#SKIM OR SKIP

[scaryscarecrows]

Full reply, actually: living in your comfort zone, no matter what it is, is not a hot idea.

I know. Bullshit! Unfair! But it's not.

Story time: when my dad first got his cancer diagnosis, my mother...did not cope. She refused to watch anything but Scooby-Doo and wouldn't play anything except the easiest games we own, which she had played already. She could probably speedrun them. That was all she did. No crafts, no reading, no nothing. Scooby-Doo and Mario and that was fucking it. Not judging, but it wasn't healthy. And it didn't help. Her anxiety got so bad that one day, I went out to recover the car after a storm and our neighbor (convicted sex offender, for context, broke into someone's house and assaulted her, has creeped on us before) was out doing yardwork.

My mother saw him and proceeded to scream and cry (not hyperbole; my dad got home and she was in literal red-faced hysterics) for me not to...take three minutes to cover the car, because the neighbor was outside and it wasn't safe and ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh--

It was ridiculous. Cards on the table, it was utterly absurd. I'm not saying her refusal to engage with new media made her that way, but I think her refusal to get out of her comfort zone did her no favors. My father agreed. We steamrolled her and got her a copy of Breath of the Wild, which she had refused initially because 'it looks too hard'. We staged an intervention via Link. We had no other choice. It may not have been the nicest thing, but we basically held her Nintendo hostage. We made a deal: you play this for one weekend, and if you really can't do it, you can go back to your, for lack of a better descriptor, baby games.

She hated it for the first two days. Complained it was too hard. Complained she didn't know where to go or what to do and why are the puzzles so hard and yadda-yadda.

Come Monday, when she can go ahead and go back to Mario, guess what she puts in.

Not Mario. She toughed it out enough to get to Impa and get shit rolling, and honestly, her anxiety is still bad to this day (fair: we were all going through dark times and I am in no way judging her for struggling), but she largely kept it together after that. No more hysterics about me covering a car.

i promise its not ableist when people say you should try things that arent kids shows and fanfiction

[annabelle--cane]

heya comrades, before you share and comment on that booktoker screenshot going around about skipping long paragraphs in novels I would like to remind you that having trouble reading long blocks of text is a very common symptom of dyslexia, and even if the people in the screenshots aren't dyslexic you should still keep people with reading disabilities in mind before you say anything moralizing about "illiteracy"

[contrarianwitt]

okay i saw a post talking about ronan in the dreamer triology only really viewing “his people” as his brothers and adam, and not gansey anymore which like deeply hurts don’t get me wrong i wanna cry but i think it’s so interesting for their characters:

the biggest reason i think is because the dreamer trilogy can technically be read as a stand alone and gansey isn’t in it a lot, it wouldn’t make sense to mention him tons (this does annoy me a bit when this happens, not that i want like a fan-servicey mention every three seconds but it’s frustrating when you have four books of friendship and then it’s just abandoned, like even if it’s a standalone, it’s also a spinoff yk?)

but more interestingly, i think it goes to show the level of trust ronan has in gansey living.

the only way ronan survived after niall’s death was focusing on gansey as a guide and being his protector. he fervently dreams cures for stings for a guy destined to die, and attaches all of his worth and purpose onto gansey.

but now, gansey lived and will live, and doesn’t need ronan anymore to save him. it’s so bittersweet because they still are brothers and love each other but it will never be the same anymore

ronan views adam and his brothers as his sole responsibility and himself as their protector, while he knows that gansey will live and keep living, and that blue will be there to love and protect him. of course he holds a little resentment towards them for leaving, but i think he knows that gansey needs to move on, which is why he almost disregards gansey and doesn’t trouble him with any of his problems.

i don’t think it’s a case of ronan forgetting gansey or loving him any less. it’s just that they are not eachothers responsibility anymore. (but i still imagine the guilt gansey would feel after learning what’s happened to ronan…)

[makiswirl]

thoughts on how jotaro shakes in the panel where he discovers his mom passed out in avdol's arms?

