#a lot of us thought the stream was going to be more lighthearted and not hardass objective build judge w/ half the plots taken out for time

[wuwa-writing]

Xiangli Yao NSFW Alphabet

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

Even if he's exhausted, he always makes the effort. He will always go through emotional aftercare with you, cuddling close and talking over any kink you try. Who gets up to grab a damp cloth and (if needed) bruise cream usually depends on who bottomed. Aftercare is a lot of sweet affection and praise from him.

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

He really likes his hands, flesh and metal. He likes being able to work on his arm, likes the dexterity it gives him. He likes the way they look tracing over your skin or shoved in your mouth.

Speaking of your mouth, he loves yours. He likes listening to you talk, and if you look at him at the right moment you'll find him staring at your lips with a smile. He longs to kiss you at any given moment, to trace the shape of your lips.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

On the thinner side, and he comes a lot. He likes seeing it covering your chest, dripping down your hand and wrist, or from your chin.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Monster fucker but make it tacet discords. Has fantasized about what it'd be like to be overwhelmed and used by one.

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

Moderately experienced. He's handsome and popular, and he's had a few relationships here and there, but nothing serious. He's had a few hookups but he's generally too busy to seek out connections.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

Honestly? He adores missionary, loves seeing your face while he takes you apart piece by piece. Also a big fan of bending you over his "desk" (not his actual desk because it's Messy) and also cowgirl.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

He's pretty lighthearted, not afraid at all to tease and laugh with you during sex. Actually loves and adores when you burst into giggles or laughter, thinks it makes you glow.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

Keeps it neat and trimmed, not necessarily for his partner though he's willing to take their preference into account.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

God, he loves you so much, and it shows every time you're together. He praises you without even noticing, just an ongoing stream of consciousness ramble about how lovely you are, how gorgeous you look, he loves you, he loves you, you're perfect

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

Honestly I think he hyperfixates on his work for hours on end, and when he comes back to reality and is catching up on taking care of himself, he jacks off because of the dopamine high.

When you're away and he's awake in bed pining, he just can't help himself. Whenever his thoughts linger on you for too long, when he slips into fantasizing about the next time he sees you, he can't help but slip a hand under his boxers and think of you.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

Toys - Again, we have all Thought About It when it comes to his arm. He is the original Thought About It. Will also make the wuwa equivalent of a bluetooth vibrator for you.

Praise (giving) - Goes nuts over how you flush and squirm when he murmurs praise against your skin between kisses. Genuinely obsessed with how you squeeze around his cock when he's inside you.

Exhibitionism - We've seen his lab. Homie has and will fuck you there when there's not too many people around. Is very very into the risk of being caught but actually would hate being caught.

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

His bed. He adores fucking you into his pillows, loves when you fall asleep next to him, is kinda obsessed with the lingering scent of your perfume/cologne still on his pillows.

His second favorite place is your bed, for similar reasons. He gets to fall asleep surrounded by your scent and with you in his arms? Absolute bliss.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

When you tie up your hair or fiddle while putting on earrings. Little domestic moments that make his chest turn warm. When you destroy an opponent, both on the battlefield and during spars.

When he wakes up early and gets to lay in bed tracing absent shapes against your skin. When he looks up from tinkering while info dumping and finds you staring at him with adoration.

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Sharing. Sulks at the idea of other people seeing you like that, will reject the idea of threesomes, and actually? would probably tell you outright when you start the relationship.

Also isn't down for impact play or blood play. He doesn't like the idea of hurting you, much less doing it.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

Giving giving giving giving giving giving

Please let him eat you out, let him pin your thighs open and devour you

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

Leans more towards sensual, likes taking his time to ruin you. Will absolutely rut into you like he's feral under the right circumstances though. (ask him) (just ask and he'll do nearly anything)

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

Honestly his quickies usually involve kissing you silly while making you come as fast as he can, maybe even twice if it's quick. Then sends you on your way on shaky legs and finds a closet or bathroom to jack off in.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

He's happy to try most anything at least once. Does research on it after you bring it up. Always talks it through with you beforehand, and then includes talking about how it was during aftercare.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

Generally goes two rounds with a brief break between. Could probably push for more, but with longer breaks.

Can last a while! He's got insane willpower when it comes to holding out from coming sooner than he wants.

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

Absolutely. His favorite are vibrators, but he also has a small collection of dildos. And an adjustable harness :) (please peg him) (please keep him full while he fucks you)

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

God, he loves it. He adores working you up until you're a flustered mess, cheeks hot and eyes glassy. He wants to hear you whine and beg, say his name over and over.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

More on the quiet side. Moans and sighs a lot, but isn't afraid to whimper or whine for you if you show signs of liking that.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

Has a breeding kink, but the kind where he's into the idea of knocking you up, of creating life with you. Not ready to actually have a child. His dirty talk is absolutely filthy the first time you have sex raw.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

Above average at 6 inches, and juuuuust thick enough it's a stretch to take without much prep.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

Is generally too distracted by his work to notice, so it hits him hard during breaks. When not working hard he has a pretty average sex drive.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Once he's done with aftercare, no matter how long that takes, he's happy to cuddle up and fall asleep instantly. He's happy and sated, has you in his arms, how could he possibly resist?

[mechncheese]

opinion on cyberverse?

After originally watching Cyberverse I feel like I had to marinate on it for a while and here are my thoughts, it's long so get ready for a ride ! Major Spoiler warning for Cyberverse, I discuss a lot about character deaths and plot points

Overall, Cyberverse is fun if you don't take it seriously and if you don't care too much about the story. I feel like the main weakness of Cyberverse was the story and its strength was with the character interactions. Chapter 1 was a little repetitive since it mostly revolves around Windblade helping Bumblebee out with recovering his memory but it gives context to the world + character stuff. Jumping into Chapter 2 felt really out of place because things just happen-- how come humans know about the transformers ? Why are they being posted on social media to be memed on ? HOW IS MEGATRON LIVE STREAMING ??? How come Bumblebee suddenly has his voice back ? When I first watched through it I was like there has GOT to be something I missed because why is there this massive jump in time ??? But that's legit just how it is but it's kinda entertaining, you're there to see everyone be really funny and silly with each other. Chapter 3 was probably my favorite one, Perceptor is there and he's so GOOD, I love that he's blind, I love that he's such a badass AUGH he's perfect ! The story actually gets pretty investing at that point because everyone's working together against a bigger foe and it was genuinely really sweet to see ! I liked it a lot ! HOTROD AND SOUNDWAVE WORKING TOGETHER WAS MY FAVORITE I had no idea these guys could have such an interesting and fun dynamic with one another BUT IT WORKS, IT WORKS WELL ! CYBERTRONIANS SUPERIOR ! and then like the last half of Chapter 3 took me out of it low-key.. End of Ep 17 - Beginning with Ep 18 Enemy Line I was like AUGH.. NO MORE PLEASE ! And the looking for pieces of Windblade thing.. GO ON A FETCH QUEST. Chapter 4 (the two 1 hour specials) .. I'm not gonna sugar-coat it, I did not care for Soundblaster. TARN WAS INTERESTING I LIKED HIM but SOUNDWAVE. BRO. I WAS DEVASTATED, SOUNDWAVE BECAME MY FAV IN THE SHOW BECAUSE HIS ARC WITH HOTROD THEY WORKED SO WELL TOGETHER, WE CAN'T HAVE ANYTHING NICE !!! SOMETHING HORRIBLE ALWAYS HAPPENS

A surprising amount of like SOMEWHAT DISTURBING THINGS HAPPEN, not that there's anything wrong with it but it just seemed so jarring and a little out of place with the main tone of the show being more towards something lighthearted. There's a long scene of Starscream getting absolutely beaten to hell and back by Megatron and I was like OH MY GOD IT JUST KEEPS GOING ??? and when Starscream KILLS EVERY OTHER SEEKER I was so stunned like WHAT ??? OK GOODBYE THUNDERCRACKER, GOODBYE EVERYONE ?? Shockwave and Cheetor dying to basically battle it out in the Allspark was actually a little nuts. A LOT OF CHARACTERS DIE STRAIGHT UP ??? Prowl gets hit a little bit and I guess he's gone forever GOODBYE PROWL ! ALSO THE DRIFT TWIST LIKE WHAT OK THAT WAS OUT OF NOWHERE !!! HOTROD TRYING TO TAKE HIM DOWN WITH HIM ??? KINDA MORBID IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT. Hotrod getting a different color palette afterwards felt a little like Lost Light and I think that's what it was supposed to be referencing.

I actually didn't really like Jetfire's Cyberverse characterization in Cyberverse </3 I LOVE HIM DON'T GET ME WRONG BUT OH MY GOD HE'S UNHINGED, HE'S BLINDED BY HIS RIVALRY WITH SKYBYTE BRO HAS LITERALLY DESTROYED PLANETS TRYING TO KILL THIS DAMN SHARK. WHAT HAPPENED JETFIRE ???

Ok, now I'm gonna glaze the show. THE ART DIRECTION IS SO BEAUTIFUL. The character designs are absolutely gorgeous, I don't think there was a single design I disliked. I like a lot of the saturated colors used and how the character designs have a consistent motif of glowing accent lights on their bodies. I took a lot of inspiration from the art direction from Cyberverse for my own Science Continuity. The background work is absolutely breathtaking, it fits perfectly with the characters. I'm actually super inspired by a lot of Graham Finnigan and Piotr Bzdura's background work on Cyberverse (I'm sure it shows). I ALSO LOVE UNUSUAL CHARACTER INTERACTIONS ! That's what also inspired a lot of my Science Continuity, I love when characters who never really interact in other continuities interact, it just opens the door to so many possibilities. Shockwave and Wheeljack ?? Grimlock and Arcee ?? Perceptor and his uncooperative team ?? YES ! PLEASE !! MORE ! I had a lot of fun watching Cyberverse when I was not taking the story seriously and while at times it was grueling, it also had some highlights and really great moments !

Would I watch it again ? Uh.. Honestly probably not the entirety of Cyberverse. I'd only rewatch for specific scenes or episodes. Would I recommend Cyberverse to anyone ? If you're into character interactions more than story and plot, I'd say go for it but it's definitely not for everyone.

[bleue-flora]

yeah I think even though c!Tommy had a lot of visitors in exile, its all undermined because he still felt lonely and c!Dream had told him that people were only visiting him to see the place and encouraged c!Tommy to see the gifts as pity gifts but its a nice comparison you made regardless I think comparing the physical torment both faced it would be interesting, c!tommys was more spaced out and emotional based + the hits he took from cdreams weapons, c!dreams was daily and more extreme

[context]

{wrote this answer awhile ago, and was going to add to it a comparison of Exile and prison emotional and physical abuse data but due to recent events I’m finding it hard to watch exile streams so that analysis has been put on hold, but figured I could still post this answer.}

Look I'm not saying Dream isn't a good manipulator, because he certainly is, but from Day 1 even before Dream shows up to visit, Tommy is already moping and calling people's gifts pity gifts and stuff (like in that post the clip of Bad happens before Dream shows up for the first time). In fact, the more I rewatch Exile the more I wonder what would have happened if it had been someone else in Tommy's shoes? Would the situation seem as screwed up if the person was more resistant to the abuse and not falling apart on their own. Is that why there are people who see Dream as deserving of prison, and Exile as more emotionally damaging? I don't know, it's just a thought, is it Dream’s nonchalance that cuts into people's pity and empathy?...

It's actually something I've thought about a lot in the last year, because there is almost always something going wrong in my life and so I've kinda adapted this "is what it is" "this is fine" "I tried what more can I do" attitude of letting things roll off and just dealing with it and turning it into a funny story (sometimes you gotta laugh to keep from crying). It was actually highlighted a few weeks ago when my coworker was trying to stress to me how awful and cold it would be if my heat were to go out this winter. And I was like - "I am beyond aware, I lost my heat, hot water, and internet during a snow storm last year so I know exactly how miserable it is." and her face was just like 'oh... right' as if my anxiety and the words I'd been saying all week finally dawned on her. As if the lighthearted nature and attitude in which I shared those facts before undid the gravity of them.

It’s actually something I really noticed this summer when my sister-in-law was in a car accident and got a concussion. My parents were reasonably worried and like offering to come up and if they need to bring my brother and her food and stuff, and it caught me by surprise in a weird way. Not because I don't think she (and my brother) didn't deserve or need the help and sympathy, but because less than a year and a half ago, after spending a week with covid in an apartment with broken air conditioning during heat advisory, I end up fainting while coming out of the shower as I was getting ready to finally go back to work... The crazy person I am, I was bleeding and still the thought in my mind was - 'I'll just stick a bandaid on it’ (I ended up with 7 stitches lol)... Anyways, long story short despite my concussion I pushed on through my second to last semester of engineering courses and hell even made Dean's List despite my struggling short memory, which might be one of my proudest achievements to be honest. And in hindsight as I observed people's care and concern for my sister-in-law and them asking if she needs to leave the room for the quiet and how long is she taking off work... etc, I realized just how kinda screwed up it was that I had to handle everything by myself. That no one was there to tell me to not use a screen right after getting a concussion and how I definitely should not have been tutoring or doing school the week after. I did it all by myself and pushed through, and I realized that I think because I didn't make it a big deal, it became not a big deal for them. Because I laughed about it and tell the story in a comical way, people don’t seem to understand just how hard it was. As if a concussion in itself isn’t terrible, period.

