of the lower stats like the "Burning players killed" on the Yaoi paddle, and the "projectile reflected" on the Part-Time Rocket Launcher are newly added strange parts, so they don't reflect on the actual lifetime stats.

Additionally, I try to only have one strange cosmetic per set, since having more than one is overkill. "Ain't She Sweet?" is something I traded for a few months after I came out, so that reflects lifetime kills with this set as Scout and not Chase.

Chase's longest-running strange cosmetic was this pink painted Apparition's Aspect.

The other set I've been using a lot lately is this one:

The Stinker is my favorite weapon I've been playing with recently. I think I've actually used it for fewer than 15 hours total, so the stats aren't massively impressive yet.

I also reuse Aint She Sweet? for this set, and for the melee I've just got a normal Powerjack (I don't use that thing very often).

Depending on the map I switch between shotgun or detonator for long-range poking and better mobility.

Another set I recently acquired was one that I set up after unboxing a gold-centric unusual and deciding to make it its own whole thing.

Premium Toaster was a gift from Van from when we were still dating (never gettin rid of that one).

Cruelty Squad is a strange field-tested Jazzy warpaint, which if you know anything about the TF2 economy might be more impressive to you than anything else. I was able to pick one up right after the paint came out so I didn't get charged a bajillion dollars for it.

The newest item, and the only one that I traded specifically for this set (aside from the filamental which is a normal unique cosmetic and therefore worth less than 5 cents) is the Axtinguisher. It came pre-named when I traded for it, and I haven't been able to think of a more interesting name for it. Frankly, I think the American Psycho name is cute, but I don't know that it really fits me perfectly. When I think of somethin' better I'll change it.

Those are my most Googoo Signature loadouts summarized, but here's all of my pyro loadouts:

A few extras:

[lilly-onthevalley]

Update

I recently got into a car accident and was the only one injured. It wasn't too bad but my left side was damaged a bit. I was coming from work at the back seat and falling asleep when the collusion happened, and was thrown because of that.

Whatever, life happens. Shock was such an interesting experience. All in all, it made me realise to live life more freely and focus on what makes me truly happy to the most extreme extent that I can.

Ever since then I've been taking a lot more time for myself. It really purged any ideals I had that didn't serve me. I never expected to be a patriot but I'm de-Westernising myself. I've taken time to brand and make a perfect version of myself which aligns more to who Lilly is.

I've filled my journal and it's only May (my journal is very hefty). With filling it I've recognised so many patterns within myself and where I need to improve. With my job, I get to see what different looks get me the reactions and type of attention I want. I've restocked my makeup and settled down of the perfect sweet girly formula I like. I'm also learning Russian and that's quite something, class is very rigorous.

I have my thinned eyebrows highlighted with concealer and foundation. Subtle pink shimmer and a dash of inner corner highlight. Less foundation and more bronzer and contour. Liquid blush for days. Sweet manga-esque lashes. A glossy pink lip.

It took time for me to grow and realise what and who I am. The car definitely knocked some sense into me, and I'm embracing my full self and figuring out how to work with what I have. I'm 5'1, very small and getting older, I must navigate how to style this better. I'm really growing out of the short combos I'm known for.

I'm investing in more quality bottoms with flexibility because my hip was kind of fucked by the accident so I need to be a bit kinder to it.

I'm grateful for all the support I have. So very grateful. Because of that I feel a lot more safe. I'm evermore grateful for my OCD diagnosis. I know I talk about it so much but my life is so much better. I'm able to be more secure and a lot less paranoid about everything which has allowed me to embrace higher quality friendships and relationships while not stewing on the calamities of life.

On de-westernising, I met a lovely Chinese girl who is now my favourite jeweller. She gets pearls from all over Asia and makes them into stunning unique jewellery with an African twist utilising crystal and colour. I wear her stuff now. You all know I am a fein for pearls, and finding her was the best thing ever. She came into my store, and I had to ask her about where she got hers, only for her to tell me she makes them and sources them herself and is an aspiring jeweller. I'm so blessed.