UNIRONICALLY I THINK ABOUT THIS SO MUCH ACTUALLY!!!!! THANK YOU TO WHOEVER ASKED ME ABOUT THIS VERY NICHE JOTARO DETAIL.

this actually isn't the only time he does this in sdc either! shaking is a thing that jotaro consistently seems to do when he's stressed, albeit usually very repressed. at the very least with the way it's presented you can assume it's him tensing up badly

he also trembles VERY frequently during the dio fight and i don't think either of the animated adaptations show it nearly as much. it still comes up though once or twice

either way, to answer the original question: i think it's a really neat trait that adds a lot to jotaro's character which really cements that he really is just a teenager who never even wanted to go to egypt and only ever went for his mother in the first place. like i genuinely cannot imagine how terrified he is at all times especially with how often his (presumably, only real) friends get injured. repressing all of that stress and only letting it show on rare occasions has to mess him up badly in the trauma department later

[aliferous-ly]

ace ace baby

[bumblingbabooshka]

The worst trope in the universe is when someone accuses character A, who is part of a real or fantasy or coded minority, of doing something bad and everyone's like "That's just your prejudice against [real or fantasy minority]!" and it turns out character A actually did do that bad thing and everyone else was stupid for not believing they did that bad thing.

[communistkenobi]

I don’t like when people ask how many books you plan to read/have read this year one because I think that’s a weird relationship to have to books and two because I think even reading a chapter or a portion of something is valuable. this is especially true with non-fiction but even with fiction I think any amount you read, even if you don’t read the entire thing, is not a failure or ‘incomplete’

[djevelbl]

I sat for a second staring into my phone and pondering the blorbos bc of a shitpost and huh. Branzy really IS very much 2econd 2ight 2eer (that was fun, goodbye.) by Will Wood coded isn't he??? like, most if not ALL of the song is SO him that it's INSANE. this only happened once before to me and the previous guy can't be my blorbo anymore bc of.... reasons, so I'm happy to have another silly little guy replace him in being SO coded after one of my favorite Deranged Songs /vpos

Ramble up ahead btw, read at your own risk

you KNOW the ramble is getting serious when I do the weird Tumblr Post Partition Thing AND went from writing it on the phone to WRITING IT ON THE PC (any lengthy post I write EXCLUSIVELY on the pc bc it's more fun and comfy for me lol)

The only line I can't in good faith say I relate 100% back to Branzy is LITERALY the second one, which is a bummer lmao — "Screaming at the top of my lungs in the confession booth" but like. I'm throwing it out there for any other, more veteran Branzy fans to go rabid over as I have and maybe even also discover how it could be Branzy-ified bc I truly believe the WHOLE SONG can be Branzy-ified lol

SO ANYWAYS. MORE SONG LYRICS !!!!!

I specifically came to this whole thing bc of the fourth line in the song, "The devil made me do it, but I also kinda wanted to" bc YES??? THAT'S SOOO BRANZY CODED?????? like the amount of fucked up shit /aff he's done in his videos is INSANE I mean he DID make a video where the WHOLE. PREMISE was breaking 100 irl laws in the Afterhours SMP lmaooo also I'm kinda tempted to break out the fuckin LYRIC MEANINGS for this as well — hmmmm...

fuck it, we live only once and life is too fucking short/shitty to have hangups over going insane about our little guys

So yea, fourth line is all about temptation, choices and a careless sentiment as one takes full responsibility for their actions — the Devil might've offered you riches, love, security in exchage for someone's head, but ultimately you're the one who takes that step forwards to answer the siren's call; Will Wood sings here about temptation and how, at the end of the day, you're the one acting upon that temptation, how that's a thing only you can be responsible for, and how he himself doesn't care much for the guilt the word "sin" carries with it; "we'll live the way we want, and we don't care if it's considered 'sin.'" — MarsAndTheGreatExpanse on the lyric explanation in Genius (yes, Imma be quoting some of these people. yes, I'm taking it THAT seriously). All of this is very much like Branzy to do: the most recent example I think would be the Candyland mod video, where he has SUCH BEEF with gingerbread men that it's just pathetic /aff at this point lmao — he goes around killing them and hating on them SO. HARD it's really funny. Of course, there's a difference between Will Wood singing this and Branzy fucking, idk, wanting Jimmy the Gingerbread Guy's guts spilled all over the Candyland floor in an overexaggerated candygore that would belong to none other than uhhhh fucking. idk danganronpa??? but like, suspend your disbelief and be down to clown with the insanity here for a minute, thanks <3