In the same way, Torture is terrible, period. Dream shouldn’t have to be pathetic for that fact to be true. He shouldn’t have to be broken, or say “yes sir,” we shouldn’t need any evidence but that fact alone. (Now obviously within the dsmp Minecraft medium it’s a little different but hopefully you get the point). The torture isn’t any less horrible if the character reacts by becoming submissive or fighting back. Torture isn’t any less horrible because of who it is on (something Dream tries to highlight to Sam in Daedalus). Torture is bad. It doesn’t matter if the reason was good or not, it doesn’t matter if the victim shows how hurt they are or not. And yet, those facts change our perception of it. It is different to know someone was tortured than it is to see them having a panic attack afterwards or their scars.

So then, would characters and we the audience still think Exile is as bad as it was if the person who was exiled didn’t react the same. If their clothes weren’t falling apart. If they weren’t moping around and complaining. If the facts were the exact same, but the attitude of the character was different, how would it change how we saw Exile? Would we still see Exile as even comparable on any scale to Prison? If we saw all 82 of Quackity’s visits how would it change our perception? If Dream was too scared to hold an axe during jailbreak or if he cried in Punz’s arms right after, if he didn’t show such apathy when telling Sapnap or Foolish or Tommy about the torture, would it change how those characters felt about it? If Dream’s skin had clothes that we saw slowly deteriorating everytime we saw him in prison how would that change how we saw it? Or if Tommy’s clothes hadn’t changed, how would that change how we saw Exile?… yes Exile was horrible, and yes it was abuse and screwed up. But also, is part of why we see it as this big horrible thing because of Tommy’s reaction to it. That’s not to say it wasn’t horrible or I’m trying to minimize the abuse, but also lots of horrible things happen on the dsmp. I mean Fundy committed suicide and I don’t see people getting as upset at Wilbur as they do Dream for Tommy’s almost suicide.

I don’t know, it’s just something I’ve been thinking about. If Dream’s attitude to being tortured changed how characters and we saw it, and if in the same way, Tommy’s attitude changed how we saw Exile. If the roles were reversed or someone else was in Tommy’s place, (whether or not they are actually comparable), would anyone think they are even comparable in any aspect?

Sapnap: “What do you mean he was torturing you? Like literally torturing you?”

[wildpeachfarm]

this is meant lighthearted : instead of “all men are trash, women do no wrong” a secret third thing “PEOPLE suck in general”

as someone who grew up with an absent father who tried to make life difficult for my mother once she took him to court for child support for me and my siblings - ing…I grew up with a not nice view of older men BUT my grandpa was a big big influence in not making men a negative experience for us.

the recent shift of the last 4-5 years has been worrying. I used to liked jkr and could emphasize where she was coming from originally. but it was scary to see the gradual descent into where she is now and the stuff she is saying. Bc she is so far removed from what she originally stood for. It can happen to anyone, I even get worried if I’m on that slope sometimes. This whole situation had me second guessing myself bc I gave gnf time and believed in him. I had a moment when a few female creators made remarks (not from mc community) and I checked myself bc I was scared I was falling into the conservative rhetoric to blame women and protect men. Then I saw others who had more information and actually looked into it and also found this blog where the nuances were being discussed and let out a breath of relief that I was just using my critical thinking skills lmao

There are so many men out there who just aren’t given a chance bc society is set up for them to fall into a certain role. And I think a lot of men are trying to break that role and stereotypes. I became a dream fan bc I saw him doing this, saw a gamerboy in 2020 who was passionate and excelled at the game but didn’t fall into the toxicity of the space, actively fought against it.

and women should not be encouraged to drag men through hell bc they feel empowered by the rhetoric of recent years. women can and are just as selfish and shitty people as men. Sometimes they are worse

we’ve gone so far off center, we’ve essentially gone from one extreme to another. Which I learned two years ago was called terfs 😂 the movement needs to go back to its previous meaning. Feminism is not solely female empowerment it is the deconstructing of the patriarchal roles and belief that push men and women into boxes. Feminism, as I was taught over a decade ago, was the fight for women and MEN to be equal and have the same rights and opportunities. We can uplift women without putting down men. if this feminist movement doesn’t correct itself, it will allow more men like andrew tate to grow and influence young men.

The lack of female representation in the sphere cannot be corrected by women. It just can’t. Men need to be part of the change bc if the environment is not corrected, women cannot succeed and thrive. They can become successful but the hate and obstacles directed towards them is crazy. This is in general not just for streaming.

It can’t just be women solidarity, men need to learn and actively engage in calling out misogynist behavior. Women need to talk with their males friends and call them out when they say or act in disgusting ways. Women need to hold women accountable as well! It is unfair and unattainable to put female equality solely in the hands of women. We need to All work together.

Puffy is so good at this when she streams, especially on the smp. Hell, she even created a whole villain arc to call out the people telling her to “be a therapist to Tommy, omg your like dreams mom”. Puffy is awesome 🥹

men =/ bad

women =/ good

PREACH ANON

this breaks it all down so well and i really sympathize with you about having a poor view of some men in your life and trying to not let that influence your views but also not go so far off the other end that you end up blindly defending them without critical thinking.

Really important discussions and introspection about how your thought processes work that I think everyone should have at least once when situations like this come up

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I’ve been lucky enough to see or hear a whole lot of stand-up shows from the last couple of months. Some of them weren’t great. Some of them were fine. I don’t have time to write about all of those. So instead, here’s list of all the stand-up shows I’ve heard in the last couple of months that I really, really liked a lot:

Guy Williams - If You Mildly Criticise Me I'll Say It's Cancel Culture And Turn To The Alt Right

First of all, this guy (pun only sort of intended) really knows how to name a comedy show. I have a spreadsheet where I list all the stand-up shows I’ve seen/heard and sort them by comedian name and then by year, and the Guy Williams section is unfortunately short, but it’s a pretty good read:

I’ve had an absolutely fantastic time listening to both of those shows. They’re both pretty much what you’d assume from the title – he just shouts about all the terrible things in the world. I said this about his 2024 show and it’s true of his 2025 show too – he manages to be genuinely edgy from a left-wing perspective, which is difficult. Some comedians say “the royal family sucks” and then act like they’ve just said something edgy, which to be fair they have according to some parts of society, but most artsy lefty people who attend comedy shows have heard this many times before. While Guy Williams manages to say… I mean, I won’t repeat it and spoil his lines, but if he wants to brag about being an edgily left-wing comedian, he’s actually earned that title.

This show has a bit more of a narrative to it than last year's show, and he jumps around from the main narrative to tangents in a way that feels random but it's probably deceptively crafted. I don't know. It's hard to know what's going on in this show. I just know it made me have to pull my hat down over my face so it would be less obvious how hard I was laughing out loud on the bus.

Everything he says has the feel of being something that just popped into his head as he's talking, this million-word-a-minute stream-of-consciousness spiel of anger at the sheer stupidity of the world, but it doesn't feel like a dark show or angry show. Does that make sense? It certainly doesn't feel like a lighthearted show, either. But it's not the righteous anger of the classic political comedian like Robert Newman or something. It's just a guy (pun fully intended this time) throwing his hands up in frustration, and it scans like a vent post on Discord. Except that it gets big laughs at least every couple of minutes, which means he must have actually written this quite intelligently.

It's fucking great. I've not fully locked down my schedule of shows to see live in Edinburgh this year, but whatever the final list looks like, I know Guy Williams will be on it.

Guy Montgomery - I've Noticed So Many Things, It'd Be Unfair To Keep Them To Myself

Another Kiwi Guy with amusingly long show titles, Guy Montgomery is a lot calmer than Guy Williams, a lot less political, generally less edgy or risk-taking, and yet, I always find his stand-up very memorable. It's basically just observational comedy about a middle-aged guy and his family going to zoos and things like that in a quirky way, but he makes it original. He's really quirky. He manages quirky turns of phrase that the thousands of other quirky comedians haven't thought of. And he sells them so well. And they're funny.

He's got interesting ways of looking at stuff, he's got vague throughlines that keep coming back just when the audience thinks he's dropped it, he's got brilliant callbacks that make us say "Oh, that's what the fuck you were talking about before", and he's constantly changing direction and keeping the audience on their toes. This is the fourth stand-up hour I've heard by Guy Montgomery, and while I liked them all, I think this was my favourite.

Two Hearts - Don't Stop Throbbing

God, these two are great. They really had me from their first song, which was so funny and so catchy that I had it stuck in my head for the rest of the day. They made me think of Nick Helm, in terms of feeling like "entertainers" in addition to musicians and comedians. These big, strong musical numbers that could all stand on their own as good songs, in addition to being funny. I think that's how you have to do musical comedy, and why so much musical comedy is so bad, because it's hard to get both the music and the comedy right. But when it happens, it's glorious.

I very much liked their 2024 Edinburgh hour, but I have to admit I thought some of the extremely high praise for it was a little bit over-the-top, I didn't quite see why they were considered pretty much the best musical comedy at the festival. Now I see. Their 2025 hour fully caught me, I see their appeal now. If they take this hour to Edinburgh this year, I will absolutely see it live.

I really wish they'd release a studio album. That comedy hour had multiple songs that I would listen to on their own.

Pierre Novellie - Must We?

This is his show from last year, which I got to hear again this year. I wrote about it in 2024, saying I liked it, but it wasn't as good as his amazing 2023 show (Why Are You Laughing? - I cannot wait until that show gets released somewhere and I can share it with everyone I know), which I chalked up to him trying to write a new hour while touring his previous show and writing a book. So that was how I remembered Must We? - as being decent, but a bit of a disappointment.

So I was pleased when I heard it this year and realized that I think I was damning it with high standards a bit, as there is a lot of very good stuff in that show. It made me laugh repeatedly, and Pierre Novellie's delivery can entertain me on pretty much any topic. The ending feels a bit tacked-on and could have been set up more, but other than that, it's pretty close to being up to his very high standards.

It has a lot of material about food, and I usually don't enjoy comedy about food all that much, so that may be part of why I didn't remember liking the show all that much. But actually, he was pretty funny even on that subject.

John Tothill - WIP

I won't say too much because it's a relatively early WIP, and he claimed that most of what he said won't be in the finished show because he kept getting distracted. I can't tell how much that was true and how much it was a device, but I hope it's mostly the latter, because the stuff he actually said was hilarious and it'll be great if that is, in fact, the plan for the final show. There's something infectious about his speaking style, and his frequent asides, that make it so easy to keep my attention on him, and so easy for him to make me laugh. This was a great time.

David Quirk - The House That Was Never Built

I'd never heard of David Quirk before this show, but I enjoyed it. It's got a very solid narrative - the whole hour is pretty much all one story, with just a few off-topic asides. And I always like that, I good concept show. This was a genuinely interesting story, with some twists and turns that I could see coming, and many that I could not. And, spoiler alert (genuinely, spoiler alert, it's a good show and I don't wish to spoil it for anyone who might be in Australia watching comedy), it did have the requisite sad ending. By the end I was so invested in the story that that ending felt effective and poignant, and overall, it was a really, really solid hour. It felt like the pacing was perfect, moved along so well that I could hardly see the moving pieces as it went, if I may use a confusing metaphor (I'm thinking of that podcast that says it ruins comedy if you take it apart like a clock and can see how it was put together - I can't remember if that's a line from ComComPod or Rule of Three).

The core story of the store was sort of gently funny, but it was punctuated by all the moments of him relaying jarringly harsh things that had happened throughout the story, and those got big laughs from me every time. That was the perfect way to keep the audience engaged.

Laura Davis - Despair Is Beneath Us

God damn, is Laura Davis ever good. Really, really good. Laura Davis and Alice Fraser are the only two comedians who have ever made me say "This is Kitson-level of making stand-up comedy about big important ideas that express those ideas intelligently and poetically and mesmerizingly and beautifully, while still being very funny." I think Alice Fraser and Laura Davis should both have Kitson-level cult followings.

This one might be my favourite Laura Davis show. It's hard to tell with recency bias, because If This Is It was really fucking good. And Albatross was really fucking good. And their other comedy hours that I've been lucky enough to hear were also all very good, but Albatross and If This Is It were my favourites before 2025. I think Despair Is Beneath Us might beat them both. I think it might beat everything.

The structure really sneaks up on you. It doesn't even feel like structure, it just feels like a story that must have come to Laura perfectly formed, though of course it takes a lot of work and talent make it seem that way. The earnestness, the contrast of the light and the dark, the build-up to the poetic crescendo. I try not to just knee-jerk compare everything good to Kitson, but I maintain the the comparison is warrented here.

The other comparison I can think of is Josie Long, the way Josie Long is so good at doing shows about dark themes, but scraping all corners of that darkness to find the pockets of light there, and dragging that light in front of her audience to give people a bit of hope. Is that too much too much flowery language for me to use when describing a comedy show? Tell that to all the awards won by Josie Long, and Laura Davis, and for that matter, Daniel Kitson. I love a good poetic comedy show, and this is up there with the very best.