Speaking of feining. I've completely given up nicotine and feel so free and amazing. The first week was hell on earth. It felt as if Dante himself had come to give me an experience of what purgatory felt like, but that's all over and I feel healthier than ever.

I work out twice a day, I cook my own food, I keep up with my fasting schedule, I'm reducing my sugar intake and trying my best to be mobile while being in pain. I truly hope that part ends soon.

🤍

[stoukadraws]

I've been having an issue with Tumblr for a few days now, for some reason I can't view images and they're stuck as the gradient type image if you know what I mean.

I thought it would only last up to a day or two but it didn't and I'm getting worried. This is happening in both the website and mobile app, I even went to other devices not connected to my account but it's also facing the same problem.

I've tried refreshing, logging out, but nothing seems to be working. I tried to look up solutions, but it also looks like other users are also facing the same problem. I don't see many people talking about it so I'm bringing it up right now.

This is a problem only in Tumblr, everywhere else is pretty much fine. I haven't contacted staff for help yet but I'm not sure if it would do much, but if it does help then I'll write to them about it.

I planned on posting more recently and already have a post ready, but if this issue still isn't fixed then unfortunately I won't be able to post art for a while until it's fixed.

If anyone has any idea on how to fix this please let me know.

[nessataleweaver]

FIC: 12 days of HellCheer: Day One

So busy trying to get my new fanfic project up on AO3, I forgot to put it up on tumblr!

Welcome to my Christmas project; I'm finally pulling the trigger and writing some HellCheer.

Much like my last Christmas project, this will be written by the seat of my pants and very probably run late.  Here's hoping I can finish it by the time ST5 premieres; the last project took  a year to finish, and it was only five parts!

Technical note:  'the Twelve days of Christmas' is actually meant to begin on December 25; the last day of Christmas is January 6, which is why you used to occasionally hear about 'Twelfth Night' parties to finish off the holiday season.  January 6 is also known as 'Ephiphany', and is supposed to be when the Three Magi arrived with the first Christmas presents for baby Jesus. Given that none of the presents were able to be used by the baby in question for twenty-odd years (and in the case of the myrhh, until he died) I personally think they maybe should have gone with baby LEGO.  Or a nice mobile made out of stars and heavenly clouds.  But that's just me. 

Warning; these will all be AU's, mostly inspired by anything I've recently finished watching or reading.  If anyone has any suggestions/requests, leave them in the comments!

You can read it on AO3 here

DAY ONE: ...And a bird-headed guy in a VRMMO

INSPIRATION: the anime Shangri-La Frontier. You can watch it on crunchyroll.  Don't skip through the intro because all their opening songs are absolute bangers.  If you have seen it, you'll know who I'm basing Chrissy on in particular.

It is the present day.

All currently available video games are now played on Virtual Reality Headsets, giving players an unparalleled sensory experience.  By far the most popular game in the world is 'Shangri-La Frontier', known far and wide as a 'god-tier game', with 30 million players world-wide.Eddie Munson, a devoted player of 'trash-pile' games, has now begun playing SLF. What adventures await him there?

The town square of Fourfolkshire was bustling as always, as it was also the main thoroughfare for the market district. 

In one corner, however, there was a peculiar hush. 

A distinct gap in the crowd spread around a tall metallic figure, a literal knight in shining armour, the sunlight glinting off the impeccably polished magi-steel.

<i>"That's Psyger-0!"

"The Attack Master? Isn't he part of the MindScape Clan?  The first ones to take down the Level Twenty Boss?"

"Yeah. Wonder what he's doing here?"</i>

Inside the armour, a five foot three teenage girl cast her gaze around nervously, hidden by her impressive helmet.  Her Clan Headquarters was in Eighthold; normally Chrissy, aka Psyger-0, wouldn't be caught dead in such a low game level.  But her Clan was about to start a major campaign in the Castle of Lost Souls on level Twelve, and Fourfolkshire had items to turn undead considerably cheaper than anywhere else in SLF.  She'd lost the dice roll to make the trek down to pick up the order.