There's also his 100 IRL Crimes In Minecraft video, where he sold Kaboodle's soul WITHOUT HESITATION the moment he was prompted for it lmfaoo (he also did racketeering, extorsion, murder, created a fucking GANG WITH REDDOONS??? spread difamation [that really fucking wasn't. no matter what the cult leader uhhh wither skulls guy was saying], was distributing illegal substances I'm pretty sure, impersonated a cop, idk what else I might rewatch that video actually). There's also his 100 Hearts Factory, where he UNIRONICALLY made a fucking child labor joke with the villagers, and was busting up unions in there at some other point as well. There's whatever in hell he has with Clown bc if Branzy is UNETHICAL AS ALL HELL /silly on his own then with Clown they're both HORRIBLE, TERRIBLE, NO GOOD AT ALL /silly and I love that for them actually.

"My grip on my secrets slipping while I'm speaking in tongues" really just reminds me of Branzy's bloodlust and how everyone seems to fucking forget it's there???? even if it reminds me of it in like, a roundabout way

"Take it with a pillar of salt, H.A.L.T, it's not my fault" is all about how his words are non-literal, how he shouldn't be taken as such, and how he's the way he is from birth and he can't really change it — Branzy doesn't try to hide who he is and how he feels about things (it's his greatest asset) and he also doesn't let anyone tell him how to be (unless you're a murderous clown but like, his simping is a WHOLE different can of worms; I'm not a couple's therapist lol, I'm not paid for this shit), he just kinda is; the only reason he isn't an active threat is because he doesn't care for PVP enough to become better at it. The onlu hangup I've got with this line is the H.A.L.T thing — it's apparently a form of mindfulness recommended to people who have a hard time taking care of themselves, and it stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired (might have to look into it for myself,,,,, anyways)

"I'm cut from a different kind of meat" is Will saying he's different, in a completely separate category to everyone else, and paired with the next few lines the implication becomes very obvious: you can't understand me, and you're not meant to. Branzy is so hard to put down into words sometimes because he's genuinely many things all at once: he's impulsive but plans are important to him, he's cunning but SO damn stupid, so harmless yet one of the most dangerous people I've ever seen /vpos /aff, he's kooky and charming and fun yet knows how to be intimidating if he so wishes to be, yet he's also SO pathetic wet cat man coded that it becomes IMPOSSIBLE to be scared of him,,,,,,,, GOD "I'm cut from a different kind of meat" you are, Branzycraft, you really are,,,,,

"More than you can chew, hard to swallow me" this is all about being more than people can take, more than people can understand, more and more and more and more. And honeslty he is: he's hard to put into words because his personality pulls him in all different directions and shapes, he's bigger than he lets on, more all-encompassing and somehow formless in how difficult he can be to pin down and describe — I like to think, if Branzy were ever to sing this (a demon boy can only dream sometimes,,,,,,,,), I imagine he would sound SO cheeky and teasing, kinda smug yet chill. I also love the combo of bit off more than you can chew and hard to swallow pills sounding like that

"Forget bored stiff, I got rigor mortis, call it morbid curiosity" there's something about the line, how it's written and sung that gives me a sense of flippancy that goes really well with Branzy's insane yet really chill attitude. Also the whole "death and blood and gore, LifeSteal's essence and the birthmarks It imprints into It's players" thing of LifeSteal is just. PERFECT for the line idk idc I won't take any criticisms on this point <333

"How can I commit to reality, when my third eye's open and I like what I see?" using the third eye imagery here makes the line be about how Will Wood's imagination is so interesting that nothing real can compete, and thus he just. doesn't commit to any of it — Branzy goes by whatever he fancies that very moment, almost like he lives his own fantasy as he goes about life and honestly, I kinda wish I was him ngl

"Baby, I might be crazy but I didn't lose it, no I set it free" this one's mostly self-explanatory bc like, ALL LifeStealers ARE insane to some degree — you kinda NEED to be to survive in there; if you're not ALREADY, then the culture itself WILL claim your sanity. It's only a matter of time — so OFC this line fits Branzy, especially because he is SO carefree over how he is, who he is, careless of how that affects others and simply going about life like the deranged forest creature he was born to be