Again, I'll avoid too many details - I'm trying to avoid giving too many specific details about all the shows on this list, because they're all shows that are still being performed, and people should go see them all if you have the chance. I'm definitely seeing Laura Davis in Edinburgh this year.

Greg Larsen - Geggy

God, this was good. I've quite liked the few Greg Larsen stand-up hours I've heard previously, but there tends to be a lot of crossover material in them. Geggy, however, was entirely new ground. He wrote the story of his entire comedy career, from starting stand-up to the present day. It's got some fun stories for comedy nerds, about working with more famous comedians like Sam Campbell, Aaron Chen, Damien Power.

It's a fascinating story, and bleakly honest about the reality of the comedy industry in general, and his specific experience in it. This one is definitely a dark show, and it doesn't have a lot to alleviate that. But it's meant to be that way - while I love a show that does what I wrote about above, of excavating hope from the worst subjects, I think this show would be worse if he tried to force it into some sort of positive or hopeful message. Greg Larsen is at his best when he's just leaning into the forthright descriptions of gritty, low-status gremlins. I love a good low-status gremlin in comedy.

This show does feel like it comes, for lack of any less cheesy phrase, from the heart. He sounds like what he's saying matters to him, and that makes me invested too, and it makes me laugh harder at the funny parts and cringe harder at the difficult parts. It's a great journey.

Njambi Mcgrath - Benevolence

I'd never heard Njambi McGrath before, but a friend recommended her to me a while ago, and then last week her 2024 stand-up hour got released on NextUp, so I decided to watch it. And that show's quality cemented my decision to keep her 2025 hour on my must-see-in-Edinburgh list, on this recommendation.

The show is about the West's relationship with Africa, from the perspective of someone who grew up in Africa, which is of course a fairly uncommon perspective among British comedians. It started out a little bit slow, with a couple of fairly hackneyed jokes that made me think I'm not sure about her. But then it picked up speed and just got better and better from there.

She balances the points and the humour very well, never letting either thread drop for too long, and tying them together nicely. She says a lot of stuff that the audience laughs at, though they probably feel uncomfortable laughing at, given the heaviness of the topics she's bringing up and how she's an African woman talking to a British audience about African exploitation. However, to her credit, not once does she do that "Maybe you don't know if you're even allowed to laugh at that!" thing. It always annoys me when comedians say that, and Njambi doesn't. She just lets her material speak for itself, lets the audience sit in the discomfort, and they laugh anyway because her jokes are funny.

Mark Thomas - Alive

This show is the odd one out on this list, in that it was not performed within the last few months, it was performed in 2005. I've had all Mark Thomas' stuff downloaded for ages, and he's one of those comedians I've always known I should get into, but never really have. I tried his first stand-up hour a few years ago, from before he went political, and liked some of it but not all that much. Then all that stuff came out about his wife saying he was pretty terrible, which made me feel better about how I wasn't all the into him, even though he's exactly the sort of comedian I'd normally be into.

But recently I was going through my comedy folder to find files I have downloaded but not watched or listened to so I could fix that (there aren't many, I've seen/heard/read the vast majority of the stuff in that folder, but there are a few that I've not), and I found the Mark Thomas stuff, and decided I should give it a try. And I'm disappointed to say that this stand-up DVD he made in 2005 was incredibly engaging and funny, which unfortunately means I'm going to have to watch the rest of his stuff. I'm also probably not moving him from my 2025 Edinburgh schedule, mainly because he's on late at night at the Stand 1 (which is the proper Stand venue, the famous room from the Stewart Lee shows and things like that), and seeing a classic comedian like Mark Thomas at the Edinburgh Stand late at night feels like a quintessential Edinburgh experience I can't miss.

[torrentialstardust]

UMINEKO X DRAWTECTIVES: OGALVY AND MARIA, YORK AND BATTLER

I have much to say, so sorry in advance for the length!

I was rewatching some of Drawtectives before attending one of the NezumiVA Umineko streams and I thought it would be fun to cross the two over! They're both mystery "games" but with vastly different tones and settings.

The first drawings I sketched aren't even the ones finished here but I'm sure I'll get to them soon enough. The one I started lining first was Ogalvy and Maria, or specifically Piss Boy and Sakutaro! They're cuddlie~ I even had my own Piss Boy plush next to me while drawing fo reference! I think Maria just deserves good things and she'd be such good friends with Ogalvy, I had them doing drawings together. The outfit swap was also fun, though a little tricky with how cartoony Ogalvy is. Maria's clothes were a bit tricky to put on him, but I like the way it turned out! Also proud of the facial expressions, hope I got the right kind of "enthusiastic to the point where you don't even smile, you're just totally focused and excited".

York and Battler got compared to each other a while back so I thought they'd be good to draw together, and I love the idea of Battler being a goofy bi disaster. Not only that but given how him being tall is mentioned repeatedly, I wanted to bring in the energy I feel whenever I see someone taller than me. I basically just hardcore projected onto Battler is what I'm saying.

The outfit swap part was a lil tricky but still fun, since York has two key design traits: he keeps on his armband with his outfits and he can't wear sleeves. "The technology just doesn't exist". I took off the sleeves of Battler's outfit, but I still decided to swap the armband around, mainly because the part of York's arm it would go on was geometrically confusing and I didn't want to draw attention to that. The hair was also fun to swap. Battler looks like that one rando from Overwatch and I'm not sorry, but I'm not proud either. It does still look nice to me.

OK! That's the process explained! And now: a call to action.

Hey, peeps on the YouTube stream and on the Umineko tag: you should watch Drawtectives! It's a fun and silly mystery series! There is murder in it but it's still lighthearted for the most part, it's got charming characters, and season 3 is on the horizon! You could catch up pretty easily in time for it to start and have a gay ol time!

Hey, peeps on the Drawtectives tag waiting for season 3: you should read Umineko! It's an incredibly engaging and emotional mystery series! It's got a massive cast with lots of character depth and many puzzles to solve! It's on Steam (but please don't use the new sprites they made they're so much worse than the OG sprites, switch to them), a few other places too, and I'm pretty sure there's even a Kindle Port, but I've been enjoying the readthrough by the delightful NezumiVA!

We've got a really nice community of people who've read it before and people like us who don't know what's going on there. It is a bit longer than Drawtectives I'm afraid but it may not take too long to get caught up on the playlist. Nezumi's also pretty good at warning for the more sensitive content in the Novel which is always a big help. Only thing I'd watch out for is some gorey stuff toward the end of episode 2, which isn't even visually depicted.

OK! I think that's everything I needed to say! Comms open as per usual and have a lovely day!

[life-winners-liveblog]

There were cases where I'd go into collabs with people, and they'd ask me to say specific voice lines to trigger a storyline event for them.. that didn't line up with how I want to portray myself so it put me in a weird position. (asking me to be the villain as an example)

-fwhip on his twitter. he has also discussed more about this and not liking being the villain on his streams (not in the traditional blow- things-up way -he doesn't mind that)

ofc it's a matter of personal opinion but i think that no matter what we should respect people's boundaries even if nobody is looking. just because they are creators does not make them any less human and give us any more right to invalidate their boundaries- whether they can see us or not. saying that they give us the material to construct these storylines (like the creepy shrine thing) doesn't mean we should if they don't want us to- if that makes sense. this may be an unpopular opinion of mine and i hold nothing against you author, i completely understand wanting to show people how bad these types of things are - heaven knows there are some reall pieces of work out there.

i have watched fwhip for a reallly long time and there's been a lot of issues with him being portrayed rather nastily in the fanbase, and he doesn't seem to like it all that well.

i'm not saying you should retcon-maybe just mention it less? and besides these are just my own thoughts and you should run the blog however you see fit. i am merely a person on the internet that rather liked your blog but this recent storyline rubs me the wrong way because of this, so i shall return once its over :) hope u have a nice day!

... That just means he doesn't want to be forced to play the villain which is like understandable because he just wants to play his characters how he wants which is what every roleplayer wants but that is a completely different thing.

Still, I was already planning on it being mentioned less as it makes sense too, the realization has happened, Jimmy broke trough the denial It's not like he's going to mention it if the whispers don't push...if they do push then I can't really do much about that...every mention of it will have the tw: sa tag on it so if you want you can block It! And soon there will be more lighthearted stuff! I promise!

[viily]

well i don’t like putting up songs against eachother especially inter-albumly (does so anyways) but the random Listening To Hells Itch thought rn is that i think i like Hells Itch more than the longer songs on Petrodragon??..

well maybe that’s a little misleading. however. which is to say that it’s the specific “this song is really long and has multiple parts” but of course there are different approaches to the structures between these songs for they are different genres and processes to construct them and everything. but i guess it’s the more StraightToThePoint listening experience processing of “how fun is it to sit through this song” and “is it catchy in general” and just how satisfying it is really…

i really really love all the intricacies in hells itch in it’s jams and like, specific riffs idk, and how it is such a BUILDUP song. there’s something about the instrumentation that seems so lighthearted but the juxtaposition with the lyrics makes itReally Funny. but even the instrumentation itself is inherently a little anxious and frantic as well (biased). and then you get to that 10:39 mark and Well holy fuck guys ^_^;; (BIASED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

but i mean you can argue some songs on petro are buildup songs too. you can argue anything. music is subjective. Ok but i will still elaborate my perspective. like dragon is definitely Long and Buildup but Lol i think i think it’s not as satisfying a long song like a “there are bits of this i could do without, i’ll still listen to it and enjoy it (because i love every gizzard song at the end of the day for i am just like this), but it’s just not as interesting i guess.”

and idk maybe gizzard long songs aren’t my favorite thing and that’s just how it is. like i’ll listen to henchlock by thee oh sees 3 times in a row and that songs like 22 minutes. this is a needless comparison. so are shorter or medium sized gizz songs my preference? no but castlemania oh sees is my favorite album ever and the incredibly short length of those songs is executed sowell Where am i going with this.

oh my god hells itch. no i think i just wanted to say that like listening to it has the same kinetic feel of like a flowers roots digging and expanding or like a more fitting simile would be like veins under the skin and the constant stream and flow pathway of blood thruout the body and it’s very creepy. Well I don’t know i think i just like it guys.

and i LOVE petrodragon like it’s so fucking cool and i listen to it in full a lot and front to back it’s so like hell yeah coolness. but it’s just different experiences i guess. and there is something significant about hells itch listening experience. but whatever. tomorrow i could wake up and listen to flamethrower and be like Oh Right this is actually the best thing they’ve ever done. itsliterslly just how i am with these things.

yeha but whatever hells itch has the only time in gizz discography where they use “fuck[ing]” as an adjective and Well myGod. it does feels so fucking good doesn’t it? yuo mothercfucker?

[actuallylorelaigilmore]

2023 Movie Journey #5: Ant-Man

ant-man. i loved this movie! it’s just an all-around good time, one of the best franchises in the whole mcu (for me, it’s now my second-favorite, after black panther). 

and the story of me watching this is a fun one: i bought my ticket to see  quantumania before i had ever seen this one or its sequel, presuming based on the cast and everybody i know liking these movies that i had really zero chance of regretting that choice. i just barely squeezed in these movies after buying the ticket--i watched this the night before going to the theater and then i got up early to squeeze the sequel into my morning before i left to see ant-man 3.

because of that time crunch, though, i didn’t fully review these after watching them. i took notes that look more like stream of consciousness bullet points, and now it’s like a year later and i have to make those make sense! lol. here goes.

first off, the action sequences in this movie were way more dynamic because of how it played with the size shifting, and as somebody who desperately needs a reason to care about action sequences, i enjoyed that. they kept it interesting. on top of that, it had so much heist and warmth and fantasy science that this movie balanced the (for me, excessive) action.

i got a full-blown anxiety stomachache during the big heist, because i liked all of the characters and didn’t want any of them to get hurt. special mention here goes out to ant-thony the flying ant: i loved him as soon as we met him, and i also had an instant fear that he wouldn’t survive. thanks, honey i shrunk the kids, for permanently scarring me emotionally as a child. now i am an adult who is terrified of bugs but also has to let them live in my spaces because i cannot kill them. 

scott lang is probably the most sympathetic superhero, though of course that’s subjective. but even though he’s not my favorite (that’s been shuri since black panther), the fact that he only cares about two things in the world when we meet him--and that’s his daughter, and punishing greedy evil rich people and helping those they hurt? just, excellent. this is marvel doing leverage, and i have no complaints.

the graphics of the ants are done really well in this, the cgi wasn’t annoying at all...but they still squick me out. i just don’t like bugs. ant-thony deserved a memorial from scott, though. i didn’t like the feeling that he was replaced by a giant ant pet at the end like all ants are interchangeable. scott had bonded with him! i get that during the action he couldn’t exactly stop and reflect or anything, but either you named your ant friend and you’re genuinely bummed he died, or it’s a punchline and you’ll never think about him again. i prefer the latter.