It was just her luck to have to come down today; Jason had mentioned at lunch that he, Andy and Chance were going grinding.

Chrissy wasn't sure she'd ever forgive her stupid little brother for mentioning to Jason that she played SLF after her boyfriend received a VR headset for a birthday present. Jason had immediately demanded she join a party with him, so 'he could protect her' (i.e. making sure he was completely informed about every single aspect of her life). Matty had lessened his chances of being maimed beyond repair by immediately pointing out that Chrissy wouldn't be able to level-up or do anything fun in the game that way, which was the entire point.  Chrissy had carefully hidden her pleasure in informing Jason she'd been part of a Clan for over a year, and they didn't take applicants.  When Jason had wanted her to force them to make an exception for him, she'd gotten a genuine thrill out of telling him the Clan Leader, who she had no influence with, didn't even open the door for players under level 20, and a very low threshold for newbies harassing her. She'd reported ten such players to the moderators this year alone.

All of which was true, except for the lack of influence part. As a current top-500 player and the War Leader of MindScape, she had a great deal of influence in the Clan.

SLF, and specifically Psyger-0, was her release and escape from the pressure cooker of her real life. No one cast judgement on her weight, her appearance, or whether she was doing something her mother or boyfriend considered appropriate. She said what she wanted, did what she wanted, and no one ever made crude sexual comments about her.  If that ever happened, she didn't have to wait for her boyfriend to censure them (even though he never did, just laughed and grabbed her possessively to better show off his prize) she could just draw her broadsword and cut them in half.

In her head, Chrissy knew the chances of running into Jason here were almost literally one in a million.  Right from the start, Chrissy had invoked every privacy setting offered on the VR headset and in SLF to protect her identity, including an anonymous email address. The day after Matty spilled the beans, she'd blocked contact from anyone who wasn't already on her friends list. And Andy had been complaining at lunch that he, Jason and Chance (because God forbid Jason do something without an in-built audience to praise him) were still stuck in Diremarsh Waste on level two.  Even if Jason walked right past her, he was too hidebound to connect his tiny, pretty, cheerleader trophy-girlfriend to a six and a half foot tall walking suit of armour, famed for their aggressive style of play that laid waste to every opponent in their path and had once solo-killed every floor boss in the first ten levels in a single day on a bet.

But her instinct, her fears of losing the only place she wasn't constantly under scrutiny and being questioned and judged, was another story.

Then a head of sky-blue feathers crossed her eyeline, and her nerves calmed even as her heart-rate increased.

The player raising their hand in a friendly wave was clearly a male build; the fact he wore nothing but a bird-head luchador mask, loose shorts in a matching blue, and a set of intimidating scars over his torso and legs made that clear.  He was muscled like a gymnast, due to his hit and run style of play, and Chrissy had wondered more than once just how much Sunraku's character build matched his real life body.

Because Chrissy was one of the very few people in SLF who knew who the man under the bird mask was.

Eddie Munson.  Founder of Hawkins High's VR gaming club, and still the President.

When Chrissy had bought her first VR headset from Family DVD and Games, the clerks Robin and Steve had been having a lively debate about Eddie, and just how many games he'd played, mastered, and returned for re-sale.  Apparently Eddie found most elite games boring, and specialised in 'trash-piles', games that were issued with bugs or badly-thought out plotting or world building that only an experienced gamer could master or even complete.  During that conversation (Chrissy had waited a good five minutes for them to notice her standing there) Robin had mentioned that Eddie always used the same character name, and what it was.

Chrissy had tried out a half-dozen games before SLF.  In every one she'd immediately searched for 'Sunraku'.