"I can't ignore what's under dance floorboards, the rhythm of my heart a dead-as-disco beat" in the explanation in Genius, people say this line might be a reference to Edgar Allen Poe's (yes, this went there. get used to it) "The Telltale Heart", where a murderer stores his victim under his house's floorboards and goes mad, imagining the corpse's heartbeat gives him away — honestly this kinda reminds me of The Patches Incident in a jester walks into an amusement park by hattrem on ao3 (GO READ IT. IT'S GOOD. IT'S GREAT EVEN. GO READ IT !!!!!!) — the contributors say Will Wood might've used the metaphor to suggest he's mover or inspired by his own madness or guilt, a sentiment I'm sure Branzy shares in how he briefly hesitates before going full throttle with whatever fucked up shit he's decided is funniest this time around

"But I still move my feet" here, Will is painting us the following picture: even through the guilt or pain he might feel about something, he keeps on going and keeps on dancing "move my feet"; Branzy never fully stops, he never gives up — he might change course, redirect, take a step back to think and plan, but he never stops. He jumps through the hoops and does all the dances, and he never stops.

"To slip out of this groove, I'm free" here Will Wood is succinctly summarising the point of the song: it's fine to be a little bit (or more like a LOT) crazy, to slip out of constraints and be truly oneself, regardless of how that looks like and Branzy fucking follows this like a mantra lol

I'm gonna lightly skim over the next two lines — "Now to row, row, row my boat over the falls" and "And maybe wake up from but a dream, yeah" — bc it's just a reference to the Row, Row, Row Your Boat nursery rhyme, with a more cynical spin; something something the cheerful initial demeanor ripped appart at the hands of that bloodlustful beast living in his veins and caressing his psyche, in one swift swoop and almost instantaneously, just to disappear once again into his bloodstream and be flushed out.

Also I'm gonna talk about the whole chorus right now, and not mention it again unless it's relevant to any other lines I might be discussing:

"I'm just a psycho, babe

Come and go out my mind

I didn't lose it, babe

There wasn't much to find

I'm just a psycho, babe

Come and go out my mind

I'm only passing through"

The way the lines are sung, so happy-go-lucky and carefree, so flippantly and cheerfully, it all reminds me so much of Branzy's persona — so cheery and showman as everything seems to fall apart around him, and it's a coin toss whether that's to his benefit or to his detriment; he doesn't let past alliances, teamups or enemies to deter him from what he wants and what he craves — he desires someone's demise? even if through elaborate traps, he'll get it. He's only here to have fun, to come and go as he pleases.

"If you knew what I knew, if you saw what I see" this one goes hand in hand with the next one, so!: "You'd look through illusions, hallucinations, and lucid dream" there it isss! simply put, people wouldn't be able to take it all in if they saw what the character sees — Branzy must've seen a lot of fucked up shit during his three or so season run in LifeSteal, and considering Tubbo is going insane over the shit LifeStealers keep pulling in The Realm SMP (YOU WERE IN THEIR HOME AT SOME POINT?? YOU WENT INTO THE TIGER ENCLOSURE GIRLIEPOP. WDYM YOU'RE FUCKING SURPRISED THAT PANGI KILLED ALL BEES IN A 1K RADIUS FROM SPAWN???? THAT CLOWN HAD ALREADY PRESTIEGED ENCHANTING ONCE AND WAS ABOUT TO DO IT AGAIN???????? WHAT) I think these lines are appropriate not even just for Branzy, but LITERALLY any LifeStealer at that lmao

I'll be honest, I've got NOTHING for "And I know that meaning can be such a pretty thing to keep" and "But I got facts and I'm not afraid to use 'em, take the good with the bad, take off the back you make a new front" so uhhhhhh I'll.... improv something? uh. um. shit uh so uhhhhhhhh something something Branzy takes everything in stride, and manages to turn it into an advantage (like acquiring the scariest player in LS as his work husband)??????? yeahhhh that works