and like i said, i loved all the characters, but luis’s monologues in the form of attempting to relay important information are the literal best. he is me anytime i try to tell a story. ”i just get excited and stuff.”

my one character exception is the guy played by bobby cannavale, because i just had no use for him, lol. in fact, i didn’t even realize it was him! i kept thinking bobby cannavale’s character looked kind of like bobby cannavale, but not actually like him, through most of the movie--until i was looking something else up and saw his name in the cast. scott’s daughter was great for lots of reasons but her total unimpressedness with bobby cannavale delighted me because i felt the same way.

i thought they handled making scott and hope romantic very well. the actors have good chemistry so i was rooting for them, but the push/pull between  antagonistic and flirty is difficult to do successfully, and they could only move things along so much from her open resentment towards him in the beginning to them being a team by the end. this was too lighthearted a movie to spend much time on Them, so just nodding to it and then making jokes and moving along felt right. 

also i loved that anthony mackie was in this. i’m really not familiar with his character, i saw age of ultron but barely remember it, and i double checked--i’ve never seen any other mcu movie sam is in. BUT i do know the actor, from the hate u give and elsewhere and he’s excellent. so he was a cool choice of character to include and it gave me a nice way to see a little more sam.

the end bits were neat, too. i really love that in hope, they created a genuinely strong female character--not always nice, in fact sometimes an asshole...aka a real person just like male characters are allowed to be. so it felt earned when she realized her father was finally going to work with her at the end. 

and while i find it annoying, as a mostly non-viewer of mcu movies, to have bits with totally other characters and worlds shoved in after the film is over to weave the worlds together and try and make you care about it all...i adore anytime a movie is like ‘X will return’ because when i enjoyed the movie, it’s like a little concluding gift to promise me more--i was really happy when shang chi did the same. 

in the end, my biggest takeaway from this movie is that it is a rare crowd-pleaser. this is one of those movies that, when you’ve managed to avoid watching it for eight years and everybody is eager to tell you how great it is, you can feel a little suspicious of the hype. but it IS that good! as soon as i saw it, i showed it to the one person i knew who hadn’t already seen it, and despite her doubts going in, she also loved it. 

so i can recommend this one to almost anybody, and i wish more movies like this still got made, that are lovable for broad audiences. (i get that marvel movies in general make obscene amounts of money, but i certainly don’t care about most of them, so that’s not what i mean. i want more action movies that make an effort to appeal to people besides action fans. clearly it’s possible!) 

if you have a serious aversion to ants, i would probably advise you to steer clear. but if you like thievery or dads and daughters or michael douglas or a brisk romp with science, this is a really great movie.

[aceoflanterns]

Ok so the in the shortest way I can here is what happened (sorry for responding so late I actually responded a while ago but I’m pretty sure that didn’t send so I have to write this again :,)

So there is this island that some people are trapped on. The island is run by “the federation” and they are evil and they do t want the players to leave, we don’t know why

So they decide that the best way to make the players stay is to give them kids that they need to take care of , to be more exact they are eggs (that are played by real people btw they are not some AI like I thought for a while)

The important egg for this story is Juanaflipp the egg of Charlie Slimecicle and elmariana

Flippa died at 11 days old

It destroyed everyone but especially Slime, he when crazy when Flippa dies

He almost killed the other eggs out of grief, he transformed in an egg bc of the immense grief, so yeah he was not doing great

But after a lot of time and self reflection, he was making baby steps towards recovery

The the birthday stream happened

(Some context, on the server there are this monsters called the code monsters that are played by admins and the whole purpose of these guys seem to be killing the eggs. They can also shape shift to look like the eggs)

Most of the stream is goofy and lighthearted but then there are the last 15 minutes

Slime goes back home and he finds a book that said this

Then a path of torches appeared that lead him to a big underground cave

In the came there is this house and in the house she finds her

Juanaflippa

His baby

His daughter

His everything is here, alive, whit him

She starts placing signs that say things like “I missed you dad” and “happy birthday” in the same broken speech as the one on the book

Slime is understandably super confused but he spend care. All that is important is that he is whit his daughter

The Flippa says that “it’s dangerous for me out there” and “I’ll see you soon” then she runs off

Slime runs after her frantically screaming for her to come back, that he will do anything she says, that he will keep her safe, that she will kill anyone that comes close to her. He begged her not to leave him again but Flippa doesn’t stop running and Slime loses her

He is left crying, alone again

But before the stream ends he promises that he will satay here as long as it takes and that he will make flippa feel save again, no matter the cost

End strea

We, as viewers, know about the code monster and how it can mimic eggs but slime doesn’t. He fully beloved that his baby is back and he will do anything for her, which probably includes killing the other eggs (he already almost did that)

Anyway, I highly recommend watching the last 15 minutes of the stream bc Charlie Slimecicle is an amazing actor and the pain and desperation in his voice is incredible. I’m on mobile so idk how to share the link but just look up Slimecicle on twich and it’s the most recent stream, or you can look up Slimecicle vods on YouTube and watch it there when it gets uploaded

Sorry for any mistakes I made and for responding so late, hope that what I wrote makes sense. How you have a good rest of your day :]]]

damn man that’s A Lot 😭😭😭 listen i just had no idea what was going on in the qsmp from like . early june onwards . so i appreciate the update :]] (and i shall check out the stream because charlie slimesicle is an insane actor and it’s unfair to us all) thank you!!!!

[warriorofdragons]

His Soothing Sweetheart

Word Count: 990

Warnings: Nightmares

Cole wakes with a jolt and picking his head up he looks down at his sleeping partner. He quickly removes his arm from around her waist and looks her over for a moment. When she doesn’t stir he exhales and shifts to his side of the bed. Cole then swings his legs over the edge of the mattress and buries his hands in his hair. He sniffles as he rubs his face. “Cass?” she calls softly. Cole picks his head up at the sound of her voice. He can already hear the blankets shifting as she scooches closer to him. “Baby, are you okay?” she asks sleepily. He glances over his shoulder at her finally, “Yeah, Sweetheart, go back to sleep, I’ll be fine.” She frowns and cautiously continues towards him. He should have known that wouldn’t have satisfied her. She wraps an arm around his waist and places her right hand on his right shoulder as she then rests her chin on top of his shoulder. Cole can’t help but smile, “I just had a bad dream is all,” he sighs. She responds by kissing his shoulder. It’s quiet for a moment between them and she rubs her hand down his arm soothingly. “Do you wanna talk about it?” she asks quietly. “Not particularly,” Cole answers. She nods and wraps both of her hands around his right arm and begins tracing patterns on his skin, Cole smiles again. “I think I might stay up for a while…I don’t…I don’t want you to worry about me. You should get some sleep, Darlin’.” She scoffs, “You and I both know that’s not gonna happen.” Cole exhales, “I suppose you’re right,” the smile surely apparent in his voice even in the dark. If the roles were reversed, and they have been at times for her, he wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink until she felt safe and was sound asleep in his arms. She rubs her cheek against his shoulder some more, “Do you want to watch a movie?” Cole raises his brows and looks down at her beside him, “Uh…yeah, I…I’d like that, Pumpkin.” She kisses his shoulder again and then leans up and kisses his cheek. Cole gets out of bed and stretches his back. His girlfriend flicks on her bedside lamp and searches for a sweater to cover her nightgown. Cole waits for her to take his hand before heading out to the living room.

Despite him trying to put on a brave face, he feels a lot better about wandering their home at night with her beside him. He turns on the tv and the glow from the tv screen illuminates the room. “What did you want to watch?” he asks. “I was thinking an animated movie,” she says. “Huh, that sounds good to me,” he says. Cole had thought she was going to put on one of his favorite westerns, but an animated movie with a lighthearted tone and fun songs sounds pretty good right about now. He grabs the blanket on the couch and gets settled while she uses the remote to search for something and after she hits play, she sets the remote back down on the coffee table. When she moves to join him on the couch, Cole takes her hands and tugs her on top of him. She giggles causing him to chuckle as she shifts to a comfortable position on top of him. He covers her in the blanket and kisses her forehead. She then yawns as he wraps his arms around her and he’s not certain how long she’ll manage to stay awake. The movie turns out to be a very good idea, because Cole manages to laugh and smile a little the further into the movie he gets, and it lightens his heart and eases his mind of the horrors in his sleep. But when he makes a joke about one of the characters, he realizes that his girlfriend has fallen asleep on his chest. He smiles as he looks down at her and smoothes down her hair, her chest gently rising and falling. Cole turns the volume down a little on the tv and only a few minutes later does he feel his own eyelids growing heavy.

He wakes the next morning to the smell of food and dishes clinking, Cole opens his eyes and looks down to see his girlfriend gone. He then looks around the rest of the room and can see that the tv has been turned off and that there’s light streaming in through the windows from behind the curtains. Cole gets up and stretches his arms up over his head and then heads for the kitchen. There he finds his girlfriend with her back to him cooking on the stove. He steps towards her and places his hands on her arms. She startles a little and then looks up at him and relaxes. “Mornin’, Baby, whatcha got there?” he asks leaning in to kiss her cheek. She bites her lip and smiles as her hand comes up to caress his face, “Morning, Pumpkin, I was just making Jack’s recipe for flapjacks.” Cole smiles and looks down at the skillet and then over at the plate that’s already full of them. He kisses her cheek again, “You really went all out for breakfast this morning,” he says when he also notices the bacon and eggs plated on the table. “Well, you had a bad dream last night, and I’m not sure how long you slept so I wanted to make sure you had a good morning,” she explains. Cole feels his chest tighten and he takes the spatula from her hands and turns her around and kisses her, “I am so lucky to have you, you know that?” he whispers against her lips. She hums, “I could stand to be reminded.” Cole smiles and kisses her again.

[cursed-domain]

Experiments

Mahito x Reader, WC ~3.9k

Mahito’s been testing out his powers for a while now. He wants to do something different with his latest victim. Something a little more... human.

warnings: NSFW and Dark Content - NONCON if that is not your thing do not read any farther. You have been warned. Also fear, tears, kidnapping, possessiveness, oral sex, biting, slapping and uh. Mahito. I think he deserves a warning of his own.

You stayed out just a little too late last night. And you walked home alone. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you knew that was a bad idea, but - the bar was right down the street from your apartment building, and your friends were - well, they were scattered, and they were hard to find, and you were sure that you could walk straight if you only tried. Your heels were only a couple inches high. 

Maybe you’d somehow fallen right down a drain in the sidewalk last night. Maybe it was too dark to notice, and you were more tipsy than you thought. But that theory doesn’t fit with your last memory aboveground. It doesn’t explain the presence you felt behind you, the feeling that something heavy and hateful had manifested right over your shoulder. 

Most importantly, there are no scratches or scrapes anywhere on your body. You can’t have fallen. You were brought here. Hidden away beneath the street into a tunnel you had no idea existed. And your host has been kind enough to keep you in perfect condition. You’re not even dirty from where you’ve clearly been crumpled on the floor - somehow, the stone corridor is perfectly clean.

As you sit up, all these thoughts run through your head in a matter of seconds. Your shell-shocked stream of consciousness doesn’t give way to panic until a hand from behind you lands on your shoulder. Its owner doesn’t even let you scream - he claps his other hand over your mouth before you have the chance to open it, and leans down so that you feel his hot breath in your ear. “Boo.” 

You strain against his hand when you hear his voice. It doesn’t sound - well, you’re not quite sure what you expected a kidnapper to sound like. Maybe a lower voice. Certainly a sinister one. But he just sounds excited and mischievous, like a child who’s gotten away with a prank. So lighthearted in what is, for you, such a dire situation - it sends a shiver up your spine to imagine his grin.

You don’t have to imagine for long. His hand slinks from your shoulder up your neck, taking root in your hair and yanking your head back so you’re forced to look up. It is dim in the tunnel, but you see his face clearly. You register, in a far-off place in your mind, that it is pretty, almost feminine. Your impression is that his face is far too fine compared to the coarseness of his mouth and his hands, even with the strange scars stitching their way across the unnaturally smooth skin.  

“Don’t look so terrified. Or do. I kinda like it.” Your eyes stretch even wider. “Yeah - I really like it, actually. Stay just like that.” When he speaks for longer, you notice the eerie quality of the cavern - the way it causes sounds to echo and reverberate down its walls. Farther down, you hear the drip-drip-drip of dirty water hitting the floor. But here - not even a drop. It’s as if the space has been cleared of its usual filth, just for you. “Okay,” he says, “I actually wanna hear you, too.” He doesn’t wait for a response before taking his hand from your mouth and letting go of your hair. 