From her very first day of high school, Chrissy had been utterly fascinated by Eddie Munson.  Not because he was very good-looking once you looked past the chronically uncombed hair, gaming / heavy metal themed Tshirts and mocking expression - even though he was.  But because Eddie Munson was thoroughly, unapologetically himself.  He went his own way, said what he thought and gave absolutely no fucks what anyone outside his small circle of friends thought about him. He didn't let toxic masculinity ideals stop him from being unfailingly kind to his friends and 'sheepies', or anyone else who needed some help. He treated everyone on their own merits, and how they treated him. He didn't care about reputation or community status. Anyone who tried to judge him was flipped off with a wide grin.

Chrissy craved Eddie Munson's sense of self and way of life like a flower craved the sun and rain, though the closest she could get was to bask in his presence.  But Gossip Girl (original or reboot) had nothing on a small town's grapevine; the only place safe for Chrissy to spend time with Eddie was online.  Thus her hunting Sunraku through a daisy-chain of games.

She'd spent a year in SLF, growing her character and building her rep, before Eddie finally showed up. She'd agonized over how to introduce herself in-game, then found out he was being hunted. He'd somehow stumbled into an incredibly rare quest, and a player too inexperienced to know better had put up a screen-shot of him in the forums. Chrissy had figured out his route, and showed up just in time to prevent him getting player-killed.

Sunraku and Psyger-0 had been on each other's friends list ever since.

"Hey, Zero-Rei!  What brings you down to the single-digits?" Sunraku asked.

"Picking up equipment for a raid.  What about you?"

"Something similar," Sunraku looked around in a way that was probably meant to be casual, but screamed 'I'm up to something.'  Somehow, the full-head mask wore the exact same expression as Eddie did in the real world when he was trying to talk Ms O'Donnell into letting him do a paper on comparing the Iron Maiden and Coleridge versions of 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'.

"Uh huh," Chrissy let scepticism enter her voice.  She could actually express a dissenting opinion without getting criticised in SLF.

Sunraku's eyes widened, as he gave an exaggerated shrug, his arms bent to show his empty palms at shoulder level. "Whaaatt?"

Chrissy just tilted her head at him.  She'd become very good at emoting without words in SLF.

Sunraku sighed. "I'm powerless against your fiendish interrogation techniques.  Yeah, a couple of friends I've played with in other games are on SLF, and we're teaming up for a mission.  Small team only, so I can't give you details until after the fact."

"When are you making your move?"

"Sorry," Sunraku mimed zipping his beak. "Timing's a big part of it, so no can do.  I should be done by next weekend, so if I don't have to re-grind levels we can do a side quest together? Maybe something in the Garden of Singing Flowers?" 

"I could use some crystallized pollen." Chrissy conceded. "DM me once you're done?  This mission must be something news-worthy if you're this secretive.  I'll keep quiet on any info worth trading."

Sunraku gave a cheerful wave as he scurried off.

Chrissy sighed.  How could five minutes with Eddie online put her in a better mood than an hour with anyone else in her offline life?

< NOW OFFLINE >

canon images from Shangri-La Frontier:

Psyger-0

Sunraku

[mewos-laptop]

okay finally got around to like actially typing out my mini ramble cause i started fronting again recently and it’s been in mind as it usually is when fronting. is related to physical health stuffs recently mentioned again tho so like if that is uncomfy you can delete or anything. i just kinda wanted to ramble here because it just kinda feels right i think

a big thing i think would help us would definitely be an aid of sorts though. we would probably try meds first i think? there are definitely meds for pots (which i’m pretty sure we have so i’m focused on it being that as of right now as that what we research mostly after narrowing it down) i’ve heard they don’t always work (ie: only clear up or mask like a couple symptoms) and are very person to person varied as well. i do think maybe a mobility aid would be helpful but we also get physically tired easy so a cane might be too much work and don’t have great motor skills always and poor special awareness so i don’t know if like a rollalator would be good or not. plus these things would only really be support so we don’t fall rather than actually like help or do anything