"Some days I'm glad that I am a madman and I'd rather be that than" and "An amicable animal, mild-mannered cannibal" are about preferring one's own brand of insanity over the gentle brutality of mainstream society — Branzy kills, like everyone in LifeSteal, and in that they're all a community, yet Branzy still prefers his contraptions and elaborate plans, the honey-sweets to his personal venus flytraps and brand of death over the constant betrayal and active manipulation, the orbital cannons, the battles to the brink, the ambushing of weaker players

"But I'm more level-headed and clever than ever and I'm getting better one forever at a time" is about embracing one's madness, and being better for it — Branzy, amongs other things, is a truly terrifying /vpos character whenever he desires to be because he embraces all the twisted, dark, immoral facets to his person without a second thought, and with this he's stronger than others could ever dream of being

"And if sick is defined by what's different, well then pull the plug out and let me die" I don't think LS!Branzy has ever had a problem with dying, even there's always something pushing him to seek survival — it hurts, you're one heart closer to a permanent death, but I don't think that has always perturbed him enough to lash out and become so desperate that he'd be willing to throw caution to the wind; in this, Clown and Branzy are equals, similar to each other, going onto the main stage and performing the same steps.

"Vice-versa, vice versus virtue" here Will Wood is comparing good and bad behaviors to each other, and while there's something of a truth to what the contributor said on Genius about the usage of vice-versa specifically ("The literal meaning of 'Vice Verse' is 'with the main items in the preceding statement the other way around.' In short terms, it means 'the other way around' Following the theme of the song, Will is saying he is the polar opposite of soiety, or he is 'the other way around' in society" — AceTheBowlOfCereal23) I still think there's more to that — paired with the rest of the line, it feels to me that it all speaks of interchangeably using "good" and "bad" as adjectives for Wood's behavior, in such a way that makes both words become almost meaningless; for there will always be someone out there who disapproves of who you are, regardless of what you're doing. Branzy has a similar outlook, of considering whichever thing is happening right now as "good" or "bad" purely based on his own perception, how it might be beneficial or not, instead of using a more socially accepted definition for each and every event he comes across — especially in LifeSteal he does this, where everyone is constantly terrified of Clown and wary of him, yet Branzy only sees good things in the guy

"Well who I am I choose through all the things I do" our actions define us, somehow, in some way, and Branzy picks and chooses which ones he allows himself to be called by: he constatly says he's incapable of killing, he's harmless! Have you seen him holding a sword? Yeah, killing him is like kicking a baby in Wallmart! yet he'd managed to collect AT LEAST 100 hearts for his Big Top Tent event that closed out on Season 5, simply because people like him.

"And if it rhymes it's true, but I hate poetry" for some reason I can see him saying this even if he 100% does not mean it and is only saying it for the bit — not all of these line connections need to be that deep tbh

"Now with my moral compass pointing south, going down" Branzy has a fucked up moral compass ever since LifeSteal, next line

"With no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no respect for reality" so uh. idfk dude. this line exists — connect it back to Branzy or don't, I don't think I can

"A tourist passing through" and "Well that was fun, goodbye" are the lines Will Wood added onto the chorus to create the outro, and they just kinda remind me that Branzy is no longer in LifeSteal, but is still so influential and important to the people who keep playing the server season after season,,,,,,,,,,

Whoa, infinitely long yap session be upon ye! this was fun! I don't wanna do it again anytime soon! (might do it with PrinceZam and the three different Idol by YOASOBI English versions I'm mildly obssessed over [the official one, Trickle's and Will Stetson's]) so uh. I hope y'all enjoyed this? Question mark? Anyways!

[bubblesandpages]

Ummm no. No, actually. The why-are-there-so-many-words-on-the-page I-skip-to-dialogue crowd on Booktok is concerning, and shouldn't be actively encouraged. Booktok has already had such an impact on the publishing industry, you want them to send the message to book suits that they should purposefully lower the reading level? As a marketing ploy? Be so for really right now.

[tremendously-crazy]

The Priory School Mystery my beloved <3

[glassamphibians]

i need you fuckers to post the triple goddess epub As Fast As Possible

[sorchasolas]

Have i never rlly connected with Venli on any level and really only like her because she brings a level of variety to the narrative + Timbre<3 ? Yes.

Will i hate everyone forever if anything bad ever happens to her? Yea.