Your heels - they must have fallen off. Or he took them off. In any case - you can run. You know it’s pointless as soon as you stand up. You know even the time you take to rise to your feet is enough for him to grab onto you again. But you have to try. So you do. You’re surprised to get any distance at all. You’re shocked to have made it ten paces - twenty - thirty. Even sprinting with the adrenaline-spiked speed of someone who fears for her life, this shouldn’t be possible. But you find yourself starting to hope. You’re fast, and maybe he was caught off guard. Maybe, just maybe, you can make it to the light you see shining at the mouth of the tunnel. It’s not that far away. And once you’re out there, on the street, he won’t be able to do anything. You’ll make it home and forget this ever happened. Even now, you’re wondering if it’s all a dream. If you’re going to wake up once you hit that light - closer now, so close - snug in your bed, wondering how you managed to make it home last night but relieved that you did. Yes. That has to be it. This isn’t real, and you’re going to escape it so, so soon -

A rush of cold air streaks past you, and your captor appears in front of you, grinning as he blocks your path. You try to step to the side, but he’s already there. Back the other way - he beats you again. You feel your will collapse in on itself as he steps forward and snakes his hand around your waist, laughing unabashedly as you struggle. “Not bad,” he says. “Of course, I gave you a pretty big head start. But still. You run pretty fast for someone who could barely walk the night before.”

You’re so close to him that you’re sure he must be able to hear your heart pounding. Despite your best efforts to hold yourself back, you find yourself looking up at his face again. His eyes are pretty, too. But they’re mismatched - one is a light gray and the other is deep blue - and unblinking. Seeing them up close only makes his presence more unnerving. He grins crookedly as you make eye contact with him, staring back without saying a word.

“What - why -” you break eye contact, choosing instead to stare at the ground where his bare feet are nearly on top of yours. “Please. Let me go.”

“Nuh-uh. No way.” He pushes you back at arms length and leans over you, his face coming so close to yours that your eyes unfocus trying to look at him. “Haven’t even done anything yet.”

“Done…”

“Mhm.” He takes your shoulders and turns you around, giving you a light shove to get you moving. You shudder - your dress has an open back, so his hand didn’t just touch your clothes, but your bare skin. And it’s so short, too. He’s probably staring as you walk, tracing your curves with those unnatural eyes. He looked down when he had you pressed up against him. He didn’t even try to hide it. 

“That’s far enough.” You stop, not even daring to turn around. He slithers around you instead, dragging his hand over the back of your dress again as he passes, keeping a hold on you and pulling you close again. “You’re gonna help me out with some things today, alright?”

When you hesitate, his long fingernails tighten against your skin. He’ll draw blood if he presses any harder. “What…what do you want?”

“I’ve been doin’ some experiments down here.” His nails drag down the curve of your back, only stopping at your hips. “Been learning what I’m capable of. I’ll show you the other test subjects if I have to but… I think I’ve already convinced you to cooperate, right?” He tugs on the hem of your dress, sliding his fingertips underneath the edge of the thin fabric. “You don’t seem ready to meet anyone right now, anyways. Not as if they’re really in a state to talk to you.”

You stare blankly, resisting the urge to squirm as his hand trails up the back of your thigh. Not for the first time, you wonder if you’re going to be leaving this place alive.

“Lots of room down here,” he says. “Plenty of dark corners. But I think I’m gonna keep you right here.” 

“Please..” you say.

“Hmm?” He smiles a second later, once he understands. “Please don’t kill you, right? Don’t mutate your pretty body and then throw you somewhere no one will ever find you?” Your mind amends mutate to mutilate. The intellectual victory does nothing to comfort you. “Don’t worry. ‘m not gonna do that. Not yet, anyways.” His nails are scraping very high on your thigh, now, and the other hand is weaving its way through your hair. His fingers seem to bend strangely around you, as if they have no set form at all, as if they’re molding to best fit your body as he claims it piece by piece. “You’re just gonna help me out a little, okay? “You’re gonna help me figure out what else I’m capable of.”

He grips the top of your head and forces it up and down, mimicking a nod, laughing impishly as you glare up at him. “So sweet of you. We’ll take this one step at a time, alright?”

You don’t understand until he leans over you, running a fingertip across your lips to part them slightly before meeting them with his own. You try to recoil, but the hand toying with your dress runs up your back and presses you forward, forcing you deeper into the kiss instead. It’s unexpectedly gentle, at first, but as your body is forced flush against his it becomes more messy, more hungry. He shoves his tongue against yours and grips your hair tight enough for it to hurt, only drawing back for long enough to bite your lip and watch a string of drool drip across the faint indent he’s left behind. You gasp for breath until he swallows up your mouth again, using his tongue to reach every place he can. 

You stay in place even when he relaxes his grip. He only stops to speak once he has, it seems to you, tried every kind of kiss he can think of - fast, slow, shallow, violent, hungry, sloppy. “You’re doing good,” he says, flashing the same smile as before. “Good start. Amazing, really…” He shakes his head, like he’s trying to clear his thoughts, and the softer smile is replaced by a cold grin. “Take your dress off.” 

“Wh -”

“Take it off. Take off whatever you have underneath it, too. I don’t care about seeing it.”

“But -” 

“But - but -” He laughs again, practically giggles as he mocks your faint protests. “You don’t wanna die, either, do you?”

Mute, you shake your head.

“Actually…” He turns you around again, and you think you hear him sigh faintly as his hips snap against yours. “You’re taking too long. I’ll just do it myself.” He gives you no time to react before tugging on the zipper of your short dress, so violently that it hitches on the teeth and nearly breaks off. Only the second time does he do it right, pulling it all the way down in a smooth motion. The dress only covered from your lower back to a few inches down your thighs, anyways, and now even that protection is stripped away. The front of your body is exposed, too, as he tugs the thin garment along with your panties down to the stone ground beneath your feet.

Every muscle in your body tenses as his own bare skin collides with yours, his worn pants pulled down to rest alongside your dress. “Didn’t even wear anything beneath the dress up here,” he mutters. He reaches from behind you, groping your tits with no regard for the way you whine and squirm. “Making it so easy for me, aren’t you?”

“No,” you gasp. “Didn’t wear anything there. I should have -”

He claws his nails over the delicate peaks of your breasts, and you bite hard on your lip to keep from crying out. “Interesting. That’s a sweet spot, huh?” You shiver as he clamps down on you again. “You got any more I should know about?”

“No…” You lie, as if anything you say now will help you. He’s tracing every inch of your skin already, down your stomach and hips and up your thighs, squeezing and pinching when you least expect it, mapping you out like you’re the first person he’s been this close to in his life. 

“You sure?” He taps his fingertips along the creases that connect the tops of your thighs to your body, pressing close against you and breathing hot in your ear. Making sure you hear and feel his excitement. “We’re gonna test that out, too. So spread out your legs. They’re getting in the way.” 

You clench your fists tight and do as he says, shifting on either side to allow him easy access to every part of you. Still, you reflexively pull your hips back as his fingers climb their way towards your cunt, cringing when your sudden motions make his cock pulse against your skin. 

“What’re you doing that for?” He cups his hand between your legs, ending your desperate attempts to squirm away. “Not like you’re going anywhere, right?” He pulls his hand back, showing you the wet sheen that’s rubbed off on his fingers. “I don’t think you would even if you could. But if you want, I’ll let you run again. Give you ‘til the count of ten before I start chasing you. Maybe even twenty or thirty. Maybe I’ll let you see the street before I drag you back here.” He lets go of you, grabbing your arms and using them to turn you back the way you ran before. “We’ll do it now, actually. Run! I’ll be not-quite-right-behind you.”

You shake your head. 

“Come onn. It’ll be fun. Or - well, I’ll have fun.” Your feet stay rooted to the ground. He looks genuinely disappointed, for a moment, as if he actually expected you to take him up on his inane offer. “Fine.” He shoves down on your shoulders, and you follow the motion, crumpling down to your knees with no resistance. “You can entertain me this way instead, then.” Now that he’s in front of you again, you look for the first time. You’re equal parts curious and repelled by the stitch-like markings that continue down the rest of his body. If you were thinking clearly, you’d wonder if they were perhaps tattoos, and why anyone would choose to do something like that to themselves. But the crisscrossing lines guide you far too quickly down the length of his frame, forcing your curious eyes down below his hips before you have the sense to close them. 

He tilts his head, sizing up your expression before flicking his eyes down your body and then back up to meet yours. “You’ve definitely done this before. So do it right.” Your eyes are almost as wide as your mouth as he closes the last inches between you and him. “Make it feel how it’s supposed to.” You nod blanlky as you wonder how you’re supposed to fit him all the way in your mouth. Maybe you won’t have to. He’s so obviously inexperienced, so eager… maybe you can end this quickly. 

You drag the tip of your tongue up the underside of his cock, forcing yourself to look up at him as you give the same slow treatment to the sides and the tip before taking the shaft in your hand. He stares back, his gaze flicking between your eyes and your mouth as it works over his cock. He’s breathing harder already, less than halfway into your mouth, almost letting the breaths tip over the edge into moans as your tongue flicks up his length again. It takes a concerted effort not to close your eyes, to not let your resolve crumble. 

It has started to happen already. He was right in his crude assessment of you - you do know what you’re doing - but you’ve never been so terrified with a cock in your mouth, never felt like your life depended on your ability to please the man in front of you. Your strokes become sloppy as you let panic edge into the corners of your vision.

“Fuck,” he groans. Your one free hand clenches into a fist as he grabs you at the nape of your neck and thrusts forward, holding you still as he forces his cock back into your throat. “Fuck.” You feel him writhe in your mouth just as his fingers did in your hair, molding himself to the contours of your throat as he fucks your face over and over, only becoming more frantic as you start to struggle against his hand, more frenzied as you gag and drool around him, until finally - finally - you’re tugged forward one last time, your lips pulled taught as hot liquid spurts down your throat. He keeps you there as you continue struggling for breath, sliding his thumb over your bottom lip and smearing your drool across your face. 

When you’re finally allowed to pull back, you wrap your arms around yourself, shrinking inwards as you whisper, “Please. May I go now?”

“Huh?” He crouches down until his face is level with yours, crossing his arms over his knees as he sinks to the ground. You try to keep your eyes on his face - it’s practically glowing, his eyes wild and bright, their contrasting colors even more apparent. “We’re not done yet, sweetheart. Just taking a little break.” 

You freeze for a second before scrambling backwards. It’s absolutely stupid, but - he said he wanted you to run. So he won’t get mad at you for trying one last time. And maybe it’ll work this time. Maybe you’ll get out. Maybe he was lying and he’s actually ready to see you go. Maybe seeing you run naked and sobbing onto the street will be enough to satisfy him, and he won’t chase you any farther.

He gives you five paces before pouncing, pinning you to the ground with one hand wrapped tight around your throat, turning you over so he can see the fear written on your face. “Guess what?” He whispers it into your ear before sinking his teeth into your neck, nearly hard enough to split your skin open. You feel something hard pressing into your stomach, swelling as you cry out in pain. “Break is over.” He drags his tongue over cheek and traces it down your jaw before kissing you right where the bite mark still glows red on your skin. Using both hands to pin your wrists down at your sides, he drags his way down your body, running his tongue over your breasts, your navel, around the triangle between your thighs. “I usually don’t care much about what’s fair, but - I really think I should return the favor.” His eyes flit down to your legs, squeezed tightly together. “Try to relax. This is supposed to be fun, right?” He works two fingers between thighs and prys them open. 

You hold back a whimper as he dives into the space between, dragging the flat of his tongue voraciously over your hot cunt. He’s sloppy, ignoring the way your eyes are glued to his face as he tests and probes your cunt, teasing the opening and forcing his tongue inside, giving no pause before swallowing the sheen left behind. You have to squeeze your eyes shut. You have to tell yourself not to give in to the heat sweeping through your core, not to accept even a tiny bit of pleasure from the man defiling you, but - it’s so, so difficult. So strange to feel someone so obviously selfish pleasing you, even if it’s by accident, even if it’s just for his own enjoyment - you can’t stop yourself from pushing your hips shamelessly against his mouth. Can’t stop yourself from moaning as his fingers find your clit. 

He pulls away, laughing at the whine that escapes from your mouth. “Tastes better than I thought,” he says. “But you  - you’re reacting just like I thought. It’s like your mind’s melting away.” He pinches your clit between two fingers, and your eyes nearly roll back into your head. “You’re being controlled by this now.”

You just manage to shake your head. “No - no. I’m still - I don’t -”

He pounces on top of you again, thrusting his fingers into your open mouth. “Shhh. You don’t have to talk. That’s not what you’re here for.” He grinds against you, his cock already pushing at the entrance to your cunt as he fucks your mouth with his fingers, nearly making you gag as he pushes relentlessly into your throat. “You’re here to help me out, right? And you’ve been doing so good. So good for me.” You don’t want your stomach to flutter at the praise. Not here, not from him. You try your best to ignore it, tell yourself to close your eyes as he all but fucks your thighs. 

When you try to screw them shut, though, he puts his pinky right on your eyelid and drags up, forcing it to flutter open again. “Ah-ah,” he says. “Keep your eyes open. I wanna see how this makes you feel.” He presses his hips hard against yours, guiding himself nearly all the way inside you in a single motion. “Fuck.” His eyes nearly close as he savors the feeling of you tightening around him, but he keeps them open just wide enough to see your lips open wide, forming an O around the fingers still scraping against your tongue. “I’m keeping you here forever. Understand?” The drool from his fingers smudges across your cheek as he grabs the sides of your face, squeezing as he shoves farther inside you, over and over again, only spurred on by the sloppy noises he hears every time the two of you connect. “Gonna be - gonna be my fucking toy forever. I’ll keep you on a fucking leash if I have to.” 