this kinda sparked me to end up somehow looking into service dogs which i think would benefit us a lot and wouldn’t be as hard from motor standpoints (you can have around the waist or torso leases instead of handheld). there’s like 7 tasks they can do that i think would definitely help us and 3 more than i am unsure on but are maybes. the tasks are med/heart rate alerts (not always able to get this one tho as some dogs just can’t do it and it’s not exactly trainable), item retrieval, item pickup, deep pressure therapy (dpt), position change assistance, elevate legs

however tho, we’re really nervous about it and to talk about it because we often feel like we’re not bad enough to deserve it because we don’t faint, just pre syncope. plus they’re expensive and hard to get and you need like doctor approval/reccomendation and at the rate we’re going i don’t know how that would happen because we’re not even considered a concern right now because we get too nervous to talk about our issues with parents and doctors out of fear of being annoying so it’s instead assumed we’re like. dehydrated or something. i dunno where i’m going with this ramble anymore tk be honest, i think i just needed to say stuff though sorry if this is/was annoying

also sorry this is long

-mars (doesn’t need to be answered priv unless you would like to^)

So sorry for the late reply, I've literally got no excuse besides the hyperfixation getting to me /gen, apologetic

We can 100% understand fearing doctors won't believe you or take you seriously with a medical issue

We're honestly not able to give you a lot of advice ourselves, because we're not terribly well-versed in coping and accommodations for POTS, but we really encourage you to seek other meds or a service dog or both if you think it'd help you. Your symptoms seem obvious enough to us that we doubt doctors would be able to brush it off if they did specific testing for it

We really, really wish we had more we were able to say, and we genuinely feel rlly bad for making you wait this long just for... us to give you some pretty bland supportive words, but if any of our moots have suggestions or input on this, feel free to add on as long as Mars and the others are fine with it

Again, we're so sorry for not having anything better to say about it, we're just... really not well versed in this area, and we wish we could give you more help in this /srs

[l00ney-m00ny]

Yo guys, so I have problems with both left and right sides of my knee and hip. Last year, when I got my cane, it was only on one side, and I was able to manage it very well with the cane, but recently, it just hasn't been handling it. I can even go for a 1k walk without being in so much pain that walking becomes hard. At most, I can probably handle 2.5k before I desperately need to stop.

Now, that may seem like a lot, but whenever I hang out with friends we walk everywhere and then I also work with young kids, so me being able to get up and move and stuff is pretty important.

I have EDS, and I'm just wondering if anyone has any recommendations for any mobility aids or support gear that could possibly help? I've been thinking of forearm crutches for a while as I've heard they are useful for knees and hips, but I thought I'd ask others online to see what helps them, too.

[deathdetermineslife]

Question, what is the "anon glitch" you used to find the user of a previous hate anon you got, if you're comfortable revealing? I've been getting a few hate anons recently on my other blog and I have a suspicion on who it is but I'm not sure.

I'm really sorry people are harassing you anon :( uh unfortunately it's really random. I couldn't get it to do it again when I sent myself asks just but here's the screenshot I have from when the anon glitch worked for me

(for anyone wondering their account is gone now and I havent heard anything from this person since, unless they've sent me hate after that I couldn't clock was them. so I'm fine posting their account name since as it stands this account is gone, or at least, I havent been able to find it again)

so it usually works best when someone has REPEATEDLY sent you asks. it's something I see a lot over on selfshipgushing too (but I can't show screenshots of that). I think it's some internal issue where Tumblr won't always block out the name of anonymous askers? I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I know at least from my experience running selfshipgushing (also this persons account uh. tracked. to say the least. in comparison to everything they posted), when anon glitches happen on there, the f/os they're talking about match to the f/o list on the users page.

another glitch I've seen is non anonymous asks will say "block anonymous" on them. something else to mention is I've never been able to do this on PC, iirc, only on mobile. so unless this is just a mobile exclusive glitch...? I'm unsure. I know other people have had this happen (just from being in servers and seeing other people experience this).

I wish I could help you more <\3 unfortunately like I said it's just. random.