[giantkillerjack]

It's difficult to describe growing up my entire life thinking my copy of All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 was in fact simply All Dogs Go To Heaven.

The last thing I remember from this property was watching An All Dogs Christmas Carol.

I have located the first movie, which I have never seen.

THE TONE SHIFT. IS. RATHER JARRING, FOLKS.

Imagine if you always thought that The Secret of Nimh 2 was the actual movie The Secret of Nimh... and then one day you saw the original.

[see-arcane]

Have you written in any other anthologies?

A handful! Though only the more recent ones have my finally-trimmed-down moniker of C.R. Kane.*

*My full name being both bereft of the beloved magical eye pun wordplay and, ironically, reading far too much like the pen name of someone trying too hard.

99 Fleeting Fantasies - "Angel Season," featuring celestial beings nesting on Earth. It's chill, it's fine.

99 Tiny Terrors - "Atoms Break the Same All Over," in which an apocalypse has been and gone. Bring your Geiger counter.

Offbeat: Nine Spins on Song - "A Walk, A Talk, A Death, A Life," based loosely off the premise of turning a song into a short story. Mine was "How to Save a Life."

Strange Little Girls - "Marco Polo," in which a child goes swimming and meets some new friends. Nothing goes wrong. Honest.

Creature Stew - "Tripping," which shows how the undead season their cuisine. It's free on Kindle!

And, if you want to duck into the backroom behind the curtain, (apologies for the sticky carpet)...

A couple erotica helpings too.

Blood in the Rain 4 - "The Married Woman," stars an amorous vampire sniffing out a bedmate who's already taken. Consequences ensue.

Mashed - "The Stray," wherein both halves of the supernatural x human coital collision assume the other one is the prospective party to be whisked away. Also free on Kindle.

[deathstrokewilson]

ooc: fun fact: this is also my first time rp-ing as a dc character!!! (i’ve rp-ed on online games like roblox before when i was younger.., aha…. so i have slight experience ig?? if that counts??? lmfao ^_^;;)

i’d def understand anon if they just. got caught up in the moment and forgot to realise that fiction and reality are two separate things., i sadly did so too before so i get it!!! but if it was hate, then you don’t deserve it :((

your writing is genuinely amazing?!?! like, if this was a fic on ao3 i’d be giving kudos and commenting and everything!! even if berns isn’t a big big part in this whole lore and is doing his own thing, i still love reading everybody’s parts on the sidelines because yall’s writing is >>>

imo, just . keep on doing what you like!!! no pressure at all if you wanna continue, stop or add a character, etc etc :3

((OOC: You're also really doing wonderfully! Genuinely, I've been enjoying seeing your Bernard interact with everyone. (If you want a JJ friend I feel that could be really fun, since JJ currently feels like a bit of an outlier from being a hero, villain, and a citizen, and he's trying to find out how he fits into the world, and having a civilian friend could help that :D) I remember when I was new to roleplay (god I sound old, just stick me in a rocking chair with some applesauce at this rate- 'let's get you back to bed now peepaw Wilson' lmao) and I also had trouble figuring out things like 'how many powers are too many?' 'what's good to say to others?' 'how do I set healthy boundaries for myself and respect others' boundaries?' and things like that. It takes time and some introspection, but also it greatly helped when more experienced RPers gently (or not so gently in some cases) told me what to expect, what was right and wrong in terms of RP etiquette. I feel like I'm rambling a bit so I'll ease off but thank you for sending this in! I'm really grateful for all this support, and it's really validating and humbling to get such high praise for my RP!))

[taffybuns]

What kinda games have you been into lately if any? Im looking for something new to play!

wahh not gonna lie im about to hit 600 hours playing nothing but salmon run on splatoon 3 for a year agqjshd.. lately tho ive been getting into tf2, and kirby and the forgotten land, both for the first time- lots of fun even if i'm late!

my favorite recent ones i'd recommend might be pikmin 4 (goty), rhythm doctor (an update just came out!), the rusty lake series (underground blossom just released and it was soo good), hi-fi rush (goty 2), neon white (haven't finished but gameplay is incredible), transistor (or any supergiant game really)

i could go on but not sure what genres you're looking for and i just game too much after work ajdhdkk

i hope you find something nice to play!