All you can do is whimper and blink back your tears. He brushes his tongue across your face, licking them away as they overflow. “You look so scared. So mad.” He’s slowing himself down, now. Making it last. “It’s cute. Stay just like that, okay?” He presses on the corners of your mouth, forcing it deeper into a scowl. “So fucking cute.”

Your eyes match the anger he’s forced onto your mouth. Somehow, this moment feels worse than everything that’s come before. He’s playing with your face now. Trying to make it his, just like your body. And something about that - it breaks your daze. And your arms aren’t pinned anymore. There’s nothing you can do to make him stop, but. You feel the overwhelming urge to do something.

You reach up and slap him. Right across his pretty face, turning it sharply aside just as his cock buries itself all the way inside your cunt, reaching farther than you thought anyone ever could. His eyes widen, and his grip on your face tightens to a vise. You think that just once, you’ve managed to shock him.

Your faint sense of victory fades when you feel his cock pulse unmistakably inside you. 

“Oh -” he sighs blissfully as he releases inside you, and you go limp as he collapses into your shoulder. A moment later, he turns his head and whispers in your ear. “Very interesting.” You can practically feel his grin radiating against your neck. “I’m definitely keeping you, now. So many things to try…” You squirm as he shifts on top of you, his face hovering right over your own. “And you’re gonna help me with every single one.”

[quackityupdates]

Quackity spoke about his boundaries on stream!

Tumblr, for some reason, is not letting me post the clip. You can find it and the original translations here.

Transcript:

“The thing is.. I don’t know anymore because I said those things 3-4 years ago. The only boundary I have is to have common sense.

If you don’t think something is right, don’t do it. I would rather you guys have a better understanding of what common sense is and go from there. I really don’t give a fuck about shipping. It’s a fucking joke, right? But if the other person doesn’t feel comfortable with it, then don’t do it. 

But don’t make anyone uncomfortable, use common sense. That’s really all I can really say; use common sense. I see that people make entire lists [of boundaries] and I get it. 

Like if there’s a new person who wants to be in the community and they have to follow this list of things of what they can and can’t do? In which a lot of things that aren’t up to date either, by the way. I would rather you guys use common sense. Don’t do things to make people uncomfortable or that make me mad. That’s very clear.

I’m just like any other human being. Like damn, if it’s clearly something that’ll make people uncomfortable or something stupid, don’t do it. Yeah, just don’t do it.”

He also posted some tweets talking about it.

[Image IDs: four screenshots of tweet by quackitytheduck that read “its tough to talk about serious topics in another language because a lot gets lost in translation, including the tonality in which it’s said. i do wanna clarify that common sense is not the ONLY boundary that i have, even though it is the one I wish more people had”

“this topic is a new thing in my spanish community, so i wanted to approach it in a more lighthearted manner than a strict one. thats also why I said it in spanish, because I thought the receiving end would mianly be my spanish community.”

“I didn’t like the hate new fans (with good intentions) of my spanish community received for making tiny mistakes, under the excuse that they were breaking my boundaries, which is what bothered me intially.“

“pls dont blow things out of proportion i promise u its not as devastating of a topic as many make it out to be. just be respectful!”.

End ID]

[shihalyfie]

Happy August 1! You should watch Appmon.

If you’re following me (a very Adventure and 02-centric blog), you’ve probably already seen Adventure and 02, but you might not have seen Appmon, and since it’s such a lovely and important day today, I thought I should take the moment to try and rectify that as much as possible (especially since it’s streaming on Crunchyroll in several countries, too).

Why Appmon in particular? Well, thinking about it and my own position as an Adventure/02 blog, I personally believe that Appmon is one of the Digimon entries that most captures the spirit of what attracted people to classic Digimon (Adventure through Frontier) without actually being an outright rehash. I think Appmon’s critical acclaim has become well-known among members of this fanbase, but there aren’t a lot of things that thoroughly unpack why Appmon gets all of that critical acclaim and is so well-liked by classic Digimon fans. So I decided to write one!

One of the biggest things that works against recommending Appmon to others is how it looks very “immature”, or in other words, the bright sparkly colors and extensive use of catchphrases makes it come off as a kids’ show with an low-aged target audience and existing primarily to be goofy more than anything else. Personally, I’m still not fond of the idea that “dark” and “mature” should be considered synonymous (as someone who has a lot of prejudice against media that tries to be dark and edgy but actually has no substance), but nevertheless, Appmon is probably the single most deceptive series in this franchise. If you’re familiar with kids’ shows, you’re probably aware that it’s quite common for them to start off lighthearted and escalate as they get further in, but I cannot emphasize enough that Appmon is probably one of the most extreme about this, and heavily urge everyone reading this to not judge a book by its cover.

The following will be a spoiler-free breakdown of why I heavily recommend this series to anyone who hasn’t seen it already.

Ridiculous amount of depth, yet easy to understand

Appmon doesn’t really come off as a subtle series, with all the catchphrases flying everywhere and things being in-your-face, so it’s very easy to mistake it for a very unsubtle series that doesn’t have a lot of depth -- but in actuality, it has an incredible amount of attention to detail and a lot of underlying things that aren’t immediately obvious, and it’s perhaps impressive that it manages to juggle having both an in-your-face narrative that can be enjoyed at face value and underlying things in its narrative that can get you thinking for a really long time if you so choose.

The theme of “apps” isn’t just the writers trying to pick a common modern tech topic to look fashionable and hip! The series actually does a lot to seriously discuss real-life issues and topics going on in modern AI and technology development, and, more importantly, discusses this in the context of how this is currently relevant even to the average person right now, and how we may have to start seriously thinking about these issues in relation to our daily life. Some of the topics it brings up prominently within the series:

Technological singularity

Internet of things (IoT)

Clarke’s third law

Algorithmic bias and its impact on popularity

Corporate data mining and surveillance disguised as fun social activities

Volatility and competition in the modern app market

The tendency for high-level tech engineers to avoid “smart” technology and go old-school because they’re freaked out by the aforementioned surveillance and IoT

Social media bandwagoning

The Chinese room problem/the Turing test

...and more! And it explains all of this in ways more intuitive and fun than your average university textbook. Who would’ve thought.

This is, of course, a kids’ show, but I would seriously even recommend this series with no restraint to adults who are interested in a crash course on modern tech industry issues and what we’re going to have to consider in the coming years. I mean, how many kids’ shows are capable of making a narrative that so scathingly calls out the prevalence of modern corporate surveillance and yet delivers it in a format that’s also ridiculously fun? The series is indeed easy to understand, and that’s actually quite the accomplishment given that these are some topics known for being infamously obtuse! In fact, I personally think it’s very important to appreciate its concept of “fun” and being playful with its audience (good humor is hard to write, too!), and I find the fact it pulls this duality off to be even more phenomenal.

The take on the topic is also surprisingly nuanced, too -- instead of portraying technology as the source of all evil that’ll be responsible for our doom, it instead discusses the pros and cons of its impact on life, how it’s currently so deeply entwined with our lives that it’s not something you can just deny or chuck out the window, and how there are many ways it enriches our lives. It’s a take on it that’s close to reality and our modern world: if this is the way things are going to go, what should we consider, what’s the best way to approach this, and what should we anticipate going forward?

And if you think that being “easy to understand” and having a lot of goofy catchphrases means that the narrative never escalates that much nor gets all that tense or dramatic, boy, you have absolutely no idea. Again, not to say that I personally equate “dark” with “good”, but, well...without spoiling too much, if you’re still thinking that this is too much of a “goofy lighthearted series” to ever get serious, guess what happens with one of the party members in the finale!

Good character writing

Character writing is a standby in Digimon, but when we say “good character writing”, what do we mean by good character writing? This blog itself has already gone into detail about how even Adventure and 02 have different approaches to character writing, based on Adventure’s “self-awareness” approach versus 02′s “interpersonal relationships” approach, and how neither series actually quantifies “character development” by “how much each character changed”. Still, regardless of what your personal bar for character development is, Appmon inherits the classic Digimon approach of going in-depth into its characters’ mentalities, poking closely into their motivations, fears, insecurities, goals, and feelings.

Appmon’s approach to characters strikes a balance between the Adventure and 02 models in that it has a strong group dynamic of characters playing off each other, but also still devotes time to “character focus” episodes that allow you to understand each character deeply on an individual level (and has a surprisingly close to even amount of coverage of said characters). Moreover, even in a different form, the “partner” relationship between the Appli Drivers and their Buddy Appmon remains the same as the traditional relationship between a human and their Digimon partner, with all the bantering and mutual heart-to-hearts that come with it. The partnership relationship portrayed lies somewhere between Adventure and 02′s “literally part of your psyche” and Tamers having them be separate entities entirely; they’re not portrayed as mentally linked per se, but each Buddy Appmon has a certain “purpose” that pairs alongside each Appli Driver’s strongest desire or goal -- for instance, Haru is a thoughtful type who tries his best to understand others, and Gatchmon’s specialty function is research.

Beyond the individual characters having depth and the group having a strong dynamic, a lot of attention is paid to fleshing the world they live in; through the use of recurring characters and locations, the series gives you a strong sense of what Haru and his friends’ lives are like in Fujimizaka and the surrounding area, and what it is exactly they’re working to protect. It also helps bring the story close to home, because of how the hard sci-fi story integrates with what’s familiar in reality.

Strong use of themes in narrative

It would be one thing if the series touching on some pretty deep topics made it into a sort of “heavily cerebral” narrative that asks a lot of so-called tough questions, but were so focused on being smart and pulling one over you that it doesn’t have any take-home messages or anything meaningful to say. (Because there are definitely a lot of those stories that are so busy trying to say “life is harder than it seems” that there’s not much actual message to be had in it.) But that’s not the case with Appmon, and on top of having more pragmatic things to discuss about the world right now, there’s also a lot of heart in it, too.

There’s actually a lot you can get from it, but the most prominent theme of the series is “the importance of making choices out of kindness”. “Kindness” in this case doesn’t just mean playing nice with everyone, but rather “kindness” and actively choosing to consider the importance of feelings, the human heart, and the ability to make those choices in the first place in the midst of a world that is actively trying to get rid of those things. In a world that’s becoming progressively more intertwined with efficiency, organization, and reducing people to pawns and statistics, what does it mean to still have kindness towards others? (And, as you can guess, this is why the choice to have Haru be an unconventional protagonist who acts out of kindness instead of impulsiveness ends up being very important to this narrative.)

Despite the series being the closest to a true “hard sci-fi” narrative among all of the Digimon anime series released to date, this is still a very humanistic narrative that goes deeply into emotions and relationships, and it is very much one that invites you to think harder about these topics. In fact, true to its creed about kindness, the series itself comes off as very kind in its delivery -- even despite all the very high-level topics it covers, it never comes off as pretentious or needlessly edgy.

Generally good pacing and execution

In general, I personally weigh all of the above factors over the question of whether a narrative has execution issues like pacing or whatnot, but, incredibly, on top of all of the above, Appmon is extremely well-paced, well-executed, and is very tightly packed as a narrative -- other than a recap episode at episode 26 made to accommodate a real-life timeslot change (which is now completely skippable since the series is complete and available for marathon), there is no part of the narrative that can be considered to be stalling or not plot/character-important in some way, and in fact you could say the narrative keeps accelerating and doesn’t stop (no major pacing issues!).

I am obviously not going to claim that this series is perfect (as I say very often, there’s no such thing as a perfect series), and I’m sure there are many out there who have different personal tastes from mine to the extent that they didn’t end up as interested in this series as I do, but even when I try to remove a lot of my personal sentiments from the equation, Appmon is an incredibly “well-rounded” series, which is pretty remarkable in a franchise where a lot of its entries have infamously been “biased” in one way or another, and it’s hard to say there’s too many factors you would call a glaring miss or a slip-up. This is a series that covers a pretty ridiculous amount of ground in its 52-episode runtime.

It’s also obvious that the narrative was properly planned out in advance, because on top of the core narrative and subplots being very well organized and properly resolved, the amount of foreshadowing and the delicate plays of red herrings and just-enough-to-make-you-suspicious-but-not-enough-to-make-you-sure are handled extremely well (plus, if you decide to watch it a second time, you’ll notice tons of things that you wouldn’t have noticed in a first watch). It’s the kind of story organization that feels very “satisfying” in that sense -- and for even that alone, it becomes very well worth your time.

[writemywaytoyourheart]

Aim For The Heart | Chapter 1: At First Sight

Pairing: hitman!jk x female reader

Genre: E2L, romance, angst, drama

WC: 4.5k

Warnings for this chapter: alcohol consumption, language, stalking kind of? I think that's all lol. Pls let me know if there is anything else I should put.

tag list; @teresaisla @hopekookies @moonchild1 @barbellastyles98 @ggukkieland @mwitsmejk @yukiehyukie

summary; Jeon Jungkook is an infamous hitman, known for his inability to fail at whatever job is thrown his way. At least, up until now. Y/n, a kind-hearted and full of life teacher, is his newest target. Jeon isn't sure who would put a hit on this seemingly innocent girl, but fortunately, that isn't his problem. All he has to do is pull the trigger. 

Previous › Next

A bright smile graces your features as you tuck the little star-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches into a tiny container, just barely getting two of them to fit as you squish them down a tad bit in order to get the lid clipped on.

Then you grab a little tangerine and a cheese stick to drop into your lunch bag along with the sandwiches, counting the number of items aloud to yourself as they make themselves at home and then you zip it all up.

"Th-There we go!" You lift your lunch for the day in triumph.

Your phone startles you when it starts to ring, then you grapple in your purse to find it. You pull it out and answer right before the last ring.

"Hello?"

"Hey, girl! Are you ready to go? I'm downstairs." The voice of your best friend comes through the phone and you look at the clock on your microwave. You stare at the little black screen, confused as to why the time isn't showing up before remembering that you were never able to figure out how to display the clock when you bought the microwave three years ago. So, you hold your phone out to look at the time.

6:32

"Oh geez! I didn't r-realize the time. I'll be d-down in a minute, k?" You say, earning a lighthearted laugh from the girl on the other end.

"Take your time, hun. I'm not in any rush."

You thank her quickly and hang up, then you run to your room to grab your favorite pink cardigan and throw it on over your white shirt. As you're hurrying out and grabbing your lunch, you stumble and knock your knee into an open lower cabinet that you had forgotten to close the previous night after pulling a pan from it to make dinner.

"Ouch!" You hiss in pain and rub the sore spot, although it does nothing to ease the ache. Then you grab your purse and run outside, almost forgetting to lock the door. But you remember just in time and clumsily lock it before rushing down the stairs leading to the parking lot of your apartment complex.

Your best friend, Mina, is laughing. You can see her through the windshield as she waves to you. Lifting a hand to wave back, you don't realize in time that your arms are full. You drop your lunchbox and have to crouch to get it again, only taking up even more of your time.

But Mina finds it hilarious and tells you so as soon as you slide into the car and fumble with your seatbelt to get it buckled.

"Honestly, ___. I can't believe you're still single. If I wasn't straight as a board, I'd be head over heels for you and all your shenanigans." She states in a matter-of-fact tone as she pulls out of the parking spot.

A blush creeps up your neck and you try to laugh it off, "D-Don't be silly." You whisper, turning your gaze outside to look at the fluffy white clouds decorating the sky beautifully. You smile and lean your forehead against the glass as you imagine lying on a soft cloud, just drifting in the air.

"If you c-could go anywhere at all, where would y-you go?" You ask Mina suddenly, turning to her. Her eyes are focused on the road but she bites her lip in thought at your question. "Mm, probably Italy. What about you?" She's used to your sudden questions and ramblings, so she smiles when you start to go off.

"I'd wanna go up in the c-clouds. I wanna sit on one and maybe even see a r-rainbow up close! I wonder if I could slide down the rainbow..." Your brows furrow in deep thought. "Or would I f-fall?" You turn to her again and she glances over to see your signature puppy dog eyes that you use when you are either confused, upset, or want something.

Mina turns back to the road, a tiny ache in her heart that she hides with a bright smile, "Girl, you would ride that rainbow straight down into a pot of gold!"

"Really?" Your eyes widen and you feel your heart lift at the image.

She nods and you giggle happily, "You can come w-with me, Mina." You say confidently, your gaze turning back to the sky. "We can sleep in the clouds and slide down rainbows for the rest of f-forever."

"Sounds like a deal."

By the time Mina pulls up to the school, you've discussed everything you'd do up in the clouds and what you'd eat when you're hungry (stardust, you've decided, is the best meal anyone could eat.)

You unbuckle and gather your things. Then you remember something and turn back to Mina, "Oh yeah. W-When are you leaving on your business trip?" You ask a tinge of sadness in your voice.

"This weekend," Mina says solemnly. "I'm sorry I won't be able to drive you for a while. I'll be gone for a month this time."

That makes your heart sting but you manage a small smile, "D-Don't worry about me. I can walk! I'm gonna m-miss you though."

"I'll miss you too, buttercup. We'll hang out this Friday night before I leave the next day. How about that?" Mina asks kindly.

You nod enthusiastically and she smiles, "Ok, get your butt in there before you're late! The bell rings in half an hour and you can't be late on a Monday." She urges you and you nod, hopping out of the car and thanking her again for the ride, reassuring her that you'll walk home from work today.

You blow her a kiss and she laughs as you turn and hurry into the school.

You're all set up only a few minutes before the kids are supposed to arrive, so you go onto Pinterest and look through your fairytale boards, feeling a little spark of joy in your chest.

A couple of minutes later, the kids start streaming through the door, greeting you with the same amount of enthusiasm as you greet them. Your kiddos love you so much that all the other teachers are jealous and they let you know it every day. Of course, you have the sweetest kindergarteners and they're always the best for you.

"Hello, Teacher! Good morning Miss ___! Teacher, look at my new haircut!"

"Hi, Jina! Hello M-Minhhyuk! Kun, your new haircut l-looks so good!" All the kids have bright smiles on their faces by the time they've settled in their seats.

You always start the day off by getting everyone to stand and do a few stretches, then you sing the nursery rhymes you learned yesterday and start learning a new one. You honestly have as much fun as the kids during the school day.

"Ok, l-little ducklings, have a seat!" You get their attention and they immediately oblige. Next, is the alphabet that you guys have been working on since the beginning of the year. Every little one sings it perfectly all the way through and you give them a round of applause and they each get a little punch in their reward cards.

The rest of the day goes by smoothly, with only one temper tantrum thrown and that was resolved quickly.

It's nearing the end of the school day and the kids are all playing during their free time. You're sitting with Ae-Cha, a small and fairly quiet girl, playing with colorful blocks; the both of you competing to see who can build the highest tower. You've learned that she responds well to playing games when there isn't too much talking involved.

You're constantly glancing around the room to make sure everyone is safe and playing nicely and you're always pleased. They've all improved so much since the beginning of school back in September. It's June now and they've all learned their alphabet and how to play nicely with their new friends, along with so many other things. They've really made you so proud this year. You can even hear them reciting the alphabet and nursery rhymes to each other as they play.

Your heart warms at the sound of tiny voices filling the room as they sing. Then you glance at the clock and realize the bell will be ringing in a few minutes. So, you declare Ae-Cha the winner with her foot-high tower of blocks and she beams proudly. Then, you get up and clap three times, "One, two, th-three! Eyes on me!" You singsong, then smile when the kids immediately respond by clapping twice and shouting "One, two! Eyes on you!"

"G-Great attention today, everyone! Alright, the bell will ring soon. Who can tell me w-what that means? What are we doing n-now?" A few little hands go up and you point to the little boy that raised his first, "Yes, Joon Woo?"

"We...Uhm...time to clean up toys...Uhm..." You smile to encourage him and he finishes cutely, "Time uh, to clean up our toys and pack bags."

"Yes! Thank you, Joon Woo. It is t-time for us to clean up and make sure our bags are packed up and ready for h-home!"

The kids start to pick up their toys as you put on the cleaning song that you play every day for them. You all sing along until the room is all tidied and their bags are packed with their homework papers.

You always give them little mazes to do for homework to get their little brains to learn to concentrate, along with instructions on what to draw to show the class the next day. Today, their homework is an extremely easy maze, a coloring page with the alphabet and instructions to draw themselves doing their favorite activity. The kids always love drawing pictures and sharing them with the class and it's a good ice breaker for the shy ones at the beginning of the day.

You always have less and easier homework for the kids on Mondays and Fridays, it just seems fair to you that way. You also feel like it's good for kids to express themselves and be able to share what they like and dislike. You've found drawing helps with communication and creativity for the kids in your class.

The sound of the bell ringing makes a few of you jump, then you hurry to the door. "Alright, ducklings! T-Time to line up!" A few of the kids make quacking sounds as they line up, giggling and talking to their friends.

You smile and open up the door, holding it as the kids walk out in a straight line, some of them still quacking like little ducks.

You lead the kids to the front of the school and make sure they get into the correct line for the bus if they take it. You wave goodbye to them as the kids that take the bus climb on and they run to a window to wave back to you.

The rest of the kids that are left are soon picked up by their parents or siblings. You wave to Ae-Cha, the last student to be picked up. She smiles shyly and waves back before hurrying after her big sister.

After that, you go back to your classroom and finish a few things before packing up to go home. As you're leaving your classroom, you run into one of the other teachers coming from his own room.

"Oh, h-hello Mr. B-Baek!" You bow, missing the ugly sneer on his face as you smile brightly at him. He pushes his glasses further up his nose as he scrutinizes you with his beady little eyes. "You don't belong here, Miss ___." He snaps.

You look at him in confusion, "I-I'm sorry, I don't understand."

"I've waited the entire school year to say this to you. But now that we are nearing the end, I think you should know that you have no business being a teacher at this school. You ought to make the right decision to discontinue your work here." Mr. Baek watches your face fall with a sick sense of satisfaction.

"B-But, why?" You ask, still not understanding.

"First of all, you're inexperienced. You just got out of college last year, am I right?"

You nod uncertainly.

"You're still a child. Why should a twenty-two-year-old girl come marching in here and take a spot that should have been given to someone with more experience? And especially someone like you." He glares at you before turning on his heel and walking away briskly.

Someone like me? What does he mean by that?

You watch after him, feeling a tiny pinch in your chest. You aren't sure what he means, but whatever he's talking about, it sounds like he believes you shouldn't have become a teacher at all. At this school or another. You'll have to ask Mina later because you really have no idea where his rant came from.

Is there something wrong with you becoming a teacher?

You shake your head and laugh it off, "He's probably just had a bad day." You tell yourself as you make your way out of the school.

As you walk home, you sing quietly along with the song in your headphones, a little skip to your step.

You never notice the dark figure across the street, his eyes trained on your every move.

One day earlier...

Jungkook groans as he tosses and turns in bed, searching for his phone to turn the alarm off. He finally finds it and hits dismiss, tossing the phone back down and rubbing his eyes with a tired yawn.

After another minute he sits up and looks out the window, frowning at the sun seeping in and pooling across his floor in a golden river. He stares at a small bird that lands on his windowsill until it flies away.

Jungkook yawns again and reaches up to rub his eyes for the second time. After a few minutes, he's finally able to drag himself out of bed and into the shower. He almost falls asleep again in there, but he manages to make it out after half an hour.

With a towel wrapped around his waist, he makes his way to the kitchen and grabs a bottle of soju that's sitting on his tiny dining table to take a small swig from, finishing off what he'd left last night after his third bottle right before he passed out in bed.

He sighs and grabs a bagel, searching for the cream cheese he swears he saw in his fridge last night. A small smile appears on his lips when he finds it. He snatches it and makes sloppy work of spreading it on his bagel before tossing the leftover trash onto his counter and plopping onto the couch, snarfing down the first half of his bagel in thirty seconds.

Jungkook sighs through his nose as he tiredly chews his breakfast, then he glances down and sees the file he'd left open on his coffee table last night. He swallows the bite he has in his mouth and leans forward to read over it.

Y/L/N Y/N...

Why is that name so familiar?

He shakes his head and flips the file closed, then he leans back on the couch, wanting to spend his Sunday relaxing before he has to get to work on this case. He isn't going to think about it again until tonight.

Jungkook settles down and lays his head on the back of the couch, closing his eyes and breathing deeply.

He won't think about it.

Jungkook lays there for a minute, then he opens his eyes and lifts his head, glaring at the closed file on the little table.

He grunts in annoyance and drops the other half of his bagel onto the table, grabbing the file angrily and sitting back again. He opens it and starts to reread everything he's read many times since Friday. There's just something that has felt off since he met with Mr. Ling, but he can't put his finger on what it is.

Jungkook squints at the name he's read a thousand times.

Y/L/N...Y/N...

"Ugh." He rolls his eyes, frustrated at not being able to remember where he's heard that name before. Then he looks at the occupation.

Teacher at Sunshine Kindergarten.

His brows furrow again, much like they have each time he's read this. He's never had a hit on a teacher before, let alone a Kindergarten teacher. That's such an odd target...

Most of his targets in the past have been sleazy business owners, rapists, leaders of gangs that have terrorized neighborhoods for years, even other hitmen. He's never had a problem with those jobs, but there's something about this one that's telling him to be careful.

Maybe it's because he knows nothing about his client, except for the large sum of money he must have due to the pay he's been promised. Other clients of his were more than happy to explain why they wanted him to do what he does. They never paid him until after the job was done, either.

That leads Jungkook to believe that this guy (or girl) is desperate for his services, convincing him to do it with payment before and after. Almost as if Jungkook would refuse after he found out who the target was...

Jungkook flips the page and scrutinizes the picture of the target.

She's very simple looking, Jungkook thinks. The girl in the picture is wearing a white flowy skirt with a blue blouse that covers her whole arms and white chunky tennis shoes. Her hair is in a low ponytail and it seems like she has headphones in as she walks down the street. There's a tiny smile on her face as if she's thinking about something that makes her happy.

Jungkook doesn't find her particularly beautiful, but she isn't ugly either. She's just very...

Simple...

Jungkook shakes his head, his eyes going over the photo and the girl's smile one more time. Maybe she's a double agent? Or a part of the mafia disguising herself as a school teacher?

He can't figure it out.

It doesn't matter much though, the job seems simple enough and the pay is more than he's ever gotten. After looking through everything once more, Jungkook closes the file and grabs his bagel, quickly eating it before getting up to get dressed for the day.

That night, Jungkook lays out his outfit for the next day.

It's all black, but not suspicious-looking. After all these years, he's been able to design the perfect outfits to avoid attention being drawn to him and simple enough so that no one would think much of him if he were to catch anyone's attention.

It might seem simple, but he prides himself on being able to get each part of his job perfectly designed for each case he gets.

Heaven knows it's taken him years to accomplish.

After he's gotten that all figured out, he walks over to his closet and pulls out a small safe. Setting it on the bed, he swiftly unlocks it and looks inside. He pulls out a few things, examining each of them before he sets them one by one onto his bed. Once he's got the items all laid out, he steps back to look it all over.

"I should wait to decide..." Jungkook mumbles to himself. After a minute of staring at everything, he nods and gathers it all up, carefully putting it back into the safe and locking it tightly. Then he brings it back to his closet and shoves it into the darkest corner where it lives.

That can wait.

He pulls his phone out and checks the time.

11:45

"Damn it," Jungkook mutters. He had wanted to get some sleep earlier tonight since he would have to be awake early tomorrow.

He changes into some shorts, then he yanks his shirt off and immediately climbs into bed, not even bothering to shower or brush his teeth. He really couldn't care less with how tired he is. And he hasn't even started yet.

His alarm blares at an ungodly hour as Jungkook groans loudly, resisting the temptation to chuck his phone across the room.

"I hate Mondays." He mutters angrily, setting his phone back on the nightstand far from gracefully.

He miserably drags himself out of bed and into the shower, going through his morning motions almost like a robot. His brain isn't fully awake and it's just on autopilot right now.

An hour later, he's just finishing his coffee, his eyes no longer squinting in exhaustion. Jungkook unceremoniously drops his coffee cup into the sink, promising himself he'll clean it up later, then he sighs as he grabs his black boots, walking to the couch to sit and pull them on. After he's done lacing them up, he grabs the file he's been avoiding like the plague since yesterday morning.

He mutters to himself, looking at the name on the page.  

"I know that name."

Then he smacks his forehead to get himself to focus again. He stands up and folds the page with the girl's information and then her picture and tucks them into the inside pocket of his black jacket.

Time to get to work.

Jungkook spots the girl almost instantly, the second she steps out of a black car. He glances at the driver, but can only see a person with shoulder length black hair waving. The girl from the picture has a bunch of things in her arms as she blows a kiss to the short-haired driver.

Jungkook has been here since six-thirty in the morning and just as he was beginning to think she called in sick for work, he's finally gotten a chance to see this girl in person. She looks exactly as he remembers from her picture...plain.

She's even wearing the same white skirt and chunky tennis shoes, although this time she has a different top. Her hair is in a high ponytail this time.

"Well, ___. Nice to meet you." Jungkook mutters, watching closely.

After a moment, the black car drives away as the girl scurries into the school, tripping on the last step before straightening herself out again, then disappearing from his sight.

Huh.

Jungkook stares at the door for another minute, then he makes his way to the stores nearby, knowing he's gonna have to wait until the girl leaves. School for the young kids typically gets out at around three-thirty. So, he'll have to be back here around then.

He's definitely going to need to find something to do to kill time.

Jungkook heaves a sigh of relief when he hears the school bell finally ring.

He hurries from the clothes store he was browsing and down the street a block until he's almost across the street from the school. He finds a good spot where he can sift through some newspapers at a little stand and still have an eye on the school.

After a minute, he sees a long line of tiny children coming out from the school. The girl is with them and smiling brightly. Jungkook thinks he can hear some of the kids quacking like ducks. He tries not to look puzzled as he goes back to talking to the person working the paper stand. Jungkook makes small talk with the old man, still keeping an eye on the girl across the street as she waves to each child that leaves.

If she's some mafia boss disguised as a kindergarten teacher, she's one hell of a good actress.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" The old man inquires curiously.

Jungkook laughs softly and shakes his head, "No. I've been so busy with my work I never got the chance to date."

The man nods knowingly. They chat a bit more and Jungkook finds himself trying to balance talking to the man and watching the girl.

"Well, did you want to buy a paper for the day?"

Jungkook turns his gaze back to the old man and nods, "Yes. Two, please. My neighbor would probably enjoy one as well."

The old man laughs and nods, taking the money Jungkook hands him and giving him two papers, "What a kind young man you are. Someday you'll find a lovely young lady, don't you worry, son. You will realize that work is important, but love is even more so."

Jungkook just laughs and thanks the man, then he opens the paper as he slowly starts walking, pretending to read.

He stops at a bench and sits down to wait. The girl went back into the school a few minutes ago, hopefully, she won't be in there long.

Luck seems to be with him today, because, after only about five minutes, Jungkook sees a familiar white skirt flowing as she skips down the steps of the school.

He folds his paper carefully, tucking it into his back pocket. The girl puts little earbuds in and immediately starts to mouth the words of whatever song she's listening to. Jungkook tugs his black baseball cap down a little more as he follows on the other side of the street.

The girl has a bag decorated with cupcakes and cookies that bounces up and down as she dances a little.

What is she, twelve?

Jungkook watches in confusion as the girl stops to pet a dog, giggling when the puppy licks her hand. She straightens up, then after another minute, she seems to get distracted by something else.

Jungkook looks carefully and notices she's picked up a flower that was laying on the ground, seemingly trampled on. She gently holds it in her hands as she continues on her way. It goes on like this for the next fifteen minutes, the girl waving to people and smiling almost the whole way.

By the time she is walking up the steps to her apartment, Jungkook is dying to just get back home. That must have been the longest most annoying walk he's ever taken while tracking someone. The girl had stopped over twenty times, distracted by something else each time, he's sure of it.

Just to be sure, Jungkook lingers around the apartment building a little longer, but when it seems apparent that the girl is going to be staying there, he finally heads home.

Geez, Jungkook thinks in annoyance as he climbs the stairs that lead to his own apartment. His head is spinning with so many questions while he unlocks his door and yanks his boots off with a groan.

But when he plops down onto his bed in his tiny studio apartment, he just stares at the ceiling, his mind suddenly blank apart from one question.

Who in the hell would put a hit on this girl?

Copyright © @writemywaytoyourheart 2021

Next

a/n: I hope you guys are liking the setup so far, thank you for all the positive reactions from the prologue!

[mcmoth]

Dream SMP fandom etiquette

So. This post is probably too little, too late, considering the fandom and the issues I'm about to talk about have existed for so long now, and a lot of the people who need to hear this probably aren't on tumblr anyways, but I just wanted to dedicate a quick post to talk about fandom etiquette. Mostly pertaining to discourse, and interactions with people outside of our circle. These are just going to be my own personal thoughts, of course, but I felt it could be good to bring some of this to attention. So without further introduction:

Where to (not) talk about discourse:

Don't go into other streamer's vods to only focus about a different character. If you want to analyse, for example, c!Techno, do it in Techno's stream. Don't go into unrelated streams, like Tommy's, Tubbo's etc. to do it, even if they were a part of the event in question. This is, of course, with the exception if the character in question didn't stream their own pov. But otherwise, stay in your own space. This is to prevent cluttering a streamer's comments about unrelated discussion. To give further example: Tubbo's vod comments should primarily focus on Tubbo's character. Not Tommy's, Ranboo's, Techno's or whoever else's.

Don't start discourse in the comments of animatics. Seriously, stop that. Animatics aren't discussion boards. The comments are there to analyse and appreciate the video presented, not argue. It's especially rude if you pick a small detail, that wasn't even the focus of the animatic, or even a completely unrelated issue to rant out your frustrations about. To give examples: starting disc discourse in an animatic of Tommy talking to Wilbur, or rambling about how tragic Techno's character is in an animatic focused on clingy duo, etc.

This applies to fan songs as well.

Video essays are the exception to these rules. I think it's safe to say they're the place to bring your hot takes, if you really feel so inclined to argue in youtube comment sections (Though I'd personally advise to still keep the topic relevant).

Keep negativity out of fanfic comments. This isn't nearly as big of an issue as the last points, but I've seen it happen a couple times, so I'm deciding to mention it. Fanfics are written for fun. Even if you disagree with the characterisation or something else, unless the author is clear in accepting critique, keep criticism to yourself. And definitely don't rant about how you dislike a character unrelated to the fanfic. Sharing your thoughts on the fanfic itself is of course fine and welcomed, but when it turns from discussing the author's story to talking about how you dislike a character in canon, that's when it crosses a line. Example: comment talking about what you don't like about c!Tommy on a Bench Trio fanfiction.

When commenting on art, keep the feedback positive. Even if you dislike any presented character, keep that to yourself. Example: Don't say things like "I hate x character, but this art is good". You might think the author would feel honoured, but it's actually just hurtful.

How to deal with discourse:

This is gonna be a shorter section, because I think we all chose to do it in different ways, and that's valid. Also, it's just that I, myself, am still learning how to do this well, but I thought it could be good to try to lay it out anyways.

Try to scroll past takes you disagree with instead of arguing if you don't think you'd be able to keep your cool. Noone likes a random person yelling at them through a screen, and if you rant, you'll get an equally frustrated reply back, and noone will be happy. Either explain your point in a calm manner, or scroll past/ unfollow/block.

On the keeping cool thing, remember to just step away. Take a deep breath and calm yourself down before proceeding. To minimize the frustration you feel on a daily basis, filter tags, block people, avoid videos and youtube comment sections that you know will upset you, and leave certain internet spaces if you find yourself unable to escape negativity even with all those steps. Remember: in the end, it's all a game played by friends, a story, and your enjoyment of it lies in what you take from it. Abandon what makes you unhappy. Marie Kondo your fandom experience.

Also, here's your reminder, to whom this is relevant, to take care of yourself. Hydrate, eat, sleep, clean up, get fresh air, remember the things outside of all this. There's plenty to do outside of this fandom, and what you can do here can wait. There is no pressure, or obligation. Not for the content you create, not for the discussions you bring, not for responding to discourse, not for anything. Fandom is meant purely for fun, so take care <3

Interacting with people outside of the fandom:

This is something that I've seen a bit of talk about, and I thought I'd drop in my own thoughts on this as well. No matter the differences, we're all just trying to vibe, and I think these are important things to keep in mind to leave both sides better off:

Don't interact with hate posts. Just don't. You don't want to see them, they don't want to see you. Even if your response is lighthearted, their animosity is not. They will feel frustrated regardless, and the grudge will only grow. And if they're being agressive, calm discussion most likely won't happen even if you're being polite. Just leave it, please.

Correct misinformation calmly. I completely get how it can be frustrating to see blatant lies and all, but with our reputation, people will not listen if you're being antagonistic. Provide sources, explain, and leave it at that.

Don't be hateful, send death threats, or assume privilege or whatever else. That's stepping into the same shoes of the people you hate. Misunderstandings go both ways, and the fact of the matter is, I think most people who dislike DSMP, even the ones who are agressive about it, don't have their stance rooted in maliciousness. To expand on why the situation became what it is today, taken from a discussion on discord:

I think it's just a combination of Dream growing so insanely quickly + how internet spaces have changed over the years. When ccs like jackstepticeye or pewdiepie etc. grew popular, activism wasn't as prevalent and held to such importance. Now it's thankfully more talked about, but that also leads to Dream being more scrutinized in comparision. Add twitter trends and the general prevalence of the fandom, and you've got everyone feeling tired and frustrated and paranoid. People also tend not to fact check stuff, especially when it comes to celebrities and stuff they're not really interested in, so rumors spread fast.

And actually, I think there's absolutely valid reasons to be made uncomfortable by Dream SMP, either in it's creators, content or fandom, and there is, of course, stuff to criticise in general. The problem is the hate and misinformation and overexposure, but we are not going to solve any of that by being aggressive in return.

(This is, by the way, not talking about more serious cases. Like doxxing, or leaving gore images in hashtags, or similar instances. That's a whole different complicated issue that I don't feel qualified to tackle.)

And finally, don't overwhelm outsiders who merely mention the Dream SMP. Don't send asks asking them to watch it, don't write paragraphs explaining the lore, don't confuse them with inside jokes, just... Don't jump on people like that. Unless they're explicitly clear in wanting interaction and getting into the fandom, that kind of thing will just drive them away. This is in no way exclusive to the Dream SMP fandom, pretty much every fandom has people enthiastic to have more people involved, but since there are so unbelievably many of us, it's especially easy to go overboard with this stuff. Just... be polite, and don't pressure anyone. Be nice, please.

So.... ya! This would be it for this one, I think. Sorry that it's kinda long, thank you if you read it at all. Hope y'all have pleasant days ^^